As the man called Al stepped into the room where fourteen-year-old Felicity Chambers lay sleeping in her bed, he spoke quietly, his voice barely audible enough to reach the slumbering girl. “You should know something about me. It's been a long time since I felt as close to anyone as I do to Maria and Arthur. They're good people. They’re people I care about. But I mean, you know that already. It's not like they would have brought a complete stranger with them to visit their son and granddaughter. We’ve been friends a long time. So when I used some magic on a whim and noticed you were around, I might’ve come incredibly close to overreacting. It was pretty hard not to threaten to rip you out of there right that second. Pretty damn hard indeed.”

By that point, the man had moved over to sit on a chair next to the desk, easing himself down with a grunt before continuing. “Didn't used to have that sort of self-control, let me tell you. I've been a real impulsive ass in my day. I guess you can thank a long life and some pretty good friendships, like the one I was just talking about with this girl’s grandparents. Part of why I care about them and theirs so much. I'm a lot more patient now. At least I try to be. I keep a handle on that anger. So, I took the time to put down a couple monitoring spells while Arthur and Maria took that girl out for the day. Wanted to know what I was dealing with. Gotta say, wasn’t what I was expecting. Not that I really knew what to expect. Kid doesn't really seem like a prime target, unless things have really changed. Or maybe there’s too much I don’t actually know by now.”

He seemed to pause to consider that for a few seconds before letting out a heavy sigh. “Whatever, the point is, I was pretty surprised to see you. Makes me glad I took the time to be patient and didn’t… ahhh, overreact. That could have been messy.” Moving his gaze over to look straight at the sleeping figure on the bed, he spoke. “I put up a little spell to keep everyone else asleep for awhile, just so we wouldn’t be interrupted. So why don't you come out of there and we can talk? I promise, I don't mean any harm. I don't know why you're here, or what you've been doing, exactly. But you haven't been hurting her. Seems to me more like you're hiding. And, from what I can tell, protecting these people. And like I said, I care about them. So if you really have been protecting them, that makes you pretty good in my book. Still, I’d like to talk.”

At first, there was no reaction. But he was patient (or at least more patient than he used to be), and knew better than to keep pushing. If this had been an adult, he probably would have taken a different tact. But it wasn’t, a fact he knew now from his monitoring. The last thing he wanted to do was make her panic more than absolutely necessary. So, the man sat quietly and alternated his gaze between the girl on the bed and the nearby window. He knew what sort of thoughts had to be running through that kid’s mind right now, and figured it would take some time to work her way through the possibilities, including the idea that this was a trap. Still, unless he missed his guess, she would be getting to the only conclusion she could right about…

There it was. A glowing form emerged from the figure sleeping on the bed, quickly resolving into a girl even younger than Flick was. She looked like she was maybe six years old, with light blonde hair, a pale face, and a very frightened expression. She emerged, before immediately moving. Not to attack, and not even to hide, not really. She moved in front of Flick’s face, crouching slightly without taking her wide eyes off him. “Wh-who are you?” the girl demanded. She was very clearly terrified, yet she still moved to protect Flick and maintained eye contact, ready to jump to do… something if she had to. Afraid as she was, the girl was determined. He had no doubt that if he made any sort of move to potentially harm the sleeping figure behind her, this kid would react quickly and decisively. He had no idea what she might do, but on the other hand, she’d clearly had a lot more time to prepare. The kid probably had a lot more prepared spells lying around this house than he’d been able to find in just the past day.

“You know me as Uncle Al,” he very carefully and gently replied. “That’s not a lie, exactly. My name is Alcaeus. That’s the name I was born with, a long time ago. In the past, I took a different name. One meant to taunt the woman of your people. Glory of Hera.”

“Heracles,” the girl murmured, eyes somehow managing to get even wider as she shrank backward a bit, coping with that information. Her voice stammered audibly, “Y-you’re Heracles. You…” She looked him up and down, a very slight whimper escaping the girl. But she held firm, staying where she was rather than retreating. Which made her a hell of a lot braver than a lot of others he could name. “Wh-why are you… you with Flick’s grandparents?”

“Like I said,” he quietly and patiently replied, “they’re friends of mine. I wasn't lying about that either, kid. I met Arthur at a bar a long time ago and we hit it off. They don't know the truth about me, or anything else about ahh, the deeper world. As far as I knew right up until I found out about their granddaughter being possessed, I thought they were a pretty normal family. So why don’t we talk about that a little bit? We can start pretty simple. Can you tell me your name?”

Again, there was a long, silent pause as the girl very clearly thought through everything she might say, every way she might respond to that. She hadn't exactly relaxed at all, still standing in front of Flick as though ready to intervene if he tried anything, or even moved from that seat. He could see the emotions and thoughts working their way through her mind during those few seconds before the girl finally tentatively answered with a single word. “Tabbris.”

“Tabbris,” Al echoed before giving her an encouraging nod. “It’s nice to meet you, Tabbris. Now, something tells me you’re not exactly here on an official assignment. I know your people have some population problems, to say the least. But I'm pretty sure you're still below the minimum age they send out on missions like this. Are you a runaway?” That had been his best guess, that she had come to Earth somehow, probably with a larger group that was visiting for some reason, and managed to sneak away before finding a place/person to hide in. Sure, it didn't answer every question, like how she was as good with magic as she clearly was. But it was the best he had been able to come up with. He was hoping she was about to fill in those blanks.

“I…” Tabbris squirmed, glancing briefly back to the sleeping girl behind her before snapping her gaze back to him, as though afraid he would have taken that split-second to lunge. Hesitantly, the very young girl drew herself up, standing at her full (quite diminutive) height. “I am h-here on a mission. A really important mission f-from my… from my Mama.”

He digested that briefly before giving a slight nod. There was no way he would belittle the kid’s words, or dismiss her claim. Not after everything he’d seen in his life, to say nothing of the skills he’d figured out this girl was personally capable of. Sure, Flick and her dad were Bystanders. But this kid had still clearly needed to do a lot to stay hidden for as long as she obviously had.

Finally, he carefully spoke. “So your mother, she sent you here? She wanted you to come to these people specifically? Why? Why would she send a child here? And why send anyone here at all? What’s so special about this place, these people?”

Instead of answering right away, the kid stared at him in silence for a long moment before finally speaking. Yet even then, her words weren’t an answer, but a question. “You… umm, M-Mama didn’t say a lot about you, but she said you were… umm… you were like P-Puriel’s… s-son, sorta. I-is he… do you… umm…” She squirmed uncomfortably on her feet, that uncertainty and fear returning to her gaze while she fidgeted with her hands, clasping them together before dropping her gaze as she murmured almost inaudibly under her breath. Then she looked up, speaking louder that time. “Are you friendly with him?”

The answer came before he could even think about considering his words. “No, I haven’t spoken to him in over a thousand years, and we haven’t been close since the Bystander Effect kicked in and I saw what he and his people are capable of. All those people who died, all those families that were torn apart, it was all because of the Bystander Effect. It was all because of the Seosten, and he was in charge of that. I don’t want to have anything to do with him.”

Only once he had finished saying those words, did Al realize the truth. It was a spell. That sneaky kid hadn’t just been fidgeting with her hands together. She had some sort of enchanted object, and all that fidgeting had been putting power into it. When she mumbled under her breath, she hadn’t actually been saying the same thing she said louder a moment later when she asked if he was friendly with Puriel. Instead, she had been speaking the words to trigger the spell itself. A truth spell, obviously boosted by other spells she already had inside this room if it was strong enough to actually affect him. She used a momentary truth spell on him before asking that single question, to make sure he would be honest for that brief moment.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Realizing all that, he rocked backward a little, looking at her with a raised eyebrow. “You are a cheeky little thing, aren't you?”

She, in turn, flushed with embarrassment and possibly a little fear before insisting, “I h-had to know you were telling the truth. I-it’s important. Cuz… cuz of my Mama. Puriel… he… he was bad. He did bad things.”

Sobering, Al watched the kid, considering his words yet again before very carefully asking, “Tabbris, what happened? Why are you here? Who is your mother?”

Meeting his gaze, the young girl swallowed visibly. Then she told him the truth, about who her mother was, and what had happened to lead Tabbris being left in this place.

*******

“Um, M-Mr. Al? Are you sure Flick and Mr. Chambers will be okay?” Several days later, the two of them were walking together through a park on the far side of town. Technically, Al wasn’t supposed to be in Laramie Falls any longer, given Maria and Arthur had already gone back home. But he made a special trip back after using the intervening time to reach out and have a conversation with an important person.

“They’ll be good, I promise,” he assured her. “Between the spells you already had up, and the ones I added in that house, no one's getting in there without the two of us knowing about it. At least not in the time this’ll take. Trust me, this is one guy you need to meet. I ahh, just don’t want to spoil too much. But trust me, you’ll be glad you came along for this.”

The kid was clearly still apprehensive. Not just about leaving those two back at the house (despite his reassurances), but also about just being visible at all. From what he had been able to understand and surmise, Tabbris had almost never been out of Flick during the daytime. And had certainly never gone this far away from her. Unfortunately, it was necessary, given the eyes that he knew were on that house now that he had done more investigation. Which--metrokoites, was that whole thing ever a surprise. Lincoln’s missing wife was the Joselyn Atherby. Not that he had actually remembered who Joselyn Atherby was. Not until he took a picture to the man they were meeting today, and he, in turn, had restored Al’s memories of her. And what memories they were. Alcaeus was a man who was always drawn to strength. Knowing someone like Joselyn, it was unsurprising that he had been especially drawn to her. Drawn enough that the two of them, with her then-husband’s blessing, had… pursued that attraction.

Then, thanks to that fucking spell, he had forgotten her. Only to, as of yesterday, finally get his memories back and realize that, after all that time, it had turned out that he had ended up befriending the parents of the man Joselyn Atherby had married.

Or, given the timing, it was more accurate to say that Joselyn Atherby married the son of the people he had befriended much earlier.

He still wasn't sure if that was related somehow, if she had somehow been intentionally directed toward Lincoln because of Al’s own connection to the man’s parents. It almost felt like too much of a coincidence otherwise, but then again, strange things happened sometimes. He knew that incredibly well, after the life he’d had.

In any case, there was no way the guy he was taking Tabbris to meet would be able to show up at that house secretly. Not without a lot more preparation, anyway. This was easier, even if it did make the poor girl understandably nervous. She’d get past that as soon as they met their contact.

The park itself was pretty quiet at this time of day, considering school was in session. The only people visible were a couple guys in their late teens messing around at the basketball court off in the distance, too far to be an issue. Al took a long look around while putting a hand on the girl’s shoulder. He felt her go super-tense, the way she always did when he made any move to touch her. She’d gotten to the point of not exactly being afraid of him, but she still wasn’t accustomed to any sort of physical contact. Nor was she accustomed to walking anywhere but within the house, given the way she occasionally tripped. And that in and of itself told him so much about how long she had been hiding inside of Maria and Arthur’s granddaughter. For any Seosten, let alone one with her mother, to be anything approaching clumsy, was huge.

Giving the kid’s shoulder a very slight squeeze, he raised his other hand to point. “There we go.”

Tabbris looked that way before jerking a bit in surprise, nearly falling over in the process had his hand not been firmly on her shoulder. A man who had not seemed to be there a moment earlier was already rising from the bench a short distance away, turning toward them. He was just over six feet tall, with blond hair that fell to a couple inches beneath his ears and was unkempt in an effortlessly handsome way. When Al saw that Princess Bride movie a couple decades back, he’d almost been convinced that Cary Elwes was some long-lost descendant of the man in front of them. Or even that it had actually been him in some very minor disguise. That might have been a bit of a stretch, but then again, Al wouldn't really put it past him.

“Well now,” the man himself announced while brushing himself off. His gaze centered on Tabbris. “I think you’ve been holding out on me a little bit, Alcaeus. When we talked yesterday, you said you had a young Seosten you thought I should meet, but it looks like you left out a few details. I don’t remember you saying anything about her being so…” He trailed off, clearly having taken a good look at the girl before words failed him. “Wait a second,” the man managed, “is--”

“Uncle Lucifer!” The blurted cry from the kid herself, as she abruptly bolted away from Al. For all she had been hesitant to have any physical contact with him, she went straight for the other man, stumbling over her own feet before catching herself at the last instant as she lunged to wrap both arms around his waist. She was suddenly clinging to him as tightly as she could. “Y-you’re here, you’re really here.” Her voice shook with those words, clutching the man.

Clearly shocked by what was happening, the man himself stood motionless, paralyzed by surprise for a moment before his hands slowly moved to her shoulders, then to her chin to gently get the girl to look up at him. He stared at her, mouth opening and shutting wordlessly a few times. Finally, he managed to find his actual voice. “You… you’re her daughter. Sariel…”

Swallowing hard, a few emotional tears suddenly finding their way to her eyes, she nodded. “Yes, Uncle Lucifer. Sh-she’s my mama.” There was sadness there, as she obviously missed the woman with staggering intensity. But also pride. A fierce, very protective pride.

Lowering himself to his knees, the man gently corrected. “Apollo’s fine. Or Satan, if you prefer. I don’t, ahh… I don’t have a lot to do with my old--how do you--where did you come from?” It was clear that, in the midst of reflexively correcting her name for him, he had been unable to hold himself back any longer. He had one hand on her arm, the other gently brushing her hair as he stared at the girl in wonder. “How… how are you here?” Whether he meant ‘here on Earth’ or how did she exist at all was uncertain. Probably a bit of both.

“We should all sit down for this part,” Al put in, gesturing to the bench that Apollo had been sitting at before. “Trust me, you're going to want to be off your feet.”

So, the three of them sat down, the two men with the girl between them. Some part of Al’s mind was glad no one was nearby, given the tendency for this sort of thing to look suspicious to Bystanders. Or to anyone, really. Maybe they should have met somewhere more private.

Still, those thoughts soon disappeared while he and Tabbris began to tell Apollo the whole story. It was a lot to take in, obviously, and a few times the man looked like he was about to interrupt. Especially when they told him the purpose of the place where his adopted ‘twin’ was. Al was pretty sure that he only contained himself from a violent reaction because of the young girl's presence. Even then, he met Al’s gaze, a fury in his own eyes that could have melted steel. Al certainly understood the reaction. It wasn’t far from what his own had been like, and he didn’t have nearly the personal relationship with Sariel that her brother did.

Once he had as much of the story as they could give him, Apollo pushed himself up. He took a couple steps away, standing with his back to them while clenching and unclenching both fists. Eventually, he hooked his hands behind his head, rocking back and forth on his heels while clearly working his way through all the reactions he was having to that. At least, as much of it as he could get through in those few moments.

Finally, the man pivoted and faced them once more. Faced her once more, while going back to one knee. “Tabbris,” he began quietly, “we’re gonna find your mother, I promise. And get her out of there. It just… it’s gonna take awhile.”

Squirming visibly, the girl hesitated before firmly declaring, “I have to stay with Flick. Mama trusted me to protect her. She wanted me t--to…” Her voice caught, emotion choking her briefly before she managed to simply repeated, “She trusted me.”

“And she wasn’t wrong to do so,” Apollo agreed. “Sounds like you’ve been doing a pretty amazing job. But you said there was another woman who was supposed to help you? Someone who never showed up?”

Her head bobbed quickly. “L-Larissa Mason. She was supposed to be there, b-but she never… umm… she never--I don’t know what happened.” The fear of what had stopped the woman from ever appearing at the house was quite evident, even if she didn’t dare voice it.

“We’ll find out,” Apollo promised. “If Sariel trusted her to come find you, if she trusted her with… with you, then she was reliable. We’ll find out what stopped her. And…” He looked over to Al then. “And what happened to Joselyn Atherby.”

“Chambers,” Tabbris corrected firmly. “She’s Jo-Joselyn Chambers.”

“Chambers,” Apollo repeated with a nod. “We’ll find out what really happened to her too.” Once more, his gaze found Al’s. “Gonna need your help with all that, you know. I’ve got a lot of contacts, but I’m pretty sure this is gonna be a stretch even for them.”

Al, in turn, agreed. “Yeah, I’m there. Your sister, she’s one of the good ones. One of the only members of your people that I could stomach being around back during the invasion. We killed some pretty tough Fomorians back then. Between her and Joselyn both being in trouble… yeah, whatever you need.”

“Good,” Apollo murmured, taking both of Tabbris’s hands and squeezing them. Gently, he pulled her up off the bench and into an embrace, which the girl took to a bit hesitantly, but with a clear desperate need. “It’s okay. We’ll help you. We’ll find Larissa and your mother. We’ll figure it out, all of it.

“You’re not alone anymore.”