To some, my title is an insult. To me, it is an opportunity for true change.

—Ea’Ssyri Thelia Mistwater

We’re finally here at the Spring of All Life! In light of everything, of nearly losing my sire, and of leaving my newfound friends, my hearts hurt. This was supposed to be, on top of a way to find out what sort of entity I might be tied to, a way for my sisters and I to have new beginnings.

To find friends and comfort and branch out in an isolated space where our status and history wouldn’t be our ruin. At the time, I’d hated the idea. Phaeliisthia’s estate with my sisters was better.

But I’d hated the idea of going to Uzh before we got there. And before that I didn’t want to go with Ssyri’zh Onussa.

Change sucks. And knowing that I’d be both stuck here and unable to stay here made it all the worse. If I had my way, I’d take our sire and Dyni, and go find Phaeliisthia and a place to live. But then I’d miss Nistala, Ussen Ysta, the people at the Grand Temple who’d helped us time and again, and Ynna if I ever visited her shop again.

None of us were in the mood for conversation, so I had a too-long time to think before we neared the end of the bridge, and the tree canopy rose over us to shade the scale-worn bricks. If my shadows had burned earlier, they were gone by now, eroded into cowering in only the very darkest recesses. I felt naked on top of filthy.

Someone was there to greet us at the end of the bridge, by another, less-serious-looking gate. Clearly ssyri’taaniir of some sort, she was a fit-looking lania’el wearing shining armor emblazoned with a holy symbol of Jaezotl and holding a plumed helmet under one arm. She had black scales with a greenish hue, pale green eyes, and a dark, stern complexion that broke into a fanged smile when we drew near.

She even waved, and I decided I liked her.

“Ussyri’taan Eiss, thank you for coming to meet us, and agreeing to guide us.”

Ussyri’taan? She’s a general—is she in charge of the guards for the whole Spring?

The guardswoman laughed. “You look like you’ve been through the abyss, Ea’Ssyri. I hope these three young royals won’t give me quite so much trouble.”

Ea’Ssyri Thelia smiled coldly. “I’m sure you can handle them. I’m off to give my full report to Ussyri Izessi, but I imagine she’ll make sure you see it as well.”

“She will so long as you’re here.” Ussyri’taan Eiss furrowed her brow and put her free hand up to her chin. “You run into serious trouble?”

“Yes,” Ea’Ssyri Thelia said simply, her jaw tight.

The guard captain’s eyes shot up. “Glad you made it then. I’ll do my utmost to keep them safe so long as they’re here, Ea’Ssyri.” She offered us a wide smile. “Though with the wards here, I doubt my intervention will be necessary.”

“Let us hope so.” The Ea’Ssyri locked eyes with Ussyri’taan Eiss, and the amiable guard captain’s eyes hardened for just a moment. Then, the second most powerful person in the Temple of Jaezotl walked past us and onto the brick-paved road heading for the largest of the white stone buildings.

Kyrae, Ssiina, and I watched her go.

I jumped when Ussyri’taan Eiss clapped. “Right then! If you didn’t get to see that side of her, I promise you Ea’Ssyri Thelia is a compassionate woman.”

I furrowed my brow, but Kyrae nodded and said, “She’s hard, but she means well.”

Ussyri’taan Eiss hissed an agreement. “That she is! You can just call me Eiss, by the way. No point in having a title that’s so much longer than a name if you’ve got to say it all the time.”

Ssiina acted first, giving a shallow, polite bow. “Raeni Ssyri’jiilits Ssiina. Do you extend this same courtesy to everyone?”

Eiss blinked, then guffawed. “Didn’t expect the pampered-looking one out of you lot to ask me that. Yes, Hssen Ssiina, I do. At least for everyone who’s a student here, unless it’s needed, I really don’t mind. You’ll see me around from time to time, and I’m always ready to help out if needed. Even if someone has me take a day off then shows up a day late.” She turned to me and Kyrae with a smirk.

“Raeni Ssyri’jiilits Kyrae,” Kyrae introduced.

“A pleasure! Your introduction scraped a lot of scales, you know. My condolences for your Sire and extended family, by the way.”

“Is this a warning?” Kyrae pressed.

Eiss lost her smile and sighed. “Yes, of a sort. Most people—” She said that part a lot louder “—aren’t going to be so open about it, but the schism you’re all too familiar with as hssen is alive and well here at the Spring. A little more active, even, as this place is outside the influence of Jii’Hssen Ssyri.”

“Can you really just talk about that openly?” I blurted out. “Oh, and I’m Issa.”

Eiss smirked again. “I can. Everyone knows why I’m here. Ussyri Izessi gets nominated by the Jii’Ssyri. I get nominated by the Ea’Ssyri. Now I’m not going to badmouth the person running this show…”

“But?” Kyrae questioned.

“No buts!” She held up a finger. “She’s a great and wonderful woman who has to manage a lot of people and keep everyone happy. I’m the lucky one; I just shove people who step out back in line.”

“Like us.”

“Like you! But only if I need to.” She winked.

Next to me, Kyrae frowned. “Oh.”

“Let’s start the tour then, shall we!” Eiss waved us on. “You three need a bath, some oil, and a new set of clothes. I don’t suppose your belongings are to follow?”

Kyrae and Ssiina moved to follow Eiss, and I raced to catch up. “Kyrae, what do you mean by ‘oh?’”

“It’s complicated,” she replied.

“You caught that as well, then?” Ssiina asked, joining in the conversation. “I’m glad, honestly. This and a bath are just what we all needed. Do you think they have nice beds?”

Beds. I was thinking about beds and missed what my two sisters said next. Thinking about beds and a bath. The moment my tongue tasted the faint fragrance of scented oil and hot water, I sped up, almost passing Eiss who seemed to take my pace as a challenge.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

We wound through shaded avenues, tree-studded courtyards, and open-air buildings, passing temple- and plain-robed figures alike. Most of them stopped and stared, but some carried about their business with the kind of single-minded focus that meant they didn’t get out of my way.

“Issa!” my sisters shouted behind me, slightly out of sync.

The woman I’d slithered into was dressed in temple robes of white and green and had been carrying scrolls that were now scattered about the bricks. I almost did a double-take when I saw that her scales were a pinkish-white, and her skin was so pale it reminded me of the white flesh of a river fish.

Eiss slithered past me and quickly helped the woman raise her upper body off the ground. “Ssyri’zh Sylota, are you alright?”

“I… think so,” the voice that replied was soft and faint.

Eiss fussed over the smaller woman. “Let me help you put your hood back up.”

“Watch where you’re going!”

“Are you alright?”

Kyrae and Ssiina had caught up to me.

“I’m fine.” I slithered closer to Eiss and the pale woman, then bowed low. “I’m so sorry for running into you, Ssyri’zh Sylota. I was just excited for a bath and…” I caught a glare from Kyrae out of the corner of my eye. “And that’s no excuse.”

The woman made a small hissed harrumph, then turned to us, pale face shadowed by her large hood. She was small, even for lania’el, and she had faint age lines around startlingly red eyes. More than that, her hair was white too, pure white like snow. “You do look like you could use a bath, so I suppose all is forgiven. Eiss, who are these three?”

“New students,” the ussyri’taan answered with an attempt at evasion so poor even I could see through it.

Ssyri’zh Sylota sighed. “Are they ussen? They look like they’ve rolled around a riverbank, but they’re too large to be underfed.”

Hey! That’s… brutally honest.

“They’re not ussen!” Eiss proudly answered.

“Unless you’ve gone soft, you don’t normally show new arrivals around, Eiss.”

I heard it when Kyrae’s hand hit her forehead.

Ssiina took the chance to step forward. “Raeni Ssyri’jiilits Ssiina, and these are my sisters.”

Ssyri’zh Sylota’s eyes widened, then looked directly at Kyrae. “Oh! I’ve heard about you. You must be the ea Hssen Tyaniis adopted, then.”

“I am,” Kyrae answered defensively.

In response, Ssyri’zh Sylota just smiled. “Perhaps that same sentiment might make its way here before too long. If any of you wish to learn about Jii’Kalaga’s early history, we’ll meet again soon. Unfortunately, I am very nearly late to my lecture, so please excuse a hasty retreat.” She slithered a little way down the path before turning back. “And thank you for helping me up, Eiss.”

“Sure thing!” Eiss turned back to us. “You’re lucky you crashed into Ssyri’zh Sylota. Not that it’s lucky—she’s a bit frail—

“I heard that!”

Eiss cupped a hand to her mouth and shouted, even louder, “Sorry!” before dropping her voice back down to what I was quickly learning was “normal volume” for her. “Anyway, she’s sweet as a mango, and she’s been pushing for integration longer than I’ve been able to enunciate the concept. We’re almost to the baths, and Issa?”

“Don’t race, yeah, got it.”

“I wasn’t going to say that! I was going to say watch where you’re going. People are always late and moving quickly around here.”

I looked around. As if on cue, a group of lamia about our age turned the corner and raced past back up the way we’d come. “Point taken.”

“Great! Let’s go then! I’ve got an evening shift, so we’ll need to compress the tour a little,” Eiss said, taking off at a sprint.

Ssiina and I were able to keep up, but Kyrae was flagging behind by the time we’d gone the short distance to the building that smelled of oil and steam. It abutted the cliff edge of the Spring’s plateau, with a fence extending out from either side along the outer path we’d found ourselves on. Trees and flowering bushes burst out from the old white stone, even from within, and I could see two entrances under the twin domes of its roof.

Eiss coiled up near a tree just off the busy main path and bade us follow. “Baths are in there—are you three okay with communal?”

“Of course!” I answered ahead of both my sisters.

Eiss looked at them and waited for a pair of nods before she continued, “Great! These public ones are a lot closer than the ones by your residences. Ea are on the left side, and lamia on the right.”

“Can I join my sisters?” Kyrae asked.

Eiss shook her head. “Not by the Spring of All Life’s rules, no.”

And the Temple’s rules supersede hssen privileges.

“Can we go to the ea side?” I asked.

Eiss shook her head again.

“Is there anywhere else we can go?” Ssiina asked.

The ussyri’taan thought for a moment. “I won’t be able to take you everywhere you should see today, but there’s a residence that’s being prepared for new arrivals and should have a bath large enough if you don’t mind being a little cramped and taking longer to get there.”

“Will we get in trouble?” Ssiina asked.

Eiss shrugged. “Not with me. No one’s using it and it’s not going to be cleaned until tomorrow morning.”

I started to uncoil “Lead the way then!”

With a nod, Eiss took off again.

“Could you slow down, please!” Kyrae shouted.

Eiss jolted, then slowed. “My apologies.”

At a semi-fast pace, we made our way out of the larger streets and into smaller, more winding ones where the terrain sloped sharply down. The people here were all dressed in Temple robes, and some few even gave us harsh looks.

“This is the place,” Eiss said as we reached a small villa second from the end of a winding street. “Let me just knock and see if I can get you three inside.”

While she approached, my sisters and I hung back.

I clenched my fist. “You know we could’ve just forced our way in, right?”

“Right. And cause a scene and have everyone staring at us.” Kyrae’s shoulders slumped. “I just want to get clean.”

“Do you think this will be a problem for our residences, too?” Ssiina asked.

“We’re sisters—of course they’re giving us the same place!” I hissed.

“Doubt it,” Kyrae said. “You heard Eiss. Temple rules here.”

“That’s awful,” I replied. “Someone should knock some sense into them.”

“Someone should change the rules,” Ssiina agreed, twisting my words just a little.

“One way or the other, someone will,” Kyrae said, staring at her own hand. “If we can stick this out, play by their rules while making it obvious how wrong they are, then we can win.”

“I’ll try. But I’m not going to sit and do nothing.”

Kyrae’s reply was simply a sharp-looking grin.

Soon enough, Eiss returned to the path. “The people cleaning it are okay so long as we stick to a specific route and don’t dirty up the rooms they’ve finished. Come on.”

We followed her inside. The villa was small and tall—three floors of white stone and elegantly shuttered windows. Murals of verdant scenes decorated the walls, and the views I caught through open windows were stunning.

Almost as stunning as the bath itself. I could see sigils carved into the rocks, and steam rose from a placid surface that extended all the way to what looked like a sheer drop into the misty jungle below. A floral scented breeze wafted in from outside.

The walls and ceiling at least were painted beautifully, with bright plants and snakes of all kinds, culminating in a visage of Hse’azh in the center, making the whole place look almost more like a wild spring than a bath.

“Who gets to stay here?” I found myself asking.

“The Ea’Ssyri,” Eiss answered from the doorway behind us. “It should have been cleaned by yesterday, but it seems we’re in luck. Anyway, I’ll get out of your hair. I’d say take your time—but please be quick.”

She closed the door, and my sisters and I shared one look before racing to strip down and dive in. Like any respectable bath, there was a stream to rinse off in first, and the water came off brown for so long I was shivering by the time we dipped ourselves into the wonderful water.

With all of us in, it rose high enough to tip over outside, and I raced over the edge to watch. The illusion was shattered as I saw a catchment basin just under, and a platform below that. Though I guess not worrying about falling was nice.

I coiled contentedly, while Kyrae dunked herself and swam laps as best she could around us two big snakes taking up almost the entire bottom of the bath.

Ssiina came up from under the water and exhaled a long, slow breath. “I needed this! Let’s not forget the oils for our hair and scales!”

At my sister’s words, I saw a tiny shelf stocked with porcelain pots. I’d hardly tasted their smell over the flowers from outside, but now that I did, it was delightful.

When we emerged, there was a stack of clothes left waiting for us, robes in our size bearing hssen colors of emerald and gold. We put them on and emerged into the villa where Eiss was lounging and looking out at the view.

“My place faces a courtyard. Centrally located rather than next to the edge and all that, and it is nice. But these views…” She inhaled, then exhaled slowly, as if savoring the silence. “You’re extremely late and you used the Ea’Ssyri’s oils.”

“She had scale oil?” Ssiina asked. “And where did these clothes come from?”

Eiss shrugged. “She has guests often. And I sent one of the cleaners to fetch them when I realized how long two kelaniel would take shining each other’s scales. Now, shall we continue the tour, your royal highnesses?”

I looked down at myself once again in regal clothes, shining and clean. This felt right, and it also felt like I should be able to do something about all stupid rules here.

“I like that gleam in your eye,” Eiss remarked as we left the villa. “It’s like a spark.”