She Was Unafraid

Spiral turned and faced Thort, his eyes widening completely, contemplating the meaning of Thort's shouting, then lazily closed them again halfway.

"There's no need to raise your voice," he said as calmly as ever.

Thort held his ground until the white tiger pushed the front door of the house open with his paw. They had to step down a few feet in order to enter. The ancient, stone building was, over the centuries, sinking into the forest soil, and the roof, with all of its moss and dead branches, must certainly have looked like the forest floor itself from the sky up above.

Because the giant guards had to crouch nearly in half to enter, Tubble took Peach off his shoulders and stood her on the ground between Thort and himself. Spiral turned and stared at her, but somehow she was calm and unafraid. Just as her feet touched the floor, her powers kicked in and she was able to see what happened to her father, some six months prior. He was pushed through this same crypt-like door, across this very threshold she now stood on, his hands tied behind his back as one of the guards, yes, Tubble it was, did the pushing.

A man sat on the couch in front of her father, the same man sitting on the same couch in front of her, with his back to both of them, concentrating on the flames in his roaring fireplace. Peach could hear the wood crackling and feel its heat. The scene in her mind was exactly the same as the one in front of her, just minus her father. Then, in both vision and real life, the man sitting on the couch turned around, and yes, he was the same man in both.

He was Roil Nefarious.

"Who are you?" he asked Peach, just as he had asked her father.