Heiki was first to speak after seeing the memories, shaking her head. 'No. That isn't right.'

'Would you prefer me to fabricate a story you find acceptable?' Venibilles asked meaningfully.

Heiki shot him a threatening glare.

Rachel said, 'I expected more from them. They could have come back, for us.'

Venibilles desperately tried to make them understand. 'I can't speak for them; I'm a child at the end of the day, as are you, but breaking a deal with Lyrai would break the bond between two species that have known each other since before your species even existed. They wanted to even I understood that from a young age—Oh, what's the point, one of them can explain it to you this isn't my duty.'

Zina addressed him calmly. 'Venibilles just relax, they're angry and that's OK, course it is. And they aren't your responsibility, either, if they chose to behave like this then let them, just don't engage. Talking to walls never works.'

'It's not just them!' Venibilles nearly shook in frustration. 'My entire world has been turned upside down my little sister is now an adult with a fate worse than death and no one dares to ask what happened to the one my mother was expecting. I want my father I want my mother and I want to go home!'

It was then that Rachel remembered Venibilles, no matter how mature he seemed or looked, was still a child at heart. Perhaps so was she.

Zina looked at him, feeling his heartbreak. 'You're Serpantha's son, aren't you?'

'Was that not obvious?'

'Well,' Zina begun. 'he went through a lot protecting ya. He ain't gonna let anything bad happen to you, as if that needs to be said. I'm not promising it'll be OK cos even from my understanding it looks bleak but... I dunno, like Heiki and Rachel should've, wait for your father to get back. Someone who knows what they're doin'.'

Venibilles shrugged it off, but appreciated her help. In his opinion, the woman to capture his uncle's heart should know what she was doing. Or maybe Rachel should. Or Heiki, anyone but him – people with experience or knowledge. After all, what did he have? A large ego and inflated muscles. So helpful. He could have laughed at his own inadequacy, and knew in a life or death situation he would be the first to be killed…

Heiki had withdrawn in on herself and muttered at a volume where she could claim to be talking to herself, but she made sure the others heard. 'Did he have any idea what it did to me? Even if he thought I would be fine does he have any idea how I actually was?'

Venibilles tried to answer but couldn't.

'I need people to know who I am Venibilles it's how I thrive and it's wrong but I can admit to being a bad person,' Heiki said, her voice dripping with hurt. 'I would have taken bad recognition but now no one knew who I was, I was just a no one again. I had no one, I was no one, and I knew no one.'

'You had me,' Rachel attempted.

'You're one person. An amazing one but you're one person. I had everything, as did Eric so I've never blamed him for being so bitter and uninterested. I may as well say it given we're all gonna die soon.'

'No we ain't,' Zina interrupted. 'I done that once, never again for a long time thank you. We have nothin' to be scared o'.'

Everyone looked at her curiously, wondering if she had forgotten what was going on.

'We have a lot to be scared of and think about actually,' Venibilles said moping.

'Nought really,' Zina said optimistically. 'What we got? In insane Wizard with a bit of a God Complex, and some nightmarish creatures that dare call themselves Witches. I'm sure we'll be fine lookin' at what we got compared to what we face.'

'I don't want to upset you but how on Earth can you be so happy and optimistic after all that's happened? I mean you found out so many people have been killed since you died, including your own daughter.' Rachel said warily.

'We also have a giant compression of magic which can revive the dead, keep up,' Zina replied, and then turned straight to Venibilles who wasn't coping either. 'Kid, relax, it'll be alright.'

Venibilles breathed heavily for a while. 'I never expected this. I almost wish to have faced the same threat as my sister if it meant having a home for a while longer.'

'You grew up in very unique conditions,' Zina said, trying to reassure him. 'Which is hardly surprising, there seems to be nothing nor no one in your family that is normal or mundane, eh?' Venibilles smiled, so Zina continued. 'but those conditions also made ya unprepared for this. Which ain't bad or yer fault. The things that make us unique can just be our downfall sometimes.'

'Maybe we aren't meant to be different then. Maybe sticking to the way things should be…would be better,' Venibilles said in a small voice.

'Better for who?' Zina challenged.

'Survival.'

Zina shook her head. 'Survival don't matter if it ain't livin'! I had the best years of my life with Larpskendya and Athena, it got me killed in the end but it was worth it. I didn't belong on Earth.'

'Who's Athena?' Heiki asked, as if she had been awakened.

'My daughter, obviously. I always wanted a girl called Athena, don't know why, always have since I were little.'

'And she was different, but she hardly lived!' Venibilles burst, 'maybe we ought to stick to normality and what should be.'

'Oh I beg to differ,' Zina said, to everyone's surprise she was unaffected by his comment. 'She'd done more in her life than you've ever done in yours. You may've grown up humanised but Athena'd actually been to Earth ya know.'

'When?' asked Rachel.

'Well I was with a man when I met Larpskendya, and when we had established that we were dating I had to call it off with him cos I was with him over a year,' Zina began, although it sounded irrelevant, no one interrupted as they were glad for the anecdote. It became obvious she was giving this story to stray their thoughts. 'And my best friend Melissa got curious about the man I dumped him for. They met and me and Larpskendya decided to trust her with the truth, she was the only one of my friends who knew the truth – the rest of 'em thought I'd moved to a different country. The only problem was frequent visits to Earth would be dangerous, so when I decided to live on Orin Fen with Larpskendya there was no going back. I mean he'd already endangered Earth by visiting me so much.'

'So you went back when Athena was born?' Venibilles asked.

'You don't know this story already?'

'No,' Venibilles shrugged. 'Never heard much about you or Athena. Sorry.'

'Well, anyway,' Zina brushed it off. 'cos Athena was half 'uman her aging process was very different. She seemed to age humanely and when she was three years old, mentally and physically, we decided to spend a week with Melissa so she could meet my child and so we could see each other again. Properly I mean, I usually visited her twice a year I could get a Witch to take me but we planned to stay for a week with Athena. By Gods, it was hell.'

Venibilles chucked. 'Why?'

'Never ever ever take a three year old to Earth. Ever. She couldn't understand why she had to change her appearance, so she kept fighting the spells Larpskendya used to change it for 'er. She didn't get why she couldn't fly. She wouldn't eat the food and she had an aversion to the clothes. After three days she was finally settled in, and we had a good time but she was so difficult. More frustratingly once we got back to Orin Fen she wouldn't come out of human guise for three weeks, it was unbelievable. It was good for her though cos she got to practice her spells, but still.'

'Alright,' Venibilles desperately tried to stop her from straying on the topic. 'but that's hardly an experience she could remember well, or truly have. She wasn't old enough.'

'No, but she had a life. The length of it doesn't make her life less valid, and she did things and she enjoyed herself. You want to erase that – if we hadn't've had her and stuck to how it should be some of my best memories wouldn't exist. I mean geez Venibilles growing up how you did and 'specially with your father… didn't that teach you to enjoy the here and now?'

'I suppose.'

'Life sucks Venibilles I won't lie to you about that. You take what you can get when you can get it cos on a world of suffering those truly happy moments eer rare.'

Venibilles said bitterly, 'I was told I would have an easy life, unaffected by horrific things like war. I would prefer to be born into war than be mislead like this, my entire world turned upside down.'

'I know,' Zina said soothingly. 'war, fighting, death – the way things should be. It's easier to only know that than adapt to it. This is life now and even if we survive this it will be life. Could you survive without something to hold on to?'

Venibilles looked away from her. 'No, but I'm not sure I want to live in a world like that, plagued by war.'

'No one does. It's hard to find happiness in that world. So you take it where you can, even if it means defying convention. And I think you forget the only reason you would've got a life o' peace is cos of going against everything that was normal or acceptable – or, well, the done thing. Going against the way things should be. Cos at the end of the day you know the way things should be is peaceful.'

Venibilles couldn't look at her, at anyone, but he engaged with her. 'Which is why every time someone criticizes the human race my father says at least they didn't start a war amongst themselves and spread it to what must be every species in the universe.'

Zina smiled. 'You said it not me.'

After that, as the time passed waiting for Serpantha, Calen or Larpskendya to return, they drifted in and out of conversation. Once Venibilles had lightened up, Heiki and Venibilles spent considerable time comparing muscles, trying to best each other's tone or capability. It was, to say the least, a rather pathetic argument, and what they were saying and bragging about was laughable. But weirdly it provided some normality to the situation. As if they were waiting for a bus, making small talk to fill the time. While it reminded Venibilles of perhaps his only achievement, at least he was impressing a girl – Heiki, at that.

Even with petty entertainments such as this, the time dragged and dragged. And it was just the four of them, going no further into this base. A Wizard and three humans stuck in a plain wooden room together for such a long time. It was enough to irritate the best of people. It also gave them time to think, too much time; Rachel couldn't push Larpskendya out of her head. They weren't even coherent thoughts, just blurred words and feelings, a constant switch between hating him and loving him. But they wouldn't shut up. And she daren't voice her concerns or feelings in front of Zina, because she hated to admit it but Zina scared her slightly. Not so much who she was, but how much she knew, and how much she could potentially know. That and the fact this was the woman Larpskendya was in love with, she didn't want to create conflict between them, and she actually wanted to get to know her. Sadly, Zina clearly preferred to keep to herself and preferred it when others did the same. She would give anecdotes but she would never give away anything personal, it was stories she would happily tell anyone. Heiki and Venibilles preferred to ignore the obvious danger, and it seemed she was the only one who wanted to talk about things or seek comfort. Which made her want Larpskendya there even more.

Calen had no idea how much time had passed, but she managed to ignore her embarrassment and say to no one, 'I think I have it all.'

'I can only take your word for it.' Serpantha replied evenly.

'I'm not entirely sure,' Calen said shakily, 'I tried, but I'm unfamiliar with the language so I had to guess mostly.'

Serpantha's tone lightened, 'Calen, relax, no one's going to persecute you if you got anything wrong or missed anything out, now get out of there. Your appearance would normally attract attention but luckily Earth is still an ignorant place, and as you're speaking another language to what they know so they should act like you don't exist.'

'Do I detect a hint of distain in your voice?' Calen grinned as she walked back through the library, darting with her head down through crowds of people.

'You do.' Serpantha paused before adding, 'I think a common misconception is that I'm the same as my brother. I respect certain humans; I do not respect the human race. Not that it's their fault they are the way they are.'

Calen exited the door and continued there conversation, looking him in the eye, 'You criticize the human race or even mine for being shallow but we both know what your son is like.'

'Oh he's as shallow as a puddle on the sun,' Serpantha said absently, 'all our children are like him, from his age until a few years before adulthood our kind are selfish and shallow. However, they still have strong morals; have no doubt about that. He gets his personality from his mother I swear.'

'Right. His mother.'

'Still not over that?'

'Not really,' Calen answered enigmatically, 'When you think about it, it changes everything.'

Serpantha began to lead them in a new direction, but he kept the conversation. 'We never knew whether you knew or not, actually, but you can see why it would be erased from your history.'

Calen's voice couldn't hide the undertone of hope. 'And you know all of this history then?'

'To an extent, I've never claimed innocence Calen I know what it was like for me in my younger years, and views everyone had in my time. Just look at my father, the way he condemns femininity as a weak or bad thing, he always criticized me for looking like my mother or being too feminine.'

'You're hardly the most masculine Wizard I've ever seen,' Calen added.

'But he condemns me for it as if I could change it. Frankly if people were like him or worse at the start of the war I don't blame anyone at all, in fact, I would have turned myself female and gone with you.'

Calen suppressed a laugh and said, 'Is that why all this started then?'

'I imagine it was a part, but it was mostly disputes over magic and if we have death spells then surely we were meant to use them. Obviously during the time those who left seemed to disappear from existence, it somewhat escalated.'

'You could say that.' Calen paused. 'Where along the line did we all become sadistic then?'

'I have no idea; I don't think I ever will know, either.'

Calen became more aware of where he was leading them, and asked, 'Where do we go and how to we get there?'

'A very long walk.' Serpantha replied emptily.

'I suppose you're serious, aren't you?' When Serpantha didn't bother to argue, she continued, 'Why can't we shift? You flew when we arrived.'

'Which would have caused people to go looking for us. I can only assume what Esimi said was true, and if we use magic, we will be hunted down and killed.'

'And you don't care to elaborate on that to me, how sweet, but humans can't fly. They can't catch us if we're airborne, and if we shift away where's the issue?'

Serpantha stopped walking and looked directly at her. 'The issue is humans can detect where you shift from, but they also detect a small amount of magic where you travel to, and all at once four people shifted to the same place, a base where my daughter is located. If we go there it will push past a preset limit and be detected.'

'I suppose Esimi told you that.' Calen replied firmly. 'How can you go unnoticed, walking through crowds of people, if you can't change your appearance? It isn't feasible.' Serpantha began to walk away from her, so she yelled after him, 'Listen to me!'

'Shouting won't help us stay in stealth.' He called back to her.

It was only fear of whatever humanity had become that made Calen rush to catch up yet again. 'If I agree to follow you blindly to wherever you're leading us would you explain to me how we're meant to kill your father?'

'He drank excessively, perhaps we could lure him out of hiding with a bottle of Whiskey,' Serpantha laughed at his own joke, which caused Calen to look down on him as if he were a child.

'You aren't at all what I expected, and I don't mean that in the good way,' she said cuttingly. She added, 'How do we kill him though? Personally, I vote disembowelment but sadly I fear that isn't possible.'

Serpantha smirked – she had a sense of humour, which was relieving of some of the tension. Which is why he decided to let down his guard. 'He's been preparing for this since he left, stealing magic, and building up the spells, which is an insane amount of work to say the least. Meaning he's composed of nearly all pure energy, pure magic, even touching him would kill you.'

'Why?' Calen asked immediately.

'That magic is stolen, Calen, no one else's magic willingly co-operates with another person when it's been stolen.'

'Magical rage?'

'Almost, it's not quite the same thing but the effect's the same. It's highly complex even I'm somewhat out of my depth.' Before Calen could comment on his pride, he stopped them by a water drain.

Calen didn't have to ask before she understood. 'Elaborate.'

'Through there is a direct route to where we're going, we go through, drop down and should find something to take us there undetected.'

'That's almost impressive for humans.'

'Almost?' Serpantha scoffed, 'I think it's genius. How many humans would crawl through an old water pipe?'

'For a genius yourself you are so easily impressed.'

Serpantha acknowledged her half-compliment briefly before gesturing for her to go first into the pipe. She did so without caution, although it was not because of her lack of squeamishness and strong stomach.

She didn't check to see if Serpantha was following, but she did observe everything, waiting for a sudden change in the structure – but there wasn't one for a long time. When the tunnel begun to widen, becoming a sphere in which she could sit, slightly out of breath, leaning against the wall, she looked back to hear or see nothing; she began to doubt if he followed her at all. Extraordinarily, she found herself more concerned than infuriated. By the time Serpantha arrived, sitting opposite her, enough time had passed for Calen to half expect to be stuck there for the rest of her life.

'What took you so long?' Calen snapped, hiding her exhaustion, wondering why she was tired at all.

Serpantha didn't answer, but he did gesture to a rusty metal grid blocking the way forward. Given Calen was closer she decided to grasp it and try to pull it off. Naturally, she failed. She hit herself in the gut and said, 'Damn this stupid body!'

She then folded her arms and glared at the grid as if it was responsible for all of this.

'It isn't a test of strength,' Serpantha said, ignoring her self-pity. He grasped the grid himself, gently, and turned it around until it came free.

'Oh, that's a useless protection, if it can be called that it's just a screw on—'

'Save it for Esimi or Volüsa, you can ask them yourself, could you make your protection simultaneously more and less complex because I'm upset about being in a body I don't like even though I brought it on myself.'

Calen couldn't think of a witty retort. She wanted to blame it on her exhaustion, but knew it was because he was right. Which had a distinct sting to it. Without really knowing why, she murmured, 'Sorry.'

It was noteworthy that she had never apologised to anyone before in her life except her mother, who, obviously, didn't count.

Serpantha brushed it off, and merely gestured for her to, again, go first.

Calen said as she made her way, in a soft voice, 'Don't take so long this time.'

This time there was a slow, steady decent on smooth rock, which she found surprisingly easy to climb across. At the bottom of the slope she came to a place where she could stand, and when she turned to see Serpantha directly behind her she flinched. Out of courtesy, Serpantha pretended not to have noticed.

The perfectly hollowed out tunnel seemed to go on forever, and the air smelt musty, like cave air – old and damp.

'Go on,' Serpantha said as he noticed Calen standing frozen.

As she stepped out a sect of floor seemed unstable. She looked back to Serpantha, assuming he would know – which he did.

He smiled. 'I exaggerated how far we have to walk.'

They both stood on this platform, which was barely visible to be a platform, with no visible track to run on. That was unnerving, to say the least.

'This will take us most of the way,' Serpantha announced, sounding a lot happier than he truly felt, 'after that it's a small climb up.'

'Oh joy,' Calen said, mocking enthusiasm, as she sat down on the platform, carelessly deciding to let Serpantha do all the work.

Serpantha sat down next to her, and without Calen noticing he pressed a button on the edge of the platform. With that, they both shot down the tunnel.

Calen couldn't help but gasp.

'One thing I found noteworthy about my father though,' Serpantha looked to her when he spoke. With no pretence, speaking to her as he would speak to Larpskendya, 'is that when he spoke he was reluctant to let our inputs change what he was saying. As if he had pre-prepared all he wanted to say in some grand speech. Don't you think?'

'I suppose,' Calen remained withdrawn, surprised at his behaviour.

'He made it sound so casual, it was such a pre-pared act, and I should know.' He paused. 'We're working together now, your opinions would actually be helpful.'

'But you're out of your depth, so I am entirely lost.'

Serpantha shook his head. 'The way I like to do things, the way I've always done things, is to ask as many people's opinions as possible. On Orin Fen, in my family, this means sitting in a room with everyone arguing for hours until one of us comes up with a crazy idea and runs off to do it because no one has any other idea.'

Calen snickered. She thought for a moment before saying, 'Slightly sadistic, isn't he?'

'He's sadistic that barely needs to be said, but I don't know why.' Serpantha mused.

'He isn't that sadistic,' Calen scoffed. 'I mean he brings people back to life, and he hardly kills people by making the suffer.'

'It isn't a competition.' Serpantha said meaningfully.

Calen made no effort to hide her annoyance. 'Fine, I will put it in your terms, he doesn't enjoy others suffering he just doesn't care about it. Who can blame him? Why should he care? If he merely didn't care about others suffering there wouldn't be an issue, the issue has only occurred when he wants to take over the universe.'

'A good point,' Serpantha said approvingly. 'But why does he want this? It isn't logical.'

'Who cares!' Calen grew frustrated with him. 'I know your way of doing things is to try and get to people by hitting them where it hurts but he's erased all pain from his life, he even finished off your mother didn't he? He's too set on his goals and, as you would say, too far gone.'

Serpantha was silent for a while. 'How else do we beat him?' he said at last.

Calen couldn't answer.

'Exactly,' Serpantha said cockily. 'We can't match the magic. We could close the entire thing trapping him there but that would also trap Yemi, which is something I could never do – not that we can anymore, because it was only open two thousand years ago. Now there is no way of telling where it is. Beating him in your fashion is an impossibility.'

'Isn't bring people back to life also a possibility? Because you already beat that one.'

'What are you trying to prove?' Serpantha asked irritably.

Calen matched his displeasure. 'To beat a sadist you have to be a bit sadistic yourself it's why I'm here. Theoretically, we could use the power he does for ourselves. We can only establish Yemi has more power than him, and he may be unconscious with his memories erased, but if we can erase the spell erasing his memories and get him on our side – which I imagine won't be hard – we have a chance.'

'You want me to use an infant to kill my father?'

'This is hardly the time for a morality crisis,' Calen said dismissively, 'you do what you have to do to survive. Accept the fact your father has to die and accept that you may have to use a child's magic to do so, he will not remember it anyway.'

Serpantha rubbed his temples. 'I have to agree,' he sighed, 'as much as it pains me to admit it, given you would stab anyone in the back to save your own skin, you're right.'

Calen smirked. 'We can hate ourselves and reassess our life choices when this is all over, until then we have permission to be amoral sadists.'

'Amoral sadists with no idea how to fight him,' Serpantha reminded, more seriously.

Calen remained more optimistic. 'It's a start. Besides it is not all about being sadistic, it is about having nothing to lose. We kill him or die trying. I'll learn from you if you learn from me too.'