Sonea woke on a hard surface, and she lay still for a moment, trying to place her surroundings. She was accustomed to waking in unfamiliar places, so that by itself was not overly concerning, but she was concerned that she did not hear the steady breathing of her aunt and uncle nearby. As she came fully awake, she suddenly remembered the events of the previous day and the worry hit her with full force. Pushing herself up from the two threadbare blankets–the only pieces of linen not completely destroyed by time and rodents–she looked around. Cery had told her he would stay in a nearby room, but she did not hear anything that indicated he had. Slowly, she pushed herself to her feet, stretching. After a quick visit to the latrine, she began searching for her missing friend.

She had only searched three rooms when she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She froze, automatically slinking back into the shadows of a nearby room. Fortunately, a familiar face soon appeared, and she relaxed as she stepped out to greet Cery. "I brought breakfast," he announced, holding up a couple pastries. Sonea suspected he had stolen them, but her empty stomach was beyond caring. She took one gratefully and quickly devoured it. As she liked the last of the sugar off her fingers, Cery asked, "So, what are your plans next? I talked Harrin into a few days, but he's going to get antsy if we're here longer than a week."

"That should be enough time," Sonea said, trying to sound more confident than she felt.

"Enough time for what?"

"For them to forget about me and stop looking."

"What makes you think that?"

Sonea shrugged, trying to seem like she knew what she was talking about. "They're magicians. They're not used to being in the Slums, and I'm sure they aren't very happy about it. I can't imagine they'll be here much longer."

"Hopefully you're right. And you still can't think of anything that may have made one of them attack you?"

Sonea shrugged, not needing to fake her confusion. "Maybe I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." They talked for awhile longer, Cery still speculating about what could have interested the magicians in Sonea, but eventually, he stood.

"I've got to get back. Harrin's got some stuff for me."

"That's alright. I'll be fine here. Thank you for all your help."

"It's no trouble," he said, waving her off. "I'll be back tonight with dinner. Feel free to explore the inn as much as you want; there's no one else in the building right now, but I would recommend staying inside just in case."

"I will." Cery started to leave, but Sonea suddenly thought of something else. "Cery? If you get a chance, could you let my aunt and uncle know I'm okay? I know they'll be worried."

Cery nodded. "I can do that." And with that, he left, leaving Sonea alone with her thoughts and an entire day without any plans.

Taking Cery's suggestion, Sonea did explore the inn, but it was not overly exciting. In fact, it seemed just like every other rundown building she had been in over the years except that it was still separated into rooms. After an hour or so, she grew bored, and her thoughts inevitably turned to the magicians. She contemplated what Cery had asked about why the magicians were tracking her, trying to remember any details about the fight which might have led to the current search. Her first thought was that the second magician she had seen wanted to ensure her silence in a way that threats could not accomplish, but she quickly dismissed that thought. He had threatened her to keep her from telling anyone that he had been there. Why would he send a number of magicians to chase her if he did not want them to know his secret? In addition, it seemed like the magician she had run into the previous day had recognized her even though she did not know him. While Sonea guessed magicians might have some way of sharing what people looked like between themselves, she doubted the threatening magician had gotten a close look at her given how dark it was. No, something else was going on, an explanation that Sonea could feel tickling the back of her brain while refusing to make itself known.

Sonea once more went over the details of the fight two nights before. She had lost consciousness at some point, but before that, something had happened when she was fighting the first magician. She had felt something shift inside her and had seen some sort of bright light. But that did not make sense–it was nearing dark. She was missing something, a crucial detail that would help put all the puzzle pieces together. After the encounter, she had returned home, and everything had seemed normal there aside from Jonna's and Ranel's suspicions about her injuries. But then she had left the house and had felt such absolute certainty that the magicians were hunting for her despite having no evidence. And then, the one had recognized her, grabbing her. She had panicked and he had let go. But no, that was not quite right. She had panicked, and he had been propelled backwards into a wall. She would never have been able to do that under normal circumstances. That left only one explanation. Magic.

But how would she have obtained magic? She had never heard of anyone having magic in the Slums. Only the high born entered the Guild to become magicians. No, there had to be another explanation.

Try as she might, however, Sonea could think of nothing else. Finally, she decided that she would need to test her theory. She had found a couple cracked plates in the abandoned kitchen, and she grabbed them, setting them on the table in front of her. If she was using magic, she should be able to push the plates away with it, just like she pushed the magician away the previous day. With that thought in mind, she focused on the plates, willing them to move.

An hour later, she had gotten nothing but dry eyes for her effort. Frustrated, she tossed her head back, closing her eyes as she tried to remember what she had done the previous two times. For a few minutes, she could think of nothing, but then she remembered an important detail–she was scared. Opening her eyes again, she looked at the plates and scoffed. She was certainly not scared of two plates, so how did that help her? Standing, Sonea began to pace, thinking. Perhaps she did not need to be scared of the plates themselves. Maybe it would be enough just to be scared of something. There was certainly plenty in her life right now to frighten her, so if she thought of one of those things, maybe she could achieve the desired effect.

It did not take her long to decide what frightened her most, and she carefully brought up images of the magicians chasing her in her mind. At the same time as she thought of those, she tried to think of moving the plates as well. Soon, her heart beat in terror as if the magicians were truly just outside her door, and she again felt the sensation of something bubbling up inside her. She focused her attention on the plates and then leaped back in surprise when they both flew across the room, smashing into the opposite wall, and flames leaped up where they had been sitting.

Sonea stared for a moment or two before shaking her head vigorously. Cery had left a basin of water in one of the rooms next to hers, and she ran for that now. Some of it sloshed over as she made her way back to the burning table, but there was still enough to mostly douse the flames. She watched the remaining flames lick at the wood for a moment, considering her next move. As far as she knew, there was no more water in the inn, and even if there was, she did not know if she would have time to retrieve it. With no other option, she pulled her shirt over her head and used it to beat out the last of the flames.

Once she finally put the fire out, her heart began to beat normally again. She frowned at the shirt, noting a couple scorch marks near the bottom. Sighing, she pulled it over her head again. She did not have any other clothing options. At least the holes did not reveal too much. However, she was going to have to tell Cery something.

Akkarin was sitting in a meeting with the other Higher Magicians when the next headache came. He rubbed his temples as a sense of fear washed over him, slightly less strong than before. An image floated across his vision of a roughhewn table with a couple chipped plates. It made no sense given the fear, but he studied it carefully while it hovered, wondering if it would give a clue as to the girl's whereabouts. Unfortunately, the scene could be just about anywhere in the Slums. Akkarin did catch the magical signature, letting his senses follow it to a general location.

The vision finally disappeared along with the fear, and Akkarin sent healing energy to the headache as he glanced around the room at the other magicians who were all watching him carefully. He gave them a sardonic smile. "It seems our Natural has been performing magic again. She's still in the north section of the Slums, but she's further west than before. We should tell Lord Rothen to concentrate his search there." The others stared at him for a moment, obviously surprised and perhaps a bit intimidated by his ability to sense magic that far away. He decided not to inform them that he was not usually so perceptive; he supposed the fact that she was uncontrolled made it easier for him to sense her. And harder, in a way, for the headaches were not easy to chase away, even with magic.

As he heard Lorlen call mentally to Rothen, he sent a bit more healing energy to his head which was still pounding. This strike had been much stronger than either of the previous two which worried him. He had sensed that she had drained her power almost completely when he had first run across her in the Slums. Somehow, in the two days since that time, she had generated enough power to create not one but two very powerful strikes. He knew that more powerful magicians were also often quicker to regenerate their power–he himself was proof of that–but he doubted that even he would have regenerated power as quickly as she had. For the first time, he began to doubt the wisdom of leaving her in the Slums. He had thought at the time that she would be relatively easy to find–after all, she had a strong magical signature, and he knew her approximate location. If they had found her in the initial search, she would not have had time to generate enough power to be dangerous, and he would not have needed to come up with a complicated story about how he had somehow run across a Natural in the Slums. Now, however, he was wishing he had taken the chance on the story, no matter how difficult it may have been.

Akkarin pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. He would consider the best option to control the damage later. For now, he needed to focus on the meeting at hand.

Two hours later, Akkarin was finally alone in his Residence. He went immediately to his study, picking up a book off one of the dark wooden side tables. He had begun reading it the previous night, for he had remembered that it had some references to Naturals. He had not found the reference the previous night, so he started where he had marked when going to bed and skimmed a few chapters before finally seeing the reference he sought. Most of what he read was what he remembered and had expected–Naturals were extremely rare and always powerful, and their powers typically developed on their own in their late teens. There were a couple references to magicians from hundreds of years before who had been Naturals, and Akkarin made a quick note to look up more on them later, but he did not see anything about the visions or feelings he was sensing from this Natural.

He skimmed the rest of the book but found nothing else of use. Setting it aside, he leaned back in his chair and considered what to do next. With the latest information about the girl's whereabouts, he expected the searchers were closing in again. She would be frightened when they caught up with her and likely run, but after Lord Dannyl's run-in with her, he expected they would be more cautious in their approach. Still, they may not have fully considered the consequences of her magic; after all, they had not felt the power like he had.

Akkarin grimaced as he came to the only logical conclusion. He would need to be present when they finally caught up with the girl to make sure the consequences were not too dire. After all, he was the one who had caused the mess by not considering all possibilities when he let her go after the attack. It seemed he was now going to pay the price and spend more time disguised in the Slums. He sighed. Sometimes, he wondered if he spent more time as the High Lord or in his beggar persona.

Cery and Sonea stood together staring at the scorched table. It was worse than Sonea had initially thought; the entire center of the table was black and chunks of wood were missing in places. "What happened? Cery questioned, the shock evident in his tone.

Sonea heaved a sigh. "I was thinking more about fighting that magician and running from them, and I realized that I must have been using magic. So I decided to try it again to see if it was true and, if so, what I could do with it."

"I'm guessing this wasn't what you wanted to do with it."

Sonea winced. "No, I was hoping to just move the plates. Which I did, I guess." She gestured at the shattered plates against the opposite wall. Cery nodded, wide-eyed.

"Well, I'm not saying you shouldn't practice since it would be useful to have a magician we could trust, but maybe we should find you a different place to do it. Harrin won't much like it if we burn down a safehouse." He considered for a few moments. "I can't think of any place right now, but I'm sure I can figure out something. For now, I brought dinner." He held up a bag with a savory aroma wafting from it. Setting it on the table, he brought out two meat pies. "I don't think we have plates anymore, but it never bothered me to eat with my hands." Sonea gave a small smile at his attempt to lighten the mood. They spent the meal telling each other about all the things which had happened since Sonea had run with the gang, and by the end of dinner, she was feeling significantly more relaxed. Once again, Cery promised to be sleeping nearby as she climbed the stairs to her temporary bedroom. She was more tired than she had expected, and she fell asleep almost as soon as she was horizontal.

The next day, Cery declared he had a couple more tasks to do in the morning but that he would start looking for a place where Sonea could practice magic more safely. Sonea thanked him though she would have preferred to do the looking since otherwise, she was facing another day alone with nothing to do. However, she reminded herself that it was safer in the inn. She knew the magicians were looking for her, and now she had some suspicions as to why. There had never been another magician in the Slums as far as she knew, for the Guild guarded magical power carefully. She was not really sure what they would do to her given that she had magical power, but she was not eager to find out. At the very least, she knew they would take her away from the Slums which, though not the ideal place, were the only home she had ever known.

After a couple hours, however, even Sonea's fear of the magicians could not keep her in the inn any longer. Telling herself that she would need to leave to practice magic anyway, she decided to start looking for a good place to practice. If she focused her effort on the blocks immediately surrounding the inn and made sure she always knew where the nearest escape route was, she should be relatively safe. With those thoughts in mind, she headed out.

She started searching east of the inn where she was staying, using the alleyways and other narrow spaces between buildings to move instead of the main streets. Most of the buildings in that area were even more run down than the inn, and Sonea guessed that if she accidentally started a fire in one of those as she had the previous day, she could easily burn down the whole block. She needed a large, open space without anything flammable around.

As Sonea started to circle towards the north, she saw something that made her heart stop–a flash of purple robes. How could the magicians have found her already? She was more than a mile from Jonna and Ranel's house, and she was sure they had not followed her from there or they would have already captured her. Somehow, they must have sensed where she was. But if that was the case, how could she ever avoid them?

Resolving to worry about that later, she quickly ducked back into a narrow alleyway, heading towards the route she had earlier picked out for escape. Fortunately, she saw no signs of magicians on it, but she supposed that made sense–the route she took wound through a number of back alleyways that were not the most savory places to be. She doubted any magician would risk soiling his or her robes by traveling that direction.

When she reached the inn, she saw three magicians standing outside it, staring up at the building. Immediately, she withdrew into the shadows, watching them. Two of them went inside while the third stayed at the door, watching the street. There was no way for her to go back into the safehouse now. She caught her lip between her teeth, considering her options, when a hand suddenly grabbed her arm. She jumped and almost pulled away, but a familiar voice hissed, "Sonea, it's me!"

"Cery!" Relief washed over Sonea.

"What's going on?"

"I don't know. I went out to try and find a place to practice magic, and then I saw a magician. By the time I got back here, they were here, too."

"How did they find this place?"

Sonea shrugged helplessly. "Magic?"

Cery was quiet for a minute or so, obviously thinking hard. "We've got to get you out of here," he finally decided.

"The magicians are all over the place," Sonea told him.

"There's one place where they're not," Cery told her, pointing up. Sonea felt her heart sink, but she nodded in agreement. Cery moved a bit further into the alley before finding a building with a crumbling stone exterior that he began to climb. Sonea followed a bit more slowly, for it had been quite some time since she had climbed buildings. When they reached the roof, both ducked low, using the oddly shaped roof to hide them from the street below. "I see at least seven," Cery said, counting under his breath.

"There are two more in the building."

"Well, no point in sticking around to see if they catch us. Come on." Still crouched low, they made their way over the rooftops. Most buildings in the Slums were crowded together, so they rarely needed to do more than take a big step to travel from one roof to the next. Unfortunately, there were still open areas, and they finally reached one of those around three blocks later. Staying low, Cery surveyed the area. "I don't see any magicians around," he remarked. "Maybe we lost them."

"Maybe," Sonea said, but she was not convinced. It seemed the magicians had no problems finding her in the safehouse, so she did not think she would be able to deceive them simply by running along the roofs. However, she did not want to share those thoughts with Cery. He had gone above and beyond to protect her, and she knew he was doing the best he could.

"We should be able to get down in the corner, and we can travel through the back alleys for a bit until we find another good access point," Cery suggested. Sonea followed him to the corner before carefully climbing down the bricks protruding from the exterior wall there. Once on the street, Cery turned towards the nearest alley, but before they could get far, a robed figure rounded the corner less than twenty feet away.

"Stop!" the man called. "We're not going to hurt you!"

"Run!" Cery said, already following his own instructions. Sonea immediately began to jog as well, but as they turned down the first alleyway, she suddenly ran into something hard, as if there was an invisible wall right in front of her. She briefly caught sight of Cery still running ahead, for he had been a few feet in front of her. She tried to call to him, but whatever kept her from moving must have blocked sound as well, for he did not seem to hear her.

"Please, we just want to talk," the man behind her said again, and Sonea whirled around to find that he was much closer than he had been, standing only five feet or so. He had his hands spread wide, but Sonea knew that did not mean much–he had magic, so he had no need for a more traditional weapon. "I promise we mean you no harm." Sonea simply stared at him, wide-eyed, too frightened to respond. She felt the same feeling she had the previous time she had faced a magician, the one she now knew meant that she was about to perform magic. She decided to let whatever magic was building in her out, for she had nothing to lose. Already, two other magicians had joined the first. They still stood a few feet away, but Sonea knew they would not stay that way for long. A faint ball of light pulsed around all three, and Sonea had the odd, out of place thought that it was actually quite beautiful–or at least it would be if the light was not surrounding magicians she suspected intended to harm her. With no other options left to her, she crouched down, covering her head with her hands as the magic building inside her exploded outwards.