Pieces on the board

I return to the apartment after searching for the pair of dragons for hours and having no luck in discovering their location.

The last thing I saw before losing track of them was the image of the two smaller dragons riding on top of one slightly bigger black dragon while running through the city and then setting themselves on fire out of nowhere.

Their speed increased immensely and even I with the help of Ellie and her power couldn't keep up.

I finally return to Evlin's house where she waits for us with a lot of worries expressed on her face.

"How did it go...?" she asks as I walk through the door.

I notice that her daughter was nowhere to be seen so she probably called her husband to pick her up. She must have had a hard time explaining that whole situation to such a young girl.

"We lost them... I'm sorry..." I mumble as I finally sit on her sofa and release my fusion with Ellie.

As the girl starts to materialize by my side after being combined with me for so long, the whole world starts to go black around me once again and my vision vanishes completely.

It had been a while since I've used Ellie's ability to get my vision back. I had forgotten how much weight it puts on my heart to say goodbye to my ability to see whenever I'm not fighting someone.

A sense of guilt starts to form as I almost wish we could be in danger just so I could get the chance to fuse one more time and get my vision back, but I'm aware that using this ability puts a lot of stress on Evlin's niece's body, so I keep that small feeling to myself.

Evlin bitting her nails is the last thing I see before becoming fully blind again.

"I can't believe this... How did this happened??" she asks, "Why were two dragons just hanging out in my living room like they owned the place?? When I put my hands on them I'm gonna use their tails to strangle their necks!! How did those things get in here??"

"I'm not sure..." I admit, "I was sure we were being very careful with our management of the portals between the two worlds... Daren even told us that he would stop coming here to avoid risking something passing to the other side by accident..."

Evlin and Ellie both stay silent at this moment. Since I can't see I have no idea what kind of expressions they are making right now.

I can hear Ellie's heavy breathing as she sits by my side. She must have pushed herself too much. We shouldn't have stayed fused for so long. I was careless.

My ears also pick up Evlin walking back and forth in the room as if she couldn't stop worrying about the situation.

I can't blame her. Dragon appearing out of nowhere is something none of us ever expected. Why were they just waiting in the room though? This is so strange.

"Aunt Evie..." Ellie finally speaks after catching her breath, "Should we call for help?"

"I don't know... Maybe... I don't think just the three of us will be enough to take on a group of dragons... You guys remember what happened last time, right?"

"Yes... We all nearly died even after bringing the whole team to fight... But I'm not sure yet if these three are on the same level of power as the ones we faced in the past... They looked kinda like they didn't know what they were doing..." I comment.

Evlin goes silent once again, so I assume she's either pondering or has left the room without me realizing it.

I hope she didn't leave the room and left me talking to myself... I hate when people do that...

"Didn't know what they were doing..." she repeats, "So you think they might not be such a big threat?"

"Hard to say... They might have been pretending to catch us with our guard down... We won't know until we find them again..."

"Should we call for Daren and the others then?" Ellie wonders.

"Wait..." Evlin mumbles "That just made me realize... Lilith..."

"Eh...?"

"What are you doing here??"

"Eh...?? Wha- What do you..." I suddenly stop in the middle of my sentence. Now that she mentioned, why was I in Evlin's world?? Why am I not back at home with Daren??

That's so weird... Why was I living here by myself with Evlin for the last seven years??

"Wait... Aunt Evie... Didn't Daren asked us to take care of something for him when we visited the other world many years ago?"

"Right! He did!" Evlin agrees. Her voice was a little louder so she probably came closer to us, "But... For some reason, I can't remember what it was for the life of me..."

"I can't remember either... I just remember he looked really worried and needed our help very bad..."

I rub my head trying to dive into my memories, but nothing answers my doubts, "That's so strange... I also remember feeling that we wanted your help, but I can't recall why!"

"I don't like this..." Evlin complains, "It feels like someone is messing with our memories..."

"But who...? And why?" Ellie wonders.

Who and why is honestly not that hard to answer. During our many adventures, we ended up making plenty of enemies. It wouldn't be too hard to imagine one of them was probably trying to get revenge.

If Evlin was right and we were put under some kind of spell that's messing with our memories, then the culprit might be some kind of mage, or maybe a demon with a strong curse.

But neither a curse nor magic should work in this world. This place doesn't produce magic as my world does. The only way someone could use their powers in here would be if they were like us and had access to-

"Ah! That reminds me, Evlin!!"

"Eh!?"

"One of the dragons! It- It had access to terminal energy!"

"What!!?? A- Are you sure!!??"

"Ah! That's right! One of them suddenly set itself on terminal fire while we were chasing them!" Ellie adds, further proving that my words were true.

"How is this possible?? Dragons hate terminal fire! It's the only thing that can kill them!"

"I don't know... Nothing about this makes any sense..." I admit, "But we can't deny that if they managed to somehow take control of that power... We might be in some serious danger..."

Evlin and Ellie go silent again, and once again, I have no idea what they're thinking.

I hate being blind... So much... How can I help my friends if I don't even know what they're feeling??

"Sigh... We have no choice then... We need to find those things and get some answers! Ellie!"

"Y- Yes, aunt Evie?"

"Form a search party with Joseph, Claire, and Dia! I need those overgrown lizards captured as fas as soon as possible!"

"Ah!!" Ellie let out a weird noise. I think she is happy to be able to go on a quest with her friends after such a long time, "Can I bring Nancy too?"

"Nancy? Isn't she too young...?"

"She's gonna be almost thirteen soon! I was younger than her when I first went on an adventure! Please, aunt Evie!! I've been wanting to bring her on an adventure with us since forever!!"

"Ugh... Fine, fine... If her parents allow it, then sure... It would be nice for her to spend some time with friends after all..."

"Eh...?" Ellie mumbled.

"What...?"

"Didn't Nancy used to play with two other kids...?" Ellie ponders.

"Did she...? I don't know... I-" Evlin stops before realizing what she was about to say, "I... Don't remember..."

This situation is getting stranger by the minute.

"Ellie! Call your team, now!"

"Understood!!"

I hear Ellie exiting the room and a strange feeling of nostalgia comes over me. The feeling of telling someone to do something and that person replying to me before leaving.

Was it Daren...?

No... It was a different feeling... Like if I was talking to a kid... More specifically, a boy.

"Hey, Evlin..." I mumble.

"Yes, Lilith?"

"Did you ever brought one of your sons to my world? Did they ever came to my house?"

"I don't think so...?"

"I see..."

What is this strange feeling I have...? Why do I suddenly feel like I just lost something even more important than my vision...?

These memories that were taken from us... What was in them?

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I gaze at the passing clouds while feeling the nice breeze on my face.

The silence and the warmth of the sun help me relax as I stretch my arms and legs over this structure. I almost enter dreamland before hearing someone calling for me.

"Having a good time, Kurt?"

I open my eyes and notice my little sister approaching me with a smug look on her face. She's taking her human form just like me right now, so her appearance is that of a girl with long brown hair tied up in braids wearing an orange dress under a white shirt.

Her dress matches her orange eyes, but I worry that it might give away her disguise.

She's smiling at me as if hoping that I had done something wrong so I could get into trouble, all while revealing her sharp fangs that could tear a large boulder into pieces.

"Nice to see you too, Karmen. What brings you here?"

"Oh, the usual! Boss wanted to know if you finished the job properly and if not, told me to beat the sh*t out of you so you would stop being a lazy bum!" she comments while cracking her knuckles, "So please, please, I'm begging you, tell me you didn't finish the job yet!! I'm craving for some blood!"

I sigh and roll my eyes at her remark. She really doesn't change no matter how many years pass. Can't believe we have the same mother...

"If you wanna pick a fight with me and end up with your face in the pavement, I welcome you to try anytime..." I comment, "As for the job, I finished a long time ago. The kid has been cursed, now we just need to wait for the next move."

"Ah... Boring... Can I pretend you didn't and beat you up anyway?"

"Like I said..." I sit up and began to glare at her, "If you think you can take me on, you're welcome to try anytime..."

"Hihihi... Relax, I'm just kidding..." she comments while giggling like a five-year-old.

'Kidding' my ass... If I had fallen asleep for real, this psycho would have jumped at me the first chance she had... I need to start paying more attention to where I take my naps...

"If that's the case, then I guess I'm gonna let you enjoy your 'me' time then... Have fun..."

"..."

"Oh yeah! One last thing!"

"...!?"

"One of our agents died..."

"What...? How...?"

"Someone got them to talk, and the seal we placed activated and turned him into ashes!"

Seriously?? Someone was stupid enough to try to talk despite being sealed?? What kind of moron would be so dumb to do that?

And also... Who would be so strong to make one of our agents even consider talking?

"So remember to be careful little brother! It would break my heart if something happened to you as well!!

You're my favorite toy after all!!"

She takes a few steps towards the edge and finally leaps out of the building, leaving me alone here on the roof.

I go back to my cloud-gazing hobby and start to wonder if I should be worried as I move my hand over my skin. Even If I can't see it, I still know that my own seal is here as well... Just waiting for me to make a mistake so it can burn me with that annoying terminal fire...

Speaking of... That kid... I wonder how he is doing right now...

I hope I get the chance to play with him again soon!