A/N:  I'm sooooo sorry this took so long.  This semester has been rough.  And, if I'm being completely honest with you guys, I probably won't get to post again until after finals.  Don't think I'm abandoning this story!  I'm not!!!  I promise, I'll post when I can!  Thanks for sticking with me!  ^^

Two weeks.  It had been two weeks since Yunho had first snuck out of his tiny dorm room to visit Kari in the middle of the night.  A wonderful two weeks.  Well, as wonderful as they could have been without actually getting to spend any time with his wife in person.  His sleepy guard had been replaced by one slightly more alert, so his plans of sneaking out to see Kari had been disturbed.

Since the bond was back, he and Kari were able to visit their shared dream every night, keeping the loneliness their separation caused at bay.  Sensing her presence and emotions through the bond during the day helped, too.  There were times when they were in the same building.  He could always feel Kari’s amusement at his child-like joy when that happened.  Could he be blamed for getting excited whenever his wife was near him?  He didn’t think so. 

Of course, now that he could sense her physical state again, there were some things that had begun to concern him.  About a week ago, she had begun to be perpetually tired, like she wasn’t getting enough sleep at night.  He was worried that their shared dreams were having an adverse affect on her.  But, he hadn’t felt any different.  What could be wrong?

“Yunho!  Why aren’t you concentrating?  Try reaching for your magic again!”  His instructor was yelling at him in the Tu’s strange language.  Yunho had learned enough to understand most of what the man was telling him, but some of it was lost in his mental translation.  He thought he was supposed to be sensing his magic, but no matter how much he concentrated on his inner self (where he had been told to look), he couldn’t sense a thing.  Not once had he ever felt his magic.  Not even when he had created the bond, or teleported to Kari’s side.  He had felt her magic, but never his own.  How was he supposed to find his magic when he didn’t even know how to look?  

He sighed, nodded, and closed his eyes, feeling the bond but no other hint that he even had magic of his own.  Maybe he didn’t and everyone was just feeling Kari’s connection to him.  But, Reina had said that he did even before the bond.  And she had told him that he created the bond, not Kari.  Surely that meant that he really did have magic.  Then, why couldn’t he find it? 

“Enough.  I will waste no more time with you.”  His instructor left the room, slamming the door behind him.  The few other students in the class eyed him nervously and followed.  At least Kari was in the building with him.  Sure, she was two floors up, but they were in the same building.  He wasn’t about to let the instructor’s foul mood ruin his own elation at being near Kari.  And, he now had the rest of his class time to spend in the cafeteria.  It was pretty much lunchtime, anyway.  Now, if he could just figure out why Kari was so tired, everything would be okay. 

Kari smiled to herself at the quick changes in Yunho’s mood.  He had gone from contentment, to anger, to elation all in the space of a minute or so.  Sometimes, he could be worse than a girl with his mood swings. 

“Kari?  Is everything alright?”  Yurrnwol’ha actually sounded concerned for once.  She was usually rather short with Kari during their lessons.  “Your magic seems a little…off today.”

Kari shrugged.  “I’m just a little tired, that’s all.”

She raised an eyebrow.  “Maybe we should quit for the day.  Go back to your quarters and rest.”

“I’m fine, really.”

“Well, practicing magic while you’re tired isn’t good for you or your magic.  Besides, it’s lunchtime and I’m hungry.  We’re done.  Go.”  She stood and pressed the button by the door to open it.  “Out.”

A nap did sound really good.  Maybe she should go back to her room.  Kari got up and walked out, not wanting to test Yurrnwol’ha’s patience.  Although, as nice as a nap sounded, she didn’t need to go back to her bed.  She probably could have gone to sleep in the chair in Yurrnwol’ha’s office. 

Kari woke up as the sun was setting.  She must’ve been far more tired than she thought to fall asleep on top of the covers, fully clothed.  She didn’t even remember the walk from Yurrnwol’ha’s office to her quarters. 

“Are you awake?”  Heka’s quiet voice came from the other side of her door.  She didn’t feel like she had slept at all, she was so tired.  But, she got up and opened the door.

“Yeah.”

“You missed lunch and dinner, so I brought you something.  I think you liked it the last time you tried it.”

“Well, I am a little hungry.”  She walked out into the living area and took a sniff of whatever it was Heka had brought for dinner.  It smelled absolutely revolting!  Kari had to cover her nose and mouth to keep the smell from making her sick.  She ran back into her room and smashed the button to close the doors before the smell invaded her sanctum.  Heka’s concerned knocking followed her. 

“Kari?  Are you okay?  What’s wrong?”

She called back to him through the door.  “Nothing.  I’m fine.  The smell just made me queasy, that’s all.”

“But, I could have sworn you said you liked it before…”

“Well, maybe I’m coming down with something, and that’s making me sick.”

“Do you want me to call a doctor?”

“No, let me rest.  I’ll be fine.”  Since Heka didn’t reply, Kari assumed he was going to call a doctor anyway.  Honestly, she didn’t know why she felt so tired and sick all of a sudden.  Well, she had always been prone to stomach viruses.  She had managed to catch pretty much every single one that had gone around her hometown in her lifetime.  Surely, that was it.  She had some alien stomach bug and her fatigue over the last week had been her body trying to fight it off before she started showing symptoms.  Joy.  She absolutely hated being sick.

Sae felt the anesthetic running through her veins, blocking her magic, and slowing her senses.  There was nothing she could do about it.  This time, she had been well and truly caught by a race of beings so beneath her own that it was almost funny.  How had these Tu managed to become such a thorn in their side?  They had no magic to speak of, a lifespan so short that she could blink and a generation of theirs had passed, and no impressive mental prowess other than sheer determination.  And yet, they had managed to win battles against them!  The Elanari!  The only race in the galaxy to have mastered the magical arts and become immortal.  Not only had the Tu managed to win against them, but they had penetrated deep into their territory and stolen their greatest experiment to date. 

So, here Sae was, the first Elanari to ever have been taken captive by the Tu, stopped in her scouting mission to find where the Tu were keeping the rulers of Filarin.  She felt her body go limp as whatever new nonmagical drug the Tu doctors and researchers had come up with did its job.  Her last thought as she lost consciousness was that she would rather have died during her retreat attempt than to have the dishonor of being held captive by a race as lowly as the Tu. 

Yurrnwol’ha stared at the golden color of the Elanari’s eyes as they closed, the sedative finally doing its work.  It had taken far longer to subdue her magic than the Tu medical researchers had expected. 

“We finally have one to study.  After all these years, we’ll finally get to stop guessing and really learn how to finish them.  For good.”  The head of the medical school at the Academy was leaning over the Elanari, grinning at his good fortune.  The one who came up with the key to winning the war against the Elanari would be set for life, given anything they could possibly want, as a reward.  Of course, most of those who sought that reward would still have worked without it.  The Elanari were generally regarded with hate by all Tu, young or old.  There was no love lost there. 

She ignored the doctor’s comment and focused on the Elanari chained to the table in front of her.  The woman, it was easy to tell her gender, wore no clothes.  None of the Elanari she had ever seen did.  Such indecency.  The woman’s lack of clothes provided a good view of her features.  Her skin was golden brown.  But, Yurrnwol’ha had heard of others with pale skin and even some with skin of completely unnatural colors, like blue or red!  She shook her head and went back to her study.  Under the golden brown, Yurrnwol’ha could see faint bluish veins winding their way throughout the woman’s body.  It was more than a little disturbing.  She had far too many veins, almost four times the number the average Tu had.  And those were only the visible ones.  How many did she have hidden too deep to show through her skin?  And why were these visible?  Her skin was dark enough that the veins shouldn’t show up at all, even if they were extremely close to her skin.  What if they weren’t veins at all, but just patches of different colors in her skin?  Yurrnwol’ha hadn’t heard of some Elanari having two skin colors.  But, then again, none of her people had ever been close enough to an Elanari to tell except in battle.  And the soldiers tended not to notice subtle differences in skin color. 

Aside from the skin, the woman looked very similar in form to the Tu.  Her arms were a tad shorter relative to her torso and her legs a tad longer than the Tu’s.  Her curly yellow hair was cropped short, leaving her ridged ears visible.  She had so many piercings through each ear that it was hard to tell their natural shape.  Her arms were covered in bracelets, her fingers in rings.  Even her ankles had bracelets.  There had to have been at least twenty different necklaces strung about her neck.  All of her jewelry, though there were many styles and sizes, had one thing in common:  they were all made of the same metal.  Yurrnwol’ha had seen this metal in debris brought back from battles before.  It was the same strange metal that they built their ships with.  Grey, with a slight bluish glow to it, it changed to a plethora of different colors wherever it touched the woman’s skin.  

Yurrnwol’ha pulled her eyes away from the jewelry.  “We should move her to a more secure area.”

“More secure?”  The doctor turned away from the Elanari in surprise, “She’s sedated, no danger at all.”

“Caution precludes disaster.  It would be prudent to keep her in our most secure holding room.  Especially since we’ve never tried to hold an Elanari captive before.”

The doctor waved his hand dismissively, “I assure you, there is no need to worry.  As long as we keep her sedated, she will be unable to move or be conscious enough to use her magic.  It’s perfectly safe.”  He turned back to his perusal.  “Don’t you have some novices to look after?” 

Yurrnwol’ha sighed and left him alone.  The only reason she had been there for the initial examination was because the headmaster was away on a personal leave of absence.  It wasn’t like she had asked for or was even qualified for examining an Elanari.  She made her way back to her office, hoping no novices needed anything from her today.  She highly doubted she had the patience to deal with their incessant whining. 

There was someone in her office when she arrived at it.  Heka was slumped in one of her chairs, waiting for her.  She smiled.  Her smiles were rare, except when she was around Heka.  He had always had a knack for coaxing a smile out of her. 

“Yurrnwol’ha, something terrible has happened.”  Unfortunately, he also had a knack for being dramatic around her. 

“Surely it’s not that bad.  What happened?”

“You might want to be seated for this one.” 

She looked at him, confused.  Well, she could play along with his drama for a little while.  She sat in her chair and waited for him to continue. 

“It’s about Kari.”

Her patience for his drama vanished instantly.  It wasn’t as if she disliked Kari.  Well, not as much as she had in the beginning.  But, she was tired of Heka always talking about her when they were together.  She already had to teach Kari everyday, why did she have to hear about her from her best friend as well?

“What about her?”

“We’re gonna have to find a way to get her and the other one out of here and back to the Elanari.”

Yurrnwol’ha was stunned.  Was Heka suggesting treason?  “You do realize that what you just said was treason, yes?”

“I know.  We have to!  They’ll kill her when they find out.”

“Find out what?”

Heka didn’t answer.  He just stared past her, out the window, at the stars lighting up the night. 

“Find out what, Heka?” 

“She’s pregnant.”

Silence fell.  Yurrnwol’ha’s heart nearly stopped.  She hadn’t realized that Heka and Kari had been truly mated. 

“It’s not what you’re thinking, Yurrnwol’ha.”

“It’s not?  Then what is it?”

“The baby is not mine.  We never mated.  I think the other one that was captured is her mate, and the baby is his.”

“Well, then it probably happened before she was brought here.”

Heka shook his head.  “She was tested when she was first found and when the other one appeared on our ship.  This is definitely new.  From a few weeks ago.  In fact, the doctor said that it was so early that he was surprised she had shown symptoms at all.  But, that’s not the issue.  When the baby is born, it will be obvious that the child is not Tu.”

“How long do we have?”

“I don’t know.  A few months?  Maybe less.”

They were quiet for a time.  Honestly, she would be sad if Kari was killed, but not heartbroken.  But, she knew Heka wouldn’t be able to live with himself.  He had grown too attached to Kari.  She was going to have to do something.

“Heka.  Go back to your quarters.  Pretend that nothing is wrong.  I will think of something.”

“But – “

“Don’t.  I will take care of this.”  Her face softened.  “We’ll get her out of here before the child is born, I promise.”