He was in her dreams again. This one was a bit lighter than most and seemed to be part of a celebration of something. However at the same time he could practically feel the depressed air about it all. Everyone seemed to be having such a good time...until he spotted her. He saw the small bird flying about a girl about fourteen or fifteen, looking downright miserable.

She looked entirely too miserable and lonely for someone so pretty. While her dress was a little old fashioned, she had her hair and make-up done in a tasteful way. It was clear she wanted to dance, but her partner was too busy sulking about something and was ignoring her completely, and no one was showing any inclination to come over to ask.

He still didn't know her name, but there was no way he'd let this continue.

He calmly walked past the dance floor, silently grateful that he was in his dorm uniform as it was at least semi-formal enough to pass cursory inspection at a ball such as this.

He held out his hand to her, ignoring the sullen red head and the bewildered expression on her face as he asked "May I have this dance, milady?"

"You want to dance...with me?"

Silver looked her dead in the eye and nodded. Cautiously, as if suspecting some trick, she took his hand. It was warm, and solid.

At first she was cautious, but after the second song she began to relax. Silver was a rather good dancer as it was part of the requirements for knight training. He had a slight smile on his face seeing her light up and her mood visibly improved by the time most of the others had gone back to the tables for food.

Silver was lead out into a garden that had lesser fairies flittering about in the bushes.

"That was lovely...thank you," she said quietly.

Silver kissed the top of her hand, causing her to blush deeply.

"I couldn't leave a young lady like that stranded. My father would never let me hear the end of it," said Silver. Lilia would have noticed and said something the second he realized what was going on. Especially at a formal event like that.

He wouldn't have cared who the young woman was, he would have nudged one of them over as a lesson to them about treating others appropriately. Especially one was clearly being left out due to picking a bad partner for an obviously formal dance party.

She really looked at him for a moment, as if deciding something.

"Azalea," she replied. It took him a second to realize she was giving her name, finally.

He gave a proper bow to the young woman, before his eyes met hers.

"Silver," he said politely.

It was an actual shame that both of them woke up, but at least he had a name for her now.

~*~*~*~~*

Riddle was having a quandary. He had been disciplining some of the freshmen and the odd second years for disregarding the Queen's rules, when he was alerted by Cater about a barrier around the hedgehog enclosure.

As it turned out, his yelling had scared the young child that Ace and Deuce had been tasked to take care of until the potion on them wore off or they found a counter-potion. So much so she had crawled into the hedgehog enclosure and had created a magical barrier preventing anyone from getting close to it. It was rather rough, and clearly made of accidental magic, but it also meant they were unable to reach the hedgehogs.

On one hand, Riddle was angry over the girl crawling into the enclosure...but at the same time realized he was likely the one at fault and further yelling was likely to make things worse.

It was such a mess that he was even less pleased when Trey warned him that Che'nya was there to be a nuisance.

"Che'nya, could you please leave? We have a mess right now and I don't need the headache," said Riddle tiredly.

"Is it about the mageling cuddling with the hedgehogs?" asked Che'nya.

"Riddle's yelling scared her, and we haven't been able to get her out," said Cater. Che'nya winced with sympathy, as Riddle was rather high strung.

"Mind if I try?" he asked.

"So long as you don't let the hedgehogs out, go for it," said Trey.

Che'nya made slow, calm movements as he approached the barrier. Rather than attempt to breach it, he settled down on the grass in front. He let his tail lazily swish this way at that, and his ears twitched a bit.

"It's nice and cozy in there, isn't it kitten?" he said gently.

Riddle and the others watched as Che'nya spoke to the girl inside calmly and in a soothing voice, almost like talking to a skittish kitten. To their amazement, the barrier flickered a bit before popping after about fifteen minutes.

Che'nya quietly scooped the girl up and let her cuddle with his tail to calm her down.

"How did you do that?" said Riddle, in disbelief.

"Little kittens don't like loud noises," said Che'nya. "Especially skittish kitties like her. I could tell from the way she was acting she doesn't like it when people yell."

Riddle was the same way as a child, mostly around his mother. Che'nya had learned how to coax skittish animals to him in attempt to calm his friend down when he was scared, though he never had a chance to use it before now.

Che'nya gently plopped the girl at a tea table, and had his tail wrapped around her to keep her calm. The boys all noticed she avoided the sweets, though she did sip her tea quietly when given permission.

He had a mischievous grin on his face once Riddle had finished his tea, and before Trey could pour another cup. Riddle let out a light squawk of surprise when he found himself with a lap full of small child.

He glared at his friend.

"See, he's not so scary now, is he?" said Che'nya.

Riddle stared into those big, scared green eyes...and something inside him melted.

He adjusted his tone just a bit, making it a bit softer and less scary for her.

Seeing her perk up as Trey explained a rule to Deuce, Riddle decided to make conversation by teaching the girl the Queen's Rules, which she would be expected to follow so long as she was visiting the dorm out of courtesy.

It was rather gratifying, having an attentive audience who actually seemed to be listening. It had an odd side effect of calming him down as well, because he was too busy explaining the Rules to notice infractions...as long as it wasn't happening in front of him anyway.

They were wandering the Rose Maze when the girl spotted something. Cater thought it was adorable, the way Riddle was letting her lead them around the maze like an older brother. Her hair looked like a really dark red in the sunlight.

Riddle looked at the flower that had her so fascinated.

"That's an azalea," he commented.

Cater and Riddle both blinked at how excited she became towards a simple flower bush. Cater looked at her, then at the flower.

"Wait...is your name Azalea?" he asked. The girl nodded, and the two boys were floored.

At least now they had a name for her.

In the kitchens, Trey looked at his phone.

"Huh...so her name is Azalea. At least now we know what to call her," said Trey.

"Who?" asked Ace, still knee-deep in chestnuts.

"The girl that you two are supposed to be watching," said Trey.

"Wait, she's finally talking?" asked Deuce, also peeling chestnuts.

Trey texted Cater, and got a reply back.

"No, they ran into one of the flower bushes in the maze and Cater asked if that was her name," said Trey, reading the response.

Ace was the first to respond to that.

"Well, I guess we can stop calling her midget now."

"Doesn't she kick you in the shin every time you call her that?"

"I thought she was just being a brat," said Ace.

"No, you were being a jerk," said Deuce.

Sensing a fight about to brew, Trey pulled them apart.

"These chestnuts won't peel themselves," he said firmly. They begrudgingly went back to work.

~*~*~*~*~

Silver sensed something was different again, because the 'child' was a bit older than before. She looked to be about eight or nine now.

Silver found himself on a higher tower, one lined with telescopes aimed at the night sky, likely to study the stars.

He found himself sitting against the wall, with her next to him. He found it rather relaxing to sit there in companionable silence.

"How strange. I keep seeing you in my dreams, but I've never met you before in my life," she commented.

"My signature spell allows me to wander, so long as I know I'm dreaming," he replied.

"So...you're a wizard?"

Silver smiled at her, causing her to blush a bit.

"I'm a knight mage," he corrected. She perked up at that. "I swore myself to my King before I enrolled at the college I'm attending with him and father."

"What's your king like?" she asked. Silver lit up, and while he was not as...verbose...as Sebek, he did go into length about his king.

Azalea leaned against Silver as he describe not only his king, but his father as well. She giggled a few times, mostly at the description of his father.

"Sounds like your dad and I would get along great. He'd probably enjoy some of the pranks my adopted brothers create and sell."

"There's one thing I don't understand...why do you appear younger here, and yet older during those memories?" asked Silver.

Her expression soured.

"It might be easier to show than explain," she replied.

The potion's effects were wearing off, and by now she had enough cognizance to control which memories she was seeing...especially whenever Silver was around.

The scene faded around them, and Silver found himself in a vibrant, thriving shop full of things he knew his father would love to play around with. Lilia always did enjoy his little pranks, and this shop sold all sorts of things he'd like.

He found himself staring as the door to a potions lab opened, revealing a young woman about the same age as himself with deep red hair, tanned skin and ethereal green eyes that reminded him of his father when he was remembering the past. She held herself as a blooded warrior, and he felt his mouth go dry at the sight.

There was a necklace that hung loosely around her neck, one with two rings. They appeared to be signet rings, ones from older and powerful bloodlines. He didn't get a good look at the markings, but he could tell that they were the sort only worn by the head of the family.

She sighed and put them back under her shirt, so as not to accidentally dip them in the potion she was tending to.

It was nearly finished, though he was unable to tell what the purpose of the potion was at a glance.

Hearing something outside, the young woman turned and he was hit with the full brunt of her beauty. He knew this was the same girl he had been talking to just moments before, and now was intensely curious as to how she ended up in this state.

She opened the door...and it was utter chaos.

A red head he recognized as her rather sullen date from that formal party had some fireworks in his arms, and rather carelessly, dropped them to the floor.

The fireworks went off without warning, and one of the bigger ones flew into the potions lab, hitting the fire that was simmering below the cauldron causing it to explode. Several others flew into the shop, causing all sorts of damage and several pranks to go off prematurely. The end result was a nasty mess, and the young woman was hit with the majority of the cauldron. The rest spilled onto the floor and would likely take a professional team to clean up the residue.

In the confusion, a five year old child bolted out of the store. She had a bewildered, terrified look on her face, and without thinking too hard on the matter Silver followed her.

He knew this was the same child he had been visiting in dreams of late.

The sky darkened, and chaos was still going on in the shop but Silver didn't care. He followed the child onto the street though a mostly disused passageway...and without thinking about it, the child climbed onto a very familiar carriage.

Silver woke up with a start, to the concerned expression of his father.

"Good afternoon, sleepyhead. You looked like you were having a nightmare," said Lilia.

"More like a memory that went on too long," Silver commented. He had a bad headache.

"Oh?" said Lilia. "Does this have anything to do with the amount of dreamwalking you've been doing lately?"

Silver nodded.

"Tell me everything," said Lilia. He had been somewhat worried because he had noticed Silver pen was unusually dark every morning despite being clear when he went to sleep.