To Walk Through a Dream Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven With Wavering Footsteps Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Stone Song Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three A Tale of Winter Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Destiny Inescapable Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Epilogue The Cycle's Continuing Beginnings Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Two Spirits Akin

Beginnings Chapter Two "Melisande!" Rubis hurried over, lifting up her skirts as she dashed across the Court, dodging small children. She came to a somewhat breathless halt before Melisande and flashed her an excited grin. "I was wondering..(pant)..if you could do me..(pant).. a favor." Melisande could not keep her surprise from her face. Certainly she and Rubis saw each other around the Court, but it wasn't as if they were anything more than acquaintances. Rubis' grin dimmed to a more apologetic smile and she answered Melisande's unspoken question. "Everyone else seems to be so busy, and I really can't do it myself...." She let her voice trail off and began to look slightly embarrassed. "Please Melisande? The Festival is tomorrow, and it's getting late, and I really need another bag of cornmeal...." Melisande found herself nodding and smiling a little, politely, as Rubis handed her a few coins and gave her directions to the right shop. She hurried back to the tent to borrow Jehan's hooded cloak before she hurried out into evening Paris, watching about herself anxiously for Guards. She managed to reach the shop before it closed and hurried back towards the Court through the rapidly darkening streets, skirting the wide mouths of the alleyways and casting worried glances over her shoulder now and again. It was while she was near one of these alleys that she saw them. Several guards were strolling casually up the streets towards her, making crass jokes and jostling each other. She pulled the cloak close around her and ducked down the alley, trying to conceal herself in the shadows. As she heard their footsteps approaching the alley, sweat pricked at the back of her neck and it took all her force of will to keep still in the shadows and not run, possibly giving herself away. As the guards appeared around the corner, one of them noticed her form in the dim shadows and made a half-hearted, drunken lurch towards her. Terror won out over her will and Melisande fled down the alleyway, the sounds of their drunken shouts behind her. When she came to a corner she took it and kept running, then another corner, then across a street still crowded in the dusk she tried to lose herself in the crowd. Everywhere she saw guards, everyone might be on the lookout for a 'witch'. Melisande ran until her knees gave out in a dark alley and she collapsed to the ground trembling, her own heartbeat like the sounds of witch-hunter's footsteps in her ears. She could hear the footfalls growing closer now, slower, cautious. Then they stopped, and she lay there holding her breath with her eyes tightly closed until the hand on her shoulder made her gasp. Neither of them moved for a long moment, then slowly Melisande raised her head and looked up into a pair of dark, concerned eyes. Chapter Three