I Need to Keep it Together

Ever since I was picked up by the nobility, my life has kind of felt like a dream. I've been out of my depth here, and honestly I'm starting to get sick of it. This insanity with the mirror world hasn't made anything better. We have to untangle this crazy mystery, but between all the pinching and reflections or lack thereof, I've had trouble just keeping up.
 
So I decided to follow Alakabiades out the window. He seems fairly learned, so I was hoping that he might be able to help me understand our situation a little better. But he might just be crazy, so in future I think I'll stick with Vadeem. At least he has kind eyes.
 
But from in the sky, when we looked out at the ocean, it was black. Strange...and eerie. Then we landed by our group, but they barely noticed us. It looked like they were fighting. For whatever reason, we're all stuck together for now. If we don't figure out how to have some trust and maybe a little patience, we're going to end up killing each other. The trust thing goes double for me. I've done my best not to rely on anyone else ever since I left the Tailors, but now my life depends on it.
 
I can't die here. If I do, than my quest won't mean anything. Can Emine really help me? Or maybe Vadeem? Getting an Emir on the pro-teifling side doesn't sound like a bad idea. I want to stay on the good side of royalty as much as I can.
 
We also found Hasana, but something is wrong. And the children are on to me, which doesn't bode well. I've never been great with kids, but the ones on this side are straight up creepy. Everything here just feels off. I haven't "switched" yet, they way the others have described, and I'm going to try and not worry about what will happen if I do...