"What the hell was that?" Raine muttered as she felt something touch her arm.

"What?" Liyah, who was turning into Aurora, asked as they arrived in Orlumen.

"I felt something touch my arm."

Shit, Eli thought as he covered his eyes in pain.

The moment the light surrounding them was gone, Fern and Eli looked for something to hide behind, while also trying not to look at anything because of how bright it was. Eli spotted something dark looking and silently and blindly started dragging Fern there. She didn't fight it and kept walking with him.

"Where are we going?" she hissed.

"I saw something dark. Looked promising."

They quickly arrived at the thing and Eli stopped suddenly. Fern, not realizing he'd stopped, bumped into him and caused him to trip into the dark thing.

"AZA—ELI!" Fern yelled.

"I'm—fine Fern—Don't—worry," Eli said between coughs. He opened his eyes and to his surprise, the light wasn't hurting them anymore.

Getting up and climbing out of the mist he looked around and saw a plaque. He read it quietly to himself and then looked at Fern. "That mist made it so that I can see here. So I'm gonna push you in real quick so you can get your eyes to work too, 'k sis'?

"OK. Push me in the—AZ—ELI!" Fern's talking turned into shouting as Eli pushed her in mid-word.

"Alright come out once your eyes have adjusted."

He could just barely see Fern nodding through the mist. She came out soon after, and he realized something was different. The white part of Fern's eyes had been overtaken by the dark brown of her irises.

"Is that what my eyes look like? The whites all gone?"

"Yeah," Fern said. "They're just all black looking since the brown of your eyes is so dark."

"Alright, so what now?" he asked.

"Let's go see Liyah and Raine. We can't leave here without Liyah anyway," Fern was clearly trying to hide any interest or excitement she had in seeing her old friends, but she was failing to hide it.

"Okay, let's walk back and just knock on the door then."

The twins started walking back to the palace together, finally able to see Orlumen without killing their eyes. Once they got there, Fern knocked on the door. The door was quickly opened by a thirteen-year-old Lumin who appeared to have been eating pizza very messily.

"What? I'm in the middle of da—FERN!?" the teen started to scream.

"And Azazel—or Eli," the eleven-year-old came out from behind Fern.

"Get the fuck out," the girl in the door commanded as another girl came through.

"Li, what's—" Raine stopped.

"We-we got kicked out. We have nowhere to go," Fern shed tears. Eli could tell they were real tears, even if she wasn't crying for the reason she claimed.

"Please—let us live with you," Eli pleaded.

The two girls in the door exchanged looks and started whispering, though Eli could still hear them.

"Raine, should we?"

"Li, think of who they are."

"But...but she's..." the Lumin version of Liyah—Eli didn't know the name—started to cry into Raine's arms. Eli could have sworn he saw cuts on the Lumin's arms.

"Please..." Fern begged, tears still streaming.

"I...I guess it can't hurt," Raine said quietly, moving her hand down the younger Lumin's back over and over again, trying to soothe her. "One question though: how come your eyes don't hurt? I mean, when Li's Aurora she's fine and she found that black misty st—"

"We found that too," Eli answered quickly, interrupting Raine. So that's the Shadmin's Lumin name—Aurora. Good to know.

"Oh, that explains the eye thing. I guess that's what mine look like now."

"AHHHHH!" someone screamed in the background.

Raine turned around, still holding Liyah, who was calming down a little bit. "Just the movie. The asshole fat kid is falling into the snake enclosure. Li said his name's Dudley, I think, but I prefer 'asshole fat kid'. Well, I guess just come on in...Li you okay with that?"

Liyah nodded and Eli watched as Raine brought Liyah back to the couch, setting her down and giving her a quick kiss.

"Follow me you two. Now, I'm guessing you want different rooms? There's probably a lot. Let's see, what's in here...okay one of you want this one?" Raine asked, showing them a beautiful room with a queen bed and other shelves and desks.

"I'll take it," Fern said, going inside and leaving Eli with Raine. 

The moment the door shut and Fern's footsteps quieted, Raine turned to Eli. "I know you're up to something. And if you're trying to hurt my girlfriend, I will kill you. You're on a thin little tightrope, and you'd better stay on it," Raine took a deep breath. "Now, how about this room," she slammed a door open and Eli ran inside, shutting the door normally.

Oh my god...she's onto us. Well, we'll just have to prove ourselves. We can do this. Fern and I, we can do this. There's not a time limit. Sille can run the Forsaken for as long as needed.

Eli opened his door and peered down the hall. He could hear the movie still going, and Liyah wasn't bawling her eyes out anymore, which was an improvement he supposed. Glancing to where he was pretty sure Fern's door was, he went inside. Fern was sitting on her bed, reading some book she'd found on the shelves.

"So," he said quietly, trying not to be overheard by Raine and Aurora, "What are we gonna do to get under their skin. The human already hates me, so I'll probably try to get to our father, but you can get those two. Sound good?"

"Y-Yeah," Fern said quietly, squeezing the covers of her bed.

"Awww, sis'. I know you've known these two longer than you've known me, and I know this is hard for you, but I'll be with you every step of the way. Can you just hold out for me, please? Please, Fern."

"It's not that I don't want to do this...it's just that it's uncomfortable. Liyah was like a mom to me, and I know she betrayed me when she killed our aunt, but I still can't shake that feeling. I just need some time, Z—Eli. I just need time."

"Time. Time. I can give you time. I think I'll go live with our father, where ever he is. Can you hold up on your own over here?" 

"Yeah, I can—I can do that," Fern said quietly.

Epic music played in the background. Something was going on in the movie. It sounded sort of like someone was saying "awe" over and over again.

"Well, after their movie I'm gonna ask the Shadmin—Aurora the human said her Lumin name was—if she can take me to where he is so I can stay with him."

"Okay, I'll stay here and get under their skin. I—I can do this," Fern tried to sound confident.

"Alright then...hey what's that book about?"

"Something about Lumin history. Not a very good read, considering how full of themselves they are. It's all 'The Lumins helped the humans defeat the Shadows in 1901 because the humans were too incompetent to do anything on their own. In fact, the humans stayed behind and the Lumins did everything for them since they're so nice.' It gets annoying really fast."

Eli snorted in amusement, "Sounds annoying."

She can take it, he told himself as he sat there on his sister's bed. She's strong. Nothing will go wrong. This is going to work.

Some part of him knew that he was lying to himself.