If I had not had the misfortune of being taken to the deepwood by The Mother in Green before, Durath would have been the largest living thing I had ever seen.

Longer than the paper dragon Fetti-Gami, twice as tall as Arthur or the Hezbelths that I had seen in The Well's memories, as wide as the gaping cave mouth that it sat in front of, Durath was. . . something?

I slowed my pace as the familiar came into my sight, but the warden patted my back to encourage me to continue.

"He's intimidating, and he might threaten to eat you, but I'm fairly sure he won't." The warden said with a smile that was much less reassuring than it should have been.

When it came to being eaten, the difference between fairly sure and certain was as big as the ocean behind us.

"What is he?" I whispered, having to make myself focus on Benny's shining shape instead of the behemoth that sat in the mouth of the cave.

"The closest word I've ever found for him is sphinx. They were supposed to have the body of a lion, eagles wings, and a human face. You can see that he doesn't quite look like that, but it's close enough. Hexis seemed to have had some very creative moments. I met a familiar once that was some sort of little imp. No bigger than my pinky, but it stayed inside this strange contraption that his lady would force her aura through." The warden explained.

He is speaking of Willa Hollilock. I thought to myself, recognizing his description of the familiar named Gat immediately. She was easy to remember compared to most of the sorceresses I had been because of how I had lost myself in her back at the boarding house.

"Sakes alive," I sighed, frustrated that I could not tell the bearded man that I knew of the familiar he spoke of. "The familiar we are looking for is inside the cave?"

The warden nodded in agreement. "Mmhmm, but we have to get past Durath first. Though, depending on how long that takes, we may not have time. You've got to get back to Lun soon."

I didn't like that. I didn't like that one bit, and I knew then that I would do anything it took to help the warden with the invisible familiar he sought.

"We will have time." I insisted. Quickening my pace, I swallowed my fear of being eaten and marched straight towards the sphinx that blocked our path.

It did not have the face of a person. No, it did, but that was only one of its faces.

"Benny's here!" Benny chimed out, announcing her arrival as she clinked her way to the mouth of the cave.

Durath looked down at her, and then its face changed from that of a handsome man to that of a fearsome feline. It happened in a blur that my eyes refused to follow. I saw it changing, but I could not stay focused on the in between. From man to lion, it shifted just the same to the sharp beaked scowl of an eagle.

"And I thought Bruce was scary looking." I said, shaking my head and rubbing my aching eyes with the back of one hand.

The warden chuckled. "Don't let him hear you say that or he will fly over here and challenge our three faced friend here to a duel in defense of his honor. Bruce knows he's not the king of the island, but he'll fight anything if he thinks he's being looked down on. He's a brave bird, brave to a fault."

"Who is the king? Who's the strongest?" I asked.

The warden shrugged. "It depends on what you mean by strong. It might be Durath if you mean how well they can fight, but I haven't made a habit of making them fight so I can see who will come out on top. There isn't a soul here that would harm a single quill on Benny's body, that's powerful in its own right, but she would be the queen, not a king."

Durath's face shifted back to that of the man as it greeted Benny.

"It is good to see you, Benny." It said in a voice that was smooth and sweet like honey.

Then, his face shifted once again.

With a raspy growl, the feline face greeted the little crystal creature with its own words. "Little Echidna. Your hunting has been good?"

I did not know what Benny could possibly hunt, but I would give almost anything to see it happen.

From lion to eagle, the unseeable change happened once again.

"BENEDICT." The eagle face called down in an entirely different voice.

My mother had told me a story once about a skeleton whose voice sounded like coffin lids slamming shut. It was a good story, one of my favorites, and Durath's eagle voice sounded just like what I imagined the skeletons would have.

Benny scampered around between the massive claws and paws of the sphinx in an excited movement that sounded like shards of glass raining down onto the smooth stones beneath her. "Good hunting. Yours?"

"Good, very good. Better than I deserve." Said the man face.

"If I could get the thief that keeps taking from me between my teeth, it would be better." The lion's face growled.

"MY HUNGER HAS BEEN SATED." The eagle called out.

The warden led me to the mouth of the cave and pushed his elbow into my side. "I bet they don't have anything like this at Lun, do they?"

"No," I agreed. "No they don't."

I doubted that anywhere in all of chaos had anything like Durath. In memories or my own life, I had never seen anything that was quite so strange.

"Oh, hello, Mort. Have you come for another bout?" Durath's man face asked as he noticed our arrival.

"No, not today. I'm here on warden buisness." The warden answered.

Durath's cat eyes drifted over to me and it lowered its head in my direction. "And you have brought me this as tribute? She's so scrawny. You couldn't have found a sacrifice that has more meat on their bones?"

"Hey! I'm not a sacrifice. And I've got plenty of meat. And it's gonna stay on my bones." I shouted up at the strange beast despite how scared I truly was. The warden and Benny were close to me and the Durath was very large. If it truly meant to eat me, I would grab one of them and either we would both be swallowed or neither of us would be.

Durath's face shifted once again.

"I DO NOT DEMAND A SACRIFICE. YOU WILL NOT BE EATEN. YOU ARE WELCOME HERE." The eagle called down to me in its stony voice.

I watched Benny take the perilous climb up one of the arm sized claws on Durath's forepaw and flinched when the sphinx raised her from the ground and let her crawl onto its back. That single movement, as simple as it was, disturbed so many of the grey stones that I would not have been surprised to see another Benny egg come shaking out of the ground.

"Are we welcome in the cave? I brought Benny to entertain you and we're going to take care of the thing that keeps stealing your food."

It was the man's turn to talk. "Ahhh, your assistance is most welcome, Mort and friend of Mort, but you know very well that I cannot allow you to pass unless you are able to solve one of my riddles."

"Right," The warden dropped his head and sighed. "I had hoped to avoid that, we don't have a lot of time."

The lion was not happy with what the warden had said. "You would try and bribe me? Foolish mortal, there is nothing you could do to sway me. You shall answer the riddle or the both of you shall be eaten!"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

I did not like the lion.

The eagle seemed to agree. "NO ONE SHALL BE EATEN. IT IS JUST A RIDDLE."

The eagle and the man, I didn't mind. Although, I hated the way they smelled. It was like hot sand and reminded me way too much of one of the worst days of my life.

"Can't we just, you know, run by it?" I leaned over and whispered to the warden, my eyes locked on the empty space between Durath and the cave wall.

As big as he was, we could surely slip past him before he would be able to turn around.

The warden held his hand out in front of me. "Tried that once. Unless you like feeling like you're falling for a few hours straight, I don't suggest it. Big guy has some kind of magic all around him. But if we solve the riddle quick enough, we should still have time to do what we came to do."

"Come and sit, we need to pay very close attention." He said as he lowered himself to the ground and produced another burner from somewhere inside his pockets.

I mounded up some of the disturbed stones and did as he asked, silently wishing that Anna was there to help us.

Durath's man face began his riddle the very next moment. "I have cities, but no houses."

Then, he shifted away and the lion continued in his growling voice. "I do not have eyes, but once I could see."

"A FATHER'S CHILD, A MOTHER'S CHILD." The eagle took its turn, and my head began to hurt.

Again they spoke in threes, each adding something that only made me more confused.

"I have forests, but no trees." Said the man.

"I once had thoughts, but I am now white and empty." Growled the lion.

"I AM NO ONE'S SON." Called the eagle

The amount of what was being said that I understood was so little, that I felt like I was being insulted. I knew I wasn't dumb, but in that moment, I sure did feel like I was.

With their final words, what they had said were turned into the questions that the warden and I had to answer.

"What am I?"

"What am I?"

"WHO AM I?"

The rocky beach fell silent for a long moment after that. The warden's bearded face was locked into a tight scowl as he smoked his burner, and I hoped that he was having more luck than I was.

When he had asked me how I was with riddles, I had not known how to answer. I had faced many things in the short part of my life that I could remember, but almost none of them had been as complicated as the nonsense that Durath had just spewed from all three of his mouths.

"Let's run back through it, shall we?" The warden asked aloud. Without waiting for me to answer, he began.

"I have cities, but no houses. I do not have eyes, but once I could see. A father's child. A mother's child. I have forests, but no trees. I once had thought, but now I am white and empty. I am no one's son. What am I? What am I? Who am I? What do you make of all that, Ire?"

I shook my head in frustration. "Absolutely nothing. And, I've just decided that I hate riddles. It's impossible."

"I didn't take you for someone who would be defeated so easily. We might as well start heading back. If you would like to tell Benny goodbye, now is the time." The warden sighed, a disappointed expression on his face as started to stand.

I could have slammed my hand into cold steel and it would have hurt me less.

"No, wait, I can figure it out," I said as I pulled him back down by his arm. "There are two kids in a forest and they don't have eyes, right?"

The warden pointed up to Durath. "Think about it. Three faces. Three voices. Three. . . "

"If you already know the answer and are just trying to make me figure it out, I don't think we are as good of friends as I thought we were. Has he asked you these before?" I asked.

He took a slow inhale from his burner and let the smoke leak out of his nose as he answered. "I haven't heard these ones in particular, no, but I do know how he asks his riddles."

"How? Aren't we running out of time? Why didn't you tell me?" I demanded, pointing my finger at the bearded man with true frustration prickling in my hands.

He held his palms towards. "Don't blame me for being curious, I just wanted to see if you could figure it out. There are all sorts of problems you'll have to solve if you want to do what I do. This is just one of them."

I bite my tongue to keep from saying something I shouldn't. The frustration had given way to full blown anger, and I did not wish for him to see me slip into a tantrum.

"Let's run back through the riddles, separately, it won't take us long to find the answer. We might not have time to find the thief, but you are welcome to come back whenever you wish." The warden continued.

I stood up off my mound of stones and some of the anger slipped out. "No."

As far as I knew, I might never come back.

Laying below the good dream that the warden had given me like the mirrored floor of the hall of conquest, was the terrible truth.

The dream of Anna and I living out our days on Silkcradle, as happy and free as we could be, was just that, a dream. I had seen the truth in my reflection beneath it, but it had become so much harder to ignore as my time with the warden came to its end.

I would never be allowed to just come back whenever I wanted.

It had taken one of The Mothers influence for The Circle of The Nine Mothers to allow me to go to school. Even then, it had taken something impossible happening for me to fully gain admittance into that school.

I would never be the warden.

I was a thief and a debtor.

Anything that happened outside of that was a brief pleasure that could and would be taken away from at any moment. If I truly could help the warden with the invisible familiar, then I had to do it while I was there or I would likely never get another chance.

Standing at Durath's feet, all three of his riddles still tangled up in my mind, I found the truth about the three faced creature as well.

One third of Durath was a lion.

Lions were nothing but big cats.

I, more than anyone else I knew, had experience in dealing with stubborn cats.

Precept Seram would have been proud of me. Though it was not a weight, and there was no table or glowing blue line, I had learned much from her about implementation, and I put it to good use.

Silently, I watched Durath's face shift from man to cat to eagle and back again. On the third time around, when his lips and jaw gave way to fangs and whiskers, I focused my aura on the scruff of his neck and clutched it with my power.

Sweat broke out on my forehead from the effort immediately, but its shifting stopped.

A half hearted yarl rose from its massive chest, but I knew my working had worked.

Durath would be frozen until I released it.

"What did you do?" The warden asked, pushing himself up off the ground and looking at me.

The azure glow that had come to light in Ire's eyes reflecting in the bearded man's brown eyes, I let him wait to figure it out for himself.

"Durath," I spoke, the willful feeling of my aura pushing away all the fear and doubt I would normally have. My own voice sounded so strange in my own ears, I found it hard to believe that I was the same girl that tripped every other time she took a step. "The warden and I are entering the cave. You will allow us to pass, agreed?"

"How dare you try and-" Durath began.

I pulled his scruff just a little tighter with a surge of my power. It was heavier than any of the weights I had worked with before, it took more from me, but I wanted it more than I had ever wanted to move one of the little metal squares.

"Mighty Durath," I called his name again, trying to not insult him unnecessarily while he was under my control. I was a sorceress, bending reality to my will was what I was meant to do, but I was also kind and took no pleasure in reprimanding the familiar. "The warden and I will rid you of that which steals from your kills and you will allow us to do that. Lady Benedict will stay and keep you company, do you understand?"

A long moment passed.

"Yes, my lady." Durath growled, and I knew in the deepest part of me that it was telling the truth.

Good kitty. I thought to myself.

"You have my thanks, and my apologies, but time is short." I said as I released my hold on him.

I did not let my aura go just yet, it would ruin the effect if I broke down into tears in front of the creature I had just commanded.

Durath stood, a ground shaking movement that sent even more of the round stones rolling out from his massive bulk, and shook his head as he moved out of our way.

The warden let out a laugh that nearly bent him over. "You sorceresses, I forget how scary you are when you're young."

"I did not wish to waste anymore time." I answered, holding my head up proudly and reveling in the high of my aura.

"The worst part is, you all stay young forever," He continued through the rolling end of his laughter. Wiping his eyes with a finger, he let out several happy sounding exhales before turning around and looking down the shore in the direction we had come. "There's only one more thing to do before we go inside. I have to have an argument with your guard."

Durath had sat down at the waters edge, and was rubbing at his face with his massive paws.

Benny still sat atop his back calmly, shining in the bright sunlight.

The warden cleared his throat and called out to nothing. "Come on out, we have a bargain that must be struck."

From nothing, came Alexei. His long white hair flowing in the sea breeze, he literally just appeared.

I realized that he had undoubtedly been following us all morning, and with my power still held in my grasp, my anger returned as red and hot as it had ever been.

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