ing Darren was drumming his fingers impatiently on the arm of his throne. When Kat and Erick appeared, he jumped up.
"Finally!"
Without another word, he strode out into the pavilion. Kat and her mother heard the herald hastily announcing him to the crowd, and the cheer that followed. Smiling at her mother, Kat offered her arm. With a laugh, Courtney took it, and they walked out onto the podium together. The royal family stood together as the knights introduced themselves, and declared their desire to be Kat's champion. Kat was hiding a yawn behind her palm when the last knight stood before them and raised his visor. Kat caught a glimpse of merry blue eyes, and was startled when he winked at her.
"And a new champion, from the country across the sea, Lord Marc!"
There was scattered applause, and Kat startled.
"Marc?" she whispered to her Mother, whom was sitting on the other side of her father. "As in, from last night?"
"Yes, dear. That Marc."
Kat sat back in her seat and watched as the knights took their positions.

***

The tournament took the whole day. For the first time in her 18 years of life, Kat actually watched the tournament with interest. Marc swept the field with a funny sort of little twist of his wrist as the lance hit his opponent. By the break for lunch there was only 5 competitors left - which was more than a quarter less than usual. It seemed that Marc's skill with the lance had hastened the competition rather severely.

The food was plentiful and people wandered over towards the tables where a second banquet was presented. Erick arrived with a plate of food.
"Care to join me, my Lady?" he asked, teasingly.
Kat smiled, and stepped down from the podium.
"Yes, but we have to stay near by. Father has this rather oddly paranoid obsession that I'm going to be assassinated, and insists that I stay in eye-shot when in public."
"I'll protect you," Erick replied quite seriously, seating her at a table and placing the plate in front of her.
"That's sweet," Kat replied with a smile. "I'm not going to eat all this."
"Yes you are!" Erick laughed. "Be back in a second."

There was a clank of armor, and Marc sat on her other side. Kat turned, and smiled.
"Hello there."
"Hello."
"You didn't tell me you were in the tournament."
"I didn't know," Marc replied with a laugh. "My *dear* cousin Daru entered me, and neglected to tell me until this morning. At which point he taught me how to joust..."
Kat laughed, and Erick looked over. Returning to the table with a second plate of food.
"Marc," he greeted him. "You and I are going to have a little talk later about certain illusions and flowers."
Marc looked slightly guilty, and excused himself to return to the jousting yards. Erick shook his head, and engaged Kat in conversation.

By the time they'd finished lunch, the tournament was about to start again. Kat returned to the podium, and watched carefully. Despite the fact that all the knights were wearing the same armor, Kat thought she could tell which was Marc. It wasn't really anything physical... More that he seemed to be surrounded by a soft blue nimbus of light.

Marc won the tournament. Kat jumped to her feet with a big smile.
"Marc won!"
"How can you possibly know that?" Courtney replied, puzzled.
Kat didn't reply, but instead stepped down off the podium, and walked towards Marc, who was walking towards the podium, as tradition dictated. Kat threw aside tradition, ran up to Marc and slid her arms around his neck.
"This would feel a whole lot nicer if I wasn't wearing all this metal."
"We can take it off later."
He raised his visor and smiled at her.
"Now what if this hadn't been me?"
"I know it was you," she replied, and kissed him.
The King spluttered a little, but the Queen just smiled. Marc kissed Kat back. Erick scowled a little from the sidelines. The sorceress appeared at his elbow.
"We have to move. Can you take Kat to the cave tonight?"
"Already?"
"Yes. He is moving faster than we thought. He must have some way of getting information that we don't know about."
"Is she ready?"
"To control her power you mean? To tell you the truth, I'm not sure. She is the chosen one, so I'd hope so. She seems to be equally strong is each of the four elements, meaning that it's fairly likely she'll be our center... But I think I'll have to take her to the elders for training. There simply isn't time to complete her training properly in this plane. The wizard will move before we're even half way done, and we need Kat if we're going to defeat him. You know all this. The point is, we need to move. Can you do it?"
"Yes," replied Erick, simply.
"I'll tell the Queen."
And the sorceress melted back into the crowd.

***

The entire court was talking about Princess Kat's uncouth behaviour at the tournament, so Queen Courtney was grateful for the break the sorceress provided. She was less happy when she heard the news the sorceress brought.
"Already? But it's so soon..."
"I know, my Queen. But the time has arisen."
The queen sighed, remembering all the joy her daughter had brought her.
"Take good care of my baby," the queen said, and walked silently to her room, where she closed the door and burst into tears.

***

Erick arrived to take Kat to the cave late that night. She'd been crying all afternoon, but her resolve had settled by the time Erick walked through the door. She had packed a bag and was cuddling Jade when Erick opened the door. He hugged her for a long moment.
"Come on, let's go."

They arrived at the cave at 10 minutes to midnight. Daru, Marc, and the sorceress were already there, standing in the four corners of a circle. Daru was in the East corner, the direction of the element air, powers of intuition. Marc was standing in the North, which was the direction of earth, powers of stability. The sorceress was in the Western corner - water's direction, and emotional quarter. The 4th corner, for fire and passion, was empty. Erick led Kat to the middle of the circle, and kissed her forehead, then took his place in the South corner of the circle. The sorceress raised her hands.
"It is now time to remove the seal. Call the quarters and release the magick."

Kat still looked a little bewildered.
"Journey to where?"
"Why, inside yourself, of course."

***

Kat remained in the cave with Daru, Marc, Erick and the sorceress for two weeks. They took turns in tutoring her in their element, mastering the basics, summoning and controlling elementals, controlling the physical elements, shape-shifting, and then doing all of the above without touching the physical element. Although Kat was a fast learner, it still took a long time, and she spent vast amounts of time in the realm of the elders, mastering the elements.

During one particularly long session with Marc, Kat lost her temper. She released it in the ways she had been taught how - pillars of flame shot out from the violently shaking earth, howling gales of wind whipped up waves of water from nowhere, and all seemed focused on the spot where she and Marc were standing.

Then, suddenly, there was nothing. The elders had stepped in. Marc looked slightly shaken.
"Now I see why you didn't want her working for the bad guys," he said, trying to brush off his shock and residual fear.
The elders tone held traces of what could have been amusement.
"I think you will agree she has mastered the four physical elements?" they said.
"Oh yeah," Marc replied with a small laugh, still looking slightly windswept.
"We shall gather the others."
The was a brief pause, and Erick, Daru and the sorceress appeared.
"What is your opinion of this child's mastery of the elements?"
Kat listened as each in turn vouched that she was able to control their physical element.
"Then it is time," the elders said. "We shall take her for her final training. Akasha."
Two vague silver forms appeared beside Kat, one on each side, and took her arms.
"We shall meet anon."
And Kat and the shimmery forms vanished.

***

Back in the mortal realm, Marc stood up and stretched his legs. Erick, Daru, and the sorceress came over, and they stood together in a small circle.
"How long do you think it will take?"
"I don't know," the sorceress replied. "Akasha is the most difficult element to master, as it isn't physical. I hope she in finished in time."
"Relax, my love. You know time travels differently in the higher realms," Daru comforted her.
"Yes, I know, but it still moves. If it stopped, it wouldn't matter. She could take as long as she needed and everything would be fine."
"I don't think you need to worry. Think of all the time we put in teaching her in the elders realm. There was easily two years worth of study put in there - if not more. And it's only been 2 weeks on the mortal realm."
"That reminds me," Daru said. "We should go out, find out if He has made any more moves against us."
"You are right," the sorceress replied. "We all have to check our contacts. Should we meet back here at this time tomorrow?"
"Yes, 24-hours should be enough time to gather the information we need."
The group parted company and went to gather information.

***

Marc walked through the front door of his house, only to be met with chaos. The furniture was overturned, and there wasn't a person to be seen. Furious, Marc strode through the house.
"What is going on here?" he bellowed.
There was no reply.

***

Daru met Mel, Mark, Lainy and Mikey in a grove near his home. He listened attentively as they filled him in on what had been happening the past two weeks. It seemed the wizard had been gathering his minions to him in preparation for an attack, but had not yet struck. The Queen had been despondent since the disappearance of her daughter, but the nation did not yet know.
"Also, we have discovered how the wizard knew your plans," Mel said. "You see..."

***

Erick went to the castle, and in through the kitchen door. The kitchen staff were all talking about the disappearance of the princess. Apparently she had gone to stay with her aunt and uncle for a few weeks, but there was still talk. Erick gathered the information he needed, and went to see the queen.

***

The sorceress moved from house to house in a quiet fashion, trading medicine and advice for information. She gathered quite a lot on the general state of the village, and was pleased to note that nobody had, as yet, noticed the disappearance of the princess. The sorceress did notice, however, those she suspected of working for the other side were missing from town.

She spent the day at her home, helping those that came to call, but as night fell, she closed shop and went back to the cave. Marc was already there, steadily wearing a track in the floor.
"Marc, what's wrong?"
He looked up.
"Finally! We have to do something! He's got her!"
"Calm down... Who?"
"Adrienne! The wizard has my sister!"

A bird swooped in from outside, and landed at their feet. It shimmered and changed form into Daru. He removed a feather from his robe and tucked it into a pocket.
"I have some bad news," he announced.
"I have worse," interrupted Marc. "The wizard has my sister!"
Daru sighed.
"I'm sorry to have to tell you this Marc... But your sister is a traitor."
Marc sat down suddenly.
"What?"
Daru explained what Mel and the others had told him. Erick walked in, just as he finished.

"You mean he seduced her?"
"Yes. I'm sorry, Marc."
Marc was getting angry.
"That's *my* sister!"

It took the combined efforts of Daru, the sorceress, and Erick to calm Marc down again.
"We have to be rational," the sorceress said. "He *wants* us to be angry. How are we going to deal with this?"
"We need Kat," said Erick. "We four together can hold him off, but we need Kat to defeat him."
"Erick is right," said Daru. "The question is, what do we do now? We can't strike without Kat, and we can't hold him off unless he attacks, and I don't like the thought of sitting here doing nothing."
"None of us do," replied the sorceress. "But it would be foolhardy to attack him now. We are all weakened at the moment, and we still don't know his plans."