As soon as I materialized in the stables, my head was on a swivel as I scanned not only for Raina’s presence but also that of any owls or other predators that might think I was an easy meal. Immediately, I could hear some snorting and nickering from the nearest Pegasi, and my nose was greeted with the familiar and heady scent of horses, hay, manure, and leather. Fortunately, I neither spotted nor heard anything that might be an immediate danger to me. In fact, it seemed that Raina hadn’t arrived yet since the Pegasi were the only obvious signs of life.

Moonlight was there waiting for me, of course, but she would stay ethereal until I asked her to reveal herself. There was no sign of Raina yet, though, at least not yet. Since it seemed like I still had some time to prepare, I sent my thoughts toward the extra presence at the back of my mind, nestled somewhere close to Moonlight’s constant and reassuring mental aura. “Naia, I sure hope that’s you.”

-Yes, Ma’am,- the Siren’s mental voice quickly replied, and I was relieved that her telepathic ability seemed to work similarly to the mental bond I shared with Moonlight. Where Moonlight’s mental voice was soothing and familiar, Naia’s sounded much like her physical voice, but with an added musical quality to it that I couldn’t quite define. It was pleasant and somewhat calming, even if her tone sounded a bit nervous and uncertain.

“There’s no need for the formality with me, Naia, at least, not unless we’re actively working or in front of the Vice-Commander or other higher-ups. I’d like us all to be friends as well as teammates. So, you can just call me Lily when we’re all hanging out privately,” I quickly assured her. “Now, how does this work? Is it just pure communication, or can you see what I’m seeing?”

-It’s just communication, and only while I’m maintaining mental contact with you. I think so, anyway. I haven’t really been tested yet, and that seems to be how it works so far. I can’t directly read your thoughts, either, only those you specifically send to me, so if anything happens on your end, I‘ll need a play-by-play if you need me to inform the Vice-Commander about it, and I’ll need to drop my contact with you briefly to do it. So far, I’ve only been able to mentally link with one person at a time,- Naia’s pleasant mind voice explained.

I nodded thoughtfully as I took that information in and flitted over to land on the door to Moonlight’s currently vacant stall to wait. “That’s good to know, Naia. I’ll try to keep you up to date.”

Save for the sounds of the Pegasi in the stalls nearby, the next few minutes were quiet as I waited for something to happen. Finally, though, that near silence was broken as Moonlight’s voice entered my thoughts. -The presence approaches, my Maiden. Be on your guard.-

“Got it. Thanks, Moonlight.” I sent back, and then let out a sigh as I sagged in relief and passed the message on to Naia.

At least Raina wasn’t standing me up. Or so I hoped. I suppose she could have just sent her invisible companion ahead to scout things out. Ah, well, if that was the case, there wasn’t much I could do about it. I couldn’t blame her for being cautious, either, if she had a voice in her head that was as suspicious of me as Moonlight was of her.

I stayed in my current spot to remain within sight of anyone coming close, in case the presence had decided to scout the area for Raina. I needed to be visible so it wouldn’t think that I hadn’t shown up or that this might be some sort of trap. It was probably the right call, because it was a few minutes after that when Raina finally arrived and looked around, warily scanning the stalls and shadows, as she approached me.

I attempted to put a cheerful smile on my face as I awaited her by Moonlight’s stall, trying to appear relaxed. The last thing I wanted was for her to feel like this might be a trap or something. I liked her, and I wanted to be her friend, but I needed to know if that presence with her was another Unicorn, like Moonlight, or something potentially dangerous.

I didn’t want to have to put Raina on the spot about it unless I absolutely had to, so the plan hadn’t changed much since I had first come up with it. I would show my cards (and my Unicorn companion) first, and hope that it would get her to trust and empathize with me enough that she would show hers as well. If she wouldn’t show her companion, then I gave it a fifty/fifty chance that her Unicorn was being particularly stubborn. I didn’t even want to consider the other fifty percent because that most likely meant that we were dealing with either a complete unknown or something alien, and that would mean that I had much bigger problems to worry about.

So, I was trying to radiate a relaxed and friendly vibe as she approached and kept smiling as I called out, “Raina, I’m glad you came. With how interested you told me you are in Paranormal animal species, I think you’re going to love this.” I gestured to the apparently empty stall grandly.

Raina looked into the stall and then at me in utter confusion, but at least the confusion seemed to be displacing some of her nervousness as she said, “Ummm… Lily, there’s nothing there.”

“Oh, she’s there,” I promised, “she just hasn’t shown herself yet. Anytime, Moonlight, let’s not make this awkward.”

-As you wish, my Maiden, but I am still not certain that this is a wise course of action.-

“Me either, but it’s the only plan we have right now. It’s not like other people don’t already know about you, and I would rather know what we’re dealing with here,” I mentally replied.

Without another mental word, Moonlight materialized in the stall, eliciting a lengthy and audible gasp from Raina. The Wood Nymph looked to be a mix of stunned, amazed, eager, and genuinely surprised, as if this was her first time seeing one of Moonlight’s kind, and that reaction caused my stomach to clench uncomfortably. Once she could breathe and do more than just gape at Moonlight with wide eyes and a dropped jaw, she let out an ear-piercing shriek of excitement.

“Omigod, is that really a Unicorn?! Where did you find one?! How did you find one?! Can I touch it?!” The words started flying from Raina’s lips before she even finished shrieking in excitement.

That… was not the reaction I was expecting. It was like she had never seen a Unicorn before, which twisted my stomach further as I began to fear that we might not be dealing with a Unicorn here after all. My mind was racing, trying to come up with alternative plans as I attempted to field her rapid-fire questions.

“Yeah, her name is Moonlight. She was a filly that my sister gifted me before the Incursion that changed us, and we’ve been through a lot together. She bonded with me, I guess, and stayed with me, staying hidden for the whole time I was in my cocoon until I Sprouted. She’ll let you touch her if you’re nice about it; she’s as intelligent as you or me, though our bond only lets her speak to me. The reason you didn’t see her before is that Unicorns have a way of completely hiding their presence; they can also sense when others are using the same method and when someone has a similar bond to the one she formed with me,” I explained, hoping that this might get her ethereal companion to realize that we were on to them and show itself.

No such luck. Raina intently listened as she reached out to gently stroke Moonlight’s mane, and when I finished speaking, she turned to me, her eyes wide with interest. “That’s so cool that you have such a bond, and she talks to you.”

Why did it feel like I was beating my head against a wall here? I tried to give no outward sign of anything but friendliness, but I mentally asked Moonlight, “Are you certain that she had a bond like ours with whatever is hiding? She seems pretty oblivious about your kind, it still hasn’t shown itself, and I’m about ready to start entertaining worst-case scenarios here.”

-There is a bond between the two, and it feels very similar to our Maiden-bond. Since I don't have any past interaction with others of my kind, though, I cannot be completely certain,- she offered apologetically.

I sighed and decided to stop beating around the bush. “Raine, Moonlight senses that you have such a bond, and there is a hidden presence with you.” She looked completely bewildered at that statement, so I pressed further. “Have you been hearing a voice nobody else can hear?”

Her reaction was immediate, and both the shaking of her head and her denial were too fast and defensive as she stumbled back away from me and Moonlight’s stall in sudden horror. “No! I’m not crazy!”

I took a deep breath and then, as calmly and slowly as I could. “Raine, I never said that. I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on here. I don’t think that you’re crazy. You know, when Moonlight started to talk to me in my head after I Sprouted, I thought I was going crazy, too, and then she showed herself to me.”

Raina shook her head frantically again. “No, the voice isn’t real, the doctors said so! They said I was just…” she trailed off, not finishing whatever she was saying as she collapsed to the stable floor and curled in on herself. I could barely hear her murmuring, “Things were going so well… it was gone…. Why did it have to come back?”

Suddenly, as I looked down at the Wood Nymph who was now curled up in the fetal position, I was very uncertain whether I was equipped to deal with this. I needed to think, to put the pieces together and figure out what was going on with Raina on my own, because I wasn’t too sure that she would be much help at the moment. Even if she wasn’t curled up in a ball on the ground, crying, she probably had less of a clue about what was going on than I did.

“Think, Lily,” I told myself as I looked down at Raina in concern. Should I call the Vice-Commander and request a medical team? No, I got the feeling from some of what she had said that getting doctors involved right now probably wasn’t the best idea. I would send Naia a mental update on the situation, but bringing my teammates in on this might not be the best plan either.

Raina didn’t know any of them or have reason to trust them, especially in her current mental state. No, I needed to handle this myself. I would have to be cautious and gentle, though, because I didn’t want to make things worse.

Okay, so as far as I knew, Raina had awakened during an Incursion on her family’s ranch in Alberta a little over two years ago. She had been the only survivor, at least the only one from the ranch who could be confirmed alive and not captured. I knew from experience that that was more than enough to make a person emotionally and mentally brittle, especially when you start hearing voices and think you might be going crazy. Given Raina’s reactions and mumbled comments, I had to assume that she had been through that too.

The only reason that I stopped questioning my sanity was that Moonlight had revealed herself to me, showing instead of just telling. Moonlight was the first Unicorn that had revealed herself, though, and that was purely through my stubborn insistence on the matter, for my sake and Kelly’s. Using Moonlight as an example, I had to assume that others of her kind were equally reluctant to show themselves to anyone but their Maidens.

Without Moonlight as proof that they existed, how would doctors have reacted to someone newly awakened and in a delicate state of mind, telling them that they were hearing voices? They would probably think it was all in her head and attribute the voices to something trauma-related. Likely, they would get a therapist involved or something if it continued.

That wasn’t enough to go on; I needed to try to coax more details out of Raina. I flitted down to ground level, landed close to her head so she could properly hear me, and then spoke in the kindest tone I could manage. “Raina, I think I can help you. I don’t think you’re crazy, and we can prove it.”

It was a long moment before the Wood Nymph’s teary-eyed face emerged from where it had been buried in her arms. She looked doubtful, weary, as if she had fought this fight before and lost. “R-really?” she finally asked with a wet sniffle.

“Yeah, really. You’re going to be okay. I just need to know some things first. So, I need you to answer some questions honestly, okay?” I told her as soothingly as I could. Her answer was a hiccough and a brief bob of her head that I took as a nod of confirmation. “You heard a voice before, didn’t you? When was it? And what was it saying?”

Raina sniffled and wiped her eyes on her sleeve as she hesitantly answered, “A f-few days after the Incursion. H-he tuh-told me I wasn’t alone.”

I slowly and gently managed to coax more details out of her, getting her to tell me her story. She had still been in the hospital, following the Incursion, when the voice first tried to assure her she wasn’t alone. Not the hospital in Amethyst Harbour, but one near her hometown in Alberta, and she was just starting to show signs of awakening as an Altered. It was so rural that it barely counted as a true hospital; it was more of a clinic, according to what little Raina said about the place. Not that I could blame her, since it looked like there was some trauma connected to that place.

One of the doctors had caught her talking to thin air and thought she was having delusions. Since he and his counterparts weren’t used to dealing with Altered, magic, and other such things, they said some unkind things that had Raina seriously questioning her sanity. One outright told her that it was all in her head and that she sounded like a crazy person. It got worse over the next couple of days as the voice tried to convince her to run away from the hospital.

Moonlight probably would have done the same thing in his place. She had made it abundantly clear that Unicorns had no priority higher than the health and happiness of their bonded Maidens. If it were a Unicorn watching over Raina and he saw the doctors and that place as the source of anguish for Raine, then of course it would try to protect her by getting her away from them.

I suspected that the only reason he didn’t just appear and run off with her was that he had no opportunity to do so without being seen. The doctors had a twenty-four-hour watch on Raina during those few days following the first incident with the doctor and before it became apparent that she was some kind of Altered, and she was transferred to Amethyst Harbour. With the way Moonlight was so adamant that no one except me should see her at first, it made sense that the one watching over Raina would have the same issue.

So, Raina ended up in the middle of the doctors, two of whom didn’t bother even trying to hide their disdain for her, and the voice that wanted to get her away from them. Eventually, she snapped not long before she was moved to Amethyst Harbour, and since the voice was what had both her and the doctors questioning her sanity, that was where her stress from the situation was focused. She screamed at him to leave her alone, that she never wanted to talk to him again.

I gathered that the Unicorn, not wishing to see her hurt further, especially due to his actions, did as she asked but continued to loyally watch over her. Maiden bonds are for life, as Moonlight pointed out at that part of the story. Raina hadn’t heard a word from him again for over two years, until earlier today, during the campus tour, when he cautioned her to be careful around me.

Having that happen again, out of the blue, certainly explained why Raina seemed so nervous earlier. She had been reluctant to meet with me at first as well, afraid that the voice would come back again and that she was at the start of another mental breakdown. I felt for her because that could have very easily been me in her place.

Raina was still visibly upset following the telling of her story, but I figured that she was still worried that she might be going crazy and that I was just humoring her. There was only one way that I could think of to truly reassure her. So, I spoke up, knowing that her invisible companion was probably watching and listening to everything that was happening.

“I know you’re listening, and that you only want what’s best for Raine. There is one way, and only one way, that you can do that. She has every reason right now to not believe in you and think that she’s having a mental breakdown, and that is hurting her.” I stressed that last part, hoping to make him see what this was doing to Raine. “I thought the same when Moonlight first started talking to me, and the only reason that I stopped thinking that and was able to move on happily with my life was that Moonlight showed herself to me, and eventually to another person as well. Someone else seeing her made her real to me; it made me accept her and our relationship.”

Hoping that I wasn’t totally off base about this whole thing, I finished my lecture by stating, “Right now, it’s only the four of us here: you, Raina, Moonlight, and me, and I already know all about the existence of Unicorns. So, if you truly care for nothing more than Raina’s health and happiness, now is the time to ease her mind by showing yourself.”

For a moment, nothing happened, and I feared that I might have just done more harm than good, or that I might be wrong about the whole Unicorn angle after all. Then, a dark figure began to shimmer into existence, taking the form of a gorgeous, pitch-black stallion with a golden horn and a foot-long black beard dangling from his chin that matched his coat and mane. It looked toward me briefly with a snort before starting to nuzzle Raina affectionately, causing the Wood Nymph to look up at him with still-teary eyes. Eyes that widened in awe.

“I… I…” Raina seemed incapable of words as she stared at the new arrival, but the look on her face spoke volumes as she turned toward me, near-desperate for some confirmation of what she was seeing.

“He’s a handsome one, isn’t he?” I commented as casually as I could to reassure her. “Such a gorgeous black coat, and that beard is kinda cute. Moonlight doesn’t have one of those, so maybe it’s only a male thing.”

She practically collapsed in sudden relief, and then, after several minutes of heavy silence (at least on my end), she got shakily to her feet to wrap her arms around the other Unicorn’s neck. “S-sorry, I’m s-so sorry, Midnight.” I nearly sagged in relief myself. At least this wasn’t an alien thing.

It was too bad that I wasn’t privy to the other side of that conversation right now, but I figured that after all this time, they were probably long overdue for a talk about things. It was probably for the best that I left them alone to do that. So, I flitted close enough to her ear for Raina to hear me without using an app to project my voice and said, “Are you going to be okay if I leave you alone, Raine? I think you two should have a heart-to-heart, but I’ll stay if you need me to.”

Raina sniffled, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. “I… I’ll be fine. Midnight said he’ll keep me safe. Th…thanks, Lily, for everything.”

“I’ll see you in class tomorrow then,” I replied. “Before I go, though, a word of advice. You and Midnight should watch your backs and keep an eye out for anything weird on campus. I can’t say more yet, but Vice-Commander Carpenter might be contacting you about that. Don’t worry, you’re not going to be drafted into the Vanguard or anything like that, but she might have a part-time job for you to do.”

“O…okay,” she responded. I didn’t wait to hear anymore and teleported back to my room for some privacy. I had kept Naia up to date on what was going on and had her keep the others in the loop, so I only needed to report things to the Vice-Commander.

I was going to tell her the broad strokes, as I had with Naia, but I felt that most of what happened was between Raina and Midnight. I would confirm that the presence was another Unicorn rather than an alien, but I also planned to suggest that she give the pair some time before approaching them, and to be as gentle and empathetic as possible once she did. Maybe I could convince her to let me work as an intermediary with Raina. She had been through enough, and I was going to make it clear that she needed to be handled gently if they were going to ask her and Midnight to be some sort of invisible scouts searching for signs of aliens.