The captain stepped forward and caught the masked fighter's violent strike on his shields. A flare of rose colored aura burst out from the impact in a sudden circle.

Bool and Schmit dashed in behind the captain's cover. They fanned to either side and slashed down at my attacker.

The masked fighter swung their other aura cloaked fist into the captain’s shields. Their molten bubbles boiled off of them and exploded against the blades of the guards.

The power surrounding their swords cut through the bubbles like a warm knife through butter and sent a glowing red mist into the air.

The masked fighter dropped to the ground.

“Autumn, we have to run!” Anna shouted as she dragged me off the bridge by my wrist.

Between his legs, my attacker slipped their small shape between the captain's legs. With one hand, they pulled him by his shirt and brought him down to the stones behind themselves.

"Listen to the mortal, my lady." Sam growled. He bounded to the side of the bridge and disappeared below the river bank.

Driskt and Daphne met the masked fighter and stood their ground. Like when Arthur had played against Springer, neither the guards nor the masked fighter were able to find an edge. Wild swings of carmine light flashed against the rose colored power of the guards blades.

Under different circumstances it would have been pretty, almost like fireworks.

Far behind the endless exchange, Bool raised his sword and brought it down across his body.

A blade of rose colored power sliced through the air and struck the masked fighter's back.

They cried out and fell to their knees.

In a matter of moments, all five of the guards formed a circle with the points of their enchanted swords held at my attacker's throat.

They were my guards. They were defending me. . .

“You shouldn’t be able to this,” The masked fighter yelled as they ripped the white wrap from their face. “You shouldn’t be able to use her power against me.”

“What the fuck?” Daphne spat.

“Captain?” Bool asked aloud.

The guards let the tips of their swords sag at the sight of the unmasked fighter.

“Her will is to protect that girl, boss. We have to do this. Can we settle down and talk now?” The captain pleaded.

“She took my face, Byron! She took my name. Who is she?” My attacker shouted.

The captain let out a long and deep sigh. “I can’t tell you, boss. You know that.”

The small moment of relative calm that had taken shape on the manor side of the bridge ended.

Stone broke under the force of my attacker's sudden strike and the bridge began to collapse.

Driskt and Daphne dropped through the broken stone first.

Bool and Springer threw themselves to the sides, but could not find enough solid ground to keep their feet.

The captain fell back to the far side of the collapsing bridge and my attacker made a mad dash for me.

Anna jerked me into a stumbling run. Before we made it a handful of steps, the unmasked fighter took her by the arm and threw her away as if she weighed no more than a dyme.

"Anna!" I screamed.

I hit the ground hard and rolled onto my back.

I looked up to see the face I had been wearing not long before. Dark hair that shone like black glass, full pouty lips, and furious red eyes, I had been walking around with the face and name of The Lady in Red.

Thunk

The glamor I had been wearing was not something my mind had invented. Atrean, the boy that I had first seen near the tents by the river, had not been the inspiration for my false name.

In a way I did not understand, her name had come to me when I had needed to give one. I had chosen her face when I could not expose my own. It had been entirely by accident, but the truth was all the same.

“Who are you?” She growled, looming over me with one of her aura cloaked arms raised.

I didn’t answer her.

I couldn’t answer her.

Within her glowing eyes, all that I knew of her appeared to me.

I saw who I then knew to be The Mother in Red. She sat across from her within a radius of broken stones. A ballroom filled with girls in dresses and men in formal clothes was disrupted by the sound of fists hitting flesh and the smell of blood. A sweet faced woman looked down in anger and shock at what had happened. Then there was the captain, standing up right on his shaking legs only by his hold on his massive shields. Fire, black smoke, destruction, and the wyrm followed. Power, so much power, condensing around a fist and the horrible sound of tearing metal that came after. One of The Mother in Red's roses were heartbroken over The Mother’s newest love. An offer to visit Katarina and meet her new baby. Rage, blind rage at the mere mention of a newborn child.

Thunk.

“Who the fuck are you?” She shouted down at me again.

I couldn't speak.

She pinned my arms to the ground with her knees and brought her power down towards my face in response to my silence.

Thunk.

Before I was struck, everything went dark and I felt myself fall. . .

“Try and relax, boss. Everything will work out like it’s suppose to.” Byron said as he sat and placed his hand on my leg to comfort me.

Mother Rhiannon held me to her side with her arm wrapped over my shoulders and her hand idly smoothing my hair.

“I don’t understand how you can be so calm.” I said, my anger hammering in my chest with every word.

Byron sighed and looked up to the ceiling of the dusty drawing room. “Either we can or we can’t. The decision is not ours. All we can do is accept what comes.”

I stood up from the lounge and left their comfort behind me. The bookshelves, the white pedals scattered across the floor, the whole damn room, I wanted to break it. I wanted to tear the building down board by board until there was nothing left.

The hammering rhythm of impacts in my heart would not cease until I brought my fists to bear with its beat. I tried something that Mother Rhiannon had told me about countless times, and let my anger out with my words.

“I was born with nothing. No parents to care for me, no home for shelter, nothing. When people realized I was special they stuck me in a mine before I was old enough to realize what was happening to me. Imagine it, little three year old me, sent underground to mine stones so the people of Broken Crown could grow fat and happy.”

Mother Rhiannon and Byron were silent.

I continued.

“You found me,” I said, pointing at Rhiannon. “And left me there. I don’t blame you, but damnit all, what if you hadn’t? I wouldn’t have had to do any of the terrible things I did to become a sorceress. But, you left me and I did.”

The sound of the wooden floor cracking under my feet sounded in the drawing room and I realized that my aura was bubbling out of my hands.

I continued.

“I was an orphan, I was a slave, and I became The Lady in Red. If I want to have a child with the man I love, no one should be able to tell me I can’t!”

My shoes broke the floor from the downward force my aura created. It streamed up my arms and I knew if I did not calm myself, my will would lead me to breaking everything I could touch.

A single tear rolled down Byron’s cheek.

I had never seen him cry before.

Mother Rhiannon stood and offered me her hand. “Let me help you again.”

“Please.” I said under my breath closed my eyes in anticipation of her charm.

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She took my hand and covered my channel with her aura. The hammering in my heart began to lessen. Even though I had asked for it, my anger fought against the gentle soothing power.

“I don’t care if it’s forbidden.” I growled through my clenched teeth. More cracks came from the boards underneath me.

“Take a breath, my love. If Byron has no aura in his bloodline. This will resolve itself.” Mother Rhiannon said softly.

“We’ve been here for three damn days! That’s a long time to wait if he doesn’t.” I said, the feeling of her warm comfort padding the hammer strikes and quieting my words.

“He was an orphan, just like you. It will take time for them to find parents,” She answered. “No word is good. That means they have not found anything yet.”

“I don’t care if they do. We will run away together. I’ll leave Zenithcidel. I don’t want to be a Lady if I can’t be a fucking mother.” I muttered over the last dull taps of the hammer.

“I know, my love. I know.” Mother Rhiannon sighed as she pulled me into her arms. I no longer had the strength to resist her charm and I let myself lean into her embrace.

Byron came and placed his hand on my back. “Thank you, Mother. For everyone’s sake, I’m glad you are better at that than I am. Boss, how do you feel?”

“Angry.” I sighed.

“Don’t you always?” Mother Rhiannon asked with a small laugh.

The sound of footsteps echoed into the drawing room. Cai, wearing her stark white bandages, strode back into the drawing room for the first time in three days.

I turned my face into Rhiannon’s shoulder and shut my eyes again to prevent my anger from overwhelming me again.

“Well?” Byron asked, his hand still held on my back.

So soft, I could barely hear them in the quiet room, another pair of footsteps entered.

“There is no need to kneel, child. Rise.”

The Mother in White. I had only met her once, but I recognized her voice immediately. I never thought she would come.

For a brief moment, that surprise brought me hope.

Then, she spoke again. “To both of you, I am sorry.”

Whatever she said next, I didn’t hear it. The Mother in White did not lie. If she started with an apology

The hammering in my chest had not ended. It just had been hanging in the air, waiting to swing again.

It fell and collided with my heart.

I broke into pieces and fell away. . .

Molten carmine light, black hair streaming back from a furious face, I came back to myself in the same moment that The Well had taken me.

No time had passed at all.

It felt like all I had done was blink my eyes.

“No, The captain shouted as he slid across the ground on his knees and locked his arms my attackers. “You’ll kill her, boss. You have to stop!”

With all of his weight, he threw himself back and tried to pull her off of me.

She didn’t so much as shift.

The rolling bubbles of her power tore away the leather straps holding his shield to his arms and they fell to the ground at our side. His sleeves went next, but no matter how hard he tried, his efforts were in vain.

“Get off of me! Why are you protecting her? Why is she protecting her?” She shouted back at the captain.

“Fuck it,” the captain grunted. “Because she’s the thief! She has The Well! We’re all sworn to protect her.”

At that, she stopped struggling. “You’re the thief?”

“And you are Trea,” I whispered, the sight of her blurring as tears filled my eyes. “You wanted to have a child, both of you did. With each other.”

Their eyes went wide and neither could hide the effect my words had caused them.

“You couldn’t.” My voice was thin and the tears rolled down my cheeks as I began to cry.

“What?” The captain said, blinking his eyes and shaking his head.

“That’s why you wouldn’t go see Jaka. Thats why you are so angry all of the time. That’s why you look out for all of the boys in the city. That’s why you took Arthur under your wing.” I said, unable to stop myself from speaking.

“Shut up.” Trea spat with her words sounding furious but her expression shocked at what I was saying.

All of the pain and all of the anger that had broken Trea’s heart into pieces ran through me as I sobbed. I knew how much she hurt because I had been her. Not with my glamor or my false name, I had seen through her eyes. I felt what she felt. She loved the captain with all that she was. She looked to Rhiannon, not as a Mother, but as her mother. It was all so unfair. Despite her attack on Arthur and the fear I had felt from her, my heart broke for her and what she could not have.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry you can’t be a mother. I’m sorry you can’t be a father. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” I cried as I stared up at the two of them. My words had hurt them. They had hurt them in a way that could not be healed with medicine or magic.

“You shouldn’t know that. You shouldn’t know any of that.” Trea seethed, her face tightened into a savage scowl. The molten bubbles of her power began to speed off of her faster and faster past the captain’s hold

“Boss, no!” The captain shouted.

All around us, the other guards appeared and grabbed The Lady in Red anywhere they could. All five of the men tried to pull her off of me, but she could not be moved.

Thunder cracked from the sky for the fourth time that night and Sam sunk his teeth into leg that pinned me to the ground. Small arcs of lightening coursed over my familiar but even his power was not enough to free me.

Trea let out a short scream and her aura began to change.

She was right. I shouldn’t know anything about anyone. Most of my life that I could remember had been spent locked in a single room.

I shouldn’t know.

The truth was that I did. I knew the wound in her heart and I hurt for her because of it.

“Rift,” Trea growled, the entire right side of her tunic tearing away and floating off into the air from the force of her aura. “Rifthammer.”

Her aura ceased to boil and condensed around her raised fist. Forming to her hand and arm, the gauntlet she had used to tear the wyrm in half took shape.

When she brought it down, I would die. I would die at the hand of The Lady in Red.

I could not bring myself to care. All I felt was her pain. All I felt was her desire. All I felt was her rage.

This is the weight you carry. This is the weight of The Well. The Autumn I liked thought from some far away place in my mind.

The same instance that the guard’s strength failed and their grip slipped, it broke.

The stone hanging from the golden choker around my neck cracked and small pieces of the sienna gem shot into the air.

The sharp metallic sound of metal snapping followed. The gift The Mother in Brown had given me fall away from where it had sat since she had formed it around my throat.

Trea’s fist came free, but a wave of shimmering sand blocked it from my sight. Everything around me was washed away by a golden tide that covered me and left me in total darkness.

My stomach turned.

The gold fell away from me.

No longer constrained, I sat up and whipped my head around to see what had happened.

Trea, the captain, the guards, Sam, Anna, none of them were around. Neither was the bridge or the city. Azza’s golden sand had taken me to the place in front of the manor that a black gate had once stood.

I wiped the tears from my eyes and looked down to the bridge just in time to see the ground explode from where I had lain only a moment before.

A swell of dirt and stone and carmine power filled the air. The ground underneath my feet shook and I was moving back towards the bridge as fast as I could make myself move.

“Anna!” I screamed.

“Autumn!” Someone called from behind me.

I turned around to see my mother running out of the open doors of the manor. “Mother? Why are you here?”

“Why am I here? No! Where have you been? Where are the guards? I have been worried sick,” She stopped in her tracks when she noticed the cloud of havoc that continued to plume higher and higher up the rolling hills. “What has happened?”

“Anna!” I shouted and pointed at the growing cloud, unable to calm the panic in my mind and say anything more helpful.

“Anna did this?” My mother asked, confusion evident in her emerald eyes.

There was no time for me to explain. I turned away from her and made to run down to the bridge. The cloud met me before I could take a second step.

“Inside. Now!” My mother shouted as she stepped in front of me and raised her hands.

The cloud rolled and stopped against the iridescent wall that took shape from my mother’s palms. Dirt and stone pattered against it like a hard rain. It climbed higher and spread wider until it seeped around the edges of her power.

I stood behind her, frozen with fear just like I had been earlier.

Something struck the center of the wall.

A metallic red fist appeared from the swirls of halted dust and shattered my mother’s power like a pane of window glass.

I screamed.

The cloud swallowed my mother. I covered my face against the dirt and dust that blew over me. It was all I could do to keep my boots on the ground in the storm.

“Autumn!” I heard my mother shout.

I turned towards her voice.

Two glowing red eyes stood a hands breadth from my face.

I screamed again.

The cloud began to thin and I saw The Lady in Red’s RiftHammer barreling towards me.

A hand was placed on my left shoulder from behind me. Another reached past me on my right and caught the killing blow like Arthur had done on the platform.

“Take a breath, my love. You are feeling very angry.” The person that stood behind me spoke.

Growing thinner and thinner, the cloud reversed its direction and revealed Trea’s face as it left us.

The Lady in Red was crying.

“I can’t stop. Help me, please.” Trea said through a ragged breath, her desperate eyes looking past me at the person who had stopped her attack.

“I know, my love. I know. All is well. This will hurt, but you will withstand it.” The person said, their voice clear and warm.

Rose colored vines, the same shade as the swords the guards had used in my defense, grew over Trea’s arm until it was covered from finger tip to shoulder.

Standing several steps behind Trea with her back turned to us, my mother pulled the cloud towards herself with her iridescent aura. Containing it in the palm of her hand, she cleared the air fully and pressed the collected dirt back into the ground.

Trea’s face began to relax as carmine dust passed through the rose colored vines wrapped around her arm. The glow of her eyes dimmed and she lowered herself to her knees.

“Go to sleep, my love. You need to rest.” The person holding my shoulder said softly.

Trea nodded as she lay down on her side and closed her eyes.

A sharp series of cracks sounded suddenly from within the vines, but The Lady in Red did not cry out or move. Her arm had broken, just like it had after the wyrm, but she had been charmed to sleep and did not seem to feel the pain.

“Autumn,” my mother said as she ran to me and began to check every part of me for injury or harm. “Are you hurt?”

“No.” I answered simply.

My mother glared down at the sleeping Trea just as the person behind me released her broken arm gently. The aura in their palm dusted from their skin, but the vines did not fade.

“What has happen is unclear, but do not be angry with her. There is much about herself she still has left to learn.” The person behind me said to my mother.

I did not need to turn around to know who had saved me. I had heard her voice many times. I had heard her sing. I had heard her take the burdens from the people of Erosette. I had spoken with her voice in a memory not very long before.

When she took her hand off of my shoulder and stepped around me, I thought about turning and running as far away as I could.

I should have.

I met her eyes and all I knew of her came to me just like it had with Trea. The vision passed and I was not taken by The Well.

I was taken by the memory of Suri.

“You took him from me!” I shouted and threw myself at The Mother in Red.