May as well get up, she thought and opened her eyes slowly. The images were blurry at first, but then her vision cleared and she could see a ceiling that she was almost completely certain she'd never seen before. The room she was in was a little larger than average and had very large windows that were opened wide and allowed a warm breeze to flow into the room. Translucent curtains hung at either side of each window and moved in the breeze. Jillia saw that she was in a bed about the same size as the one she had in her room at L'Renouille, but much simpler.

She started to sit up and immediately thought better of it. Her head swam and she felt very weak, in addition to pain coming from her abdomin. The pain she quickly figured out was proof of her close encounter with Ruka's sword. The weakness made her wonder how long she had been unconcious, for if it had been any great amount of time her muscles might have weakened from lack of use. She hoped that wasn't the case, since she'd seen knights who'd recovered from a broken arm to spend months getting the strength back to properly swing a blade.

Jillia placed a hand to her forehead in a subconcious effort to will her head to stop feeling so dizzy and felt something odd. There was no actual imprint in her flesh, but she could tell there was some kind of mark there. It was like certain places of her skin felt a few degrees warmer than the rest. She traced the warmth with her finger. It was the shape of an upside down 'U'. How... strange...

At that point she heard the door to the room open, and a woman stepped inside. She was taller than Jillia and walked with encredible grace. She had very long black hair and wore a long cloak that was mostly white but had a few other pale colors as well. "I see you've woken," she said in an etherial voice.

Jillia peered up at the woman. She seemed... familiar somehow, though Jillia was sure she'd never seen her before. "Who are you?" she asked after a moment.

"I am Leknaat, last survivor of the Gate Clan, keeper of the Ending Gate Rune," she replied simply.

Jillia knotted her brows in confusion. "But... Why have I been brought here? I don't understand."

Leknaat sat down on the edge of the bed. "It is a long story, and I am not certain you are ready to hear it, but I will tell you anyway.

"Many years ago there were two women. One was a queen, and the other a hermit. The queen and the hermit were each pregnant with child at the same time. The queen lost her child when she was hit by a well-aimed arrow, barely surviving herself. The hermit bore her child, but knew that to raise a child in such a place would not be fair to the child. So the hermit appeared before the queen and gave her the child to raise as her own. And so the child was raised by the queen instead, and only the queen knew that the child was not of her own flesh and blood. The queen died and there was no one remaining who knew, except for the hermit who was the child's real mother."

Leknaat looked into Jillia's eyes with a hint of sadness. "You were not meant to ever learn the truth, but I could not stand by and do nothing while you lost your life."

Jillia stared, wide-eyed at the woman. It couldn't be possible. But... it was impossible to disprove. Why would this woman lie? And she had saved Jillia's life.. "How could you have stopped me from dying, though? Even the highest level water magic couldn't have cured that wound!"

"It is true, that spells alone could not have saved you," replied Leknaat. "And that is why I did something very drastic. A True Rune will not allow it's owner to die easily. So I attached the other half of the Gate Rune to you. It was just enough to prevent you from dying so that spells could repair the rest of the damage."

Jillia's hand went to the warm spot on her forehead. It was... a rune? A True Rune, little one, said a strange voice in her head. I hope that you prove wiser than she who held me before. Jillia was starting to feel very weak.

Leknaat smiled understandingly. "Rest now, and I will answer any questions you have once you awakened."

Jillia wanted to know more now, but her body had other ideas. Her eyes drooped and soon she fell into a calm, dreamless sleep.

When Jillia woke again, an elderly woman was in the room. The woman quickly noticed that Jillia was awake and smiled in a grandmotherly way. "I was wondering how much of the day you'd doze away. I expect you'll be hungry by now."

Jillia's stomache answered for her and the woman smiled. She produced a small table, the sort designed specificly for breakfast in bed, and a plate of all sorts of breakfast items. The food was still hot from cooking, so Jillia was sure the woman somehow knew when she'd wake up. She opened her mouth to ask the woman's name, but was immediately shushed.

"Eat your breakfast and then you can ask all the questions you like. I expect by that time Leknaat will have returned."

Jillia felt very much like a child being scolded by her very no-nonsense grandmother. Obediently she picked up her fork and started on a very tasty pancake.

"I'm Hellion, by the way," said the woman while she watched Jillia eat, supervising that she ate everything on her plate. "I'm the resident Seer on this isle. That means when people want to know the weather or who their spouce is cheating on them with, they come asking me."

Jillia had discovered that she was much hungrier than she'd thought, and was quickly devouring the breakfast. It also helped that everything tasted wonderful.

"Don't forget to chew, dearie. True runes might let you live a lot longer, but choking is never pleasant," Hellion said. Once the plate was clean, Hellion let Jillia speak at last.

"How do true runes work, anyway?" was the first question.

"Mind you, not all of them work exactly the same, but at least a few things are common among them. Firstly, their owners don't tend to age. It starts once you're fully grown, so I'd say you've got a few more years to go. It's a damn good thing it starts then, otherwise we'd have a lot of pimple-faced immortals running around." Hellion took a sip from a cup of tea which had probably come from the same wherever that the meal had. "The ones I've witnessed can also prevent it's owner from dying from little things like illness or gaping holes in their bellies."

Jillia shivered uncomfortably at the reminder of what had happened.

"There's also a very useful trick that can be done with the excess magic that a True Rune has. It's somewhat difficult to master, and even harder to teach, but each True Rune has the potential to allow teleportation."

Jillia blinked. "That's really possible? I've heard rumors of runes that could do that, but I didn't think it was really true..."