Unfortunately, the one thing that I had wanted in return for staying at Lun Arcanicil, The Mother in Blue could not give me.

All I had asked for as payment for remaining a moon, for continuing to live in the frigid halls as someone that I was not, was for a certain honey haired someone to no longer be one.

It wasn't as if she had nowhere else to go. Even if the warden wouldn't let her live on Silkcradle with all the different familiars, her mother only thought she was weak. Surely she would not have turned her daughter away.

But no, we were three days into the last week of our Conflict and Resolution class, and Tana was still there.

What was even worse, was that I had been forced to spend the whole day the day before helping her get stronger. There were four classes left until our last dueling day, and each of us were to be the focus of one.

Plia had been first.

Through mouthful after mouth full of her pallid blue aura, she had been made to protect one of us with one of her arms of aura and send off a gemman with the other. I had gotten hit once, but it had been my distracted mind that had caused it, so it had not counted against the little underwitch.

Tana's day, Puddles's day actually, had been a boring affair that none of us would have had to suffer through if Nami had not insisted that the disappointing daughter of True Tana had to remain a moon alongside me. We had all started in the center of the room and had been tasked with avoiding being caught by Tana's ever expanding pool of watery blue. I had been the only one by the end of class that had not been touched once, but then, her aura had covered almost all of the floor, and my focus had slipped at the last moment.

Standing several steps in front of a gemmen at the end of Mallory's day, I could not keep my eyes from the door.

Just like both days before, my distraction cost me much.

"Heads up, Ire!" I heard Precept Zetta shout without understanding why she was shouting.

Then, in a flash of vibrant blue, pain bloomed in my hips, as I was knocked violently to the stone floor beneath me.

After a long groan, I rolled onto my hands and knees with my eyes shut and my breath held.

"Why didn't you move," Mallory cried as I opened my eyes and saw her laying underneath me. "You know, I'm not good at this."

"I'm sorry. That was my fault." I groaned again and tried to stand.

She took the front of my blue dress that was not silk and pulled me back down. "Wait, I didn't tell you to go. You're so pretty from this angle."

"If all you're going to do is keep harassing her, I want to leave. It's dinner time." Plia said as she helped me back into my feet.

Precept Zetta came and pulled Mallory up by the hand. "Isn't it always with you? Everybody line back up. She was close before, we aren't leaving until she gets it right."

I could not be sure, but I was fairly certain that I saw a small piece of Plia die at the thought of having to wait longer to eat.

"Remember, Mallory. If you can't do this, you'll never know how I lost my arm. No matter how old you get, I will spend every day of the rest of my long and healthy life making sure that you can't so much as guess at what happened." Zetta threatened as Plia took her place in front of Tana and I took my place in front of her.

"That's not fair," Mallory poured as she stomped over to the other end of the room. "I have to stare at Ire, and she looks like some kind of dark sleeping beauty with her dark hair and pale skin and piercing. Plia is behind her, and I have seen wolf puppies that weren't half as cute. And then there's Tana, I don't even have the words for how she makes me feel."

"That's your problem. Instead of focusing on them, only think about the gemman. All they are is in your way. How are you going to get through them and hit your target?" Zetta asked after snapping her fingers three times and filling the classroom with the sound of cracking crystal.

"Right. Run straight through them. Got it." Mallory nodded as she lowered herself into the strange stance she always settled into before using her aura.

Precept Zetta tried to stop the laugh that snuck out of her by pressing her fist to her lips, but she failed and I could not help but share in it.

"Listen. I will sweeten the pot. If you do it successfully right now, I will tell you and only you what happened and you can spend the rest of the semester holding it over the other's heads. That sounds like the kind of thing you would have fun with." Our teacher offered.

"That's not fair!" Tana shouted from her place at the back of the line.

Mallory let out a little giggle as she lifted her hips up towards the ceiling. "Just as it should be. I am their leader after all."

"Then you should've asked a better question on your day. I would have told you what was appropriate to wear to The Ladies ball for free." Zetta shouted back as she ran her fingers through her blue black hair.

I repeated her words silently as I thought about the pot of stew that Nami had brought to Anna and I's quarters. Sweeten the pot.

It had been beyond kind of The Mother in Blue to think about our hunger after all that had happened before she had arrived. I thought about the walk down the singing stairs after the hall at their top had been cleared. Azeralphane, Gell, Maletta, Cherith, Gwyn, Ali, Grey, all their names ran through my mind as my eyes drifted back to the door and I searched for someone I knew would not be there.

It had been nearly five full days since I had last seen my guard and I had not stopped waiting for his return the entire time.

Nami had asked Anna and I both to not mention what had happened upstairs to anyone, and we had promised her we wouldn't, but that had not stopped me from wanting to. Just that morning, when I walked out of my door to go to class, I had stopped in front of his and had almost convinced myself to knock.

I was worried about him. I was worried because what Anna had said in the dark stairwell on the way to my super secret training had been true.

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I had grown attached to him, how terribly I took his need to send me away with Precept Jasna should have been proof enough of that. And that had all been before, before I truly understood why the expressionless man was quite so expressionless.

If he had been there, if I had looked over and seen his one white eye staring back at me, I likely would have run over to him and thrown my arms around him.

He would have hated it. The little I knew of him was not so small that I didn't know that, but I would not have cared. He had volunteered to be my guard and that was one of the things he would have to start getting used to.

Another sudden burst of vibrant blue slashed in my eyes, but there was no pain.

My hips did not ache, my legs were not knocked out from under me, all I saw was Mallory.

She couldn't have been there for more than a second, but it felt like I was staring at her for much longer than that.

Her short blonde hair was blown back from her face. The big mouth that I was so used to see spread in a wide smile was locked in a fearsome expression that was nothing but clinched teeth and glowing eyes. Her cloak had come free and was billowing out behind her like a leaf in strong wind.

Crouched at my side, she dug her aura cloaked hand into the stones of the floor and used it to turn inwards.

I lost sight of her after that, and had to hold down the hem of my dress to keep from mooning all the new moons behind me.

Before I had time to turn around, I heard the all too familiar sound of a gemman dying violently. Tiny shards and slivers of sapphire streaked all around us as Mallory's vibrant blue faded to dust in the wreckage of our teacher's working

She had done it.

She had taken not one, not two, not three, but four turns and cut through our line without so much as brushing against us.

All of us cheered as we ran over to where she lay flat on her back. Tana and I got too close in the celebration and she made it a point to go to Mallory's other side after we bumped into one another.

"I cannot stress this enough, you beautiful girl," Precept Zetta said through a laugh as she knelt down and wiped a trail of blood away from the corner of Mallory's mouth. "You have to stop using your head. Do you need to go to the medery?"

"No." Mallory sniffled.

"Then what do you want to do? Go eat?" Plia asked with just a little too much hope in her voice.

Tears began to stream down the sides of her face as she sniffled again. "I want to dance, but I don't know how! What if when the knights come, none of them pick me because I can't?"

"Mothers help you, you are fine. And you don't get picked by a knight, you pick them," Precept Zetta groaned. "Class is over. The three of you take her to the covery. Ire, stay behind. I would speak with you for a moment."

I watched the other new moons slowly pull Mallory to her feet and carry her off towards the door. Watching her succeed felt different than it ever had before. If what Nami had told me was true, and I had very few reasons to think it wasn't, Mallory was trying so hard because of me.

I didn't know how to name what that made me feel, but it was so undeniably good that not even my worst thoughts could ruin it.

Zetta called after them just before they left. "Remember, there will be no dueling day at the end of the week. Be free, make plans, but do step outside of Lun's gates unless you have a chaperone."

She had been telling us that same thing since Plia's day, and I was looking forward to getting to spend an extra day with Anna. We were going to go see Ms. Lao and find us both something new to wear to The Ladies Ball.

With the others gone, I went back to the wall where I had left my bundled cloak and waited for Precept Zetta to finish cleaning up all the dust off the floor. She brought it all into her hand like I had seen her do before and condensed it into a small shape that she tucked somewhere underneath her half cloak.

"If you would have seen her last semester, you would have thought her to be a mortal." My teacher chuckled as she waved for me to follow her out of the room.

I picked up my cloak and balanced the weight that was wrapped within it in my arms before I followed after her.

"I'm counting the days to see where you will be by your second semester," she continued once I reached her side. "Which is why there will be a dueling day for you at the end of the week."

"Oh." I said in surprise.

Zetta nodded as she met my eyes. "Yes. Only, it will not be with the other new moons. I wish to see how you do against opponents that are more experienced. How does that sound?"

"I don't know." I answered honestly.

Zetta smiled. "I do. I think you are already stronger than half the girls that call themselves half moons. I just want to prove it."

It had not been that long ago that I could barely change the color of a pillow or lift an empty bottle of wine. My teacher's words sounded good in my ears, but they also brought a nervous jitter to my fingertips.

"If you do well, and I know you will," She said as she ruffled my hair with her hand. "I am going to recommend you be waxed into a half moon. Waiting any longer will only be a waste of your time. What do you say?"

I didn't know what to say, but I could not tell her that. She thought I was strong, she thought I would be wasting my time if I didn't, and I really did love it when she messed with my hair.

"Yes, Precept Zetta." I said with a nervous smile.

She nodded and smiled in return before turning away from me and starting down the hall. "Strong girl."

I watched her go as I tried to make sense of what I had been told, but the hair on the nape of my neck stood on end as I realized I was not alone.

I was being watched.

I gasped audibly as I turned around and met Alexei's white eyes stare.

"Good evening, Underwitch Ire." He said simply.

My mouth hanging open in shock, I shook myself into movement and offered my cloak to him. When he did not take it, I shook myself again and unwrapped it to show him both of his swords.

"I was told you had these. Thank you for keeping them," He said as he fastened the belt back around his waist and adjusted the blades to their usual position. "They are very precious to me."

"I. . ." I tried to speak, but far too many words threatened to slip through my lips for me to continue.

I knew that. I don't know how, but I knew I needed to keep them safe. Are you well? I'm not asking because I think you aren't. I have just been worried about you. I wanted to knock on your door this morning but I got scared and didn't. I'm sorry for being mad at you. Anna was right. I'm not very good at having friends yet. And I told her she has to stop calling you a creep. She has to call you master Alexei from now on. . . I am sorry about your mother. I know I probably shouldn't have, but I went and looked. You are right. She still lives. I don't know where she is or what is wrong with her but she is not dead. Making sure was worth interrupting whatever Sam was doing.

I wanted to say it all, and I wanted to throw my arms around him like I had thought I would earlier, but he spoke before I could make myself do anything.

"It is important to me for you to know that I am truly apologetic for what I allowed to-" He began as stood up fully from the wall he leaned against and squared his shoulders to mine.

Jasna says that he won't stop talking about it. Nami's words came echoing back to the front of my mind and I remembered that she had not only asked me to stay for the benefit of the other new moons.

Before he could say another word, I threw my cloak towards his face and spun around on the heels of my sandals.

I did not turn around to see if my attempt to blind him had worked, because if I was going to escape him, I could not afford to waste a single step.

It could have been my imagination, but as I sprinted past the hall of conquest, I was almost certain that I heard him laugh.

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