In the end, Noble trusted that Sarai had done a good enough job of covering her wounds without looking in a mirror. Forgetting even the Others for a moment, Noble didn't want to have the slightest chance of finding Mordret in the reflection.
'That would have been bad. May we never meet again was more than just a wish; it was a promise.'
Noble suppressed a shiver. As she headed home, the Saint replayed the afternoon in her head. The single Skinwalker had been worse than a horde.
"Maybe I should have taken the risk and headed to the waking world," Noble mumbled to herself.
Of course, she hadn't done it for a few reasons. One was that she was a little afraid of bringing the skinwalker back with her. As bad as it was having him near Ravenheart, it would be much worse to set him loose in the Academy full of Sleepers.
Secondly, Noble wanted to find the Hermit. Leaving would mean losing the only trail she had to him.
But most importantly, Noble simply didn't want to. The road would not be safe to travel on until the vessel was eliminated.
The former queen of the Dreamscape was insatiably curious and a little proud at times. The sea of Skinwalkers in the Eastern Quadrant had meant to drown her, but Noble had persevered. Now she wanted to take it a step further and eliminate a vessel when one reared its head.
That was what made her risk so much to get a glimpse at how to kill them. Putting the pieces together, Noble had a decent idea of how to take one down. However, she wasn't itching to try out her theory just now. The professor had read the reports that Fort had recently received about the creature. It was learning and adapting.
'I won't go looking for trouble, but I want to be ready when it comes.'
Trouble always came, though it seemed to be coming more frequently with each passing day. Would she ever get a break?
'Not today!' Noble's eyes widened as she hurried down the path toward her home. Fortunately, it wasn't far.
When she got there, tensions were already high.
Brock stood in the middle of the living room, his hands waving to punctuate his point.
"Nail and I talked it over. And we think…"
"We are so close to the Solstice! If you went now, you'd run the risk of coming back and then being dumped in the Dream Realm before I could get anyone to help transport you home safely." Sitting in the armchair, Fort's knuckles were white from gripping his seat.
Rain and Blaze sat on the stairs a little off from the argument, unsure if they should intervene. The warm smell of something cooking on the stove told Noble that dinner preparation had been interrupted when the conversation had ensued. That made sense—it was Brock's night to cook.
"Mom!" Rain cried loudly as she hurried down the stairs.
Noble noticed the girl's slight limp, but knew better than to point it out. She placed her hand under her daughter's elbow and ushered her to the couch.
"Sorry, I am late. What's going on?" The mother's forced smile did little to cool the heated room.
"Brock wants to take on the First Nightmare." Blaze volunteered from the stairs.
His elder brother scowled at him.
Noble shrugged. "That isn't news. Brock has made his intentions quite clear for a long time."
Fort pressed his lips together. "He wants to go now."
"Now?" Noble's eyebrows shot upward.
Suddenly, her husband's comment made sense. They were less than two weeks from the solstice. People had been stuck in their first Nightmare much longer than that.
"I don't want to go now..." Brock asserted.
Noble felt a wave of relief. This was just a misunderstanding. "That's good, then let's sit down and–"
"I want to leave tomorrow." The young man nodded firmly.
"What?!" Noble barely contained the outburst that could have leveled a city block. She was getting much better at controlling her powers.
Her son, however, had become far more impulsive than she ever was.
"You want to leave for a Nightmare...tomorrow? Why?" Noble couldn't fathom this sudden turn of events.
"I want to. And now is as good a time as any." Brock's vague explanation was far from enough.
"We aren't done training. You asked me to tutor you, remember?" The pair had been meeting three times a week, often with Blaze joining them.
"We can keep training after I awaken. We will be closer in power then and you can hold back less." The young man was undeterred.
"While that might be true," Noble shook her head. "Your father told you that you are too close to the Solstice. I don't want you to have to go through that."
"You went through it." The young man pointed out.
"I did not want to." Noble had it easier than most during her first Solstice, but she had seen over and over how that trial took the lives of youth who had bright futures ahead of them.
"If it happens and I have to face the Solstice, I will handle it." Brock puffed out his chest.
"The deal was you would wait until you are over eighteen and have at least two years at the Dreamer Academy," Fort reminded the young man.
"The Spell stops taking people over the age of eighteen in the waking world." Brock crossed his arms as if he had made some profound point.
Noble rubbed the back of her head.
"But you're sixteen. What is your rush?" The mother tried to wrap her head around the boy's strange behavior. Just a few weeks ago, he was talking about building his skill so he could go hunting with Rain in a year or so.
"I don't want to get behind. Legacies are allowed to go whenever they want."
Brock was right. Once a person hit the age of sixteen, they didn't need parental permission to take on the first trial.
"Legacies still take time to make an informed decision." Fort could prevent the processing of the necessary paperwork for his son to be transported to the waking world, but thankfully, the ambassador hadn't made that threat.
"I am informed!" Brock countered.
Rain scoffed. "You decided this, what, like an hour ago?"
"Awakened need to be quick on their feet." The boy frowned.
"And smart with their head." The elder sister pointed to her temple.
"Are you calling me stupid?" Brock's voice rose.
Blaze began to raise his hand to answer, but Noble subtly shook her head.
"No one is calling you stupid." The mother began. "There is just a lot at stake here, and we want to understand."
"What is there to understand?" Brock pressed his hands against his head. "I don't want to delay my training. The fastest way to get more powerful is to take on a Nightmare."
"Fast doesn't always mean best," Fort tried.
"Can you at least wait until after the Solstice? Then you can finish your studies for the year and..."
Noble paused as Brock's emotions spiked.
Fort noticed the change in his wife's expression. He knew that look.
The boy threw his arms into the air. "Studies? Who needs them! I've learned all I'm going to from that school. What good is knowing the square root of seven hundred twenty-nine if I cannot keep myself alive when a Nightmare creature attacks?"
"Twenty-seven," Blaze whispered, immediately covering his mouth. "Sorry!"
The boy couldn't leave a problem unsolved, and he had already been thwarted once.
Noble returned her focus to her eldest son. "Brock, what's really going on?"