After dinner, Drecca and Lilith take me to a new part of their big castle. This part is full of magic, and there's a swirling portal in the center of the room. As I approach it, my cane clicking against the stone floor, I sense something. Aldrea wakes from her slumber, stirring in the deepest parts of my soul.
"What is this place, Aldrea?" I silently ask her.
"I do not know, Hayley. But it is .... strange here. This portal, it is ... wrong."
"Hayley," says Lilith, her red eyes on me. "You can use this portal. It will take you to the Haavinar."
"The what?"
Lilith looks at Drecca. He steps up. "We will go with you, Hayley. You will not be alone."
"What is Haavinar?"
"It is a powerful place, one of deep ancestral magicks. Something so primordial in its creations and magicks that nothing without demon blood can go there. But that is where the Mimiks are."
"We are going to the place they live? Why? Isn't that, I don't know, kinda stupid?"
Drecca chuckles. "Maybe. But if we go there, we can see for sure if your magick can kill them."
"But if it can't? What, I die?"
"No, if you can't, then we return here, and train you to be able to do so."
"So, uh, when are we to leave for this place, then?" I ask.
Drecca looks at Lilith. She shrugs. He turns to me then. "Whenever you are ready, girl."
"Well, uh, I guess we could go? I mean, I don't know how to fight, really."
"Oh," says Lilith. She smiles. "We can rectify that. Come."
She brings me away from the big room with the portal, and I am brought into a training room. We walk into the room together and Lilith turns to me.
"Here, you will learn how to fight," she says. "Here, you will learn how to kill."
"You'll teach me how to kill someone," I say. "But .... what about my family? My friends? Will they be alright?"
"That depends on your learning the art of killing, and how quickly you do so," says Lilith. "So, are you ready to get your hands dirty?"
I shrug. "I guess so. What's the first lesson I am to learn, then?"
"Self defense. You must understand how to use your opponent's strength against them, how to use your small size to overpower them. How to be faster, more nimble. And how to fight with your cane or staff. As well as your wings."
"Alright, well, let's do this, then."