Ursa bristled.
“Come, dear, let us see what you can do,” Gemini said and led me further into the dark house.
I followed her through narrow hallways, past room after room, and realized that some magic was at work here, making this place much larger inside than it appeared from outside. It was a manse, some ancient ancestral home complete with dusty old paintings of long dead royal Fae and their families. Or maybe they were still alive. It was hard to tell with immortality.
We reached a larger room at the end of the hall. It was in the shape of an oval. Its walls were made of windows that opened into the night sky beyond. A greenhouse sat nearby, a path to which led right up to the only door in this room. It reminded me of what the mortals might call a sun room but this one seemed more fitted to worshipping the moonlight than basking in the sun.
Gemini Morningstar positioned herself a few feet in front of me and waited.
“Show me,” she said simply and I complied.
Narrowing my focus, as I had before, I delved into her soul. I found that impenetrable wall around her core, like all the other powerful Fae I had encountered had, but before that, her surface. It was still, calm, and dark, much like her home. There was no trace of any emotion here. No anger, no sadness, no happiness. Nothing. Wrinkling my brow in confusion, I withdrew.
“An empath,” she said simply. “How incredibly rare. Tell me, girl, what did you find?”
“I—nothing,” I confessed and Ursa pushed slightly off of the wall she had been leaning against in surprise.
“You cannot fight an empath,” Gemini said and I knew she was teaching her niece at the moment. “Because fighting an empath is fighting yourself. Silencing yourself, your baser emotions, shielding the ones that matter. You will not overwhelm an empath, not forever, but you can kill her with quiet.”
I shuddered at the choice of words but Gemini was smiling as she turned to face me again.
“So try something physical,” she commanded. “You cannot hurt my soul. So pierce my body.”
“I can’t,” I told her.
“You can try, can you not?”
And so I did. For hours. I focused, I employed every method they instructed, imagined every scenario they detailed for me. Nothing worked. Gemini was about to tell me she was convinced I could not utilize physical magic because of my mortal heritage when Ursa interrupted to inform her I had shattered a glass in my room. Then the old woman watched me with renewed interest.
In the end, our attempts utterly exhausted me so Gemini instructed us to return in a week to try again. She would research what existed of my “condition” and have a new training regimen ready when we returned.
Discouraged, I followed Ursa from the home, pushing through the gate and back onto the city street beyond. The tavern was even more raucous at this hour, the patrons inside growing louder the more they drank. I was in a foul mood. What little hope had bloomed within me at the possibility of accessing my physical magic with the help of this ancient Fae had vanished. So now I stormed through the streets, a few steps ahead of Ursa, with a scowl.
“We will try again,” she was assuring me, though I could tell that she was just as disappointed as I was. “Gemini is the best trainer in the realm. She will have answers. She will—”
She was cut off by the sudden appearance of a dozen men in flowing green robes as they emerged from the darkened alleys around us. The light from the tavern slanted over the road, illuminating Ursa’s stunned expression as they arranged themselves in a circle surrounding us. With a flick of her wrist, Ursa’s daggers appeared and I shrank against her, searching the souls of the men around us. Hints of fear overwhelmed by an honorable sense of purpose. These were soldiers. Ursa palmed a blade.
“I wouldn’t do that, Princess Morningstar,” a familiar voice spoke from the darkness.
Ursa went completely still as Lord Koa emerged from the shadows, hovering just outside the circle of his men.
“Hand over the hostage and we will not hurt you,” he told her.
“Over my dead body,” Ursa spat.
“It didn’t have to be this way,” he replied, raising his hands as he shook his head.
Vines from nearby fence posts, shutters, and potted plants reached toward us, snaking along the cobblestones and stretching out to meet us, clawing at our heels. Ursa raised a boot and stomped down on one, sending her blades spinning for another that was only inches from my face. I reeled back but one of the vines caught me, pushed me upright. I scrambled forward, spinning around to see Ursa throwing her blades at rapid speed, faster than I could have imagined.
In a matter of seconds, those obsidian daggers had cut through three of the largest vines, slashed the throat of one soldier and hurtled towards two more who were scurrying out of their way. She took a moment, between knife throws, to slam her hands down to her thighs. A cloud of darkness rose around her, obscuring the fight, making it difficult for the soldiers to flee. But still, those vines reached. One of them had me by the wrist.
I slashed out with magic but I hadn’t mastered the physical forces and nothing happened. It pulled and dragged me with it, kicking and screaming. I lashed out again and this time, the vine cleaved deftly in two. I blinked at it as it slithered away, part of it still wrapped around my wrist, in awe at what I had accomplished. But then Gemini stepped forward out of the shadows, hands raised, and I realized I hadn’t done anything at all.
In a moment, three more soldiers fell, choking on something I couldn’t see but, when they turned purple and fell to the ground, unmoving, I noticed the wisp of black smoke escape their lungs at their dying breath and turned to find Gemini watching them, her head held high.
Ursa was locked in battle with Lord Koa, having successfully distracted him long enough that those vines were no longer reaching for me.
“Run, girl,” Gemini hissed, throwing out her hands to block another soldier that was hurling my way.
