Aeris woke up slowly.

  Behind her ears, the thrum of water could be heard resounding throughout her skull, and whatever light surrounding her blinded her through her eyelids.

  Slowly, she opened her eyes for short amounts of time to let them adjust. Her brain, still half-submerged in deep sleep, presupposed to Aeris that perhaps she was at home with a fever, but when Aeris surveyed her blurry surroundings, she seemed to be in some sort of small cabin, far from her Auntie’s arms, like she’d hoped.

  She immediately pulled the blanket off herself to inspect for damage.

  Her legs, which had made most contact with the substance from before, only burned weakly. The back of her throat stung as if she were sick.

  “Good morning,” Peltier said, his face hovering above her.

  “Aahh—” Aeris yelped, cutting herself off. She wasn't very familiar with him, but he was a village adult and, therefore, trustworthy.

  Peltier’s brown eyes were deep-set, and as usual, he wasn’t clean-shaven. Aeris squinted at the uneven brown stubble that matched the hair atop his head. Peltier often held a stalk of wheat between his lips, but today it was nowhere to be found.

  “We're in a cabin in the woods. Calm down. I'll explain everything once everyone is awake.” Peltier spoke tersely, trying to nip Aeris’ panic in the bud.

  He succeeded, as Aeris merely balked before falling into thought.

  Aeris was going to demand he take them home, but figured they probably weren't far from the village anyway. She would go home after confirming everyone’s safety.

  When Aeris surveyed the room, Kimon lay on a cot on the ground. Small feathered protrusions emerged from his cheeks.

  Aeris scrambled to her feet to get a closer look.

  “Kimon… Oh no…” She whimpered. Clearly, Kimon had been hit with some terrible illness caused by that wretched corpse. Why else would small downy feathers line his face? Perhaps they weren't close, but Aeris still would hate for him to get sick. Her breaths were short and stilted with panic.

  “Will he be okay?” She turned to Peltier, who was watching her intently.

  “Mmm… it depends. You're in the same boat as him, by the way.”

  Aeris gasped, immediately feeling up her own face, but it was perfectly smooth as expected. She sighed in relief. The relief gave way to a new wave of panic.

  “Just tell me what's going on! What was that thing? And the water was definitely poisoned! If that gets into our water system, the whole village could get sick!”

  Peltier looked down at Aeris, his expression hard to discern.

  “You’re a fast thinker, for an eleven-year-old.”

  He leaned down, placing his hand against Kimon’s forehead. Aeris rose from the cot she was in.

  “I'm twelve, and–” Aeris gasped again. “Where's Mikaela!”

  “Outside the cabin.”

  Aeris didn't waste a moment, pushing herself to her feet with some effort. She rushed to the wooden door and shoved it open. As Peltier had said, Mikaela was meters from the entrance, cleanly swinging a wooden branch like a sword.

  Up and down, to the side, and then back up again. The action was rhythmic.

  Mikaela looked perfectly normal. His skin was unblemished, so whatever was happening to Kimon was… just Kimon. That was, until Mikaela turned to her, his expression strange.

  Mikaela mumbled something quietly, and Aeris shut her mouth so she could hear.

  “Hmm… he has feathers, and you have scales?”

  Aeris stared.

  “What?”

  The three children sat on the cabin floor, lined up like disciples. Aeris gnawed at her fingernails, unable to meet anyone’s eyes—especially not Kimon’s, given the feathers on his face.

  A small bronze mirror from the corner of the cabin had confirmed Mikaela’s mumblings, and Aeris had cast it aside upon seeing her reflection. Scales now littered her skin; small, shiny, and brittle. They’d been smooth under her initial touch, but now,

  Aeris didn't think she could miss them ever again. Aeris had been infected by something, and she had no idea what it was. According to Peltier, they'd been asleep for more than a whole day, too. Auntie was probably worried sick.

  Peltier cleared his throat.

  “Where should I start…” The man was gruff and uncomfortable, his eyebags stark. He cleared his throat. “The physical changes are probably… permanent.”

  Kimon flinched, and Aeris gasped dramatically. Mikaela didn’t seem bothered, clearly because he lacked even a scratch.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Peltier continued.

  “Essentially, you kids fell into the concentrated mana of some magical beasts, and then some.”

  Aeris supposed he could conveniently exclude the human corpse mixed in there. Truth be told, Aeris didn't want to know.

  That mana is permanently in your system now. So, congratulations. Technically, you three can use magic.”

  Aeris looked up hesitantly, and the children exchanged glances.

  “I don’t care about that, Peltier,” she said, sullen. “I just want to go home.”

  Perhaps other children idolized magicians, but Aeris wasn’t that kind of person.

  The scales weren’t so bad that she couldn’t show her face anymore. But what would Auntie say? What would Lanthy, Phoebe, and Naila think? Aeris had never heard of anything like this. What if the scales grew until she had no skin left?

  Aeris stood up.

  “I'm gonna go home and talk to my aunty.”

  Despite herself, tears were welling up in her eyes.

  Kimon stood up as well, intent on following her. Peltier watched impassively as Aeris made her way over to the door.

  The knob would not budge. Aeris fumbled with it, sniffling and grumbling.

  “Is this broken or something?”

  Aeris turned, hoping for a response. Instead, Peltier’s gaze was shadowed.

  “There's no use. You three can't go home anymore.”

  It was as if something had frozen in time, and Aeris was caught in the middle as everything around her came to a halt.

  “Did you think everything's suddenly fine now? To have beast mana coursing through your body? The only reason you three survived is that you were lucky I found you.”

  Aeris could hear the thrum of her heartbeat in her ears. She tried the doorknob again to no avail.

  “Why are you keeping us here?”

  Her voice was breaking into whines, and she continuously wiggled the knob as if something might change. Eubane was a safe village, but Aeris had been taught about what happened to children like Aeris if they got into the wrong hands.

  Peltier watched on.

  “You'll die if you don't learn how to manage the mana. I prevented it from frying you three alive, but I'll be taking you all to the academy at the capital. Don't try to show your faces at the village.”

  Kimon piped in before Aeris could.

  “Why not? Is it because of the way we look? If so, why can't Mikaela go back?”

  Aeris nodded, standing beside Kimon.

  “It doesn't make any sense! Even if we need to go to the capital—”

  Aeris swallowed thickly. She didn’t want to leave her aunt behind. Her parents worked in the capital as merchants, but she hardly knew their faces.

  “—At the very least, can’t we say our goodbyes?”

  Aeris shuffled farther away from Peltier, the cabin walls closing in on her. Kimon and Mikaela’s feet stayed firmly planted. Were they not afraid? Her mind was spinning. All the stories her aunt had told her—who to be wary of, what to do—fell flat in the moment.

  Still, Aeris had a sinking feeling that Peltier knew how to use magic. That must’ve been how he sealed the door from the inside where there was no latch to be seen. Which meant Peltier was a liar, because no one in the village knew of this.

  Peltier was quiet. But perhaps an inkling of sympathy had been invoked, though, because he began to explain further.

  “You can't go back. Your Aunt and all your friends won’t be kind anymore. From this point on, no one will treat you the same anymore. Until you have a way to hide what's happened to you,” he poked his cheek, “It's risky to go home.”

  The children were somber.

  “But… why?” Aeris whispered. The whole room was taken, stuck on the precipice of what Peltier might say next.

  “Normal people can't absorb beast mana,” he said simply. “The only people who can make it possible are a group called the Evolutioneers. And they massacred a few thousand with their experiments. You’ve probably never heard of them out here in the boonies. You walk back into your village looking like this? Even the people who love you might panic. That’s why you can’t go home.”

  Aeris couldn’t imagine such a sordid group lurking around her village. She shivered despite herself.

  Kimon raised his hand tentatively.

  “But that's weird. If the big cities are where everyone is more aware of people like us… why are we going to the capital?”

  Aeris perked slightly.

  “Kimon's right… and… You're a magician, aren't you? Why can't you just teach us to control mana here?” she accused.

  The children were guarded and sullen, three gazes fixed on Peltier, who scratched the top of his head.

  “You're right. I'm a magician. Only a magician could help stabilize the mana in your systems.”

  He surveyed the children.

  “But I have no plans on being a magic teacher for the foreseeable future. I have to go to the capital now anyway, so you all might as well come with me. I'll teach tidbits along the way, but I'm not a school teacher."

  What a useless and annoying old man. He would rather rip them away from their villages than help them. The only reason Aeris didn’t voice such thoughts was that she hadn’t been raised to speak to adults that way.

  “What's gonna happen to the beast corpse?”

  She itched at her skin. How could the essence of such a gross thing be a part of her now? There was no way. Other than the dull ache in her bones, she felt perfectly the same.

  “I got rid of it while you all were sleeping.”

  Peltier looked at her expectantly, awaiting more questions. Aeris didn't believe him.

  “Did you tell everyone about it?”

  “No. I sent a messenger bird to the nearest knight outpost. A magician will purify the water table. Most of the mana was diluted already. You three just happened to bathe in the source.”

  He had a messenger bird? Nevermind that.

  “What about—”

  “How are we gonna travel if you won't let us go home and pack?” Kimon cut in.

  “It's a five-day walk to the next town over. You'll just have to deal with it for now,” Peltier retorted.

  There was no way in hell Aeris was travelling for five days straight in the same disgusting clothing and no supplies. No doubt about it, she would try to make her escape as soon as that cabin door was opened. But she wouldn't speak of her plan yet. And there was one more thing she was worried about.

  “But…. But what about Mikaela? He was going to be the next village head.”

  Her voice was soft as she turned her head to regard him.

  Aeris had cemented a step-by-step plan for her future around the age she'd learned to read. She wanted to be a steward that kept track of Eubane’s resources.

  Her world was limited to the small cottages, orchards, and fields that surrounded her. Aeris felt a pang of sympathy for Mikaela, who had a more ambitious future to leave behind.

  But strangely enough, when Mikaela looked back at her, he seemed like he cared little.

  “I don't mind heading to the capital.”

  Aeris felt cold. She turned towards Kimon instead. He, too, wore a neutral expression, although his eyes were sunken, and the feathers rattled her.

  “I…”

  Peltier stood up abruptly, clapping his hands jovially before Aeris could digest everything. An old closet was opened, and some small backpacks were half-hazardously tossed at them.

  “We're heading out now. Aren’t you three lucky I found some bags and blankets for travel? Otherwise, Kimon would have to teach you all how to weave mats.”

  Peltier was certainly being infuriating on purpose, but Aeris set that aside.

  Her eyes glimmered in anticipation as Peltier opened the cabin door, and Aeris' gaze lowered to hide her expression. First Mikaela exited, then Kimon. Aeris tailed slightly behind Peltier, bag clutched in her hands.

  It was slightly chilly, just past dawn. The foliage, upon close inspection, did look vaguely familiar. Aeris could find her way back if she just…

  Leaves crunched under someone’s foot.

  “...”

  Aeris burst into motion as quickly as her legs could take her. She passed one tree, and then two.

  Her freedom was short-lived.

  A hand snaked around her waist, hauling her into the air. Aeris screamed. Peltier carried her like a sack of potatoes.