My breath caught in my throat as Nassir said the words. My mother. He knew her.

"I knew it instantly of course. The first moment she stepped in the city it was the same tug I felt to seek out DuVarick." Nassir leaned back with a smile, reminiscing. "She was full of energy. Stubborn too. Her aura was different, but that was to be expected. After all, she wasn't fae."

My heart thudded. I felt a pang of hurt at my missed identity for all these years, but if Nassir had the truth, I was going to find out.

"What was she then?" I asked. Patience was not one of my virtues.

"I hadn't encountered one of her kind in person, though from time to time they do wander into the Wyldes, seeking to share knowledge and attempt to form a mutual relationship. But we have a long history of distrust with each other, and soon enough they leave without making any impact," Nassir said.

It was so close to something Thian once told me, they would come briefly, as was their lifespan, and leave. Usually without accomplishing their goals. The idealists. The ones who thought they could mend an old rift and gain knowledge for it.

"She was... a witch?" My voice shook. "No..."

Thain would hate me.

They all would hate me.

Schula, she made a face right before she left me in the crater. I thought she was acting strange. She knew. She found out when she lifted my seal.

Oh Mother. Oh Stars. Did she hate me too?

"Wren, are you alright?" Nassir asked, reaching out for my hand again. "Stay calm, I will tell you everything. This does not mean you are hated here. Half of you is still of the Wyldes."

"What if this is how I survived the plague?" I moaned. "They'll think it was witchcraft that saved me! What if it was?"

"Wren, calm down!" Nassir said firmly. "You can tell me about this plague later, but I assure you as a baby you had no control over your powers. Lark was a wonderful person, and she would not have her own child part of an evil plot, I assure you. It was not your fault, it was not her fault, just let me tell you what I know."

I took a breath. Then another.

It fell easily into my meditative breathing. One... Two... Three...

"Alright, yes," I said. "Sorry, I'm fine. Go on, I want to know more."

Nassir paused until he was satisfied that I had calmed down, then he leaned back again and sighed. "Lark met DuVarick first, of course. I could feel them together. Thriving, getting more and more powerful."

"How is it that a witch could be triquetram with a fae?" I asked.

"It is uncommon but it does happen. Your triquetram is almost always your equal in power, but that doesn't mean equal in race or status. It is as the Stars will it to be." Nassir shrugged.

"Okay, so your triquetram was whole, and that makes you all stronger. Right?"

Nassir nodded. "I had long ago ceased to meditate. I thought if I was weaker, DuVarick could not benefit from my presence. But even in that low state I felt the pulse of energy from them flowing into me. I could deny it no longer, I itched to meet her, and evidently the same was true for Lark."

"You met her? In here?" I asked.

"One day when DuVarick was out on a short diplomatic errand, she came down here. It took some time, but with the pull of our powers she eventually found her way to me. I was waiting at the door and the moment she opened it she flew into my arms, hugging me." He smiled sadly. "And that was that. As far as she was concerned we were family. She stole away whenever DuVarick wasn't looking to come see me. She told me about herself, and I told her about me. Thought I don't like to talk about it, she was very good at prying the stories right out of me. Against my wishes, she begged DuVarick to free me. They argued often about it, but as you can see, DuVarick won in the end."

"That's awful," I said.

Nassir waived away my concerns. "DuVarick's mind is twisted far from what it once was. I can sense it, even now. He has allowed it to become so tainted by his emotions and his uncle that there is no coming back from it."

"So what happened to Lark?" I asked.

"She disappeared. One night, she was just gone. I felt DuVarick's rage over it. I was saddened, but glad for her to escape his clutches. No matter how he may have cared for her as his triquetram, he cared about his power more and now she was a part of that. He was furious when she left."

"Why did she leave?" I asked.

"I never did find out," Nassir said. "But it was maybe a year after her disappearance I felt her life fade. It nearly stopped my own heart, it was such a painful loss. I suppose I had always harbored hope to see her again, once more before her mortal lifespan ended. Even by a witch's standards she was lost to us far too soon."

I sat quietly, not sure how to absorb it all.

My mother. A witch.

I was part witch.

Right?

"How can you be certain that I am the daughter of Lark?" I asked.

"When you first arrived I thought my mind was playing tricks with me. I thought you were Lark, come back to me after all this time. Your aura is very close to hers, your magic feels almost the same," Nassir said. "My first thought was that witches simply had magic that felt that way, but as I observed you from a distance and realized you were not Lark, I could still feel the faint echoes of my triquetram coming from you. You are also the right age to belong to her, and her death coincides with when you may have been left in the mountains. It took time to piece it all together, but when you came at me in my mind, a purple bird of fire and energy, I realized you had to be connected to my Lark. Your story simply confirmed a few things for me."

"So you're sure?" I asked again.

"I am sure," he said. "And tell me this, Wren, how did DuVarick act around you? He mentioned you look just like her, right?"

"Yes, he did," I answered.

"The only obsession I have felt from him in decades, was when he was with Lark. I am convinced, and I think he is as well. If anyone was going to recognize the offspring of Lark, it would be us."

"But, why didn't you come forward when I first arrived?" I asked. "We could have figured all this out before now. I could have warmed us with my fire, and... and..."

"Ah, for that I am sorry. I thought you were a trick of my mind, and then I thought you were a trick of DuVarick's to finally tip me into insanity," Nassir admitted.

"Oh." I let the fire fade from my palm with a sigh. It had drained a lot from me, as had Nassir's story. "I don't know what to do now."

"There isn't much to do but wait for DuVarick to come for you again."

"I suppose I should be a little closer to the entrance then," I sighed.

"We can go that way, I will follow but I won't get close enough to be seen when one of his men opens the door," Nassir said.

"Right, good idea." I stood up and brushed dust off my clothing. "With the light it should only take me an hour to get back there, maybe less."

"Oh far less I'm sure," Nassir offered. "I'll gather a few more plants to eat and be there with you after a while."

"Right, okay. I'll go back in case they come for me again."

And think of a way to use this new information to get out of this mess.

#

The rest of the day, or morning, or whenever it was, went quietly. I think Nassir and I both had a lot to dwell on. We ate, Nassir particularly appreciated the roasted food as something he hadn't had in a long time. I gave him the last bit of bread I had saved the day before when I didn't know where my next meal would come from. He savored it and it pained me to think when his next bit of food would come that wasn't mushrooms or insects.

I thought a lot about Lark. About the kind of person Nassir said she was. One of her last desires was to free him. Could I do that? If I could find a way, I wanted to.

After a time we decided to sleep. I was exhausted emotionally and physically, and I didn't have a problem drifting off on the hard ground.

The cool cavern chilled me as I slept. I don't know how long I was out, but when a clicking sound disturbed me I grumbled and rolled over.

"Shh, I'm still sleeping, Nassir."

Tap tap... tap tap

My eyes flew open, when I realized it wasn't Nassir's clicking, but a new tapping sound that had bothered me.

I sat up in my cabin, and instantly realized my body must still be asleep. I was alarmed, but kept myself under control as I looked around.

There, in the window was the tapping sound. A fat black bird with one milky white eye was trying to get my attention.

"Puko!"

I ran to the window, throwing it open and gathering him inside. "Puko, how are you here? Where are you really?"

"Caw!" he screeched in my ear and flapped clumsily over to a chair where he perched on the arm closest to the fireplace, preening himself.

"But how are you here?" I sighed, frustrated.

"Caw!"

He puffed out his chest and took off, flapping back through the window. He settled just outside again and pecked at the window sill.

"Caw!"

"What? I don't understand!" I pleaded.

Then, I was snapped awake. Really awake.

A tendril of panic entwined my insides before I realized it was Nassir shaking me in the dark.

"Wren, Wren, are you okay? Was it a nightmare?"

"No it was a bird I know." I sat up, lighting my palm and looking at his concerned face. "He was trying to tell me something."

"A bird?" Nassir asked.

"Window!" I shot to my feet. "Nassir, you called it a window. I need to get there."

"Slow down, the hole? Well, or window. Or whatever it is.

"Yes, yes, can you show me?"

"Of course I can, come on."

Nassir took me to where the water source was. It was painstakingly slow. While the light helped me to see where I was going, it did nothing for Nassir who had no sight in his eyes, so he still had to rely on his clicking tongue trick to get around.

My heart sped up when the cavern around us began to take shape. Light, more than just my little flickering palm, showed the walls around us as we went in further than the small spring. I hadn't been this deep in before.

"Does there still appear to be some light here?" Nassir asked.

"More than that, I think there is really a way outside! It must have been night when we were here before, because there is so much more light now!" I said excitedly.

"Really?" Nassir grinned. "Quick, over here. Halfway up this wall there is a hole, see if you can tell what it is."

We rounded a corner and sure enough, the light was coming through a hole no bigger than my arm could fit through. I held on and climbed up the wall as well as I could, shoving my face to the hole.

"What is it? What do you see?" Nassir asked.

"Not much," I sighed. "There is some light, so I think we're about to the outside of the mountain. The air is very cold here. But we must be under an overhang of sorts, because all I can see is rock."

I slid down the wall and we both took in the news. It was a strange mix of hope that we could reach the outside air, and despair that we could never get through it.

I sat on the ground next to Nassir and tried not to let the disappointment slip into my voice.

"Well, at least I know what that hole is now," Nassir said.

"Yeah," I said.

Tap tap

"Did you say something?" I asked.

"No," Nassir said. "That was the hole."

We both tilted our heads to the hole, and then I heard it again.

Tap tap

Gently, I got up and climbed back up to the hole. I lifted my face to it, only to be rewarded with a hard peck on my nose. "Puko! Ouch."

There was enough light that I could see he had something in his beak. I reached out my hand to catch it. "What's this?"

Puko dropped a few strands of hair in my palm and pecked me in the forehead. "Caw!"

"Ouch, stop that!" I rubbed my head and looked closer at my palm. I lit my other hand to see better, and gasped. Four strands of deep blue hair had landed in my hand, and they could only belong to one person. "Thain..."

"What is it? What's going on?" Nassir asked.

"I think I have a way to tell my friends where I'm at," I said, pulling a few strands of my own brown hair off my head. I handed them to Puko, who took them and nodded once, before swiftly flying away and out of sight.

"How?" Nassir asked.

"Puko, my raven friend, just brought me a sign of Thain and I just sent a sign back. With enough luck, they'll be able to find this place."

Nassir was silent, a stunned look on his face.

"Nassir?" I came back down and sat beside him. "Nassir, if anyone can get us out of here it's Thain. We can get out. You'll be free."

"He'll never let me leave here," Nassir insisted.

"He won't have a choice," I pressed on. "Please Nassir, my mother didn't get a chance to get you out of here, let me do what it was she wanted. Will you come with me? I don't know if the friends I've made up to this point will accept me now that I'm... now that I'm not what we thought I was. But I couldn't leave you behind. I want to know so much more about you, and Lark, and I want to show you where I'm from. I want to take you out of here. Please, Nassir."

He was quiet a moment longer as I held my breath. I knew he could hear my crazy heartbeat, but I let him think until he finally gave me an answer.

"Okay, if your friends come, we'll leave together."

And that was that, suddenly we both had a reason to hope.