Zoey sat down at her desk, motioning me to pull up a chair. "How's your first day, Miri?"

I sat on the other side of her desk, nervously pulling at my hair. Um, it's okay… I just kind of… I had a dream where I saw Nyx."

Zoey was serious. "What did she say?"

I got really shy again. "Um, well, she didn't really say much. Just that I had an affinity for some element or another."

"You don't remember which?" Zoey asked, her brow furrowing in confusion.

"N…no, not really."

My mentor sat up. "Well, let's see. Your mother could manifest Earth for a while… maybe you inherited that. Do you remember how to cast a circle, Miri?"

It had been a long time, but I vaguely remembered a blond woman with red marks helping me blow out a pretty green candle. "I dunno. Sort of."

Zoey stood up. "Follow me, Miri."

We walked down a long hallway, to a wooden door with the number 225 etched on it. Zoey knocked lightly, and it flew open almost immediately. "Anastasia?" Zoey called out. "Are you available for a moment?"

A grown vampyre woman came to the door. "Yes, Zoey?"

"Can we borrow a few of your students? We need to cast a circle."

"Sure," the vampyre said. "Dresden, Isaac… how many students do you need, Zoey? Four?" Zoey nodded, and she named off two more students. "Bella, and Harmon. Go with Professor Redbird, please."

Dresden smiled at me as our strange group- three blue fledglings, a blue vampyre, two red fledglings- trampled outside.

Zoey led us to the tree we were at earlier, for Vamp Soc class. "Okay, guys… do you already have elements that you're supposed to represent?" The fledglings nodded. "Alright. Go to your places in the circle."

Almost by instinct, I knew that the place where Dresden stood represented Air. Zoey and I stood in the middle- that was Spirit, right? So the three students I didn't know must have Water, Fire, and Earth.

Zoey handed a candle to each student, including me, then pulled out a matchbook. "Okay, Miri- just follow me around the circle. And remember- if you want to say something, or do something inside the circle, do it. Okay?"

"Okay," I nodded.

Zoey and I walked over to Dresden, and the High Priestess began to speak. "The wind speaks to us, and the oxygen nourishes our body and our minds. With this in mind, I call Air to the circle!" She touched the match to the candle, and a flame flickered from one to the other. "Feel anything, Miri?" she asked in a whisper. I shook my head, and we moved on.

"Flames have been used to cook food, to scare away evil, to provide warmth. With this in mind, I call Fire to the circle!" Zoey barely had to touch the match to the wick before the candle burst with a bright flame. "Anything?" she asked again.

"Nope," I whispered back.

Walking over to west, Zoey spoke once more. "Waves cool us, and provide something we need to live. With this in mind, I call Water to the circle!"

"Nothing yet," I whispered before Zoey had a chance to ask.

At the Earth station, Zoey smiled as she spoke. "This element provides our home. It is nature, it is a place to grow food, and frolic in the woods. With this in mind, I call Earth to the circle!" She glanced at me inquisitively, and I shook my head.

We headed back to the middle. "This is who we are. It tells us what to do, what to be, and what to do with what we have. With this in mind, I call Spirit to the circle!" The Spirit candle flared, and Zoey looked down on me. "That's all the elements- are you sure you didn't feel anything?"

No, this was wrong. She was wrong. That's wasn't the end. "There's another candle…" I said, not thinking. And on a whim, I glanced down into the grass.

Sitting there, like I knew there would be, was a pure white candle, the same style and height as the others. I picked it up, set it on the table that was in the middle of our circle, and took the matches from Zoey. "Let me try something," I whispered, half-afraid to even light the match.

But it felt right. Words sprung to my lips, and I repeated them, knowing that they could only have been given to me by Nyx herself. "If Spirit is who we are, then this is who we seem. It guides us through dark and troubled times. It gives us hope, lets us laugh when there is nothing to laugh about. It bonds people, and it destroys them. With this in mind, I call Love to the circle!"

I touched the match to the white candle and watched it burn. And as five people stared at me, golden smoke fanned out inside the circle.