It was like a gated city inside of the forest, which explained the high price tag for a reservation. They walked past restaurants, spas, clubs, and anything else they could imagine a person needed to have a good time. As they neared the main hotel in the resort, Viri noticed a metalsmith shop. “Hey Als, I'm gonna swing by that shop before checking into the hotel.” Alyson arched a brow at her. “What do you need with weapons? You have fire. I’m pretty sure fire beats metal every time.” Viri rolled her eyes. “Fire beats metal when you know how to use it, which I don’t yet. I’ve been holding a weapon since I was born, and after the way I got my ass handed to me by lizard man before you came to the rescue, I definitely need to re-up on my arsenal.” Alyson contemplated her response. “Touché.”

They walked into the shop and axes and swords were hanging everywhere. It was one of the most beautiful places she’d ever seen. Alyson noticed the awe on Viri’s face. “Only you and your mother would be so happy in a place filled with weapons.” Viri grinned widely at her. Her grin turned wicked when she noticed the goblin metalsmith staring at her with even more disdain than the ticket holder earlier. “Do you have something against women being in a metal shop?” The goblin huffed, “I do when they look so prissy.” Viri looked at Alyson and they both burst out laughing. Viri threw several gold coins on the counter. “I’d like to see your selection of daggers.” The goblin begrudgingly picked up the coins and went to the back to bring out a tray of daggers. Viri took her time and picked out three while Alyson walked around the rest of the shop. Her eye caught on three golden ones that looked exactly alike except they each held a different stone in the hilt. “I’ll take these three. How much for them?” The goblin glared at her. “The coins you gave earlier will cover the cost of these.” She smiled sweetly. “Perfect. I’ll name them The Priss Sisters.” She winked at the goblin and heard his answering growl as she and Alyson walked out of the store.

“Eat or shower?” Viri looked at Alyson who surveyed their hair and clothes as both of their stomachs growled in response to the question. “Eat.” They both responded at the same time and laughed at each other. They popped into a restaurant that was beside the hotel and walked up to sit at the bar. “I’ll have the largest burger you have along with a veggie burger here for my friend. Both with fries and two bourbons on ice. Thanks.” Alyson nodded in agreement and the bartender walked off to put in their order.

“So how long do you think it’ll take us to reach the temple now?” Before Viri could answer, the bartender leaned in to set glasses of water and bourbon down in front of them. “Are you two going to the temple of flame and water?” Viri arched a brow at the bartender. She touched the tips of her ears to show that they were pointed. “I tend to have excellent fae hearing.” Either the bar masked the smell or her own must have kept her from realizing the bartender was fae. Viri smirked. “I’m all too aware of how excellent fae hearing is. Do you know of the temple?” The bartender nods. “The elders that run this place call it the Temple of Anzel. They also claim that Anzel will burn anyone to ashes that steps foot on the temple grounds.” Viri snorts. “You don’t really believe the old wives’ tales about the Asai still existing, do you?” The bartender shrugged. “You’d be surprised by the things people believe out here in the forest.” She walked off and brought back their burgers before going to help someone else. Viri and Alyson looked at each other and shrugged before eating their dinner.

Viri couldn’t help but think about the bartender’s claim as they walked to the resort hotel. It seemed stupid and trivial because no one had heard from any of the Asai in ages, but Anzel’s name just kept tugging at her for some reason. “Do you think the Asai still actually exist?” Alyson stared up at the stars so long that Viri began to wonder if she’d even answer. After a few minutes, she heard Alyson’s answering sigh. “I don’t know. They haven’t been around in so long that if they died off, it’d be easier to pretend they still existed to maintain order.” They walked the rest of the way in silence as Viri contemplated Alyson’s response. It didn’t logically make sense for them to still exist and not be seen for this long, but the past few days have completely thrown logic out of the window for her.

She checked them into their rooms at the front desk and met a dancing Alyson at the elevators. “That’s your ‘waiting for the bathroom’ dance.” Viri chuckled as she recognized it. Alyson glared at her. “Those damn burgers were made from hellfire. I feel like lava is about to burst out of me at any second.” Viri cackled as they got off the elevator and she unlocked the hotel door with the keycard. Alyson pushed her aside and ran to the bathroom. Viri laughed again as she chose a bed and unpacked her clothes and plugger her phone into a charger port. Her phone began going off as the notifications from the past two days came across. She was ninety-nine percent sure they were all from her mother. She grabbed her phone and read the messages.

“Don’t forget to call me as soon as you have service.”

“I’m not worrying. I just want you to know that I love you and miss you and I hope you’re being safe.”

“Do you still not have service or are you avoiding me?”

“Is the forest that dense? Like, are there seriously no service lights floating around there for you to have a signal?”

“If I don’t hear from you soon Viri Omnel Harper, I'm calling the puppy patrol.”

Viri laughed at the name her mother used for the police. She’d always seen them as a bunch of weaklings since her time in the war. She dialed her mother’s number and Gwinera answered on the first ring. “This had better be the first time you have service or I'm sending a firing squad after you.” Viri smiled to herself. “It is definitely the first time I have had service since stepping foot in the forest. Maybe you should use all of your war connections to increase cell service instead of calling hits on me.” Gwinera laughed. “Oh, don’t worry. That’s my second order of business. How are things going? Are you safe? Where are you?”

“I’m currently at one of the destination resorts in the forest. The whole no bathing thing was starting to take a toll. I’m being safe though.” Her mother was silent for a few seconds and Viri heard the almost inaudible sigh of relief on the other end of the phone. That relief twisted in her gut. The sound of it didn’t settle well on the anger Viri hadn’t fully realized she was carrying. She hadn’t expected to get the chance to talk to her mother until after the trip was over. She figured by then, she wouldn’t be as confused or upset because she’d have more answers. She thought she had more time to broach the subject, but the anger was rising, and she realized she had to ask.

“Mom...” she paused and took a deep breath, “Why did you hide my powers from me?” There was a long, drawn-out silence on the other end of the phone. She was about to ask again when her mother finally spoke. “I knew this day would come, especially once you mentioned the stone. It’s the very reason I didn’t want you to go on the trip.” Her mother was rambling. She never rambled. “I knew you’d have to know one day, and I suppose you’re old enough to know now but this isn’t a conversation to be had over the phone.”

Stolen story; please report.

She sighed. “Mom, seriously. I need to know-” her mother interrupted. “No Viri, I'm not just saying that to avoid the conversation. This isn’t something to say over the phone. There are always people listening for keywords and telling you who you are would trigger those, so trust me when I say that we can’t discuss this now and that you can’t discuss this with anyone else over the phone. I promise we can talk about it as soon as you get home. Which, by then you may already know all you need to know. Just please, please be careful and know that I love you more than the air I breathe.” Her mother choked up at those last words. She’d never seen or heard her mother cry. “Mom, are you okay?” Viri waited for an answer again. “I am. I must go. Please Viri, be safe. That’s all this was ever about. Keeping you safe.” Her mother hung up before she could respond.

She fell back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. She realized that she’d gone from angry to pissed. She was logical and rational so she knew her mother was telling the truth, but she still couldn’t ignore the fact that she’d been lied to her whole life. No number of apologies could make that okay right now. Wait. She didn’t even get an apology. She got a whole bunch of nothing. Well, there was confirmation that she was more, but she’d already gotten that confirmation before asking so that was pointless. She was so pissed, that she felt like she might explode, which then led to wondering if she could actually explode. She sighed. It would probably be best to take a walk and get out of her head some. Another trick her mother taught her to stay calm, all for the likely reason of keeping her powers under control.

She stood up before she went deeper into the angry rabbit hole she was digging.

“Aly, I'm headed to explore the hotel.” She heard a strained moan from the bathroom in response. She grabbed her key card and walked around the hotel looking at the paintings for a while. When that got too depressing, she decided to look for a fitness center to blow off some steam. After about ten minutes of walking and failing to find a gym or a directory, she stumbled across a library. She walked in and began browsing the massive book selection. She didn’t know what drew her to it really, but she wound up at a section with books about the Asai. She pulled one that looked ancient enough to be important and sat at a nearby table to flip through it. The pages were filled with a history of the Asai’s political prowess, which she knew all about from school lessons. How they created the government and began modernizing the cities. Blah blah blah. There was little about the creation of the Asai. It only mentioned that they had come from a being even more powerful than them. She shrugged at imagining something more powerful than the gods of the country.

She flipped until she eventually saw pages with descriptions of them.

The more she flipped through the pages, the more goosebumps appeared on her skin. The drawings and depictions of the Asai were of massive birds with feathers of various colors and large talons that were twins to the ones that had appeared on her. There were four of them. Alicantas was a golden female with a feathered tail of silver and gold. She had large silver talons, and she was drawn with golden specks falling from her wings as she flapped. Thundryl was a black and golden male with golden talons that mirrored Viri’s own and another large, feathered tail. Calandria was a white female with feathers that seemingly glowed and silver talons as well. Anzel had feathers that were different hues of blue and red with large golden talons and a tail of long, flowing feathers that seemed to be surrounded by flames.

It wasn’t the talons or the feathers that freaked her out. Those could have been mere coincidences. It was the pages upon pages of eyes with specks that she’d never seen aside from her own. They each had specks of either gold or silver. She stared at Alicantas’ as though they were the key to some lost memory. They were like a pool of melted gold with silver specks that called to her like she’d seen them before. She couldn’t figure it out, and as if that wasn’t enough, it was Anzel’s eyes that made her finally close the book. They were the eyes of her dreams. Even as drawings they were like looking into the sea and the golden specks shone brightly.

She could barely breathe. For a young woman who prided herself on being level-headed, this week kept kicking her in the chest. She had gone from being utterly human to having fire and possible shapeshifting magic, to now possibly having something to do with the Asai. She couldn’t fathom being related to them and she definitely couldn’t imagine being one of them. A new Asai hadn’t been announced since the dawn of the original four. Her mother never discussed her father and after staring into Anzel’s eyes in the pages, she didn’t even know if she could handle the reason behind it. Did the ancient witch look at her eyes and come to the same conclusion of her being connected to the Asai? They hadn’t been seen in so long that everyone seemed to forget what they looked like, and no one regarded her eyes as anything more than strangely beautiful.

Is that what this whole trip is about? Going to a temple speculated to be Anzel’s? Is it confirmation? Her head was swimming. Should she go back home and just demand answers from her mother instead? Or Morgana, who seemed to know her mother’s secrets.

No. She wasn’t a quitter. She started this for answers, and she’d find them. No matter how unbelievable they seemed. Maybe the Asai weren’t even gods. Maybe they were just a magical race that felt like they were better than the rest. Maybe there were tons of them hidden on the continent somewhere and her mother just happened to have a brief relationship with one.

She closed her eyes and steadied her breathing. She could do this. She could finish this trip. She could finally learn who she really was. She could handle knowing the answer. If she couldn’t, then she would have no business being pissed at her mom for keeping it from her all this time. Her legs were slightly shaky as she stood but she willed herself to walk back to the room. She decided to keep the book for herself. There were a ton of books in the library. No way they’d notice one missing. At least not until she was long gone from this place.

She opened the hotel room door to find Alyson already knocked out with half of her body out of the covers and her arm in a better makeshift sling on top of her stomach. She saw herself in the mirror as she went to sit the book down by her things and cringed. She needed to shower and brush her hair. She looked like something she’d expect to crawl out from deep within the forest. She quietly showered and detangled her hair before changing into fresh clothes. She sat and pulled at her curls to stare at the color. She’d always been fascinated by the hue, but after seeing her arm covered in feathers of the same color, she saw her hair in a new light. Her two unique beauty markers were also the two very things that pointed to a magical ancestry she’d never known.

She braided her hair down the back and let her head hit her pillow with a soft thud. She immediately felt the weight of exhaustion hit her like a ton of bricks. She realized she was too tired to even dream when she awoke to the sun beaming behind the curtains. She rolled her eyes. “How convenient.” Maybe that was for the best. She didn’t even know what to say to him. Maybe she shouldn’t say anything at all on the off chance the depictions weren’t accurate, and it wasn’t him.

The door opened and startled her enough to jump out of bed and lunge for one of her knives. Alyson held up her hands. “Calm down you little assassin. I woke up this morning and my shoulder was healed. Figured I'd give it a decent workout and sweat out that demon burger from last night.”

Viri laughed and felt instantly more at ease than she had in the past twelve hours. She wanted to tell Alyson about her latest discovery, but she was afraid Alyson would convince her to go back home and she was already having a hard enough time keeping herself from suggesting the same thing. Instead, she began packing up her bag and discreetly put the book in it. She’d tell her of her suspicions when they made it to the temple. “Come on, let’s hit the road.” They finished packing and picked up some breakfast from the hotel buffet before finding their way to the forest entrance. They both turned to look at the gates of the city before heading towards the marshes. “Farewell civilization and bed sheets with high thread counts, you will be terribly missed.” Viri gave a mock bow and Alyson joined her. “May we meet again someday.” They giggled and restarted their journey to the marshes.