Jackie blithely walked on at her side. In the early days, she had been even more afraid to walk through here with a bossy prince she didn't trust barking out orders to her and the guards staring at her all on her lonesome, but years of work here had dulled the instinctive response to eyes stuck on her face and envious words spoken behind her back.
Aeron finally stopped at a dragon-sized door, the only one of its kind on the corridor full of doors tailored to the human guises most of the creatures who lived here wore on a daily basis. He stood, waiting, until Priscilla moved to open it for him, and then he glided right in. He went straight to his chair and left the two girls to get their own.
"I've called you here today, Jackie, for a little side project. As you know the fate of both the Original and the Shadeworld is at risk," he said. "Obviously, I'm not a fan of that," he added, "but I can't change that. What I can change, and did change, was how likely that was to affect Alyss." Neither of them responded to that.
He looked over and saw that Priscilla was not even paying attention to what he'd said. She was instead squirming in her chair and twiddling her thumbs. Aeron dug around in his desk until he pulled out a gleaming gold contraption that he handed to her. Her eyes widened when it slowly unfurled to reveal metal figurines dancing and making silly faces for her and she became absorbed in its antics while the teens talked.
"I made sure Alyss was brought somewhere she would be safe," he continued. "Unfortunately, she's not a huge fan of how I've done that."
Jackie gave him a look. "No, I'm sure not. You've always been known for rationality, practicality, and restraining yourself." Now Aeron squirmed some in his chair. His tutors would have smacked his hands with their rulers if they'd seen such undignified royal behavior growing up, but Jackie zeroed in on it for a different reason. "You look awfully guilty. What did you do, kidnap her," Jackie asked. Aeron nodded and she tsked at him.
He just shrugged. "I had to do what I thought was the right thing, and this was it." Aeron leaned back in his chair and flicked on the screen behind him. It showed Alyss pacing back and forth in her room. "I have her here, but Murray and Veronica report that she is bored and feeling cooped up. She actually seems to think I'm treating her like a prisoner, can you imagine?"
The nymph rolled her eyes. "Looking at that setup, I can't see how it would be possible for her to think anything else. Send me over there and I'll try my best to sort things out, but I make no promises. You terrify me, sir, but she's going to be pretty mad, and I won't go as far as you might like and risk enraging the beast."
He smiled. "I know you can't make any promises, but I think you can do this. I've seen your many failures with getting Alyss to feel less at war with me," he glared at her, "but now that she's here I have more time and can afford to be more lenient with your mistakes." He sighed. "If you can't make any progress on her relationship with me, I might consider this at least not a complete failure if you can manage to put her in a happier mindset about her stay here," he said as he transported both nymphs to stand outside a new door.
The two girls looked at the door. Jackie shrugged and knocked on it.
"Go away," Alyss said. "I'm not interested in your nonsense."
"Nope," Jackie said cheerfully. "I'm stuck being here so we might as well hang out. You'll like it anyways," the nymph added.
At more grumbles from behind the door, Priscilla sighed in defeat and moved to walk away. Jackie motioned for her to stay put as she continued knocking on the door. Priscilla tried to move off and give Alyss space but her sister insisted that they follow through on their orders right away. Jackie determinedly continued to haul the blue-haired girl`s arm until the other finally conceded defeat and threw up her hands.
They banged at the door together. Alyss cracked it open, peeking around the gap. "What is so important that you have to keep harassing me? I'll have you know I might forgive Murray, but if it's that Aeron, you can go away right now. I'm sick of you being a humongous jerk," Alyss said. She finally slammed the door open and stared at the two nymphs on the other side.
"We're none of the above," Jackie said cheerfully. "It`s me and my sis. Priss, meet Alyss. Alyss, meet Priscilla."
Alyss swung the door wide open. She stood, jaw agape, staring at the blonde- and blue-streaked Priscilla`s and the auburn- and green-streaked Jaqueline's appearances. "I didn't think you'd be daring enough to dye your hair," Alyss said, finally smiling.
"It's not dyed," Jackie said. She brushed past her friend and went assuredly into the room. Priscilla, looking apologetic, followed behind her. "It's natural for us to look this way, because we gained the other color when we joined our contractor," Jackie explained.
"What foreign language are you speaking?" Alyss asked, closing the door behind them.
"Cantonese," Jackie said sarcastically.
Priscilla rolled her eyes. "It's because we are in the Shadeworld," she said. At Jackie's confused look she continued her explanation. "The place you went through a portal to is where we are now. Up is down, right is left, East is West, and all
