Ten days after the expo Miranda was just leaving the dining hall after having eaten breakfast when she heard Burtrum’s familiar voice.

“Ms. Lummi?” he asked

“Oh Burtrum” she responded “It’s good to hear you again, are you alright?”

“I am now” he answered “fighting off that invasive consciousness until Master Derrick could draw it out was….taxing, but I seem to have recovered.”

“Well I’m glad to hear that” Miranda replied “do you know where Derrick is?”

“Actually I was hoping I could ask you that.” Burtrum asked “I’ve looked everywhere I can and I can’t find him anywhere, did he say he was stepping out?”

“He hasn’t said anything to me” she answered

“I doubt that the Master would just leave without telling you” said Burtrum “in which case there’s only one place in the cave he could be.”

“And where would that be?”

“In the abandoned wing” he answered ominously “the Master goes there sometimes to try and decide what to do with it but in all the years the Masters been here there has been no progress on it.”

“I could go make sure that’s where he is” Miranda offered

“Thank you Ms. Lummi, It’s still a little early for me to be making golems.”

“It’s no problem, so where am I going?”

“If you’ll proceed to the lift I’ll take you there after that I’m afraid you’ll be on your own, the Master has forbade me from forming any crystals in that area.”

“Why’s that” she asked as she headed for the lift

“I'm not sure but it might have something to do with the fact that the area has already experienced one cave-in.”

“A cave-in?” Miranda asked as she opened the door to the lift “is it safe there?”

“Of course, it was caused by a combination of a small earthquake and a geological fault, since then I’ve searched for any more faults and used my crystal structure to reinforce the mountain so something like that won’t happen again.”

“A small earthquake.” She said under her breath as she stepped on to the lift “when did this happen.”

Burtrum paused for a few moments and said “Roughly thirteen years ago.”

Miranda remained silent while the lift descended

The platform stopped in front of an old looking pair of wooden doors “Are you sure you want to go in there? The master usually comes out on his own after a time.”

“Yeah” she replied quietly “I am.” She pushed the doors open and walked in slowly.

It was a dark hallway lit by individual crystal set atop pedestals on either side, Miranda ventured further into the hallway taking great care to make sure her hooves didn’t clop too loudly until she reached a turn in the hallway, she leaned her head around the corner, and there, sitting in the middle of the hallway, in front of a large pile of rocks, was Derrick.

Miranda pulled her head back “What should I say?” she thought “This is where…it….happened.” she took a deep breath in and walked around the corner “Hello Derrick”

“Miranda?” Derrick responded, turning his head slightly “What are you doing here?”

“Burtrum just woke up and he was wondering where you were” she answered as she walked up behind him “I volunteered to look for you down here.”

“Oh” he said softly “thank you.”

Miranda turned around and sat down so her back was against his and pulled one of her knees up to her chest, luckily he was just tall enough so his still remaining horn and the stub of the one that had snapped off went over her head

“Sorry again about” She tapped her horn to his broken one

“It's okay, I figured I was going to lose it when I used it to block Durstin's blade, with a gash that deep there wasn't much to be done.”

There was a long silence as she looked down at the floor

“This is where it happened isn’t it?”

Derrick was silent for a few seconds more “yeah” he finally responded “it is.”

There was an other long silence

“Burtrum tells me that your planning on renovating this hall.”

“Emphasis on planning, I’ve been trying to finish this wing for years but I haven’t even been able to start.”

“He said that the cave is stable”

“I know, but” he paused and leaned back a little, putting his hands on the ground at his side “whenever I come down here to start work on it I….I just stop and all I can think about is how I found them down here.”

There was silence again “If you don’t want to do anything with this hall then that’s fine” Miranda said softly as she leaned back, putting the back of her head right against his, she reached out and put her hand on one of Derricks “but if you want to and can’t find the strength you can use some of mine.”

Derricks hand flinched at the touch but remained in place “Miranda” he said softly, his hand turned upwards and he gently closed his fingers around hers “thank you.”

Neither knew what to say from there

It seemed like hours before Derrick finally broke the silence by taking a deep breath and saying “Well, I suppose we should get started.”

“We” Miranda asked as Derrick stood up

“Of course” he replied as he helped her up “Would you rather not?”

“No, I just didn’t expect you to ask.”

“Neither did I” he said with a bit of a chuckle as he took one of the crystals off the pedestals “now then” he drew a few symbols in the air “Burtrum?”

“Yes Master?”

“Do you think you could give us some light?”

“Right away sir”

The hallway began to shake as the crystals in the walls began growing.

Miranda was paralyzed, memories rushed through her mind, she was already thinking about it so it was all too easy for the memory to take over, she was in the temple dusting some relic, there was a rumble, she rushed outside “no” she whispered as she raised her hands to her head “No no no no! I don’t want to remember, no no!”

Something wrapped itself around her

She looked up quickly, it was Derrick, and he was holding her in his arms and looking into her eyes “If you need to” he said in a low soothing tone “you can barrow some of my strength as well.”

Their faces slowly inched towards each other until there was barley a hairs breath separating their lips

“Wait” Miranda thought “What am I doing!” she quickly pushed Derrick away

They both stumbled backwards “Miranda” Derrick said softly “I, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.”

“It’s” she paused “It’s fine, I was panicking and you were just trying to help right?”

“Ye, yeah, are you all right now?”

“Yes” she answered as she looked around “thank you for asking” the hallway was now much brighter with crystals jutting from the edge of the wall and ceiling, where the large pile of rocks once was there was now a flat wall “so what were you planning on making this room into anyways.”

“I haven’t the faintest, do you have any ideas?”

Miranda put her hand on her chin “well” she said “one thing I did notice at the expo is that your guests were always standing, moving around; asides from the bedrooms there was really no other place for them to sit down and just rest.”

Derrick thought for a second “You have a point, what do you suggest?”

“I was thinking that some sort of lounge or sitting room would be convenient.”

……………………………………………………..

Miranda took a long sip from her glass; the red wine was warm and sweet “This is so good” she thought to herself “I have to be careful though, this stuff hits pretty hard and I wouldn’t want a repeat of that night.” Miranda thought back to the night after the ball “Or would I, that was the night that I got him to open up to me, and having him carry me back to my room again wouldn’t be completely unenjoyable” Miranda blushed “No No No!” she thought quickly “I told myself I would stop having thoughts like that, maybe I should hold off on the wine, Derrick said I should start celebrating while he gets the last few cushions but thoughts like this are…..confusing”

She looked around at the room they had just finished; the room was a large and circular with vertical walls and a domed ceiling, the ceiling was painted black and had small random crystals coming from it that both lit up the room and made the ceiling look like a starry sky. The couch she was sitting on was one of three large circular couches that were inward facing, had dark blue cushions. carpeting in the middle and were sunk into the ground so the back of the seats were flush with the floor. The door to the lift was directly behind her and in front of her, beyond the other two couches was a standing bar that had two doors behind it, one led to a small refrigerated cavern for food while the other led to a smaller cavern that would be used as a wine cellar.

“It’s odd” she thought as she admired their work “Designing and building an entire room only took about a third of the time that creating the sun crystal did” the sound of someone walking came from the doors “That must be Derrick” she thought as the doors opened “I think I’ll try a little experiment.”

Derrick walked into the room holding a few pillows in his arms “I’m back” he said as he walked over to one of the other couches and put the cushions down “There” he declared with satisfaction “all done, unless you have any other ideas.”

“Not at the moment, now come and relax.”

“Don’t mind if I do” Derrick responded as he grabbed a glass from the bar and walked over to the couch where Miranda was sitting, he took the bottle and sat down on the seat opposite her.

“So Derrick” Miranda started as Derrick poured the deep red liquid into his glass “it was rather generous of you to bust out such a fine wine.”

“Well yeah I think we deserve it, don’t you?”

“Well we definitely deserve to relax” she replied as he began sipping his wine “but you were pretty quick to get it out, almost like you had it prepared, I don’t suppose your hoping for a repeat of the last time we drunk together are you?”

Derrick chocked on his drink a little “No! No of course not” Derrick said in a panic as he stood up quickly “it’s just you enjoyed it so much last time I thought you would like it again, I didn’t mean to imply that I wanted to, I mean I just wanted you to relax, but not relax like that, unless you really wante”

Miranda couldn’t hold it in any more and burst out laughing, cutting off his rambling mid sentence “Calm down Derrick” she managed to say once she stopped laughing “I was just teasing, and thank you for the wine.”

He was silent for a second before letting out a heavy sigh and sitting down heavily “Very funny” he muttered

“Oh lighten up” Miranda replied as she looked up at the ceiling “I’ll only be here for about ten more days so I gotta get it in while I can.”

It was a few seconds before the gravity of that stamen hit her, she looked forward quickly, Derrick was leaning forward and looking down at the floor while he swirled his glass of wine.

He took a quick sip of his glass before saying “Miranda, would you mind if I tell you something”

“What is it?”

“When you go.............I’m going to miss you, you’ve helped me a lot.”

“Derrick” she said softly “I’m going to miss you too.” “Just tell him already!” she screamed at herself in her head “After that reaction it’s plain to see that he obviously feels the same way, so just tell him, tackle him to the ground and grab his” she made herself stop thinking before that thought went any further “I can't, and he can't, we both have responsibilities and we can't throw them away for something that might.........probably wouldn't work.”

They were both silent.

“Enough of this: She thought “We may never see each other again but I’m at least going to enjoy the time we do have, but what to talk about, well, making him a little embarrassed is always fun.” She stood up, walked over to him, and sat one seat away from him

“There’s been something I’ve been wondering.”

“And what’s that?”

“Well” Miranda explained as she leaned back “at the expo Mr. Lelisa explained to me that you’ve bedded a few young women in your day.”

Derrick blushed “Oh, a…and?”

“I just wanted to know who they were.” She said trying to sound as aloof as she could

“Why would you want to know that?”

“Just curious I guess, maybe I can give you some advice for the next lovely young thing to grace your halls.”

“Okay, if thats what you wanna talk about, the first thing you should know is that I only asked them to, uh stay the night in order to get everyone to back off; they were all pestering me about just trying it, so I did, a couple times. The first one was a red scale named Jennifer; she had been perusing me for a while so she seemed like a good choice for my first, the next was a older white scale named Daphne, she was….experienced, to say the least, then the last one was a brown scale named Clarisse, she acted really nice and I thought we might be have something special but, like the other two, she was just interested in my horde.” Derrick leaned back and looked up at the ceiling “and at the next gathering instead of calming down about me finding a mate everyone was trying even harder; so I just gave up on the idea.”

“Wow, that’s a lot more depressing than I thought it would be.”

“Yeah” Derrick replied as he looked over at her “what about you?”

It was her turn to be surprised “Wha, what?” she blurted out, nearly spilling her wine

“You know everything about my love life, I think I deserve to know about yours.”

Miranda blushed “Well I” she stammered as she searched for an excuse “I guess that’s fair.” She took another drink “The first real relationship I was in was with a boy from my village, a dark brown unicorn named Erick, he was nice and it was both of our first time when we, ya know, but his family moved and I haven’t seen him sense. The next one was a stallion who had just moved into the village he broke up with me after a few months, said it was because I never let him in or something, I had a few other relationships but they all ended the same way before anything became intimate.”

“It sounds like we’ve both had some bad luck when it comes to relationships” Derrick said as he raised his glass “to finding love.”

“To finding love” Miranda replied as she touched her glass to his

…………………………………………………………………………………

After that night the tension between the two seemed to vanish as they both accepted the reality of the situation. The next seven days passed like a flash. Miranda was just walking out of the Dining hall after lunch when she saw Derrick coming from the lift room.

“Oh, Miranda” he said as she descended the stairs “I’ve been looking for you.”

“What for?”

“I was just about to send a message out to request your wyvren but I wanted to make sure that everything was patched up in you before I did.”

“Oh, how do we do that?”

“It’s pretty simple, you just have to put your hands on the viewing crystal in your room, once you do Burtrum should be able to scan your body and see how far along your healing is.”

“That sounds easy enough” Miranda said optimistically as she began walking to her room “could the crystal always do that?”

“Not exactly, Burtrum should be able to make the necessary changes in the crystal but if he can’t I’ll need to make some manual alterations.”

“You’ll use any excuse to get into my bedroom wont you” she teased

“Technically it’s my bedroom”

“You know, it’s a lot less fun to tease you now that you don’t get all flustered” Miranda responded as the two reached her room

“Well I’m sorry to disappoint you” He said as he walked over to the projection crystal in the middle of her floor “Burtrum, are the adjustments ready?”

The crystal turned green “Yes Master, we can start whenever you’re ready.”

Derrick put his hands on the crystal and it began to glow brighter, Miranda could hear a low buzzing noise coming from the crystals, a few seconds later the noise and the light ebbed and Derrick took his hands of the crystal, shaking them slightly.

“The scan is complete, you’re perfectly healthy master.”

“Your turn” Derrick said as he walked over to Miranda “the procedure is safe, it makes your hands a little sore but that’s the worst of it. The crystal actually”

“Don’t tell me” Miranda interrupted “I wanna guess” She walked over to the crystal and put her hands on it “Whenever you’re ready Burtrum.”

The crystal began to glow again and Miranda felt it vibrate under her hands as it started to buzz like it had before. After a few seconds the vibration she felt in her hands spread to her entire body for a second before it suddenly stopped.

“The scan is complete” Burtrum repeated “and I’m happy to report that you are fully healed Ms. Lummi.”

“Any ideas on how it works?” Derrick asked as Miranda took her hands off the crystal and shook them slightly

Miranda thought to herself for a second “Well, I would guess that the crystal sends a sort of wave of mana through the body that rebounds back into the crystal where any changes caused to the mana by my body is interpreted..”

“It never ceases to amaze me how quickly you figure things out Now that we know that your okay I can send out for your wyvren, it should be here in two days time.”

“Two days” she thought “I knew it was coming but now that it’s so close it feels like it’s come too soon.”

“Is everything alright?” Derrick asked as he walked over

“Yeah” she said with a sigh “I….I guess I’m just nervous about going to the office of deeds.”

“Well don’t be” he responded as he put an arm around her shoulder “everything will be fine.”

Miranda turned and quickly threw her arms around his neck while putting her head sideways onto his chest “Thank you” she said softly “for everything.”

Derrick wrapped his arms around her waist and the two just stood there.

Eventually the two separated and Derrick took his leave

As the door to her room closed Miranda activated the viewing crystal and watched him walk away until she was sure that he was out of earshot and yelled “THAT BASTERD” she threw herself into her bed “He knows how hard this is already why did he have to go and do that.” She rolled over onto her back and starred at the ceiling “I guess if I didn’t want him to hug me I shouldn’t have hugged him when he put his arm on my shoulder…….but he didn’t have to hug me back!”

………………………………………………………

After calming down Miranda headed up to the dining room where she walked over to the door that led outside “The last time I went out these doors I nearly fainted from the pain” she thought as she put a hand on the door “Burtrum said I was fine, I suppose I should test it first, but what if I’m not? Burtrum can’t send any golems out beyond the field so he couldn’t pull me back in, Should I find Derrick?” Miranda shook her head “I don’t need him, I was perfectly capable before and I don’t need him now!”

She pushed the door open and walked out, the sun was shining and she felt its warm rays penetrate her thin layer of white fur. She walked out to the edge of the balcony and looked out at the blue sky as she thought “I wonder if I’ll ever see a view like this again?”

Miranda spent the rest of the day looking at the horizon, after the sun had set she turned around to walk back inside, when she did she was surprised to see Derrick sitting at the table with his back to her “How long has he been sitting there?” she thought “I wonder what he’s doing?” she walked over to him and placed her hand on his shoulder and asked “Watcha doing?”

“Nothing, after I sent the request I did some work in the heart room then came up here to get something to eat, would you like to join me?”

“Why not” she said as she sat down at the table “what’s on the menu?”

“Not much I’m afraid” Derrick answered “after the expo my food stores were sorely depleted and until Richard comes with the next delivery I’ll have to ration food.”

“Will you have enough?”

“It’ll be close but I should be fine”

“That’s good does this happen often?”

“Normally no but this time I forgot to order enough food for two rather than one.”

“So, this is my fault.”

“You said it not me.”

Miranda chuckled a bit before asking “You’re sure you’ll be fine?”

“Believe me, after you’ve left food will be the least of my worries.”

“In that case I’ll enjoy depleting your supplies until my departure.”

After the meal, if you could call it that, they sat in silence for a while before Miarnda departed for her room.