“So you did send them to the future,” I said again.

Noel wouldn’t respond. I couldn’t read her face either. Was I right or not? I asked her again but she wouldn’t say. I could have pressed the point, but I figured it was fine as long as all the fairies were okay. If they reappeared in a few days, I could analyze the effects of the spell then. I’d interview some of the fairies, ask them about their experience before, during, and after they were under the effects of the spell, and figure it out from there. And thankfully, it seemed like Noel’s ability wasn’t as strong as the Immortal’s. She had only sent these people a few days into the future, not multiple years. At least she wasn’t as crazy as that lunatic. At least not yet.

“Alright, let’s move on to a different question then,” I said, looking over the crowd of relieved fairies. They were still tense, and the soldiers were armed and poised to strike if needed, but their gaze towards Noel was not as mixed as before. There had been a strange blend of reverence and hate going on there before; reverence towards an elf, hate towards someone who may have killed their kin. Now, there was a lot more of the reverence and far less of the hate.

“Before that, why don’t you release me already. I won’t attack you, I promise,” said Noel.

“Me too, I promise I won’t do anything, either, Great Elf!” chimed Alek.

I tightened the spell around Alek, which made him cry out a little indignantly. “No, Noel, I don’t trust you yet. You’re working for the Immortal of Madness! Oh, for the crowd, that means she is a great priest serving the evil god of the Singing Horde; the God of Music!”

“It’s complicated, Cas. You have no idea. About anything,” said Noel as she got a little closer. “I’ll tell you everything, but time is of the essence. No, time is the essence. Listen, Cas, let me go and you can help me with my mission. I was going to storm in there and get what I wanted, but now I’ll go in with you and barter for it. Information for my mission, how does that sound?”

“It sounds to me,” I said as I got a little closer as well. I did not lower my voice. I wanted the crowd to still be able to hear me. “It sounds to me like you’re trying to bargain without any chips!”

Noel blinked. “What?”

“Oh, right, that won’t make any sense in this world. Never mind that. We don’t need to exchange anything. You’re here, tied up and at my mercy. If you want me to let you go, you have to answer my questions,” I said. Besides, there was no way I could let her go. Before the Immortal of Desire brought me back to the past, Noel had tried to kill me multiple times. Oh, wait, she didn’t. If she was telling the truth, the magic bubbles would only send me to the future. The silver one would definitely have killed me, but to be fair to her, she only brought that one out after I’d used some seriously dangerous spells on her.

Noel frowned and her bottom lip quivered. “Fine. Ask your questions.”

“Thank you,” I said, with a smile. I stepped back a little and made sure her restraints were tight. “You said the fairies and spirits aren’t dead, fine. If they reappear in a few days, perhaps that can be forgiven. However, the demon capital is still wrapped in a massive bubble that makes people disappear. What is that barrier? Are the people who crossed it okay? Why does it not effect me? And how do we get rid of it?”

Noel looked down at the ground with a confused look on her face. She lifted it eventually and met my gaze again. “I’m sorry, Cas, but I really don’t know anything about that. I didn’t even know there was something like that happening in the Izlandi Kingdom. I assumed the demons had come here to help you. Elves have a long history in this world. The peoples on this side of the mountains have large debts to repay. I didn’t know they were here for selfish reasons.”

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Selfish reasons? Their capital was wrapped inside an isolating, invisible curtain of apparent death. It was kind of strange to call something like that a selfish reason, even if that was sort of true. “Ask your master then. That bubble is just like your bubbles. People disappear when they touch the invisible barrier. Actually, it’s even stranger. I seem immune to its effects. I could apparently keep people from disappearing by staying with them, although they’d blink out of existence as soon as I looked away.”

Noel frowned. “My… master doesn’t do spells like that. And you said you were immune to it? That makes me wonder.” Her gaze drifted to the other Ikon standing idly beside her.

My eyes widened. I also rounded on Alek and stared at him.

Alek, who had been trying to appear as small as possible as he presumably tried to figure out a way out of his predicament, finally looked up at us and gave out a nervous chuckle. I smacked him over the head once, which made him cry out. He asked what that was for, and I told him it was for trying to brainwash some of the closer members of the crowd so they’d start a distraction that he could use to slip away. He stammered and tried to deny it, but I just smacked him on his head again.

“How did you see that? I hid the glow so well!” complained Alek. From the way he sounded, one might almost think he was a kid caught doing something naughty, and not a powerful Ikon who was trying to cause a ton of mayhem and destruction.

“I didn’t see anything,” I said with a smile. “But thanks for confessing.”

Alek’s mouth hung open. He tried to form words but nothing came out.

“That spell you described sounds a lot like something the Immortal of Evil would do,” said Noel.

“For the crowd, that is the Heavenly Eye. For my demon friends, Noel is accusing your own god of casting a spell over your capital,” I said. “Before you get all antsy, let me just confirm that your god really is a totally worthless, evil dude, who needs to find a better hobby. He likes hatching grand conspiracies, but he really isn’t very good at it.”

The demons didn’t make a sound, although I could see that some of them were uncomfortable hearing a mythical and well-respected elf denigrating their god. Thankfully, I had already begun planting seeds of doubt about the Heavenly Eye among the demons over the past few years. Queen Kol herself had sanctioned my actions against the priests of the Heavenly Eye.

“You believed me so easily?” said Noel, sounding a little surprised.

I shrugged. “I don’t really trust your words all that much yet, but our conversation, as well as little Alek’s failed escape attempt, made me realize something. There was a very simple but very glaring similarity between the barrier around the demon capital and the Immortal of Evil’s other spells: they don’t seem to work on me. Put another way, he’s an incompetent guy. At least the other immortals can make sure their spells apply to everyone!” I chuckled.

Alek scowled. He almost began to say something but I smacked him over the head again, prompting another comical reaction from the pitiful demon prince.

“I still don’t get why the Immortal of Evil would cast a spell over his own supporters, but I suppose it could be some sort of punishment for what I did to his priests,” I said.

“No, I don’t think that was why he did it,” said Noel.

“You know the Immortal of Evil’s motivations?” I said.

Noel shook her head. Again, I must mention that this looked very funny with the way her limbs were tied up. “The Immortal might have many reasons for his actions, or none at all. I know more than you do about their circumstances. And based on that knowledge, I can assume the Immortal of Evil did not want to punish the demons. He wanted to protect them.”

“Protect them?” I said. “Protect them from who?”

Noel met my gaze and spoke slowly. “He wanted to protect them from you.”