"Show us the rest of the castle." Luke demanded after we had all finished our homework.
"Why do you want to see the castle so badly?" I replied.
Stupid question, Vi. Caleb muttered in my mind.
"Why wouldn't we? One, it's a freaking castle! Two, the first day we came here we get to see a never ending library, a secret passage way and a lot of magic!" Luke replied.
Well, all that stuff is normal, everyday things in our world. I replied to Caleb.
But not in ours. By the way, they're staring. That turned my attention back to everyone else. "Sorry. Where shall we start?"
"How about we introduce them to mom?" Lisa suggested enthusiastically. I nodded and stifled a laugh at Caleb's sudden tenseness.
"Who?" Tim asked.
"Our mom; the queen of this area." I explained, some of their faces became very worried. "She won't lock any of you up. Just show proper respect." They nodded and we headed for the main lounge.
As usual, mom was reading, the only one there. She looked up curiously as we came in. "can I help you?"
"Yeah, just introducing you to some new people to this world."
Caleb, want to demonstrate some proper respect? He stepped forward, sighing mentally. He followed the same procedure he had last night. "You remember Caleb." She nodded and I continued on, introducing everyone. They all followed Caleb's lead, except the girls curtsied.
She is still giving me a suspicious look. And she's only giving it to me she seems to be okay with the others. Caleb commented in my mind.
You're imagining things. I replied, but now that I was paying attention, she did seem to be treating him differently then everyone else. "Erik, do you want to go show everyone where the guest rooms are, in case they have some need of staying here?" I kept majority on how mom was interacting with everyone.
Erik took in my tone and nodded, he led them out the doorway. Caleb gave me a confused look, but didn't resist leaving.
"What do you have against him?" I asked mom once the door closed.
"Against who?" She replied, acting like she was only half listening.
"You already know. Caleb. From the looks of it, all you want to do is throw him in the dungeon."
"The only reason I haven't is because you seem to trust him. I never will."
"Why?"
"He's an enemy."
"Not of you he's not. He hasn't done anything."
"He hasn't, which is why he's not locked up."
"You're not making any sense!"
"He is a member of an enemy family, they could be using him as a spy. I especially don't like that I can't hear his thoughts."
Vi? Please tell me that you aren't having trouble with your mother because of me.
Have you been listening in?
No, I can honestly say I haven't.
Good and it is fine, I'm learning some information that I needed. I then remembered my other conversation. "What enemy family?"
"You were talking to him again." She saw my surprised face and continued. "You become very unfocused. What did you say to him?"
"Nothing important. What do you mean by the enemy family?"
"There is a war taking place, it is at a sort of neutral point for now. No fighting is happening right now…"
I cut her off, "A war? Why don't I know about it?"
"Mostly because your father and I have been trying to protect you and your siblings from it, in case things get bad again. Your father is out at the headquarters, going over a variety of plans in case they attack. We won't attack unless they do first…"
I interrupted again, "What started this war?" I had done away with all the 'respect your mother' stuff and was really close to just yelling at her.
"W-we don't know." She said as if she had just surrendered.
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"The war has been going on for many, many years. The start of the war has been long forgotten."
"That's why all the children of the royal families have been sent to earth to learn for the past several generations, isn't it?"
"Yes."
Caleb, you have some explaining to do! "Okay, mom, I'll be careful around him, I had better be going now."
What are you talking about? Caleb replied.
"No, I was going to talk to you about something anyway. I would like you to meet someone." Mom said, finally setting her book down on the table next to her.
I'll explain later. I replied to Caleb before replying to mother. "What?"
"This is Kayla." The girl that had just entered bowed slightly. She had beautiful, curly, brown hair that went down to the middle of her back. Her eyes were bright, light brown. Her skin was light, not tan at all, but it wasn't really pale either. The way she held herself was a shy, but fierce personality. "Kayla is a trained soldier, and is one of the smartest we have. she has her own special talents that made her seem perfect for some extra protection for you and your siblings, especially when your powers fade. Kayla, this is my eldest daughter, Violet." Mother continued.
"Hello, you can call me Vi. Welcome to our little group." I spoke my greeting to Kayla.
"Your little group?" Mom laughed, "It has twenty people in it!"
"Twenty-one now. Is she registered at our school yet?"
"Yes, every thing's taken care of. I'll let you introduce her to the others." She nodded to each of us, put a bookmark in her book, and left.
"Okay, good night. shall we go see if the others are still awake?" I asked, turning to her. She nodded and we headed off.
