I’m a master of the two-weapon fighting style, myself. What are you frowning at my sword for? My other weapon is right here.

- Taranath Waterlily moments before punching an unnamed character lost to time.

I returned to my room and cursed. The door was open. Considering how I had left and come back through the window, and that I vividly remembered slamming that door, that meant my parents knew I had gone out. After taking a moment to consider the consequences, I decided to own it and went inside through the front door instead.

“I’m back!” I shouted into the house right before I slammed the front door, then made directly for my room.

“Amber.” My mom called from the kitchen before I could make it to privacy.

“Hi mom.” I shot back right before slamming the door to my room. Back in what was meant to be my space, I had a quick look around the floor for Mary’s scrying stone, only to find it had vanished. I sighed, realising that was going to be a conversation that was going to happen sometime in the near future. Falling onto my own bed was a small comfort amidst everything.

Seconds passed before I heard my mother approach my door and knock.

“What?” I said both loudly and without intonation.

She cracked the door open. “Can we talk?”

“About?”

“Everything that’s been happening.”

I sighed harder than I needed to and pushed myself to a sitting position on my bed. “It’s bullshit.” I started the discussion in the way that it always started.

Mom pushed the door open and sat in front of me. “I know, dear. I want to make sure that you grow well. But sometimes… “ She trailed off.

“What?” I demanded when the silence had gone on for too long.

“Sometimes I barely recognise you.” My mother said. It wasn’t in pride, the emotion behind the words was harder to discern than that. “It seems like only yesterday that you were knee high and tearing up the house. I’ll never forget the soup.”

“I don’t remember the soup.” I pointed out.

“I remember cleaning it up.” She tittered, and I tried to reevaluate this scene. Mom was reminiscing, but I couldn’t figure out why. I was supposed to be in trouble, unless it was my dad that had found the suggestion stone. In which case this was genuine and I had a much more bitter encounter rearing its head in the not so distant future.

Great.

“I want to know that my little jewel is doing okay.” Mom continued. I rolled my eyes at the name but didn’t interrupt. “Yesterday might have been done worse than it could have been.”

“You think?”

“Amber.” She chided, a request for me to let her finish. “When we were organising the celebration, Jaskair was the one to come up with having a smaller party, just for you once the whole business with Avien had reached its natural end. It was going to be at dusk, but... that didn’t happen.”

“Because I wasn’t there.” I said flatly.

“Because you didn’t receive your song.”

I gave her an unimpressed stare.

A mirthless smile graced my mother’s lips. “The Shepards agreed with the idea, possibly taking to it more than we did, and decided this year would be the time for us to start having separate celebrations for you two. That’s why only Avien got his song during the day. You were to receive yours at dusk, but you didn’t know,”

“Because it was a surprise.” I looked up at the Heavens and mouthed some truly despicable words. Then I cast my eyes back down to my mom. “What’s done is done. I’ll say it plainly to you, I hate the Shepards, and I have for years. This… this isn’t even unexpected. It’s not impressive, it’s not magical. It’s just spite. They’re declaring that they hold enough power over us that they can take away an annual ritual of fortune, and that they can spit it in my face doing it.”

“That is...” Mom thought on it, and she took some time thinking. This kind of thing wasn’t what she was used to, after all. “No matter what the situation between you and them, or me and them is, I’m still going to do a mother’s duty. Even if it is a little bit late.”

“Ugh, you’re going to make me vomit.”

“Another year has come,” My mom sang softly, and I shut up. “Another year has gone,”

“And you have survived until this yearly dawn.”

“Rise with grace, and humbly fall,”

“You have a place in the world of All.”

“Joy, Amber Jewel. Happy Birthday, Amber Jewel.”

“Another year will come and go too~”

Mom smiled sheepishly. “Even if it’s a day later than it should’ve been.”

I didn’t say anything at first. It would’ve hurt too much. Somewhere in that song it struck me that my mom was doing this to keep me close. She loved me, that wasn’t a question, and she loved me a lot more than I knew. She was reaching out to me and I had just come back from spending the majority of the day preparing to leave Veliki and never return.

“Better late than never.” I easily smiled, feeling terrible inside.

“Come here.” She pulled me into a hug and I let my face become something much more sorrowful, to express myself to half of a room that wasn’t looking back at me. “We will always have each other.”

I had to believe that this was the Heavens delivering retribution for declaring my intentions out loud. If it wasn’t, then leaving was going to hurt so much more. “I’ll remember that.” The words came out easily and in no way indicated how I truly felt on the matter. The number of times I’d tried and failed to properly express rage in front of Avien was astronomical, and had left me with a near perfect ability to conceal my true feelings.

Heavens, did I feel dirty doing it.

“What is this?” My mom asked after breaking the hug, but holding onto my right arm. “It feels alive.” Her voice was amazed.

“It is, I think.” I rubbed the ivy bracelet with my free hand, and the disturbed leaves slowly moved back to their original positions, ironing out the creases as they went. “I spent the day at the estate. It was an apology present for missing the surprise last night.” At least, that’s what I thought Taranath had been talking about with that aborted question. The lie had an essence of truth to it, and came easily to me.

I wondered if this would get easier in time.

“You must have thanked him profusely.” Mom commented, still in awe of the bracelet. “Parting with something like this must have cost the man greatly.”

“Actually, he found it in an abandoned room and thought I’d like it.” I said, turning my arm over to watch the ivy leaves shift with the movement. “It’s okay.” I sure as hells wasn’t telling her the real reason why I had it.

“What?” I asked. Mom was giving me a judgemental look.

“My dear, one day you will learn how to be grateful, and I will pass from this world happy.” She said.

My blood flared until I realised that she wasn’t telling me to be grateful for Avien. “I know what they say about gift horses, but I’m always going to take a discrete look.” I said. “And sometimes, I’ll be very blatant about it.”

“Amber…”

“This time it worked out!” I told her. “The bracelet is magical, look.” I pulled the bracelet off and the vines sagged. “It’s enchanted so it always fits. Try it.” I pulled my mom’s arm up and rolled the bracelet onto it.

For a moment nothing happened, then mom let out an, “Oh my!” As the vines started coiling in on themselves. Soon, the bracelet was perfectly fitted around her wrist.

“I feel like a bit of a princess.” She admitted as she inspected the ivy from all angles.

I grinned. “You can enjoy it for a minute, but it’s mine.”

Mom sighed dramatically. “Oh, you brat. I was enjoying the moment.”

“Sorry, I don’t understand the concept.”

“You go on about planar alignments with Vycar, and then you fall down on the most simple things.” She shook her head as she pulled the bracelet off again. “But you’re certainly my child, and I love you.” She kissed me on the forehead and left the bracelet up there as an ivy circlet.

“Yuck.” I said. “But I love you too.”

And it made things so much harder than they should’ve been.

\V/

The night came and went with me staying locked in my room. Dad and I were fighting right now. I’d try and resolve that before going, but he was always of the mind that having a marriage lined up for me was alright. Not a good thing, in his mind. Not a bad thing either. But so much better than having to go and find someone I might actually love. At least mom left some dinner at my door.

That did not mean I wanted to see them right away, so I spent the night pacing my room, finding things to fidget with, and fantasising on what would happen the next day. At some point I lost consciousness and then the next day forced my eyelids open. After grabbing some food from the kitchen and eating it in the safety of my room, it was time to leave.

Since mom and dad had woken up while I was eating, and I was still angry, I vaulted out the window again. Immediately, I realised that it would’ve been better to just walk through the house.

“Good morning Amber!” Avien shouted before I could get away.

I still wanted to ignore him and get away, but my promised husband had greeted me. Therefore, the heavens puppeted my body and ensured I turn to return the greeting.

“Good morning Avien~!” The Heavens even made me draw out his name like an eight year old trying to be seductive. Every time that happened, I felt a little bit more of me die inside.

I wasn’t sure if it was by grand design, but all three bedrooms of my house had windows on the same side. Coincidentally, that was the side that the Shepard’s house was on. Presumably, this was so that when Avien and I had a fight, he could come to my window and beseech my forgiveness in the middle of the night or something. That hadn’t happened. So far, it just screwed over half the times I tried to sneak away.

Avien was a morning person, while I was not. It was a paradoxical circumstance because I would’ve assumed the Heavens would want me up first to cook breakfast, as well as the fact that Avien would often stay up later than me in his room, studying something or other from his mother’s curriculum. Which, I guessed, was now legal.

There was no way he got enough sleep, but there he was. Shirtless, training with his promised sword, but aware enough that he could still catch me trying to sneak past. I hated it all. Not because he was unattractive, but because the Heavens forced me to take in every, last, detail.

Avien let out a dazzling smile. “Amber, can I ask you something?”

NO! I yelled. “Of course!” I smiled with sickness, and my body walked towards the fence.

Avien approached as well, and rested his hands on the pommel of his sword. “The day before yesterday got a little crazy. I thought we were having a joint celebration like we always did, I would’ve let you know if I knew something was happening.”

“I believe you.” Someone that wasn’t me said.

“I just want to know that there isn’t any bad blood between us.”

“You just told me you didn’t know. Why would there be bad blood between us?”

Oh, I don’t know. Why don’t you let me tell him!?

Avien smiled in obvious relief. “Thank you for being so understanding.”

You don’t even know what is going on here!

“Hey, listen Ave. I’ve got a meeting with Brynn today,” I felt something shift and knew I could choose my words now, so long as I was ‘reasonable’ with my word choice. “I need to get there. Now.” My tone didn’t change, but Avien reacted to me coming back into control.

He nodded and picked his sword back up. “May I know what you’re doing with Brynn?” He asked before I could escape.

“No.” I said shortly, then felt my control be taken away from me once more. My body playfully twirled and pressed a shushing finger to my lips, my shirt fluttering subtly with the motion. Shit like this was why I never wrote skirts. “Not yet. It’s a secret.” The word choice was better than what I dared hope for.

“You can come along to one in the future though,” My body continued, and my beating heart stopped. Then it started again, because I wasn’t the one controlling it.

“When?” Avien asked, completely sucked in by the performance.

“Hmm…” I was certain this was some sadistic angel controlling me. A normal angel would’ve had pity on me by now. “In three days.” ‘I’ decided.

“I’ll look forward to it.” Avien flashed another charming smile. “Later, Amber.”

“Bye~!” My body drew out the word as it waved and ran. When control came back to me it was midstep and I fumbled running, effectively tripping on nothing and going sprawling. It was a quick tumble, and I found myself lying sideways on the ground, so I rolled to face the sky.

I screamed in frustration, then lay there a while longer.

The world darkened as Wrenn approached in concern. “Are you feeling well, Amber?”

“I got mind controlled again.” I told him. Wrenn just stared at me. “Do your thing.” I told him, holding my hands over my chest in the way he taught me.

“Ah.” He did his thing, which cleared his mind of all fogs and compulsions. “Ahh.” Like the last time I had really freaked out after a particularly demanding Avien puppeting session, Wrenn was the only one who seemed to get it whenever I tried to describe what happened to me whenever Avien was around.

He offered a hand that I accepted and helped me to my feet, then gave me a once over. “Lucky fall, Miss Jewel. You seem to have only come away with minor scrapes.”

“What’s an unlucky fall like then?” I asked.

“A vampire, thousands of years old, tripping on the carpet, rolling over a servant, before falling on a display case held up by a single wooden pole, breaking the display case, and impaling themselves through the heart on the suddenly sharp stake that was once the display case’s supporting pole.”

I stared.

Wrenn stared somewhere off to the side. “To be fair, I had a luck concoction on my side and they were my enemy.”

“Don’t vampires explode into mist the first time they die, and then you need to kill them again?” I recalled something like that from the eighth sage, who had been far more interesting than the other seven.

“Ah yes, there was an artefact in the display case that the vampire activated in the tumble, which destroyed it instantly.” Wrenn nodded. “Truly unfortunate for that vampire. I wouldn’t recommend fighting someone with luck on their side, call it a seasoned adventurer’s advice.”

“Got it, no tripping.” I realised I had somewhere to be and just started walking away. “Bye.”

“To you as well.” Wrenn said mysteriously, and walked up a wall.

I went north, and made it to Taranath’s estate with no further interruptions. Like before, I stood on the boundary and waited. This time the grass in front of me didn’t suddenly thaw. Instead, a coiling trail of mist raced around the perimeter of Taranath’s land until it reached me and started coalescing in space. After reaching a certain size, the mist cleared, revealing a frosty red rose bush that hadn’t been there before.

Immediately, I reached underneath and retrieved my two weapons from the bush. When I was done, the mist returned and took the bush away. This way I wouldn’t be interrupting Taranath for anything, and I could go to Brynn for training, assuming he agreed to it.

That thought made me pause. The Heavens seemed to think it was happening as a fact, but that also might have just been some part of me that only came out when Avien was around doing some wishful thinking. On one hand, I hoped it was the former, since that guaranteed training. On the other hand, I didn’t like that the Heavens were paying that close attention, but the alternative freaked me out.

So I stopped thinking about it and went to the town hall. Brynn hadn’t given me a place to meet him at, so I just headed for where he was supposed to be. The hall wasn’t really a hall. There was a courtyard that it never rained in which was used for town gatherings, but the part that the council used was a three story construction that also had Vycar’s tower rising out of it.

The building just looked strange. The roof looked almost like a partially opened book, and the colour choice- red and green- didn’t mesh with the surrounding neighborhood. Each floor had a different mural on it, depicting different events.

The exterior of the ground floor was painted to appear like I was looking down a corridor of an underground labyrinth, with different light sources and shadows making the scene look positively haunting. The second floor was of several adventurers in a melee with a number of imposing fey-like creatures.

Maiathah and Taranath both claimed that they were the most humanlike fey they had ever encountered. Not having met another fey myself, I wasn’t sure if I should believe them. Looking at these characters, they were impossibly tall and shaped to the point where they almost felt abstract to look at, but that might have simply been the artist’s interpretation.

The third was a depiction of the heavens, but it was tainted, and the sky was unnaturally abstract. If the first mural was tragedy that lead to the forming of the five, then the second was the battle that ended with Taranath receiving his title and saving Maiathah. The third would’ve been the first time they dealt with a fallen god. And all that was just what was on this side.

Riveting stuff. But I’d seen it all before so I just walked in.

Brynn was right there in the entrance room, which was great.

There was also another young boy with blond hair that looked a bit like Brynn, the most glaring difference between them being age. The younger boy was wearing armour that shone less than Taranath’s ornamental set that the half elf only wore when he lost a bet, so it hurt to look at. In his hands he had a great sword, one longer than what my dad kept hidden behind the bed.

It had a pale blue blade that completely failed to catch the light, and a hilt with a guard that resembled an angel spreading its wings. Where the wings met, there was a smooth white crystal that seemed to have stars shining within.

The clearly magical blade was also stabbed through Brynn’s stomach, which was the opposite of great.

\V/