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“Er…” she began to ask if anyone knew what was going on but before she could Paritan appeared in front of her, grabbed her and spun her around, his shield surrounding both of them. “Wha…” she said as he released her and sank to the grass blood soaking his clothing. She shook her head trying to figure out what had happened then spotted the Kithraean boy charging towards them only to be intercepted by Tilaran. It must have been him.

“Are you alright?” Paritan asked.

Ophelia nodded mutely and knelt down beside him. Without knowing why she pulled out the Key and held it out to him. He reached up and placed his hand over hers. She felt a gentle tug from the Key and realised that it was feeding him energy. She stayed there and looked around to wear Tilaran was fighting Paritan’s assailant. Kira on the other hand looked frozen. Her face was pale and her eyes were darting from fight to fight.

“Well…” That had to be the Kithreia woman. Ophelia looked around in time to see her teleport clear of Alsia and Darlryan and grab the boy. Tilaran tried to attack her but a blast of flame threw him across the grass. She turned to where Alsia and Darlryan were charging at her again. “Sorry, you two, no time to catch–” She broke off as the girl with the knives hurled one of the blades at her. It burst into flames as it sliced through the woman’s shield. She grabbed the wound and raised an eyebrow. “Nice combination! I’d return the favour bbut I have to run… things to do you know.” And she was gone.

With the immediate danger over Ophelia turned her attention back to Paritan. The energy seemed to be helping but she knew that he need the antidote. She was about to say as much when Darlryan tossed a flagon to the knife girl. She ran over and knelt opposite Ophelia to feed it to him. The little crease in her forehead and the supicious wetness in her eyes must have mirrored her own Ophelia decided.

“He’ll be okay.” Ophelia reached out with her free hand and touched rge girl’s shoulder in sympathy. And electric shock ran up her arm and shattered whatever screen had been hiding the girl’s identity. Ophelia supposed she should be angry but she just rolled her eyes and snorted. “I should have known. Who else hates me so much?”

Kate made a choking noise and looked over at Darlryan frantically. Something seemed to pass between them because after a moment Kate relaxed slightly and carried on giving Paritan the antidote. Ophelia felt like she should say something else but when she tried to form words a wave of dizziness overcame her.

“I think that’s enough of that,” Darlryan reached down and broke Ophelia’s grip on Paritan’s hand. “He’ll be okay now and you’ll hurt yourself if you carry on.” She looked up at him in surprise and he gave an odd smile. “Now if you’ll excuse me I have some thinking to do.” He released her wrist and he, Kate and Paritan all vanished.

“Well that was different,” Tilaran said as Ophelia tried to pull herself together. “What was that all about?”

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