It's been a week so far that my mom's been missing, and I'm at the point where the journey across would be too long to thoroughly search in a day, so tonight I'm camped out in a makeshift shelter deep in the ravine.

Travelling the ravine at night isn't a safe thing to do, with all the remnants of the city lying in crumbles. Some of the old buildings have deep pits that you could fall into at any given time, with shattered glass and metal that's ready to cut through clothing and skin. The important thing at night, though, is to create a map using the North Star. When I'm going across the ravine, I keep the star on my left, and when I want to go home, I keep it to the right. During the day, I use the Sun to maintain course, but most of the time I wake up before then and so my little map makes sure I'm not wasting any time running in circles.

I stoked the fire, eyes blurry with tears that I won't let fall. To cry is to admit despair and to be in despair means that I'd given up on hope, and I'll be damned if I do that. I'm not the kind of bitch that gives up. Sighing heavily, I looked at the satchel I brought and realize how stupidly light I packed. I've been leaving in such a hurry each day that I had hardly been taking care of my needs at all. Is this what it's like for my mother when she goes to clinic? Hoping to save someone, to help them, and to be so desperate that everything else falls to the wayside?

The berries I brought with me are tart.. They weren't ready for harvest just yet. Maybe if I had inherent good luck I'd be in better shape, food wise. I grimaced, but choked down the berries all the same. My leather pouch held a good deal of water, but I take just a couple sips in case I got lost or stuck somewhere and need it.

I do regret not telling Melani I was leaving. I imagine she'll be pretty pissed that I didn't reach out, but she hadn't been around very much. Her focus had been on listening to talk throughout town and asking questions of 'the right people.' Whatever that means. Julia, however, had visited every morning before the clinic to check on me and see if I'd made any progress. She wasn't surprised that after so many day trips I would need to trek further into the ravine, requiring a bit of camping, and offered me a small med kit to carry with me.

The clouds threatened in the distance, telling me that tomorrow would be cold and wet. Tonight, I needed to sleep while I could, and hoped that if there were a God of the Sky and Storms, that he would be willing to hold off on thundering down rain for a few days until I made it back to Safe Haven.

************************************

Waking up to the sizzling sounds and heavenly smells of meat cooking should never be alarming, but there's a saying about never say never  for a reason. First, I was savoring the aroma, and then when I realized someone had entered my campsite, I sprung up, brandishing my dagger and shouting gibberish.

I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. I blinked. Once. Twice. I rubbed my eyes, my mouth hanging open.

"What the fuck, mom?" I choked out.

She raised an eyebrow at me and gestured to the log across from her. It looks like she caught some sort of lizard and now had it on a skewer next to the fire.

"Do you know how easy you are to track?" She asked, as if there was not a problem in the world. Her eyes were clear of the exhaustion that I knew them to hold, and now seem to contain a wildness I've never known.

I mimicked her, sitting down on the damn log she pointed out for me.

"Do you know how easy you AREN'T to track?" The fear that had been boiling inside me turned quickly to searing anger. How could she do this to me? I stood up, "I've been looking for you for days, and you're telling me this was just a stupid goose chase? A little hunting lesson? I will repeat myself. What. The. Fuck. Mom?" Each word was a hiss, and her grin faded away, a tight line replacing it.

"No, I did not do this for fun, Kaya. You should know me better than that. I have patients I'd much rather be attending to than dealing with this. You know what else you should know better?"

Gods damn it.. if she said what I think she would say then I was going to flip my-

"You should know better than to use such foul language. It's-"

"Unbecoming," I sneered at her. "You know what else is unbecoming?" Fire boiled my veins.

"I'll not be playing these games with you. Eat your lizard and listen," her eyes were stern. The fact that she said 'eat your lizard' was enough to drag me out of my frustration. Never had I thought those words would flow out my mom's lips. I suppressed a giggle and contemplated what was happening.

She's right, I do know her better than to think she had done this for no reason. I'm just reacting with my heart and not my head.. I felt so foolish for worrying about her when she had just been watching me traipse around the damned ravine without saying a word, but she wouldn't have done it if she didn't have to.

I gave her a nod, and she let out a big sigh of relief. When she looked back up at me she had tears pooling in her eyes.

"I'm very sorry I couldn't reach you sooner." Her voice cracked.

I grabbed her hand and gave her a reassuring squeeze. She smiled, and blinked her threatening tears away.

"We have to leave the Sky Faction.. I couldn't tell you at Safe Haven, not with so many ears that want us hanged from one reason or another already," she rolled her eyes, thinking of all the negativity that has followed us throughout our lives.

My stomach clenched into a knot. Leave Safe Haven? Leave the faction? My ears began to ring.

"Why?" My voice was unnaturally low.

"An old contact from Chaos found me.. They tried to gather information from me, as a friendly face, asking innocent questions that slowly became more and more detailed and about topics that strayed into security about the faction. I was a fool.. All the way up until I realized what was happening," She gave me a smirk.

"When they were ready to take the next step and take me out with an attack to capture me, I was ready," Anxiety bloomed in my chest and I squeezed her hand again. I really had almost lost her.

She covered my hand with her own and squeezed back.

"I think they are going to attack Sky soon, and we don't want to be here when they do. There are things you need to know, but I can't tell you until we're far from here," She said, eyes flicking around to the fallen buildings and unruly bushes around us, searching for anyone listening. She was still whipping her head around when she suddenly stood up, the nervous energy thrumming through her becoming too much to sit still. She let my hand go and grabbed another set of lizards off their sticks, handing one to me.

Questions were leaving my mouth faster than I can think, and faster than my mother can answer.

"What happened to the contact? Who were they? How do you know they are going to attack? If they do attack, when will it be?"

With her mouth full and eyes wide, she muffled out, "Easy, easy! Keep your voice down." She swallowed. "They're here already... in the ravine." My eyes widened and my chest pressed in on itself. She gave me a knowing look, "That's part of why I had to wait so long to reach you." She went back to her lizard, and the hairs stood up on my neck. I whipped my head around, using my gift to its maximum capacity and gasped.

"Is it.. The purple hue?" There was a shimmering veil of purple around a large area.. So big I can't believe I hadn't seen it before. It almost looked like a giant fish tank. The veil seemed to move with the wind, rippling like a curtain next to an open window.

"Probably. They'd be using a glamour and staying put in the day, then making moves through the darkness with their shadow wielders at night," She said, straining her eyes as if she might be able to see it too.

"A glamour? Can you see it?"

"There are potions that would allow me to, yes.. But no, I can't see it now. I imagine that's because of your gift. I don't know when they will attack, but once they get to Safe Haven, it won't be long. They'll lose the element of surprise if they're seen," Her eyes were fierce as they stared into the direction I had pointed.

My mind was reeling. If they're already here.. "How are we going to escape the ravine? You always told me Chaos never sends just one army.. They send hoards." I whispered.

"With what you've told me.. I don't know if we will make it out of the ravine on the other side.. They're further through than I had anticipated." Her eyes were downcast, hopelessness lacing her voice. Another shiver of fear ripped through me and I wiggled it out, staring down at my hands.

"We could go back the long way. We could fight."

I don't think I've ever seen my mom shocked. Maybe once before. Not like now. Nothing like I've ever seen now.

"I beg your pardon?" She asked incredulously.

"We could fight. We have the whole Sky Faction. We could tell them what happened, they could prepare, and the Sky Faction has never lost. Not if we had the mountain on our side. It's a lot harder to win an uphill battle, especially when you're being pelted by the elements," I threw my dagger, beheading the last lizard on a stick, for emphasis.

"You have got to be kidding me." She was not amused. "Why would we risk our necks even telling the Sky Faction what happened? The only thing they will focus on is the fact that there was a spy from Chaos, which I allowed into Safe Haven. Their next question will be if we'd liked to be hanged or beheaded." Her eyes glimmered with rage, not at me, I knew, but at the Sky Faction. "How am I going to convince them that my reasons for taking in the member of Chaos were not to undermine the Sky Faction but to give someone, like myself, a better life? Why would they even trust a word coming out of my mouth with the way they've treated me? Treated us? They wouldn't give us the benefit of the doubt." She grunted.

"Not if they attack and we win," I grimaced. "The way out of the ravine could be a death sentence, and Chaos would have no reason to keep us alive if we get caught. We have people at the Sky Faction who would vouch for our intentions and hopefully the Sky Faction would listen and give us the benefit of the doubt. At least, hopefully they keep us at most imprisoned until we get to say I told you so." I lifted my chin, hope springing anew in my chest, and met my mom's gaze. Her eyes were hardened, defensive, fearful.. But I can make this work. We have Francis, Sai, Deirdre, hell, even Ronan could maybe give us an edge.. I know things are a little uncertain right now with my friends, but I bet there's even more people in Safe Haven that would vouch for my mother, as well.

My mom sat, cheek tucked into her teeth, thinking.

"I don't think it's a good idea," she grunted. My heart dropped.

"Mom, if we try to leave we might be caught by Chaos, and if we're lucky and we see them lining the other side of the ravine before they see us, if we try to make a rush back to the Sky Faction they might already be in a battle. Then, we're just stuck in the middle."

"You would risk our lives going back to the Sky Faction?" Her eyes were cruel as they looked into mine. Challenging me.

"I would." I said.

"Then you're a fool," she gritted out. "They aren't trustworthy. We can only rely on each other. If they knew who I was in the beginning, they would have killed me all those years ago and you wouldn't even be here."

"What do you mean?"

Her mouth tightened to a line. "I can't say anything here. It's all too close.. I can't speak about it here. There's things I need to tell you but.. It's complicated," She ran her hand through her disheveled hair and sighed.

"Well that's one way to get me curious. Tell me you have information I should know, and then tell me none of it." I deadpanned.

"It's not the kind of thing.. I was hoping it wouldn't ever come up but now that Chaos is here I feel like... like I have to."

"Wellp," I popped the P. "I guess you'll just have to tell me," I shrugged.

She tsked at me, and stood up. She started to walk toward our supplies to start packing up, and then froze.

"Mom? What is it? Do you see someone?"

She turned toward me with an arrow protruding out of her chest. My eyes fell to it, at the red spreading out underneath of it, at her eyes which we widened in shock. At her body which suddenly seemed so frail and not enough.

"MOM!" I yelled, reaching for her as she fell.

When I touched her, it felt like the world was squeezing my head into itself, my skin falling off my bones, the world spinning off of its axis.. I was going to throw up. I was going to lose it.

Then, all at once, my pain was increased to the thousandth percent, with it feeling like my skin was reattaching itself, layer by layer, muscles and nerve fibers rejoining my disconnected skeleton, my brain going from implosion and explosion, and the spinning went all the while.

I threw up. Once. Twice. My vision darkened, black spots invading my vision and trying to lull me into the darkness, but I found against them. It felt like my feet left the ground and I was floating. Floating. Floating. And then I watched the floor come back to me just as fast as it had left, with a reckless abandon that seemed made for breaking bones, but I landed softly. Softly, not gracefully. My face was on the floor and I was sprawled about like I had fallen, which I guess I had? The spinning had stopped, the spots were retreating, and the mess I'd made all over my shirt was still there.

Blinking, I whirled around so that I was sitting. How the he-

"And that, Kaya, is my second gift," mom huffed from the floor next to me. The events race through my mind again and I found myself springing to my mother's side, turning her so I could see the arrow that had struck her in the chest. It must not have hit any lungs or major arteries since she was still alive not, but who knows how much she is bleeding on the inside.

She teleported. I thought to myself. I looked around, and there, sitting next to a patient, was Julia, her blue eyes wide with surprise.

"Oh my gods!" Julia yelled, rushing over to my mother on the floor. My head was still swimming from the impact. Teleportation? Probably one of the rarest, most difficult to master gifts and my mom had it and never once thought to tell me?

My chest ached, for more than one reason. The feelings of betrayal, fear, anxiety, and a bit of nausea, were rolling through me at speeds I could not get a hold of, but my mind was focused on one thing. Helping my mother.