There was a heavy silence in my living room. I was sitting in my comfy chair, and since the girls were still on the sofa, we actually had to bring in a wooden chair from the kitchen so that Josh would have a place where he could sit. Once we all got comfortable (or at least as comfortable as we could get under the circumstances), I lightly cleared my throat to break the ice.

“So, I guess you want me to explain what the hell is going on, right?” I asked as cordially as I could manage.

“Yes,” Josh nodded, but then his eyes seemed uncertain for a moment and he added, “If you are well enough to talk.”

“Oh, I’m fit as a fiddle,” I told him with a reassuring smile. “Thanks for the concern.”

I was tempted to say he looked worse than I did, but I refrained. In that moment of pause he clasped his hands in his lap and said; “You told me that once I get ‘roped into this mess’, you would finally spill the beans. I think I am very much roped into…” He paused for a moment, looking for the right words, but in the end only let out a feeble groan and settled on, “Into this weird-ass nightmare.”

“Now, now,” I soothed him with a raised hand a smile. “It’s not that bad.”

He gave me a flat look and then crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“Dude, I got kidnapped from my own bathroom by a literal demon, I was tied up and gagged with invisible rope, then I was nearly dragged to literal hell until the people I thought were my friends showed up, turned out to be…” He paused again, but eventually he just let out another groan instead. “The point is, my reality is literally falling apart, and you are telling me it’s ‘not that bad’.”

I ignored the barbs in his voice and answered as evenly as I could manage.

“First off, let me correct a few misconceptions: You were kidnapped by Abyssals, not demons.”

“What’s the difference?”

“I’ll be damned if I know, but apparently there is one,” I answered nonchalantly, which earned me another flat look, which I once again ignored. “Secondly, you were not going to be taken to ‘literal hell’, but the Abyss.”

“Again, what’s the difference?”

“Oh, I can actually answer that: Hell doesn’t exist, but the Abyss does. It’s something like a pocket dimension copy of this island, and it’s something of a prison to the Abyssals. But anyways,” I raised my voice before he could interrupt again, “As for your third misconception: the people who saved you are still very much your friends.”

Josh visibly twitched for a moment. He gave me a dubious look at first, but after a few seconds of silence he slowly exhaled, and I could see the tension leave his body like an overwound spring finally finding release. He closed his eyes for a moment and then gave me a look that was decidedly less dubious.

“I get it,” he said softly. “I’m listening.”

“Good!” I answered with a grin as I leaned forward. “I’m glad we cleared that up. However…” I stood up at this point and gave a meaningful look to the maid by the couch. “Before we continue, since these are confidential matters that could land Josh in quite the right pickle, I'd like to ask everyone not directly related to leave the house.”

After a moment of pause, Melinda cleared her throat.

“I presume that refers to me.”

“Indeed,” I answered.

“Wait!” the princess interrupted with a glare that I haven’t seen on her face in a while. “Melinda is my chambermaid since I was eight! She is completely trustworthy!”

I gave her my best imitation of Josh’s brand of flat looks and shook my head.

“This is not about trustworthiness. While I'm sure she would not gossip about what I am about to say, she is still part of the Dracis family.”

“So am I!”

“Yes,” I answered while raising my hands to indicate she should calm down. “However, you are the heiress. You can say no if, say, a nosy old butler told you to expose everything said in this room. She can’t.”

The princess opened her mouth to reply, but before she could say anything, the maid took a step towards the door before she turned on her heels and gave us a small bow.

“I understand. I shall return to the mansion and tell Meister von Fraenir about your recovery.”

I gave her a small smile and an appreciative nod in return.

“Thank you for your cooperation and give my greetings to the old man.”

Melinda returned the nod and then faced the princess.

“Milady, I shall go ahead. I’ll make sure your dinner will be ready by the time you return.”

“Y-yes.” The princess answered by reflex while seemingly dazed by the maid’s decisiveness. I waited for Melinda to grab her bag and leave, and I only let out a pent-up breath after I heard the door click.

“Well, that’s one down,” I said as I stood up.

“One down?” Judy repeated after me while looking over us and pointing at the princess. “Do you want her to leave too?”

“What?” the blonde girl snapped back at her. “If anyone should leave, it’s you!”

“Hush,” I interrupted them while gesturing for them to be quiet, then I walked up to Josh and whispered, “Could you stand up for a moment? I need the chair.”

“Um… sure?” he responded a touch uncertainly as he got onto his feet.

I grabbed said chair and, while being followed by three pairs of skeptical eyes, I moved it to the corner of the room. In said corner, just under the ceiling, floated a small, softly glowing green eyeball. Well, not a physical one (that would have been creepy), but more of a magical… something. I was still not certain of the terminology, but I've seen enough magic lately to recognize the glow. It was apparently another unique ability, as others weren’t able to see magic, or at least not the way I could. Either way, the stupid thing has been bothering me for a while, but I couldn’t do anything about it while Melinda was still around. Call me paranoid, but I decided to start playing my cards close to my chest, so the fewer people knew about my unusual abilities, the better, especially since even I didn’t know how they worked.

But I digress. At this point I positioned the chair just under the curiously swiveling translucent eyeball, then using another of my currently still unexplored abilities, I took a deep breath and extended two fingers before I made a quick cutting motion through the eye. There was a numbing tingle on my skin when I made contact, then it faded as my fingers passed through the eyeball, and as they did so, it disintegrated into green smoke. After a few short seconds even that dissipated, with no trace left behind. I let out another breath and got off the chair, returning it to Josh, who was giving me a weird look.

He wasn’t the only one, as the princess was looking around the room with a strange expression on her face.

“What did you do?” she asked while still fidgeting. “I got goosebumps all of a sudden.”

“Still hush,” I repeated myself, which made her cover her mouth for some reason. I gestured for everyone to stay put, then I left the living room to systematically check every part of the house, which took about ten minutes. The results were two more green magical eyeball things, seven tiny balls of blue fire, and something that looked like three oscillating white rings turning around each other like a gyroscope. After I got rid of all of them I returned to the living room and then immediately I fell back onto my comfy chair with a tired sigh.

After a few seconds of awkward silence the princess (who, for some reason, was still covering her mouth) asked the question that seemed to be on all of their minds:

"What were you doing just now?"

I shrugged my shoulders and answered, “I just dispelled some magical surveillance. Or at least I guess that’s what they were.”

“Wait, since when can you do that? And how?”

I raised my palms once again, and after she quieted down, I used them to point at my increasingly confused friend on the chair next to us.

“We'll discuss this in detail, but I think we should get Josh up to speed first.” For a moment she looked like she might object, but then she glanced over to Josh and nodded her head. Following that, I also turned towards him and clapped my hands to punctuate the change of topics. “Now then, here’s the footnotes version of this whole mess.” I paused for a moment and glanced at Judy before I added, “You may interrupt if I miss something.”

“Mm.” Judy mumbled with a nod while she fished her phone out of her pocket and began poking at it.

“What about me?” the princess interrupted with an indignant frown, but I simply ignored her. “Hey, don’t just ignore me!”

I let out a short sigh and nodded towards her with, “Naturally you can do that too.”

Elly puffed up her cheeks in an admittedly adorable display that didn’t really fit her age while mumbling something about not being an afterthought, but by that time I returned my attention to Josh, so I didn’t really pay attention. I took a deep breath and began.

“So, let’s start at the beginning, shall we? First off, as you might've noticed, there’s a bunch of supernatural stuff in this world. You didn’t notice it, because there is a masquerade in effect.”

“Masquerade?” Josh interrupted as he masterfully raised a single eyebrow. Damn, he made it look so easy. Anyways, back to the exposition:

“Simply put, the supernatural power blocs are trying to keep a low profile because of various reasons. These power blocs are the Magi, the Celestials, the Draconians, and the Abyssals, along with a few minor factions. In detail: The Celestials are definitely-not-angels with a bad reputation for manipulating people. Then we have the Magi, who are bureaucratic magical researcher types who keep the other factions from running amok. Next are the Draconians, who are aristocratic dragon people with more money than common sense.”

“Hey!” At this point, the princess interrupted me with a scowl that was completely ruined by her still puffed cheeks, so I smoothly ignored her once again.

“Now where was I? Oh, right. Finally, we have the Abyssals, who are definitely not demons exiled into the Abyss which, as I previously explained, is not hell. Any questions so far?”

Josh immediately raised his hand like we were in school, but caught himself halfway, and instead he crossed his arms in front of his chest once more.

“I have one. Draconians can turn into lizard-people, right?”

“It’s called the draconic form,” the princess interjected, still pouting.

Josh uncertainly glanced up at her and then back to me before adding, “What she said.”

“Right. They get scales and horns and tails and the whole package.”

“Like I did that night,” Josh muttered before his eyebrows joined into a frown. “Does that mean that I am a… Draconian too?”

“Right, that’s a good question!” Elly interrupted again, and she finally stopped puffing her cheeks so I could take her seriously. “I wanted to ask about that too!”

I raised my hand and waved at her to calm down before I spoke again.

“No, it is a bit more complicated. Let’s leave that for a little later. First, we have to discuss how this all relates to you.”

“I suppose,” Josh conceded after a bit of grumbling.

“So,” I exclaimed while clapping my hands. “First off, I suppose you already know this, but let’s say it out loud for the sake of clarity: The princess is a Draconian, along with her family and the maid who just vacated the premises. Angie is a Celestial, as you probably already guessed from the wings and all, while the class rep is a Magi. As for Snowy, by process of elimination, she is obviously an Abyssal.”

“And you are?” Josh interrupted me once again.

“I am Leonard Dunning,” I answered reflexively, earning a skeptical look from my friend.

“I know that. I was asking which of these… what did you call them, 'power blokes'? Anyways, which one do you belong to?”

I paused for a moment, ignoring the princess’s intrigued looks, and theatrically rolled my eyes.

“Damned if I know,” I answered with a bit of self-derision. “You of all people should know better than to ask something like that.”

“What are you…?” He began, but then realization dawned on him and he let out a soft ‘oh’ in the end. “Right, I forgot about your… erm… condition.” He finished sheepishly while scratching the back of his neck, only to realize what he was doing and hastily crossing his arms in front of his chest again.

“Condition?” the princess echoed him with a raised eyebrow of her own, and I quickly brushed her off by muttering:

“It’s irrelevant for now, I'll tell you later.”

"You will?" This time the surprised question came from my assistant, but now it was her turn to be ignored.

“Anyways!” I raised my voice to get the discussion back on track. “You're probably wondering why all of these supernatural people are crowding around you, right? The reason is a prophecy. Or rather, a bunch of vague prophecies that probably apply to you.”

“Right, you told me there was more than one,” Elly muttered as she also began looking at me at least as attentively as Josh.

“Yes, it’s as I told you. Each of the factions has a prophecy about Josh. In no particular order: The Draconians have a prophecy about a human restoring the old bloodline, meaning it would allow them to be more like dragons with all the benefits. The Celestials’ prophecy is about their dear leader from a few thousand years ago being reincarnated as a human, coming back and ushering in a new golden age for them. The Abyssals’ prophecy, on the other hand, is about a human who can absorb the power of the Abyss, and in doing so would allow their own dear leader to come back and wage war on the rest of the world again. As for the mages… well, I haven’t asked the class rep yet, so I don’t know, but I would bet they have something similar too.”

“A moment,” Judy abruptly interjected, and a few seconds later my phone let out a jingle again. I glanced at it and then told her with my eyes how she should continue the explanation while I read it. She didn’t seem too thrilled by the idea (or maybe she just couldn’t read eyes), so in the end, I had to do it myself.

“So,” I began after skimming through the text, “According to what my taciturn assistant discovered while I was sleeping from some really old documents in the Dracis library: although they didn't say anything about the mages' prophecy beyond the fact that it exists, we know that the knights with the long name who are the sworn enemies of the Draconians also have a prophecy. It’s about a young man who would pull out some very elaborately named magical sword from some equally magical stone and then go and beat down all the bad, bad dragons. Kinda clichéd, if you ask me, but if that is what’s written there, then that’s the prophecy.”

I put down my phone, only to notice that Josh had raised his hand again. I gave him the go, so he let it down and asked, “So… you say all five of those are about me?”

I involuntarily raised my brows derisively at the question, then I quickly forced my face into neutral gear and chided myself for being insensitive. It should be laudable that Josh could keep up with the conversation so far without freaking out on us; I shouldn't fault him for not yet realizing just how absolutely bonkers this world was. That said, I cleared my throat and answered, “Yes.”

“All of them!?” Surprisingly enough, the question didn’t come from him, but from the princess. “You mean, all of those are really about him?”

“Yes,” I repeat.

“But… they contradict each other!”

“Obviously," I answered with a shrug.

"So… um…" Elly stammered for a while before she gave up. "Okay, so how does that work?"

"Well," I began while focusing on Josh again, "In practice, it means all the prophecies are practically meaningless." Looking at their confused expressions, I slowly shook my head, straightened my back, and linked my fingers in my best 'all knowing mastermind' impression. "Listen to me. If there was only one prophecy, then we would have a problem. Prophecies, by nature, tend to throw free will right out the window. If that happened, I would be already working on breaking said prophecy to pieces just on principle." I paused and raised a hand, and then slowly opened it. "However, thankfully we have five prophecies, and at least four of them are contradictory. Based on the track record, I guess we can probably go five out of five. This means that for one of them to be true, four of them have to be wrong." Saying so, I closed my hand in a way that only my index finger remained outstretched. "That means that any single prophecy has an 80% chance of being wrong. At that point, either one of them is as good as complete bunk."

"But…" the princess stammered again as she looked at me with a weird expression. "But wouldn't that mean that our prophecy… It's wrong?"

"Wrong? No, not necessary." I told her, which for some reason seemed to immediately reassure her. "Now, when you think of prophecies, you think of ironclad predictions of the future, right? What if we look at them differently? What if all of those prophecies are just possibilities, and depending on your choices, you can fulfill or avoid any of them?"

"Ah!" came a soft exclamation from my assistant at the side, then she stated, "They are routes."

"'Routes'?" Josh repeated after her with a proverbial question mark over his head, but I quickly dismissed him with a wave of my hand.

"It's not important, just terminology Judy and I use," I sent a meaningful look at the girl in question, but she was too busy taking notes, so she didn't react. "So, this actually ties into a previous question. Josh, remember how you turned Draconian that night?"

My fried shuddered and after a momentary pause answered, "How could I forget…"

"Yes, but can you do it now?"

Josh furrowed his brows, then shook his head.

"I have a better question," Elly interrupted us with a raised hand. "How did it happen in the first place?"

"All right, let me explain from the beginning," I said as I reassumed my mastermind pose. "We are clear on the prophecies, right?" Everyone nodded, so I continued. "We are also clear on all of them being bunk, right?" I got another, slightly less enthusiastic nod this time. "However it also means they all have the potential to be true, right?" This time I only got confused looks, so I put extra emphasis on my words. "What I'm saying is that if we presume that Josh can fulfill any of those prophecies, it means he must have the pre-requisites to fulfill each one separately. Out of all of them, the one that I could confirm for sure was the Abyssal one. According to Snowy, on your first meeting you showed a reaction when you made physical contact."

Josh visibly twitched at the mention of 'physical contact', but he remained calm enough to ask, "What does that mean?"

"Well, for a start, the Abyssal prophecy said that their own," I paused and made air quotes with my fingers, "'chosen one' will absorb the power of the Abyss. According to Snowy, that's what happened on your first exchange of bodily fluids. Now, that got me thinking, and while I never had the opportunity to confirm it until the incident, my hunch was right." I paused again, this time not for dramatic effect but to take a huge breath, and then pointed at Josh. "The thing that makes you special is that you can 'absorb' the powers of others. This is the reason why you can fulfill all of their prophecies: so long as you have someone belonging to the supernatural guys next to you supplying you with some kind of bodily fluid, you can become one of them, even if temporarily."

"Combat transformation?" my assistant asked as she glanced up from her notes.

"We'll discuss that later."

"Wait, let me see if I get this straight," Josh interjected. "So I turned into a human dragon because…?"

"Because you were given some of the princess' blood."

"So I need to drink their blood to… transform?"

I stifled a snort and shook my head, "You weren't paying attention. Remember how I told you that Snowy knew you were their chosen one by kissing you?"

"So saliva works too?" Josh blurted out in belated realization, earning him a nod from me.

"Apparently, though you probably need a lot more. You didn't transform on the street when you first met Snowy, right?"

"Right, but… what exactly do you mean by 'a lot more'?"

"Probably a French kiss."

"A… French kiss?"

"Yeah, a vigorous one." Seeing that Josh's ears were getting redder by the second, I couldn't help but want to tease him a bit. "So, for example, if you want to get some fancy angel wings and a halo, all you have to do is get Angie, and then—"

"Stop!" Josh exclaimed, cutting me off. His breathing was strangely ragged. "You keep saying 'probably, probably'. Does that mean you don't know for sure? Why is it me?! Why did all of this happen to me in particular?! Why aren't you telling me that?!"

"Well, we never had the chance to actually experiment with your ability to transform, so I don't actually know yet, but—" I began, but then I noticed the severity of the eyes looking at me. "What?"

"Leo," Josh spoke in a quiet but unusually hard voice. "You didn't really know, did you? You didn't even know if this… this 'transformation' would be permanent or not, and yet you gave me Elly's blood!?"

"Well, excuse me!" I raised my voice in response to his accusing tone. "We were in a tight spot, and if I didn't do that, Snowy would be dead right now. Hell, we might all be dead!"

My words hit Josh like a bucket of cold water and he awkwardly averted his gaze, but then his eyes immediately returned to me, accompanied by a question, "Speaking of which, how's Lili? I haven't seen her since that night."

"She is fine," I told him off-handedly. "She seemed a little rattled, but safe. I'll go and visit her today after we—"

"Hold on for a second!" Elly interrupted me while leaning forward, hands planted firmly on the coffee table between us. "I already asked this, but how do you know that?! You just woke up! Not to mention, you promised you wouldn't go after her!"

"No," I chided her, "I promised I won't do anything stupidly dangerous."

"But—"

"As for how I know, it's a secret, but if you really, really want to know, I can tell you after we finished discussing things with Josh."

"You will?" Judy inquired incredulously from behind her phone.

"Yes." She gave me a weird look, but I refused to elaborate. Instead, I turned back to Josh and inquired, "Any further questions?"