Her body was engulfed in the great big, blue sky. She was unsure of what was farther from the ground at that moment, her body or her spirits. The wind rushed past her ears and her hair flew about her strong wings in a disarray.

The people from below all watched and admired her strong gliding stride through the air, each stride used such might that she mesmerized all who watched from below.

After several minutes of this, she lowered her feet back to the dust, looking as angelic as a god. It was now when it sunk in what she had done, all eyes bulged, and mouths hung open. She was unsure of why they were all so surprised, they all had wings, did they not? But nevertheless, they all stared.

"Well..." Raziel spoke, his teenage eyes wide with amazement. Neha could see a bit of a smile on his lips, but she knew he would not let it show fully, not here that is.

"Well done," Asaliah spoke, her face was straight, not giving away a hint of her emotion, and she regained her posture as if this were something she came across every day.

Neha's heart sank a little, she wished she could have impressed the woman but maybe there were other questions she would ask that could impress her. The girl scratched her wings, begging one of the three to interrupt the silence which had now fallen over the field once more. Luckily, Asaliah came to the rescue with another question.

"Neha, what do you remember?" The woman said, not a hint of a smile on her lips. Asaliah knew what Neha was going to say. She knew how it would be taken by the Kellestri. She knew what would happen to poor Neha, but she needed to hear it from Neha's lips and hers alone.

As she scratched her wings uncomfortably, Neha thought. She knew what she remembered, but would she dare say? Every eye was on her again, straining to get a glimpse of the girl of fire.

Neha was beginning to hear a rustle of whispers in the crowd as she continued to remain silent. "Well... it is not simple to say," she began, and the field fell silent once more, "I remember... feelings, not memories but how I felt."

A Kellestri from the back of the crowd shouted, interrupting the silence of the field. "She's the girl Asaliah! Can you not see? She's your..." The rest of the man's sentence seemed inaudible, for the commotion of the crowd of Kellestri blocked all sound from reaching Neha's ears.

The whispers had turned to talk and then shouting, and bodies that had once remained still as stone were moving about now. The sound of voices grew so loud that Neha feared they might turn into a mob.

"Silence!" Asaliah shouted over the crowd, her angelic voice calling over all the people like a mist falling into place. They all heard, and they all obeyed their queen. "Now, I want you all to go home." She spoke, her face still void of expression, "All activities have been canceled, tomorrow all will be carried on as usual..."

By this time, Neha was terribly lost. Why was Asaliah doing this to them all? Did Neha truly do something that wrong? She was unsure but she let Asaliah speak, hugging herself tightly with her wings once more in shame.

"...I assume you all know where this girl will be placed and that is final, no exceptions." The crowd nodded, all of them knowing where—all except Neha that is. "Now, go home immediately, please."

The Kellestri all started to turn and go home, dragging their wings behind them—the whispers obviously present but impossible to understand. "Dia, Yadiel," Asaliah called after them and two heads turned toward the queen.

The two of them turned red and shuffled toward Asaliah. Yet before Asaliah spoke to them, she turned to Raziel who had made his way to stand next to Neha. "Boy, I want you to take Neha to where she will be staying." The boy nodded and Neha followed him out of the circle of grass, hanging her head in shame of something she did not understand.

Behind her, she could see Asaliah talking to Dia and Yadiel, whatever Asaliah was saying, it did not appear to be light, for Dia was as red as a rose and Yadiel looked stiffer than ever.

"Try not to let it get to you, Neha. It was Neha, right?" Raziel smiled, breaking the professional posture and way of speaking he had put on for the classification so abruptly that Neha felt stunned.

"Hm? Oh, I'm sorry, uh, yeah it was, sorry," Neha said, her face red as she shrunk more into the privacy of her wings in embarrassment. The two of them turned a corner, leaving the crowd of Kellestri behind.

"Look, Neha, you don't have to do that," he said, stopping in his tracks, his voice turning perfectly serious. He reached out his hand and touched her wing, opening it up so that he could see her face.

"Do what?" she asked, slightly annoyed and uncomfortable.

"Hide like that. That is what they want you to do, all of them. You can't be afraid, though. People like Asaliah and I have waited years for you to be a flame and to burn this joint to the dirt, don't try to hide from us. We know who you are," Raziel said, crossing his arms.

"Is it really that obvious that I'm scared?" She said, dropping her gaze to her feet, terribly uncomfortable that this boy could see her insecurities like words on a page.

"Kind of... Look, you are going to be staying with Asaliah and me, you don't have to be afraid around us. We understand. Especially her, you would be surprised by the things she can share. Here," he smiled, reaching his hand out for her to hold.

Her body froze, tense for a second, but that fire inside her burned once more and she grabbed his outstretched hand without a second thought. It was funny when she grabbed his hand a feeling came over her, not an old memory of a feeling, but a new memory, one she did not quite understand.

The two walked hand in hand down the cobblestone streets. The longer he held her hand, the safer she felt until her wings were nearly dragging on the road. "Raziel, why can't any of the other Kellestri fly?" she asked with the voice of an innocent child.

He gave her a smile. There was something about his smile that she could not help but love. She barely knew the boy, but there was something in his beautifully awkward smile that made her feel at home—as if she had known him all her life.

"Well, to be truthful, we are not so sure ourselves. All the Kellestri that came after the incident where we got the prophecy simply came that way, unable to fly. They had wings, but they were like dead meat on their backs. The muscles and nerves in the things just don't seem to work. Therefore, we are just forced to log them around.

"There was a boy a few years back who tried to cut his off. When he did this, they say he became fully human in an instant so the Nostro Lumine immediately took him back home without allowing him to go on his mission at all.

"You will learn quickly that around here, no one truly knows the full answers except Asaliah, we think, yet she refuses to tell. You just have to go with the flow of things and feel it out, we are all just trying to get back home anyway."

They walked silently for a few more blocks. There was something indescribable about walking with him. They did not say a word to each other for most of the time, yet it was not uncomfortable or awkward. She felt... well, safe.

"What about the whole classification thing?" Neha asked as the two turned another corner.

"What about it?"

"I mean, if I had claimed I couldn't fly or said I remembered nothing, where would they have put me and why?"

"Probably with Dia and Yadiel, honestly, they get most of the newbies, they've been here almost as long as Asaliah. The whole classification has to do with your skills and weaknesses. Most of the time they will send you to study with an older Kellestri who will teach you the ways of Merveille until that Kellestri must go, then you will take over their household and so continues the cycle."

"Well, why did I get put with you guys? No offense," she smiled slightly, and he gave her a laugh before answering.

"None taken. Well, Asaliah probably wants to watch you to see your abilities and well..." His voice turned to a whisper, "I'm not supposed to say, but rumor has it Asaliah knew you in human life."

"Really?" Neha smiled, imagination sparking in her big gray eyes.

"Yeah, I don't know the details—again, she won't speak of it—but I hear there are a lot of things she knows but doesn't say. I believe she was the girl who brought the prophecy in. None of us truly know, but she is the only one who has stayed long enough to know anything about the subject at all. There are some rumors that she viewed the future when she came out of the Nostro Lumine writhing like an animal if that was her at all, but none of us are truly sure. Here, this is where you will be staying."

Raziel pointed to a building in front of them. As he was speaking, she had nearly forgotten where they were headed in the first place. The cobblestone road ended right here at this house and as her eyes lifted off the road and over a building. Her mouth dropped open.

"Big isn't it?" he laughed, looking at her bulging eyes.

"Uh, yeah," she spoke, not daring to tear her eyes off the gorgeous building. Up until now, all the Kellestri huts had seemed as if they were going to fall down to Neha, but this tall, multi-story building towered with wood and stone, covered with vines that held lilac flowers. The grand willow that was planted out front blew gently in the wind, making the entire estate look like a princess story.

"Well, come on, Neha, you can't just stare at it forever," Raziel laughed and the two ran inside like children running to the waves of the ocean.

Little did the two teenage Kellestri know that they were being watched. Not by Dia, not by Yadiel, but by one other Kellestri, Asaliah. As the two ran inside, they missed the single tear fall down Asaliah's cheeks as she approached the house. She sighed, straightening herself up as she walked into the house, the image of the two teens holding hands still burning in her eyes. As she entered the house, she could not help but whisper something under her breath that none could ever hear: Come on, Asaliah,

You Cannot Let Your Daughter Make the Same Mistake You Did.