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Abby?"
    "I can answer that! If you will come with me," A voice from the other side of the foyer called. Abby and Thomas whirled around and looked over at the voice, ready for another attack. She could tell Thomas recognized him.
    "The purse snatcher?" he asked. "Abby, what is the purse snatcher doing here?"His confusion was evident as his defenses dropped and he looked back to Abby.
    "He's not a purse snatcher, it's a long story," she replied.
    "Great, another long story! Wait, I know him from somewhere else, too. Your name is Asa, right?"
    Asa's shock was evident as he replied, "You remember me?"
    "I heard my father call your name in my dream a couple nights ago." Thomas replied.
    "Well, your world is about to become a whole lot bigger, but you need to come with us now or you will be killed!"
    *****
    "Someone needs to tell me what's going on?" Thomas yelled while they drove away from the club in Asa's black Escalade. The adrenaline had slowed and now the questions came flooding in.
    "You have experienced a glimpse of the world you truly belong to." Asa replied as he merged onto the highway.
    "Did that sound good in your head before you said it? Because to me it sounded pretty stupid, and it didn't really answer my question." Thomas said, rubbing at the bruise above his eye.
    "There's no need to be sarcastic, TJ," Abby said. "Asa will explain everything to you. You just need to give him some time." She was wrapping a new cloth around the cut on his arm while she spoke.
    "Those men tried to kill me with swords! With swords, Abby! And it sounds to me like you knew it was going to happen. I feel like I'm almost out of time, so let's skip the preamble and just skip to the part where you let me know what's happening right now. Starting with the fact that you knew we were friends as kids, and why you know the purse snatcher. Is everything charades and lies with you people? He hated to yell at Abby, but at least now he knew why he felt there was more going on. I never would have guessed in a thousand years that this, whatever this is, is what she was up to. He was trying to keep cool, but he was desperate to know all the details of this new reality he was thrust into.
    "Fine," Asa replied. "You want to know all about us, I will tell you. First, I played the role of bag snatcher to make sure Abby met you. We knew you had no knowledge of your true identity and needed to act fast because dark forces were closing in. My apologies if you feel manipulated in any way, but I assure you, it was for your own safety."
    "All right, fine!" Thomas replied. "What's done is done. Now, what's this 'true identity' stuff all about?" Thomas noticed they were driving back towards Arlington, and he thought they might be heading to Abby's house.
    "Our people are called Ethereals. There are three types of Ethereals that walk among normal humans; Mages, Paladins and Shifters. The Dark Clans have a different name for their Paladins but their abilities are the same. They call themselves Zdrada. All Mages have magical type abilities to a varying degree. Many Mages have almost no power. Some can do no more than slide a penny across a desk, or influence the role of a dice, others can cast powerful spells, heal a wound, or even use telekinesis to move objects with their minds. The powerful ones have several of those abilities. Mages are born with misshaped ears, like that of how humans portray elves. In modern times, most Ethereal parents that have Mages will cut their children's ears at birth, so the children can live as normal humans. As you can see," he took his hat off and gestured to his own ears while he drove. "Mine did not." Asa turned off Green Oaks onto Cooper and Thomas knew they were heading to Abby's house.
    "With Paladins, there is no difference in appearance in any way between Paladins and normal humans. Most Paladins, like Mages, have little if no power. You might see them as a great athlete, or they might be a good fighter. Paladins are endowed