Welcome to Gaia! ::

Within the wrapping was a small wooden box, intricately carved, the equivalent of a Gaian velvet ring box. Within it was indeed a ring - a ring of pure silver, in the shape of a phoenix flying, head reaching around the circle and coming up behind the tail once more. The details in it were tiny and yet flawless.

"It belonged to my father," Elnara smiled, laying her head on Lore's shoulder, "before he died. I kept it afterwards, though I left it here when I ran away, and now he does not want it back."

She looked up into his face, her heart pounding in her chest.

"I know that in Gaia, married men wear rings as well as the women," she told him quietly. "Here that is not usually the custom ... which was why I could not give this to you during our wedding. But you - and now also I - are from Gaia, and I think that though we had an Elvish wedding, it would be nice to also keep with some of our Gaian customs. My father encouraged me to give this to you for that reason as well. But it is more than just a symbol of our love ..."

She smiled and took the ring from the box, then took Lore's hand and slipped it on his finger.

"The phoenix is the symbol of our nation, the Kingdom of the Southland Elves, and this ring shows that you are a Prince of this land."

Elnara giggled and put her arms around Lore's shoulders, drawing him closer and kissing him warmly.

"I don't think this day could have been any more perfect," she smiled softly, lacing her fingers into his hair.

It was still fairly early in the morning the next morning when Shiro knocked on Lin's bedchamber door, wide awake and ready for the long day that was ahead of them.

"Lin!" he called out, pressing one ear against the door. "Coming? Earendil is already at the library, we're just waiting on you."

Shiro chuckled softly. "Well that's what you get when you stay up half the night playing outside. Ura only got in about an hour ago, I don't know about you. I hope you had more sense than that."

He started down the hall, beckoning for Lin to follow. "Come on, you're late."

Shiro laughed. "You were sitting right there when we were talking about Kaito being nocturnal! Honestly, how could you even hope to outlast him? As for Ura ..."

He grinned. "I think it explains why I was so much more tired than normal last night," he chuckled. "Maybe he was using mine. I couldn't even stay awake for more than just one chapter of the book I was reading ..."

He shrugged. "Ah well. Something else to think about."

Shiro grinned as they approached the library. "Good," he nodded. "Because I always thought you would be smarter than that."

He opened the door and led Lin inside.

Earendil and Sir Valdemar were already there, and as the door opened Earendil looked up to see Lin and Shiro entering the room.

"About time you got here!" he exclaimed with a chuckle. "Sun's nearly up! Come on, I want to see if this will work, but Sir Valdemar says that Shiro has to be the one to try it!"

Sir Valdemar was intently poring through the book, searching for last minute things that might need adjusting, but at the same time afraid to touch anything and mess it up.