I heard bells ringing all around me, a new hour had come and I needed to get back to the in where I was staying. I immediately turned around and started running back the way that I came. Before I could get too far though I felt someone pull on my arm, it was Searle again. I turned around to see what he wanted.

"Where are you going?"

"I need to get back to my family. I'll see you next time, Searle."

"When will 'next time' be?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure that we'll see each other again."

I pulled away from his arm and tried to continue running.

"Hey, wait."

He pulled on my arm again.

"You never told me your name."

"Aryet, my name is Aryet Grynden."

"Aryet Grynden, alright. I'll see you next time Aryet."

"See you, Searle."

He let go of my arm and I started running again, going back through the markets and crowds of people though they got out of the way when they I saw I was running towards them. By the time I got to the inn I was out of breath, I had to take a moment to lean on the wall so I wouldn't fall down. After I was able to breathe again I made my way back to the rooms where we were staying. Dad was standing by the door when I walked in.

"Right on time. Did you enjoy your walk?"

"Yeah."

"Your sisters are all ready, do you have anything else that you left in your room, under your bed, maybe just around the inn?"

"No."

"Alright. Let's get going."

We got into our carriage and went back to the place where Mom was staying. When we saw her again, she was nothing like what we saw a few months ago. She seemed a bit more like herself, except she clearly was in pain. Her face was more white than usual, I could see sweat all over her face. When we got back to the carriage, there wasn't enough space for Mom to lie down and for all four of us to be in the carriage.

"Would one of you please volunteer to sit on the back of the carriage?"

I raised my hand.

"Thank you, Aryet."

We rode on a very bumpy path for a while, and I started to regret choosing to sit in the back. Every time we would go over a hole or bump that was slightly bigger than normal the carriage felt like it was trying to destroy my back. Eventually, we got on to the main path, and the constant bumps and holes were replaced by the sound of wheels riding over gravel. We spent the rest of the day riding back to our house. If the other three were talking at all I definitely couldn't hear them, I hoped that Elya was not being picked on again by Liza. I got the chance to see the wildlife of Melantia on our trip. Birds the size of our carriage flew above, only coming down to attack whatever animal it could fit in its beak. The animals themselves were running as fast as they could whenever they were in an open field, and I even saw one of them push another into the beak of a bird flying down, only to get eaten in the next second. Why would you do that to someone of your own species? It didn't even mean anything in the end, but why not either escape together or die together? Why would you let someone die just so you can live, no, just so you can have a chance at living? Eventually, I heard a loud noise from the front of the carriage, and the birds I was watching all flew away. The rest of the ride was spent just listening to the wheels roll over the gravel, and I eventually stopped focusing and just let the day pass by. The sun was setting by the time we got back to the house, and I went to open the carriage doors.

I opened the door to see Liza, Elya, and Idrel all sitting up looking at Mom, and Mom herself looked like she was telling them something before I opened the door.

"Were you guys talking about something?"

"Yeah, Mom was just telling us that we need to make food for ourselves tonight so she can rest."

All three of them got out of the carriage one by one, and Dad was right behind me when I was holding my hand out to help Mom get out of the carriage without hurting herself. He put his hand on my shoulder.

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"Go inside, Aryet. I'll help Mom get out of the carriage."

I chased after the other three and went into the house. It had been so long since I ran around the house, we made our way to the courtyard and started playing tag. Idrel was playing with us, which was a big surprise. How long had it been since Idrel stayed outside of her room when she didn't have to? How long had it been since she seemed like she wanted to be around us? These questions didn't matter now that she was actually here, and I thought that maybe when Mom gets better we'll be back to how things were before she burnt Dad. We'll continue with our lives, maybe become adventurers, maybe we'll go to an academy, but whatever happens, we'll always be close. We ran around the courtyard until we were all out of breath. The sun had been down for a while, so we all went back inside and chose what to eat from the kitchen.

By the time we had gotten inside, Dad had already left. Mom gave us each notes that he wrote for us and then we all went to our rooms. The letters he sent to Liza, Elya, and Idrel were all very long, but mine barely reached half of the page.

Dear Aryet,

I will be gone for a long time, and as I said this morning I need you to be there for your sisters. I know that you'll be a pillar for them, you always have been, and I know that when the time comes to choose between yourself and them, you'll always choose them. I need you to remember that even if I'm halfway across the country, I'll always be there with you. Whether I'm helping you in stopping Liza from teasing Elya or helping you make Idrel forgive herself for burning me. You are all my pride and joy, and you are the closest to becoming the adult that your Mother and I always wished you all would be. Stay strong, but most importantly, make sure that you stay true to yourself.

Love from any place on this world,

Dad

I folded the letter up and put it on the floor right next to my bed, I'd read it again tomorrow, and maybe the day after that, but right now I was too tired to miss Dad. I jumped onto my bed and immediately fell asleep. It was so comfortable, so much better than the beds at the inn that made me feel like I was better off sleeping on the floor.

I was woken up in the middle of the night with my three sisters and Mom standing over my bed.

"Get up, Aryet. We need to talk."

I stood up from my bed and followed them out of the room. It was midnight and cloudy, so I couldn't see anything around me and I had to reach my arms out in front of me so I wouldn't run into a wall. Eventually, we came by a candle which Mom used to light the rest of the way down the stairs. We made our way into the big room and Mom pointed to the couch. She pulled her chair so it would be across from the middle seat of the couch, and we all sat closely so we could all fit.

"What I am about to talk to you about is something serious, and I want you to treat it as something serious. At no point during this conversation am I joking, and everything I say is true. Do you all understand?"

We all nodded.

"My sickness has made me realize something, something about the way that we've been treating you. Before, I thought that everything about our lives was perfect, and as such there was no reason to ever make you believe they weren't. We didn't teach you about the faults of this world, we didn't ever teach you the things that we were taught as children because we believed that nothing would ever happen to you."

She looked at me, Liza, and Idrel one by one.

"Three of you have been training your affinities in your own way, and this is something that I am quite proud of. Even when we told you that the world was perfect, each one of you, maybe for separate reasons, knew that the world could not be perfect, and so you changed yourselves to accommodate this realization."

She looked at Elya.

"The other one of you still believes that the world is nothing but endless sunshine, but that is not your fault. We have wanted you to believe that, we've tried our hardest to fool you, but what you saw on the day you came to visit me was surely proof that we were lying."

She looked back at Idrel.

"Before I got sick, you were all told that the reason Idrel was never seen around the house was because she was upset that she had hurt your father, this was the truth and a lie. Idrel was upset when she hurt your father because she could not control her affinity, but she was not weeping in her room for months because of this. The day after the incident happened, I told Idrel that I could help her never hurt anyone who she didn't want to with her affinity again, and from there I helped her understand not only more about that affinity, but about herself."

She paused before continuing.

"This is what I want to do for each of you. You have now seen that the world is not great enough for you to not understand every part of yourself, you have now seen that this world urges you to take advantage of the gifts you have been given. Do you all understand what you must do now?"

Liza was the first to nod at Mom, she then looked at me and Elya. I nodded at her, there wasn't a reason not to. I was already practicing with my powers on my own, and if Mom were to help me then I'd definitely get a lot better with them. If I can control water better, then I can definitely do more to help things that are hurting, to fix things that need to be fixed. After I nodded, Mom stared at Elya. Elya wasn't looking back at her, she was looking at the floor, with her hands balled up on her lap.

"Sorry Elya, the rest of your siblings want to get better, so at the least, you have to come with us."

Mom got up from her seat, and she looked at us, probably expecting us to follow her. We all got up from the couch, and Elya was the last to stand up. Mom led us around the house to Dad's research room, and Mom pulled on one of the books on the bookcase. The bookcase swung open like a door, and behind it was a large staircase. We went down the stairs for what felt like a while until we finally reached the bottom. When we got there, I couldn't see anything until Mom pulled a lever that was at her left. There were torches, or in some places what looked like whole bonfires that lit up to let us see what was in front of us, when the entire area was lit up, I felt the strongest sense of Deja Vu.

The area in front of me was the same arena I had seen in my dream.

"Let's get started, shall we?"