Why was it that I only realized how much I loved the ground when I was floating above it against my will?

If I ever made it back down in a way that did not involve my bones breaking and my flesh splitting apart from the force of my landing, I would never leave it again.

Walking? Not for me. I would slide and shuffle my feet to get wherever I needed to go. No longer would I insult the ground by leaving it with each disrespectful step. There would be a need for me to get used to sleeping on the floor, but I had been through harder things. It would be a small price to pay if it meant surviving the drop that was only growing higher and higher.

The black masked beast of a familiar seemed completely unbothered with the notion that he might kill me.

"Taloo, please!" I begged, my legs thrown around one of his and the bag pressed tightly between my body and its thick fur.

Still in the same sitting position it had been in when I had first noticed it despite the change in height, it gave me nothing but a demand in return for my pleading.

"Have bag. Then down."

That's all it had said in the moments since it had plucked me from the beach, and no matter how many times it repeated it, it did not make me feel any better.

My power pulsed against my seals, but I had no idea what to do with it. My chord could not slowly bring me down to safety. I could fill the sky with my fireworks. They would be pretty, but they would bring me no closer to the ground. Underwitch or not, there was nothing I could do.

"Down! Now! No bag," I shouted, risking a quick glance down to see if my guard was planning on doing any actual guarding.

Alexei stood next to the impression in the sand that I desperately wished I was still nestled in.

The white haired man was doing absolutely nothing. He didn't so much as call out or reach a hand up to me. It would not have done any good, but with it being the first time since he had been ordered to protect me that I was in actual danger, I had expected more from him.

The person that stood next to him was not content to sit idly by and watch my forced ascension.

The sight of someone else, the sight of someone doing anything, was enough to break what little composure I had left.

"Help!" I screamed with no reservation or restraint. It was a panicked sound, weak, like a wounded animal, but it was all I had left to do.

"Have bag. Then help." Taloo answered.

"I'm not asking you! You are the thing I need help from!" I shouted back at it.

The man next to Alexei called up to me as he began to swing something long and white above his head. "What does he want?"

"What?" I shouted back. I had heard him perfectly well, but for some unexplainable reason, I was having a hard time thinking logically.

"Taloo, what does he want?" The man shouted again, still spinning whatever length of rope or chord that was in his hands.

"Bag!" Taloo oh so politely answered for me.

Fasted and wider, the loops the man spun continued to grow. With one final heave, he leapt forward and snapped his arm up towards us with a shout. "Coming up!"

"No bag for Taloo." Taloo sighed and dropped his head as if there was not a screaming underwitch with a death grip on his fur.

I would have felt bad for him, if any part of me was still touching the ground.

A low whistle filled my ears the moment before the rope the man had thrown looped around Taloo and tightened me to his side. No part of me knew who he was or what his intentions were, but I had never taken something into my hands as fast as I did then.

The moment my fingers closed around the white rope, I realized that it was no rope at all.

It was silk, but not the kind that my uniform dress was made of, not the kind that made my skin crawl.

It was the kind that a very large creature that I had once met made. It was the kind that Mother Gwyn used to shift her shape into whatever she desired.

It was spider silk.

I didn't care what it was. As long as he used it to pull the black masked beast to the ground, I would not have minded if it was made of worms.

The man did not use it to pull Taloo or me down.

He used it to pull himself up.

Like a too taught boot lace being released from my fingers, the man's silken tether snapped short and drew him up towards us until he released it and jumped onto Taloo's back with no effort at all. His landing did not so much as shake me or the familiar who had taken me. He closed his hands on tufts of black and grey fur and hung right next to where I had been bound.

"Good evening, Underwitch Ire. Thanks for hanging in there. I've gotten old in my slow age." The man said, a toothy smile spreading across his face and shining out through his light brown beard. His tone alone was enough for me to know that he had meant his misspoken saying as a joke.

"That's not funny. I want to go down." I whimpered.

Tears spilled over my cheeks the moment I met the man's eyes and blurred his face, but I saw him nod and take on a serious expression.

"Right, right, right," He said softly before turning his attention to my captor. "Taloo, I know you would never harm one of our guests, but bringing Lady Ire into the sky is not very kind either."

The black masked beast sighed and closed its eyes at the sound of the man's voice.

"This may take a moment, but it is best if he makes the decision. As the warden of Silkcradle, you have my word that you are safe." The man said to me, his voice calm and steady despite the fact that we were hanging in the air by the power of a very stubborn familiar.

I wanted to yell at him, to scream that I was the least safe I had ever been. I wanted him to understand the kind of things I had been faced with and despite the hand horrors or the angry Mothers, I had never been as scared as I was then.

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I wanted to, but I didn't.

I didn't because in time with his assurances, he reached over and held his pinky out to me the way Anna would if we were making a promise.

Silly or not, that might have been the only thing that could have calmed my panic.

I completed the pinky promise and did the only thing I could do in that moment.

Nothing.

The warden flashed his smile at me for a second time before beginning to speak to Taloo again. "Why did you bring her up here, Taloo?"

Taloo sighed in response.

"You want her bag? Did I hear that right?" The warden asked, the patience in his voice sounding so much like Precept Seram.

For a brief moment, I wondered if any of the other new moons could see me from wherever the hot springs were, but then I remembered just how high off the ground I was and decided not to care.

"Yes." Taloo said through a sigh.

"Is there something specific in her bag that you want?" The warden continued, so relaxed that he took one hand off of the familiar's fur and brushed his long hair back from his face.

"No." Taloo answered through yet another sad exhalation.

The warden nodded. "Right, right, right. Then why do you want her bag?"

Tall did not sigh. He turned his masked face up to the sky and the silver moonlight glinted off of what looked to be tears in his eyes. "Made sparkles like Lady Lissa. Got sad."

Same called me Lady, sometimes. If Taloo was speaking about Lady Lissa, that must have been his sorceress. It was then that I remembered why we had come to Silkcradle in the first place. The paper dragon Fetti-Gami, Taloo, the invisible thing that stole the sweet from Plia's back bag, we had come to the mashed together island to try and bond with one of them.

They had all lost their sorceresses.

My firework had reminded Taloo of Lady Lissa and it had made him sad.

Floating me into the sky was not an appropriate response to that, but I was beginning to understand the situation I found myself in.

The warden patted the familiar's back and spoke even softer. "That's alright, you big raccoon. I'm sure that Underwitch Ire didn't know her sparkles would make you sad."

"Taloo knows. Ire is nice. Taloo embarrassed now." Taloo answered.

The warden laughed a real, full, belly laugh. "Don't be. Ire here isn't upset with you, is she? I'd bet my last bag of dust that she would love to hear about Lady Lissa if you wanted to tell her. Right, Ire?"

"Of course, Taloo." I answered honestly, trying to mimic the warden's comforting tone. I wasn't upset, not anymore. The black masked beast was no beast at all, he was a soul that was in pain and I knew how that felt all too well.

The warden smiled at me again and nodded in approval at my words. My chest swelled with pride and a smile turned up the corner of my lips because of his recognition.

Without doubt, I knew that I had done good.

Slowly, very slowly, I felt the air breezing through my robe as we began to descend.

"No talk. Make more sad. Call Drissa?" Taloo asked.

"Just as soon as we are back on the ground." The warden agreed with another back pat.

Going down was much less terrifying than going up had been. It felt very similar but came with none of the fear or desperate screaming. The warden kept his spider silk restraint wrapped tightly around my waist until both his feet were planted solidly in the sand. Even then, once I was unbound and had been assured that we were no longer in the air, it took me several minutes to lower myself to the ground one foot at a time.

It was then and only then that I released my death grip on Taloo's fur and accepted that I was no longer in mortal danger.

"Drissa." The big raccoon demanded from the warden, my bag evidently no longer desired.

I was not quite sure what a raccoon was, but I had never met a cat that looked just like Sam, so I felt safe in thinking of the familiar as what the warden had called it.

"I know. I know I know," The warden answered as he walked to the waters edge. "Is there not something you should say to Underwitch Ire first?"

Taloo, his bushy tale and all four of his clawed feet still a small distance from the sand, padded over to me and dropped his dark eyes.

"Scare you. Taloo regret. Keep bag." Taloo said through a heavy sigh.

My legs still shaking, I felt nothing negative for the thing that had stolen me from the beach's solidity. "

"Thank you, Taloo. I forgive you." I answered honestly, trying to not let my sadness for the poor creature show on my face.

With my forgiveness, he gave his body a shake that fluffed out his black and grey fur in a wild wave. The black masked familiar went from floating right in front of me to scampering over to the warden without another word.

"But you," I continued, retightening my robe and turning on my heels to face my guard. "You will break down my door when I'm being threatened by a half dead rabbit or threaten to hurt me when I'm the one getting bullied, but as soon as I'm in actual danger, what do you do? Nothing. You did nothing."

"No." Alexei said simply.

I would have gotten more from him if I asked what time it was or if it would rain soon.

"Not no, Yes! You just stood there and watched!" I shouted, as the salty sea breeze blew Ire's dark hair over my face.

"Watching is something. What could I have done? I am not able to fly." The glint in his one white eye told me more than he ever would. Alexei was a sorcerer. Based on who his mother was, I would bet that he was a fairly powerful one.

He might not be able to fly, but it would have been nice if he had shown any kind of effort.

Before I could tell him just how disappointed in him I was, the warden cleared his throat and brought my attention back to him.

"Don't be angry with your guard, Ire. I asked him to stand down. If either of you knew how hard it was to get Taloo out of his hiding holes, you'd understand my desire to be gentle with him," The warden said, as he jumped back and narrowly avoided the rolling tackle that Taloo had sent his way. "Be patient you big raccoon, I'm calling her, I'm calling her."

The warden lowered himself and slapped the surface of the water with one hand once, twice, three times. After the third, he brought his silken tether to his mouth and let out a whistle that felt like it would split my skull in two if it did not end as soon as it did.

"Drissa!" Taloo cheered as he left the warden's side and ran out across the air above the water. When he had made it far enough away that I could no longer hear his excited growls and whimpers, a tendril of living water coiled around him like a serpent.

Onward he ran until he ducked his shoulder and rolled forward once again, pulling the tendril of water out from the ocean. The living water took shape, and Taloo was no longer alone.

In one fluid motion, the thing that could only be Drissa solidified atop the water's surface and began to gallop and buck alongside Taloo. A massive black masked beast and a horned horse made entirely of ocean water, if I did not know so much about him, Sam would have seemed boring in comparison to the two familiars that were frollicking atop the waves before me.

The warden stood and looped his silken teacher around his waist like a belt before turning back to where Alexei and I stood.

The way he had looped it around me when I had been so high up in the air, the way it had shrunk and brought him up to me, how he had used it as a whistle, there was only one explanation for the warden's powers.

"Are you a sorcerer?" I asked aloud, unable to keep myself from glancing at my white haired guard.

The warden laughed and shook his head. "Not at all, there isn't an ounce of aura in this old body. Grateful for that too."

"Then, how?" I said, pointing at the length of white silk around his waist.

"There are certain benefits to being the warden here. This was a gift to help me keep up with all of her creations. Sorry that Samsara could not be allowed here, I did not think that the others would take yours and his presence together very well." The warden answered, leaving Taloo and Drissa to play even though they had gone very far away from the shoreline.

It was my turn to shake my head. "Wait, you know about Sam? Hold on, wait, whose creations?"

"The cornerkeeper, Selahmeire, the silken queen, she who weaves, there are more names for her than I could name. Whatever she is called, she is the one who makes familiars, or was, I am unsure," The warden answered. With one hand he pointed to the building that was draped in the uncountable strands of white fabric. "Would you like to meet her?"

I nodded excitedly without taking the time to think.

How could I not want to meet Sam's mother?

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