Dishonesty is the Worst Policy
(Furiolo's Point of View) I sat on my knees in a darkened room. My hands and feet were bound and my neck had a serious crick in it. The only thought on my mind was, where is my brother? I refused to lose him. He and can't be apart. We can't. Ever. Don't these people know what'll happen if this continues? There was a spotlight on me suddenly. I squinted as my eyes adjusted. I began twitching my tail involuntarily, my irritation beginning to show. "You've been a bad kitty." Was the first thing I heard come from my captor's mouth... I was snapped out of my vision by Friz's outbursts. I kept a straight face as I heard an argument break out between the panther and Gary. I was fairly indifferent. I had minimal respect for the both of them. I had suspected some dishonest things from both parties, but nothing like this. Gary had been using his power to get supplies for free. "You don't understand, Friz. How was I supposed to get them? I have no money!" Gary was defending his actions using desperation as an excuse. He was also slowly backing up from Friz as the panther advanced on him. It was then that I realized that Gary was scared of us. He didn't know what we were fully capable of. "Please, Friz. Calm down!" Gary pleaded. His charm speak almost worked on Friz, but the cryomancer had no pleasant opinions about the wolf at this point in time. He also noticed the attempt. "Stop using that damn voice of yours like that!" Friz screamed. "If you do that one more time, I will rip your tongue out of your mouth!" Gary kept quiet after this in terms of his charm speak. I could see the strain he put on himself to not use imperative sentences. "I needed to get you pants and diapers somehow. You couldn't honestly expect me to have current currency on me, could you? Why are you even upset about this? None of it was for me!" Gary explained. "Two reasons. I hate thieves, and you used your power for evil against that hyena! I had to let Ghast deal with it because the hyena was dillusional. He was threatening your life! I would've let him try to kill you had I known the truth! You've lost all my respect for you, you lying-" I interrupted Friz at this point. "You aren't exactly innocent either, are you Friz?" Friz jumped at this. He must've not been paying attention to who all was listening in, but, at the volume he was shouting, I wouldn't have been surprised if the complex across the street heard him. "What do you mean?" Friz snapped, refusing to let his soapbox be shattered. "I'm not only a Druid, you know. I've been showing psychic symptoms for a while now. You didn't exactly react well when your family died, yeah?" I asked. I already knew the answer, but I wanted him to explain himself. "As if you have any room to talk." He said
instead, throwing the blame at me. "What are you talking about? I've never killed anyone in my life, unlike you." I spat back. "I remember a specific headline, though I didn't know who you were at the time, 'Foster father found dead with plants growing from his stomach.' You're clean, all right. I'm sure." The amount of sarcasm in Friz's voice set me off. "That wasn't me." I insisted. "I've never killed anyone in my life. It was Alf who planted the seeds in that man's intestines." "What?" Alf asked. He seemed to have been in a kind of trance until now. "I wasn't the one who let his emotions get the better of him. That was you." I then noticed that I had willingly thrown the blame onto my brother. I shook my head to get the unnecessary anger out of my mind. What was going on? "Friz, what are you doing? We shouldn't be fighting!" Ghast was pleading. His eyes were tearing up, and he grabbed Friz's arm. Friz just shook him off, accidentally hitting the husky and causing Ghastillo to fall on the ground and start outright crying. Friz started yelling at Ghast, making the husky cry more. I was confused as everyone else until Friz accidentally insulted Ghastillo in Latin. His eyes widened and he covered his mouth. Nick noticed, however, and was immediately on Friz about it. "Did you just speak Latin?" Nick asked. "N-no..." Friz said innocently. I saw the red in his eyes. This wasn't Friz. Not entirely. "I thought you didn't know Latin." Ghastillo said. "You said so yourself." "I didn't speak Latin, you imbellis!" Friz shouted. "You just did it again." Nick noticed. "Imbellis is weakling in Latin, if I'm correct." "Oh, who am I kidding..." Friz muttered. Friz then fainted and a shadowy copy of himself took his place.(Friz's Point of View) Having a demon possess your mind is not fun, and I don't recommend it. Now that we've gotten past that, I think it would be safe to assume that I had to fight that demon out, right? Well, I would say that I forced the demon out because I was so powerful, I'd be lying, so yeah. I was blissfully unaware, by the way, of Nick apparently amazing display of a light that banished the demon easily. Question was, why were ten of us needed if Nick was so adept at killing what appears to be our only enemies? I came to after it had all died down and I was moved to the couch. I woke up to Ghastillo having snuggled into my arms, which I found cute. I couldn't remember what I'd said, but I hoped Ghast would understand. I roused Ghast and he seemed unwilling to move. I would think he and I were perfectly well rested, but what did I know about the needs of an eleven-year-old shadowmancer? When I finally got him up, it dawned on him that I
was okay. "Friz!" Ghast exclaimed, hugging me. "I'm so glad you're back!" "What happened, exactly?" I asked, receiving the explanation I needed from the husky. I had an idea after hearing this and called everyone to an impromptu meeting in the bedroom. "So I have an idea," were the words I led with. Everyone looked skeptical, but I ignored their stares. "We all need to trust each other more if we're going to stay close. So, I think we should all go around telling each other our deepest regrets. Sound good?" Everyone's face changed from skepticism to terror. "I'll go first." I offered. I took a deeo breath and began to spill. "A couple of days before the arena, I commited mass murder in a haze of fury. I wasn't myself, and I'm not proud of what I've done, but I've done it. I thought you should know so there's no mistaking what I've done. I've...also murdered someone who was stalking me, but he deserved it." The room was quiet. I looked around anxiously. Everyone refused to meet my gaze, and my optimism slowly degraded into embarrassment until Ghastillo spoke up. "My parents are dead because of me." he said. Everyone looked at him in shock. "I didn't kill them myself, but it's because I didn't leave when I knew I should've that they were in the way of the ones that were hunting me at first. When my shadow power was discovered, there was an outrage. Nobody wanted me alive, and my life suffered for it. Riots broke out wherever I was. The pinnacle military had to arrest some of my closest friends because they 'initiated' a fight on my behalf. My parents had died during a riot where they broke into my house trying to kill me. My power protected me, but the darkness isn't selfless. I just thought I'd let you know that I'm a walking bad luck charm. I'm sorry..." Tears appeared in his eyes and he choked up on the last sentence. I put my arm around him and pulled him close into a hug. "Don't say that. Nothing bad happens to me while you're around." I insisted. "You got possessed by a demon when we went to town! You had nightmares, all of you, probably because of me!" Ghastillo yelled. "Our nightmares were not your fault. Things happened that could only ever be fate." Gary interrupted. "I suppose that, since I spoke up, I'll go next. Yes, I did persuade those shop owners to give me their products. I also used my charm so that we could stay here for free. And I used my voice to tell a hyena to walk until his legs gave out. I don't know why I did, it was just too easy to. I'm sorry, Friz. I'll try not to let that happen again." "You're forgiven." I said. The Fallenoak twins took a deep breath simultaneously. "Our turn, we suppose." they said in unison. Alf and Fure then began alternating
between saying things, starting with Fure, "We've both had a hand in killing our foster father." "We have good reason though," "...and we would like to explain." "We had psychic powers for a little while, and they come and go..." Alf continued. "...and they helped us read minds." "We read our foster father's mind..." "...and he was hoping to..." "...get some personal gain, to put it lightly, from having custody of us..." "...He wasn't sexually moral, to be exact..." Fure explained. "...and we don't like to talk about it too much..." Alf finished. They both sniffed as they finished, trying to fight tears. I reassured them that if they were going to cry, here and now couldn't be a better time. They didn't burst into sobbing, but they didn't try too hard to hold back as they hugged each other in tears, sharing how much they loved each other. "My turn, probably." Timler assumed. "I'm going to keep this blunt because even now I have trouble feeling regret for this. I would sometimes let people die that I could have saved for the express purpose of their attitude towards me. I have even undone something I've done to ensure they die sometimes. I don't ever feel bad about it, and I don't know why. Oh, and by the way, there were about seven scenarios where if I intervened after Friz passed out that we would have died. Just in case you were still mad at me about hiding, Gary." "As for me," Regir said. "I'm about two thousand years old, so I have a lot to regret, including repeatedly faking my own death. I was greedy. I wanted to make a change and forced it upon myself. I also suspect it was my fault that everyone lost control of their bladders, so I'm sorry if it was." He finished quickly to get it off his chest. I turned to the storm pair, Nick and Feir. The storm pair had admitted to a rather overzealous "wind-fest" multiple times during their time as friends that knocked down buildings and killed multiple people. Feir admitted to burning federal buildings and necromancers without a second thought. Nick admitted to his arrogance and necromancy. We all felt closer after this, and it was nice to entrust the others with my darkest actions. I noticed it was only getting noon, so I suggested we find a way to get food or we would starve. "I have a plan." Feir said. "We could gamble. I know it isn't exactly fair, but Timler can ensure we win." "That doesn't feel right, Feir." I said. "How would you be okay with that?" "Because we don't have time to get a job and earn an honest living. We use Gary's persuasion to procure some small amounts of money then just watch it multiply at the local casino. I know where it is." Feir explained. I groaned at
the fact that everyone else was on board. Looks like we needed to get into a casino tonight. "One problem." I said. "How are we to get Timler, Ghast and me in? Gary may twenty-one, but we aren't." "Why is it you, Ghast, and Timler that are going with me?" Gary asked. "I'm to make sure you don't over-extend, Ghast is there for emergencies since he can hide us in shadows, and you know why Timler is going. The fewer of us that go, the better. Feir can be in charge over here while we're gone." I explained. "Then it's settled, I suppose. Let's go get some money." Timler said nonchalantly...