"Where?" he demands.
"He has her in his camp. He says as honored guest but according to Alexis here she's a prisoner".
Grey forgets about everything, including his animosity towards Anna and sits between her and Alexis.
Ari goes over to Taren, "Who is Jaylen? And why would he keep her prisoner?"
"Jaylen is their aunt. The baby sister to Anna's mother and Grey's father. When Anna's mother married, Jaylen had an affair with him. When Anna's mother found out she was furious and banished her. I think she regretted it though. It is said that he flagrantly cheated on her with any female that he could.
"Anna's mother although shamed could handle that but when whispers of rape came to her they fought. Shortly after that she fell ill and soon died. Father killed Anna's father after he attacked her. I just wish he'd done it sooner. That was one man that needed to die."
"Even those we know are evil need evidence against them in a trial. Father couldn't kill Anna's father until we had that evidence. He terrified the servants so they wouldn't say anything. But that attack was all father needed."
Anna is confused. "You talk as if Taren and you shared a father Grey."
"We or rather I just found out today that we do. Taren is my little brother." Grey smiles slyly. "It seems that you are keeping it in the family."
He knows that Anna gets his meaning when she turns white and splutters in rage. But she stops abruptly and Grey knows why. Alexis had started to shrink away from them both.
"It's okay Alexis. Grey might roar and thunder, but he won't hurt you. And Anna is usually more of a lady than she is right now." Ariele says giving them both black looks and pulling the cowering girl up off the couch and away from the two cousins.
"I've done far worse and Grey's never hurt me. I swear that he'll never hurt you either." Ari's calm words work like magic on the frightened girl.
Taren comes up to Ari and whispers in her ear. Ari nods and smiles which reassures the frightened girl more than anything else.
But soon Alexis forgets about the raised voices and is entranced by the lights dancing and whirling in front of her.
Over at the couch Anna and Grey are holding their own all consuming talk. "You remembered? All this time and you remembered but didn't say anything?" Anna doesn't know whether to be embarrassed or relieved.
"At first I thought it was just a fever dream. I had many of those and they seemed just as real as us. But in the dream you came to me without your scars, so I thought it was nothing more than the fever. But I had to admit for a virgin you made a very good lover.
"When Ariele made you admit the scars were gone, that's when I realized that it had been no dream. But what could I say after all these years? By the way do you remember the time? How could I do that to you? I just don't feel that way for you and I know you've worked hard to get over your romantic attachment to me." Grey explains and for the first time since the night before he feels no anger or resentment towards her. Pity perhaps but not anger.
Anna can feel the change in him, but she also feels the pain from that time so long ago. "I know you've never felt that way for me. I'm sorry Grey, I've made a mess of things. I don't deserve to be mistress here. Perhaps Jaylen would make a better mistress than I."
"First, don't you think you should get her here?" Ari thinks it time to change the subject.
Anna wipes her eyes and Grey gives her hand a little squeeze. All is forgiven. She squeezes back.
"What do you mean? She's in his tent. If she can't break out it means that he's a very strong magic user." Anna says.
Grey expounds, "Jaylen was a strong magic user, perhaps stronger than Anna's mother. There were some that said that she should have been the one to inherit Healthhome. Anna's mother was a little jealous of her youngest sibling and so jumped at the chance to banish her.
"But if she can't break from the enemy than he has her tied to him somehow. And that takes a great deal of magic to not only make but to break."
"You can do it child, I'll show you how. You have the ability to bring me home. But only if they will allow me to come home." The voice that had awakened her last night and thus saving Grey's life shows her how.
"Would you allow her back Anna? If we could get her back, would you take her in? You Grey? would you be willing as well?" Anna's answer is an immediate yes, but Grey's takes some time.
"Grey, what is it?" Anna asks at his reservation. "She's family. She belongs here."
"Your father had a way of causing friction and dissension. I remember it Anna. He knew about the rivalry your mother felt towards Jaylen and he used it to cause problems. I loved Jaylen. She mothered me almost as much as my own mother, but she's been prisoner to your enemy for years. What's to say that he hasn't hurt or changed Jaylen to be like your father. That could do far more damage than just opening the gates and letting him in could."
"If you don't agree to her coming here than we can't save her." Ari states and turns sadly away. She gets the feeling that Jaylen could be as key to their survival as she knows she herself is.
"I will agree if and only if Ari can find no deceit in her when she comes. If deceit is found than she will have to be held in the dungeon." Grey hopes against hope that they find no deceit in her. He's missed Jaylen, even though it's been centuries since he's seen her.
"You big fake." Is all Ari will say. Then turns from him to Anna.
"If we are going to do this it will have to be tonight. As soon as possible actually. We'll need a large bucket, wide rather than tall filled with water. It needs to be big enough for 6-8 people to sit around it. Then we'll need at least four more of your strongest magic users. Not Grey, he has too many reservations about this for it to work with him." Ari ignores the indignant and angry look Grey throws her. "And a smaller bucket of water, some towels and a blanket. She won't be able to come with anything from him not even clothes."
Anna nods her head and sets about ordering everything Ariele demanded. Grey stands by Ariele. "You think this will work?" His voice lacks emotion but Ari knows that he's conflicted.
"Yes, she told me how and will do all that she can to assist. And before you go judging her Grey, it was her that woke me up in time to stop Sheila from killing you last night. She doesn't know how she can speak to me and I hear, but she knows that she can and is desperate to get away from him. She doesn't blame you for your doubt and is even willing to live in the dungeon rather than stay with him one more night." She is as matter of fact about the information as she had been about her life growing up. Grey has no choice but to believe her.
"She says that she's missed you too." Ari says before Grey moves off to the window and watch the lights play in the water.
Grey decides it doesn't much matter anyway. The enemy was only two days march away. He's not even going to get the full week with Ari and not even the lighted fountain can ease the pain and depression.
Taren comes to stand by him until the preparations are ready. "Two days. Well I guess dying with family and friends beats living with hated enemies. I'm sorry you won't get more time with her. It's too bad we can't get one of those nasty spring storms we sometimes get. That would delay him at least an extra two days."
"I don't know anyone strong enough to control the weather do you?" Grey asks morosely. If only he could then at least he'd have his week.
Ari gets things set up according to the picture in her mind and calls Taren over. The others had already come and taken their places.
Grey turns back to the fountain but as the magical energy increases he turns back to Ari. The pressure is almost too great for him to bear and yet Ari continues taking in the magic. He stares at her, the others are also focusing their power on her and she continues taking it all in. She's holding more magic than anyone he's ever heard of being able to handle.
When the pressure gets so bad that he feels like he's about to pass out there's an inaudible bang! and the pressure is gone. Of those that were sitting around the small tub only Anna and Ari are still seated and only Ari is aware enough to hand the woman standing in the tub the bucket of warm water.
The woman douses herself in the water and shivers in the resulting chill. Ari hands her a warmed towel and the woman accepts it with alacrity. She steps out of the water and Grey walks over to her.
"Jaylen." Is all he can say. Ari wraps the woman in a warm blanket.
"Well Grey, you've sure grown. The spitting image of your father."Jaylen turns sad. "I wish I could've come to his wake."
"He knew why you didn't. He's never felt rancor towards you Jaylen."
Jaylen smiles bitterly. "No that had always been Krista's department. She could never believe that I didn't want Healthhome, that I was content to be her sister."
She looks over at the exhausted Anna, "I'm sorry Anna I know she was your mother and yes your father did have something to do with her death. I had no way to stop it, even then I was kept a prisoner in your uncle's house. No one mourned her death more than I."
Ari not tired looks over at Anna, "Jaylen was banished before you were born yet you recognized her. How?"
"Taren is right. Mother did regret the banishment especially after the rapes happened. She kept a picture of Jaylen, a small portrait painted long ago. Sometimes I'd find her holding that picture and crying. When I asked her who it was she told me it was you, Jaylen, then she told me that if I ever found you to bring you home. Her very words, bring her home.
"Those were the last words she spoke to me, just before she died. She missed you terribly." By now Jaylen and Anna were holding each other close and both crying. Ari holds Grey's hand and he squeezes it tight.
"Enough, I think Jaylen needs a hot bath, hot food and a good long sleep." Ari announces after the scene becomes unbearable to her.
"I'll have some clothes for you when you get out." Grey offers.
"Thank you Grey, I've missed you so much. Memories of your mischievous tricks made many a long day much easier to bear." Jaylen looks over to Ari.
"And you, stranger to our lands and our ways. A person of two worlds and of none. I would never be free if it hadn't been for you. Thank you. Time is what it is, it need not be an enemy. There are ways to free us even from a course set in diamond. There might be a way yet to find happiness." Jaylen says enigmatically.
Anna guides Jaylen to her personal bath. Grey goes back to the window but instead of watching the lights he looks to the skies. The storm clouds that rest there are too few to be a sign of hope.
Taren's words come back and an idea forms. The magical energy necessary is in the room. He can't hold enough to do the job, but if he leaves an open conduit perhaps he can draw directly from the energy stored in the room.
No sooner does he think about it then he tries it and finds that he can take the energy as he'd hoped.
Taren wakes and sits up as Grey starts working on the weather. When he realizes what Grey is up to he shouts, "Grey NO!" But it was already too late, Grey is lost in the spell he pulls heavily on the lambent energy left in the room and soon the skies are gray and darken to black. The thunder sounds and lightning flicks.
The booms of the thunder bring Anna rushing back into the room and that's when she sees Grey. Ari is fascinated as the storm grows thicker and darker. But she's paying more attention to the lights in the fountain.
Anna's sobs are what brings her back to what Grey is doing and sees nothing wrong with it. The latent energy needed to be returned to nature to be redistributed and that's what Grey is doing. Already she's breathing far more easily. She wishes she could gather the magic in small amounts like the others do, since she only needs a small amount of that which she gathers but she can't.
"What's wrong Anna?" Ari asks when she doesn't see any reason for the tears.
"What Grey's doing, he can't hold enough energy to make that spell work, it will kill him."
"He's not holding any energy and the spells working fine. Can't you see it? He's opened a conduit from himself to the sky," she gestures to where the storm is brewing, "to the amassed energy I brought in earlier. He's getting rid of the dangerously high amount of unused magic in this room while at the same time setting a storm of," She whistles, "Incredible power off towards the enemy. With this storm he won't be able to move for at least two, maybe three days. After that if it warms up quickly he could be bogged down for another two or three days. He's giving us time, Anna, and he's in no danger."
Anna looks at her in frustration and pain, but she has to believe her, it's all she can do.
Ari is rather surprised, how could she possibly know what was going on? She knows less about magic than little Alexis does and yet what she said is the truth. She's glad of it too. For it gives her just a little more time with Grey.
By now the other participants are coming round and Anna hands them all cups of the restorative that Ari told her to never give her again. From their faces Ari can see that they don't like it any more than she had but they at least knew beforehand what they were receiving and she didn't.
She turns her attention back to Grey just as he releases the storm. Rain starts pelting the window and leaves a thin trail of ice behind. Grey nods his head pleased by the result and is doubly thankful that Ari grabs him before he collapses.
"Just how the hell do you work so much power and not be overcome by it?" He asks as he collapses on the window seat.
Ari gestures to Anna for a cup and then answers, "It doesn't bother me at all. But then I only use small amounts of the magic. I think allowing yourself to be used as a conduit like that is genius, but exhausting."
Ari takes the cup Anna hands her and makes Grey drink. "I promise I will never make you drink that again. It's a wonder that you didn't spew it all back up." Ari shuts him up by making him finish the restorative.
"I almost did. Now that the enemy is stopped for a few days, what more can you do?" Ari is curious. Grey found a way to stop an unstoppable force. What is the physics thing about unstoppable force and immovable object? Whatever she never payed much attention to physics anyway.