The Den wasn’t Danye favorite place to go visit. At all. She didn’t like being near it, she didn’t like how much of an eyesore it was against the background of rolling green hills, red clay and blue skies that made Toleran beautiful, so very different from its rumors.  Nothing good ever happened there. She’d never heard the words “Good news from The Den!”

Never. Not once.

Her favorite, most favorite place in all of Toleran was the back alley Black District. She didn’t get a lot of chances to visit Toleran these days, with her mating to Yunkyum approaching in a few winters but the few chances she got she made her way there first.

The Black District, sometimes called Tameless Row, was so completely vibrant; an opposite of its name. The Gambling Ring was painted in a rich vivid red, The CatHouse, a whorehouse for Omegas and Betas and a few stray Alphas, was a saucy mauve. The Fighting Hall, Danye’s absolute favorite, was blue and green. The Keen was a small hole in the ground where shifters experimented with a mage induced high called WILD that allowed them and their wolves to have a conversation while being completely zoned out of their minds.

Like The Den wasn’t Danye’s favorite place, The Black District wasn’t Iseul’s. She couldn’t stand it and wouldn’t step foot back there. She said, one day as Danye lounged around Flo’Su’s house, that it was undignified for mages of their caliber to associate with such ruffians. Danye always rolled her eyes at it.

Danye was a mage, but she wasn’t a mage like Iseul. Danye was a fighter, Ntatsuvi  ran in her blood, in her mother’s blood. Despite her heritage, the line of dignified of shifters in her family who came before her, there wasn’t much about her that was refined. Yunkyum thought different. Yunkyum thought she was the sunflower that embodied her clan her clan. Yunkyum was also biased.

Currently, she was not in the Black District to get a drink of mead at Mylin’s Place, which was purple, or trade a few coins for a new piece of jewelry on the rainbow colored Market. She was here for A’gie’s Store–a Mage Re-up shop, the toads and stones and crystals mages were thought to carry with them at all times. What a ridiculous thought.

A’gie was a very old shifter, stooped and bent over, her back curved at awkward angels. She sat patiently at the counter on top of chair with very long legs that allowed her to see over the countertop. She was blind but when she looked at you with her rheumy grey eyes, you knew she could see everything about you.

As she entered the shop Danye made sure to make herself know; a force of habit but highly unnecessary. A’gie knew every shifter in Toleran by scent. “Hello A’gie. I’m Danye. Akoko’s daughter. I’m here to pick up the things she and Flo’su purchased?”

The shifter hummed. “Yes, yes. On your left, third shelf at the end by the window, child.”

Danye followed the elder’s instruction, picking up a brown hemp bag tied with a purple ribbon. Holding it in her hand, she realized it was very light. “Is this everything, A’gie? My mother’s list was very long.”

“Everything she needs is there. We like to confuse auditors.  Tell your mother I’ve added an olfa. The isolation room is strong but not sometimes not strong enough.  Don’t want anyone sniffing you out. Could be dangerous,” the older shifter murmured. “Red magic is always dangerous.”

Danye stared at the bag, and then stared at shop owner. “Red magic?  Isn’t that the magic they teach in The Den?”

A’gie tilted her head. “Isn’t that where you are going?”

How did she know? Danye began to nod but remembered A’gie’s blindness at the last moment, instead muttering a quiet  “Yes.”

“Right. Right. Remember the olfa. Never can be too careful, youngling. Never too careful.” With that A’gie turned in her chair and stared at the wall to the right of her counter, often a sign she was done speaking. 

“Thank you again.” With that Danye attached the bag to the thin twine around her hips and exited the shop.

“That didn’t take as long as I thought it would. You tend ta’ get lost in that Black District,” Flo’su announced from the top of a boulder situated right outside of the large Den entrance. Right behind her stationed on the right and left of the opening were a pair of Den Guards, Tameless, snarling at each other for no other reason than the fact that they could. Sitting at the bottom of the boulder was Iseul, Danye’s best friend. In her lap was a small stack of brown parchment and on her face was a smile. Small, but still a smile.

Danye saddled up close to her friend and bent down, purposely blocking the sun . Iseul frowned up at her and scooted her rear along until she was out of Danye’s shadow.  Anything so she could keep reading those letters. “Honestly, if Yoon was as poetic or likeable in person as he was in those silly love notes, you would have been mated by now. There is a reason the council doesn’t like him.”

Iseul winced. “He really isn’t poetic in these letters either. He isn’t the most romantic shifter I’ve ever met. But he’s a good man. Honest. Ambitious. I don’t’ know why they don’t’ see that.”

“That’s exciting,” Danye drawled.

Iseul rolled her eyes. “We all can’t meet the love of our lives and have the chance to mate with them. Consider yourself lucky. Until then, I will continue to read my boring love letters from this boring shifter.”

Flo’Su jumped down from her perch on top of the boulder and landed with a thud, dust swirling at her feet, rocks skittering in her wake.  Her face pinched, she waved at her niece’s papers like they were a nuisance. “Put that away. We have important things to discuss today. Where is your mother, Danye?”

“She told me this morning that she would be waiting inside for us.”

Flo’su sniffed. “Well, inside we go. Danye, did you get everything from A’gie?”

Danye nodded and pointed to her hip.

“Good.”

It was always a good idea for non-habituating shifters to enter The Den before dusk.  The sun was still high in the sky so Flo’Su made a show of checking her weapons, more for the guards at the door than routine, before heading past them. Just as they passed the threshold of The Den’s opening, Flo’Su came to an abrupt stop, causing Isuel to bump into the back of her. She backed up a space or two, rubbing her nose, grumbling to herself as she waited for an answer to her aunt’s sudden stop.

“I know I often tell you girls not to enter The Den by yourselves. It’s not a friendly place. The shifters here live by a erted form of Ntatsuvi called Pprunevai, I for one am not sure they ever understand, one I barely understand. ” She turned slightly towards Danye. “As a descendant of Fanan, a founder of Ntatsuvi, you know better than to fall prey to Pprunevai, right?”

Danye resisted rolling her eyes? She huffed instead, impatient. “Are you saying this because we are about to perform red magic?” she said her voice steady and eyes locked with Flo’su.

The papers fell from Iseul’s hands. She looked from Danye to her aunt. “Red–red magic?”

Flo’su turned so she could look at both Iseul and Danye. Her shoulders deflated. “There are things that we’ve come to learn. Things I can’t explain. Akoko and I decided that it was time you learned how to defend what is yours to the best of your ability.”

“What’s happening? Iseul said, her brows to her hairline, her aura reeking of nervousness.

Flo’su looked around. Danye saw how her eyes locked on the forest line to their south. “I’ll explain inside,” she murmured.

They continued their descent into The Den. It was then that Danye remembered more reasons why she hated coming here.

The Den was the ancestral grounds of the founders of Ntatsuvi, Fanan, Rubeus, Tek’tak’teni and Tigr. The Den was considered the oldest thing in Toleran because it also predated Toleran, existed before Toleran was even established.

Was The Den was a giant cave? Yes, but what those outside of Toleran didn’t know was, it was man-made, carved out slowly and patiently into the side of a mountain a mile outside of the future location of Toleran. Inside was a tunnel system that behaved like streets in a town or paths between villages. Those tunnels lead to a series of dwellings that were used in a number of different ways, from housing, to fighting, to spell working. As Toleran was formed, the founders slowly left The Den, leaving behind some of the inhabitants who refused to leave with half-learnings. It’s how Pprunevai came into existence.

From there The Den became its own entity with its own rules. To preserve them and to keep Toleran and its rules from encroaching on theirs, only those who were invited could enter it and invitations were hard to come by. Akoko’s invitation came through direct legacy from Fanan, while Flo’su had fought her way inside. By that right, both Danye and Iseul as immediate descendants were granted entrance as well.

Once inside you noticed a few things about the place. It had a peculiar smell, like rotten eggs hidden under a bed of roses. It was offensive and hit you the moment you inhaled your first breath. The colors were harsh but mesmerizing. The walls glowed, dazzling greens and bright oranges, radiant pinks and shiny purples. It was custom, because there were few light sources in the tunnels, to rub the walls to transfer the mineral residue to your clothes and body. Danye liked that part. She felt otherworldly as they traveled through the tunnels, glowing, like the fairies she read in Yunkyum’s books.

Over the years, both Danye and Iseul had learned the tunnel system in The Den and knew it like the back of their hands. They could travel it blindfolded with no nose but still they followed Flo’su’s direction as she guided them towards the back. As they traveled, they passed the Heart, a blazing fire at the very center of The Den that served as the only light other than the ones inside of the dwellings. It burned day and night, non-stop. A few Pprunevai shifters lazed around the Heart. It was the height of the hunting season and most were in the woods south of Toleran. Those who were left were the Betas, Omegas and Alphas too weak or old to hunt.

“Keep up, girls,” Flo’Su said as the two slowed to start at the Heart. The fire was amazingly bright and huge and it always captured their attention.

They eventually came to their destination, one Danye and Iseul recognized instantly. Flo’Su opened the door to find Akoko idling by a fire in the center of the large room.

It was an isolation room–it kept any magic performed inside of the room from leaking outside of it.  It also allowed users to kill spells quicker as the energy was concentrated in one place. It was only used for very powerful spells.

“Come closer, my loves. Danye, be a dear and hand me that bag.” Danye followed her mother’s instructions, untying the bag and placing it in her mother’s hands before taking a seat.

“You’re probably wondering why we brought you here today…” Akoko daintily took a seat on the hard ground, and upturned the bag...and nothing but a solid crystal fell out and a vial fell out.

Danye frowned. “The list you sent me had at least fifty items on it! I was wondering if A’gie was losing her mind! She kept saying something about auditors.”

“A’gie is smart. She knows that what we are about to do is illegal in Toleran. A lot of things get overlooked here in the Den which is why most Red and Black magic is performed here, but it doesn’t change the legality of it.” She placed the olfa on the ground and gathered the crystal in her hand, standing she eyed the two young shifters. “Do you understand what Red Magic is? Why it’s illegal?”

“It’s unnatural,” Iseul tried, her voice low.

“No,” Akoko said. “It’s the most natural kind of magic there is. It is the basis of mageism. That is why it is so powerful. Every sort of magic we produce is a…dilution of red magic.” She placed a hand to her chin.”Think of a healing spell.”

Danye raised her hand but Iseul yelled out “Tempore!” causing Danye to glare at her. “Tempore, heals sickness in pre-declared shifters or children.”

“Tempore works. Tempore works by seeping into the body, searching sickness out and isolating, therefore allowing us to bring it out of, like you said, pre-declared shifters and children. It heals infection. Healing is to reject injury, to reject injury is to reject time, to reject time is to play God. What is the Red Magic version of rejecting time?”

Danye gasped. It was forbidden that she didn’t even want to speak it. “Zvrátiť”

Akoko smiled. “Correct. Next give me a defensive spell.”

Iseul slowly put her hand down. Iseul didn’t like to fight so she wasn’t that interested in spells that were woven into any kind of fighting style. “Litglow Repulse,” Danye answered instead.

“Red wall barrier defense. Yes, yes.  Simply, as a mage spell, it creates a barrier. It evolved from a red magic spell that allows us to manipulate the very structure of the elements. How can smoke be as hard as rock?”

Danye and Iseul nodded slowly.

“The only difference is the spells I am going to show you today have no diluted version of them. There is no safe mage level weakness to them. They are at their base, red magic spells and as powerful as anything on this earth. There is a reason they are not taught, there is a reason they are illegal.”

“So they are strong spells,” Iseul said, a little confused. “I'm not sure what the big deal is.”

“Life energy,” Flo'Su answered. “These spells draw only on your life energy. They feed off of it.”

Danye and Iseul were silent after that.

“I've received a prophecy, one I will not make you privy too but the reason, the only reason I am teaching you two these spells is because I have seen that you will need them. However it will not be for yourselves. Only use this if and only if you’re very desperate. But first, a demonstration.”

“Akoko and I are bound to each other. Not in the same way as mates but similar. A Ntatsuvi bind,” Flo’su explained. “For that reason we can use this magic. That connection to one another is paramount. You will have to share life energy. It is what keeps Apparition Magikus from draining you dry and killing you.”

“Apparition Magikus?”

Akoko slowly stood from her spot on the ground. Flo’su took her place by her by the fire, facing Akoko.  Akoko placed the crystal between them, then turned towards Flo'su, looking down because of the height difference.

“Akoko is the strongest in mageism, so it will be her spell to cast,” Flo'su said.

Akoko hummed then quick as a lightning strike, brandished a knife and slashed across Flo'su's cheek. Flo’su committed the same slash, their movements in sync. Both young girls cried out as the knives fell to the older shifter’s sides. Flo’su held her knife over the crystal first and Danye and Iseul watched as blood dripped from the edge and onto the crystal between them. 

“Protegéieren,” Akoko said as she followed Flo’su’s actions, her knife hovering over the crystal. “I summon thee. To Flo’su, I bind thee and to I, I bind thee. I bind Aliyana to him; Rre'qwem to me.”

The fire in the room flared brilliantly before dying to nothing but embers, leaving nothing but the glowing walls and their glowing bodies. Suddenly, there was a flash of light, blue, then white. The light died down and the fire began to burn again.

When Danye brought her hand down from in front of her eyes, she was staring at four figures. dropped open.

“W–what?” Iseul babbled.

“I forgot what this damned place looked like I've been gone for so long!”

Both Danye and Iseul looked to the figure standing next to Akoko. Akoko was a statuesque woman but the figure at her side was even taller, a head or two above Akoko's form.  “Why are you staring at me like that? Am I or something!” The specter laughed, and then paused before looking down, slightly panicked. “Oh, good! I'm dressed this time!”

“You're so loud, Rre'qwem,” the specter to Flo'su's side said, a chubby finger coming to rub the bridge of her nose. The specter height was even with Flo'so, which meant short. She had a stout body, with thick legs, and thick arms, corded with defined muscles. Her hair was piled on top of her head in a sloppy braid.

“Not my fault you’re not as excited as I to be out in the open, Aliyana!” Rre'quem inhaled deeply. “Fresh air!”

“We're in a cave, ninny. There is no fresh air,” Aliyana muttered.

“Quiet you two,” Flo'su admonished.

“What you just witnessed was the Apparition Magikus base called Protegéieren. It allows an apparition using mage to call forth the wolves of binded wolves. Since Flo'su and I are bonded the way that we are, I am able to call Aliyana and Rre'qwem to the corporal world. Since I've binded Aliyana to me, and Rre'qwem to Flo'su, they shall stand as supernatural protectors to us.”

“You can call forth a wolf out of you?”

“Yes,” Akoko said simply.” There are four types of Apparition Magikus: Sja–Envision, Spoklese–Revive and Eksos–Exhaust.”

“So since Flowy and KoKo called us forth,” Rre'qwem  said, plopping down to the ground. “Until the spell is casted off, we’ll stick around here. With Sja, Akoko can see what I see, smell what I smell, and sense what I sense. It also allows me to talk to Akoko as if we were never separated. There are different things that we can do, different shows of powers we can demonstrate other than show up like ghost!” she laughed. “And even better there are other versions! With Spoklese and Eksos, we can–”

Akoko held her hand up, cutting the wolf off. She shook her head slowly, and

“Seriously. This is something we can do?” Iseul said, her voice full of wonder.

“Yes,” Flo’su answered.

“However, don’t try to practice or attempt this on your own,” Akoko said, her voice low and steady. “We will teach you how to conserve your life energy. Doing it before hand might kill you.” She took a moment to level them with a glare. "Promise me.”

Danye looked at Iseul and Iseul look at Danye. Danye could read Iseul’s eyes, she could read the curiosity, the desire. She could hear her drowning out Akoko’s words. Danye sighed internally.

“Girls?”

Their heads snapped forward and they both nodded.

“We promise.”