Once Seb and Ed had finished recounting the events of the past month, a shocked, tense silence fell over the room. Sebastian had just finished his third can of coke and considered going to the kitchen for a fourth because, honestly, he just wasn’t sure what to do with himself.

Sid – the dragon-person dressed in leather – was the one who finally broke the silence. “Okay, so, re-caping. Your best friend turned into a werewolf, you both had no idea what to do, so you went to your doctor friend who turned out to be a witch-”

“Wizard. She’s very particular about that distinction.”

“Right, she turned out to be a wizard and is married to a vampire, who is also your boss you didn’t know was a vampire, despite the fact she’d drunk blood in front of you-”

“I didn’t know it was blood!”

“-And you have been selling magical items to the supernatural community, without knowing. But that worked out in your favour because you had someone to help you navigate the werewolf thing more or less. Until yesterday when you got jumped by some teenagers who are also a part of the pack – or ex-pack now – of your other friend, which led to the accidental reveal of friend-one's-”

“Edmund.”

“-The reveal of Edmund’s werewolf nature. Which ultimately led to him facing off against and adult werewolf and winning the three of you your own territory within the town.” Sid finished, turning to Nick with a frown. “This one is defiantly yours.”

Nick shrugged. “While I know that isn’t a compliment, I shall take it as one, so thank you.”

Emily sighed. “Okay, so now that we’re all caught up, what do we do?”

“Well, the way I see it, our immediate problem is space. Because there is nearly a dozen of us and only three bedrooms.” Sebastian pointed out.

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“We’re still talking to my dad tonight, right?” Edmund asked.

Seb turned towards him. “Are you sure you’re up for it?”

Edmund nodded. “Plus, if he’s in the loop, then we can use the space at my house. Which would probably be more ideal than squeezing everyone in here like sardines.”

“Fair point. But if you’re only going to be talking to him after dinner, then we still need an alternative plan for tonight while he’s still adjusting.”

Emily shrugged. “I think we can make the space work for tonight. Will you boys be staying here or at Ed’s?”

“Luke and I could at least sleepover at yours tonight. Right?” Sebastian suggested and Edmund nodded.

“Um, should we call Miss Persephone and Miss Hayden?” Luke inquired, almost whispering shyly.

Sebastian paused. “Shit, I nearly forgot. They’ll want to be kept in the loop.”

“Exactly how many people are we going to be revealing our situation to?” One of the adult elves asked tensely.

Seb just about refrained from rolling his eyes. “We don’t have to give them your whole story, man. We just need to make sure everyone helping us knows something. If you haven’t noticed, we’re in a shit situation right now, so we need to make allies.”

Nick sighed. “You could have said that a little kinder, bud, but you are right. We need to come up with a plan.”

“Considering we have no idea why the world ended in the first place, maybe we should figure that out.” Sid suggested.

Emily shrugged. “Technically, we have an idea. Something happened to disrupt the world from claiming it’s heir.”

“Claiming it’s heir?” Edmund questioned.

“The elves’ dimension thrives off of its ruler’s magic. When the current ruler passes away, the dimension and title of sovereign is passed on to the next in line. Normally, a closely related elf, such as the previous ruler’s child.” Nick explained.

“Could we use a memoria ritual to figure things out?” One of the teenaged elves suggested. Um, that’s a ritual for seers to enhance their powers and view past events. They explained to the boys, who nodded gratefully for the explanation.

“Technically, yes. But you’d need an item from the world and something to enhance magic.”

Sebastian quirked an eyebrow. “Like an artefact?”

Nick looked over at him, glanced down at the necklace, and nodded. “Exactly.”

The conversation that followed was long and full of far too much for Sebastian to really keep track of. He half drank a fifth coke before they finally finished talking. And now came the fun part; telling Ed’s dad...