> Twilight picked the ring up between thumb and forefinger and offered it
> to J'layah.  "Methinks you should be the one to return it," she said,
> dropping it into the young woman's upturned palm.  J'layah looked at the
> heavy band of gold and bloodstone as though it might bite her, then
> nodded reluctantly and closed her fist tightly around it.
>
> Both women looked up at the sound of approaching hoofbeats.  Balefire
> had returned, the rest of the party in tow.  By the look on his
> rage-darkened face he was ill pleased at having to retrace his steps, so
> J'layah took a deep breath and turned towards him, with what she hoped
> was her most winning smile.  It was time to face the music........

  Balefire reined in his mount and slid from the saddle, heedless of the cloud of dust
he'd raised to swirl about his comrades.  Brows drawn together in a fierce scowl, he
snarled, "What is it *now*?  By the gods, you try my patience...oh...my ring!
How...?"  The big warmage sniffed suspiciously, and peered at the pulsing signet ring
J'layah held out to him.  "You didn't...ah...wait!...I can feel magic, and the ring
pulses and glows!"

His gauntleted hand flashed out and snatched the ring, and he had his other gauntlet
off and the ring back on his finger almost too quickly for the eye to follow.  He
stared at the ring and muttered a cantrip, and the glow subsided.  His scowl turned to
a look of wonder and pleasure, he looked from Twilight to J'layah and back.  "This is
your work, I gather, Twilight.  Well done.  Doubly well done to have noticed that the
Art can be used here, when I had -- in my unthinking rage -- failed to sense it.  I
salute you, swordsister.  As for *you*, J'layah..."  He turned to face her, and strode
closer, his mailed fist raised at the height of her still-smiling face.  A rose
appeared in his fist, a perfect rose the exact color of his crimson eyes, glowing
slightly, drops of dew on its petals and leaves glinting in the desert sun.  Inclining
his head and sweeping his cloak behind him in a courtly bow, he handed her the rose and
stepped back.

"Please accept the rose as a token of apology, though it cannot compare with your
beauty, both of your face and of your heart.  I failed in letting my temper get the
better of my manners, M'lady. I have imbued that rose with some of my lifeforce while I
created it through the Art, and it will not wilt while I live.  I will make no excuses
for my ill-temper; mayhap Twilight can explain it to you. I only ask your forgiveness."

Turning, he strode to his horse and mounted again.  "I shall go and bring Mea back, for
I sense that it is indeed her behind yon bonepile.  Stay here in this pocket of
normality, and when I return we can plan our assault on the citadel."  Wheeling his
mount, he galloped off.

J'layah, bemused, turned speechless to Twilight, her eyes questioning when they strayed
from contemplating the flower in her hand.

Twilight laughed softly as she put her arm around J'layah's shoulders.  "Lord Balefire
is a fierce and strange man, J'layah, and he has been called many things, each with a
grain of truth.  Grim, relentless, ruthless, brutal, cruel, bloodthirsty...all true, at
times.  He is an absolutely implacable foe, and merciless in the main.  He has,
however, a kinder, gentler side, though it be buried deep and though he strives to show
it not, thinking it unbecoming a mercenary.  I know him well, for we have ridden long
together and fought  -- aye, and slept -- side by side for years.  He does no harm to
innocents, look you, nor will he suffer harm to come to them if he can help it.  His
rage was fueled by worry that having the ring would make of you the prime target for
our enemies...a place he prefers to have for himself.  Keep his rose, J'layah, and
withhold your judgement of him until you know him better.  He is a very complicated
man, our Balefire."

Wistfully, she murmured, "He never gave *me* such a rose..."