“Samael, you know Adaela, right?” Vada asked, to move the conversation along.
“Pleasure as always. What are the two of you up to, aside from constantly trying to get caught?” he chuckled.
“Constantly? What have you heard?” Vada laughed nervously. I stood there awkwardly, trying to convey confidence instead of a kid getting caught doing something wrong.
“I’ve not heard anything. I was on the damn elevator the last time the two of you were groping each other,” Samael said.
“Oh, saw that, did you?” Vada retorted.
“I’m not sure what’s going on between the two of you, but whatever it is, you should definitely keep it up,” Sam said, backing out of the elevator as the doors opened.
My eyes went wide as a portal opened behind him. Before I could even make a sound, someone stepped out of the portal and attempted to snatch Samael. Samael’s pupils were tiny slits as he began struggling out of the being’s grip, shock on his features as if he never thought he’d be one of the victims of the portal snatchers. I leapt into action as the being, hooded and cloaked, pulled Samael with them toward the portal. I activated my death magic. Capturing the mind of the attempted abductor, I put them in stasis as I yelled for security. Samael turned around and grabbed the person before they could get back through the portal as my shadows wrapped around them in a hogtie.
Vada, clearly seeing that I was handling the attacker, ran toward the portal and jumped in. I yelled after her, because she was currently unarmed and going into enemy territory withoutbackup. Terrified, I pushed the snatcher toward Samael, ordering him to take them to the dungeon and to call for backup. The other side of the portal seemed familiar, but I couldn’t quite determine why. It didn’t seem quite like Underhill, but it didn’tnotlook like it either. As the portal began to close, I dove into it, ready and prepared to fight for both of our lives.
April 19th
Ididn’t even think, I just jumped. While Samael and Adaela were incapacitating the person behind the attempted abduction, someone needed to figure out who was strong enough to open a portal before it closed and we lost our lead again. That fucking portal opened up on the Demon Faction’s floor right in front of the elevator. It couldn’t be a coincidence. I didn’t believe in coincidences.
I unfortunately realized just how fucked I was when I didn’t noticeVindictaon my person. I’d left my blade in my office at thePaxand not in the pocket realm because I feared I’d use it while interrogating Daji. I was unarmed.
I started to get my bearings quickly as I heard an, “oh fuck” behind me. I needed to do something quick, so I turned around with a high kick, knocking the being flat out. They wouldn’t stay down for long, so I searched the vicinity to figure out if there were any other threats. So far, it appeared to only be this one being. I assumed this was the individual who opened the portal. I bent down to take a closer look.
They appeared to be very young, maybe still an adolescent. Their long, hay-colored hair had two ears peeking through itthat almost resembled cow ears. Their face was elongated like a cow’s but still had human-like features—a minotaur, which was concerning. I quickly registered that I was in Underhill, and I cursed under my breath. This was the last place I expected to see myself again. In the distance, I spotted a large castle upon a hill, glittering gold and onyx.
As the portal started closing due to me knocking this minotaur out, Adaela barreled through it. She landed much more gracefully than I had, and her eyes were haunted, like she was living out her worst nightmare in real time. I couldn’t figure out why she would be terrified. We hadn’t known each other long enough for that.
“I’m okay, sweet girl. I’m fine,” I said to her as she spotted me.
“Oh, thank the gods,” she whooshed out, breathing heavily and holding her chest. “Why the fuck would you jump through a portal without backup? You could have died!” Adaela yelled at me. I deserved it, but it was cute seeing her tiny self yelling.
“I knew this might be our only chance to figure out what the fuck was going on, so I took it. Do you know where we are?” I asked her, stepping closer to her.
She cursed under her breath. We were in a large field of bright green grass almost as far as the eye could see. We were near what might’ve been the Dark Wood. The forest behind us was thick with old trees, and we were inconspicuous where we currently stood. We were only a few weeks out from Beltane, so the trees were beginning to fill out with dark green leaves around us. We were either in Spring or Summer, though the Dark Wood encompassed the entirety of the realm.
“We’re definitely in Underhill. Motherfucker,” Adaela spat, pulling at her wild hair as she paced.
“Is this the Seelie or Unseelie part of the realm? I don’trecognize where we are, but I do see the castle in the distance. It doesn’t look like we’re in an occupied area,” I asked.
“We’re in the Seelie lands technically, specifically the Summer Court. What you see over in the distance is the Autumn Court. That’s my father’s castle that I haven’t seen in almost a century. Never thought I’d see that monstrosity again,” Adaela muttered under her breath, shock making her skin paler than usual.
“What do you want to do?” I pointed toward the minotaur, who was beginning to stir.
Adaela’s shadows wrapped around the boy, keeping him in place. She asked me to help move him further into the woods while we formulated a plan. Even as a youngster, the minotaur was awkward to carry and heavy as dead weight. We got him into the denser part of the forest and hid under a large ash tree. As the minotaur came to, he began to struggle until he saw Adaela, his eyes wide with fear. He started spluttering.
“I-I’m so s-s-sorry, your highness. I-I was t-told that y-you wouldn’t b-be there,” he nervously got out.
“And why exactly did you think it would be okay to send someone to thePax, minotaur? What is your name?” Adaela asked, standing over the creature.
“M-my name is Galdrane, y-your highness. I w-was told that s-someone from thePaxwas wanted for questioning and that i-if I d-d-idn’t open the portal, my s-s-sister would be married off to the k-king’s s-s-second.”
Adaela looked at the boy quizzically. “Which second? Last I’d realized, I killed dear old dad’s second.”
His faced scrunched up in confusion. “You d-didn’t know? He rebuilt his army once y-you left.”
“Well, fuck. That’s news to me. I’ve been gone a while. It sounds like father decided to try and replace me. Good riddancethere. I left for a reason. Where is my father?” she asked Galdrane.
“He’s at the c-c-castle. Please d-don’t tell him I failed. M-my sister d-d-doesn’t need t-to be married to that m-monster.”
