After the rain of my azure dust had been brushed off of all the underwitches and onto the floor, I understood that I had not needed help to be embarrassed.

  I had accomplished that all by myself.

  “That’s against the rules, Mother Nami. Is she to be punished?” The newly named Underwitch Tana asked The Mother in Blue.

  Still holding me upright atop the raised ptform at the bottom of the wall sized window, Nami did not answer her. With a wave of her hand, an upbeat song began to fill the air of the room. I had not noticed them before, but a full band of musicians lined the left side of the balcony above. With the first notes that they plucked on their stringed instruments and the quick rhythm of their drums, they swung into a festive song and I was forgotten by the gathered underwitches.

  The new moon ball began in earnest. There were joyful shouts and screams as the open floor of the ballroom turned from a watchful crowd into a mass of moving bodies. Nami led me from the ptform and around the fringes of all the girls that had taken up dancing in the middle of the room.

  She just saved me again. I thought to myself, Nami's kindness making me feel like I would cry.

  I slipped my hand through the colr of my jacket and clutched the tiny vial hanging from my neck as the sorrow of my afterglow came for me.

  It was small, I knew that as soon as I felt its cold weight settle onto me, but any size sadness was too much that night. Tears welled in my eyes as the points of the little silver moon dug into my palm, but they did not fall. I was already uncomfortable, every step I took sent silken shudders of revulsion through me. I was already embarrassed, the way everyone had looked at me after my fireworks had left me feeling more naked than I had ever been. I already wanted to go back to my quarters, none of the terrible things I felt would be there, it would be only Anna. The st thing I needed was Tana, Maletta, or anyone else to see me crying. I would already be remembered as the girl who had lost control of her power not a second after she had been named an underwitch. Still, as small as it was, the weight pressed me down regardless of the size of my working and it came with an undeniable truth.

  I did not belong in the ball room. There was no pce for me amongst the moons of Lun Arcanicil. I was a silly little girl pying at being a sorceress.

  Everything had been better when I had tucked away behind the manor walls in Erosette.

  I could wear whatever I wanted. There had been no crowd of watching eyes that I knew had judged every part of me. There were no mean girls that disliked me for reasons I didn’t understand.

  The music, the cloak, the little silver moon, my new aura, I would give it all away if I could go back to the manor. It had been nothing but willful ignorance that had made me think I could go to a school and be a normal sorceress.

  The manor was not far back enough.

  I should have never left the little room I had shared with my mother. Spending my days viewing selected memories from The Well and listening to my mother's stories should have been enough for me. If only I had been wise enough to know that there was nothing good outside of that pce, I would not feel the way I did then.

  Nami led me somewhere underneath the balcony. Beyond the iridescent light of the decorated ballroom, tables y in the moody shadows and Nami led me to the one closest to the corner before sitting me down. It was piled high with sweets and drinks, but all of them made me feel sick to my stomach, even the little cookies that were shaped like crescent moons.

  "A toast to you," She said as she sat next to me and handed me a thin gss of some kind of drink. "That was very quick thinking."

  I did as I was told and drank the amber liquid just as she had.

  “It’s,” I started, my face twisting into something between a grimace and a sob as a burp rolled up from my gut and burst out of my mouth. “Bubbly.”

  Nami ughed. "I don't like champagne either, but you are supposed to drink it at things like this. Maletta is to bme for what happened with Underwitch Reese, yes?”

  I nodded, unable to speak because of the lump that had formed in my throat.

  The Mother in Blue was too pretty. Her smile was too white and her skin was too smooth. Looking at her in her white dress and the dim light made my heart hurt. Thinking of Maletta and Tana, as mean as they had been to me, did the same.

  I knew I was not ugly because of the uncountable times Anna had complimented me, but she had said those things out of love.

  Watching all of the underwitches dance, ugh, and make merry through the blurry tears in my eyes hurt as well. Each was beautiful in their own right and looking at all of them together felt like trying to stare into the sun.

  I would never be like them.

  I was thin, underdeveloped, gangly. There were ugly scars that marred the skin of my arms and legs. I was so in over my head that I could not even wear my uniform without feeling like I was being tortured.

  I squeezed my neckce harder, but it brought me no relief. If I could pull it out and see Anna’s hair or Glim’s dust, it might, but that meant moving. Moving meant feeling the silk of my dress shift over my skin once again.

  The charm and the vial did not help, but seeing Reese weaving through the crowd did.

  I stood up and took two quick steps over to her as soon as she crossed into the shadows beneath the balcony.

  “Everyone almost saw up your dress.” I cried as I threw my arms around her and buried my face into her shoulder.

  “If I wasn’t leaving tomorrow, I’d spend every day of the rest of my life making that Maletta girl regret what she did,” Reese ughed and hugged me back. “Thanks for the distraction, I think there's still some of it in my dress.”

  All of the sorrow slipped from my shoulders, and I came back to myself as my afterglow ended. I was still deathly uncomfortable and had to fight the urge to run to my quarters and tear my dress off, but I was myself.

  “She tried to do it to me too, but Sam stopped it. I looked all over Hymneth for you the day before yesterday. Where were you?" I asked her as we separated.

  "I was here, they finally found something to do with little old me." She answered, as she shook the hem of her orange dress and sent a trail of my blue dust out from it.

  In my rush, I hadn't noticed that Reese was not alone.

  A sorceress with short blonde hair and eyes like the setting sun appeared and pced her hand on Reese's shoulder. "Is this Maiden Ire?"

  "Not anymore. This is Underwitch Ire." Reese corrected her with a wide smile.

  I met the sorceress's eyes and I was taken from the ballroom.

  There were stars on the ceiling, shining violet in the otherwise lightless room. Their painter, Aster, and all of her pale skin y bare next to me. The taste of my burner ced my lips and the faint trail of its smoke passed by my open eyes. Memories of pleasure still hung in my fingers and toes, but the numbness would come back. It always did unless she was around.

  There was a knock at the door.

  Constance.

  Then, there wasn’t a door.

  Trea.

  Nami was there, just as beautiful as the st time I had seen her. Everything that had mattered while she was away, all the anger and frustration, no longer mattered. All the things that had happened in the dark room not long before mattered much more than they should have.I just needed to talk to her. All I had tried to do for a year was talk to her. If we could just sit down, she would understand.Her water hit me and washed me out of my bed before I could even think of what to say.

  Suddenly, everyone was in the room. Aster attacked Nami and Nami hit me again. Trea came and Constance followed. When we are all tied up, the lights went out and Gray put the fight to rest.

  Then, just as quickly as she came, she was gone again and the numbness returned. . .

  The music, the balcony, the underwitches, all of it came back to me as a festive backdrop for Reese.

  “-and this is-“ The chocote eyed underwitch was saying.

  “The Lady in Orange,” I finished her sentence as I took a breath and pushed the lingering memories out of my mind. I knew exactly who she was, I had been her. “O Gresha.”

  Reese shook her head. “How’s you know?”

  “Yes,” Lady O agreed. “How did you know that?”

  She was lean like Azza, but not nearly as tall. The white skin that showed out from under the straps of her dress told me that the tan of her skin had come from long hours in the sun. A scar extended from the right corner of her mouth and it made her look like she was smiling even though she wasn’t.

  All I could see when I looked at her was the pain that had been in Nami’s eyes when she had seen her with Aster.

  The thought of Anna being with someone else crossed my mind and it only made me feel more sour at The Lady in Orange.

  Panic sank its cws into me as I tried to search my mind for a reasonable expnation as to how I knew who she was, but a terrifying amount of nothing was all I could find.

  “You came.” Nami said as she appeared by my side, finding yet another way to save me from a situation I had no way out of.

  “I wouldn’t be anywhere else.” Lady O answered as she reached out and took Nami’s hand in greeting.

  A long moment passed and I had to look away as it grew. There was tension in the air between them. I wasn’t sure exactly why, but it did not feel like the kind that would lead to fighting.

  “I don’t like this one bit. Hello, Mother Nami.” Reese said as she knocked their hands away from one another’s with her own.

  “Hello, Underwitch Reese,” Nami nodded in return. “Are you still sure she is the right fit? We can keep looking if you wish.”

  “She’s sure, I’m taking her home tomorrow so I can make her wish she would have picked a normal teacher.” Lady O answered for Reese.

  “Well, to you and Underwitch Ire, I would like to apologize for Underwitch Maletta’s actions this night.” Nami said, straightening her back and taking on a serious tone.

  Reese ughed and stuck her foot out for all of us to see. “She told me my shoes were untied. It’s my fault for believing her.”

  Her heels had no ces that could be untied because they had no ces at all.

  “How many times have I told you how you should deal with her?” Lady O asked with her arms held behind her back and a wicked smirk on her face.

  “If only I was still a moon,” Nami sighed before continuing with Reese and I. “I will speak with her and make sure that nothing like what happened tonight will come to pass again, you have my word.”

  “If you do not, I will.” A deep voice thundered from somewhere below us.

  “Sam!” Reese shouted and lowered herself to my familiar’s height. She reached her hand out and pet him gently atop his head.

  To my immense surprise, the big blue cat did not bring his fangs and cws to bear against my friend.

  “You assisted my Lady in her time of need. I will allow this as payment for that debt.” Sam growled as he sat still as stone.

  Lady O took a step back from the small gathering that had formed beneath the balcony. “What is that?”

  “Underwitch Ire’s familiar. Are you scared of it?” Nami asked with a smirk.

  “No. I just haven’t seen one in a very long time.” Lady O crossed her arms and answered much too quickly.

  All the dancing girls that were not hiding under the balcony like I was came to a stop in a chorus of cps and cheers. When it faded, the band above my head began to py a different song.

  Slow and plodding, the drums would sound and the stringed instruments followed with a single chord in response.

  “Oh no.” Nami let out a low ugh.

  “You have to, you are The Mother now.” Lady O said, reaching out for Nami once again.

  A circle was forming on the dance floor. Every Underwitch joined hands with the ones next to her and they were beginning to spin slowly around the open space to the rhythm of the new song.

  The Mother in Blue took my hand. “Come, if you don’t do anything the rest of the nightl, you should do this.”

  “Do what?” Reese asked for me.

  “Dance.” Lady O answered for Nami and pulled Reese along behind her.

  Before I could protest or run away, both things crossed my mind, the four of us had joined the circle and I was pulled into the slow spin of the crowd. The underwitches screamed in delight at the sight of Nami and the song’s pace began to hasten.

  I had never danced before. I knew less about it than I did using my aura. If there had been any chance for me to have a choice, I would have kept myself as ignorant as I could.

  My eyes went to Reese, but all she could do for me was shrug and continue to pull me behind her. Nami held my other hand and she made no effort to save me like she had so many times before.

  The song continued to gain speed and the spinning circle I was caught in continued.

  The feeling of my silk dress sliding against my skin nearly made me sick.

  I saw Tana across the circle from me and hated the joy that brightened her face.

  Faster and faster we spun, the song reaching a heart pounding tempo.

  The precepts on the balcony began to shout and stomp along to the beat.

  Before I knew it, all of us in the circle were thrown into a full sprint, held together only by the strength of our grasps.

  Reese wore a wide smile and Nami had her head thrown back in a close eyed ugh.

  When I thought my feet would leave the ground because of the wild speed and my arms were tight with the force of the circle, the silk was forgotten.

  Any feeling of discomfort or embarrassment was rung out of me and all that was left was the pounding song of the musicians

  For the first time since I had put on my uniform, a smile touched my face and grew as the circle continued.