Lewis and Simone arrived quickly when they were summoned to the school. It took Lewis several minutes to calm Camille down, and by the time they left, she was asleep in his arms, completely drained from her outburst. There wasn’t any reason to dawdle, so they took her to see Xeik immediately.

It didn’t take long for Xeik to arrive once they were in his office, and he sat down in his chair with a notebook at the ready. “All right…give me the details, and let’s see what we can do. You said Camille was having a breakdown when you arrived? Can you give me everything you remember, as well as the last few days of behavior?”

It didn’t take very long to bring Xeik up to speed on what had occurred. Lewis even pulled Xeik to the side, and cleared his throat. “Look…it is very obvious that I’m concerned for Camille…but this is also eating into what little free time I have to bang my wife…”

Xeik blinked, “Excuse me?”

“Don’t pretend you didn’t hear me,” Lewis replied with a dead stare. “Look..it’s natural to have these urges…but I can’t even get a quick one in, all right? I’d rather we take care of this so everyone can be happy…all right?” It was obvious that he was worried for Camille, but apparently the lack of intimacy with Simone was also killing him. Even Simone was giving Xeik a look, as if to say ‘For her sanity, and ours.’

Xeik let out a heavy sigh. “Right…well, I think we should run a few basic tests first. She doesn’t seem to have a fever, so we can rule that out, but it’s possible someone might be attacking her. There are powerful curses, potions, or the like that exist…as you know. Have any of those things gone missing in your household? Has she made any enemies at school? Have either of you made any enemies…uh…lately?”

Simone was in agreement with her husband about the whole situation. Their lack of intimacy along with what their resonance was… Was actually killing them, well not really but it could have been at this point.

Thinking about what Xeik said Simone put her hand to her chin as she thought about it. Thinking really hard she held up her hands and left for a moment. After a while, she came back and shook her head. “I even asked Silva and she said nothing had gone missing. She has one enemy at school but the girl just takes her toys on occasion… but we dealt with that situation already…. And it’s not like we’ve made any new enemies. We’re clean on that front Xeik. It’s a mystery.”

Simone was now rubbing her temples as she thought about it. “Anyway, I think about it… It’s just not making any sense.”

Camille started to sweat in her sleep before she woke up screaming. “THEY TURNED PHILIP INTO A BLUEBERRY!” She started to cry. “Daddy please tell me they can’t do that.” She scrambled for her father and Simone looked at Xeik with a fix-it-now look.

Xeik watched what happened with interest, jotting down some notes as Simone and Lewis worked to calm Camille down.  Once she had settled down a little, Xeik gave her the full suite of exams, and then started to ask her simple, but revealing questions.

“Camille…when did this start happening?” Xeik asked, tapping his quill against the paper.

She sniffled, “T-three nights ago.”  She held up her fingers to signify.  “Blueboarding was happening….”  It was an amalgamation of the words, but Xeik got the gist, and wrote what she said down.  

“What else happened?” he asked.  “Did you have anything to eat or drink before going to bed?”

“Just my glass of milk.  I always have it before I go to bed.”  She seemed to be feeling just a little better.  “I even have my own special milk glass!  Do you want to see it!  It’s purple!”

Xeik smiled, “I actually would.  Could you bring it to me?” He glanced up at Simone.  “Please?”

Simone nodded and ran off to go get the glass. It was in its own special spot in the kitchen. After she grabbed it she brought it back and handed it over to Xeik. “She’s had the same milk glass since she was three.”

“Three and a half,” Camille sniffled up.

“Forgive me… Three and a half.” The night phoenix mother was worried about her daughter as she stroked Camille’s hair and watched Xeik at work.

“Well? What do you think of the glass?” Was there something with the glass that might be the key to figuring the whole blueberry incident out? She sure hoped so…

“Mommy…” Camille whined up at her mother.

“Yes, baby?” Simone leaned over and cleared Camille’s eyes with a handkerchief, “Blow.” She took her little nose and Camille blew as hard as she could.

“Can I have Philip?” She was obviously still shaken up so Simone went at once to retrieve the red dragon and hand it over. “Thanks, Mommy…” The little girl hugged Philip to her. “I’m glad he’s not a blueberry.”

Xeik took his time going over the glass, but it was almost obvious from the start. It was laced with something; a tonic of some sort that would be barely noticeable to someone trained, and completely undetectable to a little girl. “Her drink was spiked with…what appears to be a slipshod attempt at a nightmare tonic. It’s more sweet dreams, mixed with…I don’t even know…some kind of curse.” He showed Lewis, who’s mind went into overdrive as he racked his brain for what it could possibly be.

Could it be Alvaro back from the dead? No, that’s just stupid…besides, why would he curse a girl with bad dreams. No, this isn’t some big bad. This is more personal…someone knows that she’s young and prone to scares. Targeted…someone who has easy access…someone like…

He looked at Simone as the realization hit. “But how…and why?”

“I’m going to murder them both,” Simone spoke almost at the same time as Lewis spoke up. It was clear that the parental units now knew who was causing all of the problems. “Camille? Baby? Can you go outside the room for a moment and wait in the hall?”

Camille nodded and got off the stool. “I’ll be RIGHTTTTTT outside the door,” she hung onto the door cutely for a moment before shutting it.

Simone was seething and seeing red. “Xeik, check to see if any of YOUR things have gone missing lately.” It would be very clear to Xeik who the night phoenixes realized were the culprits once he was done.

Lewis and Silva went, and came back almost immediately. The ex-assassin took a deep breath, “One of my..trinkets is missing. Something I nicked from a festival…hell of a cursed item. Whoever holds it will be cursed with nightmares. I guess you could technically disseminate the effects into a potion if you leave it in…but the real question is, how the hell did they learn it?”

Xeik was catching on, and cleared his throat. “I can answer that one. I taught them. Of course, I didn’t know it would be used like this…but I did explain that we can draw out the potency of herbs by letting them soak in a potion brew…the process is mostly the same.”

“If I weren’t pissed, I’d be impressed by how smart they are…” Lewis replied with an annoyed tone. “Xeik, I have a request…” He explained it very quickly and precisely. Xeik nodded, noting how easy it would be to do. “Good,” Lewis replied. “Simone, dear…I think we should have an important chat…can you set it up? Silva…can you make some tea?”

“Who knew that Damond spending time with Uncle Xeik would come to bite us in the ass…” Simone put her hand to her forehead as she attempted to swim through the emotions she was feeling. As parents to Camille, they were understandably pissed about the situation. As parents to Remy and Damond, they had to temper their anger and not lash out completely at the twins.

So tea.

They set up the meeting in the small library either on the second floor or third, no one could really tell where the room was located in the castle. Simone and Lewis rather liked that feeling of surprise. The room existed where they needed it to.

The twins came in looking rather smug about the whole thing. They had terrorized their sister for days now. Her screams had been delightfully deserved in their opinion.

Simone and Lewis were sitting at one side of the table and it was Simone who motioned for them to move to the other side.

“So… Your sister…” Simone started once they had started to drink their tea. “What exactly did she do to deserve this trick of yours…”

Remy and Damond looked at each other before looking at their parents. “Whatever do you mean Mother?” They might not have had the resonance but their twin powers were on point as they spoke together.

“We know it was you two… It can’t be anyone else,” Simone was tempering her anger at the two of them as they tried to be sly to get out of it.

“It was five days ago,” Damond started.

“Five days ago Camille got her first victory over us…” Remy continued.

“Five days ago?” Simone was thinking back hard about what happened five days before. She realized she hadn’t heard about this. “What on earth did Camille do to you two?”

“She froze us to our pillows!” Damond and Remy yelled together as they finished their tea. “And as we panicked! She had buckets of water ready to dump on each of us! TRULY DIABOLICALLY.”

Deep down, Lewis was impressed that camille had managed to get one over on her brothers. If anything, this could prove that she was very capable when she put her mind to it. It was understandable that her brothers would want to get back at her, but what they had concocted was several steps too far.

Something they would learn rather quickly.

Lewis sipped on the tea that Silva had prepared. It wasn’t his usual drink, but for instances like this, it was far more appropriate than coffee. Coffee was something he used to wake up. Tea, though, was something he used when he wanted to remain calm.

“Damond, Remy…” Lewis said as he set the tea cup down. “Do you understand what you’ve done? Do you know the gravity of what nightmares can do to someone? What lack of sleep can do? It’s not a pretty thing, and even worse for someone growing up. It can hurt them a lot, and cause issues for their future…”

Remy sat forward in his chair, and sipped on his own cup of tea. It was rude not to, since Silva was always working hard for them. “It was just a prank, though…it can’t hurt that much, right?”

“Did you know that she broke down in class today?” Lewis asked.

Damond frowned, and downed his tea in a single gulp. He was rather impatient like that, as most pre-teens were. “No. We just wanted to mess with her a little…”

Lewis nodded slowly. “I see you’re feeling at least a little regret….”