Mirria
	Mirria was standing with her hand resting on a man's head about to bond him
as a warder- no, her warder.  He had beautiful brown-red hair, but she
couldn't see his face.  She needed to look him in the eye as she did this.
She needed to see that he was sure.  Mirria moved her hand under his chin to
raise his head.  He tried to drop his eyes, but finally he...**flicker**   
	A man was pressing her back to the wall with a sword at her throat demanding
to be her warder.  His pale green eyes were all she could see and he was
yelling, "If you don't..."  
	**flicker**
	She was surrounded by swordsmen.  As a sword plunged into her side she felt a
horrible lonelyness and regret.  
	**flicker**
	He was saving her...
	**flicker**  
	He was begging now, on his knees... 
	**flicker**
	He was dying and she couldn't help him...
	**flicker**
	**flicker**
	**flicker**
	**flicker**
	"If you don't..."  
	**flicker**
	Mirria sat up slowly, eyes sqeezed shut.  "What?  What will happen if i
don't?" she whispered.  But she knew the answer it was beat into her by the
visions as surely as the pain in her head told her....  Wait a minute my head
doesn't hurt!  She looked around her.   She was sitting in the courtyard of
the Imperial.  One wall, though, was different.  It seemed to shift, like a
bad tv shot, between to images- the dominant image was a whole wall, but a
pile of rubble kept trying to appear.  Her memory rushed back to her as she
looked and the rubble became the only image.
	OK, I was knocked unconscious by those intruders...  I'm probably not
really in the courtyard.  Mirria started walking through the building all
over there were signs of forced entry and fighting.  I got knocked out, but
how did i end up here?  I don't think i wanted to be here.  Mirria started
playing with her Nila necklace trying to think.  Doh!!!  The ring!  Great, so
now I'm stuck here until i come to or I fall into normal sleep and get my
control back!
	Mirria wandered outside of the hotel looking for signs of the bad guys.
There was practically no damage there, as if they were trying to hide what
they did.  Well, I suppose that they weren't White Tower, then.  I guess that
leaves Dark Friends...  Mirria shivered.  There's nothing I can do around
here, I guess I might as well go somewhere else.  
	She closed her eyes briefly and openned them standing infront of her family's
house.  Slowly she walked around to the backyard and climbed up into the tree
house.  This is not going to be very fun...

 	When we last left our heroine, Mirria was sitting in the treehouse
thinking.  OK not really, she was pacing back and forth thinking.  No that's
wrong too, I... er, Mirria was pacing and wishing that she could think of
something to do.  Mirria laughed at herself despite everything.  There is no
way i will ever write an autobiography.  I'm far too honest for it.  But what
the Ghul am i supposed to do?  Mirria settled down at window of the tree
house, looking out over her family's home to the street and watched the
flickers of cars going by down the street.  
	The cars were mostly familiar (I'm bored.) but there were a few new ones.
Sometimes there was a shadow of a person, (I'm bored.) but they just flicked
once and were gone.  (I'm really bored.)  After what seemed like forever,
people started to flicker in and out from thier dreams.  Not alot of them, but
many of her old neighbors and a few she didn't recognize.  One in particular
caught her eye, with auburn hair. As she watch him, she realized that he
didn't flicker.  He just stood there looking at her house from across the
street.  What the-  Why would he do that?  Mirria climbed down from the tree
house and walked through the house.  If he was a threat she could vanish to
some where else and if he was a friend- Oh please let this be Micheal messing
around!- then she might get help somehow.
	Mirria slipped through the front door and looked at him.  He seemed to do a
double take, even though he was looking at her, and he started to walk across
the street.  Mirria was about to tell him to stop when he walked through the
light from a street lamp.   Auburn hair, pale green eyes, the beard... oh
boy...  "Micheal, if you are messing with my head i am going to kill you."
	"I'm not Micheal" he answered in a deep baritone.  That voice is the one
from...  "You know, this is not the way I Dreamed this at all."  Was there a
smile when he said that?  Mirria couldn't tell through the beard.
	"Well I guess this is going to happen then."  Mirria was privatly wondering
if she had slipped into her own dreams somehow.  "You don't need the sword,
you know.  My dreams were proof enough."  The man winced. I guess he was
thinking about that too, then.  She took a deep breath.  "Are you sure you
want to do this now?  I don't even know the ceremony, just the weave."
	He looked her in the eye.  "I am quite certain that this is supposed to
happen the first time we meet."  He knelt in front of her.  "Mirria Celeste
Starbright, I would be honored if you would bond me as your warder.  I swear
that i will protect you with my entire being and defend you against all harm."
His eyes never wavered from hers.
	Mirria felt strangly light-headed.  She reached out for the source and
everything was clearer.  She could see his face clearly now in the light and
smell the roses in front of her house.  Standing in the middle of the light
from the street lamp, Mirria spoke, "I accept you as my warder." Aren't i
supposed to ask him according to tradition? "I swear that will listen to your
advice and...ummm let you protect me...umm..."  What in the light am i
supposed to say!  Mirria channelled the complex weaves she barely understood.
	Just as she finished them, a sudden wave if disorientation made her sit down
and release the source. TAR felt different to her, ever so slightly.  The ring
had shifted out of her shirt!  SHE had control over being here again.  Mirria
looked at the man in delight, about to tell him what happened when he started
yelling at her.  She could feel his anger, but under it was concern...  "What
in the ten circles of Ghul possessed you to come into Tel'aran'rhiod with a
head injury!  Micheal said he trained you but obviously he shouldn't have let
you go because you have the common sence of a lemming.  No a lemming has more
sence than you in it's claw trimmings!...."
	"Be quiet!  I ended up here when i got the head injury when i was captured by
the people invading the Imperial this morning.  I had a ter'angrel with me so
and this is what happened.  And it just moved, so i can go back if I want to!"
Mirria had the satisfaction of seeing him shut up.
	"You were captured where?  How?  Was it the White Tower bring you back?"  His
alarm was obvious on his face and through the bond.
	"What do you mean, 'back to the white tower?'  What do you know about them?
You aren't a Red are you?  You couldn't channel in any of the visions...   How
did you know about Michael training me?"  Mirria blinked.  "Oh, and what is
your name, anyway?"  No, i don't feel the least bit stupid now
	The man nearly laughed outloud and Mirria could feel that he wanted to.  "I
know you ran away from the tower, Mirria, and that people were searching for
you.  I am most certinly not a Red, though.  I can't channel a spark and never
will.  In fact, i dislike them quite a bit.  Most Warders do, i think, but
they have assured us that it is quite mutual.  My name, and i apoligize for
assuming that you knew it, is Derek Rowan Gaidin.  Micheal was my teacher in
the dream world."
	"Derek!  You're Derek!  Micheal warned me that you were still looking for me.
Is this why?"
	"You have had atleast some of the dreams that i did.  Did you feel like you
had much of a choice in this?"
	"No, you're right.  I might as well go see where I am before i leave TAR.
Are you coming?"  Mirria looked at him and could feel that he was debating
what he should do.
	"You should not be running about like this.  You need to get real sleep and
you probably need to eat as well.  Let me do the scouting for you."
	"No, this is my Need.  I won't find where ever I am any other way and you
probably can't.  Follow me or not.  It's your choice."  bloody over-
protective...  Mirria closed her eyes and focused her thoughts on being where
her body was.
	She was standing in an alley near the Imperial.  Was I just dumped
somewhere?  No, I heard them say to take prisoners. 
	Need.
	Mirria was standing in a hallway her back was up against a wall.  There was a
faint smell of blood and other things in the air.  The place smelled of death.
Derek appeared beside her.  "I think that I'm standing right where my body
is."
	Derek nodded and looked at the floor frowning.  "You are not going to like
what you see when you wake up."  
	Mirria looked down.  "All I see is a little dried blood here and there.
What's so bad about that?"  Her only answer was an unreadable look.  I can't
read his face at all with that bloody beard in the way.  Mirria looked up.
There was a weave above her that seemed... incomplete somehow.  She reached
for the source, planning to examine the weave with spirit, but she got a nasty
jolt, as if she had put her hand in an electric socket.  It wasn't electric,
but felt like it.  She felt Derek steadying her.  "The place has a weave on it
to prevent channeling," she managed to say.
	Derek helped her to sit down against the wall.  "Don't worry.  Just sit here
and I'll check out a few things for you."  Mirria leaned back. THe pain was
receding quickly, but there was something new.  She was slightly aware of her
own injuries so she blocked them again.  It took more work than before.
Finally, she was pain free again and Derek was returning.  His eyes seemed
strained like he was in pain.
	Mirria wondered if he was feeling it all through the bond. She couldn't feel
her injury at all.  .  "Ummm...  how injured am I?   I don't feel it right
now."
	"Ahh... well,"  Derek seemed unwilling to speak, so Mirria glared at him.
"Your head wound hurts like Ghul, but i do not think that it is serious. Aside
from the head injury, you have several bruises and most of them are on the
left side of your body.  I suspect that your ter'angreal shifted because you
were just dropped."  He hesitated again.  "There is a room just down the hall
that contains first aid supplies.  Do you know how to make splints?"  Mirria
nodded.  "Good.  Your wrist was badly injured.  It is broken or sprained, i
cannot tell which.  And now, little girl you are going back to the real world.
I do not envy you what awaits."
	Mirria openned her mouth to protest.  She wasn't sure if she was protesting
being called "little girl" or going back, but she was definitely going to
protest something, when she felt a strong push.  It started off physical, but
ended inside her head with darkness.

	The first thing that Mirria was aware of was pain- pain all over her head and
the left side of her body- especially in her left wrist and her head.  She
almost stepped back into TAR just to escape the feeling, but a presence in her
mind stopped her.  Did that really happen?!?!  Curiosly she made herself
more aware of the presence. It was very distant, but she was sure that it was
encouraging her to... to do what?  
	She openned her eyes.  And she screamed.  There was the man that had knocked
her out staring at her!!!  Oh light! Oh light!  But he isn't moving.  He
isn't even blinking!  Mirria tore her eyes away from the glazed look on his
face and screamed again, hysterically.  oh light, oh light, he has no throat
She despretly tried to find something else, anything else to look at but all
she saw was the bodies of several more slaughtered men.  There was blood caked
on everything, most of it was the dark red of dried blood, but some of it was
still running  and there were a few drops coming down from the ceiling.  The
smell, the one that she had barely noticed in TAR, was overwhelming here made
up of blood and other things that had poured from bodies torn open.  
	And there in her mind, she felt Derek and she was absolutly certain that he
was cussing her out for being an idiot.  That utter randomness gave her a hold
on reality and she was able to remember that there was a room with first aid
stuff just down the hall.  Trying not to run, she stumbled past the bodies to
the door.  Wrenching it open, she fell into the room.  She caught herself with
her left hand, jarred her haed, and was seeing stars from the pain. 
	When the room stopped spinning, Mirria looked around.  If no one had come in
response to my screaming, no one is going to be bothering me now. Or helping
me.  She was in a small infermary with three cots.  There was also a small
bathroom area off to the side.  Mirria started shaking and felt nauseous.  She
made it to the toliet just in time and spent several minutes emptying her
stomach.  Finally, she was able to stop heaving and she moved over to the sink
to rinse out her mouth. The sight of her blood covered hands nearly made her
puke again, but instead she made herself do a Lady Macbeth and scrub her hands
until the blood was off of them.  It was difficult to do with her wrist
throbbing, but she managed it.  She shrugged of her jacket, thankful that her
t-shirt was ok.  
	Mirria went back into the infermary part of the room to look for a wrist
brace and some pain killers. She was pretty sure that her wrist was broken,
but there wasn't anything she could do to set it properly.  Luckly, the wrist
brace she found was the kind that she could do one handed.  Thank the light
for velcro.  Hunting around some more she found willow bark tea, but there
was no stove for heating water.  Mirria went back into the bathroom to check
the hot water faucet.  Yep that's hot.  I hate the taste of tap water.
Setting the tea to brew on a nearby counter, she looked in the mirror to check
her head wound.  Her hair was matted with blood.  Nearly panicked again,
Mirria ducked her head under the faucet an scrubbed at her hair, careful not
to break the scab over the head wound.  
	When the water ran clear again, Mirria finally lifted her head out of the
sink and wrung out her hair.  This is one time that waste lenghth hair is
defanitly a bother. at least the tea is ready now.  She downed the tea barely
tasting the strong bitter result of overbrewing.  Absently finger-combing her
hair, Mirria thought, I know that Joylyn was with me.  They probably got her
and I bet she's hurt too.  Dinnae was around the Imperial and so were a few
studè who didn't know enough to go with the groups.  I hope after the first
few found that weave to stop channeling, no one else tried to.  Mirria slowly
fumbled her hair into a loose braid to keep it from tangling.  Flipping it
behind her shoulder, she stood up and the room didn't spin to badly.  Thank
the light for willowbark tea.  Now i just need to find everyone else.  From
Derek, all she felt was location and distance.  That jerk is asleep!
	Mirria started down the hallway, way from the bodies, looking for her
classmates and teachers, calling out names, but mostly calling for Joylyn, the
only one that she knew was captured.