New chapter! As usual, apologies for not updating regularly. I hope you guys are enjoying the book so far! Thanks to you guys, this book has reached 600 readers!

As a bit of a celebration for that milestone, I've decided to put out more content! I'm going to leave that up to you all: either I can post lore for Selenite, or I can publish the first chapter of a new dystopian book that I'm working on. If you'd like, please vote here.

IMPORTANT!!!!!

I have updated Chapter 10 of this book a bit, so I HIGHLY RECOMMEND rereading it before reading this chapter! Thank you!

My breath catches in my throat and I suddenly feel as though I can't breathe. It's unmistakable. Was it the power of the gods that turned the page?

"What is that?" I find myself asking, even though I know the answer. I look at Kiara, who gives me an odd expression. Goddess damn you, Sedna, you should have kept your mouth shut.

"It's an old necklace," she answers slowly. "There are several legends about it, and the meanings of most of them are yet to be discovered. That's part of my job here." She sighs and gestures widely to the table in front of her. "Hence all the books and papers."

I nod and glance back at the book. The inscriptions on the drawing are in a language I can't read. Maybe some sort of sigils...?

A knock at the door draws my attention. It opens slowly, and I see Lilith half leading, half dragging a hooded Eris behind her by the wrist. Lilith drags her forward and pushes her towards Kiara. "Here is Eris, the one the intruder claims to be her sister."

Kiara nods and waves her hand. "Then you can go."

"But don't you want me to stay to-" she begins.

"Out, Lilith."

After a moment she nods meekly and bows, closing the door behind her as she leaves.

"Alright you two," Kiara begins. "Are you related or not?"

"I'm sorry, but..." Eris interrupts. She pulls her hood back, revealing a blindfold tied tightly around her head. "Could I maybe take this off? Or at least have it loosened?"

Kiara pauses, as if weighing her options, then nods. "I suppose it would be okay for you to remove the blindfold. You're already here. There's not much you could do."

Eris deftly unties the blindfold and stuffs it in the pocket of her robe.

Her eyes don't rise from the floor.

"As I was saying," Kiara continues, "Eris, this girl says that she's your sister, and that you let her in here."

"Hey! I never said-"

She cuts me off with a dark glare before continuing. "I have to know who she is before I can let her stay here. You know what a...difficult place we are in at the moment." She makes her way over to a shelf lined with thick files and browses them for a moment before pulling one out and opening it. "We can't risk having those with foul intentions come in, whether they are family or not. Identification and intention are key." She runs her finger across a paper in the file, then stops. "You do have a sister. I had forgotten. But," she says, pulling a paper out of the file, "It says here that she was to remain in the confines of your city." Kiara looks up at me. "She isn't supposed to be here."

"What? Why? Why isn't she allowed here?" Eris asks.

"Here, read it for yourself." Kiara hands Eris the parchment and crosses her arms when she takes it.
"'Due to the suspicion that Sedna, Eris's sister, may possess abilities similar to Eris, Sedna is to remain in the confines of the city and is not to enter the shrine of the god of the sun.'" She looks up from the parchment at me. "Mom signed this."

I slump back in my chair. Of course she signed something like that. I should have expected as much. "Is it even valid anymore though?"

"What do you mean, 'is it valid anymore'?" Kiara interjects. "Of course it's valid. It's signed and dated by the issuer, who I presume is your mother as well as the city leader."

"She's dead," Eris whispers.

"What?"

"I said she's dead, Kiara," Eris repeats tersely. The spitefulness in her tone is a bit misguided, if you ask me. "Is this document still valid even though she's dead?" I can see her fists starting to clench. The parchment is crinkling in her hand.

"How did it happen?"

Murderer.

"Does that really matter?! She's dead, and she's not coming back. What does that mean for Sedna?"

You killed her. You killed them. This is all your fault.

I rub my temples and try to banish the thoughts as Kiara and Eris argue.

And when they find out it was you, they'll kill you too.

It's not working.

They'll find you out sooner or later. You can't hide forever.

The familiar feeling of singed flesh on my temples amplifies everything. It's all so loud, so heavy, so....

"Sedna....Sedna?" The voice calling my name seems distant, as if spoken through water. In fact, if it weren't for the searing pain in my head, I'd think I was underwater.

"Sedna!"

I snap back. Eris is kneeling in front of me, holding my hands as they grasp my head. From the corner, Kiara watches carefully.

"Sedna, are you okay?"

"Yeah," I respond, letting out the breath I didn't know I was holding. "I'm okay." Lowering my hands, I try to take deep breaths and calm down.

"Your head...what happened?"

"My head?" I ask. She reaches up and touches the place where my hands were a moment before. It burns.

"The skin is burnt..."

I nod after a moment. "It must have been from the fire. I guess I just didn't notice it before," I lie.

"I think I would remember if you had these burns though..." she begins.

"They're from the fire," I say decisively, cutting her off. She gives me a questioning look and I shake my head as subtly as I can manage. "I have another one on my arm, see?" I pullback the bandage wrapping my forearm and immediately regret it. It looks pretty nasty; I don't think I've changed the wrapping in a couple of days.

"This is infected, Sedna," she says, causing me to roll my eyes. Does she think I can't tell? "Someone needs to take care of this."

"I know, I know," I say with exasperation. "I'll fix it, don't worry."

She shakes her head. "I need to take you to our healer. He'll know how to get this back to normal. He could probably help your head too."

"I can do it mysel-"

"Can I take her to see Koda?" She asks, looking to Kiara for permission.

Kiara visibly hesitates. Finally she sighs. "I suppose that would be alright. She may go see the healer, then we'll finish this conversation. But there's something I'll need you to do first," she says, looking at me.

"Like what?"

"I need you to tell me about the fire."