The small group emerged from the tunnel, Laila finally coming into view. Squinting from the sunlight, they looked towards a nearby forest that Jason immediately recognized as Whitewood.

Whitewood is, like its name implies, a white forest. The trees’ bark is a shade of pure white, and covered in an irremovable fuzz, which made it high in demand until decline of trees caused the Queen to decide to stop trade of it. Within a day, the trees grew back to the size of the original forest, much to the shock of everyone. Soon,  

Jason looked at it in shock. “Tha—That’s Whitewood! How—How did we get here? It’s practically on the other side of Kortail from the Cavern House!”

“These tunnels go a long way,” Kaiti said. “Time passes quite a bit faster in them. Literally.”

Jason shook his head. That’s black magic, he thought.

Kaiti and Laila took off at a run. Jason, still half blind from the sun’s brightness, followed behind, sprinting to catch up.

When they reached the forest, the ladies immediately disappeared into the foliage. Jason stopped in his tracks and looked around, trying to find them. He thought it funny, how Whitewood was really quite dark.

A bat flitted out of a tree. Jason stared at it. He’d never seen a bat with horns and leaf patterned wings.

“Morph!” It hissed.

Recognition dawned over Jason’s face.

“Laila? Is that you?”

“Yes! Now morph!”

Jason morphed, becoming more wolflike. He grew bulkier, blue-black fur sprouting all over his body. His claws slid out, his ears pointed, and his eyes shifted, slitted. He hadn’t morphed in so long. He’d forgotten how great it felt. How much more powerful he was.

He stretched, then followed Laila, until he saw a black, blue, and white TygerKaet. His eyes widened in shock.

“You’re really a TygerKaet? Most people don’t even see one in their life, because they are so rare.”

“Well, then I guess you’re lucky. You get to see one every day for the next few hundred years.”

She then turned and walked off into the forest, Laila following close behind.

Jason dashed after the pair. It seemed like he was always rushing to keep up. When he finally joined them, Kaiti was sitting on a rock, her legs dangling over the edge, with Laila perched on her shoulder, and they were both glaring at him.

“Why are Kaenayns so slow?” Laila muttered to herself.

They set off through the woods, Kaiti following a path that was apparent to none else.

“Where are we going? How do you know where to go?” Jason inquired.

“I know these woods well enough,” was her short answer.

Before long, they reached the center of Whitewood. Jason confirmed his doubt that there was a large clearing at the heart of all the Painted Woods. Kaiti stopped abruptly, morphed back into human form, and looked around. Her eyes started to glow. The trio heard a rumble, and then a roar. Soon enough, a huge, royal blue draegon swooped into the clearing, her scales shimmering like individual sapphires. Kaiti stroked the draegon’s nose. Jason looked at the two.

He carefully approached the two. Draegons were volatile creatures. You never knew what was going to happen. He had personal experience. Very violent experience.

Kaiti frowned. “I don’t think she can carry more than one person. She’s still young.”

Jason smiled. “That’s a problem that can be fixed, isn’t it?”

He called Revan, his own draegon. He knew Revan was most likely annoying his wild siblings that lived on Mount Krystael, which happened to be fairly nearby, for a dragon. It took a minute, but Revan glided down into the clearing, emerald scales glittering, clearly tired from flying at supersonic speeds, and settled beside them.

“Hello Revan,” Jason whispered.

“Revan is your draegon?” Kaiti asked incredulously.

Revan and Kaiti’s draegon greeted each other like old friends.

Jason nodded. “And that’s Sarina. Isn’t she like, the most famous dragon ever? After the Callaein War?”

Kaiti smiled, and gracefully pulled herself onto Sarina’s back. Jason watched with a bit of envy. He’d always had a bit of trouble mounting Revan, but then again, he also suspected Revan did everything he could to make it hard for him. He clambered up, just as Laila settled into a hollow between Sarina’s spikes.

They took off into the air, the draegons’ wings flapping powerfully. Sarina, excited to be in the air again, did a loop. Laila, startled, fell off, doing a comical sequence to regain her seat, while Kaiti expertly held on with her legs.

_ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _

    The five of them soared through the air. Kaiti loved the feel of the wind on her face, Sarina’s muscles working powerfully under her. Once upon a time, Sarina’s scales would have scratched the skin off the inside of her legs, but now, whenever she was near, the scales where she was sitting melded together into a rubbery, smooth layer, acting like a saddle.

    She looked over at Jason, hearing him bellow over the wind.

“What?” She shouted.

This time, she heard him. “Where are we going?”

“Revan knows. Don’t worry about it.” was her short reply. The look on Jason’s face was priceless as he huffed and turned back in his seat to face forward.

She heard him mutter in the wind,. “I have no idea how someone can shut me up so easily. That’s a new feeling.” That made her smile.

A few minutes later, when she looked back, he was asleep.

Just as they were landing, Jason cursed in protest, clearly jarred awake.

“Why,” He groaned, “Just why?”

They slid of the draegons’ backs, Jason still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Well, really, Kaiti and Jason slid of the draegons while Laila flew off, shifted in midair, did a flip, and landed on her feet.

“Why did we stop? Are we here?” Jason asked groggily.

Laila strode ahead while Kaiti fell back. “We’re making a quick pit stop. Wake up, be careful, and stay close. This place isn’t very trustworthy. Laila and I won’t come to harm. We have a reputation for worse trouble here. But we don’t know about you.” Her eyes flitted around suspiciously.

Jason made a clearly frightened sound of agreement, that made Kaiti smile.

“Man up,” She said. “Nothing should happen.”

“Like that makes me feel any better,” Jason muttered under his breath as they caught up to Laila, who had paused, uncertain of where to go.

Kaiti glanced around, confirming where they were, before darting into a small side alley. It wound around buildings, as well as the city square. It emerged in front of an old stone building that looked fairly recent, though it was really built centuries ago. Kaiti gazed at it wistfully, remembering it from when she lived here with her parents, before the chain of catastrophic events that had led to her parents throwing her out of the house, and then them having to be relocated during the war. She hadn’t seen them since.

It towered over them, four stories high. Kaiti climbed up the stairs and rapped on the door, seven times, hoping it still considered her as one of its masters.

Sure enough, the door swung open to reveal the enormous bejeweled hall, that she heard Jason swear was at least two stories high.

“Your right,” She said in response. “It is two stories high.”

Kaiti and Laila crossed the hall, with Jason lagging behind, staring up in awe at the riches.

“What is this place?” He asked.

Kaiti smiled sadly. “My childhood home.”

_ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _

They entered the weapons room. Father had always liked keeping this room pretty, Kaiti thought.

She headed straight across the room, where there was and array of swords, knives, and daggers. Kaiti picked up a belt, already waylaid with a sword, twin throwing knives, a sax knife, and a dagger, all the same color as Sarina’s scales.

“A rider’s weapons. Elf-made. Are they yours?” Jason queried.

Kaiti sent him a look that said, think, idiot. “Those are yours,” she said, gesturing at an almost identical belt, but emerald green. “The Dragonaie gave me your build and your draegon’s color. I was going to give it to you when we met at the KFac.”

Jason was confused. “KFac?”

Laila looked at him incredulously. “The Kaezon Facility? The KFac?”

“Oh. Are the weapons really mine?” Jason picked up the belt reverently, staring at it in wonder.

“Yours,” Kaiti confirmed from across the room. She smiled at how much he seemed like a child receiving a present.

Jason strapped the belt around his waist, mimicking her, before walking over.

Kaiti surveyed her father’s collection of bows. She knew her’s would be here somewhere. He wouldn’t dare touch it.

She finally saw it. It was by far one of the most powerful bows in the lot. A longbow, with mahogany limbs and an ivory plated grip, and a draw weight of at least 120 pounds. She didn’t know exactly, it’d been so long.

Kaiti slipped it into an oiled leather case, swinging over her shoulder along with one of her self-replenishing quivers. She looked over at Jason, who had clearly decided he was better off without a bow.

“You’d better pick one,” Kaiti said to him. “Bows are one of our strongest assets.”

He grudgingly grabbed her father’s bow.

“Good choice,” She said. “That was my father’s. 120 pound draw weight, Ash limbs, Jade plated grip. You two have about the same frame.”

Jason brushed off the compliment. “Where to next?”

She smiled devilishly. “Now? The Rift.” She watched his face carefully for a reaction.

Jason blanched. “The Rift? But isn’t the Rift,... dangerous? Why would you risk going there? That isn’t the best of ideas.”

Kaiti’s smile only became more wicked. “The Rift is my home turf. If you know your way around, there isn’t any danger.… Usually.”

_ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _

    The three of them left the mansion and started the walk back to the dragons, Kaiti in the lead. As they walked, Jason could see eyes shining in the shadows of alleyways branching off of theirs. He shuddered and turned back to the road. Kaiti glanced around, then hurried forward.

    Eventually, they reached a small, dark doorway.

    “Ok, I’m pretty sure there is pure blackness swirling in there.”

    “There is.”

    Kaiti and Laila walked towards the door. Jason hung back.

    “I refuse to go in there.”

“Yo, are you a Dragonaie or not? Get over here. It won’t kill you.”

“But-”

“Now.”

“But-”

“I’m your mentor. You gotta listen to me. No chickening out allowed. Now get over here.”

“But-”

“Jason!”

Jason sighed and creeped over to stand by the ladies. Each of them took a deep breath and walked into the awaiting darkness.

_ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _

Kaiti reached out a hand and yanked the door open. The three of them were instantly sucked into the passageway.

Jason swished his arms around. “Woah! This stuff feels like, I dunno, cotton!”

Kaiti glanced at him. Or, more accurately, glanced in the direction his voice was coming from. “Wait until you mess up a incantation and it suffocates you.”

If anyone could have seen Jason at that moment, they would have seen him go from pale to white.

“So let me get this straight. You’re the only one keeping us from dying?”

“Basically.”

Jason’s voice was rising higher.

“You are the only thing keeping us alive?”

“Jason relax. I’ve done this so many times, with at least ten people, I could do it in my sleep.”

Laila nudged her. “You have done this in your sleep. Remember that time you were knocked out and your mother needed to get through to see-”

“Yes I remember. Now shh.”

The fact that they were walking through a hallway full of darkness suddenly seemed to only just register with Jason.

“Wait a minute. This isn’t the Rift!”

“Nope. Pit stop. I want you to meet someone.

All of a sudden, bright light hit them all.

“I didn’t see this on our way here.” Jason said, gazing around at the sunlit clearing.

“Of course you didn’t,” Kaiti replied. “You were asleep.”

“It’s not like he’d be able to see it anyway,” Laila remarked. “Not until he’d actually met Stilver.”

The walked across the grass towards a hut right in the middle of the clearing. Kaiti took in the landscape for what seemed like the hundredth time. The almost-too-green grass, the near-perfect rose bushes that seemed to bloom year-round, the beautiful, sweeping chestnut trees that should be extinct, and more recent, the petrified stone of the last Queen’s Draegon. Farsiella’s curled tail, long neck, and narrow head was admired by all draegons and humans alike. Until the War killed her. Most draegons petrify when they die, and stay there, but Farsiella’s last wish was to stay in this clearing, and so here she was.

At the door of the hut, Kaiti knocked five times - rap rap pause, rap rap rap. The three of them heard footsteps rushing towards the door, which then opened to reveal a middle-aged woman in a fluffy sweater.

“Kaiti!” She cried out in a shrill voice, enveloping the younger woman in a hug.

“Hi Friya,” Kaiti said with much affection.

Friya backed up, then spotted Kaiti’s companions.

“Laila! It’s so nice to see you again, dear. And who is this, Kaiti? Your boyfriend?”

At the same time, Kaiti and Jason very loudly vocalized their objection to that.

“This is Jason Heartstock. He’s my apprentice Dragonaie, and the Taemir of Revan.”

“Well met, Jason. Sallem’s son, are you?”

“Yeah.”

Friya suddenly realized that Kaiti, Laila, and Jason were still outside.

“Oh! Forgive my manners. Come in, all of you come in!”

They followed Friya into the house. She led them to a not too large, homely sitting room. On the couch was a young man, perhaps a few years older than Jason. He looked very much like Kaiti, with the same caramel brown skin and black, almond shaped eyes, but with silver hair instead of black.

He looked up when they came in, and his eyes lit up with joy. Kaiti dashed across the room into his waiting arms, and they hugged like close siblings who had been separated for a long time. Which they were.

“Why are you here, Kaiti?” The man asked.

“Kaiti looked up at him. “I came to see you. And to introduce you to a friend. Laila you obviously already know, but I don’t think you’ve met Jason.”

Jason raised a hand and waved hello.

“A Heartstock, I see. Are you two Connected?”

Kaiti wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Unfortunately. Jason, meet my older brother, Stilver. And before you ask about the name, look at his hair, assume, and know that you’re right.”

Stilver chuckled. “You have an interesting way of explaining my name.”

“Deal with it.”

Jason tentatively raised a question. “Stilver, why are you here? Why don’t you live in the outside world?” Because clearly, this was his home, and he didn’t leave.

Kaiti flinched.

Stilver sighed and stared up into a corner. “I’m an Owling.”

Jason’s eyes widened. Owlings were rarer than TygerKaets. They knew the truth. Some just knew, others heard it, others saw it. They weren’t like Eaglings, who could see the webs of the future, how one choice could lead to another, and another, and so on. If you asked them a question, of something that wasn’t in the future, they would have an answer. Because of this, they were incredibly sought after, so many of them hid. Some of the really powerful ones could, in fact, see the future in glimpses.

Now that he knew, Jason could see the telltale glint of the Owling insignia in Stilver’s eyes. Insignias were very hard to notice, unless you knew to look for one.

Stilver clapped his hands in an effort to dispel the serious mood. “Anyway. Why are you really here, Kaiti? You’ve never come to just introduce someone before.”

Kaiti sucked in a breath. “Sometimes I wish you didn’t know me so well. Then I could just ignore the problem.”

“Side effect of siblings.”

“Yeah, well.” She sighed. “It’s the Queen. What happened to her?”

“The Queen? Isn’t she in Capital City?”

“Nope.”

Stilver spoke, and his words got faster and faster.

“I… I don’t know. Why don’t I know? I should know. I know how the King died. I know what happened to you that night in the tower. I know what they did that day on the roof. But I don’t know where the Queen is. I don’t know what happened to her. Ohmygod I think I’m going to choke. Idon’tknowIdon’tknowIdon’tknowIdon’tknowIdo-”

“STILVER! Calm down! You’ll be fine. Now we know were up against someone who can somehow shield the truth from an Owling. We just have to work around it.”

Stilver’s fast rapid breaths gradually slowed down with Kaiti’s words and her reassuring arm around his shoulder. He took a deep breath, calm again.

“Ok, ok, I’m good. I’ve just never come across something that I don’t know before. Not like that. I don’t know what Kaiti’s thinking, but I never have, so that’s ok. I don’t know what will happen to you during lunch tomorrow, but that’s the future. I know the people that were about to discover you in the Cavern House. This is so weird.”

Jason suddenly realized something. “Wait, the Queen? Isn’t she your mother?”

“Yes. So?”

“Why do you call her the Queen?”

“‘Cause she’s a terrible mum.”

“Oh.”

“A good queen, but a terrible mum.”

“One more thing - Stilver, you’re older than Kaiti. Why aren’t you the Heir?”

“She’s Dragonaie. I’m not.”

“Oh.”

“Good job missing the obvious, Genius.”

Kaiti smiled and shook her head. She then stood up. “All right then. We’ll be off.”

Friya stood up as well. “Already? But you just got here!”

“Friya, we must go. Stilver, is there any chance you might tag along?”

“Finally something I know. Sorry, I can’t. I would just mess things up. What I can do is give you one half of the Mirror.”

He reached over to the bookshelf on the wall and pulled out a book-sized slab of obsidian, handing it over to Kaiti. She drew her finger, now glowing, across a fissure mark in the side of the stone, which promptly split in half. Stilver took back one of the halves, and Kaiti tucked the other into a pouch in her belt. She then glanced at Laila and Jason, who also stood up. The three of them walked to the door, Stilver and Friya following behind.

Jason reached out and tugged on the doorknob, but to no avail. Friya reached out, intending to help, but Kaiti raised an hand.

“Let him do it by himself.”

Jason tugged and twisted, pushed and pulled, but the door didn’t budge. He glanced up, his impossibly green eyes asking for help.

“You know what do do,” Kaiti says. “You just need to think.”

Jason looked at the doorknob, and took a step back, staring at it. His mouth formed an o of understanding, and then he asked the door politely if it would open. The door swung open, smacking Jason in the face as it did so. He stumbled back, glaring at the two siblings who were laughing hysterically at the accident.

“The door didn’t know you yet. It would have warned you to step back, but it clearly didn’t like being yanked on.” Kaiti said through peals of laughter.

Jason sighed and rubbed his face where the door had hit him. “I don’t think anything’s broken.”

Laila shook her head and walked out the door.