Erin screamed as she fell. Below her she could see students shouting and hurling rocks at what she had believed to be mythical beasts. For a split second she was sure she could see the pyromancer that had pissed her off in the morning, but she was sure that was just a trick of the eyes.

So this is how I'm going to die, she thought, glancing below her. Speared on top of a unicorn's horn. How heroic.

Every wizard going to Ravenwood Academy knew magic was dangerous. They knew the world was dangerous. They knew their powers were dangerous. Erin had seen Natalie, more than once, set her once-brown hair on fire. Eventually she'd just had her mother magically change it to black so nobody could see the scorch marks when she burned it trying to magically style it in the morning.

But despite the risk factor, every student going to Ravenwood Academy dreamed of someday becoming a hero in their own right, traveling across the Spiral (only students that had completed one semester were granted permission) and saving Worlds from the brink of destruction.

Of course, these were all just dreams. Most students' parents feared for their child's safety and took them out of school as soon as they could control their powers. There weren't a lot that let their children travel to other Worlds.

All of these thoughts shot through Erin's head, almost like she was falling in slow motion towards the unicorn's horn. She ruefully thought of how sharp it was kept.

I am going to die, she thought. She closed her eyes.

And then something rammed into her side.

Erin shouted in surprise as someone's arm wrapped around her waist and her vertical fall was instantly interrupted as whoever had caught her shot across in a completely different direction. Erin winced as a sharp pain, like an electric shock, spread through her body. That's weird, she thought.

Then she noticed that instead of flying, the person seemed to be trying to take an emergency landing. Whatever they had been flying on suddenly disappeared as the person wrapped their other arm around Erin and they both hit the ground rolling. Erin and the mystery person grunted in pain until they slowed to a stop.

"Ow," the person muttered, enough for Erin to confirm it was a guy. "Ugh. You alright?"

"Let go of me," Erin snapped, trying to push the guy off. "You're stinging me."

"Yeah, you're welcome for just having your life saved!" the guy shot back. "I can't move anyway, you've got my arms pinned beneath you."

Erin sighed and pushed again, this time rolling over. As her vision slowly sharpened and she shook her hair out of her eyes, she got a good look at her rescuer. To her surprise, it was a boy not much older than she, wearing a Storm uniform. He had messy black hair and sharp green eyes, like her. Those eyes were currently filled with annoyance as he separated his hands behind her back and pushed on her shoulders. "Off. You're stinging me too."

"Sorry," she muttered, rolling off him. Her legs felt weak as the adrenaline slowly drained out of them and her anger drained away too as relief took its place. "Thanks for saving my life. Sorry I snapped at you."

"No problem," the boy replied. "It's alright, that was a bumpy landing."

"Yeah, nice going."

"Not my fault. I think it's this stupid Death rain that canceled out the spell that gave the broom life. I'm lucky it got off the ground out all." The boy climbed to his feet and held out a hand.

"I'm alive, therefore I don't care if I get hurt afterwards." Erin took his hand and shakily got to her feet, wincing again as she felt that stinging pain. The boy winced too, and she guessed he was feeling it too. She looked out at the scene of student versus draconian. "What... what's going on?"

The boy gave her an odd look. "What do you mean? Weren't you here?"

Erin glanced at her feet. "I got... turned around."

The boy looked at her for a moment and then chuckled. "You thought Mr. Lincoln was in Golem Way, didn't you?"

"Shut up. What happened?"

The boy's face darkened. "It started raining and then... draconians just ... showed out of nowhere. They attacked all the students. And the theurgists can't help us because of this Death rain."

Erin tilted her head to the sky. "Malistaire," she muttered under her breath.

The boy looked at Erin, shocked. "What did you just...?"

Erin dismissed his question with a wave, drawing her all-but-useless wand. "I'm sure the Headmaster will tell everyone later. If not, I'll tell you. Right now we need to do what we can."

The boy drew his own wand, looking scared yet brave at the same time. "Right. Let's go then."

As the two charged towards the tangled mass of wings and jaws and wands and students, the boy glanced to the side. "By the way, I'm Justin."

"Erin."

"Pleasure."

With that, they entered the fight.


Destiny fired off another burst of flame when another student bumped into her. "Oi, watch where you're..." she started, turning to see who it was. To her surprise, it was the girl she'd made fun of just that morning and the one who'd just been rescued.

"Can't you do anything bigger than a stupid ball of fire, Dragon?" the girl snapped back. "We can't exactly hold them back!"

Destiny was about to snap at the girl to do something about it herself when she noticed her hands, both tightly wrapped around her wand, so tight her knuckles were white. The girl was scared, and by the look on her face she wasn't sure the wand could do anything.

"Well?" the girl said, glaring at Destiny. "Can't you do something bigger than a stupid ball of fire?" She whacked a draconian with her wand. The creature snorted and shied back for a moment.

"Yeah," Destiny said, flourishing her sword after a moment. "Yeah, I can. Get everyone out of the park or out of harm's way." She glanced over at Jasmine, who was holding her own. "Jazz!" she shouted, calling her friend's attention. "Scaredragon time! Do you have enough mana for Jack?"

Jasmine looked up from hitting a draconian with her sword. "Barely!" she called. "I need time."

"Five minutes?"

"Perfect."

Destiny looked back at the red-haired girl, who was banging draconians with her wand in an effort to keep them away from her. "Get as many out of here as possible," she said. "You've got five minutes."

The redhead nodded and disappeared into the crowd. A moment later, Destiny spotted her with a black-haired girl in a pink-and-yellow pyromancer uniform starting to herd students towards the bridges that led to the street. Good, she thought.

The soft touch to her back was enough to confirm that Jasmine had made her way to her friend. If anything, the young necromancer seemed even stronger in this rain. Of course she is, Destiny told herself. This rain was obviously cast by a necromancer, so naturally another necromancer would be strengthened in it. What troubled the Fire Dragon was the monstrous power of the necromancer needed to cast such a storm. Everyone knew the only type of wizards strong enough to gather moisture in the air to cause rain were diviners, and even for them it was a difficult task.

A chill ran up Destiny's spine. Not him, not him... she shook her head. If she thought such things, she would give in to despair, which was the last thing they needed right now. "The center!" she shouted, which was all Jasmine needed to hear. Slowly, as one, they moved to the center, which would be the best place to summon Jack and Bella.

Destiny glanced around. The number of students was definitely far fewer than it had been, but only a couple of minutes had passed. So the two Dragons held their ground and fought off the draconians for all it was worth.


Natalie pushed her sopping-wet hair out of her eyes, herding another few students towards the edge. "Why are we doing this again?" she asked, glancing over at Erin.

Erin looked like she could barely see through the strands of hair that had plastered themselves onto her face. "Because those two Dragons are going to do something that'll hopefully get rid of these in one shot?"

"Sounds good. Yeah, keep moving, it's alright." Natalie winced at all the wounds she was seeing. Newly-bought robes of comfortable material were torn and bloodied. There were claw and teeth marks on arms, legs, shoulders, and faces. One poor kid was limping and had to be held up by another student. Another had been knocked unconscious and was being carried by two. There were a few with arms dangling at unnatural angles.

Erin looked away, looking slightly green. "Ugh... how could this happen?"

Natalie put a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. "I don't know. This was supposed to be a good day. This was supposed to be the start of school." She looked around. "Where's the Headmaster, anyway? This would be just the kind of thing that Ambrose wouldn't let go unnoticed."

Erin seemed to stiffen under Natalie's hand. "He's... busy."

Natalie turned and took a good look at Erin. The girl looked scared, but it was more than that. Her eyes... Natalie took a good look at her eyes. Erin was hiding something, she was sure of it.

But Natalie wasn't one to push matters too far. So she turned and went back to herding students. There were still too many fighting for their lives, the black-haired boy that had saved Erin's life among them. The theurgists were watching carefully from the gazebo, calling and waving every time there was a more seriously injured student that came out of the crowd, which there luckily weren't too many of. Most of the students were scratched badly, and some were bleeding, but it wasn't too severe.

A couple more minutes passed. Natalie estimated they had about half a minute before the Dragons unleashed whatever they were going to unleash, and there were still many students in the crowd. She pushed the panic quickly rising in her throat back down. It wouldn't help if she lost it. Erin, where's Erin? she wondered, looking around, but her friend had vanished. A moment later, Natalie caught sight of her friend's sopping wet hair pushing through the crowd, pushing other students behind her.

Natalie understood immediately, but that didn't mean she approved. "Erin, you idiot!" she yelled as she pulled students out of the crowd as fast as she could. Within a few moments, almost every student was out of the fray, the only ones left being Erin and the black-haired boy.

"Time's up!" the Fire Dragon yelled, kicking a draconian away and lifting her sword. Her friend did the same, pointing her own sword at the sky.

"Erin!" Natalie yelled, panicked, as the Fire girl's sword began glowing red and the Death girl's sword glowed black. A roar shook the skies while a tremor shook the ground. The students yelled in fright and held onto each other, trying not to fall over. Natalie grabbed a tree to stay steady, losing sight of Erin and the boy in the fray of draconians, thought it was easy to guess their locations by the thick crowd of the beasts seemingly centered over one area.

"Look!" the brown-haired theurgist screamed, pointing at the sky. Natalie whirled and her jaw dropped as a magnificent dark red-and-yellow dragon soared into view. A real dragon, she thought. A REAL DRAGON. A real dragon that was nearly forty feet long with a long swinging tail, piercing orange eyes that made Natalie feel hot just looking into them, with a dark red hide and shimmering red scales that were beautiful yet harder than the strongest armor, nearly impossible to pierce. It had a pale yellow underbelly that looked softer than the rest of it, but still difficult to pierce. It had razor-sharp yellow claws jutting out from its somehow elegant feet. It was, judging from the slim structure and smaller yellow crests over the eyes, a female.

"Bella, go!" the Fire Dragon shouted. "Everything with wings!" She glanced towards the crowd of draconians and slashed her sword in that direction. Two bursts of red light exploded from her sword and flew into the crowd just as Bella the dragon flew overhead, opening her mouth and breathing flame over the entirety of Unicorn Park. Natalie screamed as the heat wave rolled off the flames. Even as a pyromancer, it was difficult to bear. The other students yelled in terror and ducked.

The draconians screeched as many of them exploded into dust, but some of the more Fire-oriented ones managed to withstand the flames. Those were the dark red ones, Natalie noted. Most of the other draconians had died writhing in pain as they burned alive, dissolving or exploding into dust and leaving nothing else behind.

The Fire Dragon waved at the real dragon as it flew out of sight, disappearing into the clouds. Natalie gaped. She summoned that thing!? she thought. I knew the Order of the Dragon had powerful members, but how did she tame a real dragon!? It struck her for the first time that the pyromancer seemed familiar in a way. In fact, Natalie was certain she'd seen the pyromancer's face somewhere before.

The ground shook again, the tremor greater than before. Natalie's heart leapt in her mouth. That was just the Fire Dragon, she thought as the blood drained from her face. What's that necromancer hiding up her sleeve?


Justin was having a rotten day.

First he'd gotten up later than usual, on today of all days, because the family's piggle had accidentally pushed his alarm charm off his night stand and under the bed, where it wouldn't work because it was activated by the morning sun's rays. By the time his sister, Alia, had finally woken him up and informed him he had to get to school before she had left for her month abroad in Krokotopia. It wasn't fair. She was barely a year older than him, and she already got to go to Krokotopia. She even got her own house on Colossus Boulevard!

Justin had dressed quickly and flown out the door on his brand new broomstick, his gift for starting the magical portion of his studies. Sure, everyone got essential studies in the first several years of their life, mostly at home, but magical studies didn't begin until students were thirteen, when they were considered mature enough to handle magic properly. This was the start of his life as a wizard, he'd been thinking as he left the house and habitually zoomed around on Triton Avenue a few times, avoiding the monsters that had been cropping up as of late.

When he realized the time, he'd flown like mad to the tunnel leading to Olde Town. Justin lived on the far side of the street, close to Four Falls Mill, so he'd broken an unspoken rule on the street and shot through the Mill's waters, enjoying the cool refreshing feeling of Storm water flowing over him. He'd dried quickly as he flew, obviously, pushing the broom to its top speed.

When Justin got out of bed that morning, he hadn't been expecting mythical beasts to be flying down and attacking students when he finally arrived to Initiation. He hadn't been expecting to see a darker, more sinister storm than the one on Triton Avenue. And he definitely hadn't been expecting to save a girl from falling to her death.

Things do not always go as planned, Justin noted as he cowered underneath the shield the pyromancer girl had conjured just in time to shield both him and his rescuee, Erin, from being fried by the giant dragon that had just flown overhead.

Erin was still gaping. "Did you see that?" she whispered incredulously. "A dragon. How in the name of Zizon did she tame a dragon?"

"She is a Dragon," Justin said simply as the battered shields clattered to the ground and poofed into nonexistence before their eyes. He stood up. "At least we're not in as much danger..."

He looked around. Nearly three-quarters of the draconians had been wiped out, which was majorly impressive. Only the strongest ones remained, and they had been weakened.

Unfortunately, it looked like the Fire Dragon was also weakened. Her hands were on her knees and she was breathing heavily, dripping with sweat. And those other draconians were looking at Erin and Justin like they were a snack.

Erin held up her wand, which Justin had noticed she used mainly as a club. "Back off," she warned, sounding not at all intimidating.

And then the ground shook harder.

Justin yelped as the ground cracked underneath his feet. He jumped out of the way, grabbing the back of Erin's robes without thinking and pulling her with him, wincing as sparks wrapped around his hand. What is with this girl? he thought. She's wearing the Storm uniform, so you'd think...

But he didn't have time to think right now. Erin cried out in surprise and stumbled, falling to the ground next to Justin as black roots slithered out of the widening crack. Justin stared in amazement as a pumpkin-headed scarecrow slowly rose out of the crack, twisted as it went. The level of creepiness only rose as three or four crows flapped out of the ground, cawing.

Then the scarecrow looked up directly at the boy. Its eyes began to glow and Justin got a horrible feeling of hopelessness...

"Jack!" the necromancer shouted. The scarecrow looked away, and the feeling vanished. "Not the students! Kill the draconians, alright?"

The scarecrow stared at the Death Dragon for several long moments before giving her the slightest of nods and turned its gaze on a nearby draconian instead. The creature whimpered in fear and then stiffened as a blue light was sucked out of its body and stored in the scarecrow's pumpkin head. It fell to the ground in a withered husk before dissolving to dust and blowing away in the wind.

Justin gaped as the scarecrow did the same to each and every draconian that was left, until the only evidence that the beasts had ever been in Unicorn Park were piles of dark dust, which was blowing away quickly. Then the scarecrow turned towards the necromancer, head brimming with blue light, but she shook her head and pointed towards the students huddled on the edges of the park.

The scarecrow gave its slight nod again and turned towards the students. They all backed in fear of the strange summon brimming with blue power. It was unfamiliar. Justin noticed Erin's fist clenching, just a bit.

Then the scarecrow exhaled the blue light all over the students. When the light cleared, Justin noticed a lot of them were partly healed. Those who could barely walk before were able to stand with support. The students with a few scratches were healed completely. It was mass healing on a scale Justin had never witnessed in his life.

Only he and Erin were unchanged, but that was probably because they hadn't been in the crowd of students. No matter, he thought. Neither of us is really badly hurt anyway. He had a few scratches and Erin had a nasty claw mark on her shoulder, but that was it.

Then he really looked at Erin. The girl was white with fear. Now that he thought about it, he should've been shaking with terror as well. Everyone except the two Dragons should have been, really. Why weren't they? Was it because they had magic? He'd noted Erin hadn't even performed any magic while she was fighting for her life. Not knowing what else to do, he laid a comforting hand on her shoulder and winced. She hurt to touch, and apparently he did too, because she almost immediately shrugged his hand off.

The Fire Dragon was the first to speak after sheathing her sword. "Everyone... alright?" she panted. "Nobody's... dead, are they?"

"Yeah," the Death Dragon said, sheathing her sword as well. "Raise your hand if you're dead."

No hands were raised.

"Okay, good," the necromancer noted. She snapped her fingers and, with a poof of smoke, mounted her broom that answered her summon. "I'll go inform Ambrose about what happened here. Des, you go find the faculty and do the same once you're up to it. All of you," she said, pointing to the mass of novices, "have the theurgists to the best they can do, then come to the Fairegrounds. We should have a few more experienced theurgists ready by then." She paused, as if thinking. "Anyone know where Ambrose would be if he's not in his home?"

"Golem Tower," Erin said suddenly. "He's in Golem Tower."

The necromancer stared at her for a moment, and then nodded. "I see." With that, she turned and streaked out of Unicorn Way.

The students immediately broke into nervous chatter. Justin guessed from the general babble they were discussing what just happened. A few students at a time slipped underneath the gazebo to get fixed up a little by the theurgists.

One girl, a black-haired one in a Fire uniform, tackled Erin from behind. "Erin! Erin are you okay?" she cried.

"I'm fine, Nat," Erin muttered. "Get off me. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just scratched. How'd you know Ambrose was in Golem Tower, anyway?"

"I just... did," Erin said quietly.

"Nat" nodded and released Erin, apparently taking that for an answer. Her gaze settled on Justin. "Who're you?"

"Justin Skystrider," Justin replied, tilting his hat. "Also known as the guy who saved Erin's life."

"Natalie Emberweave," Natalie replied. "Erin's best friend."

"Can you stop talking about me like I'm not here?" Erin grumbled, gripping her shoulder. "I need to go find Ambrose."

Natalie looked at Erin, a concerned expression on her face. "You need to stay and get that shoulder treate-"

"He might be dead!" Erin interrupted.

Justin stared. "Just how did you end up falling from the sky?"

Erin looked away. At that moment, Ambrose entered Unicorn Way and, sure enough, made a beeline for Erin, the Death Dragon trailing after him.

"Miss Soulstone!" he said. "Are you alright?"

"I'm alive," Erin said, shrugging. "That's good, right?"

Ambrose nodded. "Miss Darkhaven told me exactly what happened here."

"Miss Darkhaven?" Justin said in confusion.

The necromancer girl waved. "Jasmine Darkhaven, second-class Dragon."

"This is a grave matter, Miss Darkhaven," Ambrose muttered, apparently forgetting the existence of the students for a moment. "It's going to be a bit difficult explaining 'mythical' creatures suddenly appearing and attacking the students."

"Sir, Base A was also breached today," Jasmine said, casting a glance at the three standing nearby. "I recently received a message from a comrade saying the Dragons on guard there pushed them back, about the time you say he escaped."

"Wait," Erin interrupted. "Malistaire got away?"

Justin and Natalie gasped.

Ambrose glared. "Miss Soulstone, I would implore you not to speak any further on matters you do not understand."

Erin just stood there, folding her arms and raising an eyebrow. Justin could see she wasn't happy about that. "Fine," she said after a moment. "But Headmaster, I nearly died today. I think I would at least deserve an explanation why!"

Ambrose sighed. "Come into my office later when everything has settled down, and I will answer your questions."

Jasmine's brown complexion paled. "Sir, are you sure..."

"Yes," Ambrose snapped. "Now, all of you, to the Fairegrounds. I'm sure the theurgists would like to take a look at your wounds."

Justin looked up. When had the rain stopped?


Destiny collapsed in the Headmaster's Tower. She had to rest or she was going to pass out.

Destiny had a bad habit of overdoing things. The usual Scaredragon tactic she used with Jasmine was weakening the enemies with Bella and then finishing them off with Jack, but Des had gone overboard more than once and incinerated them all before Jazz could leech the health out of them with Jack. Using so much power to summon Bella transferred all that power to the she-dragon, effectively overpowering her until she left. And throwing two Fire shields to cover those two brats that had stuck around immediately after Bella had been called? Give me a break, she thought, resting on the couch and closing her eyes.

A flutter of wings told her Gamma had flown in. The owl softly hooted for a moment, and Destiny held up a hand. She heard the click of Gamma's talons closing around his perch, and the room was silent again save the soft tinkling of the incredible Spiral Map in the middle of the room.

She lay there for a good while, enjoying the silence, the soft tinkling almost lulling her to sleep, when it occurred to her that she hadn't yet contacted Kane about what had gone down in the Atheneum. She honed in on him immediately. Kane? Are you alright?

After a few moments of nerve-wracking silence, Kane's voice echoed back to her in her mind. Yeah Des, I'm fine. Are you?

Relief flooded through Destiny. Kane was okay. Oh gods Kane, today's been insane, she moaned. I overdid it with Bella again and some girl dropped from the sky and all the students are hurt in some way or another and-

Calm down, Kane interrupted. I got the report from Jasmine and figured I should let you know something weird.

Control yourself, idiot, Destiny told herself. You have a job to do right now. She turned her attention back to Kane. Something weird?

As soon as you killed all the draconians, all the ones in the Atheneum turned tail and fled back into the Plaza of Conquests and the Tower Archives. It was weird. Think it might have to do with Malistaire fleeing Golem Tower about the same time, but-

WHAT!? Destiny yelled, sitting up in surprise. Malistaire was in Golem Tower!?

Yeah, Kane replied. You didn't know that? Ambrose filled me in.

Ugh. No wonder. I've been hiding in his Tower for a while to regain some strength. Did I mention I overdid it on Bella? Destiny stood up and stretched. I feel better now though.

She could almost hear Kane shaking his head. One of these days you're going to kill yourself if you can't control your power output... how did you manage to be a top Dragon this way?

Destiny smirked as she walked outside, blinking in the glare of the sun. Magic, duh. Listen, I've got a potential witness that might be able to help us out. Talk to you later?

Wait, a witness? Kane sounded mystified.

Bye! Destiny cut off the connection on her end and summoned her broom, speeding off. "Now then," she murmured, "where's brat redhead?"


Erin twisted her shoulder experimentally. "It's great," she said to the theurgist standing in front of her. "Thanks."

"That's what we learned it for," the theurgist smiled, waving Erin away as the next student in line came forward. Erin walked out of the Fairegrounds and almost made a beeline for Ambrose's home.

She stopped short of his door. I should go check on Nat and Kat, she thought, but then she shook it off. She could already imagine their replies to her story, or more or less what their reaction would be. Nathan would make a stupid remark and ask her why she felt the need to attract attention by making up such a ridiculous story, and then Kat would ask if she had an inferiority complex to her amazing older brother and sister. Nat would probably make a comment about respecting your elders, then the two would high-five and laugh.

Erin decided against looking for them. They'd probably ask me why such a pitiful girl like me would need to check on incredible amazing siblings like them anyway, she thought hotly. Stuck-up jerks.

So she walked up the stairs and pushed the door open, finding Ambrose swamped with concerned parents who were all shouting for attention at the same time. Erin quickly gathered that they all wanted to know why their children's expensive uniforms were torn up and why their children's blood was spilling.

"If you could all just calm down," Ambrose kept protested. "Yes, I understand you're very upset... they're all being cared for now... the school will supply a new uniform for the ruined one... we're extremely sorry, this was not supposed to happen..."

Erin just sat on a pile of books in the corner and waited until the adults finally cleared out, most of them grumbling and unhappy with Ambrose's answers. Ambrose beckoned Erin into his Tower, and Erin followed.

The Tower was beautiful. It was dark and cut off from the outside world, save the doors leading into the main room and sunlight streaming in from the other door leading out. A few candles burned in strategic places. Tomes that looked far older than any of the others Erin had seen were neatly arranged in bookshelves while another ancient book sat on a lectern. Gamma snoozed quietly on a perch. A red couch molded smoothly into the curved wall on the other side. A carpet quieted the sound.

But the most incredible thing was the Map.

Erin gaped at the strangely shaped crystal that revolved at an angle in the dead center of the room, high above her head. The iridescent crystal seemed like it had been pinched in at the center. Just underneath it, several tiny miniatures of the Worlds slowly revolved around a larger miniature of Wizard City, which was centered directly under the crystal. Just as it was in pictures, here was the multicolored Spiral laid out before her. Erin could easily pick out the Worlds she knew, and here and there were Worlds she didn't recognize, including one mysterious world that seemed to recede out of view as soon as she tried to look at it.

"This is my greatest treasure," Ambrose murmured, "out of many. The Spiral Map. I assume you've read about it?"

"It's beautiful," Erin whispered, gazing at the Map in wonder.

"And helpful," Ambrose said, gesturing to the crystal on top with his staff. "That crystal is one of many, placed high in the very center of each World. It's almost like a tracking device, tracking the World's position in the Spiral and instantly relaying that information back to this crystal here." He chuckled. "This was Grandmother Raven's greatest gift to her brother, Bartleby, the Grandfather Tree."

Erin nodded; the legend of Grandmother Raven was well known throughout the Spiral.

"Now, then, Miss Soulstone, take a seat," Ambrose said, gesturing to the red couch. Erin took a seat as Ambrose began to pace back and forth.

"I am assuming you wish to know what Malistaire was doing in Golem Tower today. While I cannot tell you the specific reason, I can tell you it was because he came back for someone, or something. Which, I'm not sure. It's extremely unfortunate that you got caught in the situation, seeing as I did tell you beforehand to stay downstairs, but I do believe that if it were not for your intervening, Malistaire would have set his two draconian henchmen on me instead and I would have been in a much more difficult situation than before, and for that, I thank you. However, you did get into a life-threatening situation, and I imagine your parents will not be happy with me that I allowed you to get into that situation. So unfortunately there will be consequences for your actions..."

Erin slumped back. She wasn't getting any more information than she had had before, and all that was going to happen here was her receiving punishment. She had practically saved Ambrose's life, and here he was punishing her for it? It wasn't fair. She was almost sure that if her brother or sister or even best friend had done the same thing, they would have been praised and received some sort of reward. Once again, she blamed her situation on her inability to perform magic.

Erin stood up abruptly. "If all you're going to do is read me the riot act for helping save your life, I'm not interested." Ignoring Ambrose's angry protests, she pushed open the door and left.

The Fire Dragon was outside waiting for her. "So this is where you were hiding." She grabbed Erin's hand. "Let's go have a little chat, shall we?"

Natalie slipped a fresh tunic on. Luckily she had a few more changes of uniform, so those would do until the school provided the Emberweaves with the one that got destroyed. But since Initiation had been moved to tomorrow, there was no point in changing into a fresh uniform now.

Uninterested in walking from Firecat Alley to the Commons, Natalie ran and borrowed a public broom from the nearby stable and lazily flew back to the Commons. As expected, Unicorn Way had been barricaded off, and students weren't allowed inside.


Hmm, Natalie mused, what to do now?

Half an hour ago, Natalie had been sent away from the Fairegrounds after being healed up fairly well. Erin had disappeared, and so had the two Dragons. Well, sort of. Natalie had spotted the necromancer flying in and out of the Dark Cave near Natalie's house, so she guessed the girl was patrolling. But the Fire Dragon was nowhere to be found. So Natalie had decided to go home and change, and then figure out what to do next.

Hmm, Natalie thought, looking around. I have no gold, so there's no point in the Shopping District. I'm not powerful enough to be allowed tours to Grizzleheim, and I've been on all the other streets in Olde Town a dozen times. Mom and Dad probably won't let me take Zeus out of the house to train him in the Pet Derby... then her eyes lighted upon the library. Why not? she thought, and sped towards there.

All the buildings in Wizard City followed a strict no-mount policy, so Natalie left the rental broom out in one of the broom racks, giving it the command to stay. Then she went inside.

The Wizard City Library was nothing to sneeze at. The books were impeccably organized by the top-class system, a combination of pulleys, platforms, and magic. Natalie looked around, watching as the intricate pulley-platform system sped all around the library, sometimes going up and down, but the books on the platform always floated off at exactly the right level for a library aide to read out and shelve it or for the book to float itself off to the correct shelf. No detail, no matter how small, was overlooked. The head librarian had the privilege of being connected through magic into the network, so Harold Argleston always knew when there was a book missing. Add to that the several extensive entrances to the Library Labyrinth, and you had one pretty awesome library on your hands.

Natalie offered a friendly wave to Boris Tallstaff, the head library aide. Boris stared back, expressionless as usual, and Natalie withdrew her wave. Boris had a reputation for being indifferent and always grunting about being busy when in reality all he did was stand next to the main desk and look important.

Natalie shrugged. She was here to look up a legend, not get annoyed with Boring Boris. So she slipped into the lefthand aisle, knowing that it led to the legends section. Unlike most of the students in Wizard City, Natalie was a frequent visitor to the library and knew its secrets.

Like all labyrinths, this one was easy to navigate if you knew how it worked. It also helped, of course, that Natalie had been visiting since she was a young age and explored on her own, and since had made a map with the shortest routes to her favorite places mapped out clearly and color-coded. Of course, Natalie had memorized the routes long ago, so her feet took her around this corner, past this bookshelf, this much further past this landmark, and soon she was in the cozy legends corner: a secluded corner, lined by bookshelves (obviously) and the floor was littered with big soft cushions to just fall down onto and start reading.

Ordinarily, Natalie would select a random book off the shelf and start reading it, whether it was an old favorite or new fodder. However, today was definitely not ordinary, and she definitely wasn't here for leisure.

Natalie hummed a little tune to herself as she ran her fingers over the spines of the somehow dust-free books, searching for the D's. After a few moments, she pulled out the book she was looking for. Just to confirm it, she flipped open to the index and scanned.

A moment later, she sat down and began to read The Draconians.


Tada! Chapter two! These might come faster or slower, since school starts next week. I think I like this and I'm enjoying writing these.

In response to the ONLY review I've gotten so far: Thanks!

UPDATE: Once again, redid the POV changes. I hope.