Young Writers Society

James was glad that he didn't have to step in before someone got shot. To his relief, Kratzer and Aurick finally both stood down and came to a reconciliation of differences.

He remained in his chair and let out a sigh as the tension began to clear, and his gaze fell on Hali, who had been rather silent. The language barrier, even if Hali somehow found a magical device that could translate, was probably still a pain.

He noticed Hali's clenching fists.

"Still see them?" he asked.

Maahes, also noticing that Hali's attention had returned to the window, scooted on over to where he was. While he was interested in seeing whatever hallucination Hali saw, he was more interested in the pretty mirror. He had to stand on the very tips of his toes to get a good look at his reflection, and then he let out a little gasp - one that was a mixture of shock and horror. He could see a scaly person in the background of the mirror. That had to be Hali, since he was standing right behind him. But then there was something peeking up from the very bottom of it. Something that he recognized very, very well.

It was his form on the seventh plane.

Odris hurried over to him the moment the gasp filled the cabin, eyes widening as he stared into the mirror. The mirror revealed nothing about him, but Maahes was almost entirely certain that he could see what Hali and Maahes looked like.

He grabbed onto Maahes's arm and pulled him away from the mirror. His hand was trembling, but Maahes coudn't figure out why. Odris already knew what he looked like! Back when he had first been summoned, he hadn't known how to change his guise so he showed up like that instead. And Odris had been a little scared then, but after he got used to it he never was.

“Yeah.” Hali stared at Maahes. He looked way different than, well, his current form. Was that his true appearance? Hali himself could only see his head reflected from where he sat, but he figured if he stood and went closer the mirror would show him as he should be, with a long, slender dragon body and four legs instead of two legs and two arms. Suddenly he wondered if it would show him much smaller, because his dragon form was probably too big for the cottage.

Yes. Hali was much, much bigger as his true self. Strong, too, much stronger than a puny Collector. It would take many sailors armed to the teeth to take him down.

He didn’t have to be afraid of one human.

And then the Collector fizzled away.

Maahes knew it probably wasn't the smartest idea to go back to the mirror, but he wanted to get another look at his true appearance--it had been years since he had seen it. He squirmed. Odris usually had a tight grasp, but his summoner hadn't expected any resistance. Maahes easily broke free and darted towards the mirror, his guise's little pudgy hands pressing up against the glass as he stared at his form on the seventh plane.

"I look so small," he said in awe, waving a tentacle at himself. Then he rustled his (mostly useless) wings for good measure, and grew steadily amused when he could see his true form trying to mimic the expressions of his guise.

James was hesitant to approach the mirror that Maahes and Hali were looking into. There was enough weird stuff going on that he didn't want to mess with anything else. So, from afar, as he remained in his seat, he inquired.

"Is something odd about the mirror?"

Odris hurried on over to Maahes to bring him away from the mirror, but the little spirit was stubbornly staying put. Even trying to push him out of the way failed to work; he had forgotten that Maahes was only looking the part of a child. He was in fact far bigger on the seventh plane, and when he didn't want to move, he wasn't going to be moving anywhere.

"It's showing my reflection!" Maahes said, gesturing at the mirror as he looked at James. "Hali's, too!"

James blinked.

"That's... that's what mirrors do, Maahes."

"I know!" Maahes replied, bustling with energy. "But it's a special mirror, James! When I look at it, I see-"

Odris suddenly put his hand on Maahes's mouth. The djinni bristled with annoyance at being silenced, and tried to continue talking even though his voice was muffled to the point of being impossible to understand. "That's a nice joke, Maahes," he said, giving a very nervous laugh, "but it's a completely normal mirror."

Maahes pulled Odris's hand away. "No it's not," he protested.

Odris gave him a look. "Yes it is."

"No it isn't! Odris, you can see my ten-"

"When I look in the mirror, all I see is a little Alteran boy," Odris said, continuing to give him the look. Maahes normally would have fallen silent by now, but he was frustrated with how Odris was acting. "Which is what you are, right Maahes?"

"Nuh-uh! I'm not Alteran, Odris! And I don't look Alteran when I look in the mirror! I see me!"

Odris gave another nervous laugh, which only made Maahes cross his arms in his frustration. "You have such a wild imagination, Maahes."

Maahes frowned. "I don't. I'm not making things up. Why are you pretending that I am? Why are you lying?"

Odris leaned down in front of him and looked him in the eye. His voice dropped down to a whisper. "Remember what I said about what would happen if people saw your true form? While most Alterans might be accepting, this group here aren't Alteran in the slightest. And from how eager Aurick was to kill Kratzer with him being his son, I don't think he'd be very accepting of someone like you."

"Oooooh," Maahes said, his voice at a completely normal volume. "I'm supposed to play along because they might try to kill me, too! Because I'm a monster! Right, Odris?"

Odris just stared at him and muttered something under his breath that sounded weirdly like, "Just kill me now" though Maahes couldn't figure out why he'd possibly say that.

James stared at Odris and Maahes with wide-eyed confusion.

"Look, uh," he started, pausing to clear his throat. "At this point, it'd probably be easier to explain who and what you are. If you're not human, or alt- whatever - it doesn't matter to me. Hell, Kratzer's a vampire. None of us here are from the same places, I'm sure. Whatever it is, there's no use hiding it. Maahes has practically outed himself already."

"I'm a demon-" Maahes started to eagerly reveal, but Odris slapped his hand over his guise's mouth before he could get the rest of the sentence out. He frowned behind said hand. James said it was alright - why was Odris acting like it wasn't? He kept staring at Kratzer and Aurick, though his gaze lingered on Aurick for the longest period of time.

"The only special thing about Maahes is that he's a gifted kid with a very large imagination," Odris said. His voice was shaking as he spoke, and the hand covering Maahes's mouth was trembling. He didn't resist when Odris went to pull him close - Odris seemed really scared, and now he was starting to get scared even though he wasn't sure what he was supposed to be scared of. "That's it. We might have different words for our races - you use human, and we use Alteran - but there's no differences beyond that."

"He--He's gone," breathed Hali, who had been overly distracted by the disappearance of the Collector to pay much attention to the muted conflict going on. The translator dropped out of his hands and clattered to the ground.

"Whatever comes, I can face it," he whispered to himself. I'll be ready.

Suddenly, a bright light seemed to grow and surround him, and as he held his hands out in front of him, they began to disappear. At the same time, he felt his magic returning to him, filling up the emptiness inside of him where it had belonged.

He looked beyond the others in the cottage, and he could see the ocean and the ship from which he had been fleeing before. He could almost taste the tang of salt air on his tongue and feel the sea breeze blowing through his hair.

Hali closed his eyes as more of his body was absorbed by the light and let out a shout, of relief and letting out the remnants of his frustration and fear. But the sound that came from his mouth, though he hadn't fully turned, was not a human cry, but the powerful roar of a sea dragon.

The water closed around him and he could breathe. He could feel himself, wings, arms, tail, horns, snout, and all, as large as the ship that had just held him captive. He was back in his own world, back at the moment when he had appeared in the rift. As he surfaced and gazed down at the men on the deck, who were now shouting in panic and surprise. Some of them emerged with harpoons, preparing to aim them at him.

But he bared his teeth at them and roared at them, mustering his magic to throw a wave at the vessel. As the crest fell over the ship, Hali dove beneath the surface, into the depths below.

James had grown weary of the secrecy. He fully understood it, but with so many disturbing unknowns, his mounting confusion was becoming overwhelming.

So when he watched Hali disappear from the room as if he were never there, with a draconic roar, he stood frozen as chills ran down his spine. He stared. And he stared. Stared at the emptiness left behind, remembering the mix of contentedness and determination on Hali's face just before he vanished with a flash of light.

Hali... he... had he found a way out? While they were busy arguing?

Maahes let out a scream when Hali suddenly disappeared, clinging to Odris. Odris knew that he was supposed to be strong for the spirit, but he couldn't help but feel a jolt of terror as well. Hali was there one minute and gone the next. And that noise - that noise hadn't been a regular cry. It had been a roar, and Odris didn't know if it had been Hali making it or something else.

His hands shook as Maahes buried his face into his legs, his grip almost painfully tight. After a moment of hesitation, Odris picked the spirit off of the ground. Maahes threw his arms around Odris's neck and hid his face in his shoulder. It was one of the strangest things he had ever experienced with the spirit - Maahes never picked such a small form, and a glimpse in the mirror made the moment feel even more bizarre.

"It's okay," Odris whispered, his hand shaking as he tried to rub Maahes's back - that was a good way to calm down a small child, right?

"Something took Hali," Maahes said into his shoulder, his voice muffled. "We have to find Hali!"

Galen spun around, staring at the surrounding greenery and the cottage before him. Just a moment ago, he had been walking home in the dark, but after turning a corner he was somehow in a sunny clearing. The city streets were nowhere to be seen, and it certainly wasn't nighttime here.

"Where am I?" he muttered to himself. "Am I dreaming?"

He debated whether he should approach the house. What if its inhabitant wanted to be left alone? It was the only cottage he could see in the clearing. And on the other hand, even if the owner didn't mind visitors, surely the sight of him would terrify them--the scarf masking his face was suspicious enough to most, let alone what they would feel if they saw his mouth.

Yes, it probably would be best to try to find his way home by himself.

Suddenly, there was a loud roar and a flash of light from within the cottage. Galen jumped, his reservations flying to the back of his mind. Was someone hurt in there? Did they need help? He hurried towards the front door, readjusting his mask as he knocked.

"Hello?" he called. "Is anyone in there?"