I was too tired to appreciate the opulence of Sire’s wing of the Emerald Palace. I was too exhausted to pay attention to the conversation humming around me; too out-of-sorts to do anything other than mumble.

The first room I was shown with a bed—a massive pile of fluffy pillows and blankets and dimly shining silk, stuffed with what had to have been not-cold clouds—I slithered into and collapsed. Not dramatically; I just coiled up and closed my eyes. The last moments before sleep took me, I felt two warm, familiar presences move through the shadows to lie down next to me. My hearts slowed, and I slipped away into the void.

Whenever I was truly tired, the emptiness of the void seemed like a welcome reprieve. Only after much time passed, did that reprieve turn to torture. Body asleep, my mind whirled.

Had I ruined everything?

I had, hadn’t I?

Struggling against doubt, I twisted and writhed in the cold emptiness until the eventual warmth of morning—and a foot in my face—woke me.

“Sorry,” Kyrae mumbled.

I hissed softly and pulled tighter.

“Issa!” my sister hissed. “I need to go!”

Oh. Sleepy as I was, I knew that sort of thing all-too well. I was a clingy sleeper, and Ssiina was even worse, which was why Kyrae had ended up planting a foot in my face; she was trapped.

Probably, anyway—I hadn’t yet opened my eyes. Instead, I loosened and hoped Ssiina would follow suit in her slumber. If either of us prodded her, she’d probably just pull tighter. Not enough to hurt—she was asleep—but enough to keep Kyrae stuck.

The tactic worked, and Kyrae slid free as I basked in warm rays coming from somewhere I didn’t know or care to know. Mostly, I was glad to have escaped that void, even if my mind was still tired. But the bed was warm and soft and astoundingly smooth against my scales; I knew that I could either leave it, or slip away again into a liminal abyss.

Hearts heavy with regret, I slid out of the bed, cracking my eyes open even as I was too lazy to lift my upper body more than a handsbreadth off the floor. At least it’s morning.

Light and color flooded in as I passed under some sort of curtain and I winced, pulling the rest of myself out of the bed with a sliding hiss. The floor was warm and I lay there for a moment, enjoying the sun and feeling the cold tension of the room’s shadows, distant as if across a river.

“Issa?” Kyrae asked quietly, startling me awake as I was slipping off. “Are you alright?”

She had her hand on my shoulder, and I reached up to put mine over it. “Yeah. I think so, but…”

I really hoped Kyrae would speak up into the silence, broken only by Ssiina’s soft snoring. She didn’t, and I eventually realized I’d need to pull myself upright. And open my eyes again.

The room was bright, sunlight streaming in from glass-filled windows that showed a garden beyond, trees warped and titled and just a little too green. All around, soft things covered furniture I could only vaguely identify from Phaeliisthia’s lessons. Sigils traced with bright, pastel colors—blues and greens mostly—glowed faintly around the tops of the walls, and a small table next to me was covered in bottles and tinctures of equally-bright colors.

From a reflective, shiny metal disc propped up next to the bottles, I could see myself, clearer than in any water. I looked a mess: my hair was tangled and dark circles hung under my eyes. But my eyes were green, brilliant and bright in the glare of the mirror.

Nervously, I looked from my reflection to Kyrae. My sister wore a tired smile, but the expression reached her warm eyes.

“I ruined everything, Sister,” my voice came out small and meek. “All I had to do was not show my curse, and I failed. How much longer will we have all this?” I waved a limp arm around the room. “Will I drag Ssiina and Sire down, too? Will the Jii’Hssen suffer for my mistake?”

“I should slap you,” Kyrae hissed, her smile vanishing as her lips formed a thin, paling line. “After all this, do you really think your family will resent you?”

I swallowed, unable to answer my sister, shrinking back under her withering glare.

“Do you?” She leaned down, and I leaned away.

“I don’t want—”

“Stop.”

I stopped.

“We’re no longer kss’iir. We’re hssen—royalty. Sire and Aunt Ssyii are among the most powerful and influential people in the Empire, and they are on our side. Sire has even killed for us.”

“Zaiia’s influential, too…” The argument felt hollow.

“Phaeliisthia.”

“She can’t—”

“Would that stop her?”

“…No.” Unlikely as it was, the thought of Phaeliisthia breaking her neutrality to come to my aid sort’ve brought everything into focus. “But I still messed up.”

Kyrae shook her head. “Maybe, but it doesn’t matter. We move on. Like picking a bad mark or missing a chance to snatch something.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” She had a point. It was done, and now we needed to deal with the consequences.

“Mhm.”

I pulled myself up, coiling until I was a little bit above eye-level to my sister. “Then we must act now. Sire, the Jii’Hssen, and Phaeliisthia will do what they can, but there are things we must do.”

Kyrae hopped up onto one of my coils, a grin easing back into place on her face. “And those are?”

“Hsss! I’m working on that!”

Behind the sheer green curtains of her bed, Ssiina stirred. “Hsss?” She mumbled something else languidly, then slithered out, rubbing her eyes. “What are you two talking about? Oh! How do you like my room! Did you sleep well? Why… are you both staring at me?” She looked down at herself, moving her upper body around to see what it was we were staring at. Aside from mussed hair, she looked fine.

“Are you worried about last night?” Ssiina continued, guessing. “Sire and the Jii’Hssen will take care of it. Aunt Zaiia was in the wrong—you were just defending us.”

“Well… that’s the thing,” I said.

“Hmm?”

“We’re adults now—or will be very soon. There are things we can do as well!”

Ssiina blinked. “Issa, surely you’re not thinking of going up against Zaiia. You’ve barely dipped your tail into hssen politics and—”

“Not that,” Kyrae cut in. “Er, right?”

“Right!” I beamed, scrambling to think of another plan since they’d just guessed mine.

Ssiina giggled. “That was absolutely her plan, Kyrae. We’ll give you a moment. How do you like my room?”

“The bed’s very soft,” Kyrae said. “Will… can I get a bed here like what Phaeliisthia had for me?”

“Oh!” Ssiina replied, circling around us. “One of those small square ones that’s like a box on the ground?”

“Or off it. Keeps bugs away better—like the canopy over your bed.”

Ssiina looked back. “Oh, that’s for keeping heat in at night, and also for privacy when the maids draw a bath and bring the morning meal.”

“Do no bugs bother you? I know humans have it far, far worse than elves, but at least some bugs annoy us.”

Ssiina shrugged. “Maybe?”

“…So that’s why Issa never complained. I just thought she was being stoic.”

Suddenly, I smacked my fist into my palm. “I’ve got it!”

Kyrae jumped, sliding off me and onto the floor. “Ow. Got what?”

“What we can do!”

“Does it involve fighting anyone?” Ssiina asked, almost chiding in her tone as she helped Kyrae to her feet.

“Not unless they start it.”

Kyrae moved her hands to dust herself off, then stopped when she looked down at the sparklingly-clean floor. “Are you planning to entice them to start something?”

I shook my head. “Nope! No fighting.”

Kyrae opened her mouth.

“And no stealing! And only a little sneaking! Can I say it now?”

“Please,” Ssiina answered.

“Yay! Alright, so there’s two parts. The first is that we visit parts of the city—the poorer markets—in disguise and give patronage to the people there. I know just the place in fact. Even better if we can offer to help with some chores, especially as it’s almost Founding Day. Then, Dyni comes in—she’s going to be in on this—and tells us off for sneaking out.”

“Why?” Ssiina asked.

I pouted. “I’m getting to that!”

Ssiina looked to Kyrae for help, but our elf sister just shrugged. “I’m interested so far.”

Taking that as my cue to continue, I did so. “We get revealed to be hssen. But we’ve been helping people out, and there’re gonna be people who’ll recognize me and Kyrae from when we were struggling to get by. One of them even knows of my curse—if she’s still there. This whole thing kinda hinges on that.

“So they learn that I’m a long-lost daughter of Hssen Tyaniis, and Kyrae’s been adopted. And as the born-and-raised noble, Ssiina, you’re the best proof that we’re not pulling some sort of grift. But most of all, they learn that we’re nice and good people.”

Kyrae blinked slowly. “You lost me. How will some people uninvolved in all this knowing more about our secrets help? I don’t think us being good people to them is going to move mountains.”

“No, but it could shift a river,” Ssiina said thoughtfully. “Public opinion is important, after all. A lot of the Jii’Hssen’s power is ceremonial, so if the public sentiment is good toward us then it makes it harder to act against us. Doubly so if we’re seen in public actively helping ssen’iir.”

“The Temple?” Kyrae rubbed her chin.

“Precisely!” Ssiina wrapped a loose loop around Kyrae. “And if Issa’s curse gets out, then there’ll be plenty of pushback to the idea that she’s truly ‘tainted.’ That’s a brilliant plan, Issa!” She leaned forward and hugged me.

“Uh, thanks.” It is? I mean, I hadn’t thought that far, but it makes sense. “I mean—of course! That’s the idea! We just need to get Dyni and probably also tell Sire and then we can go! It’ll be better than being stuck here worrying. Not that here’s a bad place to be stuck or anything, it’s just—”

Ssiina laughed. “I get it, Sister. It’s fine, really. I’ll do your makeup before we go out.”

Kyrae, meanwhile slipped free of Ssiina’s coil and walked right up next to us. “Ssiina? Are you agreeing with this more because it will get you out and meeting with the common folk, or because you really believe it’s a worthwhile plan?”

“Both, of course!”

Kyrae groaned.

Our hssen-raised sister pouted. “I mean it, I really do!”

“Well… alright then. I’ll at least admit I’m curious.”

“Marvelous!” Ssiina looped Kyrae into the hug. “Let’s plan our ssen’iir outfits!”

I tilted my head to one side. “There’s not much to plan, though.”

“But we might not have clothes like that in the palace.”

“Can Dyni get some?”

“Well, yes, but we’ll also need to fix your hair.”

Kyrae laughed. “Perhaps Issa’s hair is a bit much, but the point isn’t to look too particularly composed. We want to slip through peoples’ perception—and Issa and I are good at that. Even if she’s distinctly kelaniel—most people aren’t going to make that assumption.”

I nodded along. “Yeah! So we just need to get some clothes, make ourselves no more than halfway presentable, and then we’re off. We can just leave the palace whenever, right?”

Ssiina shook her head. “We’re not yet adults, so we’ll need Sire’s permission.”

“Didn’t you used to sneak out?” Kyrae asked. “When you first found us, you’d done just that if I recall, and you weren’t completely terrible at acting as a commoner.”

“Whaddya mean? She was completely terrible!”

“Issa! I’m trying to be nice to our sister!”

“Wouldn’t it be better to be honest?”

“Issa, Kyrae, please. Let’s summon Dyni and ask ourselves. The morning meal will be here, and I’d like to leave soon after.”

“Will we eat it here?”

“We… can, if you want to.”

Kyrae nodded. “It’ll be faster.”

“Alright, then.” Ssiina slithered over to the wall and placed a hand in a well-worn space surrounded by glowing lines. “This is… wow, this is so much easier than before—I think I actually know how this works.” The sigils around the room faded, and Ssiina knocked on the door. “Lissti, please fetch Dyni for us. And we’ll be taking our morning meal here.”

I barely caught the servant’s faint reply. “Was she just waiting out there?”

Ssiina nodded. “It’s not every morning—there’s a bell I can ring that sounds elsewhere. But I assumed she’d be ready after last night—that and I believe we’re running later than is typical.”

“Oh.”

Zinniz never waited on us like that. The only time he was outside our door was if we overslept, and then all we’d get was a series of sharp knocks and a curt reminder. Me and Ssiina mostly—Kyrae rarely slept in.

Our conversation stayed on ssen’iir while we waited for Dyni. Kyrae tried to convince Ssiina that dressing as ssen’iir wasn’t a complex affair, but she’d romanticized the idea to the point where we made little headway. Soon, a sharp rap on the door was followed by Dyni’s voice.

Ssiina let her in, and the bodyguard slithered inside before bowing low to all of us. Hssen Ssiina, Hssen Kyrae, Hssen Issa. What may I do for you?”

“Can you procure ssen’iir clothing for all three of us?”

“…I can, yes.”

“Don’t worry,” I said, trying to assuage the uncertain-looking lania’el. “We’re just going to one of the markets where Kyrae and I used to live. We’re gonna involve you in it and let Sire know!”

“Now that you’ve said that, I feel honor-bound to ask: What are you three up to?”

“Dyni,” Ssiina slithered close to the bodyguard and put an arm over her shoulder. She’s bigger than Dyni now. “Issa had a great plan!”

Ssiina’s explanation was embellished and over-complicated, but when she finished Dyni at least looked thoughtful. “There’s a surprising amount of merit to this terrible, risky idea. From what Hssen Tyaniis has told me this morning, she and the Jii’Hssen do not think this incident will get out. But, this could help if it were to, and may provide additional support besides.

“Your reintroduction and adoption will be known throughout Ess’Sylantziis by next week, I’m afraid. So now would be the only time for such an action. I will inform Hssen Tyaniis at once.”

“What if she says no?” Ssiina asked.

“I do not think that will be a concern. Do you need anything else?”

Ssiina shook her head and Kyrae and I shrugged.

“Very well. I will return shortly.” The bodyguard left just as swiftly as she’d arrived.

The moment the door closed, I leaned close to Ssiina. “Can’t we just ask Sire ourselves?”

“I… yes I suppose we could. Just, well, for many years Sire and I weren’t that close.”

“You weren’t close enough to talk to each other in the same house—well, palace?” Kyrae asked. “You’ve mentioned before that your relationship was distant. Has Sire changed that much?”

Ssiina nodded. “More like she’s changed back. It feels almost like when Mother was alive. Except there’s still an emptiness… But! We have more planning to do!”

Thankfully, it wasn’t long at all before Dyni returned, and the answer she gave was simple.

“No,” The bodyguard said. “Hssen Tyaniis says you are not to leave the Emerald Palace grounds. In fact, you are not to leave this wing.”

Ssiina huffed, balling her hands into fists. “Really? Of course she would!”

“However,” Dyni continued, tips of fangs poking out through her smile, “she has also informed me that she will be terribly busy today and expects the three of you to mind yourselves.”

Wait, does that mean that she actually—

“So she’s actually okay with us going out as long as we aren’t noticed.”

Dyni’s smile widened. “Absolutely not, Hssen Ssiina.”

Ssiina jumped forward and hugged her—our—bodyguard. “Thanks, Dyni. Really. And tell Sire thank you as well.”

“We’ll tell her ourselves,” I said sharply. “Right, Sisters?”

Kyrae nodded. “Right!”

Ssiina had to take a deep breath and blink away growing tears. “Right! Yes, of course. I… it’s just—I think it’s finally hitting me, even years later, that Sire really has changed.” She hugged Dyni back. “I know I already said as much, but thank you, Dyni. Again. Do you have the clothes?”

“Not yet. I’ll have to leave to get them, but I should be back after your morning meal. Do note that after your meal Lissti will need to help with cleanup, Kyen is assisting Hssen Tyaniis, and the taaniir are undergoing the start of a staggered shift change. So you’ll need to be very safe then.”

Ssiina giggled. “Just like old times—except I didn’t have to find that out myself.”

“It’s absolutely nothing of the sort, Hssen Ssiina.”

At Dyni’s almost overly dramatic sarcasm, I couldn’t hold my laughter back any longer and snickers turned into giggles. Kyrae tried to reprimand me, but short laughs broke through her words, and us three sisters found a little bit of joy again after a night of anxiety and fear.