My mind was going a mile a minute. Did the faded text mean I could lie and kill people? I wasn’t sure if that was a ‘good’ change. It was definitely more convenient but better? I wasn’t sure. I’ll test it later… lying first. Not like I would go shive a man to prove I can murder people. I was pretty sure they weren’t the only changes though. It was hard to describe but I felt more powerful. I brutally stomped on the megalomania-like thoughts that coursed through my mind. It felt like I could take on the world… well maybe a small city… and win.

Right now I had to deal with stripping in front of Bella and Amy. Currently, they were looking at me as if I had gone crazy. “I felt something crawling on me and I was worried …” I was too nervous to tell them. What if they rejected me? They were still staring at me. To hell with it! With a nervous chuckle, I began to explain what happened. How the worms disappeared but then the blood came to life. I didn't leave out any details and as I was explaining I saw Amy’s eyes flicker purple as she scanned my body. 

Bella was the first to speak, “It’s not important. Let’s get Lily back.”

Amy very carefully pried the necklace out of the kid’s hands and with a nod said, “I should be able to track her with this.”

I smiled. It was good to have friends. I spent all day thinking about different plans to attack these things but first I needed to know if I could heal or destroy these worms without killing the host. If I couldn’t, Lily might not be able to be saved. Of course, Amy had to find her first or all my plans would be useless.

***

In the dark of the night, a heavy fog began to spread out around the Capital. I marveled at Bella and Victoria’s handy work. Because of the cities protection, it took them over six hours to get it to spread that far and even then it was only because it wasn’t deemed as ‘harmful’.
We, or I should say, Amy had found where Lily was. I had expected her to be in the trading hall I had gone to but Amy found her located in a huge mansion. Like all the richer areas, getting in was a bit troublesome so I had left most of my friends behind. They couldn’t fly like I could and getting there on ground was going to be impossible. We would never get through the regular check points much less the people infected by worms that walked the streets.

Out of everybody, only Victoria was able to fly. Well flying was a bit of an exaggeration on my part. She could manifest a storm cloud that she held onto for dear life as it flew behind me. Her pale face vividly displayed her lack of enthusiasm for this mode of transportation. I was going to leave her behind, since she had been casting for hours, but she insisted to come along as backup.
She and I flew within the mist. I was pretty sure they knew at least I was coming. They had brought Lily’s necklace to show they had her and they must have known we could use it to track her. The fact that they didn’t block Amy from doing so meant they wanted me to come.

***

Amy had given me a rough description of the building and some key features to look for. We flew into the night hopefully without being seen. I knew that the skies were monitored for monsters and other things. The surveillance was mostly centered on the city walls to prevent monsters from ever getting in, but what the rich had was anybody’s guess. Even with all of Amy’s descriptions, it took me over an hour to find the building I was looking for. Crossing my fingers, I put my plan into action.

***

Inside the mansion a group of guards led a blonde haired girl into the main room. She was wearing nothing but a school uniform. Her white wings were bent at unnatural angles and her uniform told a tale of the fight she had put up before being brought here. She struggled but said nothing, even when they threw her at the feet of a bloated man. He stood within the main room. In a plush chair behind him I saw Lily. She laid within it as trussed up as a chicken ready to go into the oven. “So you're Alice and you have my fruit. If you tell me where it is, I will let your friend go.” He jiggled as he pointed at me.

I took a closer look at Lily and saw a few worms crawling on her skin. I frowned but didn’t say anything. He didn't make any moves or gestures but all of a sudden more guards came inside and surrounded them. I saw at least three different uniforms. I’ve seen at least two of those uniforms before; one was the Duke's soldiers and the other was the schools. I understood the schools but what were the Duke’s doing here? I made a mental note to deal with him if I survived this.

Even so the room was only so big and after another dozen men came in it began to feel cramped. The bloated man began to frown, his skin undulating. The girl with the bent wings watched him with her shining green eyes. Her smile getting bigger and bigger. “What? What did you do?” he screamed at her.

Her smile continued to grow until her mouth began to rip apart. Her teeth, sharp as blades, came into sight. She leaped onto the bloated man as her hands morphed into vicious claws.

***

“Ok, the ‘shifter’ has been taken inside. I can see Lily is safe but surrounded. We will need to cause a distraction so they aren’t thinking about her. I am ordering the ‘Colony’ and the ‘Chittering Devils’ to attack now. Kill as many as you can but stay safe,” I told Victoria. Even that speech was taxing as I lost my concentration and was almost overwhelmed by the thousands of simple thoughts the Devils were constantly sending. I sent them the command to ‘eat’ and felt their glee as the tiny humanoids began swarming over the guards.

The “Colony’ wasn’t here but across the city, at the shop where I first discovered the worms. Its spindly legs towered over the building. Its main body was like a saint tear drop shape with tiny holes covering its body. It had no eyes, nose or mouth. Instead a steady stream of fine threads were spewed into the air blending into the mist. They would float until they hit a living thing and then burrow inside it and begin to expand around the nervous system of whatever unfortunate creature it hit. Whatever was infected would then link to the Colony and become its eyes, ears and, if needed, its weapons. The worms weren’t the only parasites in this world and I would use mine to stop theirs. It was really just a distraction. I was trying to pull their attention away from the fight in the mansion.

I gave my summons basic orders and moved to save Lily. I was going to make them regret ever touching her.