Hssen Zaiia’s entrance was… bombastic. Pompous. And a bunch of other words that Phaeliisthia had taught me. But more importantly than that, it was awkward. Almost as one, and not entirely from a lack of surprise, my sisters and our aunt looked up from the tome at the array of armed taaniir and one well-dressed hssen.

Hssen Zaiia Ssyri’Jiilits looked a lot like her daughter, Deziiya. Kelaniel, and I assumed ra’zhii, the woman coiled before us was nearly Sire’s size. Her eyes, like her children, were blue: a cold, pale blue. Hssen Zaiia’s scales, however, were closer in color to my own, and they glittered each like dark emeralds under the flowing robes of green and gold that she wore. For now, I held my tongue, even as the shadows twitched eagerly.

Into the heavy silence, Hssen Zaiia was the first to speak, chin bowing low as if under pressure from the ornate ribbons and pleats her black hair was done in. “Your Radiance, you should inform myself and your taaniir if you will be deviating from the day’s plans. We were merely worried for your safety, especially with such unusual surprise guests on your private terrace.” She bowed deeply, a full show of deference that didn’t match the hardness in her eyes.

I couldn’t place if that look was malice, worry, or something else. But from the way Kyrae’s shoulders tightened, I had a good idea it was the former.

“Zaiia,” the Jii’Hssen answered coldly, “I informed Ussent Lyantii, and these guests have been thoroughly vetted. Nevermind that you are interrupting me explicitly against my orders.”

“Including the ea?”

Kyrae bristled.

“All of them. Did I hiss?”

“No, Your Magnificence. The matter of security remains, however, and visitors, especially unusual cases, must be recorded. I recognize your sister’s daughter; are the others her friends? It seems most unusual for the Jii’Hssen herself to host children.”

At that, Aunt Ssyii rose and gestured toward us. “These are my nieces. You already know Ssiina, but I am disappointed you do not remember Sseti, who is now known as Issa, although she was young when she left.”

Hssen Zaiia couldn’t hide her surprise at the Jii’Hssen’s words. Even I picked up on it, but that might’ve been because I was looking for it. She glared down at me, judging and searching.

I met her gaze, and it took me a moment to realize I was hissing.

“She will need to be confirmed by—”

“Her sire, her former nanny, and her aunt,” Jii’Hssen Ssyii cut in. “All of whom are certain of her identity. Don’t play the fool, Zaiia. I know you’ve been keeping watch on Phaeliisthia’s students. You must have had some inkling as to Issa’s identity. Small though she may still be, that she is kelaniel must be obvious to the trained eye.”

As our aunt spoke, we three sisters uncoiled and stood. Kyrae surprised me, by taking a position behind and between us. But that didn’t stop Ssiina and I from each taking one of her hands. Something that everyone assembled had to see.

I looked around, old instincts searching for a way out. Tension was high, and all exits that weren’t over the edge were covered. Kyen stood nervously, flanked by taaniir, and I wasn’t sure if they were there to protect or to restrain him.

The burbling of the fountain was a roar into the silence.

“I see… That does not explain the presence of an ea amongst hssen.”

Aunt Ssyii glanced down at Kyrae, then lifted a fanged smile to Hssen Zaiia. “No. I suppose it does not. Would you care to sit and hear her story?” She gestured to one side, where there was barely enough room for the kelaniel to join us at the table.

Hssen Zaiia’s eyes narrowed, and for a moment, I thought she was considering the offer. “Jii’Hssen Ssyii, as your advisor, I am placing you under advisory care until such time as your mind has returned.”

What!? Immediately, the shadows jumped and bucked, despite the pressure of the Palace against my powers. Some of the taaniir noticed, hands drawing to weapons.

Aunt Ssyii’s eyes went wide, and she hissed—her serpentine locks joining the chorus. “What!? Zaiia, you cannot do this! You—”

“Your Majesty, this is in your best interests.” She gestured to the assembled taaniir, who many of whom looked visibly uncertain. “There are dark forces that seek your downfall.” She glanced to the shadows. “And I worry that they are close at hand.”

I clenched my fists and jaw both, barely able to restrain the shadows that now twisted at the edges of my vision.

Ssiina uncoiled herself and moved between the hesitant taaniir and the sneering Hssen Zaiia. “Aunt Zaiia, please reconsider. My sisters and I are students of a neutral party, faithful of Jaezotl, who is known to detest corruption and dark forces both. Please—”

“Silence.”

Ssiina shut up with a hissing whine. And only then did I feel the magic in the air, sigil arrays hidden somewhere I couldn’t see. The shadows were shielding me, even as they were about to ruin everything.

But I didn’t care.

Kyrae had long since moved behind me, and my elf sister shook like a leaf in a typhoon. Her confidence and bravado that we’d spent years growing had withered and died in moments under this bitch of a hssen’s false accusations.

“No,” I said softly, then repeated louder. “No. You have it wrong, Hssen Zaiia. But you know that don’t you? Do you think you can just abuse your position like this!?” My voice rose to a shout, and I found myself slithering up to meet her, rising on my lower body until her face loomed large in mine, pale blue eyes reflecting my dark shadows.

“By Jaezotl,” Zaiia hissed, her voice pained, “She’s possessed!”

I’m not. I’m in control. Even as that dark presence knocks on the door to my consciousness, I am in control.

But I didn’t know what to say.

And I wasn’t given time to think.

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“Stop her! Now! Protect the Jii’Hssen and Ssiina!”

“No, I—” I realized a moment later that some spell had bounced off my shadows, which had moved to protect me. Pain flared through my connection with them, and I was lifted off the floor on a bed of darkness. I wanted so badly to lunge at Hssen Zaiia. To consume her warmth.

I pulled back.

The presence loomed.

The taaniir struck.

And they didn’t reach me.

Walls of bright sigils burst to life, searing my shadows. Shouts rang out around me, but I couldn’t hear them over the ringing in my ears. I fell to the ground and rolled, expecting blades before I lifted my upper body. Instead, I was met with a veritable cage around me.

The presence was fading.

Glowing sigils flowed and shifted, behind which the taaniir watched. I whipped my head around, looking for my sisters, looking for Aunt Ssyii.

“You seem to forget your place, half-sister.”

I followed the familiar voice and found my sire, Tyaniis. I’d never seen her use magic before, but… she hadn’t. In my peripheral vision, Kyrae and Ssiina were crouched behind the table, faces hard and hands focused.

The Jii’Hssen stood in the center, and for a moment she almost looked… lost.

“Tyaniis!” Hssen Zaiia snapped from somewhere just outside my cage of light. “What is the meaning of this!”

“I am stopping what appears to me to be an insurrection, albeit a poorly-planned one.” She slithered forward, gold eyes burning. “And I am here to protect my daughters.”

“Your daughter is cursed, Tyaniis! You must have seen the shadows!”

“And you must have seen how her sisters protected her. That was neither my magic nor my sister’s.”

“So you’re harboring a cursed child?” Hssen Zaiia’s voice peaked high out of her normal range.

“What if Deziiya were cursed? What if someone had hurt her badly, taken her from you for years and then left her on your doorstep, scared near death?”

Zaiia surprised me by pausing, as if to consider my sire’s words. “I… am surprised to see you so compassionate, Tyaniis. Can I be certain you are not corrupted as well?”

I pulled myself into a coiling position inside the bars of light. A cage of sorts, but… I glanced back at Ssiina and Kyrae again. I have the key.

Tyaniis slithered closer, until she was just outside my sigilcraft cell. “If you are surprised to see me so compassionate, then surely your compassion extends as well? The elf here, Kyrae Ssyri’Jiilits, is a sister to my daughter more than blood could ever make her. She is the reason Issa is alive at all, that the curse has not taken her mind.” Tyaniis bent down and gave me her best apologetic smile.

This all felt a little like a nightmare.

“Hasn’t it? She’s feral!” Hssen Zaiia shouted.

“I’m not,” I replied without thinking. Soft as it was, everyone’s attention that had been drifting toward Tyaniis snapped back to me. “I’m not. You were going to hurt my sisters, or my aunt. I wanted to scare you, but…”

“But you lost control!”

Hesitantly, I nodded. “That’s why we’ve been learning from Phaeliisthia.” I reached a hand out and ran it along the hard, near-physical glowing sigils. “Everyone’s been working so hard for me. This was supposed to stay secret until we’d overcome it, but we’re not there yet. Perhaps Hesuzhaa Jii’ssiisseniir can help me.”

“You…” Zaiia looked around the assembled crowd. “Tyaniis you cannot possibly think of sending her to the Spring of All Life when she’s cursed, can you?” She stopped at the end of her thought, eyes widening.

I followed her gaze and saw Utaan Lyantii slithering up from the back of the assembled taaniir.

“Actually,” Jii’Hssen Ssyii spoke finally, her voice deep and regal, “I can think of no better place to send her. Phaeliisthia has done what she can, and the rest needs be in Jaezotl’s coils.”

“I as well oppose your usurpation of my authority.” Utaan Lyantii said, slithering to the fore. “With all due respect, of course, Hssen Zaiia. I had been informed of this visit, and also to keep it secret.”

“Secret from me?” Hssen Zaiia practically shrieked.

“Yes,” Lyantii answered simply.

“Tyaniis, you—”

“This was my idea,” the Jii’Hssen cut in. She slithered forward, looping a coil protectively around my cage of light. “Issa is one of our own, Kyrae is new family that will struggle against millennia of prejudice, and Ssiina will face hardships because of her association. I decided to hide them from you.”

Hssen Zaiia’s jaw creaked as she held it firmly shut. After releasing a deep breath, she spoke again. “So Tyaniis is adopting an ea! As your advisor, what gives you the right?”

“It is my right as Jii’Hssen. It is your right to question my decision. And it is my right to defend the decision by all means available.”

“You don’t trust me, do you, Your Majesty?”

“In manners of maintaining the security of my position, I would not trust you to polish a single scale on my tail, Zaiia. I know full well you plot my downfall, and that you resent my sister.”

“Those are serious accusations, Your Radiance,” Utaan Lyantii said solemnly.

“They’re false!” Zaiia hissed. “The Jii’Hssen is clearly compromised. Utaan Lyantii, I demand you detain her. Whether or not I act as regent is irrelevant, we can form a council and—”

Utaan Lyantii gave a signal and the taaniir moved forward… toward Hssen Zaiia.

“What?” she snapped.

“Hssen Tyaniis told me everything, and Dyni has granted me evidence enough to investigate you.”

“For what?”

“For your connection to the same dark forces that afflict Issa,” Utaan Lyantii finished.

“No…” Hssen Zaiia said softly. “You’re wrong.”

“That will be determined, Hssen Zaiia. We will review the events of tonight, keep what happened here a secret, and determine a path moving forward.”

Hssen Zaiia hissed dangerously, but backed down, lowering her upper body to its resting height. “I will see your weakness and corruption exposed, should it exist, Your Radiance. For your own good.” She looked away from me and Aunt Ssyii, back toward Utaan Lyantii. “Take me to my chambers then, or do you feel a need to throw someone who has committed no crime into her own dungeon?”

“Your chambers, Hssen Zaiia. Please stay there until morning.”

Hssen Zaiia hissed. “Very well. As a final statement: I disapprove of the adoption of an ea to the class of Hssen.” She glared back at Kyrae. “She must prove the impossible to be worthy in my eyes.”

“I’ll do that and more,” Kyrae answered with a surprisingly clear voice, “Hssen Zaiia.” She bowed as formally as she could despite her position.

Hssen Zaiia snorted, but turned to leave, leading Utaan Lyantii before the royal guard captain could lead her. With them, the taaniir filed out, followed by Dyni who gave a wink to my sire.

Kyen was last. “I… will prepare your chambers for this evening, if you will be taking to them?”

“We will,” Tyaniis answered. “...and thank you.”

Kyen startled out of his bow at my sire’s thanks, but nodded and quickly left out the closing door, tail tip pulling it shut behind him.

And then there were five of us, left alone in the quiet of the Jii’Hssen’s private terrace. The fountain burbled away without a care in the world, even as my cage of light bathed the veranda in unearthly shades of white and gold.

I heard my sisters sigh in relief, Kyrae quietly, but Ssiina with a great, exaggerated huff. The cage of sigils around me shattered into motes of light that dissolved into the evening air, leaving me coiled in a loop of the Jii’Hssen’s lower body.

“Issa…” Sire Tyaniis started, her voice dangerous

Ssiina slithered between me and our sire. “Sire, please. She’s—we’ve all been through a lot.”

“...You’re right. I… I’m sorry I wasn’t here.” Sire Tyaniis hung her head, golden eyes glancing and the very tired-looking Aunt Ssyii. “Thank you for taking care of them so well, Sister.”

Aunt Ssyii smiled, the expression teasing her exhausted eyes as she heaved a four-shouldered shrug. “We are family.”

“That we are. Shall I take my daughters for the evening?”

“If you would, please. Keep them safe tonight and we’ll discuss this at first light tomorrow. There’s much and more I have yet to do this evening.”

Sire Tyaniis nodded. “Come then. Though it may not be under the most auspicious circumstances, I wish to show you the rooms prepared for each of you.” She stifled a laugh as the three of us rushed toward her as a single mass of skin and scales. “Though perhaps you may all choose a single room for the night, hmm?”

“Mhmm,” I mumbled, half-hissing with the sudden weight of the fatigue that hit me. Ssiina was curling around me hard enough to almost hurt, and Kyrae had managed to wedge herself between our upper bodies, immobilizing one of my arms and one of Ssiina’s.

Sire Tyaniis ran her fingers through my hair and I jolted, before melting into the sensation. “Tonight, I will see to your safety. Worry not for the future, nor what has passed tonight. While I had hoped this would not happen, we are not without recourse. So rest well, Daughters mine.”