A sickening grin creeps onto Adalia's face when Kat and the fairy-child both leave the house, and her eyes even seem to light up at the sight.

It makes me feel ill.

"Ah," she says, a note of twisted glee in the sound. "The traitor and the viris. This'll be easy."

Ryo didn't even bat an eye.

Kat literally recoiled.

"I think you're forgetting something, Adalia," Ryo said calmly, as if they were simply talking to a friend. "Ziasel isn't dangerous to elves, and look at that! Three elves."

"How many of us are there, and how many of you are there?" Adalia asked.

"Seven of you, six of us. Not the most unbalanced fight I've ever been in."

"Please," one of Adalia's companions laughed. "It's always unbalanced with you."

"Good luck, kids," another said.

And they all started shouting at the same time, a jumble of spells that we were forced to dodge or block in our own way.

Ryo barely missed getting hit with the same spell that Adalia had used at her house, throwing themselves to the ground just in time.

"Clarierous!"

Someone gasped, and Adalia swore loudly.

"Idiot!" she snapped, but whoever she was telling it at didn't respond.

Cira and Vaeri were struggling to keep their attacks from colliding — with Vaeri's water almost constantly extinguishing Cira's flames every time she tried to do anything.

I heard Kat parroting a lot of our attacker's spells back at them, and Ryo doing something similar, but I didn't pay too much attention. With no magic of my own, I was just moving. Dodging, running, ducking, rolling... a dizzying blur of colours and shouts and screams.

I couldn't think.

Time seemed to fly by, and it didn't take long for every part of my body to start aching. I imagined I'd be covered in bruises by tomorrow — if I had the chance to get to tomorrow. But I couldn't make myself care.

Maybe if I had a chance to get that dagger I'd used with the witch... maybe I could do something...

But what would I achieve?

All things considered, whoever I fought would likely end up dead if I didn't. And I didn't really want that.

I didn't want that at all.

"Felotis intimidorgio!"

Someone screamed — most likely Vaeri, possibly Adalia — but I couldn't tell why.

I just continued to dodge any attacks that came my way, catching the loudest cries and the scariest spells in the way that you would. Focusing on what could put you in the most danger.

"Seregris!" Ryo shouts, aiming whatever spell it is (a bright orange coil of some kind) so wildly it ends up closest to hitting Kat... who's nowhere near the presumed target.

"Why are you even trying to fight?" he shouted at them, throwing himself to the side as Adalia cast another spell at him. "How can you?"

Your sister could be fine if they catch her, but you need to stay put. Fighting blind isn't easy.

Fighting blind isn't easy.

I don't know how I didn't ask why they said that.

"Delarello!" one of the men yelled, and the spell hit Ryo before they had a chance to react — which made sense, didn't it? "Good luck now, traitor!"

It seemed like everyone was coming to a similar conclusion to me. On our 'side' (not that any of this was organised in any particular way), everyone but Kat had pretty much stopped to give Ryo blank looks, which was such a stupid thing to do.

"Cira, Vaeri, move!" I screamed as one of the men took the opportunity and tried to attack them. Vaeri stayed solidly in her trance, but Cira stepped in front of her to take the hit... and absolutely destroy the spell itself.

Whatever. I didn't want to start questioning the capabilities of magic.

At all.

"Restorori."

"What are you doing, you idiot—?" Adalia shrieked, but the bang and the puff of smoke that accompanied the spell took everyone else's attention.

The glass vase that shattered across the cobblestones was still glowing when it did so, and somebody gagged.

Ryo winced, and then almost immediately turned his 'gaze' towards a different attacker. So I blocked that out and continued to think about what I was better off doing.

Which happened to be when my 'dodge and duck' strategy — in the loosest possible sense of that word — failed.

"Flurrisa vivus!"

It didn't hurt.

That's the second thing I really noticed.

The first was that I couldn't move my arm, which is what had been hit.

A paralytic spell.

Because limited movement was what I needed, naturally.

The spell's caster, a man with no particularly notable features compared to the rest, just walked over to me with no real resistance. I was useless to start with, but everyone else seemed a little more preoccupied with Adalia's wild attempts to kill Kat.

At least that's what I thought she was doing.

"Your sister's not been very cooperative, Anya," he said, almost too quietly to hear, grabbing my frozen arm and yanking me towards him. "How much trouble are you going to give us?"

"What have you done?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing... not yet," he laughed, the sickening hint of excitement in his voice at the suggestion that Lani was only unharmed because they were looking for something from her that they'd found making me want to scream. "But I can't wait to get on with it."

Oh, didn't that make it all feel so much better?

But I didn't say anything about it.

This... was hopeless, wasn't it?

With one arm out of commission (my right arm too, just to make it all the worse), and the blatantly obvious difference in strength between me and an adult man, I had no real chance if I even tried to escape.

But I had to, didn't I?

There was no point trying to pull my arm out of his grip — I couldn't. The point I'd made to Lani, though?

Well, that wasn't arm-based at all.

Honestly, Mum's advice can be useful in the weirdest situations... when you bother to listen, unlike some people.

I didn't bother trying to work out where I was actually aiming my kick, instead just going for it. And I honestly don't think I caused any significant pain, because he just seemed surprised that I was fighting back.

Good enough, though.

His grip loosened, just enough for me to pull his hand away and move. Then I ran — around the shattered glass and as far down the street as I could while still being able to see what was going on.

This was where I was meant to be.

At the sidelines.

Clearly.

The man who'd attacked me did start moving towards me again, but Felaern blasted him into a wall before he got very far.

I needed to work out what his 'element' was... probably air... but who knew, really?

"You little brat!" someone yelled, and I tried to work out who they were actually shouting it at — there were five targets, after all. And then he opened his mouth to speak again—

"Petriempra!"

I knew that voice.

How could I not?