"You idiot! You fool! Don't you ever listen to anybody?" shouted Mika, the years of biting his tongue and keeping quiet before his master suddenly over. "Can't you see that he wants to be a guy? Can't you see that I love him? I don't want a wife because I want a man!"
"Silence both of you!" shouted the Master. "You'll marry the girl and like it!"
"No" said Tobi. "He won't." She waved her hand, and Luka was Luka again.
"Enough of this nonsense!" the master turned to the barbarian and prepared another spell. Tobi put her hands to the wizard's back and an expression of agony transfixed her.
The Archmage turned around and tried to pull away. "What are you doing?" he screamed.
"If you can't use your power properly." Tobi said through gritted teeth, "You can't be trusted with it."
With a crack loud enough to be heard for a mile, even over the chitterings of the macaques and the mutterings of the peasant women and others that the Master's magic had saved from the burning tree, the Master pulled himself away from Tobi, then slumped exhausted to the ground.
Tobi lay beside him in a dead faint.
"That bastard." muttered Luka, looking down at the unconscious wizard, his hand straying to the hilt of his sword.
"Master, master!" wailed Mika.
+++++++++++++++++
Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, thought Lyra to herself, as she leaned over the giant tree-lizard and began to apply the moon crystal essence. She mentally kicked herself for not thinking of it herself as the lizard transformed itself into an exhausted, but perfectly healthy, girl.
"What happened?" Amber asked "Where's mom?"
"Uh" Lyra began, "Your mom's not here."
++++++++++++
Tobi was the first to recover. "Uh" she began "Luka, good to see you."
Mika was still fussing over his master, who was breathing steadily. Luka was gritting his teeth. Right now the sight of his lover fussing over the man who had (temporarily, thank the goddess) turned him back into Jayrene made him sick.
"He's a good man" Tobi said. "Just a little old-fashioned and stubborn."
++++++++++++++++
Night was falling. The archmage, recovered but with a major headache, grudgingly agreed that the happy relationship he had foreseen between between his disciple and his colleague's daughter could possibly be fulfilled (only be fulfilled, Mika muttered under his breath) if that daughter became a son. Ander was not looking forward to taking the news back to Merriweather, but Zoanna had requested and received from Lyra a temporary leave to accompany him.
Amber took the news of her mother's disappearance quietly, remembering that the poison had been her mother's last gift. She felt alone in the world, at least until she got a hug from Tobi.
"We both lost our families" Tobi told her friend. "I don't want to be queen, I'm not ready for it, and the Regent seems to be doing a pretty good job right now. The palace is gone now, can we go back to that place where we first met and live together as sisters? You and me and Shari? Jak too."
"That sounds OK, I guess" answered Amber. "But it would be nice to have a mom again."
++++++++++++++
Audrey was looking at Robin busily preparing the campsite for Lyra and her troops, eyes downcast. "Goddess" she said to Lyra "Is there anything sexier than a man who knows his place?"
Lyra cast a side glance at the warrior woman. "You like? You up for a three-way tonight?"
"You, me and him?" Audrey was practically drooling. "Yes, I guess I could fit that into my schedule."
Lyra beckoned to Robin. "Are you interested in pleasuring two hot-blooded warrior women tonight, squire?"
Robin grinned. "I live only to serve, mistress."