cont..... ( a/n I can't remember any Circle Universe mages are/were strong enough to fly, so....)
The novices backed out of the altar room and left the cottage. Isas clicked the door shut behind them, then took Niva's hand and began to run along the temple road again. He ran down the main road, and Niva followed.
A cluster of large, dark buildings loomed up ahead. Niva looked up as she ran past. It was the Air dormitories. They were made of white and pink granite that glittered in the moonlight. Silvery magic washed over the walls and Niva paused to look. Someone had taken the time to carve signs for movement and wind into the stone, so the crystalline rock appeared to swirl like eddying wind.
Isas stopped and looked back at Niva. "It's incredible isn't it? I wonder who did it. I asked First Dedicate Whitewing once, but she didn't know. I think it's been here for a long time."
Niva nodded. "It looks old." She stood up and dusted off her skirts. "Where were we going?"
"This way." Isas led her along a dirt path that disappeared into a copse of maple trees. They walked along the path, which was silent but for the maples whispering in the night. They let moonlight dapple the ground and camouflage everything beneath their boughs.
Isas stopped suddenly and Niva nearly crashed into him again. He gestured to a towering tree with thick bark, surrounded by a thorny raspberry bush. "This is it." He walked around to the far side of the tree, and Niva saw a rough wooden ladder had been built onto the tree. Isas draped one hand over a rung. "Ladies first."
Niva gripped a rung above her head and began to climb. After a moment she could hear Isas starting up after her. She looked down at him and immediately wished she hadn't. The ground seemed far below and the raspberry bush looked much smaller than she remembered. Niva gasped and began to breath faster.
"My dear, look in front of you and keep climbing. I won't let you fall. I'm an Air mage, if you remember, and I could catch you before you even knew you fell off."
Niva took a deep breath and began climbing up the tree again. Cold sweat slicked her back and her hands shook. She raised her left hand to grip the next rung, only to discover there wasn't a piece of wood. "Isas!" she called, trying not to sound panicked. "There's a rung missing!"
"You've climbed to the end of the ladder, Niva. Come back down a little bit and there's a platform to stand on. You must not have seen it."
Niva edged down a few feet, and sure enough, Isas was standing on a large, wooden platform that wrapped around the tree. "Oh." She reached her arm out towards the other novice and he pulled her onto the platform. He walked to the other side of the platform and pushed a maple branch away from their faces.
"Look, Niva."
She gazed out across the temple, which was bathed in silver moonlight. The glass in the Hub clock gleamed with light and the sea seemed to be molten silver. "It's beautiful."
"I wanted you to see it. I've come up here a lot. . . . to think and study. I wanted you to see it before our dedication, because. . . . well, it seems like we're on the same side now and I'm afraid that it won't be like that later."
"Yeah, I understand I think." Niva looked out. "Have you chosen your name now?"
"No." Isas glanced at her. "Maybe we could help each other. Tell me what I remind you of and I'll tell you."
Niva grinned. "A heron or a crane. One of those long-legged things that dances around everywhere. Everyone thinks they're so graceful, but I saw a heron once, and it just looked awkward, rather unbalanced. But then it started moving and it flew and I understood. It was graceful when it did what it lived for. That's what you're like. A rather awkward lordling who happily dissects perfumes and diseases."
Isas laughed warmly. "Is that how you see me? I never thought of myself that way." He traced the maple's bark with one finger. "You're like a thorn-"
"A thorn? Like a thorn in your foot?" Niva pretended to look hurt.
"No! A thorn like the kind on a rose or a raspberry. Roses and raspberries are pretty and sweet, respectively, and they have thorns guarding them. You're like the rose, pretty and wonderful, but you have sharp thorns that jab people who are stupid enough to say that."
"I like that," Niva said. "Rose's thorn or Berrythorn. Heron or Crane or Awkward Lordling," she giggled.
Isas smiled as the Hub clock chimed the hours. "Asaia, it's late!" He grabbed Niva's wrist as she turned back to the ladder. "I have a better way down. Just promise not to scream." He laid a finger across Niva's lips and she nodded. Isas in front of her. "Put your arms around my waist and follow me. Don't let go." Niva pulled her novice's robe back over her head, then held Isas tightly.
He stepped forward, off the platform and into thin air. Niva opened her mouth and gasped out a prayer.
"Mila save me!"
Wind howled past the novices and stung their eyes as they fell through the air. Tears dripped from Niva's eyes and rose up past her face. The silvery ground drew nearer and nearer.
Isas is trying to kill both of us, Niva thought. She began to call upon the green strength inside her, to tell the great maple tree to wrap its branches around her and Isas and break their fall.
Suddenly, a great burst of golden magic enveloped them and the air around. Isas stretched out his arms and they slowed to a speed barely faster than a trot. They stopped falling downwards and instead soared forwards, over the cottages and workshops of Winding Circle.
Niva stared, awestruck, as the temple unfolded beneath her. She could see dedicates sleeping in their cottages. One man, dark-skinned and clothed only in leather breeches, worked in the red glow of a forge. His arm rose and fell over an anvil. Then he was behind Niva and she looked elsewhere.
She could see an old stone building drawing near. It was the Earth dormitory.
Isas slowed even more, and stopped over the flowerbeds just outside the building. He and Niva drifted down and settled in the dirt. Niva curled her toes into the soil.
"Isas, that was. . . . incredible. I've never seen anything like it."
The other novice was bent over, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. "Did you enjoy it?" he asked.
Niva stared at him. "Enjoy it? That was the most amazing thing I've done in my life! I loved it."
He looked up. "I'm glad. I've. . . . well, I've been practicing for a while." He blushed. "Actually, a really long time. Since Lightsbridge." He straightened up and stepped through the flowers to the window set in the stone wall. He peered in. "This is your dorm room, right?"
Niva moved next to him. She looked through the glass. Dedicate Silverleaf was still asleep, mouth open with one hand trailing along the floor. Niva grinned. "Yeah, this is it."
Isas slid his fingers into the crack between the window and the wall and pulled the window open. He bowed with a flourish. "Fair dreams, my dear." He held out his hand and helped Niva climb back into her room.
She was about to shut the window again when he said "Niva."
"Yes?"
He drew her hand towards him and slid something into it, before pushing her hand closed. "For luck tomorrow." Then he was gone, disappearing into the night again.
Niva latched the window and sat on the edge of her bed and opened her hand. A gleaming necklace lay in her palm. It was in the shape of a four petaled flower; four small, deep blue-green petals held a small purple gem in their center. Two sets of metal loops wrapped the outside of the petals, one set matched and the other was gold. It all hung on a thin, dark violet cord that was barely thicker than a few threads. Niva surreptitiously pulled on it; it was stronger than it appeared.
She flipped it over to examine the back. There was a shallow bubble. Niva held the necklace closer to her eye and realized the bubble was part of a cleverly concealed locket. She edged her fingernail into the locket's seam, flipped it open, and pulled out a piece of parchment.
This, my dear, is in the shape of a Mila flower. They are grown in Olart by many people for luck and happiness. My father's people have flowers for most every god and goddess, but the Mila flower has been my favorite. I believe you'll dedicate yourself to Mila and the Green Man, so it is also the most appropriate. Best wishes, Isas.
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