I decide to walk back, rather than teleport to my room. Mostly because I'm super low on energy. Any lower and I'll be on the brink of another medical emergency. Teleportation, while handy, is not very practical when trying to use your energy wisely.

I only make it to the courtyard before something weird happens. I scream because a freaking chipmunk ran up my leg and body to get on my shoulder. It's squeaking at me.

"What!" I look at it.

It screeches.

"Chippie?" I ask.

It squeaks in confirmation.

"What is it?" I ask.

It jumps off my shoulder and runs ahead of me.

"You want me to follow?" I ask.

It squeaks in confirmation.

Apparently, I am a Disney princess now and I talk to animals.

I quickly follow it as it runs ahead, my feet crunching the snow beneath me. I flinch when I hear screams of pain. Chippie runs faster. I run too. That's when I see a bunch of hooded figures attacking Wieland. Kicking him and hitting him.

"Stupid witch!" they shout at him.

"Hey!" I run over to help.

They all turn to me.

"Leave him alone!" I go to help him up.

He's crying, his glasses broken on the ground next to him. I help him sit up, his nose is bloody.

"You're a traitor!" one of them shouts at me.

I turn to face them as Chippie goes to Wieland and licks his face to comfort him.

"What is wrong with you!? He didn't do anything to anyone, leave him alone." I say in anger.

"Traitor!" someone punches me in the face.

"Ow!" I touch my lip to check to see if it's bleeding.

Soon two people grab me by my arms and hold me down.

"Stop!" I scream.

Another shakes a spray paint can before they spray my shirt with the words traitor and witch.

"Stop it!" I cry as tears fill my eyes.

I see Wieland stand up and cast a spell, soon woodland creatures come from out of nowhere. Like he rang the dinner bell. Raccoons, possums, rats, squirrels, and of course chipmunks all start attacking my attackers.

They scream and run away as the animals chase them growling and snarling.

The commotion caused other Casters to come help, soon those thugs in the hoodies were surrounded, by rabid looking animals and other Casters.

"You okay?" someone comes up to me and checks on me.

I sniffle and nod.

"You think it's funny to pick on Casters!?" Gunner runs up to them.

"Gunner don't!" Wieland calls.

But it's too late, he punches the person who punched me.

Soon lots of Casters join in to help him teach these guys a lesson. It looks like a war zone, outsiders versus Casters. I look down at my now paint-soaked shirt, the word witch dripping down into the word traitor, smearing together. It looks like someone stabbed me in the heart, feels like it too.

"You touch him again, I'll kill you!" Gunner beats that guy up.

"Gunner stop!" Wieland goes and pulls him off.

I have to help him hold him back. I've never seen this side of Gunner, but considering his cousin is Triton, it's no surprise he's a little hot-headed too.

"Come back here again, I dare you!" Gunner shouts as the guy's runoff.

"Stop!" Wieland pleads.

I see security chase after the culprits before turning my attention back to Gunner. He's fuming, tears of rage in his eyes. He's shaking from how wound up he is. He still hasn't looked away from the fleeing thugs.

"Hey," I snap in his face to get his attention.

"It's over, leave it alone," I say.

He finally relaxes and turns his attention to Wieland.

"You okay? Where're your glasses," he quickly looks around in the snow for the glasses.

"Why did you do that!?" Wieland shouts at him.

"Got em," he picks the glasses up off the floor.

"You're going to get in trouble now!" Wieland says.

Gunner attempts to fix them but quickly gives up and cleans them off with his shaking bruised hands and hands them back to Wieland.

"You idiot!" Wieland chastises him.

The Gunner just breaks down crying, his frustrations reaching a breaking point. I look around and see other Casters reacting similarly, everyone fed up and frustrated. Eyes find me, and my dripping red shirt. Suddenly their hateful glares turn on to me as they look for someone to blame.

I back away and teleport the heck out of there, to my room.

I stumble forward, my energy low. I get lightheaded for a moment. I walk into the bathroom and rip my shirt off, but the paint soaked through to my skin. I sob and rip all of my clothes off before turning the shower on.

I scrub and scrub the water running red with paint. Then I'm back in a vision, sobbing in my tub as I curl in on myself and shake. My hands are bruised, blood under my nails. Banging on the bathroom door makes me flinch and brings me back to reality.

"Emery! You okay!?" Vega calls.

I feel like I'm going to be sick if I have to see that bloody vision one more time.

"Y-yeah," I lie.

"Can I come in?" she asks.

I check to make sure the shower curtain is completely closed before saying, "Yeah."

She slowly opens the door. I can see her shadowy form picking up my clothes off the floor.

"Bastard." She says in anger.

I sniffle, letting the last of the paint wash off of me.

"You should go check on Wieland and Gunner, they were in the middle of it," I say.

"Okay, text me when you're out of the shower." She says before quickly leaving.

I finish my shower and get changed into something more comfortable before debating on what I should do before the option is taken from me by knocking at my door.

"It's me," Cyrene calls.

I sigh and open the door.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Some jerks attacked us," I say.

"Asherah and the council want to see you now, for an official statement." She says.

I sigh again.

"You okay?" she pushes my hair behind my ear.

I push her hand away and wrap my arms around myself before looking at her expectantly.

She sighs and grabs me by the shoulder and we teleport away.

When we get there everyone is shouting and angry already. They are blaming Asherah for not handling the situation already.

The room goes quiet when they see me.

"Emery, are you okay?" Asherah rushes over to me.

Cyrene moves out of the way and lets her get to me.

"I'm fine," I step away from her. "I'm not the one who was attacked, I was just caught in the crossfire of it," I say.

"What happened exactly?" Nicholas Holt, Shadow-Caster representative on the council, and Nerissa's dad ask.

"Wieland's familiar ran up to me and was freaking out. So I followed it to Wieland, where I saw a bunch of people beating him up. I stepped in to help but they just turned their wrath on me, calling me a traitor and a witch. They held me down and sprayed paint all over me. Then next thing I know a bunch of Casters are showing up to help us. It was like a war zone. Everyone was ganging up on those thugs."

"This wouldn't have happened if you had perused legal charges, to begin with." Dr. Dame, aka the metal Caster Representative, shouts at Asherah. He looks to be in his late 40's early 50's. One of those guys you've seen before type of looks. Average build and height, white, blue eyes, early graying hair.

"The way you've handled this situation has put lives in danger and gotten people hurt," Lorelei adds.

Asherah clenches her jaw and looks down, biting her tongue.

If she won't say it, I will.

"Maybe if you guys actually helped her this wouldn't be so out of hand!" I shout to defend her.

Everyone once again turns to me.

"She's only one person, yet she's the only one who seems to be running this whole operation here! None of you bother to lend a hand. This situation, is sensitive, doing one thing wrong could set off a series of events I'm sure none of us want. Those thugs are just a bunch of stupid kids, if she pursues them, how do you think the outside community with react? I agree that what they are doing is wrong, they set a building on fire while I was still in it. They hurt my friend for no reason! I agree this is getting out of hand, but you have to think of the consequence of any action that is taken." I say.

Some of them blink at me in surprise, like they can't believe I actually said something that makes some sense for once. Others... stare at me with those eyes. The eyes that blame me for everything.

And maybe they are right, maybe this is mostly my fault. But I never asked to be here, and I never asked to be put in this situation either, this is completely out of my control.

"She shouldn't need our help with something so trivial," Lorelei says.

"Trivial." I turn to her.

"Emery," Cyrene attempts to stop me.

"Trivial! Do you think any of this is trivial!? Ask my friend, if he thinks this is trivial. Ask any Caster who was there tonight if they think this is trivial. This isn't a game! How come none of you see that!?" I ask.

"You are the one who brought the trouble here, to begin with," Helena the scary lady with the deep-set eyes, and Necro Caster Representative says.

"And I didn't ask to be here!" I shout so loud it rings off the walls. The lights flicker and brighten in response to my rage.

"Emery, calm down," Cyrene says.

"None of you know how I feel right now! I know this is my fault. I know I just got my friend badly hurt tonight. I know! But I can't change what I said in the past, or how people see me now. I never asked to be here. I never asked for any of this. Blame me all you want, it won't fix the problem."

"She's right," Asherah finally speaks up. "playing the blame game won't solve anything. I have spoken with authorities and we have the suspects in custody as we speak. This is a delicate situation. If we go in guns blazing, charging everyone for everything, the outside community will only get more riled up. If we don't do anything, chances are they will see us as weak and keep on doing it. But, I think I have a solution to this problem." She says.

"Enlighten us," Dr. Dame says.

"We hand over the suspects to local police, instead of Caster police, and we let local law enforcement handle it. Push the burden onto them. It's their people, they should handle it. We will have to agree with whatever they decide to do." She says.

Everyone quickly erupts into protest again.

Pointing fingers, blaming each other, picking sides.

Asherah has to shout to try and be heard.

It's pure chaos, just like what I witnessed tonight.

I don't know why, but I feel like this move, whatever we do next, is going to be very important in the long run. I can feel it in my guts. I just know something bad will happen if we do the wrong thing.

But what is the wrong thing?

"Enough!" Roderick Rose, the sound Caster Representative shouts using his sound powers. It's so loud my ears pop. Everyone goes silent and turns to him.

He looks to be around Asherah and Cyrene's age, still young. Mid to late 20's tops.

"Obviously we are divided on this issue. So we vote, both councils. For and against Head Master Larson's proposed idea. For all those for, say I and raise your hand."

A few people do, but definitely not enough.

Just the fire caster, water caster, force caster, ice caster, ground caster, and floral Caster reps. Plus Latavius, the reality Caster rep, who has been silently watching from the sidelines, as usual. No one else.

I turn to Cyrene, but she quickly turns away from me.

"Then it's decided we—"

"NO!" I shout.

Everyone turns to me.

"Don't decide yet," I say.

Latavius raises an eyebrow at me.

"I didn't want to say this before, but maybe it can help. One of my friends, from before I was awakened is one of the people responsible for this. He's agreed to talk to me. Maybe if I can talk to him, get him and the rest of the thugs to turn themselves over and do the right thing, we won't have to resort to anything. Just... give me a chance." I plead.

The room is silent.

"Please, give them a chance to do the right thing. They are just misguided, hurting, scared. I know because I used to be like them. Let me talk to them, help them understand the gravity of the situation. Please."

"I say let her, can't hurt at least," Latavius speaks up.

"We already have the guilty party in custody, so we know it won't happen again at least while they are in holding," Asherah adds.

"Please," I beg.

"If Emery thinks she can talk sense into these people, I say let her." Cyrene finally speaks up.

They start to murmur amongst themselves before turning back to me.

"Alright then, it's decided. You can talk to them and will report back to us with the conclusion of that meeting. Asherah and Lorelei will accompany you and will report back as well." Dr. Dame concludes.

Well, sort of a win. But I know Lorelei won't hold her tongue if things go south, which I am sure is why they picked her. But she and Asherah, in the same small room as me and some thugs, not exactly starting out on a good foot. But hey, I'll take it.

"Okay," I nod.

"This meeting is on hold until we have the results of this conversation." They conclude the meeting.

"Thank you," Asherah walks over to me.

I quickly hug her.

She sighs and pats my back.

"I'm scared," I mumble into her.

"I know, but I believe you made the right call." She assures me.

I sure hope so.

I really do.