Author's Notes: It's (mostly) edited and (somewhat) ready to see the light of day! I hope you all like it!

Chapter Twenty-Seven:

Shadows in the Forest

DATE: Saturday, 853 World

(Robin saw me struggling with the date and told me about the calendar accepted by most of the world at large. Pirates don't keep track of such things beyond day-today and week-to-week, and kingdoms not affiliated with the World Government have their own ways of keeping track of the time. It was fucking fascinating, and-no, no, no shit what am I doing)

MY LOCATION: My room on the Merry Go

PLACE: Skypiea

So, what I remember from the canon events is this: After the Straw Hats arrive on Skypiea's Angel Beach, they horse around for a while, and then Conis appears. There's the little bit with Conis opening the fruit for Luffy (I played the part in the here and now), and then Pagaya and the waver.

Luffy fails at it, Nami excels, and she finds herself near the…what was it called? The place where Enel's priests were…ah, it's no matter.

I also remember those white beret weirdos – that hasn't happened either, and it should have happened on the first day.

And there was still that strange feeling in the air, one of very quiet menace.

The Shandians, perhaps? They have exactly zero reason to like any outsider – be they of the Blue Sea or the White Sea – and it wouldn't be farfetched to assume they would be watching us, especially after Wiper didn't even come close to beating me.

But, no.

It's not human.

Could there be Daemon nests on this island? Fuck, I wanna say no, because it's fucking Skypiea and Enel will be a pain in the ass enough on his own, but, I just don't, I don't know. And that shit pisses me off.

I'll need to go out exploring today, after breakfast. Because whatever's out there is hidden, and hidden well. So exploring into the jungle, and maybe Conis's house if I can find it, without letting the others get wind of this. I can take a lot of damage if there are some nasty surprises, but the others? Christ, I never thought I would say this, especially of fucking Monkey D. Luffy, but they're…

They're weaker than me. Zoro makes somewhat up for it in sheer talent and knowledge, but I am stronger, a helluva lot more durable, and leagues faster than all of them.

It's fucking disturbing, you know? I spent a huge portion of my childhood admiring these people who performed feats so far out of any human's reach, and wanting to be them, and know-thinking I could never, because how could any normal human ever do the things the Straw Hats and the other characters did?

And now I'm here, and I know I could kill them. I know I could kill any of them as easily as breathing, and that's…

I don't know how I feel about that, to be quite honest.

Even in a few years, I could crush them like bugs with sheer physical strength alone, and that's before you even take my Magic into the equation. I feel monstrous in my own skin, and this strength – it's unreal, it's not what I ever wanted, god!

I was fat and flabby and useless back home, I was ugly as shit with barely any muscles and I would prefer that to this. I look at myself in the mirror and I know no one I've met so far can stop me, and what if I'm not good enough of a person to want to stop on my own?

GAH. FUCKING CHRIST.

[incoherent, angry scribbling follows, smeared and illegible]

This is so fucking stupid and useless, for fuck's sake. Why do I keep picking at this nonsense like I would at a scab? There's no point. I know I'm a monster, so fuck worrying about it.

I'm not going to kill the others.

[ink has dripped on the page in splotchy dots]

I'm not. And I'm not going to let anything kill them, either.

So, after breakfast, I'll head to the forest and poke around a bit, see what's going on. Maybe Conis simply didn't come today? Maybe Enel has other plans, or is just letting us get used to the island before he springs the trap. He's a crafty bastard, for all he's a stupid arrogant prick of a human.

Reasons upon reasons, and knowledge I yet not have.

…Mom was always good for the quotes that made you sound a lot smarter than you really were.

~KL

The first thing Kelly noticed about the jungle was how eerily quiet it was. While birds and animals roamed somewhat on the fringes, the further she got into the depths, the less wildlife she heard.

"That is not a good sign," she said to herself, leaping over a large root that seemed like it had been half pulled out of the tree. The day was just full of not-good signs, and it had started with her not being able to find Conis's house.

Kelly had found only the barest hint that anyone had ever lived along the beach, bits of burned wood and the faint imprint of what might had once been a foundation, though she wasn't sure.

(Mistress?)

Peace, Gin, Shere, she assured her Familiars, who were back at the beach running interference. None of the Straw Hats would be able to follow her, not with Shere and Gin in their way. Her darlings were masters at the cuddly and mischievous cat antics that could keep a human's attention firmly locked on them.

Something prickled down her spine, and acting on pure instinct, Kelly dove for the roots and the mud beneath them. She buried herself in it, coiling her magic tight and small in her chest and belly, just as she heard the flap of wings overhead, the scuttle of beetle-claws on the dead leaves.

A hiss made her hair stand on end, and Kelly began to sweat as a shadow fell over her, blocking the weak light that filtered down through the strong roots.

"Do you think that we will actually get a trEat, Jooro?"

"The Elders will want the food all for themselves, Noyoro."

"What a pity, Jooro."

"Do you think the human-born will allow us to take some flesh from the monso as a treat, Noyoro?"

"Unlikely, Jooro."

"Indeed, it is a pity, Noyoro."

The things reminded her greatly of the creepy twins from that horror game Beth had been so gaga over – Outlive, or something similar. They were also terrifyingly articulate, which gave some notion to how strong they were.

And they're not even the strongest, she thought with sudden panic. They had mentioned Elders after all, and the only beings to which clear-speaking Daemons would bow were those above them in the hierarchy.

She had to get to the others and get them the entire fuck off the island, right fucking now.

Kelly breathed in and out, listening raptly to the sounds of the leaving Daemons, before pulling herself out of the mud. She could clean herself up when she got back to the ship.

Now, she had to get the others and make sure they all got back to the ship-

A scream, inhuman, raging, hungry: "MAGUS! I SMELL MAGUS!"

Oh no.

A form crashed out of the trees, and every bone in Kelly's body went ice-cold with terror.

It was fifteen feet from foot to the top of its head, and reminded her eerily of a Titan from that one dystopian manga back home. A distended, naked human being with only contorting bulges to indicate where in a human there might have been normal genitalia. Its arms drooped past its knees, clawed hands dragging on the ground as it stared at her with lidless, blue-black eyes.

Hungry eyes.

And on that day, humanity was given a grim reminder, a hysterical, gibbering part of her head supplied, and Kelly was frozen. She'd never seen a Daemon so near to human form without even trying to maintain the form.

Even the ones back on Arabasta had shucked any vestiges of humanity early on.

"Magus," the thing said, in hungry, horrible glee, skinned lips pulling back to reveal rows of razor sharp teeth.

"Magus," it said again, and moved.

Kelly moved as well, stumbling back and over the roots, nearly blind with prey-terror as she ran for her life, dodging past trees and low-slinging branches. Only magic kept her upright, as it had done all those years ago, and only magic kept her running forwards, sobbing and crying for Gin and Shere.

(MISTRESS, USE SORU!)

The order cut through the insane fear like a hot knife through butter, and her vision cleared, if but for a moment. Kelly could breathe through the stench of dying things once more. She wasn't a child scared out of her mind any longer.

"Soru!" she snarled, and the world blurred into a riot of colors.

She landed on sand, free of the forest and the fear that had swamped her.

"Fucking Daemons," she hissed, and kept running.

She could smell the pirates all together – praise any gods listening – and began to sprint.

"GET BACK TO THE SHIP!" she screamed. The Straw Hats turned to stare at her, Zoro drawing his swords, Chopper and Usopp hurrying to her.

Then – hot, hungry breath on the air and her world was pain.

Teeth dug into the flesh at the crook of her neck and shoulder, and Kelly screamed in agony as a massive hand curled around her in a bruising grip. A laugh like the braying yelps of a dying donkey behind her, and she was smashed down, thudding against the sand.

"BASTARD!" Luffy's voice, tight with rage.

The fear that had returned with the Daemon dripped away, and Kelly pushed out her Magic. The Daemon shrieked as the blood in its hand became as salt-water in the ocean, and it dropped her to the sand.

Now, she could feel the rumbling of many other feet on the ground, and heard the braying of things that were not hunting-dogs, but bore a superficial resemblance.

More Daemons.

Shit, shit, and shitting fuck.

Kelly shoved herself to her feet, blood dripping down her neck, and hurled herself forward. Gin and Shere were moving as well – Shere plucking Usopp and Chopper up and tossing them onto her back, Gin snagging Sanji and Nami, before both cats leapt to the ship.

The Magus ducked under, heaving Zoro and Luffy onto her back, and booked it for the ship. She noted Robin – the woman, despite Kelly's personal opinion, was no one's fool – already on the ship, her face sheened with fear-sweat.

"Oi! Ciel, put me down, let me kill that bastard!" Luffy yelled, and the air fluttered behind them.

Shit.

Muscles bunched and tightened under her skin, and Kelly heaved Zoro and Luffy towards the ship, just before something like fire shot through her side. She bellowed – it burned! – as she wrenched herself off the spear that had just barely missed her lower intestines.

She shattered the spear, leaping away from the open mouth and gnashing teeth of another humanoid Titan-Daemon. Then a hand seized the back of her jacket, and she was flying through the air with the Daemon's thwarted shrieks of hunger behind her.

Kelly crashed onto the deck of the Merry, wheezing in pain, and heard Luffy shout "Go, go, go!"

She had enough presence of mind to call a puff of wind to the sails, her fingers dancing in a call she remembered Kureha teaching her back on Drum. It was only when the sails filled with a crack, and the Merry practically shot forward, that Kelly leaned back and gulped air.

"Ahhhhh, we need a doctor!" Chopper's screech was reassuringly frantic, until she felt his hooves on her stomach.

She whacked him away, pulling herself up to her elbows.

"Are they following us?" she asked, her voice hoarse. She was hyper-aware of the dried tear tracks on her face.

"No, they are not." This from Robin, who leaned against the railing, her head turned towards the beach.

She would have looked cool and unaffected to a normal onlooker, but Kelly could smell the fear and see the way her hands still trembled.

Though that wasn't entirely fair, as Kelly herself was still sweat-soaked and shivering. She could feel the last vestiges of the fear-drug those Daemons had exuded swirling in her system, and carefully threaded her Magic towards them.

Her belly rolled.

That had been a mistake, she thought, managing to turn to her side as nausea spiked in the wake of the Magi's path, and she vomited black bile onto the deck of the Merry. Her shoulders heaved, over and over again, as her body expelled the poison in the most efficient way it knew how.

When the heaving stopped, she wiped her mouth, feeling woozy.

"Gods, I fucking hate those things," she said, and collapsed back against Shere, who whuffled in her hair like an overly curious horse.

"Ciel, what happened? What were those things?" This from Nami, as she helped Chopper clean up the mess Kelly had left.

"Daemons, what else?" Kelly replied, surreptitiously checking the winds filling the sails. They held, to her relief. "Oozing some sort of fear-pheromones, or something equally pleasant."

The ship jumped and shuddered, rocking to and fro. The winds fled as the ship was pulled elsewhere, and another familiar scent reached her nose.

Not the thing pulling along the ship – that was a normal crab, albeit a grotesquely oversized one that didn't seem to hear her when she called to it. No, she smelled the things following it, and wanted to cry with frustration.

Like the mutated banawanis back at Crocodile's Rainbase, these things had been twisted and ravaged by the attentions of less-than-kind Daemons. Immense fish with drooling tongues from what she could sense, leaking pus and blood into the water as they leapt towards the ship and the crab that bore it away.

The only saving grace was that the crab was substantially faster than the creatures. Nami, Usopp, and Chopper were majorly panicking

"Fucking hell," Kelly groaned, dropping back against Shere's side.

"What is it?" Zoro stood next to her, and crouched down on his hunkerbones.

"We're being chased," she said, gesturing at the monsters following. Zoro went to get a good look, and after a moment she could hear him cursing.

"Scoundrel, you need help getting up?" Sanji stood over her, and she looked up at him, curious.

His ears went red, but he kept looking at her, almost defiantly. She blinked, and then grinned, accepting the hand and the help. There was a moment of vertigo as she stood, but it passed quickly. Even though she didn't need to, she kept a loose grip around Sanji's hand, one that took him far too long to tug away from.

"Where is this thing taking us?!" Usopp's shriek pulled her away from the way Sanji's eyes shone, and back to the problem at hand.

"Nowhere good, to be sure," Kelly said, going to join the group at the far end of the ship. "But we can't afford to make it stop. It's faster than those things, after all."

"Are they like the banawanis back in Arabasta? Do they come from the same place- AND YOU NEED TO HAVE YOUR WOUNDS BANDAGED!" Chopper yelled, pointing a hoof at Kelly.

"Oh, come on Chopper, I'm all right," she said, keenly aware now of the pain still throbbing in her neck and her side, and the blood that ruined her clothes.

"No, Ciel," Chopper protested. "You're hurt and you need-"

"Chopper, leave it, I'm fine-"

"Ciel."

Luffy's voice was calm and a little annoyed, and he folded his arms over his chest. There was something in his gaze, something that made it impossible to look away from.

Kelly sighed, rubbed a hand over her face, and growled. "Fine. Let me know when we're in range of land, because none of you are getting anywhere near shore until I can confirm there are no Daemons near it. If they have any nasty surprises waiting, they'll be much less likely to kill me."

She caught Zoro's gaze.

"You weren't so durable against them yourself," he pointed out, and she tried not to bristle.

"I was unprepared," she bit out. "And I paid for it. I will survive these wounds like I survived the attacks, and like I have survived similar attacks as a child – you would not be nearly so lucky."

"As a child," Zoro stated, and Kelly wanted to kick her own ass for the slip.

"That's irrelevant," she said, and turned away. "Lead on, Doctor."

"You were attacked by these things as a child," Zoro pressed, and Kelly hid her scowl by turning away. She hadn't been a child, not truly.

"Again, like I said, it's irrelevant. Let's go, Chopper," and she followed the reindeer to his small office.

Unlike the one he would eventually have on the Sunny, this wasn't quite so big and grand, but it reflected the exacting nature of the doctor who worked there. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all starkly sterilized, and everything with borderline-military levels of neatness, from the precisely folded edges of the bed sheets, to the stacks of books lined in razor-neat rows on the bookshelves.

Chopper wasn't military, but he'd grown up with someone who as good as was. Kureha was a crazy old bat, but Kelly couldn't see her expecting anything less than organized perfection from her student.

"Take your jacket off and sit on the bed," Chopper ordered, and Kelly froze.

"Is that really necessary?" she asked, though she did sit on the bed. "Can't I just lift it up?"

Chopper blinked at her. "Well, yes! I need to see your wounds to properly bandage and treat them, so please don't start acting like Zoro. He's a pain."

"Figuratively and literally," Kelly said under her breath, and Chopper giggled.

"You're not wrong. Now, don't worry. Doctorine told me to be careful of your blood, because you're a Snake. I had to do the same for her, since she's a Dragon…well, since she has Dragon blood."

Kelly closed her eyes and bit her tongue hard. Had Kureha not told Chopper she was a Magus?

"Very well," she said grudgingly, and pulled her jacket off as Chopper clambered up to stand beside her. Under it, she wore her tank top, but Chopper flapped a hand at that as well in his impatience.

"Take that off as well, and turn around, I need to see how far the hole goes," he said, and Kelly shuddered.

"Chopper, I-"

"Look, I really need to see it, Ciel!" Chopper said, putting his hooves on his hips.

"Chopper-"

"It's not going to help anyone if it gets infected, and I don't even know what sort of germs those things would have on them!"

"Chopper, I can't!"

The reindeer startled back at the snarl that erupted from Kelly. The Magus shuddered again, her eyes overfull. She could feel every single one of her scars, each of the raised markings burning as though she'd gotten them only days before, instead of months earlier.

"I can't," she whispered again, her hands inching up over her shoulders. "I can't."

There was silence for a time, before Chopper sat back, and nodded.

"Can you pull up your shirt in front?" he asked, his voice gentle, and Kelly nodded.

Chopper clucked over the state of the wound, though it had considerably healed.

It no longer looked like the spear had gone all the way through, just as the bite on her neck no longer looked as though a great chunk had been torn out of it. It was still raw, turning black at the edges as her Magic battled against whatever godforsaken bacteria those Daemons had been carrying around.

Chopper was efficient and quick – both the wound in her stomach and the bite mark on her neck were doctored and bandaged in record time. Just as Kelly was pulling her shirt back down, the door opened.

Usopp stood there, panting a little.

"We've reached land!"

Meanwhile, in the encampment of the Shandian tribes…

"Mea domina."

The woman, who sat perched on one of the many, intricately carved totems that dotted throughout the landscape, startled, nearly falling off the side of the pillar in her surprise.

She was a pretty, petite woman, her dark-blond hair pulled tight into a braid at the base of her neck, her bright blue eyes gleaming in a pale face. She looked to the ground, her white and brown-splotched wings shifting to steady her.

A fox, about five feet tall, sat at the bottom of the totem, looking up at her. It was all over purple-white, with only one tail showing, though in truth it had seven.

She leapt down, landing easily beside her Familiar.

"What is it?" The Magus asked her oldest, and longest surviving companion, as the two of them began their daily walk around the outer perimeter of the camp, checking for weaknesses.

"Your man, Wiper. He grows restless."

She scoffed. "As well as say that the sun rises and falls every day. Wiper was born restless, though he has reason for it."

All Shandians did, as the boundaries that kept them safe from the monsters outside chafed at them. Even her. Perhaps even especially her.

"We're not strong enough to root out the Daemons, and he knows that…Wait a min-Wiper is not my man!" Her voice was just barely below a screech, though she could feel her cheeks flushing.

She cursed her pale cheeks for the thousandth time, and wished her complexion had more favored her mother's instead of her father's. While her mother had been fairly dark, her father had been pale skinned - a mainlander as far back as his lineage could be traced, or so her mother had said.

A land stealer, as Wiper had often said. She sighed, rubbing a hand over her face. It wasn't as though he was wrong to think so – she had seen both sides, and sided with the Shandians often as not. But none of that mattered.

Wiper would never see her as anything but the stupid, sniveling child of a land stealer. She'd made that first impression stick well enough.

She'd been crying, when she'd come to the tribe years before, clinging to her mother's skirts and protesting loudly the change in their circumstance. She had wanted to go back to their cool, airy home where they lived with Papa, not in some old, stinky cloth-houses! She had wanted to be with the other kids her age, even if they did point and stare at Mama all the time.

She had cried and acted like a brat for so long, homesick and careless about everything. It had driven Mama mad, trying to curb her childishness, to make her into something worth being proud of.

It had taken Mama's death to accomplish that in truth, though even now she still failed, was still never good enough-

Wiper watched over her because she was the tribe's only Magus – even if she was a pathetic one – and because it was his duty. Nothing more, nothing less. He would bind her himself, to make sure his tribe, his people would be safe.

She was nothing to him, beyond that.

-…Her stomach hits the ground, and she feels herself curse when a spear embeds in the ground a mere inch from her face. She had been so close to the boundary, and now she would never be able to get away.

"Coward." The voice is familiar, as is the dizzying taste of anger and fear in her belly.

"'M not a coward!" the little girl protests, her wings straining to throw off the Shandian watchdog who had been assigned to her by her mother.

"Running away is a coward's act," Wiper says, his voice so full of disgust it made her eyes sting. "I would have thought the blood of Nephele more courageous, but that only came to your Mother I see."

The tears spill over her cheeks. She is tired. She is so incredibly tired of words like duty and words like courage, when she just wants to see Rena and Davi and her other friends at school once more, to walk along the streets and run to her father and have him call her his most precious girl.

She does not want to be the Magus of this tribe. She does not want to be a Magus at all.

"I hate you!" she cries, her fingers digging into the ground like claws. "I hate you so much, you dirty, awful boy! I hope you die! I wanna go home!"

He does not respond.

He so rarely does…-

Her Familiar nuzzled her hand, and the woman came back to herself with a start.

"Sorry for that, Su," she apologized. "I get too caught up in my memories."

The fox curled around her, her tail wrapping around her legs in a facsimile of a hug, before she grinned up at her. "I think you underestimate Wiper, and think too poorly of yourself," she said.

"You're a nosey little brat, I swear-"

"Conis!"

At the shout, the Magus turned to meet a woman dressed in warrior's skins. Laki rushed to greet her, her arms curling very lightly around Conis's shoulders, as though she feared the other woman fragile.

"Laki, my sister," Conis replied, smiling up at the taller woman. They were not sisters in truth, but more in spirit.

And Laki had been the chosen mate of Conis's sister in Magic-

No. No, Conis would not (could not) think of her sister, or the fate that had befallen her when she had been caught out of the boundaries protecting Conis's life. She would not think of those horrors, or the caution-tales Mama had told her of what became of Magi caught by Daemons unawares.

She would keep her mind in the here and now. And she would thank the goddesses that Laki still spoke with her at all, when by rights she could have demanded the Magus's head under the Laws – human or no.

"Why are you not with Wiper?" Conis asked, as the two walked along, Su just behind them. Laki sighed, and looked away.

"He has asked me to watch over you," Laki said slowly, and Conis stiffened.

"Does he think I will run just because the Blue Sea Dwellers have a Snake with them? Does he think me pathetic enough to leave you all to die just for my own benefit?!" Her wings flared, each feather quivering with her rage.

She did want to meet the Snake, and the fact that she could not chafed at everything her Mama had ever taught her about the Laws, but she knew her gods-damned duty! She knew she could not leave the barrier and her people.

"No, Conis, he simply wants you safe. He does not trust the Snake, and fears that if you do greet it as is custom of your people, that it might…speak ill words to you…" Laki finished lamely.

Her rage bloomed like a deadly thing inside her, fueled with shame and embarrassment and the grief of rejection. Over and over, he made his views so clear to her in these insulting ways.

"So, he simply thinks I am stupid and easily swayed enough by the words of an outsider, that I would forsake our tribe at the very thought? Or perhaps it is simply his tribe, as he has made it clear it was never mine."

Tears ached in her throat, and she wondered how often she would have to pay for the stupidity of her youth, and for how long Wiper would never let her forget the mistakes she had made.

"Conis…" Laki looked lost, and a little bit frightened. Conis rubbed at her stinging eyes.

"Go away, Laki. Go back to Wiper and tell him he nothing to worry about. I will not run."

"My friend-"

"Go away!"

She went, and Conis shuddered out a long, awful breath that verged on a sob, before dropping to her knees.

Her anger was draining away, replaced by a whirl of emotions, shame the most clear of them all. But determination was there as well, and a very quiet little voice that whispered I must do something right.

For once in my life, I must do something right.

"You know, mea domina," Su said. "I remember one of your goodsister's dreams. She spoke thus of a Snake who would come to these lands in the company of pirates, whose power made it one of the strongest Magi to walk the world in centuries. Perhaps that is the Snake that bested Wiper."

"What are you saying, Su?"

"You cannot leave this tribe because it would put your people in danger to do so, and because the wards are not strong enough to allow for such a thing. But if you had a Magi whose power surpassed even your mother's on your side…perhaps you can even strike a blow into the heart of the Daemons. Perhaps you can eradicate them from the lands itself."

Conis trembled.

"How am I to get word, then? I cannot leave."

Su straightened, and smiled. "You have me, mea domina. I am the fastest animal in all of the land, and even the shikaae cannot catch me when I move. Write your letter to the Snake, and I will find them."

Conis ran her fingers over her Familiar's soft fur. "I can't put you in danger," she whispered.

The I can't lose you, too went unsaid.

"We are all in danger. We will be in still more if Wiper's restlessness gets the better of him, and he and the others leave in a vain attempt to reclaim his land as he plans now," Su said, and Conis reared back.

"By the Goddesses, he wouldn't!" To take the warriors from the tribe, to throw them all at the Daemon and Enel – Enel and his priests would be an obstacle enough, but with the Daemons…

"It would be suicide," she whispered.

Su gave her fox-shrug. "He is a young man, whose line comes from the greatest of Shandia's warriors. He has watched many horrors plague his lands, and been offered countless insults. And above all, he is a deeply prideful man, one who has watched the people under his guard be savaged by monsters and humans alike. He is desperate, perhaps, to protect what he can. And he longs to do something that will make sure his people will no longer live in fear. His pride has taken many blows throughout his life.

"He is much like you, in that regard."

Conis's fingers shook as they sat together for a moment, then she pushed herself up.

"No time like the present," she whispered, and hurried to her tent. With Wiper hopefully occupied, she would have some uninterrupted time to write her letter.

She prayed to the Goddesses that the Snake was the one Erin had spoken of before she had been captured, and that the Snake would be willing to help.

Oh goddesses, ye mighty and fair, send a touch of good luck to us on this day. Vaayu Saamraagyee, guide me on this day and on the days that come. De'ny ho deataon.

Conis Allbright, the last living Magus of the Shandian tribes, sat down at the small desk in her tent, and began to write.

FOOTNOTES AND TRANSLATIONS

Mea domina – Sermo; title: Means 'my lady' in the Common Tongue. Used to address mid-ranking Magi children, usually those whose lineage could be traced back to the Goddesses.

Goodsister – A respectful term used by female Magi to describe other female Magi with whom they are very close, though not related by blood.

Shikaae – Sermo; noun: Translates to 'hunter(s)' in the Common Tongue.

De'ny ho deataon – Sermo; phrase: Best translates to 'blessed are the gods'