Luna the magi sat at a table grinding pungent smelling herbs in a mortar and pestle. Her lush cascading black hair fell back to reveal a round enticing face marked by full red inviting lips, a generous but pleasing nose and startling purple eyes. Thick lashes half draped over those eyes which widened for a moment as she took in Tristan’s hair and bathrobes.

“Luna?” Tristan asked. 

The girl smiled a smile that stirred a fire with Tristan. She pushed the mortar and pestle aside and stood up revealing a linen shirt and faded black trousers over scarred and scuffed brown boots.

“Come in and close the door behind you,” she said as she bowed her head to him. “We don't get many of your kind here.” 

“My kind?” Tristan asked.

“Noblemen,” she said. 

“Ok. What makes you think that?”

Luna’s nose wrinkled in frown. “It's kind of obvious,” she said. “That hair, those strange clothes. Who else could you be?”

Tristan looked down at his outfit. He was still wearing his bathrobe which was damp, covered in sand and had been torn when he was pulled onto the boat. 

“If this is how nobles dress I’d hate to see your peasants,” he said with a chuckle.

Luna shifted uncomfortably and brushed invisible dirt off of her shirt.

“I'm not a noble,” Tristan said quickly to cover up the awkwardness. 

“What may I call you, sir?” she asked formally.

“Not sir,” he said. “Sir was the name of my cat. Well it’s Sir Poopsalot but he never liked his full title.” 

Luna looked at Tristan quizzically as if she wasn't sure how to take what he was saying. 

“Tristan,” he said as he realized he was rambling. “Just Tristan.”

The corners of her lips twitched in a suppressed smile.

“What can I help you with, just Tristan?”

He smiled awkwardly. “I was on a boat in the ocean somewhere and there was this big wave.” Tristan cleared his throat. “A really big wave. Now I'm here.”

“I'm sorry,” Luna said, and sounded genuine. “Were your crewmates hurt?”

“I don't know,” Tristan said. “They vanished. I know this is all a game, but it's all been a bit strange. I might have bumped my head.”

She nodded as if everything he had been saying was finally beginning to make sense.

Tristan cleared his throat afraid that what he was about to say might sound a bit foolish.

“There was a blue dragonish thing as well,” he said weakly, avoiding her eyes.

“A dragon?” she asked.

Tristan nodded. “The sailors called it Malice.”

Luna’s eyes widened for a second and then was replaced with a thoughtful expression.

“That's impossible,” she said, giving Tristan an odd smile.

“Why?” he asked.

She laughed. “Well. Because we are still alive,” she said. “If Malice was loose on the world, we’d all know because we’d all be dead.”

“That's reassuring,” said Tristan.

“Were there any revenants?” she asked.

“Yes, no… Probably not,” he stuttered. “Is that a type of bird?”

She smiled in a way he’d only seen before from teachers. It was the sympathetic smile they usually gave him and he hated it. “Maybe you did bump your head.”

“Can you help me or not?” Tristan asked more aggressively than he intended. He felt like this meeting was going badly and he just wanted to get it over with.

With such grace that she seemed almost to glide, Luna moved over to Tristan. She gave no sign that his words had offended her. “I’ll try,” she said with a note of hesitation in her voice. “But I'm not a full magi yet.”

She reached out a pale hand towards him.

“ Can I?” she asked. 

“Of course,” he stammered, feeling the blood rushing to his face.

As her hand touched his head he saw tendrils of pale moon light flowing out of her fingertips and probing the edges of his mind. It was completely different to the dragon’s mind invasion. Luna’s touch felt warmer almost as if it was massaging his brain. 

He felt power awaken within him in response to Luna’s mind probe. The feeling was gentle at first but as Luna added more power to her probe the magic within Tristan bared its teeth. Its response was brutal; it repelled Luna's probe and slashed through her mind's defenses and forced its way into her head. 

Tristan’s vision blurred for an instant and like a plug being pulled out of a bathtub the color drained from the world. 

“What’s happening?” he asked, panic rising inside of him.

A black and white image of Luna stared at him. Her face was frozen in time.

The walls of the hut vanished and Tristan was standing in a dark and misty forest. The trees pressed in around him and he felt ancient eyes watching me. Tristan was in its territory and it wasn't pleased to see him.

“Luna, where are we?” he asked.

Pale moonlight reflected off of a small stream that trickled gently over a path and past Tristan. With no other choice he could think of he stepped over the stream and followed the narrow footpath.

From the corner of Tristan’s eyes caught glimpses of tiny golden lights flickering between the trees and each time he turned to look at them they disappeared again. They didn't feel hostile, just curious. 

“What are you?” he asked.

The golden lights drifted towards him. They swirled around his legs like curious cats. Tristan felt bruises and scratches healing as the lights tickled his skin. He reached out a hand and cupped a light inside of his palm and lifted it to his eyes. The light wriggled in his hand and flared brightly, blinding him for a moment. 

When Tristan’s vision returned the lights were gone and he was standing at an opening to a small clearing. In the middle of the clearing was a dark wooden chair and table and a bookshelf loaded with books.

A faint scraping sound came from the right. Tristan turned scanning the trees across the path. He peered at the darkness behind the trees searching for any hint of movement.

Nothing.

Something or someone watched him from the darkness. It felt foreign like it didn't belong in this place. The hair on the back of Tristan’s neck stood up as the gaze pressed on him like a razor blade slowly cutting into his nerves.

“Show yourself?” Tristan said barely louder than a whisper.

A hooded figure emerged on the edge of the clearing and watched Tristan for a moment. It said nothing. It took a single step towards him and the shadows around the figure shimmered like oil on water and then the hooded figure appeared right in front of Tristan.

“Leave this place,” it said. “The enemy is not welcome here.”

A wolf howled in the distance and the sound was picked up by wolves closer by who all began to howl in unison. 

“They have your scent,” said the hooded figure as it stepped back into darkness and disappeared.

Shadows spread out all around Tristan and smokey shapes formed out of the darkness. Yellow eyes beamed from out of the dim light and then the eyes began to move. The wolves melted into each other then blurred forming a single much larger wolf. 

The shadow flickered and the wolf appeared in the air in front of Tristan gnashing its teeth a few inches from his face.

He raised his hand to defend himself and the blue symbols appeared on his arm. A single blue flame flew out his palm and hit the wolf mid air. The wolf howled in pain as it burst into blue flames.

Tristan jumped back from the animal and felt his connection with Luna break. The vision disappeared. 

Luna hit the ground with a resounding thud and color flooded back into my vision. Luna was lying on the floor of the hut curled into a ball and whimpering softly. 

“Luna!”

Tristan jumped over a pile of books and bent down beside her trembling form. The symbols on his arm pulsated and then faded from his arm as he touched her. 

A thin trail of blood ran down Luna’s nose and over her pale cheek.

“Luna.”

Tristan shook her gently and just as he was about to run out of the hut for help her eyes flickered open and she stared up at him with large green eyes. 

“Are you ok?” he asked. 

Her forehead wrinkled and she grimaced in pain. She opened her mouth and closed it again as if testing to see if it still worked.

“Wha—” she began to say and then fell silent again as she looked around the hut and saw the overturned chair and her herbs scattered on the floor. 

Tristan reached out a hand and she stared at it for a second before taking it. He pulled her to her feet and she leant against the desk for support. 

“What happened?” Tristan asked.

She shook her head slowly. “I don't understand,” she said. “I just wanted to soothe your pain and heal the fractures in your mind but…” 

She looked at the ground.

“You attacked me,” she said, her voice full of pain and confusion.

“It wasn't me,” he said defensively. “There was an old guy and wolves—” He trailed off. 

“You should have told me you were a magi,” she said.

“I’m not,” he said flatly. “I don't even know what you're talking about. I don't know what any of you are talking about most of the time.” 

Luna sat down heavily in her chair and reached for a glass pitcher field with what looked like water.

“There is so much anger in you,” she said. “It tried to devour me.”

She lifted the pitcher and filled a rose tinted glass with it and then handed the glass to Tristan. 

“You drink,” he said. “You need it more than I do.”

She smiled weakly and then lifted the glass to her lips and took a sip of water. A droplet ran down her chin and she wiped it away with the back of her hand. 

“It's strange,” she said. “Your mind feels like it is split into two halves that are sealed off from each other.”

Her words felt true. He realized that his life before the dragon’s attack was already fading like it had all happened years before.

“Will I lose those memories?” he asked. He was sure how he felt about it. Most of his life had been a waking nightmare with a scattering of happy memories among them.

Luna downed the rest of her water and then filled the glass up again.

“This is the only glass I have,” she said as she handed the glass to him.

Tristan took a sip of the water and a childish part of him got excited at the thought that her lips had touched the glass. 

“I don't have the answers you need,” she said. “But I do know someone who might have them. Master Fannen was my mentor for a time when I was younger. She was a professor at Tempest academy, but now she’s a researcher in Porthaven.”

“Where’s that?” Tristan asked.

Luna frowned. “Porthaven is a small island two days' journey from here,” she said. “Some companions of mine and I are leaving for Aressea in two week’s time to start our training at the academy. I will speak to the captain of the ship and ask him to stop at Porthaven on the way.” 

“Is it ok for me to come with you?” Tristan asked. “I don't have any money.”

“You have two weeks before our ship arrives,” she said. “You seem like a resourceful guy, I'm sure you'll manage to raise three silvers for the seapass and maybe you could buy yourself some pants while you’re at it.”