NRPG: A'Rillia looked up at the sound of someone tapping at the door. She'd 
been hiding un her apartment for some time now, fretting about what had been 
said at the Queen meeting, and wondering if she would be sent away... A 
couple of afternoons she had stolen away to some of the more secluded areas 
of Med centre in the hopes that the activity would take away some of the 
pain, but to no avail. This is the day *after* Minty tells David she thinks 
she's pregnant.

RPG:
"Yes?" 
<We all know what this is, don't we...?>
<:Stop that. I have been listening to you carry on for almost three days 
now. Sometimes I feel like your mother. Arri... you are not evil or bad. You 
were a child. It was not your fault. You have to carry on... If they were 
going to send you away because they didn't want you they would have done so 
long before now...:>

Arri fought back tears as Daetyn repeated the litany that had been part of 
her every waking hour (*mercifully few*) since that horrible meeting...

<:I care about you. You've been thinking about killing yourself. I'm scared 
for you Arri.. you have to get some help before you do something irrational...:>
<And blurting out my life sins to my WarrenLady was *Rational!?*>

"M'Lady A'Rillia...?" A tall, gaunt face peered into the darkened cave.

"I am here, D'ssarian. What is it? And don't call me Lady, please. Arri will 
do."

"Well," he explained, entering the darkness carefully, so as not to trip 
over anything, "one of the patients is very ill and nothing we seem to do is 
helping him. He's been having a great deal of trouble resting... frightening 
dreams of falling and darkness, and he keeps moving in his sleep. He's got 
some serious blood loss and I'm wondering if there's anything you might be 
able to do to help ease his rest enough that he can sleep undisturbed until 
he heals."

Slowly, she stood up, quickly wiping tears away from her face and trying to 
untangle her hair. When she stepped into the light, D'Sarrian stepped back 
in surprise at her haggard appearance with a sharp intake of breath..

"Never mind... are *you* all right?" he asked, worried.

"How *I* am is _totally_ irrelevant right now," she responded in a dull 
voice. "Is it the transfer?"

"No," he mused, "It's not Trey. It's David."

<Dae?! Who...>
<:Morning before last there was an incident down South... David was badly 
Wraithscored and ended up somehow wearing an amulet that joined his mind 
with the Wraiths' collective intelligence. He's the dragon Telepath from 
Keldarra, Araminta's mate..:>
<The woman with the purple eyes?>
<:Yes her... I'm not sure of the context, but I can ask his dragon what 
happened if you feel up to trying to help...:>
<Yes, do that...>

"What makes you think I know something you don't?" she asked quietly. "I'm 
not a Master or anything, and all I know is backwoods remedies.. according 
to some."

D'ssarian had the decency to blush, since that sort of comment was often 
made by some of the lower staff about Medical transfers from the smaller 
Warrens. "Well, someone mentioned that you have certain Healing abilities 
that some of us here don't... and we thought... maybe..." He trailed off 
uncomfortably.

"And what makes you think that I would be willing to use them after the last 
patient I tried to help died a long, painful, lingering death and her 
daughter tried to kill me?" Arri responded in a dangerous rumble. 

D'ssarian was saved the indignity of having to answer by Dae breaking into 
Arri's mind with a report on David's condition.

<:Arri, according to his dragon, he keeps hearing things, running, 
screaming, falling. He's lost touch with reality. Whatever that *thing* did 
to his mind, it seems to have opened a conduit to the Wraiths, or whatever 
controls them, since the amulet was *taken* from him. He never took it 
off... Arri... Kaylin is really worried, and he has asked me to ..am I 
hearing this right? ...plead with you if I must to at least get you to look 
at him. There has been concern about this downstairs for most of the day, 
and he is not the first dragon to ask me that... many here care for David...:>
<Aye, never mind then. If I don't at least try, then I'm being selfish... 
But Dae..>

Arri looked up at the sun and shuddered.

<Dae, what if I try.... and he still dies? That's two souls I owe for...>
<:Arri... you *must* try.:>
<I know that, you silly beast... but that doesn't mean I can't have 
reservations.>

Nodding once curtly at D'ssarian, she disappeared back into the cave. While 
throwing on a pale green cloak and gathering several bottles of sedative 
tinctures and coagulants and other medical paraphenelia into a small 
backpack, she called back over her shoulder to him.

"Very well, I will come. And I will do what I can. But let me tell you these 
things first. I am not Goddess. I make *no* promises that I will be able to 
do much more than ease his pain. Secondly, he has *got* to be coherent 
enough to allow me spoken permission to enter his mind before I sedate him, 
or I will not risk it. Thirdly, I will mix my *own* sedative for him while I 
talk with him and try to discern the depth of the damage, because I need him 
to be conscious enough to lead me, but not fight me. Fourth, and finally... 
this is going to be excruciatingly difficult for me. You may stay in the 
room, but no matter what happens, you are not to touch *either* of us until 
it is finished either way..."

Pausing, she entered back into the sunlight and looked at the healer soberly.

"...Because if you disturb me while I am trying to reweave the starlight and 
I tear out in panic, the damage done may be worse than where he is now... I 
may even kill him. And I already owe one life. I will *not* owe another."

With a deep sigh, she threw the bag over one shoulder and pushed tendrils of 
hair out of her face, fully aware of how ragged she looked. The part of a 
Healer, she was not right at the moment.

<Stay with me, sweetheart... I need all the help I can get...>
<:I will. I promise:>

"Very well then, lead on."

D'ssarian, understandably confused by the combination of professional 
coldness and genuine fear in her voice at the prospect, led her down to the 
Medical Centre with nothing more than encouraging smile. A'Rrillia followed 
him with a soft tread, head hung low and humming softly under her breath. 

She was humming the same song she sang the day B'nair's mother died.

<<====================>>
(**<Med Centre, later that day>**)

Arri walked in behind D'ssarian to a madhouse. There were at least seven 
people in the room besides the patient, including a young, very attractive 
woman on the verge of panic who was screaming at the healers to let her stay.

She walked up to C'Tain, who started, not having heard her approach. He 
looked her up and down for a long moment before nodding.

"A'Rillia."

"C'Tain," she responded with a firm nod, " I can think of better 
circumstances, but I suppose we will have to make do..." Trying to ignore 
the commotion in the room of David's frightened friends clustered atound 
him, she asked, "He seems to be sleeping all right... have you given him 
anything?"

"Now, but not for long," said C'Tain with a sigh, "The nightmares should 
start anytime now..."

<:Arri, I think he's going down again...:>

"Oh shit," she sputtered as she ran across the room, heedless of bodies, to 
get next to the bed while he began to toss and turn. Not touching him, she 
merely observed the disturbance on a physical level while C'Tain caught up 
with her.

"He started really losing control early this morning, and it's been pretty 
much on an hourly basis..." he sighed, "we tried everything we could, but 
it's getting harder to bring him awake every time. I've been feeding him 
mild doses of Dragon'sTooth in order to keep him from hurting himself, but 
I'm afraid to sedate him too heavily, because he has no idea where he is 
*now*... I'm afraid we might induce a coma."

Arri looked for a long moment at the straps anchoring David to the bed.

"Aren't you going to *do* something about this?" 

Turning her head, she saw that the voice was attached to a woman she only 
knew by reputation, who was staring back at her with tear-filled eyes full 
of fear for the man she loved.

"Araminta?"

The woman nodded slowly, locking onto the first kind, rational voice she had 
heard in the past hour that wasn't ordering her to leave the room. Arri 
guided her to a chair and sat her down near the foot of the bed.

"My name is A'Rillia, Araminta. I have been asked to come in and try to do 
something about David's condition, all right? I need you to relax, okay? 
Just breathe in ...with me... in...out... nice and deep, okay? Good girl..."

Minty looked up at Arri and said, "What are you going to do?"

"I am going to *try* to heal whatever is wrong with David's mind. I need you 
to promise me something, okay... Minty, is it?"

She nodded, swallowing back a sob...

Arri took her hands.

**Fear/Confusion/Darkness/Loss/Disorientation/Oh my god I love you you can't 
leave me/Help David how?/I'm scared/Helpless/Hopeless/Fear/Confusion...**

Closing her eyes against the barrage of sensations flooding out of Minty's 
mind, Arri began to sing... softly at first, but then louder and louder 
until everyone in the room was staring at her, confused...

"Flowing water ..Gently flowing river
 Winding a path to the deep blue sea
 Winding water.. Gently flowing river
 Carving out a path for you and me..."

Over and over she sang the refrain, holding images of the forests at 
Falagund in her mind until she heard Minty begin to hum along with her, and 
finally to sing, in concert, and then as Arri took her hands away, doing the 
final refrain alone.

"Thank you." 

"I need you calm for this. I need to know, as rationally as you can explain 
it to me, what exactly David had around his neck..."

"It was a steel amulet of some kind, about the size of my palm, with a 
leather thong. Malk was wearing it before... and David said he heard the 
wraiths thinking when he was wearing it, and he hasn't been right since."

Arri kept humming softly under her breath and nodded encouragingly to Minty.

"Somehow I think if it had not been taken away, he might still be wearing it."

"I understand David is a telepath?"

"Yes, but only with dragons, and if he does it too long with too many it 
hurts him."

<Dae?>
<:Yes?:>
<Is Wraith animal, vegetable or mineral?>
<:That's not funny, and somehow it seems irrelevant.:>
<It's *NOT* If he can talk to dragons and dragons are an animal, and talking 
to too many dragons hurts, and they can *sense* when to stop, imagine what 
several million wraiths talking to him at once must be doing to his mind, 
when they *don't* know when to stop? Dammit it's at least somewhere to 
start, right? Have you got any better ideas at this point?>
<:Okay... you don't have to shout at me... I'll ask, but you have to relax.:>

"Thank you Minty. You may stay here if you like, but you have to promise me 
some things first, okay?"

She looked up to see D'ssarian waving his arms in frantic negation and 
scowled at him, shaking her head. Dammit, couldn't he see she was not 
stable? She was not going to keep her away from the man she loved right 
now... she might put herself in danger. If he had allowed her to stay in the 
first place, she would probably never be in this state...

Minty nodded slowly, trying to maintain her composure.

"First of all, I can't promise that what I am going to do will help David. 
This is very much a desparation tactic. Secondly, for my own safety, I am 
going to ask you to turn over all of your bodyweapons to C'Tain before I begin."

C'Tain walked over to stand beside Arri and nodded in agreement.

Arri dropped to one knee to look into Minty's troubled eyes.

"And thirdly, and this is the most important thing, you must *NOT* touch us. 
Once I am in mental bond with David, although I will keep it as light as 
possible, any physical disturbance could be disatrous. You *have* to stay in 
that chair." She swallowed, hard, "I know that's a hard thing to ask of you, 
but you've got to trust me when I say I would never hurt him. No matter what 
happens, you have to stay here. If I have to, I will have you forcibly 
restrained."

Minty clenched her hands into fists of frustration. "Into his mind? What do 
you mean? What are you going to do?"

"I am going to try to break the threads between him and the amulet and use 
some of my own life energies to mend the holes that having a mental lock on 
the amulet has caused. I need your sworn word that you will trust me enough 
to stay *here*."

"This is his only chance?"

Arri nodded. "D'ssarian and C'Tain think so or they would not ask me to 
undertake something so dangerous. If there were any other way..."

Minty sighed in resignation and nodded.

Standing, Arri crossed back to the bed, hissing at C'Tain, "I want you to 
make *damned* sure she *stays* there. I don't want to send her away, but I'm 
not sure if she's stable enough to keep her word if she gets scared..."

C'Tain nodded and went to stand next to Minty, talking to her in a soft 
voice after Arri walked away. D'Sarrian met her at the patient's bedside 
with an exasperated look and a sigh.

"I have been trying to keep her *out* of here all week. Are you daft?"

"It's a woman thing." she explained quietly before turning to the room at 
large and announcing in a quiet, but carrying Bardically trained cadaence 
who was staying.

"You," pointing at Minty, "You," pointing at C'Tain, "and you," she 
finished, tapping D'ssarian's chest, "Can stay. I would like the rest of you 
to please retreat to the waiting areas, as this will be long, rather 
uninteresting to look at, and outside distractions may compromise the safety 
of the patient during this operation just as much as if it were open-heart 
surgery."

With varying levels of grumbling, the other four people in the room left. 
Absently, Arri recognized one of them as the young girl she had met on the 
first day, before all hell broke loose and she...

<:ARRI!... Come back... you *can't* now...:>

With a shrug, she settled her tired, exhaustion-bedraggled form next to the 
bed and looked down at David's face. His body had stopped moving, but his 
eyes roved back and forth in panic and he was muttering softly to himself. A 
thin sheen of sweat coated his forehead, and his cheek muscles twitched 
periodically as if he would like to scream, but could not find his voice.

"Untie him."

"But Arri, he may be irrational..."

In a voice of steel; cold, quiet and firm..."Now, please."

D'ssarian untied David's hands and stepped away from the bed, quietly.

Arri closed her eyes halfway and took a deep breath. She pulled the bag 
around to rest it on her knees, selecting herbs by touch and setting them 
into a pestle as she observed him before proceeding.

Silently, she stared at David's still form until the web of intricate lines 
that she had grown to understand as the human mind took form around it. 
There were a lot of black places... more than she had expected there to be, 
and several tendrils that left the body and led to.. nowhere. Resting one 
hand over his eyes without actually touching his skin, she said in a very 
soft singsong...

"David Blademaster
 Child of Woman
 Long ago born
 I thee would speak with
 Here in the place
 From which thy soul has been torn..."

<<============================>>
NRPG: Take it Awaaay...Justin. (*hee-hee*)

=======================================================
 "Learning that we're only Immortal for a limited Time..."  ---N. Peart (*Rush*)
 "What does my body have to do with my gratitude?"            ---A. Di Franco
<<<<<-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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    Slainte'!    <Good Health...>           |          Shadowsinger@greatgig.com
          **Shadowsinger**                    |        
tlw663@winnipeg.freenet.mb.ca
 
<<<<<-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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                         ***Heart And Soul of A'Rillia and Daetyn***  
     ( **Periodic Bard of CuddleLand**     -<Will Sing For CheeseCake>- )
=======================================================