Perhaps outsiders like Marcus and Andreawould have been surprised to learn that the current Lord Admiral was not aswarthy, bearded old sailor but rath...r a lithe, imperious and beautifulyoung woman with a shock of silvery white hair kept in a tight braid andbright blue eyes. Jaina Proudmoore sat writing into a leatherboundnotebook, taking down the results of a late-running alchemical experimentwhen suddenly a faint series of hums caught her attention."Hmm?" the lady said with a slight yawn as. You helped me to realize that there are a lot of different depths to love… like the strong emotional ties you and I shared to deep, passionate, romantic love… which I discovered with Barbie. It seems she and Jonnie were right all along… Barbie told me that he’d finally made you see he was your true soul mate, and I want you to know that I really am happy for you as I hope you’re happy for Barbie and me. I’ll always care about you, Meggie… you are family after all, so I have to… ha, ha, ha (you. We do this to help each other if there is a local connection. With you living locally and also a student at our university, a story like this is wonderful copy. It is not often that we hear of a local who can retaliate to an attacker at all, never mind kill him with one blow!”“Do we really need that kind of flummery to keep local newspapers alive?”“Sir, it is not flummery! This is genuine heroism, where a man being stabbed can manage to protect his friends so swiftly and so successfully. It is. It just wasn’t the same with them not up there with Jessie. I mean - we all know Jessie is by far the best singer of the lot of us but those twins are pretty red hot themselves and they know it. They also just love their singing and I know they just love being a part of the choir - so not showing up with no explanation and no warning - none of us even had a text message from them - well, it’s just weird!”Little murmurs of agreement flittered around the room then died down before Gerald Claxton.