Chaos Magic (The Forbidden Kingdom)

The shrill ding broke them from their trance as the lift finished its descent and opened the clear double doors onto a group of students waiting to get in. Darrius shifted his body to stand behind Carmell, attempting to covertly position his excited member. Zyn raised his eyebrow at him, rolling his eyes as Darrius shot him a cold look. Zyn learned today's valuable lesson: don't judge appearances because you'll be more than unpleasantly surprised.

The group moved out of the lift and into the hallway down the left. Carmell wondered what could possibly be down here worthy of a tour, but once they passed the paintings of the royal families on the walls, an arched dark wood double door opened into a football-sized cafeteria. Several sections were already occupied with groups of friends chatting animatedly about their summer holidays. When she turned her head to the right and noticed the extra space behind Darrius, she blinked twice as her eyes zoned in on an axe flying through the air and hitting the centre of a target.

The space behind him was endless, with rows and rows of different types of "play" zones like mini golf and tennis, and what looked similar to a society centre filled with shelves of books, areas with comfortable chairs with rolling and fixed tables. Carmell made a mental note to go into that area to read when she had free time. She also noticed that there weren't any staff serving in any of the areas down here, and yet when they reached the end of the counters, five dark purple wood food trays appeared across the glistening silver counters.

"I'm not sure I will ever get used to the ease of magic," she mumbled with a dismissive shake of her head.

"Even commoners have this kind of magic at home," Darrius replied with a frown.

"Oh well, yes, I have this at home, but I spent a lot of time in my room, and the food was brought to me," she rushed out, scratching the side of her hair in embarrassment.

'Well done, Carmell. Your lies are getting impressive,' she snickered to herself. Zyn narrowed his eyes on her with an intensity from behind Darrius and Cassie that she knew he didn't believe her, 'fuck!'

"Start moving down, and oh… smart move, keeping your tablet on you. It is so much easier to carry it down in your hand," Zion excitedly called from ahead of her.

Before Zion could explain anything, her tablet dinged, and a little 2D line drawing of a man in a navy blue suit appeared at the bottom of her screen. Its arms moved widely above its head to catch her attention.

'If that's an AI, I will lose my mind. Please be a Mr. Clippy.'

"Hello, I am your Assistance Inquirer-"

"Is that meant to be funny?" she cried, tears filling her eyes and her face contorting from the pain.

"Merrida, what's wrong?" Zion rushed out, moving his hand to hover it over hers as I gripped the edge.

"This place is so real," she mumbled, a headache forming behind her eyes.

She knew there wasn't anything like this technology in the game; the coach, the fridge, and the ninja frier are all things that could be created with advances, but the tablet and the AI were too much for her to push aside and ignore. Why don't they have phones? It's just a smaller version of the tablet, and yet it doesn't exist. How did a tablet come first here? A wave of dizziness washed over her, her legs buckling for a second before she straightened them and forcefully pushed her anxiety to the back of her head.

'Break down later!'

"I can see that you're in the Café. Do you want to place an order?" The AI chimed in, suspiciously coincidental to her resolve.

"Yes," she sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"Today, we have three hot meal options and four cold meals."

"Hot meals, please."

The three hot meal options appeared on her screen: neon 2D images rendered in high-definition 3D before her eyes: Chilli Con Carne, Stir Fry, or Fish Stew.

"Oh my god, this," she burst out, tugging Zion's arm and pulling his surprised face towards her, "sorry, I really don't know my strength," she laughed, her cheeks tinting red as she turned her tablet towards him "this Fish Stew, is it a combination of all the seafood types with a thin red-ish sauce?"

"Your choices are strange," Darrius whispered in her ear, causing her to jump as a shiver ran down her body and a heat grew between her legs.

'This man will be my death; he's so sensual.'

'I've never been prouder of being sstuck as your familiar,' the darkness snickered through Darrius's mind, a slight smirk gracing his lips in response.

"It offers us our favourite foods," Zion clarified, pressing down on his tablet for a plate of tomato pasta to appear on his tray as he shuffled down the counter and chose brownies for his dessert.

Carmell chose the Fish Stew, the meal her mother cooked for her once before disappearing. The smell wafted to her nose, and her teary eyes grew harder to keep at bay. She roughly wiped at her eyes with her blazer sleeve, thankful she never wore makeup and chose the apple crumble. Darrius moved to place his arms over her shoulder, but she shuffled down to the end of the counter and picked up her tray to follow behind Zion. A low growl bubbled in his throat. Shoving it down, he pulled his tablet from his seam zip and swiped at the AI, causing the little AI to scream in shock as it was vaulted off the screen.

Darrius chose his meal and used his vampire speed to fly down the counter, grab his tray and appear directly next to Carmell. She didn't jump this time and leaned a little closer to him as she walked. Cassie and Zyn smirked from the other end of the counter, watching their oldest brother navigate his first relationship with a strange sexual tension.

"I'm not entirely convinced this is something they're doing for fun," Cassie spoke, breaking the silence as she chose her meal and went to the end of the counter.

"They can't stop touching each other. It would be cute if it didn't feel like I was watching my sister date my brother," Zyn replied with a deep frown.

"Oh, you feel it too? I feel the same way. It's a little alarming, but I think it's because she is so new to everything, and we found her on the road all alone and dishevelled."

"Paler, too. She was as pale as Darrius and now has a darker tan."