King Steinn walked out onto the patio, also feigning surprise at the sight of his son and Wisten. "Ah, Lucius. It is good that you are here," he said in forced pleasantry. "I have a matter to discuss with you." Steinn took a seat beside his wife and picked up a cup of blood tea. Only then did Lucius realise that the servant had prepared four cups instead of three. He narrowed his eyes at Wisten who politely smiled back. The young prince had finally realised, although much too late, that they were all complicit in bringing him here.

The young prince turned his attention back to his parents. "It is good to see you too, Father." By some miracle, Lucius managed a smile that looked genuine.

The cup clattered lightly in its saucer as Stein placed it down before addressing his son, "There will be a youth gathering on Earth at the end of the month, the first of its kind. The witches and wolves are sending their own representatives and so are we. The point of the meet is to foster closer ties among the supernaturals. I want you to lead our youth group."

"Me?" Lucius pointed a finger at himself, openly incredulous.

There was a moment of awkward silence before the king replied, "I think you are suited for the task. The choice is yours to accept or decline for I will not force it upon you, but it would be nice if you represented our family at the gathering."

Lucius was stumped. Wisten looked over at his friend in sympathy. When had King Steinn ever voiced such a positive opinion of his son? Probably never. The young vampire prince slowly replied to his father, "If you truly think so, I will attend."

"Excellent! I shall make the preparations," Steinn immediately stood and headed back in, leaving the prince to stare at his mother. She continued to smile fondly at the confused youth.

"Your Father wishes to give you a chance to prove yourself. I think it would be a great opportunity to shine in front of a crowd of your own peers," she peeked at him from behind her cup, trying to play it cool while furiously analysing her son's reaction.

She did not fool her son one bit. He decided to let her off this one time and gave her a slow smile that broke into a wide grin, "I guess you are right. At the least, it would be nice to meet other supernaturals my age."

As they left the palace, Lucius turned to ask Wisten, "Are you following me to the gathering?"

"Of course. Someone needs to keep you out of trouble."

"Let me assure you, I am on my best behaviour and will be till the gathering is over."

"And once you return from Earth?"

"Hmm, then all bets are off."

The scene came to an abrupt halt, as if someone had hit the pause button on the memory, before all of a sudden it suddenly began to fast forward at several times normal speed, and for the next few seconds, the memory observers felt like they were swimming in a river of blurriness where their surroundings were a streaky blend, very much like a watercolour painting that had been drenched in a downpour.

About ten seconds later, the bullet train scenery abruptly returned to normal. Aidan, who had begun to feel panicked that something had somehow gone wrong, found himself in the midst of vampires, werewolves and witches. He was still reliving Wisten's memories, currently with Lucius at his side. They were on Earth, but in unfamiliar surroundings.

Aidan's pulse finally began to slow. 'John must've sped the memory up,' he realised, while grousing that the witch could've given them a heads-up. Now that he wasn't busy panicking, Aidan's attention was piqued by the cordial interspecies interactions going on all around him.

They were in a stone building of some sort, its length seemingly longer than its width. It was spacious, although the ceiling height seemed average, but perhaps that was due to the number of towering wolves in the venue that gave the place an optical illusion of having a lower head space. All around them, supernaturals were mingling together in small groups, building connections for the potential future.

Currently facing Wisten and Lucius was a young werewolf dressed in a beautiful blue and gold dress who seemed eager for conversation. "How have you found Hiraeth thus far, Prince Lucius?"

"It has been an enjoyable two weeks," Lucius cordially replied, "and I have met a great many brilliant witches and wolves with whom I hope to remain in correspondence with even after we part ways."

The werewolf was just about to reply when there was a commotion of sorts not far from where they stood. She turned to look and let out a loud gasp. The vampires followed her gaze which landed on a witch, dressed in a plain white dress, at the centre of the crowd of onlookers.

At first glance, she seemed rather ordinary in comparison to those who surrounded her. Her rose gold hair colouring was beautiful, but unfortunately lacked volume, and fell limply around her oval shaped face. Her features were all gentle curves with no hard angles. Large, round grey eyes, framed by thin rounded eyebrows. A small round nose and plump lips with a noticeably high cupid's bow. Wisten studied her but did not find her particularly interesting.

"Who is she?" He asked the werewolf.

She spared him a look of surprise. "You do not know? She is Nina Forst."

The name rang a bell. Wisten turned to Lucius to inquire but found an empty space where his friend had been mere seconds ago. The prince was already among the throngs of people trying to talk to Nina. Somehow he had slipped through the crowd and was now standing beside the witch. With a grunt, Wisten hurried to catch up to the prince, arriving close enough to hear the prince introduce himself.

"Good day, I am Lucius Bloodreign," he said with the most charming smile, "my fellow vampires and I have been a part of the gathering for the past two weeks but I believe this is the first time we have come across each other. Did you arrive recently at Hiraeth?"

Grey eyes filled with indifference met bright blue ones for the barest of seconds.

"You are in the way."

The prince stilled. "I beg your pardon?" Lucius appeared certain he had misheard.

"Move."

Lucius was so shocked, he inadvertently took a step backwards. The witch did not spare him a second glance as she brushed past, leaving him and the rest of the crowd of onlookers staring after her with mouths hanging open.

Wisten burst out laughing at the sight of his friend, who had no idea how to react to rejection. Rather unsympathetically, he walked over to the shell-shocked prince and gave his shoulder a good smack, "It seems like you have finally found someone who is immune to your charms."

"Yes, well I was not trying to charm her. I was only trying to be friendly," Lucius defended while watching the retreating back of the unusual witch. "Perhaps I caught her at a bad time?" Lucius mused, his expression now thoughtful while his eyes took on a burning intensity akin to a predator eyeing its prey, "I should try approaching her again tomorrow."

Wisten was no longer amused as he recognised the look on his friend's face.

"Lucius."

"Mmm?"

"Did you not say that you would be on your best behaviour?"

Lucius looked at Wisten innocently. "Relax, my friend. I merely wish to get to know her. She intrigues me, is all."

To Wisten's frustration and secondhand embarrassment, Lucius did not give up, following the young witch everywhere the following day while trying, and failing, at befriending her. The witch looked utterly disinterested, flicking her rose gold locks over her shoulder while walking past Lucius whenever he tried talking to her.

What she had not counted on was the prince's persistence, coupled with being thicker-skinned than a bear's hide. Her bored demeanor began to include interspersed moments of irritation that eventually morphed into anger.

By dusk, she had run out of patience. With an angry huff, the witch spun to face the trailing vampire whilst looking about ready to smack him on the head. Ambling behind Lucius at a safe distance away, Wisten winced in anticipation.

Nina let loose, "Listen here, you dim-witted vampire! I have no intention of engaging in any form of interaction with you just so you can enjoy bragging rights at knowing me. And before you even think to ask, I will not showcase any of my Talents for your amusement."

The vampire prince drew up short, confusion written on his face. "Talent? But I thought you were a werewolf?"

The witch's eyes went from narrowed to bug-eyed as she looked at him like he was an absolute fool. "Do you not know who I am?"

"Of course I do. Sort of. My friends told me your name is Nina. I thought it sounded like a wolfy name."

Nina was having trouble putting two and two together. "You... if you do not know who I am...why did you approach me?"

"To get to know you, silly. Why else would I be following you around?"

She persisted, "Why are you so interested?"

The prince smiled sweetly, "Why not? I have never had anyone speak to me the way you do. I am fascinated to know what more you have to say."

Nina was silent for a long moment before finally uttering one word. "Rubbish."

Lucius boldly moved closer to Nina, so close that she felt the warmth radiating from his body as he leaned close to softly say, "I swear to you, this is pure honesty you hear. In this short life of mine, I have never met another woman like you."

Doubt cast its shadow on Nina's face as she stared at the handsome prince. Wisten, who had inched closer to eavesdrop on the conversation, recognised the look as one he had seen on some of the hard-hearted conquests Lucius had worked his charms on. In the end they always crumbled.

Nevertheless, still unwilling to trust the vampire, Nina haughtily retorted, "Enough with this shameless hogwash. You vex me greatly with your talk."

Lucius countered with a lopsided grin, "Likewise, you vex me greatly for doubting my heartfelt words."

The scene began to dim. The moment Wisten's memory faded, the group was collectively brought back from the past. Almost everyone looked disorientated except for Aidan, with years of experience dreaming up his old life.

"I feel a little nauseous," Hailey complained while rubbing her tummy. John was sympathetic as he explained, " It's a side effect of the memories, feeling all those foreign emotions.You're all going to feel a whole lot worse once the next round of memories are done." Almost everyone groaned.

Gavin looked around the group, assessing everyone's mood before saying, "I kinda sorta have a feeling I know where this is going."

John gave a laugh. "And you'll kinda sorta be right. So let's swiftly move on to the next round of memories and get to the bottom of this mystery, shall we?" Groans and moans followed from all around but the bespectacled witch brutally ignored them. He picked up the second batch of stones which also held Nina's memories.

Aidan glanced around the group, noticing the open intrigue despite the earlier complaints as they braced themselves for more revelations. Once more they formed a circle to ride the second wave of memories.

*****

"Look, is that her? The girl without a mama and papa?"

"Yes, that is what my mother said. She is not like us. She has no family because the Committee made her."

Nine year old Nina Forst made her way slowly towards the centre of the stage even as the other children she passed continued their gossiping. The entire school was gathered in the school hall for the yearly Talent time, where student's with powers showcassed their abilitites in front of other attendees, namely other parents, teachers and those sent to represent the Committee.

Nina internally reminded herself, 'Ignore them. Let them wallow in their jealousy.'

All eyes were on her as she stood alone in the centre of the stage. She inhaled and let it out in a soft huff to calm her jittery nerves before launching straight into her performance, the one she had spent countless hours preparing for the past month. First, she set the paper in her hand on fire before extinguishing the blaze by freezing it in a block of ice. Right after that, the block was sent ten feet into the air, swaying hypnotically in a solo dance across the front of the stage before landing with a gentle thud on the ground.

As a silent spectator of Nina's memories, Emilia was astounded by her abilities. No one she knew had ever shown this much skilled control of multiple Talents at such a young age.

Thunderous applause broke the silence as many of the adults in attendance leaped to their feet in praise. Among them was the Committee representative, Boden Telo, seated in the front row. He was young, not past his seventies, and slim although not very tall, with long silky smooth hair the colour of dark tree bark. Although considerably handsome, his unusually pallid skin tone gave Boden an undertone of fragility, albeit this was far from true of his constitution.

Whenever Nina performed, he was sure to be there. He beckoned her over and she scrambled off the stage to greet him. "Another perfect performance, as expected. Well done," he said with a grin.

"Thank you, Representative Boden," Nina blushed, too shy to say more.

He patted her head, "I am so proud of you."

Nina beamed in delight before bowing and hurrying back to her seat next to the rest of her classmates.

"Freak." Someone behind her was more than happy to express their contempt, which others found amusing, giggling away. More whispers followed.

Nina's happiness was crushed in an instant, the smile on her face vanishing. She schooled her expression into one of indifference which remained throughout the rest of the school Talent time, but only until she returned to the small cottage she called home. There, hidden under the covers of the single bed, tears were unleashed. Nina sobbed to her heart's content, and then sobbed some more.