I know, this is not the next chapter of Teaching Discipline. I'm sorry! If it helps, this grew out of an attempt to write the next chapter. I'd like to see who can guess what teacher-student pairing was supposed to be before it branched out into a completely different story!

I promise that I'll have the next chapters out as soon as possible. It was hell semester at school, but it's over now. I'll find more time in the upcoming weeks.

Disclaimer: If I owned CoM, I would be a lot more pleased with the directions my life has gone.

Growing Pains

Timeline: Before Magic Steps.

Maybe it was the result of Lark's lessons, or the romantic books that Tris claimed she didn't read bleeding through their linked minds, but Sandry had come to think of their lives like a rag-piece tapestry. They had all come from different weaves, unspun from their old tapestries, and sometimes (like when Briar had unleashed a prank war on Winding Circle) they were a bit rough around the edges. The pieces were torn and mismatched from their time in other cloths; the finished product was oddly shaped for it. But they had come together and now they were complete.

And then the weave came undone.

It began with medallions. Despite their mishap with the barn and alcohol, a few months after Daja's birthday all of their teachers had gathered them at the Hub to present them with the pieces of adulthood. Briar had made some vulgar jokes and then been appreciative of the food Gorse had made in celebration. Daja had shrugged, and Tris had pulled her book out of her pocket to hide behind, and only Sandry had examined her new license with the faintest sense of unease.

Sandry had been born and grown on the road. She knew that what looked like a breath of wind could turn into a tempest soon enough.

The first hiccup in their new life as adults was brought in by Niko. First his lesson with Tris was interrupted by a messenger. Tris morphed into a grouch on the way back, and the other three tried to snap her out of it.

It's probably just like what happened last spring. Sandry tried to soothe her.

He was gone for three weeks, grumbled Tris, What am I going to do for lessons?

Wanna trade? Briar, stuck in the bustle of preparation for summer season, was having trouble seeing a downside to this. I would do anything to avoid weeding, weeding, and more-"Ow!"

"I know that look," Rosethorn said grimly, "Pay attention. You might have your medallion, but you're not so learned I can't hang you in the well."

Seriously, you're lucky. With a last mutinous mutter, he sealed himself off from the conversation and went back to weeding.

Maybe you could sit in with us, Sandry suggested, Lark wouldn't mind. And you already know how to spin.

The knot of unhappiness in Tris's mind didn't ease. Sandry felt a burst of frustration on Tris's behalf. She tried to distract them both from it until the man knocked on the weather-witch's door.

"Can I come in?"

"You're going again, aren't you?" Tris mumbled into her knees.

Niko sighed, "That's what I wanted to talk to you about." A silent spectator, Sandry felt the muscles along Tris's back tense. "There is going to be a conference in Tharios of some of the strongest scrying mages."

"And you were invited," finished Tris. Inside her head, calculations began for how long a trip this would be. The redhead's heart sank at the realization that a journey to Tharios would take well over a year, and so would the return trip. "Have fun."

"Tris, look at me." She wouldn't obey. Niko approached and placed a hand on her shoulder. "This isn't my way of getting rid of you."

"It isn't?" she snapped, red in the face. Lightning began to crawl over her braids.

"Just because you have a mage's medallion now doesn't mean that your studies are completely finished. I wanted to invite you to come with me."

That got Tris to look up. The lightning winked out of existence. "What?"

"I wanted to know if you would be willing to come with me to Tharios. I know that it will be far from here, but a convention of mages seems like a place even you could have fun, and there might be another weather-mage with magic like yours."

Sandry wasn't sure that Tris had even heard Niko's reasons. "I'll come with you," she said anyway. Then she looked away. "I- um… I thought-"

Niko smiled crookedly. "You can't get rid of me that easily."

Still red, Tris muttered an unintelligible apology. Feeling like an intruder, Sandry retreated. She was able to sit quietly with the news long enough that when it was announced that night she could put on a cheerful mask at the thought of her sister leaving. She did it so well that only Lark was able to see through her smiles and place a hand on her knee in solidarity.

And Tris, who was so scared of her new family leaving her behind, was the first to go.

xXx

Briar was next; and Rosethorn with him, on a course to travel all the way to Yanjing.

"We'll go by land." Rosethorn was telling Lark, who was having considerably more trouble concealing her discomfort this time around. "It'll be the long way, but we'll be able to see more."

Lark, smile a tad forced, made some reply, but Sandry was too upset to hear it.

"But that's nearly as far as Tris!" she told Briar.

He made a face. "Yeah, I know. But what am I s'posed to do? Someone needs to look after her. Who knows what'll happen if we let her go off on her own."

She looked him over. Briar was very nearly wiggling. For all his flippant air, his eyes gleamed at the thought of travel.

It hurt, that she wasn't enough for her family anymore.

"Don't pretend that you aren't excited," she teased, injecting cheer into her voice, "It'll be wonderful."

Daja moved in with her own congratulations, and Sandry was able to retreat with her pride.

There wasn't as much fanfare in sending them off as there had been with Tris and Niko, but it was a respectable delegation all the same. Duke Vedris was able to slip away a second time to bid his friend Rosethorn a farewell. Even Crane made an appearance, but only to reassure Rosethorn that she would find her tomatoes had improved in the greenhouse when she returned. Lark waited until they had returned to Discipline before quietly excusing herself. Sandry and Daja watched her go, wondering how you comforted someone when you felt cut up inside yourself. As one, they blocked the memory from Briar, so as not to spoil his trip.

It had been a month since the unraveling began, and that night Sandry woke up suddenly to realize that there was an emptiness inside her that there had not been for a long time. Her connection to Tris had snapped, like a string pulled too tight.

Completely irrational panic swept through her. In the steady light of her glow-lamp, Sandry's fingers shook as she fumbled for the sting that had bound them together.

When her fingers touched it, a burst of power soaked into her skin. Suddenly her vision rocked, the air was heavy with sea-salt. She was on a boat, listening to the sounds of whale song.

Hanging half off the boat, Tris almost fell into the waters. Only Niko's hand kept her steady.

"I told you to stop doing that!" he said, exasperated, "It was hard enough to watch on the way to Emelan!"

"It wasn't my fault!" snapped Tris back. Internally, she asked Sandry? What's the matter?

Sandry felt very small, and very foolish. It's nothing. Sorry.

Tris did not gentle easily. She tried though, for her family. It was the distance, wasn't it? Sandry didn't reply.

It startled me too. Daja chimed in, using the power Sandry was holding to push herself across the connection as well. It's different from when they tried to figure out how far we needed to be. This felt… a little more permanent.

Not that it will be, Tris was quick to say.

Hey, are you skirts having a party without me? Briar was part-way the distance already. Tris wasn't out of his range yet. It helped solidify the connection. He was in a caravan, Rosethorn dozing beside him. One of the books Sandry had given him for the trip was open in his lap.

It's a nightly ritual of ours, Daja retorted.

Tris chimed in soon after. We talk about dresses and make-up-

-and boys! They all said at the same time.

Rosethorn swatted at Briar as he groaned, and was asleep again almost instantly.

Nothing is going to change, Sandry. We're going to come back and everything will be the same a it was.

Sandry's presence in their minds shrank, because she didn't want to tell them how they didn't know the way she did, how travel would change them and she wouldn't be there to change too, how she didn't want them to be like her parents, always on the road and flighty from too many adventures.

They were going to leave her behind, and they didn't even know it yet.

And Sandry, who loved her family with all her heart, couldn't tell them.

I'll just hold the fort until you get back, she said instead.

And then we'll be together again.

Promise? She knew it was silly to ask, but Sandry had to ask.

We promise.

That was the promise that Sandry kept close to her heart for the next four years, within arm's reach for the years her family wasn't, until everyone had come home and beyond.

xXx

I know it's been a really excruciatingly long time since I've been on, but does this make up for it at least a little?(No? Oh…Sorry…)

This has been blocking any progress in Teaching Discipline, so hopefully more chapters of that will be coming soon! Reviews are rewarded with warm