Beyond the Glow

Chapter 26

"How did you get involved in the underground anyways?" I ask, its one question that's been bothering me. If her main mission was to save me and Father, who might not even be alive anymore, how did she get sidetracked enough to join a revolution?

"Well," Leila chewed her lip absentmindedly, "when I was looking for you, I would stake out in the forest rather than rent a room." She wrinkled her nose, "The places are infested with bed bugs, which for whatever reason love to vacation in genie lamps, and I liked the open sky above me anyways. But one day after wandering the streets, and still no sign of you, I went into a few alleys to hide food, and continued out of town to my camp.

"I was followed, and even as cautious as I was I didn't even notice them. When I got to my camp, I was busy putting down my bedroll, when I heard a disturbance in the leaves behind me. I turned ready to fight, and saw something I thought to be nearly impossible. An elf."

"She had followed me through the trees, scouting my position and watching from a distance. When she thought the time was right, she made a move to talk to me, but the fight or flight instinct had been engraved into me from childhood, and I ran." Leila sighed.

"What followed was not pretty, including running through bogs, then emerging water logged and having to use energy to clean myself up so I could keep on running. She just kept using the trees, following and saying she wanted to talk. I didn't listen, at least until she tackled me. But even then I fought and it took quite awhile for her to calm me down."

"She didn't make a wish for you to calm down?" I ask, bewildered. As far as I can tell, it's the only way people ever use to get me to listen to them.

Leila shook her head. "As you can see, it's much more difficult for people to figure out who I am when I don't have the lamp in such an obvious place. A bracelet is much harder to pinpoint than a necklace with the lamp at the end." She said dryly.

"Fine. Continue with your story." I huff, unhappy by despite my feelings about being up shown in secrecy by my little sister, knowing she was probably right made it all the worse.

"Anyways, after I calmed down, and stopped trying to fight her, she explained she had seen me giving out food, and that she and her friend wanted my help to take down the King and do something more permanent to help the ones on the streets. She said her name was too complicated for human words, but I was to call her Fira, and as we become better friends, Euna."

"So, I joined the underground, and I've been working to find you with their help for the past few decades. I was put on the council, to hide my identity, and since Fira and her friend Baldur, a wizard, both aged slowly, and I did not age at all, compliant to Mother's wish, they were on the council as well."

"Is that why the council is so secretive?" I ask, "Why didn't you talk to me when I was in the Underground base before?" I say, slightly hurt she didn't try to contact me before.

"Because," Leila said quietly, "I didn't believe my eyes. I thought you were fake. It didn't feel right for my search to be over just yet. I still don't know what happened to Father, and to find you so in the capital so close to us, seemed to be too good to be true."

"It's alright, I suppose." I say. "I just wish you had made an effort to see me, even if I was fake."

"But you aren't fake." Leila said, smiling again. "I finally have the sister I never met in my life. And you were so much more than I thought." I frown.

"What do you mean? I'm nothing special. Just a genie bossed around by everyone else. I'm not even smart enough to hide my lamp well enough, and then I was controlled..." I sigh, letting my head fall in my hands, "I'm just a big mess up. If I had just followed the rules Mother and Father had, rather than sneak out that night to practice, then we would have been able to live in relative peace. I would have been able to say goodbye."