If I had learned anything over my second week in Precept Seram's Implementation class, it was that five pounds weighed far more than it should have.

My second set of assignments had been nearly identical to the first, only the weight of the little metal square had changed. I had been told of the increase, and seen how it was slightly bigger than the one that had been left on my table from the week before, but I had not truly known the difference until I had tried to push it.

Branch bent, and the memory of The River Eae's ever moving waters held in my mind, I had been confident that I would succeed without any of the failures or disappointments that there had been the week before. I had been wrong of course. It had taken me nearly all day to find the strength to push the weight to my teacher's pastel blue line. The loss had brought me to the floor and my afterglow had kept me there crying, but I had done it nonetheless.

Pulling and sliding the weight from side to side had been just as difficult. By the time I had reached the final class of my second week, I had barely reached the heavier version of the lifting assignment. I knew Precept Seram could have answered any questions if I had asked them, but everyday I had been in my place with one of her bubbles hanging over me, my mind had been somewhere else.

It had been in dozens of places actually, and none of them were behind the clean white curtains of Precept Seram's classroom.

It had taken Anna a full two days to recover from her sickness. When I had not been by her side, getting her food or insisting that she did not get up, I had been Katarina.

I had been in Lun Arcancil as her, but it had been in a part of the school that I had never seen with my own eyes. I had fought more shades with her terrible blade, that time with Rhiannon instead of Garm, whoever he had been. I had eaten meals, laid down to sleep, and woken up as her. Every night I would enter The Well and call her name. In the pages of her book, inside her memories, I had felt the pain of her injuries, the power of her will, and the care she had for everything she did.

Sometime in the middle of the week, it was the day that I had almost passed out after I had tried too hard to slide my weight from right to left, nothing had happened in the memory that I had entered.

Katarina had been getting ready for something. She had been nervous and had brushed her hair out for so long that it was a small wonder it had not fallen out. Having seen her reflection in the tall mirror that had been in the corner of wherever she had been, I knew that anyone who had known her would notice Alexei's resemblance to her immediately.

They both had the same stark white hair. The color of their eyes were not the same, but the fierce looking shape of them was. Though the line of her jaw was not quite as severe as my wolfish featured guards were, she still managed to look just as intimidating as he did.

She was modest too. All she had been able to think about when she was getting dressed was that too many of her sisters liked to wear such little clothes. It had not been out of distaste or disgust. I had been able to feel the overwhelming love she held for Mother Glim and whoever Broh-Lei was. She just could not understand letting herself be that exposed.

All of the memory had been her trying on different dresses, brushing her hair, changing clothes, almost making it out of the door, and then turning around to start the process over from the top. Wherever she had been going and whatever else she had been doing in any of the memories, something had become very clear to me.

I liked being Katarina.

Other than the desolate nothingness at the back of her book, Every time I had come out of her memories, I had wanted to right back in.

It felt good to be her.

How light on her feet she felt and the way her graceful movement made it seem like every step she took or move she made had been meant to happen. Even if she was exhausted, upset, or injured, there was a certainty to her thoughts that made everything seem so simple.

I had begun to wonder what Ire would look like with white hair or how it would feel to hold the rapier from the hall of conquest in my hand.

Being in her memories was so much different than any of the others, and I did not really understand why. It could have just been her, that she was what was different, but I didn't believe that.

At the very least, the fact that I did not have to worry about her coming and throwing me into some unimaginable punishment made me more eager to learn about her.

She would not hurt me. Based on the state she had been in within the memories at the back of her book, she could not hurt me.

It would not matter if my admiration for her continued to grow. It would not matter if I learned all the small details of her life, because I would never have to see her as my punisher.

And the best part of it all, was that viewing her memories made Anna happy.

Her attempt to understand The Mothers and The well through her books and my memories was furthered every single time I got to be Katarina.

That was what we had planned for that evening.

With no class the following day, I was going to view as many memories of the former Mother in Blue as I could. When I grew too tired to continue, we would go to bed and sleep as late as we wanted to the next day. When we did wake, we would have our date and there would be no sickness or mad dashes for bread necessary.

After my last pathetic attempt at lifting the heavier weight had left my arm shaking and my knees weak, Precept Seram's perfectly pleasant voice called down from the little bubble floating above me.

"You seem to be less inspired this week, Underwitch Ire. Has something happened?" She asked.

"No. Why is it so much harder?" I said as I caught my breath, finally asking what I should have days before then.

"Progress is rarely linear. You may find your next set of assignments are easier than your second is proving to be even though they should be more difficult." Precept Seram answered.

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"That doesn't make sense," I said as I stood and stretched my aching arm above my head. "If my next set of assignments are the same as the first two, but with a heavier weight, and I have a feeling that they will be, they should be harder. That makes sense. If you told me that, I would believe it. How could they be easier?"

Precept Seram laughed. She had a habit of doing that when there was frustration in my voice, but I didn't mind. It was such a pure sound, so light and cheery, that I had never been displeased to hear it.

"In your time here, and whatever it is you choose to do when you leave Lun Arcancil, you will find that there is far more in chaos that does not make sense than there are things that do. Look at the wall in front of you, what do you see?" She said, the bubble she was speaking through floating down to my eye level.

"A wall?" I answered, confused.

"Yes, Underwitch Ire, but did you not break the grey stones it is made of with one of your weights just last week?" She continued as she circled the center of the wall with her bubble.

I had.

If I had been a little stronger when it happened, I likely would have broken through the wall and sent it into whatever lay beyond it.

I had been watching when Precept Seram had pulled it from the wall with her power.

My mind and memory were not the strongest parts of me, I knew that, but I also knew without any doubt that I had left a broken crater in the grey stone.

"How did you do that?" I demanded. I stepped forward and brushed my palm over the rough surface of the wall.

Not a crack, chip, or dent was to be found.

If I was not absolutely certain that I had been the one to break the wall in the first place, I would have no way to know that it had ever been broken.

"I did not. Lun Arcanicil repaired itself." Precept Seram answered as if she had not just said the strangest thing I had ever heard in my life.

I crossed my arms and shook my head in denial. "No. I don't believe that. You are trying to trick me."

I had seen all manner of strange things, both through the eyes of others and my own.

Mother Rhiannon had walked barefoot into a roaring pyre with no fear of the fire. I had been a body that was restored to perfect health from cinder and ash by the hands of Mother Nami. Arthur had been gored through his middle and was only alive because a lost little boy named Opa had swooped in to save him.

Knowing that all of those things had happened, my mind drew the line at self healing walls.

"Only a little," Precept Seram said through another laugh. "The structure itself does not repair itself of its own power. I only meant to have some small fun with you, my apologies. You are familiar with the glamor that conceals everything within Lun's walls, yes?"

"Yes." I said, thinking of when I had hopped back and forth across the threshold of the iron gates. With the memory of Lun vanishing and appearing recent in my mind, there was almost nothing she could say that would overcome my suspicion.

"My point is that without my understanding, the glamor and the working that has repaired the damage that was done to the wall both exist. They do function even though I cannot explain to you how they were implemented. Only The Mother in Blue knows those things." Precept Seram said.

I understood the point she was trying to get across, but my lips parted and a question passed through them before I could think about what I was asking. "Which one?"

"Which one? Ah, I understand. Which Mother in Blue is what you are asking."

"Yes." I agreed quietly, hoping that I had not upset her or invited her to ask questions that would eventually lead me to exposing myself. I liked Precept Seram enough that I did trust my ability to lie to her if I had to. She was my teacher, not someone that I had to protect myself from.

"I believe that I am safe in assuming that you have heard tale of Mother Katarina around campus. But how could you not? Every room and hall of Lun is marked by her touch. To answer your question, I was referring to Mother Katarina when I made reference to the workings. Before she departed, it was she who cast the glamor to protect us, and it is by her power that the wall has become whole again." Precept Seram answered, the tone of her voice washing away all of the momentary fear I had felt.

I had already asked one risky question and was nearly powerless to stop the second. "Where did she go?"

For what had to be the first time since I had met her, some of the brightness left Precept Seram's voice.

"If only we knew, she may have already returned to us." My bubbly precept sighed.

In the sad silence that followed, I had thought of a thousand questions to ask in response, and if Precept Seram had not changed the subject, I would have thought of a thousand more.

"Now, redress and come to the center of the room. I have announcements to make before you all depart this evening. Some of the others are already waiting." Precept Seram said before I could speak again.

I watched her bubble float out of my place and had to let all the unanswered questions leave me with a frustrated exhale. I pulled on my cloak, jacket, and horrible dress as Precept Seram had told me and left my place with my assignment incomplete.

My teacher was not floating above the ground in her bubble as she usually was. With every one of her pastel pink hairs in place and not a single wrinkle in her dress, she stood with her hands behind her back at the lowest level of the room.

Mallory and Vanda sat in front of her with two empty chairs on their right and two on their left. I went to the chair on the right. It was the closest to my place and the additional steps it would have taken to sit anywhere else likely would have left me on the floor.

Tana came out of her place a moment after I sat down. She was still buttoning the buttons of her uniform jacket and it brought me a small amount of joy that I was ahead of her in more than way.

As tired as I was, if we had come out at the same time, I would have ran to beat her to the seats.

She took the chair all the way to the left, which was coincidentally as far away from me as possible.

Plia was the last to reach the bottom of the classroom. Her thin blonde hair was visibly wet with sweat and she looked a shade or two paler than she had in the grey blue light of her aura the last time I had seen her.

I watched her eyes dart from the empty chair between Tana and Mallory to the one between Vanda and myself. For a brief moment, it seemed like she was coming to sit next to me, and I was embarrassed at how excited that made me feel.

Before she could take more than a step towards me, Tana reached up and pulled her down by her sleeve.

"As of today, we have reached the halfway point of your first cycle. Underwitch Mallory and Underwitch Vanda, both of you have improved greatly since your first semester. Underwitch Ire, Plia, and Tana, be proud of what you have accomplished. It has all been very promising." Precept Seram began just quickly enough to keep me from succumbing to the sudden impulse I felt to throw myself at Tana.

"Why did you say my name last?" Tana blurted out.

"Because it is normal to start at the beginning of things. Save your questions, we have an important matter to discuss." Seram answered, her eyes much more serious than I had ever seen them before.

The change in her tone was enough to set me on edge, but when she crossed her arms and squared her jaw, I became well and truly anxious.

There was a hard edge to her voice as she spoke. "One week ago, very early in the morning, a loaf of bread was found at the base of the singing stairs. Myself and the other precepts already know which of you is to blame. I would like to give you the opportunity to come forward and take ownership of what you have done. Breaking curfew is absolutely unacceptable, but your honesty will be taken into account when determining your punishment."

Her pastel blue eyes swept over all of the new moons as she spoke, but I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep myself still.

The bread had been mine, and Precept Seram knew it.

Mothers help me.

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