Before Feron had time to reply, Kylia stepped in between Feron and Elizabeth and grabbed her by her suit coat’s collar. “Say I’m wolfboy’s servant again. I dare you.”

Elizabeth made no physical movement to Kylia’s action. In fact, she didn’t even appear to be phased by it, which seemed a bit unsettling to Harriett. “Unbroken servants at that, My Prince? Shall I assist you with this one before we commence our meeting?”

Before Kylia had time to turn the already rising heat of the room up by another twenty degrees, Feron tapped her on the shoulder. “Not now. Remember the fight you want?”

“I can make do with her,” Kylia snorted.

“Well then I guess Harriett and I will leave you to it. Good luck with dealing with all of S.A.M. I’m sure your father would love to deal with you over this.”

Kylia shot Feron a cold glare before moving the same glare back onto Elizabeth. Finally, she let Elizabeth go. “Very well. Keep your life, human.”

Elizabeth simply fixed the top of her suit coat before turning towards the elevators. “Follow me, if you please.”

Feron trailed Elizabeth’s footsteps, followed by a fuming Kylia that had stuffed her hands into her pockets and was now stomping forward like an annoyed child, which left Harriett to bring up the rear, to which she welcomed the distance away from the grad student turned Investigator.

Elizabeth led them on to a strangely on time, opening elevator as if the elevator had magically opened based on their arrival (It hadn’t. It was just really good timing on their part… and on mine.). Elizabeth stepped in first and to the left, placing her directly before a blank panel that contained no buttons whatsoever. After she was followed by Feron, Kylia and finally Harriett, the elevator doors then quietly closed behind them.

Elizabeth placed her hand on the blank panel, which illuminated a light blue that seemed to send pulsing waves of energy radiating from her hand and out and about the panel.

“Investigation Floor: My office,” Elizabeth said, to which the panel responded with a tiny ping. The elevator gave a gentle jolt. But rather than moving upward, Harriett felt as if the elevator was simply… well… moving. She couldn’t explain it, but she had a feeling that the elevator was using more than simple physics right now. However, since the annoying silence of the elevator seemed to be accompanying their “ascent”, if you could call it that, Harriett decided to ask Feron something that had been bugging her since Elizabeth had arrived.

“Feron,” Harriett whispered to Feron.

“Hmm?” he muttered back.

“This investigator… it’s the girl we used to know, right?”

Feron nodded.

“Okay, not to say it like this… but I’m going to say it like this. Why are we sharing space with the person that gave me nightmares for all of my life?” Harriett thought it was a reasonable thing to ask for one does not tend to forget nearly being magically drowned.

“Well… it’s kind of hard to explain,” Feron replied back.

“Well make it easy then,” Harriett retorted.

“She likes me,” Feron said without missing a beat.

Harriett’s eyes went wide. “Okay, I take it back,” she said at her normal volume as her rising emotions began to erase all subtleties she was trying to have. “Please complicate it so that I didn’t hear exactly what I thought I heard.”

“It’s exactly as you heard though, human,” Elizabeth suddenly stated without turning back to face Harriett and Feron.

Harriett couldn’t believe what she had just heard. She knew that Feron was well liked by… well… nearly everyone. But to have the person that nearly killed Harriett and her entire preschool class, the person that plagued Harriett’s thoughts in the crevices of her mind for years, to have that person like her best fsriend? For the first time in what felt like years, Harriett wanted to use her magic to erase everything she had just heard, even if it meant erasing everything around her. Though she soon realized that she shouldn’t even put mental energy into a thought like that for the universe had a way of listening to things it shouldn’t. Especially things where magic was involved.

“Is it that hard to understand?” Elizabeth asked as she now turned to face everyone.

“Yes, yes it is,” Harriett made no attempt to mask her contempt as she replied.

“Then I too will make it easy for you, child.” Elizabeth looked to Feron. “On that day, the power he showed to me was something that I had never felt before and still haven’t felt again to this day. But it wasn’t his strength that drew me to him.”

“Was it his youth, cradle robber?” Kylia bellowed from the back of the elevator.

“Come again?” Elizabeth asked.

“We’re in an elevator. How could you not hear me?” Kylia grunted before continuing, “Anyways, I’ll say it in a different way. Wolfboy here is what… 18 on a good day? Aren’t you a little old to be interested in him if you were temporarily and luckily only in charge of their preschool class for a day?”

Elizabeth veered her attention away from Feron and towards Kylia. As her vision moved between the two, Harriett watched as the warmth she had just been beaming towards Feron quickly chilled to that of the deepest parts of the ocean, her hatred of anyone that was not Feron on display for all to see. “For your information, I was a grad student at the University of London in its Magical Science division at the age of 17. The youngest ever to be accepted into such a program.”

“Still doesn’t answer my question, cradle robber,” Kylia said with a bit of pride in her voice as though she felt the conversation was going in her favor. But then, Elizabeth moved her attention back to Feron.

“Although I am 30 now and well versed in the age of the prince, my interest before his time of adulthood was that of a highly invested mentor. His potential and power may have drawn me in, but his willingness to use it on me, a descendant of Merlin. Now that is why I maintain an interest in him.”

“Gotcha,” Kylia quickly snapped with a followed nod, “Not a cradle robber. Just a masochist.”

“Justify it how you want, demon child. But just remember whom you speak to and of what accusations you make.”

Kylia scoffed. “Do not think that the sudden revelation of your noble ancestry would save you from me.”

“Nor yours from me,” Elizabeth replied back with just as much vigor as Kylia. As if responding to the end of her sentence, the elevator doors opened, revealing a singular office with thick glass windows, a silver desk with a bit of paperwork and an expensive computer and its screen on top of it, an armoire in the right corner, and a towering view over most of London. But while Harriett’s subconscious was focused on taking in everything they were seeing as they all entered the office, Harriett’s conscious mind was still thinking about what Elizabeth had just said about being a descendant of Merlin. If it was that Merlin, King Arthur’s Merlin, then the reason as to why Elizabeth Gail was able to oversee Harriett’s preschool class was starting to make more and more sense.

As the elevator doors came to a close behind them, the solid line between the two elevator doors disappeared, leaving what seemed to be a finished wall behind them. Elizabeth wasted no time though as she took a seat in a leather-looking seat on the opposite side of her desk.

“Now,” Elizabeth began, crossing her legs and folding her hands over one knee, “What brings My Prince, a Demon Princess, and the daughter of the legendary Carefrees to my domain?”

“You… you know us?” Harriett finally found her voice, her attention now piqued.

“Know you?” Elizabeth snickered a bit as if she thought Harriett was joking. “I graduated first in my class, human. I am the eldest of the Gail line, the closest in terms of blood to the great Merlin, making me one of the few noble bloodlines left in this world. And I not just oversaw your class for a day. I studied you all for your entirety.”

“You what?” Harriett exclaimed.

“Hare,” Feron said as he moved over to stand next to Harriett, “We really don’t have to get into this now.”

But Hare shook her head. “No, this is the perfect time to get into this. This woman caused me endless pain for years of my life.”

“Oh, you flatter me,” Elizabeth chimed.

“Save it,” Harriett quickly retorted with a rare amount of anger for her flowing through her veins and out with her words. “What did you mean that you studied us? I was told that I’d never see you again. That we were done with you.”

“I see, and did you think… what? That your 5-year-old mentality came to the conclusion that they were going to, oh I don’t know, put me in prison? Or perhaps kill me? Is that it?” Harriett didn’t say anything for she did not want to give Elizabeth the satisfaction of being right. But sensing that she was right, Elizabeth continued, “No, human child. Although my little experiment did not go as I intended, it did open up so many more doors for me. And while you could not see me, I could and did see you. In fact, your inability to efficiently use your powers was the crowning jewel of my thesis paper. Watching you fail over and over for a year was truly one of my greatest research delights.”

“You… you…,” Harriett felt the tears welling up in her eyes, her muscles tensing up, and her senses beginning to cloud her judgement. But had Feron not stepped in between the viewing of Elizabeth towards Harriett, Harriett wouldn’t have been able to hide the seeming victory Elizabeth had just once again achieved over Harriett’s life.