Scarlet

Aria and I play games for a little while before she gets a message from her butler and manager and has to go. So after seeing her out the door, I head back to my room and lie down on the bed, letting out a sigh as soon as I do so.

Such a long day. Fought in four Fractures, one of which I cleared out personally, and the others I was beaten to the punch. Overall, only gained three levels.

Not a single one of them from the three Fractures after the first, unfortunately.

“It’s probably for the best,” Tar says, making me raise a brow as I rest my forearm on my forehead, just staring up at the ceiling. “You wouldn’t want to be disqualified from participating in the primaries, right?”

Oh. Yeah. Forgot about that.

At the rate I’m gaining levels, unless I go around clearing every Fracture I can find – which shouldn’t be possible considering what I’ve seen today – I’ll be fine on that front.

I close my eyes, flopping my arm back onto the bed as I begin to go to sleep. Only for my eyes to suddenly burst open again as I remember the question from earlier.

So how did you find me if your father wasn’t the one who told you?

Tar doesn’t say anything, simply appearing again – having vanished after Aria and I started playing video games – and landing on my chest. The, after a few seconds of silence with me staring at him with my head raised from my position lying down, he finally answers, “I can’t tell you the exact answer just yet, but I can tell you that I had a contact with the fae of someone who did know where you would be and when. I signed a legally binding contract with the two not to say anymore on this subject though. Not until a certain event passes.”

My eyes narrow and I just continue to stare at the fae on my chest.

“Seriously?” I ask, my irritation clear in my tone. “Couldn’t you have just told me that earlier? Why did you wait till now?”

“Because I knew you would have questions about it,” Tar answers, making me sigh and drop my head down to the mattress.

Yeah, I guess you have a point.

I do have a lot of questions. But what can I really ask when you can’t say anything else?

Wait.

I blink as a realization comes to me.

A smile spreads across my face.

I understand.

Is this person who is contracted with the fae you know affiliated with my father?

“Why do you like video games so much anyways?” Tar says in response, making me frown slightly before I understand what he’s doing.

Silence is yes, a question is no.

For one, at first it was solely as an escape from reality, but they just became fun to play and I could never stop over time. For two, is this person who is contracted with the fae you know my father himself?

Tar doesn’t say anything in response.

So my biological father knew exactly where I would be when the Fracture happened… does that mean the demons controlled the Fractures to appeared there? But that’s not right, you’ve said that the demons can’t control the Fractures…

“That is correct. Neither demons nor fae are able to control the Fractures, and obviously humans aren’t able to either,” Tar answers this one, likely because it’s not anything new.

Then how did my father know where I’d be? Did he have some sort of spell on me to track me?

“How did you afford to buy the games you played when you were a kid?” Tar asks, continuing his line of questioning from before.

I frown at that – both the implication of him asking the question and the question itself – before answering out loud, “By working short jobs for Allen helping him with some of his projects by being both an assistant for him and a second opinion, because apparently my thoughts on his work tended to help him figure things out sometimes.”

His only regulation on that was that if I bought games then I’d let the other kids play them too, as long as they treated the games well and followed my instructions of course.

Actually, now that I think about it, him being forced through a contract to treat us all as he did certainly explains a lot. Since he could’ve made our lives a hell of a lot easier with some more money, but he didn’t. At least I now know it’s because of that contract he had.

Anyways, if my biological father didn’t have a spell on me… did he have something keeping track of me on Earth?

Tar doesn’t say anything, making my eyes widen at the implications of that.

But… wait, does that mean he has a changeling following me around or something?

Tar doesn’t say anything again.

Shit. Are you serious?!

That’s…

A shiver runs down my spine and I can’t help but sit up, knocking the tanuki down from my chest to my lap in the process as I look around my room.

Are there any on campus?

“You seem to treat that young girl, Aria, like a younger sister, did you notice that?” Tar asks, making me breath a sigh of relief. Only to pause as I glance down at him, his actual question registering in my mind.

Do I treat her like a younger sister?

“You do,” Tar answers, looking up at me and sounding slightly… happy? “And I’m glad you’re opening up to someone more. Since even if you do care about the others, you seem to find it hard to open up to them.” Well, he’s right there. I find it hard to open up to anyo- “But that girl seems to be different. It’s like you automatically let your guard down around her a little bit. And it’s nice to see.”

My jaw drops open for a few seconds before I close it.

Huh.