I'm so sorry I haven't updated for so long! In my world, free time is nonexistent. I worked all day to bring you guys this chapter today. Don't be mad, please? And thank the characters for behaving in this chapter. None of them wanted to act weirdly. In fact, they almost wrote the chapter for me.

Disclaimer: If I owned this, it wouldn't be a fanfic, would it? And I'm not Tamora Pierce, or in the PotS series Kel would have ended up with Neal. *curses Yuki and Dom for getting in the way*

Oh, AerinBrown asked how old the students were. I neglected to mention it directly. It's set a lot like my other one. They're about sixteen. But why do you want to know?

So, here's chapter three. And I would suggest not drawing conclusions yet. No one could guess accurately at this point what's going to happen. *evil smiles* And as to anything that doesn't seem to make sense, well, let me just say, wait and see.

Sandry stepped carefully into Discipline, avoiding the hem of her dress while supporting her end of a particularly large bag.

"Wait," Daja said after a few more steps. She pivoted slowly, making it so Sandry was facing forward.

"It's alright," the noble said, shifting to turn them back around.

"no," was the firm reply. "I'd actually like to talk to you later—"

"Which'll be more than a bit hard if you trip over those flap-rags and black out," Briar finished for the Trader, passing by them to deposit bags into his own room.

Rosethorn raised a fine eyebrow. "Eloquently put," she remarked with her sarcastic drawl. Briar just grinned and ran to grab more packs.

A few moments later, Sandry followed suit to take her own saddlebags in. "I hope the maid packed sensible clothes. She always did have a tendency to dress me up like a lady of the court." Sandry stopped as she remembered something. "Lark? Where's Comas?"

The dedicate looked up, startled. "You mean I didn't tell you? He's staying in the dormitories. He made a run for it when he heard you four were returning."

"Why? Surely there's more people there."

Lark smiled. "He's—heard stories."

"Maybe if I go talk to him?"

Lark shook her head, still smiling.

Sandry shrugged and dropped her bag on the floor of her newly—albeit temporarily—reclaimed room

The kids finished and plopped down on chairs.

"This is why they tell us to pack light."

"Exactly."

"If I hadn't been talking to Uncle, I might have remembered to not let Rosela pack for me."

"Why?'"

"She's extravagant when it comes to my clothes."

"Who's Rosela?"

"The maid."

"Oh."

"Why did I ever pick a room upstairs?"

"You were afraid I'd nick your stuff."

"And I think you liked the view."

"I don't know, I asked you if you wanted it and you said it was nice."

"It was a rhetorical question."

"We're too tired to tell the difference."

"Tell me about it."

They were silent for a moment, the honeyed summer air making them pleasantly lazy. Briar's voice floated through the thick atmosphere of the room.

"What was with that explosion earlier?"

Tris opened an eye to look at him. "You heard Niko. It probably had something to do with our magic."

"I've never heard of magic doing that for no reason."

"Just like you've never heard of magic being spun together before. Still happened to us, didn't it?"

"But this hasn't happened to us before ei—"

"You might want to unpack you bags now." The kids turned to see Lark. "Trust me when I say you four will be even more tired later." They scurried into their rooms to follow her advice.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Sandry finished a few hours later, not really paying attention to what she was doing. She stumbled out of her room to see Lark and Rosethorn setting up for the evening meal. Briar was already out, helping them. Sandry smiled to herself. He was always one to try to get to a meal as soon as possible.

Tris and Daja came down, the latter asking, "Is it suppertime yet? I'm starv—" She stopped when she saw the table already set up.

Everyone sat. They ate without saying much, really starting to feel the bruises they collected from their falls.

Lark rose. "Baths," she announced.

They groaned. "But that means we'd have to move," Briar protested.

"It'll relieve the aches," Lark cajoled.

"We're going to have to get up eventually." Tris stood with a wince.

"Oh, fine," he assented. "Ouch," they heard him murmur. He was up. "Ouch. Ouchouchouchouch…"

Rosethorn regarded him with raised eyebrows. "Stop complaining," she commanded. "If you want something to whine about…" she started, as a small, evil smile formed on her lips.

Briar fell silent immediately, staring at her in horror. Slowly he began to inch away.

The remaining two stood, using the table for leverage. Everyone trudged off to the baths. Lark, Rosethorn, and the girls headed off to the private baths, as usual.

Sandry selected a room and closed the door behind her. Setting down some clean clothes and a towel, she smiled to herself. I've gotten spoiled. In Hatar I was used to public baths. Then I got here, and Tris and Daja had issues with it, and of course in the Citadel I got my own tub. She stripped and sank into the heated water, letting it ease the growing soreness as she washed. The noble leaned back and closed her eyes with a sigh, exhausted from the day and the shortage of sleep.

This is nice. I must've fallen harder than I thought. I wonder what happened. Briar could be right—it doesn't quite make sense. And those dreams are the oddest things. Nothing even particularly threatening happens, I just get a weird feeling from them. It's not even so bad. Maybe it's just because it's at night. Sleep does muddle your senses…

Sandry woke suddenly to a knock on the door. "Sandry, are you alright? It's been an hour and you're not done yet."

"I'm fine!" she called. "I just fell asleep, sorry. I'll be out in a moment."

Sandry got out of the now cold water and dried off quickly. She pulled on a soft undyed robe and opened the door.

"I was afraid you drowned," Dedicate Lark teased.

Sandry replied with a grin as they walked back to the cottage.

"Why do you girls always take so long?" Briar demanded. "In the time I've been back, I could've weeded Rosethorn's entire garden by now." It was summer, so the weeds were at their worst. "Twice."

Sandry bit her lips together to keep from laughing. They took to the chairs again, chatting about any recent news they might have missed. Still tired, she listened mostly, occasionally adding bits about Pasco's trip with Kalaryn. Suddenly a hand was on her shoulder, shaking her. "Hey, Duchess, your room's over there."

"What?" she asked, startled. Daja and Tris were gone already, and the Hub bell was sounding eleven. "Sorry, I must've fallen asleep again."

"You never do that." He frowned at her when she looked up. "Dark circles? Is everything okay?"

"I haven't been sleeping too well, that's all. And if it's so late, why are you still up?"

"What kind of thief would I be if I went to sleep at a normal time?"

"You're not a thief anymore," was the dry reply.

"What makes you think that?" he asked with a grin.

"I won't hesitate to hit you on the head again." She yawned.

"That threat would have been more impressive if you weren't talking in your sleep at the moment."

She glared, but didn't say anything as she stumbled into her bed. She was asleep immediately.

She felt the mass of swirling winds in front of her. Without warning, one flew out and whisked around her violently before dispersing.

Her surroundings faded, and suddenly she saw the sturdy rope that had been haunting her dreams. A shadow whipped up its length. Suddenly the four strands unraveled and shot out, disappearing into the darkness around her.

Sandry rolled out of bed and gathered up her covers shakily. Snatching her pillow, she deposited everything on the floor in the main room, before the shrine.

She heard scurrying and a flood of cursing in Briar's room before he came out with his blanket. Tris and Daja crashed down the stairs, in the same condition. "You too?" Tris asked.

Briar grunted a yes. Sandry nodded. "You've been having dreams too?"

The others looked at her, startled. Daja stared at her. "No…."

Briar wore an odd expression. "You have." It wasn't a question. "That's why you haven't been sleeping well, isn't it?"

Sandry's bright blue eyes flicked to him. Slowly, she nodded. "But it was just the rope before, not the winds—"

Daja interrupted her. "Winds? I dreamed of fire…."

Tris's mouth was dry. "Tides."

"Vines."

Sandry blinked. "But in every case, things were flying apart?"

Three heads nodded agreement.

"Maybe we all dreamed of different things because of our magic?"

"Tris's magic is wind, not mine."

"Sometimes wind is associated with cloth."

"So what's this all about?" Briar asked.

Tris answered. "Remember what Niko said? Maybe this is just another side effect of coming back together. Our magic was coming back together again."

It made sense, so they all settled down to catch what sleep they had left.

As Sandry drifted off to sleep, a something occurred to her. The strands flew apart, just as we were separated, but why didn't it come back together when we did? Sleep claimed her, and the thought was lost.

Now, aren't I evil? This isn't as much as a cliffhanger as you probably think it is. You'll see, but not for a while…

I tried to save time when reviewing, so some of the replies are grouped together. I checked the reviews a few days ago, so if I missed yours, I apologize. Just say so and I'll put it in the next chap.

Seshira, TiGgEr, terzian, ladyknight, mystery, & Andrea: Thanks!

Muslima & Storm Mage: Yay! You're still reading my stuff. And I'm still waiting for your stories. When are you three going to update?

Evenstar: Thanks, and—we'll see about the romance. *evil grin*

Kiara: *hands you flowers* Prize to you, because you were my first reviewer for BOTH chapters!

Russetwolf713: Lol. I just made them a bit taller than they were in the TCO books (except I don't know about Tris). I know exactly what you mean. TP makes almost all of her characters tall. I'm only about five feet, myself.

AerinBrown: It may lead up to more than you think…

Arsahi: No! Don't read the other one! Don't! Okay, Pasco's thing was funny I guess, but this is going to get serious soon. In fact, it's already started. The story gets darker, and I really start delving into the plot.

Anyanka: It's good to know I've improved. So, what do you think of that chapter just now?

Lady Lana: *glares at the knife that missed* Oh, screw that. *unsheathes sword and sends that flying* God, Lana, don't you pay attention? The Duke was not OOC, trust me. I read over all his scenes in the book before writing that. I said that the convo was bad 'cause I couldn't think of anything. And they weren't blown back that hard. It hurt, but it's not enough to kill them or anything. You've been watching Buffy too much. And the getting rid of their students…well, lets just say that after the mess-ups I did in NMTF, I didn't leave anything to chance. I know it seemed too easy. Have a little faith, will you?

Miss Chips: My other story is bad, though. I think it is. Does that mean I don't like the occasional fluff story? LOL. And I totally get the frozen house thing. Mine is so cold I could store meat in here. Wow. Your praise is very motivational, and it doesn't sound like you just throw it around like some people who can find nice things to say to a story that's just "There once was a very good person who saved the world. The end." The fact that you like mine means a lot to me. As usual, thanks for listening to my continuous rants that come every chapter. And the last chapter of SToBA was excellent. It actually inspired me to finish chapter 3 ASAP.

Okay, there you go. I put them at the end so no one had to wait before reading the chap. And don't forget to review, it DOES speed up my writing.