As Precept Seram kept her hard gaze on the new moons, I discovered that what I wanted more than anything else was to suddenly gain the ability to shrink down into my chair and disappear.

I wanted to be a little mouse sized Autumn, small enough that I could scamper out of the classroom unseen. Alexei wouldn't notice me in my miniature state. My white haired guard would stand there with his hands resting on the handles of his swords, more statue than man. It would take me much longer than I was used to, being little Autumn meant having little Autumn legs, but I would journey down the singing stairs and find my way to Anna and I's quarters. If I had suddenly discovered how to shrink myself, it only made sense that I would be able to do it to her as well. We would find some forgotten chest or crack in the wall to build our new little lives in. It would be much harder for her to turn the pages and she would grow tired from having to walk from word to word, but Anna would still be able to read her books. I would go from manipulating square weights to small bits of dirt and breadcrumbs, but I would still be able to train. We would feast for days on a single cut of meat and I would never run out of milk again.

It was a beautiful dream, cute, cozy, and completely impossible.

"Well?" Precept Seram asked aloud, the sound of her unusually hard voice bringing me back from my little fantasy.

Hearing her be anything but pleasant felt like finding a needle in the toe of my sock or sand in my bedsheets. She had been nothing but soft and comforting in my time. Discovering that she was capable of being rough was almost more unpleasant than the roughness itself.

You have to tell her. She said it, your honesty will be taken into account. I thought to myself.

Think. The Autumn I liked, the other Autumn in my mind, said in answer.

I am thinking, that's the problem. She already knows it was me. She already knows it was Underwitch Ire. I thought back at her.

If she knew, then why would she need a confession? The other Autumn asked in her calm and collected tone.

The other me had a point.

Precept Seram had just been in my place with me, talking openly and not getting angry at the very out of turn questions I had asked. If she had gone as far as to give each new moon a place of privacy to complete their assignments without the feeling of being watched and judged, why would she be trying to get one of us to admit our wrong doing in front of one another?

She wouldn't.

The other Autumn agreed. Truth.

Precept Seram stayed silent for another long moment before her expression softened and her the brightness in her eyes returned. "Forgive me, it was worth a try. But, I will remind each of you that you must not be out past your curfew. It is not a rule that is meant to punish you, it is meant to protect you, understood?"

"Yes, Precept Seram." Each of us answer in a loose collection of agreements.

"Spotless," She beamed back at us. "Now, onto brighter things. Following our classes next week, I have arranged for all of us to take a short trip off campus. I wished to tell you of it now so you may be prepared when the day comes."

"Where are we going?" Underwitch Mallory asked.

"Why didn't we do this last semester?" Underwitch Vanda added.

"Do we have to wear our uniforms?" Mallory asked a second question.

"Tana says she already knows, why did you tell her before us?" Plia joined the fray and asked.

"Do we have to go?" I offered a question of my own. Being away from Anna for my classes was one thing, but I didn't like the notion of spending more time apart. She hadn't been sleeping well and with her getting sick the week before, I needed to stay close to her.

"How long will we be gone?" Vanda asked her own second question.

I was not used to the classroom being so noisy, but the sound of all of our voices echoed off the walls and made it feel like there was a hundred new moons all clamoring for answers in the circular room.

Precept Seram did not seem to mind. She waited patiently for the torrent of questions to slow and then she answered all of them in turn.

"Here we go," She began. "I will not tell you. That would ruin the surprise. No two semesters at Lun are the same, all of you will learn that in time. Yes, you must wear your uniforms. Although, the temperatures will be cold and not as controlled as it is in Lun, so each of you might consider adding an under layer as Underwitch Ire has. I did not tell Underwitch Tana. It was she who had the idea in the first place and I would like to remind her that she has sworn to keep our destination to herself until we arrive. Yes, all of you are required to attend. Soon enough you will all be expected to work together much more closely than you do here and it will be a fine opportunity for you all to get to know one another. We will depart at the end of next week and return in the late evening of the following day. Understood?"

"Yes, Precept Seram." We all agreed again.

"Spotless! Are there any further questions?" She asked us all with her arms held open in a welcoming gesture.

"No, Precept Seram." We all answered.

"Spotless," She smiled and clasped her the white gloves she wore on her hands together. "Now, before you all depart, this is purely for my enjoyment. I have placed a hint as to the nature of our trip somewhere in the school. If any of you are to find it and understand what it means, come and tell me of it. If you are correct, I will tell you early."

Her obvious excitement bubbled out from her in a delighted giggle and I could not help but smile at the sound of it.

"Give us a hint!" Mallory demanded.

"The school is really big." Plia said sheepishly as she pushed her thin hair back from where it had stuck on her face.

"You left us a hint about the Ladies ball last semester and I still haven't found it." Vanda called out.

Precept Seram's giggle gave way to a full laugh. When she quieted back down, she gave us the hint that Mallory had called for. "It is within the library, in a place where you are your only company. That is intentionally vague, but all of you have sharp wits, you should be able to figure it out. You are all dismissed. Do not be out past curfew!"

Every new moon except for Tana and I seemed less than thrilled that Precept Seram's hint was hidden in the library. Tana did not need the hint if the trip was her idea, and the others all swore that the library was haunted.

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While I was in class, Anna spent almost every day in the very place that I needed to search. It took almost all of my restraint to not push past the rest of the moons and run straight down to where I knew Anna to be. It took even more of me to dismiss the thought that the trip itself was all an elaborate plan for Tana to embarrass me.

I let that horrible thought drift out of the front of my mind and waited for Alexei to reach my side. It was early, there was much more light coming in from the snowy landscape outside the paneled windows we passed. If Anna was not in our quarters, I would go and find her and see if she could help me with Seram's hint.

Alexei and I'd walk was a quiet one, but I had become so used to his presence that I did not mind. Though I still intended to slowly charm details and truths from him, I never felt the need to speak. There was no awkwardness or uncomfortability. The white haired man was my guard, no more and no less. Until an opportunity to endear myself to him presented itself, I would not force it.

When we were halfway down the singing stairs, he cleared his throat and directed my eyes to look back the way we had come with his own.

Tana stood two steps above me. Her eyes were the same color as the blue stoned necklace that I knew was pressed against the flat of her chest and she used them to give me a sharp glare.

"Where is he?" She demanded, her fists balled and her legs spread out in a ready stance.

She looked ready for a fight, like I was going to leap up from the crystal stairs beneath my feet and attack her.

"Where is who?" I asked in confusion.

"Master Samsara." She said.

"I don't know? Why do you care?" I narrowed my eyes and crossed my arms in front of my chest. She had no right to ask me about my familiar. The fact that she had was enough alone to make me ball my own fists in anger.

A tense silence settled between us.

Alexei stood at my side, his one white eye looking up at the stairs above and away from the conflict happening before him.

"He is sick." Tana spoke first.

It was a small one, but I still counted it as a victory.

Sam was a lot of things, but I had seen what being sick looked like very recently and I hoped with all of my heart that he would never need me the way Anna had.

"No, he isn't. I would know." I said in response. He was shifting wildly between his usual quiet contempt and the very new unbridled joy, but he was not sick.

"Plia said that when she caught you in the dining hall the other night that you said that your partner was sick. If you aren't taking care of him properly, you shouldn't have him." Tana said, the tip of her black boots coming dangerously close to taking another step closer to me.

I clenched my teeth,squared my shoulders, and ignored her question. "Why did you lie to her and tell her I was crazy? She is terrified of me!"

My voice came out a bit louder than I had intended and the way it echoed off the stairs felt much too harsh in my ears. I did not enjoy being angry. The heat on my face and the tension in my hands did not feel good. The honey haired underwitch had done far less wrong to me than many others had, but for whatever inexplicable reason, she grated against me like no one else did.

"You really aren't very smart are you? Because I don't like you. I don't know if it's because you are motherless or because you have something that I want, but I can hardly stand the sight of you." She shouted back as she took the next step down and the light of her aura began to glow out the top of her boots.

She had looked me straight in my eyes and spoke without faltering. Her posture was tense and the corner of her mouth was turned up in a smirk that I very much wished I could knock off her face.

In that moment, I could only assume that she meant to hurt me.

My power came to my palm before I could think to stop it.

I snapped my left arm out to my side and felt my bright blue cord begin to take shape.

Tana's eyes went wide in the ghostly light of the singing stairs. In one smooth and seamless movement, she stepped out of her boots by stepping on her heels and pooled her sapphire power underneath her bare feet.

She would have a very hard time using her channels when my cord was wrapped around her legs. Trees were not the only arrogant things that my power could fell.

I brought my arm back to strike her.

I could not bring it back again.

At all.

The first thing I noticed was the sound of my aura tinkling against the crystal steps underneath me as it fell to dust. The second, was the slight pain of Alexei's thumb nail pressing into the center of my palm. The third, was the fear in Tana's eyes.

"You would both do well to remember that using your aura and dueling are both forbidden. Underwitch Tana, leave." Alexei growled, none of his usual restraint on his face.

Tana shook herself as she backed away from me, the remnants of her aura leaving perfect outlines of her steps on the stairs. "That is why you are with her all of the time, because she can't control herself. Because she-"

"Leave. Now." Alexei commanded. He had not shouted, but the force behind his words felt much stronger than any raised voice could ever hope to be.

I did not see if she obeyed my guards command.

Tears blurred in my eyes well before my afterglow settled over me.

What would you have done if I had actually hurt her? What if you had split her legs like you did the trunk of those trees? You could have killed her. . .

Alexei turned me by my shoulders and pulled me into movement. If it had not been for his hold on me, the loss my already exhausted body took would have brought me to my knees. We passed people on the stairs that looked like a hand wiped mirror to my crying eyes, but it wasn't until we reached the hall that both our quarters lay on that we stopped.

He pushed me an arm's length away from himself but did not withdraw his hands until I assured him I would not collapse.

"Collect yourself." He said simply, his wolfish face emotionless once again.

"I didn't mean to break," I wiped my face on the back of my jacket sleeve, trying to do as he told me to. "the rules."

Alexei furrowed his brow. "I don't care about the rules. You've seen combat. Some sorcerer on the mortal plane if what I have heard is right. You've had a row with The Lady in Red too, right?"

There had been two horrid creatures made of hands and pale flesh before him, but if sinking my teeth into his throat counted as fighting, then my guard had heard right. I had not fought Trea, she had nearly killed me and would have if not for Rhiannon and the guards.

"The girls here, especially the new moons, they aren't like you. Most of them don't even know what it feels like to be pinched. I cannot allow you to do so, understand?" Alexei said, his voice low and steady as he spoke.

I sniffed and wiped my eyes again. "She's just so mean."

Alexei agreed with me. "Yes, she is vicious, but most people are when they are young. Now, collect yourself. The headmistress is waiting for you in your quarters."

"Mother Nami?" I asked aloud, beginning to feel like myself again. When it came to comforting me, my guard was nowhere near the top of my list, but I was glad he had been there. I disliked Tana greatly, but he was right. I could not let her anger me the way she had. For her well being and my own. Keeping my place as a new moon would be almost impossible if I left another underwitch in literal pieces on the stairs.

"The headmistress, yes." He said as he led me to my room.

"How do you know that?" I asked him as he opened the door for me.

The white haired man did not answer, he gently pushed me into my quarters and shut the door behind me.

The Mother in Blue sat on the floor by the fireplace.

Anna's books were spread around Nami in the same place that my raven haired partner had left them the night before. She wore one of the thin, loose dresses that she always did and her gradient blue hair was tied up in a knot behind her head. From within the wall of bindings and pages, she looked up at me in surprise at the sound of the door shutting.

"Underwitch Aubrey." She said as she stood, looking utterly strange in the place that I had seen Anna in so often.

Despite Alexei's urgings, I had not collected myself fully. So my words came quick from my mouth. "What are you doing here?

At least I wasn't bare naked and oblivious to her presence that time.

"Truthfully? I am hiding, but I do have a reason for being here. We have brought a twinsoul like yourself to give you guidance. You will meet with her tomorrow," She stretched her arms above her head and the lean lines of muscle that played against her dusky skin made me very conscious of how gangly I truly was. "You have been crying, why?"

My tears came rushing back to my eyes as I cried. "I dropped a loaf of bread."

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