Sara and Jessica were on full alert. There was an intruder in the portal room, and they had tripped a silent alarm.
The black-robed figure of Dreya the Dark stepped out into the long corridor, unconcerned, unhurried. She sensed them before she saw them, hiding at the far end. She had taken no more than two steps when two purple catlike alien girls stepped out from where they thought they were concealed, each pointing a weapon at the woman in black, who continued to walk slowly forwards, regardless.
“Sorry, love,” Jessica spoke up, “but I don’t think you’re meant to be here.”
Still, the intruder’s steady pace continued.
“In the interests of fair play,” Sara advised her, “in case you’re unfamiliar with guns, these things can kill from a distance.”
“In the interests of fair play,” Dreya countered, still not stopping, “in case you’re unfamiliar with wizards, so can I.”
“Oh well,” Jessica accepted with a shrug, “can’t say we didn’t warn you, dear.”
With a shared glance, they both fired at once. To their astonishment, however, the beams seemed to hit some kind of invisible shield surrounding the intruder, which filtered the energy, allowing some to penetrate, while keeping the rest out.
“Thanks for the energy top-up,” called out the sorceress, who finally did stop walking. “Just what I needed after a long journey. Now, I believe it must be my turn.”
Bolts of electricity shot out of both hands, striking the two defenders, but they were equally unharmed.
“Magically resistant body armour,” Sara explained, “which means you can’t do anything to us.”
The two Chetsuans drew swords and rushed down the corridor, but with a flick of her shoulder-length hair, Dreya caused the weapons to fly from their grasp. Undaunted, they switched to the knives they had strapped to their wrists and closed the gap, but all they struck was a shadow.
They scarcely had time to recover from that shock, before a large linen cupboard flew across the corridor to slam Jessica painfully against the wall. Sara cried out her sister’s name, but her breath was knocked from her lungs as the grandfather clock flew out, catching her full in the face and pinning her against the wall on the opposite side. Struggle though they might, they could not break free. The swords they had dropped floated in the air, threatening their owners.
“Lesson learned, I trust?” Dreya remarked, materialising before their eyes. “Magic resistance only stops direct magic. I still have a thousand ways to kill you with indirect magic.”
The Chetsuans weren’t ready to concede defeat yet, however. They didn’t get much chance to use their telepathy. Earth humans couldn’t do it, and they knew each other so well, they really didn’t need special powers to know what their sister was thinking. But the mental abilities of two Chetsuans together, especially twins who were naturally in harmony with each other, were considerable.
Staring intently at Dreya, from where they were pinned, their eyes glowed with amber light, as they chanted, “You don’t want to harm us…You don’t want to harm us…You don’t want to harm us…”
Dreya felt the assault on her mind and raised her eyebrows, intrigued. She hadn’t experienced such a ferocious mental attack in a long time.
“You two are powerful,” she acknowledged, “and I don’t often say that. If any other wizard from my world came through that portal, they would find you a serious threat, but your telepathy won’t work on me for two reasons.
“First, in addition to my own mental discipline, I am protected by a sympathic link.”
Upon hearing that word, the girls stopped chanting.
“Wait, sympathic link?” Sara wondered, a puzzled look on her face. “I’ve only ever heard that once before.”
“From a certain half-Faery druidess called Catriona Redfletching, no doubt.”
“You know Cat?” Jessica asked.
“Better than most, or so I like to flatter myself. Which brings me to the second reason your mental attack was always going to fail: I really don’t want to harm you.”
“You don’t?” Sara checked, tentatively.
Dreya shook her head as the swords clattered to the floor. “I never had any such intention. I’m not a tyrant, despite what some on my world might think. I didn’t come here to kill you. If I had, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. As I said, I have a thousand ways to kill you, yet I haven’t used any of them. You attacked me, and I don't generally react well to that, but you were defending your home, and I respect that, so I’m willing to give you both a pass this once.” She raised a warning finger. “But only this once, is that clear?”
They both nodded.
“Excellent. Now, I’m going to release you both. When I do, I suggest we put this misunderstanding behind us and start again. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” they chorused.
True to her word, Dreya cancelled her magic and allowed both Chetsuans to free themselves. They immediately sheathed their weapons.
Stepping forward in a non-threatening way, Dreya offered her hand and introduced herself.
“So, are you, like, Cat’s friend or something?” Sara asked.
“A friend, yes,” Dreya confirmed, “and more besides.”
“More besides?” Sara wondered.
“Of course!” Jessica cried. “Don’t you see, Sara? That’s why she wouldn’t get into a relationship with Daelen – she was already in a relationship with Dreya, here.”
“Jess!” her sister hissed in warning, worried that Dreya might not take kindly to the news that her girlfriend had feelings for someone else and she might take it out on them.
Guessing her fears, Dreya smiled, reassuringly. “Don’t worry, I know all about that. It’s not a problem.”
“Then why wouldn’t she just tell him she was with you?” Sara wondered.
“An unintended side-effect,” the Faery woman explained, regretfully. “Keeping me a secret via a magically backed promise was a strategy. It was never supposed to cause her emotional distress. Believe me, I would never do that, and I would have met up with her to remove the block any time she asked. She chose to keep it because she still believed the strategy was sound. And just to be clear,” she added, “the magic never stopped her from doing whatever she wanted. It didn’t force her to choose me, it only prevented her from telling anyone that she had.”
“So, you’re linked with her at all times?” Sara asked.
“To a greater or lesser extent. The link has a privacy mode, like closing a door, but in an emergency, that door could be flung open at any time.”
“Then you could swoop in and save her if you needed to?” Jessica wondered.
“Or stand and fight with her. Whatever the situation demands.” She shrugged. “I love her. It’s as simple as that.”
“Wow, that’s actually proper romantic!” Jessica grinned.
“If it’s true,” Sara pointed out, who was less willing to take Dreya’s word than was her sister.
“Sara!” Jessica scowled, hands on hips. “Don’t be a misery just because you’re missing your elf boy. You can’t go around asking people to prove they’re in a relationship. How’s she supposed to do that, anyway?”
“Actually,” Dreya ventured, pulling something out of a pocket, blushing as she did so. She didn’t usually do things like this. “If it helps, I do have these.”
She produced a pair of photographs, taken in the studio in Gaggleswick the last time they were out together, a few days before Catriona went out to investigate Justaria’s disappearance and began her adventure with Daelen. They were small and in black and white, hardly up to Earth photography standards of the time, but it was clear what they showed. One was just a portrait shot of Catriona alone. The other was Cat and Dreya together mid-kiss. She’d never shown them to anyone else before. Even the photographer, like everyone else in that town, took it as read that they needed to be the soul of discretion in anything relating to Dreya the Dark. As for Dreya herself, the kinds of feelings she had for Catriona were still new to her, and she hadn’t yet worked out how to show them to the world while maintaining her image. With these two, for the first time, she didn’t need to worry about that.
“Aww!” Jessica gushed. “Look, sis! Satisfied now? Oh, my gods, Dreya, you two are so cute together!”
Sara’s scepticism evaporated. “I’m sorry for doubting you, Dreya,” she apologised, holding out a hand.
Dreya shook it. “No apology necessary.”
Jessica could barely tear herself away from the photos, but she reluctantly handed them back.
“That’s it,” she told Dreya, “you two are totally my new top celeb couple.”
“Er, Jess,” Sara put in. “I just realised.”
“Realised what?”
“We tried to kill Catriona’s girlfriend.”
Her sister’s jaw dropped. “So we did,” she agreed.
“I won’t tell if you don’t,” Dreya promised.
Jessica flashed a smile and agreed, “Good plan. Well, dearie, what do you say we all have a nice cup of tea and a chat somewhere a bit nicer than this draughty old corridor, eh?”
“That would be lovely, thank you,” Dreya acknowledged. “Might I suggest the library? There’s something I’d like to show you.”
“Show us?” Sara frowned in puzzlement. “In our library?”
“Oh, yes, I fully intend my visit to be mutually beneficial.”
“Well,” Jessica declared, “you can colour me intrigued.”