She didn’t even realize she’d fallen asleep until the murky water appeared all around her, and those eyes materialized in front of her. It was the same pair of azure blue eyes that made her feel like she was staring into the depths of the ocean. Or, at least, they would’ve if they didn’t have distinct golden specks on both irises – the same golden specks that were plastered over Viri’s own.

They just stared and stared at her for what felt like hours but could’ve been minutes. Sometimes they appeared in front of her surrounded by water, like tonight, and other times they were enveloped in crimson flames. The latter, she noticed, seemed to occur when her emotions were raging.

She’d seen them almost every night since she was five. They didn’t seem to appear on nights she was too exhausted to function. She just chalked it up to her subconscious being exhausted as well.

She initially raged at them, and they’d always just stare back at her with some flicker of emotion she couldn’t place. After countless nights of her yelling at them to speak or do anything other than stare at her for a whole night, she decided to start talking to them.

She talked about any and everything that happened throughout her day and the dreams became a sanctuary for her. She’d told her mother about the eyes once when she was young, and although her mother said it was just a weird dream, she seemed oddly shaken up by it.

Viri never bothered to mention them again. It just began to feel too personal to share, plus she was afraid she’d end up in a looney bin if she told people she talked to eyes at night.

Tonight, was no different. She sat down and crossed her legs and began to tell the eyes about her day. They stared back intensely, and she found herself diving deeper into her feelings about not knowing what to do with her future and still quietly wishing to be something greater than she was like she’d wished since she was little. She finished with a long sigh and the next thing she knew she was awakened by her alarm clock blaring.

She debated throwing the damn clock through her window, but that’d just cause more work for her, so she opted to just turn it off instead, groaning loudly as she rolled over to do so. She got up and immediately tripped over something hard and had to catch herself on the bathroom door frame.

She looked back and saw the book she was reading in the middle of the floor. She must’ve knocked it off the bed after she fell asleep reading it. She sighed.

She wasn’t a morning person. She most definitely wasn’t a Monday morning person. She went through her usual morning routine of showering, brushing her teeth, fluffing up her curls, and putting on her make-up.

If she was going to survive the workday, she’d at least do it looking as gorgeous as possible. That way clients wouldn’t focus on her scowling so much throughout the day. She grabbed a breakfast bar and a quick cup of coffee and was out the door.

She usually walked to work. She lived in the heart of the city so everything she needed was about a fifteen-minute walk from her, including her job. She lived in Eratia which was the capital city of the land of Lunsfold – a large continent filled with different magical beings living in sprawling cities and suburbs divided by different patches of forests. It was one of the four major continents, each with its own customs, laws, and deities. Lunsfold was ruled and guarded by The Asai. The strongest magical beings on the continent, and possibly the world, from what they taught everyone in school.

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The Asai were giant magical birds with different corresponding powers that ruled from the Mountains of Asai which were tucked away in the northern part of the continent. No one had been to the mountains for hundreds of thousands of years or seen one of The Asai for that matter.

They had a lesser government that included various beings of different species that governed the different cities and carried out the duties given to them by The Asai. The same Asai that no one had seen for hundreds of thousands of years. Viri didn’t buy it.

She figured they died long ago, and the government has been too afraid to announce it for fear of a revolution. She was far from the only one who thought so and different groups had banded together over the years and whispered of overthrowing the government they believed to be far weaker than they claimed.

None of that was Viri’s concern though, so she didn’t bother to pay much attention to them or any other politics. Asai or not, she still had a life to live. One that didn’t involve caring about the probably long-dead gods. One that was about to get a lot more hectic as she walked up to the store and saw the line of customers waiting to get in the front door.

She groaned and snuck around the back to unlock the door without being harassed with questions. She was a ‘jewel specialist’ at an elite jewelry store, which was another word for a store clerk who was more like an indentured servant that got paid to do everything that wasn’t in her job description, but the pay was nice, so she didn’t complain much.

Plus, she was afraid of her boss, so she pretty much did whatever she asked to do. Her boss was a gorgon named Morgana. She’d never actually seen the snakes, but she heard them hissing under the various headwraps Morgana wore while at work.

Morgana wasn’t a kind, loving woman. She was rude and made crass jokes, but she was somehow Gwinera’s friend and that’s how Viri got the job. She never wanted to know how the gorgon met her mother. She just chalked it up to some strange war history.

She’d heard about how Morgana was some badass back in the day that still scared the living crap out of people, but she’d decided to live a more docile life about thirty years ago. Viri never felt the need to question Morgana about her past, mostly because she figured Morgana would rip out her tongue for being so nosey.

Morgana would also threaten to turn her to stone for being fifteen minutes late like she currently was.

She opened the door and threw her purse in her office, hoping it landed on the desk. She didn’t hear her whole life scattering on the floor as she half-walked, half-jogged towards the front of the store, so that was a fairly good sign that she’d aimed decently.

By the time she made it to the door, someone was peering through it with his face smushed up against the door. Viri rolled her eyes, knowing that he couldn’t see anything. There were so many charms around the building, including a magical window tint that made it practically impossible for anyone outside to see in.

Viri felt like that was counter-productive due to people needing to see jewels to be interested in them. Morgana argued that it was more alluring. “The mystery is more intriguing than the beauty.” Viri rolled her eyes once more remembering their talk and unlocked the door for the first few clients of the morning.

That was another ‘fun talk’ she and Morgana had. “Customers shop at grocery store jewelry sections. Clients shop at Morgana’s.” As far as Viri was concerned, she’d rather have customers. At least they were more appreciative.