Cassie seemed offended. “Auge already told me about their hypnotism ability because my friend trusts me and wants me to trust them. And it doesn’t matter anyway because I’m blind… I did not mean to say that.”
“Cassie, what the heck?” Daniel’s mouth fell open.
“When did this happen?” Lea asked, shocked.
Paul couldn’t believe what he’d heard. “Are you okay? Do your eyes hurt?”
“This is why I never told anyone.” Cassie huffed in exasperation. “I’m only going to say this once—I am not disabled! I have ultra-sonographic echolocation! I can ‘see’ better than any of you.”
Once it sank in and the initial surprise and concern faded, Daniel still seemed baffled. “Cassie, you’re really blind?”
“Yes, Daniel, I was born blind as a bat.”
“Bats aren’t blind.”
“Neither am I. I can sense everything around me except colors.”
“But, Cassie,” he said, even more worried, “That means you can’t see red.”
“Please. I know a monster when I hear it. Hard to mistake all that murderous…” Paul noticed her flick an ear in Rana’s direction. “Well, someone could get a little red eye for any number of reasons.”
“It’s weird,” Paul said. “We’ve been together for what feels like forever, but we hardly know each other. Makes me kind of depressed.”
Daniel nodded with enthusiasm. “Fixing that is what the Safe-Sharing-Space is all about.”
“Then perhaps I should go next,” Lea said. The libra girl’s marble sized Caramboles orbited around an upheld hand. “I kept this to myself until Paul spoke up because it is somewhat embarrassing. Then I realized, what exactly am I afraid of?
“Towards the end of the second battle with the mages, you may have noticed… one of my Caramboles shattered. That has never happened before. I do not know how to fix it. I have been feeling—I know it sounds stupid, but I feel as if I have lost an arm. If this keeps happening and I never learn how to replace them, will I be crippled? Worrying does me no good, but I cannot stop thinking.”
“You’re not crippled,” Rana said. “You lost touch with your Yang. When was the last time you became a balance scale?” Lea blinked rapidly as she recalled, saying nothing. “Your Caramboles are inorganic; you can’t expect to fix them in that form.” Rana’s eyes indicated Lea’s flesh and blood body. “Spend a few hours meditating as a scale. The answer should come to you.”
Kenta gave her a look. “Thanks, Dr. Rana.”
“All magic has two halves. We’re all born with a Yin and Yang, but one always dominates. Each half links to a Progenitor; each deal with an aspect of the ‘full package.’” Rana picked a blade of grass and chewed it. “Basic stuff.”
He wasn’t sure where Rana got all of this. Paul hadn’t ignored his uncle’s teachings as a boy, but he couldn’t remember Lumiere ever going into this much detail. They’d gone over the Progenitors and the origin of magic, but Rana always seemed to know more. How thorough had Bufo been with her?
“I find it fascinating.” Daniel seemed full of a warm glow matched by the flickering light of the fire on his face. “We have so much to learn about each other, and ourselves. I suppose I have my own confession; a few simple omissions you’ve likely deduced. More importantly, I want you all to know how thankful I am to be here.
“I have no memories of my early life. I don’t remember the face of my father. I don’t know where I was born, or if I had other family before my mother found the T.O. When Moloch attacked, he told me Persephone’s death was my fault. She was my whole world. I didn’t have any way to cope, so I chose to forget.
“Then, for three years, Mary was my world. She taught me enough so, when Perses possessed me and destroyed the Atlantean ship, I asked him to stop, and he let me go. Then I met each of you. Not every first impression was great, mind, but I soon grew to understand what you were to each other.
“A family. And, gradually, more quickly for some than others, you let me in. At first I thought I’d been a part of the group and didn’t remember. You all seemed to know me but, when I did regain my memories, imagine my surprise as I realized we’d barely been introduced when everything fell apart.
“Yet, though I was a stranger, though I was dangerous and possibly unstable, it wasn’t long at all before I felt welcome. I know not everyone had a good year after Eastwood. For several of you, it was awful. So, my apology, and confession, is that—apart from a few ‘down moments’—this has been the best year of my life. Thank you.”
Never had Paul wanted so badly to hug his friend. Wendi, immune to his ruinous aura by virtue of her swift regeneration and toughness, did pull Daniel into a warm embrace. The boy’s speech didn’t wring the tears that Cassie’s had, but the looks on the girls’ faces were all sweet. Even Kenta begrudgingly granted Daniel the happy, if a little awkward, moment.
“It would be a foolish omission to skip over what happened to me during our time with the Tsukumogami. Somehow, I called Perses to me in a dream. The destroyer seemed melancholy as I spoke to him. As if I had earned a reward, he offered me my choice of questions.
“That is how I learned how to fight with my magic, and something else—how to help people with my Eye of Ruin by identifying with their weaknesses. It’s something I want to try with anyone interested. That’s about it from my side.”
Paul tensed again. “I guess I should go next…”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Except, no one was looking at him.
They were looking at Wendi. No, Wendigo.
The blue-skinned girl with her sharp horns, shark tail, and cruel scimitar claws lounged next to a suddenly alert Daniel. The others hardened their eyes but couldn’t attack or defend properly with Wendigo so close. Paul investigated a half-dozen scenarios where he struck at the blue devil, all of which ended with someone being cut by her deadly claws. So, he waited.
Rana rose to her feet in an instant, but Wendigo said, “Sit down, I’m not here to fight.” Unexpectedly, the frog girl did as she was bidden.
Wendigo scanned their faces. “That’s about the welcome I expected. Heh, as much as I’d enjoy going a few rounds with the lot of you, I have something more important to say. By the way, Wendi is awake and listening this time, so don’t say anything inappropriate. Now, I’ve been here listening with Wendi at the helm, you know, the way I always do.
“My confession: I’m surprised any of you actually started talking to each other. I thought leaving your ‘friends’ to deal with their own crap was more our style. That, and pretending nothing’s wrong. Or flat out lying.
“Hearing about Lea’s anxiety issues felt downright refreshing. And to think I’d be rooting for the bat herself when she stood up to the rest of you… Having Daniel give you a round of congratulations burned me a little, but he doesn’t know any better.
“Honestly, I think you did alright with him, accepting him and protecting him when he was most vulnerable and dangerous. Hopefully, he’ll never have to learn what you do to someone who’s an actual liability.
“It’s funny, I had a good year too. And I don’t mean in an ‘I enjoyed watching you suffer’ kind of a way, though I’ll admit it was a little gratifying. Seeing Daniel and Wendi become besties was the most fun I’ve had since… since everything went wrong.”
The blue devil sighed. “Cassie, I know that apology you gave just now wasn’t for me—”
“—Wen-”
“—Let me finish. Hearing what that time was like for you made me think about some things. I’ve done a lot of thinking since our… conversation a few days ago. And I think an apology is in order.
“It’s not like I’m forgiving all of you. It’s not like I can stop being angry. You’re all still guilty for what you did to me, but… there was a time when all I could think about was killing the five of you, and now that seems a bit harsh.
“Maybe… we were all suffering. Maybe I was taking out my pain on people who were already wounded, and I made it easy for you to ignore me, and try to forget me, and let me suffer… Maybe it’s nobody’s fault that she… that all the bad things happened.
“Even if you deserve punishment it was wrong of me to try to repay that with violence. I’m sorry.”
In the stillness, Paul heard their breathing, and the sound of Lea crying into her hands.
The blue devil flicked a claw at Daniel. “You know, you’re the only one I even came close to killing, and you’re the one I hate the least.” She laughed. “What does that say about me? This is so dumb. What the heck have I been talking about? What would you even do if I did something as colossally stupid as call everything before now a ‘bad introduction’ and ask to start over?”
“I’d say… Hello, my name is Daniel.”
He held out his hand.
Wendigo stared at his extended hand for a second, expressionless, then met his eye. One blue claw came forward. Daniel took it and shook.
“Call me… Ziege.”
And then Wendi returned. The red devil girl took her finger from Daniel’s hand and stared into the fire. Nothing made a sound but the crackling of embers and Lea’s sobs.
In a low voice, Wendi said, “Ziege wants to be by herself for a while. She says if you tell me about the ‘bad things,’ the truce is off.”
Given that Wendigo gave the name of her dead sister, Paul thought he understood why ‘Ziege’ wanted to keep Wendi in the dark.
“Wendi, I’d like to talk to Ziege.” Cassie closed her eyes and breathed slow and deep. “If she doesn’t want to come out, that’s fine, but please look at me while I talk.”
The red devil girl nodded. Cassie opened her sightless eyes and locked them with Wendi’s crystal blue gaze.
“Ziege, you’re right, I didn’t say that apology earlier for you. Here’s one with your name on it—I’m sorry I was such a crappy friend. I can’t fix the past, and the two of us have known each other too long to start over. But, if I could make tomorrow better between us than today, I’d do anything to make that happen every day for the rest of my life.”
It was too much for Wendi. She broke eye contact and lowered her face as if Cassie’s words caused her pain. The red devil girl cleared her throat. “What… what did you all do to her? I deserve to know.”
No one was quick to field that question, but Kenta found the will. “It’s not much of an excuse, but we thought she’d gone crazy. She did things that made her dangerous. She said things that made her almost impossible to talk to. She made Cassie cry… a lot. No offense Cass, but you were hard enough to deal with at the time without constantly being set off.
“It’s like she said, Cass was our window to the outside world, and Ziege was a liability. We ignored her. Stopped speaking to her entirely.”
“Ignored? How could you ignore someone standing in front of you?”
“We were imprisoned separately at the time, communicating by sendings,” Kenta clarified. He’d forgotten how little any had dared tell Wendi.
“She was all alone? For three years?”
“Mary read to her every day,” Paul said, not wanting to forget the kindness of that bright spot in Eastwood. He spared a glance for Daniel, almost as lost as Wendi here.
Lea raised her tear-streaked face and shouted, “No, Mary did not! That’s the worst of it.” The Libra girl sniffed loudly to clear her throat. “Mary was only allowed to come when Ziege was away. No one talked to her! And it’s all my fault—I started the vote! I was the leader!”
“Don’t act like the rest of us didn’t vote.” Kenta’s hair writhed with his suppressed anger. “It was an impossible decision, and a mistake, but we did it together. We share this blame.” His heavy gaze sagged, downcast. “We thought her beyond hope, too far gone to help. To think, she was desperate and lashing out. If only we’d endured…”
“Wait,” Wendi said. “If Ziege was ‘away’ when this Mary came, who did the woman read to?” No one answered. Realization crept onto the devil girl’s face, and she squeezed her head between her great hands.
“I’m an idiot. How could it take me so long to understand? This is my body too, isn’t it? It’s not like I was born in Radio World. I was there.”
Wendi was deadly close to the whole truth. Would Wendigo reset everything if Wendi pieced it all together? Were they about to lose her again? Daniel shoulders went rigid with worry.
“You all stopped speaking to her. You talked to me, with Ziege listening like now. Never speaking except to vent her rage.” Quiet tears fell on Wendi’s lap. “It’s so unfair. Ziege, you’re the one who took my memories, weren’t you? To protect me from the bad things. Did you think I’d be happy not knowing? Do you think I’m stupid? How many times? Tell me. How many times have you done it? Am I even real to you?
“That’s it. I’m done with this—this stupidity! I’m done with things being unfair. We’re splitting it all down the middle from now on. What? No! I don’t care if you hide in a corner during your turn—enjoy the next twelve hours!”
With that, Wendi slammed shut the metaphorical door.
There sat a stunned and disoriented… Ziege, Paul supposed they would have to keep calling her.
The blue devil searched around desperately as if for a doorknob that no longer existed. Tears streamed down her cheeks as her body reacted to her state of mind. When she realized where she was and what she was doing, Ziege glanced around the circle—fear in her eyes. Then she stood up, turned, and ducked under Kenta’s canopy of hair, hastily mumbling something about going to bed for the night while wiping her face.