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‘Neither did we until recently,’ Enalla re one of the better parts of life’

‘Has Aracia been herself lately?’ Balacenia asked her sister

Enalla shrugged ‘She’s been irritable, and her priests have been exaggerating those tiresoood side of her’

‘It see to slip just a bit,’ Balacenia said ‘Ordinarily, that wouldn’t be ht now, so we ht have to step in - subtly, of course - and cover for theo directly to Longbow to get things done’

‘Persuading Longbow to do so Zelana around,’ Vash said

‘He did take a bit of getting used to,’ Balacenia agreed She frowned slightly ‘I think we’re going to have to stay in much closer contact with each other than we usually do,’ she told theh seems to specialize in surprises, and we’ll have to be ready to respond iht when he told all of us about your dream, Dakas?’ Balacenia asked

‘Pretty close,’ Dakas replied ‘Of course, it didn’t make too much sense to me when I woke up I can’t for the life of me make any sense out of that second invasion’ He looked at Vash ‘I thought that the Trogites orking for Veltan’

‘They are - at least Narasan’s aret into too ed to hire an ars, so I don’t really understand how things work down there’

Balacenia glanced off to the east and saw a faint light along the horizon ‘It’s al,’ she told the others, ‘soup soon I’ll stay here until noon at the earliest I need to think encies this early, but I’ll be here if any of you happen to need ested ‘I can go to sleep alrowing up with bears’

‘And when you wake up, you can call me,’ Enalla said ‘I’ll sleep a while, and then call in Vash Then it’ll be Balacenia’s turn again’

‘Onebefore you leave,’ Balacenia said ‘Be very careful when you’re speaking with the elders Both Vash and I blundered and referred to each other by our real na very suspicious Let’s keep them happy - and drowsy We don’t want thereed, and then they faded froh the glowing aurora as the eastern horizon grew lighter and lighter Then the sun rose in statelythe sky with rose-tinted crimson Balacenia’s heart was filled with sadness The Beloved was deeply troubled, and her pain weighed heavily on Eleria’s side of Balacenia’s awareness

And then soure of a wo out of the sunrise into the place that existed only in the coinations of Balacenia and Vash