Jake Addams May 23rd, 20XX

While Finn and his grandmother cried in each other’s arms, I kept trying to wrap my mind around what had just happened.

Did this mean that everything had worked out?

Was Finn okay now? Were we allowed to go home? What would we do next?

None of my unasked questions were answered and the two fairies stayed in each other's embraces. Theodulus finally seemed to lose patience and walked back to Votric, who had silently stood to the side of the room until now.

“Votric. Its time.”

The other goblin slightly frowned but stopped leaning against the wall and began to stretch out his limbs.

“Are you sure Theodulus? If we do this, you realize there is no going back?”

Theodulus snorted.

“Do you think they had any plans of going back when they captured and tortured my great-grandson? He'll probably be upset if I raze the fairylands to the ground, but he didn’t say anything about this place. Besides aren’t you excited? I’m permitting you to let loose again.”

Votric finally perked up and even leaned in closer to Theodulus in excitement.

“Really? I can let loose? You aren’t going to stop me this time?”

Before he could respond, a teary-eyed Heloise suddenly looked up and glared at the two goblins. Her wings flared out, taking up more than double the space that her body did and her hair began to defy gravity as it floated off her head. Her whole body began to glow with thick gold energy and her eyes lost their dark pupils in favour of turning them into the same gold as her iris. She resembled a statue.

“Don’t you two dare! The witches are mine. I can still smell every flower that they made my poor grandson bloom.”

I was forced to remember the flowers that had bloomed on the floor every time Rubella had struck Finn. The wretched sight of golden blood falling to the ground, and blooming into a beautiful flower, unlike any other that I’d ever seen, only to be swiftly squashed to death by Ion. The memory made me shudder, but I repressed it. It wasn’t my place to be traumatized by that, I wasn’t even the one that had been hit.

“Ah, Grandma, it’s too much.”

Finn suddenly whined from her embrace and she immediately pulled back her energy, leaving only a faint glow instead of the pure and opaque halo of before.

“Sorry, dear. I forgot that you were still adjusting.”

Her voice and tone changed so abruptly that it was scary but none of the others in the room reacted to it.

“What do you mean we wouldn’t dare Heloise, chose your words more carefully. Of course, I expect you to join us. But first. Aies, human, you both have a choice to make”

Finn finally looked up and I was once again thrown off by how different he looked.

The silver-gold hair and eyes gave him a sort of halo effect, and seeing him stand between Heloise and Theodulus only made that worse. He looked so much like both of them, even though they both looked so different from each other. It was a bit uncomfortable to look at in person like this but I was sure that I would have appreciated it as a picture.

Heloise began to stroke Finn’s hair as she continued after Theodulus.

“Right now I have enough magic to send you both back to the human world safely. If I wait until after the fight then the risk would be too high, especially for the human. There also isn’t that much usable magic in this place, so the risk would be high regardless. If you want to go back now then we’ll have to do so as quickly as possible. However, I was told that you came here for a certain Witch girl… if you want to wait and go back with her then we can do that as well.”

“Well, Aies can’t go back yet. He needs the witch, or the deal he made will count as a failure”

“Yes, but I can’t send the human on his own without the proper equipment. If he goes with Cai then I can use Cai’s magic to wrap him up and they’ll both be fine.”

“But wait, can’t I just go back to the human world and then come back here after?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Absolutely not.”

The two grandparents responded in unison, but it was Heloise that gave a full explanation.

“Your magic is unstable as it is, going through two transports in such a short amount of time would be too dangerous.”

Theodulus followed up.

“Don’t forget your Deal Aies. If you fail your very first deal then that backlash will hit you like a truck. You won’t have the energy to do anything.”

Finn slightly shrank back from the double scolding he received and tried to keep a neutral expression on his face as he turned to me.

“I’ll do whatever you decide Jake. I owe that much to you.”

I wanted to go back, I did, and I could tell that Finn wanted to get back too. But from what I was hearing, if Finn went back without Sparrow he would get hurt, and I didn’t think my heart could support seeing him unconscious again.

“wh-what happens if we wait?”

They all looked at me like some sort of talking animal when I finally contributed an opinion. I dared guess that they had forgotten I could talk. But then again this didn’t come to me as a surprise. To them, I was just the human Finn liked to bring around. I might as well have been a dog or a bird.

“Well, If you decide to wait, then Mei should be here soon. I’ll have her watch over you two until we’re done here. Ah, I almost forgot.”

Heloise suddenly pulled out her wand and drew a few random shapes into the air, she then pinched the air around Finn and sprinkled it onto the shapes she had drawn. She tapped them once with her wand and then gently blew onto them, creating a golden fog to settle over them. The random shapes suddenly split apart and rejoined themselves into the figure of a stick man, which then ran out of the room.

“There, she should be able to find us with that.”

Finn visibly perked up at Heloise mentioning Mei, and I was forced to remember that he was, in fact, an engaged man. A very happily engaged one at that.

He kept a smile on his face until it suddenly fell off into a frown.

“But wait. You said the two of us. I want to join you guys!”

“Absolutely not!”

“Absolutely not!”

The two grandparents synchronized yet again. Theodulus looked at Finn like one would look at a puppy that often tried to harm itself by ramming its head into any piece of furniture around while Heloise looked at him like he was a tiresome toddler.

I didn't imagine that being looked at in such a manner was pleasant, but Finn brushed it off like he was used to it.

“Why not? I just consolidated my powers and they probably won’t get any better until I can use them.”

“Yes, but not mere minutes after consolidation. What you need is to rest. Not be quiet before I knock you unconscious and you wake up in the human world a week from now.”

That was Theodulus, but although it was a threat it was said in a caring tone. A bit gruff and scary, but no one present could deny that it came from a place of love.

Finn tried to raise an argument again but was quickly cut off by Heloise, who had now fully flared out her wings and intensified the glow around her.

The room suddenly began to shake and Theodulus smiled as well, a terrifying expression that showed both of his long fangs hooking over his bottom lips. Heloise held a smile as well, but hers was much gentler and steadier.

The two of them buzzed with anticipation and I realized that they were both looking forward to spreading carnage around the place. I somewhat wished I could argue for the innocent witches that hadn’t done anything to us, but I wasn’t as passionate as to put my life at risk for strangers.

“Go outside Aies. Someone has been looking very frantically for you.”

Finn didn’t need to be told twice and grabbed me by the upper arm and then blurred away with me and up toward a familiar giant Fluttermoth.