Book 5: Chapter 33 (1/2)

Tafel stepped through the portal with two phoenixes tucked underneath her arms like bundles of blankets. She looked around, and to her surprise, she saw a very familiar face. “Vur?” She blinked. “You’re not asleep?”

“Is that really the first thing you should be saying to your husband?” Stella asked. “How did you find us anyway? Did you put a mark on Vur that allows you to sense his location at all times? That’s a little creepy, you know?”

“Is it creepy?” Helden asked. “I think that’s a bit romantic.”

“Shut up,” Stella said and shot Helden a glare. “Your opinions about love are immoral and irrelevant.”

“Hi, Tafel,” Vur said and waved. “Did you finish the thing you needed to do?”

Tafel’s brow furrowed as she assessed the group surrounding Vur. “Yeah,” she said, dragging out the word. “I finished.” She walked ahead, and the crowd of pale people parted like a sea of zombies, creating a path for her to go through. She narrowed her eyes at the Generis Squad before walking around them to Vur’s side. “What’s going on here? Catch me up to the situation. We can talk about other things later.”

Vur nodded. He pointed at Helden. “This is our new chef.” He pointed at the women surrounding Helden. “These are his lovers.” He pointed at the balding man. “That’s a person researching ways to regrow hair.” He gestured at the Recordkeeper. “She’s a tour guide.” He rubbed his chin. “We’re here to convince the researcher to make a body for Mr. Skelly as a wedding gift for Alice and Mr. Skelly. The researcher was going to resist, and then you opened a portal here.”

Tafel stared at Vur. She knew he would never lie to her, but … why were only questionable things coming out of his mouth? She glanced at Stella, and the fairy queen nodded.

“That’s basically the situation,” Stella said. “There was a whole misunderstanding with us believing the researcher was an evil wizard bent on creating evil beasts of destruction, but we’re still going to kidnap him regardless.”

“Wait,” Blau said. “Just because he told us he’s a researcher doesn’t mean he’s no longer evil. Human trials are completely unethical. If he was really researching in good faith, he’d have tested his serum on animals first.”

“I did,” Tobin said and cleared his throat after everyone turned to look at him. He gestured towards the giant bird that was standing not too far away. “Pecky used to be a normal-sized pigeon.”

“Why would you test a hair-growth serum on a bird?” Ingwer asked. “Birds don’t have hair.”

Tobin glanced at the big bird before shifting his gaze back onto the group. “Pecky was featherless before I used the serum on him.”

“Excuse me,” the pale old man said from the head of the group of pale people. “Messiah, is this our new home?”

Tafel turned her head towards Vur. “Where are we?”

“Somewhere on the eastern continent,” Vur said.

“Oh.” Tafel nodded. She turned her head back towards the old man. “Yeah, this is your new home.” Her horns glowed silver, and a portal appeared. Her eyes lit up. Her coordinates were working again! She gestured for the pale people to step through. “Go talk to the dwarves and tell them the dwarf king gave you permission to reside in their lands.”