Clearing things up, probably not.

LANCE

Magnus looked at me, then at Dad. Before he sauntered towards the vacant seat on my right. The microwave ding behind me. And I stood up to fetch it.

Dad has his eyes stick to the table. As if he's waiting for a pizza encrusted killing clown to pop up and tell him his eyeballs are fake. Looks like he calmed down. More like he never showed his weakness to strangers. Magnus, on the other hand, had his attention trained on my direction - the microwave to be exact.

The way his pupils slit and the tight grip on his towel tells me his inner mind is battling whether this red and white glass cased square dead machine just talked or not.

And if it really did, he's ready to smash it apart at moment's notice.

I tore my eyes from them. I maybe am too confused to mistake things in my surrounding. Given the information overload Dad blurted out and Magnus fed on my brain... It's a miracle I haven't lost my sanity yet.

I fetch the pot holder hanging on the rail and adjusted both to my hands. When I came back to their side, I laid the steaming roasted chicken at the table. The smell made my mouth water, letting me momentarily forget the foul giblets probably not removed or what's seem to be the strained atmosphere between the two.

"Let's dig in," I said, clanging my fork in the plate. We ate in silence. I completely forgot the tension when I blurted out...

"Dad, this chicken's a miracle. Pete's wife actually removed the giblets."

"Isn't it normal?" Magnus asked before stuffing his mouth with a piece of chicken leg.

"Believe me, that woman's definition of normal is in the new scale of weirdness. When we first moved in here she let herself in before we could stash our stuff. Giving us those horrid-looking voodoo masks as welcome gift." I said, turning my head towards the colorful Hawaiian masks with feathers and face paint we hang on the wall so she'll stop asking where her gift was, or have we been putting it in good use.

Magnus studied them. "That's um... very odd."

"Oh yes, but nothing's odder than to see a Seeker coming to the human realm. What are you doing here? Aren't the Eklektos you seek are in the magical realm?"

Magnus put down his fork and stared at Dad. "No. The prophecy never stated which realm the Eklektos reside. Only words like I should journey across realms to find them."

"I see. Does that mean my son is one of the celebrated Eklektos? Will you bring him with you when you seek the rest?" I stared at Dad, stunned. He makes it sound as if he's not part of it.

"Dad, what are you trying to say? If we eventually leave, you're coming." I firmly said. Dad shakes his head.

"You don't understand son. You see, the journey of the Seeker must be his alone. He must not be accompanied by anyone – except the Eklektos. Or the Faeries will track down your location. And you won't get out of their trap alive."

Trap… I remembered my dream about the 'Twylyth'. No one is more stunned to hear what Dad said except Magnus.

"Was that the case? How come I don't know…To think I just decide to sneak out of my kingdom to accompany the Seeker." Magnus chuckled. I stared at him.

"You're the Seeker Magnus. No one's accompanying you except you."

"Yeah, but just a while ago, our kingdom was in great pinch. The Beasts are mad in attacking our territories." When Magnus see my perplexed expression he took it to himself to explain from the beginning.

"Lance, in this universe four realms concede with each other. The human realm – this place. The magical realm – where I, I mean me and your Dad came from, the deities realm and the demon realm. There are three kinds of beings living in magical realm, the Beasts, the Faeries and the Gifted People or mortals. You see, these three are constantly at war. The Faeries always wanted to take control of the magical realm. They seek the aids of demons so the deities come down and stop them which resulted the Great War. And that was three thousand years ago, Now once again, the Faeries are faring to eliminate the Gifted People by claiming tyranny on human realm. That's where you, the Eklektos, came in. You have to stop them. You are given the powers of the Deities, the Mark in your forearm proves it. You are chosen. Only in your hands can you defeat these Faeries. This is your destiny."

"Oh," I feel déjà vu hearing his words. This is what mentor characters say to the main character when they tell him he's the powerful blah blah blah hero who's destined to save the world.

Magnus took my left arm with the circle tattoo five. "This is the sign of your identity, of what you will become in the future, I know your powers are still uncontrolled but I promise I will do everything that I can to teach you how to control it. To guide you on the right path."

I stared at him. My ears tingling at the seriousness of his voice. This isn't the idiot Magnus I know from the past few days. This is the responsible Magnus who's willing to risk his life for the duty he believes only he himself could fulfill. I scratched my hair.

"My destiny is to defeat these Faeries right? Do you mean the entire race? Alone?" He shakes his head.

"No, there are twelve of you. We have to find the others first. My patron Deity gave me a –" he cut off his sentence and cough. In a split second, I caught him giving a wary glance at my Dad like he doesn't trust him with this information yet.

"I mean, you said there are two of you here right? And the other one is Moon rose? We have to find her first before we leave this place. And possibly put you into training so you won't go killing any plants or Auf or worse – other people around you."

"Wait – hold on, who's Moon Rose?" Dad interrupted.

"My fan slash stalker girl. The one who's been giving me flowers. She's an Eklektos like me." I said. His mouth fell open.

"You mean the blue rose in the infirmary? I thought you said you got it from your girlfriend."

I put my palms up. "I never said she's my girlfriend."

He didn't listen. I watched him mouth the word 'Auf'. As if the creature is familiar to him. Like a distant memory he's having trouble to remember. When realization suffused his eyes he stared at me, dumbfounded.

"What does an 'Auf' want with you?" He asked, getting worked up now.

I shrugged. "Nothing. I just killed it with my blessing, that's all."

His face darkened. "Since when have you been keeping things from me Lance? Don't you know how dangerous Aufs are?"

"That's rich coming from you Dad. Considering you never told me about you being an alien from another dimension."

I might have said it sharply than I intended to. He flinched and averted his eyes.