The Healers went downstairs where backpacks and several useful items (including Wade’s sleeping sand and Mana bottles, of which they drank some) were conjured for Zeke and Akachi.

According to the book of Esther Rosario, conjuring wasn’t making something out of thin air but instead summoning it from somewhere the conjurer had seen the item before. Regarding materials, the conjurer could summon the piece needed, enlarge it, and make copies of it to form something larger. It was the same with Transportation Sigils as it was impossible to go to a place the drawer had never been to before.

Mental visualization was just as crucial as having two working hands when it came to magic.

Zeke heeded the warnings about the fairies’ adverse feelings towards Healers, but paying attention to the intricacies of the plan was difficult with Aida’s growling as he nibbled the leg of a desk. He felt bad for her teeth.

The plan was to sneak into the Fairy Queen’s Castle, find the royal research lab, and steal some shrinking factor extract. Wade disappeared upstairs for a while as Ashlin found a piece of chalk and drew on the door. Zeke noticed Ugo staring blankly at the bookcase.

Before he had the chance to say something, Wade returned with a double-needle syringe with a handle like a handgun. “You guys can use this to extract the shrinking factor. Get as much as you can.”

As Zeke reached for it, Akachi beat him to it and grabbed the syringe, “On it, bud, you can count on us.”

Stepping away from the door, Ashlin announced the sigil was done.

“If this place wasn’t visited by Healers for centuries,” Zeke started, “then how do you have a sigil for it?”

Ashlin made a disturbing smile that had Zeke shiver. He preferred her flinty, cold look.

“I have my ways,” she said sinisterly.

A tiny, medieval kitchen was revealed as Ashlin opened the door. “I don’t know where this is in the Fairyrealm, but you’ll have to find a way to the castle from there.” Ashlin said.

Akachi walked towards the door. “Alright, Fairyrealm, here we—”

An orange flash zapped past Akachi, and the syringe was no longer in his hand, but he wasn’t confused and knew exactly where to look; turning his head back, “Koshiko…”

A throaty purr of contentment came from Aida as she sat chewing on her new toy in a corner.

Zeke approached her cautiously and lowered to his haunches. “Aida… I am going to need that, okay?” he reached out a hand and pulled back as she gave him a deep growl. “Aida…” he said and tried again.

She growled again, and this time her eyes glowed red, and then her dark red pointy ears popped out the top of her head alongside her large tail that sprouted from behind.

“Aida!” he shouted and extended his hand with less caution.

Zeke’s fingers were saved, pulling back in the nick of time as Aida tried to bite him. “¡Qué huevada!” he exclaimed.

“Yeah, we’re never getting that back,” Ugo said calmly.

As Zeke contemplated his non-existent future as a veterinarian, Aida, now in her complete hybrid form, held the instrument in her mouth and dashed for the door.

“No, dammit, Koshiko!” Akachi yelled and chased her into the medieval kitchen.

“I guess it’s time to get started,” Zeke said, grabbed his doctor’s bag, and ran. He stopped for a moment to take out a pen and his grandmother’s book from his bag. He found a blank page and drew the sigil that was on the door.

Zeke advanced, and Aida was running around the tiny home, growling and yipping happily with the instrument in her mouth, destroying nearly everything in her path, leaving scratches on the wooden floor and walls and the hand-carved furniture with her massive claws.

“How do you calm down a kitsune?” Zeke asked Akachi.

“I don’t know!”

The excited kitsune stopped on her own and sat, dropping the syringe from her mouth and letting out a big yawn. Zeke and Akachi watched as she fought not to doze off.

“Really, Koshiko?” Akachi said, squinting at her. “After all that, you’re just going to fall asleep?”

The homeowner arrived, and the door behind her slammed shut as she froze in shock. She was a stunning fairy (which Zeke realized was probably the norm) in a plain dress. Even with her small stature, no more than 4 feet tall, childish figure, and cute round face when she spoke, it was the voice of an adult.

“Are you… humans?” She asked shakily as her insect-like wings folded behind her. When she noticed Aida, she started screaming. “A werewolf? Here? How?”

Akachi made some quick hand signs, and a long bone shot out of the wall from behind the open-mouthed fairy. It looped around her neck and pulled her back.

“Ah!” she cried out as she hit the wall with her new neck jewelry crushing her throat.

A devilish side of Akachi came out to play as he slowly approached the trembling fairy with his hands in his pockets. The closer Akachi got to her, the higher the fairy raised her head. He must’ve looked like a giant to the poor, dainty thing.

“Don’t even try to shrink your way out of this,” Akachi said.

“I’m pressing into my wings. You’re hurting me….”

“I know you can feel my energy,” he responded, looking down at her with a crude smile.

“Now, tell me, what does my Mana feel like to you?”

“A-A-Are you a demon?”

Akachi laughed and slammed his hand onto the wall. She flinched. “How much have they taught you about the Tainted Generation, kid?”

She whimpered. Her knees were facing each other, and tears were welling in her eyes. “No… that’s impossible.” She shook her head, messing up her dark short wavy bob.

“You’re a fairy. You guys have some of the best energy detection of all the realms. Listen to what it is telling you.”

The fairy accepted what was happening and started to sob. “This is our haven… Why attack it? What did we ever do to you?”

Zeke took a step forward. “Akachi, don’t you think—?”

“Stay out of this, Shortstack!” Akachi rasped, waving a hand.

Staying put, Zeke watched the scene go on.

Akachi placed a finger in front of the fairy’s bone neck cuff. “We need a way to the Queen’s castle. You’re going to tell us how to get there.”

“Queen Titania is not well. Leave her alone. What do you want with the Queen?”

“It doesn’t concern you. What concerns you is giving us the right directions, and if you try to give us bogus directions or lead us into a trap… Well, do I need to say it? They teach math in your fairy schools, right? What’s 3 minus 11?”

“8,” she said.

“Do you think it’ll be fun for 8 members of the Tainted Generation to cruise on over here, hun?”

“Just go North until you reach the Mana river. You’ll see the castle in the distance if you follow the river. It is the biggest structure in this Realm. Hard to miss. All you have to do is follow it.”

“Thank you, little lady.” Akachi spun a heel back to Zeke. “Sleeping sand, Shortstack.”

Zeke hastily took a pouch from his backpack and tossed it to Akachi. He caught it.

“What are you going to do to me?” the fairy asked.

Grabbing a handful of sand, Akachi ignored her question and blew it into her face. After the puff of dust dissipated, she was sound asleep. Akachi undid his bone spell, picked the fairy up in his arms, and laid her down on her back on the hand-carved sofa.

“Narcissistic,” “vain,” and “gloater” were a couple of things Zeke labeled Akachi, but he never thought he would add “black-hearted” to the list.

“Don’t look at me like that!” Akachi snapped at Zeke. “I had to play the role to get what we needed.” He looked over to Aida, leaning onto the wall as she slept. “I’ll get her…”

Akachi hoisted her up into his arms and exited the household.

A beautiful vista of purple and blue awaited them outside the tiny house. Zeke scanned the mystical surroundings in awe. It was an enchanted forest straight from a storybook. The purple foliage of the trees was shaped like clouds. A sweet fragrance arose from the lilac undergrowth they stood on.

The sapphire night sky with its glowing blue moon was like an oil painting with bizarre clouds melded together to resemble waterfalls.

“Hey!” Akachi hissed at Zeke. “It’s late in this realm, and most fairies don’t move around as much during this time. We need to get to the river before we find another returning from a late-night adventure.”

Zeke nodded and followed Akachi as he led the way. The familiar sounds of insects chirping, buzzing, and flapping their tiny wings (sounding like a football rattle) all made for a relaxing melody.

There was so much Mana emanating from the realm Zeke felt more and more invigorated just by walking through the forest and its tiny houses. It was as if he didn’t go through 2 rounds with Kian earlier in the day.

Aida let out a low growl in her sleep and dug her claws into Akachi’s chest, getting comfier. Akachi almost stumbled over but caught his footing and powered through it.

“Shouldn’t we transport her back?” Zeke asked.

“No, fairies’ magical detection is insane,” Akachi explained. “Just that one trip here probably already alerted some of the higher-ranked fairies. Making another trip and back would raise awareness. We don’t want that until we sneak into the castle. So, we’re stuck with her.”

They continued their journey without saying a word to each other, but loud inner introspection was enough to keep Zeke distracted long enough until they reached the Mana river.

“Whoa, hold up!” Akachi had to call out to stop Zeke from mindlessly walking into the river.

He jumped back and thanked Akachi for getting him out of his head.

“Man, your brain is just always working, huh?” Akachi shook his head and let out a grunt. “Do me a favor and do something about Koshiko’s claw, will ya?”

Zeke kept his breathing steady as he approached the sleeping kitsune and grabbed her fluffy wrist. Luckily, Aida didn’t put up a fight in her sleep, and Zeke was able to pull the claw away from deep within Akachi’s skin.

He grunted as some blood spit out. “Thanks,” he said and put her down by a couple of rocks. Akachi closed his eyes, crouched a little, joined his hands, interlocking his fingers, and did a little breathwork. Then as he started to do hand signs, a piece of bone appeared in front of him. It enlarged, split multiple times, twisted, and connected to one another until it became a row boat.

As he let it fall to the ground, he did it again, this time making a bone paddle. Akachi lifted Aida and put her onto the boat. “Hop on,” he told Zeke.

Zeke hopped onto the side Aida was on as Akachi grabbed the paddle, pushed the boat onto the ultramarine stream, and then jumped in.

As Akachi rowed them forward, Aida curled beside Zeke and rested her head on her lap.

He imagined Ugo threatening to murder him in cold blood.

“So, you know how to row a boat?” Zeke asked.

“Yes, I do, Shortstack. I used to go on crazy boat rides on River Styx with my dude, Charon. He would let me play ferryman for a bit,” he smiled that smug smile of his. “Listen, man, about what happened back with that fairy.”

Zeke raised a hand. “I get it you were doing what was necessary.”

“It’s not just that,” Akachi responded aggressively. “It’s time for us to stop lamenting about who we are. I’m not saying we should intimidate people like that using our titles, but maybe just a little wouldn’t be so bad.” Akachi was losing Zeke. He forced a smile to remain amicable. “I mean, like, we should declare our titles with pride instead of with shame, like we owe the world something. It’s not our fault that the ones before us did all that crap. If we scare people when we do it, then so be it. We’re not just humans, Shortstack! We are extraordinary, and nobody is like us. Nobody should be like us.”

Zeke fixated on him with a worried look and then smiled nervously. Maybe Akachi’s performance back with the fairy wasn’t just a performance.

“I used to be a lot like you, you know,” Akachi said out of nowhere.

Zeke raised a brow but didn’t say anything and let Akachi go on. Then, he did something that almost had him fall out of the boat.

“Spanish was my first language,” Akachi said in perfect Spanish and went on. “I’m from Equatorial Guinea.” He switched back to English. “I was a social outcast. Afraid to voice my opinions, thinking that everybody was better than me, hating myself… but unlike you, I was very chubby. I didn’t get along with my family, so when my Mana Pores opened up on my 14th birthday, it saved me.”

Zeke thought about how that was the same age Violet’s Mana Pores opened.

“I worked hard to understand all the ins and outs of my magic. My specialty. But I kept it all to myself,” he said and stopped rowing. They stationed in the middle of the river as Akachi looked sternly into Zeke’s eyes. “One day, I was exploring the forest for some herbs and encountered a sick man. It was an easy job, patched him back to health, nothing to it, but the man was actually Oshosi, an Orisha god of hunting.” Akachi looked up at the sapphire sky, drowning in his memories. “He was amazed by my talent and asked more about me. I think that was the first time I felt someone thought I was special.” he clenched his jacket. “It felt good, so I told him I was one of the Tainted Generation. I told him I was the Physician of the Deities.

“Oshosi took me back to the realm of the orisha and insisted that I help cure other gods who were inflicted with strange ailments. And I did it all without breaking a sweat! I was lavished with all the cool shit the gods had to offer.”

“What about your family?” Zeke asked.

Akachi frowned. “What about them? I ditched them. Were you not paying attention? I was hanging out with gods! Gods were treating me like I was a god! It was wonderful!” he boasted. “I learned why deities nowadays were weak. They’ve been weakened due to the downturn of worship and shrines. Thus more diseases popped up.”

“So, no goodbye note or anything to your family?”

“Don’t focus on that and focus on the cool part of the story, Shortstack.” Akachi started rowing again. “After getting bored with the Orisha, I traveled to other lands and treated Egyptian gods, Hindu gods, Shinto gods, where I met Aida, Norse gods, and finally… the Greek,” he grinned.

“Wait, you could travel to other Realms even before the Seal was broken?”

“Yeah, Shortstack,” Akachi responded. “I met Wade at one of Dionysus’ parties. Man, those were the days….”

“Just a haze of drugs, sex, and alcohol, right?” Zeke said lamely.

“You need to live, Shortstack. Next thing you know, you’re going to be old and full of regrets. I wanted to live my life, and I wanted a change to be happy, so,” he flexed his biceps,” I hit the weights!”

Zeke looked down at the river, wondering if it would be okay to vomit into the enchanted water.

“With a new body and mentality, I finally started to get what I wanted from life. And I know what you’re thinking: no, I didn’t use any shortcuts.”

Zeke was thinking about how to get rid of his nausea, but he let the narcissist go on.

“I didn’t use any magic to reach my physique. Unlike Ashlin…”

Zeke perked up.

“Yeah, her whole body’s fake. It’s a Container she made herself. I don’t think that should come as a surprise to you,” Akachi said. “It doesn’t matter what she eats or if she exercises. Her unbelievable body will stay the same.”

“I wonder if that has something to do with Gill….” Zeke said under his breath.

“What does Gill have to do with it?”

Zeke flinched in frustration, realizing he didn’t comment to himself quietly enough. There was no point trying to hide it; Akachi’s wide-eyed look said it all. He was going to endlessly pry about it.

“Look, don’t tell anybody, okay?” Zeke stopped to think and said, “but if you do, you didn’t hear it from me!”

“What is it, Shortstack?”

“Ashlin likes Gill.”

Akachi dropped the paddle into the river.