Ion Cáel May 23rd,20XX

Sparrow looked at me with an odd expression. I wouldn’t call it betrayal, because that would be irrational but she did look confused and a bit hurt.

“You-you're awake?”

My soldiers pre-emptively gathered around me in response to her complex tone, but I waved them back. I didn’t need their petty intimidation tactics right now.

The witches around sparrow did the same but like me, she waved them back, and even further she turned her back to me and started giving orders.

“Go check the east wing for Rubella and her cronies. Capture them if you can, but if they attack with lethal force then report back to me or call for help okay?”

The four teenagers nodded in response and flew away at top speed.

Not to be outdone I turned back to my soldiers as well.

“Follow the witches and find Rubella. Capture her if you can, kill her if you can’t. Either way, I want a body in front of me before the day breaks.”

Sparrow looked offended at my orders but wisely chose not to comment. She instead turned to me and looked me over, once then twice.

“So you were acting the whole time?”

Ordinarily, I would have ignored her question and went off to find Rubella myself, after all, there was no reason for me to stick around her with things as they were, but I was curious about the witch that had enough of a connection to Aies to bring him to a hostile territory like this one.

She was pretty enough, but not spectacularly. Smart, but not a genius. Talented at magic but again not a genius. the only super impressive act she had to her name was that she had managed to unravel a leader’s brainwashing on her own. Impressive by all means, but not enough so that I could rationalize Aies coming here to save her on a romantic pretext.

Besides Aies himself being prettier than her, he already had a fiancée that he found a way to mention every half hour. If there was any romantic pretext at all I would guess it was from the human that Aies had brought along.

“What relationship do you have with Aies?”

“Aies?”

A look of pure confusion blossomed over her features and I realized my sight blunder.

“I guess you would know him as Cai, or Finn. The human he brought along seems fond of calling him as such.”

Her face suddenly twisted into a wretched version of itself and her eyes narrowed in suspicion at me.

“I know a Cai, and I also know a Finn, but they are two completely different people. Meanwhile, what human are you talking about?”

Ahh.

Come to think of it, Aies and the human had fought over something about hiding an identity. Perhaps ‘Finn’ was the name he used over in the human world.

Still, I didn’t like the commanding tone Sparrow used to speak to me. There was no spell to keep me in line, and no mission to force me to pretend to be okay with it. There was no reason for her to talk down to me, the grandson of Votric Caèl and the direct relation of the monarch of the goblins. Especially with her being so lowly ranked in comparison to myself.

“Watch your tone witch. I won’t be talked down to by the likes of you.”

She flared up as well, obviously rattled by my earlier statement but also in response to my words.

“By the likes of me?! You- look can you calm down for a second? I’m not trying to disrespect you or whatever. I’m just trying to get some answers. ”

Sparrow cut herself off and spoke slowly, taking deep breaths and closing her eyes in attempts to calm down. I supposed there were more important things for her to do than to defend her pride, I on the other hand had no such qualms. I didn’t think there was anything outside of heeding my elder’s orders that could force me to set my pride aside. Any goblin would say the same.

“If you wouldn’t talk down to me like I was still your slave then there wouldn’t be any offence to be taken.”

Once again she repeated the deep breathing ritual she had taken to doing and stared at me as if trying to decide between continuing to question me or to battle me. Honestly, I somewhat hoped she chose the latter, but she somehow decided to go with the former instead.

“You said Cai, this Aies guy you speak of and Finn are the same one person? And you know where they are? And there was a human with them too…you said. Can you take me to them?”

Her sentence structure was messy in her haste to get all of her questions out, and her voice sang with hope.

The easiest option would be to take her back to the hideout and let her see for herself, it would also probably help with Aies’s plan to take her back to the human world. The only thing that’s stopped me was the thought of facing repercussions from all the scary elders that had gathered in my humble abode. Even just the possibility was enough to send me into a shudder.

“You’ll meet him eventually I'm sure. You’re the only reason he came to this land anyway, no way is he leaving without you."

She winced like I had punched her in the stomach and I was forced to remember that she had betrayed him under the effects of the spell. While it technically wasn't her fault, all the spell did was hide a few of her memories. All of what she had done was by choice, even if those choices were properly uninformed.

In the meantime, I have a witch to catch, and sad to say that it’s not you.”

And with that I blurred away from her, leaving her in shock and confusion. I somewhat got the feeling that I had revealed something that I wasn’t supposed to reveal but it wasn’t something I dwelled on for long.

Didn’t have anything to do with me anyway.