A/N – I hope that my English is not very bad, I try my best. Akkarin will make his first appearance on this story, enjoy it! :)

Disclaimer – BMT belongs to Trudi Canavan. I'm just trying to do something enjoyable with it.

Vocabulary

Ritel: Little bird, usually entirely black, which does a sound like hand bells and eats grains and small insects.

Whitebell: Little white flowers bell-shaped, they usually grow in the shadows of the acacias.

CHAPTER 1 – UNEXPECTED MEETINGS

Lyria was bored, she always was when she was enforced to stay home with Naty, her nanny. Truth is the woman wasn't very funny, she never have been it and, now, with sixty years in her shoulders, she had little energy to play with a seven years old girl. Mr. David, Lyria's tutor who teaches her everything that a lady of the Houses may need, had warned them that he was coming an hour later than usual to do their two hour lesson. So there she was, sitting on the library's floor, skimming an adventures book and looking out the window at birds flying. It wasn't that the book was bad, it was actually one of her favourites, a guy running adventures around the world that became a hero. But she couldn't focus on the story because she had already read it a thousand times. All she wanted was to go to the Guild's forest and climb the old giant oak tree where the Ritel couple had the nest with three eggs about to hatch. She couldn't believe that she can be so unlucky. Why had David to come late precisely today? thought could sneak Naty, that was not difficult, but if she wasn't there when Mr. David came then her father would be furious. I hope that at least Tiara can get there on time to see them hatch and tell me everything later!

Tiara was one of her two true friends. She was one year younger than Lyria but they couldn't recall when they met each other, Tiara's mother had worked as cooker at Lyria's house and the girls had spent whole days together until Victor chase them out for no apparent reason one year ago. Lyria had been crying and yelling to his father why had he done it, but he just lock her up in her room. Their relationship has never been good, basically she only saw him at dinner time and most days they didn't address a single word. In the few times that their eyes met Lyria could see a mixture of sadness and anger, which makes her think that she had done something bad, although she never knew what was it. The only thing she liked about her father was the books that he gave her every birthday. Thus she tried to see him the minimum possible and she fly out of home whenever she had a chance, that way there was less possibilities of doing something that may make him angry.

Lyria read her adventure books to Tiara until she decided that it would be better to teach her how to read and write, after that they started to invent their own adventure stories. They took advantage of every opportunity that came their way to live some adventure, so they had investigated the Guild's forest and gardens and, more recently, they had started to explore the Slums' regions closest to the Inner Wall. Just the zones near Tiara's new place, a room she and her mother were to live after the guards and magicians kick them out the Inner Circle during the last Purge. Lyria never understood why did they should kick them out, they were good people and everyone said that the bad people lived in the Slums. But the guys Tiara presented to her seemed nice, maybe it depends on the Slums zone, she concluded. She gave Tiara some old clothes so she could pass the doors of the Inner Wall without problems with the Guard and she also took some old servants clothes for herself which she fouled and broke a little in order to pass unnoticed when she went to play with new Tiara's friends. They were nice with her, they treated her well, but sometimes she can see some of them look at her frowning. She knew that they didn't trust her, after all she was too well educated and nourished to be in the Slums.

Some days her nanny took her to play at some neighbour's house. She knew them all although she never succeed in finding someone whom she could feel a connection. She thought than the majority of them were too spoiled, thinking all day with new toys or dresses, or even worse, the older girls were talking all day about how much pretty was Mr Perfect and how much they wanted to marry him. None of them was interested in going to the woods nor, in her opinion, in doing anything remotely exiting. She supposed that they thought that she was a freak and she learned, after some telling off and laughs at her expense, that telling what she thought about their hobbies didn't give her any good. So she went there pretending that trying on fifty dresses in an afternoon was the funnier thing in the world, though she hadn't yet achieved a good performance when the girls started to talk about pretty boys, so every time the subject came she went to the yard or the window where Sky appeared in a moment if she whistled the right melody.

Because the truth was that Sky and Lyria were inseparables. She founded his egg in a nest that had fallen after an unusually strong storm two years before. The egg was cracked but she took it and hide it next to the fireplace of her bedroom, she covered it with blankets and felt sleep in the floor while stroking it. At the end the egg hatch and a small handful of white feather appeared which made an almost inaudible little noise. Tiara and Lyria spend a lot of days searching and catching all types of bugs, grains, herbs and worms to feed him, after numerous attempts they found out that he liked flowers the most, especially the whitebells. Day by day Sky grow up until he was as big as Lyria's head, his voice became capable of performing intricate melodies and the white down gave way to long blue feathers which made Lyria think about the colour of the sky after a strong summer storm. In every occasion Lyria and Tiara took Sky to the forest so he could fly freely and, one day when he was grown enough, Lyria tried to explain him that he must stay in the forest to live there and she ran back home after he flew above the trees. But when she went back to her room after dinner she found him beating her window with his peak, since then he was her best friend and she was all his world. Thus Sky became her confidant, Lyria told him every adventure of her books, her deepest dreams and what she thought about the other kids and her father. She trained him with melodies that she whistled and then he repeated, with just few weeks they had melodies for saying 'stay here', 'come with me', 'let's go to make a race', 'let's spin' and 'it's sleeping time'. But the thing that Lyria wanted the most was being able to fly with Sky above houses and trees, she envied how he could do sharp bends with a soft movement, how he dived to hunt and how he danced with the wind. Thus in absence of wings, she took her sandals off and ran through the woods with grass, dust or snow under her feet and a blue flash around. Then she went to clean herself in a spring she found in a corner of the forest, her father wasn't happy when she filled the house with mud.

Lyria was running as fast as she could and Sky was following her with a frantic flapping. After eating the lunch she snaked Naty and she ran to the forest where Tiara was waiting. But she expended too much time watching the recently born Ritels and now she was late to dinner. She was turning the corners like a ray until, when only three blocks and one corner and a halt left, she saw a dark red flash and she snapped back, hitting with dirty dust pavers.

When she opened the eyes, her elbows and palms were burning, scratched and dirty. Perfect, I will arrive late and with the clothes ruined, she thought. But then she heard a grave and worried voice that said "I'm sorry baby, are you ok?" And when she looked up she saw a young man with black bob dishevelled hair, white face and the darkest eyes she'd never seen. Those eyes were as black as a night without moon nor stars, but the cold she expected to found was replaced by a warm and kind look that made her smile. She tried to stand up but groaned as her hands touched the ground.

"You are injured! Let me see that." The young man exclaimed as he was taking one of her little hands with firm and long fingers. Then he closed his eyes and Lyria started to feel the injured zones itching and warming. When she looked to it she saw that their arms were perfectly well and a little pink tone in the repaired zones. He had healed me… he is a Magician! And a strike of excitement ran through her little body. She had observed the magicians from the top of the trees and she had sawn some of the marvellous things that they could do. Looking into her palms one more time she rose from the floor, dusted herself off and looked to the boy carefully. She recognized the red Warrior robe and, feeling the attraction of those eyes, she looked straight to them to thank him with a big smile. And suddenly she remembered her modals lessons and flushed before doing her best bow and adding a "my Lord" She wasn't used to see magicians so closely and most unused to talk with them, her father didn't appreciate their company so she never saw one in the house.

"There is no need for you to call me that, you make me feel old!" the young man said with half smile. "You call me Akkarin. And who is this one?" He added while his eyebrows were climbing and he pointed to Sky, who had landed on Lyria's shoulder as soon as she was straight. "Oh, this is Sky, my best friend" Lyria answered relaxing herself and doing a big smile again looking and stroking Sky's head. "That's what I thought. You are very lucky, I've never had a bird friend" He was doing his half smile once again. "But you are a Magician, there is no luck greater than this one!" This time he left a huge laugh.

He told her that he will take her home to explain their parents about her clothes so they wouldn't punish her. That seemed perfect to Lyria, she knew that her father wouldn't be happy with her appearing with a Magician in his door, but for the moment she only wanted to spend more time with that wonderful Magician, and maybe the excuse would work out for being late as well. So while they went to her house, she used the occasion to ask him about the Warriors duties, because the only thing she had been able to see is that there was a lot of them using a lot that strange circular building of the university. And he told her about some things the Warriors usually do and that he was going to leave the next day to search ancestral magic in every corner of the world. Lyria's eyes were shining with fascination and envy and she thought, not for the first time, that being a Magician will allow her to fulfil all her dreams.

"When I'm grown up I will also go to see world seeking for adventures" She shout while she was spinning at great velocity with her arms opened, her eyes closed and thousands of images inside her little head. "You are a very brave girl" Akkarin said while laughing slightly. "But you will have to be careful, world is very dangerous for running through it alone." He added with a mysterious note in his voice. "So who is going with you?" In that moment Lyria stopped to spin and looked directly into his eyes with palpable curiosity. "I'm going alone, but I'm one of the most powerful magicians of the Guild, nothing can happen to me." Akkarin was smiling and doing a pleased pose. Lyria's eyes were about to explode with so much fascination and admiration, it was like knowing a character of her novels.

They were almost in front of her house door, but before he could knock, Lyria turned right to look him into the eyes and she let scape the question which contained all the deepest hope of her heart. "Do you think that I could be a Magician?" Her voice reflected her fear of knowing that she hadn't a chance. She was half expecting it, after all, she didn't know that any of her familiars had any magic. "Let's take a look, give me a moment." Akkarin gave her an encouraging smile before closing his eyes and placing his long fingers in both sides of her head. After few moments he retired them and looked Lyria with the eyebrows slightly up. "Yes, there's no doubt you could be a great Magician." And he stroked her cheek before knocking the door.

Lyria stayed there with her eyes full opened and shining of emotion. Not even her father row about talking with a Magician made any effect on it and she was still wearing it when she finally was laying in her bed to sleep. But of course she couldn't sleep, she was too focused in a single idea. She had magic, her dreams may come true. Now she just need to convince her father to let her join the Guild. It wasn't going to be easy, but she never surrender.

"Have you heard it Sky? I have magic! Now we just have to think a plan to persuade father." She murmured to the bird that was sleeping on the top of the hall-stand that was placed next to her pillow. That was the first night that she tried to find the magic inside of her body, she closed the eyes and she tried to look into her brain, searching a light or something, anything. But the only thing she got was a hard headache.

Akkarin was walking with big steps, Lorlen was waiting him to do a farewell and drink something and he was already late. His mother had been saying him a thousand times how stupid and useless was his idea of doing a book of ancestral magic, reminding him the uncountable appointments she had already scheduled with woman worthy of marriage and that Merin was going to be king very soon and he could not throw their friendship between them.

So he was distracted thinking about how much he wanted to get rid of his mother and all those appointments, that he only saw a golden flash before noticing something bumping against him. Then he saw a little girl on the ground and a blue bird landing on her chest and touching her nose delicately while singing a single slow high note, he seemed worried. The girl had very blonde hair, between gold and silver, she was a little bit sun-burnt, but it was clear that her skin was very white. Maybe she's from Elyne. He thought before approaching her and sloping to help her. In that moment the girl opened the eyes, big eyes so blue as blue as her bird, with a face of not knowing what had happened. He was in rush, but he couldn't let that little girl like that, so he healed her, he accompanied her to her home and he ran to find Lorlen.

"Sorry for being late, my friend. My mother and a little bird delayed me" He greeted Lorlen with a smack on his shoulder and a big smile. "Don't you have better excuses for being late to our farewell? How exactly can a little bird delay you?" Lorlen looked up, frowned and shocked his head while trying to hide a smile. "Well it actually was a little girl with a pretty big bird. She bumped against me when I was turning a corner. She was injured and her shirt was ruined so I healed her and accompanied her home to ensure she wouldn't get into a jam because of me." Akkarin was now sitting in an armchair next to Lorlen, opening a bottle of Anuren Dark. "You, worried for what can happen to a woman? Who are you and what have you done with my friend?" Lorlen's eyebrows were unusually up and he was doing a smile of incredulity. Akkarin made a guffaw before answering. "She may be the most interesting woman I've seen in a long time. I guess she reminded me myself. It turned out that she likes adventures as much as I do or even more! You should have seen her face when I told her that I'm leaving tomorrow to see world." He was remembering the big blue shining eyes, it seemed as her eyes were filled with tiny stars. "Poor girl, I don't want to hear the lies you have told her!" Lorlen was laughing but with a disapproving gaze. "Look, she is probably going to enter the Guild in few years because I noticed a great magic potential inside her." And after a moment of silence he added "Take a look at her for me if I'm not back yet, would you?" Lorlen seemed amused. "Sure. But how old is she? What's her name?" Akkarin lingered and blinked quickly with a perplexity face before answering. "The truth is that I didn't ask her, my friend."

Both laughed and chatted about everything and nothing while they were drinking Anuren Dark until they said good-bye with a hug and the conviction that their friendship would be eternal.