“How does that feel?”  Reina removed her hands and her magic from Yunho’s head.  He sighed in relief.  The room stopped spinning completely and his light-headed feeling was gone.  His head still hurt, but it was nowhere near the level of pain he had felt before.

“Much better, thank you.” 

“Majesty?”

Yunho stared at her for a moment, not quite registering that she was talking to him.  Reina rarely called him Majesty. 

“What?”

She gave him a thoughtful stare, as if he was a sick child and she was trying to think of a good way to tell him that he was seriously ill. 

“There is something different about your magic today.”

What did that have to do with anything?  How was his magic being ‘different’ going to change the fact that Kari, his wife, had been taken by some unknown invaders?  Yunho waited in silence for her to explain her comment.

“I sensed something new in your magic; something that wasn’t there before last night.  I think it might have something to do with the attack and subsequent kidnapping of the queen.”

“What is it?”

She shook her head.  Her face said that she was more than a little concerned at this turn of events.

“I don’t know, yet.  I’ve never seen anything like it.”  She lowered her voice and mumbled under her breath, “Then again, I’d never seen anything like your magic before, either.”  Yunho didn’t think she meant for him to hear that last statement. 

“Can you do something about it?  Fix it?”

“I don’t know if it can be fixed or even if it needs to be.  It may be nothing more than your magic reacting to the situation you were in, giving you some helpful new ability.  Or it could be something dangerous.  That’s the point:  I don’t know what it is.  And I don’t want to try removing it until I do.  If it can be removed at all.”

Yunho buried his head in his hands.  Today was not turning out to be a good day at all.  He had no way of knowing where Kari was, or even where to start looking.  She could be anywhere in the solar system or galaxy for all he or anyone else on this planet knew.  How was he supposed to find her like this? 

“Majesty, I know it’s hard, but you need to rest.  My magic has taken the pain away for a little while, but your mind was put under a lot of stress last night.  It needs time to heal.”

“I can’t rest while Kari’s out there, alone.  She could be hurt or tortured or dying, and I’m sitting here feeling sorry for myself.  No, I won’t rest until she’s back.”

Reina sighed and put her hands on her hips.  It was her look that said, ‘I’m right, you’re wrong.  And I’m not backing down until you see it my way.’ 

“Listen.  We don’t know where to start looking for your wife, yet.  I have already put all of my people to work, looking for some shred of evidence on where she could have been taken.  I’m sure Yazin is doing so as well.  For the moment, there is nothing you can do except rest.  You’ll do her no good if we find her and you can’t help in the rescue.”

Yunho looked up at Reina and her face softened.

“I’m sorry this happened.  I promise you, I will do everything in my power to find her. “

“Alright.”

“I’ll come wake you when we find something.”

He nodded and stood up.  As soon as he felt sure the room wouldn’t start spinning again, he walked into the bedroom.  Shutting the doors behind him, he sat on the edge of the bed in Kari’s usual spot.  In the few months they had been here, she had picked a favorite pillow and had even yelled at him when he had tried using it for his own pallet on the floor.  He hadn’t known she was so particular about what pillow she used.  He picked the pillow up and pressed it against his face.  It still smelled like her hair mixed with the vanilla fragrance of her shampoo.  Taking a deep breath, he slowly laid down in her spot, letting her scent calm his nerves.  Laying here like this, he could almost believe she was here in his arms.  As he drifted off into sleep, he thought he could feel her next to him, sleeping peacefully in his arms.

Reina stood staring at the doors to the king’s bedchamber long after he went inside.  She didn’t quite lie to him earlier when she told him she didn’t know what was wrong with his magic.  There was no way to know for sure without testing it, but she had a strong hunch she knew what it was.  She had seen something like it before, in an Elanari who had come to their planet hurt and needing her help a long time ago.  That happened sometimes.  Her magic may not have been nearly as strong as the Elanari’s, but no one among them knew as much as she did about maladies of magic.  It was her magical specialty.  She could simply see things about magic that others couldn’t and could fix problems in a person’s magic the same way she fixed their physical problems.  The Elanari that had come to her had a very unique specialty in their magic.  He could change his major talent at will to almost whatever talent he needed at the moment.  It was something that she had never thought possible and something she had never seen since.  Until the Elanari brought Yunho and Kari to them, that is.  She was surprised to find that Yunho had the same talent as that Elanari she had treated so many years before.  It would take a long time to learn to control, but once he did, Yunho would be pretty much unstoppable.  He would be able to change his magic to whatever type he needed it to be at that moment.  It would make him a major force to be reckoned with.  For now, anyway, he would have to rely on instinct and need to control his magic.  Reina thought the new addition she found was some sort of bond that was created as Kari was whisked away to who-knows-where.  Yunho’s magic probably reacted to his fear that he was losing her and created the bond to help him find her.  However, in order to use it, he would have to learn to control his magic.  That was much easier said than done, especially in his case. 

The sound of the sitting room door slamming open drew Reina out of her thoughts.

“Reina!  The king.  Where is he?”

“Quite down, Yazin.  I sent him to bed.  He needs to rest.  His mind was injured during the attack.  I’ve seen to him, but now he needs to heal.  Leave him be.”  She had never seen Yazin so flustered before.  His usually immaculate robes were wrinkled and hung on him in strange places, as if he had been too big a hurry to care how he looked.  That was odd.  Yazin always took great pride in his near perfect image and composure. 

“Don’t tell me to quite down, Reina.  I am your superior and you have no right to order me to do anything.”

“I do when it comes to medical issues.  You may be in charge of all the Tesa Huunim, but I am the head of the Acyian t’Lialn.  Even you have to obey me when there are medical issues at stake.”

Yazin glared at her.  “That may be so.”  He paused and seemed to try to compose himself.  “I need to speak with His Majesty.  It is of utmost importance.”

“I’m afraid I can’t allow you to do that.  He needs rest more than anything else right now.”

“It’s about the queen.”

“Then you can tell me, and I’ll make sure His Majesty hears it when he is rested enough.”  Reina accessed her lesser talent and began to listen to Yazin’s mind.  His thoughts flew by so fast she couldn’t focus enough on one of them long enough to actually hear what it said. 

“No.  I guess it can wait.  Please inform me when His Majesty is able to hear what I have to say.”  Without waiting for an answer, he flew back out into the hallway, thoughts still scrambled in his head.  Reina may not have been able to tell what his thoughts said, but she knew one thing for sure:  Yazin was terrified of something.  And whatever had the normally unflappable Yazin terrified was bound to be nothing good for the rest of them. 

With her head pounding and a loud ringing noise in her ears, Kari did not want to open her eyes.  So instead, she took mental stock of where she was as much as she could without opening them.  She definitely wasn’t in her bedroom, which was the last place she remembered being.  There was an odd smell in the room, not bad, just odd.  She couldn’t quite tell what it was, but it seemed familiar, like she should know.  Her head was on a pillow that was not the one she had picked as hers.  She could tell because the pillowcase was different and the stuffing felt weird.  The sheets on the bed she was in were different than her bed, as well.  They were soft, but it was a different kind of softness that her sheets.  She didn’t like it nearly as much.  There was also something else in the room that bothered her.  Another person sitting on the bed next to her.  She felt a hand sweep her bangs away from her face.  The hand was definitely not Yunho’s.  She opened her eyes.

“Oops.  Sorry.  I didn’t mean to wake you.  My name is Heka.  What’s yours?”  The man was strange.  He had jet-black hair, pale skin, and rainbow flecked eyes that would have been completely black otherwise.  There was something else strange about him, too.  But she couldn’t quite tell what it was.

“I know you probably have a headache and a lot of questions.  I’ll try to answer them in time, but for now, you should just relax.  Our doctors have assured me that you suffered no permanent damage from your…transport.  But, you shouldn’t try to strain yourself unnecessarily.  No one will hurt you.  You don’t have to be afraid of us.”  Sure she didn’t.  She looked around.  She was in some kind of dark room that looked like it had been divided into a living room, kitchen/dining room, and bedroom using room dividers instead of walls.  There were a few windows, but they were covered with dark curtains as if to block as much light as possible.  She couldn’t see anything through them.  They were all on one side of the room.  That meant there was probably more of the building on the other side.  She wondered where exactly she was.

“Who is ‘us’?”

“Ah, a good question.  We are a race of people known as the Tu.  As you’ve probably noticed, I have colored eyes.  It means I’m a magicker, or magic user as you might call them.  Most of my people have no magic.  They have black eyes.  You, however, have blue eyes.  Tell me, is that common where you are from?”

“In some places, but not everywhere.”

“Will you tell me your name?”

“It’s Kari.”

“Kari.  That’s an unusual name, but very pretty.  What did you do before the Elanari kidnapped you from your planet and brought you to where you were found?”

“Kidnapped?  You mean like what you did?  Where is this place?”

His eyes saddened.  “I’m sorry for what we’ve done to you.  But, I really had nothing to do with it.  I’m just here to take care of you.  As for where this is, we are on a starship, headed back to Tu space.”

“A starship.”

“Yes.”

“How fast does it go?”

“Pretty fast.  I’ve never really paid too much attention.  Suffice it to say, we’re travelling somewhere between 3 and 4 times the speed of light.”  Kari’s eyes lit up and, for a moment, she forgot her trepidations.  This was something she had always dreamed about.

“How?”

“I don’t really know.  Something to do with warping space.  I could ask one of the engineers to explain it to you if you want.”  She caught herself before she nodded.  No, she didn’t care how they were travelling that fast, right now.  She just had to figure out a way to get off the ship and back to Filarin.  Back to Yunho.  She tried to sit up and cried out in pain as the room spun and her head felt like it was about to explode.

“Uh, I wouldn’t try to sit up just yet.  The doctors told me you had been stunned.  You’ll have a headache and dizziness for a few days.  You should probably stay laying down until it goes away.”  Heka helped her lay back down.  If she could have done it herself without flopping back down, she would have pushed his hands away.  She didn’t like him touching her.  Something about his skin seemed….strange.  It wasn’t cold or warm or hard or soft or anything really.  It was a normal temperature.  It just felt a little lifeless. 

“So, what’s going to happen to me now?”

“Well, the Council (they’re the ones who rule pretty much everything among our people) has decided that you are to be my mate.  I wish there was something I could do to help you, but when the Council decides something, they see it done.  I’m sorry.”

“Mate?  As in, like, spouse?”

“Yes.  I think the Council is hoping that adding your bloodline to mine will help re-infuse the Tu’s gene pool with magic.  But, don’t worry.  I won’t make you do anything you’re not ready for.  I was told you are very young.  Since the Tu mate for life, we have plenty of time for children later.”  Kari closed her eyes.  Did everyone see her simply as a womb with feet?  Why did this keep happening to her?

“I’ll let you sleep.  Try to get some rest.”  Heka left her and walked into one of the other sections of the room.  Kari kept her eyes tightly shut.  As she lay there, she kept seeing images of Yunho.  Just before she fell asleep, she thought she could feel his arms around her, holding her and allowing her to drift off peacefully into dreams of him.