She had taken the folded fabric and pressed it into his hands. "This is 
the child's Naming blanket. You will name it, won't you?" She had asked, 
the cloud coming again into her eyes as the dream took her back.

	"Yes, Lady Ewony, I will name it."

	She smiled, once again sweet, all taint of that bitter woman gone. 
"Well, what do you think?" She had made a small gesture with one finger 
to the fabric in his hands.

	He had unfolded it, expecting to finally see the Arms of her House. 
This would be what that other Ewony would have desired. A child Named in 
the Arms of her house to kill her impotent husband. The image that 
filled the corner of the blanket that would cover the childs face until 
he held it up to the sky and gave it it's name before all the world had 
almost taken him to his knees in shock. It was beautifully done, that 
image of the sixteen rayed sun eclipsed by the black disk that 
represented the moon so that only a small edge of the gold showed around 
it. He had to reach backwards and sit in the padded chair at her bedside 
or fall, could remember vividly the feel of the small hairs on his arms 
and the back of his neck rising.

	"It is the Arms of my Qu'ain Prince." She had said, then began to hum, 
her eyes locked on the dance of the fire across from the foot of the bed 
and unaware of his distress.

	Feyniha. They had been Feyniha's Arms. Feyniha, Wizard Prince, the 
Qu'ain betrayer. Even now his chest tightened with fury and pain when he 
thought that name. That had been such a time of Darkness, a time he 
tried so very hard not to think on. Feyniha, also betrayed by Jehned, 
who with all of his kin, down to the smallest babe, had died under 
EarthTemple fury and sword. Feyniha who died with an Unfinished Promise 
on his lips. An Unfinished Promise, Gods of Light help them! When he had 
recorded it in the Temple Book, his hand had shook so hard it was almost 
unreadable. That Unfinished Promise which told the Zentrad Kings this: 
You will fall as you have risen, betrayed. When once again a child of my 
shaping walks in the World then what was Done shall be Undone. The King 
Betrayed... On that word had his body died, as malevolent in death as he 
had been in life. His legacy an Unfinished and unbalanced Promise of 
Dark Will that had been gathering strength for four hundred years. That 
was what terrified Zentrad and EarthTemple alike. Qu'ain power set loose 
with no boundaries on it's working. Qu'ain power which could sidestep 
the Laws which held time and place rigid in the World. Qu'ain power 
which would find a way to balance itself, but at what cost and how?

	Once again he worried that promise around in his mind as he had done 
when sitting there stunned at Ewony's bedside. The Zentrad Kings would 
fall, betrayed. But by whom? The Child Promised? The King Betrayed. 
Zentrad King or the King they had Betrayed? And how much and what would 
that child Undo to create balance? Qu'ain power unbound. The last time 
that had happened, so far back in the Memory of the World that few even 
knew of it's happening, the World had Changed. Laws where broken and 
re-formed, Man had entered the World as the People had been destroyed, 
leaving only a remnant of what had once been in The Tribes and ruins.

	He fled from that tangled web as he had fled from Ewony as soon as his 
knees would once again bare his weight, the blanket clutched in his 
hands as his steps had taken him through the empty halls of the Temple 
to the kitchen and Ellias, who had been kneading dough for their weeks 
supply of bread. That memory chased away the tightness in his chest, 
made him smile. Ellias Dragon's Claw, whose deeds on the field where 
still sung of in Bards tales, wearing an apron instead of armor and 
covered with flour instead of blood. Ellias who had steered him to a 
chair and had not been at all surprised by his account of Ewony's 
Promise or the Arms on the blanket. Angry, but in no way surprised.

	The sound of Ewony's bell had woke him the next morning and he had sat 
up muddled and thick headed, realized with anger that instantly cleared 
the slowness from his mind that Something had Willed him into an 
unnaturally deep sleep. He remembered how cold it had been that late 
morning that was almost noon as he had called to Ellias in the little 
chamber that separated his room from the main corridor as he had 
hurried to dress. Ellias, Denath and more, who put himself between his 
Denii and all things, even the safe emptiness of the Temple. He had not 
realized how panicked his call had been and Ellias had sprung into his 
room, sword drawn and flickering with more than the light of the sun 
from his windows.

	"Ewony's bell. Didn't you hear it?" He had asked as Ellias had frowned 
at him, looking for the threat.

	Ellias had shaken his head, the beads of his brown gold braids clacking 
softly as the frown changed to a twist of exasperation. Then it changed 
back into a frown as his green flecked brown eyes narrowed. "I was 
asleep." Ellias, too, then. Something very powerful had come to visit 
the EarthTemple in the night.

	So he was prepared as they sped the twenty paces to Ewony's chambers. 
Prepared to meet the soul he had feared had come to take possession of 
the flesh Ewony had shaped for it at so high a cost. He had assumed that 
Ewony had started to labor and had rung her bell. Ellias had stopped him 
before the door with an arm across his chest. There might be danger here 
now and as Denath, he would go first. He pushed the door open, hand on 
the hilt of his sword, the sword that he hadn't worn in more years than 
Nellan cared to think on. He remembered Ellias' sharp intake of breath, 
the stiffening of his broad back. Ellias had then stepped out of the 
way, letting him in. He had assumed wrong. There was Ewony, propped up 
asleep on her pillows, face peaceful and serene with a babe sized bundle 
of blanket cradled in her arms. Then he looked again. Ewony was not 
asleep and the Shadows that had tended her where gone. Grief came over 
him now as it had then. Poor lonely Lady who had labored and borne with 
only the company of Shadows.

	Ellias had actually drawn his sword once more as they advanced on the 
bed. He remembered thinking how small it was as he had carefully and 
gently lifted the bundle from it's dead mother's arms and laid it on the 
thick fur rug before the hearth. He moved the blanket away from that 
small sleeping face to show one slightly pointed and tuft-tipped ear and 
a fuzzy down of black hair tipped with silver ends. Qu'ain. His heart 
had skipped a beat. Feyniha. Was that malevolent soul returned at last? 
He had flicked the blanket all the way open to reveal the tiny body. A 
girl. Not at all what he had expected. He had thought then that the 
Betrayer might wrap himself in feminine flesh to confuse them, had put 
his finger over the tiny heart that beat as rapid as a birds. If Feyniha 
was here, he would not be able to hide from this Searching. There had 
been no Memories, Dark or Light, in this babe which puzzled him still. 
Those two amethyst eyes had opened and locked on his own. No Memories 
there, only complete and unquestioning trust. Trust of him who had been 
so ready to hate it, to send it's soul back into the Shadows leaving 
only an empty casing of flesh, flesh he would tend and protect as he had 
sworn the Temple to do whether it held Feyniha's dark presence or not. 
Qu'ain power at work. He knew it in that moment when their eyes met and 
she captured his heart. So had he become a father.

	"A father who is going to pitch off the topmost point of the Temple and 
kill himself if he isn't more careful." He grumbled to himself, jarred 
out of memories as the wind shifted suddenly and pushed him off balance 
as he stood on his toes, trying to make out the small speck heading 
towards the Pass on the King's Road. It had made him step forwards, the 
tip of his boot just shy of the unprotected edge, the balustrade that 
had once formed a barrier long since worn away by the trick filled wind.

	A father who wanted his child home safe before the storm that was 
brewing on the western horizon came on them.

************************************************************************

End Chapter 1 pt. 2

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