Ren hurried forward to the mirror, seeing an image of her father on its glassy surface. He was quite recognizable with his unibrow, long mustache, and violet eyes. She answered the mirror call and he then appeared live on screen, his indigo hair tied in a top knot with strands falling in his face. He lit up as he caught sight of Ren, hunched over the mirror.

“Hi, Dad!” Ren said, as Zyn scrambled off the chair to enter the mirror’s view as well.

“Hey, you two! How’s it going?” Ak-tu asked, shifting so they could see tall trees behind him.

“Just finished eating dinner,” Ren replied.

“Your call scared Sarala so much, she flew away!” Zyn added, shooting the girl an amused look. “Maybe she’s secretly an air magician!”

Sarala scowled and turned back down the hall, going into the shared bedroom as quickly as she’d come.

“So why are you calling?” Ren asked.

“What—do I need to be calling for a specific reason?” Ak-tu asked, pretending to sound offended. “Am I not allowed to see your lovely faces?”

Zyn instantly made a funny expression, stretching their mouth wide and curling their eyebrows, appearing almost frog-like. Ren snorted in amusement.

“I guess you can call to see Zyn’s fabulous face show,” she said.

Ak-tu smiled lightly, but soon turned serious. “Actually, I was calling for a reason,” he said briskly. “I don’t have much time to talk—you always have to be alert when you’re in the forest. Anyway, there’s supposed to be an eclipse tomorrow.”

Ren gasped in excitement. “An eclipse? That’s so cool! I want to see! What time? Oh, I hope it’s not super early in the morning, like it always seems to be!”

Ak-tu raised one side of his unibrow at her, and she could tell this wasn’t the reaction he’d expected. “It’ll be sometime in the afternoon, if I remember Aster’s calculations correctly.”

“But why’re you telling us about some eclipse?” Zyn asked, frowning in confusion. “We’d see it for ourselves, if it’s going to be during the day.”

Ak-tu nodded. “I’m aware you’d see it without me telling you. I just wanted to let you know, as eclipses are big when it comes to…spirits. Chaocat may make an appearance…”

“Ooh, does the eclipse open a portal to the spirit realm or something?” Ren asked eagerly.

Ak-tu frowned. “It can,” he said. “But it’s Chaocat that we need to be worried about. Keep your eyes open. Who knows what they might do during an eclipse…”