The pin slid through the fabric and nicely avoided stabbing into 
her.  Fuu sighed in relief.  She wasn't quite used to having clothing fit 
to her like this.  She especially was not used to having a wedding dress 
constructed around her.
	"I'm not going to harm you, lady Fuu," the seamstress said wryly, 
sensing even that slight tensing of Fuu's body.  "You needn't worry.  I'm 
almost done, and the gown should be finished within the next two days."
	"Will you need to do another fitting?" Fuu asked Sienna.
	"Only when it's finished.  I just need to be sure that it's proper 
and that you can move in it."  Sienna straightened, and as always Fuu 
marvelled at her resemblance to Umi.  If Sienna's hair had only been blue 
instead of brown, they might have been identical twins.
	"M'lady," another woman addressed Sienna, entering the room that 
was strewn about with white fabrics, "Lady Umi has asked that her fitting 
be moved to this evening, if possible.  She and Bal Ascot were going to 
have a picnic."
	"Oh?" Sienna asked, twisting her head from her position at Fuu's 
side.  "Well, I've finished her dress completely and only need to have her 
do the final fitting.  Arrange it to her convenience."  She turned back to 
Fuu and slid another pin in.
	Fuu watched as Sienna's assistant nod slightly and retreat from the 
room that was indubitably her mistress' domain.  Sienna held the respect of 
her underlings by right of her blood; she came from old Cepheronian 
nobility and her bearing matched her upbringing.  Yet for some reason she 
had chosen a merchant's lifestyle, selling her skill at making clothing to 
those able to pay.
	Fuu hid a smile as she wondered if that choice had anything to do 
with Sienna's husband....

	Eagle gasped in pain and was caught by Lantis as he stumbled out of 
the spatial anomaly that led from Earth.
	"Eagle!" Hikaru exclaimed, supporting him from the other side.  
"Are you all right?"
	"I'm fine," Eagle lied, taking a few deep breaths as the 
overwhelming pain receded to something he was more used to... a band of 
squeezing iron around his lungs, a point like a knife stabbing into him.  
He smiled up at Lantis, who didn't look as if he believed the excuse, and 
seemed as innocent as he possibly could.  "I think it really is just 
because my body doesn't like going to Earth... kind of like an 'allergy,' 
you think?" he asked Hikaru.
	"Uhm... yeah.  That might be it," Hikaru decided, falling for his 
excuse.  "Because going to Earth wasn't a very nice experience the first 
time, maybe."
	She was so cute that Eagle couldn't resist smiling and reaching out 
to tug one of those cute cat ears.
	"myow?" Hikaru questioned.
	Eagle smiled again and leaned over to whisper to her, "I think I'll  
lie down for a little while until I feel better.  Why don't you and Lantis 
go to the gardens together, Hikaru?"  She looked curiously at him and he 
smiled, deceiving.
	He watched as Lantis escorted her towards the gardens, and 
whispered to their retreating backs, "Hikaru, Lantis, I'm sorry...."

	He and the mecha fell out of the sky screaming with pain and a 
sense, for the first time in years, years, so many years, of freedom.  The 
crash to the ground below was more pain, but oh-so-good pain.  He was 
finally free!  Free of that limbo!  Free of the nothingness, the lack of 
sensation, of experience, of everything but the sound of his own voice and 
the ever-cycling oxygen and nutrition provided by the FTO.
	Free!
	His fingers trembled as he hit the keys that released him from the 
FTO.  He tumbled to the ground, having little sense of freedom, of 
coordination, after so long in the cockpit of the mecha.  But the dirt 
beneath his fingers, in his hands, was real and so was the cool air - it 
was *cool*, he'd forgotten everything but what tepid air was like... oh, 
sensation, sweet sensation....
	For a long time he lay there in the night air, just feeling as he 
had not felt in years.

	Lantis spread his cloak across the grass and waited until Hikaru 
was seated on it to lower himself down beside her.  He watched her face as 
she looked up at the stars.
	"There's Taurus," she said, pointing at the sky in front of them.
	He followed the direction of her gesture to the constellation.  
"The heart of the bull constellation is Chizeta...."
	"Mm-hmm."  Hikaru traced her finger around the arrangement of stars 
even as her eyes sought another target.  "Benz."
	"And Fahren," he agreed.
	"I can't see Autozam's constellation from here," she said.  "The 
tree's in the way.  But there's the Thunderbird.
	"And Primera," Hikaru added, tracing another figure in the sky.  
"I wonder how she's doing with the other fairies?"
	"Probably well and married already," Lantis opined, thinking of the 
small pixie who had partnered him for so long.  After Hikaru had 
effectively demolished the Hashira System, some of the fairies who had 
survived the destruction of their villages had made their way to the 
castle.  Primera had gone with them when they'd left to rebuild.  She'd 
been quite firmly attached to a male pixie at the time, one Lantis had been 
amused to note resembled himself.
	"Probably.  I wonder if she'll come back here for our wedding, and 
Umi-chan's, and Fuu-chan's?"  Hikaru leaned against Lantis, her eyes still 
looking towards the skies.
	Lantis smiled and wrapped his arms around the girl.  "I'd be 
surprised if she wasn't," he said.  "Everyone seems to be coming, and as 
long as Mokona isn't here to try to eat her...."

	Late that night, after all the couples had made their way back to 
the palace, after her husband and daughters were asleep, Corona lay awake 
in her bed.
	There was something out of key.  She'd never been very musical, but 
even she could recognize a sour voice within a chorus.  But she did not 
know what was wrong, or who caused it, or even what to do about it.  And as 
though sensing her mother's vague worries, Cressida began to fidget in her 
cradle by the bed.
	"Shh, shh, shh," Corona soothed, rising easily and taking the baby 
to her breast.  "There's no need to fuss...."  She stole a glance at her 
husband, and then slid out of the room, infant in her arms.  "Your father 
doesn't sleep enough as it is, little girl," she told her daughter.  
"There's no need to aggravate his insomnia.  Let's you and I find a place 
where we can talk and play and sing you back to sleep without waking him."
	Corona slid on a light wrapper over her sleeping gown, and slipped 
out the main door of the suite she and her family had been given.  The 
halls of the outrageously large Cephironian palace were empty at this hour, 
and she met no one on her way to the gardens she had been shown earlier in 
the day.  Her bare feet whispered softly on the smooth, pale stone and 
Cressida made tiny whimpering noises in her arms.  Corona jogged her a 
little and then started to sing a lullaby her own mother had sang to her:

	Hush, little baby, and close your eyes:
	Dream of flying free on eagle's wings.
	Soaring up into the pure blue air,
	Let your soul feel freedom from all lies.
	Leaving the grasp of mortal things,
	Know I'll still love you so far up there.

	There were other verses, but Corona could only ever remember the 
first.  Fortunately that was enough to soothe Cressida, and she continued 
humming the tune the rest of the way to the gardens.
	She pushed open the door to them with one arm and was immediately 
rewarded with a breath of moist air and the lulling sound of water 
falling.  "Perhaps, sweeting, by the time you are old enough to appreciate 
such things, Autozam may have places like this," she said in a soft, almost 
reverant tone as she and Cressida made their way through the lush growth to 
the fountains and benches at the center of the gardens.  There was so much 
life in this one place, living and breathing and weaving patterns of 
energy, that she felt she understood, for the first time, the experience of 
those Autozamians called to serve one of their world's Gods.  "This is 
magical," she whispered as she settled down onto one of the benches.  
Earlier, in daylight, the gardens had seemed magnificent.  But by moonlight 
they were incomparable, surpassing any sight she had ever seen.
	"Is there truly nothing like this on Autozam?" a soft voice asked, 
not so much surprising her as startling her.  Guru Clef faded out of the 
shadows to her left.
	"No," Corona replied, shaking her head.  "Nothing.  Most of the 
land is composed of wastes, and the only plants anywhere so healthy, so 
vibrant as these, are in the hands of the gifted few who are trained in 
their maintainance."  She let her eyes wander the deep green-gray shadows 
and their pale silver constrasts.  "I had never seen anything like this 
before today."
	"I see."  He sat down in a chair which faced her bench.  "What 
brings you here at this hour, though, Corona?  Most of the palace and its 
guests sleep...."
	She smiled.  "This little one and I could not sleep."  Cressida 
whimpered in her arms and began to make the first sounds of fretting.  "Ah, 
she wants food.  Guru Clef, would you mind if I...."
	He smiled.  "Please.  Here on Cephiro women feel no shame about 
feeding their children in public.  It is a natural thing to do."
	Corona smiled, undoing the ties of her gown with one hand.  "On 
Autozam, it is considered unseemly to bare a breast in public, even to 
nurse an infant."  She placed Cressida to one breast and felt the tiny 
mouth latch on and start suckling.  She discretely covered the baby's head 
and her exposed flesh with her night-robe.  She wasn't yet broken enough of 
her inground morals to be casual in exposing that to a near-stranger.  "Why 
are you here at this hour, Guru?"
	The young-looking man smiled and shrugged.  "Insomnia myself.  
Perhaps a wish to reflect, or a feeling of...."
	"...of foreboding?" Corona asked softly.  Clef's eyes became sharp 
on hers.  "I have such a feeling, Guru.  It may just be tiredness from the 
trip, but something does not feel right...."

	Ripples spread out across the pond as hands dipped in to cup 
water.  He drank deeply, savoring the freshness, the coolness, the sweet 
taste of life.  Then he waited for the water to calm, and bent over it to 
see his reflection.
	Ragged white-blond hair tumbled into his eyes and down his back.  
An old, dark stain turned the left shoulder of his cloak an indeterminate 
color.  His face was gaunt, and almost unrecognizable.  His eyes were wild, 
angry, and frightened.
	And as he watched, the image changed, to himself as he had been.  
That person in that reflection slept, his breathing deep and easy.
	He reached out a trembling hand and violently hit the water, 
shattering the image, then fell to the ground with a painful sob as his 
illness made itself known, his lungs laboring as he coughed blood.

	Eagle murmured in his sleep, a pained expression crossing his face 
as his right hand fisted over his heart.  Then he turned over in his bed 
and lay quiet again.

--To Be Continued--

Author's Note: I don't want to know how long it's been since I last wrote 
on this story.  Years, certainly....  Hopefully, now that I've written some 
of it, I'll keep writing more!