myself and my intentions to her, because, at one point, I woke up one morning—I’d been sleeping outside her tent during the longer voyages—I woke up, and I saw two horses instead of one. Votya was standing next to me, and she said that I might as well have my own, if I was going to tag along.”
“You couldn’t get your own horse before that?” Taeral asked.
Lumi shook her head. “I was poor. Dirt poor. As soon as I left my home woods, I entered a different world on Calliope. One of trade and sustenance. The society was diametrically opposed to the pixies’ way of life. Back then, I didn’t hide my wings like I do now, so everyone could see what I was. No one had taught me to keep my nature hidden to better integrate in Calliope’s society, so I didn’t have it easy. I scrounged for food wherever there was a forest, and it was how I survived. Later down the line, I figured a few things out and learned to keep my wings to myself. The people no longer perceived me as an outsider, and they were slightly more welcoming.” I’d almost forgotten that Lumi was, by nature, a pixie. She kept her wings hidden from us, but we’d all learned about her origins since the Strava incident. Eira hadn’t known until now, but she didn’t ask additional questions, allowing Lumi to tell her story. “But I could never get close enough to a market to buy my own horse. Not to mention tame one from the wild. They’re dangerous creatures, especially the white ones with red manes.”
“And Votya taught you after she got you a horse,” I said.
She shook her head again. “It took her another year to accept me as an apprentice. But she did. And it was the best decision I ever made in my life. Given the fertility drop among my people, it was only a matter of time before they’d die off. I didn’t want to find myself a pixie male and try and try and try… for nothing, only to get my heart broken repeatedly. So, I chose the path of a swamp witch.”
“And Votya tried to create male swamp witches, too?” Raphael asked.
“Technically, they’d be swamp warlocks,” I corrected him, smiling. He mirrored my expression, but there was a playfulness there I hadn’t seen in a while. I’d missed it. It brought the butterflies in my stomach back to life.
“Yes, she did,” Lumi said. “Not that she was keen on having new apprentices at the time. I was a handful all by myself. But she just wanted to try. She wanted to see if it was possible. Others had tried before, and there had been word of their failure, but the details were never known as to why they hadn’t succeeded. It became an ambition for Votya, so, when we crossed paths with a Druid who wanted to know more about the Word and our craft, she was willing to teach him.”
“What happened?” I asked. Noticing movement in the corner of my eye, I slowly turned my head. The sight before me made me freeze. Just one yard from me, her feet beneath the stream, was a young girl with pale blue skin and big, wide, emerald eyes. A little too big for the proportions of her face, but beautiful nonetheless. She wore a medium-length dress, simple and white, perhaps made of some type of linen. She didn’t look older than fifteen, and she was semi-transparent, like the many others I’d seen. Quietly, she watched me.
“He died in the first stage of his apprenticeship,” Lumi replied, her voice low. She’d probably yet to notice me gawking at… air. None of my crew could see this strange girl; otherwise, they already would’ve reacted. I didn’t take my eyes off her while Lumi continued her tale. “He drowned in the fluid pod. Instead of communing with the Word for the first time, he… he drowned. At first, Votya and I thought it to be a terrible accident. But then, the second Druid apprentice came around, a few months later, and he suffered an identical fate.”
“Drowned in the pod,” Raphael repeated.
I thought I’d smile at the blue girl. Maybe she’d speak then. She didn’t, but she smiled back. Her teeth were small, cute and square and perfectly white, with a little gap between the upper incisors. It made her seem mischievous—like the kind of kid you had to keep an eye on,