Finley Cai Aies Hall May 20th,20XX

She took three threatening steps toward me in response to my comment and kept that manic smile on her face as she tried not to kill me. I prepared to spit in her face again, hoping that I could get her close enough to get a better read on her magic. I only needed a few more minutes to understand a witch’s anatomy, then I could overflood her with magic and get Jake and me out of here.

She was stopped four steps away from me by another witch that flew into the room in a panic. another witch flew into the room and whispered something to her in a panic. Rubella’s red eyes widened so much that I could reasonably hope that her eyes would fall out and she flew away in a hurry, having materialized her broom in the same way she had materialized her wand. She dragged the goblin out with her, and the two left in a flurry of activity.

I finally let myself relax and shot Jake my best attempt at a reassuring smile.

As long as her attention stayed on me then he would stay safe. To make sure that happened I had to act like I didn’t care what happened to him. It only took a second of conversation to understand that Rubella wanted to break me instead of trying convincing me to join her. She would probably use whatever wretched spell she had used on the goblins.

I wasn’t too worried about Rubella herself but I hadn’t been joking when I said that she was unqualified to be a leader. I was sure someone else was behind her.

“Don’t worry Krion. I’ll get us out of here. And even if I can't, we can still rely on Mei. We just have to hold out till then.”

My vision blurred as my skin painstakingly knit itself back together. The Vine that wrapped around me sucked up energy at a fast rate, and my body felt heavier and heavier by the minute. If I were alone it would have been a simple enough matter to overload it and get myself out of here, but I couldn’t do that and risk hurting Jake in the subsequent explosion. Heck, I didn’t even think I could protect myself if I did that.

I temporarily abandoned the plan and continued looking around the room. A few golden flowers had blossomed on the floor and sparkled in the dark dungeon. If there was another fairy here, I could have had them eat the flower and they would have gotten a boost of energy.

I could eat it and get similar results but it would be less efficient than pulling the magic from the air as I usually did. There was also the fact that the thought of eating something made from my blood was repulsive.

The room began to shift around with every blink. And items moved around disorientingly but the one thing that stayed identical was the concerned look on Jake’s face. He looked conflicted as well, like he had something to say but struggled to say it.

I got the vague feeling I was occasionally blacking out but as long as I kept waking up it was something I could deal with. I was in pain, I could recognize the pain, but somehow I couldn’t identify it with myself. It was like I was in a completely different body from my own.

It wasn’t like when I switched out with Aies or with Cai. This was different and quite objectively worse. I tried to wriggle my fingers to re-align my mind with my body but although I could see my fingers move I couldn’t feel it.

I heard Jake talk to me in a casual tone, so casual that I found myself responding just as casually, barely processing my words before I responded.

“Finn, Sparrow needs us to go to costume today, Are you ready?”

Like someone else was controlling my body, a scowl blossomed on my face and I heard a tired voice leaving my lips.

“I thought we were done with the costume, what does Spar-“

With more will power than I ever thought I had, I forced myself to stop talking but it was too late. Jake looked at me with a conflicted expression. He didn’t seem surprised but looked disappointed.

He took a deep breath and looked away from me, trying to gather his thoughts before he spoke.

“Why- No, don’t tell me that stupid question you asked me before was your form of telling me.”

I was forced to recall my pathetic attempt of bringing it up in the past. I’d eventually bailed, chickened out.

“I- I was going to tell you-“

He barked out a laugh, harsher than I had ever heard from him. He sounded hurt and angry, but the anger wasn’t directed at me.

Keeping secrets from friends aside, I should have told him once he landed in this world. I should have prioritized letting him know he had a familiar face in this unfamiliar land instead of clinging to my poorly kept secret.

“And why would you have told me? We weren’t all that close were we?”

I immediately rejected his attempt to distance us. Even if he was mad at me, I couldn’t lose such a good friend.

Feeling pathetic I continued trying to defend myself while fighting off the terrible feeling of my conscious separating from my body.

“I’d hate it if that's what you think Jake. I'd hate it a lot.”

Everything I said came with a half-second lag from converting my thoughts into speech. It made everything I said sound disingenuous to my ears.

“Even if I assume you were going to tell me, When?”

“After we'd saved Sparrow!”

“And why wait till then?”

I could convince myself that I was trying to keep him focused so he wouldn’t get hurt due to his distraction but that wouldn’t be the truth. I’d just wanted to put this off as long as possible.

He could have been thrown off that I wasn’t human, or he could have been angry that I’d kept it a secret. He might not have wanted to risk getting involved in something so unfamiliar because of his family.

There were too many reasons to hesitate. Too many reasons I didn't want him to know.

“I-“

The moment was effectively broken by the goblin all but materializing in front of us. He held a deadly looking knife in hand and an odd expression on his face. I was still in the heat of the moment, so his entrance caught me off guard, but the disconnect of my senses made it hard to react.

“While I hate to break the moment, I have a few questions for you.”

It was the goblin that had followed after Rubella. He looked the same as before, but his eyes had lost their dullness and he looked more alert all around. His limbs were less languid and his fingers twitched with every breath.

“You’re awake.”

“And he’s a human. Not that the witches are bright enough to notice either.”

The goblin pointed toward Jake with a dismissive motion. Like he hadn’t just revealed something I’d tried my best to prevent anyone here from discovering. I struggled to keep calm and to keep a firm grasp on my senses as I responded.

“Does it matter that he’s a human?”

He scoffed at my cautious tone and twirled the knife comfortably in his hands. He looked enough like me to breed familiarity but he was dangerous. It would serve me well to remember that.

“I thought we were taking turns pointing out things the witches were too stupid to notice.”

The silver edge of the knife suddenly made a home on the tip of my nose and threatened to split the skin.

“Who are you? You resemble me enough to be my brother but I’ve no fairy blood in me,”

Jake still carried the hurt on his face but he seemed a lot more concerned with the conversation between the goblin and me.

“Are you Ion Cáel?”

He seemed caught off guard that I knew his name and looked at me properly for the first time since we got here.

“Ah, that’s right. You’re the little fairy prince, aren’t you? The half-breed.”