Through the jungle of Plia sized leaves, Vanda, Cherith, myself, and Nami all streamed into the classroom in that order.

One look around the verdant room made me wonder just how long it had actually been since I had left for the dining hall. The third day of my restoration class had started out as the most uneventful morning I had lived through in my time at Lun, but the afternoon was proving to be anything but that.

I knew better than anyone that memory was a blurry and unreliable thing on the best of days, but I was beyond certain that there had not been a tree in Precept Cherith's classroom when I left to go fill my belly with fried potatoes.

"Did you finally get in trouble for exposing so much of your legs and wearing that scandalous color on your nails?" Mallory walked right up to me and asked the moment that I left the cover of the waxy leaves.

Plia was close behind her, but the little underwitches stopped dead in her tracks when she saw who was behind me.

Mallory's vibrant blue eyes went wide and every part of her snapped still as The Mother in Blue strode into the classroom like a magical queen from one of my mother's stories.

"What did you do?" She asked just a little bit too loudly.

Precept Cherith and Vanda both gave her furious looks and harsh shushes before the echo of her question could fade away.

Their call for silence reminded me of why I had left my room of responsibility in the first place and I turned to look at Tana.

The honey haired underwitch stood before the tree with her back turned to us.

Half again taller and well past the width of her, the evergreen that had miraculously appeared in the room of green covered stone was split at its tip.

The tear tore all the way down to a big knob that stuck out from its trunk somewhere around its middle, and Tana's watery blue was coming up to meet it. All around her, the floor had been turned into a glimmering lake of aura and I was certain that Precept Zetta would have no longer called her Puddles if she had been there to see it.

Someone tapped me on my shoulder and took my attention away from Tana.

Is that?" Plia whispered, holding onto my arm again just like she had before as she pointed at Nami.

"It is." Mallory tried and failed to whisper back.

"The Mother in Blue." Plia whispered again.

Mallory made some kind of whimpering sound. "Look at her."

"What did you do? Did she find out about your plan?" Plia whispered for a third time as she hid behind my cloak once again.

It was my turn to shush her. "Shhh, I'm not in trouble. I'll tell you later."

I had not been able to explain much to them when we had been in the dining hall. Writing words in piles of loose salt was not the best way to express what I need them to know, but with my guard's impossible hearing, I could not take any risk.

"I've dreamed about her every night since she came to Zetta's classroom." Mallory sighed and drew another angry glance from Vanda.

How taken aback they both were at the sight of Nami almost made me laugh.

If they knew that I had held The Mother in Blue through the sorrow of her afterglow or shared her favorite meal on the floor of my quarters, what would they think? If they knew that the little silver moon that hung from my ear had been hers and that she had healed my torn flesh right before she gave it to me, how many questions would they have? It would take letting go of everything, but if I told them that Nami had stood against The Mother in Brown just so I could be one of Lun's moons, would it leave them any more awestruck?

And if they were to find out that sometime soon, Nami would come to punish me for escaping to the mortal plane, that she could possibly put me through something so terrible that I would be left unable to do anything but cry out for my mother.

Movement in my peripherals brought me out of my thoughts.

Auden stood from his place atop the roots on the left side of the classroom and opened all four of his shining silver eyes as he looked towards his master.

Tana's lake of aura receded as it rose up the trunk of the tree. Seeping into the split and washing up both sagging halves, she painted the evergreen's grievous wound with her watery blue.

I knew what that felt like.

My legs were made of knobby joints and pale skin instead of gnarled wood and rough bark, but the memory of being swallowed by Tana's aura came back to me just the same.

I would have preferred being split all the way in half to being covered in that particular shade of blue again.

Plia tightened her hold on me as sound crawled out of the tree and filled the classroom. Cracks, like thousands of dry leaves all being stepped on at once, shook through haunting groans that felt like cries of pain from some great beast. They turned all too quickly from the slow crawling sound to a mad rush that made my heart pound in my chest.

My mind knew that there was no danger of the tree crushing me just like I knew that there was almost never any monsters hiding in the dark, but it could not give my body that understanding.

Mallory and Plia's minds evidently shared the same weakness because both of them were fighting to see who could hide more of themselves behind my willowy frame.

Higher, and higher, and higher, Tana's aura went. Every inch she was able to cast it up further closed the split and brought the torn halves of the tree.

All of her power left the vine covered floor and left nothing to hide her shaking legs.

The tops of the tree began to shake just the same, a storm of green needles raining down from its still parted tips

The honey haired underwitch had almost brought them back together when her right leg buckled out from underneath her.

She collapsed to one knee and her aura began to wash back down towards the floor.

I could not hear what was said between them, but a small conversation happened between Nami, Precept Cherith, and Vanda before the latter went running towards Tana.

"Do not touch me!" Tana shouted and stuck her hand out to halt the former new moon.

Vanda lowered herself at Tana's side and said something I could not hear.

"I would rather that than to fail! Leave me be!" Tana shouted again.

She let herself drop to her other knee and rolled onto her hip.

A wonderful laugh burst over the groans and cracks.

Nami was laughing.

"There she is! If I did not know better, I would think that is True Tana!" The Mother in Blue called out.

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Tana's head snapped towards her just long enough for her aura to recover the floor at the base of the tree. Without a moment passing, the new moon struggled back up and locked her quivering legs underneath herself.

She fell forward, barely managing to catch herself on the trunk with her hands, but her power did not continue to fall.

It flooded back up the trunk and forced the split shut with one final snap.

The heart stopping crack brought a silence that held everyone in the room perfectly still.

Auden caught the collapsing underwitch before she could hit the ground, and the blanket of evergreen needles that had fallen not very long before caught all of the watery blue dust that fell in her wake.

She no longer stood, but her work did.

The tree was no longer split.

No, it was more than that.

It looked like it had never been split at all.

Precept Cherith was already at Tana's side by the time that Plia and Mallory sprinted out from behind me.

If it had been anyone but her, literally anyone else at all, I would felt none of the dark and angry things I did.

The lich itself could come stalking into the room with its hand horrors fingering along atop their black nails behind it and I would have still rather seen that.

Vanda had been right, Tana had been about to do something impressive, and I hated that she had.

Plia and Mallory were my friends. I was the new moon that did great and surprising things. Nami was supposed to be paying attention to me, not picking up the person I liked the least in all of chaos like a sleeping child.

She had come to Cherith's hall to see me because I was like her.

What was worse than all of the ugly things I was already feeling was when my eyes met Plia's pallid blues and I saw a question form within them.

Why aren't you over here? I imagined her saying in my mind. I did not know if she was truly thinking that, but I knew her well enough to convince myself that she might.

Wherever Tana was, was not a place for me. She had started teaching me that from the first time I had seen her.

I should ask Precept Zetta if they could come to Velcreis. I thought to myself as Auden began to carry Tana away from the tree.

I still did not know if becoming Zetta's apprentice was even my choice to make, but at that moment I could not think of a good reason not to go.

"I will take her to the medery." Vanda said as she took up beside the four-eyed wolf.

"No," Auden growled without turning his head. "Bed."

Everyone but me and the crying mess that Tana had become turned and snapped their eyes to the wolf.

Auden continued as if nothing had happened.

"I didn't know he could talk." Mallory tried to whisper, but her voice was loud enough that Anna probably heard it all the way down in the depths of the library.

I watched him carry her towards the jungle of waxy leaves that led to the classroom door and thought nothing but terrible things the entire time.

Her familiar wasn't even real.

Well, he was in the sense that I could see him and touch him, but he was not truly hers

The only reason she had a familiar wasn't because my familiar had sent a sorcerer's familiar that was trying to drag me off by my ankles away with some strange power.

"Well done, Spring Tana, your mother would be proud!" Nami called after the honey haired underwitch.

So quiet that I was sure none of the others heard it, Tana spoke through her sob. "No she wouldn't."

And then they were gone.

I thought about little Tana wandering down the hall to her parent's bedroom.

No.

I thought about how excited she had been to have a tea party with her mother.

Stop it.

I thought about how much it had hurt to be her and hear the truths that True Tana had said to the warden.

Autumn.

After all she had done to me, how could I let myself feel bad for her?

Because you have been her. Otherautumn answered.

I wished she had stayed silent.

"-witch Ire?" Someone said to me and thankfully brought me back out of my thoughts.

Precept Cherith and everyone else had gathered around me in the short time that my mind had left the classroom.

"Your game with Master Alexei? We would-" Nami started.

"Shhh!" Mallory interrupted The Mother in Blue as she slammed a finger over her lips.

Nami looked down at the new moon and tilted her head to one side.

All the color drained from Mallory's face.

It seemed like she tried to run, duck behind me, and squat down to hide all at the same time, but all she managed to do was lose her balance.

Nami caught her by the arm before she could fall, but the touch of The Mother in Blue sent her into something resembling a faint.

"I believe that I understand," Nami said towards Cherith as she tried to balance Mallory back on her feet. "If I can get this one to use her bones again, we will join."

And just as quickly as my heart had been filled with heavy things that I would rather never feel again, Nami made it light again.

"Really?" I asked, only realizing that I had let just a little too much of my familiarity with her show when I found myself between her and the still limp Mallory.

Nami smiled down at me as she draped Mallory's arms over my shoulders like a promiscuous cloak. "Yes, but we must hurry. I have little time. How can Cherry and I be what you need?"

"Mother Namiana, please. When we are in the presence of your moons, I am Precept Cherith." Precept Cherith reminded The Mother in Blue

Nami nodded. "Yes, but, you were Cherry when you asked him to the Ladies' Ball and he laughed in your face."

For whatever reason, that specific combination of words brought Mallory back to life.

"If she starts dating him, will you still call her Precept Cherith or will you call her mama?"

She asked into my ear.

"He isn't her father. I told you that." I heard Plia say, but when I turned to look at her, she was not there.

Underwitch Ire stood in her place.

Black hair, dark eyes, muted features, her hair was thinner and shorter than I was used to, but it was indeed Ire.

"Is that what you all think?" Nami asked as her sea foam white hair turned pitch black.

Mallory shook her head and spoke through lips that were no longer hers. "I thought he was just another part of the harem she is building."

Precept Cherith covered the version of Ire's mouth that she had glamored her face with. "Underwitch Mallory!"

Nami, the tallest of the Ire's that surrounded me, laughed. "You are a funny one, do you know that?"

Mallory's Ire blushed so deeply that I thought her cheeks would catch fire.

For three days, I had waited. I had not run, and I had not tried to escape my guard. Anna had helped me form my plan, and I had done everything I could to keep my secret from the man that could hear everything.

There were two more Ire's than I had expected, but seeing them all made me realize that even one more than me would have been too much.

I didn't even like the Ire I was forced to be.

One was bad enough, five was entirely too many Ire's

Fortunately, when all of us came rushing out of Precept Cherith's classroom in a flood of black hair and dark eyes, Alexei thought the same.

"Ah." He said simply as he lowered himself into a ready stance. His one white eye danced between everyone else as I passed by him.

When my sandaled foot struck the first crystalline step of the singing stairs and the first note of Caerulus's lullaby rang out in my mind, Alexei had already disappeared up them in pursuit of Mallory's Ire.

I had won.

I was sure of it.

And then I stumbled onto the hall hidden behind the bottom of the stairs and found my guard waiting patiently outside of my door.

The sight of him stopped me in my tracks, but I was moving too fast.

I tripped and smacked against the stone floor on my hands and knee.

"How!" I screamed in frustration as I threw myself back and glared up at him.

He started walking towards me and made a show of a yawn that I was nearly certain was fake.

"Telling you would not leave you any room to learn," He said simply as he held his hand out to me. "But I had an unfair advantage. The result would not have changed if it had not happened, but the new moon that was carried out on the back of her familiar told me what you were planning as she passed."

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