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She was alarmed at how quickly she had gotten through the mourning for her friend in Medinah. She'd thought she would still have the weight of his life pressing down on her shoulders when she arrived to the Doujin. After a week of travelling on foot, or on a camel or horse's back, she felt only the dull ache of acceptance. As she travelled through the cool stone halls of the Wardens' home, she felt only the excitement of carrying the scepter she'd found at her hip.

Not to say she had forgotten about Al-adin completely. Her heart throbbed with his loss every time she thought of the dark skinned blacksmith, but the time she spent thinking about that night was lesser and lesser every day. But thinking about it won't bring him back or change what happened. She had the rest of her life with the Wardens to think about!

She gave a start when she felt a hand tugging on her shoulder and whirled to face its owner. She was met with a face as familiar as her own, albeit framed in flowing auburn hair. Her heart leapt in her chest and she wrapped her arms around her older sister's neck tightly.

"Amphinome!" she cried out and wrapped her ebon wings around even her sister's own hawk-like ones. When finally she felt herself pried away, her face hurt it was smiling so wide!

"You're back!" her big sister exclaimed. "Did you find it?"

She plucked the scepter from her belt and held it up. "It's right here! You would not have to believe what I went through to find the damn thing!"

"Well, we've got another two hundred flights," Amphinome said, glancing to the ceiling above where they stood in the mostly-empty corridor for emphasis. "I want to hear all about it!"

Alcmene tucked the scepter into her belt again and hugged her sister's arm tightly to her chest. As they began walking again, she recounted the tale. She told her sister about everything from seeing the gallant of gryphons flying over the forest the first day she began travelling through the desert to being attacked by a wild sphinx on the way to Medinah.

"And when I got there, the only person who didn't seem to terribly unimpressed with my journey was a blacksmith who was probably more excited to meet a grave robber than I was to be one!"

"A grave robber?" Amphinome asked.

"Well," she rubbed at the back of her head nervously. "It was in the bottom of an ancient tomb buried under the largest pyramid in the Dunes of The Kings." She shrugged her shoulders. "I had to hire someone to take me down there. A real grave robber."

She rolled her eyes and gave a heavy sigh. When her sister asked her why, she gave another theatrical sigh and said "He kept looking down my shirt! He wanted to plunder my buried treasure more than he wanted to go down in the tomb, that's for Goddess damned sure!"

Her big sister laughed and shook her head. "You've got big breasts, but the abrinin clothing women wear is-..."

"I didn't wear their traditional clothing."

"What did you wear then?"

Blushing furiously, Alcmene looked toward one of the stained glass windows and grumbled. Upon Amphinome's insistence, she relented and said "I thought we were going out into the desert heat away from the city and I wouldn't offend anybody... so I wore tight leggings and a low-cut, sleeveless tunic..."

Her sister burst out laughing and started clutching her sides with both hands. She decided in that moment not to mention her exposed midriff, too. "It's not funny! He kept volunteering to crawl through the little passage ways, then he'd sit there on the other side waiting for me to crawl through so he could look at my... at my..."

"He was getting a good look at your tits!"

She harrumphed and shoved her sister away. As Amphinome landed heavily against the corridor's wall and continued laughing, she stomped away and folded her arms defensively over her ample bust. "You're supposed to be supportive like a real big sister!"

Amphinome caught up to her and leaned heavily on her as she made an honest attempt to quell her laughter. "I'm sorry! But if you can't laugh, what can you do? Come on, Alcmene. Do you think you're the only Warden that men have sized up over the centuries? How do you think Protector Faelina feels every time someone comes to query the Protectorate? How did she feel before when she travelled the world as we do?"

"You're right," she conceded and sighed. She was wearing a small top, she couldn't even imagine how the fairy woman and her natural distaste for clothing felt. What clothing she did wear left little to the imagination! "I still felt uncomfortable around him."

"I'm sure, but what happened?"

"Well," Alcmene continued," we spent days underground, searching through tunnels and passage ways and dodging traps and spells of every kind. Between the grave robber and the traps, it was the worst few days of my life!"

"Until you found it," Amphinome corrected.

"Even then!" She hugged her sister's arm again and looked up at her mirror image (albeit older) exasperatedly. "When we found it, this golden statue that looked just like me was holding it. Well, alsilrite statue, really."

"How do you know it was alsilrite and not gold?"

"Well, when I took the scepter--which is obviously alsilrite--the grave robber started touching the treasures that the chamber was filled with and the thing came alive! It leapt off the platform it had been sitting on and shoved its hand into his chest like you or I would slip a stick into water. Alive or not, gold would have bent and warped, but the thing just pulled its hand out and came after me."

"Oh my Goddess, that's horrifying!" her sister said with a little gasp.

"That's not even the worst part! The entire chamber filled with water and I had to fly up to a little passage way I barely fit in to escape! And the statue went in after me!"

Amphinome lifted a hand to stifle another worried gasp.

"I barely made it out and finally crawled out of a well in a shepherd's village!"

"At least you got out alive with the scepter!" her sister reminded her.

"I did! But I stayed in the village that night before I went to Medinah to fetch my things. Between the smell and the noise all night..." She shuddered.

"What's the matter?" her sister chided. "You don't like the smell of goat droppings and baa-aa-aa all night?"

"No, those weren't so bad. Soothing after a week sleeping in dead silence in a tunnel of graves. It's just..." She looked to one of the stained glass windows they passed again.

"Just what?"

"The entire family lives in one little shack."

"And?" her sister asked.

"And mom and dad were... getting busy that night."

Once again Amphinome burst out laughing and Alcmene rolled her eyes. "If you're going to keep laughing, I won't tell you the rest!"

"Alright!" her sister pled. "Alright, I'll be nice!"

Rolling her eyes in disbelief, Alcmene went on. "Anyway, the next day I went back to the capital to get my things and come home. I'd left all my travelling supplies at the blacksmith's home and when I was retrieving them, this man in black killed the blacksmith." She chewed on her tongue for a moment, both for nervousness at having lied to her sister and the pain the memory brought with it. Not lying, Alcmene reminded herself, omitting certain facts of the story to expedite the telling.

"A man in black?" Amphinome asked.

"An assassin of some kind. He was very good... but I killed him."

"Was he alone?"

"He was the only one I saw," she said with a shrug of her raven wings. "If there were more, I didn't see them before I left. I got me things and started flying home. I travelled on foot the rest of the way. If I was chasing an angel, horseback travelers would be the last place I'd look."

"Well, I'm glad you made it back!" Amphinome leaned down and kissed her sister's brow gently. "I was worried sick!"

"No you weren't," Alcmene challenged. "You were hoping I'd get lost in those tombs so you could have my Jacobi Raelin collection." She shuddered to think of her collection of fine paintings hanging on her sister's walls instead of her own!

"You caught me," her sister relented. When they stopped at the top of the highest stairs that led into the crystal like hallway overlooking the rooftop courtyard, they turned and looked at one another. "Well, looks like we don't have any more time for your stories. I'll be down at the Ocean Star," the inn on the pier down below the tower, "getting a bite to eat. I hope to see you there after you get done!"

Alcmene nodded nervously and her heart began pounding in her chest. She watched her sister go then started walking toward the alsilrite-clad wardens guarding the door into the protectorate chamber suspended over the rooftop courtyard. There were four identical towers atop the cylindrical Doujin, each of them with a hallway that led to the central structure, each of them supporting the structure with a magic Alcmene could not understand.

When she stood before the fully-armored wardens, she licked her lips and held up the scepter for them to see. "I need to speak with the Protectorate."

The two armored guards stepped aside and the door, made of the same crystal-like material as the walkway and the chamber beyond, seemed to melt away like ice in the Abrinin sun. She stepped through and glanced back as the door reformed itself behind her.

She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and started walking along the crimson carpet between the crystal columns and statues of former Protectors all the way to the central dais where a large golden dragon and four other Wardens sat atop crystalline chairs.

She dropped to a knee at the base of the upraised dais and spread her wings wide behind herself. "Noble Protectorate, I have retrieved the talisman as you instructed!" She again held up the scepter, this time in a shaking hand.

"Well done child," the big dragon's booming voice called. "You have exceeded our expectations."

"Arkndrndrran is right," a softer feminine voice agreed. "We did not expect you to return so soon with the talisman, if at all."

Excitement made Alcmene lift her head to the voices' owners and she blushed furiously as she spotted Faelina. She was a woman with sparkling butterfly-wings that gently swayed on her back. She was dressed in a sheer gown that left nothing to the imagination. The gown itself was almost invisible, without any discernible color. In the right light, as it shifted, Alcmene could see every color of the rainbow on the minimal fabric. Beneath it, the woman's body was covered with pinwheel patterns and swirls of color.

And all she could think about was her sister's words. I'll bet the men staring at her drove her mad!

"How is it you were able to procure the talisman so quickly?" the blue winged angel known as Jayslan asked, dressed much more modestly than his fairy counterpart. The alsilrite-laced robe left a lot to be imagined!

She recounted the entire story she'd told Amphinome again almost word for word. Without the banter, of course. And without the omitted facts of Al-adin's death.

At the mention of the assassin in black, the Protectors exchanged glances and the dark haired elf by name of Nostros said "It is alarming that someone knew of your search for the talisman. It is possible it was a local Abrinin vying for power and thought the talisman would aid in that quest. But there are other possibilities we cannot simply discount."

The dwarf Radagran nodded and stroked his bronze beard in agreement. "Aye, we will work to uncover the identity of this assassin."

"Until then," Faelina said with a smile on her opalescent lips, "we strip you of your title of Journeyman and hereby grant you the title of Warden and all of the responsibilities thereunto."

Her heart leapt in her chest and she felt like she might float away on the breeze! She was elated to finally hear those words after so many years of work and training!

"Go now," Arkndrndrran said in his booming growl, "celebrate the culmination of your life's work! We will call upon you with a suitable task soon."

She leapt to her feet and bowed low. "Thank you, Mighty Protectorate! Thank you! I-... ah... I'm going to...."

Faelina smirked and waved a dismissive hand. "You are dismissed, child."

She almost squealed as she turned and rushed out of the Protectorate's audience chamber.

*****

"Wait, you WHAT!?" her sister exclaimed in surprise.

Alcmene stared down intently at her goblet of wine and grumbled. "I shouldn't have told you..."

"You can't just sleep with someone willy-nilly like that, Alcmene!" Amphinome reached across the small table in the corner of the Ocean Star where they sat and took her hands. "But I won't tell if you won't."

Alcmene stared at her big sister in shock, a little disbelieving in the sly wink Amphinome gave her. "So, tell me all the juicy little details!"