In the silence of the room, Master Owen's glare screamed at Aurora. "Explain yourself."

Throughout all the months of tutelage, Master Owen's composure had been the epitope of patience ruled in rigid discipline. He'd been demanding in his expectations of her evolving powers, but she'd relished in the push, eager to master new skills. The long hours of honing each one was laced with fatigue and determination along with his encouraging guidance. Yet now, the anger that radiated from him filled the space between them.

Aurora lifted her chin and measured out each word. "I did nothing wrong."

At her words, Master Owen's eyes narrowed and his iris glowed with an eerily silvery light. "You used Blood Magic." The weight of his gaze landed on her.

She had never seen this side of him. "I don't even know what that is!" Aurora bit her lip furiously, aware that she had just shouted at her Master, she couldn't meet his gaze.

"All the more reason why you should not dabble in what you do not understand. I did not teach it to you." He did not need to point an accusatory figure at her, his sharp stare alone was as effective as a knife at her throat. "Where did you learn it? What texts having you been hiding away from the Consul and myself in your daily readings?"

"You know about those?" Heat rose to her face.

"Answer me." His voice was guttural and his eyes grew brighter. No answer but the truth would satisfy.

Accused of something she was guilty of, Aurora felt obliged to say, "They're maps. I started reading a book called An Ode to the Flame. It mentioned places that are not in Armindia or on this continent, but in the Southern Continent. I didn't even know there was a southern continent." She mumbled the last, ashamed of her ignorance.

If she didn't know better, she'd swear Master Owen's beard trimmed jaw twitched. But his next question caught her completely off guard.

"Have you finished?"

Aurora blinked rapidly, her brows furrowing as she tried to follow Master Owen's thought progression. "What? My explanation? Or...the book?"

"Yes. An Ode to the Flame. Have you finished reading it?" His stare continued to bore into her as if he was searching for something.

"Uhm, no. That book is more of tome really." She shrugged.

"It is indeed. Read it closely. It is also a cautionary tale of Blood Magic. Is that where you learned it? From an ancient legend?" He hissed.

"What? No! I've told you, and Mentor Salvador, I don't know what Blood Magic is." His accusation hurt. "Why won't you believe me?"

He was having none of it. "This is not about believing you. It's about the irreparable harm you could have committed. Mentor Salvador accused you of using Blood Magic and by morning I can assure you everyone within the wall of the complex will know it. Blood Magic requires great skill, otherwise it can be dangerous. It was foolish for you to attempt it."

Aurora squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. "I don't know what Mentor Salvador thinks he saw, but I did not use Blood Magic." Her voice rose in exasperation. "I was trying to relieve her pain. What I did, I've done many times before. It's not magic, it's—"

Master Owen gripped her shoulder, causing her to open her eyes in alarm. "When have you done this? To whom?" He was inches from her. Dark brown eyes glowing and searching hers for answers.

"Show me." His hand turned her to the wall where she had practiced her runes time and again. "Trace the movements, just as you did with Lunda."

Knowing her every move was scrutinized, Aurora struggled to rein in her hammering heart. She pressed her fingers to the wall and it rippled like sand beneath her ministrations. When she was done, she took a few steps back to study her work, just as Master Owen stepped forward.

"Do you see it now?" His question pointed at the undeniable.

There, on the wall, was the proof. She counted one, two, three and there at the bottom a fourth one. "Runes?" The word whooshed out of her. "But how?" Aurora searched his face for answers.

"They are not true runes. These are twisted and broken." His fingers caressed around the edge of one of the runes. "This is a poor construct joined in a tortured tangle but with some of the power of runes nonetheless. You claim to have done this before. Who taught you this?" He stood in front of her, hand directed at the rudimentary runes she had marked on the wall.

"My mother." she whispered.

"Why would your mother teach you this?" His question was not without merit.

"I don't know. Whenever I was sick or injured, she'd perform that on me. That's how I learned it." Aurora motioned to the runes with her chin.

"I always felt better afterwards. I never questioned it. Everything I thought I knew," she couldn't finish because the words that came next burned in her throat: was a lie.

Master Owen nodded in silent understanding; after all, she'd shared everything with him. His eyes no longer shone and his tone softened. "Your mother was queen of Armindia, and as such had Magic Blood, that which flows through you and is the source of your magic."

He clasped his hands behind his back and began a slow pace to a lined bookshelf and large oak desk that manifested at his direction. The room appeared to eat any rustling of robes or canter of steps as he approached.

"All royal families possess Magic Blood," his voice took on the tone of teacher and filled the room, "to varying degrees but greater than most. It is the basis of their political power, your heredity so to speak."

Aurora followed him and stood opposite of the desk.

"Runes," Master Owen pull out a leather-bound book and opened it to a page that displayed the foundation set and left it on the desk. "They are the fundamental magic. It is the root through which all higher levels of magicks are obtained."

He drew out another book and flipped through the pages until he found what he needed; it was an illumination. Aurora leaned in to inspect the vibrated colors of illumination, a tree with three main branches surrounded by stoic faces. Intricate runes formed the roots and spread in tangles across the page.  His finger floated above an indigo branch delicately. "Arcane Magic calls to humans, Elemental Magic calls to the halflings, and Healing Magic calls to elves."

Aurora looked from the image to him with curious concern. "I don't understand." She turned to study the illumination again.

"I've seen Valdor heal and that fits with what you are describing." Inadvertently, she looked at her palms. Valdor had healed them after the peeling they'd suffered when she'd skidded down a tree. No scar marred her palms, a testament to Valdor's Healing Magic.

"But does that mean that humans can't wield Elemental Magic or heal? I've seen the Sorceress Mimika cast fire, as well." The night they had rescued Lily from the depths of Illsurni Castle, the sorceress had unleashed a fiery blast at them. Only by the bravery and sacrifice of the elf named Nim, who had befriended Lily during their captivity, had they survived the strike.

Then they'd separated, and she had gone off with Tezaro. But Master Owen's words brought her out of her recollections.

"All Magic flows freely, Aurora, but each race has a predisposition to one magical deviation above the others. There are human healers, but their skill comes with years of dedication to what an elf healer can do instinctively. The same holds true for elven arcane wielders."

"As a Pathfinder, I can track any magical begin or essence. The more I train, the greater at a distance I can detect it. I can learn the holder's aura and never forget it. I can feel if the holder is in distress. Or lying." His mouth quirked up like a hook. "A skill that is highly valuable, is it not?"

Aurora twisted at the ring on her thumb that marked him as her Master. The memory of the night she'd accepted to become his apprentice reared. He had told her as much then. At least now he knew the truth, and she gave an inner sigh of relief.

"How is any of this connected to Blood Magic? To what Mentor Salvador accused me of doing?" She didn't add his accusation, but it hung in the air.

"You touched Lunda, did you not?"

She nodded but was still perplexed.

Master Owen met her stare evenly and began. "Healing Magic and Blood Magic share the ability of transference. Healers require touch. With their Magic Blood they can link to another's body becoming one. Touch allows them to travel through the network of muscles, tissues, and organs of another's body and identify the malady and heal the injury which may not even be seen. In essence, they move through the blood. They can heal nearly anything."

"That sounds incredible." Aurora stared in wonder at the part of the illumination that held the Healing Magic branch dusted in gold and silver. It was no wonder why Lily had stayed behind in Lathimnar amongst elves, despite Aurora's objections. They were Lily's only hope at restoring her sight, she was certain of it now.

"It is, but it comes at a cost." His face turned grim, and he pointed at a slender branch that fanned out from the golden branch and turned crimson. "Healers, like all wielders of magic, not only experience loss of physical strength, but in rare cases, life energy as well. Many healers will not even attempt at a healing if it involves poison."

"Why?" Memories of being captured in the Murmurwoods by the Red Fox assailed Aurora. The Fallen, having identified Master Owen as a mage, shot him with a poison dart to immobilize him. He'd been unconscious for days until the poison had worn off and by then Aurora had negotiated their release. A bargain she had almost forgotten, but was certain the Red Fox would soon call in his debt nonetheless.

"In those circumstances, the healer must transfer the poison into their own body before it can be dissolved into the bloodstream. It requires tremendous skill," Master Owen's voice turned grave, "and failure is death."

Aurora's jaw went slack. Her mouth dried. "Death?"

"The runes that you learned from your mother are a corrupted version of Healing Magic. Answer me, how do you feel now?" His eyes glowed once again as he rounded the desk towards her. The movement reminded Aurora of an eagle about to peck out the eyes of its prey.

"Drained, my muscles ache from Eri's training. It's been a long day."

He drew closer. "No sense of euphoria?"

She shook her head. "No, just achy. Tired."

"Your training has nothing to do with your pain." Within the same breath, his eyes returned to normal. "Although, it has improved your endurance. What you did, you did unknowingly. I see that now. The runes you used transfer the pain of another to the healer, in this case you."

Her eyes widened with shock. Master Owen drew her attention to the image, she noticed at the center was another branch. No, she was mistaken. It was a shadowed version of the tree colored in ash and outlined in crimson.

"Blood Magic weaves all three branches together and is therefore the most dangerous and forbidden practice." He warned.

"But why is that forbidden?"

"Because it is a perversion of true magic." His voice lowered as if the mere mention of it was a sin. "It can lure a wielder to do unspeakable things. It is as addictive as breathing. Blood Magic allows the wielder to siphon magic from the blood. It steals life energy and feeds it to the wielder. And it is a hunger that is never satisfied. The use of Blood Magic makes you an outcast."

A cold tremor ran down her spine, shivering across her skin despite the warmness of the room. "I swear I didn't do that. I didn't do any of that!"

"I know." The calmness in his voice should have reassured her; instead, it felt like the oppressive stillness before a storm. "You are never to do anything near a semblance of it." The weight of his gaze landed on her. "Understand."

It wasn't a question. Not really. Somehow, he had managed to turn the one word into a demand and a threat.

Her response was strangled. "Yes."

A worn leather chair blinked into existence behind the desk and Master Owen sat comfortably on it with steepled fingers across his chest. "Now, let's discuss your punishment regarding Mentor Salvador."  

A/N: I hope it was worth the wait.