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"No hu-uh. What YOU don't seem to understand, Honey, is that I ain't doin it no more. No way. No how. Forget it!" Ygal's voice echoed bounced around the interior of their tiny cottage. The venom dripping from the word 'honey' left an Xander's ears stinging for several minutes as he stood before her completely humbled.

Xander's thoughts...my note had mentioned that I had already taken the 160,000 gold in payment for the mining order and had spent all but 10,000 of it on training for Dell and me. It seemed such a simple thing to ask. She had managed the previous orders with little or no fuss after all.

Ygals's...this, THIS is what he expects of me. A Virtue Guard reduced to freakin commerce?!! He's too yella to try his mettle in battle, and I'm stuck with his free-loadin son of a .... brother too??! I talked to him for 2 hours after the last time telling him how hot it was and boring. Sure he was tinkering away with some gold, sapphies and whatnot at the time, but I know he could hear me...

The two of them stare at one another momentarily each trying to collect random thoughts like rain in a seive. It had been an arduous hour of fighting already. If words were arrows, Ygal would have been torn to shreds after the first volley. She cannot compete with him logically, and it's a good thing that striking him dead right there conflicts with the virtue of Honor. Their old tactic of only arguing with the kids out of the house didn't seem to help any longer now that Velya's gone away...now they both felt like children.

Ygal's thoughts....I'm a noble lady now not his dang scullery maid. Dang him. Dang Dell. And dang the lot of them!

Xander's...what's different now? We've always just acted like a team....why's she so determined to push me away?

Words do not pass between them as Xander blows out the wall-sconce candles one by one. Somewhere between the death of the candle's scent and the coming of near totaly darkness Ygal found forgiveness.

"I'll start tomorrow, you peasant," she hisses playfully at him as he brushes past her. Her lilac night dress clasped tightly around herself, Ygal continues rubbing moisturizing oils onto her sun-baked, bare scalp. Xander finally dressed in his favorite brown night tunic and long kilt pauses a moment behind her chair. He massages her shoulders tenderly.

Kissing her now perfectly moisturized head, he whispers, "Thank you, Honey."

Using the previously envenomated word finally touched off the pent up frustration they both had felt, and she leaped up from the chair. She was on him in a flash, and he wriggled valiantly trying to escape her playful pounce. Once free, he dashed out of their little cottage and into the fields of flax trying to blend in with the bright blue stems out of sheer will rather than attire. They laughed and chased one another in the muddy fields for a few minutes before rinsing themselves in rainwater and closing themselves in for the night.

When the last candle had been blown out, Bess on guard outside heard the faintest voices...'Good night, honey' and then the sounds of muffled laughter mixed and of someone being tossed from bed height onto the floor.