Circle Remade

Summary: Less than one year since "Magic Steps", Discipline cottage gets a few more residents. Three new young mages come to Winding Circle in unorthodox ways, adding to the young weaver mage who moved in after Sandry left. Though they come from different lives, they will have to remake a circle formed long ago with their predecessors if they want to save their new home…

Disclaimer: Don't own. Don't sue.

Chapter Twelve: Circle Remade

Beginning Note: I am so, so, so, so, so ,so SO sorry I didn't update sooner! Between after-school swim practice, theatre rehearsal, and homework, I've barely had time to check my e-mails. Once, again, really, really sorry.

Eldred woke up to whispers above his head. Almost like the thoughts came from outside him, he put voices to names. Sage, Alida, and Comas. He thought slowly. He opened his eyes.

"He's awake!" Alida said. Sage's face filled his line of vision.

"Hey there, sleeping beauty, about time you woke up! I was getting ready to dump you in the lake myself. I tried screaming in your ear earlier, but Alida threatened to stuff my mouth with cotton. Well, Lady Sandry did, anyway. Alida wanted to bind and gag me." Sage said it rather loudly and cheerfully.

Eldred wanted to ask them some of his burning questions, who was Lady Sandry, what happened, where was he, etc. What came out, was, "I'm going to be sick!"

Alida seemed prepared for this. She grabbed a nearby chamber pot and thrust it under Eldred's mouth just as his lunch, breakfast, and a lot more came gushing out of his mouth.

After he finished, Alida gingerly moved the pot away and placed it under the bed. The smell was pretty bad, but they were still concerned about Eldred. "How do you feel?" Comas asked.

"Curious." The others stared at him blankly. Eldred looked at them. "Why did it taste like tomatoes, I didn't even eat tomatoes."

"Oh no, he's in shock." Sage said. She pushed Alida aside. "My two-second cure." She pronounced, then slapped Eldred across the face.

"OW! What the heck was that for!"

"I don't know, it just felt right."

"You're insane!"

"I'm an insane GENIUS!" Sage said.

Holding his head, Eldred sat up cautiously. "Foregoing the insanity, what happened and where am I?"

"You over-extended yourself magically." Alida said.

"Yeah, good job loser." Sage said with a thick accent.

"We got through the window," Alida said, ignoring Sage, who was making faces. "And met Lady Sandrilene fa Toren. She brought us into the Keep. You're in the Infirmary."

"I'll go tell her you're awake." Comas said, then dashed out.

"Why does she need to know that? I'm not going to have to take some nasty medicine, will I?" Eldred was thinking back to when he was sick with fever a year ago and had to drink a noxious tasting mixture from his mother.

"Nope, she just needs to know." Alida said, avoiding Eldred's gaze.

"That way, she can teach how to weave our magic together so we can go and kick some barbarian butt." Sage said brightly.

"SAGE!" Alida half-yelled.

"Oh sorry, was I not supposed to tell him that?" Sage said, unabashed.

Alida groaned.

"Lady Sandrilene is going to show us how to weave our magics together? But that's fantastic!" Eldred said, ripping his sheets off and trying to stand. Al;ida pushed him back firmly.

"This is exactly why I didn't want you to know." Alida said, glaring at Sage. Sage grinned back toothily. "When Sandry gets back, she'll tell us whether we can do it or not, and if you are well enough to do it. You used a lot of energy manipulating that storm, and you might not have enough magic to put into whatever we use."

Eldred shook his head impatiently. "But if it works, I can just borrow it from one of you." He said.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa. Whoa. You are not borrowing some of my magic without permission, Art-boy. I'm still recovering from that last big working. Sort of. And anyway, Alida and Comas are still fresh, take some from them!" Sage said.

"Hey!" Alida said, putting her hands on her hips.

"Hold on, lets just wait until we actually make this circle first. Lets not bicker, and argue about who has more magic than who." Eldred began. Just then, the door to the Infirmary opened. Comas stepped in, along with a girl a little taller than him, a noble look about her with brown hair tied back with ribbons. Lady Sandrilene.

"Lady-" He started, but she held up her hand.

"Not another word from you until I've had a look at you. And it's not 'Lady' anything, just Sandry." Sandry said, and stepped over to his bedside. She looked at him appraisingly. "Follow my finger." She said, and moved it from side to side. His eyes tracked it's movements. "Touch your nose." He obeyed, feeling rather stupid as he did so. "Now with the other hand." He complied. "Alright, you seem fine. If you start to get a headache, don't hold back and ask one of the healers for some willow-bark tea."

Sandry pulled up a chair. "Your friends have informed me that you are trying to form a Circle, such as I did with my friends. Is that correct."

Eldred nodded mutely.

Sandry sighed. "Gods know we could use help. My sisters and brother are traveling, so we can't be of any assistance together." Sandry looked into the distance pensively. She shook her head and looked at the four surrounding her. "If you truly want this-"

"We do!" Alida said. "This is our home, and we would do anything to defend it."

The others nodded their ascension. Sandry looked each one in the eye before nodding. "So be it. Follow me."

She stood up. And walked to the door. Sage followed her, then Comas. Alida waited until she saw Eldred could manage on his own before following. Eldred brought up the rear.

Sandry led them to a room across the hall from the main camp. She opened the door, ushered them in, then closed and locked it. Sandry pushed all the furniture to one side, clearing the middle of the room. While the others were still looking at her bewildered, she pulled a thread out of her pouch and began to draw a circle in the air with it. The string hovered two feet above the ground. Sandry completed the circle, enclosing her and the four within it.

"That should hold any strange magic we have until we are finished." Sandry sat down, and indicated the others should too.

"First off, I must admit, I have no idea how to go about this."

"WHAT!" Sage said. Sandry held up her hand.

"Ours was formed under severe pressure, when we all feared for our lives. I don't know if it can be duplicated, but I know we have to try."

"Would facing an army of far greater strength than our own with less than a snowballs chance in high summer of living to see next week with absolutely no hope of help arriving and knowing that any second a properly placed cannon shot could bring the whole of ten tons of rock crashing around out heads be considered severe pressure?" Alida asked. "I think we can do it."

"Well said Alida! Hear hear!" Sage said.

Sandry smiled wryly. "Point taken. Now, I'm going to tell you the story of my friends and I before we decide what to do." Sandry took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. After a moment, she started talking. "I had just been rescued from a magically encased room. My entire family had been killed from sickness, and the only person who knew where I was had been killed. I was left in the dark for a long time, my only light what I could capture for myself with my thread magic. I didn't know that was what it was, only that it saved me. I was ten." Sandry took another deep breath. "Nikalarnen Goldeye found me. I was blinded by the light. I had to be blindfolded for weeks before I could stand light again. I've been terrified of the dark ever since."

"Not that this isn't fascintating, but how does your troubled childhood help us exactly." Sage said.

Sandry opened one eye. "I'm getting to it." She closed it again. "As I was saying, my friends and I were taken by different means by Niko to Winding Circle. I won't trouble you with their tales. Somehow, he knew about our talents, and took us to where we could learn to use them. I never asked him how he knew it. But, we all didn't fit in in the regular dorms, so we found ourselves placed in Discipline. Gradually, we discovered our magic and found teachers. Briar and Rosethorn, Tris and Niko, Daja and Frostpine, me and Lark. We trained together, learned together, and began to trust one another as we thought we never could. Then the earthquake came." Sandry took another deep breath.

"We were buried under the earth, cut off from the light and all that we knew. I have never been more terrified in my life. The darkness was absolute." Sandry shuddered.

"What did you do?" Alida asked quietly.

"We saved each other." Sandry smiled, remembering. "None of us could do much apart, but together, we were strong. I used my first piece of thread I ever wove. It had four lumps in it, evenly spaced out. Each of us took a knot, and pushed our magic into it. The thread became a circle, and we escaped, taking with us what we had learned. We went in friends, but still separated. We came out family."

"I'll ask you once more, do you want to do this?" Sandry asked, looking at them in turn.

Each nodded solemnly.

"I have a piece of string I wove." Comas said, drawing out the thread.

"I have four beads I made." Sage said, pulling out her beads.

"That'll have to do." Sandry said. She took the thread and put the beads on it. She tied it off. "Each of you take a bead."

They scooted in closer, till they were touching elbow to elbow. "Now, push some of you magic into it. Place some of your self into the bead…"

Her voice trailed off. Each of the four was caught in their own thoughts.

Sage held her bead stiffly. She thought about her Company, those she had loved and lost, her coming to Winding Circle, and meeting the others. She felt…whole. As much as she had cared for those in Company 7, there was a difference of companionship. They were her allies and friends, but they were still men many years older than her. There were a few women, but they were dangerous, and hardened to her. Here, with people her own age, it was so different. In Alida she had a part-time friend, easy going and not afraid to defend those she loved. In Eldred, she had someone she could tease and yet still be able to trust her back with him in a battle. With Comas, she had someone she could bring up, a purpose in life. Her clay magic was linked to them, and to the earth. She could feel it slipping into the bead. She opened her eyes and watched as it turned a golden-brown color, shining brightly.

Alida clasped her bead between her palms. Her music was filling her, carrying the tune as her thoughts reflected on her life and being. Her parents, the wonderful times she had before the plague, playing her instrument to all of the people, glowing with their praise. The song turned sad, reminiscing about her struggles with the budding magic, the fear of playing her violin, the agony of the emotions of those around her. Then, the tune turned emotional, telling her of what she had gained from the ashes of her old life. Magic. Friends. A greater understanding of the world around her. A Rebirth. Sage; the first girl to approach her in the new environment, the one to tease her without fear of what Alida could do, the one who kept her looking on the bright side when it seemed lost. Eldred; a boy she knew she could rely on to keep the group together, who had a strong side to him that would endure when others failed. And Comas; the one who had found her magic for her, had found herself. He had saved her, and she would never forget that. The song poured from her soul and into the bead. She opened her eyes to see it pulsing a steady pale-blue.

Eldred rolled the bead between his thumb and forefinger. He was reflecting on how his life had changed so drastically within the past few weeks. He visualized it as the circle of the color spectrum. It started out blue, in calmness, the good life of caring for his family and learning. Then it began to fade to red, as the few weeks leading up to the attack created an aura of foreboding throughout the land. True red emerged during the actual fight. It began to change again as he remembered riding out to deliver the message. Yellow for how he recovered and the few days spent in the Infirmary with sage. Green for when his run. Coming full circle to blue again, for his few days with his friends. With Sage, who he knew he could trust to keep him steady and to pull him back from being too wrapped up in something. With Alida, who he knew he could count on to remain loyal and help the others when he could not, who he knew would care when he wouldn't dare to. And Comas, who was a good friend, and would stand by his friends, whom Eldred could rely on to find magic where there was none before. And now it was coming full circle again, changing to red as the impending battle approached. Eldred gritted his teeth and pushed the string of colors into the bead. He opened his eyes to find a softly glowing red bead in his palm.

Comas curled his fist around the bead. He remembered how much his life had changed in the last few days. Had it really only been a week? His shyness, which had crippled him from the time he was young. At Winding Circle, he had felt it more than ever, before he was finally moved to Discipline. Even with Lark's help, he hadn't really started to heal until Alida came. Alida: a patient friend, who would help and guide him when he needed it, who stood up for him and finally got him to admit his magic to Lark. Sage: the joker who had gotten him used to normal interaction with people, had managed to coax him out of shyness without him realizing it. Eldred: the other boy in the house he could count on to back him up if Sage was being a little too mean or Alida a little too caring. Eldred had let him come on the trip, and he wouldn't let any of them down. He wove his magic into the bead, and opened his eyes to see it sparkling white and throwing off glitters of all the colors of the spectrum

He looked up to see the others holding their own beads in their hand and Sandry lokign at them proudly. "And so a new Circle enters Summersea." She said.

"Those imbeciles won't know what hit 'em!" Sage exclaimed.

Note: Hope you liked it. It's only the second week of school, so hopefully the homework will lessen or I'll get used to it. Meanwhile, keep looking for updates on the weekends.

Kudos to:

Reviews: imakeladrygirl, lady knight keladry, Meisha Marie, Abbs of the faeries, and Iceo.

Alerts: GoonlaLagoon

Favorite Story lists: GoonlaLagoon and MeishaMarie

sorry if I spelled Niko's full name wrong.