There was no lunch on dueling day.

By the time that Precept Zetta would have usually released us to eat, Mallory and Vanda were locked in a violent struggle against one another.

I felt the smallest amount of shame because of it, but I could not deny that there was excitement in watching them duel. A glance at Plia through my peripherals told me that she thought the same.

After she had told me about Anna's cheating and I had assured her that it was a misunderstanding, she had returned to her usual self.

Where Mallory was fast and nimble, Vanda was sturdy and strong.

They had fought twice.

Mallory had won the first by throwing her entire body at Vanda as soon as Precept Zetta had said begin. Vanda won the second by stepping to the side when Mallory tried the same approach a second time.

The third duel seems like it would never end.

Mallory had coiled herself around Vanda's leg and dragged the older underwitch to the stone floor. Once they were there, Vanda had clutched one of Mallory's arms to her chest and locked her legs around the playful underwitch's shoulder.

They had not moved since, but they had not stopped moving. Little by little, they flexed and fought against the other's hold, both equally unable to move their opponent towards the glowing sapphire circle around them.

Her short hair sweat stuck to her forehead, Mallory arched her hips and tried to roll both of them backwards. Give up and I'll give you a kiss, a good one, slow and sweet like you said you like them."

"I told you that in confidence!" Vanda growled back and tightened her hold.

"Exactly. I'm telling you this in confidence. I know you'll like it, just let me win!" Mallory said with great strain in her voice. Her usual wide smile was nothing but clenched teeth as she continued to try and free herself.

Nothing much happened after that, but even that was fun to watch. During the early days of Anna and I's life together, there had been several times I had pounced on her like Sam would a bird. We would struggle until I would eventually win, and then we would laugh about. Watching the other new moons wrestling around on the ground made me realize just how long it had been since I had attacked my beloved.

"Listen," Precept Zetta said with the crystalline snap of her fingers. "That's enough. Get up. Neither of you win. Did both of you forget everything you have been taught in past semesters?"

The two new moons untangled themselves from each other at the command of our teacher. Mallory planted a kiss on Vanda's cheek once they separated, and the older underwitch patted her on the back in return. Both were out of breath and wet with sweat, but neither looked upset at the fact that they had lost. They cleared out of the circle and Precept Zetta looked to Tana.

The honey haired underwitch had not had a turn yet, and the expression on her face made it seem like she didn't want one.

"In you go, Puddles. I've been waiting for this." Precept Zetta said with a sharp smile.

Tana made no attempt to hide her sigh as she unclasped her cloak and let it fall to the floor behind her. She unbuttoned her grey uniform jacket, shrugged out of it, and stepped into the circle in nothing but her blue silk dress.

I had not noticed that she had unlaced her boots and taken them off until then. Her stockings had come off as well and lay thrown over the top of her shoes.

Her eyes swept over the others as she crossed her arms and furrowed her brows. "I won't take it easy on any of you just because we are friends."

She had either painted the nails of her fingers and toes the same watery blue as her aura or she was wearing a glamor.

"Not them." Precept Zetta shook her head and pushed me back towards the pit

It felt like all the air left the classroom as soon as my black laced boots crossed the glowing circle of my teacher's aura.

Tana's eyes left the others and met my own for a brief moment.

"No," She shook her head as her hand went up to the bandage she still wore on her jaw. "She is not right in her head, Precept Zetta. She is going to try and hurt me."

Precept Zetta nodded as her sharp smile spread across her face. "And if she does? What will you do if she embarrasses you like she did the other day? Do you intend to refuse every battle where your opponent is stronger than you?"

I felt myself stand a little straighter at my teacher's words. I was stronger than Tana, and that knowledge brought me much more pleasure than it should have.

"If you are that much of a coward, if being struck once is enough to shake your resolve, then who your mother is no longer matters, Spring Tana. Leave this circle. You have no place in Lun," Precept Zetta continued, her raspy voice sounding harsher than I had ever heard it before. She stepped towards Tana and placed her hand on the honey haired girl's shoulder. "But if you are no coward, stay. If she means to hurt you, stop her. It is that simple."

Tana's jaw was clinched, and it looked like she was very close to tears, but she did not leave the pit.

"Listen, Ire. None of that niceness you pulled with Bones. I have been waiting on this since our first day together. Go at her with the same ferocity that you did before." Precept Zetta said as she stepped back to where the other new moons had gathered together on the floor near Tana's discarded clothes.

I wondered if I should undress the way Tana had, but before I could make a decision, Precept Zetta shouted for us to begin and Tana took a hard step towards me.

My whole body flinched as my mind tried to catch up to the duel starting.

Tana did not take a second step.

"Hey, your shoe is untied. I don't want you to trip or anything. I will wait." She said and pointed down at my feet.

"Oh, thank you." I answered as I started to kneel so I could tuck the loose laces into the top of my boot.

When I looked down, all I found was the perfect knot that Anna had tied for me that morning.

I hated being tricked.

I hated how easy it was to trick me.

What I hated most of all, was that it had been Tana's trick that I had fallen for.

I tried to stand back up, but it was too late.

One of Tana's bare feet struck me square in my chest and pressed my vial necklace painfully between my breasts.

I fell back, and everything but my feet landed outside of the sapphire circle.

"Very clever, Puddles. Again." Precept Zetta commanded as she waited for me to pick myself up and step back into the pit.

The kick had hurt, the pain from my necklace lingered, but I had felt much worse before.

Tana's jaw was still clenched, but the eyes that looked so much like her father's were no longer teary. They had hardened, and I could feel their judgment as they stared down at me.

I had been looked at that way before, when I had been held against the bottom of a glass pyramid by The Mother in Brown.

Tana hated me.

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It was obvious, undeniable, true.

"Stay down. That is where you belong." Tana said, her voice shaking with what could only be anger.

Precept Zetta chuckled as she looked down at the others. "There she is. There is the daughter of True Tana that I was told I would be teaching."

Tana may have been angry, but my memory of Azza's made my anger greater than hers. Who was she to tell me where I belonged? I had seen things, I had done things, I had been through things that Tana could not even imagine.

She had tricked me just like Underwitch Maletta had before the new moon ball. Both times, I had been too dumb to notice what was happening, but neither of them had fought The Mother in Purple. Neither of them knew what it was like to be crushed under the pressure and weight of Azza's sand.

I belonged at Lun Arcanicil far more than any of the other new moons because I had done the impossible to gain admittance.

I had found an entirely new color within my souls just so I could be one of The Mother in Blue's moons.

I would not be told by the arrogant child where I belonged.

"Shut up." I grunted as I climbed back to my feet and stepped back into the pit. My middle was still sore with the mottled green bruises that were nearly healed, but I truly could not care less.

My guts could have been spilling onto the floor and I still would have gotten up to duel her again.

I lowered myself into my points stance out of pure habit and waited for Precept Zetta to start the duel.

"Begin!"

I took a hard step towards Tana just like she had done to me before.

I would show her a trick since she seemed to like them so much.

She stepped back, and her heel fell just short of the circle.

All my weight, all of my movement, pointed to me trying to strike her in the chest. The moment that she turned to avoid it, I dropped to my knees and drove my fist in between her legs.

There was a guard in Erosette that I was almost certain was in love with my mother that had paid dearly for me to learn that maneuver.

His sacrifice had not been in vain.

Tana folded in on herself and fell over like so many of the haymans I had seen Arthur destroy behind the manor. In that moment, I was only slightly thankful that she had not burst into tufts of straw like so many others.

"Why would you do that?" She cried out as she writhed on the ground.

My anger began to slip away at the sight of her pain, and I looked to the others. Their eyes were wide, they were all in obvious shock at what they had just seen, but none of them said anything. Mallory covered her crotch with her hands when we looked at each other, but none of them said a word.

"Well done, Ire. If you keep this up, I'm going to take a personal interest in you. You're a little monster aren't you?" Precept Zetta chuckled as she beat her fist against her chest in what I thought she meant to be applause.

"That was good?" I asked in confusion as I watched Tana remain curled up in pain.

"It was downright villainous, but that is what made it good," Precept Zetta laughed. "On your feet, Puddles. We've got one more. Whoever wins gets to ask one last question today."

Vanda went to Tana and helped her sit up. "Precept Zetta? I don't know if she can stand, let alone walk."

"Get off me," Tana shouted as she pushed Vanda away and herself up. "I can stand on my own."

Vanda frowned and let out a heavy sigh before she went back to the others.

"Listen. Before you start again, think about what has happened here today. All of the duels, all the sweating and the struggling, both of you have made the same critical mistake. Something is missing. If either of you figures out what that is, I'll buy you a drink at The Boiler tonight." Precept Zetta said with her arm outstretched to make us wait.

"You are gonna come drink with us?" Mallory asked in joyous surprise.

That must be the tavern they all go to. I thought to myself as I tried to think about what my teacher had said.

What mistake had I made?

Falling for Tana's trick had been one, yes, but Zetta had said that both of us had made it.

What had I missed?

We had been told to duel. My teacher had complimented me on my victory. If Tana and I fought a hundred more times, I would likely win all of them if she was not able to fool me again. There had to be something that Tana and I had both not done. We were both new moons, we had both won a match against the other, but something was missing.

I met Precept Zetta's sapphire eyes just as she began to announce the start of the the third duel, and I understood what she wanted us to.

Lun Arcanicil was the school of The Mother in Blue.

Katarina and Nami were sorceresses.

Neither of them would win a duel by throwing punches and kicks.

They would use their aura.

"They would sorcel." I said under my breath.

"Begin!"

I did as The Mothers would.

I used my aura.

Finding the will to bring my cord to bear against the honey haired underwitch was no great feat. My bright blue power came uncoiling from my palm without me having to truly think about it.

The watery blue that came to light under Tana's bare feet told me that she had reached the same realization that I had.

She had come to it a moment too late.

With a flick of my wrist, I sent my cord wrapping around her legs like I had the arrogant tree after the trial.

I snatched it back after it had coiled around her thighs and dropped her to the stone floor back first.

The impact forced an involuntary breath out of her, but I did not feel bad that I had hurt her.

I wanted her out of the circle, and my will made it so.

Looping great lengths of my power around my arm, I brought my taught cord against my bruised middle and stepped into the tension.

Tana slid to my left and across the glowing sapphire circle in one smooth motion.

"Well done, Ire!" Precept Zetta shouted.

"You've been able to do that this whole time and you haven't shown me!" Mallory cheered from behind me.

I only had eyes for Tana.

"Stay down," I said as our eyes met. I severed my working and let my focus fade before throwing the crumbling end of my cord towards her. "That's where you belong."

I could see the azure power that had filled my eyes glimmering in the tears that brimmed within Tana's.

She fought against the bright blue dust that she had been partially buried in, and angrily threw herself to her feet before storming out of the classroom without another word.

"I will go check on her." Vanda said with a sigh as she collected Tana's things and went after her.

Whenever I performed a working, there was always a moment before my afterglow began. It was in those moments that I felt like a sorceress in full. There was no regret, no pain, no wondering if I had done something to get in trouble, there was only what I had done and what I felt about it.

It felt good to beat Tana.

I only wish I could have felt good about that longer.

The loss and afterglow took me at the same time, but Plia and Mallory were there to catch me as I collapsed. I had long since learned that it was pointless to fight against the sorrow that filled me after using my blue, so I leaned back against the two new moons as my tears began to fall.

"I will tell the others when I see them next, but Ire earned that drink," Precept Zetta began. "All of you did well today, even you, Bones, but you aren't a bunch of pit fighters trying to earn a bag of dust in Bornet. You are to be sorceresses."

The one armed precept walked over to where we all sat and balanced on the balls of her feet as she lowered herself to me. "It's important to me that you know sorcel isn't a word, got it?"

I sniffled and nodded in agreement.

She nodded back. "Now, you won. I'll buy you your drink later, but what is your question?"

"Ask her what is in the chest, please? I'll give you a kiss like I did Vanda. It's a good deal. I am very good at it." Mallory tried and failed to whisper.

"Ask her if we have to skip lunch on every dueling day?" Plia whispered her own request.

I would have loved it if I could ask both their questions for them, but there was something else I had to know.

I dried my face on the end of one of our cloaks, I couldn't tell which, and managed to speak before the aura sent tears could begin again. "What does being here have to do with The Lady in Blue?"

Precept Zetta turned her head in confusion just like a dog would at a high pitched sound. "That's the whole point? The only reason any of you are here is to become the next Lady in Blue, you have to know that, right?"

That was not the reason I was there.

I had not known that, and I did not like it now that I did.

I kept crying, but neither of the others made any move to make me move off of them.

Plia cleared her throat. "Class is over now right? Can you just tell me if I need to bring food here at the end of every week?"

"No. See you dandelions at The Boiler," Precept Zetta answered as she stood. "And,Rake, I am not drinking with you. I am buying Ire a drink. That is it."

"Yes, Precept Zetta." Plia answered.

Mallory held out her hands and shouted. "Wait! What's in the chest?"

"Right," Precept Zetta said with a sigh before turning away from us. "It's good that you didn't get to waste a question on this. I am required to tell you."

"You would have let me do that?" Mallory asked with an overexaggerated gasp.

"Gladly."

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