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I got home and was planning on seeing my mom and dad immediately, but the needs of the city grabbed me before I could even step from the back yard to the house. No sooner did I say good-by to Ariel than I found myself in an abandoned apartment building, filled with squatters.  There was something evil in it and the City had a need for it to be removed.  I searched and hunted, sliding through the walls as if through the rock of the city, moving through the city's fabric, and finally found it as I slid through the inside of the building.  If I cease to be part of the hyrthgr I will lose that ability, but it makes hunting things in the city easier.  On the hunt I feel more like a twelve year old wolf than a kid about to turn thirteen. Strange.

In one of the elevator shafts I found something lurking.  It was a devil house.  I've seen them lurking.  They look like a broken down hovel, but the two windows are eyes and the door is a mouth and the path is the tongue.  Once you are on the path the only way out is to run towards the house and then dart off to the side and around the back.  The tongue will get you otherwise.

This one was eating squatters.  I slid above it to where it hung from the cables, waiting for the next one who was too tired to climb down the stairs.  A burst of flame and the cable parted and down it dropped. I sent fire after it and reduced it to oily gue.

But, I could tell that the City still had a grip on me. I was still a part of it and that was a problem.  I was the only child in my sept and the only one who had found a different life.  Being wrapped into the needs and call of the city wasn't the happy ending I wanted.  How was I going to get my homework done?

Not only was that a problem, but there were other problems, ones that were more important.  Most of my old family and sept had not gained the power to heal with the transition that my dad had brought about.  Yes, they were nature spirits, but they hadn't filled the gap to reach the core nature that they had.  It was all because they had held on to the ability to drain others (useful, mind you, and something that helped the city, and something I had let slip without realizing), but something that blocked them from finding their natures.  They had "hardened" (I can't think of any other word) and were suddenly fixed with that hole.

As for me, I had lost the ability to drain, but I could heal and I was exactly what I should be (whatever that was -- my mom and dad keep telling me that, so it must mean something).  My sept needed to learn to heal or they were not going to be able to keep their forms and were going to unravel into nothing.

They had tried what they could.  Some had even succeeded.  For example, one of us had all the fire that we had gathered, from witches and others (except for what I had) -- the others had kind of merged and given that to him, hoping it would help and he was willing to take it. As a result, he was almost a salamander and had gained the nature of fire and was ok, though not quite the normal nature spirit. Another had tapped into the element of air and had found the path to being a thunderwalker  -- he was more of a wind eagle than anything else, but was ok.  He had an essential nature.  Two of us, having let go of fire, had been able to join with the undines in the harbor and were silkies.

But of the rest of us, they lacked an essential nature and didn't have the core (healing) of a normal nature spirit.  In addition, the City was almost balanced, having fire, earth, air and water, but it lacked anyone who was truly of the dark or shadow (starting with a group of shadow vampires you wouldn't have expected that, but when we changed, we had all left the dark behind), and we were 23+one (me) rather than the 24 (I wasn't quite in, but I wasn't quite out) that fills a hyrthgr, and we had some problems from that imbalance.  Of course we were new to the business, and didn't have the lore, but we could feel the disharmony.

I figured that we had to solve those ourselves, and that we could do it, but I was very bothered.  My life was in turmoil and disruption after I thought I had made it through to the happy ending.

Some of the problems were easier than others.  The first solution my mom pointed out.  She found me sad and got the story.  First, the whole story of the One Eyed King and the visit (I'm glad it worked out -- not just for me, but my Mom was pretty riled up with concern for me, who knows what may have happened).  Then the greater shadow that we met. That got her attention and as she scryed the event, my mom saw a hidden part of what had happened, neither Ariel or I realized that the shadow had been cursed by chaos and that in fighting it, we had healed it.  In not binding it, we had left it the chance to return, and in the way we had left it, while the chaos had been cleansed, it had gained awareness (and kept its free will and intelligence).

Because we had not harmed it, or done it violence, it would speak with me, remembering Ariel and I as the ones who cleansed it of chaos.  It was fading, and would have passed away, dissolved for lack of a place.  To join with the city was a way to save itself, to have a place, and to escape the loneliness that was all it had known since it had been spawned from the interplay of darkness and the light.  With a little help from my father, it bridged over and took my place with the city.

That gave the city the last of the elements it was seeking, so that the hrythgr had all five elements within it, and also gave the city a 24th to replace me.  Not only that, but we had been 11 males and 13 females.  With the shadow taking my place they were twelve and twelve, twelve perfect pairs.  Now I was truly part of my new family without that last outside restraint.

The other problem was harder.  I didn't know how to even go about solving it and neither did anyone else.  Mom was worried with me, but Dad just smiled and set an extra place for supper.  We were eating early that day, and having one of my favorite meals (ok, everything my dad cooks is one of my favorite meals).

Suddenly, Ariel was at the door.  She had a secret to share with me.

I could tell that Dad knew what it was, and Mom gave him the kind of look she gives him when she has decided to read his mind and find out what he knows and is hiding from her.

Ariel had brought back a star rune to found a star shrine.  It brought back healing.  It would work for all of us who hadn't found some other path.  It had limits, and a cost (and I couldn't use it -- but I didn't need it), but it would work.

About the time I learned that, my mom finished reading my dad's mind and started chuckling.  If the star shrine power hadn't been brought back, it turns out my family that had not found an elemental link could have walked the left handed path.  My dad thought that would have made us a pretty grim hyrthgr (we would have been more shadow vampirish again, with our essential nature the left handed path), something my dad wanted to see avoided if possible (especially since he wasn't sure that if the majority of us took the left-handed path, it wouldn't create an imbalance that would destroy us all.  I kind of suspect that he knew that it would lead to our destruction and that the path would have only been a way for us to delay fate a little -- or he would never have let Ariel be thrust into the danger she reaced).  My mother couldn't see the point (she always thinks the most powerful response is the best, and expects a lot of death -- she thinks it is a miracle that any of us were saved for any time) and he had made some sort of pun out of the situation.  My father is determined not to lose any of us.

Two of my people, one of the pairs, had alread walked the left handed path and formed a pattern that the rest could have followed, at least for a while, and with great danger.  They gave the city a strong hidden power to drink down those who threatened it.  But those two, one twelfth of a hrythgr on the left handed path, is probably as much as an untainted place should have.

The shrine was perfect for the hidden bodyguard of the city spirit.  Especially since it was something that as a part of its use was to be secretly used to help those of a people or a city.  My people counted as secrets and what they did was secret as well.  Ariel gave them the secret name for Stary Path and before long there were people who remembered being unwell, or hurt, and the kind touch of a stranger that seemed to help them.  The city had a secret heart as well as an open one.

The whole thing worked out just great, and my friend had had a neat adventure.

We had gone through some problems, but they were solved a little for now.  Or a lottle (ok, my punnish jokes aren't as good as my dad's).