Lorelei concentrated on controlling her breathing as she went into the final set of exercises. Her long sword whirled about her in graceful patterns as she focused on an imaginary foe. Practicing always kept her mind from its worries. The smooth steel flashed in the fading light as she came back into the ready stance. Once she was done, she turned her head towards the west, shading her eyes as she sought out the grand water clock that loomed over the palace compound.
"Oh Mira!" she exclaimed as she took off towards her quarters at a run. Twenty minutes later, she was wrestling with her wet hair when a knock sounded at her door.
"Ready? Oh.. I guess not," said Alyssa wryly as she plopped down on Lorelei’s bed. "Need some help?"
"No, I’ve got everything under control," mumbled Lorelei as she tugged large amounts of auburn hair from the brush. Leaving her hair to dry on its own, she pulled out a brand new bodysuit in the prince’s colors.
"Kirth! Why does Zara always think that I starve myself!" she swore in an undertone as she struggled into the navy fabric. Her ceremonial armor went on next and finally the rich navy cape that clipped onto her shoulders. She gave herself a once over in the mirror, cape swirling dramatically around her. Yes, she decided critically, she looked every inch a captain. And from some deep, dark part of her, the last vestiges of her vanity was grateful that all that navy didn’t clash with her hair..

The two women arrived at the temple just a few minutes before the seventh hour. Lorelei winced involuntarily as she saw the instruments laid out on a table in the square. A plump priest from the temple removed a sharp dagger from a pot of boiling water and laid it down beside the other implements. He turned at the sound of their approach.
"Well now. Here’s half of the pair," he said cheerfully. "And what do you know! Here comes the other half.." He gestured towards the sky.
K’san swept in for a landing, her mother following close behind her. Her newly polished scales gleamed a deep blue as the shifting patterns of the firelight flowed over her massive body. Silver trappings sparkled madly on her forehead and flanks as she shifted to make room for her parent. Treven, with Kevin on her back, landed and folded up her wings efficiently. The Matriarch acknowledged everyone in the square with a regal nod. Then the priest was gesturing Lorelei and K’san forward.

"These two have chosen to be bonded. Is there anything I should know before we perform the binding. No? Good. Then let us begin."
The priest began to chant a quiet prayer to Mira as he picked up a glass bottle, connected a short length of hose to it and finally, a wickedly sharp glass tube to the free end. He walked over to K’san, located a vein at her elbow and jabbed through her thick hide with the skewer. Rich, black ichor gushed into the bottle, filling it instantly. As he withdrew the skewer, an assistant swabbed the cut and bandaged it deftly.
The priest set the bottle down on the table to cool and reached for a small glass tube with a slender needle attached. Once the ichor in the bottle had stopped steaming, he poured a small amount into the new tube and walked over to Lorelei.
"Are you certain?" he asked one last time. She nodded, the line of her jaw firming as she held forth her arm.

The ichor hit her system in a wave of heat. Lorelei felt her stomach heave sickeningly as her body struggled to overcome the intrusion. She bent over gasping, clutching her burning arm to herself in an instinctual move to lessen the pain. Then suddenly, her sight blurred as her knees gave way under her. She barely felt the touch of Alyssa’s hands on her shoulders, steadying her. Disjointed voices faded in and out of her mind, flashes of images she had never seen. Then a strangely comforting voice cutting through the chaos. "I’m here, Lorelei. Lean on me.."
K’san, she thought gratefully as she fell into unconsciousness.

Alyssa and Kevin bent over Lorelei’s prone body, checking her vital signs. Her body was burning with a completely unnatural fire.
"She’s having another bad reaction," said Alyssa grimly, glancing up at the hovering priest. "Get the Alvamar! Now!"

The Alvamar reached the top of the dusty stairs. Around him, streamed a decade’s worth of cobwebs and grime, but behind the door of this crumbling tower lay his most precious memories. The door creaked open loudly, raising a cloud of dust at its passing. Before him, stretched the private quarters of a royal family. He moved into the center of the room. Around him, portraits of his ancestors looked regally down at him, but he ignored them in favor of a small, almost insignificant portrait of a woman in blue.

"Lytha, I’ve come home," he whispered with a gentle smile as he placed his fingers on the peeling canvas. Blonde hair cascaded about a laughing face of a woman with eyes similar to his own. The past, long buried, crashed into his present. Lytha, dressed in green and gold as she mounted the steps of Mira’s temple on her way to her betrothed. Her searching eyes, meeting those of a tall man standing amongst the thronging crowds, flashed in sudden, violent joy. Her gaze never left his as she passed him on the way into the temple. He had not seen his only sister married that day. His father had disowned him the day he had stormed the Old One’s fortress and taken the potion of immortality. An act that had to be done for the sake of the people who would never accept an immortal king.

Beside Lytha’s portrait was one of his mother and father. Marius stood staring down at his eldest with a calm, measured gaze. Once they had looked at him with love and pride but the last memory he had of his father was a furious, frightened monarch banishing him from the court. Marius had called for him when he was at death’s point but by then it was too late.

On the other side of the royal portrait was yet another familiar face. His own. Younger, much more innocent but definitely his own. So that was what that over-ambitious prince had looked like, thought the Alvamar as he stood regarding his likeness gravely. Thank Mira, a healer had grown in place of that selfish, self-centered twit…

He moved into the next room. His parents’ bedchamber. At the foot of the massive bed was a large banded, ironwood chest. He already knew what he would find in it. Wrapped lovingly in lengths of faded blue silk was a heavy two-handed broadsword. The Alvamar drew it out of its bronze bound scabbard carefully and swished the weapon in a test swing. The unmarred steel hissed through the air with menacing confidence. Turning around, the Alvamar walked away from the past with his legacy in his hands.

Reza, the castle healer, swept into Lorelei’s quarters to join the Alvamar. Lorelei had been wrapped in damp cloths, while a runner had been dispatched to the icehouse to pick up a few blocks of ice. The Alvamar stepped back gracefully to allow Reza to take his rightful place as Lorelei’s healer. A swift examination followed by a vile potion, and Reza stood up to discuss the situation with the Alvamar and a grim Alyssa.

"It’s not good. Her heart rate is too high. The muscles won’t be able to take it for long. We need to get it down before her heart itself bursts. What do you think, my lord? Ice to bring her temperature down and Foxroot to slow her heart rate?"
"Yes, I think that’s all we can do. Lorelei is physically very tough. Once her body’s functions back within a normal range, she should recover fairly quickly."

"Wait, my lords," broke in Alyssa tensely. There is something you should know. I think Lorelei might be going through something else as well."
"The last time this happened, Lorelei told me that… she met her mother in the realm she was in. You see, my sister died 15 years ago, quite horribly. Lorelei was not to find out how but she had overhead me telling her father how Kira had died. Right after that night, she started having nightmares of poor Kira’s death."
"How did your sister die?" asked the Alvamar.
"She was a mage-in-training. She had discovered an outlawed spellbook in her master’s library, dealing with the calling of demons…" The healers cast grim looks at each other.
"She wasn’t strong enough to control the thing she called up. It ripped her into little pieces…" The Alvamar looked down at Lorelei compassionately.
"That could explain why she has such bad reactions to bindings. If she has latent telepathic abilities inherited from her mother, the power transfer from a binding could overload her sensory pathways."
"She’s always refused to be tested for warrior-mage training so I don’t know if she does have any such abilities." Alyssa sat down on the bed and took Lorelei’s burning hand in her own.
"Kira’s death made Lorelei fear magic even more than the average person. The last time she went under, she met a demon who had taken her mother’s form. She said it tried to kill her… There was a lot more than that I’m sure, because Lorelei refused to ever discuss it with me again. I’m afraid that’s what’s happening now. She barely got away the last time. I don’t know if she can do it again…"