I rush through the streets of Esterios, past the night merchants showing their wares to the sleepless. I rush by cars and motorcycles, flying beside a plane, and take off into the sky. A group of witches ride their brooms in a V-formation over downtown, around the three tallest buildings.

As if on a rollercoaster, I take a sharp dive onto the street again, past the apothecary and many roads leading to Dematras, the city's Mortal areas. I find myself in front of a large glass building reaching far into the sky.

The glass building shimmers, even in the darkness. Weightlessly, I fly into the building past the two guards watching monitors at desks on either side of the room. Zooming through hallway after hallway, I dive through the floors.

Down and down and down.

Miles under the building, I stop in the elevator cab. The elevator doors open slowly, revealing black-and-white tiled flooring and black-tiled walls leading in multiple directions.

It calls to me through the dark hallways.

Small orbs of light line the hallways, flickering with light as I rush through the winding hallways. Three figures shrouded in the darkness of their cloaks glide down the hallways.

Down a long hallway, a pulsating light shines onto the floor, casting light onto the walls. I speed towards the light until I am through the glass archway, bathed in light.

The white room is filled with white shelves built from the tiling. It's as if the floor were bewitched into shelves rather than built from scratch. Shelves run for as long as the eye can see.

The light glitters off the glass orbs as some pulsate with different color energy. Some are clouded. It calls from deeper within the room. I fly forward, then left, then forward until I reach a crossroads. In all directions, there are doors at the end of the aisles.

"It is here." The voice beckons.

The voice leads slightly to the left. At the end of the row, a cloaked figure stands with her hand stretched out to take one of the orbs. Her black fingernails like claws as they reach for the orb. As her hand touches the orb, it clouds with black smoke. The figure withdraws its well-manicured pale hand away from the orb, which turns bright gold.

"No! It cannot be!"

The air sweltzers around me. The world waves and ebbs in front of my eyes as the figure's skin burns. It pulls its hand under the cloak and slithers away down the other end of the hallway.

"Come." The voice calls.

Seconds pass before the orb pulls me towards it. I am floating beside it now, my hand outstretched as the voice comes. "Cleanse the world in fire."

"Peri?"

A pull yanks me through the halls of the Aetherium and out onto the street, past the cars on the street and the wolves patrolling the streets, where sunlight peeks over the buildings. Through the Electera and onto the street of the Reyshard Compound.

"Peri."

My name jolts me awake as I sit up in bed. My mother smiles at me from the door.

"You'll be late for your first day." Mom says. "Hurry, Yeli has cooked a feast. Your brother will have eaten it all."

"Thanks. I'll be down in a minute."

Mom smiles as she shuts the door behind her. I fall back on the bed, my mind swirling with the contents of my dream.

Or was it a dream?

Breakfast goes as well as could be expected. The human garbage disposal I call brother nearly wipes out all of the food before I get there, but a quick warming charm burns his taste buds enough to slow him down.

But not stop him.

After breakfast, Dad and Hodge, his second-in-command, disappear into the War Room to start their day, but not before wishing me an uneventful day. He checks me like a little kid to ensure I have my locator necklace.

Mother volunteers to drop me off at Wicham. She insists on it. "I might even buy something for the foyer."

Without much resistance, I allow my mother to blink us to Wicham. She stops me at the doors, grabbing me by my shoulders. "This is it."

"Mom, this is an internship. It's not college."

"But it's the start. Next year, you'll be graduating and then college, and then you'll be gone for good." Tears pool in her eyes as she looks down at the ground. "Forgive me. This is very uncool, isn't it?"

"If it makes you feel better, Wilum will live with you guys until technically you're living with him."

Mom laughs. "That is one way to look at it, I guess."

"Mom, I'll be home this afternoon. I'm not going anywhere."

"You're right. Maybe I'll shop for art another day."

"Good idea. Now, will you let me go?" I ask.

Mom releases her grip. She kisses my forehead and wishes me good luck before blinking away.

I turn to the glass doors and enter, finding myself on the familiar creme-colored marble floors. The guard, Franke, greets me as I head towards the offices. He informs me that Erised is waiting for me in the showroom.

The showroom floor is filled with ancient artifacts. Small partition walls are decorated with art from thousands of years ago, while pedestals and stands house vases, statues, and other remnants from times past.

Erised stands in front of a statue of a headless torso. Unlike most ancient sculptures, the torso is well-sculpted and lean, indicating that it is pre-awakening but not as old as most of the artifacts here.

The placard is engraved with the word "Hemsworth."

A long shadow is cast overhead. The raised ceiling is tinted glass, casting light onto the room.

"Mr. Reyshard! Happy to have you here today. And you're on time." Erised doesn't look up from her notes. "The others will be late."

"It's an honor to be here. You're one of the top curators in Esterios. Hell, in Sumerica."

"No flattery. You have already impressed me, Peri." She says, smoothing out her tight black dress. "If Amised's endorsement wasn't enough, your essay on Pre-Awakening spellcraft in modern art was thoroughly engrossing and particularly insightful."

"Well, than—thank you! I can't imagine living under the same conditions that witches then lived under. Not being able to experience the fullness of magic in the open seems like a hard life."

"It was." She says as she checks another box. "Thankfully, it ended."

"Right. Right."

Erised smiles as she holds her clipboard close. "I have something that will blow your mind. Follow me." She guides me away from the showroom floor to one of the storage rooms. She rummages through a few covered artifacts before unwrapping a longsword.

The sword is exceptionally silver, almost supernaturally so. Elven runes are etched into the blade. I can make out one word: ender.

Magic glimmers and glitters all over the blade. Magic drips from the sword. It fills the room. It flavors the air.

"It was Aereil Loietherand's sword, Eorth. He was the vanguard of the Fae. It was forged in Faeuir and wielded until he retired to Almeist."

"He fought in the war against Eroth, the dark Fae prince of Beroth, right?"

Erised hands the sword to me. "Yes, he did. It was the second-longest fairy war. Aereil is a great man. Fairy men, am I right?"

The sword is heavier than I would have thought. The hilt is hot to the touch. It softly burns against my fingers. I run my fingers across the blade—the runes burst to life. Visions of a world invade my eyes.

A burned land surrounded by dead trees and dried-up lakes. The sky is orange, and the sun hangs in the sky closer than it should be. The exhaustive heat against my skin burns like standing in the sun for too long.

I blink the vision away as the runes die out. Erised is staring at me. "I'm sorry?"

"Fairy men? I'm sorry, I just assumed the Ardene boy—"

I hand the sword back to her. "He's a friend. A really good friend."

"Yes, well, none of my really good fae friends traveled thousands of miles to save me from a gigantic spider." Erised cackles. "But if that's a secret, it's one we shall both keep."

"Thanks."

I accidentally bump into a covered box and something rattles as it crashes to the floor. A pendant rattles as it slides across the stone floor. "I'm so sorry!" I say as I dive for the pendant. I am thrown into a vision when my hand touches the pendant.

A fiery bird, much like Eret, but larger. It's the size of a star. It bursts into sparks of fire, setting off a chain reaction like wildfire.

The gate from Midas appears in my head, followed by gates in other locations: one in a watery environment, one in a dark cavern, one in a glade, and a few others that bleed into each other. The gates roar into life at the same time, and the runes that run across the arches pulse with magical energy.

"Hey, are you okay?" Erised asks.

I blink the vision away. "Whoa. You didn't see it?"

"You sure you're okay? You zoned out again."

"I felt something. What is this?"

Erised examines the pendant in my hand. "That is a mystery. I couldn't find any information on it, and it failed the magical test. You can have it if you want."

"Thanks?"

I tuck the pendant into my pocket as heels clink against the floor outside the room. Esme enters the room. She pants, gasping for air. "So sorry I'm late!"

"You're on time to help Peri with inventory. There is a box in the corner—a new shipment that needs to be unpacked. When you're done, let Winh or me know." Erised says as she walks to the doorway. She pauses. "And please keep out of trouble. I'd hate to have Beatrix Stonecroft on my ass again." She says before leaving.

Esme and I laugh as we head to the box. The box is already cracked open. We use the crowbar already in the crack to open it the rest of the way. Esme finally catches her breath as we unload all of the artifacts in the box.

We are three hours into the box when Esme visibly shivers as she unpacks a helm. Her eyes roll back in her head, and her hair stands on end. She sits the helm on the floor and takes a deep breath.

"What did you see?" I ask.

"A battle. The last head that the helmet adorned." Esme says. "I hate seeing battles."

"Must be terrible."

Esme nods as she reaches into the box. She fishes for a moment before pulling out a broadsword. It's the same as Eorth. It was forged in the Fae lands. The runes are different, but they are of the same language.

Esme's small hand runs over the cerulean hilt. She lifts a finger to the blade, a blue-silver metal forged in the deepest smith in the dark roads. The runes share the cerulean hue, glinting darkly off the overhead light.

"Whose sword is this?" Esme asks.

"Can't you just do the touchy-feely thing? Most of these have a strong enough energy to give me small glimpses."

"My powers have limits. Something about the sword is blocking my power," Esme massages the sword's hilt. "It's old, though. It's blessed. Or cursed."

"Maybe it was some evil fairy's sword? A real booger of a person. He was conquered only by the luck and pluck of a ragtag band of misfits with hearts of gold." I muse.

"Or by an elven heroine who stole away in the ranks of an army, despite her father's urging. She took the sword from her father, a blacksmith on the Dark Roads."

"Don't suppose it's any good to her now. Wherever she is."

Esme eyes the sword intently, muttering a half-hearted "Yeah" before placing the sword next to Eorth. She winces as she extends her arms.

"I thought the Akriham cleared up the wound."

"It only does so much. Doctor Kuresh warned me there would be soreness."

"I'm sure Beatrix loved hearing that."

"She wanted Erised to be sanctioned for taking us to Midas, but I reminded her she signed the consent release," Esme says. "She threatened to put me in a bubble."

"Like Glinda?"

"Like Prison."

"Maybe we should stop for a while. It's getting late anyway."

"She's just scared. Beatrix, I mean. It was your father first, then Contessa. It has her wondering who's next."

"They're all scared—even Illyria. I heard them in the meeting. If I were smarter, I'd be scared, too."

Esme gingerly leans on a covered box. "You're not?"

"No. I'm more confused. I don't believe the fairies are behind an assassination attempt on the Magister of Esterios. It doesn't make any sense."

"You're staunch belief in the fairies has nothing to do with Aisling?"

"No," I say blankly. "I've grown up with tales of the fae, from my father's lips at that. He speaks now out of fear."

"I wish I was as sure as you are."

The door opens, and Erised marches into the room. Her eyes round the room before landing on us. "Good job. You've nearly sorted most of the objects. You got through it faster than I'd have been able to."

"We didn't get through it all," Esme says.

"That's okay. We have the rest of summer to get you two acquainted with the artifacts in this collection. For now, you better be getting home. Since Midas, your guardians have been on my case. Enjoy your night, you two. Oh, and please be on time tomorrow."

Erised walks us to the offices, where Esme grabs her purse—a small bag I know to be bewitched. A item from Contessa DeLaroy. These bags cost an arm and a leg. Mom has five, not including the clutch.

"We should get some tea," Esme announces. "To calm our nerves."

My nerves are fine, but I relent. I could go for a mint tea to celebrate the first day of my internship.