I slowly walked forward towards the wall, cautiously holding my fan behind me. I held my breath as I walked through the illusioned wall, preparing for the worst. “Well well well, look who made it past the illusions,” someone said. They disguised themselves well, covering their entire body with a black cloak, shadows magically covering everything else. But what shocked me wasn’t the fact that a person was here, but the fact that they held an unconscious person in their arms. “Eli!!” I shouted, then turned back to the person. “What did you do to him?!” I growled, preparing for a fight. “Oh, I just knocked him out as soon as he woke up. Can’t risk having him messing the whole thing up, after all,” the person replied, shrugging. “What do you mean by that?” I questioned, demanding an answer with my panic form.

“Whoa, calm down girl,” they said, clearly amused. “It’s just that I wanted to have a little fun with my illusions for a while, but this boy would have messed it up. How he would’ve is my own secret.” My patience having run out, I shadow dashed forward, slamming my fan down on their head. They didn’t seem too surprised, and quickly backed away. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” they said, gesturing to Eli. “Let him go,” I demanded, floating in a fighting stance. “Or what? You’ll attack me?” they asked mockingly. “Of course not. A lady has grace. I’m not an animal,” I signaled, smiling smugly as Brooke flew into the room, screeching. “What the-” the cloaked figure said, interrupted by Brooke’s claws digging into their head. “Hey! Let me go you- agh!” they shouted, dropping Eli as they ran around the room.

I shadow dashed over and quickly caught Eli before he hit the ground, causing him to wake up. “Mm… mom?” he asked, waking up. He then noticed what was happening, then quickly shot up. “What in the world happened while I was sleeping?!” he exclaimed, looking to me for answers. I quickly explained things to him over the screeches and insults the fighting duo was shouting. Once finished, we turned back to the mysterious person, who had gotten Brooke off of them. “Stupid owl!” they shouted, flinging her across the room. Luckily, Brooke managed to catch herself, but she retreated out of the room, leaving us to fight them ourselves. “I think you failed to notice something,” they said, the smile clear in their voice. Suddenly, the room turned black. I couldn’t see the cloaked figure anywhere, much less my own hands in front of me.

“Eli?!” I shouted, blindly grasping the darkness around me. “Over here!” he yelled back, his voice seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere. I panicked, running through the dark towards where Eli was before the illusion was made. I heard a commotion, assuming that Eli was fighting Yidhra. Soon, the illusion dissipated, revealing Eli struggling in the person’s arms. They both looked tired and worn out, but the person seemed more bruised. If I wasn’t in so much fear over Eli at the moment, I would have told him I was proud of his fighting abilities. “Now, stay still you little brat!” they said, attempting to hold him still. Eli suddenly went limp, as if all the energy had been drained out of him. “Finally,”  the cloaked figure muttered. Suddenly, Eli bit down on their arm; hard. “OWW!!” they shouted as Eli slipped under their arm, shouting, “Run!” He didn’t need to say that again.

I ran through the illusioned wall, Eli close behind me. Once out, I scooped up Helena and ran with her, exclaiming, “We need to get out of here! Now!” Somewhere in the distance, I could hear shouting. “I think that’s Murro and Emily!” Aesop shouted over his shoulder, ahead of the rest of us. We turned around a corner, stopping and almost hitting our heads on the wall in front of us. There was a doorway with a pallet down, and without hesitation, Aesop leaped up and flipped through the air, gripping the top of the door and smashing the pallet to pieces with his landing. “Come on!” he shouted at us, not giving any of us a chance to be wowed by his skills.

Illusions and dead ends later, we bumped into Murro and Emily. Aesop tried to judo flip them, but Eli held him in place. His arms wrapped around Aesop’s waist, keeping his arms pinned to his sides. I checked if they were illusions myself, sighing in satisfaction shortly after. “Let’s keep moving then!” Helena said, hitting the ground with her cane to locate the nearest exit. We followed the directions she told us to go as I once again scooped her up in our arms. “I see the exit!” Murro shouted, running towards it. “Wait! That’s the wrong way!” Helena shouted at him. “Huh? What do you mean? It’s right there! Maybe you can’t sense it?” Emily asked. “It’s obviously an illusion if she says that’s not it,” Aesop said, probably mentally rolling his eyes. “Oh, right,” Murro said sheepishly, running back over.

Soon, we found the real exit, which was once again an illusion. “Let’s get out of this map, before the mysterious person catches up with us,” Eli said, running ahead with Aesop. Once out of the map, we panted, still not feeling safe. “So, can someone explain to us who the cloaked figure is?” Emily asked. “That’s the thing; we don't know,” I said. “I’ll explain,” Eli said, quickly retelling what happened in the illusioned room.