Fabrian blinked slowly at the sunlight streaming in through a window as she had the most overwhelming sense of deja vu. She sat up, wincing at the vertigo that followed her movement. Someone had moved her to a daybed placed in the far corner of a sunroom. Light catchers hung from the ceiling at various lengths, some close to the dappled roof, others hung dangerously close to head-level. A giant prism window stretched from floor to ceiling and casted the warm sunlight into dancing swaths of rainbow particles. 

“Oh you're awake,” A woman with greying long, brown hair leaned beside the bedside and poked at a cotton patch taped to Fabrian's brow. “Hail was pretty worried about you.”

“Ah, is that so?” Fabrian asked dumbly, trying to figure out where Hail must’ve brought her. Was this another magician or a doctor of some sort?

“Are you hungry at all?” The woman asked as she laid out a patchwork quilt over Fabrian's lap. “We just made a mince pie if you think you can manage to stomach that.”

“I think I'm more thirsty than anything…”

“Alright, I can grab some water for you. Hold on.”

The woman disappeared through a door on the far wall. A door that Fabrian was ninety-eight percent sure hadn't been there before. She wondered if her head injury’s symptoms were showing. When the woman returned with an eggshell green glazed cup, the door disappeared again and Fabrian realized that it was very real. Taking the glass from the stranger, she took a delicate sniff of the liquid—not obvious enough to be impolite, but distinct enough to be able to detect any drugs of notable scent. 

“Can you tell me where I am?” Fabrian asked.

The woman frowned and hummed softly. “Miria had warned that you might have a memory lapse when you woke up; you weren't making much sense when Hail brought you in. Ranting about how you needed to take cover behind something called a ‘humvee’. We did try to explain to you earlier then. My name is Atasha. I'm one of Hail's mothers.”

Fabrian did a double take, her face flushing vibrantly. Hopefully any information about her previous life had been chalked up to what sounded like a very bad concussion. “I'm so sorry if I was rude or sounded crazy at all—”

Atasha waved dismissively. “Spare not another thought. Hail filled us in on how you were tried through a very difficult task involving real weapons. You should be grateful the gash and the head injury were the least of your problems. I heard your opponent had been armed with a sword.”

Fabrian nodded and took a sip of water, too embarrassed to say anything else. She couldn't have imagined doxxing herself just because her head had been knocked into a metal pole a couple of times. 

“I'll let Hail know that you're awake, she'll be relieved.” Atasha smiled almost knowingly. “Please make yourself comfortable. Hail also mentioned you'd need a place to stay once you’re accepted into the knighthood.”

“I think she meant if,” Fabrian said into her cup.

Atasha shrugged. “She seemed fairly confident, and I trust my daughter's judgment on things like these. So long as you need a home, this room is yours. Our home has many open spaces for guests, and it is free to you anytime you should choose. Any friend of Hail's is a friend of ours.”

“Thank you for your hospitality,” Fabrian said, trying to muster up a genuine smile before her lips pursed slightly. “Um, say I wanted to leave…what about the door?”

Atasha laughed and drew a circle in front of the empty wall. There was a sudden rectangular outline of light and a heavy oak door appeared. She opened it and closed it twice for good measure of show. 

“This is a more permanent fixture,” Atasha explained. “It’ll be different from the door I personally use, but you should be able to see it at all times so long as you're facing either side of the wall.”

Fabrian nodded in acknowledgment, and Atasha left the room shortly after. 

Finishing the last dredges of water, Fabrian tried to recollect the fight but found the memory distant and hazy like a heavy winter fog. Well, if Hail was confident about her being accepted into the knighthood, then surely she did okay? She ran her tongue over a split lip and wondered if she'd busted it open during the fight. A faint image of an elbow crushing her face swept through her mind, and Fabrian nodded to herself. That's probably when it happened.

The “more permanent” door burst open with a bang, and Hail strode in. This was the first time Fabrian had seen her companion dressed in something other than traveling clothes. Fabrian had always thought Hail's pinned back hair meant it was long, but her deep red hair barely reached her shoulders, gently framing her face. She wore a loose-fitting dress, woven from patterned brown and indigo textile with a loose fitting belt tied around her waist. Her gaze flashed darkly, and she crossed her arms over her chest, standing in front of the bed.

“Does Netali know?” Fabrian asked. 

“Of course Netali knows!” Hail exclaimed in exasperation. “Did you think I was not going to tell anyone about your little stunt?”

“You're the one who goaded that asshat Kaliz into pairing me against a giant!” Fabrian bit back. “A very polite giant, but a danger to society all the same.”

“I take full responsibility of that for sure, but no one told you to throw yourself into harm's way,” Hail argued. 

“They had a sword, what did you want me to do? Keep prancing away like a little dancer?”

“Yes! Because of you, I had to bear a three hour lecture from Netali on how you apparently have zero self-preservation skills! Three hours, Fabrian.”

Fabrian allowed herself a wary smirk. “Thanks for taking one for the team.”

“Go back to the merchant camp, I dare you. The head merchant has prepared quite the earful for you when she sees you.”

“Yikes, maybe not anytime soon then.”

“You coward.”

“Maybe, maybe…” Fabrian nodded sagely before peeking up at Hail through her lashes. “So…”

“So?” Hail asked without a hint of amusement.

“How'd I do?” Fabrian asked. “Was I pretty cool, or what?”

Only then did Hail crack a smile. “Just a hair over six minutes. And I have no idea if Effia's woken up. So yeah, you were just a little bit impressive.”

Fabrian grinned. “Even if I don't get in, I'm glad I was able to make a point. Hope Kaliz took his stupid little attitude and shoved it up the darkest crevice of his backside.”

Hail rolled their eyes. “Gross.”

“But warranted,” Fabrian said. 

Hail sat on the edge of the bed and let out a long, drawn sigh. “Well, I'm glad you're okay for the most part. Mama Imana was able to patch you up pretty quickly after I realized that there wasn't a magician or a healer on standby at the Knightage Core. So I grabbed you and ran home instead.”

“Mama Imana?” Fabrian asked. “So are your mothers Atasha and Imana?”

Hail nodded. “They're two out of all of my mothers, yes.”

Fabrian paused. “What?” Do…do children work differently here?

Hail giggled at the confused look on Fabrian's face. “My home is known as the Alestrian, an academy to apprentice and train witches and wizards. My mothers are a coven of forty five magicians, witches, warlocks, and wizards. Of course, my biological mothers are here—Nieke, who Netali mentioned earlier is one. The other, her name is Rame. She’s a traveling witch, and right now, I think she's in Honria preparing to sail across the sea to the country over. But the whole coven raised me, hence, they are all my mothers.”

“It takes a village,” Fabrian smiled. “To raise a child, that is.”

“Oh, I like that saying,” Hail said, looking thoughtfully at the light catchers hanging from the ceiling. “Indeed, it does.” 

“So since you were raised by witches and wizards, are you also magical?” Fabrian looked Hail up and down, as if that’d tell her.

Hail laughed. “Unfortunately, no. And not for my mothers’ lack of trying. They did everything possible to test my aptitude for any kind of magic. When I realized I couldn't follow suit, I began looking for other lines of work that I was good at. I'm strong, and I took a liking to polearm fighting at an early age. Mama Nieke and Mama Atasha quickly picked up on the fact that I was gearing up for a job in guarding and apprenticed me with a watchman. It wasn't that long after when Netali contracted me as a guard for her merchants.”

“Weren't your mothers disappointed that you didn't become a magician, or a witch, or a wizard or whatever?” Fabrian asked. 

“Not at all. In fact, I think they were a little overboard with showing their enthusiasm with me becoming a guard,” Hail said. “But I'm grateful that they left the path open to what I needed to do.”

“Well, your family sounds lovely, and I'm sure they're happy to have you home.” Fabrian said as her heart clenched a bit at the thought of her own family in the real world. 

“Thank you, I'm sure your family too, wishes you could come home,” Hail responded, her voice soft.

Fabrian shot her an alarmed look. “Because…because I can't go back to Natalez, right?”

Hail dipped her head. “Netali may have said a little more than she should have when filling me in. And then with your head injury, you said…some…odd things that are probably unlikely for a queen to talk about. I was able to puzzle everything else out for the most part.”

“Oh my God.” Fabrian buried her face in her hands.

“Who?” Hail asked with a blank look.

Fabrian shook her head. “Nevermind.”

“Well, anyways, you don't have to talk about it right away,” Hail said. “But…I'd like to get to know my friend better. Specifically the Fabrian who'd throat punch a soldier if they even looked at her the wrong way.”

“What did I say?” Fabrian groaned, absolutely mortified. 

“That's for me to know, and for you to remember, eventually,” Hail laughed, adding a consoling pat to the quilt over Fabrian's lap.