It had not been very long at all since I had hugged my mother goodbye.

  Much had happened over the small amount of days since I had traded the cloudless skies of Erosette for the eternal gloom of the mountains. How much I had missed her did not strike me until she had walked into the room full of Mothers

  Neither had how absolutely ragged I felt until she had taken my weight into her arms.

  All of the walking, the slow drowning The River Eae had tried to kill me with, the will it had taken to down the innocent trees, it had all left me exhausted. The soup I had not eaten was long gone. My belly was painfully empty and ached for something to eat. Despite my weariness, three Mothers and my mother stood around me in silent anticipation for me to demonstrate my newfound power.

  The person I wanted to see it the most lay with her back turned to me and showed no signs of interest in anything but the wall she stared at.

  "You aren't going to make me do this just to seal it away after, are you?" I asked The Mothers, keeping my first promise to Rhiannon close to my heart.

  It was not that difficult to be myself in front of them really. The remnants of Maiden Ire lay scattered over the white furred rug beneath my boots like blue glitter. My mother was in arms reach if the need for another embrace came over me. If I ignored the fact that my ability to live entirely relied on their mercy and goodwill, they were just women.

  Terrifyingly beautiful women who I was indebted to and were capable of bending reality to their will, but still just women.

  The Mother in Grey, as strange as it was, reminded me of Anna when she was nose deep in a book. There was something in her silver eyes that made me feel like she saw much more of me than she should have, but she could not keep eye contact with me for long. I could not explain it, but I got the impression that I made her uncomfortable.

  Mother Ali looked like she could tear down the walls around us if she wanted to, and she did look like she wanted to, but there was blood on her knuckles. I bleed, more often than I would like, and she did too.

  Nami was Nami. Her hatred of the cold and all of the little signs I had missed when they had happened made sense with what I had learned through the wall. Lun Arcanicil was not her school, it was Katarina's. I did not think she loved me like Rhiannon did, but she had never been unkind to me. Through the beauty of her fading blue hair and ocean eyes, I knew that she had been hurt before and I knew that she had healed.

  Azza was not Azza, at least not in the ways that I had come to know her. Still unmoving and laying on the bench beneath the painting, she seemed the least Motherly of them all.

  "No, Underwitch Autumn. You have done nothing wrong." Grey said from where she sat by the fireplace, her notebook still open on her lap.

  "Yet." Ali grunted.

  Nami shook her head. "Stop it, Ali. You aren't in any trouble, Autumn. We are asking you to do this."

  "Go ahead, dear. I am curious to see it myself. I did not know you had found a color at all until I was summoned here." My Mother said, her emerald green eyes held steady on mine.

  She was lying. It had been her that had devised the devious situation that had tricked me into breaking the red ring over my navel. From the look in her eyes, I understand that she had chosen her words specifically. I would be careful not to let anything slip from my mouth that I shouldn't.

  I brought my left hand down to my side and searched the room.

  I wanted to eat something big and heavy that would leave me full and drowsy, but there wasn't a single scrap of food in sight. I wanted to take a bath, with warm water, but I didn't think anyone would react well to me stripping out of my coat and dress to find a tub. I wanted to lay down, but the only place in the room that looked anything close to comfortable was occupied by the sullen Mother in Brown.

  There was nothing tangible I could see that I wanted, but that did not mean that I was without desire.

  I would let her lock another choker around my neck if it meant I could understand what had happened to Azza. It was not so much why she was in the state she was in, I was fairly certain of the reason for that, but why she was allowing me to see her in that state. Not very long ago, she had charmed or bound my tongue, I was not sure which, just so I could not speak her or her sister's names.

  The painting hanging above her brought several more questions to my tired mind. Alexei, with his long white hair and wolfish features, was Katarina's son. Did any of the other Mothers have children? What man had the icy haired Mother deemed worthy enough to have a child with? If he was at Lun Arcanicil and had been charged with being my guard, where were his brothers?

  Most of all, what was truly gnawing at me, was what had happened to The Mother in Blue.

  She had been a Mother and the notion of any that were in the room with me dying seemed utterly ridiculous. Through other's eyes, I had seen Nami drown a new sun and completely restore the sorceress I had been from being little more than a charred husk back to perfect health. With my own, I had seen Azza control an uncountable amount of sand as if it was water running off the tips of her fingers in the shower. She had arrived at Vowkeeper's Anguish as it was splitting under the weight of a titan's death. Goldluster she had been, and fortune had favored me when she knit the split closed with nothing but two golden needles.

  If I did not ignore those memories in pursuit of relinquishing my fear of them, I understood from first and second hand experience just how powerful they truly were.

  The notion that one of them had died or was gone away to someplace far enough that Azza seemed to be in the throes of full on grief, it would not make sense to me.

  I focused on those exhausting questions and reached inside myself for my aura.

  It came to me too easily. For weeks and months, reaching the red of my soul had been nearly impossible. The few times that I had managed to touch it, it had brought me to the ground if Anna had been too drunk to catch me.

  The blue spread through me and came to my left palm with little to no effort, turning the gnawing question in my mind into an oath.

  I will know what happened to Katarina. I thought to myself as my working took shape within my hand. I will will it so.

  The first time it had come to me, when I had been drowning in the cutting water of The River Eae, I had been too numb to feel anything. As my bright blue cord unfurled from my palm and coiled atop the white furred rug at my feet, a shiver ran up my arm. It was cool to the touch, like the cold glass of the windows in Anna and I's quarters. It did not make my hand ache like every other frozen thing they had touched as of late. It brought me frigid certainty, a chilly confidence that whatever I wanted, I would have.

  I held two silver moons in the palm of my hand.

  With nothing but my will, I had brought blue to my soul.

  I was she who felled the arrogant trees and would not hesitate to do the same to all that opposed me.

  My eyes shifted around the room as I looked for The Mother's reactions.

  Grey held her hands over the notebook on her lap with her haunting silver eyes inspecting my working. No pen, no pencil, nothing but the light of her silver aura scrawled over the empty pages and filled them with words so small that I doubted a spider could read them.

  Ali had lit her burner and had returned to her place by the door. Silently smoking and filling the room with a heavy sweet scent, I could not find anything in her expression.

  My mother had tears in her eyes and a pleased smile on her face.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Azza had still not moved.

  "What shade of blue would you say that is, cyan?" Nami asked, her arms crossed and her full lips turned up at one end.

  "Turquoise." Ali sighed with trails of smoke spilling out of her nostrils.

  Nami came to where I stood in the middle of the room and crouched. She brushed the back of her hand against my coiled cord. "No. There isn't enough green in it. And it's too blue to be baby."

  "Cornflower, perhaps?" My mother offered.

  "No." Ali grunted.

  Grey, evidently finished with her silver writing, closed the notebook on her lap and sent the remnants of her aura down to her grey robes. "The proper name for that particular shade is azure."

  "Ahhh" Everyone in the room but Azza and I agreed.

  "What does that mean?" I demanded, the fingers of my left hand rolling against the azure blue of my working.

  Nami stood and placed her hand in the center of my back. "That it is yours. This is no trick, we have seen enough. All that there is left to do is wait."

  As if in response to her words, the door opened again and for the second time, Alexei did not walk through it.

  A woman, her dress all pristine whites and pastel pinks took a single step through the doorway and stopped. A cloth veil concealed the lower half of her face and a large hood cast deep shadows over what was not covered. Her long sleeves held straight at her side, she bowed at her waist before she spoke "Well met, Mothers."

  "What have you discovered?" Grey asked.

  "It is as Sorceress Idensyn said. Her father was a warrior. He held no rank or renown within the Armory Enclave. He died from a grievous wound he received while guarding two sorceresses beyond the borders of Don Ro-Liber nearly ten years ago." The woman said

  For the first time since I had crawled out of the lightless passageway into the room of Mother's, Azza moved. As elegant as she had been every other time I had suffered the misfortune of being around her, she turned on her hip and slowly lowered her feet to the floor. She brought her hands to her face and ran her slender fingers through her sleek black hair.

  "You are certain?" The Mother in brown asked, her head held down in her hands.

  "Yes, Mother. The bindings I have undertaken prevent me from willfully telling a lie, but our records are extensive. I am certain beyond doubt and my words are backed by The Mother in White." The woman answered Azza.

  "I know. I know. I know." Azza sighed into her hands.

  I will make my leave unless you have further need of me." The hooded woman said.

  "We are almost finished here. You may go." Nami answered her.

  The hooded woman bowed again before taking her single step back and closing the door behind herself.

  Azza stood and stretched her slender arms above her head, standing tall enough that she blocked Katarina and her sons from my sight. She slipped her feet into the black sandals beneath the bench and took a long step towards me.

  "Underwitch Autumn." She said, not an arms length away from me.

  The Mother in Brown’s eyes were no longer golden. They were the same burnt sienna color as the stone of her choker had been and were red like Radomir's were in the painting.

  Any trace of focus left my mind and my bright blue chord crumbled to azure dust in my hand.

  “You will remain Maiden Ire while you are here," Azza began, only a ghost of her usual intensity evident in her eyes. "You will continue to stay in the groundskeepers quarters. If anyone discovers that you are not who you say you are, you will be removed and brought to my domain immediately. If you phase out of the school, You will be removed. If you step foot anywhere without The Mother in Blue's permission, you will be removed. Do you understand this?"

  “Yes, Mother.” I answered, her ghost still intense enough to make the scars beneath my too thin dress crawl. Still, I had never been able to meet her eyes as long as I did then. They looked tired, weary, sad.

  Katarina was gone, and I would find out why.

  "I am going to the temple." The Mother in Brown said as she left.

  "Wait just a moment, I will go with you." Nami called from where she stood beside me.

  Azza closed the door behind herself without another word.

  The loss from my dusted working, small as it was, washed over me. Nami's hand on my back kept me steady as the weight of my afterglow settled onto my shoulders.

  It was nothing in comparison to what had come for me after the trial. The Autumn I didn't like stayed silent and the tears that I did cry fell onto my mothers shoulder. Her presence alone was enough to keep me from the worst of the sorrow and it was not very long at all before I came back to myself fully.

  The Mother in Grey was the first to speak once my afterglow had passed. Her monotone voice bringing panic to my heart.

  "Ali, will you be taking her for her punishment now? She asked, smoothing the front of her long robes as she spoke.

  The months since Rhiannon's punishment had been too calm. They had been too filled with good days and long nights with Anna. I had been too excited to come to Lun. For just long enough to make it hurt when I remembered, I had forgotten about my punishments.

  "No. She wouldn't survive in the state she's in. I'll come back in a few days." Ali said, her burner long turned to ash on the floor.

  "We will discuss the details before you leave, it will have to fit around her cycles." Nami said.

  I did not enjoy being talked about like I was not in the room.

  "Wait," I shouted, balling my fists and stomping my feet. "I don't understand what just happened."

  Grey spoke as she walked towards the door. "There is no indication of a sorcerer in your bloodline. It is exceedingly rare, but you are a twinsoul in truth."

  My mother cleared her throat. "As rare as it is, Mother, will further guidance be given to her on this matter?"

  The Mother in Grey did not answer in a way that made it perfectly clear that she had no intention of doing so.

  I shook my head and broke my second promise to Rhiannon for the second time. "That isn't what I meant. Azza, what she said, I'm not in trouble? She isn't taking me to her domain? Is she sick?"

  "We are Mothers, girl. Not gods. We all have our limits." Ali said, pulling a second burner from somewhere in her lavender curls as she made her leave.

  Alexei took her place in the room and made his way back to the painting that covered the passageway that he had led me through. I could not help but compare his wolfish features with those of Katarina's. The cut of his jaw and the angle of his eye were mirrored perfectly in the painting. The similarities were not as evident as they were between my mother and I, but being able to compare them directly, there was no doubt. Even in the face of the painted boy version of the white haired man, I found small features that would grow into the man who had become my guard.

  "There are still matters to be discussed, Underwitch Autumn, but they will wait until tomorrow. You have three days before your cloaking ceremony and the new moon ball. I suggest you spend them resting," Nami said, as she walked me over to the open passage. "Reapply your glamor before you go, we must take no risks."

  I did as she said, enshrouding myself in the black hair and muted features of Maiden Ire. I retook my hold on the rough rope of Alexei's sword belt and watched his white hair disappear into darkness as the painting closed behind us.

  The next moment, before my eyes could settle into the perfect dark, iridescent light illuminated the dusty tunnel.

  "You said you did not know how to create a werelight." My guard said as he turned his one white eye back around to me.

  "I don't." I said, fully aware that he was not my guard even if he was guarding me. He was the son of The Mother in Blue or who had been The Mother in Blue, I was not sure. I had to literally bite my tongue to keep myself from asking him what I wished to know.

  "I do." My mother said from where she stooped behind me. A small sphere, no bigger than her finger nail, hung above the tip of pointer finger and illuminated her beautiful face.

  I shook my head in surprise, the dizzying amount of things I had learned in the room of Mothers having taken so much space in my mind that I had not thought about telling my mother goodbye.

  "What kind of mother would I be if I didn't walk you home." She asked with a pleasant smile. "Carry on Master Alexei, you cannot be comfortable crouching like that."

  The passageway was much less confusing with the light of my mother's colorless aura shining behind me. I could see the steep stairs before we came to them and could look down the branching paths that we did not take. Each that we passed led to dead ends walled by the backside of even more paintings.

  My mother's presence made me happy, but I was not content. There was still too much I did not understand.

  "Do you understand what just happened? The twinsoul thing and what was wrong with Azza? I still don't know how I did what I did. All Nami told-" I started as we were taking a set of stairs down.

  My mother interrupted me. "Remember, the less I know the easier it is for me to be your mother."

  "Right," I said through a frustrated sigh that became a wicked giggle as I had a terrible idea. "But you aren't my mother. I'm Maiden Ire. You've never brushed my hair or told me Delpha and the dragon."

  She laughed. "“It truly scares me how devious you can be when you want something, my little Delpha.”

  "I don't know who you are talking about." I insisted.

  My mother continued. "What I believe we just witnessed was acceptance, both The Mother in Brown's and your own. She accepted what was happening and you were accepted into Lun."

  I nodded to myself, happy with her answer but still requiring more. The words of my next question felt nervous on my lips.

  Her father was a warrior. He held no rank or renown within the Armory Enclave. He died from a grievous wound he received while guarding two sorceresses beyond the borders of Don Ro-Liber nearly ten years ago. The hooded woman's words repeated in my mind.

  "Now you are my mother, what was my father's name?" I asked as we reached the bottom of the stairs and turned to our right to take another flight.

  "Oh, It makes sense that you would want to know that after today. His name was Auberon." She answered.

  "Auberon," I said with a smile. "Did he drink coffee?"