Author's notes: Sorry for keeping you waiting. I did promise to have this chapter posted last week, but I had quite a bit to think about these days and couldn't write anything at all. Here is the chapter though, It's written in what little time I had. I really hope you'll enjoy it :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Wizard101 nor its characters, only my OCs.

Chapter 10 – A Distant Song

The huge statue of a unicorn standing on its two hind legs towered in the centre of a square, its horn pointed upwards to the blue sky. Six small hedges bordered the circular path encircling the statue, behind them, a very well kept lawn full of colorful flowers which gave off pleasant smells. Two bridges connected the square to the rest of the street, passing over the calm river that isolated it from everything else.

"You were amazing back there, Emer, riding the dragon to the rescue," Kane said.

"It was amazing I managed to pull it off! I had absolutely no idea of what I was doing." Emer laughed it off.

Under the shadow of the tree, the breeze was pleasant. Shard, Kane, and Emer were lying on the grass, the first deadly silent, while the other two were having a chat on the incident at the Fairegrounds. Few sandwiches remained from their lunch and, all of them, were stuffed in a lunch-box near Kane's bag. In the background, the occasional fluttering of wings, gave away the presence of fairies and sprites, who were carrying leaves, fruits or berries, amassing them in small baskets.

"It was a very nice adventure! Well... aside from the kidnapping and all that," Kane said.

Emer waited a bit and then replied, "I guess it was. By the way, Ambrose mentioned your father, what's his job?"

"He is part of the city council, boring stuff. Mostly talking about protecting the city. With Malistaire on the run, he has lots of work recently."

"I see… Well, let's avoid thinking about mad, dangerous wizards for a while," Emer offered.

"Yeah, this grass sure is comfy. I'm probably going to close my eyes for a little while."

How can they shrug it off so easily?! Shard thought, his hand pulling a single blade of grass out of the ground in anger.

Neither Kane nor Emer seemed to have understood completely how dangerous it had been. He didn't say anything. His mind occupied with all those strange occurrences. The vision of flames and a huge dragon made him anxious, he had never seen anything like that before. Those screams seemed to be resonating into his very soul.

The black cat. He might have understood its role. Two times he had seen it up close, and in both instances, Malistaire had been up to something. There might have been a connection.

He thought long and hard about it, but his lack of information on how magic worked, limited his guesses. Soon he found himself staring at the sky, Kane's soft and regular snores reaching his ears. The Fireblade-boy had fallen asleep two minutes after he had stopped talking.

"What are you thinking about?" Emer asked.

"I think that your efforts to try and get hurt are admirable," Shard replied coldly.

He couldn't forget that she had decided to ignore common sense. He expected something like that out of Kane, not her.

"Tell me then, should I have left Sabrina all alone while we looked for help?"

"No, We could have made a run for Ambrose's office or something…"

Emer sat up and looked at him. "You could have gone to look for help yourself when I told you to wait if you felt it was too dangerous, why didn't you do it?"

"Um…" Shard hesitated. Because I wasn't sure I could find help! he desperately thought.

His voice failed him, and he decided to keep staring up, ignoring Emer. How could he tell her that he didn't trust the people of Wizard City? Kane was sleeping just beside him, and he was one of them too. Shard didn't want to admit that he wasn't giving the city a chance. Would that have meant going against his promise?

"You see? No reason not to. Haven't you been reckless yourself? We both made a mistake," she concluded.

Shard shot up in a sitting position to glare at her. "That's different! You might have been in danger! Magic is dangerous and the faire was malfunctioning... You were heading towards dangerous malfunctioning magic!"

Emer looked at him in surprise as he continued his rant,"You keep on saying that magic is nice. That I should give it a chance. All I see is that it does damage and you keep trying to sweep it under the rug. Emer, people fight with it and use it for kidnappings! Portals injure those who go through them and supposedly safe illusions, try to kill people! It breaks friends apart! It breaks things…" He felt his eyes wet and wiped them with his sleeve, looking at his friend as he breathed hard, suddenly not sure himself of what he was talking about.

"Shard, I know that… and I'm not trying to hide it or anything, but I want you to see also the good things that it can do."

"Like what?"

"Like this." She pointed down to the other side of Unicorn Park, more precisely, to the many fairies flying around. They buzzed and sang as they sprinkled shiny dust on flowers and plants. The green color of whatever the dust touched became more vivid and lively. Shard's eyes seemed to widen by themselves to take it all in. Dry plants straightened up and bloomed, fruits and berries grew in mere minutes from trees and bushes. It was a wonderful show. Even Shard could admit it, magic wasn't being used to harm people in that very instant. Why was he seeing it only after Emer had pointed it out?

"Now close your eyes," Emer said.

"Why?" Shard asked, engrossed in what the fairies were doing.

"Just do it," she rolled her eyes, before placing her hands on Shard's face, successfully preventing him from seeing anything more. "What do you hear?"

"Um… Your voice?"

"Apart from that obviously! There is much more than that."

Shard did as he was told."Fairies singing?"

"Yeah, but that is not the only thing. Name as much as possible."

"Kane snoring, my voice, water flowing, rustle of leaves, birds, flutter of wings… a song."

The sound of the melody was barely audible. It seemed to vibrate just outside his ear, escaping his senses. It was the most beautiful song he had ever heard and he longed to hear more of its notes. They were impossible to grasp. Their meaning, unknown. There was no doubt that it was magical, but it was completely different to what Shard identified as magic. It didn't divide, it didn't break, it merely held the pieces together.

"Do you hear it?" Emer asked, removing her hands.

"Yes… I do get it now. That's how you see magic…"

"It obviously doesn't make what you said wrong. I know how destructive magic can be… There is another way to use it though, don't you think it too?"

"There might be." Shard conceded, falling in deep thought.

Maybe he was approaching everything from the wrong side. There was no way he could accept living with wizards in a magical school without accepting magic. A few seconds was all it took for him to decide. He was giving magic a chance, for real this time.

"Wow, he sure is a heavy sleeper. No sign of waking up even in the middle of an argument," Emer giggled pointing at Kane.

"Yeah, he sure is," Shard agreed. He looked at his new friend with the hint of a smile. There was something about him, something familiar now that he thought about it.

The burning city and the screams continued to glare at him from the back of his mind as he tried to relax in the peaceful park. That vision felt important, but he didn't want to remember the details, it was painful.

Emer couldn't be kept completely in the dark though, so he decided to tell her, "There something I have to tell you, Emer."

"What Is it?" she asked, shifting her gaze away from Kane.

"I saw the black cat before entering the game. It…" He wanted to say that it sent him a vision, but for some reason, the words wouldn't come out.

"You saw it again?!"

"Yes, it appeared out of nowhere."

"Hmm, do you think we should tell Ambrose? Maybe it's important."

"I'm not sure if it is. I think it has a connection with Malistaire, but I don't think getting the headmaster involved is a good idea at the moment."

Emer tilted her head and asked, " Why? He's very nice and he probably can help, not to mention he is working hard to defeat this Malistaire guy."

"He is… But I feel like he is on guard whenever I am around, and is constantly hiding things from us. I wasn't even meant to be here in the first place, remember?" Shard replied, lowering his gaze to stare intensely to a small flower, faking interest. "If we discover something important, we'll tell him though."

"I think you are just being paranoid, but I guess we can keep it from him for a little while. Maybe if we ask around, we can get onto something and even discover what he's keeping from us," Emer concluded.

"Alright," Shard said.

Looking at the fairies, he pushed back the vision of the burning city with all his might. There was no use in having Emer worry more than it was necessary. The day was too nice to linger on those screams, or so he wanted to desperately think. Once the night-time came, he was sure nightmares would follow. Tomorrow was his first day of school, better be ready for it.

This one was a pretty short chapter compared to the others, but I think it was needed as a conclusion of the pre-Ravenwood bunch of chapters. Next one will be on the first day of school, and there will be a focus on the various branches of magic as well as on the professors… and a bit of a surprise I guess.

It needs time though, there is lots of planning left to do, and I wanted to finish writing 'Seeking Magic' before continuing with this story. It won't take long and will be worth it, I promise! In the meantime, your support is greatly appreciated and well… see you next time!