Ena had turned to look away, staying in the same spot a little longer. The reaper and Hades' words played in her head. Akuji taunted her with a future, while Hades remained quiet. It was clear the reaper was onto something, he wouldn't just say this to get a reaction, death was coming to this city and it would be staying for a while. 

She didn't know if it involved magic, mutants, normal people or an all out war. Considering leaving even just to not be involved with the whole ordeal. The thought was tempting, moving wouldn't require much and she only had to quit her job. Question was how long before things went south? And would it even be worth it to leave. 

Having strived to move here after considering it the perfect place to stay away from her family, suddenly going to the next best thing didn't sound very pleasing. She didn't hate the idea of running into them, but she hated the look in their eyes, the way their tone would change at the mention of her. 

Her thoughts stopped for a second, what about the kid? He would be off on his own in a place that had considered selling him off. He’d try again a useless attempt of making a life of his own with no real control over his abilities. Not to mention she agreed to teach him how to control said thing. She knew he could shapeshift, but to what extent he could do it was the better question. 

Mutantes came in all shapes and sizes. Her brothers all looked as human as they’d come, while distant cousins resembled plants or had animal characteristics to themselves. Some of her nephews had come out with some unique characteristics even. But her knowledge on their abilities were limited. 

She hadn’t ever stopped caring about said things in the first place, so now going up to them and asking when she'd moved so far to get away would surely leave a bad taste in their mouths. 

But it was common for mutants to appear with similar abilities. Her siblings and cousin had similar abilities to communicate with plants or animals. But it was rare for abilities to be an exact copy of another even when being direct descendants. 

But the other shapeshifter she’d heard about could only change into different birds, no dogs or cats, just birds. But the size was something they could control. Turning into a bird as big as an elephant. But also able to turn into a bird as tiny as a fly. 

What she knew for sure was that Zamir could change into people. It wasn't for sure he could turn into animals but it was a possibility. He could barely copy people, he was lacking in his abilities. She had to test and see just how good he could get at it. 

Ena sighed deeply, exasperated with all these thoughts. Moving out the room and grabbing a orb off the dining table and checking up on the kid. He was still in that place, sleeping soundly. 

At least he wasn't trying to leave, she thought. 

Ena moved through the house, after she’d checked in on the kid she'd picked up the phone and been calling a few family members. Speaking with those that picked up through the night, sure it was late so only a handful picked up. The time difference wasn't big, but it was early morning for them. Maybe a bit too early to deal with ghosts. She made questions and received good and vague answers. 

Finally calling her parents she heard the phone ring twice, about to hang up when her mother picked up, “Dear it's been a while since you called. How are you? How's work? Have you been resting enough?” 

“Hi mother, I've been well, job is fine for Enaya and she’s been sleeping well. I.. I haven't overused magic to a crazy degree so no need to worry.” Ena answered everything quickly wanting to get her own questions out the way, “But mother, I have a question. I'm aware you raised me differently given you believed for years I was normal. But how did you raise my siblings? How differently was a child with mutations treated?”

Her mother chuckled, “I can't say there's much of a difference. I raised you all pretty much the same. Although one clear difference was that your siblings were taught to be a lot more patient, to control their anger and emotions so their abilities wouldn't work against them.” Her mother had a pause, “This doesn't mean you can't handle your emotions, we… i'll be honest, we pampered you a bit much. You were still the baby even when you weren't the youngest. Because we saw you so delicate, your rosy little cheeks with blue eyes caught everyone's attention. How you clung to the adults and didn't go off on your own, you know we all love you right?”

“Yes mother, I love you too.” Ena said spotting a piece of paper playing with it in her grasp, “So they were taught to be patient and calm.But im more curious to know how they develop their abilities? How did you know to teach them when your abilities are different?”

Her mother hummed, “I'm not sure I could explain. I just clicked with them, and I knew exactly what to do to help. Of course that wasn't always the case, sometimes I asked for outside help. Your grandmother was a lot of help to me, she was so agile with teaching the kids, I learned what I know from her.”

Ena pulled away from the phone grumbling under her breath before bringing the phone up again, “Well let's say a kid with… the ability to change his physical appearance was learning to control his powers… like that distant cousin, how would you teach them?” She hadn't given an example to anyone till now, she didn't want them all to put the pieces together and start suspecting her. She didn't see the need for them to know about Zamir.

Besides that her questions had always been vague about everything. So even if they realized she was asking and found out about Zamir, it was unlikely they’d do anything about it. Not that Ena would ever admit to helping a child.

“Show them different animals, different people, different creatures… anything you can get your hands on. Show them how the creatures work, how strong or weak they are.” Her mother paused, “Are you help-”

“I'm just curious, mother, after all I had to learn my powers on my own.” Ena cut her question off, stinging at an old wound. 

Her mother hummed on the other end, “Take into example your older brother, his ability was that oh manipulating any object. We often let him play in the dirt, and eventually on his own he learned to feel objects without the need to see them. The rocks underground we couldn't spot he could unearth, and the messy room of his he could always pull out what he needed even when you or your other siblings had gone in and messed things up further than what they were.”

She was getting it now, “I get what you mean. It's unfortunate I asked this out of the blue I should have asked it years ago… I just had questions and if anyones had answers who was better than all the mutants in the family. I asked some of my cousins and siblings over the phone about their childhood and learning.” Ena crumpled the paper in her hand, “it’s so different from my own.”