I woke the next day intending to avoid another crisis. An assassination attempt, bombing, and the death of a Divine's companion were more than enough adventure for some time. Knowing that a meeting with the chancellor waited for me later in the morning, I set out getting prepared for it methodically. I chose a blue blouse that had elegant frills around the collar and black slacks. I gathered my showered hair back into a low ponytail and consumed a seven-grain bagel smeared with cream cheese that had been delivered to my room. When the knock at my door came, I was finishing the cup of coffee that had accompanied my breakfast.

Milo escorted me from my apartment to the chancellor's office. He looked like he had started his morning early, and when we arrived in front of the double doors leading into Sebastien's office, I learned why. Two seraphim soldiers were posted outside of the door. The double doors were cracked to reveal a semi-occupied conference table that had replaced the comfortable and informal seating area. Grayish wings could be seen through the crack. I could hear the murmur of conversation coming from within. Confused, I sent Milo a look. Milo simply advised, "Stay here. They are finishing up and the chancellor will meet with you afterwards." Without a look back, Milo slipped into his office next door.

Sighing, I leaned against the wall. I caught one seraph soldier staring at me. His gaze quickly darted away when I confronted his gaze with my own. I recognized Sebastien's voice floating out of the doors and strained to hear him. "This little movement is harmless! What evidence do they really have? Just one blood test revealing indicators of something unidentifiable? How does that indicate witchcraft?"

A feminine voice answered him. "Queen Tatiana is nonetheless concerned that this movement will lead to the persecution of magical people again."

"Of course she is. If she would only listen to reason and the information we've been providing over the past year, then she would realize that we are slowly getting the mortal governments on our side. This new movement doesn't have the power that these governments do. They're underground and unorganized. Whatever power they have, it will not be enough to overthrow what we have been organizing for decades. If the daemeyri are so afraid of another witch hunt, then you can provide them with a solution,” Sebastien ranted.

"What solution is that?" inquired the same female voice.

"Handing over the instruments!" Sebastien exclaimed with a thump of his hand against the tabletop. "As soon as they do, we can establish the paradise. How difficult is it for them to understand that?"

"Still haven't done the right thing and turned yourself in yet, I see. Though, I'm not all that surprised. There isn't even an ounce of morality in you." A voice drawled from my right. I pinpointed it right next to the second soldier. My assumption was proven correct when the two seraphim soldiers glanced towards where the voice had come from. One of them even winced as if he was embarrassed by his prince's comments.

I stifled the urge to straighten. Instead, I forced myself to settle more into my lean and control the flood of negative emotion. I was pleased with the nonchalance in my voice as I responded, "I thought you were supposed to be free by now. Your agreement with the archangel fell through or something? Wasn't it if you broke me out of jail, you'd be free, too?" The soldier to the right lifted his eyebrows over my sassiness. His eyes darted back to where Kyrian was standing as we waited for his response.

"What makes you think I'm not free?"

I rolled my eyes. It was all over his voice. I could hear the scowl he was wearing on his face as well as the antagonism in his voice. "You're outside of the chancellor's office in mage territory, standing next to two other seraphim soldiers. No, the archangel probably recanted on his offer just like Evangeline said he would and forced you to become a part of his entourage today." I knew I was taunting him. It was both in retaliation and masochistic, two sides of the same coin. As much as I was enjoying this unexpected freedom, my guilt sided with Kyrian. I didn't deserve any of this. He was the only one in this new, deranged world who agreed with me, who wanted to lock me up again.

"I heard you were almost killed the first night you were here. Shame you weren't served your own medicine. Dying in a terrorist attack would be sweet karma finally coming for you," Kyrian sneered. By now, the soldiers were listening to our argument with wide eyes that followed our conversation as if they were watching a competition.

The double doors pushed opened with Archangel Emerson at the forefront of the pack. He was followed by several winged others in similar black satin capes, one of them a female. The commanding and dignified air around them marked them as more archangels. Sebastien stood behind them as if he was showing them out. His attention immediately landed on me. His face revealed nothing about the outcome of the meeting as he gave me a solemn nod of recognition. I shrunk against the wall to make room for the burly seraphim and the broad stretch of their wings.

Emerson's gaze immediately landed on me and burned with recognition. He stopped in the middle of the hallway, effectively halting the procession. "Ms. Disraeli! You're looking more lovely every single day."

Speechless over his unexpected compliment, I struggled against the rush of heat to my cheeks and my mind scrambling for a response. Sebastien answered for me. "It's the power of sleeping in an actual bed and eating proper food. I told you we would take good care of her." His hand lingered against the doorframe.

"You're just treating a cold-blooded killer like she's a princess," Kyrian muttered, his voice full of disdain. It was loud enough to be heard by the entire delegation, despite coming from the back of the mass. "You might as well as lift her to a pedestal and give her sainthood while you're at it." The flush against my skin darkened with anger and embarrassment.

"Kyrian!" snapped Emerson. I followed the archangel's gaze over to an empty section of wall, where I imagined the prodigal seraph was leaning against it with a dour attitude. "That is inappropriate. You will do well to keep your opinions to yourself."

"It isn't an opinion that she massacred one hundred four people," Kyrian said.

"Oh, give it up, will you?" I muttered under my breath. My eyes drifted upwards out of exasperation.

"And you're suddenly the judge of morality?" Emerson ridiculed. Kyrian finally grew wiser and remained quiet. The archangel threw an apologetic glance in Sebastien's direction before saying, "We shall be on our way. I'll get back to you on the research." I allowed the archangel and his entourage pass by us in the hallway. When Kyrian walked past, I felt his glare—with its deeply rooted hatred—linger on me. I was grateful when the last of the seraphim's feathered wings disappeared around the corner.

Sebastien remained at his office's entry. With a flick of his chin, he invited me in. Sebastien's office provided hints as to the meeting he just had. Plates filled with leftover breakfast pastries and coffee carafes lingered on the conference table. A black folder was shut at the head of the table. Some of the black leather chairs had been pushed off against the wall and replaced with stools. I imagined the stools had been catering to the seraphim and their wings.

"Have a seat, Briara, and help yourself to the leftover pastries, if you want," Sebastien suggested. As I navigated towards the conference table, choosing a seat at the opposite end of the where the black folder was, Sebastien headed towards his desk. He picked up a navy-blue folder and joined me at the table. I eyed the pastries as I waited for him; none of them on the picked-over plate looked too appetizing, especially after my breakfast. After Kyrian's comments reminding me of my past, I wasn't in the mood to eat.

In the attempt to destroy the silence that was in the office, I questioned, "Do you always have so much to handle? It seems like you get little opportunity to sleep. Much less deal with family life." It seemed like he never left the office, and thus I was curious about his family.

"I've been juggling a lot of responsibilities as of late. Fortunately, a family isn't one of them. I wouldn't know what to do if I didn't have Milo keeping me organized. How have you been doing after everything?" I knew he meant the bombing and discovering the companion's murder last night. Sebastien sat down in the seat opposite of me even though it had been replaced by a stool. The navy-blue folder sat in front of him. A silver and circular emblem had been imprinted on the cover. This close, it looked more like an envelope than a folder.

"Okay," I replied. I bit my lip against the lie. In fact, I was more relieved than anything that Sebastien had believed me and hadn't believed for one second I was the perpetrator. That relief overshadowed the small bit of sadness I felt over the companion's death.

Sebastien searched my face. If he sensed any of the truth, he said nothing. His forearms rested on the table, one over the other. "I got the results back from your evaluation."

"Oh?" I tried to not be too eager to learn of which element ran through my bloodstream.

Sebastien unhooked the back of the envelope and pulled out the folded piece of paper. He straightened it, rotated it around, and presented the paper to me. My eyes quickly roamed across the paper for answers. The top part focused on my name and other demographics, while the middle of the page went into a review of the test procedures, including who the proctors were. It wasn't until the bottom of the page where I learned of what I truly wanted to know.

Affinity: Inconclusive.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Blinking, I looked up at Sebastien. "What does this mean?"

Sebastien reached for the paper. He folded it back into the navy folder. "It means that you are gifted, but testing didn't reveal an affinity or level. It means that there will be some trial and error in your tutoring sessions."

"Tutoring sessions?"

"You'll be starting today and will have private sessions with Professor Leander over at the Academia three times a week. Leander is one of the most esteemed professors of magic we have. He'll be able to develop your affinity quickly." I was shocked by the lack of delay. I was expecting weeks of waiting for my training to begin, not two days after I got to Astraera.

I bit my lip. "Are inconclusive tests usual?"

"They are more prominent nowadays with the decline of our magical population," Sebastien answered, not meeting my gaze. "I wouldn't worry about it. We've seen what you can do, and I'm certain Professor Leander will be able to help you. He's an expert on all the affinities. I predict he'll be able to further diagnose your magic." Sebastien paused before switching the subject. "There was another abnormality on your test. It is one that the veteran evaluators haven't seen for a very long time, and the newer ones didn't even know what they were looking at. Even when I saw it, I was quite stunned."

"What is it?" I held my breath.

Sebastien peered at me, searching my expression for any change as he questioned, "Have you ever heard of a sanctuary before?"

I felt like I had just been punched in the gut. Everything I had done to keep the sanctuary and Hawk undisclosed and protected was for nothing. It had shown up in my results. I wasn't expecting it to be the abnormality Sebastien was questioning me about, and it took me by surprise. My expression gave me away, and I knew I had to tell the truth. Taking a deep breath, I gave my reluctant answer. "Yes."

Intrigued, Sebastien leaned forward. He settled his chin on his upturned fist. "From the lack of your confusion, you seem to be fairly acquainted with it."

"I learned about it after I had been arrested and sent to Pueblo for a competency evaluation four years ago," I informed. "Mentally, emotionally... I was so out of control from the grief over what I had done that the doctors had to tranquilize me."

Sebastien pressed his lips together. "I thought you blacked out at the massacre."

"I still saw the footage of the massacre." I blinked away the remorse that never really faded. "It was only once, as I refused to watch it at my trial. That one time was enough to traumatize me. I probably saw that footage on repeat in my mind for weeks. The only safe place was when I was put under with the tranquilizers. It was enough to send me to the sanctuary." To my sanctuary, I corrected.

"You've been there more than once," Sebastien guessed.

I nodded. "It was how I managed my sanity in solitary confinement.” With those words, a chill traveled down my back. I was reminded of how similar my story was to that Zane Konstantinos guy the senators had spoken about at the dinner a couple of nights ago. They had been surprised he had kept his sanity intact while he had been incarcerated, too. "Eventually, I was prescribed the tranquilizers in pill form. If I saved enough of them, I could take the right amount to get me to the sanctuary."

"I've never had the opportunity to go to one of them myself," Sebastien admitted. "However, I did some research into them a while back. I heard you could create any world you want there."

I thought back to the boundless creativity I had used to create those many worlds Hawk and I traveled through. We had explored walking on clouds, vast underwater worlds, the light shows of aurora borealis... it wasn't until the very end when I had started manipulating its physics. I still got excited over the upside down word I’d created. "That's right," I finally answered Sebastien. My hesitation prevented me from elaborating further on it.

"Have you been back to it since your arrival here?" Sebastien wondered.

"No," I sighed. My heart ached from the dismay I felt. It had only been a couple of days, but I still missed it. I missed Hawk's company. "I need the ketamine pills I was getting at the jail," I admitted. Sebastien fell into contemplation. Whatever he was considering, I could not decipher from his expression. "Could the sanctuary lead to identifying my affinity?" I questioned.

Sebastien's mouth twitched as I distracted him from his thoughts with the question. "I don't think so," he started. "When the mages were first created, they had vast amounts of magic in their blood, and the ability to access the sanctuaries. Many of them were granted the opportunity to do so. It didn't matter what their affinities were. Then magic dwindled away in the mage bloodlines, and access to the sanctuaries became rare."

This time, it was my turn to retreat into my thoughts. They became haunted by suspicion and paranoia. This time, Sebastien didn't let me loiter amongst them as he declared, "Professor Leander is expecting you in thirty minutes. That gives us enough time to discuss a second matter."

I pulled back, both physically and mentally. "What is it?"

"I know you'll be busy focusing on your training with Professor Leander. I want it to be your primary focus and I hate asking this of you. Still, there isn't anyone else, and when I see an opportunity, I am hesitant to not act on it. You're new here, new to this world. Your political prejudices have not been announced to the world yet. Besides that, with Galileo's background, I am certain he trained you to go undercover."

I remained hesitant. "He did.”

Sebastien removed a single sheet of paper from underneath the evaluation envelope. I didn't even see him bring it over to the conference table with him. With a flourish, he presented the paper and waited for me to make my assessments.

There were two photographic portraits on the paper. From the uniforms and common backdrop the portraits shared, I realized I was looking at school portraits. The first photograph was of a male. Somehow, his portrait conveyed his tall height. The crown of his head was millimeters below where the portrait had been cropped. His oblong face narrowed into a pointy chin. He boasted the porcelain skin women from the Renaissance Era had craved. His vanilla blonde hair was a full thin layer over his skull. His eyes had a far, distracted look to them, as if he was thinking about algorithms. There was a name typed underneath the portrait. Cassiah Isaac Hawthorne.

The second photo was of a cocoa-skinned brunette female. Her dark hair hung around her face in frizzy ringlets, and she at least looked like she had tried to look presentable for the picture. There was a faint tint of mascara against her lashes and a layer of blush on her cheeks. From the amount of eyeliner she used, she wanted to draw attention to her eyes. The name underneath photo read Macaila Jade Amherst.

I immediately recognized the two people as the two loners who had sat at the end of the bar in Hellions and Halos. Looking for clarification, I glanced up at Sebastien. "These two are the offspring of suspected Resistance members. I want you to befriend them. They are still attending the Academia, so I'm sure your paths will cross eventually."

"I saw them last night at the bar Jay likes to go to," I admitted. Already, a plot was formulating in my mind. The easiest way to complete Sebastien's mission would be to approach them there, and not at the Academia.

"I believe they have been sent to observe at Hellions and Halos, which is consequently the bar that a lot of soldiers like to go to. No doubt they are under orders from their parents to listen for anything that may give the Resistance an advantage. Sometimes, my soldiers have loose lips when they are intoxicated," Sebastien stated wryly. "If you can befriend them, and get them to believe you share their opinions, there is a chance they will take you into the Resistance's inner circle."

"You want me to spy for you.”

Sebastien nodded. "Unfortunately, there's only so much that our intelligence knows about the Resistance. They have been clever in keeping their organization a secret unless they want to make an announcement. I've had my other agents out and about, listening in Astraera. None of them have been able to pick up even a whisper about the Resistance. They have become more tight-lipped now than they ever were in the past." Sebastien paused. "I know it probably seems like I'm putting a lot of pressure on you right now. First, to master your magic, and now second, to infiltrate the Resistance. If you were an ordinary woman, I would hesitate to even bring this request to you. Yet, you and I know that is not the case, and you are not an ordinary woman. You come from an influential bloodline. I have no doubt you will do magnificent things. I don't think I have to tell you how important this is to us, to the mages. If the Resistance has a secret weapon in their arsenal, it could be enough to ruin the paradise we are trying to implement for the entire world. You've already seen how powerful they can be: they assassinated seven of our senators."

"That's the total casualties from the bombing?" I confirmed.

"Yes, and the chief senator was amongst those killed. It has caused some unrest in the Senate, as there is a new chief senator who has to get comfortable with his new duties."

I swallowed over the flare of grief I felt. "Katharine Kolst is dead?" I inquired. Sebastien nodded, his face contorted with sadness. My fingers interlaced on my lap. Katharine Kolst had seemed sincere and friendly at the dinner. "Who else?"

Sebastien named off the six others. One of them was Dae-Seong. I frowned as I remembered him stumbling out of the dining room. He had been impaled with a piece of shrapnel.

"Is anything being done for them?" I questioned. For a moment, Sebastien looked confused. "Are there going to be funerals?"

Sebastien settled back into his chair. He rubbed at an eyebrow. "Their families have chosen to keep the ceremonies private. I don't think they want the press ruining the sanctity of their ceremonies. I have ordered a shine to be built outside of the Senate Chamber for the seven senators. Besides that, I'm not sure if their families will allow us to honor them any further. I think there is a bitterness."

"How so?" I blinked.

"There's a belief that if I hadn't had those five traitors executed, then those seven senators—their loved ones—would still be alive. They think the Resistance retaliated." I thought both actions were immoral but thought it wise to not argue with Sebastien about why the blatant execution of the five traitors was unjustified. "The Resistance also took responsibility for the death of Andralyn's companion last night."

I looked up; my eyes were wide from shock. "What?"

Sebastien nodded. “It was all over this morning’s news. They claim they are going to continue to hunt the gods until their demands are met. I believe they have the means to: they've already killed several other gods and their companions." Sebastien's lips pressed together. "I can have the military out looking for them, put the priesthoods on notice. It still doesn’t solve the issue; the Resistance has evaded detection thus far. I'm uncertain how they are doing it. It certainly is frustrating."

I bit my lip, and Sebastien remained quiet as I milled over the train of thought. "The Resistance has been quite active for the last several nights," I started. "It seems interesting that no one has seen anything of them. Like they are shadows. Ghosts, even."

"That's why we need you, Briara. They are just too good at remaining undetected. Allow the assassinations to motivate you, Briara. Avenge those lives for us," Sebastien said. "I fear they have a secret weapon that can decimate everything I have achieved as chancellor. My sources believe that it's being held at the Gates to the Heavenly Skies. However, I'm not sure where that is, and thus can't do any reconnaissance on it. That's why I need you to infiltrate the group. See if you can track down exactly where the gates are."

"Okay, I'll do it," I sighed, stretching my fingers. I glanced up from the table to meet his gaze. "I'm not sure how successful I'll be. Galileo taught me how to go undercover, though I've never infiltrated anything this deep before."

Sebastien tilted his head. "That's not true," he disagreed. "You infiltrated Nashville and started an entirely different life there. You maintained that identity for ten years. I say you are a pro at it."