Lessons from my demons

Chapter eight: to the castle

The first thing Rachel did was dive at Tiana, who was barely awake, to give her a hug. "I should have known you wouldn't lie to me." It took the trio several minutes to come to full consciousness.

The first thing Viola did, after regaining enough energy to jump to her feet, was stare down the yellow-skinned invader. Felicia rose shortly after, and glared at him.

"Guys, an Illusionist is following us!"

"Henry's friendly. Don't worry." Angie told her. Felicia no longer looked like she wanted to bolt, but no one, except Angie, was exactly relaxed.

Rachel looked back at her over her shoulder. "Yes, worry," she fumed, not at all comfortable with how attached Angie was getting to the man.

"Me? No, the quiet one is right, I'd be more worried about everything else in this crazy world."

"Well, if you're so innocent, now's the time to talk. Why did you join us?"

"Simple. How have the Illusionists been acting in your realm?"

"They waged war a few years after I was born. Even Talis' servants went rogue. But Talis kept them under control with the royal guards. They're mostly segregated now. They farm with us, we do healing spells. Keeps us working together, sort of." Viola recited from memory.

"Yes. What if I told you they've been acting up because they aren't the same Illusionists that used to live in your realm? Almost two decades ago, our populations seem to have switched. No one knows what God wants with us here, or if the rogue Illusionists are still rogue now that there's no need to be."

"I may have an answer for that. I used to be King Talis' student. Illusionists are known for being more aggressive than humans, and so he-"

"-gave them the same virtue he gives the animals: docility. I used to work for Talis as well. We've somewhat lost our virtue since we came, since we need to survive. I can only hope that the Illusionists of your realm have been gaining it. So have they?"

"Yeah." Rachel cut in. "They surrendered to our guards within the year! Isn't that right, Tiana?"

"I was still in training. But they did calm down."

"Well, it's been a wonderful recent history lesson, but we still don't know why you're here."

"Because I overheard your twins talking about melding the worlds, and I'd really like to see the old realm again. As an added bonus, I could get my brethren out of prison. So, I'm here because it benefits me." His bluntness was a wonderful change from the vague warnings of the twins, but vague or blunt, he was still admitting to selfishness.

"No. This realm has too many traps we don't understand. We can't risk working with you." Viola decided. Tiana shot her a look.

"We can't afford to not work with him. He's one more man than the clones will have. Trust me, bigger numbers mean more of us alive after a squad vs. squad situation."

"Fine." Viola agreed, "You can come with us on the condition that you carry your weight. We..." can barely take care of ourselves  is not something to say to someone you're suspicious of, not that Tiana had helped their air of independence. "...we need to complete our mission as fast as we can. No time for anyone slowing us down."

"Yeah. Don't forget who has the wands here!" Rachel added aggressively.

"Can we please get going now? It's so outdoors out here." Felicia whined.