The need for me to find some way to sharpen my memory had never been more desperate than it was with Tana standing over me with her finger pointing at my seal.

She could not know the truth, but for the life of me, I could not remember the lie my mother had told Sorceress Twila in the training room.

"It's, uhm, a mark," I stammered, very aware of his obvious it was that I was panicking. "My mother. It's from my mother. She has one too."

"But what is it?" Tana demanded, her curiosity evidently still not satisfied.

I kept my eyes locked onto hers, trying my best to not see up or past the too short robe she was wearing. There were many parts of me that I wanted only Anna to see, and there were many parts of Tana that I did not want to see.

Defending myself from her hatred would be impossible if every time we came into conflict I thought of her with her clothes off.

"It is time to go, Underwitch Tana. I hope that I do not need to explain to you how rude you just were,"Precept Seram said as she stepped onto the raised floor from the doorway. She took the front of Tana's robe and pulled it shut before turning her away. "It is as I told you outside. How would someone pointing at your body and demanding to know what something is make you feel?"

I did not know if Precept Seram knew about me before she had walked over. The way her eyes widening suddenly when she glanced down at the seal told me that she had not. Had she recognized it as The Mother's work? Was this mistake the beginning of the end of my time as a new moon? Mother Azza had been very much not herself the last time I had seen her, but I knew her well enough to know that she would not sit around quietly if my identity started being called into question.

"Not good, but look at, how could I not be curious?" Tana groaned as Precept Seram herded her through the open door.

"Get some rest, Underwitch Ire. We will return shortly." My teacher said in her perfectly pleasant tone as she slid the paper door shut behind herself and left me alone.

The moment I heard it click shut, I let out a sigh that was so deep and so weary, that I feared part of my soul had slipped out with it.

Tana would never leave it alone. She would fill the other's ears with questions and suspicions about why the black haired underwitch had nine colored circles on her stomach. She had been obsessed with Sam since the first time she had laid her eyes on his big blue tortoise shell body. I knew in my heart that she would not let it end without bothering me about it again.

The only thing worse than them thinking I was crazy, was them thinking that I was a liar and that I was keeping secrets from them.

I was, of course, but I had preferred it when they had not known that.

Waiting on the bed roll for as long as I could to be sure that my teacher and classmate were gone, I threw myself up after not very long at all.

My stomach did not actually feel ill. I had never felt sick after going through a black gate, and I had not known that could happen until Precept Seram had said something about it.

I did feel hot, uncomfortable, and sad, but the causes of those pains were no mystery to me.

Unlike the other new moons, I took the time to be absolutely certain that I was not exposing myself to anyone before I finished undressing and shrugged into the robe.

The relief from the thick heat was immediate once I was free of my tights. I tied the robe right around my waist, like it was meant to be worn, instead of leaving it hanging open and enjoyed the feeling of the coarse fabric on my skin. If I could only snap my fingers and change the material of my uniform dress to what the robe was made of, I could dress like everyone else instead of having to wear my tights.

My discomfort began to fade the longer that everyone else was gone. It wasn't that the other new moons weren't pretty or that they had done anything wrong, but I had almost never been around them outside of the classroom. Suddenly seeing them undressing had caught me off guard, that was all.

The sadness that I felt could not be remedied so easily.

Unless I miraculously learned how to open black gates, I would be unable to go to Anna until I returned from Silkcradle, and I did not anticipate my skin turning pitch black or finding a chained restraint to put on before then.

Instead, I took my bag from where I had lain it down on the wooden floor and slung it over my shoulder before making for the door. I kept my fingers on the frame as I slid it open because I was more than a little scared of breaking the paper panels that it was built of.

Alexei was waiting for me outside, leaning back against the building with his hands resting on the ends of his swords as they always were.

"I am going to go to the beach," I told him, hoping that he would not disagree with me. My desire to go feel the sand on my feet was not worth wasting all the good will I had tried to earn from him, but it would make my heart hurt even more if I could not. "Alone. I won't wander off or get into any trouble, I promise."

My white haired guard looked down at my extended pinky with absolutely no expression. "I am not your father. You do not need my permission."

"Thank you, Master Alexei." I said with a small bow.

I left him where he leaned and set off for where the ocean met Silkcradle.

There was a gentle breeze that blew against me as I went. It carried that same sea salt scent that I had smelled earlier and I felt the last of the tension from before leaving my body as I breathed it in. The sand was warm, just as I had hoped it would be, and was so soft on the bottoms of my feet that I walked all the way to the water's edge before I stopped.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I could not find the moon amongst the uncountable stars that filled the night sky, but I watched its silver light wash over my ankles with every gentle wave that broke against the shore.

The water had no end that I could see, but I knew that it must end somewhere. Other islands, wherever Zenithcidel was, all the places that I had seen within The Well, they had to be out there somewhere. They didn't just exist inside my mind. There had to be a near infinite amount of shores just like the one I was standing on that led to a near infinite amount of places.

Even though I had literally just dipped my toes into the water, I wanted to see them all.

The aching in my heart aside, being locked in a room for most of my life had left me with a deeply rooted yearning to wander.

I would just have to bring Anna with me if I wanted to enjoy it.

Backing up just enough that the incoming waves would end at my feet, I sat down and unbuckled the little bag that she had sent to me through Alexei.

Save for a folded note and a clean pair of underwear, the bag was completely empty.

I took out the note and unfolded it before reading it to myself quietly.

"If you are reading this," I read with the rhythmic wash of the waves underpinning my quiet voice. "You're probably sad that you aren't with me right now."

I laughed a little laugh and continued.

"I know I'm great and nothing feels the same without me there, but try not to be too sad, dummy. Fill this bag up with stuff and bring it back to me, I deserve a present. See you soon," Every line of her writing that I read came with the sound of her voice in my head, down to the final word. "Anna."

So small that I almost put the note away before I noticed it, there was a single line of tiny letters at the bottom of the page. "P.S. We are going on our date after next week, and I'll fight anybody that tries to stop us."

A certain warm feeling filled the ache in my heart and spread through the rest of my body. The corners of my mouth spread into a smile that I could not resist and the full feeling brought me down onto my back.

Without thought, I held my left hand up to the starry sky and let a small azure firework loose from my palm.

It burst blue above me and brought memories that I intended to make more of as soon as I could get my hands on the raven haired girl that had written the note.

The remnants of my little working rained back down onto me and the sand around me. I closed my eyes and tried to hold onto the fullness for as long as I possibly could.

Seeing her again was only a day away, but from where I was on the beach, that felt like a lifetime.

Sometime after, I could not be sure how long exactly but my feet had become all wrinkly, I sat up and ran my fingers through my hair.

Sand, blue dust, and a single piece of the paper dragon's confetti came tumbling out of Ire's black locks. Anna was right, she did deserve a present. I would fill the bag like she had asked and the little piece of white paper made a perfect thing for me to collect first.

Once it was in the bag, before I could buckle it back shut, an all too familiar feeling came over me. The hair on the nape of my neck stood on end and I realized that I was being watched.

I turned my eyes away from the moonlit ocean and found my watcher immediately.

Twice as tall as I was when I stood on the tips of my toes, a mass of fluffy fur sat beside me.

Well, it sat in the air beside me

Its big bushy tail, ringed in a pattern of black and grey fur, floated less than a foot off the ground. The bag of its legs and its claw tipped toes did the same despite the creatures massive size.

"Hello." I managed to squeak out, terrified at the thought of something so large being able to sneak up on me so silently. Reflex alone drove my mind to the outer edge of my aura, but I did not focus it or bring it to my palm.

Alexei had not appeared in my defense. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was watching me. The fact that he had not meant that I must not be in danger.

My watcher turned its face down to me and I looked into its eyes with as much bravery as I could harness.

"Sparkles" The black masked beast said in a high pitched voice.

"Uhm, is that your name?" I asked, realizing that I was speaking to one of the familiars the new moons had come to try and adopt.

It sighed a very sad sounding sigh. "No. You make sparkles. Blue."

It was talking about my firework.

"Yes. I did. Did you like them?" I asked nervously. Having a familiar like Sam had done absolutely nothing to prepare me for meeting or dealing with any others. I had learned that both times that I had come face to face with one.

"Wrong color," It said with a grimace that showed its sharp teeth. "Have bag?"

I looked down at the bag that I held in my hands and nodded in agreement. "Yes. I have a bag."

It grimaced again and stretched its clawed fingers out towards me, each of them twiddling against one another in obvious anticipation. "No. Taloo have bag?"

It was asking me for my bag.

"Uhm, I need to keep it right now. Is that okay?" I asked with my eyes held on it, knowing that I could not give it to him. Anna had sent it to me with instructions to fill it, he might as well have been asking for my arms.

"No," It shook its head. "Please?"

It took me a moment to summon the courage to answer. I did not want to hurt the familiars feelings, he was being very polite, but I could not give it to him.

"Taloo, that is your name, right? I am sorry, but someone very important gave this to me and I cannot let you have it." I finally answered.

The black masked beast nodded in what I hoped was understanding, but it did not withdraw its hands.

"Hand?" It said.

The ocean breeze blew against us both and relief that it had stopped asking for my bag came along with it. The man who had been our guide had said several times that we were all safe on Silkcradle.

Precept Seram would not have brought us there if we would have been in any danger.

She had promised me several times that she would never put my life at risk despite my own familiar's urgings.

"You want to hold hands?l I asked as I shifted my weight over the coarse sand and offered Taloo my right.

The massive familiar took it and I felt myself float up off the ground. In a matter of moments, I rose higher and higher until I could see the impression I had left on the beach far below me.

"Taloo! Put me down please!" I cried out, holding onto him as tightly as I could with my right hand and clutching the bag against my chest with my left. Familiars had powers of their own, I knew that better than anyone, but I knew the weightlessness I felt would not prevent me from breaking against the beach if the mass of fur decided to drop me.

"Have bag. Then down." Taloo said in his high pitched voice, taking me higher and higher with little to no effort at all.

I had been worried about hurting its feelings when I should have been worried about it hurting me.

Safe? I wasn't safe at all.

The sight of Alexei sprinting towards the coast was enough to tell me that.

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