When Cara finally was able to leave the carrier behind her she had a head filled with problems that needed solving. The first month of winter was nearly done and she had gotten absolutely nowhere with Michael, the teacher was interfering with any attempts she made to talk to the boy. To add to things he did not seem to be making any progress, otherwise she would have considered going to the university with him and work on him there,far from any disturbing influences.

Bartholomew would need to be notified about the conversation she had overheard as well, in a way that would not alert the spies among their servants…

What they needed was something the two of them could do away from prying eyes without raising any suspicion. The house was already busy when she got there, servants running around carrying cloth, twine, threads and jewels. Cara closed her eyes, Angela would need to take over.

Excited about the commotion and an entire evening spent with Michael Angela searched for her father among all the moving people inside their house, she found him in his little workshop, working on a long dress, the shoulders were being stuffed by him. Angela wondered what strange idea her father had this time.

“Oh, great, you are here sweety. Would you mind lending me a hand for the great ball next month? Our sponsors have requested full new set of clothes and I am terribly behind on them… I promise you the finest materials for your own dress in return… even a bit of gold thread if you should need it.” There was a pleading tone in his voice his eyes seemed to slightly tremble as he looked at her, Saulus was in a lot of trouble.

Angela frowned, she had hoped for a bit of time for herself, but making her own dress with a bit of gold thread was tempting, the metal thread was incredibly hard to make and very expensive.

“Alright father, I shall help you, can you have a bit of tea brought up?” She sat down on one of the chairs in the workshop, it was uncomfortable.

“Dragons beware no, the servants are all busy completing a number of tasks for me, I am afraid none of them will be able to help us on this. Saulus pointed with his index finger on his wrist, that was a signal… but Cara was not completely sure which one though.

“It means we are alone now Cara… I thought I told you to memorize all of them so you would never forget any… He sighed, the playful act he had put on at the beginning melted away like ice to close to a fire.” Cara relaxed and Angela pouted at the idea of not being in control for the evening, something about fixing her hair.

Bartholomew watched her with his intense eyes, a slight frown appearing for a second and then vanishing when he noticed her staring back at him.

“You should be careful about splitting yourself like this… Some people never get their inner peace back after a break like that.” Cara’s eyes widened, he couldn’t know!

He said nothing after that and she decided it was at the time the topic was changed.

It seems like some of the mercenaries managed to attack and defeat our scouts at the northern pass.” Satisfied she watched the eyes of her mentor grow wide, he had been gunning for information like that for weeks now.

“How do you know this?” Bartholomew asked cooly, concern in his voice, the man thought he needed to protect her after all.

“A meeting at the mansion, only got a a couple of words but it should be enough to appease the worried snots in Blackriver, Oh and it seems like there is someone else pulling some strings in Goldhill, someone other than Torsten… I couldn’t identify him though.” Cara stood up and began pacing in the room, the dress was uncomfortable and the shoes made walking hard… she hated every second of being in this body that wasn’t truly hers anymore.

Bartholomew said nothing, he had started scribbling on a piece of paper, concentrated on getting the symbols right.

“You will receive further training until the ball is done, I managed to fool the staff into thinking we were behind with the clothes… so we should have two or more hours to ourselves every evening.” Cara turned to the man behind the table, he was back to being the Bartholomew she had seen when she killed that boy, the soldier that served his city.

“Now, what I will be teaching you is something that might take you years to accomplish, it took me one and a half to be able to train it without help from my master so don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work.” He raised a hand and Cara gasped as it began to become translucent until it was barely visible anymore, then i popped back into her field of view.

“Light magic is one of the rarest forms known to me, as far as I know the Dragon of Light taught only me… not like there is a meeting for people like me though.. So there might be more. She did say I was the only one though.” Cara didn’t quite get what he was saying, Bartholomew had met a dragon? One of the beings ruling this world?

“The important thing though is that you will be better off knowing how to hide yourself from prying eyes.” Bartholomew let go of the dress he before him and walked over to where Cara was standing, her eyes growing wide as he disappeared before her for a moment.

“You probably have figured out that this ability does not have you disappear, it simply bends the light in the room and has you vanish from people's eyes, they will still be able to hear, smell and most importantly, stab you.”

Cara took a step back, mages were rare, rarer than snow in the summer and none of them were known for sharing their secrets.

“Raise your hand, the first touch of magic is the hardest, after you get a feeling for it you will be able to do it yourself… remember it took me over a year to get that first touch done.” His hand grasped her arm, she felt a slight prickling sensation on her skin, like something seeping into the flesh.

Then the room disappeared before her, the light vanishing and with the Bartholomew, only the sensation of the touch remained. Cara blinked, making sure her eyes were still open, this was not what she had expected.

“Finally.” A voice whispered into her ear, she froze, nobody managed to sneak up on her like that.

Something moved in the corner of her eyes, when she turned it disappeared. Cold sweat broke lose, the hair on her neck rose, fear spread.

“You are perfect!” the voice whispered again this time from the other side, Cara jerked her head into the direction to hit whoever was right next to her, laughter was all she earned.

“Feisty, I like you, girl.” Scales appeared before her, a slim body and a inhuman face, like a lizard. Dim light seemed to reflect in the figures eyes, a smile revealed needle like teeth.

“You will do just fine…” the creature giggled then reached out and before Cara could react touched her forehead with a claw.

The girl jumped backwards, a scream of surprise escaping her lips as the room reappeared, Bartholomew standing there, eyes wide in shock.

Cara’s heart was beating like a drum, her hand shaking as she traced it over her forehead, something wet stuck to her fingers, when she looked at them there was nothing but sweat there.

“What was that!” Cara yelled at Bartholomew who quickly raised his finger to sign her to be quiet but there was no way she could control herself right now, Angela cried in fear, and Cara felt a tear rolling down from her left eye.

“What in the name of the… what happened?” her hand reached under her dress and closed around the scissor half she was hiding there, her eyes scanning the room for any movement.

Footsteps came closer from the hall, Bartholomew tried to hide his fear and began moving back to his table.

“You tripped and fell! Nothing else happened.” he hissed as quietly as he could, shaking hands resuming the work from before.

“We will talk about this later…” a knock on the door interrupted him.

“Is everything alright miss Angela?” Daphne’s voice sounded concerned, Cara forced Angela back into the spot, taking away as much of the incident as she could.

“Yes, Daphne, I just tripped over my dress is all…” Angela couldn’t remember how she got on the floor, something was off, she was sweating and Cara wouldn’t talk to her.

The door opened and Daphne entered with a slight bow to Saulus.

“Oh my, what happened you are drenched in sweat! Are you getting sick?” the worry in her voice had Angela force a smile, she got back to her feet and walked over to the woman,

“You need a good night’s rest! We can’t have you get sick now of all times!” Daphne glanced at Saulus who nodded in agreement and returned to his work.

Angela was then brought to her room, shortly after she was in her bed, the drenched clothes gone and Daphne hurrying to get another blanket.

Cara still kept quiet, but the panic had subsided, her memories were still fuzzy but she could have sworn someone had talked to her, someone other than Bartholomew.