The cold creeping into my feet was well worth how light I felt leaving my quarters on the morning of the third week of Precept Zetta's class.

Anna and I had spent so much time using our new training method that my lips felt like I had spent the last few days standing in blustery wind.

They were chapped and my feet were freezing, but my nails were the color of roses and my heart was full.

I felt confident that I had never looked as cute as I did then.

Anna was finally sleeping soundly. Her nightmares had been bad the night before, but I had been there to comfort her and make her feel safe.

Knowing that I had the power to chase her bad dreams away made me feel, well, powerful.

Not even thoughts of Tana troubled me. I almost wished that she would follow through with the threat she had given me. I could think of almost nothing that could hurt me more than knowing my mother thought me to be weak.

In that small way, I felt in control. Part of me still felt bad for what she had overheard, but that part was not enough to keep me from going secret for secret with her if she forced me to.

Heading towards my Conflict and Resolution class, I really couldn't remember a time at Lun that I had felt better than I did then.

My nails and shoes were not all that was different that morning.

Alexei was not waiting for me in the hall.

I passed by his door without any sign of his one eyed gaze or long white hair. I thought about waiting, then I remembered how he had left me in Hymneth and decided that I would return the favor.

I should leave him with Anna one day like he left me with Jasna. She would likely set him to stacking books that she never intended on reading just to waste his time. I thought, a wicked little grin bringing small pain to my sore lips.

Just before I reached the end of the hall, I heard the familiar sound of his door clicking open behind me.

I ran.

Straight up the singing stairs I went, skipping steps and breaking Caerulus's lullaby into a hollow melody. There was no sign of my white haired guard when I reached the first floor landing, but I did not stop.

The dining hall, the ball room, the hall of conquest, I thought of dashing towards them all and finding someplace to hide.

I could not really remember for what, but I had threatened Alexei with making his duty much harder to fulfill several times before. Maybe it was because of how good I felt, or how bad he had made me feel, but I had decided that it was time for that threat to become real without having to think about it at all.

There were plenty of reasons in my past to explain why a sudden sound would send me sprinting away, maybe that was what had made the decision for me.

Maybe I just like being a silly little girl sometimes.

Whatever the reason was, it didn't matter, I had to move.

I ran towards Precept Zetta's hall.

If I could make it to her classroom without being caught, victory would be mine.

Piercing through the middle of two half moons, I padded my steps once I reached the other side of them. Without the weight of my black laced boots, I knew I had to be nearly silent underneath the footsteps of everyone else around me.

All the underwitches thinned out past the hall of conquest, but I was so busy trying to weave between them and use them as cover, that I did not see the one that had stepped into my path before I ran into her.

Both of us tumbled to the floor.

Quicker than her cloak could settle on to the stone beneath her, I was at her side and trying to help her up.

My words came out all at once as I kept looking for my white haired guard. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do that. I'm running from someone who can disappear so I can make him mad. I just got caught up in it and I wasn't looking, but I didn't mean to hurt you. Are you hurt? If you are I will-"

"Slow down, I'm fine. I didn't see you either."The underwitch said as she latched onto me and let me pull her up to her feet.

I didn't have an excuse for running into her.

She did for not seeing me coming.

"Have I seen you around here before?" She asked as she straightened her cloak. All that lay under it was a long white shirt that hung to the middle of her thin thighs. She wore no pants, no black laced boots, not even a pair of socks.

I did not know if she had, but I knew I had seen her before.

In the dining hall on most of the days that I had stood against the wall and eaten my fried potatoes alone.

She was the underwitch that wore the clean white cloth tied over her eyes. I had spent much time watching and trying to keep my eyes off the one that wore nothing underneath her cloak.

Her hair was thin and straight like Mallory's, but not blonde. Instead of blonde, it was just as dark as Ire's and almost as black as Anna's.

"Hmmm, we haven't met before," She said without turning her head to me. Her hands released the sleeves of my uniform jacket and she brought one of them up to my cheek. "I've never felt anyone like you."

I was more stunned than anything. Not very many people has touched me in the short part of my life that I could remember, and before the blindfolded girl, Mother Gwyn had been the only one that I had not known first.

She smiled and patted my cheek before turning away from me. "If making somebody mad is worth knocking me over for, I won't keep you. See you around."

The moon shining in the sea of blue fabric that billowed behind her was nearly full. Maletta was the only other underwitch I had seen with such a cloak, and if she was anything like the strongest of Lun's moons, I was lucky that I still had a cheek at all.

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I watched her blend back in with all the others and remembered that I was supposed to be running from someone.

Nearly tripping over my own feet, I broke back into a dead sprint. The hall to Zetta's classroom was clear, which only made me feel like I should be running faster.

I took one last look over my shoulder as I reached my destination and saw no sign of Alexei.

I had done it.

I had escaped him.

I had won the game that only I knew was being played.

I smiled as I slowed and tried to catch my breath. Of all the mornings that I had ever had, I felt like I would never have trouble remembering the morning I evaded the eldest son of The Mother in Blue.

"It will take much more than that if you ever wish to be free of me."

I whipped my head back around to see my guard leaning against the wall like it was any other morning.

"But! You! How?" I shouted in sudden anger and stomped my feet.

His face and voice just as expressionless as it always was, he shook his head. "And if stealth is your goal, it is best to avoid running into someone. Especially a blind woman, how careless."

"Stop talking to me, I'm ignoring you!" I growled as I stomped towards Zetta's open door.

"Not very well, you have spoken to me twice already and the day has just begun." If I had not spent as much time with him as I had, I would have thought that there was humor in his voice.

I did ignore him then.

My good morning would have likely gone bad if I hadn't. I was already breaking one of Lun's rules. Attacking my guard was not exactly a duel, but I knew that I would get punished for it just the same.

Mallory and Plia arrived shortly after I did.

I exchanged greetings with the little underwitch, but Mallory made a show of going to the Gemman in the middle of the room and starting a conversation with it. "Master Gemman, did you know that I have a friend who lives with a girl that she calls her partner?"

The Gemman only offered silence in response.

"That's right, I swear. You know me, I wouldn't lie to you," She nodded and put her hands on her hips. "And, and! That's not all! Everyone likes to think I'm so free spirited, but this so called friend isn't only in love with her partner. She's also got a man she calls her boyfriend that is the definition of tall, dark, and handsome."

A vision of the blonde haired underwitch sitting atop a table inside The Boiler came to the front of my mind. I had called Arthur my boyfriend. It had been a clever way for me to hurt Tana and I had forgotten about it as soon as she had been out of sight, but I had done it.

"Yes, I agree. Interesting at best, scandalous at worst. But do you know what's even worse than that?" Mallory asked the Gemman.

Plia crept up behind me and whispered without ever standing by my side. "I'm sorry, Ire. If I knew she was going to be upset I wouldn't have said anything."

"The worst thing," Mallory raised her voice as she spun around and glared at me. "Is that if she was really my friend, I wouldn't have had to learn all that a week after everybody else."

I didn't know what to say.

It was strange watching her talk to something that was not alive. It was even stranger having her look so angry at me, Mallory was never angry. What was the most strange, was the realization that they had been talking about me when I wasn't around.

"I didn't-" I started.

She held up her hand and waved me off. "No. I don't want to hear it. If you really cares about me, you would have known that I need to know everything about your love life."

"But-" I started again.

"This all started because I wanted to take time out of my free day to come and see you," She walked towards me with her arms crossed over her chest, and her face pinched in an expression that was somewhere between anger and laughter. "But I don't even know where your quarters are. I don't know where you live. I don't know who you sleep with. For The Mother's sake, Ire, that's no way to treat your best friend."

She stopped a step to close in front of me and fell silent.

"I'm sorry," I started for the third time and waited to see if she would interrupt me again. When I was sure that it was truly my turn to speak, I gave her the only answer that I could dine the words to say. "I'm not very good at having friends."

Mallory's eyes went wide before a wide smile stretched across her face.

She threw her arm over my shoulder and pulled me right to her. "I'll make you a deal, you tell me which one is a better kisser and I'll forgive you."

"Mallory, you have to stop. That is private." Plia sighed as she walked towards the wall that she had spent much of the last week sitting against.

Precept Zetta came striding into the room and called after her. "Not today, Plia. Today is all about you. Come to the middle."

The way the little underwitch's whole body sagged in a sudden sigh made it seemed like the life had left her all at once.

"Do I have to? Can't I just watch Ire break more of them? I didn't have breakfast today." Plia asked as she shuffled towards the center of the classroom.

Zetta shook her head. "As much as I would love to spend all day training Ire, I've got to make sure the rest of you won't drag her down in your second phase."

A shape I was still not used to seeing came running by the door in the hall. Tana followed in the wake of her familiar and practically sprinted into the room as she pointed one of her fingers at me.

"You hit a second crescent! Everyone in the halls were talking about it! What's the matter with you?" She shouted as she tried to catch her breath.

I was thankful that Mallory was still holding onto me because it made it easier to keep my eyes from meeting Tana's.

There was never a good time to be her, but my good morning would have been one of the worst.

Precept Zetta turned her sapphire eyes to me and raised an eyebrow. "Ire? Did you hit someone?"

"No," I muttered. "I ran into them."

"Underwitch Maletta is still in the medery, and there aren't very many other seconds that wake up before sundown. Who did you run into?" Zetta asked, refusing to release me from the cold weight of her stare.

"I don't know," I muttered again, my cheeks beginning to burn from everyone's attention. "She had on a blindfold."

"You hit Ferrin Faux," Mallory squealed into my ear as she squared my shoulders to her. "First I learn that you are as promiscuous as Lun is cold, you come in with your nails all painted, wearing sandals, and now I hear that you have hit a blind girl? Whatever has gotten into you, I like it."

Zetta snapped her fingers and pointed at Mallory. "I changed my mind. Since you seem to have so much energy today, we are going to work on developing you. But first, Ire, did Underwitch Ferrin touch you? Did she say anything to you?"

Plia looked happier than I had ever seen her as she went to the wall and sat down. Mallory skipped over to the center of the room without any of the anger that had been on her face earlier.

I nodded and tapped my cheek. "Right here."

"What did she say?" Zetta asked again.

"That she had never felt anyone like me before, and that she would see me soon." I answered honestly.

Mallory scoffed. "I doubt that. She can't see anyone at any time."

"Honestly, if you ever leave this place, I give it a week before you say the wrong thing in front of the wrong person and get killed." Zetta sighed and shook her head.

She swung her pointed finger towards my feet. "Don't abuse the blind and be back in uniform tomorrow. Don't make me warn you again."

"Yes, Precept Zetta." I said and went to the wall near Plia.

Mallory and the gemman went to war not very long after.

Before I could make sense of everything that had just happened, three things became very clear to me.

I was going to disobey Precept Zetta, she would have to warn me again, and I had to find a way to tell Anna that all of my classmates thought I was dating her brother.

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