Sparrow Truman May 23rd,20XX

As I watched Ion’s back retreat even further from myself, I was forced to process the information bomb he had just exploded in my lap.

Finn was Cai?

They were the same person?

As much as my mind wanted to reject the notion, I couldn’t deny that I’d noticed the similarities. There was also the absolute disinterest on Ion’s face that told me that he had no reason to lie.

The ethereal and beautiful prince from another world was the same individual as my slightly awkward but overall kind and pretty adoptive little brother from earth?

It was impossible, but it was an impossible truth I had to accept. There wasn’t any reason for Ion to lie to me.

It also explained why Jake was here.

But wait, did that mean he had told Jake but not me?

And if they were the same person then didn’t that mean I had-

I began to feel sick again at the realization that I had hurt someone so precious. Never mind beating myself over this, Will would kill me over this.

Thoughts flew through my mind at a million per second and I was finding it hard to calm down.

“Derela!”

Dione’s voice snapped me out of my daze and I was faced with a crowd of worried young witches crowding around me.

“Derela, are you okay? Did that goblin do anything to you?”

I waved off her theory and brought my broom back out of my tattoos. Now wasn’t the time to sink into an existential crisis. If anything now was the time to try even harder to capture Rubella and make her pay for what she had made me do.

I needed that transporter, first and foremost. I also needed to find Finn and Jake. Once we all got back to the human world we would be able to talk everything pout, and I could ask for forgiveness, I could see my brother again and I could see my friends again.

Reorganizing my priorities as I flew, I lead the beyond witches to the remains of Rubella’s castle and had them start on a location spell. While it wouldn’t be as efficient as the Goblin’s innate hunting abilities, I had faith that we would find her first. It would be tragic if her equipment got broken as she fought for her life.

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I began to fly off when a loud, and terrifying explosion suddenly erupted from the forest. The same one that Dione had reported to me that she had seen Ion running into.

The sheer quantity of loud explosions made me ignore it at first but once I was hit by that first wave of magic, I could only regret not paying more attention.

We all dropped to the ground like flies, and out brooms snaked back into our tattoos as we lost control of them.

This was… royal magic.

But it was stronger and more potent than before. Smaller but just as deadly sounding explosions erupted from beside the original large one and the scent of blood magic filled the air. A bright red and silver haze merged with the golden dust of the magic wave, and I began to feel sick.

My body craved to absorb the magic, but I could feel it poisoning me from the inside out. I fought against it as much as I could but the kids beside me couldn't handle it. They had been hit even worse than I’d been since they had been in the middle of casting a spell.

I pulled out the last bit of my energy and summoned my vines around us, using them to absorb the ambient magic and keep it away from us. I’d made the vines a lot more durable than they had been before so I had faith that they would serve to protect us, at least for a little while.

My first instinct was to remain there and wait out the storm of the royal’s fury, but I realized that I couldn’t afford to do that.

“All of you listen to me. I’ll need all of you to provide your magic to support the vines okay? If you all work together it should be enough to keep you all safe. Try your best to wait this out and then get out of the city okay? This is an order”

I growled out the last sentence and they all flinched in response, but I needed them to listen to me.

“Find your comrades if you can and take them with you but don’t let that be what stops you from getting away.”

“But Derela! What about you?”

I found a gap in the vines and began to crawl out of the miniature prison I’d made.

“Don’t worry about me. The only things you need to be worried about right now are finding a way out of here. Okay?”

“But Derela! I’ve all but absorbed my memory packet by now. Even if you send the others away, I can stay behind and help you.”

Surprisingly enough it was pink that volunteered to stay behind with me. I was flattered but put on a cruel expression. Although my memories from the human world had returned, they didn’t erase the memories and habits I had formed here.

“I do not need a meat shield. Focus on getting your peers out of here safely. Now go! Any more objections and I’ll get rid of you here and now so you won’t burden the others, or fill their heads with useless ideas.”

If I could manage to find Rubella now, while she was weakened, then snatching a transporter would be simple enough. I knew that those immortality potions she had been fond of taking would react very negatively to being exposed to magic from true immortals like this. She would at least be worse off than me.

The main issue would be her supporters. Although I had a few witches on my side, and the goblins s4eemed to be working with us, we were still pretty drastically outnumbered. Too many witches had supported Rubella in the plans and although their leader had abandoned them, they still fought on her behalf and tried their best to get rid of us that they had called the ‘traitors’.

I could only hope the goblins and the royals would deal with them enough for me to find Rubella.

I needed to get my witches out of the capital and as far away from them as possible. I could risk myself to find Rubella, but I wasn’t going to let any of these children do the same, knowledge packets or none.