Albaer stood sideways at the entrance to his home, his hand on the knob while he waited, counting the seconds as the morning marched on. He opened his mouth to call for Raziel and Lialah to hurry up, his mother’s refrain in his head, ‘Be on time for school. Good boys do their best to be on time and not make trouble for themselves, their teachers, or their parents.’

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and exhaled. ‘She’s been saying that since I was a kid… would it really be so bad if I were late once in a while? Other people are late and what happens to them? Nothing that I can see.’ He slowly closed his mouth and waited without speaking until the pair appeared, exiting his room in clean but ripped and wrinkled clothing.

They were also… undisguised. Their wings, Raziel’s talons, red skin, her eyes, all were still ‘themselves’. “How do we look?” Raziel said with a playful little smile that made Albaer immediately think…

‘Right, her ‘teeth’ too…’

Raziel’s ‘pose’ for lack of a better word to come into his mind, was almost a taunt. The back of her hand curled against her hip which she’d swayed out, her other arm hung loose, and the ruby-like sparkle full of energy and confidence that made him briefly look away from her gaze, and over to Lialah.

True to form, she had a slight blush on her face and rather than a pose, she picked at her clothing in a small nervous gesture. Her fingers pinched the cloth, pulling it out a little, then letting it fall away again.

“Great, but you’re not disguised. You definitely cannot leave this apartment as you are.” Albaer insisted, he locked his eyes on Raziel and held his unblinking eyes on hers.

“Right, right, of course.” Raziel answered, then she and Lialah muttered a string of unintelligible syllables under their breath.

Their fingers snapped almost in sync with one another, and Albaer flinched and squeezed his eyes shut, holding one hand up to protect himself from the flash, he lowered his hand when he felt the dimming and opened his eyes again. He blinked a few times, while the blurry outline of his friends came into focus. Raziel’s dark hair remained, as did Lialah’s blonde, but the wings and fangs were gone. “Your eyes.” He said to Raziel, and she blushed, her skin was now slightly tan rather than red, and to his surprise, a tiny blush rose to her cheeks as if he’d embarrassed her.

“Wow! That is one hell of an illusion.” He said and gave a rapid series of jerking nods of his head, “Other than the eyes, perfect.”

“Yeah, sorry, I almost forgot.” Raziel went into the bedroom again and came out still inserting contacts that turned her eyes a vibrant green, her finger fumbled a bit and she bit her tongue… revealing that her teeth appeared human as well.

“I’d have done the eyes, but I don’t want to waste the mana, we put enough squares into illusion magic that we should have no trouble holding this for the whole day, but I didn’t want to chance it.” Raziel added, then blinked her eyes and clapped her hands. “Ta-da!” She said with a broad grin on her face. “Human.”

“So are your wings…? Can I?” Albaer asked, and when she understood, Lialah turned around. The rip in her shirt that the wings must have passed through didn’t appear there either. He approached and waved one hand up and down her back… and felt nothing.

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“Amazing.” He breathed out and then touched the part of her shirt that should have been torn, and he felt the warmth of her skin.

“Oh!” Lialah squeaked out and jumped forward away from him, and Albaer responded with a gasp and jumped back, both their mouths caught open in surprise.

“I thought- Sorry! I was expecting to feel clothing!” Albaer exclaimed and waved the hand rapidly in front of himself to disavow the sudden touch of the skin of her back.

Raziel smirked. “Getting touchy with my sister in front of me, a bold move for you, Albaer.”

“I wasn’t! I didn’t mean to!” He exclaimed, his face flushing red as his head swung back and forth, shaking his denial at the accusation of his ‘boldness’.

“It-It’s fine.” Lialah said when she turned around, “It works by playing with your perceptions. You ‘think’ you’re close enough to touch there, but in reality all illusion is just playing with light, so I’m not where you think I am. You were nowhere near my wings but…” She balled up her fists and snapped, “it won’t work if you come right up on me and start getting all touchy! I can make it look like there’s nothing there, but that’s all. When we get a little higher we can alter touch perceptions, but not yet.”

Albaer felt her staring at his offending hand, and he gingerly put it behind his back out of her sight, “Again, I’m sorry.” He said, his face went from slightly panicked, to grave. He took another deep breath, his eyes went down a little bit and asked, “Are you two sure about this? You don’t have to, you know. I-I can keep paying for what you need, even if they do finally let me quit or just plain fire me, I’ll figure something out. This puts you at risk, and your people might find a way to bring you home still!” He emphasized, his hand tensing around the doorknob, he pressed, holding it shut even tighter than it was while at rest.

“They’re not coming for us.” Raziel’s words dripped with vitriol and bitterness, her knuckles cracked from the tension in her hands. She only relaxed when Lialah put a hand to rest on her sister’s shoulder.

“M-My sister is right, Albaer. They’ve probably been at war since our first week here, most Kingdoms had already mobilized their armies, we were the last hope… and we failed.” Her blue eyes clouded over and her long lashes fluttered as she tried to blink back the sorrow that tried to escape out of her eyes and down her cheeks. “In the entire history of the Summoning, no summoners have ever just vanished. Even if they could take the time to try and figure it out, they probably won’t be able to. They’re probably afraid that whatever we tried to summon will just take them too.”

“But-” He started, until Raziel’s eyes bored into him, demanding he be quiet.

“We’ve got no family, Albaer.” Raziel added, “There’s nobody who gives enough of a damn about us to risk it themselves, we were assets, tools to try to save the world, and we’re now broken ones as far as they’re going to think of us. And what do you do about a lost broken tool when it might be dangerous to try to get it back?”

Albaer’s silence was answer enough.

Lialah’s little smile was bitter, trembling as if the corners of her lips were almost too heavy to hold up. “Like my sister says… and you can’t take care of us forever, what if you die? Or get hurt? Even if you don’t, will you just waste your life trying to look after us while we hide in your bedroom?” Lialah approached and put a hand on his bicep, she looked up at him and said flatly, “No. Even if you did say yes, and I can see you want to, we can’t do that.”

“But-” Albaer protested again, or tried to.

“Nothing.” Raziel strode over to him and leaned a little forward, she put her hands on her hips and abruptly stated... “But… nothing. We have to find a way to live out there, get familiar with your culture, and how everything works. Besides, if we do that, we can actually help. I won’t be some sort of useless burden! Now are we going or what?”

Albaer felt the fight go out of him with a weighty sigh, his arms felt limp and heavy. “Yeah, yeah we need to go, just listen to me, follow my lead and ah…”

“What?” The pair asked at the same moment.

“The zippers… on your pants… Please raise them.” His face turned red again as he looked down at the little brass zipper clasps that stuck out at the crotch of their denim.

“The what…?” Raziel demanded and put her hands on her hips.

“Th-The little brass tab sticking out, grab it and pull it up… and hurry please.”