The boy flys away on his creature. Roi hisses at the dot in the sky. He stomps on the grass, encasing it in frost. I gaze around. The hills roll on for miles, the farthest ones a hazy blue on the horizon. The Ice Palace sits high on the tallest ine, at least 12 leagues away. I scowl. The meeting starts in an hour.

" We have to get to the meeting!" I explaim.

Illilune swears and replys ; " race you there." She throws down a black orb and a horse made of shadow appears. She mounts it and starts down a path. I throw down a white one and a horse of ice appears and I start after Illilune.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We stop at the stables in front of The Shadow Hall. Our horses turn back into orbs and we stick them in our pockets .We open the obsidian doors and step inside. Roi and Sine follow after us. We run to the meeting hall and take our seats. Everybody stops talking and glares at us. The Leader narrows his eyes.

" Late again I see," his  plummy voice growls.

"We ran into trouble getting here," Illilune hisses.

"What kind?" a lady said. She's the Master blackmailer here. Her name is Viasha.

" A boy, " I said. "He was a trainer from the other side."

"Humph." Viasha smirks and Leader begins talking again.

" It is time for Kyra's creature, Roi, to come of age and gain his shadow collar." I gulped. Some people's creatures died from this ceremony. Roi is so little I am not sure how he will react. I glance over at him and his ears are flat against his head in terror. "Kyra, bring Roi down to the Chamber of Shadows." I reluctantly scoop up Roi and walk out of the room and down six flights of stairs.  A door swings open and I walk in. The Leader lights a candle. I put Roi down on the table. He squeals in confusion as The Leader brings over a price of pork. After the leader sets it on the table Roi sniffs at it. Perking up he gobbled it up and licks his chops. Suddenly he collapses into the table. I gasp and rush forward but somebody holds me back. Viasha! I watch as a few feathers on each of Roi's turns red. Roi stands up his eyes close. Viasha releases me and off of a shelf pulls a black braided dragonskin collar down. She slips it down and over Roi's head and his eyes snap open. His left eye is its normal color but the other is blue that fades to red. He flaps his wings. I didn't notice until now but he is the size of a full-grown house cat. He stands up and with a very noble expression on his face he says:

"Thank you, Leader." He flaps to my shoulder.  A gold charm jingles on his collar. The front  side is stamped with the symbol of our evil side, the other stamped with his name, my name, and his element: Ice stamped in Shadow Glyphs. I smile. Me, Leader, and Viasha walk back up the stairs, Roi zipping past us. We walk back into the meeting room and everybody congragulates me on Roi coming of age. 

" For her first mission," Leader begins, "she will sneak into The Ice Palace with somebody to help her. She will retrieve a weapon that if she gets it she can keep: The Sword Of Ice itself! Yes you heard me! She will get Blizzard! She has Three days, when the next meeting is. Go now, Kyra."

" Illilune, would you like to accompany me along with Sine?" I ask.

" It would by my pleasure,"she replies.

Thyst-

The boy, Markus, crumples to the foor.  "Amethyst!"

Mikey yelps as Amethyst flies in. Amethyst nods and sends me a telepathic message, the equivalent of "I see the trouble, stay back."

Her horn shines with eldritch light as I back away, pressing Mikey to the wall. She touches her horn to the boy's chest and he gasps and coughs awake.

"Are you alright?" I run to the boy's side and press a hand to his chest. His heart beats quickly but steadily; Amethyst's healing spell worked.

"Alive," he says gruffly, "who are you?"

"I'm Thyst DeWinter, Lady of the North."

He nods. "Markus. Th-that's m-my-"

"Your partner?"

"Yes."

"I'll help you," I say to Mikey.

Scatha -

"Wait," I called out to the boy, Ares suddenly growling a warning at my side. I sent him a sharp look, and he gave me the same look back.

"I don't trust him," Ares snarled, his yellow and golden eyes glaring at me.

"You don't trust anybody," I hissed back. "So, therefore, obviously you wouldn't trust this guy."

"Well I don't!" Ares exclaimed, his tail whipping back and forth angrily. I sent one more look to Ares before turning to the boy.

"I'm Scatha. What's your name?" 

We walked outside into the moonlight. We throw our orbs down and mount, riding down the simple stone path. Roi flaps above us, occasionally taunting Sine. Soon The Ice Palace came into view. They dismounted and quietly snuck up the path. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Candlelight flicked through an open window, casting shadows. Illilune leaned over:

"What now?" 

"Just follow my lead...I kinda stole info and the sword is in the top floor." I hop up the wall, gripping the ice bricks and pull myself up the palace. Illilune follows.

"We're here," she says. After what seems hours of hopeless climbing, we have reached the top. Roi shatters the window and we climb in. We creep down the halls and into a room with two guards and.... A display case with Blizzard! I look to Illilune and she nods. I draw my current sword and throw it at one of the guards. It misses by an inch and clashes into the wooden table that the display case sits on. The sword slides, knocking the case off, and it clashes to the floor, the glass lid shattering. Blizzard falls to the floor sliding over to the opposite wall. 

" THAT WAS DUMB!" Illilune yells from across the room, pulling a Shadow Arrow from the guard's chest. She whistles, and Sine takes down the other guard. Roi flys over to me and meows, his tail gesturing to the sword. I grab it and put it in my sheath. Turning around, a dozen guards come through the doorway. Sine lunges taking down 3, Roi zips forward, freezing guards. Illilune nocks more arrows, and they find the heart of more guards. I draw Blizzard. It's a hand and a half sword, and very balanced. Soon we stand in a empty room.

"Mission accomplished," I whisper.

"STOP THEM!" Somebody yells. The lady of the north. 

" Go!" Roi yells and we jump out of the window. 

" STUPID! STUPID STUPID STUPIDDD!!!" Illilune screams and we fall. We drop our orbs and sheath weapons. We fall on top of our steeds. I spur my horse and Roi perches on my shoulder. The sun starts to rise. 

" Talk about burglary," Illilune mutters as we ride down the path, faster than a wolf.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

" So you had no problem getting the Sword?" Leader asked 

" Hmph," Illilune says.

"You could say that," I say.

There are only two. 

Scatha -

"What in the world was that?!" I exploded after Markus and his animal had left. Ares let out a feral growl, his hairs standing on end at thinking of Markus's animal again.

"I heard her," he spat, snarling.

"You what?" I asked, confusion starting to crawl in.

"I heard her! She was muttering things," he answered, his tail slowly gliding back and forth.

"Is that why you don't like everyone? Because you hear them muttering?" I asked again, still confused.

"No. Usually it's just other mythanis," he replied, the fur on his shoulders starting to lay flat.

"That's still no excuse for using the Scraguric," I murmured, looking at Ares from the corner of my eye. He growled again.

"I don't care if it lands me in trouble, but I would use anything to protect you. So deal with it," he hissed, showing his fangs. I gave him a small smile, petting his head.

"C'mon, we still have to find it."