When my magic was let loose, a lot happened in an instant. Bone-chilling cold surged through me, and I felt myself falling forward, void replacing the table in front of me in my mind’s eye. Someone shouted, but they sounded far off, like I was deep under water.

The last moments of sight I had before my magic was cut off were filled entirely with a familiar, golden light. Then the opening in the room’s sigil array snapped shut, slicing my shadows painfully.

In the void, I felt an immense presence, closer than I had ever felt before. I couldn’t know if it was aware of me or not, but I fell against it. The instant my tail touched its surface void of light, I felt like my body had frozen solid.

For a moment, I saw shadows in the abyss, movement, and a crushing pressure. My mind felt like it was splitting apart. Like the answer to every question I had ever wanted to ask was right at the tips of my fingers, but nothing would be revealed unless… Unless I went deeper.

I reached an arm down, into the ever-increasing pressure of the abyss, blindly following that feeling. When I thought of what I wanted to know… I thought of my family. Kyrae. Ssiina. Tyaniis.

Their warmth was not at the bottom of an abyss. Turning and trying to swim away, I brushed against the presence again. Tendrils of void caressed my scales and wrapped around my tail. Horrified, I realized… it’s pulling me deeper. Down with it.

I fought against the shadow, tried as hard as I could to wrench tendrils of darkness from its magical grasp and make them my own. But to no avail. Here—wherever here even was—was its domain. There was no hope of escape.

I wasn’t going to give up. I would not leave now that I had found my chance at happiness, happiness I deserved.

***

Phaeliisthia smothered Issa’s magic the moment Anqi noticed something. All Anqi could have noticed was a small golden flash in the corner of the room. While she had considered Issa’s attempt at eavesdropping useful, practical experience in a semi-controlled environment with real stakes, that did not mean she was going to give anything to Anqi.

At the same time, she closed the sigil array in the library. However, what she sensed from Issa’s magic wiped the smirk off her face.

Trouble. Big trouble. Perhaps in teaching this lesson, Phaeliisthia had risked too much? Hmph. As if she could ever be wrong…

Issa forcing an apology out of her loomed large in the ancient serpent dragon’s mind. As Kyrae’s magic flared alongside Ssiina’s and even Tyaniis’s in the library, Phaeliisthia found that she feared not for the scrolls, but for Issa.

It seems I will owe another apology later. Now, I must ensure there is a later. She had trained Kyrae in what to do, and what the young elf lacked in power, she more than made up for with technique. Combine that with the might of her own wards that dimmed that thing’s connection to Issa, and she had a chance even without Phaeliisthia. At the least, she would yet live a while longer.

Anqi looked at Phaeliisthia with narrowed eyes as the dragon serpent did her utmost to continue eating calmly. “Phaeliisthia, what was that?”

“A disturbance in my wards. Is there anyone who may wish to eavesdrop on your meeting here?”

“Yes,” Anqi answered easily. “And you are hiding her here somewhere along with her daughter and two strays—one lamia and one ea.”

Not an ideal response, but usable. Phaeliisthia smirked. “Of course. I must say, the most unusual entities have taken an interest in you. Magic like that is fascinating, don’t you think?”

“Don’t play with me, Phaeliisthia,” Anqi warned.

Phaeliisthia took a quick sip from her cup. “I’ll play with you as much as I want without breaking the treaty, Anqi.”

Anqi rankled. “Do not try to get a rise out of me, either.”

“Should you not extend the same courtesy to your better?” Phaeliisthia condescended.

Anqi cut through her fish with far more force than was necessary, violently chewing a bit until she swallowed, forcing herself to relax. The gold-brown lania’el woman shook her braided hair, diamond-studded golden bangles shimmering in the dining room’s light. “I will not let you distract me. What was that?”

Phaeliisthia offered only a shrug in reply.

“I know it had to come from within your estate,” Anqi hissed. “The list of people and beings who could break into your estate unnoticed is a very short list.”

Phaeliisthia smiled coyly. “Who said they broke in?”

“You…” Anqi narrowed her eyes, then fought against glancing back at the dim corner where Phaeliisthia had barely covered Issa’s shadow magic.

Anqi was very well trained, and Phaeliisthia doubted many people would notice the minute movement of her eyes or the way her spine straightened to avoid tensing her shoulders. However, she had made a mistake, and now Phaeliisthia could spin the narrative as she wanted.

A nudge here, suspicious absence there. Anqi did have something after her—or she was worried she might. Something, perhaps, that had come from a mysterious idol stored in a warehouse in Ess’Sylantziis nearly two years prior.

“Again, fascinating.”

“What. Was. That.” Anqi punctuated each of her words with a tap of her clawed finger on the dark wood of the table.

“Careful,” Phaeliisthia warned. “This table is a solid piece of baobab from the southeast. She ran a hand lovingly along the finish. “It is from a tree that took a thousand years to grow.” A smile threatened her lips as Phaeliisthia remembered Issa asking after the table’s origin.

That was from the week the young hssen had been obsessed with woody-stemmed plants.

“Phaeliisthia,” Anqi repeated.

In an instant, Phaeliisthia realized she hadn’t won yet. In fact, she’d let her guard down—thinking of Issa often did that. Shades of familiarity were present in that young woman’s demeanor, and Phaeliisthia often found she extended more familiarity to her student than she did to any other mortal.

“My apologies, I am just remembering the day this tree was felled. A skyfire strike had split the trunk, scorching much. This table came from the half that died that day. The other half lived on for another century before—”

“I do not want to hear of your table, Phaeliisthia.” Anqi said with a carefully-crafted air of annoyance that masked her rising uncertainty.

Phaeliisthia continued to talk over Anqi. “—it died of a disease born out of the damage to its root system. That tree had been the symbol of the nearby village for generations. What a pity: a single twist of fate caused the slow death of a titan.” She ended her speech staring hard at Anqi.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Anqi broke the stare first, but couldn’t keep her gaze away from the serpent dragon’s venomous smile. “Are you going to tell me what that was, or not?”

Phaeliisthia grinned wider, gaze boring into Anqi’s silver eyes. “No.”

Take the bait, Phaeliisthia thought. You have an idea what could have used magic like that—make the assumption. The lania’el couldn’t quite hide how her burnished skin paled, and Phaeliisthia knew she had won.

“What would you trade for that information?” Anqi asked, eyes narrow and lips pulled back over extended fangs.

The ancient serpent dragon leaned forward and folded her taloned hands under her chin. Mortals. Sometimes all you have to do is give them a tiny little hint that what they think might be the truth is correct, and they’ll take care of the rest.

***

My struggles grew ever slower. Time had lost all meaning in the ever-present blackness, but I felt like it had been months, years maybe.

I’d been right at the start when I began to struggle. I wasn’t strong enough; there was no hope.

There was no hope, that was, until a light pierced the void. A single, flickering pinprick shone bravely against the all-consuming darkness. I stared at it, wanting to will it down to me. Wanting it to rescue me.

The pinprick widened into a hole of glowing light, and where it touched the tendrils, they burned away. Like my own reaction to sunlight when my magic is dissipated, I expected the presence to shudder. To roar. To do anything.

Nothing.

Only deeper.

Ever deeper.

Loosening, I fell from its grasp and reached for the radiant light that shone a pale, pale green. The moment I reached its source, the void fell away, and I found myself in my and my sisters’ glade at Phaeliisthia’s estate.

The trees by the water were truly ancient now, towering, knotted things. In the nook where we played and sheltered, someone had built a shrine of smooth rocks. Glyphs were carved into its face, but I couldn’t make them out.

I slithered forward under the orange of an evening sky and bent down, marveling at how much smaller the shallow cave was. Reaching forward, I noted the flowing silk of my robes in wonder, a rich emerald green that perfectly matched my eyes.

When I looked back at the shrine, it had disappeared, and I once again found myself floating in a void, this one of pale green radiance that faded into gold as I was pulled upward. I breached the surface, and only as I awoke, did I realize my dream for what it was.

Bright!

I squinted against golden light for only a moment before Kyrae’s face jumped in front of my vision, moss green eyes filled with tears. I remembered waking in a room in the grand temple the same way over a year ago.

At that time, I was filled with anxiety. Skittish and unwilling to trust, I wanted nothing more than a place to hide. Now, however…

I didn’t care that my whole body felt numb, I flexed my lower body and brought my elf-like torso around to wrap Kyrae up in a hug. “That was you, wasn’t it, Kyrae? The pale green light?”

Kyrae startled and blinked, and I felt a familiar tail wrap mine as Ssiina slithered closer.

“I’ll get Sire and Phaeliisthia,” my hssen-raised sister whispered excitedly. “I’m relieved you’re back with us, Sister.”

“Me too,” I said as Kyrae squeezed me—she was stronger than I imagined she’d be. “You’re not mad?”

“I’m just happy you’re safe, Issa,” My elf sister kept squeezing. “And maybe that light was my magic, Issa. Phaeliisthia said I exceeded her expectations.”

At the mention of my tutor, the reason for my near-death rose to meet me and I shivered in the sudden cold of the memory. “I messed up. Badly. This is all my fault…” I trailed off in a silent hiss even as my tears started to fall.

“No,” Phaeliisthia’s voice boomed from the doorway to what I realized was my sleeping room, “It was my fault. I overestimated my ability to control the situation should your curse try to take you. For that…”

Kyrae loosened the hug and I looked over at where Phaeliisthia stood in the doorway. Tyaniis loomed behind her, anxiety written all over her face clearly enough for even me to read, and I had to guess Ssiina was back there too.

In the front, Phaeliisthia was dressed in modest clothing and solid shoes. Her white hair was done in her two typical braids, and her golden horns gleamed in the sunlight streaming in from the open window. When her eyes caught mine, she deferred downward, and then she did something that made my sire gasp.

Phaeliisthia bowed.

More than that, she took a knee in front of where I was coiled, lowering herself below me. “I apologize, Hssen Issa. For my arrogance and recklessness in encouraging your eavesdropping in a way that nearly led to your death—or worse. Forgiveness is your prerogative to give.”

“I…” looking at the tips of her horns as they angled toward me, I was caught almost unprepared. Frantically, I tried to recall what I’d read on how hssen would treat such a formal apology—done by knee instead of by prostrating one’s upper body barely above the ground horizontally.

I thought seriously for a moment. Phaeliisthia had clearly let me through her wards, and had allowed me to eavesdrop via my magic. She should have known the risks just as I did. Really then, we were both at fault.

“Why?” I found myself asking, tone far more authoritative than I imagined I could pull off. “Why did you allow and encourage my actions?”

Phaeliisthia replied without raising her head. “I knew that you would be required to perform such feats at The Spring of All Life. In my at-the-time capacity as your tutor, I made the erroneous decision that such an opportunity within the environment of my demesne would prove valuable practice.”

Practice? I had to admit, I learned quite a bit. “What happened after I lost control of my powers?”

I glanced briefly up to my family in the doorway. Sire Tyaniis gazed at me with her chin high and proud, while Ssiina stared with her mouth so far open that her jaw was popped and her fangs were extended. To my side, Kryae held fast: my equal and partner, as she should be.

“I used my magic to prevent Anqi from noticing exactly what had transpired, closed the sigil array to the library, and prayed to Jaezotl that Kyrae and your other family would be capable of aiding you until I could mislead Anqi and extricate myself.”

“I—” I stopped at just how strong the syllable sounded. My voice was not often so resonant. “I forgive you, Tutor Phaeliisthia. The events were as much my fault as your own and I remain alive and well.”

“Thank you, Hssen Issa,” Phaeliisthia said proudly, and I could have sworn I saw a smile on her face that disappeared by the time she raised her head and stood once more. Quickly, she stepped to one side as if to observe.

“What happened to Ussen Anqi?” I asked after my tutor had stood and regained her regal, domineering bearing. The room shifted warmer, and I felt honestly a lot more comfortable with the hierarchy of power back as it was.

“She left two days ago, right after her meal with Phaeliisthia,” my sire replied, slithering into the room. She wrapped me up in a hug, her lower body and tail twirling around mine until I felt almost completely immobilized. “I’m proud of you, Issa. Ssiina and Kyrae as well—I am so proud of all of you.”

“Two days ago?” I hissed, using the last of my breath.

“You were asleep for two days,” Kyrae answered. “Even though Phaeliisthia said you would wake, I was worried.”

Tyaniis continued, loosening just enough for me to breathe. “Ussen Anqi already suspected that you are all important to me, but I believe she now suspects I might try something like adoption, though I do not know if she knows that Issa is mine by blood.”

“My… fault?” I breathed again.

Ssiina shook her head. “Sire said it was her own choice to hide away that caused her to think as much.”

Tyaniis nodded. “We are hoping that the incident of your eavesdropping serves only to increase Ussen Anqi’s paranoia about her involvement with that idol that cursed you.”

“So she was the one?”

“It’s all but certain.”

I realized I didn’t know how to feel about everything. Even though this curse almost ruined my life, and now keeps trying to take it, Kyrae and I also may never have met the rest of our family, or Phaeliisthia. That didn’t mean I didn’t want the curse dealt with.

“We suspect,” Tyaniis continued, pulling away from me and smoothing out her lavish clothing, “that she is aiming to travel to Ess’Sylantziis to try to undermine your reintroduction, Issa, and your adoption, Kyrae.”

“Will you fly us there ahead of her?” I asked Phaeliisthia.

The ancient serpent dragon chuckled. “My, how direct—and what a way to spoil the grand reveal. I will fly you to Ess’Sylantziis indeed. Although, we will need to leave from the city as it would be very difficult for Kyrae in particular to touch the Hssyri as we cross it, so we will have to do so in Uzh.”

“Does it not bother you to serve as transportation?” Kyrae asked, striding over to sit possessively on one loop of my lower body.

Phaeliisthia’s smile broadened enough to show her teeth, more pointed than an elf’s. “Absolutely. However, I see no other way for you to arrive ahead of Anqi, and I have justified the act to myself by weighing my humiliation against the reactions of the Temple and hssen both. Of course, I cannot land within the palace grounds, but there is a plaza just outside the wall that I believe is just about large enough.”

With one last glance around the room, I smiled to myself. “Will we still be able to learn from you, Phaeliisthia?”

“Considering you accepted her apology earlier, I will extend my blessing,” Tyaniis replied, “though we will have to see how the meeting with my sister, Jii’Hssen Ssyii, goes.”

“When are we leaving then?”

“Now,” Phaeliisthia replied while walking to the door. “Not literally, but do get ready and meet me in the courtyard before the next hour. Bring warm clothing, as it is cold high in the sky and I do not intend to fly low or slow.”