Leekath appeared in the front yard of Revenn's tower. Talyn had his back to her, and he appeared to be working with a couple of the younapprentices on flying technique.

"Hi," she said softly. It was mid-afternoon, and both suns could be seen in the sky.

Talyn started at the sound of the voice behind him, spinning around rapidly. He smiled widely as he sees her, "Leekath! Hi!" He kept an eye on the other apprentices as he said, "Keep practicing. I'll be right here if you've got questions." He floated down to stand next to her.

She looked around, scratching an itch on her arm "Oh, you have two -" She stopped. "Talyn, I need to go inside."

"Something wrong?" he asked, leading her towards the door. "Cynel, take over for a moment. I'll be just inside if there's a problem. If Jenn's free, I'll send her out." A boy who appeared about thirteen nodded, and continued to direct the excercise.

"I'll sunburn," Leekath said. "I usually have a sunscreening spell on but it won't work here. And you have two suns."

"Oh I didn't realize." He opened the door, leading her inside. "We sort of have three, actually, but there's some debate as to whether Zeram's sphere is actually a sun or not. It's so far away, though, that it doesn't make much difference."

"Oh. Ar Kithen's going to summon me back in four hours," she said.

"We definitely need to find Jenn, then," he said, peeking into the small rooms on the first floor. About halfway along the hall, he said "Aha," and led Leekath into a small bedroom A blond halfblood girl was cleaning it. "Jenn," Talyn said, grimacing slightly, "I need you to take over for me for the rest of the flying lessons."

Jenn looked up at Talyn, then looked over to Leekath, laughing. "New girlfriend?" she asked with a grin.

Talyn rolled his eyes. "You could say that. I'll tell you later. Just do it, all right? She's from the world our Master went to, and she'll only be here for a couple of hours. She's playing messenfor Master Camlenn since she can't come herself." He sounded exasperated, but wasn't bothered at all by the "girlfriend" appellation.

Leekath listened uncomprehendingly to this exchange, but didn't request a translation.

Jenn laughed. "All right, all right. But you owe me." Talyn nodded agreeably to that and Jenn headed outside, singing, "Talyn's got a giiirrrlllfriend!" over and over.

Talyn just rolled his eyes at the other apprentice as she left. "You'd think," he said, unconciously switching back to Leraal, "she'd get tired of that by now."

"Tired of what?"

"Teasing me about anything that comes across her mind Didn't you -" He stopped. "Oh! Sorry, I should have been translating for you. Sorry." He relayed the contents of the prior conversation to her. "She teases me about my hair, about the color of my shirt, about the fact that I like to clean things by hand instead of by magic, and anything else she can think of at the time. She gets some sort of weird pleasure out of trying to annoy me."

"That's odd."

He shrugged. "That's Jenn." He led her upstairs to Revenn's study. "Master Casten's teaching some of the older apprentices. He should be done in an hour or two. He doesn't mind us waiting here, and we won't be bothered." He smiled widely. "It's really good to see you." He gave her a big hug.

She hugged him back. "Did you convince him to let you come back?"

"Yes, although not as often as I'd like. I get five days out of every forty. I'm sorry it's not more."

"It's all right. I might be able to get people to send me now and then."

"I hope so," he smiled at her. "As long as you don't mind being here, Master Casten's willing to let you be a regular messen- carrying notes and things back and forth. He's interested in seeing how the teaching program over there will progress, and if you learn kamai, you'd be a good choice for that reason too, as you can share your perspective as a student."

She nodded.

He pulled her down to a chair, holding her close and stroking her hair fondly. "If you can work out a regular schedule with him to deliver messages, I can arrange my schedule to match it so I'll be free."

"I could stay entire weekends, probably, if there were somewhere I could stay overnight."

"There is. There're usually a few empty bedrooms here, and if not, you could have mine, and I could share with one of the other apprentices."

She nodded again.

"And if you get hungry, there's no shortage of halfbloods around to bite," he said with a grin. "Although most will react like Rhysel did, or like I almost did."

"Well, I won't bite anybody who isn't all right with it. I'd sooner starve."

"Master Casten said there's probably a way to restore someone's blood levels, but he's got to look up how to do it." Talyn hesistated for a moment, then added, "If you feel like eating today, he's rather interested in how it works."

"I just ate a few days ago, so I'm not all that hungry, but I could eat again if he's really curious," she said.

"He is. He's always obssessivly fascinated by something new."

"Is he going to want me to turn into a bat or tell him what the hhikiias are saying?" she asked.

"Probably," Talyn conceded. "You can hear hhikiias here?"

She nodded. "I'd have mentioned it if I couldn't."

"Oh. I'd have thought they wouldn't exist here. Looks like I was wrong."

She shrugged.

"Anything interesting happen the last few days?"

"Not really I had a test in my theory class The teacher almost forgot not to bring her answer key."

"The hhikiias tell you the answers?"

She nodded. "The teachers don't believe me, but they leave the keys in their office anyway now."

"I imagine you usually get them right anyway."

She nodded.

"Have you had a good time?"

She shrugged. "Besides the test I didn't do much."

"Oh" He fell silent, continuing to stroke her hair fondly. After a few minutes of silence and hair-stroking she started not-quite-sleeping again. A few minutes later, he started to try to indentify her state of mind, and what caused it.

"You find this relaxing?" he asked softly.

"Mmhm," she said, snapping out of the trance when he spoke.

"Would you rather I stay quiet?"

"I don't mind. But I won't get bored if you don't talk, either."

"You just seem really content when you've relaxed like that."

She nodded.

He fell silent again, letting her relax until, about an hour later, he sat up a bit. "Master Casten's on his way." He didn't stop stroking her hair, though.

She opened her eyes, but didn't otherwise move.

A few seconds later, Revenn walked in, and Talyn got to his feet, releasing Leekath just long enough to bow respectfully to his Master. His eyes shone with hero worship, as always seemed to be the case when he was around Revenn. Once he straightened up from his bow, however, he put his arm around Leekath again.

Leekath waved at Revenn.

"Hello, Leekath," Revenn said. Talyn broadcasted the meaning of the words into the vampire's mind, so she could understand him. "I understand you'd be willing to act as a messenger between Rhysel and myself. Is that correct?"

She nodded.

Talyn sent to her, <Reply in whatever language you want. He'll understand you>.

<Even around the hhikiias? You took a while to get around them,> she thought back to Talyn.

<Yes I'm translating.>

<Oh.>

Revenn grinned, "I suppose I can understand why you'd be willing, so I won't ask about that. Do you mind if I ask you some other questions, though?"

"No," she said in vampire.

"You can shapeshift, but only into one form?"

"Yes, I can turn into a bat All vampires can."

"Would you object to demonstrating?"

She changed into a bat, flew a lap around the room, and turned humanoid again beside Talyn, who put his arm around her again. Revenn watched in fascination as the girl flew about the room. "And you don't eat. Do you drink - besides blood, I mean?"

She shook her head "I can drink other things, if I need medicine or something else, but not normally."

"Do you have to breathe?"

She nodded.

"Interesting. How often do you have to eat? Drink? I'm not sure what word's appropriate to describe it."

"I can live on about once a month if I have to. I can be healthy with every two weeks. I get hungry after about a week, but I can eat more often if I want."

"Would you mind demonstrating how that works? I'll volunteer, since I understand it's too soon for Talyn."

"He mentioned you might know some way to replenish a person's blood supply," she ventured.

"I recall mention of it somewhere once, but I don't recall where - and I didn't study the working in detail at the time. Talyn and I are both looking for it, when our other duties permit."

She nodded, then approached Revenn to bite him in the neck.

He seated himself on the floor, conjuring several mirrors so he can view it from several angles and registering surprise when Leekath herself didn't appear in the reflections.

She remained attached for only a couple of minutes, presumably due to her recent feeding.

He watched, fascinated, and waved one of the mirrors closer after she'd let go, examining the marks curiously.

Talyn looked at Leekath curiously. <Would you have rather bitten me?> he asked silently.

<Maybe a little. I know it doesn't change anything, but he still looked old. Not very appetizing. And I wasn't very hungry to start.>

<Oh.>

Revenn, finished with the examination of the marks, dismissed the mirror. "Fascinating," he said. "Is your species the only one on your world that eats this way?"

She nodded.

"I don't supposed you'd know how your species developed the ability?" he asked, sounding hopeful despite his reservations.

Leekath shook her head.

"Ah well." He got up from the floor, seating himself in a convenient chair. "And you hear voices of things?"

"Hhikiias. Yes. But that's not all vampires, just a few."

"How does that work?"

"What do you mean?"

"How do you hear them, and what's the difference between a vampire who can and one who can't?"

"Well, I don't know how I hear them. I just do. And the only difference between hearers and other vampires is that hearers hear hhikiias."

"Do you hear them with your ears or in your mind?"

"Oh. I don't know. How would I tell the difference?"

"Well, like when Talyn speaks to you audibly or when he speaks to you in her head. Which is it more like?"

"It's more like when he speaks aloud. But I can also hear them just as well with my ears covered or with something else in the way, like a wall."

"Intriguing."

He appeared out of questions for the moment, and handed Leekath a folded and sealed letter. "If you wouldn't mind giving that to Rhysel when you return. Among other things, I've listed what I think would be a good schedule for you to ferry messages back and forth, but I'll leave it to her to make the decision. When you come back next, you can fill me in on what she's decided."

Leekath nodded.

"You can tell the contents of the letter?" he asked.

"If I pay attention," she said.

"I'm curious. Would you mind telling me what my propsed schedule is, according to the note?"

Leekath held the letter and whispered to it, "Tell me the schedule." She stared at it for a while. "Every ten days starting today," she said "But that will make it different times during the week. If it were every seven days starting Lunen I could stay longer during school terms. I guess that isn't supposed to be the point, though."

"Our weeks are ten days long. Yours aren't?"

She shook her head.

He nodded slowly, settling back in his chair. "It seemed a reasonable division to me, although I suppose, given your schooling, that a schedule more suited to you would be better. Would you like to stay longer when you come over?" he asked kindly.

She nodded.

Talyn beams at her, but stayed silent. Revenn watched her for a moment in silence. "How long?"

"Over the weekends," she said "I never have any classes on Lunen or Chenen."

"You want to stay the entire two days?"

She nodded.

"Well, I've no objection, assuming Rhysel has none."

"Why would Rhysel mind?"

"I assume she would want to check with your family and the school officials before agreeing to it, although I can't see her having any inherent objections of her own."

"Oh."

Talyn, meanwhile, looked at Leekath, pleasantly surprised. <You really want to stay the whole weekend with me?> His mindspeech carried overtones of happiness with his thought.

<It would be more interesting than staying home listening to the same textbooks over and over.>

<I'd love to have you,> Talyn sent with a grin.

Revenn nodded. "Do you have any questions for me?"

Leekath shook her head.

"Then I'll leave you two to your own amusements. I need to gather the younger apprentices up for their afternoon lesson." He stood and bowed to Leekath. "A pleasure to meet you, child."

She attempted a return bow.

Revenn smiled at her attempt in a grandfatherly sort of way. "You're free from your duties for the afternoon, Talyn, but only until Leekath goes home."

Revenn left the room, leaving Talyn and Leekath to their own devices.

---

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