The next morning, when Cora woke up, Harry was still sleeping. They'd stayed up until dawn talking about a thousand useless and inconsequential things, and she was quite certain they'd slept through breakfast. Her stomach rumbled, so she went downstairs too look for something to eat.

She stole bread with jam from the kitchen and sat in Iris's company as she helped her mend one of her dresses, that was shredded at the hip. Oden was sitting on the carpet in front of the fireplace, reading a book in the shifting red light of the fire. Thalia was in the garden, training the anger from yesterday out of her body, and they didn't see her for hours.

Harry came down for lunch; despite all the hours he'd slept, he still seemed exhausted. Cora wondered if it had something to do with the iron ring he'd worn for hours the day before. He went back to his room after lunch, and she went with him. She recounted her adventure from yesterday, leaving out Ives and the guards, and the mysterious fay meeting her eyes. Like the day before, he didn't get mad, and only commented here and there when she was narrating the way she'd created steps out of ice, following Thalia's advice.

By the time the early afternoon came around, Harry's tiredness got the best of him again. Cora got up from the bed and picked a book from the secret library section about water magic before going down to the dining room.

There was no trace of the lunch they'd had and no one was around, so she put the book on the table and sat on a chair, opening it to the first page and scanning the index to find something interesting to read.

Sudden flames burst from the three candles on the table, and Cora jolted.

"I'm getting better and better, have you seen?"

She turned around. Oden was standing behind her, playing with the wooden sphere he always carried around. Every time he threw it in the air, it took another shape. First a rose, with petals so red and fragile it seemed unbelievable that it wasn't real. Then a butterfly, then a hummingbird, then a ball of transparent ice. Cora watched it reflect the light of the flames until its surface was wood again.

He put it on the table and sat in front of her. Cora couldn't resist and picked the sphere up. It wasn't cold nor wet. It'd been an effortless glamour. In her hands, it turned back into a butterfly and flied into Oden's open palms. The flame of the candles shone brighter, spreading the warmth of real fire through the dining room.

"You haven't showed anyone else, have you?" she asked, and he shook his head.

"Of course I haven't. I know it's weird."

Cora nodded. She'd seen Harry control more than one element time and time again, but it was Harry. She expected him to do things that seemed nearly impossible, because it was somewhat ingrained in him. He'd always been the skilled magician, the one everyone chose to follow—no one expected him not to do things that were out of the ordinary. Oden, on the other hand, was just a child. There was no explanation as to why he was able to do what he did—he hadn't always been naturally skilled at magic. When she'd first met him he could hardly control his ability, air.

Either controlling more than one element was more common than Cora believed, or his abilities should be kept a secret so they wouldn't be noticed by the Orders, or anyone that could wish to hurt him.

Steps came towards the dining room, and the butterfly turned back into a wooden sphere. With a flick of her hand, Cora turned off the three candles. Water drops fell on the table, and she dried them up with her sleeve just as Raven entered the room.

He seemed relieved to find her. "Miss Cora, I was wondering if I could talk to you."

She tensed up. "What is it?"

He sent a glance in Oden's direction. "I was hoping we could do it somewhere else?"

She stood up and followed him out of the room. He took her through the house in quick steps. Suddenly she realised he was about to take her outside, and she stopped.

"What—"

"This way." He opened the front door and slid out.

She debated what to do for some moments, and then she walked out as well. The ice that had collected over the clearing during the night creaked under her feet, and her breath drew clouds in the air. She'd never felt a cold so sharp before.

Raven walked to the stables, and she followed him. He stopped next to the door and told her to go inside. After a moment of hesitation, she did.

There was a familiar man at the end of the stables, a hand on the wooden wall, a half-suspicious gaze in the direction of the nearest horse. Saiph munched on hay, staring back at him with her big, dark eyes.

"Ives?"

He stepped away, the hem of his peculiar golden cloak hovering over the ground by one inch. When she'd worn it the day before it'd slid on the ground and it'd been stained by the dirt of the roads, but he was much taller than she was, and there was no trace of mud on it now. "We didn't finish talking yesterday," he said.

Cora regarded him with a careful look. "You said you had a meeting to get to. How did it go?"

"The Solstice Council went as well as it could be expected," he replied. "Unsurprisingly, things have grown considerably unstable over the past year, and the Orders' relationship with the crown is currently strained. For the first time in a hundred years, we might have to oppose the king to do what is expected of us. Well, of them."

Cora frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Ives pulled up a thin chain around his neck, and a pendant slid out of the hem of his cloak. It was a medallion, a little bigger than a coin, with an engraving of a leaf and the sea encased in a circle of wind, the symbol of the Mother. "I suppose you've seen this before?" he asked her, studying her reaction carefully. "I don't know if you know it as the Mother, as humans do, or as Nature, as fays do. But that's irrelevant, because it's neither. This is the symbol of the Lux System. See how, if you look carefully, you can see the shape of a sun as well in it?"

He took it off and lifted it in Cora's direction. She took the pendant as it swung in front of her eyes; he didn't let it go.

"The Lux System?" Her finger slid over the peculiar engraving. She'd seen it countless times, yet she'd never stopped to wonder at it. Had the explanations she'd been given compelling enough, or had she never thought something so familiar could be different from how it seemed? Lately, that seemed to be her biggest flaw.

"It's the law our world abides by. It's what the Order was created to protect."

She let go of it and looked up at him. "The flow of energy?"

Ives put it back under his cloak. "Correct," he said. "We live in a constant cycle of energy. We cannot take from the world without giving, just as energy can't be destroyed nor created. This is the rule we are made to follow. When the natural flow of energy is disrupted, the System fails."

"What would happen then?"

"It could be anything ranging from the creation of monsters of runaway magic to the destruction of our world as we know it." His dark eyebrows furrowed, and he glanced down. There was some hay at his feet. "Escaped magic can be quite dark and unpredictable, you see. It's why the Lux System exists. And it's why we exist. The Order of Lux was  created to protect the System at any cost. The Order of Diei and the Order of Noctis are part of it, and so are the Inner Circles."

"What are the Inner Circles?"

Ives tilted his head. "I believe humans knew them as the Ancient Order; the term Ancient Religion comes from there. Nevertheless, they never quite understood what it was doing, and they've never bothered with telling them."

"I've never heard of the Ancient Order."

"They've since retired from the world. The Inner Circles are highly selective, the Order of Diei is their eyes, and the Order of Noctis their hands."

Cora considered his words carefully. "That sounds ominous."

Ives shrugged. "I'd say it isn't meant to be, but it would be a lie." He gave her a penetrating glance, and the tone of his voice dropped. "What I've just told you is highly confidential. Do not mention the Lux System with anyone if you don't want to attract the wrong kind of attention."

The sky outside was starting to darken, and Cora crossed her arms to keep warm. She wished she'd taken a coat before leaving the house, now. "Harry knows about it."

Ives gave her an unnerved smile. "No, he does not."

"He's mentioned the Orders and energy before." Though she did not remember him ever telling her about a third one.

"That's not the same thing," he replied fast. There was a sound coming from the door and his head snapped up, but he relaxed visibly when he saw it was only Raven. He waited until he'd left and continued. "The flow of energy is part of the Lux System, but the System itself is so much more." He sighed. "We're yet to figure out just how deep its roots run into our world; our only certainty is that it can't fail." A thought came over him, and he tensed up. "I know your loyalties lie with Harry, but I must ask you not to tell him anything of this. And about my visit, too. As you know, things are quite... complicated, between us."

"Why?"

Ives gave her a shrug. "We used to be quite... close. But we had a disagreement, and we haven't seen eye to eye since."

"What about?" Cora asked, but then he moved and the golden shade of his coat-cloak hit the light of the candles, and she understood. "It's about the Order, isn't it?" Harry despised the Orders. She couldn't even imagine the argument one of his friends choosing to join them had caused.

"It is," he replied. "He's never quite understood my reasoning. I've tried to explain it to him countless times, but he's never been willing to listen to me."

"He thinks the Orders are awful. Everyone does, in fact. Iris is scared of you." There was a faint accusing edge in her voice, one she noticed only a moment too late. Maybe, their resentment was her own, too. She could still remember the awful stories she'd been told.

"The Orders are..." Ives's voice faded. "They have a quite extreme way to go about it. As you must know by now, I do not agree with them."

Cora raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know they allow different opinions in their midst."

"They don't."

"There's a lot of things they don't know about you, then," she commented. "What would happen if they knew about you?"

"You mean, if they knew I can turn into a bird? I'd be killed. As would anyone they'd believe to be putting the flow of magic at risk."

Cora gave him a confused look. "How does you turning into a bird endanger the flow of magic?"

"It doesn't." He glanced out of the window, as if he were checking to see how long he had left. "Changing form isn't a regular type of magic, as there's no energy shift nor bargain. It all stays the same, only my shape is changed. Naturally, they do not care. They're only normal people in fancy clothes after all, and they get scared just as easily."

"Scared?"

"Of losing control," Ives explained. "The control they have over our world is frightening. I'd go as far as to say the Inner Circles are the closest thing fays have to a royal family."

Cora was suddenly intrigued. A royal family, held together not by bonds of blood but of power, that had influence all over the fay world. And, according to Ives, with crumbling bonds to the human crown. Maybe that was exactly what they needed to go against Soren. The Order of Lux could be enough to mobilise every fay in Andar against the throne, if the king truly wished to be at war. They could be their key to win. "And does this royal family of sorts have a head?" she couldn't help but ask.

"There's no way to tell. The higher you look up in the ranks, the less you find." Ives narrowed his eyes. "If you're asking because you're thinking what I think you are, let me dissuade you now. The Order of Lux isn't to be meddled with. You call it to war, you won't be able to control it—you won't even know whom you're fighting with, or against."

"It was only a thought," Cora defended herself.

"A foolish one, too." He looked at the window again and frowned. "Am I hearing things, or is someone coming?"

Cora listened carefully. Beyond the doors of the stables, she could hear the rustle of frosted pine needles in the wind, like a thousand icicles clashing against one another, the faraway cry of some bird that had forgotten to fly south, and, in the background, the soft echo of ice being compressed under a weight. "Someone's coming."

"Well, it looks like the time for conversations is over." Ives moved towards the window on the other side of the stables, but Cora grabbed the warm yellow fabric of his cloak.

"When are you coming back?"

"I'll come to you as a crow," he replied fast, "it's easier that way."

"But I like talking to you in person."

"I quite like it too. It's nice to wear clothes. You know, you'd think the whole standing in front of a person naked awkwardness would go away when I'm covered in feathers, but that's not the case."

Cora's mouth fell open and her cheeks blushed red. Ives took advantage of her surprise to open the window. A cold wind blew in, and a sudden thought came back to her. "Wait!"

He turned to look at her. "What?" There was a slight rush in his movements, and she could tell he was counting the seconds that separated them from the person bursting into the stables.

"Does the Order consider controlling more than one... thing, unnatural?"

Ives gave her a long look. "Yes, according to their beliefs, Harry is illicit, if that's what you're asking." He shot her a smile. "Don't worry though, they don't know." He hopped out of the window and disappeared between the trees.

A moment later the doors burst open.

"I see he took his cloak back," a voice said. "It's a shame. You could've sold it in the city, the Orders' clothes are wonderfully expensive."

Cora spun around and let out a relieved sigh when she discovered that Thalia, and not anyone else, was standing behind her. She didn't bother trying to make up a lie—it was pointless to lie to her. She would always find out. "How did you know we were here?"

"I made an educated guess."

More like read the truth in the fabric of the universe, Cora thought.

"Besides, Ives has always been quite predictable to me." There was a pause of silence. "Well, more than others. It's easy to spot his patterns when you're looking for them."

"You seem to know him quite well." Cora closed the window with a click and walked out of the stables, Thalia already beside her. The cold hit her arms and she folded them again, trying to fight the chill. Her breath was rising in front of her in puffs, and she could feel the frost of the earth under her feet in her soul.

"Of course I do," the other replied, "I raised him."

Cora spun towards her. "You raised Ives?"

Thalia nodded. "Ives and Raven. I thought it was obvious." She looked up at the dark mansion against the frosted landscape. "They're not my children, since you're wondering. But I did raise them."

"They're brothers?"

"As if they were," she replied. She'd stopped walking, now. "Raven was brought to me when he was but one, after a minor battle in my area. I looked for his family but couldn't find it, so I raised him myself. Ives came around when he was eight or nine, I believe. I never discovered what brought him to the foolish decision of trying to steal from me, though he did almost succeed, with his little crow trick." She frowned, and for the first time, Cora saw the tendrils of a real, though well-hidden, emotion in her eyes. "I don't know where he came from, still. He's never told me anything about his life before he came across me, though it has to have been significant. He kept running away, sometimes it would take months for him to come back home. That's how he met Harry, too. Harry and that little team of his."

Cora regarded her with a curious look. "What kind of team?"

"Ah." There was a faint smile on her face, a nostalgic, somewhat sad one. "That's not my story to tell."

Cora wanted to ask more questions, but Thalia started towards the house, cutting their conversation short.

When they stepped inside, she was surprised to find out that Harry's stars were off and the fay in question was walking towards them. His hair was dishevelled, as if he'd brushed his fingers through it a thousand times.

"Where were you?" he asked. "I've looked for you everywhere."

"We were having a walk outside," Thalia stated before Cora could open her mouth. "The ice is lovely, even though it's already melting. It's a misfortune we're so far from the cold north, we could've had a solstice from fairytales."

Harry wasn't reassured by her words. He neared the closest window and gave one long look outside. "You shouldn't have gone out," he said sharply. "What if someone had seen you?"

"It's never..." Cora's voice died out when she finally realised what the meaning of his stars not being on was. "The defences of the house aren't up right now."

The glance Harry sent her was enough to tell her she was right. "I still haven't regained my magic, and no one else has the skill to keep up a glamour of that size."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Cora wasn't hurt, just confused. She thought they were past him trying to keep her safe without telling her all there was for her to know.

"I didn't want you to worry."

Thalia gave him a cold look. "Naturally," she muttered, "this wouldn't be a problem if you hadn't so recklessly put an iron ring around your finger."

Harry's thumb scratched the barely visible circle around his pointer finger. At that point, Cora was quite certain the mark would never leave his body. "I had things to do, and I thought it wiser—"

"You didn't want me to know and stop you," Thalia interrupted him. "Say it for what it is, Harry."

"Maybe I wouldn't have had to if you'd stopped crowding me continuously," he bit back.

"Maybe I wouldn't have to if you—" She abruptly stopped and left the room with a scoff. Harry watched her go, a tense edge in his posture.

He waited a long moment after she was gone, until he could no longer hear her steps up the stairs, and then looked at Cora and cleared his throat. "Just don't go out for the next few days. I can't keep everyone safe until my magic comes back."

She nodded.

"Did anyone see you yesterday?" he asked, pulling the curtain. "Anyone that could recognise you?"

Cora thought about that other fay, of the way she'd looked at her from the window. But it's been dark, and she'd never seen her before. "No."

Harry seemed relieved. "Good. One less problem."

"One less?"

He hummed. "I might've angered them yesterday."

A weight dropped on Cora's chest. "Why?"

"I don't know," he replied. "We'll see."

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! x
Miki