Surprise Family Reunion (Flame and Amneris)

[Kender Bard]

Luminous looked curiously at Flame. "Do you know what it means when they're different?"

"Flame only held the rings for Soahc's chosen," Libre warned. "So I'm not sure if the Efilian rings being different mean anything or not."

[Northen Light36]

"The Soahcian rings changed according to people's Soahcian Path," Flame replied. "But Libre's right, I don't know about the Efilian rings."

"We could ask an angel," Alyssa suggested, sliding off Ann's lap when Shade suddenly decided he wanted to be held by his mother.

[Kender Bard]

"I'll go find one!" Amneris offered, her eyes lighting up. She LOVED speaking with the angels. They were so fascinating and most of them were very kind.

[Northen Light36]

"I'll go with you," Flame added. She'd heard about the angel who'd helped rescue her from the demon, but of course she'd been asleep through the whole thing. Grinning at her cousin, she added, "I'm curious to see them. Lead the way?"

[Kender Bard]

"They're not hard to find here," Amneris replied with a smile as she left the rest and headed outside. Of course, there were many angels, though they didn't pay too close attention to the two girls.

"Hey!" Amneris shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth and scanning the sky. "Angels!"

One of them, a young man with glasses and papery wings, flew down. "Yes?" he asked.

"We have a question about the rings of Efil's chosen," Amneris told him.

"Well I'm a Thuothian angel but I'll be happy to answer your questions," he replied. "Unless you'd rather I fetch someone in particular or an Efilian angel?"

[Northen Light36]

"No, I'm sure you can answer," Flame replied with a smile. "We were wondering why our Uncle Shadow's ring is silver with gold writing, while Aunt Artica and Uncle Tavin's are gold with silver writing?"

[Kender Bard]

"Ah, well, that's actually a little more complicated than you might think," the Thuothian angel replied. "You see, not long ago Efil underwent a change. As a result, she's now... Somewhat different from how she used to be. Gold rings are Chosen who follow or who best embody her old ideals. Silver rings for the new ones."

"How did Efil change?" Amneris asked with a frown. She hadn't even realized that Forces COULD change. It was a mildly disturbing notion.

The Thuothian hesitated. "Er... Well... Um..." How to put it delicately? "She... understands now that life is often as full of pain and sadness as it is of happiness and reflects that accordingly."

[Northen Light36]

Flame frowned, reaching out to take Amneris' hand. She didn't like the sound of that and what it meant for her uncle. "So... Uncle Shadow's ring is silver cause... he's hurting and sad?" She shook her head. "But..." She trailed off, not entirely sure what she wanted to say but visibly disturbed by this new knowledge.

Kara, having been wandering around Sanctuary and staying close to Shadow without intruding on him and Luminous, frowned as she watched the scene. Focusing, she took on her more solid look and approched the two girls and the angel. "Perhaps I could explain to the girls better, in this case?" she suggested, bowing politely to the angel and smiling at the girls. "This may be a discussion better had between family members."

[Kender Bard]

"As you wish," the angel replied and took wing a bit too quickly. He didn't really want to delve into emotional matters with strangers, especially young girls.

Amneris looked at Kara curiously. "You look like Ann," she said. "But I don't recognize you from the clan."

[Northen Light36]

Kara smiled wistfully. "No, you wouldn't," she replied. "Though your mother might recognise me, Amneris, and yours certainly would, Flame. I am a child of Fira, though, and you're almost right. I don't look like Ann, so much as my daughter looks like me, with her father's eyes." Her eyes shone with gentle laughter as Flame stared.

"You're... You're Ann's mother? You're Kara?" she asked, stuttering a little in her shock.

"Ann's mother, Tres and Shade's best friend and, technically, Naurorod's Heir for awhile, in order of importance," Kara laughed.

"But... You died..." Flame murmured, softly. "Are you an angel?"

"Forces no," Kara laughed, shaking her head. "Merely a spirit, given permission to remain close to a loved one for a time. Otherwise I'd be giving you both a hug." She smiled wistfully. "It's nice to have a chance to meet you both, particularly since I'd have been, I hope, an aunt to the pair of you. And of course, I do like to know that the future of my clan is in such good hands."

[Kender Bard]

Amneris blushed and for the most part she seemed extremely tongue tied. Finally she asked, in a soft little voice, "How come you aren't with the others then? If you're a gho- er, a spirit, then doesn't that mean you'd want to be with Ann, Shade, Aly, and the others?"

[Northen Light36]

"Oh, I do," Kara sighed. "And I will be later. But at the moment... Well, it's a long and sad story. Still, it does connect to Flame's earlier question of why Shadow bears a silver ring, so..." She considered them both thoughtfully, then nodded slowly. "Very well, the short version is I prefer to remain away from Shadow while he is with Luminous, because my presence is upsetting to her."

Flame frowned thoughtfully, considering old stories. "You and Uncle Shadow... You were best friends, weren't you?"

"Best friends and more," Kara agreed softly. "I loved him with all my heart and he loved me." She smiled. "We were no older then you two when he asked me to marry him and I agreed. Sadly, things did not go as we'd intended."

[Kender Bard]

Amneris tried to wrap her head around that. "You were very young," she said, unable to think of what else to say. She couldn't imagine being proposed to; not even a few years from now.

[Northen Light36]

"And more then a little foolish," Kara replied with a smile. "We did love each other dearly, but yes, we were young. Young enough that when Dami and Shade-" She paused and clarified, "the older pair, of course, fought and my brother was injuried, I was irrational with anger. Fury and love are so often flip sides of the same coin, girls, and I loved them both dearly. They had hurt each other so badly in their anger and it broke my heart for I felt I was being torn between the two men I loved. In the end, I chose my brother and lashed out at Shade, telling him I never wished to see him again."

"Ouch..." Flame murmured.

"Indeed," Kara sighed. In a moment of temper, we rashly broke each other's hearts and when we'd had time to cool down, it was too late. The three of us had shattered the alliance our fathers had worked to build and though we regreted it..." She shook her head. "The damage was done. When it became clear that Damien and Tres could not produce an heir, our father felt the task must fall to me. And though I still loved Shadow, and would have forgiven him, my father would not forgive the damage to the line. So I married for politics, rather then love - though I considered my husband to be a dear and loyal friend - and Tres, Dami and I turned our backs on Shade, pretending we'd never known him. We had each other, and the clan, and in time it grew easy not to think of what had happened."

Kara paused her story for a minute, looking up at the sky with sad eyes. "It was a cruel way to respond to what had, at heart, only been an accident. The boys were just that. Boys. And they had fought before. That things had gotten so out of hand was bad luck and ill judgement, not malice. But we were all too young, and too proud, to admit we'd made a mistake. So we abandoned our friend and pretended we didn't know what that would mean for him."

Kara sighed, pausing to consider how best to tell this part of the story. "Shadow's mother died when Shadow was born and his father, unfairly, blamed him for that. Though it was at our father's command, we'd knowingly left him alone in a house without love or almost any friendship, to suffer his father's fury at the broken alliance. His father's anger had already often hurt Shadow, but we left him completely without a shield against it. And that hurt your uncle more deeply then even his father was capable of."

"But... Uncle Damien and mother were friends with uncle Shadow, so you must have made up sometime," Flame protested.

"Dami, Tres and Shade did make up, yes," Kara agreed. "During the Clear Wars. Have you two both been told about that and what happened?"

[Kender Bard]

"Yes," Amneris said in a terse, low voice. She knew about the Clear Wars. It had been explained to her, especially when she'd tearfully asked her adoptive mother why her kind was so hated. "It was terrible."