"See that?" Darken said, waving his arms toward the immediate distance. "That's my house."

"No Darken," said the dark haired woman sitting on a rock, watching the animated angel waved toward his "house." "That is a hole in the ground. There's a great deal of rocks and mud, but I don't see a house. Not even if I squint very hard. So, unless you're hiding it somewhere . . ."

Darken smiled slyly. "Cyan," he said. "Of course you don't see a house . . .it's not finished yet. But this is where it's going to be. It's my dream. Well, not mine anymore. Mine and my wife's."

Cyan Indigo blinked. Darken has a wife? She thought. She brushed the hair out of her face and continued to watch Darken. In her mind she tried to reconcile this with the young boy she had met five years ago.

She blinked twice. It wasn't working.

"Well," she said. "This is the first I've heard of it. When did you get married?"

"I'm not married yet, Cyan," Darken said.

"Why not?" Cyan replied. Now she was thoroughly confused. But Darken had never been exactly clear to her . . .not even when he was younger.

"It's complicated," he said very shyly. An embarrassed redness crept across his snow-white skin. "Let me tell you about it . . ."

Darken Blackangel was 15 years old the first time he met Cyan Indigo. He hadn't meant to, of course. He had been sent to fetch water from the wells at the far edge of the temple, and had found none. The days had been long and hot, and their small tributary from the river had dried up.

Darken had followed the river back to the mouth of it. It was framed by a gigantic waterfall. Darken ran happily to it. He took his boots off and dipped his feet in the water.

It feels so good after being in the heat, he thought, setting the buckets he had been carrying next to him on the riverbank. He lifted some of the water to his face, and thought about the way the river was flowing.

Backwards, he thought. Now what kind of river flows backwards into a waterfall?

He stood up in the water, his small black wings knocking one of the buckets into the water, it flowed backward, back to the waterfall. Darken jumped in, figuring it was shallow, but after taking two steps, he fell in up to his neck.

Unconsciously, he beat his wings, trying to fight the current. It was no good though. The last thing he saw was the waterfall, a great shimmering curtain looming in front of him. Water filled his lungs, and he was horrifed at the thought he might drown. Then darkness passed before his eyes.

"So," Cyan said. "You're in love with a fire goddess? That's . . .rather strange, when you consider it."

"I know," he said, blushing. He spread out his overcoat and sat on it.

Cyan watched him with brown eyes that almost seemed to be golden in the midday sun.

"You haven't told her, have you?"

"It hasn't come up," Darken said. "Never mind that I haven't seen you for five years, and I've already inadvertently made her jealous twice."

Cyan got a wicked smile over her lips. She gestured behind her back. A huge drop of water appeared over Darken, drenching him in water.

"HEY!" Darken cried, his black hair matted to his face. "What was that for?"

"Oh," Cyan said, laughing. "Just because, really."

"Oh good," Darken said, trying to fan the water off his face. "As long as there's a reason, I guess. You know, the funny thing is, if I hadn't got drenched like this before, you might not be free."

"You mean, when you sneezed fire?"

Darken looked wet and embarrassed.

"I didn't sneeze fire."

"Yes you did."

Darken sighed. "You have an amazing attention to detail," he said. "Especially all my embarrassing ones."

"Well," Cyan said, crossing her legs. "It was really funny."

Darken laughed. "Well, maybe it was. But I get embarrassed when I breathe fire."

"You're half-dragon," Cyan said. "Isn't it part of your nature?"

"Yes, but when I sneeze?" Darken asked. "Besides . . .it's wasn't the fire that freed you, remember?"

Darken was very cold, very wet, and wearing a bucket on his head. He sneezed gently inside the bucket, then took it off his head, looking around and praying no one had seen that.

He looked around, noticing several things. One, the cave inside this waterfall was lit--by torches. Second, the carvings in the rocks were a lot like the one he had seen at his master's temple.

He looked ahead of him and was struck at once. He put a hand in front of his face, let his eyes focus and started in sheer disbelief at what he saw.

The wall was ice--no, crystal, Darken found, laying his hand on it. His nose began to itch uncomfortably. Uh oh, he thought.

"AH-CHOOOOOOOO!" Darken said, breathing a brilliant stream of fire against the crystal wall. He hard the crystal crack and an outer sheet fell away, revealing . . .a girl.

No, Darken squinted. A woman. Human. She lay sleeping in the crystal wall, her eyes closed as though she were taking a quick nap. He had never seen anyone dressed like her--all she was wearing was black and blue, in a style he wasn't familiar with.

Darken rapped at the crystal. It was solid. No way she could breathe--not that she appeared to be breathing at all.

Darken didn't know why it was necessary to imprison a woman in solid crystal, but he ignored it, and tried to fill his buckets with water. He was about to leave, when he noticed one of the buckets was leaking.

He groaned and kicked it away. Great, he thought. By the time I get back, I'd have let all the water leak out anyway. He looked back at the woman in the crystal.

He looked down at the water, scowling at it. He screamed in frustration.

He heard that same familiar crack in the crystal, and his head snapped to look. The sound had broken the crystal, all the way to her. Her eyes opened.

Darken nearly jumped out of his own skin.

She looked at him, tried to speak, but couldn't. There was something in her eyes, Darken thought. She needed his help. But wasn't she locked here for a reason? Maybe he should just leave.

He looked back. No, he thought. I was always taught to help.

He walked back to the crystal wall. "I'll help you," he said.

Uhm, wait a minute Darken, he thought to himself. How do you plan to help her? You can't scream forever, someone might come, so how will you break her out of all that crystal? Sing?

Darken blinked. That would work. Kael had taught him to pitch his voice to whatever level he had needed by singing, and he had been doing it as he walked to the stream.

He stood before the crystal wall and began to sing. The song was "In The Shadow of a Wave." His mother's favorite. It was a song of hope, and loss, and time and tide, and how the waters of fate would carry even a lonely ship home.

He began to feel the vibration from the crystal, and carefully pitched his voice so that it would shatter it.

The crystal began to vibrate then exploded. Darken covered his face with his wings as crystal blew outward. The woman feel to the floor, then rose to her feet.

"Oh thank god," she thought. Her voice was like honey, and Darken couldn't stop looking at her. "I forgotten how good it felt to talk. And who are you?"

Darken started at her. She looked at him, cocking an eyebrow. She leaned down to look him in the eye. "Hey," she said. "There's not anyone else here, cherie. I'm going to guess that you're the same person who busted me out?"

Darken nodded, his face red and his throat sore.

"And would you also be the one who sneezed on it?"

Darken tucked his chin against his chest and hid his face. He turned a bright red. She giggled, her laugh a soft arpeggio.

"I'm Cyan Indigo, ma cherie," she said, offering him her hand. He looked at it, not knowing what she meant for him to do.

"Do you have a name?"

Darken nodded. "Darken Blackangel," he said quietly.

"Well," she said, "Now that we're formally introduced, I want to thank you for freeing me, cherie."

"Why were you in there?" Darken asked.

Cyan furrowed her brow. "That's a good question. To be honest, I don't even really know where I am."

Darken tried to explain to her, but she looked at him, nodding as though she understood, but really too kind to say he had lost her after "Well, it's like this . . . "

"What was the name of that song?" Cyan asked. "I only heard the end, didn't I?"

""In the Shadow of a Wave,"" Darken said. He had made a small fire and dried himself off. "It was my mother's favorite song."

"Did things break when she sang it?" Cyan asked.

"Not really," Darken said. He walked over to the rock she was sitting on and sat. She moved next to him, nestling in his arms. Darken looked down at her, and thought of how much like his beloved Romanova she was. No wonder he had fallen for her.

She looked up at him. "What happened to your mother?"

Darken sighed. "She was killed when I was very young," he said, his voice nearly breaking.

"I'm sorry, cherie," she said. "I didn't mean anything by it."

"It's okay," Darken said, his shoulders hunching.

"But I tell you what," Cyan said, trying to change the subject. "I'll make it up to you. I owe you one anyway, for letting me out, don't I?"

"I guess," Darken said. "But I never held you to it."

"I never forgot what you did for me Darken," she said. "It meant a lot."

"It must have," Darken said, smiling again. "I remember how you thanked me."

Cyan hugged him close to her. Darken rested his head on her chest.

"You're cute," she said. "And thank you for getting me out."

"Mmmph," was all Darken could say.

"Hey, cherie," Cyan said, lifting him up by his hair. "Don’t stay there too long. It's kind of impolite to stare."

Darken blushed and looked up at her. "You're beautiful," he said simply. His blue eyes looked clear as the water in the caves. She touched his face gently. Darken looked at her shyly. Cyan smiled a bit, leaned over and very gently kissed him.

Darken stiffened, then relaxed a bit. He hadn’t kissed anyone before--not ever, and certainly not like this, but it felt good. She held him tightly to her. It seemed to go on forever, but, like all things, it ended.

Darken was beet red and nearly fainted when she let him go.

"Now," she said, smiling. "This is where you say "You're welcome, Cyan."

Darken fainted.

"So," she said. "Why did you call me here?"

"I need help with my house," Darken said. "I wanted to live here in the mountains, but I don't have any water springs. I only need a few."

Cyan smiled. "Is that all?" Cyan smiled sweetly. You've got them.

"Well," Darken said. "It's not all. I did want to see you again."

"Why?"

"Because," Darken said shyly. "You were the first girl I ever fell for."

"Darken, you fainted."

"You were the first girl I ever kissed."

"Shame," Cyan said. "You were a great kisser. I wonder if you've had time to get better?"

"I wanted your blessing. Maybe have you come to the wedding."

"My blessing?" Cyan said. She smiled a bit, and looked at darken. Not the shy kid she remembered but as the man he had grown into. "You've got it. But I can't come to the wedding. I'm leaving, cherie. And I won't be coming back."

"Leaving?" Darken asked.

"There's a whole universe out there I haven't seen," Cyan said. "I'd like to see as much as I can."

"Yeah, so Phoenix tells me," Darken said. His eyes looked sad. "Still . . .I'm glad to see you once before you left, I guess."

"What about you?"

"Me?"

"Haven't you ever wanted to see the universe outside here?" Cyan asked him. She touched his face very gently.

"Not really," Darken said. "I just want someone to love, a place to call my own. I've got the latter, but I need your help for the former. Will you?"

Cyan looked at him. Her brown eyes looked golden to him, just as they had in the firelight of the cave, so long ago. She wrapped her arms around him, and held him close.

"Yes, I will."

Cyan woke Darken up with a deluge of water, but not so much that he would sneeze fire again. Darken woke up, soaking wet. Cyan noted his discomfort and waved her hand over him. The water versioned, his clothes and skin were dry again.

He looked up at her. "You kiss by the book, you know," she said, smiling.

"What?" Darken asked. He touched his clothes.

"How?" Darken asked.

"I'm a water goddess, I guess you could say," Cyan said. "I'm really not even supposed to be here, wherever that is."

"I've never seen a goddess," Darken said. The naivete in Darken's voice made her want to laugh. "How do you do it, magic?"

"No," she said. "More like this. Watch."

Cyan raised her hands, and a blue glow appeared around her. Darken watched as the river changed course back to the way it should have run all along. The glow faded, and Darken looked at her with what he would alter say was utter awe.

"Amazing," he said. "Really. You could help so many people with what you can do."

"That's what I'm supposed to be doing," Cyan said. "But whoever imprisoned me has put me way behind, don't you think, cherie?"

"Yeah," Darken said. His eyes looked past her to his bucket. Oh oh, he thought. "Oh no . . .I didn't get the water."

"Don’t worry about it," Cyan said. "With the rivers flowing the way they're supposed to now, that should keep you well supplied."

"How do you know?"

"I'm a water goddess, Darken," Cyan smiled. "And I think I should get going now . . .gotta figure out how to get back to where I belong."

They walked out of the waterfall, Cyan very helpfully bending the water away from them.

"It was nice meeting you, Cyan Indigo," Darken said, looking up at her. "Will I see you again?"

Cyan looked at him, her eyes seeming to say "No." But then she smiled, and had a thought. "Hold still, okay Darken?"

She held a finger over his left eye. Darken was a little scared, but didn't move. A single tear fell from his eye, onto the tip of her white glove. The blue aura returned, and suddenly the tear was a swirling vortex of water.

Then just as suddenly, it snapped into the shape of a rose. I looked like ice, but when Darken took it back, it was something else.

"When you need me," Cyan said. "Use that."

Darken held it close to him.

"I hope we see each other again, cherie," Cyan said, walking into the water. "I think I'd like that."

"Me too," Darken said, waving. Cyan seemed to merge with the water. Twin helixes of water enveloped her, and in a blur of liquid motion, she was gone.

Cyan stood over the hole where Darken's house was going to be and raised her hands. She looked back at Darken.

"Darken," she said. "Can I ask you a favor?"

Darken walked up to her. "Sure, what do you need?"

Cyan smiled. "Sing the song?"

Darken smiled, nodded, and blushed.

As he sang, Cyan reached into the core of the Sphere, summoning the water up. It bubbled up, punching through the crust of the world. Cyan closed her eyes, listening to the song. My god, she thought. Darken's actually turned into a good singer.

Darken sang the song as best he could, as perfectly as he remember his mother singing it. And, in fact, with a touch of his own sadness and loss, because despite the distance and time between them, he would miss Cyan when she left. But it did him some good to know that part of her would always have a home in his heart.

Cyan lowered her hands. Darken walked up to her. She looked up at him, crying. Darken was too.

"Thank you," he said.

"Thank you," she said. "It's a lovely song."

Darken held her. "I'm going to miss you."

"Even if you haven't seen me for 5 years?"

"It all came back, I guess," Darken said, embracing her tightly. "It's hard not to care about you. Take care of yourself, Cyan Indigo. I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too, cherie," she whispered. A final tear sparkled as it fell, hitting the ground and forming a shimmering puddle. Cyan stepped into it, and the familiar swirl of water enveloped her, and she was gone.

Darken sobbed. It had been five years, but it hadn't mattered. He felt a bit sorry. Maybe he should have spent the time between trying to find her, trying to help her out a bit more.

Before he knew what was happening he felt a giant water droplet fell on him. He was drenched, He looked up, eyes with a familiar suspicion. He smiled, the tears washed off his face. The sun was setting now, over the mountains and the fields of heather in the valleys. Darken took it all in, breathing deeply.

Cyan, he said. Be well.