Disclaimer: see chap one.

Briar and his sisters walked down the cobbled stone streets of Summersea back towards the booth that Lark and Rosethorn had rented. It was always the same booth in the same location, so it was easy to find by the patrons and also easy to find for Briar and his siblings. The familiars drew more and more attention as they approached the busy corner of the markets. Daja's Firecharm drew the most attention from onlookers who were passing by. The snake had folded back her (Tris remembered that the familiars reflect the gender their master was) wings, and had wrapped herself around Daja's Trader staff in a very peculiar way, with her head resting on Daja's brass cap.

Pinenut had delved into Briar's memories, the most recent first and slowly going deeper and deeper into his past, so that he would be able to get to know his master better. The other three familiars were doing the same, in slightly different manner. Pinenut sat atop of Briar head, pressing the young man's hair down with his weight. Briar however did not seem to mind the ornament. Pinenut had recognized Torin as he came out of the shop due to the recent memory download. He smiled and told Briar that Torin was coming his way.

As they drew closer to the booth, Torin came out of the sweet shop with a bag full of mints and caught sight of the four. He quickly trotted over to Disciplines former inhabitants and greeted them with a wave and a smile. He even raised his bag and offered sweets to the circle, but each in turn declined his invitation. From his perspective the four were awfully quite, their eyes did not focus much on the outside. Who knew what they were up to he thought.

Torin did notice that they had pets all over themselves, with the exception of Tris who did not have Chime with her. He shrugged and walked along with them back to the booth. At the booth, everyone had already cleaned up as the five mages approached. The guards were readying themselves to escort Sandry back to the citadel while the others were filling the wares that weren't sold into the rickety temple cart. Lark and Rosethorn could were not there, the only person sitting in the cart was Saren who at the moment was reading a cook book on the many ways to make corn into a meal.

Briar looked over at Saren wondering where everyone was. Everyone really only included Lark and Rosethorn who were usually there tending to the carts. Briar looked over at Torin who only shrugged at the question Briar had asked using a raised eyebrow. He approached one of the guards, coincidently the guard that Torin was talking to on the trip to Summersea, and asked where his former teachers where.

"Master Niko came by in frenzy," the soldier responded to Briar inquiry, "and took Dedicate Lark and Dedicate Rosethorn with him to look for Tris." The soldier looked passed Briar and noticed that everyone was accounted for. "I don't know why Master Niko would be in such a hurry," the soldier admitted.

Briar went back to the girls and Torin followed, "They're looking for you Tris," Briar relayed.

"Niko must have seen something that could harm Tris," Sandry noted. "They're out there right now all worried 'cause none of us has reported back since this morning when we left the booth."

"Use Chime to send them a message," Daja said. Everyone agreed that that was the best course of action since none of them were mind linked with their former teachers.

Tris pulled out her mage kit from the inside of her cloak, and pulled out a quill and a piece of parchment. She wrote a message on the little piece of paper and tied it to Chime's legs. "Chime," she called, to get her attention. "Take this to Niko. You remember what he looks like?"

Chime nodded, and unfurled his wings to take flight. Once in the air, the beautiful bird changed into her lightning form and zoomed off in erratic movements across the sky in search of Niko, Lark, or Rosethorn. Torin and Saren had watched in amazement as the bird skewered the air. Everyone nearby had their head tilt back and eyes locked onto the bird. When the bird found Niko from the air, Chime, flew straight now, its form a parody of actual lightning striking the ground.

Briar looked at Tris wondering what Niko was thinking. He knew that he could use the bird to link to Tris. Briar was correct in his assumption when moments later Tris could be seen standing still.

"Tris," Niko called through the mind link. "You're ok." Niko said with to much relief. "We were looking all over for you."

"I'm back at the booth,"
she replied sending her thoughts to Chime who was at the time connected to Niko as well.

The link was broken as Chime flew off Niko's shoulder and changed into her lightning form, and flew back to Tris, changing back to feathers and she landed on her master's shoulder. Tris still found it a bit odd that this Chime is a female while the old dragon, she always thought of as a male. From the looks of Chime's landing site the great mages would be back at the booth in no time. The market square was big, but it was made so that people could travel easy.

The mages waited patiently for their former teachers to return. During that time, they were hit with a barrage of questions from the excitable Torin who sat in the carriage with the four. He was bouncing around rocking the open wagon as he spoke

"That's Chime?" he asked for the hundredth time.

And for the hundredth time, Tris answered remained the same, "Yes. She's my familiar now."

"She?" Torin said with his eyes wide and his mouth open. "When did the he become the she?"

"When he became my familiar," Tris answered a bit annoyed by the boy.

Briar sensing the irritation from Tris tried to change the subject. "What do you think of my familiar?" he asked Torin in hopes of diverting his attention. For a boy in his late teens, he was still easily excitable and sometimes a bit of a nuisance. Still he did everything with good intentions.

Pinenut, at once heard the reference towards him, opened his shell and buzzed his wings slightly to show off. The girls laughed at the turtle, but the turtle just went on buzzing and going in circles, showing off his shell and wings. Sandry's cat, thought of it as a game, began to stalk the turtle. Pinenut was unsuspecting with his back turned away, the cat slowly snuck up. Snowsilk coiled her legs and pounced. With amazing speed, the turtle flew straight upwards out of the cat's reach. At this moment of much joviality the great mages decided to make themselves known.

From a few paces, Niko saw the spectacle. "A flying turtle?" Niko screamed, racing towards the cart. Lark and Rosethorn followed, their old legs moving them quickly and with pace behind Niko.

"Where have you been?" Lark asked calmly. "Niko wouldn't say, the only thing we heard from him was that you're back at the both and that messenger bird was Chime."

"Honestly," Rosethorn looked at Briar with some anger, "you'd think we taught you better manners, not even checking in throughout the day. Niko had a vision that you were in danger, and you where nowhere to be found. I'd ought to..."

"Hang me over the well," Briar finished, surprised that Rosethorn would use such an old threat. She isn't taking care of me anymore yet she is still mothering me.

"We went to Agatha's apothecary," Sandry explained. "That's where we found out Chime was dying." Sandry stood up on her cart, trying to gain height over her taller teachers. "We saved Chime by remaking him into the bird, and in the process we made familiars."

"That Agatha," Rosethorn spat. "She didn't use your blood did she?"

"Yes she did," Sandry answered truthfully, if not wholly.

Lark, Rosethorn, and Niko went into a fit, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE DID?" came the general reply. All of the younger mages looked at the teachers in bewilderment. Niko was in full steam right then. He pointed fingers, at the four young mages. The other two current students, side stepped away off of the cart and hid behind the soldiers, who were also cringing and backing up. Three of the great mages were angry and nobody wanted to be within reach of their wrath.

"A liter of your blood to make one familiar," Rosethorn yelled. "That's a bit risky!"

"Haven't you children learned?" Niko added his voice shrill with fury. "It takes a lot of will and concentration to even make a weak familiar, and I come back to see a bird in the form of lighting and a flying turtle?! YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED."

"What was Agatha thinking?" Lark asked aloud.

Now the students had lost their patience with their former teachers. Sandry pulled out her medallion that she had just received at the ceremony. "We are no longer children," she cried. "This medallion proves that. Maybe we were reckless before when we first learned by now we have a bit more control. You're the magic seeing mage, look at our magical selves! We are not even spent."

Niko squinted at her request and stared at their magical forms. He was nearly blinded by the force and brightness of the magic within them. He calmed down, but he was still upset that they might have been killed. "Do you realize how much will power it takes to make a familiar?" Niko asked again.

"You are making a life," Lark explained. "That is one of the hardest things to do. You magic invokes the life already in the object, when you create a familiar or anything living, it uses a lot of will power. You've created a plant and now have familiars. You must realize that you are not gods of the Living Circle, you do have limits."

Daja gasped. "My copper tree! It's going to die!"

"Calm down," Lark said, "it may die, it may not, and we still don't know if it is connected to the earth like all plants are. What we do know is that it will last for quiet awhile, after all, all four of your magic was involved, and by raw power alone, it will last a lifetime."

"Keth's case was a bit different," Lark continued. "His lightning magic was invoked by the earth itself. It's also raw, but it is not pure. I'm surprised Chime lasted for so long."

Briar stood up and jumped off the cart, landing in front of the three teachers. He adjusted his cloak, creating a cooler temperature inside. "She didn't go though all of the rights and ceremonies to create the familiars," Briar explained. "In fact the only thing we had to do was will the familiar into existence from a chicken egg."

"We all learned about familiars somewhere along the way," Briar admitted. "But the way she did the spell was totally different than text book."

The three other girls nodded. "She made a potion that copied how Chime was originally created. Than she took four eggs and had us use our magic, plus a few drops of blood, to create the familiar from an egg, instead of from the usual marble stone," Briar further explained. "We were in no danger."

The teachers sighed in relief. "I need to talk to this Agatha," Niko finally said, ending the argument. "From what it sounds like, she is using revolutionary techniques to do nearly the impossible," Niko said.

"You didn't have to will life into a stone," Rosethorn said. "You instead changed one life into another."

Daja looked up in confusion. "Stone has life, I should know."

Rosethorn shook her head. "Yes it has life, but not the kind that gets up and walks around. Or the kind that we turn into the energy that our bodies burn. I shouldn't have to explain this, go do some research," she said irritated from her misjudgment.

Daja not planning to do the research anytime soon was content with the response. At least the teachers weren't angry any more; instead they were more curious about Agatha. Tris had remained quiet the entire time. The last time she had messed with the natural order of things, she turned a boulder into dust and ended up in a bed for weeks. She had tried to change the tides, and the energy that made tides flowed through her body wearing her out. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to create life from a rock.

"Let's go home," Sandry said. Sandry mounted her regal looking horse and the troops escorted her to the Duke's citadel. She was required back to provide company for the Duchess of Zhentree who still was visiting. She waved good bye to everyone after giving them warm hugs and promised to visit them soon. Her cat meowed melancholically and licked her "uncle and aunts" faces. She also bade farewell to her siblings. The circle family, event after event kept on getting stranger and stranger.

The familiars bade farewell to Sandry as she rode up the street to her uncle's citadel. Sadly they mounted their horses or climbed into their wagons and rode on back towards Winding Circle temple and Discipline. When they reached a branch in the rode, much later in their short journey, Daja, Tris, and the familiars that accompanied had to say good bye as well. Daja headed towards the blacksmith area where she slept, and Tris went in the same general direction where the glass shop was located at. The two craftswomen needed to visit their extended families as well. Daja still hadn't seen her former students, and Tris wanted to go back to the shop to visit Glaki who was bound to leave for school soon. Briar sadly waved at them while Pinenut opened his shell and buzzed a farewell. He was perched on top of Briar's head when he did that and surprised Briar making fall over in his seat. Once he regained control of his balanced they had reached the cottage. Briar helped unload the cart and take the excess wares into the stores where they would be taken out to be sold next month. Most of the things sold where perishable items that Rosethorn had revived or beautiful works of art made by Lark. While he was helping unload the wagon and to take it back to the temple stables, Pinenut buzzed this way and that exploring his home. His memories were from Briar's memories, and it was time for Pinenut to make his own. Thankfully, Briar's magic was strong, and the will for a familiar was potent as well. Pinenut's intelligence is extremely high and he could learn things quickly, thus enable him to help out his master in the future.

Briar offered to take the cart back although he was tired, but Pinenut insisted. Briar gave into his familiar's request and took the cart back with Pinenut buzzing alongside. A few moments out of the corner of Briar's eye, Pinenut sometimes looked like an oversize beetle the way he was flying. He did however have the grace of Briar's quick reflexes and on the trip he found out that the buzz made from the wings was actually just for show. When serious, Pinenut could really fly well, and quietly as well. When like this, he was more like Briar than one would think.

The stable hand gave the turtle an odd glance, but at the temple it had become expected to expect the unexpected from the circle of four, but still kept his eye on the buzzing flying turtle. The turtle looked at the young stable hand; he was no more than 12 summers and gave a loud audible snap which made the boy jump. Pinenut laughed silently to himself while Briar grinned as well. The stable boy went to the back and got a slip saying that Briar had returned the cart, he signed it in a sloppy fashion with the stable master looking over his shoulder. The stable master reached over and stamped it with his stamp verifying the return of the horses. Briar turned around his cloak and turtle followed behind him.

He made it back to Discipline in record time, but not without stopping by the temple kitchens to visit Dedicate Gorse. Briar left the kitchens with sweets and tarts filling his stomach and a basketful of desserts for back at Discipline. He went to his room, the room that he was currently sharing with Torin and noticed that the boy was outside practicing with his knives. Only a few weeks and the boy was noticeably improving, hitting the target often. He then took off his kit and tossed his well made boots to the side and went over to his shakkan. Pinenut was already exploring the room, but landed gently on the sill where the shakkan grew. Pinenut went up to the shakkan and gave it a sniff. Briar watched the interaction with much amusement. He hadn't seen the shakkan ever take be happy about meeting another being besides Briar.

Briar took deep breathes and started to meditate with the shakkan. He took up his pliers in which he used to clip the leaves of the tree and reached for the offending branch that soon would be clipped. However, his hand hit Pinenut's head, who had already cleanly bit off the doomed branch. He smiled up at Briar. Briar stroke the friendly turtle's back and started to meditate again. Once again before he trimmed the branch, Pinenut was there. The shakkan was enjoying the attention and grew a few more branches to be trimmed. Briar took one side while his partner took the other. It had taken them a half an hour to trim all the branches because the shakkan kept on growing new branches. When it was finally done, he went to sit down in his pallet, his turtle buzzing after him. He sat down cross legged as his turtle landed in front of him.

"So what extra things can you do?" Briar asked the turtle.

"I do not know all the things I can do," Pinenut answered. "Some things are instinctive, like flying."

"I see," Briar said understanding the turtle. He stroked the turtles back.

"Other things come with age," the turtle added. He then drew in all of his limps and his head, and the opening where his head was supposed to be opened wide. "I am a pocket."

Briar laughed at the turtle. "No really, Briar," the turtle insisted. "There is an empty void and you can put things in me."

Briar continued to laugh at the comical looking turtle. The turtle was open like a clam shell and all Briar could see was darkness, yet he could still talk to Pinenut. "Wait," the turtle requested, "I'm resizable too!!!" And with that comment preceded to resize the darkness, widening the circle of darkness. The turtle's shell did not get any bigger, just the opening.

Briar dropped a pillow into the turtle's black hole. "Thanks Briar!" the turtle replied. "I need a pillow." Briar and Pinenut laughed at the joke. It looks like things will be pretty interesting with a familiar around, Briar thought.