“Aargh.” Tsia flopped back on her belly and hit her pillow in frustration. The silk sheets around her legs were as cool and luxurious as any she had owned back at home, but her body remained hot and sticky. It wasn’t that she wasn’t used to heat - her father’s capital, Yas̆peh, wasn’t particularly cool either, laying just a few days’ journey north of the jungles that occupied the lowlands of Sapīya. But the heat there was partially ameliorated by the low-lying hills on which the city sat and was nowhere near as bad as the absolutely stifling temperatures of the last few days. How can they even stand it?

She twitched her fingers and a subtle current of wind began to swirl around the room. It felt good against her damp skin, bringing a moment of relief but in the end, it couldn’t cool her enough to let her drift back to sleep.

“Selene’s grace, this place sucks.” Giving up on sleep, she slipped out of the bed and padded over to the window. Drawing the gauzy curtains aside, she gazed up. Selene held court in the heavens, her crescent shining bright as the stars gathered around her in adoration and Tsia muttered a brief prayer beneath her breath. Maybe I’ll take a walk. Her mind flitted to the lake, and the cool winds from the northern plateau that sometimes brought relief. Perfect.

She quickly changed into a dress and headed out into the hall. Her footsteps were muffled by the soft carpet, but she still tiptoed past Nēs̆u’s door, careful not to wake him up. She knew he meant well enough, but his constant presence was a bit suffocating. She didn’t need a babysitter.

Before heading down the stairs, she peeked in on Jasper’s room, but it was still empty. Guess he and Ihra aren’t back from the party yet. She was disappointed, but not surprised. Instead, Tsia scurried down the stairs as quietly as possible and hit the kitchen for a quick snack before sneaking out the back door.

The air outside was only slightly less oppressive than the temperature within. The towering trees that covered the palace complex blocked out most of the starlight, plunging the path into a fiercer darkness, but between the fragments of light and the steady trickle of wind that she kept circulating around her, Tsia was able to avoid whatever obstacles lay in her way.

Her mind wandered as she walked, weighed down by all that happened. The last few months had been a whirlwind she hadn’t had time to process. Her mother leaving. Meeting her half-brother. Discovering she had Sidhe ancestry. And then there was Jasper.

She didn’t know quite how she felt about him. Barring herself, he was easily the most talented younger mage she’d ever met. Most of the so-called mages around her father’s court were barely worthy of the title. Oh, they were capable of casting the spells their classes granted them, but they lacked the power or imagination to step beyond those limitations. The first time she’d seen Jasper experimenting with casting without his hands, she’d known he was different. And she still hadn’t really appreciated his potential until he killed the stone mage at Dūr-Ēkal with soul magic. That had been a revelation.

And then he’d saved her life. It was almost enough to make a girl’s heart flutter, if it wasn’t for the fact that he simply didn’t seem all that interested in her.

She wanted to stick around, to see that potential become a reality. And maybe, if she was being completely honest with herself, she fantasized about returning to her father’s court with Jasper in tow. She could just imagine the sick look of envy on her stepmother’s and half-siblings’ faces when she flaunted the new heights of power that she and her would-be beau possess. Forget her father’s little kingdom, always beset by their stronger neighbors, and screw the empire. With Jasper at her side and her mother at her back, Tsia felt certain they could carve out a realm of their own in the west, safe and secure from the cursed stoneflesh.

Unfortunately, despite the potential he possessed, Jasper had thus far not shown as much ambition as she’d hoped. His uncle planned to send him into the empire’s war, and for some reason she couldn’t conceive, Jasper seemed to be actually planning to go. She supposed it would be a good opportunity to level up quickly, but it would also take her in the opposite direction from her mother.

Tsia simply wasn’t sure if she wanted to follow. She didn’t give a damn about the capital or the empire, but…With a sigh, she pushed the thoughts away. It’s not like I have to make any decisions right now. And her mother was the one who suggested she follow Jasper. I guess I’ll just have to trust her.

The sound of crashing waves reached her ears, followed a moment later by a welcome breeze from the lake. The air was actually cooler, no doubt coming down from the northern plateau, and she beckoned it to her, opening her arms wide as the wind crashed down upon her. Her hair flew wildly, and she could feel the static of gathering charge as Imhullu’s power surged within her. She only released the winds once the beads of sweat had all dried up and her skin was pleasantly cool.

“What the hell was that?”

A voice echoed from the darkness further down the beach and she suddenly realized she wasn’t alone. A small dark blob had risen from the sands.

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“Sorry,” she said as she walked closer to the figure. “I was just using the wind to cool down.”

“Holy crap, that was impressive. Are you some sort of wind mage, like that avatar dude?”

“Avatar?” Tsia stepped closer and finally got a look at the person’s face. It was a rather small, pale man who looked vaguely familiar. She crinkled her nose, trying to remember, and recognition dawned. “Oh, you’re that scout that came from Jasper’s world.” The cripple, she added in her head, but didn’t say. Instead, she offered him a warm smile, feeling a bit bad for the man. “He talks nonsense like that a lot too. What was your name again?”

His cheeks flamed red. “Erin - and it’s not nonsense,” he protested. “It’s just, well… never mind,” he said, shaking his head. “I guess it probably does sound like nonsense, and it would be wicked hard to explain.” He craned his head up at her and thrust his hand out. “You’re one of the people in his party, aren’t you? We never really got the chance to talk.”

She accepted it with an amused smile and gave it a little shake. “You know, we don’t really shake hands here.”

His cheeks burned brighter, and he jerked it back quickly. “Right, right. I knew that from training with the guards. It’s just, well - you seem a lot more normal - no red skin, black horns, none of all that crap that’s constantly screaming at me ‘you're not in Kansas any longer and you're never going back.’ Unfortunately, I'm all out of ruby slippers."

She plopped down on the sand beside him, and offered him a cheeky wink. “I seem normal, eh? You hang out with a lot of princesses back home?”

“Princesses-" he gasped out. “You’re, you’re a-"

Tsia laughed merrily. “What’s that expression Jasper likes to say? It’s cold. I’m not offended.”

“Uh, I think ‘cool’ is probably the word you’re looking for,” Erin said cautiously. “Is everyone in your party some sort of noble?”

She shook her head. “Just me and Jasper.” Tsia hesitated a moment, unsure if she should broach the question of the scout’s magical impotence. It was probably a sensitive topic, but she decided to ask. “I heard you can’t use your essence?”

The scout bobbed his head, showing no signs of embarrassment. “Yeah, that’s just my luck. The only redeeming feature of getting stuck on this crap world - uh, no offense,” he hastily added “-would be magic. Apparently, my gun’s all loaded but it just won’t fire.”

Gun? Is he talking about his you-know-what Tsia felt a little scandalized, but she nodded her head with what she judged to be the appropriate amount of sympathy. The poor man just doesn't know how to speak in polite society. Besides, she was burning up with curiosity - the prospect of a magical mystery was always tantalizing bait. “Do you mind if I probe your essence?” she asked.

The man laughed nervously. “Probe my essence? That doesn’t require you to go anywhere near my butt, does it?”

Tsia was genuinely flabbergasted this time. “Of course not. Why ever would it?”

Erin shrugged helplessly. “It’s one of those things you won’t understand - Jasper would get it.”

She eyed him with a bit more caution, still shocked by his suggestion. “I would just need to touch your hand and inject a bit of my essence into your essence streams,” she clarified. “I don’t know if I can figure out why your essence is blocked, but I was curious to give it a try.”

The scout’s hand shot forward like lightning. “By all means. If you can help me cast magic, I’d be forever in your debt.”

“I guess we can work out a payment plan,” she replied solemnly, and the man’s eyes widened.

“Uh-“

Tsia cracked a grin. “I’m just yanking your leg. Give me your hand.”

“Pulling,” he corrected her, as he offered her his hand.

His fingers were hot and clammy, but she ignored that as she slowly sent a tendril of her essence up into his arm. His own essence reacted immediately.

It withdrew from hers, fleeing like a rabbit before a wolf, and yet there was something about it that seemed simultaneously strange and familiar. Tsia pushed harder, pursuing his essence until it could flee from her no longer. She made contact and understood.

“Erin, what does your screen say your heritage is?”

“Djinn and human,” he quickly responded.

“And?”

“There’s a question mark,” he admitted.

Tsia released his hand. “I think you and I have something in common after all.”

“And that is?”

“I think you’re descended from the Sidhe.”

Erin’s brow scrunched up. “You mean like the Aos Sí?”

It was her turn to be confused. “What’s that?”

“You know, the Irish fey, people of the mounds, fairies and all that jazz.”

She squinted. “The Sidhe aren’t Fey, as far as I know.”

The scout shrugged. “In my world, they are. I guess I am a little bit Irish.” The man scratched his head. “My grandma always claimed to have a touch of the sixth sense in here, but I always thought she was full of it. Now, though.”

Tsia understood very little of what the man was saying, but the idea wasn’t so farfetched. She knew from meeting Imhullu that the Sidhe had come from another world once, so perhaps there was some sort of connection. “I don’t know anything about these Aos Sí,” she admitted, “but the Sidhe in our world are powerful being, second only to the gods. Many perceive them as malevolent, but the truth is they’re more ambivalent than anything else.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t think I can fix the problem. I’m not quite sure why you can’t use your essence properly, but I’d be willing to bet it has something to do with your Sidhe heritage. The magic they use can be quite different from that of our gods, and I suspect that is why the system is struggling to give you a class.”

A look of dejection washed over the scout’s face when she said she couldn’t fix him, but he nodded his head gamely. “Thanks for trying.”

Tsia hesitated. She couldn’t fix him, but she had a feeling she might know someone who could. But do I really want to ask him?

The scout turned his gaze back to the lake and let out a muffled sigh. He’d put on a brave face, but his body language betrayed him. Pity filled her heart, and she found herself making the offer. “I might know someone who could help.”