Fighting with the Twins

"I didn't know we were fighting on so many levels and against so many factions."  I sighed, feeling miserable. 

It felt as if we were fugitives, or refugees, which meant…"Simon.  Does Simon know?"  I asked.

Connor shrugged.  "I'm not sure to what extent he understands the situation we're in, but he is somewhat aware, and he also knows the reason why we had to move you out of 'ground-zero' so to speak. 

"How is he aware of the situation and I was so clueless?  Did you brief him, but not me for some reason?"

Corwin shook his head.  "No.  You know Simon's a genius, and that's not just a figure of speech.  He knows more about most things than people give him credit for. 

He figured it out all on his own when he accidentally stumbled upon all those crazy contraptions that you and he found. 

They were actually covert attempts by the Council of Mages to patch up the weaknesses in the bubbles between our world and the world of the Shadow Beings."

"The wave disruptors," I breathed.

"Yes," Corwin nodded.  The wave disruptors were placed in areas where the veil between the worlds are so thin that both mages and Shadow Beings were accidentally popping through into each other's worlds. 

It was used to disrupt the magik so that mages wouldn't accidentally rip the veil apart and allow Shadow Beings access to our world." 

Connor laughed.  "Simon disappeared that day up on the hill because he was whacking away at one of Blackstone's contraptions and it set off a trap to catch animals that might have inadvertently tried to chew it out of the hillside. 

Uncle Blackstone rescued him out of the trap, and that was when we met him back at Uncle's house." 

"So why is he with us?"

Corwin raised his eyebrows.  "Just a freaking genius in the right place at the right time.  Blackstone was so impressed with him that he got recruited as part of our Special Tactical Team for this one mission." 

"So how does this Demons book tie in with everything?"

"We don't know.  Nobody knows, not even Uncle Blackstone because nobody could open the book prior to your discovery.  Now that Simon's finally gotten an unlocked book, maybe we'll find out sooner rather than later."

I got up and walked the room. 

Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.   

From the corners of my eyes, I could see the twins, looking at me with sad helpless expressions. 

I ignored them both. 

I had not yet forgiven them for not being honest with me, and I knew that they could feel it. 

At the moment, my anger was out of control, and I had been shunting it to the side in an effort to acclimate myself to the various shocking points of contention that had been thrown at me with no warning. 

I stopped and pointed a finger at Corwin.  "You.  You could have…" and I choked down my next words. 

If he was on a mission that was placed upon him by the Council of Mages, he would not have been able to tell me anything until he was given clearance to do so. 

I whirled over and reached with outstretched fingers at Connor.  "You…" I choked, feeling my tears threatening to fall again. 

I blinked them back in a furious attempt at presenting a strong front. 

I brushed my hand at him in frustration.  I could not fault him either.  There was no way he could say anything for the very same reason that made him such a lethal weapon for the Council of Mages. 

The twins just stared at me, wordless.  Connor bit his lip, and I could see he was drawing blood, but the part of me that was still so very angry with him would not allow me to feel any compassion. 

Not yet.

I forced myself to calm down.  I used the technique Connor had taught me to slow my heartbeat down, and I took several deep breaths. 

I could not allow my anger to blind me to what needed to be done.  So what if events and people had shifted around on me? 

So what if the very people who I trusted the most were the ones who kept so much from me? 

I had to be like a gazelle.  I had to change with the landscape that I found myself embroiled within.  If I had to find the Progressives, that was what I needed to do. 

I also wanted to meet up with my so-called mother, the one who had ripped me away from my father and abandoned me at birth, to be raised by my uncle and his wife. 

I had no anger towards my foster parents.  They had done their best to take care of me, but now so many things that did not make sense finally fell into place. 

I was a monstrous half-breed, which explained why I was so miserable at magik.  I had always thought I was a disabled mage, when in fact, I was just perfectly fine! 

As fine as a half-breed could ever possibly be. 

Oh, I had so many things I wanted to say to Chloe, and none of them good.  I wanted to find her tonight, and tell her exactly what I thought of her.

"I'm leaving now." I threw over my shoulder as I went for the door. 

"If you don't want to take me there, you both can stay here.  Guard my clothes and my shoes since you're just guards and that's what you're here to do."

I reached out and yanked on the handle, but found it impenetrable.  I kept yanking on it until I realized it had been sealed by magik. 

The twins had locked me in.  Pounding on the door, I screamed out my rage.  How dare they!  I twirled back around.

"Open this door!" 

Connor shook his head, his eyes sad and hurt.

"Open it now!  I need to go!"  I yelled.

"We will take you tomorrow.  Tonight, you rest."  Corwin stated in a stern voice.

"Damn you!  I am not your prisoner or your slave.  I can do what I want!"  I cried.

"No.  You're not our slave or prisoner, but we are in a war situation, which means you cannot do what you want." 

His eyes were unyielding.  "As a civilian, you need to follow some orders so that you won't put any other people in danger by your reckless behavior." 

"Since Connor and I are the only standing officers in this place at this time, we outrank you and we are ordering you to stand down!"  He pointed at me.   

I shrieked and ran towards him with my arms outstretched.  I was ready to strangle him! 

But he caught me with a single command. 

The air swirled around and lifted me up in a vice grip exactly as he had done when we first met. 

I struggled and kicked, wailing with the explosive anger that erupted inside me.

"Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!"