I'm sitting in a small room. I don't personally think it's an especially goodroom. It's cold, the floor is stoney and uneven, not to mention the fact that I don't want to be here. Also I'm tied to a chair, so that doesn't really make it any better. A man with bright white hair that is most definitely dyed - or at least it looks dyed - sits across from me.
"So little girl. Tell me about your powers. I know you said to your nice little friend back there that you only found out about them in an alleyway not five minutes before you discovered Dev- I mean Vincent?" I frown.
"Where is Vincent?" The man smiles.
"You know very well where he is. After all, you saw him on the street not a half hour ago." My frown deepens into a sscowl.
"I know that wasn't my brother. Where are you dratted excuses for human beings keeping him?" The man laughed.
"Oh, Madgick. I'm the one answering questions here. If you think I'll give you any of the answers you want, then you are sadly mistaken." I grit my teeth. It was worth the try.
"Now,." The man leaned back in his chair. "I see you are not comfortable talking about your powers, so let's try something else. How exactly did your friend get into the human world?" I wriggle my wrists in my ropes, but don't say anything. A few moments pass.
"Well?" he snaps.
"What?"
"Answer my question, you little brat," he growls impatiently. I shake my head.
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't know how she did it. I never saw her spawn in that supposed portal, because I'm a 'pesky human' as everyone keeps calling me." He sits as if dumbfounded for a second, before jumping to his feet so suddenly that I start and his chair shifts back several inches.
"Child, you may not realise it yet, but I'm in control of your life right now. I get to choose whether you live or die. So I think you should answer these simple questions instead of wasting my time, for your own sake." I don't say anything. The man mutters a curse and starts striding towards me. Before he is even half way there the door behind us suddenly bursts open and Araya and Jamie are suddenly in the room. Araya squares her shoulders and shouts some kind of encantation before charging at the man. Jamie glances at her but then turns and runs over to me. He quickly starts untying the knots and I blink.
"How are you able to untie ropes this fast? I don't think I could ever do it that quick." He shrugs.
"I don't know. Just come on. We need to get out of here." He finishes undoing the last knot and hauls me to my feet. We race for the door and Araya quickly breaks off her heated battle with the white-haired man to come after us. We race out of that room, run down three or four flights of stairs and then immediately spot the sign for the exit. I sigh in relief with all the breath left in me as we simply walk out of the prison.
And then I hear a shot from behind me. Jamie yelps and I glance at him worriedly, but he seems fine. Finally I make the conclusion that the bullet missed. I don't even turn round, I just gesture to Araya and Jamie and leg it. I run down several streets before stopping, hands on my knees. I gasp in the fresh cold night air and imagine the cute little dog standing by my heels, his tail wagging happily as he sniffs the sidewalk. I force the image from my mind before I get too buried in my sudden depression.
"So, what do we do now?" I turn as Jamie and Araya run up, panting.
"Guys, the guy who we ran into in the city centre, he wasn't Vincent. He was some guy called Dev." They both blink.
"But then how was he using disintegration powers? I'm assuming that this is all normal and I'll have to just go along with all of it?" Jamie directs the last question at Araya, who nods solemnly. Then she shrugs.
"Maybe this Dev person was using illusion magic." A sudden hope bursts in my chest. "You mean all of those people are still alive? The things we saw... weren't real?" Araya nods again, her own eyes shining.
"But Vincent is still in danger. We need to find him. Araya, do you think you could summon your portal thingy so we could get into Alyncia?" Surprise flickers across her face.
"Are you sure they'd be holding him in Alyncia? They did hold keep us in the human world..."
"Exactly. Keeping us on Earth could have been them trying to keep us as far away from Vincent as possible. You see? They wouldn't want there to be the smallest chance of us finding him, so keeping him in Alyncia whilst we stay in this world makes sense." Jamie clears his throat. I look at him. He has a baffled expression on his face, well actually, he just looks utterly confused.
"This isn't really a concrete plan. I mean, there's no way of knowing if you're right. What if we walk right into a trap? Or what if Vincent isn't there at all and we just end up wasting time searching where there's nothing to be found? There're a lot of risks we'd be taking if we, you know... went to this other world." Araya nods. "Besides. Alyncia has very secure prisons that the most skilled mage could not escape from. My guess is that they didn't bring us to Alyncia just because they can't open the portal to get through."
"But then how did they get through the first time?"
She shrugs. "I don't know. Maybe it just stayed open for a second too longafter I opened it."
"Well, do you guys have any better plans? Cause if not, I think we should get going."