Mallory fell to the floor at the feet of the gemman.

"Come on, Rake. How many times are you going to try that? There isn't a soul alive that could break one of these with there head, not even a Hezbelth." Precept Zetta said as she helped the underwitch back to her feet.

Mallory pressed her head into her palms and groaned in obvious frustration. "I can do it."

Zetta pressed her lips together and shook her head. "Not like that. You're trying to be a woodpecker, but you are a different kind of bird altogether. You're a hummingbird."

"I don't know what that means. I don't have wings or a beak." Mallory cried out, still unable to open her eyes.

"You have to be what you are, Rake. Use your power, it is what you are meant to do." Zetta said as she returned to her place behind her gemman.

Mallory got small. She knelt down and locked her arms around her legs. "I know, I just hate how it makes me feel."

"What would you make of a bird that hated its wings because flying made it tired?" Zetta asked, her raspy voice taking on a mocking tone.

Mallory shot back up and pointed her finger at our teacher with fury in her eyes. "I said I know."

Zetta crossed her arms and shook her head. "You should apologize to your sisters. Since you won't do what sorceresses are supposed to do, none of them will have their question answered. They won't tell you how disappointed they are because they care about you, but the next time they see you sitting on someone's lap in The Boiler or flirting with whatever beating heart you have latched on to, they will remember how you let them down."

Mallory's jaw dropped. Then it closed again. She clenched her fists and then she sighed. Tears welled in her eyes, but just before they fell she turned her head and spit onto the stone floor beneath her.

I had never seen someone's emotions shift so wildly.

She dropped into a strange stance. Her legs were staggered and both her hands were placed on the floor with their fingers spread.

I had only ever seen her aura in the form of a werelight.

It was blue, too blue, but it was not bright like my own. It was pale, but shone like a single star peaking through a night sky filled with clouds.

I blinked the spots it left in my eyes away as it curled up her wrist from her right hand. The brilliant lines disappeared under the cover of her cloak as her eyes filled with her luminous shade.

"Yes, Rake! Give into it!" Zetta shouted as she lowered the gemman into a ready stance with a twitch of her glowing fingers.

For a moment, I thought a great gust of wind had blown into the classroom.

Ire's black hair whipped across my face and I had to hold the hem of my false silk dress down to keep it from fanning out and exposing me.

All of the others had to do much the same thing.

Mallory's cloak hung in the air above where she had been only a second before. It still held the shape and curve of her back despite no longer being clasped around her neck.

Just as the length of deep blue fabric began to flutter down to the stone floor, the same rain of shattered glass that I had created the day before fell again as the gemman exploded.

A streak of brilliant blue light faded from the place that the gemman's torso had been.

Mallory slid across the floor in a wild spiral, trying desperately to slow herself down.

She couldn't.

I looked to Precept Zetta, waiting for her to do something that would keep the new moon from hurting herself.

She didn't.

Mallory collided with the back wall of the classroom and collapsed into a tangled heap.

I had left Tana like that not very long ago, and seeing Mallory that way made me truly wish that it had been the honey haired underwitch who had hit the wall instead.

Vanda ran to Mallory, shouting all the way. "You did it!"

Everyone, even Tana, cheered for our sister's success.

None of them had cheered for me.

All they had done was stare.

"Up you go," Zetta said as she picked the still limp underwitch up by the collar of her uniform jacket. "It took you a lot longer than it should have, but now we have something to work with. Well done, Mallory."

The light in Mallory's eyes faded and she began to cry. "Did you just call me by my name?"

Zetta sat her down on her feet gently. "I did. You earned it. Ire is gonna take you to the covery, come back when you feel better."

"Yes, Precept Seram." Mallory muttered through a sob as she brought her hands back to her head.

Vanda helped her take a step forward. "Mallory, that is Precept Zetta, not Seram. You won't be with Seram again for another two months."

"Who cares, there is too many names to remember. Whoever you are, you were wrong." Mallory cried with her eyes clinched shut.

Vanda passed her to me and I wrapped her arm over my shoulder like she had done to me the morning before.

The sorceress who was indeed not Precept Seram asked. "Was I? How?"

"You said I couldn't do it with my head," A small trickle of blood leaked down from Mallory's nose. "You were wrong."

Zetta waved at Vanda. "Gentle, do you mind? I doubt Cherith can spare a set of hands right now."

"Of course." Vanda agreed as she hurried over and shouldered the rest of Mallory's weight.

"But healing is against the rules." Tana said from behind us.

"For you moons it is," Zetta answered as all the sapphire shards began to shake and reform. "Your turn, Bones. If you do it on your first try, you can have dinner with me tonight."

"Why do I have to go last?" Tana demanded, the sound of her frustrated voice enough to bring a smile to my face.

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"Because you keep bothering me about it! If Mallory is a hummingbird, what kind of bird does that make you, Puddles?" Zetta snapped and gave her own demand.

I turned back just in time to see Tana turn on her heels and sulk. "I don't know."

"The one that starts chirping outside my window right before I wake up. Are you ready, Bones?" Zetta growled.

Plia walked to the middle of the room and stood before the reforming gemman before speaking just loud enough for me to hear. "Do Precept's get more food?"

Zetta twitched her fingers and her statue of sapphire reassumed its stance. "That's right. All that we want, whenever we want. Even after curfew. Break my working, and you can stay and eat all night."

Mallory screamed and snapped my attention back to her.

"Mal? What's wrong?" Vanda asked.

"I don't know!" Mallory screamed back as the trickle of blood from her nose flowed even heavier.

Almost too small to see, a thin sliver of the gemman dropped from the panicked underwitch's nostril and struck the floor in a splatter of crimson.

Mallory screamed for a third time. "I'm going to die!"

The sliver left a thin trail of blood as it went and rejoined our teacher's working, and Vanda pulled me back into motion as we took Mallory to the covery.

Alexei stood in the hall as he always did, and though I did not wish for Mallory to be in pain, I was thankful that her poor state gave me a good reason to continue to ignore my traitorous guard.

Zetta's covery was not like Seram's had been. There was no soft ocean of blue blankets and pillows. There were no curtained off places for each of the new moons. It was cold, dark, and held nothing but bare cots to offer any kind of comfort.

We laid Mallory down on one of them and Vanda snapped on the lights.

"I don't want to die, Vanda. There is so much I haven't done. It came out of my nose. I don't want to die." Mallory muttered, her face pale and contrasting with the blood drying around her lips.

"You aren't going to die, you should be happy it was that piece of stone that made your nose bleed and not hitting your head." Vanda said softly as she went to the head of the cot and knelt down.

Mallory's eyes went wide as she raised her bloodied hands above her face. "I haven't even had my first real kiss, and I'm going to die."

Vanda could not keep herself from laughing as her dark blue aura came to light. It spread over Mallory's face like a fog. "For all that flirting you do, and all the inappropriate things you say, you've never had a kiss?"

"And I never will," Mallory cried. She pushed herself up into her hands and tried to wipe her face on the sleeve of her uniform coat. "One of you has to kiss me before I go. You think I'm pretty right?"

All her wipe had done was smear her blood and tears across her cheek.

"Mothers help you, you are pitiful. Lay back down, if you don't let me heal you, you won't get to hear about Azeraltane." Vanda said as she pulled Mallory back to the cot.

Once again shrouded in Vanda's aura, Mallory's crying was reduced to a sniffle. "It's Azeralphane, not Tane."

"I know, I was just making sure that you are still all there." Vanda chuckled.

Mallory closed her eyes and relaxed into quiet whimpers, which was an improvement from his she had been a moment before.

Standing at her side, I suddenly felt like I was back in the manor.

"Can you see inside her?" I asked softly, trying not to disturb Mallory's fragile piece.

Vanda's eyes filled with her color and it only brought more attention to how kind her face was. "No, thankfully. If her insides were visible, this would be a much different task. Why do you ask?"

I hesitated to answer, but I found a way to answer without saying any of the wrong things.

"My mother had me assist her in trying to heal someone once. When I joined my aura with hers, I could see all the places inside that were hurt." I said, being as vague as I could. My words were still true, they just did not come with details, and that felt much better than having to lie.

Who the person who had needed healing was didn't matter. She did not need to know that it was the mother of my mortal partner. That it had happened in a walled manor that overlooked The Mother in Red's city was irrelevant. The truth that I was only in that manor because I was imprisoned by The Mothers for stealing The Well would have added nothing to my point.

Vanda met my eyes as a heavy sigh slipped through Mallory's bloodstained lips. "She likely did that for your benefit, but she sounds very strong. Holding a glamor and healing at the same time must be very difficult."

"Oh," I sighed, remembering that I had absolutely no idea how to heal anything. "Is she going to be okay?"

"She will be fine. I charmed her to calm her down. She had a little pen prick in her nose. Although, I do think she is worried about romance a bit too much, but I can't heal that." Vanda said with a smile.

"You are good at this." I said as Mallory's trickle of blood stopped flowing and began to dry.

A violent sound echoed into the covery and I flinched away from it.

"And you are good at that.," Vanda smiled. "Go watch Plia, I'll bring her back when she wakes up."

She pushed me gently towards the door, and I did as I was told.

I watched Plia, but she was not doing very much.

The little underwitch lay against the far wall with her cloak pulled up over her head.

It was Tana that was standing before the gemman, and she had layed it low.

I stopped just outside the door and only leaned far enough in so I could see.

"Well done, Puddles. Now we just have to wait for Gentle." Precept Zetta said as her working became whole once again.

Tana refused our teacher. "No. Again."

"Don't you want to hear about The Blue Death? Let us move on. I have plenty more for all of you to do." Zetta said, her sharp eyes narrowed.

"Again." Tana demanded.

I felt Alexei walk over and look into the classroom from behind me.

I would have agreed to go and live with Azza before I so much as acknowledged his presence.

"Fine." Zetta sighed and made the gemman assume its stance.

Just as quickly as it stopped moving, it was gone.

A torrent of Tana's watery blue sprang from the floor underneath the gemman and the statue of sapphire fell straight down like a stone thrown into a pond. Her light faded and all that remained was broken sections of our teacher's working.

"Are you satisfied, or do you have something else to prove?" Zetta asked in the aftermath of the new moon's attack.

Tana clenched her fists. "Will you stop calling me Puddles if I do it again?"

Zetta smiled her sharp smile. "Hmmm. Seeing as how you just used a puddle, no. I don't think I will."

"Excuse me, Master Alexei." I heard Vanda say from behind us.

Zetta's eyes shifted to Vanda as she slipped past us. "Ah, Gentle. Just in time. You're last."

Tana let out an angry breath and took her boots from where they sat on the floor. She stormed over to where Plia still lay on the floor and threw herself down beside her before sticking her hand down the front of her dress and pulling out her blue stoned necklace.

"No, I would rather not. It is much too pretty for me to be willing to break it." Vanda said politely as she made her way over to Plia.

Zetta nodded to herself and went to meet the kind faced underwitch halfway. "So your mind is made up. There is nothing I can do?"

"No, I am happy with my decision." Vanda said and accepted the one armed hug that our teacher offered her.

"Well, it has been an honor to have you as my student, Vanda," The sharp featured sorceress said as she waved her hand and walked back to the center of the room. "Everyone gather around, I have to answer your question now."

I was the first to move, and I reveled in the fact that I could feel Alexei staring at me as I walked away. Plia and Vanda came next, the little underwitch needing help to walk to where we were gathering. We all sat down on the cold floor, but Tana stayed where she was, leaning against the wall and holding onto her necklace with tears in her eyes.

"The Blue Death, The Walking Storm, The Misfit King, the first thing that you bunch of birds need to understand," Zetta began as she straightened the icy blue half cloak atop her shoulders. "Is that for every enemy you may ever defeat, for every one that falls-"

"Wait!" Mallory shouted as she came sprinting into the classroom looking like she had just been ravaged by some sharp clawed beast.

Zetta shook her head. "Go clean yourself up first, you look awful."

"No! It was my question in the first place. Keep talking." Mallory commanded as she threw herself down to the ground and used me as something to lean back on.

Precept Zetta snorted and began again. "The first thing all of you need to understand is that for every one that falls, two more will rise in its place."

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