Life is weird. First you wanna grow up, then you want to be a kid again.
- Unknown
BookShipper13: You're right, there is a reason! I may or may not have figured it out yet... Jk. I know what I'm doing. I think XD
Bookworm Queen: Thanks so much for spending your time on this :) It means a lot. Let me know if you've written any fics, and I'll check out your stuff :)
"So, what's your ability?" Aeron challenged Reese, daunted by her sudden insight into his own life but refusing to concede unless absolute proof was given.
Reese gave him her fiercest glower yet.
"So you can't prove it," Aeron said triumphantly.
Reese's face grew increasingly redder and redder. "That's what you think," she said spitefully.
Aeron shrugged and crossed his arms behind his head, lounging on the warm roof. "Whatever."
Reese grabbed his wrist roughly and hauled him up from his lying position. Her grip was surprisingly strong for a girl her age. "Come with me," she commanded.
Aeron shrugged, less certainly this time. "Whatever."
She led him through a trapdoor in the roof down into the main house, where she took him back to the main hall.
"Crap - we're not going back to that weird white egg-shaped room again, are we?" Aeron felt his stomach churn as he thought of going back and facing all the people who wanted to convince him that he was an elf.
"It's not a 'weird white egg-shaped room,'" Reese corrected, "it's called Watchward Heath. Also, yes - we're going there. There're some people you need to meet."
"People that will convince me that I'm an elf?" Aeron questioned, but Reese was already climbing up the tree.
He hurried after her and they completed the light leap without complications.
"See how well things work when you follow instructions?" Reese emphasized when they arrived intact at Watchward Heath.
"It worked out fine last time," Aeron countered.
Reese rolled her eyes. "You are unbelievable," she muttered, leading him across the room.
They wound their way through the numerous desks and odd equipment worked by different adults completely immersed in their work. Reese led Aeron to the far corner of the room and stopped in front of a small glass wall with foggy panes. Reese knocked on the glass twice, smacked it hard with the palm of her hand, then kicked it with both feet. A section of the glass immediately slid away, revealing a small, immaculate area inside where a woman with the longest blonde hair Aeron had ever seen worked with several small gadgets at once, slapping one, clicking buttons on the other, and apparently making sense of their overlapping beeps and buzzes.
Reese grabbed Aeron's arm to keep him from walking toward the woman and disturbing her deep concentration.
There was a long silence as the woman muttered to herself, fidgeted with the small triangular devices, and finally picked up a pen and scribbled frantically on a sheet of red paper like a high schooler taking notes for an exam.
When the gadgets ceased their noise and their glow faded to a dull green, the woman put down her pen with a sigh of relief and turned to see who had entered.
From the back, the woman's floor-length hair was her only remarkable feature, but when she turned to greet them, Aeron realized that she was an exceptional beauty. Her wide eyes were a deep cerulean blue, accented by her long, dark eyelashes, and her heart-shaped lips were pursed, adding an air of thoughtfulness to her demeanor. "Hello, Reese," she said softly, carefully removing a large pair of violet spectacles and setting them on the desk.
"Hi Amarinda. This is Aeron," Reese stated, gesturing for Aeron to say something in greeting.
"Um, hi," Aeron stammered.
Amarinda's gorgeous eyes widened in surprise and she rose from her seat, crossing the small room to shake his hand in a more formal greeting. "Aeron, I've heard so much about you," she said gently, pressing his hand carefully and releasing it.
"You have?" he asked incredulously.
"Amarinda is our main code breaker and communicator," Reese explained proudly, wrapping her arm around her affectionately. "Also my best friend's mom."
"I helped coordinate your coming to the elven world," Amarinda explained. A small frown creased her forehead. "I'm sorry to say it wasn't my most successful work."
Aeron frowned at yet another mention of elves, and Reese frowned at him.
"Speaking of the elven world," Reese said pointedly, "has Uncle Tam gotten back yet?"
Amarinda nodded. "Eleven minutes and twenty seconds ago," she answered precisely, checking one of the multiple armbands adorning her wrists.
"Has he already reported?" Reese asked, a wide grin on her face.
"I believe he is reporting to Marella right now," Amarinda responded, her grin mirroring Reese's.
Aeron remembered Dex mentioning someone named Tam being Marella's boyfriend, and suddenly their strange looks made sense. He rolled his eyes. Girls.
Echoing Amarinda's goodbye, Reese pulled Aeron back into the large room and led him to a small door in the wall, which turned out to be some sort of elevator.
"She was nice," Aeron mentioned, for lack of something better to say while the elevator rattled down into the unknown.
"I'm glad she has your approval," Reese responded in such an ambiguous tone that Aeron couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not.
"What was she doing with those weird gadget thingies?" Aeron inquired.
Reese sighed and slid to the ground as if preparing herself for a long discussion, and Aeron followed suit.
"Amarinda is a Telcommunicate, which is basically a Technopath who specializes in communication." Reese saw the blank look on Aeron's face and elaborated. "So her job is to create a new, unbreakable code every few weeks, keep in touch with all of our spies, receive and decode any incoming transmissions, keep our schedule running like clockwork, and crack into the Neverseen's communication system in her spare time."
Aeron blinked.
"She's the most talented person in the Technopathy department - besides my dad, of course. He's in charge of the whole branch."
Aeron turned this new information over in his mind. "So… those weird beeping triangles were like communication devices?" He leaned forward, suddenly interested. "Who was she communicating with?" A new thought occurred to him, and he wondered why he'd never thought of it before. "Why the heck does she need to communicate with people?"
"Uh, duh. This is a spy organization. That's kind of our job."
"But what exactly is she communicating?"
"Um, dates, times, places - everything our spies need to know to do their job." She shrugged self-importantly. "Of course, I can't tell you any specifics. They are highly classified."
"Ok, so… is this Tam dude a spy?"
Reese eyed him.
"What did I say?" he protested. He was getting kind of tired of this girl.
She crossed her arms, annoyed. "Don't call him 'Tam dude.' That's disrespectful. And besides, he's practically my uncle."
Aeron rolled his eyes. "What does him being your uncle have to do with needing to respect him?"
Reese had to concede that point. "But still, he's like, the hero of the Elven World. Literally all the girls at school are in love with him."
Aeron made a face. "Gross."
"I know! They used to be cuckoo over my dad, but that was before he was married, obviously. Tam's still on the market." She wiggled her eyebrows at him.
"Please stop."
She laughed. "All I'm saying is, don't say Tam 'dude.'" She thought for a moment. "Also, yes, he is a spy. Our best one. You'll see why in a moment." She grinned. "You'll be so surprised, you'll probably pee your pants."
Aeron was getting tired of her surprises.
The door behind them opened into a narrow marble corridor. Reese jumped to her feet and offered her hand to Aeron, who politely declined.
"Boys," she muttered, leading him down the hallway. She stopped at a door made out of black stone and shoved it open, grunting with the effort.
Peering around the half-open door, Aeron saw a red-haired young woman locked in an embrace with a young man.
"Um, Reese, should we come back?" he whispered, uncomfortable.
Reese rolled her eyes. "They can do their canoodling later." She knocked impatiently and coughed loudly. The effect was immediate.
Marella practically jumped away from Tam, her cheeks a fiery red. The young man turned to face them, frowning slightly.
Aeron frowned in response, slightly cowed by the man's demeanor. Over six and a half feet tall, the man's sleeveless black tunic showed off his impressive physique - and an abundance of scars. Raised scars covered his arms to the shoulder, some reaching up to brush his neck. A shock of silver hair complemented his ink-black hair, and the lines on the man's forehead showed that he wasn't as young as he appeared.
Tam stared at Aeron and Aeron stared back.
"Uncle Tam, this is Aeron," Reese announced.
"So I gathered," he said, his face unreadable.
Some of Reese's enthusiasm died, but she trucked on. "So… yeah. Aeron, this is Uncle Tam. Uncle Tam, this is Aeron."
"You already said that," Aeron pointed out.
She shot a glare at him. "So, Aeron doesn't believe in elves, so I was wondering if you could maybe demonstrate how stupid he's being?"
"You mean I should tie him up until he decides to change his mind?" Tam murmured, eyes locked with Aeron's.
Aeron held his gaze.
Tam stared at Aeron a moment longer. Then he turned to Marella, and the look they shared was so unreadable and adult that Aeron wanted to smack them.
Tam turned to Reese. "Of course," he said simply.
Then he disappeared.