1A/N: This is a story about if Kel hadn't been able to stay and train as a page. But she had a life that nobody knew about before she went to train and she has no problem going back to. Kel doesn't make an appearance till the third chapter. I own nothing. It all belongs to the great and all powerful Tamora Pierce. (I am just so jealous she thought of it first.)

What You Let Go

Jonathan of Conte the King of Tortall sat in his throne room looking at the two Shang that stood before him. He hadn't heard what they had to say yet but the fact that they had called an audience with him was still strange. Yet it was a pleasant change from the war meetings. Even though the war was slowing down now thanks to the mysterious disappearance of the Scanran's killing devises there was still fighting and a lot of it. Once all of his advisors that could come were seated he motioned to the Shang to continue.

The oldest stepped forward. He was a man in his early fifties with brown hair and even darker brown eyes. He wore sensible fighting clothes and carried no visible weapons. "I am the Shang Panther and this is the Shang Raven." He pointed to the man on his left. "We have come to ask your countries assistance in retrieving one of our own warriors from King Maggur's dungeons." he said simply.

When he supplied nothing else Jonathan raised an eyebrow. "Why should we help you. Your kind have done us a great service before and still do and for that we are grateful but I must have a good reason to send warriors behind enemy lines."

This time it was the other shang that replied. He was much younger in his mid twenties. His muscles were visible through his loose tunic. He had a raven embroidered on the collar of his shirt. His dark hair and cold blue eyes that were now directed towards Jonathan made him shiver.

"We come here on the behalf of all the Shang community. Our numbers are not great enough otherwise we wouldn't have bothered with asking you. We need your help rescuing the Shang Griffin. She has done more for your county than you know and you owe her this. In my opinion you owe her much more but this is the only thing we want from you."

"I have heard tales about the Shang Griffin but I have never met her. What has she done for our country that we should owe her so much?" Jonathan asked.

"She is the one who got rid of Balyce the Gallan for you and his killing machines. She is the one who returned all your refugees that he had stolen from you safely. And she is the one that King Maggur hunted down and captured to pay for it." The Shang Raven spat out the words like they were poison.

King Jonathan sat back in his chair he glanced to his left at his spy master Barron George of Pirates Swoop. The Barron nodded his head. They were telling the truth. Tortall owed them something but he couldn't just send his whole army at Scanra full force for one person. "You said that the whole Shang community is willing to help? Who is this women that we owe her so much? Why would she not come to us for help when she went into Scanra to kill Balyce?"

The Raven met his eyes again. "Why would she go to you for help when you betrayed her once before."

Jonathan sat up in his chair. What were they talking about? "Please explain."

This time it was the Shang Panther who spoke. "It is a long and confusing story but I feel that it must be told for you to understand the gravity of the situation. I oversee the school that the young Shang come to when they are first brought into training. It has been located in the Yamani Islands for some years now and it was there that I first met Keladry of Mindelan. She showed so much potential and she was only three. She worked hard and was soon training with the older children. After being in training for five years the children were took on a trip to show them how other countries trained and fought. While we were in Tusaine Keladry became fascinated with being a Knight. After a long struggle with herself she asked her parents to send a letter to the King of Tortall her home land asking if she could participate in page training. Her parents got a letter back saying that she would be put on probation and then tested to see if she could stay. Like I said Keladry was one of our most promising students so we told her that if she wasn't allowed to stay that she could come back after a year and continue her training. I advised her that she should keep her training so far a secret. She didn't want to be any more different than she already was. After a year of training she was deemed unsuitable for the life of a Tortallan Knight. She returned to us and continued her training. She was made a full Shang when she was Seventeen two years ago. When she went through our version of the ordeal she was given a task. The way she explained it to me was that the god that ruled our ordeal ruled over that of all countries. Some have lost their chambers of have stopped using them. But somewhere in every country there is one. The god gave her a mission. She had to stop what Balyce the Gallen was doing. That there paths would cross and when they did she would put a stop to it. When she heard that there were refugee camps along your borders she knew how wrong it was to put them there and went to protect them. She knew they were just feeding grounds for the killing machines. The rewason she didn't go to you was because she didn't thin that you would believe her. I admit it took me months to believe her. She took about twenty shang with her and waited until she had news that a fort had been overrun and followed the refugees into Scanra. She recruited the villagers from the fief that Balyce had overrun and along with her Shang stormed the castle. She got out all of the refugees and killed both Balyce and Stenmun Kinslayer. She then burnt the castle to the ground and let noone take anything from it. She took your refugees back to the Islands with her and had their memories of her and the escape erased. She then sent them back on a boat to Port Legan. After that she lived in peace for a year until King Maggur had her captured." The man stopped and then continued. "After she left page training to continue with us something happened to her. She went missing for a week and when she finally showed up in the islands she didn't remember anything about Tortall. She didn't remember having parents or ever going to train as a page. She just continued as if she never left. She doesn't even remember what happened to her that week. Noone knows."

After he finished the room was deathly quiet. Jonathan had gone numb halfway through the story. Everyone had thought that Keladry had been killed by a conservative. Her family hadn't known what happened to her and he could still remember the day that they had buried an empty casket in her honor. Piers and Ilane had never said anything about her shang training. The letter that had been sent with her request for training had said that she had some training in the Yamani Islands. They had took that as what the court ladies used and nothing else. His mind was made up. But he had to see if the rest of his council agreed with him.

"Uncle Gareth?"

"Yes, we should help her."

"Gary?"

"I agree with my father."

"Raoul?"

"Yes."He let out a big sigh. This shouldn't have happened and he knew it.

"Alanna?"

"Yes."She replied. Her voice shook with rage. Her eyes were like boiling pots of purple dye and

her cheeks were flushed with rage.

"George?"

He shook his head yes and started to murmur something into Alanna's ear. He had perfected calming her down years ago but nothing he could say would calm her today.

"Myles?"

Myles remembered the soft spoken girl that he had once taught as a page. She was smart and quick witted but how long could a person last in Maggur's dungeons?"Yes."

"Numair?"

"Yes."

"Baird?"

"Yes." Baird couldn't help thinking of his son Nealan. He and Keladry had been best friends and it had taken him years to get over her death. What would this mean to him? Could he handle it?

"Wyldon?"

"Yes."

"And I agree. Shang you have our answer. We will help. If you will excuse us I will call you later when we are making our plans." Jonathan replied

The two shang bowed their heads and walked from the room.

As soon as they left Alanna exploded in a tirade of cursing. She got up and strode over to Lord Wyldon. "So she wasn't fit to be a warrior was she? Guess she proved you wrong. We could have had her on our side and she wouldn't be where she is today. Look at what you let go."

Lord Wyldon sat still and never moved a muscle even thought the Lioness was right in his face poking his chest and spitting on him. When she stopped ranting to take a breath he stood up and looked at the King.

"Sire, Please take this as my official notice. I am no longer going to continue with my post as training master. Keladry was a mistake. She was the best page that I had a hand in producing. And if that is true then I have no right to this position since I did everything to make her life harder and then forced her to leave after she proved herself better than the boys." He bowed to the king and left the room.

Jonathan was shocked to the core. Noone moved for ten minutes they sat there letting everything that had happened sink in. Finally Jonathan looked at George. "I want Pier and Ilane here as soon as possible." To the rest of the room he said "We need to take a break to let this settle in. Think about a plan and we will meet back here in two bells. Do not tell anyone yet we have to figure out what to do first."

So what did you think? I was bored of the stories were Kel comes back and is the best shang ever when she was only training for five years and she is the most beautiful girls ever, and everyone falls in love with her. This will eventually be a Kel/Dom thing but that will take awhile. I think that I spelled all the names right but I have the stupidest software it can't tell the difference between there and their. Anyway, this should be updated again soon so stay tuned.