Rising Shards

”How do we stop her?” Ash asked.

”We can’t,” I said.

”What?” Myles said.

”Not in the usual way, at least,” I said. ”I could be wrong, but I don’t think this is Charmaine at all. The only Cani ability this reminds me of is illusion generation.”

Michi and the love trio tried to think of any time they’d seen that power, while the devils all glanced at each other.

”Whoever is casting this illusion, we see through your game! Show yourselves!” I said.

There were only two Cani I knew that had illusion-based powers. One was Jeans, who was likely and hopefully nowhere near us. She didn’t have any grudges against anyone in the room as far as I knew. The other...Chickadee Girliepop.

The Charmaine flying above us stopped, lowering down to float directly in front of us.

”I was just trying to help...” The apparition said. ”I was just trying to help, trying to...”

The voice wasn’t Charmaine’s anymore, but it didn’t sound like Chickadee either, it was one much meeker than I expected. Charmaine, or the image of her, faded away.

”Trying to help?” I said.

I jolted when I realized an errant shadow in the back of the room wasn’t just darkness, a cloaked figure approached from it. ”You were so sad. You were all so sad, I thought this would help...”

”Sad?” I said, my stomach twisting into a knot immediately.

”After Ko left you, and Nikki left Anastasia...I wanted to help,” the cloaked girl said. ”The rest of you seemed sad too, so...the imp...he helped...”

Whoever this was...she knew about me and Ko. A classmate? Her voice didn’t sound like anyone I knew.

”Who are you?” I asked, reaching forward. The girl recoiled, keeping her face hidden. ”Chickadee?”

The girl shook her head, gripping her robe.

”Are you going to show yourself, or keep cowering in that hood?” Anastasia asked.

”You don’t really have a leg to stand on there, with the time under the mask and all,” Sai said.

”Ugh, true...” Anastasia said. The speed at which she relented to Sai was impressive. ”If you’re not going to tell us who you are, explain this inane situation a bit at least. If you found another imp, is it connected to Reed?”

”I...know there are five,” The girl in the cloak said. ”I mean, in the whole universe there are more. But the five around us are doing something with you all. This one asked to help, and it seemed perfect, so...I don’t know about the other three. Or what they’re planning.” The girl waved her arms around. ”B-but! Don’t tell them! I didn’t mean to say that! I have to go!”

The girl in the cloak took off, and only Anastasia wasn’t stunned enough to run after her. But the girl was fast, and vanished before Ana could catch her. As the rest of us tried to piece any of that together, we felt the lurching sensation of exiting the void, and we were back in the arts and crafts store like we never left.

”What...?” I said. Whatever that was was connected to Reed’s group, and there were three more out there. Targeting us.

”There you all are,” Charmaine said. ”Oh my god, I’ve been here like an hour looking for you!”

”We...had some kind of...” Sai trailed off.

”Something happened...” Ash said.

After buying our things, my group and the devils walked home together, with us explaining on the way about everything that happened. The snowy trail and crisp air helped clear my mind a bit.

”There was a fake me and you couldn’t tell?” Charmaine asked.

”Whoever they were, impersonated you really well.” Myles said.

Charmaine wore a sour expression. ”Something about that doesn’t sit right with me, you all gotta do something to make up for not noticing.”

”Do we think that was Chickadee?” I asked.

”Similar powers to her, but that girl wasn’t Chickadee,” Sai said.

”I’m still not counting out that Tay was behind all of that,” Anastasia said. ”Tay, do you have illusion powers that could explain all of this?”

”It wasn’t me, I swear!” Tay said. ”If I was going to lock my friends in some dungeon based off of a cancelled reality show, I wouldn’t have picked the Thadley one. Mine would have been way nicer. And no way would I ever make a pact with an imp.”

”Speaking of the imp, was that the real, Thadley, or...?” Myles said.

”I have no idea, and I also don’t really care to find out,” Anastasia said.

”There’s a theory online that there isn’t just one Thadley,” Charmaine said. ”That there’s a void node just filled with Thadleys. If you go to an island out in the middle of the ocean to the east you can find the entrance to it, where all the Thadleys are just living the dream, catching waves, sun tanning, the works. Or so the story goes.”

”That sounds so made up,” Sai said.

”I think the magic school with the ten mile walk was more believable,” Anastasia said.

”Because I know that one’s true!” Charmaine said. ”There’s a difference between story from a friend and random thing I read online, you know?”

”Wait, that school?” Ash said. ”I was half listening because I didn’t want Myles to fall in the ravine when you were yapping about that.”

”Yeah, what about it?” Charmaine said.

”I’m the friend that told you, Myles and I told you about that,” Ash said. ”Some of our foster family went there.”

”Psh, bragging about your foster family again, huh?” Charmaine said. ”While the rest of us are stuck waiting for whoever to get off their asses and get us to ours?”

”No, just...! Myles, tell her!” Ash said.

”Tell her what?” Myles said.

Somehow Myles’ nonchalant response turned into a sibling argument, the Altheas bickering with Charmaine chiming in. Not wanting to get involved, I pulled back, ending up closer to the love trio and Michi.

”I think the worst part of all of this is that we didn’t even get to really date,” Rain said.

KJ sighed. ”Our quest to learn more about romance via open relationships continues, I suppose.”

”Well, it wasn’t all bad...” Amara said. ”Michi gave me a very nice sketch!”

Rain and KJ turned their attention to Michi, who hid behind their sketchbook.

”Michi, eh?” KJ said.

”Interesting...” Rain said.