**Note: As my story is still in the making, all names, places, and events may be subject to change.**

Eventually Faeryn stopped crying and tried to get to sleep, but her mind would not let go of the issue of Byerron.  This is not important, she told herself, he’s just an unusual man with a nice face, one who speaks treason.  But it was more than that.  He had more than a handsome face, he…he seemed so sure that he was right, and he seemed to know the truth of the situation.  And – what was it he had said – that he knew the Living God.  How strange, she thought, that a man could know a god.  And why would one god matter?  Were there not many, and shouldn’t they all be worshiped?  Surely this was a man with strange ideas, a man set apart.  And, now that she thought about it, she couldn’t quite remember how criticizing the high taxes was considered treason.  Couldn’t an ordinary laborer do the same, in front of the king, even, as she had seen done before, without being thrown in prison?  There should be no exception for Byerron.

            Faeryn paused in her train of thought and found herself on her feet, pacing as she thought, up and down the room in some vain attempt to set the situation right in her mind.  She forced herself to sit down, reminding herself that her father had directly told her to rest, but as soon as she picked up her thread of thought she was on her feet again, pacing endlessly across her apartments.

            If Byerron had been thrown in prison when another man would have gone free, then that meant her father had treated him unfairly.  And if her father could treat Byerron, who appeared to her a just and upright man, then what was going to prevent him from mistreating another?  Could he, then, really be oppressing the people?  Was all as Byerron had said? 

            Faeryn walked over to the window and opened the shutters, letting the cool evening breeze cool her skin and her mind as she stared off into the distance.  The more she thought about Byerron, the more important he seemed, and the more she felt that the way he was treated by her father reflected the real state of things.  She hated the idea, for if it was true it seemed to upset her delicately balanced life.  Before this she had always trusted her father, and it had seemed that her trust in him was deserved.  Now reality was forcing her to rethink all that she had taken for granted, and it bothered her to find that the number of things taken for granted was larger than she had thought.  If her father was wrong and she stood by him, then she was wrong also.

            It was then that Faeryn decided that no matter what was going on with her father, Byerron was getting an undeserved stay in prison, and she must go to him to set things right.  Surely it would be good for him to know that not everyone in Orotaek was against him.

            But, she thought suddenly, what would her father think of that action?  If he had thrown Byerron in prison, he might do the same to her!  She dared not go! 

Copyright 2008 Cherise A. Do not reproduce at all without my express permission. If you like what I do, you can link to me instead.