“Sorry,” Harmoni mumbled to the headmaster.

He put an arm loosely on her shoulder, and guided her back out. Then he stood up straight in front of the door, eyes sweeping over everyone in the hall.

“Weslessinal is still alive,” he assured them. “You will be able to visit him, but not today. He needs time to recover, and to get further healing.”

The headmaster drew in a deep breath, and continued. “As you can see, we won’t be having Potions Class today. However, our classroom will be repaired soon. As the beginner class, I believe your next scheduled class is on Friday? You may return then.” He clapped his hands together. “Dismissed.”

~~~

Harmoni had trouble sleeping that night. She kept smelling smoke or blood that wasn’t there. When she closed her eyes she could see the ruined classroom, or Tolith taking Wesles away. One flash wasn’t even that. It was of the slaughter of Wyss Village, though it was a bit odd. The angle that she was looking down from, when she closed her eyes, didn’t seem right.

She supposed she was doing better than Rasha, who woke up screaming. Wait, was that because of Wesles, or because of her horns?

Rasha didn’t specify, when Harmoni asked. Just assured her she was fine. “Do you want tea? I’ve got some. We could heat it up in the common room,” she offered instead.

‘I think she partly wants the company,’ Fleck thought, nudging Harmoni to accept.

He didn’t need to. Even she understood this time. And yes, that sounded good.

(And they'd be able to leave Eddie alone. She'd woken up to the scream, but otherwise seemed to be sleeping soundly.)

The two went down, the only ones in the common room. Rasha used the fireplace to heat up water, creating an uneven orange glow as the only light in the room, while Harmoni set out the two cups Rasha had brought down on the round table. They were two fancy, fragile, tea cups instead of mugs. She even found something they could put the kettle on when it was done, so it wouldn't burn the table.

"Sorry," Rasha said, pouring the tea. "Our sleep schedule's going to be 'ery off."

Harmoni shrugged, even though with the shorter days, this kind of thing did make a difference. "We've only got the one class tomorrow, yes? The History of Magic one?"

"Actually, uh." Rasha shifted her weight, holding her cup. "I've been taking a class on naturally found magical items as well."

Huh. Harmoni didn't remember seeing that one on the list.

'Well the list was pretty long, and Harmoni hadn't looked super thoroughly.'

'What are you doing awake anyway?'

'Notice you didn't care when I was helping out. And I woke up because of your dreams.'

Right. Made sense.

She focused back in on Rasha. Communicated with Fleck didn't take very long in real time, but she should still respond before too long.

"Oh? How's that going?" She took a sip of the tea. It tasted good and sweet, though also a bit grainy. Like someone had put a rock in it.

"Alright," Rasha shrugged. "I was hoping we'd learn about naturally found magical items that actually do something. And we have. Apparently there are items that just cause a random magical effect, like turning your hair blue or making things float, none of your power required. But a lot of the class is more finding items you can warp to your will. For example, if you find a tree with more magic than most, you could probably use it to make wands or staffs. Shouldn't kill the tree though. That would be ruining a naturally made gift, and would probably cause it to stop working." She paused to take a sip of her tea.

"Say, if you only have one class Tuesdays and Thursdays, what do you do all day?" Rasha asked.

So Harmoni tried to explain how she spent the days. Practicing feeling magic, spending time with Fleck, readings books.

It was nothing really. They were talking about nothing. Either they'd exhausted other topics really fast, or neither could be bothered to think of something more substantial right now. But it was nice. And when the tea was finished, and they went upstairs, they were both able to a be a bit more restful, for the rest of the night.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

~~~

Harmoni put on a new sweater.

She’d traded it for another dragon scale, but Fleck didn’t mind. It was obviously getting cold out, and Harmoni had wanted nice clothes.

A light blue sweater wasn’t what Harmoni would consider dress clothes.

But it was the nicest thing she owned.

‘Fair.’

Besides, now that she'd been here a little longer, she understood the value of his scale better.

True. She had gotten other, if less fun, things with it as well. Like more undergarments and a new toothbrush.

Anyway. No shopping today.

She headed out of the school, and started down one of the well-worn trails. Unlike most of the other major ones, this didn’t lead to either of the closest towns. Harmoni didn’t think it led anywhere in particular. There were other paths like that around the castle. So far as Harmoni could tell, they were simply used as nature trails, with no particular destination in mind.

It was Thursday. She’d had History of Magic. There were no more classes for the day. Rasha was away at her magical item class. Wesles probably still couldn't have visitors. And after everything that had happened in the past two days, Harmoni felt rather . . . drained. She could use some space. Well, with one exception.

Fleck came out of the stables as she passed, and fell into step beside her.

Harmoni smiled. She didn’t even smile at him per say. She just smiled, and he knew it, and he was happy to see her too.

At first, they just walked along, enjoying the new sights and smells. It really was so different from Xentron here, with the cool damp air hitting their faces. The sky seemed grayer and less intense even on sunny days. And the trees and bushes, spaced kind of far apart and smaller than the colossal trees Harmoni had seen in Xentron's forest. It was also, on the negative side, almost eerily quiet compared to how forests were supposed to sound.

Harmoni could hear waves, and Fleck could smell salt, but neither of them could see the pink ocean. They were running parallel to it, but this trail wasn’t particularly close.

Harmoni came across a tree with a wide trunk, with moss growing on it.

“Is that a good spot?” Fleck asked.

Out loud.

Fleck shrugged. The only other person he spoke out loud to, with words, was Asplenium. And Tolith, he supposed. He’d take the excuse.

Harmoni nodded, both in understanding, and answering his question. The trunk was wide enough to lie against, and the moss would make this a soft spot.

Fleck sniffed the air, but couldn’t pick up the scent of anyone nearby. He was pretty sure Evin spent some time here, but the smell was old and stale.

So Harmoni laid against the tree. Fleck curled up next to her, and she set her hand on his head. She stared out at the trees and bushes around them and let herself feel magic, the power of the universe, again.

She’d had enough practice, in class and on her own time, it wasn’t hard to find the feeling this time. Soon, she was surrounded by the metaphorical glow of magic. While she still didn’t like the feeling of her own, she could experience it without breaking her connection now.

With that done, she tried to find the barrier, the magical wall she supposedly had.

She wasn’t sure how long it took to find. Time was a little blurry when she and Fleck did this. But she did succeed. There was something around a part of her magic, like the shield Tolith had put up against the potions room. Hard to notice unless you were looking for it or ran into it, but undeniably there and firm against any pushes to it.

Well, Harmoni would try anyway.

Ava had mentioned something like this in class, in part because Harmoni asked, wording her question vaguely. Magic like this, a long-term spell, still required magical energy. If you stood out in the rain with a magic rainproof coat for long enough, the enchantment would wear off. Harmoni’s necklace was hiding the presence of her dark magic. It had a lot of energy left, but that was also slowly being drained. Rial had mentioned that. Ergo, putting magical energy against the magical barrier, would eventually cause it to break.

But what was the best way to do that?

Harmoni thought about magic in metaphors. With light, or Rial’s water metaphor. So she continued that.

She tried to pouring magic against the barrier, like a drill. It was like trying to drill metal. Unpleasant, and ineffective.

Harmoni was new to magic, changing the metaphor and making that actually work could be difficult. But to the best of her ability, she tried to imagine her attack as more of a sledgehammer than a drill. Rather than continuously pushing on it, she slammed it repeatedly. She tried to find a metaphorical crack, a weak point where maybe she could start. It wasn’t working. The barrier seemed perfect, with no weak spots to go for. And she was going to drain her own magical energy long before she drained this thing. She didn’t think she’d changed it at all yet.

Was that unusual, or was she just shit at magic? Fleck was a magical being. Maybe they could pool their power to attack the barrier. But she wasn't exactly experienced with magic. Would she be able to do that without breaking her connection?

As if to answer the question, Harmoni’s own thoughts brought her out of her connection with magic. She quickly took a deep breath, and tried to reconnect.

Fleck didn’t want to interrupt, but he was pretty sure Harmoni was getting tired, and since she'd been forced to pause anyway, now was a good time to bring it up.

'Someone's out by the pink ocean. In fact, I'm pretty sure a ship just landed.'

‘What?!’ She didn't think a ship had been out there since she arrived.

Harmoni snapped back into focus. Literally. Her body gave a little spasm.

Fleck hadn’t been kidding when he called her tired. She felt herself falling back towards the tree trunk. Continuing to sit upright was tiring. Keeping her eyes open was hard. She hadn’t noticed while she was connected to magic, too busy trying to use it.

Meanwhile, Fleck shifted onto his back feet, front ones in the air.

‘A ship's landed at the pink ocean,' he repeated, with more certainty. 'And I'm pretty sure you want to know about that.'

'I do. Let's see what's there.'