"People could have thought we were gods?" Arnie suggested, "There was a movie a while back where they said some aliens had all this futuristic tech thousands of years ago, and the people who didn't understand it remembered them as gods."

"There's no ancient myth that matches up with what you've described," Alex shook her head, "I'd check again, but I can't think of any that are close to fitting. And gods taking human form is primitive mythology, not medieval."

"I do not know with what weapons the third world war will be fought," Violet said, suddenly serious, "But the fourth will be fought with sticks and stones. It's a quote from some book, Bart loved quoting it when I was alive. If we were lords, if we were the government, and we knew how to use our powers properly, and we had enough science to make diamond armour..."

"Then a war between us and demons could literally wipe out all civilisation. Set Earth back to the stone age."

"The geological record... could be faked," Alex admitted, changing her mind almost as soon as she thought about it. "If we assume a culture of science based on our powers, then they most likely understood how those powers work. Maybe the abilities we have are even a consequence of scientific advancement. In either case, in the years immediately following the war, whatever its cause, we would likely have more knowledge of what happened than we currently do, and maybe even had the means to pass on memories accurately between generations. In that case, we would have been determined to ensure that the disaster we might have had a hand in did not happen again. I can imagine several scenarios in which the most logical approach would have been to manipulate the historical, fossil, and geological records in order to conceal our existence from future civilisations. Preventing humanity from gaining enough power to destroy the world."

"That sounds like something out of a novel," Jack protested, "But if you can take it seriously, then maybe it's the most believable out of an insane bunch of theories. We really have to take this seriously?"

"I'm sure it was real," Mel said, "I guess that might not mean much, when it's a dream. But it wasn't really a dream, my spirit was out of my body, right? So I think that has to mean it's as real as this place is."

"It's possible that some sorcerer," Alex almost spat the word, "could pull your spirit out of your body and into an imaginary scenario, and make it seem completely real. If the man you were fighting was the Enemy rather than just a minion, he could have done something, tagged your spirit somehow. But..." She hesitated. She didn't need to say any more, they all knew the problem with that theory as much as she did.

"But Mel's ability is sensing false dreams," Arnie said it, slightly nervously as she still wasn't sure she understood. "He's the one who would always be able to tell the difference. Right? How hard would it be for the Enemy to get over that? I mean, the Enemy's stronger than all of us, I thought. That's why we need to find the Princess."

"Still unlikely," Alex shook her head. "In general, the Enemy is stronger than all of us, yes. But going head to head with one of us in our own speciality, maybe not. Like, even the Enemy can't make a shield Jack can't get through. He can't hide something well enough to stop me finding it. But those are very narrow specialisations. The Enemy also has the power of 'magic', whatever that means. What they thought of as magic in a previous age, in any case. Its power, or his power, is one of versatility. The power to do anything and everything better than a mundane. Where we might be able to find new abilities related to what we already know we can do, and gain better mastery of our own powers, it seems that the Enemy has always had the power to change, to break some of his 'magic' down into its component building blocks and change it to the form he wants."

"So he's stronger," Mel said, "But there are specific contests we could still beat him in. One for each of us, and mine is knowing the source of a dream. And this one, I'm sure. I was in the past, watching through the eyes of the soldier I used to be. Nico."

"So this... Amma?" Violet struggled with the pronunciation a little, "He's the Enemy?"

"I don't know for sure. That's what I'd assume, but I don't know it for sure. All I know is what I saw happen. I can guess what it means, or why those people did what they did, but it's just a guess. My power only proves that the things I saw are real."

"He hit you though," Jack shrugged, "That's not a friendly gesture. And he betrayed the Rainbow, you even said that. He's the guy who was threatening Amber too, that's almost a certainty."

"I didn't say they're the same guy. They both called me Nico, had red ancestral spirits, and they slap the same way as far as I could tell. That doesn't mean they're the same guy, though. We don't know how spirits work for the Enemy, if the Enemy is even a single person. I mean, it could be like a coven or something. In which case, there's nothing to say that the same totem colour necessarily indicates the same person."

"Either they're the same person, or they're both a part of the Enemy," Jack said firmly. "Maybe it's not certain, maybe we're missing something, but we can't fight a war on 'what if's and 'maybe's. We have to act on an educated guess."

"I agree," Mel shrugged, "I just don't want you blaming me for not detecting some mistake. I don't want this to be all my fault."

"It's bugging you that much?" Violet asked. Everyone else was silent, and Mel just raised an eyebrow. So she continued, "This Amma said that it was your fault that all the demons came and everything, and went off to fight them."

"Yeah, I guess. Thinking that it might have been my fault we're in this mess... if I've made a mistake that bad in the past. But you're right, I can't let that stop me doing my bit. I can't always be right, or I'd be waiting forever before I did anything, right? I'll just tell you what I can, and you're all smart enough to look for things that could go wrong."

Amber started to speak, but closed her mouth again. There was something that came to her mind, maybe a mistake they were all overlooking. But one glance at Jack's stern expression made her think twice. She didn't want to get in trouble for saying something that everyone knew was dumb. Just shook her head when Mel glanced in her direction, and didn't say anything more while the Rainbow Knights called up maps of the world and tried to pin down any other incidents that might be related to the Enemy's magic. This was a council of war now, as much as they tried not to think of it in those ominous words. And when the knights went to war, she sensed that it would be best for the children to keep quiet.