The streets of Hymneth had been cold, quiet, and serene.

The place that Plia and Vanda pulled me into could not have been more different.

At first, I was not sure if I had been dragged into the most violent party I had ever seen or the most gentle brawl that had ever happened.

The room was much larger on the inside it felt like it should have been, and there was music that could not be heard outside the threshold of the door. The moment I crossed through, my ears began to follow the upbeat song until my eyes found the musicians playing in the far front corner.

Underwitches filled the floor, the bar, and both balconies above. Some I recognized from the dining hall, but most were unfamiliar to me.

I caught sight of my pink haired precept and the eternally sleepy looking Precept Shanti standing high above my head on one of the balconies. They both were peering down at the cheery chaos that writhed around me and gave no sign that they were upset at how many of their students were breaking one of Lun's rules.

Several Underwitches had locked arms and were spinning wildly near the musicians like a smaller version of what had happened at the new moon ball.

Every shade of blue flowed out from the navels, palms, and soles and painted the space within their circle with their blended shades.

Another, standing in front of a small crowd, quickly shifted her face from Precept Seram's to Shanti's, and then into the sharp features of Precept Zetta. Every glamor she formed sent the crowd of underwitches into a new round of laughter and applause.

Plia and Vanda led me through it all, but our pace was slow and broken by the endless movement of everyone else.

"What is this place?" I asked out loud, an irresistible smile spread across my face. The air smelled of spirits and hot food. Everything felt so light and joyous. I doubted that there was a soul in all of chaos that could come in the place and not smile.

Vanda shared my grin when she turned around to answer me. "It's called The Boiler. Sorceresses from Lun having been coming here for hundreds of years."

"Ohhh." I said with a nod. Her words felt truer in my mind than almost anything I had ever heard. I could see where the floor boards had been worn down beneath the small spinning circle. A single beam just below the ceiling that looked like it had once been broken had its cracks and twists filled with pastel blue color that I knew to be my teachers.

A wide black board behind the bar had various names and prices drawn across it in glittering blue aura.

"The Singing Stouts?" I practically had to yell over the sound of it all.

Plia nodded her head at my words. "I like that one, it's like four drinks for the price of one and it fills you up like you have eaten a loaf of bread."

"The Full Moon?" I read another name from the board aloud.

"Terrible. It is so strong that you feel like it is going to kill you when you drink it." Vanda answered.

I decided that the drink that Precept Zetta would buy me would not be that one.

"The Sleeper?" I called out again as I stepped over a trail of blue flowers that were springing up from the floorboards with every step that an unfamiliar underwitch took across the bar.

Why did The Sleeper sound so familiar? I had heard of it somewhere, a memory maybe.

"I've never seen anyone try that one, the barkeep says that he only keeps it on the board as a joke," Vanda explained. She pointed to the right side of the room and sighed. "Look, she can't help herself at all can she?"

A table of underwitches were playing some game that involved the flipping of a icey blue coin. I did not understood how it worked, but every time the coin hit the table, some of them drank and some of them didn't.

Mallory, wearing nothing but a dress and a scarf that was entirely too long, sat atop the table cross legged and looked to be having more fun that I had ever seen anyone have.

"She does it every time we come here, she flirts with everyone and never has to pay for a drink." Plia said in obvious complaint.

"It's obnoxious. If any of them knew why she acts that way, I doubt they would be half as interested. She's gonna need the two of you when I am gone." Vanda continued as we reached the bar.

Before I could ask why the new moon with the big smile acted the way she did, Vanda and Plia presented me to Precept Zetta like I was a captured fugitive.

"Here she is." Vanda said as she pushed me towards our one armed teacher.

"Can I eat now?" Plia demanded. There was a ferocity in her voice that I had only ever heard once before, when she was defending a piece of buttery cake from an eight legged familiar named Deebee.

"Listen. I've bought you both a bowl of eternal stew and an extra piece of bread. It's waiting for you at the other end of the bar. Leave us." Precept Zetta commanded as she gestured for me to sit.

Plia practically ran to where Zetta had told her to go and I did as I was told.

"Well, what will you have? Ale? Cider? Something harder? Don't sit there," Precept Zetta said as she reached across her body and blocked the chair to her right with her arm. It was the last on that side of the bar, and despite there being half a dozen underwitches looking for somewhere to sit, no one approached it. "Nobody is allowed to sit there."

I did as I was told again and went to her other side. "Do I have to do things for you to answer a question?"

"No. Not right now, anyways." She answered as I climbed up beside her.

"Why can nobody sit there?" I asked. It was still hard to hear over the noise of the merry place, but being that close to her that I didn't have to yell.

My teacher raised an eyebrow. "You've never been here before? That is The Mother in Blue's seat, or at least it was when she used to come here. There's the barkeep. Decide what you want so I can keep my promise."

Which Mother in Blue did she mean? Was it Nami or Katarina that carried enough weight to hold dominion over a chair in a very crowded bar?

"I was beginning to think she wouldn't show, Zetta. What will you have, Lassy?" The barkeep asked as I met his eyes.

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Why The Sleeper had sounded so familiar to me came rushing back as I realized whose bar I had been dragged into.

"Hinnegan?" I asked aloud in surprise. Everything that happened after I had drank the drink in question was blurry and faded, but seeing Alexei drop his guard in front of the wide man was something I would never forget.

"Oh! It's you! Master Alexei's young ward! Tell me, how have you healed? How long did it take for you to wake?" Hinnegan said, recognition bringing light to his eyes.

Zett kept her brow raised and looked at me in confusion. "Healed? What did you need to heal from, Ire?"

"You should have seen her, the poor thing. Alexei showed up at my door with her in tow far too late into the night. She put on a brave face, but I could tell she was in pain. Takes a strong sort to hold themselves together like that. I nearly took Master Alexei's throat-" Hinnegan continued before a shudder ran through him and he stopped speaking.

"You nearly took my throat in what, Little Hin? One as old as you should know to watch his words much closer than you are now." Alexei said as he stepped out from behind the big man and clasped his shoulder.

Hinnegan flinched so violently that it seemed like he had come face to face with a ghost.

"I will speak to you in the back." Alexei said as he returned to the darkness that he appeared from.

Hinnegan shook his head as he moved around the bar and did more things at once than I thought I could do individually in an hour. "How's that fair, Zetta? My daddy, rest his soul, used to tell me bed time stories about a friend of his with white hair that was capable of traveling through shadows like he was walking through water. All these years later, he's still handsome and powerful, and I'm fat and old. What will you have to drink, Lassy? Your guard is not a man to be kept waiting."

That almost made me burst into laughter.

All Alexei ever did was wait on me.

I peeked over at Precept Zetta's cup.

"I will have what she is having. Thank you." I said with a smile.

Hinnegan kept shaking his head. "You sorceresses are a strange lot. I've heard of people ordering milk in a tavern, have you even seen it once or twice, but two people in one night? What's this town coming to."

I got my milk and the big man was in the middle of giving us a parting bow when a roar of applause rose up from behind us.

The underwitch from before, the one who had left her blue flowers all along the floor, made her way to the left wall of the bar and sent long vines climbing up it. They bloomed as they grew, and each blue flower that opened sent shimmering sparkles into the air.

"Enough of that! I'm a tavern keeper, not a gardener! I hope you know how to work a broom!" Hinnegan shouted as he disappeared into the back of the bar.

"I thought using aura outside of a classroom was against the rules." I said to my teacher as I took a long drink from the cold glass I had been given.

Zetta did not answer my question. "Did you order that because you are trying to get on my good side?"

Maybe it was how happy everyone seemed, maybe it was the music, or maybe the underwitch with the flowers and vines had placed a charm on everyone in The Boiler, but I spoke honestly without hesitation.

"Aren't I already?" I asked with a quick glance at where her other arm should have been.

For a brief moment, I worried that my joke would not be taken well, but then my teacher gave me a sharp smile and began to laugh.

"That's pretty good. It's dumb and not true, but it's good." She chuckled and took a drink.

I gave her the answer she had actually asked for. "I want you to like me, but I'm not trying to make you like me. I just want to be myself."

It was true, and honest enough that I felt very vulnerable just saying it, but I did not want to lie to her.

She had bought me milk after all.

"Well, good. That lets me know that I am seeing you the right way. I've bought you your drink, we are even, but there is something else I want to speak with you about if you have a moment." My teacher said when her laughter finally faded.

"Yes, Precept Zetta." I agreed.

She pointed to where Vanda and Plia sat at the other end of the bar. Both of them were entirely focused on their food, but Vanda noticed that they were being pointed at.

"You aren't like them. You aren't like Puddles or Rake either. I hesitate to say this because the last thing you need is to develop an ego, but you have talent. Far more than I think you realize." Zetta said, her raspy voice little more than a whisper.

I heard what she was saying, but I did not truly hear it.

Sitting at a table in what looked to be the only quiet corner of the bar was Spring Tana.

Zetta continued. "I've taught every underwitch in this place. I had them all from the time they were little dandelions like you and your sisters, and none of them have had as much potential as you."

Tana was not alone.

She was leaning forward and speaking intently with a man who was so tall, I knew that he must have been the giant that I had heard so much about.

"I mean to bring that potential out of you. There will be times that I ask more of you than the others, but know it is because I think that you are," Precept Zetta snapped her fingers and made the cracking crystal noise that I had come to expect from her. "Hey, are you listening to me?"

Every soul in the bar flinched at the sound but me.

I slid off the stool and gave a weak apology to my teacher. "I'm sorry, Precept Zetta. There is something."

The giant that Tana was talking to, that she was touching, was Arthur.

It was my Arthur, and there was nothing that could have stopped me from going up to him.

The tall man wore a set of grey pants and a long sleeved shirt. He was still tall, still as dark haired as his sister, and still stuck with his stupid smile spread across his face.

The table that they sat at alone was beneath one of the balconies, and its top was filled with empty glasses.

Tana was so pretty that it hurt me.

She wore icy blue ribbons in her honey colored hair and a bright dress that made her look elegant and girlish at the same time.

What hurt me more was how Arthur was looking at her.

They were having fun. They were laughing. She had put her hand on his and he had left it there.

In that moment, there was nothing I wanted more than to hurt her.

I slipped through the gaps in the crowd and walked under the far end of the balcony.

Arthur glanced up at me before looking away and then glancing back again.

I waved and watched the recognition settle over him. He had told me once that he could tell who I was through any glamor.

I was glad that he had not been lying.

He held up a finger to Tana and cut her off in the middle of whatever stupid thing she was saying.

She turned and looked at me, which was enough to bring a sour expression to her face.

Arthur stood and took two long steps towards me. "Hey!"

I jumped into his arms, and he caught me with no more effort than it would have taken me to catch a pillow.

"Call me, Ire." I whispered into his ear as we embraced.

I had not realized how much I had missed him until I had felt his strong arms tighten around me.

We separated but the tall man made no move to put me down. "Hey, Ire. It's been too long."

I matched his smile and hugged him again. "You aren't allowed to leave again. You have to stay here with us."

Tana cleared her throat. "Arthur? How do you know, Ire?"

Her voice was perfectly pleasant, but her eyes were filled with anger. Plia and Vanda had left the bar and came to where we were all standing.

I didn't care.

I wanted to hurt her.

Just as Mallory had done to Vanda after one of their duels, I reached up, kissed Arthur on the cheek, and gave Tana her answer.

"Everyone, this is Arthur. He's my boyfriend."

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