Helianna turned towards the house, tears running down her face. “Mom?”

Her mother immediately threw her arms up and screamed in joy, running over to Helianna and wrapping her in a big bear-hug.

“You’re home! Oh, my sweet baby girl, you’re home!”

Helianna gripped her mother tightly as they broke down crying in each other’s arms. After several minutes of their wordless embrace, Helianna’s tears finally began to dry. Sensing the change, her mom broke away a few moments later, wiping her eyes and regaining her composure. A moment later, she noticed Isela and Sylas, who had caught up to Helianna while they had been hugging. Both were standing there awkwardly.

“Oh… I’m sorry.” Helianna’s mom said as she wiped away the last of her tears. “Are these your friends?” Helianna shot a quick glare at Sylas before responding in Alarian.

“They are… allies, I guess. This is Sylas and Isela.” Her mom noticed the glare but chose not to comment on it, filing it away in her mind.

“Well, I’m Janarika, but you can call me Jana.” There was an awkward, but brief pause before her mother continued. “Well come in! Come in! I want to hear about your life! What’s been happening?”

Jana practically dragged Helianna inside, who didn’t resist in the slightest. Sylas and Isela gave each other a look. Isela was clearly amused as they followed the two inside while Sylas was completely deadpan.

“I’ve missed you so much!” Her mom gave Helianna another quick hug before they both sat down on the couch. “So! Tell me everything!”

“Um… well…” Helianna started, unsure how to proceed. Sylas opened his mouth to respond as he sat down, but Isela quickly slapped his arm, and he promptly shut up with a scowl. Helianna barely registered the interaction, but her mother smiled in amusement.

“It’s been hard. It’s been really lonely. I’ve-” she was interrupted by the slamming of the door, her father’s large frame filling the doorway. Her little brother was peeking out from behind his legs.

After a brief moment of shocked silence, her father threw out his arms as he yelled.

“Helianna!” Helianna stood up and immediately rushed to his arms.

“Daddy!” she yelled as she buried her face in his chest. Sylas and Isela looked at each other in shock. Despite speaking in wuuvish, her exclamation was unmistakable. Completely unsure how to react, they struggled to reconcile the woman they knew with what they were seeing in front of them. Their reactions were ignored by the family, too lost in their own reunion.

“Who is this, daddy?” asked the young boy. After a few seconds, her father broke away and crouched down to be eye-level with the boy.

“Tanelex, this is your sister. Helianna.” Helianna also crouched down to be eye-level with her brother.

“Hi. You can just call me Anna. It’s nice to meet you,” she said awkwardly. He looked over to their father as if asking permission. At his nod, the boy rushed forward and grabbed Helianna in a hug. She froze in surprise for a moment before hugging him back hesitantly. She heard her parents chuckling. A moment later, Tanelex broke away, wide eyed and pointing at Isela.

“What’s that?” Her father erupted into a deep laugh while her mom covered her mouth in horror.

“Alex! What have I told you about pointing?! And don’t call her a that, she’s an adult woman!”

Tanelex shrunk down, chastised and feeling guilty. Despite not knowing what the boy had said, Isela could easily infer and she stepped forward, still smiling. Despite her bat-like face making it hard for Tanelex to read her face, the warmth in her voice was unmistakable.

“It’s okay. I mean, you shouldn’t do that, but it doesn’t bother me. I’m a tijatan.” She spread out her four arms, revealing the membrane between them. “We’re a flying species.” He furrowed his brow, taking a moment to understand what she was saying.

“Speak Alarian?” he asked with a bad accent.

“I do.”

Her father interrupted the two. “Alex, why don’t you hang out with your friends? You can talk to her later.” Tanelex pouted.

“But! I want…” he frowned, trying to come up with the words in Alarian. Despite already knowing how he’d respond, his father let him continue, trying to let him think through his words. After a few more moments, Tanelex gave up on speaking in Alarian and his father sighed internally.

“I wanna talk to the tijatan!”

“I know you do, but we have something important to talk about. You’ll be able to talk to her later.”

“Okay…” Tanelex said glumly. As he walked out, he stole a last glance at Isela. Her father closed the door and he turned to Helianna, embracing her once more.

“How long can you stay?”

“I’m not sure. That’s something we actually need to talk about.”

“Come on, sit down. I want to catch up!” her mom interrupted. They all sat down once and her father nodded to Isela and Sylas.

“Who are you two?”

“We’re her teammates!” Isela spoke. Jana’s eyes flicked to Helianna and noted the kinder look on Helianna’s face compared to her glare at Sylas earlier. There was silence for a few moments before her mom spoke.

“So?” she asked and Helianna sighed.

“I’m not here on a mission. I’m running from The Academy.” There was a small gasp from her mother and her father gave her a determined look.

“Why?” her father asked.

“Well…”

“Why don’t you start from the beginning?” interrupted Jana. “Do you have the time for that?”

“Yes. We should.” At their expectant gaze, she sighed.

Over the next few hours she recited the past few years to her parents. She started out sparse in her details, but her mother asked constant questions, leaving nothing unturned. Her father asked questions occasionally but was content to let Helianna and her mom lead the conversation. Sylas largely managed to remain silent, but couldn’t quite keep all his derisive comments to himself. Each time he did, he received slaps of varying intensity from Isela, which amused Helianna’s parents immensely.

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Helianna didn’t hold back in her details when her mother prompted, even talking about some of her kills. Despite her openness, she wasn’t always able to maintain eye contact. Despite knowing much of what she had done was likely wrong, she only saw reassurance in their eyes when she was able to look them in the eyes again. The only thing she didn’t mention was her magic, wanting to save it for last.

When she was finally done, it was late into the night, the runelamps providing the only light. Helianna’s voice was raw from speaking and her brother had returned a while ago. He had wanted to listen in, but her parents had vetoed that quickly due to the nature of what she spoke of. She wanted to tell her parents about her magic, but once they were done, her father convinced them they could talk tomorrow. He wanted her to get a good night's sleep after the long journey she had just done.

She thanked him and quickly went to her own room, which had gone nearly untouched in the last seven years. Her father guided Isela to a guest room while he used spare blankets to create a pseudo-mattress on the floor for Sylas. Finally feeling secure, Isela and Sylas synced their magics and by the time they were done, Helianna was already asleep.

The next day came all too quickly and Helianna groaned as she woke up. She knew she needed sleep, but the constant routine of waking up at dawn was impossible to shake. She got herself ready and walked downstairs, surprised to see her father awake. He had his back turned to her and her habitual silent movement prevented him from realizing she was there. She sat down next to him at the table and he jumped.

“Anna! You’re up early!”

“Always am.” Helianna spoke in Alaric. After spending the last five years barely speaking a word in wuuvish, it was instinctual to keep speaking Alarian.

“That’s… new.” She sighed and sat down.

“Not really...”

He nodded and scooted his chair close to her and gave her a side hug. “It’s so good to have you with us again. Even if it’s just for a few days, I’m so happy to see you.” She hugged him back for a brief moment before breaking away.

They sat in companionable silence for a while, but Helianna started to get restless. She was nervous to talk about her magic and wanted to meditate and check on it once more. Since she’d learned to utilize it, she’d just been brute forcing and pushing it around. It had acquiesced, but still seemed like it had a mind of its own. She hadn’t meditated a single time while learning and had avoided doing so. The only time she’d ever successfully meditated was years ago at this point, and her magic had seemed to speak to her that night.

It had scared her then and it still scared her now, but she knew she’d have to confront it eventually. What better time than right now? If she wanted to talk about her magic being seemingly sentient, it would be crazy to talk about it if her magic wasn’t like that anymore.

She closed her eyes and started to meditate, but it took her a while to get a feel for it. It had been a long time since she had last meditated and was out of practice. She had no idea how much time had passed before she was able to feel her magic residing within her. She hesitantly focused on it and just like before, a foreign thought flew through her head. ‘Hello?’

Her eyes shot open and the voice instantly disappeared. It took a moment to get her bearings and she was surprised by what was around her. Her father was looking at her in amusement while her mother looked on in concern, but her face brightened as Helianna came to awareness. Sylas and Isela were nowhere nearby and she took a moment to look at the clock. It had been a couple of hours since she started meditating.

“Good morning, Anna,” Jana sang happily.

“Morning mom.” It took her a few more moments to get her thoughts in order. Switching out of meditation to see that hours had passed was slightly jarring.

“I need to have a serious conversation with you two.”

Her father smirked. “And the last ones weren’t?”

“This is serious dad. And…” she sighed. “I want the others here as well.”

“Hold on,” interrupted her mom. “I’d like to ask. What’s with you and…” She took a moment to remember his name. “…Sylas? Yeah, what’s going on between you two?”

“I didn’t mention it yesterday, but you know how we’re pretty much forced together? Well, we don’t like each other. He confidently makes poor decisions and considers Wulvinians to be barbarians.”

“Oh… well I’m sorry to hear that. Hopefully, we can change his mind.”

Helianna huffed. “I doubt it. But regardless, we’re kind of stuck together and they should probably hear this. I’ll go wake them.” Probably thanks to the comfortable beds, they had no desire to leave and were decidedly more grumbly than normal mornings. Helianna ignored their complaints however as she hounded them until they got up and joined everyone downstairs.

“So. I’ll guess I’ll start with the basics. We all know I’m null.”

Sylas rolled his eyes.

“We all also know I somehow have sovereign magic.” She held up her palm and emitted golden light from it as an example. Her parents looked at the light in awe, and she took a deep breath as she let the magic dissipate.

“But I talked to another user of sovereign magic… and other magic users as well. And, well…” They all looked at her expectantly.

“My magic isn’t normal. It reacts. On its own. He trained me and instead of managing every part of my magic to make it work, it was more like guiding something else. And in some cases, I had to hold it back.”

She looked around, looking for the other’s reactions. Her parents were thoughtful, but her team, who were more educated on magic, were looking at her with a hint of disbelief.

“But that’s not the weird part. This is going to sound crazy but… I think my magic is alive.”

“Hah! That’s a new one. Next, you’re going to tell me you're the chosen one of some crazy prophecy of something,” Sylas said derisively. Too occupied with Sylas’ reaction, she missed the look that passed between her parents when she made her claim.

“I know it sounds insane, but when I did the internal meditation thing for seeing our internal magic, it responded. Literally. I felt a foreign thought in my head.”

“So you’re hearing voices now? I know you were insane, but this just confirmed it. We should’ve separated earlier.” Sylas stood up as if to go and Isela grabbed the sleeve of his shirt.

“Sylas, please. At least hear her out. Having magic itself as a null should be impossible. Who knows what else is.”

“Just some wulvinian voodoo or some shit like that, I’m sure.”

Her father stood up, his large figure towering over Sylas. His normally gentle, if slightly intimidating demeanor now seemed downright hostile and his presence filled the room.

“Young man, you have been rude and hostile to my daughter, my family and our people for the entire time you have been here. We have provided you a place to stay and done our best to be kind, despite your obvious prejudice. Clearly, our daughter and you have been forced to work together, but if you cannot at least hold your tongue, then I suggest you move along. We will not let you speak poorly of us indefinitely and you will find we are much more patient of such prejudice than others might be. Do you understand?”

Sylas looked around the room as if seeking allies. Helianna’s mother had smoothly stood up, and while not as clearly hostile as her father, she was clearly unhappy as well. His eyes quickly settled on Isela, whose eyes were pleading.

“He’s right, Sylas. Please. You know we’re in a bad situation. They’re our best chance.”

Sylas fumed, seemingly oblivious to the level of hostility emanating from her father before sitting back down.

“I will be quiet.”

Everyone hesitantly sat down and there was a moment of awkward silence before Helianna broke it.

“I can prove it. I think.” Isela looked at her with hope. “I’ve only done it once. And on accident, but…” she paused, knowing how ridiculous her words sounded. “I think I can imbue my powers into something and my magic can control it somehow.” Her mother was the first to break the ensuing silence.

“What do you think works best?”

“I did it with a pillow before. Maybe one of those?” Her mom nodded and went upstairs, quickly coming back down with a spare pillow. She handed it to Helianna who warily placed it down on a chair.

“This may take a bit.” Nobody responded, largely too bewildered to formulate a response.

She’d looked back on that night countless times and she could still remember it like it was yesterday. She had done it out of anger and frustration after trying to make her magic work for a significant period and failing. Now that she had more training, she was sure she could do it better. She reached inward toward her magic and faintly felt it without going so far as to have it communicate with her. She then tried to guide it into the pillow, much like she had when fighting against the runes of the uniforms.

But it wasn’t right. She could immediately tell that it wasn’t going to work. Whatever she had done to push it into the pillow before wasn’t the same. And maybe that was the issue. She was currently trying to guide it in. Maybe pushing or forcing it in would work better.

That would make sense as the last time, it happened when she punched the pillow. Scared of magical backlash or some other possible disaster, she took a deep breath and simply…pushed.

It somehow felt different this time as it coursed out of her, maybe because she was deliberately focusing on her magic. She felt it not just enter the pillow, but completely exit her body and she felt empty. Her magic was completely gone. It was a strange feeling that left her reeling as she opened her eyes and pulled away. The room seemed to hold its breath as they watched on. Then the pillow moved.