Tristan dreamt that he was back at the forge but his bathrobes kept shrinking. Luna told him to stop being such a pervert and he tried pulling his robes lower but they just got shorter and shorter and then the dream changed.

A sickle moon hung low over the dark ocean and Tristan sailed along the cool evening winds searching for something. Tiny orange lights flickered in the distance as a small town rose up ahead of him. Tristan tilted his head and felt the winds lifting him higher. He passed over the town and saw a house on the hill beside the ocean.

The house glowed like a beacon on the hill. Tristan’s heart pounded in excitement. He'd found what he was looking for.

Someone stepped out of the house. The figure pointed their right hand towards the sky and their left hand at him. Tristan swooped down. The sky lit up and lightning crashed down onto the small figure. The lightning arched through their body and with his enhanced hearing Tristan heard a woman speaking a strange language. The lighting arched out of the woman’s extended left hand that was pointed at him. The lighting burned into his chest and he let out a growl of rage. He swooped down and opened his mouth and the little house on the hill erupted in blue flames.

Tristan woke up lying on the ground in his cabin. He was drenched in sweat and his chest burnt where the lighting had struck.

***

“You seasick, hoa?” asked Jayce as the four companions sat together for breakfast. “You haven’t touched your food.”

“Have you ever dreamt of flying?” asked Tristan.

Jayce nodded. “Of course.”

“Have you noticed that in dreams,” said Tristan. “That you can never fly very high up off the ground?”

Luna, who was sipping a cup of tea as she listened to their conversation, answered. “That's because you’re not able to fly higher than your eye level.”

“That's interesting,” said Tristan.

“I've done a lot of research on dreams,” she said.

“I had a dream,” said Tristan. “But I was flying above the clouds and below me a town was burning.”

Scarlet, who had been ignoring the conversation up until then, turned to Tristan. “You aren't lying,” she said. “But you aren't telling us everything.”

“What,” said Tristan.

“Scars a truthseeker,” said Jayce. “She can tell when someone is lying. It's part of her magic. Like my weather sense.”

“Who are you really?” asked Scarlet. “You’ve lived with us but nobody really knows who you are.”

Jayce said, “He must be a magi too.”

Luna remained silent, her teacup raised to her lips but she wasn't drinking.

Tristan swallowed the lump he felt in his throat. “I’m just a student,” he stammered.

“Of what?” asked Scarlet

“I'm still in school.”

“Aren’t you a bit old for that?” asked Jayce

“Give me a break,” Tristan said. “I'm only seventeen.”

Jayce nodded.

Scarlet narrowed her eyes and Luna set her cup back down, still not having taken a sip of the tea.

“That's normal where I am from,” Tristan said defensively. “I'm not a slow learner or something.”

“If you say so,” said Jayce.

“Leave him,” said Luna. “We all study at our own pace. Some just need more time.”

“But seventeen,” said Jayce. “Really. I left school at six.”

“Well maybe things are different where he's from,” Luna said.

Scarlet tapped a nail on the table in front of Tristan. “Where are you from?” she asked.

Tristan looked out the ship’s window and saw green birds the size of pelicans fly by. He thought about everything he’d seen those two weeks and for the first time he really thought about how different Umbra really was.

“Far away,” he said.

***

After breakfast Luna stopped Tristan in the corridor.

“Can we talk?” she asked.

“We are talking,” he said.

“I mean in a more discreet place.”

Tristan nodded not knowing where the conversation was going.

“Meet me on deck, at the front of the ship,” she said. “In about fifteen minutes.”

Tristan returned to his cabin. He freshened up. Attempted to flatten his hair in the mirror. He straightened his bathrobes as best he could. That took all of five minutes. So he took out his sword and polished it with a blanket. When he couldn't stand waiting anymore he took a slow walk up stairs and onto the deck.

Luna had changed into a white frock and the wind whipped around her as she leaned over the edge watching the water break against the hull of the ship.

She turned around and smiled as she saw Tristan watching her.

“You came,” she said as she hopped off the edge and walked up to him.

She smiled and the wind swept through her hair.

“It's a perfect day,” she said.

“You called me up here to talk about the weather?”

“What would you be doing on a day like this if you were back home?” she asked.

Tristan wasn't sure what she was getting at.

“Probably the same thing I’d be doing no matter what the weather was like outside,” he said.

Luna leaned forward. “And what’s that?” she asked.

Tristan absently rubbed the sore spot on his chest. “Sitting on my bed listening to music,” he said.

“You have a personal musician?” she asked.

Tristan shrugged. “Something like that,” he stammered. “That's not what you called me up here to talk about. What’s on your mind Luna?”

“Nothing, I just wanted to spend some time together before you left,” she said. She looked down at her feet and shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

“I don’t need Scarlet’s abilities to tell that you aren’t saying everything,” he said.

Luna fidgeted with her dress then looked back up at him. “Now that we are about to part ways, I wish I’d gotten to know you better and I want to say sorry.”

Tristan shook his head. “For what? You’ve been kind to me since I arrived in your village.”

Luna bowed her head and rubbed the nap of her neck.

“Back in Westwind,” she said. “You said I was avoiding you.”

Tristan nodded.

Luna continued, “I didn't realize it at the time but I think I was.”

“Why?” he asked. “Is it because of my bathrobes? I swear it's not what I usually wear. Once I've made a bit more money I’ll get myself a pair of short shorts like Jayce’s.”

Luna stifled a laugh. “There is something odd about you,” she said.

“The magic is different for everyone,” Luna said. “But yours seems,” she hesitated. “More foreign, almost primal.”

She looked at her feet. “It scared me. You tore through my mind's defenses and looked into the deepest parts of my mind.”

She brushed the hair out of her face. “And I don't even know what you saw.”

Tristan leaned forward. “Your head’s a scary place,” he whispered.

Luna met his gaze.

“If you want to know,” he said. “I saw an ancient forest in your mind and golden lights and wolves. None of it made any sense at all.”

Luna wrung her hands together. “You spoke about dreams earlier,” she said. “I never dream.”

Tristan frowned. “You mean you don't remember them?”

She shook her head quickly. “No, I don't dream at all. I close my eyes to sleep. Seconds later I open them and it's morning.”

“That sounds horrible,” said Tristan. “I'm sorry.” He fidgeted with his bathrobes. “Did the magic do that to you?” he asked.

Tristan thought about what Jayce had said about how the magic had changed him and Scarlet.

Luna frowned. “Maybe. There is only one dream I remember having. It was many years ago, before I was brought to Westwind. I was a little girl standing in a forest all alone. The forest was on fire and I was crying. I remember the dream so vividly. A wolf, far larger than a wolf could possibly be, stood before me and somehow it knew me. I stopped crying and the wolf spoke to me.”

Luna stopped speaking and shook her head.

“What did the wolf say?” Tristan asked.

“That's the part I don't remember,” she said. “It's as if those memories were erased. In my mind I can see the wolf’s mouth moving but the words are missing.”

A black speck drifted down from the sky and landed on Luna’s cheek. Her hand strayed to her face and rubbed it off without thinking, then she looked at her hand and frowned.

“What’s this?” she asked, showing Tristan her hand.

He looked at the black smudge and his stomach lurched.

“Ash,” he said.