A/N Hey! I'm sorry this took so long. Chapter 14 (the one I've been working on) is pretty long, and it took me awhile to finish. I'll try to be more regular from now on. Thanks again to everyone who reviewed!

Chapter 12

"What do we have to get?" Kodi asked, experimentally running a rag over the dish she was supposed to be drying. Nothing horrible happened. She finished drying the dish with considerably more enthusiasm- until she dropped it. Pottery shards clattered everywhere. She flinched instinctively, but Briar just laughed.

"I'll finish drying the dishes," he told her, handing her a broom and a dustbin. "You clean this up. Make sure to get all the little pieces."

 Kodi dutifully swept up every last sliver, determined to prove that she could do something right.

"What do we have to get?" she repeated.

"You need decent clothes," Briar replied, and I need books on vision magic if I'm going to teach you the basics. We should look into teachers too, though I can only think of one person up for the job."

"That Niko person?" Kodi asked.

"That Niko person is Niklaren Goldeye. Maybe you've heard of him?"

"Wizard stuff," Kodi replied with a shrug. "No one pays attention to that."

"You're going to have to start paying attention to wizard stuff. You're going to be one. And I guess it makes sense that you haven't heard of Niko." He added, half to himself, "You hadn't heard of me after all."

Kodi scratched her head. Briar Moss. The name did seem familiar, now that she thought about it. But Briar was a normal person, not one of the jumped up great mages of stories.

"Should I have heard of you?" she asked finally. "Have most people heard of you?"

"Most people have," Briar affirmed. "Makes things simpler that you haven't though."

Kodi looked at him, then let the subject drop. She'd ask him what he was famous for later.

"Are we going now?" Colt asked, poking his head through the door.

Briar nodded an dlet them out into the bright morning sunlight. The streets were strewn with bright bits of paper and other litter. Those the city hired to clean it up had to compete with hordes of street rats hunting for overlooked coppers and others who couldn't afford to let such things go to waste.

For the first time it really hit home how far Colt and Kodi had come. In one day they had gone from street kids stealing or scrounging for their next meal to- to what? Kodi was going to be a mage- though she still wasn't sure what that entailed- but what about Colt? Whatever he did, he would never really belong in the Rat's Nest, not that he could have come back even if he wanted to.

Eventually they reached a small secondhand clothes shop. Kodi wandered around, marveling. She didn't even know what half these garments were!

"Get a couple of everything you think you'll need," Briar instructed.

Kodi didn't need to be told twice. She grabbed several shirts and pairs of breeches, al in shades of red, blue and green, undergarments, and a pair of sandels that bit inot her feet when she walked. She even got a skirt, though she wasn't sure how to walk in it.

After she'd finished, she helped Colt, who had no color-sight and often confused different hues, while Brair dickered with the beady-eyed woman who owned the store.

"Shame! Shame, shame, shame! I don't know what's happened to the youth of tady. When I was a girl, young boys listened to thir elders. No good wizard, trying to cheat an old woman out of her rent money!" The owner spat on the floor.

Briar just laughed and haggled until he was no longer being ridiculously overcharged.

"Do we got to go back to your house?" Kodi asked wistfully. The sky was blue than it had been in months and the sun shone brilliantly. It was a day to be outdoors.

"Have to," Briar corrected absently. "Here's a coin for the bathhouse. You and Colt get clean and change into your new clothes. The ndo you want to go to the park?"

"Sure," Kodi replied. "What's a park?"

"It's a green place, with lots of flowers and trees." He told them where it was and promised to meet them at the park.

"I feel like a prince, or a duke or something!" Colt exclaimed after they had washed and changed.

"Why? Princes live in palaces and give orders and stuff," Kodi replied, always the realist.

Colt rolled his eyes and walked ahead. After several wrong turns, they reached the park.

Kodi thought her eys were going to pop out of her head. She hadn't known so many green things could grow in the same place. Briar was nowhere to be seen, but Kodi soon realized that he was only hidden by all the plants growing around him.

Grass shot up everywhere her skin touched to create a jungle of high green shoots. Trees twisted and grew long branches that hung over him like a canopy. Vines wrapped tendrils around his fingers and flowers turned their faces towards him. He talked softly, giving a healing hand or just a touch to reassure a plant of his affection. Finally the grass shrunk back to its usual size and the trees and vines turned back to their proper shape.

Briar was left standing in the middle of a clearing, grinning at Colt and Kodi as if nothing odd had just happened.

"Sit down," he called. "You're both going to have a meditation lesson."