First Master-Complete!

[Kestrad]

I'm really enjoying this story so far - looking forward to seeing the last two parts! Does it happen to be related at all to the Sunken Temple legend at Lake Lakira?

[Raneth]

Thanks for the comments, and apologies for the long wait!


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Chapter 6

Star padded along next to her. The gryphon’s feathers tickled her legs, and the slight tickle both amused and reassured her as she walked deeper into the earth.

She mulled over the image she had seen as she walked, guided by her sense of the cave and the periodic flashes of light. Somehow, with each flash and the more she reflected on the strange image, the more knowledge filled her. Every blink brought her flashes. That creature had been a dragon, circling around the highest point in the castle. It had protected it with its magic.

She knew, too, that it was gone now. But the magic remained. That must be what the mage had meant when he talked about wards.

But the wards didn’t bother her. She kept moving.

Her sense of Star had gone from a pulsing to a constant companionship. She no longer needed the light touch of the gryphon’s feathers against her leg to know where she was, or that the small creature trotted slightly ahead of her, scouting ahead with quick jerks of her head. She felt stronger now, the sensation of the chain and its indentations fading on the gryphon’s body, though hunger cramped Star’s belly with even sharper claws than it did in Renna’s. It had been hours since her last meal.

Worries about the past skittered away when the sound of flapping wings reached her ears. Star froze too, the gryphon’s feathers standing on end in a way that made Renna’s skin prickle with the sympathetic feeling.

“Who’s there?” she called. Her voice echoed back, shockingly loud, and she winced.

The wingbeats grew louder, and then she was thrust into the cave system again, her mind racing ahead of her.

The same man she had seen before now stood by a burbling stream, long stalks of grass waving ahead of him on a grassy plain that stretched as far as she could see. The man was younger now, his beard and hair brown instead of gray. He stretched out an arm, and a silver purple shape slinked through the air to land on it.

It was a creature, Renna knew, a magical creature just like Star, but far older and of a very different species. Crystals adorned its long body, and it tilted its head, blinking. Its pupils narrowed, and it stared at her the same way Silka had once stared at a mouse at the other end of a room.

“What is it?” The man’s voice was faint. “Here? The castle should be built here?”

Renna blinked, and suddenly she stood back in the caves. But it was very different.

Globes of light had sprung to life around the walls of the cave, the glow brighter and steadier than any torch flame. Crystals, much like the ones that had decorated the body of the creature on the man’s arm, shimmered from the walls.

And the creature itself hovered like a ribbon in front of her.

Renna sucked in a breath, and Star sat down on her haunches and cocked her head like a curious dog. The cave walls gleamed steadily, gems of every hue scintillating in the warm light.

Whatever the creature was, it clearly wasn't dangerous. It merely hovered, twisting its neck to peer at Renna from multifaceted eyes. "What are you?" the girl finally spoke. "Are you...from the castle?"

The creature chirped, and Star chirped back, the sound a perfect mimicry. There was another sound, deeper, elicited by the creature's thrumming wings, that resonated with Renna's heart and slowed down its frantic beating. Her breathing came slower, and she walked toward the new creature, Star padding by her feet.

Relaxation, like a warm bath after a long day of washing carpets in cold water or carrying heavy supplies in a cold rain, curled around Renna's spine. In the back of her mind, in a new place in her awareness, images flashed. A man sat on a sunny bank and watched fish leap from a burbling stream. The same man stretched out a hand toward skeletal foundations that rose toward the sky, and stone and earth moved of its own accord to fill in the gaps, forming a tower. The same man, old and gray, planted a seed in the earth, and a small crab with a strawberry shell helped him bury it. His lips moved as he stood, holding out a hand to the crystal studded creature who floated in place next to him. “Thank you, Skyla.” The man’s voice was a quiet murmur in her mind.

"Skyla," Renna said, and the creature turned in midair. "You are Skyla, aren't you?" The creature twisted in a knot in midair, staring.

Then it shrieked. The caves around her rumbled, the calm gone as though icy water had been thrown in her face. Star leapt to all fours, flaring her wings.

The strange creature flew toward Renna, and suddenly she was flying above the caves, above the mountains, and staring down at Lukas and the mage. The mage wore thick leather gloves, like the kind falconer's wore, but in it he grabbed Silka, the cat spitting and yowling, claws outstretched. The two men marched east, the moon bright overhead and his bright pheonix leading the way. Lukas trudged behind him, his face pale and drawn.

Silka. They had lost Star. They were going to use Silka.

"No!" Renna shouted. Lukas looked up, and then she stood once more in the cave.

She looked to Skyla, who hovered inches from her face. "Lead me out of here," Renna said. "I can help."

Skyla twisted and turned in midair, peering at Renna out of one eye and then the other. Star stood up on its hind paws, and Renna patted the gryphon on the head, the touch doing little to drive away her renewed anxiety.

She had saved Star, but now they would kill Silka. This was her fault. She had to fix it.

Skyla chirped, the caves rumbling again. Then ribbonlike creature darted off, then looked over her shoulder.

“Right,” Renna said, and began to follow.
***
The winding form of Skyla led the way, the creature’s body emanating a steady glow that made it easy to follow. Star trotted by Renna's feet, the only sound in the quiet cave her steady chirping huffs and the pounding of Renna's shoes on the stone floor.

Her sense of the cave came in flickers, interspersed with the heavy knowledge that even now Silka writhed in the mage's arms as he carried her toward the castle. The castle that the same mage she had seen in her memories had built, and the one he had given his life to protect.

She didn't know why he had died to protect it. Maybe it really was full of treasure, or magical artifacts that magi would kill for. But even if that were true, it didn’t matter. All she cared about was saving Silka.

A cool breeze brushed her skin, and she ran faster despite a burning in her calves. Skyla sped up also, and soon the glow of the crystals on its body began to fade in the face of a steady light that shone in from outside.

Renna gasped as she reached the cave mouth. Compared to the pitch dark of the cave, the night was bright. The moon and stars illuminated little, but she could make out the shapes of bushes and trees against the night sky, and her eyes caught the movement of leaves as the wind blew.

Behind the trees, against the sky, something enormous and dark loomed. Skyla buzzed higher into the air, soon turning into nothing more than a glow out of the corner of Renna's eye. The glow illuminated a high stone wall, then a stone tower.

The castle. She had found the keep.

Star chirped at her feet, and cold drops of water hit her legs. For a moment she wondered if it had started to rain while she was underground. Then she looked down, and caught the movement of the water directly in front of her.

Water burbled in a quick-flowing stream, the rush of its flow so quiet she could barely hear it. Star stuck in a taloned foot, then flicked water across the surface. The castle loomed on the other side.

Star chirped, then leaped into the water, padding like a clumsy dog before turning back and nuzzling Renna’s calf. The message was clear.

“Okay, Star,” Renna whispered, her voice mingling with the buzz of insects. She pulled up her skirt as she entered the water, then gave up as the rushing water bathed her ankles and knees. The muddy bank was soft and slimy underfoot.

The current was stronger than she had realized, and it tugged insistently at her. Her skirt was dragged with the flow, and she dug her toes into the soft ground, paddling with her arms. The water was barely up to her chest, and the stream grew deeper with every step. The current began to flow faster, water splashing into her mouth and nose. “Star!” she cried.

Star chirped, the sound piercing and afraid, and leapt into the water with her, droplets of water sprinkling her face as the little gryphon swam forward. The current began to slow as she reached Renna, and the girl took a shaky breath, patting Star lightly on the head with one hand and treading water with the other.

It was too deep, and too wide. She would never make it across.

She blinked, her eyelids heavy, and in that flash of darkness she saw the man once again. He was younger, his hair and beard dark. He walked bent double with a heavy load tied with twine on his back. A winged horse walked next to him, its mane more ragged and tangled even worse than Star’s feathers had been. Its white fur was stained brown and caked with dust.

The stream flowed just ahead of him, and he dropped his bag to the ground. Grassy plains stretched invitingly into the distance past the stream, but the water rushed for dozens of feet across, whitecaps swirling past tiny rocks that did not form any path. The man knelt by the water, hands shaking, and leaned forward.

When he cupped his hands to drink, a small purple fish nibbled at his fingertips. Renna felt it, like a cold drop of rain.

Renna opened her eyes to the water churning around her. Dozens of small shapes swam in tight circles, and Renna gasped. The sensation of the fish was no memory. They were here.

Star chirped, spreading her wings wide, and the fish swam underneath them. One leapt from the water, and Renna smiled as it flipped through the air before landing with a splash and disappearing.

Her fear gone, she kicked out toward the far bank. The fish followed her, their small bodies and the wake of the school keeping her afloat and moving in a straight line. She could hear the rush and whirl of water, but with every tug of current, there was the answering movement of a small fish, keeping her anchored.

In no time at all she had made it across, her feet once again touching the silty bottom. Her skirt clung to her ankles as she left the stream, and she shivered in the cool night air. Star ran from the water and stopped next to her, then shook herself like a dog, her feathers fluffing.

“Thank you,” Renna called out across the stream. She could not see any sign of the fish through the darkness.

Buzzing wings made her turn, and Skyla’s glow appeared in the distance, illuminating a path through the trees. Something shined at the end of the path. It reminded Renna of the glint of silverware illuminated by moonlight.

“C’mon, Star.” The gryphon chirped and followed.

She left the bank of the stream, her feet squelching in mud and then hitting firmer dirt. Leaves rustled in a cold breeze that raised goosebumps on Renna’s soaked skin. She probably looked a fright, Renna realized, like some water spirit who had just fled the river.

The glow intensified, and Renna paused as the color changed. The dim purplish glow had mixed with another, a brighter yellow like a small faint sun. In the new, brighter light, she could make out a wrought iron gate that marked the entrance to the castle. Stone walls stretched to either side.

The air lost its chill as she approached. The walls loomed over her, and she began to make out curving designs that had been melted into the gate. A quicksilver stream flowed from the top of one side of the gate to the other, and metal creatures of all shapes and sizes bounded near the watery facsimile. One reminded her of Star, and she reached out to touch it.

As soon as she did, the night vanished. She stood in the glaring light of noon, and the castle soared over her head.

Renna's heart leapt, but despite her quickened pulse she felt no fear.

Burnished green and yellow grass rolled over hillocks up to the base of the castle. Trees, their deep green leaves upturned to the summer sun, stood firmly by the stones, and a warm breeze sent the leaves swishing. The gate now stood open, the metal shining in the brightness.

The chill of the stream was forgotten. Renna turned to see the burbling waters rushing even more strongly than they had before, willow trees trailing their branches in the high waters. Small round shapes bobbed in the waves.

The only sounds were the rustling of the leaves in the light breeze and the running water in the stream. "Star?" Renna called, turning a circle and seeing nothing but a dirt path at her feet. "Star!"

"Who are you?" Renna froze at the reedy voice.

The man she had seen in her memories stood before her on the other side of the opened gate. He was stooped with age, with wisps of white hair clinging to a spotted scalp. He wore robes, like a noble, but they were frayed, with threads dangling from the long cuffs.

Skyla hovered by his shoulder, and behind him a white dragon with purple gems on its wings gripped the side of the castle. A pair of horses with horned foreheads flicked purple and gold tails by the trees, and it took Renna a moment to remember what they were. Unicorns.

“Who are you, child?” the man spoke again. He didn’t move from his place near the gate, the breeze gusting his white hair. “Why have you come here?”

Renna opened and closed her mouth, wishing very hard that Star was here. Where was the little gryphon? Where was she, for that matter?

The old man kept staring, but his eyes were kind and patient. Finally Renna found her voice. “I…I’m from Master Lukas’ keep,” she said. The man tilted his head. “I…I know Skyla.”

The man broke into a smile. “Skyla?” at her name, the creature unwound from his shoulders, hovering near Renna’s face. The gems on the creature’s body gleamed in the sun, and she moved faster and with more grace than she had when Renna had seen her in the cave. “You know of my crystalwing?” Laughter entered his voice as Skyla twisted in midair.

“I saw her…” Renna trailed off. Was this the past, or a memory?

The man’s laughter faded. “Why have you come here?” he asked kindly. “To see Skyla?” He gestured with a shaky hand. “Or all the wonders of the Keep?”

Renna glanced more around her. The unicorns were beautiful, their white and purple coats shining in the sun. The dragon was white tipped with gold, and her sense of it-her magic, she knew-thrummed in response. Even Skyla, this young, vibrant version of Skyla, promised power and wealth from the gems that adorned her.

Lukas and the mage were right. The keep did have power.

But she didn’t care. “I have to save a friend,” Renna said. “Two magi-they’re going to hurt her.”

The man held up a hand, and the rest of what Renna wanted to say died in her throat. He still smiled, but his eyes were sad. “They are coming here?”

Renna nodded.

“I can let you in,” he spoke. His voice carried the creaking of an old tree. “I can give you power. Not much-just knowledge. Memories.” Something distant rustled, a sound that didn’t match any of what she saw. “But once I do, I will be gone.”

“You’re the wards, aren’t you?” Renna blurted. “You protect the castle.”

He smiled. “In a way. I’ve kept it safe for a long time. But that will end soon.” Renna’s heart beat hard.

“Will you protect it for me? Save Silka?” Renna swallowed down a flash of fear. How had he known?

What about her mother, living alone back in the village? What about her service to Lukas? What about her life?

He waited with kind eyes. The image of the dragon wavered, and then it disappeared behind him, sinking into the stone of the keep.

Star chirped, the sound echoing from very far away, and her magic flared.

“I will,” she said. The man smiled. The warm summer wind gusted, and then he vanished. Skyla leapt into empty air, then spiraled up into a blue sky.

Renna opened her eyes to the night sky, the metal gate cold beneath her hand. It swung open on silent hinges.

Warmth pressed her calf, and she looked down and met Star’s eyes. The gryphon blinked, nuzzling her leg. Then she strode through the open gate.

The keep. She took a deep breath and followed Star.

Here is my knowledge. Use it well. Teach others. The words wound through her mind.
________________

TBC

[Raneth]

Final part
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Silka had finally stopped fighting against Lukas, and sat limply in her makeshift cage, tied against the back of Rylan’s horse. Rylan had used some magic to take the fight out of her-he had claimed it didn’t hurt, but Lukas had sensed the fire magic.

“It will be quick, I promise you,” he had said. That was the only reason Lukas had agreed. “Once we’re inside, small, weak creatures like Silka will be far beneath us. I am sure, if she could understand such things, Silka would be glad to give her life for such a cause.”

Lukas looked away from his once-companion. He had transferred her bond to Rylan when they started this journey, and now he felt empty. Without Silka, he had no other creature.

But it would be better than feeling her die.

“Look,” the red haired mage said, and pointed. The sky had begun to lighten as Lukas and Rylan approached the castle. The spires stretched up against the pink sky, guarded by high stone walls that shone in the light of the morning sun.

Rylan narrowed his eyes. His phoenix called from somewhere high above them, and then Lukas made out its flaming trail, like a comet, streaking across the sky. It circled the castle once, then headed straight for them.

“Lukas, this will be easier than I thought. The wards have weakened.” Glee entered his voice. “We can get closer. Perhaps they shredded that girl, and used up some of their power.”

Lukas just nodded. Foolish servant girl. He didn’t know what madness had entered her head to run off with a feral, unbroken creature, but if she had just left it alone, Silka wouldn’t have to die. Unless… “Are the wards so weak that Silka can be spared?” Hope entered his voice.

“No.” Rylan waved a hand. “Blood magic is needed to break the wards still. Even weakened, they are potent. The fool gave his life to set them. Only another life taken will break them.”

“Who was this mage?” Lukas asked, wincing as Rylan’s phoenix cawed overhead. Fire magic made him nervous. “Why did he create such a place?”

“No one knows,” Rylan answered, holding out a gloved hand and letting his creature alight. “But one can guess. He hid his wealth there, and perhaps even books or scrolls. Ways to control the most powerful of creatures.” He made a fist, wincing when his phoenix dug tight with its talons. “There’s no other way he could have created such a place unless he had great power.”

Lukas just nodded. He hoped this was worth it.

Their journey took them down a winding mountain trail that ended in a valley, the castle growing ever larger in the view ahead of them. The sun had breached the horizon by the time they made it down, and Lukas’ stomach growled. Their tearing after the servant girl had made the journey take far longer than it should.

Silka mewed piteously as they approached, and Rylan held out a hand. Ahead of him, water rushed madly in a stream that flowed as fast as any raging river Lukas had ever seen. There would be no crossing. Across the stream and down a path through high rolling hills, an iron gate between stone walls marked the entrance.

“Here,” Rylan announced. He reached out, then drew back his hand as if burned. “The wards are strongest here, but they extend no further.” Excitement entered his voice. “This is where we will do it. Put up the shield. Be ready to channel the magic.”

Lukas let out a shaky breath, then called upon his magic. A shimmering shield of air formed around them both. It felt weak, and flimsy without Silka as an anchor.

“Good,” Ryland said with a smile. Silka hissed and clawed at the air as she was lifted with Rylan’s magic, and a knife of anxiety stabbed through Lukas. The stream began to flow faster, the roaring water filling his ears. The wards reacted, lashing out and striking against Lukas’s shield. It broke immediately, and he threw it up again in haste.

Rylan’s eyes were screwed shut, and he reached and plucked Silka out of the air, scruffing her hard by the neck. Silka yowled, the sound grating Lukas’ ears, and the stream roared faster. If it struck again, Lukas realized with a pounding heart, his shield would serve no barrier.

Rylan’s skin split along his knuckles and his blood trickled onto his fingertips, forming tiny red claws. This was it. The wards would break. Sweat trickled down Lukas’s neck. The stream would slow. The castle, and its riches, would be theirs.

Silka would die.

He shouted “stop!” just as the ground beneath them erupted.
***

When he woke, he stretched his eyes open wide, but saw nothing but darkness. No moon, no stars, no light at all. Lukas scrabbled at his face, terrified that the wards had reacted and he had gone blind. Or worse.

“Rylan”! his voice fell flat. He reached out, and his hands met solid earth in front of him. When he stood, he struck his head. He turned, dragging his hands around him, his fingers catching on a root.

He was underground. Buried.

“Lukas!” Rylan’s voice made him jump. He had no sense of how far away the other man was. “Lukas, are you there?”

“Rylan?”

“We survived!” Magelight illuminated the man’s grinning face. “The old fool. His wards expended all their power trying to stop us-their gone now!”

Lukas blinked. “And Silka?”

“You’re the fool,” a familiar voice spoke up, and Lukas froze. Rylan’s light flared brighter, revealing the root-laced walls.

And the servant girl. She wore ancient looking robes that did not fit her well, giving the appearance that she wore thick bedsheets, but she didn’t seem to care. She stood at the entrance to a tunnel, the stolen gryphon at her feet. Another creature twined around her shoulders, and Lukas gasped aloud. A crystalwing. They were unspeakably rare, the gems on their bodies worth more than his entire mansion.

And in her arms lay Silka.

“I don’t need the wards to keep you out,” she said, and dirt rained from the ceiling at her words. Lukas quailed in the face of her magic-how had he overlooked her power?!

She glared at Rylan, who slowly stood up, palms out. He still crouched, his height a handicap in the small space. “You’ve been in the castle.” Greed dripped from his words. “And now a mere servant girl wields such power! Imagine it!” he turned to Lukas. “Imagine what it will do for us!”

Lukas recoiled. Didn’t Rylan see it? Couldn’t he sense her power?

“You will not enter the Keep.” The power left her voice, but steel laced her tone. “I will never let mages like you get near it.” She pulled Silka closer, the cat nuzzling her, and pain went through Lukas at the loss. “You don’t even understand what a true mage’s power is.”

Lukas stepped back. He had made an enormous mistake.

Rylan’s power flared, and somewhere above them, distantly, his phoenix shrieked. It sounded pained. “Don’t speak to your betters that way, girl!” he spat. Silka’s ears went flat against her skull, and she bared her fangs. The gryphon stepped forward, sharpened talons digging into the dirt. “The wards are gone. You think you, a mere child, can keep me out?”

He moved a hand and fire magic weaved around his arm. Behind it, a spell formed, one that Lukas recognized. It would bend magical creatures, human or otherwise, to his will. “I was controlling beasts since before you were born!”

Lukas met the girl’s eyes. Danger, he wanted to say, but kept silent. She knew.

“Then good luck with it,” she spoke. The earth shook again, dirt and dust raining from all around him. The servant girl’s power flared, higher and more controlled than any power Lukas had ever known, and Rylan’s light vanished in a roar.

“Rylan!” Lukas shouted.

“Don’t move!” The girl’s voice froze him in his tracks, his heart pounding and sweat dripping down his neck. The air underground had grown warm, almost hot.

A steady light grew, a more stable, brighter light than Rylan’s had been. It illuminated an enormous hole where Rylan had once stood, where dirt still rained as though it were water flowing out of a hole in a bucket.

“If he wants to find the castle so badly, he can venture through the caves as I did,” the girl spoke. Her gaze and voice spoke volumes about how much she believed that was possible. “If he wants riches so badly, he can find them alone.”

Shaking, Lukas looked up. The girl regarded him steadily. The gryphon-no, her gryphon-sat by her feet, its head cocked. The crystalwing flicked a gem studded tail.

Lukas stared at the dirt ground, the grains a pale yellow in the face of the girl’s light. A servant girl. She was familiar to him, the way all servants were, but he knew little about her. She cared for Silka, sometimes. She cleaned rooms. But he didn’t know her name. And now she held more power over him than he had ever had in his entire life.

He wondered if Vila would miss him. Vila, waiting at the camp for news of riches and wealth.

“What…what will you do with me?”

He looked up at the sound of more dirt raining to the ground. Silka had leapt from the girl’s arms, and the temple cat approached him, her purple eyes narrowed.

Lukas stared at the ground, eyes screwed shut. He had abandoned her. He had nearly let her be killed. And Silka, who he had always though of as a stupid creature who had to be tamed and controlled, knew it. She was aware of it.

The realization hit him harder than anything the girl could ever do.

Silka meowed. He opened his eyes, and was greeted with a soft paw slap across the face. There were no claws.

Then Silka nuzzled him, once, before turning back to the girl and leaping into her arms.
“It seems you’re forgiven,” the girl said.

Lukas sank to the ground, stunned, even more certain than before that he had made a terrible mistake. He wasn’t worthy of Silka, or any creature. He never would be.

“I’m going to leave you here, Lukas,” the girl said. “But there is a tunnel just past here that leads to the surface. You will go home. Back to the mansion.”

Lukas just nodded.

“The castle…the Keep…I will protect it. The wards may be gone, but I will protect it with just as much ferocity as they did. If you know anyone like Rylan, tell them that.”

“I will.”

“And if you meet anyone like me,” she said. “With magic they don’t understand, powers they can’t control, or those who just like creatures and want to know more about them…” she smiled, almost sad, and patted Silka on the head. Her gryphon chirped. “Send them to me. To Renna.”

“I will,” Lukas said. “I promise.”


Epilogue


It was two years before Lukas kept his promise.

Chill air rushed through the threads of her robes as Star wheeled in midair and headed back down toward the castle. Winter had just ended, and ice still sparkled in places where the afternoon sun didn’t reach.

Skyla hovered just out of range of Star’s beating wings, the crystalwing twisting and turning and flying circles around them both. Closing her eyes, Renna could sense Silka, the older creature curled up warm on a carpet in front of the fire.

Star landed on the parapet of the tower. Renna leapt from her back, and the gryphon’s talons clicked on stone as she followed Renna inside.

In two years, Renna had made parts of the drafty, ancient castle inhabitable. It had involved numerous trips home, and she smiled at the memory of her mother, eyes wide with shock, the first time she had arrived in front of the house on Star’s back.

Gloria had brought her gifts every time she visited her mother’s house. Fabrics, threads, linens…all of them decorated the slowly evolving castle. Red carpeting lined the floors, and tapestries hung from the walls. Renna’s room, stark save for the ancient books that had been left behind, hummed with warmth.

Silka got up from her place and twined around Renna’s legs. Renna smiled, patting the creature’s head. Silka mewed happily.

But for all her creatures, all her studies and knowledge and her command to Lukas, no one had visited, and when she visited her old home, they stared at her with wide eyes and spoke in whispers. Magic was too foreign for them.

Renna understood. She still remembered the fear she had once held of it. Her life had changed in one night, but no one else’s hand. She still did not quite understand it at times, how it had all happened. All because she wanted to save Star.

But when she closed her eyes, she could see the ancient mage who had built this place, and see his creatures, their magic evident in every swirl of stone and rush of the stream that wound beneath her window. She could still remember the moment his knowledge had filled her-knowledge of air and stone, of all the creatures he had once known and their names.

No one else, save her, understood magic the way he had. She was the only one.

“It’s awfully lonely here, isn’t it Silka?” Renna said.

In response Silka leapt to the window, mewing loudly and pawing at the glass. Renna leaned forward.

A small form on horseback rode down the mountain path that Lukas and Rylan had once traveled. Renna could sense the young girl’s magic from here, the girl’s power uncontrolled and shaky.

With a grin, Renna watched as the girl rode to the edge of the stream and paused to stare into its depths. Star squawked from the hallway, the gryphon’s green eyes bright.

The ancient mage’s words echoed. Teach others.

“Go, Star,” Renna said. “Go greet our new arrival.” The gryphon ran to the window and leapt, spreading wide wings.

Renna smiled, patting Silka and turned away from the window. Skyla flittered around her head, then settled on her shoulder.

The first master of the Keep headed out to greet her first student.

[LightningDragon]

Raneth, you write such wonderful stories. I love it, as always, even though it has to end.