There was a strange and sick feeling in the pit of my stomach and a weird energy in the air that tugged maliciously at the edges of my senses. The wind had intensified into an out-and-out roar that slammed into the tenement house with such force that the entire building swayed. Several scraping sounds from above told me that shingles were being dislodged from the roof.

Hesketh was tossing and turning in her bed, letting out moans and cries of pain. I leaped to my feet and scrambled over to her. "What's wrong?!"

"They're—they're trying to dispel the enchantment!" she gasped, chest heaving. "They're going about it all wrong, it's—agh!" She clutched her sides as a convulsion ran down her body.

"What is she talking about?" Saskia asked, her brows pinched in concern.

I thought back to when I had scryed out the origin of the spell, and how the magick itself was such an out-of-control tangle. "This spell's—I think it's sort of gone rogue," I guessed. "It's gotten all twisted up in itself, and if the Judges are here trying to fix it, they may be doing more harm than good."

Saskia's ears drooped. "Ah… I am sorry…"

"Don't feel bad, we couldn't have guessed this would happen," I said.

Jihl stared out the window. "This blizzard's pickin' up right fierce, mates." A sickening, cracking, crash rumbled in from outside and he winced. "Wall on the building across the street just gave in. This doesn't look good."

Our clan leader bounded to the doorway and leaned out into the hall. "Vasily! Winn! Go tell the Judges to stop!"

"We're on it, kupopo!"

Hesketh groaned. "They won't get there in time—" She let out a choked cry of pain.

I held Hesketh's shoulders. "What can we do?" I asked her.

"N-nothing!" She pulled her long ears. "I can't stop the spell, so—" She dropped off, eyes wide with fear.

My stomach plummeted. "So what?"

The nu mou closed her eyes and shivered. "The magick backlash will kill me, and the city will be torn apart." She jerked up and shoved me away. "Go—get out of here! While you still can!"

"I'm not leaving you! There has to be a way to fix this!" I looked around at my clanmates. "… Right?"

I was met with helpless stares, and my husband shrugged. "Yer the one who knows most about magic, Brighteyes. We trust ye."

Saskia nodded. "It's your call… though I doubt we could effectively escape in what little time we have." The building creaked and shuddered with the buffeting of another raging gale.

That was an uncomfortable burden to bear—but if it was mine to shoulder, I would tackle it with full force. I looked back to Hesketh. "We're going to find a way to fix this. You and me. Show me everything you know about nulling spells."

Her mournful eyes searched my face for a long moment. Then she swallowed hard and pushed herself out of bed. "Grab me a few earth crystals and a bundle of clover," she said, tottering over to a bookshelf. Her long tail dragged behind her like a furry snake. Coele grabbed her arm and helped her steady herself as the Sage grabbed an ornately worked mace that leaned against the shelf, then ran her fingers over a row of tomes. "Hurry! We haven't much time!"

I snatched the reagents from where they hung and joined her on the rug, where she leafed through an old book with shaking hands. Every few moments she was interrupted by another spasm of pain, but she gritted her teeth and kept going. The wind screamed outside, and I could hear the crashes and snaps of what were possibly bits of debris falling and flying. It was like the snowy version of a hurricane.

"There." Hesketh pointed to an entry and smoothed down the pages. "How much do you know about sagacity magicks, girl?"

"Not much," I admitted, "but I'll do whatever I can." I offered her the reagents.

She arranged them in front of her and coughed into her hand before waving her mace over them, pulling out thin strings of mist, the energy that ran through all things. "It's a different breed than your simple color magicks—whole other field of study, I'd venture to say. Not that non-magicians can tell the difference well. Ugh…" She wrapped an arm around her stomach and looked like she was going to be ill. "No time for lessons. Join your energy with mine, now!"

I hooked my staff onto her outstretched mace and sent a surge of power through it. Both implements burst into white flame, and we closed our eyes and mentally dove into the spell.

The tangle of mist-threads I had felt out before was now replaced by a writhing, flailing maelstrom that gave me motion sickness. I didn't even know where to begin trying to fix this thing, calm it down, break it, or what.

Hesketh and I were just two minds at the moment, communicating without words as she led me deeper into the spell, through it and around it as we tried to grasp something beyond our full mental sight. Even she wasn't quite sure what she needed to do—but it would be easier with a wingwoman, at least.

Our minds clutched at the thrashing spell-strings, trying to gather them, subdue them, sever them. They resisted our attempts every time. And it didn't help that somewhere outside of our reach was another presence agitating the magicks even further. Like trying to undo a knot and ending up just pulling it tighter.

We needed to go deeper still.

The two of us wove through the strands, expanded our vision to its limits, and began to see the pulsing, jumping particles of mist that held the whole thing together. Distantly I could feel my body take a deep breath as Hesketh and I gathered our power, feeding order into the chaos around us—

A loud snap from above jerked me back into my senses. I looked up and screamed as the roof began to cave in and a large ceiling beam dropped toward us.

A blur of pink rushed between us as someone grabbed me from behind and held me fast, and the beam stopped mere feet from our heads. "Keep going!" Coele grunted. She was holding up the ceiling, her feet planted on the floor and her teeth bared to show her pointed canines. There is a reason that, despite looking like a ten-year-old girl, she wields a broadsword almost as long as she is tall.

Qrrog refused to let go of me. "You okay?" he asked.

I nodded, although my heart was pounding, and wrapped an arm around his. "Thanks."

"We have to evacuate, now!" Saskia said. She looked wildly from the door to the window while Jihl threw water in the stove to prevent a fire.

"No time!" Hesketh snapped. "Terra! Focus!"

"I got this!" Coele said, glowering at the roof. "Hang in there, you guys!"

It was now or never. If we didn't break this spell in the next few seconds, we – and all of Camoa – were toast. I thrust my staff forward and shut my eyes. My clan would take care of us.

Back into the spell.

It was wild as ever, but Hesketh pointed out that we had made weak spots before our interruption. That gave us the only opportunity we could afford. But the entire spell was so voluminous and unstable that it would take too much time to hit the weak spots one by one.

Then I had an idea. Instead of going deeper, we needed to back out. I strained to retract my mental vision so I could see the whole spell at once, reached into it—and pulled it taut like a game of cat's-cradle. The magick's vulnerabilities shimmered all at once in the mist-strings.

Hesketh caught on before I even told her what to do. She lashed out with a vicious slice of energy that cut clean through the strands. They snapped, recoiled, snaked away, and dissipated in a flurry of energy being released back into the cosmos.

We tumbled back into reality. My husband was still holding me tight, while Hesketh collapsed on the floor, both of us thoroughly exhausted.

But the roaring of blizzard winds had been replaced by an eerie calm. Sunshine filtered through the buckled roof and made dapples of light on the rug. And the air was warm.

"Oh, thank goodness," I sighed, slumping against Qrrog.

A few more beams snapped. "We should—probably go now—" Coele said, giving the ceiling another shove.

Saskia nodded. "Down the stairs, quickly!"

I patted Qrrog's arm as he moved to stand up. "I'll be okay," I said. "Hesketh needs help." I motioned to where the nu mou lay prone.

My husband mussed my hair. "On it." He scooped the old mage into his arms and we made a break for the door. Coele was the last to go, allowing the ceiling to crash down behind her.

We high-tailed it to the stairs, and while the building would definitely need to be condemned, it at least held up enough for us to scramble back to the ground floor. The six of us burst out the front doors, into a world where summer sun glinted off of snowbanks and melting frost dripped from Great Land Festival decorations.

Coele stretched and strutted about the street. "Never again, snow. Never again."

I leaned against my husband and brushed Hesketh's long white hair out of her face. Her eyes were closed. "Oh, please be okay," I whispered.

The nu mou drew a deep breath and started coughing. "Am I dead?"

Qrrog laughed. "Hardly! Don't ye worry, Granny, more o' me matey Jihl's soup'll perk ye right up!"

"It is quite good soup," she murmured. "Now put me down, you big oaf. I shan't be coddled like a baby."

Saskia brushed herself off and flicked her ears. "I assume you successfully nullified the spell."

"Of course," Hesketh said once she was back on the ground. "It was a risky gamble, but when you have accrued as much knowledge as I, such feats are not surprising." She paused and then looked over at me with a crusty smile. "It helps that I had such a stubborn assistant."

I laughed. "Nice to know I'm good for something."

Coele had positioned herself in the middle of the street and was waving frantically at something in the sky. "Over here!"

Vasily and Winn had returned in their mechs, airborne this time as the machines' glossair rings whirred with mist and propelled them through the air. Following them was a small air cab. When they landed in front of us, the air cab touched down as well. Out stepped a figure in black-and-silver armor with a swirling black cape and an elaborate, face-covering helmet.

Much to my disappointment, this was not Basch—excuse me, Judge Magister Gabranth. This Judge was a woman, shorter than the Judge Magister but no less imposing as she stared each of us down.

After a long moment, she folded her arms. "My mages reported a dispelling in this area." She motioned to the magitek armor units. "And these two explained to me what has been going on. Clan Excelsior, I presume?"

Saskia bowed deeply. "At your service, Your Honor."

The Judge gave her a curt nod and then turned to a scowling Hesketh. "You were the originator of this spell, were you not?"

"It was an accident," the Sage said. Using her mace as support, she drew herself up, although it was a comical sight when compared to the Judge twice her height. "And I assure you, I do not make those at all often."

"What were you attempting to do when your spell went rogue?"

Hesketh blushed and said nothing. The silence stretched on until it became awkward.

"You are obligated to answer me," the Judge said.

The nu mou coughed into her sleeve and closed her eyes as though the answer pained her. "A client requested that I summon shaved ice for her refreshment stall at the Great Land Festival."

I had to take a deep breath to keep from laughing, and although I couldn't see the Judge's face, her sudden shift in posture suggested that she was silently doing the same.

Coele groaned. "You mean all this trouble was for shaved ice?!" She put her hands on her hips and shook a scolding finger at Hesketh. "You really are a troublesome old woman!"

"Oh, am I?" Hesketh shooed her away with her mace. "I would like to see you do better, you little imp!"

The Judge seemed less inclined to be amused by their bantering, and she cleared her throat in a way that made the two pipe down. "Since it was accidental, your sentence will be lessened, but the fact remains that your careless mistake has cost this city severely. The law dictates that you will spend five years in prison—"

"Wait." Saskia put a hand on Hesketh's shoulder. "Your Honor, she is with us."

"She is in your clan?" the Judge asked.

Saskia's eyes narrowed. "No, but I was about to ask her." She knelt down and searched the Sage's face. "Will you honor us with your presence in our clan?"

Hesketh smirked. "I'm not sure, prison might at least be quieter." She snickered. "Oh, all right. How bad could it be."

"In that case," the Judge said, "your sentence will be replaced with a fine, and you will help with recovery efforts. Be more careful in the future."

I grinned and threw my arms around the old nu mou. "Welcome to the clan!" This was nothing new—when we accepted Qrrog into the clan, we got his charges dropped in a similar fashion. If your clan has a reputation of being law-abiding, you can do that.

"Well, if she likes me soup, she can stay," Jihl said with a laugh.

Hesketh patted my back. "I trust you shall not make me regret my choice."

"Nah, prison sounds really boring," Coele said. "You'll have lots more fun with us!"

The Judge retreated to the air cab, pausing with her hand on the door. "Oh—Judge Magister Gabranth gives his regards."

I smiled. "Thanks!"

Our newest clan member sighed and looked up at the sagging tenement house. "My study… some of those books were irreplaceable antiques…"

Qrrog squeezed her shoulder. "Chin up, Granny. There's plenty o' room fer ye back at the fortress. You can make yer own li'l space that won't ever get messed with again."

"I'm sorry I called you incompetent," Hesketh said.

My husband shook his head. "I knew you was just angry. Can't say I blame ye. What say we call a truce?" He held out a hand and she clasped it firmly.

"Phew, that was an interesting adventure," I said. "And I didn't even have to get fake-kidnapped by Qrrog this time!"

He picked me up and nuzzled his snout into my cheek. "Sweetheart, if you wanted a kidnappin', why didn't you say so?"

"Because I thought we were calling them 'dates' nowadays," I replied with a smirk.

Hesketh ran a hand down her face. "Scions smite me," she groaned. "What have I gotten myself into?"

The hatch of one of the mechs swung open and Vasily popped out his head. "Welcome ter my world, ssisster!"

Winn clambered out of her own mech. "Enough standing around talking, kupo! Let's go to the Great Land Festival!"

"As long as we don't get any shaved ice!" Coele said.

Qrrog laughed. "Aye, but I could go fer some sticky buns, and cherry pie, and candy floss, and those dumplin's with the ice cream in the middle…"

And just like that, Hesketh was a part of our family. I'd found where I belonged. Now she had, too.

Mission complete.