Jake Addams May 21th,20XX

Ion stood over Finn with a strong arm around his neck and his two legs wrapped around my friend's torso. At first glance, it seemed a bit overboard but considering that he had been attacked twice in under ten minutes I couldn’t blame him.

That being said, the goblin showed no signs of being strained by the demanding pose he had to maintain while restraining my friend.

“So you mean to tell me that he needed to have his mind split into not two parts, but three, and this idiot that’s attacked me so many times is only one of the three?”

Finn- or well, I guess it was Aies now, tried his best to nod and even went as far as to flash a bright smile, although I couldn’t be sure of who it was directed to.

It was hard to get over how different he looked, and I had only just gotten used to his other look.

The golden hair had lightened to a startling silver and the golden eyes had deepened to a scarlet red. Small but pointed fangs poked out of his lips and a horn, platinum silver as his hair poked out of his bangs.

Whatever little fat on his body had melted into muscle and his every movement was laced with intent.

He looked almost feral.

“Well, if it helps I’ve also hit Jake. And if you think I’m violent then you don’t wanna meet Cai, the other one, although he's assimilated into Finn by now. Cai even broke Jake’s spine once! And he had the nerve to keep calling me a violent beast after that too!”

Wait. What?

I debated investigating that but dismissed it. Somethings were better left in the unknown past.

“So where are Finn and Cai now?”

Aies shrugged. Or well, tried his best to shrug.

“That’s what I was so pleasantly trying to ask Ion over here.”

Ion didn’t grace his statement with a response and simply tightened the chokehold, eliciting a few pained grunts from Aies.

Tyus chose now to pop out and gave an explanation in his usual over-enthusiastic was of speaking.

“Well, that I can explain. Cai is essentially Finley’s Fairy side, right? So it makes sense that he went along with Finley's magic. But Finley is a mix of the two of them. You cant have Finley without Cai anymore than you can have Finley without Aies. Cai is gone until the magic comes back, but Finley is still in there, Aies. You’ll have to work hard to find him.”

Aies visibly relaxed and immediately closed his eyes, his lips forming a single name over and over again. He stayed like this until Ion cut in.

“Didn’t you say that Cai guy assimilated with this ‘Finley’? In that case shouldn’t you be working toward the same goal?”

Aies’s eyes snapped open and he leaped up into a standing position. Or at least he tried. I could hear a thud on the ground as Ion pulled him back down.

“Calm down kid. How exactly did Cai assimilate with Finely.”

Aies set into a pout and began to speak in a petulant tone. He made his displeasure at being restrained clear.

“Wasn’t it after Finley became comfortable with using magic? Before that, he wouldn't even fly and would walk everywhere.”

“So what you’re saying is that I have to help a human-born goblin become fully comfortable with using their goblin powers.”

Ion suddenly released Aies from his chokehold and got up to his feet in a single, fluid motion.

“Get up.”

It was no sooner than Aies had gotten to his feet that he was suddenly kicked into the wall. At this point, I could swear that the wall was getting a human-shaped dent in it.

Aies peeled himself off the wall, shrugging his shoulders, flexing his wrists and snarled at Ion. It was a beastly sound that no words I knew could capture, but the excitement and aggression it carried was enough to send chills down my spine.

Ion didn’t even blink in response and immediately snarled back, his long teeth fully exposed for the first time. I wasn’t sure what was going on but was too scared to ask. Thankfully Tyus had no such reservations.

“What are you doing!”

Ion smoothly dodged Aies’s full-body pounce at him and redirected his body to another wall, leaving another faint imprint.

“Isn't it obvious? We goblins only have two spells, both of which are instinctive. And as for the rest, we have our bodies. What better way to get comfortable with your body than to feel every last inch of it getting beaten into?”

No, I would bet my entire scholarship that there was another way, but since Aies was smiling like an animal, I chose to keep my suggestion to myself.

I eventually walked back over to the corner I had taken for myself and mulled over the diamond earring that laid in my pocket.

I'd been told that it contained all of Finley’s magical power. I’d also been told to keep it away from him, otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to focus on getting used to his goblin powers, whatever that was.

This was all so confusing to me and I didn't understand half the words I was hearing.

At first, I thought Finn was a human; no, I didn't think he was anything at all, I’d assumed he was a human. A normal, somewhat mysterious but human kid.

Then I found out he’s some sort of fairy prince who's engaged to a gorgeous fairy general. And just before I could get used to that I found out he’s a sort of half breed goblin and fairy mix and might self implode if he doesn’t learn how to balance the two?

I was trying my best, I was. But that was a lot to accept for anyone.

While Aies got repeatedly beat up by Ion, I decided to start letting Tyus teach me about all of this. While I had no intention of ever coming back here again, this was a world that two of the people I know are involved in.

One of them was my best friend and the other... Well, I didn’t even know if I could call her a friend anymore.

I tucked the earring back into my pocket and went to get Tyus from the other side of the room, where he had taken on the role of a horrified spectator. Maybe explaining stuff to me would take his mind off things a bit.