Allaria cast her gaze to the floor. "I am sorry, Mother. This form was not the intended one."
Jane Sullivan's gaze narrowed. "Meaning you actually intended to use that bookmark for something else. Tell me everything."
Allaria started to speak, but Karyn interrupted her. "Wait. Mrs. Sullivan, you believe me? You can tell that's really Jon?"
Jane looked annoyed at the interruption. "Yes, I believe you." She sighed. "No point in keeping up the masquerade anymore now that you two have stumbled into the mystical world over your heads. Please put that bookmark down on the desk, and then I need to hear everything you know about it. Leave nothing out."
After a couple false starts, during which Allaria found she was unable to refer to anything she had done that day as Jon in the first person, she switched to telling the third-person tale of Jon and Karyn in the marketplace (mall, Karyn interpreted) and their encounter with the devious wizard (old shopkeeper, Karyn chimed in) who tricked them into accepting the magical talisman (bookmark, Karyn corrected).
"Y'know," Jane observed, "I think Allaria's version of events is a lot closer to what really happened, Karyn."
"It is true," The elf-maiden asserted piously. "Members of the Tyrian Royal House of Makena do not lie."
After Allaria had brought them up to the present, and Karyn had re-interpreted all of Allaria's high fantasy verbiage into more mundane 21st century terms, Jane considered the situation for a moment. Then she began to speak. "Okay, I think I understand now," she started out gently. "And you know I mean this with all the love in the world when I say this: Is it even possible for you two geniuses to be more irresponsible! Jon, Karyn! What were you thinking?"
Allaria bowed her head, silently accepting her mother's judgement.
Karyn protested, "Mrs. Sullivan, I'm not sure you're being entirely fair with us. We didn't know this could be dangerous; no one ever told us magic was even real before today. But you apparently knew all about it, but didn't share!"
Jane shook her head. "Oh, I get it that you children didn't know you were playing with fire, and I can almost forgive you for that. But that's not the really stupid thing you were about to do. Don't you see? That shopkeeper outright told you that you would be stuck in a book for a week! And without a word to anyone, you were both going to just up and vanish into Neverland to have your little adventure, all by your lonesomes. Did you even think about how you'd be missed by your families? Or that you'd miss school? Well?"
