When I was little, I wanted to be a sorceress more than anything. Mother, do you remember how proud you were when I first made a fire in the hearth with my magic? It was the one thing I didn't need teaching to accomplish, something I instinctively taught myself.

"""

The next day, the three students crowded each other in the elevator as it descended from Phoenix Dorm to the first floor. Ver squealed. "I can't believe you're coming to class with us today!"

"I can't believe she let you in," Asteria muttered with a rueful smile. "Hope you survive."

Micah was quiet, deep in thought. That wasn't normal human heat I felt. I mean, she's not human, but whatever. I wonder why her hands are like that. "What's up?" Ver asked, jostling his shoulder.

His fingers brushed the cuffs of his sleeves. "Light Spinner's hands. They're hot. Why is that?" Her touch was like warm sand beneath his toes; Asteria's hands didn't feel like that, so it couldn't be a Delvalian thing.

Both students shrunk back slightly. "Light Spinner...she's special," Ver said.

"She's different," Asteria corrected. "Micah, sometimes sorcerers are only naturally gifted in one or two schools of magic. The rest take extreme work and dedication to master for them. Light Spinner's the most powerful sorceress in Mystacor, but it wasn't always that way."

"She used to only be good at evocation magic," Ver said.

"Evocation. So she can destroy things?"

"She can fire pure light from her hands," Asteria murmured. "Nobody knows why that is. Or why she glows. Everyone's got different theories on it - the Guild, my parents, the Seraphite church -"

Ver shifted on her feet. "She learned to control it, but no one trusts her. She has no friends either - just Master Norwyn."

He guessed that's why Light Spinner had no wedding ring in her ear, either. "Why does she stay in Mystacor if everyone's afraid of her, then? Why doesn't she go back to Bel Delvala?"

"It's the one thing no one can figure out," Asteria said. "But she has a temper, and when she gets mad, I hear her light blasts act on their own. She's decent, but her light's something people need to watch out for."

Micah bit the inside of his cheek as they continued walking along the mossy stone path to the Great Hall, that cloudy look in Light Spinner's bright green eyes in his mind. It's okay. She can't be all bad. Can she?

Light Spinner dusted silver makeup over her eyelids and rearranged the overflowing pot of daisies on her desk as the students walked in. The Tropicil boy gazed at the enormous back window out toward the waterfalls of Mystacor, then at the stained-glass images on the side wall. She pushed down the disbelief and apprehension that threatened her relatively subdued demeanor toward her students. You'll figure out how to get him under control. Everyone will learn.

Light Spinner forced a smile in his direction; he couldn't see her lips, but her eyes would communicate the message. "Welcome to class. Today we're going outside to practice light illusions. Be quiet as we walk down the hall." Her students nodded, and they walked out the door, walking single-file.

They rounded the corridor and entered the Hall of Sorcerers. Statues of the most powerful Guild members resided on both walls of the room. Light Spinner's gaze passed over her own; the woman's face only vaguely resembled her own, but she didn't care. Statues and public images only showed what the person went down in history for, not who they actually were.

Micah piped up from behind her. "Hey, Light Spinner?"

"Be quiet."

He lowered his voice. "Hey, Light Spinner?"

Light Spinner halted, and the students rear-ended her. "What?" She tried to keep her tone kind and low around students, but there was something about Micah that drove her up a wall. He's every bit as obnoxious as the other teachers say.

Sprigs of red came to Micah's tanned cheeks, and his almond-shaped eyes were downcast. "I was just wondering...do you ever get tired when you do magic?"

Light Spinner bit down hard on her tongue, her voice hardening. "No," she lied. "Now keep walking."

As she continued down the hallway, she clenched her fists, little flames tickling her fingers. A voice from long ago echoed in her head. Do you ever tire of trying to ruin my life? All you do is make things worse. That's all you ever did.

They walked out onto the terrace at the edge of the floating island. The other isles of Mystacor, suspended in the air, glowed in the distance of the cool morning light. Light Spinner spoke to the students. "Practice your light illusions. Especially you," she said, pointing at Micah. "You need the most improvement."

He grinned. "You didn't like my ram? I think I'm feeling a little sheepish."

Holy moons, just do your work! She tossed her head. "I think it could be better."

As the students got to work, Light Spinner drew a more complicated spell in the air, gathering magic from her surroundings and channeling it into her own mandala. This process hadn't always been easy for her, but now it was second-nature, requiring only concentration to see through. She conjured a golden phoenix that swooped and twirled through the sky, enchanting it to make the appropriate noises.

Light Spinner's ears popped suddenly, but she kept her mandala intact. My spell broke. When her gaze passed upward, the phoenix was broken, replaced by a blue ram. What in the moons?

Micah's eyes met hers, and he blushed. Light Spinner smiled with a raised brow, turning back to her mandala. Amusement rose in her chest as she raised the size of the phoenix, enchanting it to crash into the ram and dissolve it in gorgeous blue lights.

Ver and Asteria were watching the light show, mouths agape, but she had to correct her new student for disrupting class. "Impressive casting, Micah. But you allowed yourself to become distracted."

Asteria snickered, and Micah frowned at her. "You can't expect me to outcast Light Spinner," he said, making grandiose gestures as he came up near her. "The greatest sorceress ever to walk the halls of Mystacor!"

Light Spinner touched her fingertips together. He's every bit as gifted as Ahelia said, she thought to herself. No one has tried to break my spells before - but of course, no one has tried either. "I've no time for your flattery. If you're going to interrupt my lessons," she said, coming up near him, "you might at least apply yourself." With this, she poked Micah in the chest, sending him back a few steps with kinesis magic.

As she turned to help Ver correct her mandala, Micah frowned. "Light Spinner, wait!"

She sighed. "What is it this time, Micah?"

She gazed at him through her peripheral vision as he waved his hands around. "I'm bored. Light illusions are the easiest thing in the world to do. Teach me something real - I want to levitate, and travel through mirrors, and shapeshift - y'know, the cool stuff!"

Is he serious? "The Guild forbids your level from learning such things. You know that, Micah."

As she walked down the path to help Asteria, Micah drew a light illusion, trapping himself in a sock-puppet rendition of Master Norwyn and trying to imitate the satyr's gentle, gravelly voice. "The Guild of Sorcerers prides itself on being out-of-touch geezers. We wouldn't want anyone to learn actual magic, or anything fun!"

Light Spinner turned, crossing her arms. She didn't appreciate people mocking her father, nor did she like him calling her an out-of-touch geezer when she couldn't control the academy's customs. "That's a poor likeness of Master Norwyn."

Micah burst out of the illusion. "Then teach me shapeshifting!"

His smile was so cheerful that she almost forgot to be annoyed at his illusion. She walked back toward him gently, sternness in her tone. "Patience, Micah. You must start at the beginning."

As she walked away, he spoke to her back, the lightness in his tone fading. "Right. At the beginning. I've got it! I'll do it just fine."

At the end of that week, Norwyn came to Light Spinner's house, and they met in the enormous rose garden outside her house. His dark blue robes glittered in the evening sunset as he sat down on the bench behind her. "You look...frazzled."

Light Spinner hadn't been expecting such levels of straightforwardness from the old satyr. "It is none of your concern."

She wanted to tell Norwyn about Micah, but the thought of the dark-eyed boy made her blood boil for a reason she couldn't explain beyond interrupting my light illusions, which could very well have been an accident. He also wouldn't care nearly as much as she did over the jokes Micah had pulled about the Guild. Lowering her eyes, she snapped a dead branch almost aggressively with her shears. Of course I would be the one stressed out with him. Perhaps I should talk to the other teachers about how to deal with him.

Norwyn sighed. "The Guild has not been easy to get along with lately."

"Let me guess why."

Norwyn frowned. "You can't blame them for being just a little wary about you. I don't see you that way, but that is because I know you. They hardly do."

Light Spinner pursed her lips from behind her veil. "Why must they know me to understand I'm not dangerous? Can't they simply judge me by my actions?"

"Your actions, to them, indicate being ambitious and abrasive in a way that is unfitting of a Guild member, not to mention a Delvalian."

"Well, they should get used to it," she huffed. "This is who I am."

"Light Spinner, we've been over this. You can't just chase magical knowledge. It'll let you down in the end."

Some days she could have sworn Norwyn knew about her secret runestone studies. "I don't just chase magical knowledge. I use it to help others. But apparently my own natural talents, which could be very useful on a battlefield - "

"We're not in a war - "

"But we could be. Don't you think it's peculiar that we haven't had war in five hundred years?"

"I find it praiseworthy that the Etherian kingdoms are not at each other's throats. Don't you?"

Light Spinner had never known a life without personal war; her mind was too hard and cynical to believe in the idealistic fantasies the rest of the planet did. She sighed. "Yes. I just wish that I could use the power I am good at for something. There's more out there for me. I can feel it."

"But even if we were on the brink of war," Master Norwyn pointed out, "that would not justify using your powers."

"Then what would?" she muttered back.

"Nothing. We've talked over this many times, Light Spinner. If you use your powers, they will corrupt you."

"Why would I be given these powers if I wasn't ever supposed to use them?" she said, her voice rising.

"Sometimes we are born defective," he said. When she scrunched up her nose in anger, he amended. "Not in character, but in powers, desires, or health. We must take care that we do not act on every desire that comes to mind. Even if you aren't a Seraphite, at least take that teaching to heart."

"It is the desire to protect, to love," she said. "It is the same as if you saw someone attacking a child and disarmed them before they could hurt anyone." Hurt from fourteen years with him threatened to bubble up, and she bit her tongue. Or are you too much of a coward for that either?

Norwyn sighed. "You can disagree with us all you wish, so long as you don't act on it." He rose. "I sense you wish to be left alone."

"You sense correctly," she said tightly. "Goodnight."

You and Father took me to the historum when I was seven years old. In the back were several pieces of dark blue-and-white rock that reminded me of the opals and sapphires you used to wear. You told me that the stone was the Stardrop, a broken runestone that belonged to the lost kingdom of Arxia before evil people tried to seek its power, under the influence of a dark spell. Though I am glad Delvala is safe, my father was descended from the king. I couldn't help but imagine if he'd had that sort of power - the power of princesses - and passed it on to me. Perhaps then I could actually do some good in the world.

Light Spinner passed out papers in class the next week. "Complex light illusions require much more concentration than static spells. With this mandala, you can make your illusion move around or speak."

When she passed the paper to Micah, she was met with a sudden question from the Tropicil boy. "Which spell requires the most focus?"

A headache crept up on Light Spinner's skull. If she answered this question and the Guild found out, she could get in serious trouble; however, surely there was no harm in simple knowledge. "The Spell of Obtainment," she said. "It is the most difficult spell ever attempted in Etherian history."

"What does it do?" Micah asked, leaning forward with childlike curiosity in his dark eyes; those eyes that Light Spinner couldn't gaze at for too long, or she might...well, she didn't know exactly what would happen, but whatever it was wasn't good.

She sighed. "Micah, focus on your work. The Spell isn't something I can speak of carelessly."

"But - "

"Micah."

Frowning, he turned back to his papers for five minutes before interrupting class again. "Who's the lady on the back wall? The one holding the sword?"

Light Spinner stiffened; that image had been there from the time she'd gotten this classroom. "The legendary She-Ra," she said. "You've never heard of her?"

"I have," Ver said as she drew. "My papai has stories about her. He said she's been to Beast Island."

Light Spinner shivered. "Yes, but she is only a myth," she said. "The sixth runestone princess, one who carried her power with her wherever she went."

What I wouldn't give to have that sort of magic. The sorts of things the She-Ra could do in the myths were incredible. Incomprehensible strength. Healing. If Light Spinner had that gift, there was no telling what she could do to make the world a better place. What she could do to make up for her mistakes...

Light Spinner kept making notes as Micah spoke. "Do the princesses ever get tired of doing magic?"

"You mean, do they ever get magic strain?" Light Spinner asked over her shoulder. "Not that I know of. Theoretically, if two princesses were connected to the same runestone, the weaker one might have to recharge her powers; nevertheless, as far as I know, magic strain is relegated to sorcerers. Overzealous sorcerers."

"Do you get magic strain often?"

Did I ever. "No," she said sternly. "I've learned when my power runs out. And soon you will too - but not unless you do your classwork!"

"Fine," he muttered, turning back to his work. Light Spinner turned to the board, finishing the mandala. It was a simple location spell, something every sorcerer learned their third year. Yet it had taken embarrassingly long for her to be able to do such things with any skill.

The first test for the students came. Veritas came to the hallway first to show Light Spinner a complex light illusion. She beckoned her pupil close and put a hand on her shoulder, trying to quell the girl's chronic testing anxiety.

"Fear is natural," she said quietly. "Do you remember what we talked about?"

Veritas took a deep breath. "'Allow yourself to feel it. Then move past it.' That's what you said."

Veritas curled her small hands around Light Spinner's thumbs. She took several deep breaths. Then she stood back, arranged her hands properly, and drew the mandala needed to create a moving light illusion of a bird - just like Light Spinner had done a week ago.

Light Spinner marked an A down on her sheet. "Well done, Veritas." The satyr hugged her, and though Light Spinner didn't return it, she blushed slightly, her ears drooping. She wanted to protect this sweet child, even if she kept her distance.

A crash sounded from inside the classroom, and her ears spiked up again. What in the three moons...? She and Veritas rushed into the classroom. Micah was tangled between two fallen desks, his limbs tangled into unnatural positions.

"What is the meaning of this?" Light Spinner thundered, plasma dripping from her clenched fists to the pink stone floor.

"He was being an idiot," Asteria said, crossing her arms.

"I was trying to help," Micah said. "You had a spot on the wall - a dirt spot or something - and I wanted to help clean it up. But..." he winced. "Can you help me?"

Light Spinner scowled. Holy moons, let the janitors deal with such things! She cast a kinesis spell, using all her focus to lift the desks high enough for Micah to escape. As soon as he was out, they banged to the floor again, and she fought the urge to show how exhausted she was.

She gritted her teeth, grabbing him by the arm. "You are going to detention," she growled. "And then I have a personal appointment to make with Master Norwyn about this."

Light Spinner dumped Micah in the detention hall, paying no heed to how upset he looked. Then she grabbed an extra roster of her class, made a cup of black ginger tea, and stormed toward Norwyn's office. There has to be some mistake. I only train students who were focused, talented, and disciplined, not ones like him. Not ones who are rowdy and refuse to listen to me, and put themselves in danger.

Norwyn hadn't seemed to know about Micah's transfer to her class, but the old satyr was known to be cheeky and mischievous at times, especially if it would pose yet another unnecessary hurtle for Light Spinner. Surely he had been involved with the switch.

She barged into his office, slamming the class roster and the tea on his desk. "Explain this. Now."

Norwyn lowered the rims of his half-moon glasses, taking the piece of paper, but only gave her a slight smile. Light Spinner gave a sigh and sat down. "Please can you explain this?"

He nodded. "This is a roster, Light Spinner. I'm not sure what there is left to explain."

"This isn't funny, Norwyn."

"What isn't funny?"

She groaned, burying her face in her hands and trying not to mess with her makeup. "Ahelia's been crazy for years, I swear by the moons, but I never expected you to go along with her!"

Norwyn set down the paper. "First, calm down. Your anger will destroy my office if you aren't careful."

The idea of having that sort of damage on her hands shocked her out of her rage, and she took several deep breaths. Once Norwyn sensed she was calm, he held out his hand. "Now, you explain this to me."

She took his hand. "They transferred Sarah's child to my class. Micah."

"And this...upsets you."

She scowled. "He interrupts class, he refuses to study for tests, he got himself caught between a pair of desks of all things, and I'm the one who has to deal with it - "

Norwyn held up a hand. His brow quirked up, the wrinkles around his eyes prominent when he smiled. "And you didn't do the same things when you were his age?"

Her mouth dropped open. "No, Norwyn. Why would I ever - "

"Being raised Delvalian did not make you perfect in a classroom either, Light Spinner."

"Yes, but - I tried!" she said. "He refuses to learn from his mistakes."

He rested his chin on the other hand. "Ah, then it is a matter of different upbringing."

"I don't follow."

"If Micah has never been to school, do you not think that he would have a difficult time in the classroom?"

He's never been to school before? "I...I don't know." A swallow. "I apologize. I just...he makes me angry."

"Angry. Why?"

He has such an easy time in magic class and I had to struggle through it until I graduated and it became natural to me. I hate it. "I don't know."

Norwyn stroked her thumb. "Micah likely feels the same way. Perhaps you should talk to him outside of class. You two probably have more in common than you think." He let go of her hand. "Good luck, child."

Of course he wouldn't take my side. But perhaps she was in the wrong. Sensing the conversation was now over, she stood, curtsied, and left the room.