Title Preperations
Author Stana
date 8/30/99

Yay! Quota:

Stana wandered down the hall, absentmindedly scuffing her feet against
the stone underneath and listening to the tempo of the scraping sound.
She really had no set destination despite all her earlier thoughts
towards preperation.

Now that the decision had been voiced, it had sealed her to the
committment with the icy venom of her own words. She was going with
Elainas, and wasn't going halfway. Despite teh Ambassador's tease of
finding a safe haven among the Syl, she had few illusions that even
there, she would be safe.

::Of course I won't be safe:: she thought, snarling at her feet as she
scuffed loudly. ::Every damned person I've met has either tried to kill
me, worship me, or embroil me in their personal/political grindstone::

This place wasn't fascinating to her at all--it was dangerous. More it
was so ocmpletely alien and foreing to her that it was difficult to
take that danger with any degree of gravity. And as the attempt on her
life had shown, denial was the most deadly of all.

She found that she was standing outside the medical ward.  Even her
subconscious was conspiring against her to remove her from S'Kae's
influence. Just as well that she took care of this part of her
preperation now. Things seemed to be escalating in an increasingly
fevered pitch. It looked like fighting was about to break out at any
moment. Stana wanted to be miles away when the blood started flowing.

She was still more than slightly queasy about what had happened to the
soldiers that had attacked her. The sheer primality of it still haunted
her. Conversations would remain half finished as she entered in
hearing. Eyes would drop, tongues wag after her passing.

She told herself it didnt hurt. It began to be true.

With an almost diffident gesture she entered the ward, stepping out of
the way of the hurried preperations and going's ons.

An assistant twirled to avoid her at the last minute as Stana stumbled,
trying to get out of the path. Her eyes darted quickly to judge the
emotional weather in his face, but he was gone with a semi audible
mutter.

"Yes?" said one of the orderlies with ill concealed patience. He
recognized her, but his tone of voice didn't change "Yes-the Syl
Ambassador said you would be needing this--" he reached behind and
snagged a pouch full of travel medicines. "Heed the instructions
strictly, these are not harmless witch brews. "

Ignoring the pointed reference to her nearly non-existant knowledge,
she glanced briefly at the labels, and nodded. They had taken the
trouble to color coordinate the twine binding the bags in a similar
method as she used, with a few modifications they would match. Her
fingers skipped through the pack and she made a mental note of the
contents.  After a few moments consideration she looked at the orderly.

"I'll need Hensbane, Valerian, Orris root, WitchHazel, Hops, Kelist,
and Woundwort. The rest I can probably locate on the way. It is season
for most right?"

After hesitation, the man nodded. "I'll get them for you. Wait here,
and don't touch anything."

He was back with the remainder of her request in a few moments. Their
transaction done, he wasted no further words, but bounded back into the
thick of his own scattered preperations.  He didn't wait around as she
fastened the pack securely and swung it over her shoulder. The bag
bounced gently against her left shoulder blade as she marched out,
gaurds still very much in tow.

She was listening to the obvious clattering of their armor; and
therefore noticed when it stopped. It took a moment more before that
fact registered. She looked up and watched the Syl Ambassador and the
General strolling amiacablly down the hall together.  At seeing her,
they both stopped, Elainas nodded, as Lyr sketched some half salute
before settling into a parade rest.

"I will finish with my own needs." The syl said, noting the medical
pouch Stana already had. "Remember, we meet-"

"I know. We'll be there."

"As you will then." She offered her hand to Lyr, who swept it expertly
before bowing with a grin. She looked for a moment longer than courtesy
demanded into his eyes, then trailed gracefully down the corridor.

Lyr watched the Syl Ambassador glide down the hall with genuine
pleasure. It had been so long since he'd had a female counterpart with
wit to compound breathtaking beauty. It ad been longer still since he'd
had ANY female counterpart. The price of ambition, he assumed.

His eyes tracked back to the Earth Chosen, looking puzzled at her two
gaurds still at attention. The expression on her face was easily read
for once, and it spoke volumes about her opinion of her shadows.

"At ease you two." R'Kelnin said, the affection for his division
warming the military precision of the words.

They immediately relaxed, nodding and grinning to the commander as
Stana turned her glance away from them both.

"I see you're already getting ready." Lyr said, taking in the medic
pack. His voice was only shaded with the unease that he was losing
control of their protection. He thought he managed to sound neutral for
the most part.

"We're running short on time." she answered in her flat, sharp tone. It
would have been a nice voice, except that there was no real emotion
stirring the words. "Apparently we all have to run when the puppet
master pulls the strings."

"A word if you please?" he asked politely, waving away the other two.
They shielded knowing grins, maintaining professional blandness, and
walked off.

"Your bitterness is hard to bite on, Chosen." he said, all courtliness
dropping from his gaze "it leaves a taste like copper in the mouth. I
suggest you learn to conceal your feelings better than hiding them
behind a caustic word and acid tongue. You've few enough friends
already."

She began to bite back, respond in anger like he wanted, when a strange
thing happened. Halfway through her first word she stopped, an almost
suprised look on her face. Then her image took on the blank mask that
was customary. Her hazel eyes washed clear and she shrugged.

Lyr was taken aback by the abrupt temperment change. He'd seen men and
women alike in all moods, but this particular feat he had never run
into. He had told her she was bad at masking...but damned if he'd read
into _that_ expression anything but mirrorlike precision.

Damn. He knew frightened when he saw it, and this Chosen was nearly
terrorized with this whole situation. He had wanted to get her rattled,
angry. Anything to get her mind off her self absorbed fright. He had
read this situation completely wrong.

"Thank you for the advice. Apparently, with so many people trying to
kill me already, the chances of me living with a ring of fawning
courtiers around me, caught by a honeyed tongue truly look bleak. Since
I'm leaving anyway, the suggestion becomes moot. There wont be many
targets around that the killers can hit besides me."

Her tone may have been shielded, but the forced out words were
suggestive.  He tried to match it.

"Martyrs are very useful, especially after they are dead. We'll use you
well, I promise."

That hit. He watched her complexion go pale, smattering of freckles
looking redder against the whitening skin.

"I don't want to die." she said quietly, in  a voice almost normal.

Justified pleasure at his success nearly tipped his game, there and
then. R'Kelnin took stern control of the smile threatening the scowl,
and took a deep breath.  He was reading this right now, he just needed
to edge a little more.

"Really? Then I suggest riding out in avoidance of an amassed and
hostile army with a half hysterical death wish would be inappropriate."

Again he scored, and watched in concealed puzzlement as the emotion
washed around her. Like a rock in the midst of a stream, parting the
waters.  This was insane. She was sending out the most extreme set of
mixed signals he had ever run into. Was this girl mad?

"You're the one launching the attack against another army. I would not
speak of other's death wishes with that context."

"There's one difference." he waited but she didn't ask "I'm not running
away."

"I've moved beyond the shame in that." She responded "I never asked to
die for your cause."

"One never does. I don't ask to die for yours. I do however, fight for
it. Dying may become a by product of that, but it is not the desired
result. You however seem to want death even as you are fleeing from it.
At the banquet, there were several arrows shot, and yet you only ran
after the third sat at your feet. Shock? Or were you maybe hoping for a
better archer?"

"It doesn't matter at this point." she responded, fighting the urge to
not answer "I'm leaving to go after Finn. He's perhaps our only way to
contact the outside world. MY world General. Where I am not. I wouldn't
expect you to understand that all of your world has the relevance of a
really bad dream that is trying to kill me right now. I wouldn't expect
you, in all your military honor to think that I'm a single person that
has stumbled into what everyone else thinks is a great destiny, but
that I think is someone's bad idea of a joke. You can make me your
prophet, but I am not going to split any oceans for you."

The last reference was unmistakenly hostile, but unrecognizable. He
concentrated on the words, blocking out the tone that indicated
nothing.

"Noone chose you, Lady. But do you not find it odd that three of the
known Chosen also came from that world? DO you suppose that is
cooincidence?"

"Do you suppose I think it a divine revelation? I might have at one
time. But then I found out that alot of people die thinking like that.
I'm really tired of seeing dead people, touching them, smelling them,
hell FIGHTING them.  i'm tired of nightmares, and attempted murders,
and political plots and mythic quests. I am, finally, really tired of
this conversation. I'm doing what I said I would-and why I am doing
it-is none of your buisness."

Just like that she cut him off. Lyr began to speak, but knew it was
futile. Instead he nodded stiffly. He watched her begin to walk past,
and urgently murmurred for her to wait.  She stopped but did not turn.
He warned her to her back.

"Audion. He is useful, but is dangerous. Stay with your Gaurdian, stick
with the Syl. Do not rely on him at all if you can help it. The
Wanderer travelling with you is not to be trusted."

SHe did turn then, and he drew back at the completely frustrated,
powerless rage in her eyes.

"Of course he can't be trusted." she said in a voice quivering with
anger "You couldn't expect that he should. You can't expect anything."

She lifted her pack and fled down the corridor, the soldiers falling
back in behind, running to catch up.

Lyr watched for a few moments more, struggling with his own frustration
levels. That had been a nasty, unpleasant suprise. She had responded in
all the wrong ways, and he had been fairly sure he was doing everything
right. God, he hoped that the battle wasn't going to fall along the
same lines as this "talk".

Thinking about the battle turned his mind effectively off other, more
distressing thoughts. He strode down the corridor Elainas had taken
earler and made it to the parapets to oversee the finalizing attack
preperations.

He could sense the army out there, with their strange, female, blond
haired commander. He could feel the battle on the air around them. And
knew with certainty that the attack would begin soon.