‘Julia?’

The brunette woke in a field, under a cloudless blue sky. To make matters better, her friend was standing right next to her, with nothing else in sight.

‘Who are you?’ The girl turned around, confused and annoyed.

‘I’m Lucy-er, Luke! But my name is-‘

‘Prove it!’

A soft gust of wind brushed by the nervour girl as she struggled to recall an accessory. Looking at her right arm, she noticed it was bare. Checking her left arm resulted in much the same.

‘Well? Where is it?’

‘I-I forgot it!’

‘You’re a lousy friend!’ the girl scoffed, walking away before disappearing into thin air.

Lucy woke with a start, her heart and mind competing in triathlon. Just as her stress began to ease, a stringy boy loomed over head.

“Bad dream?”

“Yeah. Bad dream. Terrible dream.”

“Were you being attacked? Chased? Yelled at?”

“I…my friend was questioning me about something I forgot.”

“That doesn’t sound too horrible. I woulda just said I forgot and stopped caring.”

“She called me a lousy friend. Maybe she’s right.”

“Nah, if a friendship ends over stupid shit, it’s not really a friendship worth caring about, but that’s just me. Oh yeah, Clyde’s making breakfast; told me to wake you up.”

With his mission done, Dustin shuffled lazily out of the room, leaving the girl to get dressed. On her way to the dining room, Alex was standing opposite of the doors, but this time she stared back at Lucy.

“Hello?”

The strange woman continued staring at her with bright yellow eyes that resembled the sun.

“You’re Alex, right? You’re not going to breakfast?”

The girl remained silent, instead choosing forward until she was inches away from Lucy’s face.

“Yes and no.”

“But why?”

“I like to watch from a distance.”

“Won’t you get hungry?”

“I can make food for myself.”

“Well, wouldn’t it be better to get to know someone up close?”

Regret was had when Alex pushed herself forward until Lucy unable to see anything but her face. The intimidating woman then snapped her head back, grinning before walking away.

“You’re right.”

Not willing to pursue the conversation, Lucy listened to her stomach and joined the other five.

“So, what’s the mission today?”

“None, darlin. Some days we just kick back and do whatever. I like find new things to cook.”

“Pfft, these simpletons may waste their time on fruitless endeavors, but yours truly is swamped with boundless imagination upon which to craft the most luxurious of clothing. The life of a princess is hard.”

“Don’t feel bad about yesterday, we got more than enough food for a long time.”

“Oh right,” the girl recalled why she was upset about the swift end to last night’s burglary, “did you get the stuff to make a bed?”

“No. But, we have a spare mattress for whatever reason, the fabric to make sheets-”

“Damn you!” Hayley interjected.

“but, we don’t have any spare wood.”

“Hah!” Xandir exclaimed, “this is not even a problem for yours truly. Lucy, you and I shall go hunting for the finest trees this land has to offer and then I shall craft the bed by hand!”

“It sounds like you were looking forward to this.”

“Hush your face Westin!”

“I’m just saying…”

“Saying what? If you have something to say, speak up!”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Hayley had quickly retreated out of the room, Lucy and Clyde taking to the kitchen so that the latter could prepare extra food.

“Do they always get like this?”

“Xandir is eccentric to say the least. He’s caused fights between himself, Hayley, Westin, and even myself. Hayley and I know better than to respond, but Westin likes to rile him up. Don’t worry about that though, worry about how you’re going to get that bed to the princess.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, either you’ll have to put it together up there, or you’ll have to carry the whole thing.”

“Why can’t Xandir help?”

“Jade forbade us from going above the third floor. Not sure why, but we don’t disobey Jade.”

“He’s not here though. Surely he won’t know.”

“I mean, I agree, but good luck convincing the others of that.”

As Lucy contemplated how she was to deliver the bed to the princess, a plate of food was slapped in her hands. Coming to her senses, she hurried to the fourth floor, to which a hungry princess was twiddling her thumbs.

“After I eat, let’s leave.”

“No, the others are walking around.”

“Fine, when you go to eat again, bring me food first, and then we can leave while the others are busy eating.”

“I mean, I was making you a bed today.”

“Good! They won’t suspect a thing.”

Lucy sighed to herself, leaving the princess to finish her food while she hunted for Xandir. While on the hunt, a disgruntled Westin pointed to the outside.

The man she found was a stranger, as without his signature silver armor he appeared normal. Without any explanation, the man took off toward the forest, Lucy following behind.

The girl’s eyes wandered as she wondered when the onslaught of similar trees would end and pondered why they couldn't use simply cut down the myriad of white pillars. The forest had droned onward hypnotically, ensnaring the girl in a dreamy state; before she could fully pass out, the girl ran into a brick wall.

“I see even you are not immune to the dreamy forest.”

“The what?” Lucy rubbed her eyes, slowly realizing the brick wall was just Xandir’s back.

“This forest has a surreal effect on people, putting them to sleep as they wander these woods. Every other sin I have taken to this way has fallen to their trap. Even my eyes grow heavy.”

The man pointed toward a ledge, a bridge reaching from the end to another ledge in the distance.

“Across the way is our destination. Fear not, the forest there is not devious.”

Crossing the bridge, Lucy’s grogginess gave way to tension as she couldn’t stop herself from peering into the pit far below. While the planks were sturdy, not creeking or swaying an inch, paranoia firmly lodged itself into her brain. Relief had washed away the adrenaline once the two reached the other side.

“You’re probably wondering why I brought you out here.”

“To cut down trees?”

“Yes, but also no. Now that you’re one of us, that means we’re family. From my experience, family know about one another. I shall start: I am Xandir Valdur, I’m fifteen and from an island north of Umbro.”

“Fifteen?! You look a lot older.”

“I get that a lot. What about you?”

“Oh, well. I’m Lucy Baronia, twelve, and I come from Lumina. The city, not just the country.”

“So you’re the second youngest member.”

“Second? Who’s-“

“Hayley, a year younger. Everyone else is fourteen. Besides Jade and Monty, that makes me the oldest.”

“Actually, I was going to ask: when you make the bed, do you think you could help take it up to floor four?”

“I cannot. Jade has expressly told us the floors above are off limits.”

“But Jade isn’t around.”

“Still, we are family. All of us, including Jade. If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t be here. I cannot simply betray his trust.”

“When was the last time you saw him.”

“A long time ago. Truth be told, it may have been over a month since he last appeared before us. Monty even longer. But enough of that, let us do our job!”

Transforming into wrath, Xandir began inspecting trees. As Wrath was preoccupied, an idea formed in Lucy’s head.

“Come Lucy, this tree looks- what?!”

Wrath was taken aback when he saw himself standing nearby.

“I figured if I could copy my brother’s appearance, maybe I could copy yours too.”

“Brilliant! This should make chopping down this tree a breeze.”

Summoning his sword, Wrath took a swing at the mighty oak, leaving a sizeable cut in the bark. Following suit, the copy Wrath had left a notably smaller chunk in the other end.

“Seems that form isn’t perfect. Regardless, cut where I have cut. We shall take turns.”

One by one, chop by chop, the tree loosened its lease on life as the lumberjacks systematically worked.

“Tell me, what made you become a sin?”

“I couldn’t use mana.”

“Couldn’t? I know most of us sins were weak before Jade found us, be we all were capable of using mana. I believe not being able to use any would result in death.”

“Not for me. I just couldn’t. People would fight me, but I couldn’t fight back. Dad wanted me to be strong, mom, didn’t want me around period. My brother is away, he’ll probably kill me when he finds out what happened.”

“Do not fear, as long as we’re together, that may shan’t lay a finger on you.”

“Not literally. He just, will be disappointed.”

As Lucy took the last swing, the tree collapsed under its remaining weight.

“Don’t worry about the tree, or your brother. We’re your family now, we stick together no matter what, and we won’t judge you for what you did before you became one of us.”

The girl had returned to her original appearance, watching as Wrath stripped the tree.

“If you brother comes to harm you, physically or emotionally, we’ll kick his ass!”

“Thanks” Lucy smiled, watching the devil lift the tree over his shoulder.

“Are you ready Luke?”

“No. Maybe tomorrow, but…”

Unlocking the jail door, Lucy entered the cell and walked over to the princess. As Elizabeth stood up, she smirked before disappearing from the brunette’s view. When Lucy turned around, the door slamed shut and locked.

“I was wondering why you didn’t just teleport out.”

“Sorry Luke, but I’m getting out of here!”

Lucy watched helplessly as the princess ran down the stairs. Just before she yelled to the others, a thought occured to her. Taking the appearance of the princess, she teleported through the bars, following the princess down.

Gunning down the stairs, Elizabeth didn’t stop until she reached the ground floor. Seeing her pursuer hot on her trails, she had yanked on the doors, only to be denied. In a rush, she teleported through and began running. Taking one last look behind her, she stopped cold and turned around.

“L-Luke? How did you-?”

The princess was awestruck to see her captor was now right in front of her. Lucy had approached, unsure of what to say or do until a fist had met her cheek. The pink hair girl had smiled briefly when landing the blow, but that pride dissipated when her target hadn’t fallen to the ground like she expected.

The princess's hand had slid off the cheek, Lucy expression growing from anger to rage. When the princess recoiled the girl turned to her, stepped forward, and decked her across the face, knocking Elizabeth to the dirt.

The princess clutched her sore cheek until she noticed what loomed overhead: a demon that stretched its limbs and body across her entire field of vision, blanketing the sky in midnight and charcoal black, except for two yellows eyes piercing her soul and freezing her blood.

“Luke?” the girl whimpered on the ground.

“My name is Lucy. Now get up!”

Standing up straight, Envy watched the princess struggle to her feet before walking back to the tower. Returning to the jail cell, Lucy glared at Elizabeth as she tucked herself into the wall.

“Don’t think about running again." Venom dripped from her tongue.

“Yes, Lucy.”