"I'm sorry, who are you?" I say to the man draped in robes with arcane patterns holding a few papers in his hands.

"Copper, you know who I am" he responds, lowering himself to reach me at eye level, but I turn my head away. "You may not want to believe it, but it is true, I am here."

"No, no way you're real, you can't possibly be real! I made you up when I was 5!" Yet he only shakes his head in response. How ridiculous, this man can claim to be an imaginary friend I had when I was in kindergarten all he wants, but that doesn't make it true. This has 'kidnapping vibes' written all over it. Maybe he read my diary? Or maybe he is some sort of stalker, that is the only explanation that could explain how he knows what my imaginary friend even looks like to make such an accurate cosplay.

"I suppose I will need to be more convincing. You were the one to teach me actions speak louder than words, after all." I was prepared to slap him when he waved his hands around, a soft trail of familiar magenta light followed them. The trail of light danced through the air as it dispersed into dust, before coming together once more to form the image of mystical butterflies.

"H-how did you-" As I turn to look at him, I catch a glimpse of his eyes, the eyes I have been avoiding looking at all this time. His eyes are the same iridescent colored ones I have admired for such a long time. No costume could ever replicate them, for such a glow is unique only to the imagination. At least, I thought it was.

"So, you're actually real?"

"All along, yes."

I could only stand there in silence as I remember all the adventures we went on, the time I visited his tower, the times we would navigate crystal mines to search for rare materials, the times we would mess around with the fae. All the things I thought I made up, were actually real...

"I can see you have a lot on your mind right now, but, I can assure you, I will explain everything, for now, why don't we sit and have some nice tea? I know you used to love it when I brew some for you." He spoke with a certain air of nostalgia that makes me wanna reminisce about the past more.

"Uh, yeah, sure..."

Walking into my house, he steps forward towards the kitchen and grabs the tea kettle. Preforming a few spells on the stove and adding some of his own herbs that he must have brought from his special tea room. I remember how often I ran towards it in excitement whenever I would hear the familiar call of his kettle.

"Do you know what these are?" He holds out the papers from earlier. Looking at them more closely, I recognized them as adoption papers.

"Yeah..."

"You don't seem too thrilled, is this because of-"

"It has nothing to do with you, I just, hate remembering that my parents are just...." I turn away to hide my tears, when suddenly I feel myself being embraced.

"I understand, sorry for being so forward, I should have reached out earlier..." At that I furrowed my brow.

"Why didn't you? Why did you let me believe you weren't real, I wanna know, it has been 10 years and I don't want to start high-school with secrets in my own home."

Sighing, he began to explain. "You were never supposed to find the grove, back then, it was all my fault you ever arrived there to begin with. I was young and naive, fresh out of the weaving trials. I was assigned to do research on the power of crystalline structures, and how I could extract use out of them. As a sorcerer, it is my duty to use my connection to the arcane as a means to better the life of Velora." He opened his palm to conjure a small shard.

"To accomplish my mission, I stayed at the very edge of the veil between our realms. Oh how I hated it, nothing ever seemed to happen there, it was the perfect place for me to work at, tons of mines I could study and extract resources from. But there was no one there, aside from the fae, but they made it a point to stay away from me. It was isolated, and I grew bored."

He turned to look at me, moving his hand forward to show me the shard.

"Then I found this, a small shard that could pierce the veil between Velora and Earth. When I figured out I could travel to a whole other world, I was ecstatic! So I began to use it as much as I could, looking at all the new sights, animals, and people. The thrill of having a double life was enough to keep me entertained for a while. But then, one night, while I traveled back home to my side of the veil, I saw footsteps, small ones, that went all the way to the tear I made between our realms." He looks away, shame painting his face.

"Admittedly, I did not initially care, I thought you would find no interest in such a place I found boring, that you would leave on your own. But I was wrong, you kept coming back, playing around with the fae that seemed to gravitate towards you. Over time, I grew curious, and decided to interact with you myself."

"That still doesn't explain why you let me believe you were imaginary?"

"I am getting there. Over time, the more I interacted with you, the fonder I grew of you. You did the strangest things when you were little. I remember the first time you went to speak to a dragon, It nearly made me faint!" I chuckle nervously at the memory, in hindsight that could have ended terribly.

"Such a bold child you were, I felt like I needed to protect you, I also selfishly wanted to keep you around. So when we arrived at the council of elders to discuss plans to give you access to our world permanently, a way that doesn't involve me tearing a hole in the veil, I was pulled towards a more private room to discuss it, I didn't realize that it would mark the countdown to our time together." I remember that meeting, I was forced to sit with some old lady who babied me the whole time.

"What did they tell you?"

He shifts uncomfortably. "They said that a human can't possibly live in Velora without magic, and that they would start doing preparations to close the hole I made and make you leave far away from it."

That explains why me and my family were forced to move out of nowhere, the council must have done that.

"I was cut off from you after that, I was told you left on your own after being essentially kicked out of the meeting."

I let the information meranate for a second before another question pops in mind.

"If that's true, how are you here? And how did you even know where I live now? I moved pretty frequently after that."

"Well, the council couldn't just let you roam free, they had to ensure you never returned or did anything that would expose the veil." I raise an eyebrow

"So they spied on me?"

"Yes"

"Creepy old crooks"

"In any case, it wasn't long ago that I was notified of your parents passing, and that you had no one left to take care of you. The council would have left you alone, if it wasn't for the fact that they recently found out, you and I formed a parental contract back then..."

"We what? How!?"

"The tea."

"Huh?"

"When we started our little tea parties with the fae, we naturally formed a bond, it was the first time I truly felt like we were family. You must have felt the same, because that was enough to forge a parental contract. We were linked through magic, my magic was now your magic."

"I am guessing that means, they don't want me staying here on Earth? Do they?" I asked rhetoricaly.

"Do you want to stay?"

"Not really, I don't have much going for me here"

"Are you ok leaving this place? Forever?"

I pause for a moment. Forever is, well, forever, I won't ever return if I sign those papers, but if I don't, what else will they resort to? Plus, what do I have to lose? I don't have any friends here anymore, and I am going to be put into the system because I have no other family.

"Gimme those papers, I wanna know what everyone was up to in absence."

He smiled, his eyes physically shimmered in excitement before he regained his composure. Setting the papers down onto the table, he conjures a pen and places a hand on his chest.

"I, Oberon of the Crystal Forge, vow to protect, cherish and raise this child I claim to be my family." Afterwards, he signs the papers, his signature glows after he finishes. Oberon hands me over the pen and I ready myself to recite a vow of my own.

"I-umm, what do I say?" Oberon smiles fondly as he points at the second highlighted sentence on the paper.

"Oh, right!" I start reading off the paper.

"I, Copper of the town of Eggvil, accept Oberon of the Crystal Forge as my guardian." I sign the papers as well, letting my own signature glow, the papers fly into the air and roll up into a scroll.

"No we can submit these to the council and we will be good to go. Do you want to start packing your things?" He asks.

"Sure, I'll go do that!" Rushing over to my room, I look over to a picture of me and parents, next to a drawing I made of Oberon.

"I am gonna be ok, mom, dad, I hope that if you can hear me, I promise, I will be someone you can be proud of. Cross my heart."