Maya was on her way to bed; it was almost shifting-time, and she was starting to feel drowsy. She had been in the kitchen, having a late night snack, and almost fell asleep at the table. Not a good idea, shifting in plain sight, when the Mansion is full of nosy brats. Time to go to bed, and get some sl...
...
...
...
Maya was across the living room faster than Speedy on a sugar rush; the kid who had been sitting on the sofa barely had time to duck out of the way as she jumped over him and grabbed the remote control.
The picture froze.

Maya stood in front of the screen; she didn't blink, she didn't even breathe. Then, after a few very long seconds, she slowly, ever so slowly walked closer, and closer, till she was almost touching the screen. It was a shot of some crowd on some street. She was only looking at one face.
No. Way.
After all the searching, all the hoping, all the fighting, she decided to show up just like that. Out of sheer luck.

"You stay here" she told the boy on the couch as she walked out "An' if the picture ain't there when I come back, I'm gonna end you."

Into one mirror, out another, and Maya was standing in Twyla's room; she forgot her girlfriend was out of town. Oh well. On to the best friends. Anyone. Someone.

"Wake up, Princess" she said, not even bothering to check if Kate was asleep "Kate, I need to show you something. I need to know if I'm goin' crazy."

Kate had gone to bed rather early tonight. She had had a rather hard session with Sam that had left her kind of tired. So, around 9 she set her alarm for 1 and passed out.

She was actually sleeping rather peacefully and having a very nice dream about acing her upcoming audition into Julliard. It wasn’t often that Kate drempt about something other then flames and fire and heat, but when she did it was fantastic. Sadly it wasn’t to last.

>>Wake up, Princess. Kate, I need to show you something. I need to know if I'm goin' crazy.

Kate was woken with a start at the loud voice entering her room. What was Maya doing?! She looked over at her clock which read somewhere around 12, which meant she still had an hour before she had to get up and try to eat.

Kate groaned and turned to face the opposite direction , covering her head with the blanket to try and block out the intruder.

Kate did not react... well, scratch that, she did, just not the way Maya expected her to. She really, really did not have time for this. For a moment she thought about pouring a bucket of water over her head, but that was probably not a good idea, with a fire elemental...

Maya grabbed the pillow and pulled it off Kate's head.

"Kate, wake up!" she said, shaking her shoulder, her skin warm to the touch "I really need ya to see this. C'mon princess."

>>Kate, wake up! I really need ya to see this. C'mon princess.

Kate looked up at Maya grabbing the blanket and returning to her former position, “Go away and come back in an hour. I have to get up to eat then anyway.”

>>“Go away and come back in an hour. I have to get up to eat then anyway.”

That would have been all right and well if the only image of her mother alive would not have been guarded by some brat who thought remote controls were the coolest thing in the world.

"No, Kate, now!" it did come out a little harsher than she intended, but Maya was not exactly thinking straight "It's my mom."

>>No, Kate, now! It's my mom.

It took a moment for the words to register in Kate’s tired mind, but once they did her eyes shot open and she was suddenly awake. She knew that Maya had lost her mother years ago and how important any information about her was.

Kate sat up and looked at Maya, “What about her?”

Kate was finally awake, just when she was about to give up. Maya sighed.

"She's alive." it was weird to say it like that. She always knew Mom was out there... but saying it and actually knowing for a fact that it was true, that was something entirely different.

"She's on TV. Um, right now."

She finally gave up the fight, and sunk down onto the edge of the bed.

"Well, it's either that, or I'm seein' things. I need a second opinion."

>>She's alive. She's on TV. Um, right now. Well, it's either that, or I'm seein' things. I need a second opinion.

“Show me.” Kate sprung out of bed and pulled Mirror with her, “You can’t give up before we even know if it is the truth.”

Dragging Mirror out of the room she felt the cold hit her like a wall and ran right back in.

>>“Show me. You can’t give up before we even know if it is the truth.”

Maya smiled a nervous smile and took Kate by the hand; but as soon as they were out the door, she pulled herself free and ran back in. Of course, you idiot, Maya thought to herself, she's a fire spirit, and she just gout out of bed.
So no matter how excited she was, she waited patiently for kate to get dressed.

"It would be just my luck, after year of searching to see her on TV by accident..."

>>It would be just my luck, after year of searching to see her on TV by accident...

“Life is funny like that. It does things to you that you least expect. “ Kate walked into the closet and was not really sure what to put on, “Are we going out or just going downstairs?”

>>“Life is funny like that. It does things to you that you least expect. Are we going out or just going downstairs?”

"Yeah, tell me about it" Maya paced up and nowd outside the door "Just downstairs. She's... it's on TV. Come on."

It was not fair. Kate was probably half asleep, and cold. But at this moment, Maya wanted nothing more than to run back to the TV screen to see if it had all been a dream or something more...

>>Yeah, tell me about it. Just downstairs. She's... it's on TV. Come on.

Kate could hear the urgency in Maya’s voice and almost haphazardly grabbed things to cover herself out in the rest of the mansion.

She ran out seconds later in a pair of lounge pants and a long sleeve sweater, “Lets go.” Kate took Maya’s hand and led her to the living room.

Maya lead Kate down into the living room; the scared brat was still guarding the TV with the frozen image.

"Thanks kid" Maya ruffled his hair "Scoot."

The brat fled.

On the TV screen there was an image from some random New York street with a crowd of some kind; most of it was covered by the logos and titles and headlines of the late night news, and a reporter was standing, speaking into a microphone. It was nothing special; som store opening downtown, Maya did not care.

"There she is." she pointed. In the crowd, half covered by a man in a baseball hat, there was a tall, dark-haired woman, looking towards the reporter and the camera. Maya fished into one of the many pockets on her cargo pants, and pulled out a photo, holding it up to the TV screen. It had the same woman on it, only a few years younger.

"That's my mom."

>>There she is.

At first Kate couldn’t see her in the large crowd, but once Maya held up that picture it was obvious that there plain as day was Maya and Gawain’s mother.

>>That's my mom.

“Okay. So what would you like to do then?” Kate looked away from the screen and into her friends face for direction, “We know she is in the city now. The question is, do you want to hunt her down?”

>>“Okay. So what would you like to do then? We know she is in the city now. The question is, do you want to hunt her down?”

"Yes. No." Maya sighed and ran her fingers through hr hair "I... I have no idea what I should do. This is... this just, unexpected, you know? I have ben searching for her, for years, and there she is... I mean, I can't really think straight right now, but... it feels like this one picture, it raises a lot of questions, and feelings, and... something's not right."

Sitting down, Maya buried her face in her hands.

"I can't do this alone, Kate."