It was tempting to say that everything changed after Salem and I confirmed our relationship was, well, a relationship. That was what people were supposed to say, after all. But in all honesty, while some things did change, most things remained the same. We spent a few more classes fixing the theatre back to how it had been before, and then returned to practice.

The mandated hours with a mind healer were interesting in their own way, and wasn't what I'd expected. I wasn't sure exactly what I'd thought it would be like, in all fairness. A part of me had expected a psychic thrice the age of Salem to force his way into my mind and pull out all of my worst experiences, while another part of me had expected to be made to sit on a couch and go through my entire family history and how every event made me feel.

The woman I was assigned to work with wasn't a mage, and though she was a priestess of Hugur, a god of starlight and art, the divine power she wielded wasn't especially powerful. She had no blessings for offense, defense, or healing, no direct combat power at all. The only real boon she could use with any regularity was one that allowed her to shift the coloration of wet paint. It didn't imbue her paintings with any sort of supernatural power, they didn't directly amplify emotions. It simply changed the pigment within a paint from one sort to another.

For our first session, we just… talked. She was painting a landscape in a fairly large, airy, well-lit studio, and offered me a canvas as well. I'd said no, and she hadn't pressured me to take one. Instead, I'd been offered a seat on the couch, and allowed to sit in silence. That had grown awkward, so I'd started to talk about the events of the summer. The priestess had listened, asking occasional questions and pointing things out, until our time had been up. I'd found myself surprisingly looking forward to being able to go to the second session.

As the summer solstice steadily grew closer, though, one thing that did change was the assassination attempts. I wasn't approached again, with the deception I'd pulled being enough to convince whatever force was tracking after the Shé family and their allies that I didn't know what was going on, but Jackson, Yushin, and apparently even Shé Rui himself were all approached in different ways. One evening, while we were out at a cheap restaurant, Yushin's drink was poisoned with a powder that would render her temporarily immobilized and highly agreeable. When she'd collapsed, an assassin had appeared over her body, only for Jackson, Salem, and I to all unleash a barrage of magic onto the shadowy figure. They must have decided it wasn't worth it, because they'd swiftly left.

Jackson was approached on campus by an elderly man claiming to be from a friendly temple, looking for the child of the Traitor Wyrm, one of the more subtle attempts that the assassins tried. Jackson had apparently told the man that he could sense the darkness within the man's soul, and that he was not a true priest, at which point the man had tried to attack. That had been a mistake. The Erudite's new defenses weren't exactly nice, and the disintegration spell had taken off the man's arm and one of his legs before he managed to flee.

That same day, Shé Rui and his wife had found themselves fending off a direct assault on their townhome by a powerful marsh element cultivator. Their battle had ripped up a chunk of major roadway, and the Seven Sword Knight had apparently personally intervened to end the battle, forcing the marsh cultivator to flee.

That had been a major tipping point, as the repetition of the attacks and the public nature of the fight had been enough for politics to begin to move. Just as I'd been told, the Divine King publicly came forward and stated that a splinter of the Shadowed Soul Sect had tried to assassinate him a year ago.

He claimed that he'd killed all of the ones he could find and disbanded the sect, and that these were a small group that he must have missed, who fled and were hunting down anyone with minor connections to his divine court. Naturally, that meant he was willing to pay recompense for the damage of their fight, as well as donate a sum for the inconvenience of having them escape to Cendel, but he could not be held accountable for their further actions. He even put a price on the heads of the sect members, as they were traitors to Shen-Long.

"Politics," Yushin had said, shaking her head upon hearing the news.

"For all that the woman who laid my egg sucked, she was at least straightforward," I agreed, sipping my own cup of tea and shaking my head. "If Gerhard or Greta or Galliana or any of the others wanted me dead, they'd be more likely to kick down the door to the dorm than do this."

"Why d'all your siblings 'ave g-names?" Salem wondered.

"That's not true," I said, frowning. "Claire doesn't start with a G."

"I think you misheard her name, Gemrys," Jackson said. "It's Glaire."

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I glowered at both of them, unleashing a wave of dragonfear over the room, even as my face started to turn into a grin. I barely even put a flicker of fire into it, so it bounced off Salem's mental shielding, and Jackson's fingers only froze for half a second.

"I do 'ave an idea, though," Salem said, his face growing serious. "M' gonna need to meet with Elder Tywyll in a few days when she an' my ma' arrive. If Rui can pay for her services, I'm sure she could make the problem go away."

I grew silent at that. I knew that Salem's mom was coming soon, along with a delegation of Elders from Hydref, including Tywyll and their Erudite – the Orcish one who'd told me that I had a bit of minstrel in me.

Truthfully, I was actually somewhat excited to get the chance to meet Elder Tywyll and potentially even another Erudite. It was Salem's mom, Moira Alderson, who had me terrified.

I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I was only broken out by Salem laughing. I glanced up to see Yushin looking confused, and Jackson looking contemplative.

"Tha's… Hilarious…" Salem finally said between gasps.

"What happened?"

"I simply stated that I doubted that this Elder Tywyll would be powerful enough to make a dark sect like this vanish," Yushin said stiffly. "It is being headed by a Nascent Immortal. Even a freshly ascended is roughly on par with an eighth circle mage, and this group clearly also has several Perpetual Core cultivators."

"What stage are the ones we fought?" I asked curiously.

"I suspect that the one who has been harassing us is a first to third layer Perpetual Core cultivator," Yushin responded. "Perpetual Core ranges from being roughly fifth circle to roughly seventh, depending on how far along the path they are."

"And with their bloodline fused, they can probably punch up a bit. Then again, most of us have supporting powers," I mused. "How strong is this Elder Tywyll? She made your seals, right?"

"Aye, she did," Salem agreed with a nod, then hesitated. "I dunno if she's powerful in the way you're thinkin'. She's not gonna blast someone apart with magic. But she's old an' canny. Bein' a hag an' such, I don' think there's much she canne do if she's paid enough. Takin' apart a dark sect like this isn't out'a the question."

"I will bring it up with my Uncle, then," Yushin said, but she sounded doubtful, and the topic quickly shifted to other, brighter topics. We weren't attacked at all the following week, as the price on the heads of the assassin's sect had bounty hunters from across Ocean Spires crawling all over, looking for any potential clues about their whereabouts.

Before I knew it, the week of the solstice arrived, heralded by the slow but steady increase in the levels of ether in the world. The summer solstice wasn't generally quite as celebrated as the winter one was, but it was still a generally good time. Bright banners made of multicolored paper were hung from streets, with elaborate patterns cut out within them, and vendors with carts full of spun sugar candies started making their way out onto the streets. Fresh, sweet corn was mixed with thick butter, peppers, onions, and spices, while masa was fried up into griddle cakes or stuffed with spiced meats and steamed over a low fire. Lemons and limes were imported from the newly freed White Sands, as well as from a couple of southern kingdoms, like the Stone Halls, and mixed with sweetened condensed milk or sugar water to make bright, refreshing drinks.

That sort of shift carried over into the dining hall, with us receiving a bright cucumber and pickled green papaya salad, bowls of cherry tomato and corn soup, and bacon lettuce tomato sandwiches, lighter fare to match with the higher temperatures. Though one incredibly spicy sauce of garlic, a half-dozen habanero peppers, and tomatoes that was smothered over chicken and rice managed to almost kill both Yushin and Salem, but Jackson and I were from White Sands. Bushes of hot peppers were some of the fastest, easiest, and cheapest spices that could be grown there, so between the two of us, we had thirty years of experience with spicy food.

But just as with the winter solstice, the summer solstice also sent magic racing through the halls, as hundreds of brightly colored folded paper cranes floated about. Each one was suspended by little more than a basic levitation cantrip, but it was still an inordinate amount of magic. In our rooms, small pots of water lilies began to appear, shedding small amounts of green and yellow light that dimmed at night.

The cart that produced drinks began to refuse to produce hot coffee or chocolate, and instead started insisting on making iced coffee, tea, or lemonade. It even seemed to get a bit uppity when I tried to insist on a hot coffee one day, and after four attempts where the magic did nothing, it conjured an entire pot of boiling hot coffee… without a pot. The steaming liquid splashed all over me and the room, and I was glad for both the clean spell and for the fact that simple burns didn't really hurt me, even if I still – somehow – managed to get sunburnt.

The summoning and illusion professors once again plied their magic together. Summer sprites, bound to the Queen of Summer, a generally benevolent faerie goddess, were summoned across campus, where they darted about, leaving small blessings and charms of fortune magic on anyone who happened to catch their eye. Meanwhile, rainbows and dazzling warping of light into spinning colors crowned the bronze towers that made up the Citadel of Ether's dorm buildings.

The divines of light and summer also worked their way across the city, leaving their small gifts to whomever they could: filling pantries, healing sunstroke, and soothing violence. I found the entire thing fun, but my heart definitely belonged to winter, rather than summer. It certainly didn't help that I was rapidly getting caught up in my own mind about meeting Salem's parents.

Before I knew it, the weekend before the week of the solstice had come. Feat Lienn, the Erudite of Hydref, opened a portal to Grand Trees, home of the High King, and Salem booked a two day carriage ride for us there and back. I packed my belongings, though I didn't have many, and we made our way down to bring his family to the university.

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