Verana had been biding her time for a while, though the certainty that there was something she needed to do kept eating at her. She had never felt so certain of her purpose in her entire life. She was no longer directed by the words of the Council. She was now guided by the pull thrumming steadily in her heart.

Verana often found herself often standing high on a mountain top and watching the horizon with a building fear holding her back and a cold dread about not following her Path through. When she had awakened after the day in the forest, her power had returned to scorch along her limbs and across her skin. There was something here in the mountains of Vayana that rejuvenated her power within days, when she would have been drained for a fortnight back home.

But still Verana could only pace or train, or fight the wind trying to keep her within the safety of her mother's kingdom.

At night in her dreams, her delays haunted her mercilessly. They were filled with darkness that moved with claws and indistinct forms, blood so thick on the air she choked on it and the screams of people who were dragged away by those dark forms, begging for help that would never come. People were dying and Verana could not shake the feeling that it was her Path to save them. To try and stop these monsters.

She didn't think she had the Sight. She was surely just dreaming the conjured images of her imagination based on what she had heard about these mysterious beasts that preyed on humans and winged beings.

Besides the fear holding her back, there was also her nagging realization that the people here who considered her Kin were also her responsibility. And the attachment to them was tying her down in ways that she had never felt with the Feysha, who would have encouraged her to leave on her mission at the earliest convenience.

Verana feared that if she told her Vayan Kin her plan, they would try to prevent her from pursuing it. And if they did not outright get in her way, she knew that their attachment to her would result in them following her, putting their lives at risk as well.

There came a knock at her door and she turned from where she was pacing on the balcony to step into the room and call out. "Come in."

The simple phrase was still unfamiliar with Verana, who had still not come to terms with confinement and the individual privacy of rooms instead of a communal living space and the vast stretches of Wild. Though she could lose herself within the trees and not speak to another living being for days, she had never been assigned a space that she had sole control over.

Kerendian walked into the room, followed by Janzel, who closed the door and leaned back against it calmly. Kerendian was wearing casual clothing, the sort Verana had seen her wearing after a day of courts when the Queen spent time with those close to her. In contrast, her guard Janzel was wearing armour and full boots with weapons on her hips. The normally unflappable woman smelled of excitement and anticipation and there was a slight smirk on her lips.

Kerendian smelled of fear and resignation, her expression matching those scents even as they settled into that every present scent of confidence. Verana's mother always smelled of that iron strength that Verana was certain was what truly made her Queen.

"Tell me what it is." Kerendian said softly, drawing her attention with determined words. "I see it in your eyes, I know about the Feysha and their Paths, the purposes they were born for. Tell me what it is."

Verana searched for the right words that would assuage her mother's worry while remaining truthful. In the end, only the words of the council filled her mind, so that was what she repeated, gently to the woman who had just recently begun to warm to her. "I will fight the evil and I will fight the darkness that causes it. My enemies, their Gods and their enemies will all need to join me but I must stop the darkness from devouring this world."

Kerendian watched her barely blinking as she took in the words. The woman looked impassive, but Verana could smell the fear and sadness build in her and the uncertainty of what it all meant. Still, the Queen did not speak, though the silence grew heavy between them.

Verana plowed on, motioning out the window to the darkening mountains beyond. "I believe this Darkness is the Cassaei that the Rulin have spoken about. But it's not even that, first... first I have to go to the Irlen and rescue the Feysha they've imprisoned."

"The Humans, their lands straddle the coastline and lowlands between Vayana and Rulin. They occupy most of the neutral lands but encroach unknowingly into both kingdoms. And even the neutral lands between the two mountain ranges are not guaranteed safe from the occasional encroachment from our enemies. A few words between me and an envoy and one moment in the forest is not peace." Kerendian offered softly, letting out a slow breath.

There was something else, some decision that had been made, though her mother did not yet speak it.

"I know." Verana nodded carefully, wishing she knew what to say to this woman who always seemed hidden away from her. "But... I can't not."

"Let us start small then." Kerendian offered softly, stepping closer to her and opening her arms. The rare gesture allowed Verana to step into them to receive a hug, something she had become more used to since her initial interactions with the humans. "Start with the villages encroaching on our lands, go and come back. Janzel will watch your work and let us know if we can help you, though our universities have said they can not theorize your power use accurately. Always save enough of your power for you to come back home. I will give you two days but if you don't return by dawn on the third, I will engage Rulin in such a bloody, vicious war that the world will know my vengeance for time immemorial."

Verana shivered at that promise.

The look her mother gave her told her that any objection to it would not be listened to. Instead, Verana broached a subject that had been weighing on her heavily, though she had never found the correct way or time to approach it. "I... I don't blame you for anything, you know. I understand, the Council's word is just as final as your Oracle's... and I wouldn't change who I am. I miss the fact that I didn't know all of you, that this side was hidden from me, but I understand why you did it. I didn't even believe I had a mother for most of my life, and the Feysha don't have singular families like Vayana does. I was raised by a community, as all Feysha are."

Kerendian gave her a sharp look. " No mother? And where did you think you came from?"

"Everyone told me that I was born from an egg. Like a Dragon." Verana offered another shrug, before smiling carefully. " I would like to get this started soonest. So I should go now... it is not yet dark and I'd prefer to do this at night."

There was a flash of fear in her mother and a sudden surge of grief but Kerendian simply nodded, offering her a fierce smile. "Janzel is with you.. Swift winds, Daughter. Janzel, watch her back."

Verana looked thoughtfully at the warrior who stepped away from the door and bowed to her Queen. " Always, your majesty. Though I think it'll be more of a battle here, once all those over protective men realize what's going on."

Janzel's tone was light, teasing and she had a smirk on her features as she mentioned the very accurate reaction of Pharos and the Brethren. Kerendian rolled her eyes, muttering something about them being able to live with not being involved in every bit of trouble going on, before she turned and left the room.

With a quiet grin and a glance to the woman she had only known from the stoic presence at her mother's side through all these months, Verana turned and leapt from the balcony, banking in the direction that would take her to the coast and the human villages beyond. Still, despite Kerendian's dismissal, Verana found herself speeding along, trying to put as much space between her and her brother and adoptive father as she could.

Janzel was quickly beside her, grinning through the growing darkness, smelling of nothing but exhilaration as they sped through the mountain passes and dove down over plateaus. "Princess, this is the most fun I've had in a while! Let's hunt!"

The Feyshan Wild within her grinned back eagerly.

They would Hunt.