Night took Silkcradle before we ever reached where we were being led to.

If it had not been for Alexei's silent presence behind me, I would not have been able to keep myself calm.

Precept Seram walked next to the man who was leading us, his torch now lit and it's light illuminating the jungle that threatened to swallow the trail at any moment.

Then, there were all the new moons. They walked within that flickering torch light, a constant roar of their laughing and chattering filling the night air around us. The sound competed against the droning whine that Alexei had said were all manner of insects that were hidden amongst the trees and vines. It did not seem to bother them. For being in a dark and unfamiliar place, they seemed perfectly content just being with each other.

Finally, there was me.

Not in the group, not laughing and talking, not unconcerned with all the things that could be following us.

I was a new moon, but I was not a part of the new moons.

How could I be?

Tana hated me and had tried her best to make the others feel the same. I had tried to talk to Mallory and had failed miserably. Plia, despite all the times that I had terrified her, did not seem to dislike me, but I knew just how quickly that could change.

We did not share meals. I did not live with them in the new moon's quarters. The only time I saw any of them were the spare moments our paths crossed outside our places or in the covery.

Even if we did do all of those things together, it would not be me that they spent time with, it would be Ire.

Even if they spent a hundred years with Ire, they would never truly know me.

Alexei knew me, but only because he had been ordered too, and being around him was often like spending time with a statue. He seemed particularly expressive when compared to other figures that had been carved from stone, but he was still just as cold and unfeeling as the rest.

Still, as distant as my wolfish guard was, I was grateful that it was him who was at the back of the group and not me.

The jungle around me was unlike any other forest or wooded area I had ever found myself in. The air had been warm on the peak that the black gate had stood on, but once we had descended into the tangled mess of overgrowth, it had become well and truly hot.

Thick in my lungs like the steam from a bath, I had sweat through my tights so thoroughly that my stockings were damp to the touch. The only thing that kept me from stripping down to the absolute least amount of clothes I could have on without letting everyone see all of me was the fear of being left behind.

Everything was too green. The leaves were too big and the underbrush was too thick. The vines that wove the trees, bushes, and every other thing together were too long. Not even Mother Gwyn's forests had been so dense or imposing.

The way that the part of my life that I could remember had gone, I knew that if my back was not under the watch of Alexei's one white eye, I was sure to be snatched up by some creeping beast and swallowed by the jungle before anyone knew I was gone.

He was watching me however. Even if Anna thought he would hurt me if he felt like it was necessary, his presence made me feel like I did not need to run away from the terrors that I imagined were hiding in the shadows beyond the trail.

Then, like walking outside through an open doorway, the jungle ended. It did not slowly spread out and fade into the sandy path that the trail had given way to. As far as I could see to my left and the short distance to the ocean's edge on my right, the tangled mess of vines and overgrowth held the same straight line without fail.

I had seen an ocean before, both with my own eyes and through those of others, but I had never been so close to one.

The sea salt smell, the gentle rising and crashing sound of its waves, the silver twinkling of the moonlight across its surface, I had already started walking towards it before I realized I was moving.

"Underwitch Ire, do not wander. Please come, there are announcements to be made." Precept Seram called out to me. All the other underwitches had gone inside the building that we had been led to, but my perfectly pleasant teacher had waited for me.

I shook my head, breaking the trance that the water had placed me in and called back to her. "Yes, Precept Seram."

Part of me wondered what Underwitch Ire would look like with a streak of pastel blue or pink in her hair.

Maybe she should take up wearing white gloves and smiling more often.

If she was going to start imitating Seram, hopefully she would gain the ability to look like she had just had a bath and gotten ready as well. No matter what time of day it was, or where I had seen her, my teacher never had a single hair out of place.

Somewhere between the jungle line and when I followed her into the building, Alexei had vanished without a trace as he was prone to do.

If I was gaining abilities, I would not mind my guards' stealthy steps either. There was an uncountable amount of things I could do, and most of them were either sneaking away to see Anna or sneaking up on Tana.

When I followed Precept Seram into the building, the man that had met us at the peak was in the middle of speaking to the rest of the new moons.

"-don't care what you hear. Your mother, your teacher, a Mother, me, it doesn't matter. Once the doors are locked tonight, you keep them locked." He said with his brows knit into a terribly serious expression.

Whatever he was warning us of, it did not sound very safe at all.

"That doesn't sound very safe." Plia said from where she sat on one of the six bed rolls that had been laid neatly across the raised wooden floor.

I felt myself smile at the revelation that we had been thinking the same thing.

"I'll say it again if that's what you girls need. You are perfectly safe here, but this place is full of familiars, and some of them have very different ideas of what playing a trick on someone looks like. Keep the doors shut, don't listen if anybody tries to talk to you through them, and keep an eye out for any of your things going missing, and nothing out of the ordinary will happen, got it?" The man continued, looking from each new moon to the next and finally all the way to where Precept Seram and I stood at the back of the room.

When no one answered, my teacher stepped in. "Do we all understand what the kind man has said?"

"Yes, Precept Seram." All of us answered.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Each of the bedrolls had an Underwitch atop it except for two. They just happened to be the two that were closest to the sliding door that looked more like framed paper than anything else, but I was sure that was a coincidence.

"And you will all follow his warnings as well as keep the rules that are expected of you within Lun Arcanicil?" Our teacher asked a second question.

"Yes, Precept Seram." We all answered again.

"Spotless." Our teacher said with a nod and a smile.

The man that had been our guide departed and Seram went to one of the unclaimed bed rolls. A thick blanket for a base, with a flat pillow and a thin sheet to complete it, there was a square of folded fabric on top of it all that she took into her hands.

"Because I am one of the greatest teachers in all of chaos, I have arranged for us to arrive to Silkcradle tonight instead of tomorrow morning like all the other moons have done on their free day," Precept Seram said, so much joy in her face that it looked like she was glowing. "Because this place is not just a home for wayward familiars, it is home to a hot spring that all of you could benefit from after all of your hard work."

Precept Seram unfolded the square of fabric neatly and gave it a single shake to reveal a small white robe and towel.

"What is a hot spring?" I asked aloud, not understanding what I was supposed to be excited about.

I knew Tana's name was spring, and though the idea of setting her on fire was not the worst thing I had ever thought of, she did not look all that hot.

I was the one who had sweat through her under layer and stockings, not the honey haired underwitch. If anyone was hot, it was me.

Tana laughed at my question. "You don't know? I thought motherless girls like you only bathed outside."

At first, I was too stunned to speak. Then, my jaw clenched and my stunned silence turned to anger. All I had done was ask a question. Why had she felt the need to turn it into a joke at my expense? The others were not laughing with her, but their staring did nothing to make me feel better.

Before I could bring my new heat to bear and cross the room to show Tana just how I felt, Precept Seram pointed at her and spoke in a tone that stopped me dead in my tracks.

"Underwitch Tana. That is unacceptable. I will speak with you outside. The rest of you get changed, there is ample time for us to relax before dinner." Precept Seram said, sliding the paper door open and waiting for Tana to make her way across the room.

The paper door slid shut behind them and I met Plia's eyes.

"What does that even mean? Why does she call me that?" I asked, trying to hide the quavering in my voice. Dying would be better than letting myself cry in front of the other new moons, but my heart had begun to ache.

We could not have been gone from Lun for more than two or three hours and I already wanted to go back.

I could not care less how hot Tana was. I did not need to see other familiars, the one I already had gave me enough problems, and he had recently gained a second personality. I practically had two, why would I spend my time looking for a third?

I wanted to go home. I wanted to curl up with Anna in our bed and not be anywhere or around anyone.

"I've asked her not to. It's stupid." Plia answered me as she sat down on her bed roll.

"She's called you that before?" Underwitch Vanda asked.

She had never spoken to me before. That alone was enough to make me hesitant. The fact that she took off her uniform dress and let it fall to the floor the next second made me completely incapable of answering her question.

I turned around and lowered myself to my knees, trying to hide the burning blush that swelled in my cheeks by pretending to untie the laces of my boots.

"At the trial. It was all she talked about when I met her." I heard Plia sigh.

All of the new moons except for me lived together. I am sure it was nothing to them to undress in front of one another, but it was something to me.

I could not let them know that it was, that would only make me seem more out of place. Crawling over to one of the two open bed rolls by the door, I kept my back turned to them to avoid any more accidental glances.

"But what does it mean?" I asked again, actually pulling my boots off and beginning the long process of rolling my sweat soaked stockings down my legs.

"That you weren't born in Zenithcidel. You weren't born in one of The Mother's domains, so you are Motherless." Underwitch Mallory answered as she walked past me and left the room, her short white robe hanging just below the top of her thigh.

That was stupid. Not just because it wasn't true, but because there was no part of me that understood why that would matter. If my understanding of her life was not woefully incorrect, Nami had not been born in Zenithcidel. Mother Azza and Mother Gwyn had not been either. What would make Tana think that where the person she thought me to be had been born was worthy of such hatred?

One of my questions had been answered, so I risked a second. "And what are hot springs?"

One of the underwitches laughed. I could not see which and I could not tell if it was mean spirited or not.

"It's like a bath. The water is hot. They are very nice." Underwitch Vanda said as she left the same way Mallory had. Her robe was just a hair too short and I had to bite my cheek to keep from covering my hands with my eyes.

Plia left next. She was so thin and short, that the robe hung well past her knees. Her arms held tightly around herself, she gave me a small smile before she walked through the door. "Don't listen to me, because I'm wrong about most things, but I think she is mean to you because she is jealous of your familiar."

It was a nice thought, that Tana's distaste for me was purely because I had something she desired, but I knew it was not true. She had not liked me from the moment we had met outside of Lun's iron gates.

Once she had gone and I was certain that there were no more new moons for me to see changing, I pulled the horrid fabric of my blue silk dress over my head and threw it down atop my bed roll. It had rolled my tights up my stomach as it went, but I was too hot to care.

I wanted to put the robe on and free myself from the too warm clothes I wore, but I did not want anyone to see me in it.

Accidentally exposing myself to nearly everyone I had ever met was one thing, willfully getting into a bath with four girls and my teacher was something that I could just not accept. They didn't need to know that I had scars on my arms and legs or that you could see my ribs when I stretched my arms above my head. Those were things that only Anna should know, and I meant to keep it that way.

Precept Seram and Tana came back into the room at the same time. Seram had changed into a robe that was a much more appropriate length than the one that I was faced with putting on. Tana walked past me without a word, her steps quick enough for me to see that she was angry.

"Precept Seram? Uhm," I said, clearing my throat and letting the ache in my heart spread to my face. "I don't feel very well. Am I allowed to stay here and sleep?"

"Was that your first time going through a gate? That explains why you were so eager, you did not know they could make you sick, did you?" Precept Seram asked, concern evident in her pastel blue eyes.

I did not lie, I just did not disagree with her.

Laying flat on my back atop the bed roll, I closed my eyes and grimaced.

"Yes, Master Alexei is outside if there is anything you need. Dinner will come soon. Rest and a meal will make you feel like yourself again in short order." Precept Seram agreed, saving me from the embarrassment of what would have been my naked fate.

"Thank you." I said weakly, intending to stay in my pitiful state until I was sure that I was alone.

I felt Tana walking back towards the door across the raised wooden floor.

"Are we forgetting something, Underwitch Tana?" Precept Seram asked aloud.

Tana's stomping stopped.

"Underwitch Ire." She said and I opened my eyes to see her staring down at me.

Spring Tana was hot.

Or, at least, the radiant heat the bloomed across my face at the sight of her made it feel like she was.

The others had left the room in nothing but their robes, but theirs had been closed and they had not been standing over me the way the honey haired underwitch was.

"I am sorry for calling you motherless," Tana spoke in a tone that told me she was being forced to say them. "I won't do it again."

"Thank you." I squeaked as I kept my eyes on hers with all of my might.

A sudden and sharp exhale came from her nose, and I saw her look down from my face.

"What is that?" She asked as she pointed to my middle.

From feeling like my cheeks would burst into flame to feeling like I would never be warm again, I leaned up on my elbows and realized that my mask of Ire did not cover the nine circles that spread out from my navel.

It never had.

There had never been a need for it to.

It was too late to hide it.

I had seen all of Spring Tana and in turn, she had seen the one part of me she absolutely couldn't.

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