The song for this chapter is "It's Time" by Imagine Dragons. This chapter was originally supposed to go a different direction, but I'm happy with the way it turned out. I hope you all enjoy. :)

*Donella's POV*

The "sky people" rushed out of the bar quicker than the apprentices fleeing the college on the holidays. I grinned as I thought to myself, James has some real friends here, and mortals, at that. Who would have thought? I relaxed against the bar as Echo, Kay, and Mot filed out too.

"Thank you for the potions, Martha," Tom said from his seat, raising his half emptied bottle in a toast. Phil and I seconded the toast gladly.

Martha laughed quietly before pulling another bottle from the leather satchel she had over her shoulder. "Here's one for Matt when he wakes up," She said, handing the pink potion to Tom. "I think I'm going to go rest. I'll talk to Wag once his friends are finished." She smiled and took her leave. Phil left with her to show her to an unclaimed house in the town.

I took another drink of the regeneration potion Martha had given me, relaxing more under its influence. James was alive, and two of the missing apprentices had been located. They knew where the others were. I'd worry about getting us all back home and assuaging James's broken heart tomorrow. Today was good.

I glanced over at Tom to see him staring off into space, grinning. I didn't think much of it until he said what was on his mind. "Echo told me that Winter is still alive." I could hear excitement and something else in his voice. I turned in my seat to better watch his face as he continued, "She was injured recently, but she is recovering. As soon as we're fit to teleport and fly again, we need to get to her and the rest of the apprentices."

The combination of regeneration potion and the beer he'd been drinking had him feeling good to be sure, but it couldn't account for the idiotic grin crossing his face from ear to ear. It looked so familiar, but I couldn't place the expression. Akatena grew frustrated with me and gave me a hint: a mental picture of two apprentices I'd caught flirting behind one of the dorms a few weeks ago.

Oh. Tom almost had a perfect "lovesick puppy" face right now. Tom has a thing for Winter? How long have you known about this? I asked Tena, who pretended to be distracted by a half-eaten plate of food one of the mortals had left behind and refused to answer me.

Those two might make a decent match. I wasn't one to play matchmaker, but I had seen other relationships blossom at the college. I had also seen relationships self-destruct. Mortals and wizards weren't that different when it came to relationships; both had courtship and marriage and heartbreak if they fell apart. Wizards were more cautious about them though. Wizards (aside from those with the athar) were not truly immortal; we could still get sick and injured and die from those conditions. Mortals were quick to fall in love and quick to fall apart. Wizards took a longer time to make a commitment, since it could potentially last for millennia. Unfortunately, we also took much longer to recover from a relationship too.

Judging by my familiar's behavior, Tom had had his crush for a while. I was happy for Tom; he had hope of seeing his love and returning home with her soon. At the same time, the realization that Tom was in love was bittersweet to me. Emrys and I had waited too long, been too cautious, and had lost our chance. I hoped for Tom and Winter's sakes they had a better ending. I thought of that vision James had had of those two with children. Maybe that future wasn't as far away as I'd thought it might be.

Tom had started talking about returning to the Realm and how Winter would likely want to visit her old home in the tundra. Winter's lucky she still has a place outside Laenadur to call home. I knew the athar wizards did not, and I certainly didn't. The war had destroyed whole cities and regions, not to mention trust and countless lives. More than a few kingdoms had completely vanished from history before the dust settled.

Tom kept talking, but I had stopped listening. My eyes were slowly drifting closed as I wondered what was happening back in the Realm without us there. Was Seto keeping the apprentices in line without me? We were coming up on the holidays, and they always got more rowdy when they knew they'd have a few weeks away from their master wizards. They tended to pull pranks before disappearing back to their families, hoping their masters would cool off and forget by the time they got back. It never worked, but they were young and impetuous. Does Ruxomar even celebrate the same holidays? Doubtful; the history here is completely separate from ours. I wondered if we would make it back in time to join in the festivities.

---Time Skip---

I opened my eyes to see Laenadur. I was sitting on the roof of my house, watching the sun set behind the snow capped mountains as I had many evenings before. The grey shingles beneath me and the roofs of the rest of the city were brushed with a light layer of frost. The whole valley the city was hidden in glowed red in the waning light; it scattered off of the small ice crystals, giving this city of wizards an even more magical feel. Small trails of steam and smoke wound into the sky from chimneys before dissipating in the chill air.

I looked down to the bundled-up wizards walking the streets that wound through the districts of my home. Home. That was a strange word, so full of emotion and memory. I noted the streets had been lined with cuts of holly and branches from the evergreens that grew on the mountain slopes. Some of the mischievous young wizards had hung bits of mistletoe over doorframes and the gates between the districts and the Courtyard of Nature at the center of the city. The yew tree at the heart of the circular city had been lit with thousands of tiny magical lights and glowing crystals. They had lit it early this year. I felt a pang of longing at the thought of missing the lighting ceremony.

Across the courtyard lay the college, decorated for the upcoming winter graduations. The alchemy district next to it was also brightly lit and festive. The annual wassail brewing competition must be underway. The cold wind from the mountains brought with it the scent of snow, the first of the year by the looks of it. I shivered and closed my eyes, wishing Emrys had been able to see this place, but it had been built long after his death. He would have loved it here. The Fyre wizards had done a good job. A hint of loneliness wormed its way into my heart as I opened my eyes and looked through the streets one more time. It was now impossible to not see couples everywhere. When I recognized Winter and Tom and Martha and James among those walking the streets, I realized I was dreaming.

At the realization, Laenadur faded and was replaced by the Nether. I wandered through fond memories of this place, mostly Dianite giving me pointers on fighting technique or pointing out flaws in my stance. Other memories joined these, and my nostalgia only grew.

I remembered stumbling upon a group of Dianite's followers who had been planning a mutiny. It had been centuries ago, while the war was still happening. I had come to the Nether to think and run where no one would tell me to take it easy. This had been my first time back to the Nether after I'd lost my eye, and I'd left my coat behind due to the bulky bandages on my left shoulder. (I was wearing a sleeveless blouse.) I'd given up on repairing my eye; all the spells the doctors and I had tried had failed. I grudgingly wore a bandage over the healing cut that had crossed my right eye. You can imagine my surprise at hearing humans in the abandoned fortress instead of zombie pigmen as I walked past. I listened in on their plotting long enough to realize they actually had a plan to kill Dianite, though I did not hear how exactly they planned to do it. I struck before they got to that part, knocking them out with a few well aimed spells and only a small struggle from the last buffoon. I decided to keep them alive for Dianite to punish as he saw fit.

When Dianite came to check on me—he always did when I visited his realm—he was quite surprised. That was one of the few times I got to see his full anger. The whole Nether rumbled with his fury, opening fresh fissures in the netherack and causing boulders to fall from the ceiling into the lava sea below. The air turned almost too hot to breathe, and the lava seemed to glow brighter. It would have been terrifying if that anger had been directed at me. I stood there speechless until he teleported the traitors away to his dungeons to be dealt with later. Watching the scene unfold before me now, I noticed how Dianite's eyes softened when he turned to me and noticed for the first time the injuries I'd acquired from my latest battle in the war. He sighed and asked, "What happened?"

"Rescuing wizards that walked into an ambush," Was the only reply I gave. I had become sheepish under his scrutiny and looked away from him, tilting my head down to hide my damaged eye under the brim of my hat. I remembered being a bit ashamed that I had allowed myself to get so badly injured. The doctors had told me I'd be out of action for weeks while the poisoned arrow wound through my shoulder healed. The small exertion of handling those Dianitees turned traitor had started the stabbing pain in the injury back up.

Dianite noticed me wince and walked over to me. I looked up when he walked within the peripheral vision of my good left eye. "You had no reason to stop those traitors, and in your condition you shouldn't have. Why did you?" He questioned, looking into my remaining brown eye.

"They were talking about killing you. I couldn't stand by and let that happen to a friend," I answered firmly. After losing Emrys I had vowed to never let that happen again if I had anything to say about it, even if it cost my life.

Dianite arched one eyebrow at me. "So, we're friends now, not allies?" He was not offended by my presumption. He seemed amused more than anything as he looked me over with his scarlet eyes. "Well then, as a 'friend', let me return the favor," He said. He very gently gripped my injured shoulder with his right hand and set his left over my bandaged eye. Shortly after, the wounds felt like they were on fire. I grit my teeth against the pain; thankfully it didn't last for more than a few seconds.

I was a bit dizzy after that healing magic and sat down on a broken section of the fortress's nether brick wall to keep from toppling. "That should do the trick," Dianite claimed. "Try removing your bandages when you're ready." The dizziness passed after a few moments, and I did as he'd suggested, starting with the patch over my eye. Peeling the adhesive away from my skin, I was elated that I could see once more, though Dianite frowned when I looked up at him. "Hm. The iris came out the wrong color. Can you see with it?"

"Yes, thank you!" I briefly wondered what color it had turned, but seeing as I didn't have a mirror handy, I ignored it. After pulling off the thickly padded bandages that covered the entry and exit wounds on my shoulder, all I could see of the once life threatening injury was a knotted scar. It didn't hurt at all when I tested the joint's range of motion. Dianite was watching my actions with a proud smirk.

I smiled as I watched the scene. I rather liked this memory. "This is one of my favorites too; mind if I join you?" I heard a familiar deep voice resonate behind me.

I looked over my shoulder to see Dianite watching me, not the memory. I smiled at him and asked, "What brings you here? This is my mind after all." Not that I minded the company.

"I sensed you were asleep. You don't usually sleep in the middle of the day. Did something happen?" Dianite asked as I shifted us from my dream to our meeting place and turned around to completely face him. Reaching my mind in Ruxomar was a bit of a stretch, even for him, though he was too proud to ever admit it. The meeting place wouldn't be as taxing on his powers.

I stretched, feeling suddenly exhausted now that I was awake rather than dreaming. "I guess I was more tired than I thought. I spent the whole morning piecing James back together. A very bad magic interaction nearly killed him. A few of the apprentices turned up too," I added.

Dianite listened intently as I recounted the situation in detail. I was almost to my discussion with James after he woke up when Dianite's amused grin disappeared, and he closed the distance between us to grab my left wrist with his large maroon hand. Looking down, I realized that I had been scratching at it without noticing. Dianite gently turned my hand over to look at the scar from his revival ritual peeking from under my coat sleeve. It looked much angrier than it had yesterday, and the skin burned and itched slightly. We both frowned as we examined it.

"Maybe it did that because I was using forbidden magic earlier today," I theorized.

Dianite hummed his agreement and rubbed his maroon thumb across it lightly before releasing my hand and meeting my eyes. "I'd tell you to avoid using forbidden magic as much as possible, but you never do things halfway, do you?" He asked rhetorically.

I shook my head and grinned at him. Not anymore, I don't.

He decided to drop the subject, knowing I only used forbidden magic if I had to to begin with. "Any interesting dreams? I only caught the tail end of that one."

Loneliness and longing nipped at my heart again. Martha may have been clueless about breaking James's heart, but she had only known him for a matter of months. In a wizard's sense of time, that relationship was still in its infancy. Dianite and I had been friends for centuries, and he caught the enthusiasm draining from my eyes in that instant before I expertly hid my emotions. I knew there was no point in lying. "I was dreaming about Laenadur. I miss it," I admitted, suddenly finding the netherack at our feet fascinating.

"You're homesick. It's a natural response to being away from a place that is 'yours' from what I've heard," Dianite reassured me, gazing off into the Nether. He's never been away from his home except for a quick visit to the Overworld or End, has he? Either he didn't recognize the loneliness I'd felt, or he chose not to address it.

I remembered something James had thought during our conversation earlier today, and curiosity got the better of me. "Dianite, do you ever get lonely, living forever?"    

I swear I don't have a thing for damaging characters' eyes. XD Winter's character bio was written that way. Donella's bio was written with one red eye, and she's good friends with Dianite. So, that kinda wrote itself. Wag losing an eye in the battle with the statue was my doing, but to be fair, he is completely blind in his right eye irl (reference- Mianite S2 Day 115). I just felt I needed to clear that up. :)

On a different topic, I just watched Wag's Would you Rather video, and he mentioned that he doesn't like Christmas music. >:) How many of you would like to see me incorporate that? (I'm one of those people who loves Christmas music, regardless of the time of year.) A Christmas party among all the people from the Realm might be fun to write, but I'll need ideas. Also, which of the others do you think like Christmas music and which don't?

Also, if you celebrate Christmas, leave your favorite Christmas song down below. My current favorites are "How Many Kings" by Downhere and "Carol of the Bells" by the Trans Siberian Orchestra. :D (Yes, you are allowed to have more than one favorite.)