Frances was most afraid that when she opened the mirror, she would see Edana angry, or worse, disappointed.

When Edana’s face swam into view on the shining surface, Frances blinked.

“Hello, my dear student. You must be wondering where I am at.”

The dear student nodded because her teacher was sitting by the window of what had to be some kind of tower. It was overlooking a magnificent white-washed, red-roofed palace surrounded by a great city.

“This is Erisdale. The capital of my kingdom. But—” her smile faded slightly “—you didn’t call me because you wanted to learn about geography did you?”

“No, Master.” Frances swallowed and began to tell her teacher what had happened. How she had gone to Jessica and Leila that day. What she planned to do, and how she felt the moment she had snapped at them.

Edana listened without speaking. Unlike the others Frances had told her story to, she gave no emotion away.

The dark-haired woman only moved when Frances was finished, and it was to gingerly pinch the bridge of her nose.

“Oh wow, Frances, that… that’s quite a story.” The morose Frances nodded, watching her teacher look thoughtfully off the side of the mirror. Edana pursed her lips. “How do you feel about this, Frances?”

How did she feel? Frances frowned. She felt strongly about what she had done, but until Edana had asked that question, she didn’t realize just how many different emotions she was feeling.

“I feel terrible for what I did.”

Seeing her hunch had been correct, Edana smiled. “But that’s not the only thing you feel.”

Her student shook her head. “No. I’m… confused, and scared. How… why did I even think this was a good thing? I didn’t even like hitting them. All I could see was… was me being beaten.”

“But you wanted to, before?” Edana inquired, not sharply, but in a gently curious voice.

Frances gave a hesitant nod.

The tall mage gave her student a reassuring smile. “That’s not surprising, Frances. Now, I won’t pretend to have all the answers, but I have some ideas as to why you acted this way.”

Frances nodded and swallowed. “You’re not punishing me?”

Edana didn’t speak at first, and her smile wavered. “I’ll answer your question with another question, my dear student, but I do have a point to make.” She leaned forward. “What do you think is the point of punishment?”

“To make things right?” Frances replied. But she felt something seemed off about what she said. It seemed like the answer that would have satisfied her parents, but not the right one—or at least, the answer Edana was looking for.

Sure enough, Edana tilted her head in thought. “... in a sense, but should punishment not teach the offender to not do what they did wrong in the first place?” She watched her student’s eyes widen at the question. This was good, but also a bit sad.

Edana had expected such a result after all. She knew that her student’s parents had beat into her the idea that she deserved the “punishment” she received. It thus made a tragic amount of sense why Frances’s concept of punishment was retributive rather than corrective.

When Frances finally gave a firm nod, Edana continued. “So yes, I am punishing you, Frances, but I’m going to do so in a way that will help you avoid what you did today. And as to how we shall achieve that, let me explain why I think you lashed out at Jessica and Leila.”

Frances nodded, though, Edana noticed that her student was frowning in thought.“I am guessing that you think you started hitting them because of how they hurt you?”

Frances nodded again, though, she frowned at how her master stated the question. What did she mean by “you think you started hitting them?”

“As you know, though, I’ve been doing some reading about how children are taught.” Edana had now gotten up from the windowsill and was pacing around the room, one hand holding on to her hand mirror. Frances could see her mentor was getting excited, coming alive, as she always seemed to do when she was teaching her.

And although Frances didn’t notice, Edana, Elizabeth and Martin all could see Frances lean forward toward the mirror, listening with rapt attention.

“I think that while your anger had some part to play in it, you lashed out because you were taught to do so.”

“Wait, you mean my parents taught me to do this?” Frances asked, feeling an odd shiver run over her. Yet, Edana’s explanation flashed in her head like a lightbulb going off.

“And Jessica and Leila, to some extent.” Edana bit her lip, as sorrow ran through her heart. “Frances… when your parents and your bullies hit you, they did so because it made them feel better, and to control you. They didn’t succeed in that latter part because I know you don’t like hurting anybody without good reason. But when you saw your bullies again, well, you saw they hadn’t changed, you felt so angry at them for what they did to you, you knew that you had control over them, but they defied your authority—”

“So I did what I was taught to do.” Frances whispered. The whole picture dawned over her, suddenly numbing her senses. She barely could feel the mirror in her hand. “But… what does this mean, Master?” She winced. The question was very vague and she immediately regretted asking it, but it felt like a question she needed to ask.

Thankfully, Edana only smiled. She knew why her student had asked that question. “It means, Frances, you are not your parents or your bullies. For what is learned can be unlearned. And it took a very specific series of circumstances before you snapped.”

“So… what I did was wrong—” Frances blinked and shook her head “—wait, not everything I did was wrong, but… instead of getting frustrated with Jessica and Leila, I should have let someone like Igraine of my concerns and my feelings regarding them and asked for their help.”

“Exactly. However, you cannot always remove yourself from such a situation. That is why, after this mission, I’m going to have you join me at the White Order’s Erlenberg station after this mission as my personal secretary and research assistant. It’ll be frustrating and stressful, but you will find yourself in a controlled environment with plenty of opportunities for you to get some much-needed rest.”

Frances nodded. It seemed like it was what she needed. A way for her to practice managing her anger, and she’d be doing it with her Master. That, and while perhaps it wasn’t Edana’s intention, it did feel like a punishment to be removed from the frontlines.

She blinked and frowned. “Wait, Master, are you grounding me?”

Edana tilted her head, confused. “What do you mean by “grounding”?”

“Uh, grounding means to limit someone’s activities to remind them not to do something wrong again,” Frances explained.

Edana chuckled, “I suppose you can say that. But I think you aren’t going to lose your temper in that way ever again, isn’t that right, my dear student?”

Frances nodded fervently, the feeling of disgust from hitting Jessica and Leila still fresh in her mind.

“Then a “grounding” is all there will be, Frances.” Edana sat back down by the windowsill, pacing done. “Do you have any questions, my dear student?”

Frances nodded and pursed her lips. “Master, before I—before I did what I did, I shared my feelings with Ivy’s Sting and… we didn’t disagree on what had to be done. Why is that?”

Now it was Edana’s turn to look surprised. A deep frown crinkling her features, she shut her eyes.

“Frances, the minds of Named Wands are fickle and hard to understand. It is not my area of expertise. From what I know of Ivy Sting, she has a history that shares much with yours. I think that that shared history, that shared trauma, also blinded her to the nature of your actions, especially since both of you share a very close relationship.”

“... Oh. That makes sense.” Frances sighed. “I think I need to apologize to her as well.”

“A good idea, Frances.” Her teacher cocked her head. “By the way, and forgive me for indulging in my curiosity, has Ivy’s Sting informed you of her special ability or affinity yet?”

Frances shook her head. “No. Though, I have not felt the need to ask. She seems to trust me and I’m alright with that.”

“Oh, that’s fine. I do not wish to infringe on the trust between you and your wand. I’m just curious because well, we’ve been looking into Ivy Sting’s history together and I’ve kept up that research. Except… I can’t actually find any record of her or her maker.”

“That’s odd. Doesn’t almost every Named Wand have a record? Perhaps the wizard you took Ivy’s Sting from lied?” Frances asked.

“True, but Ivy’s Sting told me her name. It’s the only thing she ever told me.” Edana shook her head. “I’ll keep searching. In the meantime, do you have any other questions?”

“Well, not about this, Master, but about the siege.” Frances swallowed. “What would be the best way to take out those cannons?”

It only took a brief moment for Edana to recall something from her long years of experience. “My first thought is to have the whole attack take place at night. That would take advantage of the orcs not being able to see well at night. However, Igraine is going to have to rappel down the cliff and darkness will make things difficult.”

“Then we will have to suppress or obstruct their vision,” Frances whispered. The question was how. None of their mages had the power to obstruct the field of view of the cannons.

Edana nodded. “How many mages do you have under your command, my dear student?”

“Including myself, fifteen Otherworlders about Journeymen level.”

“Oh. You could do a group casting then. Have half of you call up a mist and the other half call up a wind to blow the mist into the walls.” Edana smiled as she watched Frances’s face light up in realization. “It will obstruct your vision.”

“But as long as we can get close we can then suppress their battlements and even knock out their cannons.” Frances’s hand slapped against her face. “Oh, I should have thought of that.”

“Your only fault was not asking Igraine for advice, Frances.” Edana reached out to her mirror and stopped, blushing sheepishly. “You are only fifteen, Frances. And no matter how old you are, it is not wrong to ask for help when you feel like you need it. You just shouldn’t force people to help you.”

Nodding, Frances smiled, her heart feeling a lot less tight, and her shoulders loosening.

“Master, thank you.” She swallowed. “Love you.”

“Love you too. I know you will succeed in taking Freeburg.” With that, Edana instinctively blew a kiss and waved it through the mirror, before closing it.

Frances didn’t watch her Master’s image fade away. She was already turning to her friends, a determined smile on her lips.

“We have a spell to practice casting.”