For one strange, incomparable evening, we were a family without station. Word spread, certainly, and Ynna ended the evening out of food far before the crowd dispersed, but we were together and I didn’t care if people came for us or the food.

With help from Sire and Dyni, I managed to slip the crowd and leave for the back of Ynna’s shop. I found her in the overgrown garden, staring at a large lump of vines where the sundial used to be. She turned as I reached the doorway.

Her smile was sad, her posture meek. “Why?”

“Huh?”

“Why do all this? I want… to think that you’re sincere. I want to apologize because I feel like I failed you, but then I’m reminded of that night. Sorry, and I suppose I shouldn’t be speaking to you like this, Hssen Issa.” She reached down and pulled at the vines.

Underneath, I saw a hint of pale stone. A lump rose in my throat and I had no idea what to say. Ynna wasn’t wrong; this was a political maneuver at the start, after all. While I certainly felt sincere, was I? This situation was somewhere in the middle of the extremes of what I knew.

So, I did the first thing that came to my mind. I slithered forward, bent down, and started pulling vines away from that central lump. I felt Ynna staring at me for a while before her hands joined mine, the shine of my polished nails painfully bright under the evening’s starlight.

Soon, a fallen, broken pedestal was revealed. Beyond that, already partially buried, was the sundial. Its bronze gnomon was green and rusted, but the dial itself was intact. I grabbed the pedestal and swept some of the debris away with my tail tip. Carefully, slowly, I turned the broken stone over and pressed it down into the earth.

With my hands now crusted in dirt, I swept the pale stone clean as best I could. When I reached for the dial next, Ynna’s hands joined mine. We lifted it together and set it on what had been the bottom of the old pedestal. Short, and a little tilted, the pale stone stood out in the vine-covered garden.

“I’m sorry,” I started. “I guess I don’t have a good way to explain things. I want to say I’m sincere about tonight, but I don’t even know that I know.”

Ynna sighed. “No, I’m sorry. What happened wasn’t your fault.”

“But you didn’t fail me! I made the choice not to go to the Temple immediately!”

Ynna leaned forward and pulled me into a hug. She felt small, almost fragile. “We both messed up, then.”

“Yeah, I guess.” I felt like I had to add something, and I tried to think what Kyrae or Ssiina would do. “I forgive you for anything you think you did.”

Ynna hissed a laugh. “They teach you to apologize like that as hssen?”

I giggled in return. “They don’t really teach apologizing at all for hssen. Our tutor did anyway, though.”

“Tell her that her apologies need work, then.” Ynna pulled away from the hug and smiled up at me. “I forgive you, Issa. Jaezotl knows I shouldn’t be the one saying that, but you always struck me as the stubborn sort.”

“You too?”

Her smile grew tentatively. “I feel a little sorry for your family.”

I hissed, but not seriously. “Thanks, Ynna. I’m not sure if or when I’ll be free, but I’d like to visit again. It might’ve only been a month that I worked for you, but my time here meant more than that to me.”

“I can tell! And now you’ve got me tearing up, too.” She looked over the disused garden. “I think I’ll try to fix this place up. That sundial’s going to come down again in the first rain, anyway.”

“If I can get time I’ll come by and help!”

She chuckled, then pushed me lightly toward the front of her shop. “I’d like that, but it sounds like you’ve a lot to do, Hssen Issa.”

“I’ll sneak off!”

“Oh no, I’m not going to be responsible for a hssen acting out.”

“I’ll take the blame, I assure you.”

Ynna laughed again, but pushed harder. “Go, go! You’ve a lot of life to live, and I think you’ve helped me see I’ve got at least a few good decades left myself. Maybe someday I’d like to hear some stories, but you’ve better things to do than wash rice and wait tables.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I relented, slithering toward the door. “You’re just kicking me out because I’m bad at waiting tables.”

She followed and bopped me lightly on the head. “Yes, but that’s not why I’m kicking you out. If that were the case, I’d be hiring the others to wait tables and sticking you in the back to wash rice.”

I laughed, and waved one more time. Ynna smiled, this time warmly, and I watched her turn back toward the kitchen in need of cleaning, sliding the door shut with her tail. Outside, my sire and sisters were waiting.

The crowd had gone, and I noticed a group in Temple vestments slithering away. That’d be why the crowd is gone.

“What’d they want?” I asked.

“Issa, tone,” Sire Tyaniis chided. Then she shook her head. “Tonight I suppose it’s fine, but don’t revert your speech pattern. This stunt of yours is going to make your coming-of-age all the more serious.”

“Understood,” I nodded, trying to sound more formal. “What did those ssyri’ssen desire, Sire?”

Ssiina and Kyrae giggled.

Tyaniis cracked a smile. “Amusing. Don’t take things too far in the other direction, daughter mine. Rumors of crass taste are immensely difficult to quell.” She started to slither and bade us follow. “The Temple was following up on a rumor that hssen were out celebrating Founding Day with ssen’iir. Ahead of the ceremony itself, no less.”

“And they were right!” Ssiina said with a chipper tone.

I tilted my head to the side as I caught up to my sire and sisters. “Was there a problem with that?”

“They wanted to know why I was with you,” Kyrae responded.

I glanced down, and her dark, pensive look drove a spike of anger through at least one of my hearts. “Don’t tell me—”

“We took care of it, and of certain rumors surrounding past events at this location,” Sire interrupted, voice low. “Explained it away, but we’ll need to make an announcement soon. Already, many ussen are traveling for your ceremony. Some are already here, and will be staying after Founding Day for it.”

Kyrae frowned at Sire’s words, but said nothing. The look she gave me said “we’ll talk about it later.”

“When is the ceremony? And what is it?” I asked instead of what I wanted to, realizing I didn’t know the date.

My sire sighed. “Two weeks and a day. It’s a social event with dancing, some games of skill and prowess, and food. It’s a major chance for you three to establish connections with the ussen. We’ve a lot to do and little time to do it. On top of that, we’ll need to discuss in a private setting what you three will need to do to prepare.”

My lips twisted down. “Will it be hard?”

“I doubt it, compared to Phaeliisthia’s lessons,” Ssiina answered.

“We’ll see,” Sire replied. “I’ve high expectations.”

“I don’t know that I can learn to dance in two weeks.”

“You will,” Tyaniis replied ominously.

I debated blowing my cover and diving into the shadows. Instead, I forced a smile and kept pace. Somewhere along the way we picked up a contingent of taaniir, and Utaan Lyantii was waiting for us at the gates to the Emerald Palace.

She gave us a withering glare. I smiled back, and she glared harder. Surprisingly, when I didn’t back down, her expression changed to one I couldn’t read, though I hoped it was positive.

Once we were inside the gates, Sire Tyaniis spoke again. “You will join me tomorrow, no later than one hour after dawn. We’ll discuss preparations for your ceremony in detail, then.”

Dawn? I looked up at the moon high overhead, visible through a gap in the clouds that was rapidly closing. “But that’s hardly any time at all!”

“A shame. We shall all be a little tired and a little irritated, then.” Somehow, Sire hadn’t really shown her anger until now.

“Didn’t you have fun though, Sire?” Ssiina ventured.

The immense kelaniel let out a long, heavy sigh. “You are correct, Daughter mine. Very well, two hours, for all our sakes. I really can’t risk later—there’s reputations to be maintained.”

Next to me, my hssen-raised sister beamed. Even Kyrae smiled a little. I reached down and took her hand; her grip against me was tense.

When we finally reached our chambers, Ssiina headed straight for her room, and Kyrae pulled me aside.

“What happened?” I asked her.

“I… I shouldn’t be mad about this. I know it’s not true, and Sire assured me as much right before you came back from saying goodbye to Ynna but, well, the way we got out of the conversation with the Temple was to say that I was just a family friend. From our time as students.”

My jaw tightened, and it took a strong force of will to keep the shadows in the room still. “I’m sorry. How could Sire do that? I’ll go find her right now and—”

“No, Issa. Don’t,” Kyrae heaved a sigh. “I get why she did it, and I went along with it. It’s a necessary evil.”

“Gullshit. No, it isn’t! We’re hssen!”

“And they’re the Temple, Issa! Our power is granted through their approval, and you know this.”

I clenched my fists, tail scything behind me. “I know, but I just can’t stand feeling powerless anymore. Not when I’m not.”

“I know. I… I probably shouldn’t have even told you.”

“What?”

Kyrae hung her head. “I knew you’d get angry, and I guess I wanted to see that. Wanted to know that I wasn’t crazy for hating doing it even though I know it’s the best option. If we announce my adoption as hssen as a surprise with the Jii’Hssen’s blessing, the Jii’Ssyri is more likely to accept. Sorry, Issa.”

I grabbed her shoulders, and she jerked, but then met my eyes. “No… no I’m really glad you told me. Our Sire is trying to be better, and this isn’t it. Ssiina should’ve defended you too. I’m not gonna let it happen again.”

“Issa, please. This needs to stay secret until the coming-of-age ceremony. Even Hssen Zaiia agreed to it, after she talked with the Jii’Hssen.”

“Really?”

Kyrae nodded.

“Did Sire also say that?”

“Dyni did, actually.” Kyrae’s frown grew shallower. “Look, it’s really no big deal. We’ll stay in the palace until the ceremony anyway, and it’s an open secret here.”

I held in a hiss and bared my fangs. “Fine. But only because you’re the one telling me to. The hssen thing, that is. But I’ll never deny that we’re sisters, Kyrae. I’d not be here without you.”

Kyrae pulled me down into a hug. “Thanks, Sis.”