October 6, 493 U.C.

Dark clouds loomed above my head. A brisk breeze swept through, sending a shiver down my spine. My mission made it worse. I walked by a large apartment building that was five stories tall.

Daniele walked next to me, her pink shoes softly hitting the concrete walkway. She looked over at me. “Casey?”

I looked back at her and blinked.

“Are you alright?”

“Fine. I guess.”

Daniele frowned and moved right next to me. “What’s really going on?”

“The fae are hunting me. You know that. Stronger ones are getting involved.” Another shiver ran up my spine. I rubbed my arms.

“Oh.” Daniele went quiet as we passed several small homes. Plants grew out in little gardens. Solar panels lined the roofs. “Are you sure they want you dead? I really don’t think they do.”

I shrugged. “I’m not even sure anymore,” I whispered. “I just need to figure it out.”

“I can help,” Daniele said softly. “I could ask Ama?”

“Ask her what will happen to you and if you can have kids. Then ask what they’d do to said kids,” I said quickly. A small smile spread across my face.

Daniele grinned. “On it!”

I smiled. That would help.

“Why isn’t there a record of your mom?” Daniele asked. “I looked. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Dad said that the fae used some spell.”

“Which didn’t work on your family and them alone?”

I swallowed and then shrugged. “My dad said that having me nearby stopped it. But I don’t know, Daniele. It doesn’t make sense. None of this makes sense,” I muttered and rubbed my brow while passing a small shop.

Daniele went quiet. Then she pulled out her phone and started searching for more information about my mom. Her frown grew as we walked.

She won’t find anything. I’ve looked for information about Mom more times than I care to admit. And it doesn’t matter. What matters is this lord and his criminals. I began going through my mental checklist of places I’d need to check again for the day.

We rounded a corner and made it down a few more blocks before Daniele spoke, pulling me out of it.

“Have you asked Ela?” Daniele finally asked. She reached up and tucked some loose hair behind her ear.

I looked out at the swaying trees. “God no. She’s slowly eroding all my confidence already, and she always says the same things. Maybe she isn’t lying, but I need a way to know that.” I grinned hopefully at her.

Daniele nodded. “I’ll ask.”

“Thanks.”

Daniele went back to thinking while I had an idea. What if I tell them they are pulling in fae? I could find out what they’ll do. How do you tap a phone? Wishing that I were better with tech, I began debating that plan while waving goodbye to Daniele.

Walking into the house, I headed for the fridge while summoning Ela. She deserved some amount of freedom, and Daniele had a point.

Ela burst out and fluttered into the room. “Casey! Let’s go.” She grinned at me. “It’s going to be fun, and I promise we’re not the bad guys.”

“Yeah?” I asked. “Then why the lies about turning people into fae? I know I’m not human. I know the guardians aren’t either.”

Ela swallowed. “It’s to help you survive.”

“But why lie about it? Why not just say it?”

“They tell the guardians.”

I frowned. “But what about their kids?”

“They’ll be welcome on the fae world,” Ela replied. “You won’t get hurt. They want to talk to you.”

“There’s something else. I can tell. Even if you are the good guys, they’re hiding things. There are too many rumors.”

“Please, Casey. It’s important,” Ela replied. “I promise they wouldn’t if they didn’t have to.”

I stared at her in surprise. She admitted it. “What are they doing? What’s going on?”

Ela smiled at me. “You’d have to talk to them. Please? They can explain, and you won’t get hurt.”

I stewed on it. Then a sudden revelation slammed into me. Why hadn’t they gotten involved sooner? Why had we made it so far? I turned to Ela. “How did we get the first awakening potions? How did we get the recipe? How did we get the books?”

Ela took a seat on the table. “They stole them from guardian command.”

That’s impossible. That place is locked up tight. I frowned at her. “And the fae knew. Why not hunt me sooner?” I demanded.

“It was a mistake. They didn’t realize…” Ela slapped her hands over her mouth.

“What mistake?” I demanded, “What are… They let this happen on purpose!” I shouted and stared at the little fairy. “Why?”

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“So Earth survives,” Ela said nervously. “Please just meet with them. How can I convince you? You have to let me say it though.”

“You can convince me by explaining why they let this happen. And if they agree to stop changing people!”

Ela nodded. “I’ll ask them to explain.” She paused and looked up with sad eyes. “Please trust me, Casey.”

Why can’t there just be an easy answer? I rubbed my brow. “Ela, I trust you, but I need to be sure, and they need to stop. I need that promise. And I need to clean up my mess.”

“Can you tell me the people you are monitoring?” Ela asked. “They could help get the bad ones.”

Honestly, after wasting hours on the project, I considered it. It would help. Spying was so hard, and I needed a phone tap. “Nothing except for a few names and numbers?” I whispered.

“Yes! Whatever you want!” Ela proclaimed.

I pulled out a paper. Skipping my family, I gestured to the list of people who’d foolishly said them during the auction. I didn’t trust them anyway. Then I added a few people who kept nearly dying in their search for power. That should be enough to see if I can trust them. I nodded happily.

Ela grinned up at me. “Thanks, Casey.” Then she vanished as my spell ended.

I started eating while musing about the best way to spy on the others.

My phone buzzed, pulling me out of my thoughts.

Dad: Join me in the meeting room.

I used Haste, bolted to my room, and rapidly changed. I donned my purple and black dress. Then I swapped amulets and teleported, appearing in the dank basement. It was just as disgusting as the first time. I took a seat while people looked over.

“Welcome Viper,” Raptor said. “We have a development. The fae are now being permitted to search everywhere. They are searching for you.”

I nodded and waited to see what he knew. Looking around the room, the people looked a bit haggard. That was a surprise. They usually looked relaxed and lazy. I studied a woman who was slumped in her chair. What happened to her? The woman pushed her hair from her face. Freezing time, I cheated and began searching people to see if they foolishly brought IDs with them.

As luck would have it, a few did. So, I jotted down notes. Then I appeared back in my chair and resumed time.

“To be more specific,” Dad said, “the fae are augmenting their search by pulling in some of their strongest. The other Lords have agreed. We need to know why. Did they get your blood?” He turned to me.

I shrugged. “Probably. I’ve bled in lots of places. So what?”

Like a volcano, Dad erupted, blasting the room with profanity. It bounced around the concrete room, making a chorus of the profane. The mold wilted and shriveled. The rat raced away and then fell over twitching.

All the while, I grew bored. At a certain point, they become more annoying than anything else.

Annoyed and bored, I froze time in order to sketch out people’s faces. They weren’t pretty or even good, but I tried before resuming time.

That was when I remembered that Dad was still going at it. “Dad, stop!” I barked and gestured to the group.

Dad forced himself to stop, sitting there with bloodshot, bulging eyes. It was unsettling. I peered at his red face while he panted.

Raptor sighed and shook his head. “Don’t let it happen again. We’ll get it sorted.”

I frowned and immediately probed further. “Why? They already know about me.”

“Cut the backtalk,” Raptor roared at me. His eyes became bloodshot, bulging things. His face lit up like Dad’s face.

I yawned at him and rolled my eyes. Seen it. The giltasaur’s were better.

“We need a method to speed up our advancement rates to match your own,” Raptor hissed out. “Now.”

I nodded and considered saluting him. Yeah, that’s impossible. I’m not turning you into aberrations. I didn’t want to know what that meant either. The only thing that this confirmed was that they were desperate.

Dad seemed to be waiting for me to get lippy. Wanting to avoid another outburst, I refrained.

Raptor turned back to the group. “Dismissed. You know what to do.”

People scattered. I teleported Dad back home and then joined him. I yawned and walked toward my room.

“Damn it, Casey! I told you not to let them find your blood!” Dad yelled again. Then he went off.

Thoroughly unimpressed, I went into my room and shut the door. Then I started to change, following Raptor. He was the target for the day. A pounding sound came rolling through the door.

“Casey!” Dad barked.

“Shut up!” I shouted at him. “It’s your own damn fault! You sent me on rescues everywhere!”

Dad went quiet. I waited for him to punish me or something. Instead, he surprised me.

“Casey,” Dad said softly. “Be very, very careful. They have powerful fae looking for us all. We've lost multiple key locations and some people. You need to hide things in your pocket dimension. Do not leave them out.”

I groaned. My spy mission just got way harder if people were actively hiding everything. I walked over and began stashing my own. “I’ll stash them, Dad.”

“No signs for the rest of the week, alright?” Dad said nervously. “You’re just a normal girl.”

That shocked me. I nearly fell on the floor. Instead, I turned and stared at the door. “Are you serious?”

“Yes. We’ll make long-term plans. For now, you are normal. We are all normal. We cannot have them use some spell to spy on us.”

I need that spell… Oh, damn it! Sadly, the group was also ahead of me.

Pulling up my homework, I began to work on it while periodically tracking Raptor who then managed to use the subway system to completely lose me.

Current Level 11 Current XP 87.85% Current Max Mana 15380.63 Regen per minute 23.30 Reputation 12600

Tier Skill Cost Tier 11 User Time Dilation (Haste)

- User experiences 256 seconds for 1 earth second.

- Force transference limited to 25%. 1 mana per earth second. Tier 7 Pocket Dimension

- 128 cubic meters of pocket space.

- Rapid stash and rapid draw.

- You may tether objects to your pocket space.

- Your pocket space cleans, preserves, and organizes items inside based on your will. 32 mana Tier 7 Time Stop

- Caster leaves spacetime. They may remove and place things back in spacetime.

- You may control the flow of time in the demiplane.

- You may summon in willing living creatures.

- This automatically triggers if you take significant damage.

- Recast to gain vision. 200 mana to cast.

Variable cost to move items in and out. Tier 7 Teleport.

- Teleports the caster or a willing creature.

- You may cast this on a willing or unwilling creature if they are within fifty meters.

- You may teleport inside an object, causing the matter to push outward.

200 mana for the caster.

400 mana for a willing creature.

1000 mana for an unwilling creature with no resistance.

- Short range casts cost less mana.

Tier 3 Attire Swap

- Locked to a single outfit. Current outfit set to Magical Girl Uniform.

- Attire cleaned on swap.

- Attire repaired on swap. 20 mana. Tier 3 Enhanced Body

- Caster’s body is enhanced by a factor of eight. 2 mana per caster second. Tier 2 Enchanting.

- Enchantments last twice as long. Variable cost. Tier 2 Potions.

- Potions last twice as long. Variable cost. Tier 2 Familiar Manifestation. 20 mana to cast Tier 2 Free casting

- Cast any spell you can replicate.

- Slotted Spell. Use half the normal cost of the spell to store a single spell for future use. Cast the spell for the remaining cost. Variable cost. Penalty of 8x mana.