I snapped my head back and forth between the frozen man and the man that I knew to be Katarina's middle child, unable to stop myself from speaking.

"That is your father?" I asked, only realizing that I had said anything when my question was done.

Radomir nodded and closed his eyes. "Can you not see the resemblance? I thought it was rather obvious."

I think you look more like your mother, but I can't say that now can I? I thought to myself, my already strange day, growing even stranger with each passing minute.

Did he remember me from the day before?

I could not tell.

What had happened between him and his older brother in the library?

I could find no sign of injury on him.

If he was here, then where in chaos was my white haired guard?

I still felt the need to glance back at the door to check for him.

"I haven't seen you in the light for so long that I almost forgot what you looked like." Ferrin said towards Radomir, her arm still hooked in mine.

Radomir cleared his throat and looked away from us both. "Ahem, what brings the two of you here?"

He did favor his mother, not as much as Alexei, but the resemblance was there. He looked like the man in the ice as well, but it was so much easier for me to see the Katarina in him.

"That," Ferrin answered and pointed in the direction that Sam wasn't. "Her familiar, Master Samsara."

Sam appeared from behind one of the long stone benches. "MEOW."

"He can talk, but he enjoys pretending that he can't." Ferrin continued as her head turned towards the thunderous sound of the big blue cat.

Sam hissed and padded out of the room as he shouted. "Traitorous child."

"Ah. I had heard that there was a familiar within Lun's walls. I had suspected that it was what had been stalking around the bottom of the library, but now that I see it I do not believe that to be the case." Radomir said as he watched the big blue cat stalk out of the room.

When he was gone, the librarian returned his aura filled eyes to me. "Are you privileged to know why he led you here?"

I wanted to ask him how he was able to focus his aura without losing himself to it the way sorcerers did, but that was not what came out.

"That is your father, he is dead, and you are not sad?" I asked, not understanding how he could be so calm.

He would never admit it, but I knew how much Alexei missed his mother.

Her absence and his father's icy corpse did not seem to bother Radomir nearly as much.

"No, Underwitch- forgive me, we have not been introduced. I am the librarian Radomir. And you are?"

For a moment, I felt like lying. And if I would have known if Ferrin would have gone along with it, I might have. Millime, Trea, Willa, Fawn, Birdseed, Oni, there was no end to the names that I could have given him. Even if I did not lie, I could have told him a truth. I could have said that I was Autumn Aubrey and hoped that my true name meant nothing to him. The problem was that Ferrin was the one that had spread the rumor through Lin that I had beaten Malleta.

No part of me had any idea what any part of her would say or do, so I told the only truth that I could. "Underwitch Ire."

Radomir did not wear a mask of stone like his elder brother. Most of the time, no matter how hard I searched Alexei's face for some hint to how he felt, I found nothing. Despite that, I could not tell if he knew me by my false name.

"Right. I am glad to meet you formally, Underwitch Ire. As I was saying, no, he is not dead. He is in something known as stasis. The most understandable way to think about it is that he has been put to sleep. And as long as the power that created this working remains, asleep he will stay." Radomir explained.

"Why?" I blurted, once again letting a question slip through my lips before I could think if I should ask it.

He glanced down at me with his dark blue eyes and nodded.

"I should perhaps remind you that there is likely a class you are supposed to be attending at this hour, but because you are with Underwitch Faux, I will assume that you are well aware of that." He said with a small smile.

I felt so open when he looked at me, like I was a book that had been laid out for him to read.

In one glance, he had looked at an uncountable amount of places. My natural green eyes, Ire's glamor blackened hair, the dull features of my disguise's nose, lips, and jaw, the rose red of my nails, my sandals, the little silver moon hanging from my ear, and the chain that led down to the vial necklace beneath my blue dress, he saw it all in the time it took for me to meet his eyes.

I don't know what he gained from it, but he carried on with his answer regardless. "Why is never a poor question, but it is terribly nonspecific. Why will he remain asleep? The working that initially created his slumber will continue if left uninterrupted. Why does he still live? I do not know, the power that allows this is beyond my understanding. However, I do not suspect that either of those things were what you were asking after. Try again."

In the brief time that I had been around Radomir and been able to actually see him, he had shown more good humor on his face than I had ever seen Alexei have.

It hurt me to admit, but I preferred my guards' cold white stare.

"Why is he frozen like this?" I asked quietly, my eyes returning to the carved stone at Ranus's feet.

At last, peace for you, Ranus.

Radomir smiled, and besides the parts of it that reminded me of my white haired guard, I realized that he was quite handsome.

"Most moons only care to know who encased him in this ice. It is rare that I have met one that wished to understand it deeper." He said as he nodded at me, his voice almost as comforting as Precept Cherith's. "He was put in stasis-"

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"Because he went mad." Ferrin said softly, her face turned up to the librarian's.

"No," Radomir disagreed, evidently unbothered by the blind underwitch's interruption. "He never went mad. He was simply born. So, I will ask you again, Underwitch Ire, have you ever heard of Maven Ranus the loon?"

I shook my head no, but the shaking did not stop there. All the cold in the room snuck through my cloak and dress as soon as I started moving, and the shake of my head spread into a full body shiver.

"Father was never known for his warm receptions." Radomir said as he raised one of his hands. Blue light, the very same shade that I had seen in the shape of blades the day before, began to glow softly in his upraised palm.

Waves of heat, like what radiated from the black iron stove in the little shack that Anna and I had called our home when we first arrived to the frozen mountains that surrounded Lun, washed out from his aura.

No matter how hard she had tried, I had always found a way to track snow into that little place. Any of it that wound up near the stove would melt away into damp spots in the blink of an eye.

I was grateful for the warmth, but that memory brought fear in my fingers, and I covered his glow with my hand.

"You can't. What if it melts? I can stand being cold." I said as I looked up at him with real worry in my voice.

Radomir was a sorcerer just like Alexei, that was easy to see. And if his father, Maven Ranus the loon, was as well, the last thing I wanted to see was a sorcerer who was born mad.

The night that Alexei had given way to his ghost had been a reminder enough of just how dangerous they could be.

"Your concern is appreciated, but melting is not something we need to fear. Watch." Radomir explained as he gently removed my hand and held his aura against his father's frozen cheek.

All the cold in the room was washed away by the warmth that came from the librarian's working. The temperature rose so quickly that every place my skin wasn't covered stung like when I was freezing and got into a warm bath.

Even with my shivering slowly shaking to a stop and feeling like it was warm enough for me to take off my cloak, the ice did not so much as look wet.

"The Mother in Red herself could not thaw this if reality depended on it. It cannot be broken or separated, and if it is chipped," He took his hand away from his father's cheek and the aura in his palm twisted into one of the blades I had seen him use against Alexei. Plunging it down into one of Ranus's icy arms, a small amount broke free with a sharp crunch. "It repairs itself in an instant."

Just as he said, new ice crackled up in the place where it had been damaged and made the surface flawless in a matter of moments.

"As I have said, Father was simply born, but it was those around him that labeled him mad," Radomir continued as his aura turned to dust in his palm. Even with his blue gone, the warmth he had created remained as he answered the specific question I had asked. "He swore that they should not be blamed. How could humble farmers understand a child that could write and read before the end of his first year?"

I could barely do that and I had lived for nineteen.

"By his eighth, he was chased from that little hamlet with pitchforks and torches as if he was some twisted monster. His life was not kind from there, and when he was finally accepted as an understudy in the loreium at Don Viven, it was only because he outsmarted a Grand Maven in a tavern game. Amongst those that should have appreciated his genius more than anyone, he was still punished for his talents. Auraments, the braces that were used to prevent the corruption of the gatekeepers, the theories that allow Zenithcidel to stand free against shifts, splits, and swells, he had a hand in it all." Radomir explained with obvious pride shining in his eyes.

Too much was being said too quickly for me to keep track of it all.

I hoped that Sam had not wandered far. If he could remember all the names that I gave him when I returned from The Well, he would be able to remember all the things that Lun's librarian was saying.

"As great as he was, he only grew greater as he aged. He discovered truths that many wished to remain hidden. He defied the understandings of chaos that so many great minds had spent their lives developing. He knew so much that most found it impossible to converse with him. The loreium cast him out just as the townsfolk had when he was a child, and with nothing to restrain him, he wandered to the edges of reality in search of answers that no other soul knew the questions for." The soft spoken man took a deep breath, sighed, and smiled before carrying on.

The pride in his eyes turned down into sadness. "Souls like that cannot keep themselves. Their talents, abilities, potential, or whatever word is used to describe their differences are so great, that they cannot keep themselves together on their own. Fortunately for us all, but especially myself, a keeper found him before the madness that he had been told possessed him could bring about his end."

I swallowed and spoke, not feeling like I was breaking my promise to Rhiannon. "Katarina?"

"What was that?" Radomir asked.

"Your mother, she was his keeper?" I asked again, trying to be more specific.

Ferrin turned her head towards me and I could not shake the feeling that she was looking directly at me.

"She is, not was. And if not for her, he would be as dead as you thought him to be," Radomir nodded. "Now, if the two of you would give me a moment alone with him, it would be greatly appreciated."

Ferrin did not give me a chance to agree. She turned me towards the door and set us to leaving before I could begin to sort out all the thoughts running through my mind.

Sam had not wandered very far at all. He sat just outside the door, his tail swishing violently through the air behind him.

Ferrin continued to lead me away, but when we reached the ghostly light of the singing stairs she stopped and took a deep breath. "I haven't heard him talk like that in years, you might be my good luck charm, Ire."

It took me long enough to answer that I knew it had taken too long.

The usual cold in the staircase stealing all the warmth the librarian had made, I shook myself free of my busy mind and forced myself to speak.

"How do you know him?" I asked, keeping my voice quiet and low.

"I was his ward. Just like his brother is yours. That was what first made me realize that you were like me."

My eyes went wide, but I somehow found the presence of mind to hide the shock on my face.

Were there two silly little girls that had stolen something priceless that they had no memory of stealing?

Stunned silence found me again, but Ferrin took mercy on me.

"Enough games, I have had my fun. I knew that you were like me from the first time I saw you at the new moon ball. You don't have to hide it."

"And how am I like you, exactly?" I asked, not understanding a single word that she had said.

She laughed again. "You're a scion, a descendant, a branch, or whatever other name The Mother you talked to gave you. I had a feeling when we were in the spinning circle together, but after I made you run into me in the hall, I had no doubt."

I had no words.

I am a what?

"The glamor you wear, that strange power I can feel off of you. How many times I have seen you and Nami together, it was obvious if you know what to look for," Ferrin continued. "So, which corner of chaos did The Mothers send your mother to?"

I didn't even understand enough to try to attempt to answer her.

She reached over and took my hand in hers. "If I show you mine, you will show me yours, alright? They sent my mother to be the emissary to Talysn, she falls in love with their oracle sovran, and here I am."

"There are others like this?" Sam growled up from where he had placed himself between Ferrin and I.

Ferrin nodded, her face actually facing the right direction for once. "That's half of why Zenithcidel has so many allies. The queen of the Hezbelths is a sorceress. Her daughter is half of each. I thought this would be a relief to you, Ire, but now I believe that I have made a mistake. You aren't a branch are you?

"I don't-" I started, my mind filled with memories of little grey workings, a giant man, and blood being dripped into the mouth of a breathless baby.

"You have not. She is what you believe her to be." Sam growled up again.

Ferrin shook her head in disagreement and a smile touched her lips. "No, she's not, but-"

"Underwitch Faux," Radomir called out from further down the hall, interrupting Ferrin and making me turn around to see him. "There is actually something I could use your help with, if you have a moment?"

"-that only makes me want to get to know you more. See you around, Ire." Ferrin said as she turned around and left me on the singing stairs.

Sam let out something resembling a sigh and pushed me into movement by slamming his big blue body against the back of my legs. "If she is blind, then I am just an uncommonly intelligent cat."

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