Battle Mage: Winter's Edge by Donald Wigboldy

nicely on the bed, please, and stop acting like I am giving you a special show. Trust me, if I wanted you to see something you shouldn’t I could have done so. Now close your mouth and have a seat a minute.”
                  Closing his mouth as his surprise slowly wore off; Sebastian laid the beautiful, layered dress on the bed and took one of the empty chairs while he waited.
                  It didn’t take Ashleen very long to pull the dress into place. Taking a silver cord from her nightstand, the girl quickly bound her long hair in a tail and smiled at him. “If we stay inside, I won’t need a cloak or boots will I?”
                  The falcon shook his head and before he knew it they were off again.
                  The walk was long. Her ankle slowed the girl down quite a bit as they negotiated stairs, but Sebastian assisted her as much as he could with an arm for support. Eventually, they were climbing to the top of the south tower. At nearly a hundred feet tall, it was about as high above the ground as they would be able to get in Falcon’s Keep.
                  “Do you notice a difference in energy?” the man asked barely breathing harder due to his conditioning.
                  Holding up a finger to give pause, the apprentice looked quite a bit more taxed by the walk. The battle, the dancing and now all the added stair climbing on a weakened ankle had begun to take their toll. Her strength was physically waning even if there was no change of the power from the earth.
                  As he watched the girl trying to catch her breath, Sebastian wondered if she was tiring from more than just all the walking after all. Her strength seemed to refuse to return even though they waited. Wishing he had brought some water at the least, Sebastian watched as Ashleen finally had to sit down looking exhausted.
                  Sitting next to her, the falcon took her hand feeling for the excess energy she had shown every time he had touched her. There was barely a tingle.
                  Taking a few moments to rest, Ashleen tried to play with the sparks across her fingers as she had earlier. Sebastian watched as a couple glimmers tried to flash in erratic little pops before the girl gave up on the test.
                  “Well either I am just very tired or apparently my power does weaken the further from the ground I get,” the apprentice stated wearily.
                  Nodding, Sebastian added, “It could just be that you’re worn out from the climb. It has also been a long day and you were in a battle after all. We can wait a little longer and let you get your energy back and see. Maybe you could try feeling for the power through the stone and see if it’s still there while we wait.”
                  Ashleen shook her head as she felt for the power that had always been there trying to fill her up. “It’s barely a trickle from here. I didn’t notice the change right away, but there definitely seems to be a connection between how high we climb from the ground and the power that I can draw.”
                  “I’m actually surprised that the stone of the castle doesn’t continue the flow, but I supposed that cut stone isn’t like the living earth,” Sebastian mused aloud as he stood offering a hand to the young woman. “Well, I guess we have our answer. We should probably head back down then.”
                  Sighing, the girl replied, “This is going to be a long walk.”
                  Taking her hand, Sebastian smiled before calling on his magic again. “Heal,” he ordered sending his own energy into the apprentice feeding her strength. The effect was immediate and Ashleen looked at him in surprise.
                  “But I wasn’t injured from our climb, just tired.”
                  He