He watched as Diana read the letter. Her face registered surprise.  "R'chein 
and Ophelia mates?  Why that's wonderful!" She looked at Trey's strained 
face. "Isn't it?"

Trey looked at her and sighed. 'It's hard to accept. I mean, R'chein is... 
was my best friend."

"Trey, he still is.  It's just that both he and Ophelia are going on with 
their lives, just like we have gone on with ours."

Diana looked at Trey when he didn't comment. She softly said, "We have gone 
on, haven't we?  I mean, you still want me and the babies, don't you?"  
There was a hint of fear in her voice.

"Yes, of course!" he said, sitting up, then cringing at the pain as his 
overtaxed muscles protested.  "Diana, I love you.  I will love our babies.  
But I love Ophelia, too.  My love for you doesn't change that.  She is the 
mother of three of my children.  She was my mate for 17 years.  I can't 
suddenly lose all those emotions."

Diana nodded, "But just as you can love Ophelia without it reducing your 
love for me, why can't Ophelia love R'chein without it meaning she loved you 
any less?"

He sighed.  "Because I keep remembering the way they looked at each other 
all these years, and I never saw it."

"I don't think they realised it, either.  At least, that's the impression I 
get from Ophelia's letter."

"Oh, I don't think they were sneaking around my back or anything, it's just 
a shock.  It would be like you finding out that Darrin and someone loved 
each other all these years, even if it was platonic."

She nodded.  "I guess I can see where that would be a shock."

"But there's one more thing, Diana.  There's an investigation into the 
poisoning of my medicine going on-- my medicine that is manufactured start 
to finish by R'chein."

"You're not saying you think--"

"No, of course not!" he said a little too quickly.

Diana eyed him doubtfully, but said nothing.

C'tain knocked on the doorframe and walked in.  "I'm releasing you to go 
home and rest tonight, Trey.  Since this seems like an isolated incident, 
I'm not going to pull you off patrol, yet.  Though, if you feel unsure about 
this, I can excuse you."

Trey shook his head.  "I didn't come to this warren to become a burden."

"Well, I'll be in my apartment asleep till my shift," C'tain said.  "If you 
have any problems, D'ssarian's been informed what's going on."

C'tain turned and left.

"Let's go," Trey said, sliding out of the bed, gritting his teeth as the 
impact jolted his shoulder.

He and Diana walked out, mounted the waiting Zena and headed to their apartment.

******

[Next day]

Minty and Trey had just finished their regular patrol when the news of the
attack on Carie and Fiera swept round the Warren.

<Fiera has been attacked by wraiths while out flying near the new hatching 
cavern!  We must go to help at once.>

Minty looked to Trey, who nodded to tell her that he already knew what was 
going on.

"The attack is near to the new hatching cavern," he called across to her, 
patting Koroth to calm him.  "The rest of the wing should be here--  Ah, 
here comes David now."

They were soon organised and teleported to the fierce battle.  The scene was 
chaotic, but Trey and Minty soon fell into the well-worn drill pattern that 
was drummed into all Marrid's riders.  They flamed and turned, turned and 
flamed.

The keening of the dragons for the loss of Lazir was difficult to combat.  
It was such grief that had led to such horror at Marrid before, and David 
tried to rally them with anger and revenge.  Koroth responded.

Seconds after Fiera finally escaped to the warren, the wraiths retreated 
into the mountains and David called "Don't pursue te wraiths, we have t' go 
t' Margate!"

The town was nearly overrun when they got there and they spent an eternity 
defending it, it seemed, before they secured the town.

<Do you want to go back to the warren?> Koroth asked, concern in his 'voice'.

The battle hadn't been easy on Trey.  With one arm nearly useless, he'd had 
some trouble one-handed when a wraith had gotten through to him.

Trey nodded, knowing the dragon would feel it.  <Let's go.  I don't think I 
can help with the clean-up one-handed.>

He waved to Minty and the two blinked out, leaving the only the sunset behind.

******

He knew he would have to wait a while, since there were worse injured than 
he.  Koroth had contacted Zena as soon as they arrived to assure Diana that 
Trey was well.  She was on her way.

Suddenly, he felt an incredible sadness pass through Koroth.  Oh, no not 
another one.

<Who, Roth?>

<Sarathain follows his rider.>

Sarathain?  His rider?  "Oh, dear gods, no."

Trey remembered the blue-eyed girl, and tears sprang to his eyes.  She was 
too young, younger than Laria.

He was still crying when Koroth's keening grew louder.  <Gagnith follows his 
rider.>

<Perion?  But he wasn't in the battle.  How?>

<A human with Aura's rider's father's group killed him.>

Trey sat stunned.  What in the hell was going on?

He rose and limped into the hallway and wandered through it, past people 
bringing wounded, both riders of townsmen from Margate, into the Medical Center.

He watched as they dragged a man in the colours of the Swordguild into the 
Medical Center.  He watched as they took him away.

"Bastard killed Perion," he heard someone say, but when he turned to see 
who, the speaker was gone.

He watched as T'rend carried another injured person into the Medical Center. 
 T'rend's head shot up suddenly, and he ran outside.  Curious, Trey 
followed, slowed by his injury.  He emerged and looked up to where T'rend 
was looking, in time to see two dragons wink out.

"T'rend, what's wrong?  T'rend?"

The rider stopped, noticing him for the first time.  "Some rider from 
Norwall just took Shard and Chaldecony.  I'm headed to Norwall."

"Wait, I'm going too."

T'rend paused and looked Trey over.  "You're injured."

"Not badly.  It can wait.  He was my patrol partner and I want to know what 
in the hell is going on here."

T'rend nodded.  "Okay.  Let's go."

Koroth landed in front of them and Trey mounted somewhat clumsily with one 
arm and a wraith-injured leg.  T'rend mounted Grall as well.

Just before they blinked out, Trey thought to tell Roth to send their 
itinerary to Zena.  There was no time for a reply before they disappeared, 
and reappeared over Norwall, where nighttime had completely fallen.

"The warrenlady's probably in her apartment at this time, in bed.  Grall is 
contacting her dragon," T'rend called.

Shortly thereafter, the two turned and headed for the warrenlady's apartment.

Trey knew that there was a new warrenlady, Naomi by name, at Norwall.  He 
had never met her.  He sort of missed Jaquel, though she and Ophelia had 
always butted heads at Council meetings.  Ophelia had rebelled against 
Jaquel's notion of any sort of superiority of queenriders.  He was certain 
the woman had had a chuckle when she heard Laria had joined a queen.  So 
much for Ophelia's notion.

Ah, well.  Nothing was permanent.  Not even Tr'etram and Ophelia...

Respectfully submitted,
 Lynette R. F. Cowper
  Tr'etram and Koroth

NRPG: Kris, could you bounce this to Norwall, please?  Thanks.

---
|   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                   |