Almiron patted Krithis's side, and turned to head back to the Dining Hall, 
smiling quietly to himself in the early darkness.

<Pet!  Something is happening with Paranth's rider!>

<Where?  What?>

<He is being attacked.  Starleanna's rider is helping.>

Almiron turned and ran to Michel's apartment.  It wasn't far.  He quickly 
climbed the flight of stairs to their door.  He flung open the door in time 
to see several masked figures heading toward him, then skid to a stop.

"Out of our way!" one yelled.

"Not likely," he answered, his hands reaching automatically for his 
scimitars.  He was in a bad position.  If he backed up, he had to face going 
down the stairs backwards.  Quickly, he plunged forward and the masked 
figures scattered.

One came at him with a knife.  He parried with the short scimitar, keeping 
an eye out for the others, longer sword at the ready.  He could hear 
footsteps on the stairs and the attackers obviously did, too.  Desperate, 
all four of them moved at once.

The knife-wielder moved in and Almiron spotted an opening.  The moment as 
his sword came down on his attacker's arm seemed to freeze in time.  The 
blood spreading over his sleeve and the cry of anguish.

His vow.

He'd let his training take over.

He'd forgotten.

As Almiron froze in horror at the realisation, something hard and heavy 
impacted with his head and the world exploded into a hundred red shards.

He heard the knifeman swearing and felt the knife sink into his gut, then 
withdraw, another point of pain in a world of pain.

A grey curtain slowly descended as his knees hit the floor.  All was black 
before his body was fully down.

[NRPG: Yes, I know Almiron wasn't there when Lori arrived.  I'm expecting 
someone to get him out of there.]

******

[The next day sometime]

He awoke to pain in his head and gut, and quiet conversation.  It hurt too 
much to move, so he simply laid and listened.

Kyven's voice.  "Looks like peritonitis.  Let's get him on S'irt's antibiotic."

"I don't understand why his healing didn't prevent that," another voice 
spoke.  Almiron didn't recognise it.  Some assistant, presumably.

"He didn't heal at all."

"What?  I thought I'd heard he--"

"I don't pretend to understand his healing, but he didn't go into the hot 
coma like usual," Kyven said.

A cool, feminine hand on his cheek.  "He's hot now."

"That's infection."

Wait.  Something was wrong.  The hand had been a sensation all by itself.  
Almiron's eyes snapped open and he grabbed out desperately.

"Whoa, Almiron, it's okay, you're safe," Kyven reassured him, laying a hand 
on his shoulder.

No sensations from Kyven's body.

Just the hand.

The vow.  He'd broken the vow.

His body began shaking violently.

"Almiron, are you all right?  Some blackwood bark tea, Hesti.  We've got to 
get this fever down; he's shaking like a leaf.

"No.  It is not that..." Almiron moaned.

"What's wrong, Almiron?  Tell me."

"It's gone.  Hehran's gift is gone..."

"What?"

"I can't feel you.  I can't feel your body.  Hehran's power is gone.  What 
have I done?"

Respectfully submitted,
 Lynette R. F. Cowper
  Almiron and Darshan

---
|   Lynette R. F. Cowper  *  Official INWO Rules NetRep & Goddess    |
| http://www.io.com/~lcowper  *  lcowper@io.com  *  lcowper@indy.net |
|  "If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever |
|                   get done."  -- L. Wittgenstein                   |