1- A Headache (1)

Its so warm!

Sera clutched at the soft sheets, reaching out to collect more warmth for herself. The soft rustling of cloth against cloth continued as her sleep slowly melted away into the drowsy expanse that lay on the way to waking up.
When was the last time they had slept in soft beds? Sera had gotten accustomed to sleeping in the open, on whatever was available. The past few weeks especially, as they traced Asgir's steps to the caves. For the first time in many a month, she felt content and rested. She could tell the sun was well above the horizon through her closed eye lids, but Sera just refused to let go of the soft embrace of the bed.

For once, this is going to be worth Fil's nagging.

Sera was never very good with mornings. It was Filnes' duty to wake her with a barrage of teasing, taunting, and poking. The relentless assault of heckling was seemingly sport, and the few things the wizard truly enjoyed. There was one time that Filnes let Sera sleep in as late as she wanted to. When she did finally wake up, she found her face covered in drawings that a six year old boy might have found absolutely hilarious. It took three days for the doodles to finally wash away.

Filnes smirked, and laughed that any other canvas would have woken up before his masterpiece was completed.

In a measure of self defense, Sera rolled over, and buried her face in her pillow. A pillow! How wonderful a thing it was. So much more pleasant than that permanent smirk carved into the man cut from a bolt of black cloth. Raven black hair, onyx eyes, and black clothes from head to toe. Always looking down at her. Oh what she wouldn't give for another few inches to look down at him for once!

But she had looked down at him. In the cave. Filnes, on his knee, desperately holding both his hands out, pushing back against a spell. His face twisted by pain, his smirk gone. His eyes full of consternation. Something was wrong. Dark red blood spilled across his face, as he struggled to breath. His shoulders heaved with the effort of inhaling air.

He was dying.

Sera's mind leaped back to reality.

"Fil!"
Sera's eyes bolted open, as she snapped her head up off the pillow, cracking it against something rather stiff.

"Argh!"
"Owwww!"

Sera cradled the back of her head with both her hands, and buried her face in the pillow once more. Her shoulders shook slightly, as she let the pain pass. Tears disappeared into the white pillow covers as Sera worked up the nerve to try again.

"That hurt! What do you think you're doing, Stupid!?"
"Stupid? It wouldn't have happened if you hadn't jumped up like you did."

Sera snarled at the source of her pain. He seemed taken aback by the tears welling up in Sera's eyes, and held his hands to his own forehead.

"What, its my fault your head was in my way? No, that isn't important!"
Sera once again snapped upright, and flung the covers aside to grab at the man. Shaking him as best she could, Sera asked for her friends. "Fil! What happened to Fil!? What of Kaos... and Reinhart!!?"

The man, the Chancellor of Ixan, stood fixated while being shaken. The shaking, the cries of the girl. They were nothing in comparison to the two eyes he stared into.
The right eye the deepest of blues, and the left a blood red. He had never seen a human with two different colored eyes.

Sera gave up after a few moments of frantic shaking and yelling. She wasn't going to shake the answer out of him at this rate. Instead, she'd go to someone else that she could get the answers to her questions. Letting go, she proceeded to jump off the side of the bed.

The chancellor finally came to, when Sera looked away, and moved to leave the bed. "Wait!" he cried out, as he tried to stop her. He grabbed at her arm, broke her balance, and was horrified to watch the girl crash to the floor.

"Seriously! What did I ever do to you!?"

Sera glared at the guy, who not only left a bump on the back of her head, but now a matching one on her forehead, courtesy of the quick meeting with the floor. The wonderfully thick carpet made the fall much less painful than the earlier incident, but her patience was quickly running out.

"I, I'm sorry."

The Chancellor asked Sera to take a seat on the bed, and led her with his hand. He took a deep breath to calm down. He certainly was not expecting so much to go wrong so fast.

"Sir Filnes and the others are safe."

The Chancellor knelt down in front of sera, and rested his hands softly on her shoulders. He looked once again into the blue and red eyes. He could feel the thin shoulders shaking.

"Really?"

Sera's face seemed to be confused, not sure what emotion to show. He could see she was struggling to stay in control.

"Yes, really. My name is Seel. I'm the Chancellor of this country, the Kingdom of Ixan. I'll go and bring His High... ah, Kaos for you. Could you please wait here?"

Sera hugged herself, nodding at each statement. It took some time, but Sera chewed each slow and reassuring word. When the Chancellor looked at her for acknowledgement, she made a bigger nod and agreed to wait.