A skull grinned on a lopsided shelf only to be knocked aside and clatter to the ground with a scattering of teeth. A few bottles followed as sloppy movements knocked the shelf further aside but they were ignored as they slid one by one with a series of plinks and crashes. A flurry of a short, young-looking woman ignored the mess she was making and dumped ingredients and mixtures into a leather bag. A book followed and then a curse as she stuck her face into the pack's mouth and saw how little room was left.

"Mistress Kornelia?"

Her apprentice appeared bleary-eyed from his small side room, his ears too weak and human to hear what was coming. He had several inches on her and the gangly reach of a teenager. She tossed him the bag.

"Put that on. We're running."

His eyes followed her around the room as she dashed from food pantry to sword to lute, gathering them all and then shoving a cloak around the boy's shoulders.

"Now, Kace." A distant explosion gave the windows a slight rattle. His sleepy eyes turned toward it. "Kacper!"

He gave a squeak and then looked down at the bag in his hands.

"We… the nekker heart."

"Where did we store it?" Kornelia asked, her sword was shaking slightly and she was trying not to think about why.

"I don't… I'm sorry I don't know."

"Never mind."

She gave the small house and workshop a quick once over for anything that might be useful and then another to remember it and the memories they'd finally been allowed to make. A shake of short brown hair and an encouraging nod for Kace and she raised a hand toward the door.

She stood still.

She closed her eyes.

"Mistress… what… what are you…"

He gasped.

Kornelia opened her eyes to check her work. Before them the air rippled and swirled, circling around until the portal was complete.

"Go. Hurry."

He stumbled forward and then stopped and she realized he was only wearing one shoe. Ah, well. Too late.

"But you-" Kacper began.

"I have to follow you. Go."

Feet marching outside. Doors breaking.

"Go!"

He ran forward, bag still clutched between his arms. She watched him disappear and then she jumped forward after him, just in time for the door to shatter open and a helmeted head to appear just inches away.

And disappear as she landed in the grass hundreds of miles away.

Kornelia took a long moment to search the area around them with all her senses but no one seemed to have noticed their arrival or followed her trail. Kace seemed fine-pacing around as he processed the sudden loss of what was probably his first true home too. He didn't seem too concerned at the sudden magic which calmed her heart a bit.

Her fingers traced the bundle in her offhand, the food and lute seeming to have survived her awkward landing. She took a long deep breath, resisting a twang at the lutestring and the wish that its owner might somehow hear it and come running. Afterall…

"We're safe for now." She told the boy.

He stopped pacing and finally seemed to take in their surroundings. A grassy field. The sound of waves. No lights but the stars and a tower almost out of sight down the coastline.

"Where are we?"

Kornelia sighed and steadied the sword in her hand. But the words held no danger for him so she made sure to keep the dread from her voice as she answered.

"Aretuza."

…

"Mama, why do you have so many apprentices?"

Tissaia de Vries glanced up from a quill and the third page of a sharply worded letter to eye the little girl currently places ten fingerprint smudges across the balcony window. "Nellie, your hair."

Kornelia de Vries reached up to find that half her braid had fallen around her face. She wrinkled a tiny nose, the sort of nose that would have had dirt on it constantly without a perfectionist sorceress always watching it. A moment later and she had tucked the hair haphazardly away and repeated her question.

"Because I don't know which of them will be successful." Tissaia continued writing, eyebrows arched in disapproval at something or other. "Or useful." She smiled wryly. "Or useless."

"Oh." Nellie tapped the glass and then let out a slow breath. Satisfied at the fog she'd left, she raised a finger to it and slowly traced the shape of a cloud.

"Which do you think you will be, Nellie?"

The little girl's head jerked up, having forgotten the conversation the moment she'd gotten her answer. She turned to squint at her drawing and then shrugged. "I don't know. Do you think I even have magic, mama?"

Tissaia moved with deliberate gestures, setting the pen down carefully, pulling out her chair with both arms, standing with a grand sweep of her skirts. She walked over to the little girl and held out a hand. After a moment of consideration, Nellie held up the same finger that had traced the glass and tapped Tissaia's palm. She closed her eyes and felt a familiar spark running up her arm and calling for her to follow. Nellie tried to concentrate but beneath her closed eyelids she kept looking toward the window and wondering if the storm outside was closer.

"Concentrate, flower."

Nellie snapped back but she could feel the spark slipping away.

She tried to follow it but her head felt too light and her mind had to go to her wobbly knees before they could collapse beneath her. The little girl opened her eyes just in time to see a spark of lightning curled around her hand and Tissaia's. Tissaia waited, watching for Nellie's reaction.

Nellie pulled her hand back and considered it, turning it back and forth and flexing her fingers as though trying to tune an imaginary instrument. She always felt dizzy in this room, with its big books and heavy furniture that was too high to climb onto. But Tissaia was always, always in here and at least there was the window.

"What are you thinking, Nellie?"

Nellie looked up and shrugged.

"Useless." She furrowed her eyebrows. "I'm going to go draw now."

Tissaia nodded, expressionless.

Nellie walked out, half dancing her way to her room next door. She had to use both hands to pull the heavy wooden door open and then closed again behind her, careful not to close it on her toes again. She made her way to the bed next and pulled out a little treasure chest someone had brought her mother as a gift. She never met Tissaia's friends. None of them sounded nice anyway.

She pulled out a little pile of papers and some colored chalk and began doodling lightning bolts and clouds and then the tower and the cliffs. Eventually, the room grew too dark to see and she felt her way up onto her bed, curling up in the blanket and wondering if tomorrow she would see something new. Just like she did every night.

Just like she would do every night.

For another thirty years.

She fell asleep.