Sweaty and breathing hard, I slung my helm off of my head and let it dangle from my hand, sheathing my blade with the other. I was not looking forward to the conversation I needed to have with the Grand Crusader of the Paladins and one of the Vice Admirals of the Aquamancers. Licking my chapped lips, I stopped and knelt before them both.

"Grand Crusader. Vice Admiral," I said by way of greeting.

"Sir Oterius," the Grand Crusader said.

"Ote," the Vice Admiral - a lovely young merian woman tried by the heat of battle - replied.

I didn't know how to go about explaining the rest of my tale. It was unusual for me to approach the Grand Crusader and leadership following the events of a raid, especially a raid on Celestia.

The Grand Crusader seemed to realise this. "Sir Oterius, what brings you here?"

"I have...bad news, Sir," I confessed, still kneeling. I didn't want to look the Grand Crusader or the Vice Admiral in the eyes.

The Vice Admiral leaned forward. "Bad news?" she repeated, her gills flaring agitatedly. "Speak, Ote."

My grip tightened on my helm. "The Atlerons...Lady Atleron and the Earl Atleron, they've gone...missing."

"Missing?!" the Grand Crusader roared, getting to his feet. "What do you mean, missing?!"

I knew the explosion would be bad, and I steeled myself for the worst. "The Magnagorans, Sir. They have taken the Atlerons."

The Vice Admiral placed her hand on the Grand Crusader's arm, attempting to calm him as his temper raged. "Tell us what happened, and be swift. If the Magnagorans have them, we have precious little time to lose."

I closed my eyes, letting my helm rest against the ground. "There was a Dreamweaver among them, Vice Admiral. They lured Lady Atleron away, and, as you well know, wherever she goes, her husband follows faithfully."

As the Vice Admiral tightened her hand on the Grand Crusader's arm, I could hear the metal indent beneath her strength. "What could they possibly show her to--" she stopped abruptly. Her voice softened. "The children. Of course." I finally lifted my gaze to look at them and found the Vice Admiral focused intently upon the Lord General. "We must hurry. Let us get a search party together. Perhaps even raid Nil to distract them."

"They've been a thorn in Magnagora's side for many years," I commented. "The Magnagorans will not be kind."

The Vice Admiral nodded to me. "Ote, go see to their children."

Startled, I got to my feet. "No! I saw what happened to Lady Atleron; I won't be refused going along on the rescue mission."

The Grand Crusader shrugged. "Come, then."

---

We were to launch a two-pronged attack with a third very small infiltration unit. One team was meant to launch a raid upon Nil, and my team was instructed to raid Magnagora upon Prime. While they were focused upon repeling raids in both places, the infiltration team would slip into Magnagora, hopefully undetected, and find the hiding place of the our Earl and Lady Atleron, who were an Aquamancer and Paladin respectively.

I just hoped it was worth it, that the mission would be a success.

We charged into Prime Magnagora simultaneously with the Nil strike, hacking, slashing, beating our way through guards that threatened to overwhelm us. Citizens responded first to us, then thinned and responded to Nil. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the infiltration team, under the veil of Yesod, slip past the occupied defenders and aggressors and past the gates. I prayed that they would remain undetected, that the eyes of the Supernals would be turned to them, that we would retrieve two of our most stalwart defenders whole.

Our shared squad aether communications suddenly came alive. The Magnagorans were retreating from Nil, and they were retreating from us on Prime.

"What's happening?" I asked, unnerved, my sword threatening to slip from my grasp in a combination of slick fluids.

The Tide Lords cried out then upon the Water plane, and we realised quickly that instead of defending, they were launching an offensive upon us. Clamouring voices asked what to do, where we should go - the Grand Crusader ordered those of us not enemied to Magnagora press into the city, scour it for signs of the Atlerons, and those of us not, return to Water and defend.

I made it halfway to the Pool of Stars before I realised that we were falling into their trap instead. I turned to go back to Magnagora, but it was too late.

A shuddering voice cascaded across the skies, the Tainted voice of one of Magnagora's highest ranking officials. "New Celest, you really ought to keep a much closer eye upon your most aggressive. Your weakest citizens will be destroyed for their crimes against the glorious Taint, for indulging their ridiculous sentimentality for those wretched brats."

The Grand Crusader yelled over our squad aether for all hands to report to the Water plane - they had found the Atlerons, and there was a massive party of Magnagorans there.

By the time we had all arrived on Water, we bore witness to one of the most heinous crimes I have ever seen performed on any merian: Lady Atleron and Earl Atleron were ruthlessly drowned, right before our very eyes, as the Magnagorans cackled with glee. Just as soon as they arrived, they vanished, a few of their corpses littering our waters.

The Grand Crusader, the Vice Admiral, and myself rushed forward to gather the bodies of the Atlerons, motioning for a nearby Celestine to join us. No matter the effort, the bodies of the Atlerons would not be revived; immolating at the Pool yielded no results; the limp bodies of our citymates lay unbreathing, motionless, waterlogged. None could sense their spirits roaming the lands.

We carefully moved their bodies to the Aegis Keep and decided to seek the advice of the Supernals. The Grand Crusader and I ventured up to Celestia and sought audience with the wise and just Japhiel, who explained to us that the threads of the Atleron Aquamancer and Paladin had been cut short. The Fates wove them into the Tapestry of Life no more.

It was crushing news. Lady Atleron had been one of my nearest and dearest comrades, and her husband one of the wisest counsel I knew. The real travesty, however, was their children: they had left behind a five-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter.

We convened at the manifestation of the Pool of Stars on Celestia, the three of us. "Someone has to tell them," I said.

The Vice Admiral looked to the Grand Crusader, who looked at her, and they both looked at me. Finally, she said, "Yes, someone does."

Although the Grand Crusader didn't say anything, I knew they would both ask me to talk with the children. I was the only one out of the three of us who knew them at all, and if the news should come from anyone, it should be someone they knew and trusted. That was how I found myself seated on the floor in the common room of the cabin built by my friends, a young merian boy and his diminutive sister standing in front of me.

I spoke mostly to the boy, Lapidos. The little girl, Gracia, wouldn't understand what I was telling her anyway; a three-year-old had no concept of death and its permanence. The boy might, though. I had to hope he would.

"Lapidos, listen to me," I told him. His bright blue eyes affixed on me obediently. That demeanor reminded me so much of his mother. "Your mother and father...they won't be coming back." I waited to see if the message would sink in. His brow drew together. "They have been given to the Fates."

Understanding slowly blossomed behind those sapphire eyes, corrupting his youthful innocence irreparably. He looked sadly to me, then even more sadly to his little sister, who was blissfully not listening to me and playing with a doll elsewhere. "Oh," was all he said.

I turned his small face gently back to me. "It is up to you to protect Gracia now," I told him firmly. "Remember how your mother always told you that because you're older, you have to take care of her?" He nodded very slowly, his eyes cutting toward the little girl, but since I held him, he could not move his head. "You are her only protector left."

As I let go of his face, he turned totally to Gracia. I could see him struggling with the idea that he was the only protector left, but I watched as he set his jaw and gave the slightest of nods. "Only me," he said. "Nobody but me."

"Good lad," I said, patting him gently on the back. "When the time comes, you will have to tell Gracia what happened to your parents."

"What happened?" he asked me.

I pressed my lips together. I wasn't sure what to say. I didn't want to give the boy nightmares, but could I lie to him? I opted for the simplest of answers. "They drowned, lad."

A small flame of anger flickered in those eyes. "Oh," he said again.

"Keep your eye on your sister," I told him. I stayed with the children for a while longer while the others debated, back in the city, the fate of the young children. Suffice it to say, I was unsurprised that they approached me to become caretaker of the children, until such an age that they were deemed old enough to take care of themselves. What surprised me, however, was how much I wanted to watch over them. I agreed.

Time passed quickly for me after that. In the blink of an eye, it seemed like the children had sprouted up overnight. To them, I was "Uncle Otie," and to me, they were the children I never biologically fathered. Lapidos was especially keen on learning the arts I knew, and I spent tireless hours teaching him to wield a sword. Gracia was a voracious reader and radically precocious.

But I, too, would be ripped away from them in time.

---

Ten years later...

Lapidos held a pack of ice to my swollen eye, trying to make it less puffy. I looked worse than I felt. Since Uncle Otie had died a couple years back, I couldn't seem to keep myself from getting into fights. I snapped at the other kids like me who had no parents, who were jealous that my brother and I still had a roof over our heads, who tried to steal the food my brother spent hours working to earn enough sovereigns to pay for.

"Gracie," he chided me, "you really have to stop this."

I knew he meant well, but I really hated being scolded. "They were trying to take the food I bought for us."

"Kiddo," was all he said, shaking his head. He put my hand on the ice and went to the salvage of the food we had left. Irrationally, I was a little angry at him for breaking up the fight - even though I would have a black eye in a little bit, I was winning the fight. He always stepped in and made me stop.

He handed me half an apple and a new, leather-bound book. Immediately, I felt guilty for feeling so resentful. Lapidos was always saving sovereigns on the side to buy me little presents, and this one seemed especially expensive. I loved to read, and he knew that. "You can spend your time better doing something like reading," he told me softly, ruffling my hair.

I opened the cover of the book and nibbled on my apple, finding it was my favourite story. I hugged it gently to me and watched my brother, my kind, gentle brother, stoke the fire in the hearth. Sighing, I went to my room and put the new book on the shelf, inhaled the rest of my apple, and peeked out of my doorway to make sure that Lapidos was still occupied. Years ago, Uncle Otie had taken the door down from my room when I had been experimenting with magic. I still experimented from time to time, but only when my brother wasn't looking.

Sitting down on the floor, I summoned up a small illusion to cover my black eye. I had gotten pretty good at it. Even to myself, I couldn't see the difference between my cerulean skin and the illusion of it, and I smiled in satisfaction. Now, to test it on my brother.

I eased out into the big common room of the cabin and nestled myself into the old, careworn couch, watching Lapidos. When he pulled himself away from the fire, he looked at me oddly. "Gracie, why isn't your eye swollen anymore? What were you doing?" He squinted at me and sighed. "You know you aren't trained to use magic yet."

"So? Dad used it," I said, sitting straighter. "Dad was great at it. Or that's what you told me. It runs in my blood!"

"You're still only thirteen," he reminded me. "In three years, you can go to the Aquamancers like you want to and learn how to properly use magic. It's dangerous to use things you don't understand."

"It's only dangerous to use things -you- don't understand," I muttered under my breath.

He scowled at me. "Don't be like that."

"Well, it's true," I said. "I know what I'm doing."

"Oh, you do?" he asked. I could tell I was starting to make him angry, and I should probably stop, but I didn't know if I could at that point. He grabbed my hand and held up my arm, featuring bite marks from the tae'dae boy who I had gotten into a fight with earlier. "Is this 'knowing what you're doing?'"

I tugged my arm back and wrapped my arms around my knees. "Not the point."

He sighed and rubbed his forehead. Although Lapidos was only fifteen, he seemed much older, carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Ten years ago our parents had died, and three years ago the man who had taken care of us, Oterius, had passed away from illness, too. We were all each other had left. To me, Lapidos seemed fifty-one, not fifteen.

"Gracie," he said. "Please. I don't mind if you read Dad's books, but...just wait until you're old enough to go through the Portal to try these things."

I didn't want to agree to it, but I did. "Fine," I said after a few minutes, getting up from the couch and stomping back to my room.

"Thank you," he called after me. And though he thought I couldn't hear him, he added softly, "I can't always protect you from yourself..."

---

My involvement in fights increased after that. If I couldn't get my energy out by practising magic, I was going to get my frustrations out by beating up, and getting beat up by, ruffians and other street riffraff. Too many times, my brother stepped in and took the last punch for me, scaring off the kids that I would otherwise be engaged in fisticuffs with. It always irked me, but then he would do something kind and make me feel wretched all over again.

I still practised my illusions, too, but only the small ones to cover my battle wounds when we went in public. Even still, I always felt a twinge of guilt for trying, but I rationalised it by telling myself I wasn't setting anything on fire or doing anything crazy. Lapidos had it in his head that he was supposed to protect me - something Uncle Otie had always told him - and he didn't like me putting myself in jeopardy when he was powerless to stop it.

If I was honest with myself, too, I wanted a leg up when I enrolled in the Aquamancer collegium in New Celest.

Oddly, Lapidos and I had never really considered being citizens anywhere but New Celest, or joining any guilds that were outside of the city. Perhaps it was because my parents' cabin was filled to bursting with old books about the glory of the Light and the wondrous properties of Water, or maybe it was the fact that Magnagora had drowned our parents, or maybe it was the fact that Uncle Otie had been an amazingly devoted Paladin and the closest thing we had to a true parent growing up.

Whatever the cause, we had never truly considered living anywhere but New Celest. Although part of me thought it would be a good idea to join up with the Tahtetso monks and learn how to properly fight, training as a monk didn't really hold much appeal to me. My fascination had always been with magic and the Waters, reading the impassioned things my father had written down. Those books were the only links I had to either of my parents. I was always a little jealous that my brother got to remember their faces, their laughs, everything. All I remembered were sensory things, and not much of those, either.

I remembered Uncle Otie quite well and fondly, too, but I had an idea of the way the Basin worked: all of the best and most important people pass away before their times. I was terrified that my brother was going to be taken from me too early, too, but I was powerless to stop it.

After my fourteenth birthday, I stopped toying with magic altogether when I accidentally set my drapes on fire. Luckily, my brother had been out, and I was home by myself so he never really noticed. There were matching scorch marks around my room from where, over the years, I had lost control and accidentally set things on fire that I didn't mean to incinerate. Mostly, though, the lake by our cabin called to me, not just as a merian. It begged me to discover its secrets.

I fought it, though. I had promised my brother, and I wasn't about to break my promise.

The frequency of my fights dropped around then, too. Boys tended not to engage me that way, and I was able to bring things home without incident. I also lost a lot of the urge to provoke those fights. A good deal of credit went to my brother, though. Many of the hooligans who would indulge me were scared witless of my now-towering sixteen-year-old brother.

We had talked about it on his sixteenth birthday. "'Dos, are you...going through the Portal this year?" I had asked.

He shook his head and cheerfully said, "Nope!"

"Why not?" I asked, curious.

"Who would make sure you didn't get into trouble?" he replied, ruffling my hair. "I'll go after you do."

"Promise?" I asked, looking earnestly at him. Even though he was my intervening brother, I didn't want him to suffer for me. I felt bad enough that he was putting off going through the Portal for another two years until I turned sixteen. It didn't seem fair.

"I promise," he told me.

So here I was, halfway to fifteen, just a year and a half from going through the Portal. I knew that I wanted to be an Aquamancer, but...I also knew that I didn't want to plan my whole life out before I had a chance to live it. I had the nagging feeling that I was a drag on my brother's life. Nobody should have to live solely to protect one other person.

So I resolved that when I went through the Portal, I wouldn't be such a burden on him. I would do everything I could to make us more like partners and less like I did nothing to enrich his life. I didn't want him to grow to resent me someday.

The Portal of Fate granted my wish, a year and a half later, in the most heart-wrenching way imaginable: the Portal made me forget my brother.