3 2: Aina

Evelyn felt she probably shouldn't believe these people, but the shrinking and growing man in the corner was very convincing.

"Tell me everything about this Earth place and how you got here," Zara brought her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around them as if Evelyn were about to tell her a bedtime story. A small gust of wind blew through them, tilting the fire and brushing Zara's hair behind her. She closed her eyes as the wind danced across her face and then turned to Raul, "Call up BoVR and tell them we picked up an unidentified mage by mistake. Tell them to stay tuned for a detailed report."

"Roger!" Raul playfully saluted and then pulled out a tiny smartphone from his pocket. He clacked away eagerly as Zara turned back to Evelyn.

She beamed, "So Earth?"

"Earth is the planet I'm from. It's... green and big," she answered dumbly, rubbing her now freed wrists. Staring at Zara was awkward so she directed her attention toward the fire behind her that she had just remembered was dangerously close.

Zara nodded, "And you don't have any magic there? None at all?"

"Or superheroes," Raul mumbled, "Unfortunately."

"No, no superheroes or magic," Evelyn bit her lip, "Well I guess there must be some magic or else I wouldn't have been brought here. I got struck by lightning and somehow I ended up here. Does that usually happen?"

"No people who get struck by lightning usually just die," Raul shrugged, "S'far as I know at least. So I'd consider this a W in retrospect."

"That's very interesting," Zara nodded again, leaning forward, "So it transported you into the lake?"

"No, I was originally in Heedskill River," She rolled her eyes at the thought, "Ugh Julia Anderson is the reason I fell in."

"Well, I can't quite follow your story. But I think I believe you now," Zara stared at the sky, "Sure, this planet, Dremel, has magic, but it isn't all flowers and rainbows. Our lives are practically something out of dystopian YA novel."

"What do you mean?" Evelyn sat up, leaning one hand. Her intrigue brought her to finally look at Zara, but the other woman was staring up at the pitch-black sky.

"Our planet, Dremel, is run by the Washington family and their allies. And they're not benevolent rulers," she explained, "This world is governed by the worst people on it and, unfortunately, the most powerful."

"And you thought I was the princess," Evelyn nodded, "Well Washington is my last name too."

"Yeah. You're almost the spitting image of her too. Almost," Zara frowned, "Me, Raul, my older sister, and our family friend aren't just your regular residents. I think you could tell by the way we're camping out in the wilderness."

"And the way you immediately tied me up and threatened me, yeah, I figured," She sighed, "So who are you? Vigilantes? Rebels? Is this where my Spiderman phase begins?"

"See I always understand the first half of what you're saying and then the second half goes completely over my head," Zara laughed, "But yeah, kind of. We're the rebels I guess you could say."

"We're called BoVR," Raul chimed in. Evelyn nearly screamed when she turned back to him because he was now regular human size, taller even, "The Bureau of the Virgo Revolution. The Washington family's natural enemy."

"Virgo is what this planet was originally named almost a millennium ago," Zara added, "But when the Washingtons took over all those centuries ago, they renamed it to Dremel, after the king who officially declared victory."

"And boh-ver," Evelyn copied Raul's pronunciation, "Is that bureau you were talking about earlier,"

"Yup," Raul nodded, "We were originally on a mission to infiltrate the princess's birthday ball, which would take place in this kingdom, but because of poor weather it was rescheduled for another two weeks. We were going to take refuge somewhere near after today when we stumbled on you and decided to stay at the campsite."

"I'm assuming this princess is a bad person, considering you treated me so harshly," Evelyn turned to Zara in time to see her face twitch an indiscernible expression, "Do you know her well?"

"The current princess of Dremel is named Eve Washington," Zara answered, "She's an only child and heir to the throne. And yes, she is a very bad person. Some would say she's the worst person you could ever meet. I'd have to agree with them."

"She's super powerful too," Raul butt in, "It's said that-"

"Well enough about her. It's still your birthday, right?" Zara finally looked back at Evelyn, now smiling, "Sorry for the rough start, we should show you around Diamond Kingdom tomorrow to make up for it. You get to meet my sister and everything. Sound good?" with a slight groan, she lifted herself to her feet, dusted off her backside, and extended a hand to Evelyn in assistance.

"Sure, which tent do I stay in?" Evelyn questioned, taking Zara's hand and letting the other woman help pull her up.

"You'll be staying in my tent, the pink one," she explained, "My sister and our family friend's is the purple one. You can guess who owns the tiny one."

"Oi!" Evelyn heard Raul protest from somewhere far below her and crouched down to follow Zara into the tent.

When Evelyn pulled back the flaps of the tent and stepped in, all the words on the tip of her tongue flew back down her throat. She gasped.

The inside was not the 5 foot tall tend she was expecting, but an entire two-story mansion with black marbled floors and four golden chandeliers zig-zagging across its tall squared ceiling. There was an indoor balcony rail along what Evelyn's guessed was the second floor above them and straight in front of them, where Zara was leading her too, was a long black carpeted hallway with two diverging paths. Zara led her down the right one and they walked across a hotel-like hallway with door after door, separated by clean white walls.

At the fourth black door, Zara stopped in between it and the fifth to point out a large map that hung on the wall.

"This Dremel," she pointed a large finger at a region that was colored blue in the east, "here we are in Diamond Kingdom. It stretches around the globe into Venus Kingdom all the way in the west. But our exact location is right here. Blood Forest, the biggest forest in Dremel. For some reason, it's located in Diamond Kingdom and not Blood Kingdom. Weird, I know, but that's a long story."

"And you said the princess doesn't live here?" Evelyn asked moving closer to the map. On the east side, Diamond Kingdom connected to a red and purple kingdom titled "Blood Kingdom" and "Berry Kingdom" respectfully.

"Yeah, the royal family lives in Dremel's capital, Geld Kingdom," she pointed to the massive region colored green on the map. Then her finger dropped down to a smaller black blob below it, "And I'm from here, Riddle Kingdom. My sister and I both grew up there and our friend as well. You'll meet them tomorrow, but you probably want to shower and go to bed first, right?"

"Yes please," Evelyn sighed.

Zara led her down the rest of the hallway to the end. As they walked in silence, Evelyn realized that she was Zara's same height in her wedges even though the other woman was wearing flat shoes.

Zara stopped and pointed to the door on the right, "That's where you can stay for tonight. The clothes should modulate themselves to fit you, but they might not be that pretty. You can probably wear my clothes for the next few days until we're able to buy something for you."

"You might be too tall," Evelyn rubbed her hands together absentmindedly, "I don't think we'll be the same size."

"Probably not, but I think you'd fit my dresses well enough," She shrugged in reply, "I wear mainly mini skirts and such, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"Okay, and there's soap and underwear and all that in there too, right?" Evelyn asked, "Sorry if I sound picky."

"Not at all, you're the birthday girl," Zara grinned, opening the door on the left, "everything you need should be in there. And if it's not, don't be afraid to just give me a knock. Goodnight, princess,"

Evelyn flushed, "Night."

The room really did have everything she needed, even adequate shampoo and conditioner for her locs, which were caked with sand and dirt. She looked at her cute little sundress sadly, seeing it covered in all the gunk of the Heedskill River, and sighed.

After giving it a proper farewell, she threw it in the hamper and shoved her soiled shoes in the shower to rinse off the dirt as well. After she finally felt clean and no longer felt sand between her cheeks (yes, those cheeks), she put on the plain pink nightgown provided by the magical room, got ready, and slipped into bed.

The room was nothing more than a queen-sized bed with plain white sheets in the middle of the room with a TV on a wooden stand in front of it, a matching wooden nightstand, a standing grey lamp, and a beige couch in the corner.

After finally catching her breath, she let out one sigh of relief, flicked the light off, and finally let herself fall asleep.

***

The next morning, Evelyn walked outside at around 11:00 am to find Raul (now around six feet tall) grilling eggs and bacon over a fire. The eggs were purple, but the bacon looked normal. Zara one a beige pillow, also in a nightgown.

She reluctantly sat down and was warmly greeted by the two of them, who gave her a plate of eggs and bacon and a jug of iced water. The taste of the food was enough to make her cry. She realized she hadn't eaten in almost 24 hours.

"So, as you might have noticed, my sister isn't here," Zara said after swallowing a piece of bacon, "She's out with our friend Jay. Jay is in a band and plays throughout most of the day when we have a break from the bureau, so we're gonna meet them later on in the day. I told her to meet us at our favorite place for your birthday. You like pizza?"

"I'm sure there isn't a single person on Earth or Dremel who doesn't like pizza," Evelyn nodded eagerly. She wondered how, if they were on two completely different planets, they had the same names for the same foods.

"That's what I said!" Raul shouted, now palm-sized, sitting on Zara's knee and gnawing at a fried egg the size of his entire body.

"What is your sister like?" Evelyn asked, licking grease from her lips, "What's her name?"

"Well technically she's my half-sister, we have different dads," Zara explained, crisscrossing her legs with Raul fighting for his dear life to hold on, "So her last name is Aina, not Engels, like me. She's also fully fairy and I'm only half."

Evelyn leaned forward, nearly knocking her water over, "You're part fairy? Like with the wings and everything? That's so cool!"

Zara grinned, "You don't have fairies where you're from either then, I'm guessing," she flicked her hair behind her back, showing off her pointed ears that Evelyn hadn't noticed previously, "Where do you think I got these ears from? Also this pointy nose? I don't have wings all the cool stuff 'cause I'm just a halfer, but my sister actually has wings and all that."

"We can talk about this in the car," Raul hopped off of Zara's knee, "We should get going if we want to get there before 1:00."

"Alright," Zara turned to Evelyn, "I'll lend you some clothes that might fit."

Zara lent Evelyn a dark purple sweater that fell off her shoulders, her sister's sports bra that luckily fit, and drawstring shorts that fit after a bit of tightening. Zara had on a solid pink crop top and black leggings, with tennis shoes on. She wore her hair in two dutch braids down her back that she stuffed behind her head into a black hoody, so that no platinum could be seen. Evelyn supposed that if she really were part of a group labeled as the royal family's enemy, her long bright hair would be the most noticeable thing about her.

For some reason, Evelyn thought cars in the land of fairies and magic would look like cars on Earth. She was foolish in think so.

A now six foot tall Raul, who wore a fully black ensemble and cloth mask, drove a light blue circular hunk of metal, as opposed to the usual car shape Evelyn was used to. The driver drove in front as usual, but there were two passenger seats, one on either side of the driver. The windshield extended around the entire circular car and formed windows for the backseat passengers. Zara and Evelyn sat in the back seat where the seats faced each other like a restaurant booth and there were doors in between the passenger and backseats.'

Zara laughed at Evelyn's shocked face, "I guess you don't have cars on Earth huh?"

"We do!" Evelyn assured her, "But they don't look anything like this. Are all cars and busses and stuff like this?"

Zara cross her arms and raised an eyebrow, "Well, I mean there are different models and car companies, but this the general car layout I guess. Busses are the same, I guess, but... longer?"

"Cool," Evelyn swiveled as far as her seatbelt allowed her to take it all in.

Zara giggled a bit again, "That reminds me, you don't have Transit and Kingdom Officers where you live right?"

"Um, we have police officers and security guards," Evelyn shrugged, "I don't know if it's the same thing though."

Zara shook her head, "Nah, there are officers in every kingdom and they're called Kingdom Officers. In Diamond Kingdom, their uniforms have metallic blue accents, you can't miss them. They're just as corrupt as the people they serve, so don't try to actually get help for them or anything. They're just here to enforce rules," Zara scowled, "But they're just average mages. Normal people, you know. The best of the best are the Transit Officers and the royal officers. Royal officers work for the royal family of course, but transport officers loiter around all the means of public transport to disturb people."

"What do you mean?" Evelyn tilted her head, tapping her leg absentmindedly.

"The busses routes, the train routes, rental car places, anywhere you can get around this place, they're crawling with those insects in bright purple uniforms," Zara snarled, "They don't have to be confined to one place and they can justify being anywhere at any time because there's a bus or train station about a block from everywhere. What I'm saying is that there are incredibly powerful beings walking around waiting to mess with someone and they have the law on their side, so stay by me at all times. They're called Transit Officers, and they're bad news."

Evelyn nodded "Got it!" she smiled, "I wouldn't want to go anywhere without you anyway. You seem super strong."

Zara beamed, "Why, thank you. Oh, that reminds me," she grabbed her backpack that was placed in between her feet and rifled through it for a bit. She pulled out two black cloth face-masks and handed one to Evelyn, "It would be weird if the princess's clone were to suddenly waltz into a pizza shop."

"Right," she mirrored Zara in putting on the mask, "You guys must be wanted too, right? If you have to go to these lengths to hide your identity."

"Yeah, well, me especially because... let's just say I have beef with a lot of important people and I stand out a lot. My sister and our friend, on the other hand, often disguise themselves on duty so they usually hang out without covering up. Raul is just a normal guy in the eyes of the kingdom so he doesn't have to disguise himself. So it's mainly just me who has to cover up." she explained.

"That's why I'm able to get citizenship, a car, a house, etcetera," he chimed in from behind the wheel, "My job is to act like a normal citizen so that Zara and the rest of the crew can travel freely and get the perks most legal citizens do. It's also a good cover if everything's in my name."

"Speaking of being wanted," Zara's smile dropped once again and she leaned forward, placing her elbows on her knees, "There's a particular Transit Officer who has it out for me. He usually frequents the train stations, but if he gets wind of me here, he'll be on our tails. He's a nasty little insect too, not someone we wanna deal with."

The rest of the car ride was met with small chatter. Evelyn commented on every bright pink, purple, and blue colored building and Zara happily quelled any confusion she had. Evelyn knew she was in a different world but, wow, it was even more incredible than she could imagine.

They arrived at Jackson's Diner around ten minutes later, Evelyn's stomach properly growling now. She was eager to step out of the car and get some food in her system, practically skipping inside the diner when Zara held the door open for her.

The interior was nothing different from what she'd expect from a pizza joint back on Earth. The walls were red and brown, with framed photos of old owners and mascot costumes on the walls. Brown round tables littered the floor with a few booth-style tables around the perimeter.

Zara faced the smiley woman at the host desk in front of them. A black-haired girl with bright pink eyes and no nose. She wore a red polo shirt and baseball cap that both held the diner's name and logo in uniform.

"Hello and welcome to Jackson's Diner! How may I help you today?" she said in a surprisingly deep demonic voice, her wide smiley expression not moving a centimeter.

"Um, my sister's here," Zara leaned forward to tell the woman, "The name should be under Aina."

The woman looked at the sheet on her desk and nodded, "Right this way!"

The employee led them to a booth in the back, where a single figure was seated, looking over a tall unfolded menu that concealed their entire face.

"Jewels," Zara smiled and the figure lowered their menu to reveal their face.

Her skin was much darker, her hair was darker, and her nose was pointed because of her fairy lineage, but there was no mistaking it. The big brown doe eyes, the crooked smile, right down to the face shape, Evelyn knew this person.

"Julia Anderson?" She yelled, glaring down at Zara's sister.

Julia raised an eyebrow, "Anderson?" she turned to her sister for clarification.

"Do... you two know each other or something?" Zara asked, "Let's sit down."

And so they did sit down, Zara next to her sister, Evelyn on the chair across from them, and Raul (now around six inches tall) was sitting on the stack of napkins in between them.

"Julia Anderson is the jerk that flung me into the Heedskill River! You're the reason I got struck by lightning!" Evelyn frowned. The scene flashed through the back of her mind again and she remembered how terrified she was, how she thought she would have died. She felt her hands on the verge of shaking so she put them under the table.

Zara seemed to notice and her expression softened, Julia just blinked in confusion and sat back, crossing her arms, "Well, from what Z has told me, you're from a parallel world or something. So I don't know what this Julia Anderson person did to you, but I'm sorry on her behalf, okay?" she smiled, "Better now?"

Evelyn didn't answer, she just turned to Zara. Zara looked between the two of them, "W-well, first of all, your name isn't even Julia Anderson. Second of all, I guess this proves you really are from some sort of alternate reality. Weird how you knew Jewels but didn't know me."

"We go to the same university, but she's a lot older than I am I think." Evelyn explained, "She also looked a lot different from you. She had pale white skin and a pudgy little nose. Racist jerk."

Julia nodded, "I think I know what happened now," she sat forward, "Our mother first married a man named Sean Anderson, but the royal insects killed him before they were able to have children. So she married my dad, had children with him, got a divorce, switched sides, and married a Kingdom Officer-- Zara's dad," she explained, "I suppose since you don't have an Eve or an evil Washington family, Sean Anderson never died and had a child with my mom-- which is the Earth version of me, Julia Anderson."

"Oh," Evelyn tried to process this and turned to Zara again, "You're dad was a Kingdom Officer? Is that why important people know you and have beef with you?"

"Somthin' like that," Zara waved it away, "But we can talk about that somewhere else, somewhere safer. For now, let's eat. You should also get to know my sister, she's nothing like that other Julia, I swear."

Julia smiled and leaned forward, "You can call me Jewel, by the way, everyone does," her teeth were almost unrealistically white, "I'd like to learn more about Earth to get a good gauge of where you live. From what Zara's told me told you live in literal hell."

And so Evelyn went on about her life, how she grew up with her quarreling parents with no magic and no fairies. Evelyn explained how she had grown up alone, never with any friends or relationships, so being around these people or people, in general, was a bit strange for her. She told them about how she met Julia Anderson's gang on her birthday and how Julia seemed kind at first but then started to give off bad vibes. Finally, she told them about how Julia grabbed onto her arm and, in trying to break away, they both fell into the river and she was struck by lightning. Throughout her story, they had ordered, received, and dug into their pizza. Zara wasn't joking, it really was the best pizza she had ever tasted, even if the crust was bright pink.

When she finished, Jewel seemed slightly more sympathetic, and (though they couldn't see it behind her mask), Zara was frowning.

"That sounds..." Zara tried to explain.

"Depressing, you're life sounds depressing. Literally, the only thing you have going for you is being rich," Jewel popped a french fry in her mouth, "I'm glad you ended up here, so we can treat you better."

"Yeah, I guess, it's the only life I've known," Evelyn shrugged, "Other than the whole Julia Anderson situation, everything seemed normal to me. But maybe it really was depressing. I mean, for some reason, I don't really want to go back. Or at least not yet."

"Well, that's great, 'cause I don't want you to back just yet either!" She beamed, "Because I wanna give you the best post-birthday of your freaking life! We're going to the caves!"

"First of all, lower your voice, idiot," Zara placed her hands on the table and leaned forward, "Second, no the hell we're not."

"What are the caves?" Evelyn looked from the two sisters, back to Raul. The little man was too busy on his sliver of pizza, which took him five minutes to finish a third of it.

"A place that's far too dangerous for someone who doesn't know how to fight or use magic," Zara said, "We already took a risk coming into the biggest city in Diamond Kingdom to take you out to dinner, we're not going to get you killed on the way back."

"But it's her birthday! And she has to meet Jay!" Jewel tugged on Zara's sleeve grumpily. It seemed even though Zara was the youngest, she called the shots around here.

"Jay?" Evelyn egged on, taking a sip of a fizzy soda that tasted just like Coke.

"I might've mentioned them already, but Jay is our family friend and part of our team. They're the one that's in a band," Zara explained, "Jewels has also had a crush on them since we were kids but is too chicken to say anythi-"

"Shut up!" Jewel threw a dirty napkin at her to silence her, "It's Evelyn's birthday! We'll take her to Jay's set, have her listen to their songs, maybe drink a little, and leave. We won't get in trouble and won't run into someone like Glory, I swear."

Zara looked at her big sister's puppy dog eyes and melted. She looked to Evelyn who tried her best to look as eager as possible and then sighed. "One set, that's it. She meets Jay, hears them play, has a drink or two, and then leaves, got it?"

Jewel squealed and grabbed Evelyn's hand, which was outstretched to get a slice of pizza. She beamed, "I always get what I want," the brightness of Jewel's teeth nearly blinded her, "You're gonna have the best night of your life!"