In a large room that lay somewhere beneath what I had once thought to be the lowest floor of Lun, I stood in front of a very strange collection of people.

Each of them were not strange by themselves.

Anna, a brand new leather bound notebook open in front of her, sat cross legged in a chair and was leaning forward on the table top before her, prepared to begin writing at any moment. Besides the layers of warm clothes that she looked very cute in, it would have been easy to imagine that we were back in our quarters doing what we did on most nights.

My mother, whose knocks on my door early that morning had woken me up and stirred me into an aggravated anger that had vanished as soon as I met her emerald eyes, sat beside Anna. Even in a room with Anna and two of The Mothers, she somehow managed to be a kind of beautiful that was all her own.

The Mother in Grey, Grey, had come in through a portrait of some purple haired sorceress and placed herself on the opposite side of the room. She wore a long sleeved coat and pants of some intricate weave that played a trick on my eyes every time I looked at it. She sat perfectly still, but the grey and black pattern of her clothes moved with my gaze. There was a small game between us, though I was certain she did not know it. Every time I would look away from her, she would peek out from behind her grey scale hair. When she thought I might see her, she would look away again and pretend that she had not so much as glanced at me.

Nami stood at the back of the big room, looking more similar to some queen or princess from one of my mother's stories than she did to anyone else in the room. I had a new appreciation for the strength that dwelled within her ocean eyes. After my emotional admission the day before, she had dealt with me arguing with her for a long while. She could have silenced me at any point, but she had not. With an unyielding calm, she had spoken to me with words that assured me of her power without ever threatening me with it.

A small smile playing at the corners of her full lips, she was talking quietly to the sorceress who was meant to give me guidance.

It was an odd feeling, seeing someone that I had never seen before even though I knew what it was like to be her.

I had been very careful not to meet either of her eyes.

One was light purple, just a shade or two lighter than the Mother in Purple's, and the other was a rich honey brown. I knew the moment that I looked into them, that a vision of her memories would come flashing back into my mind.

I already had a heap of my own emotions to deal with, I hardly needed to add anyone else's

She was pretty, but I was beginning to understand that I thought mostly everyone was pretty in their own way.

Reese's full figure made her appear strong and sturdy, like she could withstand a great storm without so much as a grimace. Plia's thin hair gave her a delicate look, like a flower's petals being blown by the wind. Even Tana's face, if I allowed myself to forget how I felt about her for a moment, made me very aware of how dull the features of Underwitch Ire were.

Twila Plaas had a rough look about her that only drew my attention to her more. Her hair was long and tied back off her face with a strip of torn cloth. Dark at its roots and light at its ends, there were small traces of her purple woven within it. She wore a long black cloak that covered all sides of her like Precept Mon Zetta's. Along the fringes of the cloak was an intricate gold pattern that I had seen many times before.

Azza. I thought. If the blue cloak of my uniform and the icy cloaks of the Precepts were related to Katarina, then a cloak like Twila's could only mean that she knew The Mother in Brown.

The skin of her thighs that could be seen between the bottom of her cloak and the tops of her leg wraps was tan like Azza's. Her face had the same warm glow as well, a complexion that I understood people only got after long hours in the sun.

If she was here under Azza's power, then I would have to be even more careful around her than I had already been commanded to be.

Alexei was the last of those who had gathered in the big room. He leaned back against the wall beside the door, his arms resting on the ends of his ever present swords. Unlike everyone else, he had asked for my permission to come and observe. We had been standing in front of two of the mothers, and he had asked me.

How could I have denied him after that?

Then there was me.

Not Underwitch Ire.

Me.

There was not one of my disguise's black hairs in sight, no muted features or darkened eyes either. I had let her fall from my face the very instance that I had stepped into the room.

Not having to wear my glamor or my uniform had been one of the demands I had made at Nami.

Anna's presence was the second.

The third had not come to pass yet, but based on the success of the first two, I did not doubt that it would.

In hindsight, The Mother in Blue had given into my demands so easily, that I had begun to wonder if I should have asked for more.

I should have asked that Tana be sent away. I thought to myself.

It was not strange that I was glamorless, with my long red hair and green eyes on display for all to see. Nor was it strange that I was wearing one of my old white dresses and my sandals. I had asked for both of those things to be so and so they had.

Seeing everyone in the big room together was also not the reason for my unusual feeling.

The true reason was because I was not in trouble.

Almost every time I had seen more than one of The Mothers, it was because I had done something wrong or they had come to punish me. Gatherings around me usually only happened after I had been horrifically injured. My mind seemingly could not accept that there was nothing deeper and darker about why I had been brought to the room.

I was a twinsoul.

Twila was a twinsoul.

Nami meant for her to teach me what that meant.

That was it.

I hoped.

"There is no sense in waiting any longer." Nami sighed to the room, raising her voice for all of us to hear.

"Right," Anna nodded in response as she scrawled madly across the top of her blank page. "Let Autumn's super secret training begin."

Nami and I both laughed, my mother smiled, Mother Grey tucked a long strand of smoke colored hair behind her ear, Sorceress Twila began taking off her cloak, and Alexei made nothing even remotely close to an expression.

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All was well, I hoped.

The fading edges of her laugh still playing at the start of her words, Nami turned to me. "Underwitch Autumn, could you show us your colors? Something small, like a werelight or something of that sort."

All was not well.

"I, uhm," I said sheepishly as I cast my eyes down to the floor. "We have two problems."

"She does not know how to make a werelight, Headmistress." Alexei answered for me.

Anna glared at him with such anger in her eyes that I was shocked his robe did not catch flame. "I didn't know your name was Autumn, Master Alexei. Let her speak for herself."

"Lady Anna, you make me wonder why she needs a guard in the first place with you around." Nami laughed again.

"He is right though, I don't know how to make a werelight. That is the first problem." I admitted, unable to look up from the rug beneath my sandals.

The skin of my feet and legs had grown very pale in the wintery grey of Lun Arcanicil. I almost wished I had worn shoes that covered them fully so no one could see the pink scars and nicks that stood in stark contrast against the too white skin.

Nami looked confused. "How are you hallway through your first phase and you do not know how to make a werelight?"

Her tone was not mean spirited or patronizing. I knew her well enough to know that her question had come from genuine curiosity, but it still made me start dreaming my little Autumn dream again.

"Maybe if she wasn't locked in a room for most of her life and forbidden from learning anything she would know how." Anna said in a poor attempt of talking under her breath.

Oh no. She's gonna get hurt because I brought her here. I said to myself. I agreed with what she had said and felt exactly the same. It was who she had said it to that made me fear for her.

My mother reached over and placed her hand on Anna's knee. "I am sorry, Mother, please do not take offense. I have rarely seen anyone as passionate about anything as Lady Anna is about my daughter."

"I would be a poor Mother indeed if I got my feelings hurt from hearing the truth," Nami said, her good humor still bringing light to her eyes. "Not a werelight then. Whatever is easiest for you."

Still looking down at my feet and wishing I would have known it would be chilly when I decided to put them on, I answered. "That's the second problem. I haven't been able to use my red since I found my blue."

"Hmmm, that is a problem. Twila? Have you ever experienced something like that?" Nami asked.

"No, but I found both of my colors within a few days of each other," Sorceress Twila said as she glanced around the room. "How far apart was it for you?"

I didn't really have an answer for that. My habit of forgetting who I was from time to time and jumping through the memories of others made it fairly difficult for me to keep track of dates and times.

"A while, I think." I answered honestly with a shrug of my shoulders.

"Almost a year." Anna corrected me.

"If she says it, it's right." I said, looking over to her and trying to blush once she winked at me.

Nami nodded and looked to Twila. "Could that be the root of her issue?"

"I don't know. I'm sorry, Mother. Mother Azza told you that I'm not a teacher. I know how to use my power, that's it." Twila sighed.

"You are all that we have, Sorceress Twila. Perhaps explaining to Underwitch Autumn what using your power is like for you will be a better place to begin." Mother Grey said in the flat, emotionless, tone that I had come to expect from her.

I thought of her and Alexei being in a room alone in a room together and nearly laughed. The walls around them would crumble before either of them would express an emotion.

"Yes, Mother, but I am afraid that it will do no good. Sorceresses are so different already. My soul is halved down its middle," She turned her different colored eyes my way and walked towards me. "Does that help you, girl? Are you split like I am?"

And not one of them ever stays sane. The Mother in Purple's words echoed in my mind.

"No." I answered honestly and cast my eyes back down just in time to not meet hers.

Nami followed in her footsteps, one hand resting gently on the sorceress's shoulder. "You can see this split within yourself when you reach for your aura?"

"Yes." Sorceress Twila agreed.

Nami kept her hand on Twila, but she turned and looked at my mother. "Sorceress Idensyn, when I reach for my soul, I see an ocean. What do you see?"

"A mirror, Mother Nami." My mother answered.

"And you, Grey?" Nami turned to the other Mother in the room.

"Filaments." Mother Grey answered as if anyone else actually knew what that was.

"Right," Nami nodded. "And Twila, you see a split?"

"Not a split, Mother. I see window glass. One pane is lavender and the other is honey." Sorceress Twila said, confusion evident on her face.

"And last but not least, Underwitch Autumn, what do you see?" Nami asked, placing her hand on my shoulder.

I had been ready to answer as soon as she had asked my mother. In truth, I was almost excited at the feeling of actually knowing something or once.

"Blue." I said confidently.

"Blue? Just the color blue?" Nami asked.

"My color blue. Azure." I explained.

Nami nodded as I spoke, a look of understanding softening her ocean eyes.

My mother was the next to speak. "I would like to remind us all just how young Autumn is. She has not yet seen your twentieth year. I would guess that she is the youngest underwitch within Lun Arcanicil by at least a decade. Could it simply be time that is the solution?"

I thought of Tana, Plia, and the other new moons being ten years older than me and did not mind the thought. Tana was not just behind me in our assignments. She was behind someone considerably younger than her.

It would be almost impossible for me to not let that slip the next time I saw her.

"A fair point, Sorceress Idensyn, but time is something we do not have. Do to Underwitch Autumn's special nature, it is imperative that she understands her power lest it begin to make itself known without her willing it to." Mother Grey said, the cold silver of her eyes focused intently on my mother.

It is about The Well then. I thought to myself, paying special attention to the way she had emphasized the word special. I had made my three demands and in return, I had agreed to not make mention of The Well in front of Sorceress Twila. Grey was one of the least expressive and most direct souls that I had ever encountered. If she had been speaking of my twinsoul nature, she would have said so.

"I understand, Mother." My mother agreed as she looked at me with a reassuring smile.

"Am I supposed to see something else?" I asked.

"If you are only seeing your color, it is likely that you have only been able to reach the outer edge of your power." Grey answered.

"And as your mother has said, you are still very young. You have done nothing wrong." Nami said, her hand still on my shoulder.

I knew I hadn't, but hearing her say it aloud was a welcome comfort.

Nami continued. "In order for Sorceress Twila's time to not be waisted here however, we must find a way for you to be able to channel both of your colors. I see two ways for us to try and do that. The first is to trigger the emotions that first brought your red out of you."

"I would prefer a method that did not require antagonizing my daughter into a state of anger." My mother said.

"Or any other feelings." Anna added. I could have imagined it, but I was almost certain that she had blushed.

"That is understandable," Nami said with an amused expression on her face. "Then, Grey, could you take a look inside her?"

Anna's pen dropped from her hand and bounced off the page she had been writing in. "Hey, you know what, I really don't like the way that sounds."

"If Underwitch Autumn will allow it, I will" Mother Grey answered.

"All you will have to do is reach for your aura, like you would if you were going to perform a working. It will not hurt. Mother Grey is very skilled, you will hardly know she is there at all." Nami assured me.

Alexei had not moved.

Twila withdrew from me, but she no longer looked confused.

Anna and my mother both wore expressions of obvious concern.

The Mother in Grey remained motionless, looking in my direction but not directly at me.

All of them were waiting on me. They were waiting for my approval. For the fist time in my short life, I felt like I could say no to The Mothers and they would respect my choice. The assuring look on Nami's face told me that I would not be punished if I was not comfortable with what was being suggested.

She has already been in your mind before. I thought to myself, taking as much time as I needed to make a decision.

After so long spent in silence that Sorceress Twila went and took a seat, I looked to The Mother in Grey and spoke with as much authority in my voice as I could. "I will allow it."

No harm would come to me.

Nami had said so herself, and I could trust Nami.

I hoped.

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