She wasn’t much older than thirty. Her sleek dark hair was tied up into a high ponytail, and she wore a fitted red minidress with aspirations to be a bikini. It would have made even most teenage girls blush. Not the two teenage girls standing beside her, though. Each of them wore a similar outfit, one in teal-green, the other in sapphire-blue. Maybe they’d all gotten dressed together.

“Hi, Aunt Cora,” Naomi said, kissing the woman in the red dress on the cheek.

“Naomi. Didn’t we just chase you off? Already back for more?” Cora’s laugh rang like silver bells.

“Sera, this is my aunt Cora,” Naomi told her. “And my sisters Ivy and Ruby.” She pointed to the girl with the dark braids, then to the one with the red curls. They looked about sixteen or seventeen.

“Did you bring us anything?” Ruby asked, adjusting her silk floral scarf.

“Music?” added Ivy.

“Pizza?”

“Clothes?”

“Boys?”

“Mom confiscated the last ones you brought.”

“I don’t recall bringing you two any boys,” Naomi said.

“No, not the boys.” Ivy giggled. “Mom confiscated the clothes. She said they were unseemly.”

Naomi looked pointedly at their skimpy outfits.

“Oh, these are apparently all right because they’re made of all-natural plant fabrics. No leather.” Ruby rolled her eyes.

“You’re trying to see how far you can push her.”

“Of course we are,” said Ivy. “That’s our job. Mom basically said so.”

“Basically said so? What did she actually say?” Naomi asked.

“That our job is to record the output of the Diamond Lily fields on the west side. We can do that in like five minutes a day,” Ruby said.

Ivy nodded. “Which leaves exactly 1,435 minutes every day to dedicate to pushing boundaries.”

“Hey, geniuses. You’re forgetting something important in your calculations,” Naomi told them.

The girls’ brows lifted in unison. “Oh?”

“You have to sleep sometime.”

“Naomi, please.” Ruby clucked her tongue. “Don’t confuse us with amateur boundary-pushers.”

“A true professional knows how to push boundaries while asleep.”

“It’s all about multitasking.”

“Precisely.”

“Just imagine what you two could accomplish if you put as much effort into your studies as you do into annoying your mother,” Cora said.

Ivy gave her a horrified look. “Why would we do that?”

“Besides,” added Ruby with a coy smile. “You put quite a lot of effort into annoying Mom yourself, Aunt Cora.”

“Teasing, not annoying. There’s a big difference,” Cora told them. “Someday, when you’re older and wiser, maybe you’ll understand.”

“Hmm,” said the girls, their eyes drifting up in thought.

“Where is Mom anyway?” Naomi asked them.

“She’s tracking down a missing crate of Silverheart Nectar,” Ivy said, her face the picture of innocence.

Beside her, Ruby coughed.

“I take it you two have nothing to do with that missing crate?”

Ivy smiled. “Of course not.”

“No one is sick of that wretched drink she insists be served every Friday evening.”

“Not this Friday evening,” Ivy muttered under her breath.

One of the side doors swung open, and a golden stream of glistening light poured into the hall, followed by a woman who looked like an older version of Cora. She wore a red headband over dark, shoulder-length hair, and a matching cape over a pale cotton dress. Like Cora, her magic was pure mage. It smelled of sweet, roasted chestnuts and hummed like an aftershock. She was an earth elemental.

“Naomi,” she said as she stopped in front of them. She glanced briefly at Sera before returning her gaze to her daughter. “You’ve brought a guest.”

“My friend Sera. Sera, this is my mother Celeste.”

“You are welcome here.” Celeste’s eyes locked onto Sera’s sword. “Your weapons are not.”

“We don’t intend to use them here,” replied Sera.

Celeste grunted. Clearly, she wasn’t convinced. Sera couldn’t really blame her. The two of them looked ready for war.

“We’re just passing through,” Naomi told her mother.

“Passing through? To where?”

Naomi hesitated.

“To where, Naomi?”

“To Angel Island,” she said softly.

Silence fell over the hall. Even the busy workers setting up for the party froze in their steps.

“Angel Island,” Celeste repeated, speaking the words like they were a curse. “That is an evil place. Corrupted by greedy pirates and angry spirits. What could you possibly want there?”

“The Princes of Twilight have taken kidnapped children to their fortress there.”

“And you’re trying to get them back?”

“Yes.”

“That mercenary guild sent you there, didn’t they?” Celeste said, her words drowning in disapproval.

“The pirates have taken children, Mom. Job or no job, I would have gone anyway. How could I not help?” said Naomi. “And how could you not help?”

“That is why you’ve come here.” Celeste pursed her lips, like she’d just bitten down on a lemon. “We cannot intervene.”