Eldramin

by Natalia Befus

Chapter 14

Fannara

The aftermath of the attack had the entire country reeling. Within hours of the incident, Deraal Jana officially declared war on not only Palendine, but on Illitani, Bryathor, Melerfy, and any other countries allied with Palendine. The remaining countries claimed neutrality, largely because no one knew yet what Jana was capable of.

Because of the circumstances, the people in Training changed quickly. Mara dropped out as soon as she could, and an Illitani girl named Verelia filled her spot. She and Ari couldn’t get along worse if they tried.

Verelia had what you would call a superiority complex. She had been the main leader of her squad before all her partners dropped out of Training. Ari had been the closest thing to a leader that our squad had. Thus, there was an obnoxious amount of passive aggression in every Training session.

Training itself became more intense if that was possible. We went from an hour and a half of Training every other day to three hours every day. Our new Training schedule involved many drills, emergency plans, and larger group practice. One on one Training had been moved to the first half-hour, and it was miserable.

Just when I thought Moren was finally, finally warming up to me, to the extent that he wasn’t treating me like trash, he was right back at it. No eye contact, no talking to me. It was like I didn’t even exist. The weird thing was that he had stopped ignoring Ari.

Every time we went into Training I would catch him trying to talk to her. I never heard what he was saying, but it seemed like he thought it was important and Ari couldn’t care less.

On the fourth day after the attack, while Arienna and I were walking into Training, Moren ran over to her again.

Without acknowledging I was there, he began with, “Ari, we really need to talk abo-”

“-would you leave me alone?” She stopped walking and turned to glare at him. “You seemed to do that pretty well for the last 13 years.” She rolled her eyes and kept walking. I kept in stride with her as she speed-walked.

“But-”

“Nah ah.” Ari held a hand in the air to stop him. “I don’t want to hear anything from you.” I furrowed my brow and turned to her.

“What’s up with him?”

Ari groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. “One thing you should know about Moren Keleth is that he is really bad at accepting coincidences exist. He’s convinced that there was some hidden meaning in the timing of the attack or some other ridiculous theory.”

“Huh.” I looked back at my partner to see him glaring into midair. “There does seem to be something off with him…”

Ari snorted. “That’s one way to put it.” We got to the corner of the gymnasium where Verelia and Mel were talking. Arienna and Verelia greeted each other with a judgemental glare.

“Hey, Ari, hi, Fannara.” Mel gave us both a small smile.

I gave an awkward smile back. “Hi, Mel. Verelia.” Verelia gave me a smile, completely ignoring Ari as she did, which, naturally, made my friend huff indignantly. I personally found their rivalry amusing. It was unnecessary, yes, and slightly childish, but it gave me other things to think about. I knew I would have to go home soon. Alithos would have no part in another world’s war.

Valraea gathered our group together and gave us a good stare-down. “You all need to start taking this more seriously. This is a war, people, we don’t have time for pettiness.” She glared at Ari and Verelia, then at Moren. I couldn’t help but feel a little smug that he was finally being called out.

“Anyways,” Valraea continued, “We’ll be starting patrols next week, nothing that would put you guys in too much danger, but jobs that need to get done.” She pulled out her telecom and extended it to roughly the size of a clipboard. “The areas we’ve been assigned arrrrrre…” She glared at the telecom and whacked the side of it. Something popped and the screen grew brighter.

“Ahem, your group has been assigned to Burning Waters and the Quinta Telren forest preserve.” She glanced at Moren, who had stiffened. “Your request to not patrol the preserve was passed, Keleth, you’ll be at the Waters.” He seemed to relax when she said that.

Confused, I turned to Ari questioningly. She gave me a look that told me she’d tell me later. I guess that would have to suffice.

Valraea cleared her throat again to get our attention. “That’s all I needed from you guys. You’re free to go.” She stopped and thought it over for a second before adding, “Fannara, a word?”

I waited as the rest of my group dispersed to their different training areas. I knew what was coming.

“Interplanetary law says that we have to send you home, I assume you know that, but there’s been a complication.” I cocked my head at her and waited for her to elaborate. “There has been a bomb threat at the portal stations, it wouldn’t be safe for us to send you back to Alithos from there right now. However, if you are willing to take the risk and go last minute, there is one more StarShip from Lathra II leaving tomorrow. From there we could find you a way back to Alithos but we wouldn’t recommend it because of how finicky the portals on Lathra II are.”

I bit my lip and thought it over. “In all honesty, I don’t think I want to go home.” Valraea gave me a weird look. I shook my head and tried again. “What I mean is that I don’t feel like it would be worth the risk and complications of the other idea. I’m sure this threat about the portal station will be resolved.” She nodded.

“Good idea. You can go run along to train now.” I tried not to let out an audible moan as I went to find where in the world Moren had gone.

After an extensive search and asking who knows how many people where Moren was, I finally found him on the roof. It was blustering and freezing cold up there, and I dreaded being in the cold for long.

Pushing open the heavy door that lead to the roof, I was surprised to find Moren just standing in the middle of the roof, not doing anything. It was so unlike him to not spend every minute he could training, but it was obvious that wasn’t why he was up here.

I walked over to where he was standing and couldn’t help but gasp. The damage from the dragon was fully visible from up here, and it wasn’t pretty. Charred remnants of trees and other plants scattered blackness over the buildings, long scratches covered the ground and broke up the pavement. Caution tape was strung over the whole mess as cleaning crews and investigators buzzed around the area.

“I hadn’t realized how much damage had been caused by the attack,” I said. I didn’t expect a response, I never did. That’s why I was so surprised when I got one.

Moren took a deep breath. “The real damage hasn’t even begun yet.” I looked up at him, stunned that for the first time all week, he had said something to me.

“What do you mean?” He pointed to the mountains beyond campus, never taking his eyes off of what he was looking at. I had no clue what that was. I squinted at the base of the mountains and saw…people. Hundreds, thousands of people swarming like tiny ants at the base of a fruit. “What are they doing?”

“Preparing to die.”

I looked back at him, even more, confused now. “What?”

He sighed again and glanced down at me for a second before returning his eyes to the mountains. “Those soldiers are setting up their camp. They have no idea that this fight against Jana is hopeless.” Moren shifted his weight and crossed his arms against the wind. “Some delusion of justice is leading them to their own graves and ours with them.”

“You don’t know that, they’re trained soldiers, they can take on a few dragons.”

Moren scoffed. “You have no idea what Jana is capable of.”

“And you do?”

“Unfortunately.” I glared at the vagueness of his answer.

“Either way, you’re being far too pessimistic about this whole thing.”

He turned around and glared down at me. “This ‘whole thing’ is a war that has been going on for years right under our noses. You have no idea what you’re talking about and no right to be here anymore so you should leave while you can.”

I looked back at him, disgusted shock overtaking any other emotion aside from anger. “Are you serious?”

“You have no part in this war. The Eldran are not your people, the Eldran will never be your people. The most helpful thing you can do is get out of the way before you become collateral damage.”

It took me a moment to process how pigheaded this jerk was being. “You are so rude.”

“And you’re obnoxiously stubborn, congratulations.” I rolled my eyes and glared at him.

“Look, Moren, I don’t really care what you think, so I don’t know why you keep trying to give me your opinion like it’s worth something.”

He glared back and gave me a mock bow. “Well, my apologies to you for being concerned about your safety.”

I snorted and raised an unamused eyebrow. “The only thing you’ve ever been concerned about is yourself.”  

That seemed to strike a chord. Moren recoiled as if I had slapped him. He seemed to be starting to form a retort but gave up and slumped his shoulders. “This war isn’t going to leave anyone alive.”

“And how would you know that?”

“Because it’s my fault!” Another wave of anger was washed away by a look of shame on his face. “None of this would have happened if I hadn’t…” He turned away and seemed to fold in on himself.

I stood there, once again too stunned to react. The war couldn’t…that wouldn’t make sense. Surely someone would have said something if that was true… But suspicion was growing in me. Everyone seemed to act strange around Moren and around the mention of the past leader of Palendine.

I sighed as another headache emerged.

What is happening?

Chapter 15

Fannara

The remaining hours of Training were excruciatingly awkward. My thoughts were relentlessly churning over the bizarre conversation from the roof. What in the world was happening?

I didn't know what to think. Part of me was inclined to brush off Moren's comment as an overreaction, but another part of me was growing suspicious. I knew there was something no one would tell me, but I hadn't assumed it'd be something of this magnitude. But then again, it wouldn't make sense for an entire world to go to war because of something a 20-year-old boy did. I had no clue.

Mel seemed to sense something was wrong, but she didn't say anything after her concerned look was returned with a small shake of the head. I had a feeling Mara would know something was wrong the second we got back to our dorm, but that didn't come very soon.

The hours of Training felt like months of rigorous conditioning. Part of me wondered if I should just drop out and focus on learning as much as I could before I had to leave, but I was determined to stick with this now. My own stubbornness wouldn’t ever let me live it down if I stopped now.

Once we were finally finished with Training, I hoped I could talk to Ari about the conversation and see if she would explain anything to me, but Moren actually managed to talk to her right as I was about to talk to her. I didn’t want to have to deal with whatever awkwardness would ensure if I listened in, so I turned around and started walking to the exit. To my surprise, Verelia ran over to me.

“You look like you need someone to walk you to the dorms, are you okay?” I stared at her, stunned by this sudden show of concern from the normal detached Illitani girl.

I have her as good a smile as I could. “Thanks, I’ll be fine, nothing’s wrong.” Apparently, that wasn’t convincing.

“Yeah, sure.” She looped her arm through mine and escorted me out of the room. “I won’t pry, but I’m also not blind, Fannara, something’s up.”

I frowned and looked at my feet as they took long strides across the carpeted floor. Was I really that bad at hiding it? I kept my silence and Verelia kept her word, she didn’t pry. She also didn’t fill the awkward silence.

I turned and squinted suspiciously at her as we waited for the elevator.

She met my scrutiny with a look of thinly veiled smugness. “Do you have something to say?”

“If you think I’ll try to fill the silence you’re wrong.” She gave a single laugh and turned back to face the elevator. A ding announced the arrival of our method of transportation and three upperclassmen stepped out. They looked unimpressed with our combined stench. Verelia looked like she couldn’t care less what they thought and stepped past them into the metal box, pulling me with her.

The door slid shut and more silence ensued. Verelia kept looking forward and didn’t move a muscle. I grew increasingly uncomfortable.

“You are very passive-aggressive, you know that, right?” She smiled and her eyebrows raised in amusement.

“You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.”

I let out an exasperated breath. “I’m just really…confused right now and I think Ari can probably clear things up but she’s a little…preoccupied.”

“Ah, that makes sense. Arienna is an interesting one, huh?”

“What do you mean?”

Verelia unlinked her arm from mine and turned to face me, crossing her arms and leaning against one of the walls. “She’s not very forgiving.”

“I guess…” I frowned and started twisting the end of my braid around my finger. “I don’t know, Ari’s gone through a lot and-”

“You don’t have to defend her to me, I was just commenting.” Verelia put her hands in the air, feigning surrender, and pushed off the wall right as the door opened onto ground level. “Forget I said anything.” She gave me a smile and lead me back to my dorm.

Ari didn’t come back until I had showered and was working on some assignment. It was weird that they still gave us work during wartime, you’d think they’d use their resources better.

She bee-lined for the bathroom before I could say anything. It was fine, I could wait until she was clean to ask her about what Moren had said. I couldn’t bring myself to focus on my work, though. Too many thoughts were swirling around my mind to be able to focus on the history of Eldran magic during that half-hour.

Nervous energy and boredom sent me flipping through the glossary of my book. Eldra (page 17, 18, 20, 47, 93, 126), Eldramin (page 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 204, 306, 307) I already knew these ones, well, not as in-depth as the pages offered, but it didn’t pique my interest. I kept flipping through the glossary until something caught my eye, Prophecies (pages 73-90) Now that looked interesting.

I turned to page 73 and started skimming through prophecies. It was fascinating. The first one recorded wasn't even complete, from the era of the First Queen on Geterria, before the “unfolding of the world”. Something along the lines of the void consuming all life until they stand united. Apparently, the prophecy was fulfilled when the Element Stone was created using pieces of each Tribal Stone, the source of Geterran magic.

The next few pages were of dull prophecies from before the colonization of Lathra II, III, and IV. I skimmed more pages until arriving on the most interesting part yet; Shifter prophecies.

I had just finished reading about how the Centaurs acquire prophecies when Ari finally emerged from the bathroom, hair still wet. I immediately turned around in my chair to face her, startling her.

“I need to talk to you.” She gave me a weird look and sat down on her bed.

She reached for a hairbrush and started detangling the soggy locks. “Okay then…shoot I guess.”

I took a deep breath, trying to figure out how I was going to ask this. There had been a plan, but, of course, now that it needed to be executed I forgot it.

Deciding to just get to the point, I started with, “So I think we can both agree Moren was being weird today.” Ari stiffened immediately. “And uhm, one-on-one training got a little weird…”

“Oh no, he likes you, doesn’t he?” I froze and stared at her. The second it fully registered in my brain what she assumed had happened, I started screaming at her.

“OH HECK NO. EW, ARI WHAT IN THE EVEN. NO.” She breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well, then what made it weird?”

I groaned and leaned back in my chair, placing both of my hands on my chin. “He thinks he started the war.” Ari looked very confused, so I corrected myself. “I mean, he doesn’t think he started started it, but he thinks it’s his fault or something.”

“Ohh.” The clarification seemed to make sense to Ari. She put down the hairbrush and gave me a fairly serious look. “He’s not entirely wrong, but he’s also slightly delusional.”

I frowned. “In what way?”

She smiled wryly. “Like today, he wanted to talk to me because he thinks the date of the attack has to do with the stage the moon was in thirteen years ago when Izzy…oh I guess I haven’t told you…” She stopped and seemed to be contemplating something. “You aren’t technically supposed to know this but if you’re stuck with Moren you kind of have to know, probably should have told you before.”

“Uh, what?” I was really confused. Leaning forward in the chair again, I waited for her explanation.

“Okay, so you remember how I told you at the beginning of the school year how Moren and I had that mutual friend at one point?” I nodded. “Well, basically, she was the daughter of the last leaders, like the highest up people. Her name was Isabell Harpson, but we all call her, or called, rather, Izzy.

“She and Moren were super close, and at one point, when they were super little, they were out in the Quinta Preserve, the one I’m patrolling, and somehow, the two of them got separated. He was supposed to keep her with him ‘cause she was a bit of a wild child, but, yeah, she wandered away and the next thing people knew, Jana had her for ransom.”

Ari bit the inside of her cheek and stopped for a moment, maybe recalling memories, maybe trying not to. “Jana had her for two weeks, she demanded the Harpsons leave Lathra IV if they wanted their daughter back. They agreed and were prepared to leave but before they could, Chairman Keleth, Moren’s dad, went against Kayden Harpsons orders and sent a rescue team to get Izzy back. All the men were killed and so was Izzy.

“The Harpsons took their two remaining kids, left, and never returned. The general public doesn’t know where they are but there are rumors they left for a system that hasn’t been linked to the rest of us to avoid ever encountering people from Lathra IV again.

“After they left, the Keleths ascended to the highest rank and my father was killed.” It sounded like she was going to continue, but she stopped and didn’t say anything.

I sat there and tried to soak it all in. This was a huge event that had happened and I was only finding out about it now.

“Why did the Deraal want the Harpsons to leave?”

Ari scoffed. “It wasn’t that she wanted the Harpsons to leave, she wanted Izzy gone, she was ‘getting in the way’ of Jana’s superstitious plan for conquering the world and saving her people.” She crossed her arms and propped one foot on her knee. “Moren, being as conspiratorial as he is, thinks that Izzy is somehow still alive, living among the Centaurs. There’s no proof of this, obviously, her death was caught on camera, but he seems to think that’s why Jana finally declared war.”

Things were starting to click but there was one thing I was still confused about. “How old was Izzy?”

“Eh, give or take six to eight years old.” Ari shrugged.

I frowned. “What difference would a little kid make to Jana?”

“People thought she was the Eldramin.” I started.

“She was what?”

Ari laughed. “I said people thought she was the Eldramin, her magic was super strong at a young age, like some amplified gold healing I think, but she could never pass all the tests. The biggest one was the Burning Waters. Tradition has made the people believe the Eldramin can touch the Waters without being hurt but there’s no proof of that.”

Something that had happened at the beginning of the school year suddenly clicked. “Ari, people didn’t get suspicious of my last name, did they?”

She laughed again. “Oh, they very much did, a Harpson who also happens to be a healer? Unheard of, it’s not like there’s a whole clan of them living on Lathra III either.”

I groaned. “They stopped, right? I mean, Harpson is a super common last name on Alithos, like super duper common.”

“Hey, you don’t have to tell me.” Ari put her hands in the air. “I know Izzy died, and so does everyone else.”

“Aside from Moren.”

“Yeah, he’s…special.” I chuckled a little at her tone.

“Well, that was a bit more dramatic than I expected but better than thinking my Training partner started a world war.”

Ari grabbed her hairbrush again. “By far.”

I turned back to my desk, ready to get work done. I glanced at my still open textbook. Something about it felt almost ominous, knowing that it was the source of widespread panic in this country. I grabbed it and closed it; enough history for one night.

Chapter 16

Fannara

        My plan was backfiring. Maybe if I’d actually stuck to the plan it would have worked, but it was too late now. It was the first day of patrols, what I had figured would be a good try at befriending Moren again. Unfortunately, he didn’t think similarly.

        As usual, he ignored my presence, both in the Training Arena, on the transport that took us to Burning Waters, and on location. Never once was my existence acknowledged.

        I stood at my post, technically guarding the entrance to the cavern, but I was more focused on glaring at the back of his head where he stood, not two meters away from me. This was going to drive me insane if he just kept ignoring I was here. Before I had gotten off of the transport earlier, Verelia had given me a rather unhopeful “good luck” and I was now realizing I needed it.

        The silence was filling my brain with far too many thoughts. Without letting myself think it through, I started. “Would you at least acknowledge that I’m here?” An exasperated combination of sighing, slumping shoulders, and then very reluctantly looking at me followed. “I swear, I’ve met ten-year-olds more mature than you.”

        He gave me a sardonic smile and then quickly went back to his usual almost-frown. “Happy now?”

“Oh, far from it.”

“Too bad.” He turned around and resumed ignoring me.

        I groaned. “Would you please stop making this harder than it has to be? I’m not great at getting along with people and-“

“-Oh, I can tell,” he interrupted. I glared as he continued. “Look, Fannara, I don’t want your pity. I want to be left alone.”

        I scoffed. “Just because you’re pitiful doesn’t mean I would ever give you mine.”

        “Okay, cut the crap. What are you trying to do?”

        Rolling my eyes, I answered, “If you hadn’t noticed, we’re sort of stuck together.”

        “And the second the portal station reopens, you’ll be on the next train out.” I didn’t have an answer to that. “There is no reason to try to ‘get along’.”

        “Bull crap.” He seemed almost startled by my abrupt response.

        “You have been spending way too much time around Ari.”

        I shrugged. “Probably, but that’s beside the point.”

        He raised an eyebrow. “Point being?”

        “Point being you’re an idiot who clearly needs more friends.” That was definitely not the right way to say that, but I didn’t care.

        Moren gave me a very unamused, slightly irritated look. “Now I’m so much more willing to ‘get along’.”

        I clenched my jaw and tried to control my frustration. “Look, either you can keep being an absolute jerk and make patrols horrible, or you could try to deflate your ego a little and make this easier on both of us.” So much for control.

        “Wow. You really are bad at this.”

        “I am so tempted to do something violent right now.” He actually laughed at that. And not the condescending laugh, one that sounded almost…genuine. I looked at him in confusion. That was an unfamiliar noise to come out of him.

Moren tried to hide his amusement but was unsuccessful. “Okay, fine, I’ll ‘stop being an absolute jerk’. Don’t do something violent.”

“Thank you.”

☙❦❧

Two weeks later

Soon patrols went from something I dreaded all day long to something I found myself looking forward to. Turns out Moren was actually enjoyable to be around if he wasn’t trying to ignore your existence. I had no clue how that conversation on our first patrol worked, but I wasn’t about to argue.

In healing class, we were finally going to be allowed to try and do something with wound swapping. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do it, as Alithosi magic wasn’t capable of such big uses of magic without spells, and I’d forgotten most of mine, but it was fascinating to watch others try it.

“Wound swapping is never something that comes easy. It takes years of practice to be able to exchange a full wound, but some of you might be able to partially swap.” The healing teacher walked through the classroom, giving each table two potted plants, leafy little shrubs with deep purple leaves. One of them had a long slice along the stem.

Elara doubtfully scrutinized the two plants in front of us. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to do this.”

I shrugged. “It’s still worth a try, right?”

“I guess…”

Our teacher returned to her massive desk at the front of the room and stood in front of her two pots. “The key to successfully wound swapping is in the concentration.” She grew quiet and narrowed her eyes at the plants, her eyes glowing gold. “You have to visualize the wound changing from one host to another before you stand a chance at doing it correctly.”

Pressing her lips together into a thin line, the teacher stretched out both of her hands, one in front of each plant. Gold tendrils wafted off of her fingers like smoke. “Once you build up enough magic, you have to push it all out at once, first focusing it on the damaged host and projecting it onto the receiving one.” A sudden flash of gold jumped from one plant to the other. She maintained the stream of magic as it wrapped around the damaged plant and flowed to the other one.

Finally putting her hands down, a satisfied look came over our teacher as she turned the plants to show us the newly swapped wounds. “Wound swapping is key if the host of the original wound is weak. Someone stronger stands a better chance of receiving the healing if the wound is swapped. Now you may try. I’ll be going around to check on your progress.”

Elara turned to look at our two plants. Dark blue sap had started oozing out of the one with a gash. She squinted at the two plants and took a deep breath. Her eyes widened as green magic was visibly building up in her, reflected by her glowing eyes.

She stretched out her hands, fingers unfurling, and took another heavy breath. Small flickers of green steadily grew and coiled around her hands. With one more breath, she began the wound transfer. But she couldn’t hold it.

Before any of the gash could start moving, her magic gave out. Elara leaned back with a huff, disappointment veiling her usually cheery facade.

“I know I wouldn’t be able to do it. Green healers almost never can.” I had no clue how to comfort her.

“Well, at least you tried?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, a whole lot of good that did.” Sighing, Elara pushed some hair out of her face and looked at me. “Your turn.”

I shook my head. “Alithosi magic doesn’t work like that. We use spells for something that big, and even so, it’s never been accomplished.”

“But don’t you want to at least try?”

I shrugged. “Sure, but I’m telling you, nothing’s gonna happen.” A sudden cheer rose up from one side of the room as one of the boys began the process.

Classmates crowded around him, cheering him on. Their efforts broke his concentration and the stream of magic cut out. Regardless, he’d gotten further than the rest of us.

Elara turned her attention back on me. “Come on, just try.”

I exhaled and closed my eyes, drawing on the magic I knew was waiting for me. I had no clue how much magic I’d need for this, but I assumed quite a lot.

Once I felt I had enough built up, I opened my eyes to hear gasps. I was confused to see that everything looked like there was a green filter on it. I tried to blink the haze away, but it wasn’t any use.

Deciding to ignore it, I stretched out my hands and let the magic dance along my fingers. It had been a long time since I’d tried to use my magic at such a large scale, but it felt so easy. I had to bite back a smile as the warm feeling familiarly coursed through me.

I turned my focus on the two plants, trying my best to send my magic to them. Something deep inside me told me to stop and I obeyed. Closing my eyes once more, I slowed my breathing and relaxed my hands. The magic quickly slowed and faded away.

When I opened my eyes, I found the entire class was crowded around my desk. Our teacher was holding the plant that hadn’t been damaged. As she turned the pot around in her hands I gasped. I had done it.

The long gash was now on the other plant, starting to emit its sap. The other plant sat on the desk, still covered in sap, but without a cut. The teacher turned and looked at me, shocked amazement in her eyes.

“Never have I seen such strong magic nor such a fast wound transfer.”

I didn’t know what to say. “I guess there’s still a lot to learn about Alithosi magic.” She shook her head.

“No. I think we have a lot to learn about you.”

Chapter 17

Fannara

     “MOREN GUESS WHAT!” I ran into the cave, knowing full well that I was nearly an hour late. Valraea had to arrange for a different transport to take me when I had arrived at the Arena half an hour late. After the whole wound-swapping ordeal, I had to go for a check-up of sorts so that I’ll be ready to leave once the portals opened. I didn’t want to go but that wasn’t up to me.

Apparently, Moren hadn’t heard me when I was first dropped off, and my sudden shout made him jump. He turned around, looking a little alarmed.

“Are you okay?”

I nodded emphatically as I bounced on my toes. “Better than okay, because, guess what. I was in healing class and we got to try wound swapping aaaand-”

“-if you say ‘guess what’ one more time I might scream.” Moren made an overly exaggerated face of annoyance.

I laughed. “While that might be funny, I’ll refrain from saying it again, but that’s beside the point.” I took a deep breath and tried to stop smiling. “I wound swapped.” His eyes widened.

“No way.”

“Yep. I did it on the first try.”

He looked almost alarmed. “How?”

“What do you mean?”

“From what I’ve heard, that takes years of training and practice. It’s insane that you could get it that quickly.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. It felt easy.” Almost familiar, but I wasn’t going to say that out loud; I knew it wasn’t. Maybe I’d just missed the feeling of using my magic like that.  

He raised an eyebrow. “Dang. I will never understand that.” Moren tilted his head to indicate I should follow him. We walked down the staircase-like structure, going deeper into the cave where we had found comfortable seats. It was also warmer here, and with what looked like a huge blizzard rolling in, it was much needed.

I climbed up onto one boulder, directly across from where Moren had sat, and crossed my legs. It was on the incline leading down to the larger pool at the bottom of the cave, next to the slowly moving waterfall. Small patches of moss sat on the rock with us, their little flowers glowing dimly.

“I really doubt you’re as horrible at light bending as you think.” Moren gave me a skeptical look.

“My sister at age ten could do more advanced things than I can now.”

“Okay, fair, but maybe your magic works a little differently.” I received a questioning look from him in reply. “Like, not everyone’s magic works the same. I know that’s true for me.”

That made him look even more unconvinced. “Yeah, because you have way stronger magic than everyone else.” I let out an annoyed huff. I didn’t want to admit it, but he was right. However, I had no clue how to respond without sounding like I was full of it.

“Regardless, you never know.”

“I feel like at some point you do. Plus-” A loud clap of thunder suddenly echoed through the cave, cutting Moren off of what he was about to say and making both of us jump. “Well, that didn’t sound good.”

I looked at him, shocked by the slightly amused tone of his voice. “Yeah no, it didn’t.” Another rumble of thunder resounded above our heads, followed by several large gusts of wind that seemed to blend into each other and then stayed there.

I slid off of the rock and walked up to the entrance of the cavern. The temperature was significantly colder, and the scenery outside was being veiled by an increasingly thick screen of white. This was a huge storm.

Snagging my bag and staff from the entrance, I walked back to where I had been sitting. Moren hadn’t moved. I slung my bag up onto the rock, leaning the staff against the boulder.

He waited until I’d climbed back to my spot to ask, “How bad is it?”

I sighed. “I would be surprised if it cleared up before it gets dark.” He groaned and flopped down on the rock. “Well, aren’t you dramatic,” I deadpanned.

“You do realize that we don’t have food, yes?”

“Yes we do.”

Moren sat up and looked at me. “No. We don’t.”

I rolled my eyes and grabbed my bag, unzipping it and pulling out several assorted energy bar type foods. “Yes, we do.”

“Oh, we do.” I gave him my most unimpressed look and shoved the food into my bag again. “Welp, guess dying of starvation is off the list. What else could we do...”

I pulled the zipper of the bag shut with one yank and looked over at him. “Why must you think of such things?”

“I’m bored. So, what do you say to…hmm…” He looked around the cave, trying to find something stupid to do. “I guess anything relating to water is off-limits do to, you know, burning waters.”

I scoffed. “And the fact that I can’t swim?” Moren seemed surprised by that.

“You can’t swim?”

“No, it’s never something I needed to learn. Also, far too many old wives' tales about water spirits destroying villages.”

“I take it the Alithosi aren’t to found towards bodies of water?”

I chuckled. “That’s one way to put it. But yeah, Alithos wasn’t nearly as…open to such dangerous activities as people in this system seem to be.”

“Isn’t one of your national sports climbing a gigantic tree with literally no safety equipment?”

“...I mean yes, but that doesn’t count.” I stopped and thought about it. “Actually, no, you’re right. I have no clue why that’s allowed.”

Moren laughed at that. “What was it like on Alithos?”

“Eh,” I raised one shoulder unenthusiastically. “It sort of sucked. Everyone is overly formal, the sky is always grey, and the people are intolerable; especially if you happen to be at the top of the class with no family standing and no relation to magic.”

“Sounds like it was rough.”

“I guess, but I had it a lot better than most. Anyways, you got me rambling, now it’s your turn.”

“My turn?”

I nodded. “Mhm, you asked me a question so now I get to ask you one.”

“Oh, is that what we’re doing?”

“It is, so deal with it.”

He gave me a lopsided smile. “Alright then. Ask away…” He trailed off as two loud beeping sounds suddenly filled the air. Moren stiffened as he recognized the sound. It took me a little longer to realize what it was. An alert from campus. One of the annoying ones that wouldn’t stop making noise until you opened the message.

My telecom was in my bag somewhere, so I grabbed it and began searching for the tiny metal square. I found it right as Moren’s alert turned off. He took in a sharp breath, and the com clicked shut. I turned off my alert and looked up at him.

“What was it?”

His eyes seemed slightly panicked as they met mine. “Jana’s forces are attacking Elquar. We’re instructed to shelter in place.”

“Why would she attack in the middle of a blizzard?”

Moren sighed. “She probably has some weather manipulators.” I realized that Moren looked extremely on edge with the news.

“Well, there’s nothing we can do…So, tell me about your sister.” It was the first thing I could think of to change the subject.

He gave me a grateful look and started telling me about Larawyrn. It was evident how much he cared about her as he talked about how good she was at light bending, and how kindhearted she was.

The hours seemed to melt away as we asked questions back and forth. An unannounced competition arose to see who could get the other to rant the longest. Moren was winning after getting me rambling about how horrible Alithosi dances were. Long, boring, and mandatory, they had been the bane of my existence at the academy.

Moren finished telling me the confusing tragedy of how two of his pet fish had somehow eaten each other when he was a kid. Then it was his turn to ask me again.

“Okay, here’s one I’ve been curious about for a while: what happened to your family?”

I took a sharp inhale of breath. “Ohh, that’s a personal one.”

“Oh, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.” I looked at him, debating if what I was about to say was a good idea.

“If I answer, will you tell me about Isabell?”

Moren froze. “....I guess that’s fair.”

“Hmmm, okay.” I paused and tried to think of where to start. “My parents were farmers. I had three siblings, one of which was off at school. I couldn’t tell you their names or what they looked like, but I know I had them. One year, there was a really bad drought, followed by horrible weather. We didn’t grow anything that year.

“Because we were low on food and money, and my brother was off at school already, I was the only one they could really get rid of. My younger siblings were too small to stand a chance on their own.” I bit the inside of my cheek and tilted my head to the ceiling, as if the stone above me had some answer for me. “I was eight when I heard them talking about it- about ‘getting rid of an extra mouth’.  So I tried to hide from them, but I mean, I was eight, it didn’t really work.

“Next thing I know, I’m waking up behind a pub in Talidine.” Exhaling, I leaned back on my arms.

Moren looked shocked. “And you haven’t heard from them?”

I shook my head. “Nope, not that I would want to, they didn’t want me.”  I shrugged and sat up straighter, turning so I could fully face Moren. “Alright, now you.”

“Yeah..” He looked down at the moss dotting the rock we were sitting on. “Well, I assume Ari has already told you some things.”

“Yes, but I doubt she was unbiased in telling it.”

Moren scoffed. “That’s for sure. So, Izzy was..she was different. Everyone suspected that she was the Eldramin and that’s probably why she was targeted. The day she was taken was…horrible.” He quieted for a minute and a loud rumble of thunder sounded from outside.

“When she first disappeared, her brother went missing with her. He was found later that night, so we thought we’d find Izzy too, but she was gone.

“Reports started going around that Jana was holding her, but we didn’t believe it at first. There had been an incident with her husband earlier that week and we didn’t think it would make sense. Unfortunately, we were wrong.

“Once Jana was confronted about it, she began demanding that the Harpsons leave Lathra IV. It was so bizarre, every time we had conferences with Jana prior to this, she had seemed so…gentle, so to say, it was like something had changed. Every day the Harpsons didn’t leave, Jana did something to Izzy, recording the whole thing and sending it as a type of blackmail. I wasn’t supposed to see them but they had no clue what was coming when she sent the first one.” Moren shuddered involuntarily and fixed his eyes on a tuft of moss next to his foot.

“What had she done?” I asked, not sure I wanted to hear the answer and very sure he didn’t want to say it.

With a shaky breath, Moren said, “It was hard to tell. There was just so much blood.” I felt sick. “Well, Kayden Harpson, who was the head Chairman at the time, he tried to negotiate with Jana, but she wouldn’t budge. My dad decided that responding with force was the only option. Kayden and Marcy both tried to stop him but they were too late.

“Every single soldier that was sent in didn’t come back, and Izzy was killed. At least we assume so. The recordings are…confusing, to say the least.”

An awkward silence filled the air. I finally decided to break it. “Do you think she actually died?”

Moren shook his head. “ I can’t explain it but…she’s alive, I can’t say how I know, I wasn’t supposed to know but…” He trailed off without finishing the thought.

“So what are you going to do about it?”

“I can’t do anything. She won’t be the same, there’s no way that after all those things Jana did to her that she would be the same in the slightest. And even if she was, finding her would put her in so much danger.” He sighed and looked at me, as if waiting to hear if I thought he was being stupid.

I wasn’t sure what I thought. “Well, if she is alive, wouldn’t now be the best time to find her? The war has already started.”

Moren shrugged. “When we need her, she’ll come back.

“How do you know that?”

“I don’t. But I have hope.”

Chapter 18

Fannara

I stare at the letter in disbelief.

“Why me?”

The Headmaster glares at me across the table. “We don’t know. You are certainly not who we would choose to send, but we would rather not risk this opportunity.” I look back down at the table, scanning over the document again.

The Eldran diplomats had dropped it off earlier that day. The letter inviting me to study on Lathra IV.

“What if I decline?” I ask, shifting in the uncomfortable chair.

The Headmaster stares me down, seriousness in his eyes. “You don’t have a choice. As soon as the portal is established, you will go.”

I frown and look down at my hands. I’m squeezing my wrist so hard I can barely feel my right hand. But it’s the only thing keeping me from saying something impulsive. “Yes sir.”

“Good girl. Now, go back to class.” I glare at my shoes and leave the office.

At least I know one thing for sure, anything will be better than this.

“You’re what?” Ari yelled as I started grabbing my things off the shelf.

I turned around to look at her and sighed. “I’m not happy about it either, but I don’t have a choice.” It had been reported that the portal station would be reopened the next day. I had to go home.

There had been a ridiculous amount of meetings I had to go to that morning, some with the heads of school, one with Ana Keleth, and then another visit to a doctor. Something had gotten messed up with my blood work and they had to redo the tests. Not what I would call a relaxing Sunday.

Nor was the week before that relaxing at all. After a day of being stuck in the cave, Moren and I were finally able to return to campus. Anything that hadn’t been covered in three feet of snow had been damaged by the attack. More cleaning crews were brought in and sentries were posted to constantly keep watch on campus. Reportedly, some of the attackers the week before were students.

The majority of the fight had been in Elquar itself. Government buildings had been nearly destroyed and the streets had been damaged. Hysteria after the attack led to another mass draft. Most of the Trainers were being shipped off. Only five remained, Valraea wasn’t one of them.

“Do you have tickets yet?”

“Nope, but it won’t take long for me to get them. Ana said I’ll probably be gone in two days.” Ari groaned and plopped down on her bed.

She grabbed one of her pillows and started picking lint off of it. “This is so annoying.”

“It’s literally inner-planetary law.”

Ari huffed. “They aren’t making me leave.”

“You’re legally Eldran, Ari.” I picked up the books I’d borrowed from the campus library and started a pile on the floor. “Also, they aren’t sending any Getterians back anyway.” The other international students were being allowed to stay at the university too. If they were from the planet, they didn’t have to leave.

“Well I think that’s stupid and you shouldn’t have to go.”

I chuckled. “Thanks, I guess.”  

I went to grab my carpet bag from under my bed when Ari suddenly freaked out. “Fannara, what the crap is on your back?” I froze.

“Is there something on my back?” Unsure of what it could be I slowly moved my hand to touch my back. “I don’t feel anything.”

“Pull your shirt up a little.”

“Excuse me?”

Ari walked over to where I was crouched. “I’m serious.” Confused, I complied and lifted the back of my shirt a little bit more. “Oh, good Source.”

“Is there something alive?” I turned my head to try and look at Ari. She slowly shook her head. From what I could see of her face, she looked horrified. “Well then what is it?”

She tilted her head as if trying to assess what she was looking at. “It looks like scars.”

“What in the- what would I have scars on my back from?”

“I don’t know. It’s your back.” I stood up and walked to the bathroom. I turned on the light and looked at my back in the mirror.

What I saw was far worse than what I’d been imagining. Thick white lines riddled my back in jagged sections. “What in the world?”

“How have you never noticed this before?”

“Do you make a habit of looking at your back?!”

Mel opened the door of the bathroom and walked in. She stopped short when she saw we were in there. “Oh, hey guy- holy heck, what is wrong with your back.”

Mara popped her head into the bathroom to see what was happening. “Are we having a party in the bathro- oh my gosh.” All three of them crowded around me as we examined the strange scars all over my back.

“How long has it been like this?” Mel asked, extreme alarm in her voice.

I shrugged. “I have no clue. Ari pointed it out just a few seconds ago.”

“You hadn’t seen it before?” I looked down at Mara in confusion.

“Is it normal for you people to look at your backs?”

Mel brushed past the comment and looked at Ari. “How did you notice it?”

“Well, Fannara was packing, and she bent down and-”

“-Wait, why were you packing?” Mara interjected. “Oh no, you’re not leaving, are you?”

I groaned. “Yep, within the next two days.” A distressed “noo” came out of Mara and she frowned.

“Are we going to brush past the fact that it looks like something sliced open Fannara’s back?” Mel sounded slightly irked. “Do you have any clue what did this?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. This is really weird, and they look like pretty old scars.” Mel nodded.

“Old, but they must have been really bad wounds.”

Ari sighed and took a step back. “I guess there’s no way to know where they’re from. They look so weird, though. What would have caused that?”

“No clue.” Mel squinted at them one last time and then also took a step back. “Guess it’s just another Fannara Mystery.”

I looked up at her in confused amusement. “Are there others I should know about?”

“Well, there was that whole healing thing last week,” Mara said. I turned to look at her.

“The wound-swapping? Why would that be so weird?”

She looked surprised that I didn’t know what she was referring to. “Not the wound-swapping, I mean, that shocked everyone for sure, but the more weird thing was how strong they say your magic was before you even swapped the wound.”

I was getting increasingly confused. “Is there something I don’t know about or…?”

“They say you built up so much magic that it looked like green fire was coming out of your eyes.” I could help but laugh at Mel’s description.  

“That’s just a rumor though.” I knew there was no way that could be true.

Ari spoke up for the first time in a while. “Why would it be a rumor?”

“Alithosi magic doesn’t show through the eyes, it only comes out of our hands.” All three of them looked at me in disbelief.

Mara laughed a little bit. “Fannara, your eyes always glow when you use your magic.” I frowned.

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Mara shrugged.

“I’m not sure what to tell you, they glow a lot.” This was getting weird.

Ari decided now would be a great time to change the subject and I was immensely grateful for that. “Well, it might be Fannara’s last night, should we go get some food together?”

“Ooh, yes, we should.” Mara immediately jumped on the idea.

I smiled. This might be one of my last times with these girls. I was going to miss them more than I ever missed anything from Alithos. I’d be eternally grateful for their friendships, and I was excited to be able to spend just a few more days with them.

Chapter 19

Fannara

The next day, it was decided. The train that would stop at Alithos was going to leave the day after. I had one last day to follow the routine I’d built up for the last five months.

I went from class to class, saying as few goodbyes as possible. Strangely, Moren didn’t show up to any of the classes we had together. It wasn’t like we would really talk outside of patrols, but it was still weird not seeing him in any of the classes.

I ate lunch with Ari and Mara one last time and went to my remaining afternoon classes. Now that we didn’t have most of our Trainers, we just went straight to patrols. Moren still was nowhere to be seen. I wasn’t sure what to do as we technically weren’t supposed to leave the Arena without our partner.

One of the few Trainers left ran over to me but hesitated as he reached me.

“Harpson?”

“Yes sir?”

He looked down at his clipboard nervously and then looked back at me. This was weird. “Your partner has been delayed. You’re instructed to go to your patrolling station and wait for him there.” I nodded.

“Thank you.” I walked to the exit of the Arena. I grabbed my coat from where I had dumped it on the floor and ran to the elevator. Earlier in the day, I had to turn in my Training uniform, so I was going on patrol in my normal clothes today.

It was freezing outside, so I ran to the transport that would take me and a few other people to our posts.  I realized that I was going to miss the bumpy ride up the mountain to the Burning Waters. It was the last stop the transport took.

I gave the driver an appreciative smile and stepped out into the snow. The wind bit through me as I climbed up to the entrance of the cave. I felt heavy as I walked up to the gaping hole in the side of the mountain. It wasn’t like I had anything extra with me today, in fact, I had less than normal. No staff in my hand, no casted-guards, not even my normal pack. Just a water bottle and my telecom.

I waited inside the part of the cave where Moren and I always sat. It felt so lonely and empty without him.

I sighed and leaned back on my hands. It was a content sigh. I certainly didn’t want to leave Lathra IV. The closest thing I had to a family was here. But I’d had a good time there, and I didn’t have many regrets.

Moren arrived looking anything but content. He seemed nervous and agitated as he slowly walked down to where I was.

I slid off of the rock and jogged over to him. “Hey! Where were…” I trailed off when he met my gaze. His sapphire eyes looked frantic and exhausted. “Are you okay?” Moren didn’t answer; he just stared at me as if I’d just received a death sentence.

I slowly took a step back as his silence continued. “Did something happen? You seem a bit…off.” He swallowed hard and moved his eyes to the ground.

“We need to talk.” He walked past me and further down into the cave.

I turned around, increasingly confused and concerned. Not sure of what else to do, I followed him down. “What’s going on?” We were now standing on the level where the lake was.

Moren slowed his pace slightly, allowing me to catch up. We started just walking around the bottom area without saying anything.

He finally took a deep breath and started. “Fannara, you’re not getting on that train tomorrow.” I tilted my head, perplexed.

“Why?”

He paused again, as if preparing himself for something he didn’t want to say. “I know about the ring.” I stiffened and automatically reached for my hair where the ring was securing my braid.

“I can explain-”

“-you don’t have to, Via told me.” I froze mid-step. Had they captured Via? Was it my fault? What did Moren have to do with this? Silence seemed like my best option as I waited for him to continue. It looked like he didn’t want to. “I have orders and…I wish they weren’t making me do this.” He said that last part under his breath, but I still heard it.

He turned to face me head-on. “There was something weird with your blood tests.” I furrowed my brow.

“What does that have to do with the ring?” He sighed and looked away, fixing his eyes on the water. My heart started to pound as if my body knew what was happening before my mind did. “Moren, what is going on?” He turned back to face me, regret seeming to gleam in his eyes.

Nearly inaudibly, he said, “We found her. We found Izzy.” I couldn’t hold back the shock that came over me.

“She’s actually alive?” He nodded, but he didn’t seem any less miserable. “...where is she?” When he still didn’t say anything, I assumed the worst. “Moren, does Jana still have her?”

He shook his head and said, “It’s you.” I stared at him.

“What’s me? Moren, you’re not making any sense.”  He looked at me like he was trying to search my face for answers.

“You really don’t remember?”

I let out a slightly frustrated breath. “Remember what? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He pulled back and frowned at the ground. After a few breaths of confused silence, he began again. “A few days after the soldiers were sent into Jana’s fortress, the centaurs rescued Isabell.” I had no clue why Moren was suddenly talking about this, but I figured that it would be best to just let him keep talking. “She was really wounded and…not in her right mind. Using the moon spells they knew, they blocked her memories and covered them with a new narrative of sorts, one that still held the key information that would let them identify her in the future.

“She was sent off-world for eleven years until one of the officials who had been informed of the plot arranged for her to return to Lathra IV.” My heart started pounding harder as he kept talking. I had a growing suspicion in my mind of what he was thinking, but it was too absurd to be real.

He took another deep breath before confirming what I was worried he was thinking. “Fannara, that was you.”

I scoffed. “Moren, I think you maybe need a bit more sleep or something. That’s ridiculous.” From the way he looked at me, I knew he believed what he was saying, but I couldn’t. “That makes no sense -I have very clear memories from Alithos- that wasn’t just something planted in my head.”

“I didn’t believe it at first either, but when Via gave us the evidence-”

“-why would Via know anything about this?!” Panic was starting to overtake me. I was trembling from head to toe. A new headache tore through my head, along with a sudden wave of dizziness. “None of this makes any sense. It can’t be real, this can’t be real.” I took a few steps back as if physical distance would make this scenario go away.

Moren took a step toward me and I immediately stumbled a few more steps back. He froze when he realized how insanely freaked out and scared I was. “Via knows because she was rescued along with you. Jana had been holding you both and a few others when the centaurs raided.”  

I shook my head fervently. “That wasn’t me Moren, you know that.” I pulled my sweater tighter around me in an attempt to stop the shaking.

“If you don’t believe me, then look at what happened with the blood tests. They had to redo them because you were already in the system.”

I swallowed hard and took another step back. “That’s not possible.” I wracked my brain for something to counter this with. “I had an older brother, there’s no way I imagined that, and Izzy only had younger siblings.”

Moren took in an uncomfortable breath. “That’s…that’s actually not true. You do have an older brother, people just don’t talk about him much anymore.”

“You’re lying. That wouldn’t make any sense. Why would people suddenly stop talking about someone? That makes no sense.” My words were coming out jumbled but I couldn’t help it.

Moren put out his hands, signaling for me to calm down. “Eli had to leave Lathra IV after the government found out he married Via. But that’s not important right now.” The name was familiar and immediately triggered something.

Sudden snippets of memories came to mind as I struggled to make sense of what Moren was saying. I could hardly hear him anymore. Sights, smells, colors, everything was flooding in like a torrent.

Between trembling teeth, I somehow managed to say something. “What’s happening?” I stumbled backward a little further.

Moren’s eyes suddenly widened in panic, and he tried to grab me. I jerked backward and then realized my mistake.

My foot slipped. The rest of me followed. I fell backward into the water, but this time it wasn’t like the field trip.

This time the pain was instant. So was the darkness.

Chapter 20

Faith

I tapped my pen against my desk in rhythm with the song stuck in my head. This was boring. My plan had been to get all my summer reading done within the first week of vacation; that way, I could have the rest of it free. But my plan was being messed up by how painfully dull the assigned books were.

I shoved away from my desk, letting my chair roll me over to my bed, which I promptly flopped down on. The early afternoon light beat into my eyes and my room, making it seem like it was burning, but I knew we set the thermostat at 75. I rolled onto my back and stared at the white ceiling. Old glow-in-the-dark stars still clung to it, faithfully glowing green every night. I wondered how long it would take them to lose their stick and fall down. We had put them up nearly 10 years ago right after buying our house in a Chicago suburb when I was 4.

Grabbing a stuffed animal, I shoved it under my head as a pillow. There wasn’t much to do over the summer when you didn’t have any friends in the area. All of mine had moved at the end of 8th grade, leaving me to face my first year of high school alone as the youngest in the building. I was several grades ahead of most people my age, which never helped with social relations. I technically had my brother Jayson in the building, but he was a school favorite and had far too many friends for me to be willing to interact in his friend groups.

It’s not like he was exclusive or thought it was weird to have his little sister only a year behind him in school while being three years younger–he thought the opposite, really. But I didn’t want to bother him, so I just kept to myself.

A high-pitched alarm pulled me from my thoughts. I could hear someone yelling downstairs. I had a feeling I knew what was happening.

Throwing my improvised pillow onto my bed, I jogged over to my door. The stuffed animal frog bounced on my bed happily as smoke filtered into my room. Oh, gosh.

My feet thundered on the stairs as I moved to the bottom floor as quickly as possible. The smoke was thicker down here, and the smoke detector  was blaring. I squinted my eyes and made my way through the living room, coughing as I turned the corner into the dining room.

Ducking my head to see in between the cupboard and the counter, I saw flames coming out of a cabinet. I walked around into the kitchen to find my mother frantically trying to use a fire extinguisher on our bonfire of a microwave. The foam refused to come out of the cylinder.

When she caught sight of me, her eyes lit up. “Faith! Here, hold this.” She handed me the fire extinguisher and took a step back from the flames. Extending her hands, iridescent blue light filtered from her open palm and enveloped the fire, hardening until it looked like glass. The force field stopped the fire from receiving any more oxygen and the flames flickered out.

Mom sighed contentedly and put her hands on her hips, releasing the magic. It wasn’t unusual for her to have to use magic to fix some disaster in the house, but she normally made sure the neighbors stood no chance of seeing it. A family of Eldran from a different solar system living in suburban Illinois wouldn’t really pass well with anyone.

“This is why Dad cooks.” I nodded. I couldn’t think of a single time my mother had cooked and not set something on fire or given us food poisoning.

“What were you trying to make?” Mom pulled out her phone from her back pocket and opened it to a recipe.

“It says it’s a recipe for microwave brownies, but it didn’t quite work out.” Well, if you tried to make it, it’s bound to be a recipe for disaster. She sighed and put her phone on the now scorched counter. The smoke detector  was still panicking, reminding us that the house nearly burnt down.

I put the fire extinguisher away in the pantry where we kept it. “Do you know how to turn that off?” I asked, referring to the smoke detector . Mom shook her head. “...okay, I’ll call Dad.” My Dad and Jay were out on a “boys' day”, meaning deep-dish pizza and some overstimulating action movie that would have Dad asleep in minutes. The movie was supposed to be over by now, though, so I doubted I would be bothering him.

I jogged up the stairs again to my room. Snatching my phone off of my desk, I called my dad. Jayson answered.

“Everything you say can and will be used against you to the full extent of the law.” I could hear the car engine in the background. Jay took a loud slurp of some drink. “What doth the Faithster require?”

“Mom set the microwave on fire.” He audibly choked and started coughing. Dad asked him what had happened. I distantly heard a “mom tried to burn the house down again” before my dad snatched the phone.

Amusement nearly overpowered the concern in his voice as he asked, “Faith, what happened?” I retold the tale of the explosive brownies.

“Oh, also, we don’t know how to turn off the smoke detector .” He sighed and let me know that they were almost home.

I hung up and hopped back downstairs. Mom had all the windows open and was trying to fan out the smoke using cookie sheets. It wasn’t working very well. I joined her in the kitchen but didn’t pick up a pan but rather inspected the damage to the microwave. It didn’t look horrible, but I wasn’t sure if it would work again.

The door on the opposite side of the house opened and swung shut after two pairs of feet entered the house.

“Knock knoc- oh my word, why is the house full of smoke?” Mom and I poked our heads around the corner to see who had just entered the house. Eli and Via stood in our entryway, trying to fan the smoke out of their faces and occasionally coughing.

I was about to run over to them when I realized my mom was acting weird. Via and Eli lived 45 minutes away in Chicago, and it was a rare–and normally happy– event when we did see them. But the only thing I'd seen on my mother's face was thinly masked dread.

Unnerved by this reaction and a little confused, I eventually went over and hugged the two.

"Mom tried to cook and set the microwave on fire, but it's fine now." The look of alarm that came over both of their faces was incredibly amusing and it took quite a lot of restraint to not burst out laughing.

I noticed a small motion from Via as she grabbed my brother's hand, gave it a little squeeze, and lightly pushed him towards my mom. Eli paused and glanced back at her again. Via gave him a reassuring smile and nodded her head toward Mom again.

Eli took a deep breath and walked over to Mom, disappearing into the kitchen with her. This was weird.

Via turned to me, a small smile still on her face. "So, Faith, what have you been doing in recent days?" Her English was heavily accented and a bit overly formal, but still understandable.

I let out a little puff of air and tried to take my mind away from whatever was happening in the kitchen. "Uhm, not much, I'm on break so that's nice but I don't have much to do…" I trailed off as the familiar sound of our car engine pulled into the driveway. "Oh, that should be Dad and Jayson." It's not like I was trying to end my conversation with Via, I thought she was great, our whole family had liked her from the moment Eli brought her home the first time, and we were all overjoyed when they got married last year, but I was a little too distracted to hold a conversation.

The back door swung open, leaving the sound of springs rattling as Jay's footsteps thundered in from the kitchen. My two brothers had a very loud reunion in the kitchen before making their way back into the living room. Mom and Dad followed them in, Mom looking nearly sick and Dad looking nervous. Something was up.

Dad asked us all to sit down. That meant something was really wrong. Just having the four of us who regularly lived together sit down meant something big had happened, but having our whole family do it? We hadn't had something like this since Eli and Via got engaged, and by the looks on the adults' faces, whatever had caused this meeting to happen wasn't a good thing.

Rubbing his hands together, Eli started. "So, we've told Mom and Dad a little bit of what this is about, but you two," referring to me and Jayson, "probably don't know what's happening. It's about Izzy."

I instinctively glanced at the one picture we had of her out. An old family photo that sat on the piano. I was only a few months old, but she was seven. She had looked a but like me I guess, the same hazel eyes and smattering of freckles on pale skin, the only noticeable difference that I could see was our hair. While my late sister had dark blonde hair, mine was a dark brown.

Turning back to the conversation, I registered why my parents had looked so freaked out. My older sister, Isabell, had been killed 13 years ago in the crossfire of a rescue attempt to save her after some crazy leader on our home planet had kidnapped. No one ever talked about her, so it would be a shock to my parents if something about her had come up that merited this kind of meeting.

Via continued the explanation, switching into Eldran instead of using her broken English. It still wasn't her native language, but it was far more understandable. Thankfully, our family had a bizarre thing where we would learn a new language every month, so I understood her just fine.

"I probably should have told you all sooner, but Eli and I agreed that it would be safest for all involved to wait for the right time to tell you." She looked down and sighed before raising her head and continuing. "Your oldest daughter is still alive."

Dad jerked forward in surprise. The rest of us just froze. Silence fell over the room and then seemed to explode all at once.

“What?!” “That’s not possible, the video-” “Why didn’t you tell us before?” “Is she safe?”

Via folded in on herself as the volume rose and questions got harsher.

Eli stood up suddenly and shouted, “Okay, enough!” We all stopped talking and looked at him. “Listen, the only way to keep Izzy safe was by keeping this a secret.”

“Then why tell us now?” Dad interrupted him before he could continue. “You wait for thirteen years and now decide to say something? Why?”

My oldest brother folded his arms and sighed. “Because she knows now.”

Chapter 21

Isabell

Dark.

“Who are you?” My voice quavers as the question leaves my lips. Something in the shadows starts moving towards me. “I want to go home.” Tears start spilling down my face. I don’t know how long I’ve been here, but it feels like years. The figure comes closer and closer, but it’s still hidden in the darkness.

Eventually, a soft voice says, “Oh, you don’t need to be afraid, little girl. I will let you go as soon as I know who you are.”

“I already told you!” my voice breaks as I yell into the shadows. “I’m Isabell Harpson! Now let me go home!” The voice chuckles softly, sounding nearly soothing in its gentleness.

It starts moving toward me again. “Dear, that’s not what I want to know. I want to know if you’re who they all think you are.” It steps into the faint light the whole in the ceiling of the cave allows. The voice has been coming from a tall Shifter woman with black hair and huge dragon wings. Scarily, her eyes are also black, unnaturally so. “I want to know if you’re the Eldramin.”

I stare at the woman, entranced. She looks awesome, but her question stings. The tears increase and I look away, shaking my head. “I couldn’t touch the water.” She leans and seems to be thinking about something.

Under her breath, she says, “Then why would he want you?” I don’t know who ‘he’ is, but I don’t want to know.

“Can I go home now?”

The woman looks down at me and smiles sweetly. My hopes rise. “Soon, darling, soon you can go home.”

Blue.

Moren stares at me while I climb up the tree. I reach the top branch and climb down to a safe height before jumping out of the tree.

“What was my time?”

“What?”

I groan and roll my eyes. “How long did it take me to climb up and down, dingus?”

“Oh, I forgot to time it.” He looks sheepish and cringes sympathetically. I groan again and facepalm a little too hard. “You could go again?”

I roll my eyes again. “No, Moren, I just used a ton of energy doing that the first time. It won’t be as fast if I do it right now.”

He sighs and bites his lip. “I’m sorry, Izzy.” I glare at him. He should be sorry. That was probably an interplanetary record for seven-year-olds. If Ari was here, she would have gotten the time. But nope. Her dad had some fancy ‘diplomatic visit’ so she had to stay with her mom on Lathra I.

Deciding I’ve let Moren suffer enough, I start walking back to where our moms are. “It’s okay, just, get it next time.” He nods excitedly and joins me in walking back.

Mom and Mrs. Ana are talking together on a blanket while Faith, Jayson, and Larawrynn play together. Jay looks bored with the babies, so I wave him over. The toddler waddles over to me and I pick him up.

“You are getting heavy. I won’t be able to keep picking you up, buddy.” He frowns at me and crosses his little arms.

Mom looks over at the three of us and raises an eyebrow in a silent question.

“Can we go play hide and go seek?” Mom and Mrs. Keleth share a look. I don’t know what it’s supposed to mean. Adults have a weird silent language where they talk through weird looks and wiggling their eyebrows. Maybe one day I’ll be fluent enough to understand what they’re saying all the time.

Mrs. Ana speaks up first. “I think that’s okay, what do you think, Marcy?” My mom sighs and nods, almost reluctantly.

“Just no going into the forest.”

“But moooom, that’s where the best hiding places are.”

She gives a look. “Isabell Renae, you are not allowed in the forest. Am I clear?” I groan out a “fine”. Mom decides I’m not trustworthy enough and turns to Moren. “Please, just keep her out of the forest.” He nods. Luckily for me, Moren isn’t good at putting his foot down. And even if he were, he couldn’t stop me if he tried.

Red.

I scream as the claws dig into my back. Blood pours out and seems to flood the room. I try to move but it’s no use, I’m tied down. Nothing other than screams can come out of me. There’s so much I want to say. Why are you doing this? Why me? What did I do? Make it stop. Leave me alone. Take me home. But the screams block off any attempt at communication.

The pain stops spreading, but the pain intensifies.

The woman walks up to me, tilting her head. She lifts my chin up with a finger and looks at me quizzically. “Can you not heal yourself, dear?” Sobs prevent any answer from me, but in my head, I’m screaming. NO. I can’t. Let me go. Please. She takes a step back and waves her hand.

Three dragon Shifters with shockingly vibrant colors enter the cave. The woman directs them with a flick of her fingers and they start attending to me, cleaning my back and untying me. As soon as I’m free, I curl away from them, pushing myself into a corner. They try to grab me but the woman stops them.

“No. Let her heal herself.”

“But-”

“-was I unclear?” Her usually gentle voice takes a sharper edge as she glares at the Shifter who spoke up, a woman with white hair and icy blue eyes and wings. She looks back at me like she’s worried about something, but the woman with the nice voice snaps her attention. “Xyra, is there something you don’t understand?” The white-haired woman shakes her head and leaves the cave.

At the very end of the entrance, I see her turn her head to look at me one last time.

Orange.

The forest is gorgeous at this time of day. Light filters through the fall leaves like stained glass, making the forest floor look splotchy.

“I thought mama said no forest?” Jayson looks up at me, confused.

I shake my head. “Mama thinks the forest is scary, but it’s not scary, is it?” Jay looks around at the looming trees and fiery colors of the leaves.

“No. It’s not scary.” I squeeze his hand and pick him up, balancing the toddler on my hip as I walk deeper into the trees.

The sound of Moren counting can barely be heard now. This is a good place to hide. I glance around to evaluate my options. My first thought is a tree, but with Jay, that’s not possible.

I find a nice clump of bushes and sit on the ground behind them. Giddiness bubbles up inside of me and I have to cover my mouth to keep from giggling. Jayson starts fidgeting in my arms and I pull him tighter.

“Shh. Jay, we don’t want Moren to find us. It’s a game.” He ignores me and starts kicking me. I can’t keep a hold on him and he breaks free of my hold, sprinting into the forest.

I groan for probably the hundredth time today and get off the ground to chase him. Moren has finished counting and the only sound is the wing blowing the leaves. And the crunching of footsteps.

I follow the sound, trying to understand how someone with such little legs could move so fast. I’m going deeper into the forest than I have been before. Maybe Mom was right, maybe this was a bad idea.

The footsteps stop, so I speed up, hoping to catch my gremlin of a brother before he escapes again.

“Jaaayson,” I call. As much as I would love to win hide and go seek, finding Jay is more important.

I enter a clearing full of mainly dry leaves. Jayson is nowhere in sight. Sighing, I kick at the leaves. Mom is going to kill me.

A sudden noise makes me turn my head.

“Jayson?” I jog over to the bush I heard a noise from, and, to my relief, there he is. “Jayson, you can’t run off like that.”

He slaps a little hand over my mouth. “Shush, Izz.” I pull away from him, wrinkling my lips at his gross fingers. “Look.” He points across the clearing, his eyes locked on something in the trees. Something big and dark is crouched up in the tree. I turn my head and discover that it’s not just in one tree, but nearly every tree in surrounding the clearing had something in it.

I grab his hands and made him look at me. “Jay, I need you to run back to Mama and Mrs. Ana now, okay? I need you to go back.” He clearly didn’t understand, but I think I do. Something unfriendly is in the trees. He needs to get somewhere safe. I can buy him time.

“Go back to Mama,” I repeat. I ruffle his hair and stand up, brushing off my knees. I hear a little rustle as he starts moving back.

Taking a deep breath, I run into the clearing and shout up at the figures in the trees.

“HEY! HEY YOU! COME GET ME YOU FREAKS!” I sprint further into the forest, away from where my family should be.

Leaves fall down on me as the trees tremble.

Boom.

The woman with the nice voice has continued to visit me regularly, trying to get me to heal myself. When I realized that's what she wants, I decided to never use my magic around her. I heal myself privately, but never when someone is in the room. Never unless it's Xyra.

She's one of the only people here who actually worries about me, I can see it in her eyes and how much more gentle she is.

Loud noises suddenly erupt from outside the cave. The guard standing at the entrance readjusts his position into the pose I've learned means the woman is coming.

I push myself into a corner, wishing I could disappear. But it's no use.

The woman strides into the room, her expression set into a firm glare. She's never looked this mad before and it scares me.

She walks over to where I'm huddled and grabs my arm, yanking me to my feet. "You're people have come to collect you, little Eldramin. Shall we greet them?" Her threatening tone of voice makes it clear she has no kind intentions. But a little bit of me rises in hope, someone has come for me.

I'm dragged out of the cave and into blinding light. I dig my heels into the ground, slightly slowing the woman down before my eyes adjust.

When they do, I see that I couldn't have escaped if I had tried. The cave I was held in is carved into the side of a steep cliff with a single, narrow staircase leading down to a stone courtyard, with columns covered in vines. Behind the courtyard is another cliff with a single opening.

I can't see where the noises are coming from, but they get louder as we near the opposite cliff. We speed through the entrance and begin ascending a spiraling staircase.

When we arrive at the second landing, the woman pushes a big door open, leading into a huge room that I realize, with shock, that I recognize.

Huge veins of multicolored crystallized fire snake across the ceiling, which is supported by enormous carved pillars. The room itself is huge, but almost devoid of any furniture. Intricate benches are carved into the walls on either side of the room, with large tapestries hanging behind them. At the back of the room sits a massive throne, with two sets of staircases on either side of it, curving into each other above the throne and then disappearing into some other room. This is the Deraal's throne room.

I glance up at the woman and realize I recognize her too. No wonder I didn't realize who she was before, she used to have red hair and blue eyes.

"Jana," I whisper to myself. She doesn't make any sign of if she heard me.

Deraal Jana continues pulling me through the room to the large double doors on the opposite side of the room from the throne. Ancient carvings decorate the doors with images of ancient Shifter rulers and prophecies.

She pushes the right door open with one hand and leads me into a large hallway. I don't have time to take in what it looks like before one of the many doors slams open and two squadrons of Eldran soldiers rush through. They pause when they see me.

One of them tentatively touches his earpiece and says, "We found her."

I try to break free of the Deraal and run to them, but she tightens her grip and her nails dig into my arm. I scream and start thrashing against her. Freedom is so close. Tears start pouring out.

Jana stiffens and I hear the soldiers gasp. I raise up a hand to my face to wipe the tears away, they feel sticky. My hand comes away covered in blood.

Everything goes black.

Chapter 22

Faith

“Okay, starting where our knowledge ends, what happened?” Dad leaned forward and stared intently at Via.

She took a deep breath and began. “After the soldiers attacked, they sent Isabell down to the lower dungeons where the other prisoners were held. From all accounts, Jana was ready to give her back. She’d been testing Isabell to see if she was the Eldramin and had no results. However, after the attack, her magic spiked. She healed everyone in those prisons, on purpose or on accident, I’m not sure, but it confirmed Jana’s suspicions. No regular seven-year-old can heal three dozen people at once.

“Plans were made to staunch her magic somehow, to prevent her from growing stronger in magic.” Via paused as she saw Mom make a weird face.

“But, Izzy wasn’t the Eldramin, she couldn’t touch the water. And why would Jana want to keep her from getting stronger, healing magic can’t cause harm.”

Eli clasped his hands together and looked up at Mom. “Apparently, there’s some old Shifter prophecy in which some being with unnaturally strong magic destroys a race of Shifters. Jana seems to think that means Izzy was going to wipe out the dragons.”

This time, I interjected. “She was seven.” I thought back to what I had learned about prophecies. I didn’t know much, but from what my parents had told me, they weren’t very trustworthy. “And that’s just one interpretation of the prophecy, it wouldn’t warrant such extreme action.”

Via shrugged again. “Deraal Jana isn’t in her right mind, everything she does is extreme, but also calculated. We have to assume she had some other plan behind it.” We all grumbled and let her continue.

“Before any of the plans were able to come into play, one of Jana’s attendants let u- the prisoners free. They were taken to centaur territory. The chief centaur had consulted the star seers and they had seen what had to be done to save Isabell. She had been tainted by Jana, so-”

“-excuse me, she had been what?” The alarm in Jayson’s voice made all of us look at him.

Via let out a pent-up breath and explained. “Jana somehow has the ability to control people’s minds. When she does, it leaves the host’s hair black, and when it’s active, their eyes and nails also turn black. Those who know about it refer to it as ‘tainting’.”

“How do you know about it?” Dad raised an eyebrow skeptically at her. “You seem to know an awful lot about what happened.”

Eli glared at him and grabbed Via’s hand. “Via was one of the prisoners that escaped with Izzy. She saw it all firsthand.” She looked down at their entwined hands and bit her lip.

An awkward silence ensued until Jayson interpreted it again. “So then what happened?”

“The centaurs found a way to cast a protection spell that would stop Jana from regaining control of Isabell, but they couldn’t fully remove the tainting. They knew they couldn’t keep her hidden for long, so plans were made to send her somewhere safe.” Mom looked alarmed. “The star seers identified one of the planets as her safest option and said if she was sent there, fate would bring her home again.

“Isabell’s memories were blocked and she began life on Alithos believing herself to be Fannara Harpson, daughter of farmers who abandoned her during a famine. She didn’t know who she was until a few days ago.”

Dad put a hand on his chin as he thought, a question clearly forming in his eyes. “So, how did she find out?”

“Weeeell.” Via glanced at Eli, making some sort of expression that meant he had something to do with this.

“Let’s just say fate got a little boost.” Eli avoided the questioning looks we were all giving him. “Before I left government, part of my training with Ana Keleth included choosing a student to join the foreign exchange program, so Izzy is on Lathra IV now…. And Moren should have been the one who told her.”

Mom slowly lowered her hands from where they had been covering her mouth and furrowed her brows, not quite glaring at Eli, but giving him the ‘you stupid child, how are you my offspring’ look. “That is possibly the worst way you could have done that.”

Via nodded. “Yeah, it didn’t go quite as planned. I tried to talk to her first, but then campus got attacked and it got too crazy and-”

“-what?” Eli and Via looked like two puppies getting reprimanded as Dad looked at them like they were crazy. “Well, if you were going to tell her, then why didn’t you wait longer?”

“Well, Jana found out, and now there’s full-out war, and they were going to send her home so I had to-”

“-WHAT?”

Via covered her face with her hands and let out a long breath. “Oh, I am not explaining this well.”

“Noted.” Jayson’s tone was dry and unamused.

Mom sighed and leaned back in her chair. “So let me get this straight, our daughter didn’t die, she’s the Eldramin, she doesn’t remember us, she’s on Lathra IV, and Jana knows and has started a war? Is there anything else I’m missing?” Both Via and Eli were quiet for a while, trying to remember if they missed anything.

“Just that,” Eli started, “we can go home now.” Home. What a weird idea. For as long as I can remember, this has been home. Thinking of some foreign world in a different solar system as home felt bizarre.

I didn’t think Mom and Dad were actually considering it until Dad stood up and said, “Well then, guess we’d better start packing.”

“You’re joking, right?” I asked, looking up at his face. It looked determined.

He shook his head. “Faith, if they’re right, we have to go back.”

“I’ll start figuring out paperwork.” Mom stood up and walked up the stairs to her office. Jayson and I remained seated as all the adults started running around the house. I vaguely realized the smoke detector had stopped beeping.

Jay looked over at me, and I met his eyes. He gave me a little smile. “It’s okay, we’ll be back before you know it.” He stood up and jogged upstairs to start packing.

What a great start to the summer.

Chapter 23

Isabell

The darkness is thick like mud. I’m trying to move, but it feels like I’m glued in place. Maybe I’m dreaming, I can hear things a little bit. Someone is screaming, not sure who, but it doesn’t scare me. There are also these weird smells, something like iron, something that smells like flowers, something that smells like the forest, and great trees with peeling bark.

How long has it been black?

I walk through the stuff clinging to me. It’s getting harder and harder to move. Maybe I should just lie down. Something smells like smoke. For a second I can see a flash of color, brown, green, gold, red, red, red.

Where was I before this?

The darkness continues. I find the colors interesting. They come at such random intervals. It’s like a little surprise. Is this what life has always been like? I think so, the dark is all I remember.

Who am I?

It’s been so long I don’t remember who I am. Or maybe I never knew. Maybe I never was. Has this always been my existence? I thought there had been something before.

Isabell.

Where did that come from? Did someone just speak?

Isabell.

Is that a name? It sounds familiar but I don’t know. Maybe I’m imagining it.

Isabell.

A light splits open the darkness in front of me. I scream and fall further into the blackness. It tries to swallow me.

“Don’t be afraid. You can resist it. We’re helping you.”

Where is this voice coming from? I’m sure I’ve never heard it. Or maybe I have. Is that my voice? Do I have a voice? That doesn’t matter, go to the light. The split in the darkness is smaller now, but now colors are coming through it.

I start moving to the light when I’m suddenly frozen, the cold seeping through every part of me. I gasp and shut my eyes as tremors come over me. The voice is gone. The voice lied. It didn’t help me.

The next time I open my eyes, the scene is completely different. I’m in some sort of room with a ceiling made of leaves, casting happy shadows on everything under it. There are a lot of things under it. A lot of people are under it. Not a single one of them looks familiar, but the immense look of relief on all their faces looking at me makes me think they might have been worried about me.

I try to blink away the fog in my vision and try to push myself into a sitting position, but I’m immediately hushed and placed on my back again. As I start coming to my senses, I realize the others in the room with me aren’t Eldran and they’re not speaking it either.

I stare in wonder at the centaurs- both horse and elk-, wolf, and even bird Shifters surrounding me. Their dialect is like nothing I’ve heard before and I don’t have a clue what they’re saying. Dad probably would, he’s the minister of Foreign Affairs after all, but our language lessons never got into the many Shifter languages aside from the one the Dragons and Phoenixes use, because theirs are the most likely to come in contact with.

They continue to chitter in their strange language as I lie here in confusion. This is bizarre.

Fannara

I shot up in the bed, clenching the bedding in my fists as the heart rate monitor beeped frantically. Squeezing my eyes shut, I let myself flop back onto the bed, trying to remind myself where I was so that I could calm down.

I was in a hospital. After I’d fallen in the lake, Moren had gotten me out and commed the university. They sent a transport to take me to the hospital where I’d been for the past two weeks.

It wasn’t that I was hurt, at least, not anymore. But the ‘veil’ cast over my memories had metaphorically ‘torn’ when I hit the water. Now, all it took was a small trigger to send me into an old memory. The amount of times I’d blacked out because of it was an irritatingly long number that I didn’t bother counting anymore.

Not much of what happened made much sense to me, but it explained a lot of the questions that had formed over the last few months. Why did I have headaches? That would be because my memories were trying to trigger constantly. Why did I have huge scars on my back? Because Jana tore it open as an experiment. Why was my magic so much stronger than everyone else’s? Well, unfortunately for me, because I’m the Eldramin. Almost all the questions came back to that.

Everything that I thought I’d known for the last thirteen years of my life had been wrong. Apparently, I’d turned twenty a few months prior to the lake incident. I didn’t know much of what it meant to be Isabell Harpson, but one thing was clear; I was not what they'd hoped for.

Carefully, I sat back up and swung my legs over the side of my bed, pulling back the sheets and making sure I didn’t mess with any of the tubes or needles sticking out of me. Gift baskets and flowers from nameless people littered the floor of the room. None of these people had known my name until I took a dive, yet they felt the need to act concerned.

I tiptoed around the mess, trying to make my way to the window of the room. The ledge there was also full of stuff, but not from strangers. This is where I asked the nurses to put anything that my friends sent. Mara had made me a large care basket with mostly unhealthy food in it, but also several books and a massive teal sweater. I gratefully pulled it on over the thin hospital gown. It was freezing in my room, and the sweater provided both warmth and a sense of security. Getting it on around the things sticking out of my arm was a struggle, but I somehow managed.

Sighing, I fingered through the other things accumulating around the room, plucking the glowing cards from the floral arrangements and pilling them into one of the baskets. The ridiculous amount of flowers gave off a nearly nauseating smell; I’d have to ask for those to be removed.

A wave of dizziness reminded me that I hadn’t moved around that much in weeks. I sat back down on the bed with my legs crossed and pulled the basket of cards into my lap. Making two piles, I started tossing the cards with names I recognized into one pile and those from strangers into another.

At first, I was shocked by how many were from my friends, but seeing as my telecom was somewhere at the bottom of the lake and I hadn’t been able to retain consciousness around them for long enough to get more than a word out, it made sense. I couldn’t remember much of what had happened the few times I’d been aware enough to register anyone in the room, and I wasn’t sure what all was real and what all were old memories.

I grabbed one of the cards from the “not-strangers” basket and started reading. It was from Ari, telling me how she missed me that things are lonelier without me and that our room feels really empty, especially because all my stuff got packed up before I went on patrol. The next one was from Lindin, wishing me a speedy recovery and reminding me that the whole squad was with me here. Then one from Mel, Mara, Moren, Verelia, Ari again, Moren again, three more from Mara, even one from Bryce, which, admittedly, was actually very nice.

There was a trend going on in every note. Aside from the well-wishes and mini updates about the mundane things happening, which could be found in all, none of them ever addressed me by my name. Not once did I see a Fannara or even an Isabell in any of the notes.

It made sense, of course, I didn’t expect them to know what to say when I couldn’t maintain consciousness long enough to tell them. The decision I’d come to was this; there’s no denying I was Isabell, but who I’ve become as Fannara over the last thirteen years without any knowledge of Isabell surely outweighs any part of Izzy that remains in me. So Fannara is the reasonable and more comfortable choice.

The door to my room clicked open, and a nurse walked in. I’d been getting better at not passing out every time I received stimuli and this nurse, Sonia, was one I had actually managed a conversation with a time or two. The number of times I'd collapsed on her was a number higher than I cared to acknowledge, but she was very gracious about it.

She walked over to me, dodging the gift baskets strewn across the floor. “Hey, how are we feeling today?” Her expression was hopeful, and I was confident that I would not be disappointing her today by blacking out anytime soon.

“Good…sort of. I walked around a little.” Sonia glanced around at the mess of a floor and looked back at me.

“How?”

I laughed a little. “I was careful, although I’ll admit I don’t think I’m quite ready to start moving around a ton.”

She nodded, taking note of something on her telecom. “We’ll start easing you back into that once you stop passing out on our physical therapy staff.” She said it jokingly but we both knew that it was painfully true. Sonia was not the only nurse I had passed out on in the last two weeks.

“Do you think you’re up for a visitor?”

I furrowed my eyebrows. “Who could have gotten here so quickly?” She smiled at me.

“It’s who hasn’t left for more than a few hours at a time.” Her grin grew wider as my confusion built.

I tried to remember anyone who had been in the room in between my bouts of unconsciousness, but I couldn’t separate what was real and what was from the past. A few things from the most recent days had stuck, like my failed attempts at walking for more than a few minutes at a time and the disaster that started when I face-planted in soup, but I couldn’t remember anyone other than the medical staff being there. I supposed that the flashes of seeing Ari and Mara in the room could have been real, but they hadn’t gotten more than a word out before I was in the past again.

Sonia decided for me as she snapped her telecom shut and walked out of the room, just barely holding the door open with her foot. I heard her tell someone, “she’s awake, but who knows for how long” followed by the sound of someone immediately standing up.

Pulling the massive sweater tighter around me, I shifted my position, pushing myself farther against the pillow supporting my back. I don’t know who I was expecting to walk through the door, but it definitely wasn’t who came through.

Moren froze the second our eyes met. He held his breath as if waiting to see how long this would last before I was out cold again. While it certainly surprised me to see him, I felt totally normal. Maybe I’d run out of memories to trigger.

I smiled at him and gave a small wave, unsure of how to respond to his sudden presence. Especially after everything that had happened, I wasn’t entirely sure how to approach talking to him, but I was only realizing that in the moment.

Moren slowly let out his breath and put on half of a smile. “You’re actually awake, that’s a first.” I scoffed and gave him a playful glare as he walked further into the room, quickly discovering the issue of the gift baskets and flowers. He apprehensively tried to navigate the clutter, making his way towards the armchair in the near center of the mess.

“Don’t hurt my flowers,” I warned.

He looked up from his feet with an unimpressed expression. “Your flowers are more likely to hurt me.” I laughed at his comment and a genuine smile started creeping onto his face as he took a seat, displacing several anonymous gift packages onto the floor. “How many are there?”

I glanced at the extensive collection of bouquets and grimaced. “Too many.”

“I can tell.” Moren sighed and looked away from the clutter, facing me instead. I tilted my head in a silent question and looked right back at him. “So,,,” He tailed off, not finishing his thought before looking away again.

I looked down and adjusted the cuff of my sleeve. “So?” Glancing over at him I realized he was looking at me again, worry evident in his eyes. I gave him a quizzical look and he sat there, unmoving.

“Are you okay?” I was a bit taken aback by the question. Was I okay?

Sighing, I rubbed my thighs and tried to think of a response. “Well, that depends, how do you classify ‘okay’? I haven’t died…yet, and somehow I haven’t passed out yet today, so that’s good?” The look of concern on his face was nearly laughable as he stared at me in slight horror.

“...so I’ll take that as a no.” This time I did laugh.

“I am feeling a lot better though, so it’s all good. Anyways, how is everyone on campus?” Moren proceeded to tell me all about the different activities that had been going on and how strange– and rather boring– patrol with Verelia was. Needless to say, it was probably the best day I’d had since the whole incident at the lake, just because it was nice to hear about my friends.

It was the best day I’d have for a while after too.

Chapter 24

Fannara

“My name is Fannara Renae Harpson.”

“Your legal name.”

I crossed my arms and leaned back in the metal chair, glaring up at the chairman. “All of my legal papers say Fannara.” Jasper Keleth lowed the extended telecom to give me a sour look.

“Your birth name then.”

“As far as I knew, Fannara was my birth name.”

He let out a frustrated breath and glared at me in silence. “Do we need to redo this entire questioning?” The thought of this process starting over sent me into a momentary panic that I didn’t cover in time. Chairman Keleth took that as a sign for him to continue the questions.

“One last time, what is your name?”

Reluctantly, I answered. “Isabell Renae Harpson.” I hated that I was going along with this.

“How o-”

“-Twenty, my birthday was four months ago, my parents are Kayden and Marcy Harpson, I have three siblings, Elihron [insert middle name other than Bobbert], he’s three years older than me, Jayson Zaylen is four years younger than me, and Faith is six years younger than me.” I paused to take a breath and then answered what I knew would be the next question. “And no, I do not know how I escaped from the Deraal’s fortress.”

The chairman’s look of annoyance gave me the satisfaction I’d been hoping for. It was about time I got to have something go my way, for the last several hours I’d been stuck in this room, I’d been asked the same questions over and over again, each time followed by Chairman Keleth trying to trigger memories of the escape. His method of choice? The tapes from the day I “died”.

It certainly triggered something each time, but it wasn’t the memories he wanted.

I squeezed my palms as I watched him turn around to restart the five minutes of footage. There was something distinctly unpleasant in rewatching probably the worst day of my life over and over again, but I knew there was no way out of it.

As the minister of defense, Jasper Keleth had decided that it was critical to learn how I managed to escape captivity, hoping it would mean Eldran soldiers could infiltrate and take her out, theoretically ending the war. But the memories weren’t there.

I couldn’t explain it, it was like a hole in my memory and nothing was helping to fill it.

Footage from the bodycam of one of the soldiers filled up one of the walls in the little room I was in, showing an uncomfortably familiar scene. Footsteps and indistinct orders fill the silence as the soldier and his squadron navigate down a series of hallways. At each stop, more and more of the group of soldiers get diverted into fighting off Jana’s forces, angry dragon Shifters that towered over even the tallest Eldran soldier.

Finally, only two other soldiers remain with the one who the footage comes from. They turn a corner and enter a roofed courtyard sprawling with strange plants and divided into sections by gem-fire paths. The soldier stops as he sees what’s at the end of the path he’s on.

There stands Deraal Jana, a towering giant, clutching the arm of a small child so hard her nails draw blood. That child would be me–or was me. The Deraal stares at the soldiers, tightening her grip on…me I suppose. What’s interesting is that it looks like Jana considers giving me back until the soldiers notice what’s happening to me.

The blood pooling out of my arm starts turning darker and darker until it’s fully black; then it starts coming out of my eyes. That’s as far as I’ve gotten in the recording before, usually slipping away before I can finish it, but this time, I try to stomach it and see it to the end.

Little eight-year-old me touches the blood running down my face in horror and then something weird happens. For a second you can see my eyes change from their old hazel to a pure black, before my hair follows suit, changing from blonde to black, and I topple to the ground.

Jana’s look of confusion and slight horror are elements I found extremely surprising. She’s immediately rushed by the soldiers. The following fight is almost as confusing as it is loud. Yelling and gunfire give some hint of what’s happening right before one soldier shouts “the girl-” and the footage ends.

I shuddered and continued to squeeze my palm as the chairman reopened his telecom and prepared to ask me the questions all over again. The first few times, I’d blacked out while watching and been sent through random memories from before Jana took me, but this time, the only thing that felt different was my stomach. It was not a fan of this whole thing and neither was the rest of me.

“Now, name?” The questioning repeated itself, but this time I let him ask all the questions before answering and didn’t try to outsmart him. I still didn’t have the answer he wanted, so the video started again.

I felt like I was on the verge of tears, this was horrible and I almost wished I’d black out again and get lost in some pointless memory about a lost sock. Squeezing my eyes shut, I wished for this whole thing to stop. The footage only got a few seconds in before the door to the room slammed open.

“Now isn’t a good time.” The Chairman sounded annoyed, and while I was curious as to who had come in, the video hadn’t been paused and I didn’t dare watch it again.

“What you think you’re doing here? There is no way any of her doctors approved this.” I turned my head and looked as I heard Ana Keleth’s voice from the doorway. She met my eyes and, seeing the silent plea in them, pushed past her husband to yank the power chord out of the device that was displaying the recording.

Jasper Keleth wasn’t as pleased about that as I was.

“What do you think you’re doing here? You can’t just barge in while I’m doing this kind of work.”

I had never seen Ana so angry as she scowled at her husband. “Jasper, you have no authority over me, don’t even try that.” She gave him the meanest-looking side eye I had ever seen in my life and turned to me. “I’m here to let you know that your brother and Via will be here within the next few days, so you don’t need to do anything else for right now because the adults who are coming very soon will have better answers to any questions we want to be answered.” Her message certainly wasn’t only for me.

I nodded, and Ana grabbed my arm, pulling me up from the chair and leading me to the door. Before I had fully registered what was happening, I was being nearly dragged down the hallway and out into the plaza outside the government building I’d been in all day. Apparently, all day wasn’t an exaggeration.

The sun was nearing the horizon, bathing the central plaza of Elquar in golden light. A smell of rain lingered in the air, and small puddles on the intricately paved ground whispered of Spring.

Ana took me back to the hospital to get checked over again, making sure the day hadn’t severely affected anything that the nurses and doctors had been spending weeks repairing. It hadn’t and, miraculously, they discharged me. Well, they discharged me with conditions.

For the next week, until my actual family returned to Palendine, I’d be in Ana’s care. Half of me was tempted to argue that I was an adult and should be allowed to return to campus and finish the semester, but the other part of me knew that if something triggered a memory and I passed out somewhere, not even Ari would know what to do with me and having an adult around would probably work better.

So, my absurd amount of flowers was tossed, the few cards and other items that I cared about were packed, and my stay at the Elquar hospital was over.

Chapter 25

Fannara

It didn’t take long for me to start blacking out once we got to the palace. Towering marble columns supported the glass edifice and intricate designs of vines with blooming flowers laced the exterior. Real plants framed the whole scene, massive gardens filled with fountains and dozens of plants sprawled out on either side of the building. Guard towers broke up the majesty the gilded gates otherwise held.

The familiarity of it was more unsettling than reassuring and lead to unconsciousness rather than awe. However, the memories flashed by so quickly, I don’t think Ana fully noticed and I’m not sure I went fully unconscious.

The transport glided to a stop in an underground parking area. I got out and looked around in awe at the scene before me. Dim lights illuminated a path to the stairwell, but they were practically useless as the waterfall that ran under the glass walls and floor of the garage emitted a bioluminescent light. I fixated on the running water, watching as it leaped up to splash the glass, leaving an array of droplets shining like gems.

The door of the transport thudded shut and brought my attention back to Ana who was holding the bag from the hospital and my old carpetbag that had come from Alithos with me. I hadn’t known it had been in the transport, but it was nice to see something that was connected to memories that wouldn’t knock me unconscious.

“Let’s head up, Wryn is home and Moren said he’d stop by in an hour or so.” Ana turned and began climbing a glass staircase that was nearly invisible from where I stood. I quickly followed, trying not to get distracted by the glowing water beneath me and pulling my sweater tighter.

The interior of the building was no less impressive than the exterior and no less unsettling. It didn’t take long for me to realize that the white halls with their gilded detailing weren’t only familiar from my memories; this was the setting of my nightmares. I kept half-expecting to see the little boy round the corner again, like he had so many times in my dreams, and start crying blood all over the white carpet. To say I was on edge would be an understatement.

Thankfully, the only thing I found when I rounded the corner with Ana was an incredible room with a glass ceiling, supported by carved wood beams, holding dozens of colored shards, painting the room in more hues than I could name. Vines and greenery hung from the columns and rafters, glowing nearly as brightly as the colored glass with the sun behind them. Couches covered in deep hues and carefully carved tables and chairs sat arranged around the room in a very natural yet intentional manner. I had no memory of this place.

Ana smiled to herself as she watched my amazed expression. “A bit different than you remember, huh?”

I bit my lip and shook my head. “I don’t remember this at all.” Ana laughed and surveyed the room, nodding.

“No, I don’t think you would. This used to be a patio, but it was rotting and no one ever used it, so I took it on as a little personal project.” Before I could respond, she turned and continued up the hallway we had been following. The marble halls and golden fixtures seemed far less beautiful after seeing Ana’s “little project”.

If it hadn’t been for Ana leading me, I would have thought I was going in circles; the hallways all looked the exact same. Ana led me a little further until she paused mid-stride and glanced over her shoulder at me. I wasn’t sure what was making her hesitate, but as I looked around where we had stopped it clicked. This was a very familiar hallway, my room was a few steps further down.

Little visions flashed before my eyes, racing Eli from my room to his, sneaking into Jayson’s room to wake him up, crying outside my bedroom after locking myself out. I watched the memories with fascination, relishing the happy feeling of being with my siblings and doing weird things or being chased by my dad after stealing food from the kitchen. One time, mom had to chase me around the house with a towel after I took off, trying to escape a bath, leaving wet carpet and little puddles in my wake.

I blinked and realized I was lying on the carpet. Ana and a girl, who I assume was Larawryn, were bent over me, worry etched into their faces as Ana held her telecom up to her ear and talked to someone. Wryn noticed as I started to move and gave me a little smile before nudging Ana. The sheer amount of relief on that woman's face nearly made me start laughing. She finished up the call she was on and snapped her telecom shut, immediately focusing on me.

“I’m thinking maybe we don’t bring you back here, at least not until there’s someone here who can keep your head from acquainting itself with the floor.” So that’s why my head hurt.

I laughed and nodded. “Probably a good idea.” Pushing myself into a sitting position, I looked over at Larawryn, who was sitting on my left. “I don’t think we’ve met yet. My name is Fannara.” I extended my hand to her, and she shook it.

“Nice to meet you, Fannara. I’m Larawryn, but you can call me Wryn.” She looked so much like her brother, it was almost unsettling. Wryn glanced over at Ana, who was furiously typing on her telecom, and stood up, extending a hand to me. “We should get you out of here before you get more head trauma and Mom has a heart attack.” She helped me to my feet and turned me around, snatching my bags before leading me to a separate part of the palace.

We passed the glass room again and I couldn’t help pausing again to take it all in. Wryn stopped with me to gaze at the incredible room.

“It’s such a breath of fresh air compared to the rest of the first floor,” Wryn said. “Everything else feels so sterile and then you come across this.” She smiled and looked up at the glass ceiling.

She looked over at me, and I nodded. “It’s nice to see something that doesn’t make me think of a hospital.” Wryn chuckled and waved the hand that wasn’t carrying the carpetbag to indicate I should continue to follow her.

I was led through more white hallways before we arrived at another staircase, one that widened the closer it got to the floor with intricately ornate handrails. The carpet down the middle of the stairs gradated from white to a dark blue, nearly black, that sharply contrasted the white marble walls.

As Larawyrn led me through the second floor, she explained this was where her family lived, well, t was where she and Ana lived.

“We don’t see Moren very often because, well, clearly, he’s off at the university, and Dad…well, can’t say much about that, but he doesn’t normally stay with us.” She shrugged as if warding off any comment I may have and quickened her step, only stopping once she reached her chosen destination: the living room.

My bags were carefully placed on the floor next to a couch—which I was kindly but sternly made to lay down on—before Wryn scurried out of the room. As soon as I was sure Wryn couldn’t see me, I stood up and walked over to a large window on one side of the room. All of Elquar lay before me, the tall towers and looming buildings reflecting the oranges and reds of the setting sun. Far on the horizon two of the moons could be seen, the smaller of the two just barely peaking over the mountains.

A disgruntled huff made me turn around and realize Wryn had come back into the room. “Couch. Now.” I obeyed the fifteen-year-old and lay back down, accepting the cup of water she’d brought. She sat on the edge of the couch across from me and seemed to be lost in thought as she stared out the window.

Without much warning, she stood up and began to leave, pausing to tell me, “Mom called with your doctors and they said it’s okay for you to stay as long as you don’t hit the ground again. They also said you should get some rest, it sounds like Dad gave you one heck of a day.” Then she was gone.

I figured the doctors knew what they were doing and decided to try to rest. Closing my eyes, I tried to not think about anything that had happened that day. It didn’t work. Every time I was close to feeling relaxed, I’d think of the video that had been drilled into my brain all day: blood, screams, gunfire, it was enough to keep me awake for days. But eventually, I must have managed to at least doze for a while, because the next thing I knew, it was super dark in the room and I had no clue what to do with myself. In the distance, the city shone with neon light, twinkling like the stars sitting above them.

I sat up, patting the side of the couch to ensure my bags were still there. They were and suddenly I was out of things I could do. Where were the light switches? No idea, and I certainly didn’t remember enough of the layout of the palace to find my way around. Plus, I didn’t have anywhere to go.

I heard the faint sound of a door being closed and then several voices, but it was too far away to place them. Footsteps started ascending the staircase, and I was immediately on edge. Suddenly, the lights turned on and my eyes, which had gotten accustomed to the darkness, refused to let me see who was in the hallway outside.

Blinking ferociously, I was able to clear my vision enough to make out a familiar figure. There was Moren, looking worried as he listened to his mother tell the story of me “making friends with the floor” earlier. I smiled and waved, and he returned the gesture. The smile needed work.

After a lovely dinner in which we agreed that Moren had the best chance of catching me if a memory should hit, Ana asked me if I wanted to wait to see the first floor until the next day. It was a tempting offer, but I felt more rested now and just wanted to get it over with. So, Moren and I ventured down the stairs and through the hallways until reaching the same spot where I’d gone down earlier.

I paused and looked down the hallway, trying to push the dread in my stomach away.

Moren glanced down at me, looking concerned, and held out his hand. “Need a support?” I raised an eyebrow, unsure if he was joking.

“And kill my dignity? Please, I’ll be fine.” He didn’t look convinced, but didn’t argue either. It took about four more steps for my dignity to die.

A sudden wave of dizziness swept over me as I realized I was standing in the exact same spot where the nightmare I’d had months ago during the attack had taken place. I grabbed Moren’s hand without thinking and stumbled back a little.

“Is it a memory?” His question pulled me out of my jumbled thoughts.

I shook my head. “It’s just…” I trailed off, not wanting to share the vivid horrors my brain had shown me. Then another thought came to me. “Moren, what happened to Jayson?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…after I got taken, what happened to him? Did Jana get him too?” I looked up at him, scared that his expression would tell me my fears were right—that my nightmares were right.

Moren shook his head. “Nope. Jay was okay if a bit shaken and scared.” I nodded, satisfied with the answer.

We continued on, fairly regularly pausing as a memory threatened to knock me over. We soon discovered that I could keep from totally losing consciousness if I could get Moren to start telling me about the memory I was thinking of. More and more of them included him. Apparently, I was the host of many playdates and got into a wide array of mischief, most of it involving Eli in one way or another. Learning about my memories was far more enjoyable this way.

After what was probably a dreadfully long time for Moren, we reached the door of my bedroom. I took in a deep breath to ready myself and turned the knob. It was pitch black in there, so Moren turned on the light and immediately stiffened. I did too.

Just like the nightmare, dozens upon dozens of folded pieces of paper and letters covered in strange symbols littered the floor. It looked like they had been slipped under the door and had gotten blown across the room.

Moren made a weird noise, and when I looked at him, it looked like he was cringing.

“Oh good Source,” he muttered and started sweeping up the pieces of paper by the armful and dumping them in a sad pile by the door. I bent down and picked up one of the papers, holding it up to the light and twisting it back and forth, trying to figure out how to read it and what in the world it said.

Moren looked up from where he was collecting the notes and began explaining what they were. “Those would be from me. After Iz- er, you, left, this room was locked and no one ever went in it. I guess I got into the habit of sending updates.” I continued to turn the paper around, but it was hopeless. It was completely illegible.

“I hate to break it to you, but you had horrible handwriting.” He laughed and walked over to where I was examining the page. I handed it to him and he turned it around to show me how it was supposed to be read. Still unreadable.

“It’s not written in a normal alphabet. It was a weird code we had made up.” He read over the page before crumbling it up and tossing it into the pile by the door. “But that one’s not worth reading; let’s find a better one.”

I gave him a weird look. “A better one for what?” Moren grinned over at me mischievously as he plucked a paper from the pile and glanced over it.

“For teaching you the code.”

The rest of the night was spent with Moren teaching me the symbols and the letters or phrases they aligned with, and then me trying to write my own sentences using a key he made for me. Of course, it was disrupted by sudden flashes of memories, but they didn’t last long with him there. I don’t remember how I fell asleep that night, but I knew without a doubt that, for the first time in a while, I was happy.

Chapter 26

Fannara

Sunlight streamed into my old bedroom, lighting up the shafts of dust in the air and making them shine like specks of gold. Moren and I were going through the massive closet, finding a concerning amount of kitchen cutlery and a generous rock collection. Apparently, my younger self had some questionable hobbies.

It was strange to see so many random items that immediately brought such vivid memories back to me. Stranger still, Moren knew the story behind almost all of them. Those he didn’t know gave him a lot of practice in catching me as I momentarily lost consciousness. The bouts of memories were becoming less and less intense, and it eventually got to the point where the memories mostly just overlayed on top of the moment I was actually in.

I was just about ready to suggest a beak when the door to the bedroom creaked open. Moren and I exchanged a confused look.

“Were you planning on having visitors today?” I shook my head.

Standing up, I peeked out of the doorway, Moren right on my heels, and was shocked to see–not Ana or Wryn in the doorway–but Ari, Mel, and Mara. I walked out of the closet and all three of their faces lit up, although Ari’s dimmed a bit upon seeing Moren.

Mara ran over and hugged me. “Fannara! It’s been so quiet without you around, not that you make much noise in the first place, but the dorm is so empty and we’ve all missed you so much.” She pushed away, holding me at arm's length and smiling brightly.

Mel pushed past her and gave me a hug too, making a joke about having to work with my partner during patrols. Moren looked extremely uncomfortable from where he stood, now at the back of the room.

“Okay, scooch.” Ari wedged herself in between me and Mel, claiming the hugging position. “Seriously, it has been so weird without you around. But on the bright side, you’re not going to Alithos.” I laughed and hugged her back.

I hadn’t thought of that. Being Isabell meant I would probably never go back to Alithos. Somehow, even though just a few weeks ago I wished I could stay on Lathra IV, it made me a bit sad to think I’d never see Alithos again. Maybe I would, but from what I’d heard of the responsibilities of the Eldramin, I doubted it.

My friends began to pepper me with questions, but not of the kind that I’d faced from the Chairman the day before. These questions were far more gentle: how have you been? Have you been getting enough sleep? Is Ana feeding you right? Do you want us to call you Isabell or Fannara? What have you been doing?

I tried to be as vague as possible with the last question, especially when addressing what had happened the day before. I looked back at Moren as I brushed over the topic of why I’d been pulled from the hospital early at Jasper Keleth’s request, but Moren wasn’t there anymore. He must have left the room while I was answering questions because I hadn’t noticed his absence beforehand.

Strange, I hadn’t really considered Moren a very close friend. I mean, obviously, we’d spent hours upon hours together during patrol and he’d been helping me through this whole Izzy situation, but it was in that moment, when he was suddenly gone, that I realized how much I relied on his support. I didn’t like it.

The next few hours were spent catching up with my roommates. They told me about patrols and classes and taking finals and updates on who was still enrolled in the university and who had left to join the military. I hadn’t even been thinking about those kinds of things, I’d almost forgotten about the war entirely, which was pretty ironic seeing as I was now in the middle of it.

The most concerning part of their report was the increase in raids from the Shifters. However, Jana wasn’t killing the soldiers, at least, not to their knowledge. She was simply taking them. I had an idea of what the missing soldiers were facing and it wasn’t a pretty one.

As their visit came to an end, Ari pulled me aside, letting Mara and Mel talk with Ana about the interior of the palace.

“Okay, I’ve shared a room with you for a lot of months and I can tell you’re not telling us everything. What happened yesterday?” Arienna put her hands on her hips and looked up at me with a face that told me she wouldn’t back down until I told her the truth. I tried anyway.

“I told you: I met with Chairman Keleth, and then Ana took me here.” The glare I received made me go into further detail. “Fine, I had to sit through a whole day’s worth of questioning and watching tapes to try and trigger memories. But it’s fine now-”

“-pardon, what?”

I sighed, realizing it was a losing battle to give her the bare minimum details. “The tapes of the failed rescue attempt, those ones, I had to watch them on loop. For hours. And then I kept passing out and every time I woke up I had to answer the same set of questions again and again but none of the memories being triggered actually had to do with what was being asked—it was bad.”

“I believe that counts as borderline torture.” Ari had a look of disgust on her face as she processed what I’d told her. “Is there anyway to, I dunno, maybe get him removed from office? She looked ready to storm into the government building and punch Jasper Keleth across the face. I wasn’t sure if I’d stop her either.

I didn’t know much on the laws in Palendine, but I highly doubted that one instance would be grounds for anything. “Probably not, especially since he technically had a good reason.”

Ari glared and rolled her eyes. “It’s like being an insensitive jerk runs in the family.”

Ana eventually decided there’d been enough time spent with others and sent the three girls, very kindly, out the door. With only four of us left in the house, Ana gave us lunch and then practically put me down for a nap. I wasn’t going to protest against more sleep.

As Ana was walking me back to my room, she paused and turned to me. “Via and Eli should be coming in tonight, but it’ll be a few more days until the rest of your family comes back.” She resumed walking and then paused again. “And tomorrow you’ll probably have to meet with Jasper again, but Via will be with you, as she knows most of the memories you’re missing.” Ana opened the door of my room, ushering me in before I could respond.

The door clicked shut, and I was suddenly alone. Well, that was a lot of information at once. Walking over to the bed, I pulled a blanket around me and tried to sleep. It didn’t work.

I tried to imagine what Eli would look like now, after thirteen years, running scenarios of how meeting him and Via tonight would go. After deciding that was too stressful to think about, and that thinking about tomorrow was even worse, I chose to resume my survey of the closet.

Several storage bins still sat unopened in a pile towards the back, coated in a layer of dust. The bin Moren and I had been in the middle of sorting through still sat open on the floor, a neat pile of papers on the carpet next to it.

I sat down, cross-legged, and started fingering through the material remaining in the bin. This container held mainly old drawings and random pieces of paper at the top, but as I got further down, I found a little wooden box. It was painted a nasty orange color and looked about ready to splinter into a million little pieces.

Carefully, I unlatched it and flipped the lid open, discovering a small pile of tiny pictures. These images had been printed onto actual paper, not one of the weird holographic tablets that held practically everything else. They looked really old and showed the faces of people I hardly recognized.

In the top photo, a woman with long blonde hair and caramel eyes smiled at the photographer, wearing a long white gown. She was holding hands with a tall, brown-haired man who had the most intense blue–nearly turquoise–eyes I’d ever seen. I smiled to myself as their names suddenly registered. Marcy and Kayden Harpson, my parents.

The next four photos were of my mother holding each one of us kids as babies in a hospital. As I studied the last picture in the sequence, one of Faith as a newborn, a vague memory pulled at me, but the feeling quickly passed before I actually learned what it was. Weird.

I continued looking through the contents of the bin, eventually giving up and laying on the carpet as a headache built up behind my eyes. It was so weird, the memories had suddenly stopped coming all the way and it was becoming painful. Sighing, I stared up at the white ceiling, trying to formulate an explanation, but I couldn’t think of one.

I must have dozed off, because the next thing I knew, I was jolting upright at the sound of someone knocking on the door. Stumbling over the mess I’d made in the closet, I made my way to the door, opening it to reveal Moren.

He looked at me and gave me a small smile. “Via and Eli are here.” My stomach dropped a little bit.

I took a deep breath and nodded. Moren nodded back and offered his arm for support, which I gladly accepted.

As the door behind me swung shut, I walked down the quiet hallway, bracing myself for my new life as the Eldramin.

Epilogue

Two Days Later

The young woman stood in the crowded train station, fidgeting anxiously as she waited for her family. At her left stood an unlikely pair of a tall man with wavy brown hair and hazel eyes, holding the hand of a short woman with pale blonde hair and yellow eyes. At her right stood another young man, with deep blue eyes and dark auburn hair, positioned as if he were prepared to catch her. He was, in fact.

The air shifted, and a train suddenly appeared on the tracks, speeding out of a portal before swiftly gliding to a stop. The young woman stiffened at the sight of the large vehicle and braced herself for what happened next.

A whooshing noise followed the opening of the train doors and dozens of people of all kinds poured out. In their midst stood a family of four, gazing around the train station in awe and breathing in the air with a look of nostalgia. They slowly made their way through the crowd, presenting paperwork to an attendant who was overcome with a look of shock.

Once they left the gated area of the station, the original four companions caught sight of the newly arrived group. As did a good majority of those in the building, causing the crowds to split, whispering and shushing each other.

All at once a cry rang out from the crowd.

"The Harpsons are back!"