Time passed, as it is wont to do.

  The first few months had been weird. I spent less time in the woods and somehow more time with Cassie, although you wouldn’t catch me complaining. Something unspeakable had shifted a little between us since the night I had run off, and I was over the moon with any time I got to spend with her. Now that I had joined her lessons, she decided early on that she needed to be in my own lessons, quickly becoming a one woman audience for my renewed swordsmanship lessons with Laon.

  Speaking of Laon, we had ended up letting him in on the whole situation. He noticed pretty quickly that I was faster than I should be, and I trusted him to keep quiet. He was pretty stoked about the whole deal, which was a little unsurprising with the rumours about how elves were descended from fey. Any time I tried anything that was related to fey magic he got this adorable sparkle in his eye, like I had just shown him the night sky for the first time.

  I did have more than one trick now. Powerful as it was, vitae manipulation was still pretty limited. I couldn’t really do it if I wasn’t touching something, and unless I had something else to draw from my healing was limited by my own reserves. I really didn’t want to find out what would happen when I got to low on literal lifeforce, so I was pretty frugal.

  Almon had talked me through the kind of magic I was likely to be capable of. While he couldn’t show me any, since our magic was cast completely differently, the baseline theory was the same. I also had a weird kind of understanding about whether or not I could do something. It wasn’t perfect, and it certainly wouldn’t help me with something I couldn’t come up with first, but I appreciated the help nonetheless.

  Besides my vitae control, which had only gotten easier with practice, I had also figured out a couple of tricks. The first was a kind of illusionary magic. It wasn’t amazing, and it had taken me months to figure out even though Almon had set me on it almost immediately. I had trouble making anything too big, and for now everything needed to be static or it would fall apart immediately.

  The difficulty was maintaining my concentration. I had to keep the image completely solid in my mind, which was hard enough to do on its own. Trying to do anything else at the same time was the real trick. I could walk and vaguely respond to questions now, all while mostly keeping the illusion steady. Despite how complicated it was, I really enjoyed making them. I also had a lot more respect for Almon’s showing for our play, no matter how many times he said that a wizard’s illusions were more like pre-scripted performances than the on-the-fly images I was making.

  My other trick was both easier and harder for me. I had figured out shapeshifting almost as soon as I had put my mind to it, like my body was warm clay just waiting to be moulded. That didn’t make it easy, though. At the beginning, shifting myself made me feel like I had just finished a long run, my metaphysical muscles burning. Six months later and I was much better at it, and I could just about shift my entire body over the course of a minute or so. Getting the details right was something I was still working on, though I could pass a cursory inspection easily enough now.

  No, the real issue was staying static. Now that it knew it could, it was like my body wanted to change, and kept shifting in tiny ways whenever anything happened. Cassie had learned to read my mood by my eyes, which apparently tended to change colour when I felt anything strongly enough. That had lead to a little habit of hers where any time she didn’t recognise a colour she would ask me to explain my thoughts until she figured out what I was feeling, which had me being a lot more introspective than usual.

  I could stop that if I put my mind to it, but that would take a decent amount of concentration on my part, and it also made me feel rather uncomfortable. Besides, only Cassie and my mother spent nearly enough time with me to learn what the colours meant, and I didn’t mind them knowing how I felt.

  This small shifting effect had made people start doubling down on the rumours about me and my mother, though. Eric had come round about a week after my lessons with Almon started to gloat about how many wolves he had cleared out.

  I had been frustrated with him for being so self-obsessed, since I had been through kind of a lot after the wolf encounter. Cassie had been present, and ended up laughing out loud when he ran off after not too long. I only noticed afterwards that my body had kind of stretched, like someone had grabbed my head and my legs and pulled. It made me look kind of freaky, and after I shifted back I had needed to sit down.

  This shapeshifting also took vitae, but only sometimes. After some experimentation with Almon, we discovered that while mana fuelled much of my body, I also consumed some vitae whenever I had to generate more mass. That made some sense, given that it couldn’t come from nowhere. Still, I could shift in ways that kept me at the same amount of mass with only effort, so I fortunately didn’t need to worry about passively losing a load of stored vitae.

  My magic theory lessons had been surprisingly fascinating too, and Almon’s mood began to improve now that he had a student that wanted to know the theory. It didn’t take me long to notice that Cassie only learned enough theory to cast, which clearly frustrated him to no end. It was to the point that four months in I had caught up to her despite the fact that she had a head start measured in years. As much as I would love to take credit for that, I wasn’t exactly an academic most of the time.

  After a while Cassie and I had started studying together, me on shapeshifting and illusions and her on her first combat spell. Almon had seen an opportunity in that and together we concocted a plan to break through her apathy. Not a week later and I had started teaching Cassie a decent amount of theory, largely by asking her questions about it. She seemed a lot more determined to make sure that I knew about it than she was about herself, and she soon started paying a lot more attention.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  It was during one of these extracurricular training sessions just after my birthday at the turning from spring to summer that we were interrupted. We often ended up practising just outside my house. We stayed out of town because most people didn’t need to know about my magic, but we still needed to go outside because Cassie’s lightning magic was best kept away from anything we wanted to still own by the end of practice. It worked out well because most of her magic worked best under the open sky, so she was better outside anyway.

  Of all people to see walking up the path to my house, Cassie’s mother was not who I would expect. I quickly reverted to the form I had mentally named Lia Prime before she saw, although that was unlikely with how intently she was staring at the floor as she walked. Cassie had her eyes closed as she focused, one arm stretched out and pointing towards the stack of scorched wood we had set up for her to use as target practice. She twisted her other hand in seemingly arbitrary shapes and muttered an incantation, and as she opened her eyes I felt the prick on my skin that heralded magic.

  In a matter of moments, a miniature cloud appeared several feet above the logs, seeming to froth and rumble. Less than a second after it formed a flash of light sparked from it, accompanied by a crashing roar. While much not nearly as bright or loud as true lightning, Cassie’s newest spell was far from subtle. I knew better than to look at it, but it was clear the Jolene had been staring directly at the magic. The impromptu cloud dissipated as quickly as it appeared, causing Cassie to slump a little before turning to me with a grin. That grin disappeared almost immediately when she saw her mother, standing several metres away rubbing her eyes from the sudden flash.

  “Hi, Mum.” Cassie greeted. Her tone was cordial, but her expression was blank. I knew that whatever was between them had escalated a few months ago, because Cassie was pretty much living with me and my mother at this point. Still, I didn’t push when she chose not to tell me about it. I trusted her to tell me if it was something I needed to know, and I still remembered the last time I’d snooped on her business.

  “Cassandra. What was that?” Her mother responded, sounding more than a little shell-shocked. I was a little confused by the question, since Cassie had been studying magic for almost six years.

  “That was magic, Mum.” Again, Cassie kept her sentences short, and I couldn’t help but be more than a little surprised. It had been almost a while since I had seen Cassie and her mother interact, but they were both a lot colder than they had been.

  What in the hells happened between you two?

  “Tsk,” replied her mother. “Is that what you’ve been doing for the last three months, then? Throwing lightning bolts?” Her mother raised an eyebrow at Cassie, and I started to put the puzzle together. Cassie loved magic, even if she had been a bit lax with the academics. If Jolene disliked her daughter being a wizard, I could see that causing some damage. Still, Cassie’s magical education wasn’t a new development.

  “No, that spell was new. Why are you here, mother?” No matter how fake her cordial tone had been, hearing the ice in Cassie’s voice made me shudder. I barely ever saw Cassie get upset like this, and I found it a bit worrying. I was certain now that their split was about more than just magic, but I still didn’t know what.

  “I’m here to see where my daughter had gotten to after she ran away from home.” She finally turned to me. “Hello, Julie. I’m glad to see you’ve been looking after her.” I didn’t feel at all comfortable getting between these two, so I just nodded silently. Thankfully, Jolene turned back to her daughter.

  “I hope you’ve come to your senses about this plan of yours.”

  Cassie shook her head. “Come to my senses? I never took leave of my senses. We’re leaving, and that’s final.”

  Realisation dawned. Cassie said she hadn’t told her mother yet when she asked me. She must have brought it up months ago, and been hiding out here when her mother refused. That was probably the real reason we were waiting for her to be an adult, so that she could be free and clear if her mother had disagreed with her plans.

  Jolene scoffed. “Final? You’re off traipsing off to your death, of course it’s final!” The silence that followed festered for a moment, before Jolene spoke up again. “Why can’t you just stay, Cassandra? Settle down with someone like I did? I promise it isn’t as bad as you seem to think it is. I know for a fact that the Johnson’s boy had bee-”

  “Oh, I see,” Cassie interrupted, her tone steely and unyielding. “This isn’t about me leaving, or what I’m leaving to do. It’s not about me at all. It’s about who I’m leaving with.”

  This time it was Jolene who said nothing, although the way her gaze dropped to the floor spoke volumes. I was beyond confused.

  How could this be about me? She’s your mother, Cass. What could I possibly have to do with it.

  “Go on, prove me wrong. Tell me the real reason you want me to stay, and I’ll come back home with you right now. Look me in the eyes and tell me that I’m wrong.” It almost seemed like someone else was speaking through Cassie. It was so unlike her, so cold and harsh.

  Jolene failed to meet her daughter’s gaze, almost seeming to wilt as the tension between the two thickened. Cassie responded only with a scorn-filled gaze, turning on her heel and walking inside without another word.

  After a minute of silence Jolene seemed to remember I was here. She stared at me for a moment like she was looking for something, seeming satisfied as she took a couple of steps towards me.

  “...Take care of her for me, Julie. You’ve always been better at it than me anyway.” I nodded mutely, and she watched me again. She looked like she wanted to say more, but seemed to decide against it and simply trudged back down the path. I watched her go in silence, before scrambling to my feet and making my own way indoors.

  All of my questions about whatever had just happened turned to smoke when I saw Cassie. She was sat stiffly on my bed, staring at her lap with a hollow expression. There were tears in the corners of her eyes that refused to fall, and her hands we shaking slightly. I hurried over and sat beside her. I hesitated for a second, before opening my arms in invitation. Despite the situation, I still didn’t feel comfortable initiating a hug. Almost as soon as I offered my embrace she clambered into my arms. She nestled her face into the crook of my neck and sobbed gently. I didn’t know what to say, so I just held her in a reminder that I was here for her, whenever she needed.

  No matter my curiosity or confusion, today wasn’t a day for answers. Not anymore.

  a lot! Thank you so much for the help!]