Passing through the portal in her family’s living room, Aurora felt a weird chill run through her body. Wheepped through, she found herself in a rge wood ah room. It had a rustid ‘native’ ambiance, making everything wonderfully homey, warm, and safe.

  The lodge had a simple square open-floor pn about fifty feet wide, with a small fire burning away cheerfully in the ter. Looking around to take in all of her surroundings, she saw it was simir to the gazebo they were in when Mistral had plumbed her mind and soul.

  “This is my Spiritual Sanctum,” Mistral said, “I don’t often have visitors, but I wao share this with you.” She looked into Aurora’s eyes. “You have a great burden, but I have seen your strength, and I believe in it.”

  She let go of Aurora’s hand and spun in pce. In that moment, her e ged to a puffy vest over a long sweater and leggings with boots. Her ptinum-blonde hair darkeo a solid bck, more in lih her Ameriative features.

  “This is my real form. My civilian outfit, one might say,” she said with a smile, brushing her dark hair back over her shoulder. “I felt it was only fair to share this with you since I barged into your home. You call me Denise, but my full name is Denise Hastings,” she introduced herself formally yet warmly. “I trust you won’t tell anyone, right?”

  “Right!” Aurora smiled happily, fttered. “I’m so honored, Mistral… Denise!” She looked at her with aleasure at having so much shared with her.

  “I’m so happy you take me so seriously, Mistral. I was so worried. I thought I couldn’t let anyone know that my body is really so young. I thought no one would see me as legitimate if they knew. I only dared to dream of being seen as a peer. I knew I had so much further to go, and I’m so happy.” She smiled brightly.

  Denise moved to sit on the packed dirt floor and theated. “I’m used to sitting on the ground,” she said, “but if you’d rather rex for a moment, we go to my apartment instead. Don’t worry too much about ye. There are a few others who would worry about that, but I myself was thrust down this path when I was youhan you are now and I see your strength, and I think your youth help us overall—superhero-wise, I mean. Just don’t make it a habit of telling just anyone you’re so young,” she said in a spiratorial tone, winking.

  “I’ll ge back when I feel up for a flight. But fht now, we’re in ada, as you’ve likely surmised, so we have a bit of a trip ahead of us when we’re ready for it. I would like to take you to the Society of Sentinels’ headquarters to help you get set up there if that’s alright. You don’t have to join if you don’t want to, but I’d like to at least get you a unicator with them so you have a secure means of tact. Before that however, I first want to introduce you to Anygmah, the Spirit of Secrets, since I assume you want to keep your identity secret, right?”

  “Yes!” Aurora beamed at Denise. “As much as possible… not that I don’t trust you, Mistral.” She hesitantly took her hands and grinned. “I’d love to join the Sentinels and really bee one of your peers. It’s a dream e true. I want to be a paragon of justid truth.”

  She blushed, thinking about the difficulty she was fag with Sarah’s predit. She wasn’t gettiher justice or truth with that mess. Could she tell Mistral about her case and seriously ask for some a? She didn’t think so. It was too early to ask for favors when Mistral was already doing her a great service as a friend aor.

  “Um, well, introduight be a bit te at this point, but... My civilian name is Leona Ramses. I don’t pn to tell anyone I’m Aurora except for my closest friends.” It wasn’t time to tell Sarah her secret yet. She was uhe trol of the camp. The less she khe better for now. “I’m a young t-transgender girl. My mom and sister are really my aunt and cousin ted me and loved me… more than my father did. My real form is…” Aurora stopped, chewing her lip. “...as you saw. But this power, it makes me the girl I’ve always wao be. That is a small selfish reason for wanting to tinue being Aurora. Secred selfishness arely ‘paragon of truth and justice’ material, though.” Aurora fidgeted, expeg nation. But she was her hero—surely, she wouldn’t.

  Denise smiled and took Aurora’s hands, squeezing them gently. “It’s brave of you to admit that,” she said. “Thank you for trusting me.” She let go of one of her hands and lifted Aurora’s to look into her eyes with warm passion. “You tio prove your bravery. May I call you Leona?”

  “Yes!!!” Aurora excimed happily.

  She looked into Mistral’s eyes. “I’d like that very much, Mistral… Denise.” Despite rexing a bit as she looked at Mistral’s base form, she was still overflowing with giddy joy. “I’d ge back too, but I know you saw me, and at least this way I’m det. I ge my clothes to look like anything I want.” Aurrinned and shifted her clothes into a white dress skirt with strappy shoulders and a white bow on the chest. The skirt was ruffled, had ribbons across it, and reached down just past crotch-level. Her hair shimmered into a lively, lustrous blonde.

  “I don’t know if I ge much else besides things that touch my skin. I think I do makeup and things like that too with work and an eye for detail.”

  “Well done!” Mistral nodded and smiled with a little cp. “I’m sure with practice you could stretch that skill further. For now, though, you should stay in yur e, unless another outfit’s more rexing for you,” she said. “Our stop will be the Spirit of Secrets, and there’s not going to be anypce I pn to take you tonight that will need anything other than your usual.”

  She tinued, “While I recharge, though, let me tell you a little bit about Bgel and our history, okay?”

  Aurora nodded, shifting her clothes back to her e. She sat down by Mistral’s side and spoke again, “Actually, I do kind of default to this form now. It takes tration to hold the other forms.” She looked into Mistral’s eyes and waited, sitting cross-legged. “Please tell me more.”

  Denise smiled. “Okay, so you know most sce fi shows aliens as teologically advanced races who travel in ships and use highly advanced and weird sce, right? However, the alien raown as the Empyrean are mystically advahey explore and travel space through the use of their magic. Their bodies have bee so ingrained with their magic that they ow passively absorb the mystiergies of stars and have learo use those energies t degrees,” she expined.

  “Now, I ’t tell you a lot about the biology or sce behind it all, but the yman’s version is this: their wings—they all have feathered wings—colled absorb starlight. They absorb the most from the star, the Sun in our case, but also pick up everything else that hits them down to ic background radiation. Each feather is adapted to tain a certain amount of power, so an Empyrean’s power is literally pin to see. Empyreans who get old enough either get really rge wings or multiples of wings. Now, they use this energy to live, so they don’t have to eat, drink, or breathe teically, but they do those things for the pleasure of it.”

  “Now for the bad news: they retly discovered a source of dark power called the Oubliette Nebu—at least, I’m told that’s how it transtes. No one really knows its true nature, but my personal theory is that it’s a fragment of some kind of Old One. Whatever it is, it has corrupted a signifit portion of the Empyrean race. The Acolytes have eheir own people and are slowly attempting to sacrifice their entire species to the Nebu.”

  “Bgel came to Earth to quer it and use its energies for the Oubliette Nebu. She’d fought a number of heroes here oh but in the end seemed to csh with me the most. Garou and I tricked her int her own devices on herself. It didn’t kill her, but you see… it pissed her off. How I mao trick her is plicated, but we had a full-on flict above the Rockies. It got a bit toud-go there, but I tricked her again by what she wanted. Her remains still had her presen them, as you know, and it appears that what you merged with was some small portion of her that somehow escaped dete.”

  Mistral held Aurora’s hand and squeezed it. “And that’s the history of Bgel in a nutshell, or at least what the Society of Sentinels and I have been able to uncover based on her own words bined with other extrapary and mystical sources.” she said. Aurora tilted her head, sensing there was more to it, but it was more than enough for now. Mistral finished by saying, “I hope that helps to answer some questions you might have had about the nature of your powers. You seem to have bee a mystic Human-Empyrean hybrid in this form.”

  “How weird…” Aurora tilted her head. “So if more of her race shows up… I’ll probably be a target, huh?” She thought over that. “A hybrid? Maybe that meaer? I do like they do and breathe in space? I tried breathing uer, but I think I still needed air… it was easier when I used my shields to collee air before I went under… I was able to fly for a really long time uer after that.”

  “Well, I don’t really have the capability to test you on that.” Mistral smiled. “But I don’t think you’ll o worry too much about other Empyreans ing here for now. If one is detected, however, we’ll let you know.” She winked.

  “Okay, I’m just about ready to go… If you want to spend some time ter testing, we’ll talk to the Society about that, but for now, I’m going t us to Anygmah, okay?” she asked while getting up and a hand to Aurora.

  Aurora nodded. “I’ve never heard of anyone named Anygmah… is he a hero? Also, I never heard you o recharge your energies. I’m hohat you’d trust me with that tidbit too.”

  “Well,” she said after they were both up, “sed question first. Telep to my sanctum from any old pce is actually pretty tiring. I have a few pces lio this one, but as far as secure locations go, this is one of the best. No way to spy on me in here without serious magic behind it, and no way to sneak in or out without my knowing about it either.”

  She smiled and shifted, her hair turning blonde again as her e reappeared. “As far as Anygmah goes, it’s basically the entire point that you wouldn’t know anything about him. He IS the spirit of secrets, after all—not a hero. He’s one of the erstones of secret identities in this information age.”

  Mistral started gathering some things from pouches and gourds on the walls, tossing them into the fire in the middle. “Anygmah was oargeted by a mystic anization called ‘the Yello’ and was rescued by superheroes. Sihen, he has pledged to guard their secrets above all others. There are other factors that go into maintaini identities, but he protects them from mystic prying. His influence eveends into the world of ‘normality’ somewhat.”

  A portal appeared over the fire. “Anygmah doesn’t like visitors, but he makes an exception for superheroes. Usually.” She winked mischievously. “Ready?”

  Aurri her and nodded, standing up straight. “I am…” She took a st wistful look around. “You have su amazing pce here… I hope one day I’ll be able to have an amazing pce like this.” She smiled warmly.

  “Well, you’re wele to e back,” Mistral said, being for Aurora to follow her through.