It had never been so easy for me to ignore someone as it was on the walk to Precept Zetta's classroom at the start of the following week.

Arthur had left shortly after the dawn ball had ended. He had promised that he would be back in a few months, and he would find a way to send word of his arrival so we would not have to rely on luck to see one another.

Anna and I had returned to our quarters after the goodbyes. Without needing to speak, both of us had crawled into bed and slept until we couldn't. When we finally woke fully, we had bathed, eaten, and had just enough time left for Anna to read. I had tried to spend time reaching inside myself like I was supposed to be doing every night, but I never got close to the tangled knots of my soul. I had given up and gone back to bed alone, but when I woke in the small hours of the morning, I had been happy to find Anna holding me.

I did not want to be in Lun Arcancil any longer, but as long as my raven haired beloved was there with me, it was not unbearable.

When I left our quarters dressed in my false uniform, the clothes we had forgotten in Jasna's rooms had been returned to our door sometime while we were asleep, everything seemed the same as it had been before the attack.

Alexei waited for me in the hall, his sole eye pure white once again. There was no sign of the wear or injuries I had seen him with when he had returned. If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would not have been able to tell that anything had changed at all.

But I had, and I knew with every part of me how different things truly were.

It was difficult, but I held my eyes on the ghostly stairs at the end of the hall and refused to so much as glance at the white haired man as I passed. He took up behind me as he always did, but I tried my best to forget he was there.

It should not have been as hard as it was, he hardly made a sound when he moved, but the desire to turn around and unleash my anger at him proved to be much too tempting to ignore.

Even if I had told him how little I thought of him being my guard, it would have likely done nothing. He would have stood there with his stone face and had no reaction to how he had hurt me.

What I felt could not be ignored, but I could distract myself.

As the singing stairs filled my mind with their clear notes, I looked at everything I passed and thought about how I could move it with my power. Precept Seram had taught me that before I had ever been able to move one of her weights.

Paintings that might have held hidden entrances into the inner halls like the one my familiar had disappeared into, lanterns, pairs of shoes that had been left outside of closed doors, the hem of a passing underwitch's blue silk dress, I could have manipulated any of them without difficulty.

Maybe if I did them all at once, I would catch Alexei off guard and could hit him with the painting.

By the time I reached Zetta's hall, I had imagined countless ways I could attack him with what surrounded us. I knew Precept Seram would not approve of how I was intending to use her lesson, so it was good that all the other moons arrived at the hall shortly after I did.

"There, finally, someone who will agree with me. Hold on, Ire, let me whisper in your ear." Mallory called out as she ran over to me and used my shoulders to slide to a stop.

"If you ran right by him without flirting, this must be serious." I muttered and had to force myself to not roll my eyes.

"Deathly," Mallory insisted as we walked together with her arms wrapped over my shoulders. "A bunch of the older moon said that a phantom bear is what wrecked the theater in town the other night, but that can't be true. They are phantom bears, not lightning bears, right?"

"Right." I agreed.

"Right. Vanda thinks it was just a freak storm like what happened at the new moon ball, but I've lived here for almost two years and there are never thunderstorms like that. So it couldn't be that, right?" Mallory continued.

"Right." I agreed again.

She stopped me in front of Zetta's door and brought her hands to my shoulders as she spun to face me. "Right. Tana says that the lightning wasn't an attack, it was a sorceress defending herself from who attacked her. But, the problem with that, is that the strike came down from the sky and not up from where a sorceress would be standing. So that doesn't make sense either, right?"

"Right." I agreed for the third time, very aware of just how close her face was to mine.

She smiled her big smile. "I knew you were the right person to talk to. I could go on and on about all the things that don't make sense, but there's really only one thing I've heard that feels true."

"What is it?" I asked. She smelled clean, like she was fresh from a bath, and the playful intensity in her eyes had made me genuinely curious.

"What the townsfolk are saying is right, there is a demon in Hymneth. Azeraltane, The Outcast Lord. He's come to seduce us all and steal our colors." Mallory widened her eyes as she spoke and gave her voice a fearful tone.

I almost turned and looked back to see how Alexei reacted to the misspoken mention of the thing that he swore did not exist, but so I stayed strong.

I no longer cared what he thought.

Vanda shook her head as she walked past us, her face equal parts kind and concerned. "Just because you feel like something is true, Mal, doesn't mean that it is. I shouldn't have to keep telling you that. Good morning, Ire. Don't let her scare you."

"Whatever. When one of you is out past curfew," Mallory said as she threw her back against the door frame and arched against it. "When you're looking all innocent and vulnerable in your night gowns, and he comes for you, I hope the last thing you think of is how foolish you were to not listen to me."

Plia stepped between Mallory and I with her eyes cast down to the ground. "Why does it matter? Something happened. It was bad. Isn't that bad enough?"

Mallory gave me a wink and started creeping into the classroom after the little underwitch. "It'll be dark and cold. You'll be so busy eating whatever you snuck into the dining hall to eat that you won't hear him coming until. . ."

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Mallory leapt forward and wrapped her arms around Plia's waste.

"Poor little maiden, come with me and you will never be hungry again." Mallory growled in a poor attempt at a monstrous voice.

"Stop! Mallory! Let me go!" The little underwitch called out in a tone that was halfway between a cry and a laugh.

Mallory did as she was told and doubled over in laughter at her own joke.

Vanda cleared her throat. "Do any of you know what this is?"

The kind faced underwitch had gone to the middle of the empty classroom and stood before some kind of statue.

It was made entirely of sapphire that had been formed into the shape of a man. It was a head taller than all of us and glimmered in the lights above us.

"You haven't seen this before?" Plia asked from where she stood behind Vanda.

"I haven't. All we did last semester was the werelight stuff and fight." Mallory said as she walked right up to the statue and clinked her fingernail against its rigid chest

"It has been the same for me," Vanda agreed. She brought her hand up and placed it on the shoulder of the statue. "It's so pretty."

"It reminds me of Benny." I said, under my breath as I took my turn to touch it. For half a second, the fear that I had just said something that I shouldn't have sent a pang of panic through me, then I remembered that the others had gone to Silkcradle as well.

All that had happened while I had been Ire. I could talk about it without fear.

"Who's that?" Mallory asked.

"The little crystal creature she told us about when we came back from the warden's place." Vanda reminded her.

The sound of footsteps approaching made me think that our teacher had arrived, but I was sorely disappointed when I turned around to see Tana coming into the classroom.

"She is lying. I grew up on Silkcradle, and I have not even met Lady Benedict. She only shows herself to my father," The honey haired underwitch declared as she strode towards us. "What are all of you looking at?"

The same anger that had boiled up in me inside Precept Jasna's shower returned with blinding speed and my hands clenched into white knuckled fists. "I'm not lying."

"I'm certain that you are. A motherless girl like you? There is no telling how deceitful you are or how many secrets you keep. What is this, who out it here?" Tana said, insulting me and dismissing me in one fell swoop.

Vanda let out a weary sigh. "You have to stop that, Tana. We are all supposed to be sisters, would you treat Plia or Mallory that way?"

"If I thought they deserved it, yes, but I have always held myself to a higher standard than most." Tana said as she reached the statue and gave it a halfhearted push.

It did not move.

Then, it did.

Before she could pull her hand away, the man-made of sapphire took her by her wrist and closed its fingers.

Plia turned and ran. Mallory shouted a shapeless sound and fell to the floor. Vanda jumped back with her arms covering her head.

"Help! Someone help me!" Tana screamed, her eyes wide and her voice high pitched.

Before I could realize that I was doing it, my cord had come unfurling from my left palm and I snapped it into a ready stance.

A raspy chuckle echoed into the classroom from the hall.

"Maybe I've been too harsh. You all aren't dandelions, You're birds. You see something shiny and you can't help but go peck at it." Precept Zetta laughed as appeared in the doorway.

A small amount of her sapphire aura was alight at the tips of both fingers she held up in front of her. I glanced back at the statue and saw that same light shining in the center of its crystalline chest.

"Let me go! Why would you do that to me?" Tana shouted, her feet pressed against the thighs of the statue as she tried to wrench herself free.

"That's not the right question, Puddles. You should be asking," Zetta mimicked Tana's panicked pitch. "Why did I let something like this happen to myself?"

The one armed Precept bent her glowing fingers, and the statue released its hold on Tana.

She kicked herself off the crystal and fell straight into her back beside me.

"Ire, good. That's the right reaction to a sudden threat. Hold onto your working, you'll go first." Zetta said with a sharp smile as she passed me and patted me on the back.

"Go first with what?" Mallory asked as she crawled back to her feet.

"Is that your question for the day, Rake? Remember how you wasted your last one." Our teacher answered as she took up a place behind the statue.

Mallory crossed her arms and pouted. "No. I want to know why Azeraltane is in Hymneth."

"Ohhh, I figured that you all would be curious about that. And it is Azeralphane, not Azeraltane," Zetta said. She made another move with her fingers and the sapphire shape returned to the state it had been in before it had attacked Tana. "But that's a big question. Do all of you want to know about The Blue Death?"

"Yes, Precept Zetta." We all answered.

Well, all of us except for Tana.

"I want to know why she gets to go first." Tana demanded as she sat up from the floor.

"Because she's stronger than you, Puddles, and I haven't had a new moon that could break one of my gemmen in four semesters. Let's just say I'm excited." Zetta smiled a smile that was so sharp it could have cut stone.

She made the cracking crystal sound I had grown so used to with her fingers.

"Don't be scared, Bones. Get over here. I'll make you a deal. When each of you manages to shatter one of these," Her fingers moved again and the gemman lowered itself into its own stance. "I'll take the time to tell you about Azeralphane. Deal?"

Again, everyone but Tana agreed. "Yes, Precept Zetta."

"Alright, you first, Ire." Our teacher announced as Tana began to rise.

When the honey haired underwitch stood, she gave me a look that I would only ever give silk or a mound of brown sand. "You're not stronger than me, and you are a liar."

My fingers tightened around my cord and the taste of blood filled my mouth as I bit my cheek.

Vanda reached over and snatched Tana away from me before I could respond, but I was far too angry to say anything worthwhile anyways.

"Now, don't be discouraged if it takes you a few tries. These things are-" Precept Zetta started.

My eyes still locked with Tana's, I stepped forward and lashed out with my cord.

An azure flash washed over us all.

The sound that followed cut Zetta off and filled the classroom with the sound of shattering glass.

The bright blue end of my working snapped against the gemman's chest and split into uncountable shards of sapphire blue. Shocked looks were all that was around me as I brought my working back and desperately wished for something else to lash.

"Oh, thank The Mothers, I love it when I'm right." Zetta cheered as every sliver of blue that I had shattered began to shake back across the stone floor.

The sound of it was like crystalline rain, and all of us watched as the broken sapphire became a gemman once again.

"Can you do it again? Just because I want you to?" My teacher asked as the last cracks in her working disappeared.

I did as I was told.

It was no great feat.

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