The Walking Storm. The Blue Death. Azeralphane.

  The gatekeeper's words hung in my mind even as he continued to shout.

  I was thankful for the distraction. Without it, I knew that all I would be able to think about was the raw red remainder of his ruined tongue. Nami and Precept Cherith had healed him with the help of the circle of white robed sorceresses, I knew that, but the sight of it would never leave me.

  Neither would the ruined flesh within the cuffs and chains of his restraints.

  I ran up the stairs, any thought of being quiet or padding my steps very far away. As soon as I crossed the threshold of the floor above me, the echoing shouts of the gatekeeper vanished. He was not silenced. He had not stopped to take a breath. It was as if the hall beneath the stairs had disappeared with my arrival to the ground floor and all of the sounds had gone with it.

  Azeralphane. . .Where have I heard that name before? I asked myself, a strange jittery feeling rumbling in my chest at the thought. Somewhere deep within me, in the dark places beyond any clear memories, I knew that I should fear that name. White fog, pale blue skin, hypnotic yellow eyes, flooded streets, and glass shattering thunder, all bits and pieces of things I was sure I had once known but could no longer fit together into anything coherent.

  Regardless of my ability to understand what I felt, I knew the shaking fear I did feel was correct.

  Maybe Anna was right, I needed to start making lists so I could stay sharp.

  Whoever he was, he had cut out the tongue of a gatekeeper, and that was not the kind of things that safe people did.

  The guards that had asked Anna for her name met me in the same place they had been before I had followed Nami.

  "Name?" One of them demanded.

  "Oi, you look like you're gonna be sick." The other grunted.

  Neither of them had mumbled or gurgled, but the vision of each of them trying desperately to speak without tongues appeared in my mind. I almost emptied my stomach right there on the floor in front of them.

  “Let her pass,” Someone said from behind the guards. “I saw her come in with Lady Anna.”

  The guards both looked annoyed but they parted to let me pass regardless.

  “It defeats the purpose of having us here if you let everyone with a face inside.” One of them said as I saw who had spoken on my behalf.

  He was a young looking man and wore white robes that had less than half of the cascades that the others I had seen had. He pursed his lips at the guard that had spoken and turned his back to them as he led me away from the visitor’s entrance.

  “Having guards in a medery, have you ever heard of such a thing?” He asked me, his arms held neatly behind his back.

  I didn’t know what the word medery meant until a few days before then. So, it was safe to say I had not ever heard of such a thing. I was still unable to speak for fear of making a mess on the soft white stone of the floor so I simply shook my head silently.

  He snorted and rolled his eyes. “One person gets attacked and they act like we have the six wonders of The Blue Mother buried in the basement. Ridiculous. But, forgive me, I haven’t gotten your name. I am Pirogue and based on how close you were with Lady Anna, I would think that would make you her lady love, but hmmm, I thought she had red hair.”

  I looked over at the chatty man with confusion evidently easy to see in my face.

  “Oh my, forgive me. I don’t mean to stir up trouble, I have just overheard her speak of her partner. I’m sure she meant you. I am probably mistaken about the hair anyway.” Pirogue laughed a high pitched laugh and waved his hands erratically.

  More out of not knowing what to say than anything, I gave him a small smile.

  “But we love Lady Anna here and Lady Mai,” He held his hand to his face and looked at me through his peripherals like he was telling me a secret. “Although, I can’t say I've ever met a more stubborn woman. Don’t tell her that of course, I couldn’t take it if she started to dislike me.”

  Rooms lined both sides of the hall, some with doors and some with curtains like what I had seen below. There were more sorceresses in the bedsheet colored robes than I had ever seen in one place, including all of the maidens that had gathered for the priming. Despite the rushing around they all seemed to be doing and the conversations that groups of them were having, there was a cold quiet to the place that left me feeling like I wished to leave it.

  Pirogue brought me to a door at the end of a hall that was cracked open just enough for me to hear the voices of those who were speaking inside it.

  “Listen,” Ms. Lao whispered harshly. “You need to have your own life. You need to have something that you do for you.”

  “Why can’t she be what I do, Ma? You don’t understand. I love her, like really love her.” Anna snapped back.

  Through the crack in the door, I saw Ms. Lao shift in her seat and reach out for her daughter. “I know you do. I am old, not blind and foolish. It just isn’t healthy.”

  “It’s what you did for me and Arthur.” Anna sighed.

  “Because I am your mother. You two are partners, it must be equal.” Ms. Lao said, with steel in her voice and her eyes.

  They were talking about me. Ms. Lao didn’t think I was healthy for Anna. She did not think things between us were equal.

  The sickness in my stomach sank into a cold pit as I realized the truth in her words.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Pirogue stood beside me, looking perfectly content to sit and overhear whatever was said next.

  Ms. Lao turned and spotted me.

  “Shit.” I heard Anna say. The door opened fully and she pulled me inside with anger in her eyes.

  What did I do for Anna? She cooked for me, she treated my wounds, she kept me from spiraling into the dark places in my mind. All I ever did was make her laugh when I fell and put her in danger.

  “Thank you, Pirogue. You may go.” Ms. Lao said to the young man as he walked into the room behind me.

  “Oh, yes, of course. Happy to be helpful! The healers will be coming soon. I’ll give the three of you a moment alone.” He said with another high pitched laugh as he closed the door behind himself.

  Ms. Lao stood and came to me, moving much more quickly than I had ever seen her move. Her face was bright and she looked well rested. It could have been the grey light leaking through the windows on the back wall of the room, but for a moment, her raven black hair seemed to shine blue.

  “It is good to see you, Autumn.” She said with a tight lipped smile as she patted the top of my hand with her own.

  “Hello, Ms. Lao.” I said in return.

  “Where did you run off to?” Anna asked me, her dark eyes still angry.

  “I. . .” I tried to speak, but the things that I had seen and heard had left me speechless.

  Ms. Lao sat back down in her wooden chair and made a mean face. “That Pirogue, I’ve never met anyone as nosy as he is. He’s probably out there right now with his ear pressed to the door.”

  “Don't try to change the subject now.” Anna said.

  “I have said nothing to you that I would not say to her.” Ms. Lao answered, her eyebrows knitting together into a tight knot.

  "Then tell her. Tell her that you think we care about each other too much." Anna said, laughing angrily.

  "I heard." I managed to say, wishing very badly for the tension between them to end.

  Ms. Lao shook her head. "That is not what I said. If you both wish to stay together, and I hope that you do, you need to each be your own person."

  "I saw a man with half a tongue." I blurted, unable to take their arguing any longer.

  Both of them stopped speaking and turned their focus to me.

  The words started spilling from my mouth like a knocked over glass of water. "I saw Nami when we came inside. I followed her before I really knew I was doing it. Both of you have seen a gatekeeper. She went into a room with Precept Cherith and there was one laying on a table. Under all that nasty looking fabric, they are just people. The skin on his arm was all black, like it had been burnt, and there were chains all over it. He kept trying to speak, but he-"

  "Hey," Anna said softly as she placed a hand on my back "Easy. Take a breath."

  The sick feeling had returned to my stomach and I had to swallow before I could continue. When I did, my voice came out quiet and quivering weakly. "Someone had cut his tongue off. All he could do was moan and gurgle. They healed him, but I couldn't watch it. I think that's what happened the other day. That's why all the guards are around."

  "Pirogue is a gossip. He said that someone had been attacked when he was asking me if I had heard anything. That is terrible," Ms. Lao said as she turned away from us and looked out the window. "Something like that shouldn't happen in a place like this."

  The spilling carried on. "I ran away because I thought I was going to vomit, but he started shouting before I made it back up the stairs. Azeralphane, The Walking Storm, The Blue Death, he called him a bunch of different names. I know I have heard it before, I know that I know things about whatever it is, but I can't remember it all."

  A sharp round of knocks came from the other side of the wooden door and it clicked open not a second later.

  "Hello, Lady Mai. It's us this morning." A cheery faced sorceress called through the door.

  Anna sighed and looked back at her mother. "I'll come back soon, Ma. Probably the day after tomorrow."

  "Your brother sent a letter and said he would be on leave soon. Both of you should see him when he is here." Ms. Lao said.

  "We are leaving?" I asked, nothing left within me to spill.

  "It gets crowded in here when they come and I won't be done for several hours," Ms. Lao answered as she came and hugged Anna and I simultaneously. "Congratulations on being accepted into the magic college."

  "Thank you." I said, only realizing she meant Lun Arcanicil after an intense moment of thought.

  Anna led us back out of her mother's room and past the white robed healers. There was no sign of Pirogue on our way back out and neither of the guards asked for our names as we left the medery. The sun had risen high somewhere behind the clouds above, which only managed to lighten the shade of grey they always were a small amount. The snowfall had tapered off and its sharp rhythm had gone with it, but it felt much colder than it had earlier that morning.

  "What's next on our list?" Anna asked as she straightened my hat and tucked the tail of my woolen scarf into the front of my jacket.

  "Your mother is right." I muttered, unable to meet her eyes.

  She raised her hand and thumped me right on the tip of my nose.

  I covered my face with my hands. The itching sting of her thump forced not one, not two, but three sneezes out of me in quick succession. "What was that for?"

  "The only thing Ma is right about is Pirogue being nosy. She doesn't understand anything about us and I really don't care if she does." Anna said, taking me by my hand and pulling me towards a building to the right of the medery.

  By the time I rubbed the tickling from my nostrils and wiped the tears from my eyes, she had stood us up in front of a large glass window. Clean and dark enough that I could not see what lay beyond it, our reflections stared back at us with Hymneth as our backdrop.

  "Look at us, we're perfect. You would willingly get killed trying to slay some undead monster for me and I would spend the rest of my life waiting for you to come home if it happened. Who gives a shit what Ma thinks. We are meant to be together." She said, looking at me through the reflection and scrunching her nose.

  Every part of me wanted to resist the warm place her words had created in my heart, but Anna Lao was far more powerful than I.

  "How do you know that we are meant to be together?" I said, trying not to let my smile show.

  "Think about all the things that had to happen for us to end up right here, right now. Do you have a better explanation?" She asked.

  "No, but there is something wrong. We aren't perfect." I said, hanging my head and slumping my shoulders. Without waiting for her to ask me what I meant or giving her the opportunity to thump me again, I let Maiden Ire fall from my face.

  I looked back up at our reflection and saw my true self staring back at me.

  "Damn it. I hate when you are right." Anna laughed as she turned me towards her and we shared a cold lipped kiss.

  I did not know if we were perfect, mostly because of how much of me that required, but our moment in front of the glass was, undeniably.

  We parted, and Anna returned to the task at hand all too quickly. "So, what's next on the list?"

  "The lock, lunch, and then we were going to try and find Reese." I said, resisting the urge to pull her back to me. No matter how bad I wanted it, I needed to bring Maiden Ire back to my face before I was seen.

  Through my peripherals, I noticed a dark shape had appeared behind our reflections.

  "You will be doing nothing until you reassume your glamor," The shape spoke and I flinched at their words. Standing tall next to Anna and I, with his single white eye staring down at me, Alexei had appeared out of thin air. "Or I will return you to your quarters immediately."