Briar in the altar room to help him cope with Flick's death. Rosethorn works with Dedicate Crane and a team of Air mages to find a cure for the sickness. But it is Briar's sharp-eyed friend Tris who discovers the first real breakthrough; the origin of the disease. With Niko's help, she learns that the disease was a result of a magical experiment gone wrong and disposed of incorrectly. Unfortunately, just as things start to look bright in the search for a cure for the blue pox, an accident in Crane's lab causes Rosethorn to become sick with it as well. This causes Briar to work twice as hard, determined not to lose Rosethorn as he had lost Flick, and slowly a cure begins to develop. (Rosethorn continues to send notes to Crane through Briar.) After several days, the cure is deemed to be safe and Crane tests it on Rosethorn. She starts to recover, but has a bad cough, which develops into pneumonia. Lark goes to find a healer, but while she is gone, Rosethorn has a seizure. Briar, not wanting to lose his teacher, plunges after her into death, magically linking himself to the three girls and his beloved shakkan, or miniature tree. Suspended in a sort of limbo, he finds Rosethorn in a garden, and they argue fiercely. Only after he threatens to sever the magical cords linking him to life does she agree to return with him. Upon their return, they discover that Rosethorn has temporarily lost her ability to speak, due to the seizure and the accompanying block of oxygen flow to her brain. But that appears to be the only lasting damage, and the blue pox has vanished for good. A month later, Briar and the girls are on the roof. Sandry comments that it is the four's birthday, they have all been at Discipline Cottage for a year. Everyone has to leave for various reasons, leaving Briar alone. He contemplates birthdays, and decides his birthday will be the following day, the day Rosethorn invited him to her garden. She calls up to him and tells him to come down and start weeding. Characters Lady Sandrilene fa Toren (A.K.A. Sandry) : A girl who was of noble birth, and a friend of Briar's. She is an ambient mage, with control over weaving. She is also the first of the four to get a student