Page 3 of Dark Princess Emerging

As the familiar scene from her previous vision materialized, the woman appeared as before, wrapped in traditional male desert clothing, the fabric billowing in the hot wind, with only her striking eyes visible—brown with swirling flecks of gold that seemed to catch the sunlight.

This time, however, new details emerged. Behind the woman, mountains rose against the horizon, but not the barren peaks Syssi had seen when she'd followed the woman's gaze. Green slopes were dotted with oak trees, and in the valley below, she saw stone houses with flat roofs. Some of them were half-ruined, but others were livable, and people were milling around, men and women in ragtag fatigues. As their voices carried on the wind, she tried to discern the language they were speaking. She'd heard it somewhere before, but she couldn't remember where and what it was.

Listening intently, Syssi tried to catch familiar words, and the vision obliged, isolating a conversation between two women who were standing next to a jeep and bringing it closer to her as if she was standing right next to them. When she heard one of the women mention Azerbaijan, things clicked into place, and when, a moment later, the other woman mentioned Kermanshah, Syssi's suspicion was confirmed.

She had read about those places recently enough to remember the names.

The two places the women were talking about were in Kurdistan, specifically the part controlled by Iran, and Jasmine's mother was Iranian.

As the vision began to fade, it zoomed back to the golden-eyed woman, and Syssi caught one final detail—a distinctive pendant that was partially hidden by her scarf. It looked like it was carved from amber or some similar golden stone.

Opening her eyes, Syssi let out a breath. "I saw the same woman, the same place, but this time I got more clues. I'm pretty sure it was Kurdistan, but I'm not sure whether the woman was Jasmine's mother, and I was being shown the past, or it was Jasmine in the future, looking for her mother in the area of Azerbaijan and Kermanshah, which were both mentioned quite clearly. There was another clue—a pendant that the woman wore, which I didn't see in the previous image, but it was partially hidden under her scarf, and I couldn't see the design. I think it was made from amber, and it looked old."

Kian nodded. "Kurdistan spans parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, so Jasmine's mother, Kyra, might have been originally from the area controlled by Iran. We have to talk to Jasmine's father, but Ell-rom was very clear that Jasmine wanted to handle that herself. Perhaps we can start investigating the Kurdish angle without directly involving her father just yet. I would love to get Roni digging deeper into Kyra's past and maybe focusing on that region, but he is too busy to tackle it right now. I will have to ask Shai to sift through what he can find online and prepare a summary for me."

"That's a good idea." Syssi winced as her head started to throb. "The vision felt different without Allegra's boost. It was just as clear as the ones I had with her help, maybe even clearer because I felt more in charge and found it easier to steer it where I wanted it to go, but it's taken more out of me. It was draining." She gave Kian a smile. "Next vision, I'm definitely summoning with Allegra in the room. It doesn't affect her, but it boosts my energy."

2

MORELLE

As Morelle walked beside Brandon toward the vehicle parking area, her anxiety grew with each step. The morning sun felt warm on her scalp, reminding her of her compromised appearance, although why she was bothered by that was unclear.

As someone who had spent her entire life on Anumati covered from head to toe, she could have been bald under the hood and the veil, and no one would have known or cared.

She had been a statement—a thing—a princess—a priestess in training, but not a female with desires and mundane concerns like being fond of her beautiful hair.

Resisting the urge to run her hand over the soft fuzz of new growth, she clutched the purse that was more for appearances than to hold anything of importance. She didn't have anything to put in it other than her earpieces or the teardrop, but she was wearing both, so the thing was empty.

Brandon put his hand on the small of her back. "Are you nervous or excited?"

"A little bit of both," she admitted. "I'm excited to see the world beyond the village. As for the testing, I'm nervous about Amanda having the same results as the head priestess. I might have no special talents."

The priestess had put her through countless tests and pushed her to her limits by any means available to her, whether it was starvation, isolation, exhaustion, or even beatings, but despite feeling the power prickling under her skin and the desperation to use it, nothing had ever happened. In time, Morelle had accepted that the feeling of energy circling just under the surface was nothing more than her frustration and restlessness.

"Having special abilities is not as important as you might think." Brandon led her into a big hall made of glass. "I don't have any special talents either, and I'm a council member, which is an important position in the clan that is based on merit. It's not just about the talents you are born with. It's the abilities you develop and your drive to succeed." He pressed a button that was located on a panel next to a set of metal doors.

"What is this?" she asked, pointing at them.

"It's an elevator or a lift that takes passengers up or down. I'm sure you had them on Anumati."

"We did, but the first and only time I used one of those was in the spaceport. The temple and the palace were only two stories high, and we used the stairs."

The spaceport elevators had been crafted mostly from glass, which had made the experience of traveling in them terrifying.

The speed had been dizzying, and the passing levels rushed by in a blur.

Thankfully, this elevator had no windows at all, only a mirror, and Morelle couldn't tell how fast it was going, only that it was going down.

Still, the small space wasn't free of traps. Her own reflection still startled her despite having seen it multiple times over the past several days, and it wasn't just because of the lack of hair. Morelle was still getting used to being outside without her robes and veil, her face and body exposed for all to see that her eyes were blue, not black and huge, and that she had actual breasts that were clearly outlined by her blouse.

When the doors opened, it was to a large hall with many rows of vehicles and many thick columns that held up the ceiling.

The vehicle Kian stood next to was larger than the others, and it was black. She recognized his two bodyguards, the friendly redhead and the stoic blond.

"Good morning," Kian greeted her and Brandon.

"Good morning." She smiled and offered him her hand like she had seen Brandon doing.