A/N: Sorry this one took so long guys. My beta and I had some disagreements over the chapter and then I had a death in the family.

Full Disclosure: This may seem a little OOC for Tris, but I like it. I am more than willing to answer any questions you have as to my rationale behind events in this chapter. If it continues to bother you, just think of it as an author's deus ex machina in order to further some plot points.


It had already been a long day, and the sun was just setting.

Oddly enough, it shouldn't have been. Tris had started off in the library. She had finished her survey of the fiction section, even picking out a book to take with her. Even Andras had not shown his face, so it should have been relaxing. Unfortunately, all days her nerves had been on edge. The nervous feeling turned into a headache about midday.

She had abandoned her books. The school kept healers on staff, so Tris could have visited them. Only, it seemed silly to see someone about a headache, and she did not particularly want a healer poking around inside of her. Besides, they would probably just give her tea rather than wasting power on something so small.

Tris wished desperately for something from Rosethorn or Briar's garden. They had trained her well in what to look for, but the herbs she had purchased in town had not touched the growing pressure in her skull. Whatever concoction the greenmages in her family would have made might have tasted terrible, but it would have worked.

Worst of all, retreating to her rooms had brought her no peace.

"Meg! You promised you would come!"

"I most certainly did not." Tris rubbed her temples. The over dramatic blonde's voice only worsened her splitting headache.

It was the first Firesday since Tris arrived at Lightsbridge, and Caitlynn had been waiting to ambush her smaller roommate when she finally left her private quarters. Judging by the sole window in her room, it was almost evening by the time she had woken up from her nap.

"Well, you didn't promise, exactly."

Tris was in no mood to let the girl off. "In fact, I believe that I specifically said I did not want to attend."

"Even Xiao and Andy are coming." This was an interesting change from their earlier stances on social gatherings, but it did nothing to change Tris's mind.

"Caitlynn, Meghana does not look as though she is feeling well. Perhaps, we should allow her to rest in the room tonight."

Tris gave Xiaofan, what she hoped was, a grateful look. It probably just managed to look less angry, but Tris wasn't going to try too hard.

"Oh sorry, Meg! I was so excited for the party; I didn't realize you weren't feeling well. You do look pale, well... paler than normal."

"Thanks." No doubt Caitlynn was trying to be sweet, but it was hard to keep the sarcasm out of her voice when her brain was trying its best to beat its way out.

"If you start to feel better, make sure to come find us."

Her only response was a noncommittal wave of the hand before she sank into one of the plush chairs in the common area of their living area. Tris thought she could come to like Xiaofan. Her sensible suitemate hurried Caitlynn out of the door, lest her prattling make things worse. The weathermage's stomach reminded her that she had not eaten since breakfast. Eating had not seemed important at the time.

Unfortunately, her entire body felt so weighed down, she did not want to move, even for a good supper. The weathermage couldn't be sure how long she lounged, but her eyes snapped back open at the distant sound of thunder rumbling outside. A groan escaped her lips.

Suddenly, it made a strange sort of sense. Had she been at full power, she would have felt the storm like the comforting pressure of a hug, but drained as she was, it was bearing down on her.

"Come on, Meghana." Tris tried to talk herself into getting up. "You're supposed to enjoy a good storm."

While Skyggenbyen abutted the front of the campus, the back of Lightsbridge was a docile lake surrounded by a dense forest. Tris wasn't exactly sure what was going to happen once she was out in the storm, but the way her body felt made her pretty certain she didn't want to be around people when it did happen.

The aching young woman slowly made her way outside. It must have taken her longer than she realized because wet students were streaming in, some already visibly intoxicated. It reinforced how glad she was that she had not attended Caitlynn's so called "small gathering". Maybe, it was different for academic mages, but bad things happened when ambient mages got drunk.

It was impossible to avoid some bumps along the way, when she was going against traffic to get outside, but she did manage not to see anyone who might be interested in her destination. The last thing she needed was Caitlynn trailing after her.

When she finally made it outside, the relief was immediate. The rain slanted towards her as if the drops were called to her, and she opened her arms to welcome them. Realizing this probably made for an odd picture, Tris hurried off towards the forest. Without her full power, she had not even realized the storm was approaching, but now that she was in it, she knew it was a big one.

Judging by the amount of trash littering the open lawn, it had been quite a party before the rain broke it up. The winds swept abandoned blankets across her path as she made her way to the treeline. Her whole body shivered and not from the cool rain; the real storm hastened towards her.

Normal storm rules would say that lightning should strike the towers of Lightsbridge, or even the high treetops. However, this did not apply to Tris. When the thunderheads rolled above her, she was an empty vessel that called out to the clouds above to be filled.

She had hurt Keth when first met. He had been so without power at the time that the tiny bit of lightning she had thrown at him had stung. Now, he got belated retribution.

Instead of a branch of lightning, a veritable trunk of it raced down to meet her. Empty as she had been, the raw power burned as it touched her, but it was a good, like bad tasting medicine you know will bring relief. And did it ever. Where before her bones had ached, they now sang. The power sank into her marrow.

Lightning was just energy that came from the clouds, meeting with that in the ground beneath it before returning. However, none of this energy was returning anywhere, she was drinking in pure power.

Her laughter intermixed with the thunder. She hadn't felt this good in weeks! If the weathermage had been in a better state of mind, she probably would have realized something was wrong. Unfortunately, the euphoria of this renewed strength overwhelmed her better judgement.

The beauty of her magekit had been its ability to channel and store power that was beyond her own capacity, but she was not funneling this. No, Tris's outstretched arms just welcomed in a second thick bolt of lightning.

By the time her vision dimmed, it was too late to turn away the energy. Her final rational thought before she passed out was that she hadn't been this stupid since she tried to stop the tide.


"Meg, can you hear me?" Soft hands shook her shoulders.

"This is foolishness; she needs to see a healer."

Tris kept her eyes shut as Xiaofan and Caitlynn's voices flooded her awareness. Her entire body buzzed uncomfortably.

"Meg, please wake up!" The blonde's voice was much too close to Tris's eardrum, eliciting a groan from the frazzled mage. "She's alive!"

"Of course, she is alive; did you think he brought us a dead body? " Xiaofan voice trembled as she spoke.

"Not on

"Caitlynn!"

"What?" She sounded genuinely confused.

By this time, Tris deduced that she was slouching in one of the common room chairs. She felt, rather than saw, Xiaofan plop down on the seat next to her. Their roommate's admission must have been too much to handle standing up. The snap of a fan opening was quickly followed by the side draft of cool air. The weathermage was still soaking wet, so even the small breeze was not exactly comfortable.

"Meghana, can you speak? Would you like us to take you to a healer?" Xiaofan spoke in a blessedly quiet voice.

She tried to speak, but only managed a croak.

"I'll get water!" With that promise, Tris opened her eyes.

It was impossible to tell what time it was from the common room, all the windows were in their rooms, besides it was nighttime and stormy. Tris could still hear the rain pounding… or maybe that was her head.

"Just nod your head, if you would like a healer. I can find one of the residents to help us."

Purposefully, Tris shook her head. At the moment, she could not think of anything she wanted less. The last thing she needed was some mage telling her that she had binged on more power than she could hold.

"Here you go!" Caitlynn's triumphant smile made her look like she had returned with a prize buck rather than a cup of water.

Still, the cool liquid did feel wonderful, even if having her roommate hold the cup while she sipped felt less fulfilling. Had she screamed a lot earlier? Her throat certainly felt raw enough. Once it was soothed enough, she tried talking.

"Thanks." It sounded a good octave deeper than her normal voice, but it was intelligible.

"Of course! We're just glad you're alive."

"Caitlynn, really." Now that Tris had proven herself not in mortal peril, Xiaofan looked to have calmed down.

"Well, look at her hair! She must have been

close to the lightning."

Tris slowly reached up only to find all her old curl had returned with a vengeance. So they thought she had survived being too close to lightning. It actually wasn't that far from the truth. If she hadn't thought it would hurt, the weathermage might have laughed over the situation. Looked like she would be using her day off to drain more power

"Why were you outside, anyway?"

"I was cutting across the lawn to get to the dining hall." She was glad that part at least made sense, evidenced by the nodding heads of her roommates. "You know I wasn't feeling well, and the rain was so thick, I guess I just got turned around."

"Meg, I'm so sorry; you must have been scared when the storm picked up so quickly." It helped her charade to have gullible roommates.

Part of Tris didn't even want to ask the next question. "How did you all find me?"

"We didn't."

They had been talking about it when she first started to wake up. Xiaofan had said "he brought." Tris was pale enough already that she could hardly pale more, but her heart did sink as she reached the inevitable conclusion before Caitlynn could speak it. How many men at the university would have known what room she was in?

"Andras did."

Of course, he did.

"It's lucky that he loves being out in the rain, really. He had already given up on the party, but when it started raining he went outside." Caitlynn seemed to think she needed to explain away the behavior even though neither of her roommates looked unnerved by the information. "I don't know why; he's been like that ever since he was a little kid. Thunderstorms are his favorite, the louder, the better."

Begrudgingly, this made Tris like the young man a little more, a thorn in her side though he may be. She also conceded that he had brought her back to her room rather than the healers, another large point in his favor. Did this mean she owed Andras Cadell?

"I think I need to get out of these clothes; actually, I think I need a hot bath." Tris realized she had said this outloud when Caitlynn's eyes lit up.

"I'll go with you! I mean, not the same tub or anything." Her giggle was grating, but Tris could hardly refuse. She wasn't certain she could make it there and back again on her own. She was swimming with magic, but her bones and muscles were protesting this sudden shift… loudly.

"I need to get some items from my room before we go."

Without even waiting for her to ask, Caitlynn helped Tris up from her seat. For someone so slight, the blonde was surprisingly strong. Tris was, of course, mortified at needing the help. It seemed she owed both of the cousins now.

"Wait, how exactly did Andras get me up here? Was I walking?"

"No, I thought you were dead; you were so still. He carried you."

Ignorance might have been bliss on that one. It confirmed that her blood was flowing fine as it rushed to her cheeks. The only thing that could have made this more embarrassing would have been Niko's presence to remind her how silly she had been or Briar. He would never have let her forget. She envisioned him walking around complaining about his back aching.

"What can I grab for you?" Caitlynn asked, completely oblivious to her roommate's inner turmoil.

"Just that bag and my robe, thank you."Tris's eyes went to the box in the corner that housed the living metal tree.

Once back in the common room, Tris saw that Xiaofan had retrieved Caitlynn's bathing items as well as her own. This had turned into some sort of bath party. Her human walking stick thought that the groan was from pain.

"Are you alright?" The blonde looked her over concernedly.

"Fine."

In the end, it ended up being a good thing both girls came. The hallway was full of people and breeze stirred by their puttering about. Tris felt like she was just learning to control her vision magic again as the images assailed her.

Caitlynn helped her start the water before retreating behind the curtain next to hers, Xiaofan on her other side. She supposed they both wanted to be able to hear if she started drowning. It was touching, if a bit overbearing. Tris made the water hot enough that steam rose into the colder air around it and then hunkered down into the water until her nose practically touched the water. The steam had no visions to offer her, and it shooed away the air (and its images) above her.

Her usually pale skin was rapidly turning red, but she had swum amongst lava before. Some hot water, even on her physical body, she could deal with. Still, it did give her the appearance of being slightly cooked.

"What I don't understand," Caitlynn interrupted Tris's musings on how to avoid this situation in the future, "is why the storm came so early?"

"That is odd, is it not?" Xiaofan could easily hear their roommate's voice even from a tub away. "Weather prediction is by no means exact, but they said it would not come until the early hours of tomorrow morning."

This was both enlightening and concerning. It made perfect sense that a magical institution would have weather predictions available to its faculty and students. Really, it made her wonder how she had failed to notice. Was it posted somewhere in the school?

On the other hand, it presented a two-fold problem. One, everyone who paid attention to these forecasts would be aware of any major deviation from the normal weather pattern. Two, her presence called storms towards her. Not only would she need a place to go when it was storming, but she would have to find a way to address their new, abnormal schedule.

"They aren't usually more than an hour or two off, but I can't imagine having the job of anticipating something so unpredictable."

Tris nodded, creating ripples in the otherwise still water of her tub. Not that either of the roommates could see the agreement or ripples.

"Meghana, are you still awake?"

"Still kicking." Her voice did not sound altogether pleased with this fact.

Taking out the special shampoo, she got to work on her hair. With aching arms, she slowly worked her fingers through the snares the lightning had caused. By the time she was finished, the water had cooled down significantly.

"Meg, still with us?"

"I'm not dead; if that's what you're asking."

Caitlynn laughed loudly, and Tris could have sworn she heard a giggle from Xiaofan's direction as well.

"Need help getting out? You must be well pruned by now."

It was true that the skin of her fingers had wrinkled long ago. Everyone said she was just an old woman trapped in a young body, so maybe this was her true form peeking through.

"I think I can manage." Tris had gotten over bathing in front of her siblings, Briar excluded, of course, but she wished to avoid public nudity wherever possible. Taking her time, she shrugged into her robe, her hair plaited to try and keep it flattened out.

She was feeling strong enough to make it back to their rooms, though she couldn't help flinching occasionally when they passed near a freshly opened door or brisk walker. If Caitlynn or Xiaofan found her jumpy behavior unusual, they kept it to themselves, for which she was grateful.

"You're sure you don't want to see anyone?" Caitlynn asked one last time before they split apart for the evening.

"No, thank you. I will feel right as rain in the morning." This was mostly true. Her body would probably feel much better after a good night's sleep, which her currently level of fatigue almost guaranteed. However, she faced two unpleasant tasks tomorrow.

First, she would have to drain away this new stash of power. Then, worse yet, she needed to see the headmaster...


A/N: Again, remember that if you want to yell at me, I welcome all criticism in the form of reviews!