Fiera could sense with the surge in the temperature of the Infirmary that Aaron was angry. It is very easy to tell when Fire-Practitioners were angry because the temperature around them would rise, inflammable objects would catch fire & they wouldn't be able to sit still in one place.

"On my grounds." That was all Aaron said, as he paced urgently around the room, circling near the door. She didn't think it important enough to point out that technically she had been right outside the Institute's grounds and she didn't want to make him angrier than he was, so she stayed still, as Mr Blake, acting physician applied generous amounts of a pain-relieving salve, as he prepared to pull out the damn arrow.

The actual physician had left early in the morning over some 'messy' business south where a bunch of patrolling rangers had been attacked. That could have very well been an orchestrated move by the ones who drove an arrow down her arm.

"Should I unfreeze it now?" Kai asked.

"Yes please," Mr Blake said. Even he didn't seem to want to say the wrong thing and be devoured by Aaron, who now stepped closer, his nostrils still flaring. He waved Kai aside and gripped her shoulder as Mr Blake began to pull.

For a moment Fiera thought she'd feel pain, and then she did.

For an insanely long period of time, she felt the same pain as when the arrow struck her, except in reverse and a bit slower, and she screamed.

"It's over, it's over," Kai said from somewhere.

She sensed them rush into a flurry around her, wrapping up her arm so Mr Blake could sew the wound shut.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she said as the final touches were done. She hadn't lost so much blood because of Kai's freezing, and she was glad for that. But there were important matters to discuss. "Where is the arrow?"

"First," Aaron interrupted her, "Who were they?"

Fiera gave a long look at Mr Blake.

And Mr Blake looked back at her evenly, "I am not leaving this -"

"Leave, please," Aaron said.

"Aaron, I am not leaving this -"

"That was not a request."

Mr Blake gave her a dirty look, possibly thinking of more insulting questions to ask her the next time he caught her lurking in a hallway, and left. The door shut quietly behind him and Kai latched it.

Aaron looked at her expectantly.

"Assassins, probably," she said.

"Identify them."

"I do not know who they are," she said carefully testing out her arm. It still hurt.

"Why were you shot as a warning then?"

Shot as a warning.

Assassins were people meant to kill their targets. To kill politically important targets. Their aim and their plans were usually so well prepared that Fiera being shot in the arm, was not a miscalculation. They had meant to shoot Fiera in the arm, not deadly exactly. But painful enough to serve as a warning.

"Because I possess something that they want," she said carefully stringing this event to a few others she had dealt with before. And she met his eyes.

He was barely twenty-seven or twenty-eight, his auburn hair was slick with sweat, and there was something more than anger creased in his brown eyes; worry. Somewhere between the time, she met him in his office and now, he had ditched his winter clothes, to a plainer fashion, a full buttoned beige shirt and black pants. It must be because of his anger, that he felt too hot to stay in his sweaters.

"What do you have, Fiera?" he asked.

"A sword."

For a second no one said anything.

She didn't know how much Kai was able to understand, or what he was even picking up. He just stared steadily at the arrow, which he twirled in his hand. His snow-coloured hair and his ice webbed skin gave her no indication of what he was thinking. Since he had sealed off his essence, she couldn't read his Water (or rather Ice).

"A sword?" Aaron said.

"Yes. A sword." Fiera said.

"But we found you without any weapons -" he drew a breath.

"And I won't be discussing the specifics." Fiera said, "My sword, my business."

"And it won't bring us any harm?" Aaron asked. He said it in a low voice, but it felt like he was asking her that in a very loud voice. Because she knew what the question actually seemed to imply, 'Your dirty magician friends haven't had a hand in it right?', 'Your magician blood is not using you as a spy to kill us all right?' She took a breath thinking of the magic that flowed in her veins, that which made her a mongrel over a Fire-Practitioner here and a demon over a Mage there.

She felt a shiver down her spine and she sighed, "It's meant to protect not kill."

Aaron opened his mouth as if to say something. But he just sighed.

She reached out her uninjured arm towards Kai, and he passed over the arrow to her.

"I don't know what it's made of." Kai said, "We will need to ask Terrol or some other Earth-Practitioner."

The arrow was cold, with its black-feathered tip and it had a cool metallic touch.

"There is no need," Fiera said. "I just have to be a bit more careful about them, that's all."

"Fiera," Aaron said, "You are barely sixteen. Leave this to the adults."

"I'd rather not," Fiera didn't fight off the sardonic smile that crept to her face, "I will handle this myself. And I would appreciate it if you kept this occurrence limited to the people in the room."

She could see the various thoughts flash across Aaron's face, annoyance, frustration, anger and finally settling onto giving up.

"Very well. Although, I do want to see this sword you're talking about."

"That can be arranged," Fiera said returning the arrow, "But I want assurance that nothing out of this room will leave this room."

"We can guarantee that." Aaron said, "Unless you want Kai to leave -"

"He stays," Fiera said, stretching out her fine arm, "But remember that a promise you make to the Peoples of Magic, is a word that is binding."

Before Aaron could respond, she swooped a hand into the air, piercing into the sheer fabric of reality. She sensed the silence in the room, and the sudden drawing of breaths, before her hand closed onto the grip of the sword and she dragged it down to her current reality, making Aaron flinch and Kai look away.

"What the -" Kai started to say, but he fell silent, as his eyes were drawn to the sword. It was a single-edged sword, whose blade had dulled a little into a dull silver. The grip was of leather, the skin of a beast whose name man had forgotten, and symbols etched along the centre, in letters no one remembered, and she only knew the meaning of.

It was beautiful.

And the same instant, before Aaron could reach out a hand to touch it, she shoved back to where it came from, and they both flinched again.

"As promised," she said.

"It was beautiful." Aaron said, "I have never seen one like it -"

"So now you know, why I am being...followed," Fiera said.

"Undoubtedly." Aaron said, "But we have to keep you safe too. I don't care if or not you think adults can handle it."

"How do you propose to do that?" Fiera asked.

"Kai can be with you. Most of the time, anyway." Aaron said, "You wouldn't mind?"

"Wouldn't. But -" Kai was about to say before Aaron cut in,

"We will discuss the details in my office. For now," he pulled Kai aside giving Fiera a wide berth, "You need to rest up, Fi."

"I'll be fine honestly -"

"Nope." Aaron smiled. Somehow Fiera knew that that meant there was no scope for arguing.

"All right," Fiera said, watching them leave.

Aaron didn't ask her questions about how or where she found the sword, or why she carried it or what other specifications it had, something she had expected every adult she encountered to pester her with. She had been kind of hoping he would, so she would be able to pick a fight with him. Again she didn't know why she wanted a fight. Was it some sort of assessment for her?

She wished the Ancient Gods had given her something more than a useless sword, sometimes.