The magnified hazel eye gazing through the peephole brought Alexia back in time. The memories were a collage of learning, laughter, and ludicrousness. Theos Stormkin was more than a favorite teacher to her, more even than a beloved great grandfather. He was magical and wonderful.

"I've misplaced my breeches," the raspy voice of the archwizard of the Sapphire Kingdom announced. "I'll be back in half a degree. Maybe less?"

She felt the weight of the world lift off her, bubbles of cheer emerging through the thick layers of stress. "Maybe more?"

Theos cackled. "Probably!"

Alexia bounced, to and fro, excited to see him, endeared by his eccentricity. Then she looked behind her and found Garrond looming like a dark cloud chasing the sun. Everything depended on whether he would honor Halius's orders to the word or to the intention. Alexia kept her back to him, outer eyes on her mentor's door, running through her breathing meditations, inner eye bracing for what she might do if Dust tried to stop her.

At all costs.

Half a degree later, Theos Stormkin opened his door wearing red swim trunks and a light blue shirt covered in coconuts. He caught her admiring his attire. "Your dear friend, Master Herblore, gave me this during the Harvest feast a few years ago." He smiled, accentuating the webbing of burn scars covering the right side of his face. He caught sight of Sir Garrond and his grin faltered. "Master Dust! Come to sweep my rooms or settle in the hallway?"

Alexia rushed into Theos's rooms. This magical wonderland wasn't a place she wanted to share with Sir Garrond and his cold stare. "The hallway!"

She shut the door on him before he could shrug, grunt, or offer a terse reply.

Still, seven years later, she felt like a little kid in a menagerie as she entered into the headmaster's chambers at magic school. She meandered toward the potioneering station, the long table was covered in instruments and notebooks detailing his unsuccessful attempts to find a recipe for panacea.

"Still haven't found her," Theos remarked, as Alexia looked through his most recent attempt.

"Someday," Alexia said. "You'll figure it out when you need it most. That's how it always goes in the panacea stories."

Alexia brushed her hands against his bookshelves until she tapped her fingers on his arcane workbench, the birthplace of both Sunfire and Aurora.

"Still the child in the toy store."

From another person, Alexia might've heard condescension. From Theos, those words conveyed amusement.

"Uh huh," Alexia said, making her voice rise to a more girlish pitch.

She studied his weapon racks: staves, scepters, rods, wands, swords, maces, and daggers filled an entire wall. Decades ago, Theos Stormkin had battled on the front lines of conflict, a great magic knight who could become one with the storm, surrounding himself with Balbaraq's divine energy before charging into enemy lines all by himself, lest he would slaughter his comrades. He electrocuted and paralyzed his foes then delivered death with his blade in one hand and blasted lines of soldiers with lightning from the staff in his other hand. The proficiency with which he delivered death had earned him the title of archwizard and none since had approached his prowess.

Not even Maleon Stonebreaker had ever been the one-man-army that a young Theos Stormkin had been. Alexia knew she had a wider variety of spells at her command, and was already a more versatile wizard than her master had ever been. By now, she might even have surpassed the Stormkin in channeling divine energy from afar, but she wasn't certain if she'd ever be able to reach the charging-into-lines-of-enemies-by-yourself-and-causing-absolute-annihilation phase of her development. Decades removed from his physical prime and active service, the nigh-centenarian and his weapons collected dust. He hadn't even left Sapphirica since Alexia had started training as a cognitive-affectomancer.

Last, she studied his wall of mounted skulls. The massive kalagoth, a sea kraken, with an alien shape, was the first that caught her eye. These ocean goliaths plagued sailors naturally, but when wielded by a tamer they'd be a nightmare beneath the waves. Maddeck Eckhard had fought one back in his day, and Alexia would inevitably follow in the legendary "anathema's" footsteps in the coming days. This skull was split by Theos's lightning, but it was still twice the size of Alexia.

Her gaze couldn't avoid the two gigantic chimaera heads beside the kalagoth. She ran a trembling hand along the side of the lion skull. Even without muscle and hide, the monstrosity was as wide as she was tall and would've easily been able to take her in one bite.

"That was a younger one, compared to the chimaeras of old," Theos explained. "It is said that whenever an Ezen passes, a new chimaera is born. Most of the ancient three-headed monstrosities were lost in the days of Gurg and Tuya, so it was up to me to slay this one when Jianchin ezen Celegan invaded Isihla."

Alexia had heard the story of Theos against the chimaera, but any chance to be reminded that a cognitive-affectomancer could defeat the deadliest of the Ezen's monsters was worth hearing again.

"I met with Sun Priestess Mikembe years before she became the unwilling mother of Daichin ezen Celegan. She was among the most beautiful people I'd ever seen, Alexia. I arrived at the Sun Palace and this golden woman fired arrows of silver light into the sky. I offered to kill the chimaera that had been rampaging the Ugwadule in exchange for tariff-free trade agreements on her queendom's silks. It broke my heart that the Sapphire's compassion ended at the fabrics of Isihla and not her people. The dead don't spin silk, after all."

"I won't let the same fate befall the Mahagans," Alexia said, taking in the ram's head of the chimaera beside the lion.

"That might be hard, as I've been told that you're a bird in a big stone cage."

"Cages have holes. Birds have wings."

Theos grinned. "Never have I heard a truer observation. Does my favorite bird know how to unbind her wings and slip through the holes?"

Alexia stroked her chin. "She does. All she needs is a certain old man to put in the key that will unblock her way."

Theos bopped his head up and down like a bird pecking for food. "I know a few old men."

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"Only the oldest of them will do," Alexia said with a smile.

Theos cackled. "If only birds could tweet, this one might sing louder her plan to get this decrepit geezer to unblock her."

Alexia took in Theos. He'd always been so energetic in meetings with her that she could forget he was almost a hundred years old. With his scars, wrinkles, and even a few liver spots, his tremendous abilities as a cognitive-affectomancer couldn't stall his body from aging. It had been so long since he left here. What if he couldn't handle the demands of what she asked him? What if he wasn't willing to leave his cozy home where he pretended at senility to avoid responsibility? She wanted him to live out his final days in much-deserved comfort, far from the monsters he hung on his wall. Instead, she would ask him to risk his life far from home, fighting the deadliest creatures in the world.

Theos reclined in his cozy chair, planting his legs on a cushioned ottoman. For a moment, he dropped his goofiness, and spoke from the heart. "I see how you're looking at me. I am old, Alexia, but I'm not dead."

Alexia lowered her eyes, ashamed that she'd let him read her worries.

"In fact, I have more experience at being alive than anyone else you know, and in this moment, I'm as alive as I will ever be. Do you know why that is?"

Alexia rolled her eyes, but she smirked. "A riddle, Master?"

His lips curled with the mischief of a boy who'd only seen ten winters and never had to fight in wars or slay chimaera or kalagoth. "A riddle."

What was the source of life, Alexia pondered. Was it love? Could one live without love? What of pain? What of how a dose of suffering reminded you of what you had or had lost? Alexia felt most alive when she was proud of what she did. Looking back, the moments that carried her were times when she was fully herself. Those moments where she transcended the shy, self-conscious, anxious girl and became a dreamer of peace gave her purpose. It was that purpose which gave her life.

"You are most alive now, despite your age, because you have something to live for, something to look forward to."

Theos didn't dissemble or dither around, delaying his grading of her response as he usually did. "Exactly. I, Theos Stormkin, Archwizard of the Arcanium, have something to look forward to. I am alive, Alexia, so do not treat me like I am the corpse that we both know I look like."

She nodded. She could've asked him what he looked forward to, but she already knew the answer. Asking would only spin it into another silly jape from the divineblessed Balbaraq-attuned man.

If she spent her last days helping someone grow to maturity, wouldn't she want to see them flourish when it was most needed? Thousands of angles of private lessons, investing into a shy, nervous child plagued with self-doubt—placing all of yourself into making this person your swan song. Alexia sang, inviting Theos to join the chorus.

"I've been granted permission to receive training from Archwizard Theos Stormkin to prevent me from developing a block."

"Well!" Theos said, his eyes growing wide. "I hear the southeast seas are an unparalleled place to practice channeling Dalis and Zafrir. They say it is like going to Mirrevar to practice channeling Leverith or Balbaraq's Gap to practice channeling the lightning god."

"Would you know," Alexia, said, bulging her eyes, utilizing her best deadpan as she tossed her hands into the air, "that I have been having problems with Zafrir!"

"And we can't have you developing problems with Dalis. That would be catastrophic!"

"The southeast seas you say? How ever would I get there?"

"You are a bird. Can you fly like Windrazor?" Alexia shook her head, grinning through the mask she was failing to wear. "Can you swim hundreds of miles?"

"I mean, I can, given my block isn't with Dalis—

"But it could be soon if you don't take preventative measures." The old man offered an exaggerated wink.

"Prevention is key, but so is the old man, who is not a corpse, by the way, but I digress. He wouldn't be able to swim to the southeast seas, regardless of whether he's dressed for the occasion."

Theos rearranged the red swim trunks. He sighed. "Can't fly. Can't swim. Now this is a riddle, my favorite apprentice."

"If only there was a way for multiple people to travel the sea at once," she said, on the verge of laughter. "Perhaps you've learned of something in your many years, my beloved master."

He scratched his head, his wrinkled fingers sifting through the little white fuzz that grew atop the legendary charred coconut cerebrum. "A boat might work. I also heard that a certain bird hasn't received significant naval training."

"Even more reason to use a boat to be unblocked!" Alexia said, throwing her arms up as if that settled it.

"We better head down to the docks to see if there are any boats headed for the southeast seas." Theos fetched his oak staff, slid a wand into his swimming trousers, and packed a rucksack full of equally eccentric garments. Alexia's surprise that he would fight the Celegan Empire in red swimming trunks and a blue coconut shirt was short-lived. Of course, he would. Nothing had ever been more on point for the bizarre experience that was Theos Stormkin.

"We have one not so little problem," she said, as the weight of the world settled back on her shoulders. "I left my anchor in the hall."

Theos gaped at her like she was the one pretending to be senile. "First lesson in sailing, Ensign Alexia. Drag your anchor aboard with you. It doesn't weigh you down and you might need it later."

Alexia shook her head. She loved this man, strutting toward the door in his coconut shirt and red trunks carrying a rucksack over his shoulder and using his staff as a walking stick. She barred his path, reaching the door first.

There were no walls between them. Alexia needed to let him know how she felt, even if he'd laugh it away with a jest. "One last thing, Master. If I am a bird, then you are the one who showed me I have wings and taught me how to use them."

His face contorted with emotion, wrinkling his scars. His lips puffed out, pouty like a fish. She braced for the joke, but his throat was raw, laden with sentiment. "You give me too much credit. But I'll keep enjoying being there as you fly higher than all the other birds."

Alexia hugged him. Her gratitude could've filled her sails and carried her to the Mahogany Isles. He didn't close the embrace, but leaned into her. She gave a thorough squeeze, then opened the door.

Garrond waited, still as a stone. He twisted his scowling head toward her. His arms folded over his chest. Alexia was convinced he was ready to battle her. She prepared a focus with Zafrir, ironically, one that wouldn't be as easy for him to sense. He remained mute, cold eyes boring into her.

Theos stepped in front of her. "I've decided to bring Master Alexia for field training to strengthen her abilities with Zafrir's wind and Dalis's waters. There is no better location for this training than the southeast seas. I shall accompany her aboard a boat headed in that direction."

Garrond's tone was illegible. "And do you insist this location is necessary for the training she needs?"

"I do," Theos asserted. "And as she cannot fly and I cannot swim, we must secure passage at the docks."

Garrond narrowed his eyes, shaking his head. "And you think the Prince would approve of this training exercise?"

Dust glistened in its scabbard. The air remained still, the Ring of Peace glowing green as she channeled the wind. With enough force, she should be able to restrain him and flee, but Theos wouldn't be fast enough. She'd have to knock Garrond out, cutting off his air supply until he fainted. She didn't want that though. First lesson in sailing: bring your anchor with you.

"He ordered you to make sure I stay with Master Stormkin until my training is complete and to protect me from the Tamers."

"Lead on then, Eron's daughter."

Alexia exhaled, letting go of Zafrir. Feeling free, she smiled at Garrond, though he reciprocated it as much as a prisoner was likely to thank the man that jailed them.

Yet, she wasn't free yet. Anything could happen between here and the docks before the coalition set sail. Like an arrow, her plans were nothing to the Divine.

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