Tessa took a deep breath, calming herself. “Ben is my family’s chauffeur. Are those two bags all you will be bringing?”

“No!” Zara snapped waspishly. “We are also bringing Zelda and George!”

Behind Tessa, Ben’s face darkened at the disrespectful tone.

Zack saw the change in the man and was quick to lift the stuffed bear in his arms. “This is George. Zelda is the one in her arms. I believe we should be ready to leave.” He nudged his sister, “Calm down, there will be time for all of that later.”

Zara glared up at him. “Don’t tell me to calm down. She is the reason you got hurt again!” She spun and faced the object of her ire. “What reason could there possibly have been that needed my brother to get hurt? You saw what they did to him! It could have been so much worse! What if they had broken more of his bones, or targeted his head instead of his ribs?” She broke down into tears and held onto Zack with both arms, squishing Zelda against him.

Tessa waved away Ben. “Go put their bags in the boot of the automobile, we’ll be there shortly.”

He looked disgruntled, but did as she asked, without voicing any discontent.

“What is an automobile?” Zack asked her, not familiar with the word.

With a sigh, Tessa reached up and began rubbing her temples. “Is that really what you want to ask right now?”

He shrugged and then hugged Zara. “I just assumed you weren’t going to explain anything important, anyway.”

“Well, you are right about that.” She scanned the hallway outside their dorm. “This area is not secure, and the noise we have been making will not go unnoticed for long. Let us head to the auto, err, the carriage outside and then we can talk about some of the more salient subjects.”

“She’s talking weird,” Zara muttered into his side, as he closed and locked the dorm door.

“Yeah, she does that apparently whenever she is nervous. At least that is what she said before, no idea if it is true or just an act.”

“It is the truth,” Tessa said, walking beside them. “Not many people know it, however, so please keep it to yourselves.”

“Now, what is an automobile? I’m guessing it is a kind of carriage, like those designed by Vortex or Alberitas?” Zack prodded for more information as they walked through the common area.

“It is.” Tessa nodded. “The word actually comes from before the portals appeared. There are several variations on it that have slowly been making their way around the upper circles of society. Few nobles refer to them as carriages anymore, now they all call them ‘automobiles’, ‘automotive’, ‘motor car’, or simply ‘car’. There are roots to the words in the old languages, but it was adopted more recently for a wheeled vehicle driven by a combustion engine. They existed for a short time before the portals.”

Zara peeked out from her spot on Zack’s side. “If they existed before, then why is the word just barely making a reappearance?” She had calmed somewhat, for the moment.

“I would guess it is because of the completely different method we now use to power them. I imagine the original designers behind the mana crystal powered motors wanted to separate their work from the earlier inferior version.”

By that point, they had reached the entrance to the dorm building. Waiting for them on the paved drive was a sleek Alberitas automotive with an extended backend and tinted windows.

“We’ll be able to talk in peace once we are inside,” Tessa told them, entering through the door Ben was holding open for her.

Waiting for them, or rather Zara inside the vehicle, was a large stuffed animal. It had been made to represent one of the larger bear beasts inside the portals and was bigger than both Zelda and George combined.

“I knew you would be mad at me, understandably and rightly so,” Tessa began as soon as they entered. “This was prepared as a sort of peace offering for Zara, by myself and my mother. I had noticed how attached she was to the animal in her hands before.”

Zara looked from the giant bear to Tessa, back to the bear, and then to Zack, who nodded. Both knew that Tessa had no idea of the full importance of what she had just done. She didn’t need to, but the siblings appreciated the gesture.

“As for your concerns earlier Zara,” Tessa motioned for them to sit down as Ben climbed into the front of the long car. “There was never any real danger to Zack. Ben was watching over him from the shadows. At the first sign that they were going to do anything drastic, or too damaging, he would have stepped in and stopped them.”

The younger girl seemed to calm somewhat at that news, despite it not being the crux of her concerns. “He was still injured! Don’t you think we have suffered enough already!”

The red-haired girl looked away, unwilling to meet their eyes any longer. “We had no idea at the time what your history was. Mother didn’t learn about it herself until after I reported your scars to her.”

That answered Zack’s unasked question about whether she had told them about the scars.

“Would it have changed anything if you had known?” He couldn’t help but ask.

“It’s possible. My mother was the one who planned it out. She probably would have requested a meeting with you two sooner, and that scene could have been avoided entirely.” Tessa relaxed as they continued to talk.

“Why though? What purpose could me getting attacked by Dorn and his cronies possibly serve?”

“I had to speak with my mother after school to understand all of this myself. Very little of it had been explained to me before. You were simply the excuse, someone who showed up at the right time and nothing more. Mother has known about the Albright family’s designs on father and his research, for quite a while now. She simply needed a decent excuse to act. Despite her position, theirs is impressive as well. The revelation that Dorn was eyeing me, however, was apparently unexpected and not something she was willing to consider.”

“I don’t know how I feel about being used as a pawn in the game of a person I have never met, let alone even seen.” Zack kept an eye on Zara to see how she was reacting to the news. The subtle tightening of her hands and the creasing of her eyebrows told him this wasn’t the end of the discussion for her.

“I’m not exactly a fan of it myself,” Tessa replied with a strained smile. “This is the first time I have known, if only a little, the person involved in one of my mother’s schemes. Unfortunately, that is the way of the nobles. It is common for us, them, to not know the people their policies and actions affect.”

“Are we going to meet with your mother now?” Zara asked, not bothering to hide her displeasure with the woman.

“That is the idea,” Tessa answered after a moment’s hesitation. “I believe my father may be there as well, in which case I will apologize in advance for any uncomfortable questions he may ask. He had heard about the… facility before, and the work they were doing. I’m afraid he will be interested in speaking with you.”

“Did your mother tell you, our history?” Zack wondered at the way she had phrased it.

“I pieced bits and pieces of it from her, a little more from father, and then, of course, your scars. I won’t say I know everything or even the most important aspects, but I believe I know enough.”

An uncomfortable silence fell over the inside of the vehicle after that. Zara was the only one who remained indifferent to the atmosphere and was more concerned with her inspection of the animal. Carefully she inspected the seams, the fabric each part was made of, and everything else.

Finally, she sat back with a contented smile. “I think this will do nicely at the foot of my bed. Its large size will help to discourage unwanted visitors and protect us while we sleep.”

“I’m sure George and the others will appreciate the extra help it’ll provide,” Zack said in agreement.

“She, not it,” Zara admonished him with a thoughtful look. “There are no bits down below.”

Tessa coughed and snorted in disbelief. “They don’t include those kinds of things on stuffed animals! And how do you even know what that means? You are far too young to know about those sorts of differences.”

“How old do you think I am?”