False Moves – 12.2
Author: Wildbow

False Moves – 12.2 | Pale

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Early in the Day

“What comes to mind if you think of Verona unleashed?” Avery asked.

“Leash Verona, cuff her, and throw her in Verona jail,” Snowdrop commented.

“What?” Verona asked, as she ducked under a branch.  “Huh?  What’s the context?  What the what?  Jail?”

“Any context,” Avery said.  “Every context.  Who are you when worst comes to worst, and you have to dig deep and be the ultimate you?”

“That’s a frigging question,” Verona said.  “It’s not even seven o’clock. This isn’t deep ‘look into thyself’ time.  This is the time for me to resent the sun for being bright, resenting morning people, and resenting existence in general, a little.”

“Very resentful,” Avery noted.

They walked down the path at the south of Kennet.  It wasn’t a well-traveled path, which was why they’d set up shrines this way, so there was a lot of vegetation in the way.  They navigated as a pair with Snowdrop trudging behind them.

Snowdrop said, “I find it helps if you think of the morning as a start of a brand new day.”

Verona grunted, squinted at the light shining through leaves, and then looked at Avery.  “Interpret?”

“Snowdrop thinks you should think of this time of day as the drawn out end of the night, instead of a new day.”

“Uh huh.  It’s still annoyingly bright for my tired eyes.”

“How late were you up?”

“Late.  I think better in the evenings.  What were you on about again?”

“Unleashing you.  Let me make sure we’re not being watched or recorded…” Avery sorted out some papers.  “You were reading up on alchemy and halflight stuff, right?”

“Yeah.  Why?”

“Thinking along the same lines… I want to run this by Lucy too, but like, if we’re treating this whole thing as super serious, which we are, or if we’re making plans for the absolute worst-case scenarios, what happens if we’re pushed into a situation where we’re forced to do some of the stuff we backed off doing before?  You with your halflight stuff, right?”

Verona groaned, long and drawn out.  Snowdrop echoed her, joining in, which made Verona have to stop to snort out a laugh.

“Do you want me to stop?” Avery asked.  “Or if you’re not up for this, can I just talk at you, think out loud?  Do you mind?”

“I don’t.  Keep going, no mind, so long as this isn’t meant to be encouraging or peppy.  I can’t take pep.”

“No real pep,” Avery said.  “Could be the opposite of pep.”

“Good, I think.”

“I’ve been thinking a lot about my ideal Avery, you know?  And there’s the little glamour thing where I give myself little glamour gold stars or checkmarks, recognizing the steps I take toward that, right?”

“Yep.”

“And I think that’s positive, and it’s good, but there’s been this constant series of little reminders that, I dunno, glamour is fragile.  I’m not sure what it does if the glamour shatters.  I don’t know if it gives Guilherme a tiny bit of claim because it’s his glamour and the checkmark idea came from him.  There’s this whole idea that whatever this is, it could get taken away or ruined.  But I don’t want to stop doing it.”

“Makes sense.  We could brainstorm options when it isn’t ass o’clock in the morning,” Verona said.

“Care- I was going to tell you to be careful, but we could brainstorm when it isn’t ass o’clock, you’re right, okay!  Right, thanks for the offer, back on topic,” Avery said.  “I’ve already been brainstorming.  ‘Cause there’s this whole other thing that’s separate from the glamour.  I’ve got an image album and I’ve been going back to some characters and stuff in movies and TV, and the ideal me is… fast, acrobatic, athletic, and has these poised vibes where people ask if she could be a prince or princess, because she’s pretty and maybe a bit androgynous, and even straight girls gush over her, and-”

Verona cackled.

“-and maybe forget I said anything, nevermind,” Avery said, more than a little bit wounded.

“No, no, no, no.”  Verona grabbed onto Avery’s arm.  “No, it’s early and I’m not communicating right.  That was absolutely not me laughing at you.  That was me laughing with, that’s awesome and cool.”

Avery nodded, though the hurt lingered.

“No, seriously, I love that and I want you to do that, I just laugh because… I picture you doing that and you’re trying to act all aloof and cool but secretly loving it.  And that’s great.  What else? Path stuff?”

“Path stuff.  Having treasures and boons from the Paths to play into that whole thing,” Avery said, though her stride had been broken some, and it was harder to get into it.  “I think it’s important that I stay in touch with people and maintain connections, even if we’ve parted ways.”

“Like Zed and Nicolette, sure,” Verona said.

Like you guys, if I end up having to leave.  Avery nodded but didn’t say anything.  “Point is, all that stuff is fragile in its own way, isn’t it?  I think back to the fight in the mud with America Tedd, before we left the Blue Heron Institute.  What if my leg gets hurt and all that speed and my efforts to be more athletic and acrobatic go out the window?  What if I’m covered in mud and I can’t be poised?  What if… I dunno, what if something happens to you guys, or Snowdrop, and I can’t be levelheaded, and I’m in this place where I’m the opposite of what I want?  Slow or stuck or hurt or someone’s been torn from me?  I want to be poised and cool and protect the weak from bullies and loneliness.”

“And shout catchphrases and activation lines for your practice.”

“Yeah!” Avery exclaimed, finding a kernel of the pre-cackle enthusiasm.  “Yeah, exactly!  What if I say hey, don’t be a shit to your friend, Declan?  Or don’t be mean to that gay kid?  And they’re shitty or mean anyway?”

“With you so far,” Verona said.  It looked like she was trying to be more serious, giving Avery her focus, maybe as an apology for the earlier laugh.  “I think if you were a Faerie, the answer would be… be cooler, be faster, be more acrobatic, be more poised, have more social networks so that if the house of cards collapses there’s a chance it just settles into a new configuration.”

“I’m not a Fae, I’m an Avery,” Avery said.  “I don’t have centuries to work on this and work it out.  So just to connect the dots and start making more sense… when we were theorizing last night, about what animals we’d-”

She checked the papers.  Verona nodded encouragingly.

“-have for our new masks.  I’m leaning in a different direction.  Not a bird, not plumage, not… the Kell thing is something I’ve held back on, but it’s not the big thing.”

“I was going to do the masks this morning while Lucy’s got her therapy thing, there’s still time to change your mind.  They’re not going to be pretty, but pretty isn’t the point, is it?”

Avery nodded, but carried on with her thought. “I was thinking… if I’m going to make it count, I want to be able to tell people, ‘you don’t want to do that’, and then when they do it, really hammer in that they shouldn’t have done that.  You know?”

“Don’t go whacking them with an ensorcelled hockey stick,” Snowdrop said.

“Nah.  Meaner than that, even.  I’ve been holding back on the goblin thing, but there’s a time and a place for a… what was Toadswallow’s thing?  Gross boxing glove?”

“Soggy handshake,” Verona said.

“You won’t want to use the rusty fork any,” Snowdrop said, sagely.

“Make me a wolf mask, Ronnie,” Avery said.

Verona exhaled through her teeth.

“No?” Avery asked.

“No, uh, can do.  But what’s the logic?”

“If I’m thinking of the me that’s pulling out all the stops, really unleashed, no more fun, no more running, ready to bring the consequences and make them really frigging sorry they didn’t listen?” Avery asked.

She trailed off a bit as she said it, then looked out down the forest path.

She didn’t follow up on that thought.  Following up on that thought in a way that she wanted to meant tapping into an emotion in her chest and conveying an emotion backed by a whole heck of a lot of emotions she wasn’t feeling right at that moment.

The follow-up came later.

Lucy was spooked and Verona was sick and she had to trust them.  Avery kept her fingers laced behind her head, forearms pressed against her ears, and even that didn’t shut out all of the noise, the vague Faerie voices, the situation-

Protect them, Snowdrop, Liberty.

All of that was background.  In the foreground was her pulse, and that faint dead-wood creak of muscles, bones, or the structure of her own ears.  In the noisier days of her childhood she’d discovered that sound, trying to shut out a newborn Kerry and a wailing pre-kindergarten Declan.

Wait, she thought, and it was almost meditative.  The arena means there isn’t much room for running or acrobatics.  Just waiting, biding time.

I’ve got to be the antagonist of someone else’s story.

She looked at the Faerie in purple.  Finnea, who smiled.  Who looked down on her.

Think it through, she told herself.  How can I make her as unhappy as possible?

How can I bring the goblins to bear?

Her friends were unhappy and there was no way that was okay.

They’d have to wait.  If she did this, she couldn’t go it alone.  Either Lucy would need to get it together or Verona would need to.  Or they’d hope for a signal.

Avery set the wolf mask into place.

“Whatever your assertion, this isn’t a trial by combat,” Finnea declared.

“It’s not,” Avery agreed.  “But I’m still allowed my tools and I’m still allowed to mess with the formula, like Maricica would.  By the first concession of the Aurum and by the third, I want my collection of weapons and tools from earlier.  Doglick!”

“Inappropriate volume, thirty demerits.”

Finnea stood a little straighter.  “If you wanted weapons from earlier-”

“You’re so annoying!” Liberty jeered.

“Fifty demerits.”

“-you should have had them on your person.  You set the arena-”

“As aggressor.  As defendants in the trial we agreed they get the tools and prep, it was expected and planned around,” Lucy told the Fae.  “If you failed to take precautions that’s on you!”

“Aurum, by the first and third concession, I get my gear back, I get my clothes back, if you wanted to stop us from bringing stuff in you should have argued better,” Avery said.  “Doglick, doglick!  Come!”

The Aurum nodded once.

The goblin woofed, and came tearing into the clearing.

“Screw this!”  Snowdrop said, eyes wide.  “Cherrypop, Cherrypop, Cherrypop!”

“Aaaaaa!”

“Aaaa!” Snowdrop answered.  Cherrypop was small and not that fast, so it took her time to arrive.

Doglick leaped into Avery’s open hands.  She held him up.  “Temporary binding to weapon form, with your permission!  Dognailer form!  Doglick says come!”

Doglick settled into his crossbow form, flesh stretching as the parts of the crossbow protruded from within him, the rest of him diminishing.  Becoming a crossbow with a harpoon-like bolt, tongue extending along the stock to the back end, flesh decorating the bow and body of it.  Avery could feel Doglick’s heartbeat in the weapon, see the tongue move in anticipation, fixing the bolt’s alignment.

Liberty laughed, enough she had trouble saying the necessary words.  “Shocktease, Shocktease, Shocktease!  Break’er switches!”

The goblin that came through the woods was one of Liberty’s, a gremlin with batteries and one lit but broken lightbulb embedded in her skull, her hair standing on end.  When she opened her mouth, visible electricity danced along the gobbet of spit that stretched between two fangs, briefly outlining her teeth.

Liberty caught her and she swung her way around behind, catching the back of Liberty’s belt and hanging there.  The goblin became visible arcs of electricity that danced around Liberty’s upper body and arms, then settled into the form of a cracked battery pack with an eyeball peering out from within, wires extending up and out to two thin, narrow metal poles with triggers on the handles.  She touched the poles together and electricity arced between them as she moved them apart, out to three feet.

“I thought- you were scared and I didn’t know what to do so I left you behind and I went to find you and help you!” Cherrypop told Snowdrop, struggling to speak while also catching her breath.  She broke into tears.  “I thought I’d never get to force you to chug milk again!  I’m so glad I nearly drowned!”

Snowdrop gave her a pat on the head.

Guards came in running, holding spears, and Liberty stepped into their way.  As the spear points were leveled, she tapped them with the sticks, and electricity sparked.  The spears got dropped, and Liberty swatted one on the armored rear end to send him packing.

Others approached, and Snowdrop didn’t really put up a fight as two guards seized her, one holding her and the other holding manacles.  But Cherrypop leaped onto his armor and crawled beneath the ornate breastplate, prompting him to panic.  Snowdrop became an opossum, trying and failing to replicate the maneuver before climbing up the breastplate, forcing the guard to throw her aside.

Chaos.  But chaos was good here.

“Implicit threats, violence against footmen of the court, improper conduct, introduction of goblins to court in session, five hundred and fifty demerits,” the old woman fae said.  “For each of the three offending individuals.”

“Can you do nonlethal?” Avery asked the Doglick weapon.

“Speaking out of turn while armed, fifty demerits.”

Doglick slurped, then horked up a second crossbow bolt, which emerged from the length of the weapon and then got tongued into place, settling in parallel to the first.

“That’s… twice as lethal, isn’t it?” Avery asked.

“Speaking out of turn while armed, another fifty demerits.”

There was no response from Doglick, except for an internal kick or jolt, the weapon bouncing in her hands, eager.

“Trusting you,” she said.  She turned, aimed, and fired at the old Fae.

The two bolts separated, one flying to the left of the old woman Fae, the other flying to the right, but the tongue connected them, stretching thin between them.  One hit a tree right beside her, the other hit a tree further down.  The tongue, stretched in the middle, caught her across the lower face at a diagonal, pressing down nose and part of her mouth, while slamming her back into a tree, pinning her there with her head forced to look to the right.  The tongue flexed, saliva running down the diagonal toward the Fae’s face, while her one visible eye went wide, tracking the movement of the thick droplets toward her mouth.

“Let’s assume I get demerits for that,” Avery told the Fae.

“Anyone else?” Liberty asked.  “Demerits?  Commentary?”

“This is barbaric,” Finnea said.

“You’ve made a whole lot of noise about selling us!” Verona cried out, gripping the railing to better keep her balance.

“Release her,” Finnea said, indicating the trapped Fae.  When Avery didn’t budge, some Fae in the crowd moved to the tree, pulling at the bolts that were stuck in the tree.

“Excusez moi,” Liberty said.  “Do you mind, Doglick?”

The crossbow barked.

“Jump,” Liberty told Avery.

“What?”

“Three, two, one, jump.”

Avery jumped.

Liberty touched one of the metal poles to the spit-slick tongue.  Electricity jolted through the weapon, much of it seemingly concentrated around the bear-trap rigged to the front, but a fair share ran down the length of the tongue to the bolts in the trees and the Faerie who were handling them.  They jumped back, hissing, one nearly falling over a shorter Fae with sharp teeth and deep dark circles around her eyes.

They didn’t resume their attempts to free the trapped Faerie.

“Your honor, I must insist that order be restored to the court, weapons should be confiscated-”

“Your honor,” Lucy said.  “Finnea is overly concerned with stuff that’s happening on the side, and hasn’t even been arguing her points.  If she can argue for things to be forfeit because we’re talking among ourselves, her overwhelming focus on other stuff means I should be able to dismiss the charges.”

“Down boy,” Avery said, putting Doglick down.  He turned from crossbow to goblin, leaving his tongue stretched out and extended to the spikes.  Heels dug into grass and dirt as he hauled back, keeping it taut.  “Tatty Bo Jangles, Tatty Bo Jangles, Tatty Bo Jangles!  Let me temporarily bind you to weapon form!”

Tatty came running in.

“My accusations about their handling of court process fold into the accusations about trivial handling of the oath,” Finnea replied.  “They’ve sworn oaths of equality, invitation, and protection and those oaths are in clear bad faith when it pertains to the Faerie, trivialized to the point of nonsense.  Their handling of court process only bolsters this claim.”

“Trivialized?  We’ve bled, sweated, and cried in our efforts to work with local Others, Faerie included!” Lucy argued.

“Tatty Bo Jangles?  Ratty bola tangle!” Avery shouted, as Tatty jumped into her open hand.  The bolas had rope of coarse, black hair that was wound together, the ropes so twisted they refused to go straight.  There were three balls at each end, each slightly teardrop shaped, with a coin-sized disc welded on, a spike protruding from each disc.

“Trivialized nonetheless,” Finnea said, frowning as she glanced warily at Avery’s weapon.  “If you’ll allow me an analogy?”

“Anyone going to mess with us?” Avery asked the crowd.  “Any interjections?”

They were quiet now, though she could see some plotting and thinking.

These weren’t clever Fae, if they were Fae at all.  But she couldn’t discount them.

This was only part one.  Shutting up the rogue’s gallery.

“Nobody?  Stand by, Tatty,” Avery said, “goblin form.”

“Shocktease, down,” Liberty said, glancing at Avery and nodding.

She dropped the Bolas.  Tatty landed on the ground, hands and feet digging into dirt, back arched.  She tugged a part of her dress of interwoven breasts tighter, then straightened.  The rods and the wires that attached to the rods went up in smoke, and Shocktease broke free of the battery case, leaping to the ground.

“Giggleberries!” Liberty called out.

“I must interrupt!” Finnea interjected.

“Giggleberries!”

“Are you still prioritizing this over your argument?” Lucy asked.  “Can we dismiss?”

“Giggleberries!”

Giggleberries was giggly, as it happened, and moved through bushes and foliage before pouncing onto Liberty, who put her arms behind her to catch him.  He peered over her shoulder, a wide-eyed goblin face with runny clown makeup.

“I bind you, Gigs, temporarily.”

He became a drawstring bag.

“The argument is one and the same with what I’m protesting!  You are using a loophole to invite goblins into this proceeding, showing a clear lack of respect for the culture of Others.”

“We’re prioritizing goblin culture over Faerie culture,” Avery said.

“You’re implying goblins have culture,” Finnea retorted.  Every new goblin on scene seemed to make her more uneasy, and Liberty reaching into the drawstring bag and pulling out a spray-painted grenade only added to that unease.

“Their inclusion is granted by a higher authority than this court,” Lucy said.

“Tough shit, suck bits,” Liberty added.

The demerit lady mumbled something, still strapped to a tree.

Lucy spoke up, “For the third time, I’m making a motion to-”

“No,” Finnea said, talking faster, abandoning her hope of appealing to the judge.  “I’ll continue.  The analogy is as simple as this.  If you were to ask a man to protect you, if you gave him a small fortune, and then you found out he only had days to live and he was committed to that, wouldn’t you be upset?”

“What?” Lucy asked.  “I thought Fae were supposed to be clever.”

“Aren’t you the ones trying to be clever?” Finnea asked.  “Only living a mere sixty or so more years before you expect your lifespans to end?  In offering services to those who will live for thousands of years?”

“If Maricica and Guilherme are that dumb, not accounting for the fact we’re human, then you could be taking them to court, for making you all look bad,” Lucy said.  “They knew what they were getting with us.”

“You’re human but you’ve been shown clear and obvious routes that would enable you to serve in a more appropriate longer period of time.  Matthew Moss has studied life extension practices and told you about them on your first day as practitioners.  Was it not a clear notice that you had these options available to you?”

The crowd murmured in agreement.  Avery glared, looking around, but without one stand-out member to target, she couldn’t whip Tatty at them.  “Tatty, is Bluntmunch around?”

“Yeh.”

“Bluntmunch!”  Avery shouted.  “Bluntmunch!  Bluntmunch!”

We didn’t bring Bluntmunch with us to start with, please don’t call this out, don’t call this out, be distracted–

“Are you done making shit up or can I talk?” Lucy asked.

“You made a long and full life a requirement of the awakening deal,” Finnea retorted.  “But you selfishly and egocentrically cut that short to human ideals, a mere lifespan of seventy years?  A hundred and some years at most?  Nothing by the standards of the worlds you’ve sworn to join and support!”

“This?  This is bullcrap,” Lucy said, sighing.

“It’s so nice to be able to talk without the Faerie butting in,” Verona said.  “Making my headache worse.”

Bluntmunch lumbered in.  Finnea’s frown was distinct as she saw the size of him.  He was bigger than she was, if not quite as tall, with the way he slouched and moved more like a gorilla than a human.

“Will you be my weapon?  Ramjam gave us the rundown,” Avery said.  “We’ll move this to the next phase.”

“Phase?” Finnea asked.  “Your honor, they dismiss this as bullcrap and invite goblins in to sow chaos and make implicit threats to our audience, targeting one with abuse and harming others, but they make no argument.  This is human-centric, practitioner-centric worldview at its worst, and it offends the Fae as a whole, harming the Fae side of Fae-human relations.”

“We’re human, we have human lifespans!” Verona exclaimed.  “You can’t call us human in one breath and then pretend it isn’t a reality in the next!”

That Verona has a pretty sharp brain, remembering stuff like that, Avery thought.

“I can if you are indictments of humanity as a whole!”

“Finnea’s argument holds,” the Judge said.

“How?” Lucy challenged.  “By what standards?”

“Faerie standards,” Finnea replied.

Bluntmunch glanced warily around at the Faerie.  He met Avery’s eyes.

“Say the words,” the large goblin rumbled, reaching out with one heavy, calloused hand.

Avery put her hand under his, and he set his atop hers.  She was more careful with others because she hadn’t pre-arranged the binding with them, “I bind you temporarily, Bluntmunch, until you choose to abandon the form.  Help us out, take your weapon form.  Greatclub Munchabunch!”

Bluntmunch put his other arm out, laying it over the first, hair dropping off of his body.  Calloused, scarred skin that had been burnt, cut, and many other things and which probably hadn’t been pretty to begin with got even more gnarled, more ugly, twisting in together.

He was a big goblin, and a strong one, and according to what he’d told Verona when she’d done her first interviews with the goblins, he’d been sought after.

So he became an appropriate weapon.  Nearly as long as Avery was tall, narrow at one end and wider at the other, he resembled a broken off section of tree trunk, worn by weather until the splinters and rough bits were mostly gone, much of the wood turned stone-like by treatment or harsh environment.  Straps had been wound around the handle, and railroad spikes driven through the heavy end.  Like a baseball bat with nails driven through it, but huge.  Avery’s fingertips dug into soft wood where it was wood, and found rigidity where it was stone.

“What in the seven courts do you need that for?” Finnea asked.

“Redecorating!” Avery exclaimed, heaving the end of the club off the ground.  She wasn’t strong enough to swing it around, but Liberty jumped in, offering a helping push to get the club up to the point Avery had it overhead.  She let it drop, falling on the railing that separated them from the open middle area of the court and kept them from approaching the judge.  The railing was fifteen feet wide and ornate and the entirety of it went to pieces, breaking off and pulling free of the dirt where it had been planted.

“Insanity, and it only proves my points!” Finnea exclaimed.

“Agreed,” the judge said.  “This bodes ill for you five, on the charges of frivolous disrespect for the court.”

The crowd murmured, joining in.

Avery took in a breath, looking around.  Had to make this stick, had to make it work.

The parts where the railing had pulled free of the ground were burbling with mud.

Toadswallow wasn’t a fighter, so his ‘weapon’ wasn’t good in a direct fight.  It was good at bringing enemies low and bothering them, but the wrist attachment allegedly let the wielder unload a lot of tricks and traps.

Doglick was a chaser, a pursuer, a biter, a dogged harasser of whoever it was he went up against, so his weapon emulated that.  Tatty made herself a pest, Cherrypop was sort of useless.  Each goblin had a thing.

Bluntmunch was big, he hit hard, and… he was good at bossing around goblins.

Muddy goblins of Cherrypop’s caliber started hauling themselves free of the muck in twos and threes, looking around.

“As the wielder of Greatclub Munchabunch, I have commands!” Avery declared.  “For those of you who’ve emerged and those of you yet to emerge, if you’re connected to this weapon, know these commands have power, ignore them on the threat of a Bluntmunch buttkicking!”

The little goblins looked up at her, eyes wide.

“Within the bounds of this arena, make a mess.  Don’t do any permanent harm to the Fae, don’t bother the humans or other goblins, and have fun!” Avery told them.

“Woooooo!” Liberty drew out the sound.  Cherrypop mimicked her.

The goblins picked up the noise, then scattered, some falling over themselves in their hurry to find something to do.

Avery had to use arms, upper body, abdomen and legs to haul the club around, smacking a Fae-made lantern-holder.  The lantern extinguished, the candle and contents bouncing out.  A goblin emerged from the broken bottom half of the lantern, naked.  He was larger than the others, roughly Tatty’s size, halfway between something like Cherrypop or Peckersnot and the thirty-something pound Doglick.

He followed the orders, judging by the way he picked up on the “Wooooo!”

“You’re applying Fae standards to us in a way we wouldn’t apply human standards to our prisoners!” Lucy told Finnea, who was using one foot to keep a small goblin from trying to climb her leg.

“I’d challenge- disgusting!” Finnea interrupted herself, shaking her leg firmly.  “I’d challenge you to prove that!”

“That’s your job as the one making the accusation!” Lucy told her.

“Why?  Innocent until proven guilty?  The longer a being lives the more likely they’re guilty of something.”

Going to be sore tomorrow, Avery thought, as she made another full-body swing of the club, demolishing Fae decorations and a hung piece of tapestry.  The crowd backed swiftly away.

There was a goblin, dressed in armor, lurking in a hole in the tree behind the hung cloth.  Gashwad size.  He met Avery’s gaze, frozen, looking very much like someone who was walked in on while sitting on the crapper.

She gave the club a pat.

“Woo!” he shrieked, leaping onto Avery, with a very strong whiff of body odor, before springing off of her with enough force that she would have stumbled back or fallen over if she hadn’t been anchored to the ground by the club she was holding, the heavy end already firmly in the dirt.  He’d leaped onto a robed Faerie, hugging their face.

“If this group is unwilling to see the proceedings through to the end-!”

“We’re willing!” Lucy retorted, raising her voice over the growing noises of smaller goblins.  “You’re just taking far too long to get there, this is on you!”

Finnea paused, seeming to think hard about something, then touched the locket at her neck, opening it.

Glamour came out as an expanding purple-black mist, and small purple flowers began to form on the ground where the glamour touched grass and dirt.  Flowers sprouted between the bricks of the court floor where bricks of marble and other materials had been inset into the dirt in intricate pattern.

Smaller goblins protested, and held their noses, running from the flowers.

Something they didn’t like?

Faerie could counter goblins just as easily as goblins could counter Fae.  This might have been one of those things.  It was interesting that Finnea was willing-

There was a clamor off to the side as Liberty heaved a grenade into the midst of the Fae bystanders.  Five Fae fell on it and grabbed at it.  One at the bottom of the pile managed to grab it and held it it so it wouldn’t go off, only to find himself with multiple Fae still atop him and a mob of smaller goblins spawned by Bluntmunch’s club coming right for his face.  He fought to keep the grenade away from them, but they managed to pry it free.

It didn’t detonate, but instead vented gas.  The gas spread, mingling with the purple mist from Finnea.

Couldn’t let that continue.

“Man, your goblin spawner is great!” Liberty called out.  “I’ll show you mine!”

“This is a thing!?”

“Heck yeah!  Sproghog, Sproghog, Sproghog!”

The goblin that came hurrying into the clearing was female and very pregnant, skin stretched to the point of translucency, tiny goblin faces pressing against the inside, becoming briefly and vaguely visible.

“You do you!” Avery called out.

“You showed me yours and I want to show you mine!”

“I’ve got a court case to win!” Avery called out, gripping the club tighter.

Avery picked up speed, dragging the club as best as she could.  It was easier to drag it as long as she kept moving, but Fae were milling around, she had to avoid stepping on goblins that were fleeing the goblin-repellent flower patch, and she had to give a small part of her attention to Finnea, who was a very real threat and was arguably more threatening so long as she was facing a growing swarm of goblins.  Where the club dug into dirt and mud, goblin limbs reached and burbled out, many joining the scene with ‘woo’s and cheers.

“I move to resolve my point, due to a lack of counterargument!” Finnea called out.  “Oaths made-”

Avery swung the club awkwardly, not really raising it above hip level, but she still managed to smash the chair next to Finnea.  A goblin scrambled away from the underside of the chair like it had always been there.  Finnea backed up a few steps.

Avery dropped the club, catching the handle with one foot, and then clapped her hands a few times in quick succession.  She felt the weight in the air, and braced herself, catching the handle of the water-elemental pickaxe as it dropped into place, gouged, scratched, and badly beaten up from its trip to wherever the gloves sent things.  She hurled it past Finnea.  It hit the dirt, flipped, bounced, and hit the dirt again.

In the midst of that, it hit the dirt a third time, and the dirt around it transformed to water, which quickly became mud, splashing the backs of Finnea’s legs and dress.  Cutting off Finnea’s route a bit.  The Faerie didn’t seem to want to turn her back on Avery, and stopped short of stepping into the mud.  Goblins milled around her.

Avery grabbed and lifted the club as best as she could, her stomach doing a butterfly-flutter thing in the midst of the strain of lifting.  She drop-shoved it into the railing that had been in front of Finnea.

More goblins emerged from the divots below the wrecked railing, complaining as they found themselves in the midst of the purple fog.

“If you’ll name your actual arguments, beyond some vague references, I can try and answer them,” Lucy told Finnea.  The chaos grew around them.  “Name them one by one.  Let’s go over it in detail.  Slowly.”

Verona cackled.

Another Giggleberries grenade went off.  Fae choked and stumbled their way through the mist.  One trapped inside looked like he was laughing, but no laugh was audible over the din.

“Heads up!” Liberty called out.  “Aim’s terrible with this beauty!”

She pumped what looked like one of those guns Declan liked that fired foam projectiles, but what came out was a spurt of fluid and a small Cherrypop sized goblin with the umbilical cord still attached.  It bounced off of the brickwork goblins were trying to tear up, then got to its feet, wobbling, bringing the umbilical cord to its mouth to start chewing at it.  Liberty fired off another two in quick succession, to much the same effect.

The Fae that was still stuck to the tree wriggled and tried to pull goblins off as they climbed her clothing.

“One by one!” Lucy told Finnea.  “Let’s do this in an orderly fashion!”

“All you’ve done thus far is prove you outnumber me.”

“Weren’t you so fond of saying the time to argue that crap was earlier?” Verona asked.  “Already decided.”

“This is what Maricica would be doing, we’re pretty sure,” Avery told Finnea, glaring past the eyeholes of the wolf mask.  “Sowing confusion, using pre-prepared plans and tools, things she set up earlier to sabotage us, make the proceedings as hard as possible.  You’re clearly not up for this.  We prepared, you didn’t, if you wanted to do it any differently, that’s on you.  Concede.”

“You’re spending power on that glamour, aren’t you?” Verona asked.  “I’m guessing you made the mental calculation that you have to do something to fight back, even if it means this thing isn’t the win you wanted it to be.  Every second you’re using that crap to keep from being annoyed, you’re spending something on this transaction.”

“It’s glamour, not crap,” Finnea retorted, flinching as Liberty fired another goblin fetus arcing into the air.

“Concede,” Avery told the Fae.

“If I concede this challenge, you’ll push the original confrontation, and you’ll be free to use this same chaos to lay undeserved charges at my feet.”

“You’re not the Fae we want,” Lucy said.  “We can negotiate.  And just so we’re clear, the fact you wanted to sell us?  That’s going to count against you in the negotations.”

Finnea drew herself up taller, tense from head to toe.  The locket continued to release vapor that trailed down her body and arms, expanding out to create the bed of flowers that extended naturally from the base of her dress.

“Concede,” Avery said.  “Negotiate with us.”

“We want info on Maricica.  If you’re her rival, you should know stuff.”

“If that’s all you want, we can talk.”

“We want it promptly,” Verona said.  “Before you leave tonight, and we want the means of contacting you for follow-up details.  We want you to revoke anything you’ve done glamour-wise in or relating to Kennet, and we want you to agree to tell us what you know that goes beyond Maricica’s history.  Anything you might know about her plans.”

“Anything you might infer,” Lucy said.

Avery adjusted her grip on the greatclub.

“Aurum,” Finnea called out.  “Is this acceptable?  Will you oversee these negotiations?”

“I can,” the Aurum said, floating into view.

“Don’t try something,” Lucy told her.  “No sneaky terms, no finnicky wording.”

Snowdrop startled Avery by pushing Cherrypop into Avery’s chest.  Avery’s hands were full, but Cherry gripped her shirt.  Snowdrop hurled herself into the purple flowers, hand over her nose.  Many broke like glass beneath Snowdrop’s weight and thrashing.

“If you try something and we catch you, we can pause for fifteen minutes and an hour, to deliberate,” Verona said.  “Let the goblins party, you can put up with it, and then we get back to you and resume where we left off, without the trick.”

“Aaaaaaa!” Cherrypop shrieked, in the most annoying way possible, still holding onto Avery’s shirt, twisting around to look at Finnea.  She held the cube of stone, waving it in the air, paused to pant for breath, then shrieked again, “Aaaaaaa!”

“Let’s put an end to this.  Do away with the goblins.”

“When we’re done,” Avery answered, peering through the eyeholes of the wolf mask, her own breath hot in her face.  I’ve set myself the goal of being the antagonist of your story, you don’t get anything easy as long as I’m here.

“When you’re done giving all pertinent details, no hedging, no half truths, no trickery,” Lucy told her.  “Swear to give us what we want to know in a way that we’d be satisfied was complete and right, if we had the full story and could compare notes.”

“I’m a Faerie,” Finnea said.  “You might as well ask a goblin to be polite.”

“We have one of those,” Verona said.

“You’re a Faerie, but that’s not the entirety of who and what you are,” Avery told her.  “Concede.  Negotiate.”

Finnea paused, taking in the situation.  A Fae in the background shrieked as she ran by, goblins pulling at her hair.

She nodded.

“I’ll take that as confirmation of concession, and allow the negotiation to commence?” Aurum asked.

“Please,” Finnea asked.  “Would you deal with the worst of the rabble?  I’ll negotiate in a corresponding amount of good faith.”

“Goblins!” Avery called out.  “Job’s done!  Those of you who were summoned by the club, you can go, or you can leave Kennet and go anywhere not in its perimeter, but you can’t stay here!”

There were jeers and complaints.

“We win!?” Liberty asked.  “I wasn’t paying much attention to you guys!”

“We won,” Avery told her.  “Sort out your gobs?”

Liberty pumped her fist, then fired off another goblin-fetus with umbilical cord streamer for good measure, before releasing the weapon back to pregnant-goblin form.  “My guys!  Gather round!”

“Can we negotiate about the gainsaying penalties?” Verona asked.  “This sucks.”

“No,” Finnea said.  “Not with me.”

She looked at the Aurum.

“No,” the Aurum said, looking at the three of them.  “You called on me to adjudicate a lesser challenge, that Finnea of the Thistle Tay was tied into the conspiracy to unseat, disappear, or kill the Carmine Beast, whatever may have unfolded.  This was not so.  Your issue of gainsaying lies with me, not Finnea.  As the defender of the challenge, the power you’ve lost is hers.”

“And I’ve spent a share of it on this,” Finnea replied, indicating the flower patch.

“A practitioner’s word must matter,” the Aurum said.  “Several days to a week, depending on circumstance, and you’ll be back to your usual self.  Be more careful in the future.”

Verona made a face.

“Ey,” Cherrypop whispered.  She looked over at Lucy and Verona.  “Ey!”

“What?” Lucy asked.

“Are you giving precedence to a least-tier goblin over me?” Finnea asked.  “Humiliation of someone who has just expressed willingness to negotiate-”

“Calm the frick down,” Verona said.

“And don’t pull that crap,” Lucy told her.  “We warned you about tricky stuff.  Annoying stuff like that counts.”

Finnea fell silent.

Avery looked down, glanced over at Snowdrop, who was messing up the flower bed, to Finnea’s clear annoyance, and then back down at Cherrypop.  “Cherry?”

“Oh!  I heard stuff.  They said I should tell yeh,” Cherrypop told her.  “Lucy’s mom is calling people.  They’re making a phone tree, which is dumb, because you’d have to climb so fast to get to the phones before it finishes ringing.”

“What about, Cherry?” Avery asked.  “Why is this important?”

“Maricica is out there, looking to talk to another kid.”

“Melissa?” Verona asked.

“No,” Avery said.  “I think it might be Pam.  Twisting the knife, no matter what happens.”

“Damn it,” Lucy said.  “Hopefully-”

“Hoping isn’t enough,” Avery interrupted.  “Can you guys hold down the fort?  Handle negotiation?”

“We can,” Lucy replied.

“Headache is killing me and my stomach feels ick but I can stick it out,” Verona told her.

“With your leave, may I go?” Avery asked the Aurum.

“You may.”

She went straight for the general direction of her bag, where she’d shucked it off to switch to wolf-mask mode.  The arena collapsed, and she paused a moment, seeing the gathered Kennet Others.

Miss was among them.  Toadswallow clapped, polite, smiling.

“I’ve gotta go,” Avery told them.  “Black rope, black rope…”

She found it in Lucy’s stuff.  Right.

“Avery,” Toadswallow said.  He put a hand on her arm, and she paused. He looked up at her, monocle glinting in moonlight.  “We have reason to believe the glitter twit has already left our town.  She did what she wanted to already, if she did anything at all.  We had goblins protecting the girl you named.”

“Pamela.”

“Yes.”

“Okay, but I still need to check.”

“Do you need further help?” Miss asked.  “Friends?  Tools?”

“I don’t know.  I- I’m going to go check on Pam, I’m worried I gave Maricica what she needs to go after her.  I’ve gotta- I can’t be responsible for her getting hurt.  She was a bystander.  I don’t know if any of you move as fast as I’d want you to.  I’d rather just get there, make sure it’s okay.”

“I hope you know that if she was hurt, it would be because of Maricica, not you,” Miss told her.

“That doesn’t make me feel better enough,” Avery said, pulling off the wolf mask.  It was heavy in her hands, warm with her body heat and breath.  She stared down at it for a second.  She shoved it in the front compartment of her bag.  “Gotta go.”

“I’ll be leaving Kennet shortly, I can’t stay within when I can’t trust the perimeter,” Miss said.

“I’ll check in with you later!”

“I’m sending goblins after you,” Toadswallow said, indicating Biscuit’s group.  “They’ll catch up.”

“Yeah!” Avery called back.

Already running.  Already reminding herself that she had the Deer mask in her bag too.

Leaving the chaos and noise and stress behind, chasing after something else.

She black roped her way across a nighttime Kennet.  Running shoes hit the ground, predominantly grass that was softer to run on than street, and periodically scraped along rooftops as she went from low to high to find her next leaping-off point.

She knew the neighborhood.  She’d biked around hoping to see Pam a lot, once upon a time.

Then she’d steered clear.

For what?  If Pam was still in danger, because Pam had been so close to the surface of Avery’s thoughts when a Faerie was trying to find weak points…

Ugh.  Ugh ugh ugh.

The energy of the trial stuck to her, stayed with her, even as she resumed her role as deer, of the Avery she wanted to be, rather than the Wolf she’d had to be back there.

It was hard to leave that kind of antagonism and aggressiveness behind.

I don’t want Kennet to change me that way.

Even if the masks had kind of been her idea.  The role reversals, the unleashing of their more dangerous selves.

Avery found a discreet place to stop, changed back into regular clothes, and set out for Pam’s again.  She stuffed the costume Liberty had given her into her bag, and wondered if she’d ever have occasion to wear it again.  Punk wasn’t her thing.

She found the right block, and leaped onto a roof, getting her bearings, before hopping down.

She walked, catching her breath a bit before she arrived at the corner of Pam’s property.

No blood, no commotion.

Butty and Nat were there, in a hedge.

“Did she come by?” Avery asked them.

Butty nodded, smiling that too-wide, too-pleased-with-himself smile that was so often on his face.  Like a kid who had just proudly shat himself.

Frig.  That mental image suggested she’d already spent a bit too much time around goblins.

“Did she get away with anything?”

“We couldn’t get close,” Nat mumbled.  “Kid was watching.”

“Pam was?”

Nat nodded.

“Did she manage to do anything?”

“Talked.”

Avery made a face, wincing.

She rounded the corner of the property.

“Hey!”

Avery looked up.  Pamela’s window was one of those ones that jutted out a bit, with a seat in the window itself, and there wasn’t much light in the room itself, so she’d been sort of invisible, sitting there.  Her hair was down and she had a book on one thigh, a poseable flashlight clipped to it and illuminating the pages.

“Oh, hey!” Avery called up.  “Doing okay?”

“Been better,” Pam said.

Avery’s heart sank.  “How come?”

“Stay there?”

Avery nodded.

Pamela disappeared, apparently heading downstairs, and Avery hurried to fix her hair, using the bottom of her shirt to wipe sweat and whatever else off her face.

Pamela could be heard having a small argument with her mom, which continued even as she opened the side door of the house and stepped into the backyard.  “-from class, relax!  It’s no big!”

Pamela was a bit flushed and she was wearing this linen top with a fancy collar which was really summery in style and that wasn’t a style Avery had ever seen her in.  It looked really nice.

“Everything okay?” Avery asked.

“You’re friends with Lucy, right?”

Avery nodded.

“Apparently some creep came to her house asking about her mom and a bunch of parents are calling around to warn other people.  There’s a bunch of details on social media, people are trying to figure it out.”

“Oh, I heard a tiny bit about that, but I haven’t gotten the full story,” Avery told Pamela.  “Did anything happen here?”

“Not like that, but…” Pam paused.  “Guy from a while ago showed up.”

“Oh?  Boyfriend?”

“Maybe he might’ve been if he stuck around.  Tourist, I think.  Or some guy passing through.”

“Oh,” Avery said, very quiet.

“My mom wouldn’t let me go outside because of the whole thing Lucy’s mom was warning people about.  Probably a good thing.  He started off nice and sweet, then he got meaner.”

“Frig,” Avery said, not sure what to say.  “I’m so sorry.”

“It was this really nice thing, you know?  He shows up, he calls me pretty, that- I never expected that.  It was nice.  Then he shows up again and… ruins it?  I was trying to tell Caroline online, but she was being annoying about it and…”

Pamela made a face, and it made Avery’s heart hurt, seeing it, because it was so unfiltered.

Avery wanted to say something and there were half-ideas in her head, where she could say it was her fault, that Kell had done it because of her or something.

But she was so tired of half truths.

“I’m being lame and dramatic,” Pam said, as she walked across the backyard in bare feet.  “I shut off my computer, thought I’d read, but I keep reading the same page over and over again because I can’t stop thinking about what that douche said.”

Pam’s hands gripped the top end of the picket fence as she got to it.

“Pam, I want you to stay close to the house or stay inside!” Pam’s mom called out from the house.

“It’s Avery from school, I told you!” Pamela called back.  “Chill!”

“Hi Mrs. O’Neill!” Avery called out.

“Avery, honey,” Pamela’s mom said, stepping into the doorway.  “It’s best if you get home, okay?  There’s rumors going around about creeps.”

“I’m pretty sure I can outrun your average creep, Mrs. O’Neill,” Avery said.

“I don’t think that’s good enough, honey,” Pam’s mother said.

“Avery’s fast,” Pamela said, smiling at the ridiculousness of the idea.

“Go home soon, okay!?”

Avery nodded.

“Ugh, my mom’s overprotective,” Pam said.  She faced Avery again, then frowned a bit.  “You okay?”

“Huh?  Yeah,” Avery said.  “Worn out.  Crazy night.”

“Yeah, apparently.  But your eyes are wet.”

“What you were talking about before,” Avery said, shrugging.  “Sorry.  You don’t deserve that.  At all.  It sucks.  I hate that that happened, so much.”

“It’s okay, it’s-”

“It sucks,” Avery said, with emphasis.

“It does suck,” Pam said, blinking a couple times.  She leaned into the fence.  “Ugh.”

“If you ever see him again, point me at him and I’ll do my best to kick his ass.”

“Only if you let me get one good kick in between the legs.”

“If that’s doable I’d be happy to,” Avery said.  “Probably not doable.”

“Darn,” Pam said, sighing.  “Ugh.  Thank you.  I don’t know if you’re forcing it because I said Caroline wasn’t really listening, but thanks for hearing me out.  Thanks for being upset or acting upset.”

“No act, no force.”

“Thanks,” Pam said, her back to the fence, to Avery, as she looked up at her window.

Avery took a second, studying Pam, wracking her brain for anything she might do or say.  She wanted to give excuses or soften the blow but she’d given Maricica the ammo and the glamour and Maricica had used it.  Probably to hurt Pam through her, or to set something in motion.  She had no idea but Pam was having a bad night because of it.

She hated that.  She wanted to make it better, but the way to do that wasn’t through lies.

“I’m… really hoping you won’t take this the wrong way, or anything,” Avery said.

“Huh?” Pam asked.  “Oh no.”

“No, no.  Not like… not bad.  I think you’re great, Pam.  I think you’re super nice and cool.”

“But?”

“No but.”

“Why would I take that the wrong way?”

“Because… I voted for you in the class app thing.  I know you’re not into girls,” Avery said.  She managed to keep her composure as Pam turned around to give her her full attention.  She hoped Pam wouldn’t be crappy about this, she had no reason to think she would, but…  man, that would be gutting and awful if she was.

This was a leap of faith.  Putting herself out there.  It was hard to read Pam’s expression in the dark.

“You’re my first crush,” Avery said.  “I hope it’s not disappointing that it’s not a boy who voted for you, but I think there’s gotta be guys out there who like you like I do.”

“Okay,” Pam said.  “I’m not sure what to say.”

“Take it as a compliment?  I think you’re pretty and when I was super depressed earlier this year you made the room brighter with your good mood and jokes and I really needed that, even if you didn’t know.”

“You were depressed?” Pam asked.  “Super depressed?”

“Yeah!  Yeah,” Avery replied.  “I was super lonely.  Came from homeschool and everyone had their friends.”

“Oh, you could’ve asked me or anyone if you wanted to hang out.  If you’re ever lonely again you can.”

Avery smiled.  “I’m okay now.  But thanks.”

“I didn’t think you were the type to get that depressed.  You’re always out there, sports and stuff, and you’re pretty, and-”

Avery thumped a fist over her heart.  “Means a lot.  But I think we’re all… dealing, I guess.”

“I miss being a kid,” Pam said.

“Yeah.  I get you.  Used to have a best friend from out of town, then she bailed on me.  But I got through the bad, y’know, and now I have two better friends.”

“Cool.”

“I’m talking about me, though, and I wanted to cheer you up,” Avery said, momentarily alarmed.  “I’m dumb sometimes.  Look, Pam.  You’re great.  Okay?  You’re super, you’re sweet, you’re pretty as heck, and whatever that fake-ass guy said, screw him, forget him, okay?  Except if he shows up again, you can call me and I’ll see about beating him up and arranging for you to kick him between the legs, how’s that?”

Pam smiled.  “Okay.”

If this was awkward and felt like putting herself three hundred percent out there, seeing Pam smile made it worth it.

“Pam!” Pamela’s mother called out.

“Oh my god my mom is going to drive me crazy.  I swear, if she keeps me cooped up inside because of this creepo rumor, I’m going to flip,” Pam said.

“I’ll let you go,” Avery said.

“I’m super flattered, you know, but I’m not-”

“I know.  And that’s good, that’s the intention.  I wouldn’t be saying all this if it wasn’t, my heart’s beating like crazy, I feel like I’m rambling.  I bet I’m going to kick myself for ten different things I said here, later.”

“I heard you liked girls but didn’t want to buy into the rumor without verifying.”

“Verified,” Avery said, shrugging.

“Whatever girl you end up with will be super lucky,” Pam said.

Avery thumped a fist against her heart again.  “Means a lot.  More than you know.”

“Cool.”

“Pam!” Pam’s mother called out.

Pam sighed, “Can you give me an alibi if I murder my mom in the next few days?”

“Don’t think so.”

“Darn.”

Avery lifted a hand in a wave as Pam went back inside.

That had been what she’d wanted to do the first time round.  She hoped she wouldn’t find reason to regret this.

Owe myself a checkmark she told herself, as she walked away.  She gave Butty a pat on the head as she walked by.  “Keep an eye out for trouble, guys.  Gotta go check on the others.”

“Any issues?” Lucy asked.

“I don’t know.  I’m not sure if Maricica couldn’t get to Pam the way she wanted or if she was setting something up for later, but I hate it,” Avery said.

“Damn,” Lucy muttered.  “Sorry.”

Avery shrugged.

“We’re doing a big debrief, talking to the Others,” Verona said.  “Finnea doesn’t know that much about Maricica.  General background details.  Stuff that fits in with the court intrigue and what she was talking to Guilherme about.  No weaknesses, no clues about where she might be hiding.”

“Are we thinking of a hiding place in Kennet?” Avery asked.

“Who knows?” Verona replied.

They joined the larger group of Kennet Others.  The Faerie and goblin stuff was gone and there was only some light damage to trees and a lot of fallen branches to show for it.

She gave Snowdrop a head pat, as Snowdrop sat with Cherry.

“…had an idea,” Cherrypop told Snowdrop.

“What?” Snow asked.

“I wanna be your familiar!  You can stay Avery’s and then that way I’ll be working with you and stuff!  And we can keep hanging out!”

Snowdrop frowned and looked around.  “I think that works.  I think that really works.”

Cherrypop pumped her tiny hands into the air.  “Yes!”

“All good?” Liberty asked, as they approached.

“I don’t know,” Avery admitted.  “Seems okay?  But it’s a Faerie and-”

“And you’re getting it,” Liberty said.  “I guess I’m done here?”

“Thanks for coming,” Lucy said.

“It was fun!  Well, it wasn’t fun at the midway point, but it got fun!  You guys are great, and the outfit was great, Avery!”

“I’ve still got it.”

“Wear it sometime!”

“Maybe?”

“We should hang out sometime when it’s not a huge crisis.  I hope we’re okay after me almost hurling you off a bridge and everything America did right at the end of you guys leaving.”

“Yeah,” Avery said.

“Man, you’ve got a good crop of goblins,” Liberty said, giving Cherrypop a small head pat.  “I’m jealous you’ve got Uncle Toad.”

“Maybe you can visit,” Verona suggested.

“If your guys allow it.  Anyway, let me get out of your way so you can do your big debrief.  Hugs!”

Liberty gave Lucy a hug, then Verona, then hugged Avery, rocking side by side and giving her a tight squeeze around the shoulders, which happened to remind Avery that she’d been hauling that Bluntmunch-club around and she’d be feeling it tomorrow.  Also a hug from a cheerful girl.

Then Liberty was off, saying her goodbye and giving a super-extra-big hug to ‘Uncle Toad’ before leading the goblins out of town, including the little ones who’d been spawned or dug up.

“She gave you a longer hug than the two of us combined,” Verona pointed out.

“Please stop,” Avery said.  “Maybe she thought I needed a hug.  Or I’m the one most in contact with her and I was fighting alongside her.  She gave Sir Toadswallow a bigger hug and I don’t think there’s anything weird about that.”

“I dunnnoo,” Verona said, before Lucy jabbed her.

Avery made a pleading gesture.  “Please don’t turn this into a Fernanda thing, which you drag out past the point of funny.”

“It’s so tempting though, and what if, just saying, what if-”

Avery put her hands around Verona’s neck and mock-strangled her.

“Ready?” Toadswallow asked.  “We all need to be on the same page, and it’s clear not everyone has been sharing everything.  Rook and Miss?”

“Yeah,” Lucy said.  “Not that you’re one to talk.”

“We’ll leave that aside, if you please,” Toadswallow said, smiling in what he probably thought was an ingratiating way.  “Come on.  Not everybody’s here, but the relevant parties are, I think.  You’ll need to explain the binding of Cig.”

“Lis is gone?” Avery asked.

“We think.”

They joined the main group.  It was still half goblin.  Guilherme had showed up.  That would probably be useful, in putting the puzzle together.

“It’s a shame we can’t call a formal meeting and demand all the Others of Kennet show up,” Verona said.  “Make them appear.”

“There are standards and rules when it comes to hospitality,” Toadswallow said.

“We can- we can make them show up, and then we give Maricica a chair!” Cherrypop exclaimed, so excited she was a bit out of breath.

“A chair?”

“With a hole in the bottom, she’s naked and she’ll sit and I’ll be underneath and bam, here’s that rock, right up the butt!”

“She doesn’t sit at meetings, I don’t think,” Verona said.

“Dammit!”

“If only it was so easy,” Toadswallow said.  “Alas, she was one of our original Others, working as part of the group.”

“If it’s okay, can I make a request?” Avery asked.  “I don’t know how much it matters, but… for my friend Pam.  And for Lucy- for her mom.  If Maricica is out there, I don’t want to worry every step of the way that she’s going to show up and ruin things.”

“What do you want to do?” Matthew asked.

“We didn’t get her, she’s out there, she escaped,” Avery said, looking around the group.  “Can we revoke Maricica’s welcome?  And membership?”

“We can.  Consider the motion opened,” Toadswallow said.  “Revoking the membership among Kennet’s Others.  Exiling her from Kennet and its protections, removing her power and influence, wherever seen or noted.  She isn’t to be welcomed within the perimeter.”

“This won’t stop her from coming in,” Matthew said.

“No,” Toadswallow said.  “But we’ll have some notice she’s entered or if she’s present, and she won’t be as comfortable inside the perimeter.  If Montague acts, she’ll be pointedly uncomfortable.  Sufficient?”

Avery nodded.

“Same for Lis?” Verona asked.

“Lis’s sponsorship will be revoked if we have unanimous agreement,” Toadswallow said.  “We’ll take measures.  Again, we can’t bar her from entry until the perimeter is stronger, but we’ll know if she’s here and we’ll know if she enters.”

There were nods all around.

“Any objections?  Points of clarification?” Toadswallow asked.

There were none.

“Let’s begin.”

Next Chapter