"...That bird's still around," Lylesia noted one morning.
Theora grimaced. Lylesia didn't need to tell her, especially not in that light-hearted, almost sing-song voice of hers. She knew all too well that Augusta (she refused to call her bird Jewel, so she'd had to compromise) was still in the vicinity of the Academy. The bird had been hanging around for weeks now, following Theora around while she was outside and probably finding a cozy, warm spot to stay in when she was inside. Even the other trainees had gotten used to the strange white hawk being around as if it were a local curiosity. By now, it was the fourth letter from Breorion that she'd ignored. It annoyed her to know that of all the birds, it had to be the fastest one in the Kingdom bringing her Breorion's letters when she was
