I released my working and let the weight drop back down to the wooden table I had lifted it from.

  "Well done, Underwitch Ire! You have almost completed your first set of assignments!" Precept Seram's voice called down to me from her bubble.

  "It would be easier to just pick it up with my hand." I said through the heavy breaths that had bent me at my waist and forced my hands to my knees.

  The tights I wore were too hot for the work I had been doing. Sweat dripped down from my brow and I felt like I had been standing in the sun for days. I would have taken my boots and stockings off in a desperate attempt to cool off if I would have been able to put them back on again.

  I had not known how much I loved the cuffed boots that had been so easy to slip in and out of until I could not longer wear them. They had been my mother's or Anna's, I could not remember which, but I should have appreciated them far more than I did. Under Precept Seram's patient watch, I had tried on countless sizes of the ced bck boots once I had returned from chasing Sam the day before. Some had been too little, some had been too big, but after much too long spent on the floor, we had found the right fit. By the time I had returned to Anna and I's quarters with my cuffed boots in hand, two more pairs had been delivered to our door.

  What Precept Seram had not noticed or had been too kind to mention, was that I did not know how to tie my shoes.

  I knew I could learn, I had learned that much during my short time as a new moon, but there had not been enough time the night before. Between eating, giving Anna every excruciating detail of chasing Sam, and going to The Well, there barely been time for a kiss goodnight. So, even if I did manage to pull them off and shed the thick grey wool that was wrapped around my legs, I would have to untie them so I could put them back on. If I managed to untie them and then pull them on, there was no way I could retie them. I would have to tuck the ces into their tops like I had the day before. It had not been a problem when I had been calmly walking to my quarters.

  If Sam woke up from the nap he was taking underneath my table with his eyes shining yellow, I could not chase him with loose ces. There was no amount of wooden benches that could save me from the stumbling mess that would prove to be.

  So the boots and stockings stayed on, I stayed hot, and I got sad thinking of the underwitches in the dining hall that seemed to wear whatever they wanted.

  Precept Seram agreed with me just as my afterglow washed over me fully. "Yes, it would be easier as of now, but pushing the limits of your aura is how it will become easy. That is why my assignments are given the way they are. The slow increase in difficulty will expand your power without ever putting you at risk."

  "Until it breaks me." I muttered as a tear joined the damp spot on the floor that my sweat had made.

  "I could not quite hear you, Underwitch Ire. What did you say?" Precept Seram called down to me.

  Despite my sorrow filled heart, my mind knew that I had done nothing wrong by seeing and hearing what happened in Precept Jasna's css room. Even so, I was hesitant to tell my bubbly teacher that I knew what her assignments were leading me towards.

  I did not want to break

  Hands, nails, toes, my mind, I had already been broken so many times in my short life that I would never wish for it again. All I wanted to do was be taught by Seram, complete her assignments as they were given to me, and not be terrified that I would destroy my body with my own power.

  "She is beyond these petty tasks." Sam growled up from where he was curled beneath the table. His eyes had not opened, but the low tone of his voice was enough alone for me to know that I need not fear another game of hide and seek.

  It was a silly thought, but I could have sworn that I saw Seram's little bubble floating forward in an expression of interest.

  "Would you like to expin why you believe that, Master Samsara?" Her pleasant voice came again.

  I held my breath and hoped my familiar knew what Precept Seram did not and could not know.

  Eyes still closed and with every bit of his big blue body still curled into itself, he answered. "If you wish for her to become more powerful, put her life in danger or threaten one that she loves. That is how she has grown in the past."

  "Or, don't do that," I said as I stood up and pushed Ire's sweat slicked bck hair off of my face. "Please."

  Seram ughed. "I will keep that in my mind when it is time for her second cycle. Thank you, Master Samsara."

  "When will that happen?" I asked, as my afterglow ebbed away and nervousness flowed back in its pce.

  "Your life being put in danger and your loved ones threatened under my watch? Never. Your second cycle? After your first with Precept Mon Zetta and Precept Cherith." She answered.

  I let out a relieved sigh at the certainty in her voice. All was quiet until the depth of my breaths returned to something that could be considered normal.

  "Shall. . ." Precept Seram spoke before she trailed off and I was left looking up to her silent bubble.

  "Shall?" I asked up to it.

  "My apologies, Underwitch Ire. One of the other new moons needed me. Shall I prepare your next assignment or do you wish to wait until tomorrow?" Her voice returned just as quickly as it had left.

  It was so easy for me to forget what y outside of my pce while I was in it. Which, if I had to guess, was part of the purpose. When I was concealed behind the white curtains and focused on the assignment in front of me, I paid no mind to the fact that there were five other underwitches behind curtains of their own.

  "How do you teach all of us at once?" I asked aloud, too curious to answer her question. In the distant way she was, I always felt like Precept Seram was there.

  She hummed, like she was mulling over a complex and difficult problem. "The easiest answer is that I am one of the greatest teachers in all of chaos. That is arrogant but true, so I am not ashamed to say it. A more accurate answer is that through my bubbles, I can speak with and watch each of you independently. The truest answer is that each of your needs and way of learning is so different that two of you rarely need me at once."

  Everything she said made perfect sense, but with that question asked and answered, the next one that came to my mind passed through my lips before I could think to stop it.

  "Why do all the older underwitches not have to wear their uniform?" I said.

  "Each of Lun's moons are required to be in their uniforms when they are out of their dorms. If you have seen someone without it, know that they are breaking the rules." Seram answered calmly.

  A third question slipped out just as quickly as the second had. "When am I going to have to break myself?"

  "I am unsure as to what you are asking." She said, confusion evident in her voice.

  "On my way back from the dining hall yesterday, I got turned around," I started to lie. With the sheer amount of times I had needed to hide the true nature of things, it had become difficult to not fall into it. I shook my head and started again. "I was chasing after Sam and he went upstairs. When I caught him, I saw an underwitch with Precept Jasna. Her aura was forming something in her hands and Jasna was asking her its name. When it ended. . ."

  "Ah, I understand." Precept Seram said.

  "I didn't mean to see it, I promise. It was an accident." I cried. It was only then that I considered the possibility that I had just admitted to something that would get me into trouble.

  Precept Seram let a little ugh out of her bubble. "Calm, Underwitch Ire. You have done nothing wrong. There are no secrets here, only questions that have yet to be asked. Only the most exceptional sorceresses are capable of attempting what you witnessed. If you prove to be one of them, it will be a decade or more before you join Precept Jasna's css."

  "Promise?" I asked her. If I thought there was a way for the bubble to grab my pinky, I would have held my little finger up to her.

  "Yes, so put it out of your mind. Shall I prepare your next assignment?" Seram answered.

  I let her words put my mind at ease and let out a heavy sigh.

  Before I could tell her that I was indeed ready to do whatever was required with the little metal square, I heard her speak to someone outside of my pce. "Rest well, Underwitch Plia. Tomorrow will be a better day."

  A sudden urge came over me that I knew I should not give in to.

  Be yourself. One of Anna and I's agreements ran through my mind. I had managed to uphold all of them through most of my first week as a new moon. How could I live with myself if I prevented a date so close to when it would occur?

  "I, uhm, have to use the restroom." I said aloud as I carefully pulled the blue silk dress of my uniform from where it hung on the wall.

  "I will be here when you return." Precept Seram agreed

  Sam stayed curled up underneath the table with such unshakable stillness, that I doubted he would ever move again.

  Still fastening my cloak as I left Precept Seram floating behind me, I stepped into the hall just in time to see Plia turning the corner at its end.

  "Done?" Alexei asked from where he was leaning against the wall.

  I snapped my arm towards him with my palm out. "Stay. I will be right back."

  "I am not a dog." He said simply, but I did not stay to see if he would listen.

  As fast as I could without actually running, I passed the doors to the covery and the bathroom as I tried to catch up with Plia.

  I caught sight of her again at the end of the hall to the left of Precept Seram's.

  In what felt like a different life, The Mother in Green had taught me how to pad my steps. With Gwyn's lesson in mind, I followed after the short underwitch as quietly as I could.

  Truly, I wasn’t trying to sneak up on her. She was not something for me to hunt like Sam used to do with the birds around the boarding house. All I meant to do was not scare her again and I felt that the sound of rushing footsteps would do nothing to calm her fears.

  "Plia?" I called after her in a hushed town, hoping she would hear my voice and calmly turn around. She would see me and wait for me to reach her. I could introduce myself again and the poor first impression I had made would be repced.

  She didn't hear me. Or, at least, I hoped she didn't.

  Surely she would have stopped if she had.

  She went through an open doorway on the right and I gave up silence for speed. Down a narrow hall, I followed her into a room that looked like it survived solely by devouring closets full of clothes. Shoes, dresses, shirts, pants, and every other kind of clothing I could imagine y scattered in the spaces between six different beds. Plia had gone to the first on the left and I waited until what felt like the least frightening moment to call her name again.

  "Plia?" I said aloud in the tone I would use when Anna was having one of her nightmares.

  My soft speaking did nothing.

  With a violent flinch, she screamed as she whipped around to face me.

  "What are you doing in here?" She shouted.

  "I wanted to say sorry for the other day. Why does it seem like you are scared of me?” I asked, taking a step towards her with my palms held towards her in a pcating gesture.

  “Because I am.” Plia said as she took a step back from me.

  Everything about her told me that she meant what she said. I felt my brows furrow and it took me several tries to be able to speak again. When I did, my voice was barely a whisper. “Why?”

  “Spring said you were crazy. She said that’s why you don’t stay here with us. When you made those fireworks at the ball, she said that you were dangerous and couldn’t control your power, that The Mother in Blue only let you come here so you wouldn’t hurt anybody.” Plia cried.

  She stepped behind the post of what must have been her bed as she spoke, taking shelter from whatever violence she must have imagined I was about to bring to her.

  "I’m not crazy.” I whispered, unable to say anything else.

  “Right, because sneaking up on someone is a perfectly sane thing to do.” Plia said with anger in her voice.

  "I didn't. . ." I started, but I could no longer stand to see the way she was looking at me.

  As I left the bedroom, Spring Tana was all that I could think about. From her honey brown hair to the stupid blue stone that hung around her neck, I no longer cared about why she did not like me. The thought that she had been telling lies about me to the other moons brought so much heat to my face that I felt like I had been set on fire.

  I would find her.

  In the covery, the dining hall, her pce in the cssroom, I didn't care.

  I would find her and I would hurt her.

  Alexei met me halfway down the hallway.

  My white haired guard did not try to stop my furious march, but he did do what was possibly the only thing that could have brought me out of my growing rage.

  He called me by my real name.

  "Lady Autumn? Are you well?"

  How quickly my anger turned to sorrow.

  Sudden tears spilled over my cheeks as I threw myself against him.

  "I'm not crazy." I cried, wishing with all that I was that it was Anna who I was clinging to.

  A long moment passed.

  "No," Alexei agreed, his arms held behind his back. "but this is very unusual. I will take you to Lady Anna."