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I glared at her. “Are you going to take me or not?”

Stardust sighed. “I suppose your Mother’s disappearance is an unsolved mystery, and you know I can’t resist those. If it means that much to you…”

She waited for me to crawl onto her before taking off into the bright dawn. As we flew, my heart pounded like a supernova in my chest. I yearned for her to fly both faster and slower, dreading what we’d find when we landed. Through the rosy light I spotted my village. The knots in my stomach tightened the closer we flew.

Would Mother still be missing, or would she be waiting for me to join her in tending the garden as usual? Better yet, would she be eager to finally discuss magic together? The scenario played out across my imagination: Mother would take me under her wing and tutor me, and through her magical training I would be accepted in the Dream World, where we’d live together. It would be a chance for us to heal the wounds left by our years of keeping secrets from one another. Perhaps she would even answer the question that burned most on my lips—whyhad she even left the Dream World in the first place?

I smelled the smoke before I saw the smoldering remains of what had once been my home. I didn’t wait for Stardust to slow before I leapt off her and scrambled to the house, which had collapsed into a pile of soot, the garden trampled and destroyed beyond recognition. All that remained were scorched memories—the living room where Mother had read to me as a little girl and taught me needlework, the kitchen where we’d shared meals, my attic bedroom—all swallowed up by the flames.

“Who did this?” Stardust asked breathlessly.

“The villagers,” I hissed through gritted teeth. While I’d suspected a fire if they ever discovered my powers, I hadn’t known they would burn everything, transforming the world in which I’d grown up into nothing more than a gravesite of ash.

Stardust poked her nose into the soot, searching for clues. “Are you sure? I’m sensing a large amount of magic.”

“Who else could it have been?”

Stardust didn’t answer. Ashy clouds gathered around us as we silently explored the remains, Stardust occasionally carrying me above particularly inaccessible pathways. We paused where Mother’s study might have been and rummaged through the soot, which was still warm. Nothing had survived save a few shriveled pages, curled and burnt at the edges. I could only make out snippets of words from magic books I never got to read; Mother’s knowledge and secrets had been extinguished by the flames.

We explored Mother’s garden last. My heart sank as I hovered at the bashed entrance. I could faintly decipher the skeleton of Mother’s landscaping, but now everything was nothing but unrecognizable charcoal. I maneuvered through the rows of crushed plants whose identity would forever remain a mystery.

Stardust nuzzled against me. “I’m so sorry, Eden.”

Aching filled my chest and tears burned my eyes, from both the stinging smoke and the memory of the unresolved secrets between me and Mother, which had created ashes of our relationship. “Where is she? Is she—” I couldn’t even say the horrible word that filled me with paralyzing fear.

Stardust shook her head. “She was missing before the fire started.”

“Then where is she? Where did she go?” My tears finally escaped, but I didn’t bother to wipe them away.

“The fire didn’t destroy the magical traces left behind,” Stardust said. “Magic is like a fingerprint. I’ll follow each magical clue she left behind until I track her down. Detective Stardust is on the case.” Despite her solemn expression, hope shone in her eyes, a hope which I clung to desperately. Solving mysteries was her forte. She would solve this one and find Mother.

But even as I yearned for her to succeed, my earlier anger at the thought of Mother’s abandonment still burned beneath my embers of grief, which stung more than the surrounding smoke.

I couldn’t bear to remain a moment longer. I turned to leave but paused when something captured my attention. Camouflaged midst clumps of dead foliage was a flower, still alive and growing towards the sun. Ash covered its unwilted petals like droplets of black morning dew. I brushed the soot away and gaped at the flower, which blended perfectly into its surroundings.

Stardust flew closer. “Is that one of your Mother’s flowers? I thought chameleon flowers were only a legend, but it must be from the Dream World because I can sense magic emanating from it.”

It was yet another mystery that Mother’s disappearance would make impossible to solve. “Do magical flowers die once they’re picked?”

“If they’re not crushed or burned then no, magical things can’t be destroyed or—what are you doing?”

I plucked the flower. “Mother created this. I’m not leaving it behind.”

“But what are you going to do with it?” Stardust asked. “Even if you manage to become a Weaver, you could never use it; dreams can only be created from flowers grown in the Cultivating Fields, andonlythe Cultivating Fields.”

I clung to Mother’s blossom, as if afraid it’d vanish in the smoke if I didn’t hold it tightly enough. “Even if it were allowed, I’d never waste my last link to Mother on a dream.” I placed it gently in my bag and watched as it immediately changed colors to blend in perfectly with the violet fabric.

Stardust pursed her lips. “Don’t let anyone else see it; you don’t want to be caught with something so unusual, especially when the Council is already suspicious of you.”

I sifted through the limp, wilted flowers in the sooty soil in search of others that had survived the flames, but there were no more traces of Mother’s plants anywhere; everything had been destroyed.

I froze when I felt the heat of someone’s gaze on me. Without even turning I sensed who it was, recognizing his presence from nothing more than a feeling. I spun around and glared. “What are you doing here?”

Nightmare Darius leaned against the gate with his arms folded, his penetrating emerald gaze locked to mine. “Isn’t it obvious? I followed you.”

My heart flared as he straightened as if to approach; I immediately backed away. He lifted his hands in an appeasing gesture.

“Don’t be alarmed, I only wish to speak with you.”