Cassie smiled but quickly sobered under the single raised brow stare of her gothic friend.

“Are you sure you should be going to see the spawn of Satan Elfin style? Do you think it’s safe?”

“You know Trik won’t let anything happen to me,” Cassie assured her.

“I hate to burst your bubble,” said Elora.

“No you don’t,” Cassie quipped.

“Okay you’re right; I don’t give a damn if I burst your bubble. I know Trik may be the best assassin to ever grace any realm, but even he can be killed.”

Cassie frowned. “I know that, but Lorsan isn’t going to kill him.”

“How do you know that?”

“I don’t know, but something tells me he won’t.”

Elora rolled her eyes. “Fine, but if quiver boy gets put out of commission, don’t come crying to me. I won’t be offering you a comforting shoulder.”

Cassie snorted. “Yeah right. You’d be the first one on your knees to hold me together.”

Elora waved her out of her car. “That may be true but once you had pulled yourself together I wouldn’t hesitate to point out that we sat in this very car and I told you it could happen.”

Cassie pushed the door open and climbed out of the car. “Now that I believe.” She closed the door and with a wave headed towards her house.

“Mom, Dad, I’m home!” Cassie yelled into the quiet house. The smell of food wafted to her from the kitchen and she followed the smell.

Her mom stood at the stove stirring something in a pot.

“Hey,” Cassie said to her.

Sylvia turned her head. “Hey,” she said back with a smile. “Where is Trik?”

“Oh, he can’t make it tonight. His parents needed him.”

“I hope everything is alright.”

“Hope what is alright?” Her dad asked as he walked in behind Cassie.

“Trik can’t make it tonight because his parents needed him,” Sylvia explained.

“Well that’s too bad,” her dad said as he tucked some papers quickly behind his back.

Cassie’s head fell back as she let out a groan. “Dad, tell me that isn’t what I think it is.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replied innocently.

She snapped out her hand to him. “Hand it over.”

It was hard not to laugh when her dad’s face took on the I’ve been caught with my hand in the cookie jar look as he handed the papers to her.

Cassie smoothed the papers out on the counter in front of her and began to read. Her mouth dropped open and the more she read , the more she was sure that it would hit the floor at any moment.

“Are you kidding me?” She cried out indignantly.

“Those are all very important details,” herdad defended.

“Number 1,” she began reading, “date of last drug screening and results.” She paused, waiting for his justification.

“Don’t you think it’s important to know if he is using illegal drugs?”

Cassie skipped down a few lines. “Number four, Date of last sexual interaction and did you use protection; if so what kind?”

Cassie ignored her mom who was standing at the stove trying, but failing to hide her laughter.

“Wouldn’t it bother you to know that only a week ago he might have been crawling out…”. Cassie held her hand up to stop her dad from continuing that statement.

“Number twenty five? Really dad, twenty five?” Cassie gestured to the papers. Her dad simply looked at her innocently. “Number twenty five,” she continued. “How many children have you fathered, are they all with the same woman?”

“Okay, maybe that one wasn’t necessary considering if any of his answers led him to that one I would have already kicked him out,” her dad admitted.

“I thought we decided that you weren’t going to do the papers.”

“Technically, yes we did.”

“Technically, what does that even mean?” Cassie tore the papers up and threw them in the trash can. “You are not asking him those questions.”

He shrugged as if he could care less. Cassie knew that meant he would just print another one. Apparently he had a database.

They sat down to eat and Cassie tried to decide the best moment to drop the news about tomorrow night.

There was a pause in the conversation and she decided that it was as good a time as any.

“So, Trik is taking me on a date tomorrow night.”

Her dad raised an eyebrow at her, while her mom smiled with a nod. She figured that smile was just because her mom was happy to get to see his beautiful face again. Cassie totally understood.

“He will come in and talk to both of us before you leave,” her dad told her.

Cassie nodded. “I told him that.”

“Good,” her dad said to no one in particular and Cassie swore that she saw the shadow of a smile cross his face.

~

Trik stepped into the court of the Light Elves. He had been surprised that he was able to get through . His kind was usually blocked from entry. He stared into the large throne room. The soft light glowed off of the pearl stone that fashioned the room. The lights seemed to come from the stone, illuminating everything, removing all shadows. Trik looked down and noticed his shadow was very light, but it was still a black spot in the room of white.

“What brings you to my court, Triktapic?” Tamsin walked out of one of the side walls. Trik realized that the pearl walls put off reflections allowing them to be used as openings to other realms.