And so began the long morning. We moved from Ajax's office into what he called his 'work room'. There were no elegant leather chairs, no pretty little maps that hung from walls, no stately signs of glamour. It was a plain space with a heavy door that could be closed with a satisfying thud, bare walls – aside from the ones with the whiteboards – and a small desk that looked like it had been inherited and lovingly abused over its years.

"This is where I do all of my best thinking," he explained, almost looking a little shy, like he was letting me into some small private world.

"What? The office isn't good enough for you?" I teased back.

"Sometimes, image is more important than function in this role. I find my office distracting somedays," he explained, more serious than I expected.

But it turned out that the whiteboards were handier than I could have imagined. Because magic was many wonderful things, but it was certainly confusing.

"So, there are the original three. And there is almost nothing known about them other than the fact that they were created to make balance and that they are all dead. Well, we don't know for sure that they are all dead, but we have to assume as much based on what happens next," Ajax explained, writing words on the board.

Shapeshifters. Spellcasters. Naturebenders.

"The original three then became the secondary nine."

Each category got three words under their title.

Shapeshifter: vampire, werewolf, werecat.

Spellcaster: wizard, witch, alchemist.

Naturebender: fairy, siren, windhowler.

"These things are real," I said, my voice flat and dead to my own ears. These were the things I read about in mythology books. These were no the things of real life. They couldn't be. Blood sucking humans, women singing sailors to their deaths. Hell, I didn't even know what some of these things were, much less the lore surrounding them. And they had been living around me.

"Of course they're real. Or, at least, they were. The origin stories range dramatically, similar to religion. One small tick hundreds of thousands of years ago makes a big difference now, you know. Sirens like to believe more of a Greek route, vampires are something like atheists, not really caring where they come from. Werecats were believed to have come from Egypt, following Bastet. But, with you seeing the moon goddess, I'm starting to think that some of our theories may be right."

"Alright." I resisted the urge to scrub my face and show any sign that this might be too much. I could have a mental break down about all of this later.

"Through creating the secondary lines, the original three made the choice to destroy themselves. Giving power was their gift, staying alive without magic within them after they had given it all away, was not something they could master. So, the secondary nine evolved to be able to drain a power source – the magic they gave to others – and as long as their children survived, they survived."

"Can we just..." The words died in my mouth. this was unreal. And it was messy. "Can you just tell me what each of them does?" I asked. "Like each...species."

"Sure, of course. Sorry, this must be a lot."

He had no idea but I was still thankful when he scrawled on the board in front of him. When the marker squeaked on the board, I gave myself the opportunity to suck in a couple deep breaths. Then, I read.

Wizards: restoration and conjuration.

Witches: destruction and enchanting.

Alchemists: potions and poisons. Extinct.

Fairies: protectors of woodland areas – glamours and seduction.

Sirens: protectors of the sea – takes power from water, can compel.

Wind Howler: protectors of the sky – can change weather patterns.

He made no changes to shapeshifters, obviously thinking that it was all self explanatory. Though, beside werecat, he did write the word extinct.

"Extinct," I whispered.

"It's a damn shame," Ajax sighed. "The werecats were predominately from south America and the middle east, fierce things. If you think facing down a shifted werewolf is scary, you haven't seen a shifted cat, bloody massive, all teeth, just pure predators. When we lost the last of them, it was a great loss. Even if it was a gain."

"How could something like that be a gain?" I demanded.

"Well, it was awful. Obviously, it was a great tragedy and we felt powerless to stop it with all of the hunting that was happening. Humans were too scared to know any better. But when a specie dies and the secondary of the group is no longer able to survive, there is a transfer of power. And that comes to the rest of us in the class. So, vampires and werewolves got a little boost."

I pressed the heels of my hands against the side of my head, digging into my temples to fend off the headache. "I can't even fathom that vampires are a thing right now," I confessed.

"A thing, for sure. And kind of assholes, if you ask me," Ajax said. "Regardless, if the moon goddess mentioned her siblings, I think this would be the easiest connection to draw."

"She blamed it on her siblings, yeah," I added. "What would happen if something happened to the last werewolf?"

"The power would go to the vampires. And I can see how that might be the obvious option, but vampires and werewolves have a treaty. We are not able to attack each other and if we did, an outside species would be allowed to come in and slaughter us all in an effort to force the balance. Realistically, that wouldn't happen, but some species are crazy enough, so it makes the threat pretty real. Fairies would have killed us all by now if King Archer and King Leo hadn't shoved a treaty down their throats all those years ago."

"This is so political," I groaned.

"You have no idea," he said. Then a pause when he heard a pair of little feet on the floor above us. "Clem is up. I'm going to check on her and cook her some breakfast. Would you like to have breakfast with us or do you want to stay in here?" he wondered.

Ajax was kind and his daughter was adorable. My stomach was grumbling. But it was too reminiscent of the earlier days. "I'll stay here thanks."

And so while he sang to his daughter and fried up some eggs, I stared at the whiteboard and tried to connect dots that I didn't understand. It was a sibling. The obvious choice were the vampires. The transfer of power was a clear motive. But Ajax seemed too certain that it couldn't be them. I raised my hand for a moment, holding it still. If the moon goddess could just reach out to me, even for just a second, and point me in the right direction. But I stayed completely still and felt like an utter idiot.

Ajax returned to a small plate of food for me and for himself.

"Can you show me who has treaties with who?" I asked.

Lines were drawn.

Werewolves had a treaty with fairies.

Fairies had a treaty with sirens.

Vampires and witches and wizards were all linked together.

Round and round it went, seeming like everyone was protecting each other. There was not a single line of magical creatures that wasn't tied down by some law. Aside from the extinct species of course.

"So you guys are all fighting on the same side or they are dead already," I said flatly. "Jesus Christ."

"My thoughts exactly," Ajax agreed. He was grinning at me like he always did, but I could see the exhaustion in his features. For a man who cared so much about presentation, his was slipping. "So, someone is coming after us. But we have no idea who."

"This is a nightmare."

"Indeed. But, if you're willing to keep going, how would you feel about a conference? There is a massive meeting coming up soon. You can see all of these creatures first hand. At the very least, it would be a cool experience for you, and maybe, we can find out something."

It felt like another dead end, but what choice did we have? I nodded my head. 

~~~Happy bonus update! Keep your eyes peeled, I have new things coming in the near future. (I hope y'all are fans of sport romances lol)~~~