Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall

Chapter Six- Blue-blooded elven teenagers

My eyes went wide with shock for the umpteenth time as I gazed at Jasiana, unable to look away from the sapphire blue blood spilling onto her palm.

"Your blood is blue," I said, not able to think of anything else to say.

"YES! Now you've got your PROOF!" exclaimed Jasiana with a toss of her head, ignoring the fact that her hand was bleeding. "I am an Elf!"

"Your blood's blue," I repeated. "Your blood is actually blue."

"Rose, it's okay. Yes, our blood is blue," Maio said, taking small steps towards me and reaching out, speaking in a calming voice."You aren't going crazy. Now, can I see that bucket?" He gently took the bucket of water Jasiana made me carry out of my hands."I need it to wash off Jasi's hand, okay?"

He made a move towards his sister, but Jasiana just scoffed at him and took the bucket.

"Really, like I was going to die," she said, sticking her hand in the water. She seemed to be calming down.

"Why is your blood blue?" I asked strongly, coming out of my previous stupor. Okay, I had accepted that their blood was blue. But why was that?

Jasiana glanced at me, then looked at Maio before continuing to wash her hand and starting to bandage it with some cloth she pulled out of a pocket somewhere in her clothes. Clearly, she expected Maio to explain. Maio took a breathe, cleared his throat and said,"Do you know why your blood is red?"

I blinked."Something about oxygen? Like, without the oxygen, the iron in our blood would make it ...blue. Is that what's wrong with your blood? How are you breathing but your blood's not red?!?"

Jasiana's eyes flashed. "There's nothing wrong with our blood. It's YOUR blood that's wrong."

"NEITHER blood is wrong!" Maio intervened, the peacemaker. "They're just different! And yes, that's why your blood is red, but OUR blood is not having an oxygen crisis!" He laughed for a second."Well, half-credit, I suppose. Our blood is getting just as much oxygen as yours, only ours has almost triple the amount of iron. That's why we are so much stronger and faster than you humans."

"So the blue iron in your blood overides the red of oxygen? Then how come your blood's not purple?" I asked, trying to accept it.

Jasiana finished bandaging her hand. "Don't be ridiculous."

"It was a perfectly natural question to ask," Maio said quickly as I opened my mouth to retort,"and the answer is that, in a way, our blood is purple, only the red is so faint you can hardly see it, about one third, so the blue-ness of the iron contradicts the red, giving the perception of the color you see whenever we are injured."

"'Blue-ness?'" Jasiana smirked. "I don't think that's a word, Maio."

Maio sighed and looked up at the ceiling. " I was trying to get a point across. Don't underestimate the lengths a genius will go to to do simular things."

"So, basically, your blood's blue even though it's actually purple. Yeah, that make's sense," I said sarcastically.

"Of course it does-hang on," he said, frowning.

Jasiana smiled at me, the gold flecks in her eyes twinkling.

"He never gets sarcasism when he's in 'professor mode'." Then the smile drops from her face. Her eyes darken, and she slammed the bucket of murky blue water back into my hands.

"Here. Take this back."

"Why don't you carry it? It's got your blood it, you should lug this thing around," I say half-heartedly. I was starting to realize it was pointless to argue with her.

"First, I don't 'lug' anything. Second, you have to carry it because that bucket wouldn't even be here if you weren't dying from dehydration," she shot back, walking stormily ahead.

Maio held back a smile and started walking after her. I walked with him silently for a while.

"So," I started. "Are you really elves?"

"Maio looked at me from the corner of his eye. "Yes. I could ask the same of you."

"What, am I really a human?"

"Yes, After all, all we have to go on is the color of your blood and your word."

"Of course I'm human!"

"And of course we are elves. Wouldn't it bother you if someone didn't believe you and constantly questioned something you had given ample evidence to proove is true?"

I blinked. I felt like an idiot.

"Sorry."

"Apology accepted."

I paused before saying,"Do you really live forever?"

He chuckled.

"No, we have the same lifespan as humans do, or maybe just a bit longer."

I didn't have any more time to ask Maio more questions because we had stopped outside of a small room. Looking past Jasiana as she opened the door, i could see the chair I'd been bound to, the ropes on the floor, and the strange pedestal in the corner.

"I thought you said I was in your room," I said frowning.

"Yes, I did, and yes, you were," Jasiana said crisply.

"But this is just a closet. A random closet in a hallwall."

"No, it's my closet in my room."

I looked up and down the hallway. I can see some doors like this one every twenty feet.

"You mean, one of those is your room?"

"No," Jasiana spread out one of her arms in a circle. "They're all my room."

"Ignoring the fact that that's a lot of rooms," I said, cocking my head,"wouldn't having so many rooms mean you actually refer to them as 'your rooms'?

"No, it saves time this way, and referring to them all as 'the entire South-West Wing of the Woodland Palace' would be too much of a mouthful. The point is, you were trespassing."

"Speaking of trespassing, where exactly am I? In D.C?"

Jasiana frowned at me."What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said. Where am I? How near am I to the theater? You see, I left someone there...." I trailed off, seeing the look on Maio's face. It was somewhere between pity and apologetic, like he had some horrible news to tell me but couldn't. Jasiana, of course, had no such misgivings.

"You're not on Earth any more. You're not even in the same universe."

My heart started to beat a little faster. "What? You're lying."

"No, you just don't believe me. You are running around with a couple of blue-blooded elves that you didn't know existed before today. Why should you trust me?" Jasiana walked briskly over to a nearby window, dragging me by the wrist. Maio followed at a safe distance.

Coward, I mouthed to him behind Jasiana's back. He just shrugged and gave me a crooked smile.

When we reached the window, Jasiana released me and drew back the curtains. I could see a meadow with a stereotypical forest not ten feet from it, with flowers put side the window in one of those window garden boxes.

"Look up, human," Jasiana said, and I tilted my head backwards.

The sky had two suns.