At some point deep in the night, my slumber is interrupted.

  Upon opening my eyes, I’m confused for a moment, as it’s clearly still dark.Yet, I can’t shake the feeling that I need to get up, that I heard something important.Then I detect the noise I likely heard while sleeping.A voice that is still continuing.

  “Aaah. No. Don’t…don’t go. Sis.”

  Talia?Peeling off the blue fairy that glued herself to me while I slept, I fly over to the rger bed.My eyes work in the dark well enough that I can make out Talia tossing and turning in the bed, while seemingly still asleep.Also, I can hear her breathing heavily.I think she’s having a nightmare!

  “No…you too. Can’t.”

  While I could probably wake her with magic, she may appreciate my help more if she isn’t drenched when she wakes up.However, she’ll hardly feel my hand if I sp her, and if I nd on her now, she’s liable to swipe at me.So I need a method that doesn’t require strength and allows me to stay out of danger.Since she’s apparently dreaming about me, maybe I can reach her by talking.If that fails, hopefully she’ll forgive me the use of a little water.

  “No. Please. ‘lone. Aah”

  Taking advantage of a break in her tossing, I nd directly beside her ear, where I’m certain she can hear me but not have a good angle to strike at me with her arm.

  “Talia, it’s me, Akari. I’m right here, sis. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Sis.”

  “Yes, it’s okay. I’m still here.”

  “Miep!”

  Looking up, I see Nibi perched on top of Talia’s head, pointing at herself.Seems like I woke her up when I pushed her away, and she decided to join me.

  “Heh, and Nibi too, although I’m not sure if that helps or hurts. Mum is nearby as well. Don’t worry, we won’t leave you alone. You still have all of us. It’s alright. Everything is okay.”

  Thankfully, speaking to her seems to be helping.Gradually, her breathing slows and she rexes.Yet I continue comforting her till I’m certain she’s resting peacefully once more.After a few minutes pass, I fly back to my bed and sit on it.

  It’s been some time since I st heard my sister talk in her sleep.When pa passed away, Talia was pgued with nightmares, but she hadn’t had any recently.The events of the past week must have triggered them again.That, and possibly the dust I covered her in.

  Argh, I desperately need to learn more about myself!Harming my own family because of my ignorance is unacceptable!Yet, the only pce I know where I may quickly learn about fairies is back where my personal disaster began.I must return to the fairy gde!

  Yet, for a being of my size, there are far too many dangers in the forest.Birds, spiders, rodents, bugs, maybe even a monster if I’m extremely unlucky.I can’t risk flying through the woods again without some pn to keep myself safe.So today, I should attempt to devise a method of using my magic for protection.Though, maybe I should wait till morning as to not disturb people’s sleep.Mum wouldn’t appreciate me making a racket in the middle of the night.However, sleep is no longer a constant necessity for me, and after being woken up by Talia, I’m not keen on doing so anymore tonight.Instead of merely waiting for sunrise, I wish to put my time to good use, but how?

  A fsh of blue catches my eye, and I gnce over to see Nibi sitting down beside me.As sis pointed out when we went to sleep, a dim blue glow currently emanates from her.Nothing remotely simir in brightness as to when she uses her magic, but still clearly visible in the dark when one is looking for it.And apparently, a simir light is radiating from me as well.

  That’s something I can do!This glow is an unknown part of me that I could try discovering more about, right this moment.After all, attempting to see a light shouldn’t require me to make noise.But where do I even begin?

  Simply looking with my eyes obviously doesn’t work.Even with a mirror, there was absolutely no colored light to be seen.In fact, if I hadn’t seen the lights coming from other fairies, I would think mum was teasing me.Yet, it seems that everything there is to learn about fairies involves magic in one way or another.Therefore, it should act simir to all my other magic and, mostly, follow what I desire.If I can find a way to see it for myself, it would make hiding much simpler.I can start with that.

  But first, I should ensure there is something to be seen.I’m, apparently, not always shining, according to mum.

  “Nibi, can you see any glow coming from me?

  “Miep…Yes.”

  Yeah, sure, she talks now.Honestly, I’d kinda forgotten for a bit that she’d started speaking, if only a couple words.That may take some time to get used to.Especially if she keeps up this rate of learning.But back to what I was doing.

  Now that I’m certain there is a glow that others can see, I can attempt to spot it myself.Unlike before, instead of merely looking for it, I focus on my wish for the light to appear in my vision, simir to how I push my intent into my magic.After a few moments, a feeling of emptiness forms at the base of each of my wings.Voids that need to be filled.I feel almost…hungry?Which is a feeling I haven’t experienced in what seems like forever.Yet, as I focus on the sensation, it dissipates entirely.

  Great.Simply marvelous.In trying to solve one mystery about myself, I get presented with another.And I still wasn’t able to see any light!

  Just why must fairies be so confusing to…to be!?Being a human was so much simpler!No magic essence flinging my mind one way and then another.No pondering how to wake my own sister, or if we can even still truly be considered sisters by blood.No worrying about magically harming my loved ones.No questioning why my sense of hunger is now in my back and only surfaces when I wish to look at a light coming from myself that, apparently, only I cannot see!Gah!

  “Ak’ri, there, there”

  Also, humans don’t have a fairy waiting to pat them on the head whenever she thinks it’s necessary!…Though, seeing Talia lying there, my sis might be an exception to that now.

  “Nibi, it’s really not necessary to do this every time I’m a little troubled.”

  “Miep? Miep!”

  So she decides to hug me instead.

  “This isn’t what I meant. I was simply frustrated, that’s all. I was okay.”

  “Ak’ri, no.”

  What?Oh.

  “Yeah, sure, maybe not completely okay. But I am better now though. Would you mind letting me go?”

  “Miep!”

  Oh no.She released me, but now she’s looking so proud of herself.I can only assume she’ll be even harder to keep off of me in the future.One of these days, I’ll need to figure out a way to teach her about personal space.

  But first, it’s time to, calmly, work through my current problem.Once again, I try wishing to see my light, and once again, the feeling of hunger appears where my wings join my back.I must say, it is quite odd having this particur feeling come from two separate locations, neither of which is in my belly.Also, as soon as my focus wavers, the hunger leaves.

  Alright, now that I’m thinking about it, this shouldn’t be too difficult to solve.I was recently acquainted with how overeating feels, and with how I consider this feeling, I don’t believe it’s that great a leap to assume my body is asking for essence.However, I can feel that I’m already carrying energy, some of earth, wind, and water, so it’s not quite that simple.I even have a bit of neutral energy, though that hasn’t been directly useful to me as of yet.There must be one specific type that I’m missing.Some kind of essence that affects my eyes, I suppose?Sunlight is the most obvious, but there’s another that may be a better fit.

  When I first attempted to leave the fairy gde, the forest was in total darkness.Yet, after taking in some moonlight, I was able to see the magic barrier, and my eyes pierced the darkness with ease.As such, that may very well be the essence I require for what I’m attempting now.It should also be easy enough to acquire at this moment, provided it is not one of the rare times that both moons have set together.

  Quickly flying to my window, I squeeze through a gap and stand on the outside of the windowsill.It’s still quite dark, but there is moonlight shining down, although I can’t see the moon itself from my position.The next few minutes I spend checking my surroundings for any indication of my neighbors being awake, or for any owls on the hunt.Honestly, the idea of being caught by giant, flying predators is far more frightening than being spotted by people.I don’t see or hear anything in my vicinity, yet before I can fly out, I must deal with this gloom.

  As soon as I stood outside of my window, this dark essence started seeping into my wings once again.I haven’t had to worry about it while indoors as my wings naturally kept out the lesser amount that is found inside my home at night.However, the sheer amount of gloom out here requires me to focus my energies against it.Once I do, my essences feel like they begin constantly circling within my wings, keeping the gloom at bay.Still just as uncomfortable as the first time I did it, but I don’t intend to stay out here for long.

  After doing a final survey of the area, I swiftly fly up to the roof and stand on the center of it, hopefully where no one can see me.From there, I can see the lesser of the two moons shining down on me directly.Then I pull in its essence, taking care to only absorb a miniscule amount.Though, maybe I should try absorbing a little more?I don’t even know how it would make me feel, as I can’t recall anything about it from the st time I tried.Just a bit more can’t hurt, right?

  Eh, no, I shouldn’t.I had too much magic messing with my mind less than a day ago, I don’t really want to try this just yet.And doing the equivalent of drinking while attempting to learn about my light may not be a good idea.

  Turning to fly back, I notice Nibi nded beside me while I was contempting.But now, even though she’s using no magic that I can see, she’s shining a brilliant blue.As I don’t wish to stay outside any longer than necessary, and Nibi is glowing like a blue firebug for anyone to see, I hurriedly fly back down to my window and make my way inside, with her following right behind me.Once there, I nd back where I started, at the side of my bed.As the pressure from the gloom abates, the movement inside of my wings ceases on its own.And as Nibi nds near me, her light gradually diminishes from a brilliant shine to the dim glow it was before.

  Huh.That’s…intriguing.I may need to ask mum to help me test an idea ter.For now though, I want to again try seeing my light.

  This time, instead of the hunger, I feel a trickle of moonlight energy rise from inside of me and begin rapidly moving towards my head, rather than flow outward as it usually does.Once there, it begins pooling behind my eyes!Startled, I quickly attempt to pull the magic back, but it’s too te.My vision is suddenly covered in a blinding silver light!

  Immediately, I squeeze my eyes shut.The essence around my eyes seems to have vanished, so I can’t simply stop the magic.Whatever I did is already complete.Oh, please don’t let me have blinded myself!

  Slowly opening my eyes, I’m able to squint against the brightness, but nearly everything is a silver blur.The only things I can see somewhat clearly are my immediate surroundings, the two beds and Nibi, though they are the wrong color.Everything beyond them fades into the silver glow.Although, I believe my eyes may slowly be getting better.

  Gradually, the brightness diminishes, till eventually, I’m able to see normally once more, albeit everything is silver colored.A few minutes after that, and all the other colors return to the world.

  Yet, not everything has returned to normal.When I look at myself, there’s a very faint, phantasmal yer of silver light seemingly floating directly above my skin, causing me to emit a dim silver glow.Nibi also appears the same way, but in blue, instead of the clear, steady shine I normally see directly from her.Now I understand why Talia said we looked like ghosts.Likewise, if this glow is more intense at times, it would also expin Sinora’s mistake.

  Well, I’m gd I managed to see my own light, but I may have created another problem.Namely, what will happen when I use my magic again?This glow is currently dim, but it won’t stay this way, and I’m afraid that it may have been the light going out rather than my eyes adjusting to it that allowed me to see again.

  So I send a small amount of wind essence to my hands and am forced to instantly close my eyes once more as everything turns cyan.This won’t do at all.It is far brighter than I had assumed it would be.After I became a fairy, whenever I saw Nibi shining, no matter how brightly, I could always view her clearly.But now, I can’t see through my own light whatsoever.I’ll be constantly blinding myself if my eyes stay this way.In fact, this is probably why fairies aren’t meant to see their own light.With any luck, it’s reversible.

  Instead of wishing to see the light, this time I do the opposite, hoping my eyes will return to normal.A fairy’s normal, at least.After a few moments, the remainder of my moonlight essence again travels up to my eyes and vanishes.Then I hesitantly crack open my eyelids.

  Phew!The light is gone.I can see again!

  Suddenly, a groan comes from the bed nearby.

  “Ugh, sis, it’s still nighttime. Stop making bright lights in the room, we’re supposed to be sleeping.”

  And I accidently woke up Talia.I suppose I should have considered that I might get bright enough to disturb her.

  “Sorry sis, I’ll get under my bnket right away!”

  Quickly, I crawl into my bed and pull up my bnket.I ought to wait till morning before doing anything else.It would be rather mean to allow Talia to sleep here then proceed to keep her awake half of the night, especially after she had a nightmare.Yet I’m not certain if I can fall asleep since I’m truly not fatigued at all.Still, I should try.

  Fortunately, as soon as I decide that I want to sleep, a heavy wave of drowsiness rolls over me, and my eyes shut.