"You wanted to see me," Lelix said as she sat down across from Geab. Her voice was nasal like because of her illness.
    She looked miserable compared to how she normally looked. Her black hair was dull and in disarray, and her green eyes projected  agony.
    Lelix wiped her nose on her sleeve.
    "Why did you want to see me, Geab?" she asked, annoyed. Then Lelix sneezed.
    Geab's brown eyes flicked everywhere, as if he were a criminal and everyone else were undercover police out to get him. His eyes locked onto hers.
     "Because of this," he said, holding up a small vial of bluish liquid.
    Lelix looked unimpressed.
     "Yeah, okay, a vial of blue anti-freeze. Is that it? Can I go?" Lelix said.
     "No! This isn't anti-freeze, Lelix. It is a liquid that could cure every known disease and illness," Geab whispered passionately.
    "Great," Lelix said, still unimpressed. "You know, I was sitting down to a nice bowl of chicken noodle soup when you called, and you know how much I love chicken noodle soup," she expressed, irritated.
     "Try some and maybe you'll believe me."
     "No, wait!" Lelix cried, but Geab had Already poured half of the vial into her water. "Okay, but if I die I'll come back and haunt you forever."
     Lelix picked up the glass and took a gulp. She set the glass down and, sniffing, said "See, I'm not cured."
     "Call me in the morning," Geab said.
     "`Take a vial and call me in the morning'," Lelix said, as if anticipating the future motto of doctors.
     "See you tomorrow," she said and left.

     Lelix had little recollection of falling asleep, but waking up had been spectacular. She had never in her life felt so alive and refreshed.
     And her cold was gone.
     Lelix immediately got up and ran to the phone, tripping over blankets and magazines.
     "Geab! It worked!" she said as soon as he picked up the phone.
     "I told you it would work," he said. "Lelix, you can't tell anyone about it, okay?"
     "Yeah, sure."
     "Bye," he said, quickly and hung up before she could answer.

     Lelix and Geab had been friends since college and had ended up working at the same place:  Hugniot Vaccines.  Hugniot’s nemesis was Verio Vaccines, owned by Mr. Verio Akinnis.
     Geab worked in the labs all day, creating vaccines, but Lelix was the advertising director. Even though they both worked in the same building, they hardly ever saw each other.
     Lelix thought Geab took the work a little too personally.  If Verio came up with a vaccine before he did and Geab had been working on it, Verio had stolen it.
     It had always been that way.

     Lelix didn't remember exactly how it happened, but she was at the airport, with Geab, waiting for a plane.
    Geab now stood next to her, explaining something carefully. Lelix had lost all interest in the conversation.
     "Geab, why am I here?" she asked stupidly.
     He sighed.
     "The vial is missing. Verio's people stole it. Your coming with me to retrieve it," Geab told her.
     "Verio?" she asked.  It had to be Verio.
     "Verio has always been my nemesis, remember? Do you not understand? That vial is deadly if taken by someone who has no illness. He could kill millions. I cannot let it happen."
     The airport announcer announced that flight 482 had arrived and could now be boarded.
     "Come on, that's our flight," Geab said.

     Lelix woke the next morning as Geab shook her.
     "Leave me alone," she muttered and thrashed her arm. It hit something solid, as she later found out was the coffee table.
     "Be careful, Lelix! Those are the plans for Verio's house. If we can figure out where the vial is being hidden, we can get it."
     "And how are we supposed to figure that out?" she asked.
     "Ask a cook or maid, maybe?" he said.
     "That is not going to be easy."

     "Okay, so maybe it was that easy, but you spent $50 on expensive beer," Lelix said over a cup of coffee.
     "It was well worth it," he snapped.
    "According to the maid, the guards are here, here and here," he said, pointing to the map. "And the vial is here," Geab said as he marked the room with blue.
     Lelix grabbed the pens and marked all the places where guards were in yellow.
     "Security camera's are here, here and here along our path," he said as she marked them in red.
     Geab grabbed the orange pen and drew a route to the blue mark.  "There's our route. Tomorrow night, we get it."
     "Okay."

     The next night it was raining, but they left anyway.
     Geab tossed Lelix a gun as they moved into position around Verio's house.
     “A gun?!” she exclaimed, staring down at the cold metal in her hand.
     “Did you expect us to just waltz in there?!” he demanded.  Lelix fell quiet.
     Lelix crouched outside an ivy leaf encrusted door. The rain fell lightly onto her clothes.
     "Okay, now," was whispered through the comlink into her ear.
     Lelix reacted with lightning speed, up and into a window. She crouched low, running along one wall towards the door.
     "I'm about 4 doors away from it," she whispered, peaking out into the hallway.
     "I'm about 6, you go for it on the count of three. 1, 2, 3!"
     Lelix slipped out into the hallway. Running down four doors, she paused. No alarms, so far. She slipped into the room.
     "It's in view."
     Slowly she crept up to the vial and picked it up.
     Suddenly alarms rang out.
     Lelix swore and ran out of the door. She skidded to a stop at the first sign of guards. She spun, seeking an escape. Everything was blocked.
     "Abort, Geab, abort. I've been captured," she said.
     "No, Lelix," Geab said painfully.
     Lelix grabbed her gun and shot blindly. She ran towards the room she had come in through as gun fire lanced out. Leaping out of the window, she stashed the vial in her pocket.
     "Geab, I got it. I'm running towards....4th street."
     "Okay."
     Lelix ran onto the dark, dreary, wet street with the rain coming down hard. Geab appeared minutes later.
     "Where is it?" he demanded.
     Suddenly Lelix turned cold, realization hitting her like a bullet.
     "You only want this for your own benefit!"
     "Lelix, give it to me!"
      "No!" she stated, enraged. "I risk my life for this stupid vial of crap! It's been three days! I will probably return to Xenfornia jobless. I almost got killed!"
     "Lelix-"
     "I hate you! Just stay away from me!" On a whim Lelix grabbed the vial and threw it to the ground, smashing the remains with her boot.
      "No!" Geab cried.
     "Just leave me alone," Lelix said as she turned, tossing her drenched hair over her shoulder and walked away.
 

(I don't mind if you post this on another page, or print it out or put it in a ‘zine, just write me a short letter telling me where it's going.  I would appreciate feedback, but even I'm a lazy bum, so I won't be offended if you don't comment.  Thanks for taking time to read this.)

 My mother had looked over her shoulder from her position to the side of the window, whispered one word to me in the ancient dialect, *ahkari*, go.
 I was scared, my heart pounding in my chest, my voice lost.  Mother had only spoken to me in the ancient dialect when it was an extremely serious situation.
 When I was six, she scolded *guila*, behave, at my grandmother's funeral when I tried talking to my dead grandmother, and when I fidgeted in my seat. When I was fourteen and she caught me kissing the boy next door.  That's when she really exploded. *bil o gjo bn gnok ad ti diala?*.  Do think that low of yourself? *Fio dfirna nidk bloa jpod!*.  You have been spoiled, no one will marry you!
 Mother never understood that times change.  Kissing the boy next door wasn't disgraceful.  Talking to your dead grandmother at her funeral was cute.
 She had cowered in fear, looking out from behind the threadbare drapes, telling me to go, go and never come back.
 An ornate carriage had been waiting outside for me to take me to a man I had never met, so I could be his wife, his slave.  I had checked my appearance in the mirror, making sure I looked appropriate for the journey.
 *ahkari!*
 Fiercer now.  She had grown impatient, wanting me to leave before she regretted what she was doing.  Mother knew I would never see her again, that I would likely become the subject to a marriage that would fall through the cracks and end up with many concubines.
 “Go, now.  Bear many sons,” she said softly.  “Remember to be strong on the inside, soft on the outside.”
 That piece of advice was the only one I was touched so deeply by that I remember her expression, tone, the way she looked when she said it to this day, twenty years later.  I went to that man I had never met before, married him, bore him one son and one son only.
He got his concubines, I got my sorrow.
 One day I sat in the sitting room, a knife against my wrist, when my mothers words came back to me.
 I dropped the knife, stood tall, became strong inside.  I remembered who I was before the marriage, who I was when I was independent.  I ignored the concubines because I was his wife.   I stayed out of his way, and I led my own life, with my friends and tea sessions.  I stayed this was until he died, his concubines became greedy for his estate, and I got it all.  All because I was his wife, and not the cheap mistress I had ignored.
 My son grew up and married.  On his wedding day, I approached his wife-to-be.
 *Nok ij hui no plau yrd niw bud sgu neo sh tou,” I said to her lightly.
 “What does it mean?” she asked.
 “Remember to be strong on the inside, soft on the outside.”

    Rubina Soulsinger walked with Yuger Junally through one of his shops. It was dusty and musty and it was a little hard to breathe, but so far Rubina liked it. It was two stories with living quarters on the second level and a decent sized area on the first level.
    "If you open up the windows and clean up a bit, it's ok," Yuger said coughing. "It's two-hundred-and-fifty gold coins."
    Rubina's face fell.
    "I don't have that money on me now," she said sadly. "How about five payments of fifty?"
    Yuger thought a while and then nodded.
    Rubina dug out fifty gold coins from her pouch and handed them to Yuger.  Yuger pocketed the money and walked away.
    Smiling, Rubina opened the windows.

    It took Rubina a week to clean the store and living quarters out, and another to get settled in.  The store was dark, with the windows covered over by vines and the only light source were candles on every table.
    Rubina's shop consisted of a large cabinet behind her counter, a table in front of the counter, a table by the windows, a table near the stairs and one by the back of the store. She sold an assortment of candles, incense, chalices, candle holders, books and other religious needs.
    She supplied for various religions, ones like the Sisters of the Flame, who danced around bonfires in the forest and worshipped the Goddess of Fire, Amet, and other religions like the Russans, who were an all male religion that worshipped the God of War, Russ, they lived by Russ's book and were a warfaring religion.
    Rubina was recording a shipment of candles one day, when a group of ten women silently walked into the store. They wore black velvet robes with a silver embroidered UD on the sleeve, symbolizing them as Urza's Daughters.
    "May I help you?" Rubina asked.
    "We need one Urza's Chalice, ten white and black candles, one red one, a half pound of ansil herbs, and a bottle of Urza's oil," the priestess said.
    "Ok, the oil is over there," Rubina said pointing, "Candles over there, and the chalice is over there. I'll get the herbs."
    Rubina squatted down under the counter and opened the jar of ansil herbs. She scooped out about a half of a pound off herbs into a bag and pulled the drawstring. She straightened and placed the bag on the counter.
    "Won't you need a leather bound, power charged book?" Rubina asked. "Because this looks like the preparation for an initiation ceremony."
    Ten pairs of eyes turned to her as one.
    "How did you know?" the priestess asked. Rubina didn't answer, not wanting to reveal that she had come to this town to escape her life as a Daughter of Urza. "Never mind. Where is the book?"
    Rubina turned and pulled a leather bound book from the cabinet. She placed it on the counter.
    "Seventy-five gold," Rubina said.
    "That's a lot," the priestess said.
    "Ansil isn't native," Rubina said.
    "Very well, then," the priestess said handing Rubina the gold.  The group was leaving when a group of Russans came in. They both immediately stated hissing and chanting spells.
    Nothing happened.
    "A Circle of Protection," a Daughter of Urza hissed.
    The Daughters left in peace.
    The Russans continued to walk into the store.
    "May I help you?" Rubina said.
    "One Book of Russ and one sacramental dagger," a man said.
    Rubina turned and searched through the cabinet. She found the book and, turning, placed it on the counter.
    "The sacramental daggers are over there," she said, pointing to the table near the stairs.
    The group, except the priest, examined the daggers.
    "A Circle of Protection was a smart idea," he said to her. Rubina continued to inventory the candles.
    "I thought it would come in handy, and it did," she said, not looking up.
     A man walked over with a simple dagger in hand.  Rubina looked up.
    "Sixty-five gold," she said. The priest paid her and ordered the rest to wait outside.
    "Going to Blood Moon festival?" he asked.
    "Maybe," she said as she placed the items into a leather bag. "But, then again, I don't like the Blood Moon, the bright, round moon is too powerful."
    "I have one more question."
    "Yes?" she said, looking up.
    "Why were you not afraid of Urza's Daughters?"
    "I used to be one," she simply said.
    "You were wise to get away," he said and left.

    Rubina slept fitfully. She knew that the Daughters knew she used to be one of them. The Daughters of Urza haunted her sleep, and the next morning, Rubina made a simple decision to leave before they got to her.
    Two miles out of town, though, they attacked her.
    "Light to Darkness, beyond bounds of time, where day and night, birth and death, joy and sorrow meet as one, journey between worlds! This circle of protection is cast," Rubina mumbled quickly to herself, casting a circle of protection.
    "Fool," was hissed at her. "You will have to close this circle some day. No magic may be done in a circle!"
    Rubina opened her eyes to stare directly into the priestesses eyes.
    "Perhaps in your religion, but not in mine!" she said. Rubina raised her arms. "Arentha, Goddess of life, death and rebirth, I do summon and stir thee! Aid me in vanquishing these demons that do this world harm!"
    The floor of the circle seemed to disappear. The Daughters of Urza dropped, screaming their way to their death.
    Rubina lowered her arms and said softly "Thank you, Arentha, peace be with you. The circle is open, but never broken!"
    Rubina slowly walked away. She walked to find a new life, once again.