“Thanks. Now can I ask a quick question, what do you think the Illusion Court is all about?”

“Making you see things that are not there.” My answer is a bit general, but it shows perfectly my thoughts on the Illusion Court. In my eyes, its members are nothing more than controlled hallucination generators.

She doesn’t seem too surprised by my views. “Most people think the same as you, but that is not true. You see, even the name of our court is an Illusion in and of itself. We pursue two main goals, the first being pursuing mastery of making the real fake, and the fake real. Take a bite.”

She clasps her hands, and then slowly brings them apart, revealing a strange golden fruit floating in the air. The fruit floats over to me and she nods at me, wanting me to eat it. I eye the fruit warily; as I told her I consider Illusion Court members to be walking mirages, and because of that some part of me feels like she is currently trying to prank me. I could reach out to take the fruit, only to find my hand passing through it.

In the end, after a few seconds of hesitation, I reach out to grab the fruit. Contrary to my expectations it is solid. I begin to think. She said one of their main goals was to make the fake real and vice versa, could this be an example of that? Maybe I would take a bite out of this fruit only to find out that it was never real, just something fake made to appear real. I bring the fruit towards my nose and sniff. It is almost odorless, but there is a small tantalizing smell coming off of it, so slight that it almost isn’t there. I can touch it and I can smell it; at this point I can almost guarantee that I will be able to taste it. I bring it to my mouth and take a bite.

I let out a small groan as a rush of tantalizing juices fill my mouth. All of a sudden, intense hunger is stoked within me and before I know what is going on I have consumed the entire fruit.

Lathia stares at me, a curious expression on her face. “Is it that good? Hey, can I have a bite?” She turns to Alessia, who agrees and gives her another fruit. She takes a bite and lets out a long deep groan, her eyes closing with pleasure. When they open once more, they are gleaming with excitement. She turns to Alessia, looking as though she wants to ask for more, but Alessia shakes her head, refusing.

Drew watches the two of us, looking as though he wants to ask for a bite, but he is holding himself back for some reason. Alessia then turns back to face me.

“Our first goal is one in which we have made little progress in, unfortunately, but the same is not true for our second goal which is a bit simpler. We aim to achieve perfection in the art of deception. For instance, the two friends beside you aren’t real.” She says with a relaxed smile that suddenly begins to look a bit creepy.

For a moment I don’t believe her, turning to look at Lathia - who makes a circular motion at her temple with her finger, indicating that she thought Alessia was loco. But then I reach out and watch with surprise as my hands pass through her. My heart begins to pound as I try the same with Drew and the results remain constant.

I turn back to look at Alessia, who is still smiling calmly and walk away from her. I spot a random guy walking past and grab him by his shoulder. He scowls at me. “What do you think you’re doing?”

But I don’t pay attention to him. Sometime in the middle of his question, my hand passed through him. Beginning to feel a little scared, I move farther away from Alessia touching random people as I do so. It doesn’t matter if the world around me is fake, I am still in the Lands in the middle of a somewhat busy place, as long as I move around, I should bump into someone, or touch someone real. I am wrong. None of the people I touch are real. I don’t bump into anyone.

As I begin to question the world around me, I crouch down and touch the grass beneath my feet. They feel so real. At this point, something in my mind seems to break as I realize I am unable to distinguish reality from illusions.

The scene in front of me seems to shatter and I find myself back in front of Alessia, who is smiling widely now. “None of what you just witnessed was real.”

I ignore her, attempting to touch Lathia who is beside me. She dodges. “What are you doing?”

Since she is proving so difficult, I ignore her and turn to Drew. He stands there, looking at me with a strange expression on his face as I touch him to confirm he is real. A few seconds later he grabs my hands. “Why are you feeling me up? What did you do?” He directs the last question to Alessia.

“I just gave him a sneak peak of what we can do.”

I turn to look at her, still not daring to believe everything is real. “Are you real?”

“This is why you don’t mess with Illusionists,” Lathia says. “They can and will mess up your sense of reality.”

“I’m real,” Alessia assures me. “But that’s not the limit of what we can do. The art of deception goes far deeper, and what you just saw is the surface level. I feel like you would make a great illusionist, so I want to ask, how about joining us?”

“Can I think about it?” I ask after some seconds.

She stays quiet for a few moments before laughing. “It looks like I’ve failed. Oh well, at least I tried.”

“Wait, I didn’t say no.”

“I know, but I can tell. The moment you failed to agree immediately I knew you wouldn’t choose us. It’s a shame though. Good luck with whatever you choose.”

I nod at her and start to move away when I think of something. “Can I ask you something, that fruit you gave me, is that what caused the illusions?”

She shakes her head. “No. The fruit was something I made up.”

“So, the taste and everything else was an illusion?”

Again, she shakes her head. “No, even though I made it up, it was real. Remember, I told you that to some extent we can make the fake real. That was an example, it’s a product of my imagination made real. If I made it well, it should give you some benefits over the next few days.”

I nod. “Why don’t you sell it? It tastes really good.”

“It isn’t easy to make. Two a day is basically my limit.”

“Can I buy one from you later?”

“Sure.”

“Bye.” I wave her goodbye and she waves back.