Disclaimer: Any recognizeable characters or places belong to Tamora Pierce. I just borrow them.
A/N: The things I come up with...anyways, this is yet another Kel gets kicked out story, but with a twist. It's set about a decade after the start of Page. Keep in mind that Kel is a very different person from who she was in Protector of the Small, and she's been through alot, so she's probably very OC.

PROLOGUE: Assignment

Standing by one of the Emperor's ponds, Keladry noh Narimou, formerly of Mindelan, watched her reflection, thinking of how she had changed in the years since she had left Tortall.

The reflection showed a woman of twenty-one, a lady of the Yamani courts. Her hair was bound back in a long braid; the reddish-brown color it had become was very evident in the locks that hung down in her face, framing her dreamer's hazel eyes. Her nose was small and delicate, like most of her features. She was very pretty, though she did not think herself so.

She wore a pale gray kimono under an over-robe of jet, which was embroidered with delicate white flowers at the hem and the sleeve edges. She really had become a Yamani lady.

"You may enter, now, Lady Keladry." The voice surprised Kel, who had drifted off in thoughts of her year as a page more than a decade ago. Her face became as smooth as stone as her thoughts of a moment before faded back behind her Yamani mask. She turned, noting the serving girl who had spoken, and acknowledging her with a nod. She stepped forward to stand before the intricately carved door. Her hand rested on the knob for a moment before she entered the Yamani Emperor's throne room.

Kel walked briskly to the dais, stopping in front and bowed, dropping to her knees and touching her forehead to the floor – a bow that was reserved for only the highest ranking of the Yamani royalty. After several moments, ones that seemed like forever to Kel, she rose from the crouch, sitting back on her ankles, and folded her hands on her lapShe kept her eyes averted, not out of respect, but out of nervousness. The showing of emotion was thought a sign of weakness among the Yamanis, and Kel did not want to be branded weak.

"Lady Narimou," the Emperor said, "it has come time that an ambassador be send to Tortall, as the negotiated marriage contract between Prince Roald and Princess Shinkokami has successfully brought a peaceful alliance to the Islands and Tortall. I have selected you. You know Tortall better than any of the others in my court, and you, though you are Tortallan yourself, are one of the most excellent examples of a Yamani lady in the entire court."

Kel jerked her head up, her face was as smooth as she could make it, but her eyes held disbelief, and her mouth was slightly open. "But, my lord, surely there is a better candidate for the position. There are many who know more than I about the land of Tortall. I lived there but a year and a half that I remember, and I am not, by far, one of the better examples of the Yamani ladies," she protested.

Had it not been for the fact that he never showed any emotion, the Emperor would have smiled at her."That affirms that I have made the right choice. I do not want a dignitary who thinks to highly of himself, that would run the risk of offending someone in the court of the Tortallan king. You are my choice, Lady Narimou, and you will go." With that he flicked his fingers toward the door, signaling that she was dismissed.

Kel bowed once more before rising. She walked to the door, still shocked. She had never wanted to go back to Tortall after Lord Wyldon had dismissed her, now she had no choice. She did miss Neal and her other friends among her yearmates, but going back…. that felt like rubbing salt in an old, unhealed, wound.

Until now, she had pushed her year as a royal page to the back of her mind, trying to forget the pain. Now she was reliving it again. The disappointment when Lord Wyldon had dismissed her, and what had happened after. The hurt she had felt for months after, and the hard choice to return to the Yamani Islands. Everything that had happened since then was flowing back, all of the hurt, and the little joy, everything.

Kel went directly back to her rooms, not to pack, but to get a hold of herself – her self-control was slipping, and she did not want any of the Yamanis to see her breakdown. Her thoughts drifted back to how she had become the Lady of Narimou, sole holder of an ancient fief.

The carriage was uncomfortable for Kel, dressed as she was, in a heavy brilliant silver silk kimono. She sat across from a man who was more than ten years older than herself. He looked very pleased with himself, from the Yamani point of view.

Kel had agreed to an arranged marriage only because it had been the best, and probably only, way to get her family out of the financial trouble that having four daughters in the Tortallan court, and one in the Yamani, had caused. Now they were on their way back to the fief – Narimou, or Thunder Mountain in Common – right after the ceremony.

The carriage jolted suddenly, throwing Kel forward onto the floor. There was a shout outside, and the clash of steel. She and Catsumi exchanged glances, neither bothering to hide their emotions, then they went after the weapons they had hidden in case of emergency during their trip back. Kel's glaive was gone, but his sword was still in place. As soon as it was in his hand, he shot another glance at Kel.

When he saw that her glaive wasn't there, he held up a hand, "Stay here," he ordered before stepping out of the carriage. That was the last time she saw him alive. She found it hard to just sit there while a battle, albeit a small one, was going on outside. She couldn't go out there unarmed, that would cost her life, probably rather quickly, and that was not something she intended to lose.

Catsumi had been killed not long before the fighting had ended. Kel would never forget that day. It was burned into her memory as the memory of Lord Wyldon's dismissal was. It was hard to think about that, but it was even harder to think that she was going back. Back to the place that had rejected her for who she was and who she wanted to be.