Disaster. Absolute, total, complete disaster. Those were my thoughts as Mercith continued to explain.

Directly after the original sundering, both worlds were geographic duplicates to one another. However, with different forces at work in each, the geography developed in a completely different manner. Continental drift, growth patterns, development of civilizations, all were completely different. The world no longer fit together as neatly as a jigsaw puzzle. This Adept planned on forcing the two worlds together, overlapping two totally different landscapes, lives, sciences.

This dark Adept's plan was to heal the rift and reunite the worlds. Both cultures, at this joining, would be thrown into chaos. Complete and total chaos. Everything that anyone thought they knew would be totally wiped away. Those of MageRift would be introduced bluntly to technology, those of our world, Magic. The land forms would change, volcanoes would erupt, earthquakes would ensue, mage-storms would rage, nothing would be the same. In the resulting chaos that ensued, this dark mage would seize control of the one world, neither technology nor magic alone would then be able to stop him or the power he would gather from the resulting chaos. His power came from chaos, darkness, and everything discordant. His music was that or disharmony and his desire for the continuation of chaos would rule over the joined land, and it would literally become, hell on earth.

I was scared. Completely and truly scared. We had to stop him before he succeeded in healing the rift, otherwise there would be no hope.

Serinalth moved silently, effortlessly blending in with her surroundings. She became one with the mountainous and wooded land around her. She ground her teeth and drew her bowstring taught, her eyes focused on the stag who moved slightly, eating some of the soft green leaves abundant in the area. She was just about to release, certain of her kill, when she felt a sudden chill, like she had never felt before, and the stage took off in a panic. It was only the flight of the animal that made Serinalth sure she was not imagining things, for she had not moved even a centimeter and there was no other cause for alarm.

A fear like she had never felt before gripped Serinalth. In all her life she had never met anything she could not best. Serinalth had trained herself well, she could outfight, outfox, outrun and outshoot any creature, man or animal, she had ever met. She had never had anything to fear but fear itself, and the prospect of her own failure, something she never allowed herself to do was fail. But this, this feeling of absolute menace, inhuman coldness, seeming to such the very life, joy and pride out of her, left her with the urge to tremble, something only stopped by her exquisite self-imposed conditioning.

She never saw it, but she soon realized her training saved her life, and she once more blessed and cursed her brothers, and the iron maiden which they inadvertently forced her to become, as she heard the dying squeal of the stag as it went down to the creature of cold.

Serinalth did not move until many hours had gone by and even her well trained muscles had begun to tremble with fatigue. It was only then that her frozen heart had begun to thaw and she could once more think coherently. She stealthily moved once more through the wooded rises, once more in the direction of the fleeing stag. She knew the beast was no longer there, the cold was gone, the only mark it left was the frozen trail upon her memory.

Or so she thought, until she found the stag.

The whole beast was there, Serinalth was sure every piece could be accounted for had she bother to look, but she did not feel up to looking through the pieces scattered through the trees and underbrush. Blood and gore was everywhere and even Serinalth, who was no stranger to those things, was sickened by the sight. She did not know what sort of creature had cause the absolute wasteful destruction of the animal, and she had no desire to know. She allowed herself a shiver, a momentary lapse in control, but refrained the surging of her stomach from overcoming her.

Serinalth schooled herself and continued with the hunters age old tradition of honoring the hunted. She modified it slightly due to circumstance, making it more of an apology than a thanks, but honored the stage none-the-less. It had not deserved the fate it had received. Hers would have been a clean kill. She enjoyed the hunt and the kill, but hers was for survival, and she never wasted what she earned. She did not prolong the agony of helpless animals like many. People was another matter entirely, however. For them, she had no more respect. She was closer to the animals she hunted, than the men with which she ruthlessly shared her bed.

Serinalth rose from her crouched honor for the stag and continued on her way to her present home, empty handed. It was rare that she returned such, but she found that day an exception.

She walked through the wooden frame of the door and proceeded to undress and clean herself of the blood she had not noticed clinging to her. She went on with her normal routines, ignoring the man passed out cold from beer, laying across her makeshift bed.

It was hard. Oh so very very hard. Here I was, playing psychologist to Zac while trying to refrain from killing him, trying to actually build a relationship with him and figure myself out, still vainly trying to absorb the fact somewhere along the lines of "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," and to add to that all, I just found out that a strange surge trying to equalize the forces of magic had manifested in both worlds, bringing Zac and me across the bonds of space and reality to come and save the world. Pardon me, both worlds.

And to top it all off, I was starting my period with the nearest manufactured pad or tampon literally a world away.

I was to put it lightly . . . ready to scream and kill something. Or cry my eyes out on Zac's shoulder. But, being me, I did none of the above while dealing with all of the above. I could only fervently thank Tarissa for her little tip on managing my period with the available materials, wish vainly for a pad (I promised myself that if I ever got hold of some, I would appreciate their full luxury), and try to figure out what the heck it was I was doing. I took a deep breath and concentrated.

Mercith had explained to Zac and myself why the world had suddenly appeared somewhat different to the two of us. Apparently we were like two links in a key, once put together, they can turn and unlock the way to magic. We could work separately as well, but not nearly as efficiently. When we sang together, the joining of the "two keys" had fully triggered our mage powers. Apparently, we were now fully able to see and use our powers. The only problem left, was leaning how to use them.

Mercith had decided using our powers together to start with would cause surges too powerful for us to control in the beginning. We had technically dealt with the powers before, but the issue here was control and learning, not the massive use of force. That would come later, and ONLY with control.

Right just then, I was supposed to be looking for the energies I knew to be there. I closed my eyes and "looked". I found it easier to "see" with my eyes closed. It enabled me to not look so much at the physical aspects of things, but rather to see the way they were entwined. I very nearly gasped as I finally got the hang of it. The "colors" were stunning and as I tuned into the the music of the world around me I did gasp in wonder. The music I heard was overwhelming and the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. It filled me with a joy so intense I had never felt the like. I felt all my worries washed away in its natural rising and falling, so complex in its music with the millions voices and sounds joined together, woven intricately, each its own tune but somehow joined into one. I felt myself swallowed in the enormous cloud of life, but I did not care. I was just a part of this wonderful thing around me and I ached to just flow with it forever, to become a part of it. I soared with it, and I fell with it. I loved it and I became part of it. I felt the being that uniquely Melliandra slowly falling away and I longed to be free and beyond.

I felt something tugging me back from the swirling music and what was left of me struggled against the bounds trying to gather me back. It was like an annoying fly buzz in the beauty and I tried to brush it off, but it would not go away. Slowly I was dragged back together and put back into what I realized as my own tune, my own chorus of many voices. It was two different other melodies that were putting me back, I realized and more of my own melody came back to me and was put in place. With shock I recognized one. I had never really heard it before, but I knew it instantly. The realization of who it was brought me back with a cry.

"Zac!"

Zac watched Melli as she schooled her featured and prepared to enter the realm of music full on for the first time. He had done the exercise already, and had been lulled by the beauty of the music. He found his musical training had helped him enormously, he had no trouble holding onto himself in the swirls. It had shocked him when he heard what was his own melody combining with the others around him. He had followed it and explored it until her had been more sure of himself in this new realm of magic. He had a hard time grasping the concepts at first, it had gone against all he had grown up with an believed in. His faith in his religion was being seriously shaken, and what he had blindly believed in before he was suddenly questioning. It was a boost to his self esteem to have found new courage in the face of the overwhelming symphony of music, it was a new thing, and it was nice to be good at it, but he was still in an inner turmoil none-the-less.

He watched as Melli followed the same paths as he had. But he soon realized that something was wrong. He didn't know what, but a panic began to rise in him, and a fear for Melli.

Suddenly she slumped where she sat and Zac rose and ran over to her. She had a smile on her face but was barely breathing. Zac didn't notice the glowing of Melli's ring or that of his necklace in his panic.

"Melli! Wake up Melli! Please wake up!"

Mercith came over to them and pulled him off her. "Calm my friend. I did not anticipate this, but I suppose I should have. You had more training than her. We have no time to waste. Sit and and join with me."

Zac was so afraid for Melli that he complied, though he wanted to shake her until she woke, or use some other physical means to get her back. He didn't know what was going on.

Suddenly her felt Mercith's presence, a deep and calming melody with sprightly flourishes of staccato fire, firmly but gently combine with his own melody, a thundering, pulsing stampede laying over and disguising the soft, pure music of a running brook. Slowly, together, Mercith guided Zac into the Symphony, grasping at familiar threads here and there and Zac realized what they were doing. They were bringing the pieces of Melli's own Melody back together. He saw them being slowly drowned by the other melodies, drawn in to become part of them rather than their own essence. He struggled to be independent, taking the lead from Mercith's example and reaching for the melody of Melli, which only he knew for she could not help him. He reached for the soft, flowing weave of joyous trills, spring rain and flowing water, overlaying a barely heard, low, uncertain rumble which occationally mounted with courage.

He found her and he brought her back. As he built her up, even and she resisted, she realized vaguely what happened and clung to herself, helping him. Somehow she recognized him and snapped back to him crying his name aloud.

That was true music to his ears.

Zac rushed to her side, and in the symphony which they both heard still, they heard their melodies twine as he touched her. They surged together, Melli's rain and deep water joining Zac brook and feeding it, Zac's thunder joining Melli's rumble and strengthening it. Their new song rose above all the others and its combined strength and compassion surpassed anything they had ever experienced. Each strength complimented the other's weakness, beautiful because of its imperfections and supports. All the intricacies twined together. Thundering proud and tender, sweet and harshly raw, courageous and uncertain. All the stronger because of its weaknesses, all the stronger because of the pure human essence of it.

Finally, the song died down, though it was still there, barely heard on the edge of consciousness.

"Oh dear goodness," Mercith said quietly, a strange sad look on his face, "Now I truly know why you are here. Melli nearly got Symphony-lost but you saved her, never having really heard her melody, you knew it. Together, you two . . . I've never seen anything like it in all my years. Never. That wasn't supposed to happen," he shook his head sadly and sighed, "I wish I had known. But I suppose it was inevitable considering the power of love you share. There is just one grievous problem: now the enemy knows your power."

Mercith sat and put his head in his hands, suddenly showing many of his years in his solemnity and defeat. He feared for the pair before him. He no longer had fear for the earths, he had no doubt that together Melli and Zac could save it, though he would not tell them so much, nor let them take this lightly in the least, for it was still a grievous matter, but he feared for something else entirely. He feared for the two people before him and prayed that the things they would have to do to accomplish their goal would not destroy them nor the unheard of melodies, beauty and love they shared together. He hoped that maybe they could prevent each other from taking the path Mercith's old friend took years before the rift, before he became the enemy.