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Shael nodded, a relieved expression spreading over her face.

"Thank you," she said softly. "I would ask Aragost for help as well, but ... to tell the truth I fear to let Rhea too close to him for too long. Who knows what she might pick up from him? His powers are ... as far as I know, unlimited. I have not seen him angry, or in battle, but Ulani tells me that he is ... unimaginably frightening."

Rhea smiled innocently up at her mother, hearing her words.

"Don't worry, Mama," she said sweetly, "I would never be scary to people!"

Rhea giggled and returned to her meal.

Shael smiled faintly. "No, you're quite right about that," she assured Cindy. "Since he came here when I was very young, he has always done what he could to keep himself apart from people. I still don't know how I managed to become one of the few he would talk to ... most people are still terrified of him. Trust me, this is him on a good day. He's always wanted to be left alone ... I think that a few of the children - especially your Miyu - have somehow managed to get a little too close to him and turned him soft."

She sighed. "And yet ... something is not quite the same about him. He's been different ever since Rhea was born ..."

A slow smile crept over Shael's face. Yes ... Aragost was indeed responsible for Rhea's birth ... after all, the Valar had not been seen in the Four Lands since the First Age, how else would she have met the goddess if Aragost had not somehow summoned her?

Though the thought of the price he had paid still troubled her. To this day she had no idea what it would have been ...

"Back in a week?" she questioned curiously. "Did he say what for?"

Shael was confused. "Channel ... ?"

She really didn't know what the word meant - or rather, what was meant by Rhea channeling things that she took in. Where would the things go that she took in? How would it work?

Shael smiled then, relaxing somewhat. Aragost was still helping out, even if it was in an indirect way. She trusted him - she was admittedly confused as to the reason for his reclusion, but she was glad that he was helping out anyways.

"I can only hope that that is what Rhea needs," she murmured softly.

"He would," Shael murmured in reply. "I have to wonder sometimes if there's anything that he doesn't know. How he knows it all, I'm not sure, though I have my own theories ... still."

She smiled faintly. "Well, eat up, we can worry about all of this later."

((Skip ahead if you want to whenever.))

Rhea had barely noticed the passing of time at all. From the time she woke up until the time she went to bed, she was busy studying - either with one of her parents, or with Cindy, or on her own. She wanted to do all she could to learn the lessons that she was being taught and put them into effect as soon as possible, not only to make her parents and her teacher proud of her, but also - and perhaps especially - so that she would be able to stop herself from doing harm to others or to herself.

Little by little, she found herself changing as well ... her energy began to run out in the evenings, she was hungrier at meal times, and she had to work harder and harder to understand everything that was going on around her. She wasn't worried about it, though - her mother assured her that it simply meant that her lessons were working, and that she was becoming the innocent six-year-old girl that she was supposed to be.

One thing that had not changed, however, was the fact that she could sense (now to a lesser degree) when there were others around her who had magic, and what their magic could possibly pertain to, and how powerful it was. So it was, that on the morning of her lessons six days after Aragost's first visit, she suddenly found herself staring at the door rather than listening to what Cindy was trying to tell her.