My sleep was restless that night. The words of The Mother Dragon kept replaying in my mind. Once again, my father was to leave. This was no diplomatic mission, it was danger incarnate. I kept waking periodically in fits of quickened breathing.

For once, I was sleeping at my father’s Grove. It was spacious, the room too tall to feel secure, built from magnificent hardwood. Once, he told me that the foundations of The Grove were grown. Apparently, one could not see it from sight alone. It did however, have a part in why I chose to sleep at the College. This place, felt very much alive. The banyan trees swayed in each wind in unison, connected, covering the area in a deep shade. Even during the days the summer sun beat down across the city, this area kept a mystic air of shade. Wind seemed to breath out of The Grove, instead of through it. It was, as my father described, a lasting sanctuary.

“It is time,” my father was dressed and standing in the entrance of the room. “Senator Silos has asked his son, Renault, to accompany me.”

I recognised the name, a Knight of Brius.

“When will you return?” This was how it was meant to be, I’d ask him this question and he would respond…

“When the wind wills it so, son of mine.” His face held a faint smile. This time, I knew he could not know far the wind would take him in this journey.

“I want to come with you, please don’t leave me behind, not again…”

Those deep eyes, I had no way of knowing if he even considered my request. “I have tasked Professor Willow with your care, and within a day, I will send word of my arrival to The Architect.”

“Please, I can fight. I have been studying.” I knew better.

He paused and breathed. “The Mother Herself commanded me. I must be the one to fix it. I was raised by the Wild, I must atone for the sin of man.”

“So let me help you,” my voice felt small.

“Enough, you are to remain here. Please, son.”

I raised my head to his. He never asked anything of me, merely demanded or taught me otherwise. But now, there was a pleading in his voice I had never heard before. Not until yesterday, when The Mother had arrived. I didn’t know if I’d ever see my father again. I didn’t know if I could forgive him if that was true.

“We shall be nearing The house of The Architect before noon. Professor Willow will have my word by then as well.”

I watched as he turned and strode out down the hallway. As his footsteps faded I rose to follow him. I crept towards to front of The Grove and saw him saddle a horse. A mighty, tall steed, its colour black as midnight. The horses looked bred for war, the fastest steeds in the Knight’s Stable.

Besides him, rode the knight Renault in chainmail. His posture was rigid and poised, and he said no word as my father mounted. They rode away, disappearing into the summer fog.

Before I could even consider following them, a shadow fell onto me from behind. It was too tall to be anyone except Professor Willow

“Mr. Reed, your father has asked that I bring you back to the College.” His voice was cold but understanding. It didn’t sound demanding,

I didn’t have a reply, so I let him lead me away from the direction my father had gone. The walk back felt like a blur. A reoccurring dream that one tends to forget as soon as they wake.

How many times had I been left on my own as my father travelled. Except now, I couldn’t expect him to return. I could only pray. To whom, I didn’t know. I had never been drawn to any of the deities the warlocks worshipped. Maybe there was one, a goddess whom reigned above most others. Hecate, goddess of magic. However, she was also goddess of pathways. Did this mean she knew which paths would keep my father safe? At that very moment, I hoped so. I wanted so badly to believe. Inside my heart, I wasn’t sure if I could.

We came across the Brius River and Professor Willow stopped. The birds in the trees were starting to sing and the fog was beginning to lift.

“Let’s take the slipstream from here.” He turned to face me.

“What’s the slipstream?” I asked.

“You may have lived here all your life, but the school still has some tricks you still don’t know about…” There was a smile creeping along his lips. “velox amnis”

As he spoke the words, I felt my body stretch and dissolve.

I didn’t understand fully what was happening. That, however, was how Professor Willow handled most people. The less you know, the more questions you have, the more you learn. I was sure we had been falling into the river. No sooner had we fallen in, were we coming up out of it. It happened so quickly I barely had time to look around before falling behind.

“Where are we?” My voiced trailed off as my head looked from left to right and then to behind us where we had exited the water.

“We’re here of course, and early enough that you can get first choice of breakfast.” His voice was raised so that I could hear him because he was now a dozen metres ahead.

My stomach grumbled and I felt famished, I didn’t know how that could be. “But Professor…” I jogged to catch up.

“It’s the slipstream, you’ll be hungry enough to eat twice. I know I am” and with that we came into the dining pavilion.

There were not many students here, only one or two that I knew were early worms, the other five or six looked exhausted with sunken eye bags. All of them were studying, trying to use up the early light before the summer heat caught us. Just looking at them made me yawn and those who had looked up to see us enter followed suit. Then came the furrowed brows and disagreeable looks as their eyes returned to their work. I didn’t blame them. Studying for preliminary exams, something I’d have to do next year. Took quite a toll on a majority of the senior students.

As I expected, the only early worm eating breakfast instead of holding a book in front of them was my friend, Scarlet, whom I hadn’t seen since yesterday. I also expected she would want more answers. More answers to questions I begrudged to acknowledge.

“Morning!” Scarlet had placed down her fork to wave at me.

I walked over to her with a half-smile. I couldn’t muster anything more.

My thoughts were fragmented into preparing for as many possible avenues this conversation might meander down. Did she know what had happened at Wickers Clearing with The Mother? It was quite probable, as most of the city hall men there would have told their wives, or friends, or children. No doubt her father, Theon, would have been told soon rather than later. I did see scribes present, so maybe she had even read a word for word account. Most of the other students in the school would hear paraphrased versions of the event by today. There was little doubt in my mind that Scarlet was in the dark.

“He didn’t take you with him.” her jovial eating ceased as she assessed me. “You look like you haven’t slept a wink, and yet you look ready to runaway. You’re thinking about it aren’t you?”

“Of course, who wouldn’t?” There was a twang in my voice I hadn’t meant to reveal.

She ignored it, thankfully. “So what are you doing back here, instead of following after him.” Her sleek hands were now clasped under her chin holding her head up.

“Well, Professor Willow for one thing. My father asked him to take me back here—”

I decided to sit down across from her. The sweet smell of vanilla filled my nose. Her scented oils, I guessed. I couldn’t look into her piercing hazel eyes, but I went on speaking. “and he asked me to stay.”

“The whole time I’ve known you Winter, you’ve never disobeyed him.”

“Have you disobeyed your father?” I retorted.

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She sat with herself for a moment, considering. “Yes, in little ways. I think that counts, especially compared to you. But don’t change the subject.”

“And you did choose this school if I remember correctly.”

The corners of her lips curled up slightly. “Yes exactly!”

I returned to the point she was trying to make. “Why would I go against him, he’s trying to keep me safe.”

“Don’t you think he’d be safer with all the help he could get? You’re old enough to be his apprentice,”

She had taken the words out of my mouth. How I really felt, that is. How I’d felt that morning when he was leaving. And how I still felt inside. That was another habit of hers.

“I will get word by tomorrow. When he reaches his destination, he will send word. He always does.”

“And if he doesn’t?” Her question hung in the air.

“He always does,” I repeated, more to myself this time.

After this, breakfast started getting hectic, as it always does. I left to get a plate of my own and came back to one or two people sitting at the table. The students began to pile in, with many more grumbles. As the table began to fill with acquaintances asking about what happened the day before, I stood to go.

Scarlet was in the middle of putting her dirty plate at the nearest kitchen trolley, I wanted to get away before even she could follow me. There was not much I wanted to say to these people anyways. I didn’t know if any of them would understand what it was like growing up with an important Druid as a father, and I didn’t plan on explaining it to them.

As I was striding through The Great Hall doors, I took one more look at the side entrance Professor Willow brought me through this morning. The sensation of his powerful magic washed over me once more.

What had he said? “velox amnis” I sounded out the words a few times over and over in a whisper.

At the time, my mind had lagged behind as we moved so quickly. Now however, I had time to mull over the words and I realised he had told me what they meant. The slipstream he had called it. Whatever it was, it was fast and apparently it was something commonly used by the teachers. I logged this tidbit of information into my brain for later.

“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?” Scarlet was right behind me jogging to catch up to my stride. There was no way she could have followed me without my seeing it.

“Scarlet, go away. I want to be alone.” I didn’t know if I really wanted this, but I was getting a little upset at her persistence.

“I’d rather not, you look ready to go a few rounds. How about a wager? I win, you’ve got to let me in on your escape plan. If you even have one yet, you can be hopeless like that. But if you win, I will well and truly leave you alone. Sound good?”

“Why would I agree to that,”

“Because otherwise you’ll never get rid of me and my pestering.” She replied a little too quickly.

“Why would you want to know my plans anyways, there’s no way you’d risk your position here in the school, or risk getting into trouble with your father. No, I have to do this alone.”

“Unlike you, Winter, I’ve gone through my Divine Rite…”

She let that sink in. My eyes widened as I looked at her. “When, how, but you’re the same age as me?”

“Maybe I’ll tell you about it one day. Maybe right now its more important for you to know that I will come with you when I beat you. You need someone to keep you from getting your head cut off.”

“Why would you do that?”

“I have my reasons, now come on. I’ll race you to the southern courtyard. There’s only twenty minutes until our Enchantment class.”

I didn’t know what to say to her boasting so I let her pull me by the arm. She was impossible to reason with! And anytime she sounded like she was being fair, that was exactly when she was being the most impossible. There was no way in the Nine Circles of Hell she would let me win, or even go easy on me. We had always known she was the better combatant and tactician. I decidedly preferred to read and study, since that’s what schools are usually for. They didn’t teach us how to fight monsters, but now thinking of my plan I wondered if that would have come in handy.

“Okay, okay, you don’t need to drag me the whole way.” I tugged my arm back from her hand. Her grip was surprisingly strong for the build of her arms.

We came into the courtyard, as most other times she tripped over the little steps which elevated the opening. I had to stop myself from laughing and her head turned to see my placating dismay.

“Don’t you dare laugh, Winter!”

“It gets you every time,”

“You’re exaggerating, its not every time. Now, you ready to lose? I’ll take first position.” She began to walk away from me in straight long steps. As always, I counted twelve steps before she spun around and raised a finger to her lips. I followed suit by raising my own finger.

“I challenge you, Winter Reed to a wizard’s duel!”

“Do we really have to say it?”

“Yes, now hurry up. It’s tradition.” She beckoned me to say the correct words.

“I accept your challenge and the terms you’ve lain before me.”

“ūnus” she began, bowing her head low towards me.

“duae,” I responded, and began to bow.

“trēs!” I darted back as soon as I heard the word.

The funny thing, she was no where to be seen. Her voice seemed to carry on and on, echoing endlessly.

That was until it sounded like it was right behind me. I felt a chill roll down my spine. A lick of electricity as my fingers tensed.

I turned and dodged the impending dagger which was aimed directly for my head. I knew better than to stand still. Immediately, I rolled forward as she materialised behind me, holding the dagger. This left me with a wide blind spot, but she seemed preoccupied with gaining her bearings. I didn’t know how many times she could transport her self through her dagger, and I didn’t plan on finding out.

The only disadvantage I saw from her teleporting manoeuvre was that she had to adjust to her new surrounding, like the displacement caused her internal compass to recalibrate. I turned back around to face her and brought my open palms together. It almost would look like I was praying except the next moment I spread them apart again curling my fingers to make a makeshift sphere within.

“caelestiālis sphaera fulminis”

And as the words turned into breath, the breath reached within the fabric of the world itself. There came a splitting sound, the crackle of energy. I felt a searing heat against my palms which began to travel down and through my bones. A bright orb of conductive lightning danced around inside my hands. The longer I held it, the more violent it became. Tendrils spat forth as I struggled to keep control over it. I had little time before it spilled out from my grasp. I directed it towards Scarlet, and let it fly.

From Scarlet’s perspective this couldn’t have taken more than a one or two seconds. It moved at the speed of light and zipped through the air in a twisting motion. Right before impact, I noticed two things.

Firstly, she was smiling. Who in their right mind would be smiling before they were hit with a lightning change strong enough to cause short-term amnesia? Secondly, the knife from her hand was gone. Then came the impact, a bright light, and the world turning sideways.

By the time I blinked away the dots in my eyes, I realised I was lying on the ground with a weight pushing down on my neck and body. As my vision cleared I could see it was the weight of Scarlet holding me down with something held to my throat. Her dagger was pressed down hard enough to make sure I didn’t move.

“I surrender. The duel is yours,” I mumbled.

Her cold eyes blinked and her face returned to normal. Instead of that dead, silent staring, there was a smile. It made me want to smile as well.

“Good, you know you made quite the mess of the pavement.” Her tone was once again upbeat.

I rose to my feet, feeling around the skin of my neck with my hand. It felt tender and my fingers came away tinted red to the touch. There wouldn’t be any scarring, but Scarlet had applied enough pressure to leave a slight cut. I whistled as I surveyed the carnage left by the lightning.

“Were you trying to kill me?”

“Don’t worry, there was only enough to knock you out for a while. Maybe a few days, or a week at maximum.”

“A week!”

I smiled sheepishly, “I said at maximum.”

“Do you want to know how I did it?”

“Yes, there was no way you had the time. I’ve been working so hard on decreasing the time between spell incantation and active creation.

“It was fast, but you’re not the only one practicing.” She slipped her dagger away behind her blackened cloak.

“The only moment I had to throw it was when you cast the spell. It requires you to put your arms in front of your face, which leaves you with a momentary frontal blind spot.

Instead of throwing my dagger full speed, I threw it underarm, still aimed towards you of course. It merely spun in the air for an extra few seconds, enough time for you to send that death orb flying.

Then I teleported to my knife as it blinded you, and made easy work of a wizard blinded by his own spell.” With this last remark came a smirk. Her winning smirk I believe she called it.

I sighed in resignation. “Let’s go before someone spots us.”

“What’s the score now, Winter?” She asked as we began to sneak away.

“Don’t give me that Scarlet, you know I’ve never won.”

“Exactly, so you better try to change your mind about sharing.”

“Yes I know, a wizard’s honour and all that. I’ll tell you.” I took a breath.

“Once my father sends news of his arrival, I’ll be able to track his scent. The main problem is Professor Willow…” we continued turning down the long, open hallways as I explained my plan.