Our meeting with Amabura had left so many thoughts fighting for attention in my mind that I could not keep hold on a single one for very long at all.

I followed the warden blindly down a separate mountain path, knowing that I could trust his direction while my attention was elsewhere.

Oni, The Emerald Plume, Amabura's Lady, whoever she had been, had wanted freedom and no one else would allow her to have it.

I knew that story, it was about me.

Something had happened to Amabura that had kept him from his purpose and Oni had died. I did not know if the second had happened because of the first, but it sure felt that way.

Did Sam have a purpose? And if he did, was it like the compelled questions he had to ask me whenever I returned from The Well? Had Hexis sent him to me with some unknown compulsion that would force my familiar into some desperate end?

I wanted to know all of it, I wanted to understand what being chosen by The Cornerkeeper truly meant, but more than anything, I wanted to know why Amabura had said that his lady had been prettier than me. My mask of Ire muted my features, and I knew the steam and left me looking hot and sweaty, but had that really been necessary? I still felt a great deal of sadness for the salamander or whatever he had been, but his words about my appearance felt unneeded and kind of rude.

The memory of Fetti-Gami's spiraling ascension took to the front of my mind. I hoped the bag that Anna had sent for me was where I had left it because the paper dragon did not seem like it would freely give me more of its confetti. Amabura had said It had rejected all of the other new moons, and the warden had said that he had known that would happen.

I would take the spare few pieces of paper I had managed to keep as the rare gifts they seemed to be.

"Ire?" The warden said, his voice bringing my attention back out of my mind just in time for me to see that I had nearly walked straight into a tree whose trunk was wider than my shoulders.

"Oh, sorry," I said, shaking my head to rid myself of the grating feeling of being called by a name that was not truly mine. "I was just thinking."

The warden waited for me to side step the tree and continue in the direction that I should have been heading. "Think out loud, I don't have company out here very often."

I did as I was asked and asked the first thing that came back to my mind.

"How did you know Fetti-Gami would reject the others? Is it just because you are familiar with it like you are with Amabura?" I asked, remembering how callous the warden had seemed to be with the obviously distressed familiar.

"For one, she has rejected all the moons that have come here in the past few weeks. True dragon or not, I have never met a prouder creature. Second, your group are the last ones to come and parade around for my gang of familiar friends. We've had no luck so far, I don't expect that will change today," The warden said as we crossed into the shadowy cover of a very strange looking forest. "But that's not what's really on your mind. What else?"

How did he know? I thought to myself in surprise.

I let my hand brush against the odd looking trunk of the trees and was surprised to find that they felt like coarse hair. "What kind of trees are these?"

"Palms. See the big round things beneath the fronds?" The warden pointed up to the leaves at the top of the trees that looked like big hand fans.

"Yes." I said as I shielded my eyes from the sun with my hands. The ground had become a rough mixture of dry soil and thorny vines that would have torn my feet to shreds of I had not spent the better part of the year before running around barefoot.

"Mind your head, they will split your skull if they fall on you." The warden said in a serious tone.

I took a big step back from the palm tree and kept my shaded eyes held up to the sky as we continued on our way. Trails of smoke began to drift back from his burner, and we fell into a comfortable silence as I enjoyed the sweet smell of what he was smoking.

After quite a while, he cleared his throat and glanced back at me over his shoulder. "If what I said about you becoming the next warden is bothering you, put it out of your mind. I've still got some things I have to look after before I hang up my belt. I don't mean to put any pressure on you."

"What? No," I said, shaking my head and walking faster to catch up with him. "Saying that I could be the warden is once of the best things anyone has ever said to me."

It was true, even if the long bearded man did not understand how true it was.

He smiled at my assurance. "Good, but something is bothering you. I've only known you for a day and it is plain to see."

He was right, even if I didn't want to admit how right he was.

Something was bothering me, and it wasn't that Amabura had essentially called me ugly.

"Is it the dusty old skink up there? I know he's half mad, but he means well. Keeping one's mind in order only gets harder the older you get." The warden said with a shrug.

"No," I sighed, hoping that I was not about to cross a line that I shouldn't. "You weren't very nice to Amabura. He was in pain, but you kept calling him names and acting like nothing was wrong."

I looked down at the thorny vines that lay around my feet, unable to meet his eyes as I spoke. His lack of care when Oni's former familiar had been visibly in distress had not felt right when it had happened, and it had been grinding away in the back of my mind ever since.

He had been so kind to Taloo.

He had been so kind to me.

I did not understand why he had been different with Amabura.

"Exactly," The warden nodded with a wild smile. "That's what being the warden is about. I am here to care for Hexis's creations, not to be their friends. Do you understand the difference?"

"No." I said without giving myself the time to truly consider what he had said.

He started walking away from me at a much quicker pace than he had been moving before. "Come on. We're almost there, it will be better if I show you."

"I don't see anything that looks like a cave someone could drown in. I thought we were going there, to Durath?" I called out as I followed along after him, thoroughly confused and having to try even harder to not step on any of the thorns I was skipping over.

"We are, but we have to make a stop first." He called back.

The warden was not moving much faster than I was, but the distance between us was growing. From the quick glances up at him I risked, I understood that the ground he was gaining came from not having to look where he was going. Every step he took, every slight impression his feet made in the underbrush, came without thought.

The warden knew Silkcradle well enough that he needed not worry about the thorns piercing his feet or tripping over something unseen. He strode underneath the palms like he had been practicing the steps for years and years.

Maybe he had.

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I would have been a fool to not follow in his footsteps. In a matter of moments, I had closed the distance between us and my mind had wandered back to the good dream that the warden had given me.

Anna would not know what to think if I managed to lead her across the treacherous ground without accident or injury. The two of us could make a habit of going to the hot springs and sitting with Amabura. With time, I could learn how to glamor myself to look exactly like his lady and I could make him feel better.

In the best way possible, in the way that left no room for doubt, I could do something good, and that was only the beginning of what I would be like as the warden.

Lost in the good dream, I did not realize that it had begun to rain until the heavy droplets began to smack against my face. I yelped and tried to cover my head with my arms, but the sudden downpour would not be denied. Then, just as quickly as it had started, the rain stopped pouring down onto me. Only the sound of it continued, and I looked up to see that the warden was the reason I had not become totally drenched.

"Sorry, should have warned you. It'll only last a few steps." The warden smiled down at me, his tether stretched out over his hands like a plain white sheet. Every drop of rain that pattered against it rolled off like they had struck window glass instead of spider silk.

I would have asked what he meant, but by the time the words came to my lips, the rain was gone.

Or rather, we had gone from the rain.

The warden brought his spread out tether down like he was whipping a towel and sent all the water off it one quick snap. It sprung back to its belt shape and he wrapped it around his waist a moment later, leaving no evidence that it had ever been anything else.

I turned around and found where the rain had gone.

A perfect curtain of unending water stood behind me. It spread as far as I could see on both sides of me, but was so narrow that I could still see the palms and vines on the other side of it.

"How?" I said under my breath as I dipped my finger back through the curtain and watched the rain split over it.

"That's what you get when you start mashing all sorts of things together. Leaks, cracks, all sorts of nasty business." The warden said, smoking once again.

I spun on my heels and kicked up some of the tiny stones that we stood on. "Hey, you never explained why you were mean to Amabura."

"Thats why we came here. Watch." The warden said as he began to whistle over the sound of the rain. It swung from low to high and was not close to being in tune, but by the shaking of small stones at my feet, that mattered little.

Something began to slowly rise up from the ground at the sound of the warden's sour melody. Shining in the bright sunlight that had returned outside the curtain of rain, I first thought it to be some kind of gem. Maybe a ruby, emerald, or sapphire, but its color shifted so wildly from moment to moment that it couldn't be any of them.

If not a gem, then it had to be a pearl. Except it couldn't be, it wasn't nearly round enough and much too big.

The small stones that tumbled off its top were not stones at all. They looked like the tiny pieces of shell that had covered the floor when Anna had drank too much and let an egg slip through her hands.

"No." I whispered as I realized what the warden was summoning with his whistling.

It was not a gem.

It was made of pearl, but it was not one.

It was an egg.

It was bigger than my head, but it was still an egg.

The warden ended his song as the pearlescent shape settled atop the mound of disturbed shells and gave me a warning. "Let her come to you if she decides to, she's pretty skittish."

I could not imagine a reality where an egg would approach me no matter how rare of a material it was made out of, but I nodded in agreement as he called out in its direction.

"Time to get up, Benny. I brought a new friend for you to meet." The warden said, his voice soft and quiet like the tone my mother would use when she was trying to wake me.

The egg shook and a small crack formed at its top.

"We are going to see Durath, you should come with us, you know how much he likes you." The warden continued.

Another shack and another crack came from the egg as the first snaked down to its middle.

The warden finished his burner and spoke through its last cloud of smoke. "I'll come read you a story tonight before I go to bed, all the visitors will be gone. It will just be you and me."

The egg did not shatter. Its cracks spread further and connected in an uncountable amount of places before falling away and revealing who Benny was.

She had a long nose, beady eyes, and a back full of sharp looking quills. Smaller than Sam had grown to be, but larger than he had been when I had first met him, she pawed at her nose and let out a little yawn as the color drained from the shell that had just been surrounding her.

I had never seen anything quite so cute, but what was most striking about her was that she was made entirely of iridescent crystal. From her little claws to the tips of her quills, she was just as stunning as Lun's singing stairs.

"Good morning, Benny. Did you sleep well?" The warden asked softly.

Still pawing at her face, the little whatever she was yawned again. "Mmhmm."

The warden gestured for me to crouch down and I did as he asked, shielding my eyes from Benny's sparkling brilliance. "This is Underwitch Ire, she's going to help me find the thing that keeps stealing your snacks."

The crystalline creature opened its eyes and looked at me for the first time.

First, it snapped so still that I could have mistaken it for a sculpture. Second, it tucked into itself and rolled into a tight ball. Third, it faced its sharp quills towards me and began to glow.

"Hold on, Benny! You just woke up. She's nice. Taloo likes her," The warden pleaded, real sadness in his eyes. With a glance, he spoke to me in a hushed tone. "Talk to her, like you did Amabura."

All I had done with the crippled familiar was be honest, so I did the same for Benny.

"Hello. I'm Underwitch Ire. I think you are very pretty and also cute." I said, being as honest as I could be without summoning a certain white haired guard.

It was not fast, but Benny did turn back around. Once she was, it took even longer for her to unfurl herself from her ball, but she did eventually. After what felt like a small lifetime, she began to take slow steps towards me, her crystal snout sniffing the air like she had caught the scent of something delicious.

The warden kept his hand held out to me, and I understood that he meant for me to stay silent.

I tried to stay as still as she had been minutes before when she reached me and began to sniff my hand. Which was terribly difficult because of how cute she was and how much it tickled. From my hand, she stretched up and placed her paws on my knee. Despite how brightly she shined in the sunlight, her feet were cold to the touch. We stared at each other for a long moment, and I dared not to take a breath until she moved again.

With a sleep sigh, she jumped onto my lap and laid down, saying. "Mama."

"Uhm." I swallowed and said.

"Be Mama." She said again as she closed her eyes.

The warden laughed his hood laugh as he helped me stand. "She can't be your mother, Benny, but she can be your friend."

Benny's only answer was the sound of the cutest little snores I had ever heard.

"Mind her quills, she'll turn your skin all pearly if she pokes you and her charm will get even worse," The warden said as he walked away and clapped his hands. "It might make me sound arrogant, but I do love it when I'm right."

A small amount of panic spiked in my chest right next to where Benny was snoring. "Wait," I whispered harshly. "Come back! What are you right about? Come back over here and tell me. . . please!"

The warden did as I asked and I had never been more grateful for anything.

"I'm not mean to Amabura," He began. "I am the way he needs me to be. His lady has been gone for a hundred years. Comfort and sympathy is the last thing he needs from me. He needs me to be normal with him, so that is what I am. Taloo needs me to be his friend, so I am. Durath, who you'll meet shortly, needs somebody to fight, so we fight. Benny needs a father. So, that is what I give her."

I want a father. I said to myself, thankfully. My time with the warden had been good in a way I had not known how to describe. I had never had one, but I imagined that being with him was what being with a father would be like.

He continued. "That is what I just showed you, but that is not the only reason I have brought you to meet Benny."

"Oh?" I asked, watching as he reached over and scratched her under her chin. It sounded like someone rubbing their fingernails against a plate or bowl.

"She's only ever let two people hold her. The sorcerer she was bonded with, and me. It took her a a year to let me get close to her. She met you five minutes ago and now she is asleep in your arms. Think about that. Think about Taloo coming and finding you on the beach even though he hadn't shown his black masked face in months. Think about the fact that I had not seen Amabura move in a decade. One look at you and he seemed to be a hundred years younger. There is something about you, Ire. Something that makes them want to be honest with you. Something that makes them seem like themselves again. Benny taking to you like she has is proof of that."

The warden's words made me smile so brightly and feel so light, that I would have floated off of the broken shells beneath me if it was not for the terrifying thought that would not leave my mind.

Unable to hold it inside any longer, I blurted it out just so someone else would have to suffer alongside me.

"I'm too young to be a mother!"

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