AXIUM

CHAPTER 11

XRenia woke the next morning and lazily stretched. Despite the hard floor and unfamiliar area she had slept surprisingly well. Normally she probably wouldn't have been able to sleep at all but with Verin sleeping on the other side of the room dreaming about her it felt like she was being lovingly caressed all night long. She let her eyes trail over to the spot where Verin had curled up but he wasn't there anymore. She languidly reached out with her mind towards him, to her dismay he had locked himself off from her again. Suddenly she felt wide awake as she called out, "Verin."

There was no answer.

She jumped to her feet and searched the entire area with her magic and as far she could reach out in to the magic soup but there was no Verin. He had left her again.

She leaned against the wall and slumped back down to the ground. She should have used her magic last night to chain him down while she had the chance. Now who knew where he was or if he was going to come back.

"Who cares. I don't need him anyway." She said out loud to herself even though she wasn't about to step outside without him at her side.

XRenia sat there moping for a few minutes then decided to do her morning web surfing to try to get him out of her mind.

She formed a scrying in front of her and connected to her favorite teenpop news site. To her horror there on the front page was a giant repeating image of her sobbing at the foot of the oak with the words written across it "Princess is rejected by Shepherd boy."

She shot to her feet as she stared down at the offending headline. How had they got that picture? No, how had she not felt she was being spied on?!

XRenia plopped back down and angrily scrolled the scrying. A second repeating clip appeared this time it showed Verin turning his back on her disappearing through a rift and her chasing after him with a forlorn look on her face only to have the rift slammed in her face.

"I did not look that upset!" She screamed. "They edited it!"

Enraged she flicked at the floating screen and a third picture came into view and this one had sound. Her eyes grew to the size of saucers as she watched herself shout at the sky. "You hear that Verin I don't care what you think of me!" Over and over again.

"Oh, now that just does it! I'm going to find whoever took these scrying's of me and kill him!" She scrolled to the bottom of the article and furiously looked for the author's signature. She found it at the bottom right hand of the artic. . .

A hand swept through her magic screen dispelling it. She pulled back and stared up. It was Verin!

He pushed another scrying into her face. "Read this one it's much better."

She was about to demand to know where he had gone when the title of the article caught her attention.

"Princess saves family."

The photoplay underneath it displayed her trademark fiery shockwave reaching from the pier out towards the sea.

Verin scrolled the scrying and she quickly read the column.

Apparently she had not only save the family but thanks to her ice bridge they were able to retrieve the underwater observatory recuperating thousands.

She flicked to the end of the story to see the father hugging his wife and their two children in front of them as they said "Thank you. We will never forget what you've done for us." XRenia watched it over and over and by the fourth time a small tear trickled down her face.