The girl was exhausted from stepping through the snow, against a driving wind. She clutched her arms around herself, shivering, but continuing forward. Why she was so driven she had no idea; but she felt as if she could not stop walking. Tired, cold, and very afraid, she came upon the banks of a still lake. It looked warm, so she stepped in, cautiously. The water had looked very still and placid from outside, but underneath the calm exterior was a current that pulled her in deeper. She held her breath as long as she could, fearing that she was drowning, but when she could no longer stop herself, she discovered that she could breathe-and that her clothing had disappeared. She curled up around herself and cried. There was silence all around her, and she lost consciousness.

Suddenly awareness returned.

Then the voices began.

"My name is Miata!" the little girl had cried, lonely and afraid. "Who are you? What are you?"

Miata had been taught of the Crystalline Cathedral, and relaxed a little. The Cathedral was not evil, though her mother didn't seem to hold its ways in the highest of regards. She was reasonably sure, though, that they would not harm an innocent child...at least, she hoped.

"I...I don't know," Miata whimpered. "Just...to see...what was outside..."

A force then began to lift her, and she rose slowly out of the water that was thick with voices. When she broke the surface, she found herself clothed again-but in a pale yellow dress that gathered at the neck and sleeves. Standing on the shore was a young woman with long green hair and golden eyes.

"Oh, my," she whispered. "Your mother...was quite worried for you."

"But-I've only been gone a few hours!" Miata protested.

"Perhaps this is how it feels to you, but it has been nearly four days, Miata. Without you, your mother lost all hope. She-"

Miata sensed what she was going to say before she finished. "No!" Miata cried, and disappeared. She reappeared in her home, inside the Forest of Songs.

"Mother!" she cried, looking around frantically. "Mother! Please, where are you?" She dashed outside-and stopped short.

"No..." she whispered. "It's all my fault...if I hadn't gone outside, you wouldn't have...Mother, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Oh, I'm so sorry!"

"Don't blame yourself, Miata," the green-haired woman said. She had appeared shortly after Miata. "Lumina was never happy. She was not the first Byrde to take her own life. We can only pray that she will be the last."

"Who are you?" Miata demanded.

"I am Cressida, the Pillar of Cephiro," the woman replied. "I had come to the Cathedral to seek guidance, on what should be done when there is no longer a Byrde in Cephiro. But now I see that you are alive."

"What do you want from me?"

"Back at the Palace, there is a little girl your age, but she has no friends," Cressida replied. "And I thought, here is another little girl with no friends. She has lost the only person in the world that is dear to her. Your mother was the only friend I had, a long time ago."

Miata looked up at her. "Just get me out of this forest," she said. "I never want to see it again."

*

"He always has to be better than me..." Clef muttered, watching his brother continue his match in the fencing tournament.

"Don't be so bummed, Clef," another boy commented. "Aston's way older than you, and he could beat any of us. He's the best swordsman from our school."

"And I'm the worst," Clef replied glumly.

"You're the best in all our academic classes, though..."

"What good is that going to do me? When a monster attacks me, should I pull out my logarithm to defend myself? Challenge someone to a duel with parts of speech? My verbs against your nouns, en garde!"

The boy laughed. "I'm sure you'll outshine your brother one day, Clef."

A loud voice cut above all the others. "Aston wins the match!" A cheer rose up through the crowd, and Clef's brother grinned and took a bow. Clef cheered half-heartedly.

Clef had watched his brother compete in tournaments before, but this was the most important tournament he'd ever been entered in. Now Aston neared the final round. There were representatives from all the schools in Cephiro here in the capital, and present at the tournament was Cressida, the Pillar of Cephiro herself. Clef could see her sitting in a special area with some other well-known Cephirans. She watched the fencing with interest.

Though gambling wasn't officially sanctioned for these matches, Clef knew that it was going on-and he knew that his brother was the favored competitor. Aston was undefeated. He was wonderful. Amazing. There was nothing but good to be said of him. If he won this tournament, the title of Dal would be bestowed upon him, the youngest ever to receive the title. He would work with Princess Cressida's chief bodyguard, and take his place when he retired.

Clef wished sullenly that his brother could be a little less gracious about his good fortune. If Aston had gloated or rubbed it in that he was so much better than his little brother, Clef would have had the reason he sought to hate him. But instead, he was good to Clef, and tried to help him, even when all the other teachers at their school had given up on him. Clef felt that he might be able to stand his older brother if there were just one thing he could outshine him in, one thing that Clef could do better than his seemingly perfect older brother.

Now Aston faced his final opponent. He smiled, and held his sword ready, waiting for the blow of a whistle to begin the match. Clef's eyes wandered to the booth where the Pillar was sitting.

To see her looking directly back at him.

He gulped and looked away. His brother had begun the match, and he actually looked nervous for the first time that day. His opponent was from another school, and seemed to be on the same skill level as Aston. He also had the advantage of being almost thirty years older.

But where he might have been more experienced, he didn't have Aston's luck. When Clef's older brother defeated his opponent, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. Clef felt a grudging pride stirring inside him, and smiled. Aston blew a kiss to the Pillar's booth, and Cressida blew one back, laughing, while her current bodyguard, Jetta, scolded. Now another young man in the Pillar's booth was watching Clef, but he still didn't know why.

After the ceremony to bestow upon Aston his new rank, this young man who had been watching him earlier approached Clef.

"Excuse me," he said, "but do you attend the Second Academy of Learning and Swordsmanship in the town of Lancia?"

Confused, Clef nodded.

"As I suspected. Your talents are being wasted, boy, utterly wasted."

"I don't have any talents," Clef sighed. "The only things I'm good at are book-learning and being clumsy."

"You're wrong," the man replied. "You have magic, the most powerful potential for magic that I've ever seen. Cressida says that you'll be one of the most powerful magicians Cephiro has ever known. Will you transfer to the Cephiran Academy of Magical Arts and Sciences to put this potential to use?"

"I-I'd love to..." Clef began, dazed with happiness. He wasn't sure if he was awake or dreaming. This man actually saw something in him! He was so happy he could have shouted in joy. "But...I must make sure it is all right with my brother."

"Yes, yes. My name is Guru Sable. Come find me when you have made your decision."

After the ceremony, Clef went in search of his older brother. Aston came up behind him, lifting him off the ground. Clef squawked.

"What do you think you're doing?" he demanded as Aston set him down on the ground. "I'm not a little kid anymore!"

"This is the happiest day of my life," Aston replied. "Please excuse me for being a little bit overexcited."

"Dal Aston, may I have your permission to attend the Cephiran Academy of Magical Arts and Sciences?"

"Magic? You're-you have-I never knew there was magic in our family!"

"A man just told me that I have the potential. I hope he can be trusted--he was up in the booth with Cressida."

"Jetta's son? Sable?"

"That's what he said his name was, yes. Guru Sable."

"I think you can trust him, he's a professor there! I can't believe that you had magic all along and never knew it, kid! I guess it goes to show that...well, it goes to show something. When you're a great magician, the two of us will make a pretty good team, don't you think?"

"As equals," Clef replied, but a future with his brother didn't look so bad, now.

But it was never to be.

"Aston? Have you finished saying good-bye to your brother yet?" The voice belonged to Cressida, who stepped into the room, daintily lifting the hem of her white skirts off the floor. She was followed by two small girls, a thoughtful-looking blonde and a sullen redhead who seemed to be around the same age.

"Oh! Hello. You must be Clef, right?" Cressida said. "I wish you the best of luck in your new course of study. A mage's life can be a difficult one, but I trust that you will come out all right in the end."

Clef noticed the way his brother was looking at Cressida, and the way she looked back at him, and knew there was something between them. He also realized that the little red-haired girl was staring at him.