When Tess woke up, she was in a room with charcoal black walls scattered with drawings, bramble posters, and detention slips. 

It's gotta be Keefe's bedroom. She thought

She sat up and looked around a bit to see Keefe in a chair next to the bed she was laying on. On the other side of the room was Elwin and Sophie. When Keefe noticed that she was awake he called Elwin over, and he put a damp cloth on her forehead. 

"I told you I'd see you again soon. How are you feeling?" Elwin said in a soft voice, trying not to disturb her. 

"Wha- what happened?" Tess asked in a groggy voice. That's usually how she sounds when she wakes up in the morning. 

"I'm not exactly sure, but you were giving off all of these feelings, and then you passed out. It looked like you hit your head pretty hard there. How do you feel?" Keefe asked. His voice was hushed and soft, as if trying not to anger a beast. Like he really cared about what happened to her. She decided to bypass that, trying not to have another panic attack.

"I feel better. My head feels stuffy, but that's normal after this happens" Tess said, trying to tell them that this has happened before. And it's true, she's had a lot of anxiety attacks. Usually she just starts crying out of no where from the overload of feelings, but she has passed out before. Most of the time it happened in school. Which is weird because she was so far ahead of her class and the work was effortless. It's probably from everything else in her life. The truth is, she was very close to some of her human family members. When her grandfather died, it took a toll. After that, she only found joy in her friends and books. That's why she started reading. She wanted to escape the harsh realities of life. When she found Keeper of the Lost Cities, it was like a revelation. She would lose herself in the story, and she mourned with the characters when anything bad happened. 

"Wait, this has happened before?" Elwin asked. Tess nodded. 

"It's anxiety. I've had it since I was eight" she said. Elwin wrote something down in his notepad and murmured "why didn't Alden tell me this?" Then he sighed. 

"Well, we gave you an elixir to calm down your raging emotions. You almost made Keefe pass out too" Elwin said, then he gave a light chuckle. Tess looked at Keefe and noticed that he looked just as bad as she felt. His eyes were dull and didn't have the sparkle they usually had, and he looked tired. 

"Oh jeez, Keefe, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for you to feel the emotions I had" Tess said. Keefe gave a half smile to let her know that it was okay, and that she didn't need to worry. Tess took comfort in that half smile. Then he winked at her. Her stomach contorted in butterflies, and she had to bite her lip to not make a delighted face. Then she looked at Sophie.

"I'm guessing you came with Elwin when Keefe called" Tess said. Sophie nodded. Tess felt so bad. About everything. When they disappeared they probably scared the rest of them nearly to death. meanwhile, she was with Sophie's boyfriend holding his hand in a place that he never showed her, but for some reason decided to bring Tess to. None of this made sense. 

"Where did you guys even go? You kinda just disappeared after Tess's probing" Sophie said. Tess looked at Keefe and they exchanged a look. Keefe knew what he was doing. 

"I took her to my house" Keefe said. Tess snort-laughed. 

"House? More like princess tower. There should have been a blonde girl with 70 foot long hair at the top" she said. Sophie laughed and nodded her head.

"Hey! My dad takes pride in the house" Keefe said. 

"Oh, like you actually care what your dad thinks about anything" Sophie said. Tess smiled, and Keefe did too. 

"And what's all this about a long haired blonde? Should I take Sophie to the top?" Keefe asked with a smirk as he looked at Sophie with endearing eyes. Tess's stomach contorted again. 

"No, it's a human story. They call them fairy tales" Tess said. 

"Fairy tails? Like, they take the tails of the fairies and tell a story based off of it?" Keefe asked. He was actually serious though. 

"No, tales. Spelled T-A-L-E-S. It's a human word for story. Fairy tales just means that it's a made up story with magic in it made for kids. But you guys actually have fairies here?" Tess asked. Sophie nodded.

"We've taken care of a few at Havenfield. They're not what the humans think they are though. They aren't little humans with magical powers and wands and wings, they're actually quite vicious. I've been bitten by a few" Sophie said. She looked at her arm and there was a scar that looked like small teeth marks. Keefe laughed. 

"Next time you work with the fairies, you've gotta wear protective gear" he said.

"Or come to me as soon as something like that happens again. But yeah, I have to agree with Keefe. Never thought I'd say that" Elwin said. "I'm going to take off. It seems like Tess is fine now, but I've prescribed some medecation. It's human medication, so I'm sure you've heard of it. I gave the prescription to Grady and Edaline. It was good to see you again, Tess" Elwin said. They all said goodbye and thanks, then he left.

"I don't really feel like going back to Atlantis. With anxiety, I can get freaked out just by being around too many people most of the time. I've never been good with social situations and I can't talk to people well most of the time" Tess said. Sophie nodded. She understood exactly what Tess was saying. 

"Well maybe we can go with a smaller group of people. Like maybe just us with mom and dad" Sophie said. Tess liked the sound of that, them going to Atlantis as a family instead of a huge group of people there to shop just for her to make her happy, which would actually just make her angry.

"Yeah, that sounds like fun. Can we go to Havenfield now? I really want to meet Grady and Edaline" Tess said. Sophie nodded and helped her off of the bed. Tess looked around the room again and caught sight of a drawing of a girl who looked like her. She looked closer at it and realized that it was her. She walked over to it to get a closer look. It was colored in with all of the right colors of her hair. Black, pink, blue, green, white. How did Keefe know this before he knew her? 

"Keefe, why is there a drawing of me on your wall?" Tess asked. She turned her head rapidly with a flip of her hair to look at him, and he turned pale.

"I don't know, I saw your face in one of my dreams" Keefe said. That almost made sense, considering he also had a photographic memory. But why did he have the dream?

"What happened in that dream?" Sophie asked. Keefe shrugged. 

"I don't remember" he said. Sophie hit him atop the head with a pillow. 

"You have a photographic memory, Joker" she said. Joker. That must be the nickname Sophie gave him. Apparently Sophie was also a fan of Batman.

"I don't know, it was a dream about us meeting you for the first time. I had it about a week ago, and I decided to draw you because it seemed like you'd be important at the time. Obviously I was right" Keefe said. He rushed as he talked, but Tess believed him. Sophie still looked uncertain, but she shook it off. Tess crossed the room to the door and walked out, but she just had no idea where she was going. There was the vortinator, but Tess really wasn't up for a rollercoaster ride. She'd just have to suck it up and close her eyes. 

"Roof!" Keefe called. Tess closed her eyes and gripped Keefe's hand to keep herself steady. She could feel the wind in her hair. Ugh. She'd have to fix that, and it would probably take a few minutes. Her stomach did back flips until they finally came to a stop. When they got off, Tess dropped to her knees. She was breathing heavily and trying to get her insides back to their right places. She felt a hand on her back, and looked up to see Sophie. 

"Apparently there is a blonde girl on the roof" Tess said in between breaths. Sophie laughed and Keefe smirked. He was feeling amused. Sophie was feeling happy and energized. 

"So, can we go to Havenfield?" Tess asked. Sophie nodded and helped her up. 

"Don't worry, my first time on the vortinator was hard too" Sophie said. Tess knew that, she read about it. She probably knows more about Sophie than Keefe does.

"Havenfield!" Keefe called. The Leapmaster whirred to life and presented a single crystal. Keefe grabbed both of their hands and they stepped into the light. The feathery sensation came back, and it was like the light was passing through her, which she experienced a lot as a vanisher, but she didn't notice it unless she was trying to vanish. When they materialized they were on a field full of animals. Tess saw a giant green creature who she knew to be Verdi, and a huge purple rodent who was definitely the virminion. He definitely looked like a giant hamster. She used to have one, and after reading Keeper Of The Lost Cities she wanted another hamster just so she could name it Verminion. They walked towards the huge house in front of them, and suddenly, Tess was nervous. Why, she didn't know. She already knew who Grady and Edaline were, and she knew what to expect from them, but while she knows them, they don't know her. They have no clue what she looks like or how she acts, how her voice sounds, except for the things that Alden has shown them. They really don't know what to expect from her. 

They kept walking to the door and Tess was aware of her breathing. They climbed up the steps and she felt like a third wheel watching Sophie and Keefe holding hands right in front of her, as if they were trying to hide her from what's behind those doors. Or hide what's behind the doors from her. They got closer and Tess's vision started going blurry again, but she took deep breaths. She reached for the device in her pocket out of instinct, then realized she had no reason to. She couldn't reach anyone. Even with the advances she made on the phone when she was with humans she wouldn't be able to get a connection here. It wasn't even worth looking at the phone right now, the amount of messages would just give her another anxiety attack. She'd have to look at it when she can get her connection back. She just kept walking forward and thought about what she was going to say. Then before she knew it they were inside, and a woman with auburn hair was in the kitchen baking something. 

"Mom, we're home! And we've brought a very special guest!" Sophie said.