We stayed in the secret glade until the sun started to dip across the sky, falling to one side of the waterfall. Orange started to tinge the light falling across the mangroves below, giving a surreal floating feeling to the waterfall and the cliff edge of the island.

Unfortunately, as we slid from the glade back up into the dense garden, we quickly came to an unfortunate conclusion:

“I think we’re lost,” Kyrae said.

I looked up at the shade-shifting light of late afternoon that barely managed to push past the trees and bit back a curse. Even with hesitant use of my powers, I couldn’t find the path. Water was easy to follow—a single sound in a sea of chaotic shadows. Now, however, I couldn’t figure out where to go to get home without risking overuse of my curse. Worse still, Ssiina, despite her claims to the contrary, was entirely useless at navigating what was essentially a very pretty, yet wild jungle.

“I can still…” Ssiina’s enthusiasm wilted under our elf sister’s glare. “I think you might be right, Kyrae.”

“If we can get somewhere with less shadow, I might be able to do something,” I added, trying to help.

“And risk your curse?”

I shook my head. “No, that was I won’t risk it. There’s too much right now, and a path’s not easy to find compared to a big waterfall.”

Kyrae glanced again up at the canopy. “The shadows are only going to get longer, Issa.”

Ssiina pulled up around all of us, sliding over me. “So we’re just lost then?”

I shifted my lower body out from under hers and coiled up, raising myself a little. “No way! We’ll just pick a direction and go! I still kinda know what way our secret spot is from here, so we just go into the island from there, right?”

Kyrae curled a hand around her chin. “What if the estate’s not in the center, or we get the direction a little off?”

“Do you have a better idea?” I asked as nicely as I could. “The longer we go, the stronger but less controllable my powers get.”

My elf sister sighed. “I guess not.”

“We’re just going to pick a direction and walk in it?” Ssiina balked. “I… I guess I don’t have a better idea either.”

I took a big breath. “Alright then! It’s decided! We go… thataway!” I pointed to the best direction I figured based on the hill and water sounds.

By the time the orange had deepened to red, I realized I’d chosen wrong. Worse yet, we seemed to be in a different part of the garden. The small, damp clearing we found ourselves in was dotted with red, torso-sized flowers the shape of upturned cups and crisscrossed with vines. The flowers smelled really gross, and the thick vines were uncomfortable to slide over.

“Issa,” Kyrae started.

“What?” I snapped.

My elf sister just sighed.

“Issa, Sister, do you maybe think this isn’t the right way?”

I glanced at Ssiina and a pouting Kyrae. “You… fine. Fine! What now?”

The three of us stopped and looked around, Ssiina holding a hand over her nose and mouth as the smell really started to hit us. It smells like rotting meat, overlaid with the sickly sweetness of rotting fruit.

“Do you think Phaeliisthia knows where we are?” Kyrae asked softly.

“I ssscertainly hope not!” Ssiina replied, her voice muffled by her hand. As soon as her tongue pulled back into her mouth, she almost retched.

“Maybe?” I shrugged. “If she can do anything like what I can do with shadows, she might have an idea. I think we also might’ve missed dinner.”

Kyrae’s stomach responded by growling. “Well that’s just… actually, I shouldn’t get mad. One meal is nothing, really.”

Ssiina glared at us and balled her fists. “No! I promised you two would never go hungry and I will not allow even so much as a single missed meal!

“Ssiina…” Kyrae said softly, trailing off even as she hugged our hssen-raised sister.

“Thanks, Ssiina.” I joined in the hug with Kyrae, but pulled apart quickly. “But it’s fine, really. We know you’re not gonna let us starve, and it’s our fault if we miss dinner. I’m not that hungry, even!” I shrugged and pulled my tail a little closer. “But maybe we can try calling for Phaeliisthia. Can either of you make a magic signal?”

I didn’t miss Kyrae’s loud whisper of “that’s because you ate more weight than my leg.” She followed the jibe by saying, “I don’t think I can—all I’ve learned so far is theory.”

Ssiina shook her head again. “I can still only do this much, even if I’m better at it.” She traced a quick sigil in the air, and a tiny, orange flame lit up at the tip of her outstretched finger.

“Do you think we could just try shouting for—”

I was cut off by an ear-piercing screech that made all of us jump. Across the clearing, the massive flowers had pulled their red petals closed and were vibrating intensely. Underneath my tail, the thick vines crisscrossing the ground began to writhe and snap.

“Run!” Kyrae shouted.

Eyes wide, the three of us dashed from the clearing. A vine wrapped around Kyrae’s leg, but Ssiina and I pulled her free, the elf more or less riding on Ssiina’s undulating tail as we dashed uphill away from the screeching flowers.

We ran long past when we needed to, only coming to a stop when the screeching behind us warbled to a shuddering halt. I pulled the shadows I hadn’t realized I’d called up away from my body while Kyrae climbed shakily to her feet.

Ssiina coughed. “W-what was that!”

“The colloquial name would be ‘greater decay bloom,’ and it is native to the swamps found around the midpoint of the Greatriver’s watershed,” a familiar, melodic voice answered. Phaeliisthia stepped out of an orb of glowing gold sigils to alight on the ground in front of us. “You may also know that river by the name Ean. The blooms do not prey on animals your size, but they are also terribly afraid of fire.”

We all jumped, staring in stunned silence as our tutor took the last few steps to face us, her face wearing its typical smug smirk.

“Is there anything else like that in your garden, Tutor Phaeliisthia?” I asked, the question far from the top of the list of things I wanted to say. But it was what came out into the awkward silence.

Phaeliisthia chuckled. “A curious mind is never without excitement. Discover for yourselves, though if you do find where my ylodi tree has run off to on your journeys, I’d appreciate knowing. If you can see it, it’s mostly purple, and its fruit should be in season soon.”

“Okay!” I nodded once then stopped abruptly. “Wait—what do you mean run—"

“Were you watching us?” Ssiina snapped suddenly cutting me off.

Phaeliisthia granted me only a smirk and a subtle shrug before she turned toward Ssiina. “Me? Goodness, no. Although I was worried when you did not return for dinner. Nok-Nok is especially concerned as she is leaving on the morrow. Regrettably, your absence was not enough currency to buy her continued presence.”

“Then how did you get here so fast?” I asked.

Phaeliisthia laughed. “Magic, dear.”

“But how did you know?” Kyrae interjected.

Our tutor snapped her talons. “An excellent question. Do any of you have a guess as to how?”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Something like Issa’s magic!” Ssiina blurted out, her hand up.

“I had hoped to gather everyone’s answer, Ssiina,” Phaeliisthia sighed. “Issa, Kyrae?”

“A sigil array around the island?” Kyrae guessed.

“What Ssiina said.” I glared at my hssen-raised sister, who lowered her gaze a little. “My powers let me sense through shadows if I focus on an area. Was it something like that?”

“Not quite! None of you are wholly right, but I will admit you’re on the right path.”

Kyrae crossed her arms. “Hey! What’s the answer then?”

Phaeliisthia placed a hand over her chest. “I cannot simply divulge the secrets of how I protect my estate!”

“So… you’re not gonna tells us?” I ventured, a little frustrated.

The laugh I got in response made my blush. “I never said that! I said I cannot simply divulge such secrets. Tomorrow the three of you will receive a special lesson. Let us all hope, for my sake, that you paid attention to Ussyri Noksi’s teachings.”

“Uh,” I raised my hand, “I’m still learning glyphs only, not sigils.”

Phaeliisthia placed two fingers over her lips. “Hmmm. That is unfortunate: I suppose you’ll just have to learn from your sisters. Now!” She clapped her hands loud and fast enough that we all startled. “Who wants dinner and a bath!”

Sheepishly, we all nodded.

“Wonderful! Follow me!” Phaeliisthia whirled and started off through her garden. I couldn’t really see why, but the plants didn’t seem to really get in her way at all.

Ssiina, Kyrae, and I shared a glance. After a moment, I felt a smile snake its way across my entire face. Something special had happened today, and the sound of sliding scales and crunching leaves as we followed after Phaeliisthia remained almost reverently unbroken.

When the columns and manor themselves came into view, we saw another familiar figure coiled in prayer. Ussyri Noksi Kosseti stirred as we approached, and the blue-black-scaled lamia drew her head up, her twin braids falling neatly to either side.

“I am relieved to see you three are in good spirits,” she smiled, blue eyes shining.

Cast by evening light, her appearance was regal, and for a moment, I recalled the near-terror of our first meeting. These days, her presence was significantly less intimidating; have I just gotten used to her?

Or, I looked up at Phaeliisthia, have my standards changed?

“Good spirits?” The vastly scarier, horned woman scoffed. “These three were, at worst, mildly frightened by a minor incident. I did not have to pull them by the tail from a mud pit or rescue them from—not just any tree—the same tree three days in a row.”

Without even the aid of Phaeliisthia’s nickname, Ussyri Noksi deflated, relaxing. “I am glad all is well, then. I will report our progress to Hssen Tyaniis upon my return.”

Return? Oh, right!

“Do you leave tomorrow?” Ssiina asked.

Ussyri Noksi nodded. “I leave at dawn, as per my arrangement with Phael.”

Phaeliisthia grumbled. “At least you will stay longer than our precise agree-upon duration this time, Nok-Nok.”

Ussyri Noksi gave an amused smirk. “This time, I have students to give a proper goodbye to, and I also could not charter a ship until after breakfast. What a pity.”

“I should exclude you from our morning meal for thinking to leave our darling students early!” Phaeliisthia teased. “But I will not.”

Noksi hissed a quick laugh, turning to face the three of us. “If you three do not mind, do you have energy for one last, quick lesson before I return to Ess’Sylantziis? I would like to at least leave Issa with some advice.”

Mid-nod, I yawned.

“Perhaps another time, then,” Ussyri Noksi replied. “I do not wish to strain a tired mind.” She waited for me to finish yawning, the pressure of her blue eyes driving my sisters to silence. “I will, however, say this. Issa: Your curse is a tie to a being of immense power who does not dwell, truly, on the mortal world. Be they god or not, you must carry confidence and surety as your tools and give faith to none but Jaezotl. For the being tied to you will take your all and return you upon nothing.”

A shiver ran down my spine. Shadows at the fringes of my sense contorted and buzzed unpleasantly. I remembered the alley. I remembered the slide and the presence in the void of my once-dreamless sleep.

And so, I bobbed my head, saying softly, “I know.”

Ussyri Noksi stared at me but a moment longer. “May your scales shield you, and your fangs strike true, Hssen Issa Ssyri’Jiilits.”

My eyes went wide. I’d learned just the day prior what that saying, something I’d heard between ssyri’ssen a hundred times before, meant. The words were a simple wish for wellness, but they were only given to equals or higher.

At the implication, my breath and my words both caught in my throat.

Ssiina, however, had a response ready. “And to you as well, Ussyri Noksi Kosseti, from both my sisters and myself.”

The ussyri nodded her head.

Phaeliisthia took the serene moment as a chance to step between us. “Do you have any other pressing concerns?” she addressed the crowd.

A twinge of anger passed through me, but I let it go at Phaeliisthia’s next words.

“I have a grand dinner planned for tonight,” she said merrily, “and we should be able to share any other words we desire over food and drink, no?”

***

My sisters and I ended our day off much the way it had started: in a pile in my room. Unfortunately, this time, we were awoken by a strong knock and the stern voice of Zinniz on the other side shouting for us to wake up.

While Ssiina struggled to shake off her sleep, Kyrae and I were wide awake in an instant. I panicked when I realized I was tangled and couldn’t bolt. Kyrae searched around for something to throw.

But there was no angry tanir. No one coming the chase us out from our hiding hole. There were only warm bodies and smooth fabric.

Once my hearts calmed down enough to hear over the thundering sound in my ears, I caught what Zinniz was saying.

“—to inform you that you are to remain apart during nights ahead of tutoring. This will be your one and only warning.” Zinniz coughed as if to clear his throat. He sounded almost like he was reciting a message. “I am also to tell you that Mistress had not intended to issue a warning, but you were ‘too cute together to interrupt.’”

Cute? I didn’t mind being called cute.

***

From that abrupt morning, I found myself, against all odds, settling into a routine the following week. Phaeliisthia hadn’t told us yet exactly what the magic around her island was, but we knew that whatever it was, was a combination of her innate magic and her learned sigils. That same magic helped maintain the garden’s lush state.

The days almost started to run together for the next few weeks, punctuated by days off where Ssiina, Kyrae, and I would roam the garden or spend all day in our secluded spot talking, swimming, or practicing magic.

The latter was for the two of them only thus far. Ssiina seemed to find familiarity and success with spells that were destructive or subversive. Small illusions of light and sound or bursts of fire, things like that. Kyrae, on the other hand, worked well with spells tailored to the body: healing, strengthening, and potentially—eventually—changing.

Phaeliisthia had taken Kyrae aside after she asked about the topic of changing herself. Neither Ssiina nor I knew what was said, but Kyrae came back pale as bleached wood and never talked about it. The most we got was that “such things should only be attempted when mastery is attained.”

As for me? This week, a full month in, was the first week I would be able to work toward controlling and safely using my own powers. Every time I though I knew all the glyphs, Phaeliisthia would dump another set on me. Do I even need to know how to write all this? I get that I’m hssen, but will I really be putting fang to parchment very often?

Today, however, I didn’t have to learn glyphs. Or history. Or geography.

No, today Phaeliisthia had taken me aside, alone, to help me with my powers. They itched like crazy from disuse, and it was getting harder to focus. That, eventually had been the reason for this lesson.

Phaeliisthia made it clear she didn’t think I was ready, and that I wasn’t nearly literate enough. But she had decided to leave my sisters to practice on their own and teach me anyway, though I wasn’t sure why—even as we walked together into the depths of her garden.

“Truly, Issa, you astound me,” Phaeliisthia droned like a melody stuck on a single note, my name jarring my attention to the fore. “Before today, I could not comprehend a measure so infinitesimally small as your ability to pay attention in your current state. It is not nothing, for you may even be hearing distinct words spoken by my wonderful voice right now. Rather, your attention span occupies a volume so insignificant—yet miraculously present—as to nearly demand I expand my own prodigious lexicon.”

I looked up at Phaeliisthia and blinked like a gecko.

In response, she rapped her pale knuckles on my forehead. “You need not understand; I am merely waxing pedantic, as many of my age are wont to do. When we arrive in the place I intend to train you, I will speak to you of what I know. There, we will lay the groundwork for your first steps, or slides, into uncharted territory you are wholly unqualified to tread.”

I blinked again and looked at the jungle of the garden around us. The plants in this area were almost entirely hues of purple and red, and the terrain was unusually flat. Ahead of us, however, a squat cliff face loomed. The center was cut open by a yawning black cave, wider than it was high. Points of rock hung from the ceiling like straight-sided fangs, and my powers yearned for the darkness within.

“—yourself, Issa” Phaeliisthia said. “Now is not the time to lose your focus.”

I shook my head. “Y-yeah, gotcha.”

The golden-horned woman glanced down at me, sidelong. “Were I not a proponent of upending the conventions of speech, I would chastise you for the contravention you will no doubt cause. As it stands, however, the schadenfreude I will feel observing the splash you will make in hssen society far outweighs my limited sense of responsibility.”

“Phaeliisthia?”

“Yes, dear?”

“I don’t understand half of the words you’re saying.”

“My apologies, Issa.” Phaeliistha smiled thinly. “I have a distasteful tendency towards pedantry when anxious.”

“Oh… what does that mean?”

Phaeliisthia sighed. “I am nervous, Issa. Your curse is unknown ground, even for one as learned and experienced as yours truly. A single mistake, however unlikely, could cause truly terrible harm and a lasting stain on my conscience that will never fade.”

I stared again at the cave ahead of us, and took a deep breath. I could feel water dripping within, creatures scuttling blind in the dark, and a roiling sense of bitter cold in the darkness whose origin terrified me.

“Are you ready, Issa?” Phaeliistha asked as we drew to within one tail length of the entrance.

“I…” I thought of Ynna’s shop the day my powers got loose, of Nyss’s dead face, and of Kyrae’s frightened, tear-filled eyes. “I am.”

“Good. Hold onto that confidence, and follow me.” Phaeliisthia stepped through the threshold, a line of shadow dividing cleanly out from in. She half turned, once inside, her golden, ivory-tipped horns and strange white eyes glowing.

I hesitated at the line.

“You will not be alone. If not me today, then your sisters tomorrow.” Phaeliisthia extended a taloned hand.

I reached into the darkness after her and took her proffered hand, slithering into a living, waking void.