Truth

The rest of the evening Gavin hung out with his family. They talked about unimportant things, played games and watched a movie together. Before bed he turned on his computer and decided to look up Caine. He was curious about what he could find.

What he found far exceeded his expectations and backed up Caine's story. He found news articles about Caine's parent's deaths, about the criminal origins of the family company. The part that surprised him, and left him choking on air, was how much Caine was worth. He made the list of 'Top Ten Richest Men' in one magazine.

Why is he over there and not here? The moment he thought that he understood why. Gavin was struggling to adjust in his home world after the things he's done. With the snippets he's gotten about Caine's past it is most likely easier for Caine to exist in a world that allows him to do what he wants. This world, with all its laws and restrictions, would happily lock Caine up for the rest of his life.

Gavin looked a little more before turning off his computer and climbing into bed. He laid there for the longest time as he tried to will his mind and body to sleep. He had become used to having someone in bed with him. He hadn't realized how spoiled he had become until he was without.

The only thing he could think of to help himself sleep was to take out his blades. Even in the pocket dimension he could feel them in his mind. Taking them out and laying them next to him made the blades happy. His mind blew up with feelings of joy and elation. Settle down. It's sleep I seek, not playtime. He chuckled as he laid back down. Sleep finally claimed him.

*******

Gavin was in that world between sleep and awake when he sensed a presence near him. It wasn't Caine or Riley, the aura was off. He remembered where he was a second after his body moved in response to the strange aura. He opened his eyes to see his sister standing beside his bed, the blade in his right hand a hair's breadth away from her throat.

"Damn it, Ver, you can't do that."

He didn't want to think about what would have happened if he hadn't come to his senses in time. He had forgotten that Ver liked to wake him up early. Why would she still do that?

"What the hell was that?"

She moved away from the bed, eyes wide and heart threatening to beat it's way out of her chest. She had come in to wake her brother up and ask him what he wanted for breakfast. The last thing she expected was to be attacked.

Gavin sat up and put the blades away. He rubbed his face as he tried to calm his own beating heart.

"I'm sorry. I felt your presence and didn't recognize it."

"I'm your sister, for god's sake, how could you not recognize me?"

Gavin snorted, "You're not the one I've been sharing my bed with, Ver. You should really think about knocking on the door first, anyways. I'm naked under this blanket and I'm going to get up and get dressed."

The moment he started to move she turned around. She refused to leave, but she did not want to see any more of her brother than she had to.

"I'm going to assume that you're talking about Riley?"

"You can turn around now, I have pants on."

She turned around to face her brother. Her heart had finally settled down, but now she was becoming annoyed because he was ignoring her question. Then she noticed the mark on his chest.

"You have a tattoo? What the hell is going on, Gavin?"

"I told you, I don't want to talk about it."

She placed her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes.

"We spent nearly eight months worried about whether you were dead or alive. All of a sudden you show back up, but you refuse to talk about anything that happened while you were gone.

"Our parents are convinced that some pervert kidnapped you. They're pretty sure you're all brainwashed and shit."

"No, nothing like that."

Although, if I think about it. Caine is much older than me, then there is Riley. Gavin found himself laughing while shaking his head.

"Oh, my god. If I think about it from a different viewpoint it does look bad. I will definitely be pointing this out to Caine."

"If you're not going to tell our parents, can you at least tell me?"

"Ver, the truth is beyond crazy."

She sits down on his bed, letting him know that she's not going anywhere.

"Try me."

"I was summoned to another world to be a hero and kill the demon lord."

Ver picked up a pillow and threw it at him. She wanted the truth, not a stupid story.

"I told you it was crazy. The craziest part is that I didn't kill the demon lord. Instead I joined them. I'm a fucking general and right hand of the demon lord, Ver. Humans fear me, demons look up to me."

"How do I know that you're telling me the truth? Right now it just sounds like a lot of bullshit."

Gavin held out his right hand, palm up, and a flame appeared. Her eyes went wide, mouth open, as she stared in wonder. He brought it over to her and let her feel the heat that the flame gave off. He closed his hand over the flame and extinguished it as he sat down across from her.

"They have magic in the other world. I can use magic, Ver. Lord Caine has made certain I can not only wield magic, but that I can hold my own in combat. I've worked hard to get where I am and I refuse to give up my position amongst the demons."

"Who are Caine and Riley?"

"Caine is the demon lord. Our relationship is complicated. I wear his mark and belong to him, but I make my own choices and hold my own titles.

"Riley is the prince of the kingdom we have started to lay siege to. I care about both of them."

"That's why you won't stay?"

"I was never going anywhere here. You know more than me how unmotivated I was. I had no desire, no connections outside of my family. The only reason I was even talking about college was because you wanted me to go with you. I didn't want it for myself.

"Over there I have a close friend, I have two people that I share my personal space with. I have a student that I'm teaching magic to. I currently command a captain and the handful of squads under him. That's over a hundred demons, Ver, and I command them.

"In the city that we took control of I'm incharge of the nobles. I have responsibilities and enjoy every moment of it. I found my motivation, the thing that inspires me to move forward. I can't give that up.

"I love my family. I love you, Ver. It's expected that we will move away and live our own lives. I can come back and visit any time I want, Caine has promised me this and he keeps his promises."

Ver wiped away the tears that had silently fallen. She understood what he was saying, but the thought of her baby brother going away again hurt.

"You know that our parents are out talking to the police?"

Gavin let out a sigh, "I knew that they would eventually. I'll stay as long as possible, but once they come I'm leaving. I only had a limited amount of time to spend here. I don't have the time to waste here dealing with the authorities."

Gavin stands and grabs a shirt from the top of his dresser and pulls it on. He would stay as long as possible, he wouldn't do any less than that. He had worked hard to get to this point. Even knowing that he could come back later, this initial visit was important.

"Why don't we fix a big breakfast for when they get back."

Ver smiled and followed him to the kitchen. Everything felt so surreal, her mind was reeling from everything he had told her. Magic is real! She had spent most of her life wanting magic to be real. It's why she has read so many fantasy books. The knowledge that it exists, to actually see it, filled her with excitement.

"When did you learn to cook?"

Once again Gavin was taking over the kitchen. His skills with pancakes were lacking so he was letting his sister handle that while he took charge of the eggs and sausage.

"I traveled for a few months. We didn't have horses or anything like that, just walked. A lot. The group I was with, we would take turns cooking. It got to the point where I did most of the cooking because I made the best food."

"That's cool. Were they friends?"

Gavin focused on the eggs he was scrambling while he thought about her question. None of them had been close. They had relied on each other, but in the end it was merely a working relationship. That didn't mean he disliked them.

"We were traveling companions, sort of comrades in arms. It was fun traveling with them."

"Did something happen to them?"

She had noticed his reaction and how he spoke of them. It was clear to her that he had lost them.

"Caine's right hand man at the time killed them."

"I'm sorry. Why did he do that? I thought the two of you are together?"

Gavin laughed and looked at his sister. The smile didn't quite reach his eyes and she wasn't certain how she felt about that look coming from her brother.

"I told you, our relationship is complicated. We came to his space to kill him and in the end my comrades were killed and I was taken prisoner. He's a bastard most of the time, but he's my bastard."

Gavin moved to set the table, putting the scrambled eggs into a large bowl at the center of the table. He moved back to the stove to move the cooked sausage to the table as well.

"When we took over Dreymore, the city where we are at now, we captured Riley and his sister. I had met Riley before that. His sister was one of the ones who summoned me here and she did so on the orders of her father, the king.

"Caine knew how I felt about Riley and set it up so that we could spend some time alone. We both realized that we had liked each other, but didn't think the other was approachable. It was just sort of decided that we wouldn't let anything stand in the way of us being together.

"They compliment each other well. Riley is sweet and innocent, Caine is harsh and likes being in control."

"I guess all that matters is that you're happy."

Ver brought two plates piled with pancakes and sat them on the center of the table with the rest of the food. She checked her phone for the text she received from her parents then sat down.

"They'll be here soon. We should go ahead and start eating before it gets cold."

Gavin smiled and did just that, piling his plate full of food and covering everything with syrup.

"One thing I do miss is sugar. They don't have any in the other world. They have something that's similar, but the taste is so different that it doesn't even compare."

It was a few minutes later that their parents returned home. They did a good job of hiding their emotions as they joined their kids at the table. Gavin knew that his time there was growing short. He didn't bother asking where they had been, he just immersed himself in the moment.

The rest of the day was spent at home. It was a repeat of the evening before; talking about nonsense, playing games, watching movies. Gavin made certain to engrave the moments in his mind. It wouldn't be long now before he would have to face reality.