“There’s three fates for the three dimensions—mind, body, and soul,” she began. “They’re usually atrrutubed to the seven dragons of the moon and the serpent of the sun. The moon’s phase during that time will determine your second fate—the body. The moon’s phase when your mind blossoms to consciousness is your first fate. And the last? Well, the fate of the soul is forever the same.”

“What about the serpent? How do you get classified under that?”

“Mm.” She tapped her chin. “Ooh. I don’t remember. It was a little harder than the moon stuff though, so…haha. But I remember the people of the serpent from the West side, are the only ones able to inherent it because they are the people of the sun or something.”

The door opened. My mother came in with a book in her hand. “Evyionne,” she softly called, smiling warmly at me before her eyes went over to my new companion. “Oh, I see you made a friend. Are you lost?”

“Wow.” Eren’s eyes twinkled. “Your mother is really beautiful. I get why you have the hair!”

“Why, thank you,” Hellenia said with a laugh.

“You’re that girl from before,” my mother said. She gently shut the door behind her and came over to my bedside. “What about the man you were with?”

“I lost him.”

I looked at her, knowing she was lying—well, technically she was telling the truth. Just not in that sense. Eren gave me a pointed stare while pressing her lips thinly and ballooning her cheeks.

“Alright, you two, what is it?” Hellenia asked, chuckling. “Do you mind telling me your name?” She gave Eren a smile.

“It’s Eren, ma’am!” the girl replied with a salute.

My mother gave Erenol a subtly discerning stare. Beneath that guise of warmness, it seemed to me she was giving Erenol the ‘do-I-know-you’ look. “Nice to meet you. Evyionne and I were just about to leave. Do you want to come with us on our way out? We can help find your steward that way.”

“That’s a great idea!” Eren exclaimed.

I gave her a pointed look, but said nothing. I slowly got out of bed as my mother gazed down at me in concern. “Are you alright now, darling?”

I nodded. “Yup, I’m good. How did my test go?”

“Your test went just fine.” She didn’t even stutter. The lie was smooth. I knew better though. “I’ll tell you more about it when we get home.”

“Didn’t you tell me we were going somewhere else after this?” I pouted. If she took me home so soon, I would be very disappointed.

“Mm.” She smiled. “Alright, then. If you insist. I do have something to show you.”

Eren looked at the both of us, playing with her fingers and zigzagging her ankles in place anxiously. The sad look on her face reminded me of what she’d said about her mother.

“You can come with us,” I said, offering her my hand. “We’ll go look for that man on the way.”

She lit up.

My mother looked at us. I gave Hellenia a smile and looked at my new friend. She would probably get in trouble for this later on—we might even get caught up in it.

Holding her hand, we all filed out of the entrance Sir Laksa had led us through when we came in. The Sunset Corridors seemed much prettier on the way back. Erenol was as fascinated as I had been.

“Where’s Sir Laksa?” I asked my mother.

“He had important business to attend to. He told us to be on our way without him,” she replied.

“Oh, okay. I didn’t get to say goodbye though.”

“I’m sure he knows you wanted to say goodbye.” Hellenia patted my head.

I caught Eren look at the both of us with pursed lips.

“Eren,” I said. I didn’t want her to feel out of place or uncomfortable so, for the sake of bringing her out of the silence, I began to make small talk. “Where do you live?”

“Mmn…” she trailed off. “I think they called it…Dragon’s Square.”

“The Dragon’s Square?” my mother echoed.

I looked up at Hellenia. “What’s there, Mama?”

“Well…the Dragon’s Square lies in the very middle of the city. It’s a little far from where we live, but not too far.”

Hellenia paused shortly, causing us all to halt in our tracks. Eren looked up at my mother, swallowing quietly. My mother opened her mouth, seemingly tempted to say something as she gazed at Eren’s face before deciding against it.

She sighed, brushing back her hair to reveal her communicator. She slid her finger up the spine of the dragon around her earlobe and said, “Leiran Mernol.” After a few beats, the ruby-like jewels on the eye of the dragon glowed and my mother began speaking. “Leiran? Hm.” She gave a light smile. “I seemed to have found someone. No. Yes.”

Eren squirmed. I held her hand tight and gazed at her reassuringly. While she looked like she wanted to bolt, she met my eyes and stilled herself.

“We’ll be in front of the statue in around two hours.” She paused to let the other party speak. “No. We’re not taking a ride. We’ll be walking.” She laughed. “It will be fine. I have my ways. Do not question it and just be there. Mm. Thank you.” Hellenia then cut the line. “Well, girls, the statue is a long walk from here, but we have time. I assume you’d like to go see some things on the way?”

The life came back in Eren’s eyes and I couldn’t help but smile too.

“What’s the statue?” I asked.

“Should we go see it?” my mother offered.

I nodded, excited.

“I already saw it a lot of times, but it’ll be fun with Evy!” she exclaimed.

“Alright.” My mother laughed.

I must admit I was quite impressed by my mother’s subtlety. I was sure she had caught on to something—I wasn’t sure what though. I deduced a few things from the information I was presented just now. The Dragon’s Square was quite an intimidating, powerful name. From what I know so far, ‘dragon’ held a degree of prestige. Eren must come from a prominent background to be living there—as already expected. This ‘Leiran Mernol’ my mother called must be someone just as important.

Ooh. But wasn’t he the captain of the Dragoons? Sir Laksa mentioned it before, right? He was also the one who’d helped us earlier!

Wow, this girl really wasn’t simple.