Sorry, I saw this and meant to get it done earlier but I never got around to it. Honestly, it's a miracle I did at all—I'm really busy right now. Anyway! Here's a short snippet about Akhalia.

~~~

Akhalia pulled her dirty robe around her shoulders in an attempt to block the chill. She missed everyone, so much. She missed her people—she missed her subjects, the feeling of being in control, of being respected, liked, trusted. She missed her staff—the people she leaned on, the people who cared for her, if only for the money. She even missed that annoying little kitchen boy with hair like mussed soot and a nose always finding itself into other people's buisness. But mostly, she missed Ardie.

Ardie...

She missed the way Ardie laughed, all her teeth showing like she wasn't afraid to be seen. She missed the turned-up nose, the freckle on her chin. She missed the way Ardie tilted her head to the side when she was thinking—and Ardie was always thinking. She missed the support, the warmth, the happiness she got from being in her prescence.

And there was so much regret, too. Regret that Akhalia had not told Ardie what she meant to her. That time—Akhalia could remember the words perfectly. What she had said, and what she had not. I guess I was wondering if you would be-- Be what? Ardie might never know.

But it was better that way, Akhalia reminded herself. Better that Ardie wasn't there, didn't come, left her behind and forgot it all. It was better that Ardie didn't get in the way of her kidnappers. For that was all she was—kidnapped. Alone. Forgotten. Scared. In the hands of captors much more powerful than she could ever hope to be. And she hoped Ardie would never have to cross them.

Because she knew what she would have said, what she should have said. What it was now too late to say. But she loved Ardie, in a way that was more than friends, more than sibilings. Yes, she should have said something else.

I guess I was wondering if you would be--

My queen.

Oh shoot I forgot to tag someone. Peri, you're next!

Ardie sighed a little in the cell she was sitting in. She’d known she was in danger ever since she and Crieff headed off to find Akhalia, but had assumed she had more time than this… She was lucky she was able to get away from Crieff before they came, keep him safe. 

At the moment, she was in the hideout of the Ordinary Brotherhood.

The Ordinary Brotherhood were people who wholeheartedly believed the legends of the people who could control the elements - people like Ardie - and believed that they had to track down and get rid of any elemental people. Oh, and they hated Delfer and anyone related to it. And magic. And really anything they didn’t understand. 

The Ordinary Brotherhood had never really scared Ardie - they’d always seemed like amateurs - but now Ardie was locked in what seemed to be a dungeon with no way out. 

A person came downstairs. They were young, with feminine features. Ardie realized that this was the person she’d had to fight the night she discovered Crieff in the castle. They went by the codename of Gold.

Gold had long, wavy, dark hair and light skin that framed their face. The lower half of their face was covered by a mask, and they wore all black. They also held a torch. They talked quickly and usually angrily, from what Ardie had seen of them. Ardie only knew who they were because they’d been sneaking around the palace, looking to find and steal Akhalia’s crown, the same night Crieff and Gruff were trying to kidnap Akhalia. Gold had been with someone else, who shouted “GOLD” a few times, leading Ardie to the conclusion that that was their name. 

“We meet again,” Gold said, much smoother than they had been when they’d broken into the palace. Ardie had heard them yelling at Crieff a whole lot. They were the one who'd grabbed him and tied him up.

“What do you want?” Ardie snapped. She eyed Gold’s torch, but they saw her looking and glared.

“Don’t you dare,” they said. “I’m here to bring you to be interviewed by our leader.” 

“How did you discover my power?” Ardie asked. 

Gold looked at her almost sympathetically. “When there is a fire in one’s soul, it brightens their eyes,” they sighed. “Your curse is visible in your gaze. The temptation you feel when you see the flame - but don’t worry. We can extinguish it. You just have to behave.” 

Ardie was not a fan of their condescending tone, but tried to act helpless and scared as Gold opened the door to the cell. The minute she was free, she knocked them out as quietly as she could.

“I don’t have time to deal with this,” Ardie said. “I need to get to Akhalia. She can help me get rid of the Ordinaries later.”

But the question was… How would she get out?

~

@Amethyst, you're next!

Ardie shivered. Strangely, unaccountably, her thoughts turned to Crieff and that night she had spent on the moorland with him, telling him the tales she had heard long ago. The last night, really, when she had been happy.

Suddenly she jumped to her feet. Oh, why hadn't she thought of it before? How could I have been so silly? she asked herself. If she only tried she could get out of here. She had her fire, after all, didn't she? Quivering a little, she went to the massive door in front of her and made a quick burst of flame that left it only a heap of ashes. Beyond was freedom. She slipped through the door.

Her thoughts kept turning back to Crieff and that night. He had always been so eager to help her when there was no reason why he should, so eager to love her. He had always been so kind, something steadying that was always there, no matter what - that she could just depend on to be there for her. Even now, the thought of him gave her fresh courage, the courage to brave whatever lay before her in this dark castle. She remembered how she had decided to leave him. He had been ready to risk whatever came just to help her, she realized again. How terrible it must have been for him to know that she was gone, she realized with a burst of self-reproach. Why had she left him? And where was he now? Would he ever find his way back to Delfer? Suddenly she wished that she could just see him again, let him know that she had always liked him, in her own way.

But Crieff wasn't far away. He had come, by pure luck or by some good magic lurking in Canderra, to the same castle. And he was standing a little way outside, watching it. Something warned him that all was not well, and he couldn't stop worrying about Ardie. Besides, the sight of the castle reminded him of that first castle, the castle in Delfer, the castle that had started off all this adventure. He remembered how he had met Ardie, and all the bright happy days that had followed. Ardie - 

Suddenly his own thoughts were cut off short. A window high in the castle wall was being flung open, and there, outlined against the darkness, with the sun flashing off of her hair and making it shine like a sheet of flame, was - Ardie. Crieff caught his breath with a sound like a sob. He couldn't believe his eyes. But Ardie didn't even see him. She paused for a moment, uncertain again, then swung herself over the sill and climbed down by the ivy. And then, when she was on the ground, she did see him.

For a moment they both stood still, looking at each other with pure happiness. Then they started forward, and suddenly they were together again. That single moment made up for all the tense hours of being apart, and Ardie suddenly saw clearly that she did love Crieff as he loved her, and could never be happy if she didn't have him. And Crieff, seeing something new and different and wonderful shining in her eyes, asked abruptly, "Ardie - maybe I shouldn't say this. I know you left me. But - I love you - I guess you know that, - and... will you marry me? Someday?"

"Yes," whispered Ardie, perfectly happy. And, together at last, they both went away from the dark castle that had, in the end, brought about their happiness.

Far, far away, Akhalia too was in love. Her parents had often gone to Canderra before they died and made many friends there, and when she had fled to it she had gone to live with some of the same friends. One of them, she discovered, was a young man... so bold and vivacious and witty that she couldn't help liking him. And he, she soon discovered, liked her too. But in all this time, she couldn't be truly happy. She had to go back to Delfer, where her rightful place was. The men must already have tried to kidnap her and failed. And what had happened to Ardie? Her thoughts dwelt on Ardie for a moment. Ardie had always been so close to her, like a sister. Perhaps, she thought with a rush of hope, Ardie would make a better queen than she herself ever could. After all, she had always wanted Ardie to be queen - she had been about to ask her to be queen when she had to go in to her coronation, but she could still ask her. If Ardie agreed - Akhalia could leave her throne to her, and come back here and marry. Canderra was so much more of a home to her than Delfer ever could be, she had come to realize.

Oh my Gandalf, that was long! Sorry, @admins/everybody.

@Artemis! :)

While Crieff and Ardie and Akhalia and the young man were falling in love with each other, Gerald was discovering Gold, and the latter's distinct lack of consciousness. Also the fact that the fire elemental's cell door was hanging open, and the fire elemental was nowhere to be found.

This was not ideal.

Gerald frowned at Gold's limp form. Which was the priority here? His fellow Ordinary's incapacitation, or the captive elemental's freedom?

Freedom, Gerald decided. He picked up Gold's fallen torch and breathed on the smoldering embers till there was a golden flame flickering. Then he made his way across to the pile of ash that had once been a very nice oaken door, and toward the opened window. He leaned out into the cool night and scanned the darkness.

There. The fire elemental, her short auburn hair gleaming in the moonlight. Beside her was a young man; Gerald didn't know where he'd come from. They were walking down the path that led away from the castle's entrance, out of the castle's well-kept grounds and into the wilder fields. Soon they'd be out of sight, and they would be gone.

So, Gerald decided, would he. He jumped out the window.

If Gerald had been an average sort of person, this would have definitely broken many of his important bones and probably killed him. But as he was a wind elemental, he landed quite softly on the grass, and began running after the fire elemental and her companion.

"Hey!" he shouted, out of breath, when he was within earshot.

Both turned. The fire elemental looked shocked and fierce. The young man looked bewildered.

"Are you one of them?" the elemental girl said. She threw up her hands, her eyebrows drawn over her very blue eyes. Her palms glowed orange with fire, and Gerald stumbled back, holding up his hands. "No!" he exclaimed.

"Who's them?" asked the bewildered young man.

"The Ordinary Brotherhood," the elemental girl said to him. "The ones who kidnapped me. They're stupid cowards. They hate elemental people and magic and Delferish people." She returned her eyes to Gerald's. "Who are you, then?" she demanded. "You came from the castle, didn't you?"

"I'm Gerald," Gerald said. "I came from the castle."

"So are you a prisoner, then?" the girl asked. "An elemental?" She was beginning to lower her hands.

"I"m not a prisoner," Gerald said. "I am actually, technically, an Ordinary."

"I thought you just said Ordinaries hated elementals," the young man said, frowning.

"They do," the girl said. She glared at Gerald. "What're you going on about?"

"I'm an elemental Ordinary," Gerald said. "I'm undercover. I'm a secret agent."

"What?" said the girl's companion, even more bewildered.

"What?" said the girl, marginally less bewildered.

"Here, I'll explain," Gerald said.

He explained. He told them about how the Delferish queen ("The Delferish queen?" the girl repeated, eyes wide; "That's what she said," Gerald answered) was in hiding in the Canderran mountains, living with some Delferish friends of hers, and she'd heard about how the Ordinary Brotherhood was kidnapping elementals, and being sympathetic to kidnapped people, as she had narrowly escaped becoming one herself (and as a very good friend of hers was an elemental, too), she formed an organization to rescue the Ordinaries' prisoners. Gerald joined them when he'd heard about what they were doing, and he became an Ordinary so that he could spy on them for the queen.

"I recognized you from what she'd said about her friend," Gerald said to the girl, whom he had ascertained was definitely Ardie. "That's why I followed you. I was on my way to rescue you from your cell when I saw you'd already managed it yourself." He glanced at Ardie's friend. "And... who are you?"

"Crieff," he said. "So -- you know where Akhalia is?"

"Of course," Gerald said. "I suppose you'll want me to take you two to her? She'll be ecstatic to see you, Ardie," he added to her.

"Yes, of course," Ardie said, smiling. "Let's go."

Then they rode off into the sunset, and everyone lived happily ever after. Except they had nothing to ride, the sunset was long gone, and there were a great deal more problems to encounter before they lived anything resembling "happily," never mind "ever after." But they were getting there.

----

@Tsuki 

At last I've gotten around to this!! :)

Here we go.

Gruff eyed the Forest Witch with great nonchalance. No sense in showing how frightened he was, he thought. She did look a sight, with long wild hair and a wrinkled face, but he pulled himself together.

"Ah yes, madam," he said, then realized that didn't sound quite right but plunged on anyway. "What are you doing here this fine morning - er, sorry, evening?"

The Forest Witch came straight to the point.

"You took my Circlet of Diamonds, young man," she remarked, "and you took it to kidnap Akhalia, the girl I've known since - but never mind. You ought to have listened to Elise when she warned you not to take my Circlet. Ah well. Hand it back, and all will be well."

"Crieff lost it," said Gruff with lordly importance. He had no qualms about betraying the man who had just been his partner in this expedition. "He dropped it in the water, and now it's gone. I'm very sorry, ma'am, but you'll have to make another."

"As if I could!" snorted the Forest Witch. "Now tell me, why did you take my Circlet? You took it to kidnap Akhalia, didn't you?"

Gruff had to nod.

"Well, I do want to rule the kingdom," the witch said. For a moment her eyes grew hard and steely. "Queen Akhalia has been unjust to my kind. We witches only ask for a place to sleep and a cauldron to stir and an occasional human to cast spells over. But Akhalia has never let us be. She says that we are welcome here if we give our wicked spells up. But that we shall never do.  All the same, Gruff, stealing my Circlet and trying to kidnap the queen was not the way to do things. Spells don't work like that." She surveyed the palace drearily. "Alas, life is hard when you're an old woman like me."

Gruff was very relieved that the Witch hadn't realized his real motive - to kidnap Akhalia and then become King himself. "Why don't we step into the palace?" he suggested. "Just to reconnoiter."

So the old woman, hobbling with the aid of her crooked stick, and the stocky, black-haired young man, almost arrogantly upright, walked through the palace. The rooms were all rich and luxurious. The sun had risen by now, and light came in through sparkling panes of glass set in the walls and the ceiling. It was a beautiful palace. But it was empty.

"Well, this is a stroke of luck!" muttered the Witch. "I suppose it'll be as easy as pie for me to be queen now." She turned to Gruff. "Come along, my young man. I'd best be going back home, to gather up my spells and magic books, and then I'll come back here and begin to rule."

The two left. But they had not noticed a tiny dog who still cowered in one corner of the room, hidden behind a velvet red curtain. As soon as they had gone, he bounded up some stairs, through a magic door, and into the land of Canderra. He had to warn Akhalia of what was to happen to her kingdom, and quickly, before the Forest Witch returned.

He arrived, footsore and ragged after two weeks of traveling, at the palace where Akhalia had told him she would live if she ever went to Canderra. She was standing at the door, the wind blowing back her dark hair, her eyes alight with laughter and happiness. By her side stood a young man.

"Yes, I know," she was saying. "I've never felt happier. I suppose being engaged to you does that to me!..." She trailed off as she saw the dog.

"Pippin!" she exclaimed, and the dog ran up to her, his tail wagging in furious abandon. They spent quite five minutes rejoicing. Then Pippin told Akhalia his tale. 

"You have to go back to Delfer," he finished.

"I suppose." But Akhalia's eyes were troubled. "But I don't want to go back. I never enjoyed being a queen. I want to live here... with my husband-to-be." She smiled.  "If only I knew where Ardie was... I've always felt she'd make a much better queen than me. She's the one who ought to go back to Delfer and save it, and rule it."

"Wait, who are those?" asked the young man, peering at the horizon. Three figures were approaching. They were Ardie, Crieff, and Gerald.

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@Lyric, you're up! :)

Iffy, how cross you sound! "wompk"?!