[She is waking up!] I heard the voice of an unfamiliar woman.

I groaned and looked around, trying to orient myself as my sight was filled with canvas held up by dead wood supports. I had already seen the wooden polls from a distance some time before. I was aware of this. But now, in some strange way, seeing it up close felt the same to me as seeing a human corpse. It filled me with a great deal of discomfort just to see it.

It was definitely not a pleasant sight as I was just waking up and still in a state of confusion. I didn’t even know where I was, but the first thing I wanted to do was get away.

[Hey, hey! It’s Ok, little one.] The strange woman said as she put a hand on my shoulder. I grabbed her arm to push the hand aside. [Aaaah!] The woman cried out in pain and doubled over so much that the top of her head was pressed into my eyes.

I pulled back my hand as though it was burned as I realized I was hurting her with my grip. Really? How?

[Asa, stop it!] A strong male voice yelled a second too late.

It took my already confused brain several seconds to recall the visions of Rolwen a year ago tossing around the kids latching on to him like they were rag dolls, and to recall the fact that we had an absurd level of physical strength that allowed us to leap 4 times our body height.

That’s right, these bodies are strong. Far stronger than the local people here. Tia had said that it had something to do with our spirit energy.

Speaking of Tia… [Asa!] My twin sister said, leaping up from her position sitting in the center of the tent and running over toward me.

[Whahhh…?] I said in a state of confusion.

‘Tiaren told us, you were bitten by some kind of snake while you were having the outworlder lead me around. She healed you, so the external damage was recovered, but it seems like the poison was still inside your veins.’ I heard Sagle’s telepathic voice.

What? No such thing had happened. Oh! Right!

About the same time my mind caught up and realized Tia had covered for me, said twin sister jumped up on the mattress of deer skin and wolf pelts next to me and got her face close to my ear. “Don’t worry, Eirlathion has a spell that can heal her.” She whispered.

What? Ok, I have to get my head in order. I feel like I just woke up from anesthesia after a surgery, and now everyone is just coming at me all at once.

I quickly took in my surroundings again, now that I’d had a second to start orienting myself. There was the woman crouched down in pain and cradling her arm in front of me. She looked like one of the ones who greeted us, the one who was helping the old woman who seemed to be the tribe’s leader.

In the middle of the tent, there was Levin and Rolwen. It looked like they must have been sitting along with Tia, eagerly awaiting my recovery.

On the far side of the room, our mother sat there alone, watching us with eyes that said she really did not know what to think about what was going on. She just looked lost and afraid. Looking at her though, the fear looked like it was more internal than external. Self-doubt would be the term I would use.

Perhaps that can be taken as a good sign.

I could sense the energy flavors of the guys, Rimir, Eirlathion, Sagle, and Mr. Adderson, from outside. Mr. Adderson and Eirlathion were closer to the tent opening, but not close enough that I had line of sight on them. Rimir was approaching though.

Alright. Properly oriented to my surroundings, I did my best to put the pieces together about what had happened. Well, it was actually kind of obvious. I’d even had the thought while I was in that crazy dream world. I had passed out while walking with everyone. That really must have given them quite the scare.

So far, my dream visits from that demon have only been emotionally disturbing to me personally. This time, he had decided to make a big stink of it at the worst time possible. And, what’s more, it ended just as suddenly and without warning as it had begun. That “truth” sword had just gotten to the end of one of it’s scenes, and suddenly I was waking up to all of this.

That bastard definitely did it on purpose, just to cause as much trouble as possible. It was like being on the receiving end of a really nasty prank.

At some point, Rimir had entered the tent, and he was helping the woman out as she was still clutching her injured arm. [There, do not worry. We will get this healed.] He said. [You need to watch out with these children. They have unbelievably strong spirits for the age they are.]

The woman nodded and looked over her shoulder toward me, and she gave a pained but re-assuring smile before allowing herself to be escorted out of the large tent.

At around the same time, my mind started rolling back to the visions that sword had shown me. Of Tiaren’s past life. Having her brother die and be brought back to life by her power. Going to the underworld with him. Watching him die as his divinity dwindled. And then…

“Asa, are you Ok.” Tia asked.

I sighed. “That damned demon.” I muttered under my breath as I forcefully banished the thoughts in my mind. “Just more of his games.” I said.

“Asa…” Tia said in a very worried voice. “We need to have that talk.” She said, having switched to a very firm tone that would accept no argument.

I quietly nodded my head. “Not here.” I said, and then glanced up at the wooden tent poles again. I wasn’t sure exactly why I found them so unsettling. I had encountered dead wood absolutely everywhere one would look back on Earth, and I had no problem seeing it from a distance. Up close like this though, it felt like the tent might as well be supported by human bones.

“They have no spirits.” Tia said. “That must be it. I guess you probably got used to sensing the spirits of all the plants you had communicated with.”

My twin nodded her head in a manner almost mirroring my own form a short time ago and then stood up. “Come on.” She said, and helped me to my feet.

“Wait.” I said, and then looked across to the forlorn looking woman on the other side of the tent.

Tia glanced her direction as well. She looked back and nodded at me with a resolute look on her face. Levin and Rolwen caught on immediately to what was going on and immediately skittered aside, somehow managing to look sheepish and incredibly interested at the same time.

My twin sister and I walked through the parted duo and approached our mother. She jumped when she noticed our destination. We stopped when we saw that she was starting to get nervous, which was a lot farther from her position than I would have liked. We only made it just barely over the half-way point.

‘Mother.’ I said, using the fey telepathy I had only recently picked up by example. I knew every other fey in the area would be able to overhear us, but the Hidan who we were supposed to keep our maturity a secret from understood elven and mother did not understand English. So, this was the only option that would allow me to communicate what I wanted to.

‘Thank you for staying with me when I was sick. I know it is hard to know what to do with a daughter like me, but it means a lot to me that you were here when I woke up.’

I kept watching her for several long moments after saying this. She was looking back at us, still somewhat reminding me of a nervous cat, but now one that was starting to see that the thing it was afraid of is not such an immediate threat. I wanted to cross the rest of the distance between me and her right now, to sit in her lap and bury my head in her shoulder. However, I could name off the top of my head at least three very big reasons why she was very well within her rights to be terrified of us.

With things in their current state, I concluded it was probably best not to rush things. I had just taken an important step. It was painful, but I was going to have to leave things here for today.

I felt my sister squeeze my hand reassuringly. Almost as one, we both turned toward the exit and proceeded out, Tia leading the way with me trailing behind.

‘Tiaren and I have to talk about something as sisters.’ I said to all the fey members of our party listening. ‘Mr. Adderson, can you relay this to the boys? English is the only language that only you three could listen in on, so I would like you to make sure they stay here.’

‘I will stand watch nearby.’ Sagle said. ‘Eirlathion and Rimir have to tend to Sarana.’

Sarana, huh? So that was her name. Poor girl. Looks like I have already traumatized another caretaker.

Before we even got five steps out of the tent, me and Tia were suddenly swept up in the arms of an alien looking white-haired man. Sagle’s true changeling form. I still hadn’t adjusted to having him in this form, and looking into his gigantic black eyes was unsettling.

‘Even if we are playing a baby roll, we are still old enough to walk on our own.’ I said in a grouchy tone.

‘Yes, but you are still recovering from being poisoned. Something which I am going to have to give you a brief lecture for while we are away.’ He said, with a conspiratorial smile that told me instantly he had seen through Tia’s lie. Hoping to score some brownie points by making Rimir and Eirlathion think he’s already covered that part for them? Or maybe he’s fishing for information. Either way, there was something far more disturbing about what he had just said to us.

The telepathic language of the fey is not just communication in mental words. It also relayed emotions and underlying intentions. However, when he had said that to me just now, it had the feel of someone who completely believed I really had been poisoned and that I really was in need of a lecture. The intent behind it even spoke to him fully intending to make good on his word.

In other words, he had just lied using a language I had, for a short time, thought it would be impossible to lie with.

With a mere two sentences worth of communication, this man had just illustrated to me that while I may have managed to pull one over on him once, I was still completely outclassed by him when it came to matters of this world.

And considering he’s an intelligence agent, I was under no illusion that he had let this little tid-bit of information slip on accident.