"Breda, what's happened to you?", Melissa demanded.
Kay hid her face in her hands and sighed. "I ... I ... meant well ...", she tried to explain, her voice so small that it was almost a whisper. "really ... I did ... but ... things started to go wild ... after it flared up ... went out of control too quickly ... an' the mess just got bigger and bigger", she continued.
There was a pause as her voice trailed off into silence. Kay looked up hesitantly, a single tear runing down her face and across the bruise on her cheekbone. At first no words came out. Then Kay's voice began again. "In my own foolishness, I'm guilty of having brought pain to two good men, and of having dragged then into dangers they'd not have found without me. They were safer when it burned with a smaller flame within them", she admited.
A frown crossed Kay's face, before she protested "Yet neither of them will speak a single word of blame against me. They claim I've done them more good than ill. But some of it was terribly _WRONG_ -- it went against everything I've ever been told. And in _THIS_ sorry condition, I'll not be able to hide un-noticed among the mundanes. _THEY_ will never leave me free of their rule --- not once they've seen what I am and what I've done --- not unless I flee to Terra, where most are blind to such things".
Now Melissa looked confused as well as worried. "What have you done? And what do you mean, have to go back to Terra? Don't be such a donkey, there's always a place for you in my home, from now on, you know that. But what's is this all about? Are you in trouble with the authorities?" she hesitated, then gulped hard. "Are you...are they looking for you?" She looked over her shoulder, half expecting to see a full battalion of the Guards burst into the small room.
"I swear to you by the bond that lies between us ... I did _NOT_ break _ANY_ local law that is recognized by the Terran Government", Kay swore. Then she frowned fiercely, adding "But as you well know, there are _OTHER_ powers on this world --- the red demon-spawns who your laws give power almost equal to that of the Regent himself ... Their dissaproval would lie heavily enough already on you, if they knew that you kept my secret rather than report it to them. It would not be right of me to bring danger into your home. As loyal Comyn, your kin could not afford to be seen to stand against them. But I'll not bend knee to any demon -- they've not earned it ... nae, not even if they come down from their high towering lairs and demand it of me". She shivered violently for a moment, thinking of a certain nightmare that had plagued her adolescence. "As it was ... so has it become again ...", came a whisper so soft that she didn't realize that she had spoken it aloud.
Almost absent-mindedly, Kay reached out a hand to stroke the kitten's soft fur. Mairead grumbled softly to herself. Sure, Mommy-human had acknowledged her, but without breaking off her communication with that golden-haired she-human. Unhappily, the kitten meowed even louder at bird-sister. But, this time, avian eyes opened to regard her with shining orbs of deep amber.
Amadaine gave a small, sleepy hoot as she she looked up from the pile of crumpled cloth that was Kay's cloak. One of the little hawk's wings ached when she tried to move it, and there were odd sensations in her feathered head. In her confusion, she began to softly cry, her distress radiating out along the link and returning as an amplified echo.
Kay abruptly turned deathly-pale at the first impact of the feedback loop. It burned along her raw nerves like alcohol poured into an open wound. Breaking off what she'd been about to say to Melissa, she wrapped her good arm around the cloak-wrapped bird and awkwardly pulled the entire precious bundle onto her lap.
Melissa *felt* Alan searching for her, and suppressed a flare of annoyance - did everything have to happen at once?! Kay turned away suddenly, and looked at a wad of cloth she was holding - it was making noise? - and she heard Alan's question. *I'm fine, Alan, I'm just really busy right this minute. I'm with a friend, and we're right in the middle of something - can I talk to you later?*.
The additional warmth (and the steady beat of Kay's heart) served to comfort Amadaine somewhat. Her sharply-pitched avian cries of distress gradually subsided into a much lower volume, but didn't cease. *Goddess* Kay prayed silently, feeling helpless to comfort her nonhuman companions, *Please take mercy on Your daughter. Tell me what to do next ...*