My jaw hung slack as I stared from Keshry to the painting and back again.

“My…my mother did this? I mean…she actually did this? She could fly?”

Keshry smiled, though there was a sadness in her eyes as she looked from me up to the mural, to the image of my mother caught like a lovely moth in the dark web of the graffiti around her. Faintly, I detected a scent like roasted chestnuts intermingled with the unmistakable musk of a skyborn. Familiar, though I couldn’t quite place it.

“She flew. But only twice,” said Keshry, bringing up a hand and pressing it to the stone, almost exactly where I had only just a moment ago.

“Why only twice?”

The edges of her not-lips turned down very slightly, her eyes especially glossy as she stared up at the portrait.

“Because after she did this, she was forbidden to do so again. And all other deepborn were forbidden to follow her path.”

My chest tightened.

“What?” I sputtered. “But why? I don’t—”

There was an echoing scoff from behind us. The scent of chestnuts intensified, and this time I recognized it.

Reve.

I whirled on the spot to glare over at the Topaz as they approached, padding our way from the same entrance Keshry and I had used.

“Because it’s an affront to nature. An act of defiance against the order of all things.”

There was a disgust to the way they sneered the words, and I couldn’t tell if they believed them fiercely, or meant to mock the idea. But their tone cut me nonetheless.

Keshry scrunched her nose in distaste, and I scoffed.

“The true order of all things is change,” I spat back. “Things in nature adapt. How is this any different?”

Reve smirked, and Keshry and I both stepped to the side, maintaining our distance as the skyborn drew uncomfortably close. But my next breath was rich with their scent, sending a shiver down my spine and filling my mouth with saliva. My Moon wasn’t quite over…not yet. Fur prickling, I took another step back. Bringing up a single claw, Reve placed its curved back to my mother’s painting, just over her shin. A low, involuntary growl rolled up from my chest as they drew the claw downward. But the gesture was gentle, and left no mark.

“She thought like you do,” said Reve, looking up at the painting, claw still laid upon the stone, unmoving now. “You say you don’t remember anything before coming here?”

My jaw set as they looked over at me.

“You’d do well to learn your mother’s story, and to learn from it. Seri did. Seri knew what it meant to be deepborn.”

“Don’t talk to me about her,” I snapped. “Did you follow us here?”

Reve flexed their wings.

“As much as I detest the fact, we are coven-mates now. When you decide to wander off in the early morning hours with someone not our own, and without our blessing…well, it would be downright irresponsible of me not to ensure you didn’t dishonor us all in the process. Who knows what you might do, who you might hurt, otherwise?”

My laugh echoed harshly through the common hall.

“Oh, you’re my chaperone now, then? My guardian?”

“I’m whatever my coven needs me to be,” said Reve, finally letting their claw drop as they turned to face me fully. Their wings spread as they loomed over me, but I held my ground, fought the urge to step further back from them. Even though the temptation of their aroma threatened to consume me with every breath I took. Their pupils narrowed as they glared at me, and then suddenly went wide.

“Oh. I’m sorry, is my scent bothering you?” They leant forward and down, fluffing their fur, drenching the air with that horribly wonderful aroma of theirs. My hands clenched into fists. I wanted to cover my nose, to scurry away, but I refused to give them that satisfaction.

Shouldn’t have left my damned nose-scarf behind.

But then I caught another scent, and another, and changed my mind.

“Mm, it is a bit strong,” I conceded finally. “You probably should have joined the others for that bath last night.”

Their lips pulled up to bare their teeth.

“As if I—”

“Good morning.”

A deep, measured voice cut easily through Reve’s rapidly rising one.

The three of us turned to see the rest of Coven Raystone crowding into the hall.

“Told you they were fine,” said Asho, crossing their arms as they scowled up at a frowning Jenner. Vyr stifled a yawn, using a free hand to steady a wobbly, shadow-eyed Imbris. Erek was watching me with an odd sort of hurt curiosity, while Destrien’s eyes were all for Keshry.

Jenner inclined his head to the Jade before looking from Reve to me and back again. “Is everything fine?”

Reve and I glanced sideways at one another. We both opened our mouths to speak at once, but then Jenner thought better of it and brought up a hand to silence us.

“Sadras-an, if you wouldn’t mind?”

Keshry’s eyes went wider even than usual as she peered up at him. Her ear flicked.

“Zia could not sleep,” she answered, the words tumbling out in a rush. “And so I came down to her, and we went out to explore. This one followed us to watch over her, and then tried to intimidate her.”

Jenner lifted a scaly brow.

“Intimidate?”

“Yes,” said Keshry, nodding earnestly. “They spread their wings over her, and they said cruel things about her mother, and they loomed, Kaiatek-anz.”

“Jenner is fine,” he said absently, eyes still fixed on Reve.

“Jenner-anz.”

“I suppose that’ll do,” said the Jasper, chuckling as he released the Topaz from the grip of his gaze. “Well, since we’re up early anyway, we may as well get first pick of the food. Come. You’re welcome to join us, Keshry…if I may call you that?”

The little Jade jumped a bit as he said her name.

“Y-yes!” She chirped enthusiastically, hurrying to keep up as he turned from us and stalked back the way he’d come. Reve and I followed after them only a second later, but not before exchanging a prolonged, mutually-threatening glare.

We reached the dining area and kitchens to find the table-stones filling up with food and clay jugs of drink. Jenner placed a hand to Reve’s shoulder.

“Let’s eat together, just you and I,” he said. Reve’s lip pulled up to one side, but they didn’t dare argue. Once we all had our food, the rest of us fell in behind the ashai as they lead us through a narrow opening to one side of the kitchens, down a curving hall, and out onto a sort of covered terrace. It was like a long shelf carved out of the side of the mountain, filled to the brim with dripping greenery. Crowded in amongst all the growth were sitting-stones and open scoops. Beyond the edge of the terrace—which had no railing—the rain still fell, a shimmering veil between us and the sweeping clouds and the black mountains and forests that sprawled out below. Guards stood at intervals along its outer edge, watching the sky.

Jenner caught Reve’s eye and jerked his head to one side, and the pair veered off and away as the rest of us settled into a scoop that was much closer to the edge than I’d like. But facing away from it meant sitting close to it—so I put the edge to my side, instead. As we ate, other covens began to show up with their own food, one of them souring the air with the scent of their agitation. Keshry froze, her back going stiff.

“Keshry-sa! There you are!” barked one of the sour ones, a big beige skyborn, stomping over to us at once. “What are you doing? We’ve been worried. Come.” He gave Vyr a narrow-eyed glare, as though she’d kidnapped the Jade herself. The Garnet ignored him.

Keshry took a deep breath through her nose and sighed as she let it out.

“I am coming, Arias-anz,” she said, giving me an indecipherable look as she stood up to join him. I frowned as she padded away. Hoping that her situation was better than it seemed, I turned back to the others.

“Do you…” I hesitated as Vyr’s eyes suddenly narrowed and Imbris and Asho leaned forward with anticipation. His eyes averted and ears pricked in my direction, Erek drank from an enormous mug of the nutty stuff I’d come to think of as coffee, while Destrien was feeding the last of his scraps to Scruffy. Swallowing, I tried again.

“Do any of you know anything about my mother?”

Vyr’s eyes went briefly wide before her usual mask of disdain slammed back into place. Imbris flinched as she and Asho exchanged a sideways glance.

“What do you want to know?” ventured Imbris.

“Reve said she flew. That what she did has been against the law ever since. They implied—well, it sounded like things didn’t go well for her. Are they right? What happened to her after that? How is she now? Zia—I mean, my old self—never mentioned her in the journals.”

The others all looked distinctly uncomfortable, save Vyr, whose ear merely twitched a bit.

“Well, she…she wasn’t punished or anything, after that first time,” said Imbris, hesitating.

“They couldn’t,” said Asho, grinning wickedly. “No one ever thought anyone could do it, so there was no rule against it. Not at that point.”

“But it did change things for her,” said Imbris gently. “Even with her connections, she was a sort of pariah, beyond her coven. And when she did it again—”

“She did it again?” I gasped, setting my now-empty cup to one side. “After it was forbidden, I mean?”

Imbris nodded gravely as Asho erupted into a sinister sort of jackal-laugh and lifted their half-eaten leg of monster-turkey up high.

“To the depths, she did,” they said, their voice edged in a gleeful growl. “And I raise my meat to her for it.”

At my troubled look, Imbris set what remained of her own breakfast aside and leant forward to cover my hands in both of hers.

“She did,” she said, eyes tight around the edges. “And…and she was executed for it.”

My mouth seemed suddenly cotton-dry.

“E-executed? For flying?”

Imbris’ brows knotted up, a tooth digging into her lip. She nodded.

“That’s…that’s horrible!”

A teal and lime-green colored bird startled and launched from a nearby branch. Imbris grimaced and sucked a breath through her teeth, gesturing for me to lower my voice.

“I know,” she whispered. “And I’m so sorry you have to find out like this. But we probably shouldn’t talk about it any more out here.”

Snapping my mouth shut, eyes already hot and watering at the corners, I nodded. My fur prickled. Glancing up, I realized Vyr was staring at me.

“What?”

But she jerked her gaze away from mine, looking to Imbris and Asho instead.

“She really doesn’t remember anything, does she?”

Imbris said nothing, her lovely features set into grim lines, brows drawn together. Asho shrugged, raising their food-filled mitts palm-up in a sort of what-can-you-do gesture.

“Do you want to?”

I looked over with a start. Vyr’s yellow-green eyes were fixed on me again, and this time she didn’t look away as I met them.

“Want to what?”

“Remember,” said Vyr. “I can’t guarantee I can do it, but I could try…if you want me to.”