Juniper agonized over every second spent pacing in her clients house and outside those dilapidated streets. Sleep would not find her, the fatigue in her muscles and buzzing behind her eyes keeping her dulled mind awake and listless.

She bit her lip, forcing herself to focus, to maintain the train of thought surrounding the next leg of her investigation.

Juniper made idle glances at the building the guides were housed within, their secrets protected behind those immaculate white walls with red trim. The front entrance was monitored by lower level guides, their nonchalance to their role as enforcers a mask for those not paying attention.

But she had scrutinized the entrance while avoiding calling attention to herself and their patterns were obvious when given consideration. There wasn’t a gap to their security detail, guides shifting around at all manners of the day without a crack to their defenses.

She had half a mind to just forego the charade altogether and force her way through the building. She was geared up for the challenge. These cloistered scholars were devout to their academic prowess, despite the potentially overwhelming power housed in their bodies.

That was the fatigue and hubris talking, egging her to make a bad decision for the sake of expediency. No, Juniper wouldn’t blow her cover while her sister-

“Oh no…” Juniper groaned, causing her to wince and reel in pain as the whiplash of switching focus rattled her head. “I couldn’t have been gone for more than a day. Maggie must be worried sick though.”

Kicking dirt, she picked herself up from her vantage point and trudged her way to the dorm room.

Juniper gingerly twisted the knob of their door and stepped into the room.

Magnolia was there in all of her radiance, standing with her arms crossed in a yellow floral patterned sundress with white petals. In such a short amount of time, she’d done so much to carry herself with the same kind of gravitas that Juniper held, a holdover of their mothers no-nonsense attitude.

“Where were you?” Magnolia asked in a tone that froze the room.

“I went out with that professor and got sidetracked by some business.” Juniper answered vaguely. She didn’t want to bring her-

“What kind of business sees you gone for three days!” Magnolia erupted.

Oh fuck, how tunneled had she been?

Magnolia charged at Juniper and banged her fists against her chest, “I needed you to be here for me! You don’t get to just disappear this long without telling me anymore, Juniper.”

She didn’t move, a deer in the visage of a predator with no clear moves on how to proceed.

“You promised that you’d be better and you-you,” Magnolia buried her head in her sister chest, tears soaking up the ruffled dress shirt she’d worn to the business event, “I went through the hardest day of my life and you couldn’t even find time to be there for me! Gone!”

“What happened, Maggie?” Juniper whispered.

Her sister laughed in between her sobs, “Oh, now I’m important enough? Now you want to know what happened?”

“You’ve always been important to me, Magnolia. Don’t even joke about that.” Juniper hardened her tone.

“You don’t get to pull that card on me, Juniper. I’ve been the one trying my best to reach out and do good in the coven for the both of us and it just feels like I’m not being taken seriously at all. Like you’re just checked out from this, from us.”

Magnolia pulled away from her and wiped her tears with her forearm, “You’re going to tell me the truth and nothing but. No secrets, no vague talk, no babying. I’m tired of having this fucking cloud between us. If you care at all about our sisterhood, you’re gonna tell me the truth or so help me, Juniper Winthrop, I am leaving through that door and never coming back.”

Juniper looked at the conviction in her sister's eyes and knew she meant every word she said. She’d be putting her sister at risk but frankly it wouldn’t matter if this rift grew permanent between them. Magnolia tracked her sister as she walked towards her organized bed and collapsed from the exhaustion.

Fuck her, a whole three days tunneled on the investigation.

“Sit down, Maggie.” Juniper gestured at the bed opposite her, precious energy spent from an empty tank. Her sister crossed her arms and sat down, waiting for Juniper to begin pouring out secrets.

“Alright, let’s start from the beginning. The reason I changed my mind about this whole coven thing was twofold; you needed the experience this institution provided and I was hired by an older woman to investigate the disappearance of her daughter. With her stars and the interest this Matron had on us freelancing Incants, it wasn’t hard for us to get in.”

Juniper waited for Magnolia to interject or do anything but she sat there, judging every side of her story.

Juniper continued, “This older womans daughter went missing and she received false information about the disappearance. Stuff like she suffered an unfortunate incident during her final exam even though she never got that far, vanishing before the exam even took place.”

Magnolia winced, “What else?”

“I can’t talk about anything else. At least not here. I don’t rightfully know how much this institution listens in on our conversations and I don’t want to give out more than they could surmise. That woman even mentioned my history when looking at our applications so it’s not like they’d be surprised I attended to conduct an investigation.” And what that investigation revealed meant dealing with forces far more powerful than Juniper could reasonably handle. The extent of what she knew and who had her information was unknown to them, and that mystery was their immunity for the time being.

Magnolia sighed and walked over to her sister's bed, “Move over.”

The two laid down on the small bed facing one another, a heavy amount of nostalgia washing over Juniper for a simpler time before she’d hardened up.

“Why does it have to be like this?” Magnolia whispered. Her knuckles were white and clenched. “It’s not fair.”

Juniper wrapped her arm around her sister and did her best to pull her close, “I promise, Maggie, I wasn’t avoiding you. This job was a bitch and a half and I didn’t want to keep you from living out your dreams as a magical school girl. You talked this place up so much the last time they’d sent their inquiries and it was easier for me to just leave you in the dark and bear the brunt of the responsibility should things go tits up.”

“That wasn’t your choice to make, June.” Magnolia sighed. “Not like keeping me in the dark helped anyway.”

Juniper raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean by that? Is this to do with your hardest day?”

Magnolia laughed, “Yeah, something like that. Someone made an attempt at my life and I don’t know why. I have suspicions on what it could be but I remember your thoughts on speculation.” She inched in closer. “But you don’t have to worry about anything anymore. I’m gonna take care of things.”

Despite the fatigue, Juniper's blood boiled, “What do you mean I don’t have to worry? Someone made an attempt on your life, Maggie. Point them my way and I’ll take care of-”

Magnolia shook her head, “No. I’m gonna handle things my way. If I need help, I’ll ask for it.”

Juniper stared at her sister before relenting, “Alright. If you say so. I trust you.”

Magnolia smiled.

The two laid there, basking in the brilliant glow of the morning sunlight. Juniper closed her eyes and felt the weight of the world snuff out what consciousness she held onto.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Juniper blinked her eyes once, twice, trying desperately to shirk off the drooping sensation on the lids of her eyes.

It was dark out.

“Welcome back to the land of the living,” Juniper turned her attention to Magnolia, the girl welcoming Juniper with a smarmy smile, “I’m sure you slept well. You were roaring like an engine back there.”

Juniper rolled her eyes as she fought back the siren's song of even more rest. It wouldn’t hurt to let her body stock up to one hundred percent but all that dreamless sleep reminded her of a promise she’d made to her sister.

“I slept well enough to remember a promise I made to you.” Juniper responded. She lifted herself up from the bed and stretched her body out, bones popping with each deliberate pose.

“About the spell inside of me.” Magnolia connected the dots all on her own.

“Yeah.” Juniper replied. She’d given that girl her word and although her heart ached thinking about the consequences that came with remembering the worst night of her life, it wouldn’t do Maggie any good to be in the dark on what she restrained forever.

If this institution was worth their salt, they’d have taught her something about reigning in powerful spells.

“You tell me, are you ready to hear the story about the night you made your first dive? About the night our parents disappeared?” Juniper didn’t sugarcoat it. If she was old enough to handle the story, she was old enough to hear things with every bit of ache and anger that Juniper had reserved for the recollection.

For those damn foggy white eyes.

Magnolia held to that steeled conviction, “Yes, I’m ready. I have to be.”

Juniper nodded and fell back into the sensations of that night. The story was mulled over and polished into a disgustingly brilliant sheen, a beacon of boundless energy she could tap into when only rage could push her forward.

“I had made my dive about four years before you did. Mom and Dad weren’t Incants and they weren’t superstitious about things either. Their little girl could summon golden threads and find things. Harmless enough.”

Magnolia put down the book in her hands and gave Juniper her undivided attention.

“They figured that if I was an Incant that chances were good you’d be one too. They assumed you’d bloom at around five like I had. That whatever passenger hitched a ride in your soul would be as innocuous as what I had been gifted with. They were off by a good two years.”

Magnolia did the math, “I dove into the astral when I was three?”

Juniper nodded, “I know. To this day I count my lucky stars that I didn’t lose absolutely everything that night, that on the worst day of my life, I still got to hold onto a bit of good.”

Magnolia gave her a sullen smile. It was a bittersweet affair but never had she gone so low as to blame Maggie for an event beyond her control.

“You dove into the astral and the world started to shake. Mom woke me up while Dad screamed for help, for their little girl to help them make sense of what was happening to their baby. They’d done their best to learn from that old geezer, Isaac, but nothing he had offered them could prepare them for that night. The air around your crib was thick and miasmic, shimmering with the flicker of one million tiny stars. Your body was held in the air and the blue in your eyes were burned out by this brilliant gold.”

Juniper took a breath. One. Two. In. Out.

“Swimming in that starscape was this thing, a massive jagged mouth hanging behind you, its silhouette obscured by a turbulent fog. The clouds spun as you spoke in the language of the Weave, an ancient tongue that felt so much like the judgment call of the gods that night. Dad tried to pull you away from whatever was behind you and got pulled into the veil of stars. Mom snapped away from me and reached out to Dad, only to get caught in the orbit of the thing around you.”

Juniper’s eyes welled up with acrid tears, “And what could I do? I threw my thread at them and pulled as hard as a seven year old could. Their bodies disappeared in the darkness and my Golden Thread snapped, my mind jumbled and throbbing with such intense pain. The only time my thread has ever snapped.”

She refused to give the story any more attention, letting the worst of her childhood screams disappear into the pit of her stomach. Juniper spun her wrist around and manifested the thread that bound her to Magnolia, refocusing her thoughts on the girl and all her splendor.

“After that night, I had to scramble to figure out what to do next. Isaac, despite all his faults, was kind enough to lend us a hand. Not enough to take responsibility as a fucking adult but thats neither here nor there. The only saving grace I had from that night was that whatever spell that was hadn’t damaged your psyche to any perceivable degree. It fucked off to sleep and I hope it stays that way forever.”

Juniper ended her story and watched Magnolia digest the details. It was a blessing she wasn’t burdened with the memory of that night.

“All these years you’ve been taking care of us and it was all my fault?” Magnolia wheezed.

Juniper grabbed her sisters shoulders forcefully and locked eyes with her, “Don’t you fucking dare blame yourself for this, okay? That night was all the spell's fault, whatever it is. You were just a bystander, a kid so fucking tough as nails that you’ve kept that thing bound and asleep for sixteen years. I swear, Magnolia, if you so much as hint about feeling bad for yourself, I am going to shake you until you snap out of it or die.”

The dark cloud hanging over her sister's head slowly dissipated, a trickle of giggles making way for a torrent of laughter. Magnolia wrapped her arms around Juniper and the two hugged.

“Well, so much for my damn streak.” Magnolia let out in between her laughs.

“Don’t tell me…” Juniper’s heart lurched when Magnolia nodded.

“Happened after my exam. I dunno what the specifics are with it but directly after dealing with the exam, I felt this heavy thing stir inside of me.”

Juniper eased up in relief, “Well stirring isn’t awake, Maggie. And if it does wake up, you’ve got the knowledge to handle it now, right?”

Magnolia shrugged, “I’ll do my best but it’s a lot to take in.”

Juniper was quick to pull them away from lingering on that topic, “So you finished your exam? Did you end up securing a passing grade?”

Magnolia’s eyes brightened up as she jingled the charms on her wrist, “I’m a fucking Winthrop, Junie. Of course I got a passing grade. Never doubted myself for a moment.”

It was Juniper's turn to laugh, “Oh yeah, I totally believe it. You must have been quaking in your boots dealing with your first spell.”

“I wasn’t! Between your talks and my books, I walked into that negotiation as cool as a cucumber.”

“Oh so it was a negotiation then? Didn’t have the gumption to take on a Fireball or a Lightning Bolt in one on one combat?”

Magnolia pouted, “Oh fuck off, like you’d have done better.”

Juniper shrugged, “I don’t know, Maggie. Between the two of us, I’m pretty confident I’d have handled the worst of the worst at your age.”

“You don’t even have a grimoire!”

Juniper waved off the statement, “That’s besides the point, little sis. What matters is that you did great but I could have totally done better if I was given the same opportunities. Now stop holding out on me and give me a play by play. I wanna hear what your struggles were on this worse day of your life.”

Magnolia rolled her eyes but started recounting her own day with a pure vigor.

Despite the lingering fatigue on her mind and the everpresent nagging her threads made trying to pull her towards the investigation, Magnolia deserved every bit of her sister's attention.

At least right now, she’d be here for her.