Well done, My Lady. I thought to myself, repeating my familiar's kind words.

"Do you understand that going back and forth between being mean to me and making me feel good about myself is not a great way for us to bond?" I asked him, more confused by his praise than anything.

Sam's purring stopped immediately as he glared up at me. "Do you understand that watching and waiting for you to shed yourself of your childishness and become who you are meant to be is unimaginably frustrating?" He asked in response.

I thought about it.

When I found that I could understand why he felt the way he felt, I sighed. "Yes, but I'm trying really hard."

"As am I." He growled as he pawed at the book in my lap. "What have you found?"

"It found me. My head still hurts from it." I shrugged.

It had been much too dark for me to see before Sam had pulled the fabric away from the wall, but with new light brightening the place I had sunk into, I looked down at what I was holding and truly saw it for the first time.

It was simply a dusty old book, worn out and misshapen like so many that Anna had brought from the library. Bound in soft leather, all of its corners were bent and creased. The empty face of it had been cut, scraped, and discolored so many times that I could barely tell what its original color had been.

"I understand that you are inexperienced with these, My Lady. To understand what a book is, it is often best to open it and look inside." Sam said simply.

I began to unwind the cracked leather cord that held the book closed and scowled at my contemptuous familiar. "You really do enjoy insulting me don't you? It's funny to you to think that I am that dumb. Maybe I should trade you for Auden, then you and Tana can sit around and talk about how little you think I know."

"You would give me up for that lesser creature? Have you forgotten that I was the one who prevented him from harming you?" Sam asked, a twinge of what sounded like actual anger in his deep voice.

"Yes, but, he's never made fun of me. I have to be around plenty of people that have hurt me. I'm used to it. In the small amount of time before his master made enemies, he never made me feel stupid. He was a perfect gentleman." I argued back as I carefully opened the book and forced a painful crackling sound out of its dry leather.

Sam's long tail swished violently behind him. "And that is more important to you than being told the truth?"

"Yes," I snapped before thinking about what he said. "No. I don't know. It doesn't hurt my feelings as much."

I glanced back up at him from the book, but his deep blue eyes were already moving across the pages in my lap.

"It is not a book." He growled as he looked past me.

I slammed it shut and had to try very hard to keep myself from taking him by the scruff of his neck. "Now you are just being mean."

"No, child. It is not a book. It is a journal." He explained as he pushed himself past me.

I flipped the book back open and saw that every word I read had been written by hand. "Oh."

Regardless, I will do as I have been asked. I read, stretching out and placing the journal down in the light. Alexei has taken up following me once he returns from his morning training, so I must stay away until he loses interest. It should not be long, he will return to bully Mir as soon as he is threatened with boredom.

Whenever you are able to read this, know that I will come down and visit you soon.

In truth, Jaka.

"Jaka." I said under my breath, unable to think of anything but Alexei.

Jaka, my guard's youngest brother, had been killed by Azeralphane. Maletta, or rather, Echowalker, had taught me that when the theater in Hymneth had been attacked.

"There is more." I heard Sam say from behind me.

I turned around to find that I had fallen through the glamor and landed back first onto a small wooden shelf. Just like with the rug that I had slipped on, there was a single place where the journal had been that was free of dust, but everywhere else was covered with the stuff.

Sam was right, there was more, but it was not very much.

My fingers found their way to a silver ring that held a dull purple stone.

"It seems that these were the possessions of The Mother in Blue's youngest son." Sam said, as he slipped past me once again and left the little place.

The journal held to my chest, and the ring hung loosely around my thumb, I took the last thing off of the shelf and followed my familiar.

It was a small velvet bag that was as white as the snow that blanket Lun, but I did not have the hands to open it.

"We must go. I will return you to your little hall before we risk being discovered again." My familiar said as I stood for the first time in what felt like forever.

I looked back at the shelf one last time before letting the purple fabric that hung on the wall conceal it once again.

Taking what I had found wasn't stealing. Jaka was dead and I did not think he would be coming back for them anytime soon.

"No. If Alexei comes for me, I can't hide these things. Take me to Anna. She can bring it to our quarters with her books." I explained as I walked through the wreckage of Katarina's study.

Looking like a storm had blown through it, I was impressed with how much damage my big blue cat had done for my sake.

Sam made a sound that almost sounded like a chuckle. "You are improving. That is a sound thought. Although, you will have little time once you step outside of the inner halls. His hearing is truly impressive."

My familiar was wrong.

After leaving the study behind us and slipping back through the glamor in the gem lined hall, the journey to the library was short compared to every other time I had been within Lun's walls. Sam made some mention of whatever dark presence he could feel below the school and how it he felt like it wished to take me away, but I was far too distracted by what I had found. What I had seen in the study and what I had heard The Mothers say distracted me as well. Before I could begin to straighten it all out in my mind, I left the darkness of the inner halls and stepped into the even darker space of the library.

My familiar had been wrong because Alexei didn't come like he had when I had crawled out of Zizicoltain's gaping maw.

I spent a long moment waiting for him to appear from the shadows or creep up behind me, but he never did.

Then I found that it was all too easy to find Anna and that long moment ended.

I knew better because of my white haired guard, but as far as I knew all of Lun' moons avoided the library like it was actually haunted. So, when I saw the warm glow of light leaking out over the railing several floors below me, there was really only one person that it could have been.

Every step I took in that freezing place, every row of dusty books I passed through and staircase that I climbed, I expected Alexei to appear in a sudden flurry of defeated anger .

He never showed his face.

All that greeted me was the excitement of getting to see Anna and the bitter cold that seeped into my bones.

How does she spend all day in here? I wondered, too cold to try and say the words out loud.

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I had only been in there for a few minutes at most and I was moving. Even still, I had already begun to dream of the relative warmth in the halls outside.

Alexei's continued absence brought me great joy. Escaping him the first time had been sweet, but all too short. The longer it took him to find me, the longer I could enjoy my victory.

He had been wrong when he said that this would not happen again, and that was almost enough to make me giggle.

Finally reaching the floor that the light was coming from, I tried to outrun the cold as I called out for my beloved.

"Anna!" I shouted, not wanting to scare her but needing to be near something warm as soon as I possibly could.

She did not answer.

She's probably got her head buried in a book. I laughed to myself, knowing full well how oblivious she became when she was focused on something.

I chose to hurry down an aisle of books instead of following the iron railing on my far left because something about the air next to the hollow center of the library felt even colder than the rest of it.

"Anna! It's me!" I called out again, my voice sounding shrill and shaky as it echoed around me.

Her continued silence made me laugh fully.

I could see it in my mind.

Anna, sitting on a throne that she had built out of all the books she had already finished. Walls of even more tomes and volumes surrounded her like a castle. So buried in her work that not even the sound of my voice could be heard, her kingdom would grow far too big if her reading was not stopped.

We didn't need to go to Velcreis to become princesses, Anna was already royalty.

Laughing at my own thoughts, I called out to her once again. "King Anna! I come bearing gifts! Will you grant me passage into your lands of paper and leather?"

Still, I heard nothing from her majesty, but I had grown cold enough to not care if I scared her. My not stolen treasures clutched to my chest, I broke into a full sprint as her lanterns came into my sight.

Two tall glass boxes with light flickering inside of them, a table piled high with books and loose papers, more empty wine bottles than I could count, it was not exactly the royal quarters that I had imagined, but it was definitely Anna's.

And then, I found the king on the far side of the table.

She was not sitting on a throne.

She was not buried in her work.

She was not even awake.

Wearing the white dress that I had taken from Precept Jasna's closet and nothing else, Anna was laid flat on her back, asleep.

"Is this what you really do all day? I'm upstairs winning duels and killing things that I'm supposed to be healing, and you are getting drunk and taking naps?" I asked as I approached her, feigning anger and disappointment.

It was cute really, the thought of her reading so much that she had to lay down and rest.

The only thing that I was truly angry about was that I didn't get to sit around and watch her.

One of my favorite things to do was be in the room with her when she got that focused look in her eyes. It had been since she had sat with me over all the long days there had been after Azza's punishment.

When she did not stir after my question, I thought about leaving her asleep. I knew more than anyone that she never got enough because of her nightmares, but I couldn't.

I had overheard far too much to believe that I could keep it all straight in my tangled mess of a mind.

"Hey, wake up, Azza is jealous of me and I have proof." I whispered as I knelt down beside her.

Nothing.

I nudged her. "Anna, you have to get up. Nami gave me an extra special bottle of wine for you."

Nothing.

"I'm not good at waiting, you know that. If I have to do something drastic to wake you up I'm not responsible for it." I warned her as I brushed her raven hair back from her face.

Her skin was icy cold, and when I accidentally raised one of her eyelids with my hand, all I saw was white.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, I sent a small amount of my aura through my left palm and burst a tiny little firework above us with an audible pop.

Anna's eyes snapped open as she gasped and flinched away from me.

"Good. Anyone else would have thought you were dead." I joked as I tried to calm her panic.

The fear left her eyes after a moment, and she brought both her hands to her head.

"Owww," She groaned and grimaced. "What are you doing here? You just went to class."

"No," I laughed in return. "It is the afternoon. I think. I'm not sure, I've been underground for a while. How much did you drink?"

She let out a ragged breath as she sat up and leaned into me. "Too much I guess. Aren't you supposed to be feeding your fish?"

I didn't care how cold she was, any opportunity to be close with her was one that I would take willingly.

"Yes, but, I'm here and I have gifts." I said happily as I opened my cloak and showed her what I had brought for Katarina's study.

She snorted and wrapped my cloak around her shoulders. "And where did you get those gifts?"

"From the place that I spent too long hiding in." I answered simply.

She shook her head against me. "And who were you hiding from? The Creep?"

I broke my promise to Rhiannon once again.

"No. You don't have to hide from someone you have already escaped. Nami and Azza just had a very long conversation in front of me without knowing I was there." I said through a smile, knowing that my answer would catch her attention like almost nothing else could.

She sat up straight and took me by my shoulders. "What did you hear?"

Before I could answer her, a sharp boom sounded from somewhere above us and I had no doubt as to who had made the noise.

Covering my treasures with my cloak once again, I turned around just in time to see Alexei fold out of the darkness and step into the light of Anna's lanterns.

He did not look anywhere near as angry as he had the first time he had found me.

Wearing his usual mask of stone and with his hands resting on his swords, he just looked like Alexei.

"I will try this differently this time. Congratulations, you have bested me. I lost. The game is over. Now, will you please tell me how you managed to do it? This is a matter that goes beyond our-" He started as he walked towards us.

He went quiet, and in that silence, I heard footsteps stop right behind where Anna and I sat.

"What did I tell you about coming in here?" I heard someone say as I turned around to see who had crept up on us.

I had only seen the librarian once before, when he had yelled drunkenly at us about the lights so very long ago.

He had been very far away, and it took one look at him for me to decide that I prefer him at that distance.

Much taller than I would have thought, wearing what looked like nothing but an oversized robe and underwear, he threw his hood back off his face. "Leave."

Alexei's mask of stone shattered at the librarian's command.

"Well look at that, little baby Radomir is sober enough to form a sentence. I'm impressed." Alexei said as he glared at the librarian.

Radomir? I thought to myself.

A blade of dark blue light that was so dark it was almost black cut through the air above us and flew towards Alexei's chest.

Like Radomir's pass Radomir? I asked silently.

All I heard was the sound of a quick metallic slide, and then the blade turned to dust in the air.

"Honestly? Do you truly think this will go any differently than it has before?" Alexei asked in a mocking tone as his sword clicked back into its sheath.

Like the crying child in Katarina's painting Radomir? I questioned further, remembering the painting that had been in the drawing room I had been taken to after I had passed the trial.

Where there had been one blue blade, an uncountable amount followed shortly after.

Faster than I could track, Alexei cut them all down and laughed a real laugh.

"Leave." Radomir repeated, a dangerous edge in his voice.

Alexei shook his head. "No. I have decided that I will no longer allow you to drown in your sorrow. We will have words."

Radomir stepped over Anna and I like we were not there. Dark blue light began to glow out of his too long sleeves and the floor beneath us began to shake.

"Lady Ire, if you will please return to your quarters, I have a family matter to attend to." Alexei said, meeting my eyes as his one filled with his blue.

Yes! Radomir like Alexei's brother Radomir! I shouted in my mind as I stood.

"No, wait, this is entertaining." Anna argued as I pulled her up after me and started us towards the stairs.

Sometime between the first staircase and the second, Anna's forgotten lanterns went out.

Between the fourth and the fifth, blinding flashes of different shades of blue lit the dark place in turns.

Between the fifth and reaching the doors, fear took me as I felt that everything around us was moments away from collapsing into the darkness below.

Anna and I burst through the library doors just in time to see Precept Jasna come running down the hall with a crowd of Moons following behind her.

"Underwitch Ire? What in The Mother's names is happening?" She asked as she reached us.

Anna, bent over and out of breath, held her hand up and answered for me. "Master Alexei and his brother are fighting. They'll be okay. Just have to get drunk together after. That always works for me."

Precept Jasna's face went pale as she spun around on her heels. "Vivienne! Get Mother Nami now! If they are not stopped they will tear the school down!"

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