Yunho rolled over, breathing in Kari’s scent from her pillow, and sighed.  Sunlight streaming through the windows told him it was late afternoon.  Surely he hadn’t been asleep that long.  At least he knew Kari was safe for the moment.  Lost, for sure.  But, safe.  He sat up and ran his fingers through his hair, wincing when they got snagged on a few tangles.  His head, though it no longer hurt, was still sensitive. 

There was a tentative knock on the door and Mair stuck her head in.  “Oh, Majesty.  I’m so glad to see you’re awake.  I was so very worried about you for a little while there.”  Why would Kari’s maid be worried about him?  He had only been asleep for a day.  He thought.  He gave her a confused look.

“How long was I asleep?”

“Well, this is the third afternoon since the queen was kidnapped, so two and half days.  Reina thought you were only going to sleep for a few hours, but apparently you needed more rest than that.  She tried to wake you on several occasions, but nothing worked.  We were all really worried about you.”

Yunho glanced out the windows, as if he could tell how many days it had been from the position of the sun and the clouds.  Had it really been that long?  Kari must be so far away by now.  How could he ever hope to catch up?  Well, sitting in bed was getting him nowhere.  He threw the sheets off and then back on in shock and embarrassment.  He was !  At least Mair had the good grace to blush and look away.

“I-I’m sorry, Majesty.  Reina undressed you.  She said it would help you rest if you weren’t fully clothed.”  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.  Reina could have at least left him his underwear.

“Mair, could you leave.  Have everyone clear out of my sitting room.  I’m going to get dressed.”

She curtsied.  “Yes, Majesty.”  The door clicked softly shut behind her as she left to do as he had asked.  He waited a few minutes to give everyone a chance to leave before wrapping a sheet around his waist and walking out into the sitting room.  He had almost reached his dressing room when he realized he wasn’t alone.

“So, you’ve finally decided to rejoin the world of the living, Majesty?  I hope your dreams were pleasant.”  Reina had a smug smile on her face.  Sometimes, he thought she lived just to torment people.

“They were, actually.  Did you need something?”

“I wanted to talk to you.”

“Well, I’m here.  Talk.”

“Did you have a nice conversation with your wife?”

What?  “How did you know about that?”

“I’ve lived a lot longer than you.  I know a good deal about magic and how it works.  Now, I wanted to inform you of what you’ve done.”

“What I’ve done?”

“Yes.  You somehow managed to create a bond between you and the queen just before she was taken.  I don’t know exactly how you did it, but you did.  And, it’s a good thing, too.  I think that bond will be the key to finding her.”

“Really?  Well, I guess it’s already been helpful.  But, she doesn’t know exactly where she is.  She just said that she was on a ship headed toward some people called the Tu.”

“Oh.  That’s good to know.  But, that wasn’t what I meant.  Once you learn to control your magic, you should be able to sense where she is.  Or at least a general direction.  But, it will require time and patience.  And both are things we are rather short of at the moment.  I haven’t told the High Wizard of your bond, yet.  I don’t really trust him.”

“Why?”

“Suffice it to say that I have my reasons.  I think we should keep this between us for the time being.”

Yunho was silent for a moment.  He had never really liked Yazin all that much.  But, the High Wizard had never given him any reason to distrust him.  Oddly enough, however, he found himself agreeing with Reina.  He trusted her more than Yazin any day.  If he told him to be careful around Yazin, he would.  Until he found a reason to do otherwise, that is. 

“Okay.  But, you’ll help me learn how to use the bond to find Kari, right?”

“Yes.”  She paused and considered him for a moment.  “I’ve spent the last few days requesting a starship from the Elanari.  We have our own, but theirs are much faster and may give us the edge we need to catch up to these Tu.  There is a ship in orbit as we speak, but it has an Elanari crew.  I’ve told the captain (she’s an old friend of mine, if the Elanari can be said to have friends) of your bond, and she has agreed to let you and I join her for the rescue mission.  You might want to get dressed.  They said we’d leave as soon as you awoke.”  With that, Reina gave him a brief look-over and left the room.  Reina made it sound as if it had taken a great deal of persuasion to get the Elanari to let him be involved in the rescue attempt.  It had never crossed his mind that he might not be a part of Kari’s rescue.  But, now that he knew that had been a possibility, he was glad Reina had helped. 

He gave a start as he realized he had just been standing there, (well, with a sheet), waiting for any servant to walk in and see him.  He practically ran to his dressing room and changed into one of his more fashionable outfits.  If he was going to meet the Elanari today, he wanted to at least look decent.  He smiled.  He could almost hear Kari’s voice saying something to the effect of, ‘You look much more than decent, Yunho.’  He would get her back.  These Tu didn’t know who they had messed with.  Otherwise, they would never have kidnapped his wife.

“Welcome aboard, Reina, Yunho.”  The Elanari captain nodded to each of them as she said their names.  “I’ll have someone show you to your quarters.  Be warned, however.  I would not recommend moving about the ship without a guide.  You will get lost.”  Yunho was rather good at memorizing where things were when he needed to and he didn’t think he’d get lost, but he nodded anyway.  The woman seemed very stern.  Of course, he had tried not to look at her too much.  What was with these people and not wanting to wear clothes?  It seemed like every race he had encountered so far enjoyed running around .  Why?  What was the purpose of not wearing clothes?  The captain, like the rest of the crew, or nothing in the way of clothing.  They did however wear plenty of jewelry.  The captain had a multitude of earrings, necklaces, bracelets, anklets, and rings.  She had more than anyone else in the room.  The bridge?  He thought that’s what the captain had called it.  Yunho had seen the movie Star Trek when it came out, and this bridge looked nothing like the one in the movie.  First off, there was no real technology anywhere.  There were cushioned indents in the floor where Elanari crewmembers sat and talked or just stared off into the distance.  The room was spherically shaped, quite literally.  It was like standing on the inside of a giant ball with ledges sticking out for people to sit on.  Everything was a light grey color, but multicolored lights seemed to emanate from everywhere, giving the room a slightly rainbow hue.  The captain stood at the bottom of the sphere and watched everything in silence.  The door he and Reina had come through vanished into the swirling patterns of light as soon as they were through.  All in all, it was a very strange experience. 

Another door appeared next to them and a very tall, very fit male Elanari beckoned them to follow him.  The hallway leading away from the bridge was more disconcerting than the bridge itself.  Every time Yunho looked directly at something on the grey walls it was still, but as soon as he looked away, everything seemed to be constantly moving and flowing from one place to another.  It was as if nothing was solid until he looked at it.  By the time they reached wherever they were going, Yunho was dizzy and nauseated.  He was glad he hadn’t eaten anything before coming to the ship.

“Here is where the captain asked for you to stay.  We have done our best to make it more to your liking.”  Yunho did his best to give the man a polite smile.  The man’s tone was arrogant and condescending; as if he didn’t think Yunho and Reina were worth the trouble to make them comfortable.  The man walked away as the door Yunho hadn’t seen before opened to reveal normal rooms.  It looked like a fancy hotel suite that would fit in almost anywhere on Earth.  He was surprised by the wave of homesickness that washed over him as he stared at the room.  He had thought he had gotten over the fact that he would never see his world again.  Maybe it was because he was well and truly alone without Kari there.  She was the only other person who actually knew exactly what it was like to be ripped from everything they knew.  And now, she was in the hands of people he knew nothing about.  He didn’t know if they were going to treat her well, or if they intended to hurt her, or anything.  He prayed she was unhurt and would stay that way until they could rescue her. 

Reina walked past him into the room.  “Hmm.  I’ve never seen anything decorated quite this way before.  It’s very…unique.”

“It looks like a nice hotel on Earth.”

“Earth?  Is that the name of the planet you and Kari came from?”

“Yes.”

She gave him a sad look.  “I’m sorry you two got pulled into our mess.”

Yunho sighed.  Why was she apologizing to him?  She wasn’t the one who had caused all of their problems.  The Elanari were.  “Hey, I’m gonna go check out my room.”  He left her standing there, staring after him.  He felt bad about leaving so abruptly, but he was no longer in the mood for compassion.  If he couldn’t have Kari with him, he wanted to be alone. 

The week since Kari had been taken from Filarin crawled by.  She kept waiting for some sign that Yunho was coming for her: a dream, a feeling, even a mention of a ship on the long-range scanners.  Every day she woke up to Heka’s kind but distant demeanor and prayed that her husband would find her soon.  Sure, Heka was nice, but he wasn’t Yunho and he kept trying to persuade her that fighting the will of the Tu’s ruling council was futile.  It always annoyed her when someone told her something she wanted to do was impossible or futile.  So, she couldn’t help but feel some resentment towards Heka, though he had really done nothing wrong.  He was simply telling her what he thought she needed to hear to adjust to her new life.  He couldn’t know that the more he said it, the more she wanted to prove him wrong. 

Luckily, Heka had asked her if there was anything she wanted to learn while they travelled back to Tu space.  She started to learn the Tu’s written language and how to use their computers.  He even introduced her to one of the engineers who began to instruct her on how their engines worked.  The physics behind their faster than light travel was amazing.  Heka also began working with her on controlling her magic.  Their way of focusing and meditating came far more naturally to Kari than the Filarini way and her control grew with each passing day.  By the end of the week, she could actually move enough air to create a fairly strong breeze in Heka’s quarters.  Being able to actually control her magic was a wonderful feeling.  But, no matter how hard or how long she meditated and focused, she could never feel the bond with Yunho.  During their shared dream, she felt the bond in her mind, knew the magic was there.  As the week passed, however, and she still couldn’t sense it, she began to wonder if her dream was just that:  a dream. 

She lay on the couch in Heka’s quarters that night and stared out of the uncovered window.  The space outside was warped and twisted as it flew by, but looking at it soothed her for some reason.  She had asked Heka to uncover the window so she could see outside as she fell asleep and he had grudgingly obliged.  She so desperately wanted to see Yunho again that her entire being ached just to feel his arms around her.  She lay there in quite agony, praying, hoping with all her might that he would come for her soon.  As sleep took her, she wondered if he was even coming at all.