I wrote this fanfiction last summer, but recently I have decided I wasn't very happy with all of it. So I'm slowly going through and revising/adding more things to each chapter. It will be a slow process as I'm in college now and don't have alot of free time. But I'll leave a note on each chapter I've changed.

Chapter 1 - Finished 6-17-09, Revised/Updated 9-17-10

Chapter 1: Rock Magic

Chammur was a city full of stone – the cliffs were its main attraction and were known as "Old Chammur". But what caught the interest of most people was the part known as "New Chammur" which housed the 'royalty' and the markets, especially the one called the "Golden House". That market was the only one where magic items and trinkets were sold. And that is where Briar Moss found his first mage student Evumeimei Dingzai.

While she had progressed well during their time in Chammur, it was time to move on, and Briar had to continue their lessons while traveling. Both students and teachers were dirt caked from the wind and the dusty road. While Briar and his teacher Rosethorn possessed clothes made by Briar's step-sister Sandry from overcoats to leggings, and as such could just shake the dirt right off; Evvy's clothes had dirt ingrained in every thread from the long days of traveling. Even her headscarf had turned a dusty brown, over roughly cut black hair that was turning just as brown. The only things that weren't dirt caked were Evvy's cats, and the two mage kits of the teachers. Even the rocks had acquired a sheen of dust, but Evvy seemed intent on taking care of that by blowing them up.

Crack! As rock shrapnel flew everywhere for the fifth time that morning, covering all in its vicinity, Briar ran a hand over his close cropped hair and sighed.

"Ok Evvy, try again; remember, control how much power you put into that stone."

"I know, Pahan Briar, but it's so hard," Evvy complained, squinting at the remains of yet another clear quartz crystal, her nose wrinkled at the rock defying her. Quartz was oh-so-good for light spells, but she just kept exploding them.

"I know you can do it, girl, you just have no concentration now." Rosethorn glared at Evvy. Evvy glared right back, not liking being on the wrong side of Rosethorn's sharp tongue yet again. Bad enough that all the dead or dying plant life was making Rosethorn irritable enough without Evvy adding to her temper. One of the few true joys of their travels were her cats, and she was worried about Asa's new kittens. It had been ages since they had passed a town, and food was getting a little scarcer, what with all the plant life dying. It took too much energy for Briar and Rosethorn to restore the vegetation to vibrant life, and very little of that vegetation was fit for human consumption. So instead, the three travelers were living off plants that Briar and Rosethorn had previously prepared – seeds coated in one of Rosethorn's growth mixtures for easy stimulus into a fully grown plant, with little to no energy expenditure. However, cats could not survive on plants like humans could, no matter how much of the mage grown food Evvy was willing to give up for them. The only plant the cats were really interested in was catnip.

"Well, we better find a town soon then, 'cause I like my rocks too much to keep blowing them up!" Evvy retorted. The three travelers were camped on the side of a winding path through what could be described as no-man's land between Yanjing and Chammur. Everything was covered in dust; even the tents were a brown color that blended in with the ground. A few lean-tos existed for the camels to shield them from the wind that was prone to whip over the ground, blowing hair into disarray and plucking at clothes. Briar had to constantly watch his overcoat to make sure it didn't fly off the rock where he had hung it due to the heat. They hadn't passed a town in three weeks, but Rosethorn said they would find one soon so they could refill their water.

"Yeah, and I would rather keep moving than keep stopping to find you more," said Briar. Evvy crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him.

"I think it's time to move on, exploding rock lessons can wait for another time," stated Rosethorn. "Time doesn't wait for us you know, and I want to get a little farther before it gets too dark." Both she and Briar were impatient to get to Yanjing to see the famed miniature trees and gardens of the country as they were the main reason for their trip to begin with. Briar himself was rather good at shaping miniature trees, and had been his main source of income in Chammur; he was looking forward to comparing his skill to that of some of the most famous miniature tree gardeners in all of the world.

"But if I could make the rocks light up, we wouldn't have to stop at night!" Evvy pleaded with Rosethorn. "I don't get it, I could do it before." She added petulantly. Back in her cave, she had made light stones just by – she didn't know how. But she had wanted them, and they had been made. Just like her heat stones, and how she could press them into her cave wall.

"That was before you had a grip on your power, or even knew you had it. Sometimes magic works for us unconsciously where it takes time to master it consciously," Rosethorn explained, turning back from where she had been fastening her bed roll onto her camel. "That's how most young mages are discovered." She continued packing her things, making sure her mage kit was in easy reach. Briar did the same, and Evvy began to coerce her cats into their travel baskets in preparation to put their baskets on the camels.

"Yeah, like what happened with Sandry; she made her thread light up 'cause she was afraid of the dark," Briar joked.

"Or Daja and her survival box, Tris and her hail storm, and you and that briar," Rosethorn teased. Evvy giggled at Briar's expression.

"Hey, it's not my fault that briar liked me," Briar defended himself. He ran his fingers over the deep pockmarks in his hands. It had taken days for him to get the thorns out, and they had left deep scars in his hands. Before he could control his green magic all plants were attracted to him. He still couldn't completely prevent them from sensing his presence and moving towards him; it unnerved those who didn't know about or understand ambient magic. It was also a handy effect to scare those who he didn't like.

"My point is that until you become aware of your magic, with ambient mages it affects the medium your power flows through in ways that might take years to master with practice," Rosethorn said crisply. "Now, we're wasting daylight, and I would rather move on now then spend more days traveling in the company of you two." With that, she began to more her camel out, leaving the other two behind.

This time both Briar and Evvy stuck their tongues out at Rosethorn, but did as she said and began to pack up.

As the sun grew higher in the sky, all three began to shed their outer layers. The nights mirrored those of the mountains, being very cold, but heated up fast during the day., To their right lay a cliff comprised of shale, a rock that cracks and cuts easily, and a long drop with a forest at the bottom on their left. No matter how far away the greenery, just the fact that Briar and Rosethorn could sense the plants made them feel better. While Briar always had his shakkan, he also loved the feeling of many different varieties of plants.

Briar noticed that Evvy had been quiet for a while, a very uncharacteristically Evvy thing to be. He had also noticed small flares of magic coming from her, but had decided not to say anything till now, hoping she wouldn't exhaust herself.

"Evvy, what are you doing?" he asked suspiciously. Evvy looked up, startled.

"What makes you think I'm doing anything, Pahan Briar?" she asked innocently, while stuffing something out of sight under her leg.

"Evvy, what is it," Briar asked, exasperated, holding out his hand. Evvy reluctantly gave him the stone she had been practicing on. It hadn't cracked yet, and was emitting a dull glow.

"I was just practicing," Evvy mumbled, lowering her head and hiding behind her headscarf. "I almost got it last time."

"Evvy I told you, let me or Rosethorn know when you're using magic, you don't have a tight enough control yet," Briar scolded her. Inwardly he was proud of her for even slightly tightening her control on her magic. He knew from experience that it could take a long time to completely control magic.

Rosethorn watched the little argument with an amused smile.

"You're beginning to sound like an adult, boy," she commented, reaching over to ruffle his hair.

"Aw, Rosethorn, I'm not that bad," Briar complained batting her hand away. He never let on that he enjoyed her shows of affection, rare enough that they were, on principle. She knew he appreciated her as much as she did him no matter how he acted. It was one of their unspoken sentiments of being teacher and student.

"Says you, I remember when we had to make you take a bath and post a watch," she retorted. Briar grimaced at the reminder of his early days at Discipline. All the girls had been happy to go take baths, but as a former street rat he'd had no such inclinations. As a result, for the first few months every time they went to the bath, which was every night, Tris's teacher Niklaren Goldeye had kept an eye out for the boy, making sure he didn't skip a bath and run back to Discipline.

"I'm not a street rat anymore Rosethorn. I'm all grown up and respectable now." Rosethorn just laughed.

Suddenly Evvy commanded, "Stop."

"What is it, girl?" Rosethorn asked irritably. She didn't like riding for extended periods of time, no matter the necessity, and she certainly wasn't looking forward to the time left riding to Yanjing.

"The rocks, they're…moving…but they don't want to," Evvy said slowly.

A sudden spray of pebbles alerted Rosethorn and Briar to their immediate danger. Unfortunately, the cliff went on for miles in both directions leaving no place to run for cover.

"Evvy," Briar said urgently, "Can you stop them?"

"I can try, Pahan Briar," she said hesitantly. "There are a lot of them, and I think there's a magic on them." With those words 'on them', Evvy knew she implied academic magic, and also knew that Briar and Rosethorn knew it was academic as well. As senior mages, they should have been able to sense it, if not for the fact that it was a dormant spell until they had 'tripped the wire', so to speak.

With a loud crack, a huge boulder detached itself from the top of the cliff and hurtled straight towards the three mages. However, as it fell, it disintegrated until a rain of small rocks landed on the mages without harming them.

"Did you see that, Pahan Briar?" Evvy asked gleefully, bouncing in her saddle. "I did like you taught me!"

"Which lesson, Evvy?" Briar asked, amused, but still not unaware of his danger.

"The one where you said to appeal to the nature of the stone! Shale likes to break apart." Evvy replied.

"Ok, all the teaching is great, but let's discuss it at a time when we're not right next to a shattering cliff," Rosethorn urged.

Then with another crack, the whole cliff broke apart.

Since I am revising the story now, if anyone would like to request something put in or changed, I'll consider it.