Sadly, I found the boys easily.  

They were even louder than us; Dominic and Arwen yelling at each other about something called a crush. 

“Just admit it!” 

I peeked through the hole; their room was just like ours. A simple curtain blocked the doorway with four beds in a line. Sora was on the left, already asleep as Dominic held Arwen in a headlock, another young man smiling as he watched the other two.  

“Admit that you, Arwen Devoted have one giant freaking crush on-” 

“Yasmin!” 

I laughed as Arwen reached out, Dominic finally letting him go. The boys kept snickering about something as I steeled my nerves.  

I would just tell him to wait in the doorway until I fell asleep, that simple. He was a nice guy, he would say no nicely if he didn’t want to. At least, I hope so. 

“So, Yasmin.” He straightened his shirt and Dominic kept smiling. “How can we help you?” 

I pulled the robes closer around me as I tapped my foot on the cold floor. Just say the words!  

“Um, I had a question. Arwen-” 

“Yes.” 

Why was he so close! He had moved when I looked down and now, he was standing over me, that freaking stupid grin on his face.  

“I, uh, I am feeling nervous and, willyoupleasewaitoutsidemydooruntilIfallasleep!” 

He raised one eyebrow and I stared at my feet. If my wings could fly, I absolutely would have flown away from this terrible cave and nasty little- 

“I’d love to help you. We all need rest and if you need me there for that to happen, I will be there.” 

I looked up, unable to keep the smile off my face. He gave one back until a hand was slapped down on his shoulder. 

The young man I didn’t recognize began to wave his hands around as Dominic came around Arwen’s other side. 

“Steph is right, go on, help the little fairy out. We won’t tell the boss if you don’t.” 

The other boy did more hand motions and Arwen shoved their arms off his shoulder. Arwen did some motions back to them before grabbing my hand and pulling me away from the chuckling boys. 

“What did they say, is everything alright?” 

I didn’t want to work with these people if they were all going to bully Arwen and my new friends. I wouldn’t make anyone deal with that because of me. 

“Yeah, they are childhood friends that love to tease me. Dominic’s family owns the farm we went to and Stephanis is my best friend at school other than Zani and Tazz. Emmy kind of added herself to our group.” 

“They seem fun though, like true friends.” 

He smiled and his eyes went out of focus, looking off into the distance. “They are the best. Dominic is the one that said I could make it into Ixon, even if it’s the best school for wizards. Now, are the other girls asleep, is that part of the problem?” 

If I was lucky, they would be pretending so I wouldn’t get more embarrassed.  

“Yeah, and fairies don’t go underground. It’s a strange feeling that is unsettling. I thought having more familiar people around would help.” 

We reached my room and the girls were all laying down and I let out a breath. Arwen stopped in the doorway, holding the curtain open for me. 

“I’ll be right out here if you need anything, but once you’re asleep I’ll be going back to my room. Sleep well, Yasmin.” 

I flew in before I could do anything worse and for some strange reason, it was the best rest I’ve had for a while. 

The next morning, I woke up to an empty room. I dressed in a red tulip skirt, a matching red top to match. I strolled out, letting out a scream when I ran into a person. 

“Oh, it’s just you, Sora.” 

He scoffed and turned away. “Sorry, I’m not your knight in shining armor. Come on, we have food and then Emelina wants to show us off to people.” 

His arms were tensed and he began to leave without my response. Something really was bothering him, probably the whole savior angel thing still.  

“Hey,” I grabbed his arm and he stopped, but didn’t look at me. “If this is too much, we can take a break today. You don’t have to be strong all the time.” 

Sora’s face softened and I flew up to touch his cheek. He leaned down and finally gave a smile. 

“I love you; you know that right? You and me forever.” 

“Yup, you, me, and the wizarding gang.” 

I let out a laugh, flying next to him as we walked. “I don’t know how we ended up adopting a bunch of humans. I feel like some kind of hollinhog wrangler.” 

“Which is even funnier when every single one is taller than you.” 

I slapped his arm. “I saw some dwarves I was taller than yesterday!” 

“Sure, because that is really hard to do.” 

I huffed at his sarcasm but hid my smile. This was the Sora I knew, soft and sarcastic. Everything seemed to be right on track.  

We ended up in that big room from last time, filled with people again. Food was passed around in bowls and I had never been happier to have sugary fruit paste for breakfast.  

“Well, you know me now and this is my daughter Pearl, she will be hanging out with us today.” 

The girl next to him waved but stayed hiding behind her father. She had brown eyes with long curly hair, probably even longer than mine. Around her shoulders was a white cloak, colorful ribbon tying it together. She seemed to be a teenager, maybe a little younger. 

“Mainly, we want you guys to know the captains and some people in various towns for safe housing. There are six races involves, technically. The wizards are separated from the humans; wizards are closely watched and more powerful. Then we have a nymph captain but I bet you guys can all guess who that is, along with the Naga, the Dwarves, and Gargoyles.” 

Emelina skipped up to us with the Naga from yesterday. She was beautiful with her brown hair pulled up into a bun. She had tan skin with a soft smile, though I didn’t trust her. 

Naga were magical creatures that could change forms, some say they could only change from a human to a snake, though some believe they could steal your image also. They weren’t really trusted and fought with the dragons to gain position.  

“Hey guys, this is my friend, Althea. She’s our resident influence in the council and the only one that supports the mistreatment of the people of Mistros.” 

Althea gave a deep bow, bending where her human skin changed into snake scales. Then, the scales on her body rippled like they were falling off, changing into a pair of legs. The dress she wore suddenly made sense; it was long enough to hide her long legs. 

“Greetings friends, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Emelina is right, I sit on the Dragon Council and fight for all. I was born on Brighster and have seen the slums of humans as well as the mistreatment of Kirham creatures. I have been on the council for two years but have been fighting for ten, Ixon approves of me being here.” 

Her speech was well said and I could tell she had repeated it often. As a creature of Brighster, it made sense that she had to defend her position.  

We moved on, meeting the Wizard captain, Stephanis Voiceless One.   

“We are actually friends in school and he taught me hand language.” Arwen made hand motions as he talked, Stephanis rolled his eyes. “What? I’m practicing! Anyway, he is trained in banshee magic so he is selectively mute. Trust me, it’s for our benefit.” 

“And this, is Vivian our human captain.” 

I moved around Sora to look just as she threw a knife into the table. Vivian stormed up to Dominic and Pearl moved to hide behind Arwen. Vivian was beautiful, dressed in armor covering her whole body and blonde hair braided at the back of her head.  

“I can’t believe how stupid you all are.” She hissed softly as she glared knives at me and Sora. “These are animals we don’t understand and you just accepted them into our camp. Angels haven’t been seen in nearly thirty years and then one pops up and you think that’s normal? He could be a spy, and she could be a pixie!” 

She went back to her knife, pulling it out and pointing it at Sora. 

“Trust me when I say they can’t be trusted. The angels spit on us years ago and left us here to die by the dragon’s hands. The day I fight with one of them, is the day I jump to Nym myself.” 

She stormed off without another word, her angry cloud hanging over us. 

“Yeah, she has some pretty strong beliefs. But Viv doesn’t really mean any harm, or at least I hope so. She’s just, it’s been a long rebellion for all of us.” Dominic moved us along, holding onto Pearl a little tighter.  

“Hello there!” 

Next, was another dwarf with curly black hair and armored just like Hastrini and Strozumer were. They carried a different weapon, a wooden stick with metal at the top, pointed on each side. 

“May I introduce, Aratmar Mountainforge, captain of the dwarves here.” 

“Tis great to meet our new friends. Though there are not many of my family here, war is not supported by ma people.” They shrugged and stroked their beard. “It’s seen as a waste o’ riches and supplies to fight over meaningless things. But we will give our all to fight with the angels.” 

They shook each of our hands before moving on and Dominic gave some more advice. 

“Dwarves all have beards, but there is a cheat to knowing their pronouns. If they prefer feminine ones, their names have to end with a vowel while masculine names end with a consonant. They pick their own names which I guess is a way to say which pronouns they prefer.” 

I mentally thanked Dominic as I glanced back at Aratmar. Relationships were important in situations like this and it wouldn’t benefit anyone if I offended the dwarves. 

“Lastly, we have the gargoyles. But it’s daytime and they are at their jobs. Kumizu is the captain but she has two others helping us; most are too scared to fight against their master dragons.” 

We actually had a great amount here, it was uplifting.  

Dominic continued parading us around, introducing us to other rebels. Rosi had a safe house she ran while Ekovo the gargoyle had his statue above a jail center to warn if rebels got caught. I saw several other wizards and hope blossomed within me. 

As a group of five, we didn’t have a chance. But with this group, we could finally do some damage.