Summer Break – 13.7
Author: Wildbow

Summer Break – 13.7 | Pale

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“Four days, four nights, are you ready?  Breastbiter the CHONK is coming to YOUR town!   There’s meaner goblins, there’s bigger goblins, but few are this combination of mean, big, and hungry for nipple meat!”

Avery looked at Snowdrop, who shrugged, then turned her attention to the front window of a ‘rent to own’ store.  The television was audible through the glass, the announcer loud.

“Are you seeing this?” Avery asked Lucy.

“Yep.  Hearing it too.  Can you hear without an earring, or-?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m going to ask an employee, one sec…” Lucy said.

Lucy stepped in through the door that had been propped open.  “Excuse me?”

She’d gotten the attention of a twenty-something employee with a forced smile and a sheen of sweat on her, moisture streaking her polo top from armpit to hip.  The woman looked over.

“What’s that playing on the televisions?” Lucy asked.

The goblin on the screen lifted a toilet into the air, pelvic thrusted it in half, then roared at the screen.

The employee looked back at the televisions at the rear of the store, then went back to arranging a shelf of various kitchen appliances.

No response.

Lucy frowned.

“Practice stuff at work?” Avery asked.  She stepped inside; even though the shop wasn’t air conditioned, there were fans, so that was a bit of an excuse.  She closed her eyes for a moment as the breeze swept over her.  It was too muggy out today.

Snowdrop deposited herself in front of a fan, slouching forward, mouth slack jawed, making a low ‘aaaaa’ sound that the fan distorted.

“Can I help you?” the employee asked, looking over, flashing that awkward, forced smile.  Her attention was on Avery, the smile still very forced.  Maybe that was her regular expression, like a frown was Lucy’s.

“Uhh,” Avery said.  She looked at Lucy.  “What’s that on the screens?”

“That is… Gosh Golly Gosling, Dodgeball Darling.”

“Oh,” Avery said.  To Lucy, she said, “Kerry put it on the other night, I didn’t watch any of it.  That’s not, hmmm, not what I’m seeing.”

“Hm, yeah.  Same.”

The televisions blared.  “He eats a diet of nipples and breasts, gender fucking indiscriminate!  That’s protein, baby!  And protein means muscle!  Muscle means a curbstomping for that puny little ski town and any challenger that crosses his way!”

“That’s an OLED screen,” the employee said.  “There’s a setting for viewing in 3-D.  You could see that goose in three dimensions, flying right at you.  Are you interested in buying?  Only thirteen dollars a month to rent it.  You could have a television for your own room, for the cost of a pizza a month.”

“No,” Avery replied.  “I’m-”

“My sister could break it, anyway.”

“We have in-store insurance.  Five dollars a month, two year plan.  Another five dollars a month for the cable box rental.”

“No,” Avery said.  “No thanks.”

“Let me know if you change your mind,” the employee said, flashing a smile at Avery, before turning away.

“Why did you make the pitch to her and not me?” Lucy asked.

The employee turned around.

“Just asking,” Lucy said.

“Are you local?  I could imagine someone your ages buying a television, but since you don’t drive and there’s shipping… I wouldn’t, if you’re not local,” the employee said, maintaining a tone like she was bored, drawling on a bit.

“Uhh, yeah,” Lucy said, folding her arms.  “Why assume I’m not local, when you assume she is?”

The employee looked at the televisions, where the goblin had knocked something over, camera included.  A pair of smaller goblins appeared on screen, trying to lift the camera.  Sound was distorted to the point Avery could tell Breastbiter was talking, but not hear the words.  The goblins weren’t strong enough to lift the camera, and appeared to give up.

The woman turned away, picking up a few boxes she’d apparently emptied to put some toasters on display.

“You’re ignoring me now?” Lucy asked. “Actually?”

“I have work to do.  You girls let me know if you need anything.”

“Just ignoring the question,” Lucy murmured.

“Want to go?” Avery asked Lucy.

“I want to not let this go.”

“Hmm.  Snow, you up for setting this place on fire?”

“I’d never do something like that,” Snowdrop said, not turning away from the fan.

“I don’t want arson, I just want… people to not be dicks,” Lucy said.  “Did you see that?”

“I saw it.  Pretty blatant.”

“I can almost respect how blatant it is, except you know, don’t want to respect that.”

“Yup,” Avery said, not really sure what to add.

“I’m wearing more expensive clothes than you.  I don’t mean that in a bad or mean way, but-”

“Yeah, no, for sure.  I’m wearing my expect-to-get-in-another-fight clothes,” Avery replied.  “You definitely look more like someone who’d be able to buy a television for her room.  Clothes, hair.”

“Thank you,” Lucy said.  “For validating.  Sometimes I think I’m losing my mind.”

“Nah.  Mind intact.”

“I’m so annoyed.  I hate these stores, preying on people with cheap crap furniture, but then she acts superior to me?  Ma’am!?” Lucy called out.

The woman ignored her.

Lucy looked at Avery.

“Can I talk to your boss?” Lucy called out.

“I am the boss, it’s my store,” the store employee said, with the attitude of someone who had looked forward to saying that for a while, tapping her nametag.  She flashed another forced-seeming smile, before walking away.

“Ma’am?” Lucy called out.  “Hey!”

The woman had stepped through the door behind the counter.

“Well screw her I guess,” Lucy said.  “Want to go?”

“Try to get her attention one more time?” Avery asked.  She looked at Snowdrop, who seemed to pick up on her cue, wandering off.  “Warn her about imminent disaster?”

Lucy frowned more.  “If there was imminent disaster, does she even deserve a warning?  How big a disaster are we talking?”

“If you try to warn and she doesn’t act on the warning, doesn’t that make it more karmically even?”

“I dunno,” Lucy said.

Avery shrugged.

“Ma’am!  Can I get your attention?  It might be important!”

“Dunno,” Lucy told Avery.

Avery sent the signal.

A television toppled to the store floor, crashing.

“What the hell are you doing!?” the employee shouted.

“Not us!” Avery called out.  She pointed.

Snowdrop, in opossum form, was on the shelf with the televisions.  She ran along, pulling on cords, tangling them, and nudging televisions toward the edge.

The woman froze, eyes wide, as Snowdrop came within a few feet of her.

Snowdrop hissed, and the woman screamed in response.  Snowdrop ran the other way, nudging televisions more, toppling one.  They were plugged into a power bar, and the bar fell, leading to one smaller, fifteen-inch-or-so television falling off the edge but not hitting ground.  The employee ran forward to catch it, Snowdrop hissed, and the woman shrieked, backing away.

“My friend tried to warn you,” Avery said.  “An opossum got into the store!”

“I did try!” Lucy said.

The woman shrieked, running to go pick up a broom.  Snowdrop used the moment her back was turned to flee out of sight.  On the televisions that were still intact, the goblin was on display, holding the camera in one hand to show off the bicep he was flexing.

“You know, uh,” Lucy said, quiet.  “This isn’t exactly… right?”

“Yeah,” Avery said.  “But…”

“I’m trying to go for revenge less.  Curses with inherent justice feel better.  Hit harder, but it’s fairer, kinda?”

“Yeah, I get it, but I guess I… I dunno.”  Avery floundered for a better reply.  One that summed up her feelings.

“You gotta know, I think,” Lucy said.  “Remember our conversation after the first proper meeting with the Faerie?  You and Pam?  Responsibility?”

“Oh yeah.  Don’t think I’ll forget that for a long time, if ever.”

“Yeah,” Lucy replied.

A shelf of clocks and knick-knack type decorations for a mantlepiece or display cabinet gave way, dumping the contents onto the floor.  Snowdrop bounded away, while the employee ran around, wide eyed, trying to balance damage with the rampaging wild animal that was playing at being scared and out of place.

“I hate seeing you upset,” Avery said.  “And… I guess I needed to blow off steam.”

She signaled Snowdrop to back off.  Snowdrop hissed at the employee, dodging the broom that was trying to usher her toward the door.

“Miss?” Lucy called out.  “Do you want help?”

The woman found the time to give Lucy the finger before going after Snowdrop again.

“Yeah, well, fuck you too,” Lucy replied.  She motioned toward the door.

Avery nodded, and Avery signaled Snowdrop, pushing intent toward the back room.

“Bye!” Avery called out.

The employee gave her an aggrieved look.  While she was looking at Avery, Snowdrop slipped away, behind the counter and into the back room.

They left the store and walked down the street, giving one last glance at the televisions, which had returned to the live-action kids movie with the goose.  The televisions that weren’t on the floor, that was.

“Doesn’t feel good,” Lucy said.

“Hmm,” Avery replied.  “No.”

“That’s what got me, you know.  After Paul.  I… I didn’t fix anything.  I didn’t resolve anything.  I got retribution, but it doesn’t feel good.”

“What if it’s a choice between feeling bad and feeling bad but getting a little bit of retribution?”

“I dunno,” Lucy said.  “I’ve been thinking about that stuff a lot.  The Carmine Furs, talked to John.”

“Yeah.”

“Feels sometimes like you either let certain types win, or you gotta stoop to a certain level to get back at ’em, and stooping doesn’t feel good.”

“The woman left her laptop open on her desk.  Snowdrop wants to be mischievous.”

“Typing mischievous or…?”

“More like peeing on it mischievous.  I think she’s been spending too much time around the goblins.”

“Oh my god,” Lucy said.

“I’m noticing you’re not saying no,” Avery hedged.

There was no time to resolve the debate about whether to take a whiz on the laptop.  The woman entered the back and found Snowdrop perched on the laptop, four limbs planted on the four corners of the keyboard, ready for the okay.  She lunged, pushing the lid of the laptop down, like she wanted to squish Snowdrop or pinch the laptop closed in a capture.  Snowdrop’s retreat off the desk and onto the chair brought the laptop with her, pinching lower-back hairs between laptop lid and lower portion.

Whipped around and dropped from the desk, the laptop crashed to the ground with a force and sound that suggested it was probably in worse shape than the televisions.

The woman had to circle the desk and opossum-form Snowdrop didn’t.  Snowdrop evaded the woman, fled the building out the open back door, and became human.  She began jogging over.

“And chance for decisions over.”

“Probably for the best,” Lucy said.  “Don’t tell me what she did, if anything.”

Avery nodded.

“When I was younger, I wouldn’t have been able to read between the lines.  I’d be all, I must’ve done something wrong, y’know?” Lucy asked.

“Yeah.  Does that stuff happen a lot?”

“Depends?  Sometimes it’s once a month or once every two months, someone’ll do something shitty like ignoring me there.  Or they’ll say something, or do something.  Sometimes it happens in a cluster, and that’d be when younger, nicer, more innocent me would start thinking there had to be something.  But no, it’s more like… something in the air sometimes.  We all have to deal with assholes, sometimes you run into a bunch in a row.  I just gotta deal with more.”

“Sorry.”

“Nah,” Lucy said.  “Screw ’em, you know?  Call ’em out when you can, but… can’t often.  Like Mr. Sitton talking to me and my mom like we’re a little bit dumber than we actually are.  Just a little more condescending when talking to me one-on-one than I ever heard him being with anyone else.  But how do you call someone out on that?”

“Like when I catch some guy five years older than me looking at my chest.  Like, dude, they’re not even that nice.  Go leer at some actual women.”

“Or don’t ogle anyone at all.”

“Sure, yeah, I mean, that’d be ideal.”

“Yeah.”

“But like, what do you say?  I feel like I’ve had a lot of those moments, you know?  Back home?  Stuff.”

“You know,” Lucy started to say something, then paused.  “I asked you to hang out because I wanted to ask.  About that.  About stuff.”

“Yeah?”

“Are you okay?  You’ve been quiet, you’ve seemed distracted.  Some of this, having enemies at the gates constantly, enemies inside the gates, people we thought we could trust turning out to be enemies… it sucks.”

“It does suck,” Avery said.

“I worry.  I want to be a friend, I want to make sure you’re okay, hear you out, if you need anything.  It’s a grind, it’s a lot, stuff’s intense.”

Avery nodded.  She couldn’t find the words.

Snowdrop helped, by turning up right around then.  Snow hurried over, and tackle-hugged Avery.

“Good communication, my familiar,” Avery said, breaking the hug and offering a high-five, which Snowdrop took.  Avery and Snowdrop exchanged about a dozen high fives, each sloppier than the last, until Avery was mussing up Snowdrop’s hair instead of high-fiving her.

“You didn’t want me to set a fire, did you?” Snowdrop asked.

“Okay, because I set one, it was huge.  I didn’t get any signals, but I thought I should take the risky option, you know, considering the life or death stakes.”

Avery nodded, smoothing Snowdrop’s hair.

“I’m not tired at all.  Or in need of snacks.  That wasn’t even that much running around.  Easy.”

“Maybe some exercise will do you good.”

“Then don’t give me any more targets like that, okay?  It wasn’t fun.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Avery replied.

“You doing that sort of thing,” Lucy cut in.  She looked at Avery.  “It’s not you.  That’s a pretty extreme blowing-off of steam.  Against people who aren’t equipped to fight back.”

“Can we not like… dwell?  Because she was a shitty person-”

“Very stained to my sight.  Hurt people.  Not really focused at me.  I think she’s just, like, a bad friend or a bad daughter, or a bad neighbor, on top of being a bit smug and ignoring the black girl.  But again, like…”

“Sure.”

Lucy nodded, like she was satisfied with just that.

Avery harbored worries that between this heat, and tensions, and everything else, there’d be a blow-up aimed at her.  From Verona, or from Lucy, or from someone else, even.  Just… ugh.

“You were saying, back home.  Lots of stuff you can’t call out?”

“Yeah.  I mean, I’m not sure what else to say aside from that.  It’s… really minor and really hard to call out all the individual things, and it makes being home suck.  The house is quiet-”

“Mercifully?”

“No.  Not even.  It’s like…” Avery floundered.  “The house used to be noisy, and yeah, there was screaming and chaos and fighting and bickering, and Declan being shitty and Grumble’s television, Kerry crying…”

“Yeah.”

“But there was good stuff too, and it was warm, and even when I was being ignored I sorta knew I was loved, just… not recognized.”

“And now?”

“Bickering and screaming and fighting, Grumble’s stupid TV stuff, Kerry crying, Declan’s games… and silence.  The good warm stuff, like Mom and Dad being dorky together, and teasing Rowan about his girlfriend in a way that’s like, hey, you have a girlfriend, or figuring out what people want for dinner, or just being a family?”

Avery’s voice cracked on that last note.  The last word.

“That’ll improve over time, though, right?” Lucy asked.  “Like, even if you guys don’t get used to stuff and get used to filling in the silence, your mom comes back-?”

“In two or three years.  Or my dad will bring Grumble, Kerry, and Declan and go to her.  They’ll figure it out later and let us know what’s happening.”

Lucy nodded.

Snowdrop looked up at Avery.  Avery looked down at her friend.

“Let me know what you need from me to stick it out, kay?” Lucy asked.  “I had Verona around a lot when stuff got bad.  A few weeks with the recent incident.  I… I would love to back you up somehow.  You’d probably be a cleaner roomate, at least.”

“Probably.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I love the heck out of her.  She’s super, she’s great, even when I’m butting heads with her, or she somehow gets a dirty t-shirt in my sock drawer, or papers on my bed.  But I love her, she’s damn near family.  And I love the heck out of you too,” Lucy said.

Avery sighed, nodded, then hesitated- Snow was still looking up at her.  She looked over at Lucy.  “What if I can’t stick it out?”

“Then you come over for two weeks or for whatever it takes, take a break, get centered, find a solution… ideally.  I don’t know.”

“What if that’s not an option and I can’t stick it out?” Avery asked.

“Is it that bad?” Lucy asked.

They reached an intersection.  There was a badly faded leaflet stapled to the post, damaged by rain.  ‘Stiles’ was emblazoned at the top.  A silhouette of a gunman stood in the center.  At the bottom, most of it was faded or water damaged, the text simply read ‘August 31st, 2020’.

Avery pointed at it, and Lucy shrugged.

Lucy seemed to want an answer.  Is it that bad?

“It’s just… mostly devoid of good,” Avery replied.

“I’m sorry it sucks,” Lucy said.

“Yeah, well…” Avery trailed off.

“Let me know if I can do anything.  I’ve been preoccupied with Verona- the fight, her going home-”

“That’s fine.  That’s good, that should be the thing-”

“But you need more, I get that, it’s just-

“-It’s a lot, though, right?  It’s so much, I don’t have any hard feelings-”

“It’s not about hard feelings, you know that, right?” Lucy asked.

“Yeah.”

“I care about you, I don’t want to do what your parents did and lose track when a bunch of stuff’s in my face.”

“It’s- even you talking to me like this helps.”

“Hug?”

Avery hugged Lucy.

Snowdrop hugged Avery from behind, which prompted a huff of a laugh from Avery, picked up by Lucy a half-second later.

“Just let me know what I can do,” Lucy said, squeezing Avery around the shoulders.  “And I know I’m being a hypocrite, saying that.”

“Hypocrite?”

“The conversation back then.  Saying I didn’t want you to ask me what you should do to fix things.”

“Oh yeah.”

Lucy stepped back.  “There’s some stuff I cant know if you don’t say.”

“Yeah.”

They’d stopped at the intersection to wait for the light to change, and it had changed, but it had just changed back.

“Just… take me at my word, if I say I can tough it out for now?  We’ll deal with it when there’s room to deal,” Avery told Lucy.

Lucy nodded once, firm.

“And… don’t make any promises, but maybe… if I do end up being a butthead or if I decide I gotta do something that’s objectively a bit dumb and selfish…”

“Are you going to crib from Verona’s discarded notes and go become a cat?  Or set up a demesne to live in forever?”

“Was she going to do that?”

“I think that’s why she was looking when she was looking,” Lucy said.  “It was in the back of her mind.”

Avery nodded.

The light had changed, so they changed their route.  Avery indicated the route with a motion of her hand, and Lucy followed.

They turned into a spot that was more out of sight, then crossed the street with the black rope.

Traveling between buildings, walking up an accessibility ramp for a six-apartment apartment building, then down the stairs, because the other paths were fenced off, they headed toward downtown center.

An older guy was on a balcony above them, listening to the radio, as it blared, “And Ondvarg, will be-”

The older guy banged the radio a few times.  “Don’t care about your wolves!”

“Guess some are getting the message,” Lucy murmured.

“Piece of trash!” the guy shouted, lunging to his feet.  He hurled the radio off the balcony and into a trash can on the street below.  Avery, ten or twenty feet away, backed up, heart hammering.

“Nice shot,” Lucy called up.

“Yeah,” the old guy said, before going inside.  The door closed.

Avery put a hand over her heart, exhaling, then raised her eyebrows at Lucy.

Wish I could get over that, Avery thought.  It would have been nice if facing the Wolf on the Promenade had helped her get past old people freaking her out somehow.

“You could talk to Dr. Mona,” Lucy said.

“If you’re jumpy.”

“Jumpy only around a few things.”

“Well, just saying.”

“Maybe.”

It was hard to commit to anything or figure anything out, when the future was so far from being set in stone.

Activity downtown was pretty scattered.  There were stores with air conditioning and those stores had more activity, and there were some outdoor booths and food stalls, and restaurants with outdoor patios, but the only people sitting down were the ones who were able to claim shade.  Others were taking their stuff to their cars and driving over to the shore, or walking over.  There was an event that looked like a very large birthday party happening out over near the water, with balloons.

They reached their destination, one of the outdoor dining areas in the shade, and found Ken sitting at a table with Verona, Zed, Brie, and Jessica.  They’d just eaten, apparently.  Ken looked like he could be Verona’s relative, just because he resembled her dad.  He was 40-ish, with dark hair that wasn’t quite black, shot through with gray, with bags under his eyes, a beard, and a bit of a gut.  He wore a new-ish looking short-sleeved top with a plaid print, and it looked like he’d done more than usual to touch up his hair and trim his beard.

“Hey,” Lucy said.

“Hi,” Jessica replied.

Ken grunted, swallowing his food.  He didn’t get a good swallow, and raised a hand in greeting, coughing slightly.

“Don’t choke,” Verona said.  “What would happen if you did choke?”

“There are people nearby,” Brie murmured.  “Careful about the what-ifs, you might be overheard.”

“What I’ve learned is you can kinda B.S. a lot of it,” Verona said.

“I think you have to be good at the B.S.,” Lucy told her.  “Which you are.  Don’t try to B.S. if you’re going to trip yourself up.”

“Hi,” Avery said.  “I’m the case in point.”

“You’re not that bad,” Lucy told her.

“How was the day?” Avery asked.

“Good,” Verona replied.  “The day was solid.”

“Jeremy?”

“Saving Jer for tomorrow, recharge my batteries before stuff.  Nah, I tooled around with alchemy, the gainsaying is starting to shake loose.  Got some new magic items identified.”

“Maybe go easy on the magic item stuff?” Avery suggested, more out of deference to Brie than out of any actual worry.

“What, you never played a video game?” Verona askd.

“Ha, yeah, I’ve played a few.”

“He likes the retro ones,” Brie mock-whispered.  “Big shock.”

“I like some modern ones.  You do too.  Bray?  Halt?”

“Yeah,” Brie said.  “The sheep one.”

“What items, Ronnie?” Avery asked.  She took a seat.  She squeezed over so Lucy could sit too.

“Well, broke the water pistol by throwing it.  So that’s out.  The rasp is pretty violent as a tool.  If you make contact with it to one part of your body, it extends to the rest of your body, tissue-dependent.  Whack the back of your hand and you feel that whack on every inch of skin.”

“And it’s a rasp?” Avery asked.

“Yep.  Check out my fingernails.”

Avery looked.

Verona’s fingernails were uniformly scuffed, with fine diagonal gouges.  “If you rasp a fingernail, it gets all of every fingernail.  I think it could be a way to get rid of body hair if you were really careful about scraping the hair without getting skin, but it might get your eyebrows and head hair too.”

“Experimenting on yourself?” Lucy asked.

“Yep, in a minor way.  Anyway, also got this,” Verona said, reaching into her bag and pulling out a letter.  It had a wax seal on the front.

Ken finished eating and cleaned his hands before taking the letter.

“Ken helped diagnose how it works,” Verona said.

“It’s clearance,” Ken said.  “Permission, access, any situation someone would get in your way, hand it over.  Stopped for speeding?  Give that to the officer instead of your license and registration, they’ll go back to their vehicle, come back, hand it to you, send you on your way.  Give it to a bouncer for entry to a club.  Access to a wedding or party…”

“Woah,” Lucy said.

“There’s a drawback,” Verona said.

“What’s the drawback?” Avery asked.

“Don’t know.  But Ken thinks there’s a drawback-”

“There is,” Ken said.

“-and apparently after you use the letter you have to be really careful to do something,” Verona explained.  “We don’t know what that something is, but something bad happens.”

“We don’t know what the bad thing is,” Ken elaborated.

“Might be War and Death related,” Verona said.  “According to my very not-fantastic, slightly gainsaid reading.  Like, if you don’t do a specific thing after using the letter to get somewhere or do something, maybe someone comes to try to kill you shortly after.”

“That’s a drawback,” Avery said.

“Which is annoying!” Verona exclaimed.  “Ugh.  Want to try to figure it out, Ave?”

“Uh, no.  Don’t think so.  But there’s been other weirdness that needs some figuring out…”

Verona leaned forward, elbows apart and on the table, wrists together, chin in hands.  “Weirdness?”

Avery leaned over the table.  “Like the Wye thing yesterday morning?  Eyes on papers?  Except it’s… a goblin on TV only we could see.  A paper on a light post-”

“John?” Verona asked.  “Oh!  I saw this, I saved it, I thought it might be a trick…”

Verona dug in her bag.  She pulled out a folded paper bound in elastic, put it on the table, and unfolded it.  She’d placed a smaller paper within a circle inside.  She unfolded that.

It was a silhouette of a head.  A larger silhouette of a man loomed behind, hands on the smaller figure’s shoulders.  There was a cut-out for Musser’s glasses in the larger silhouette, a white outline of the glasses..

The text at the bottom read ‘Musser’s Mystery Candidate: Listen in on tonight’s podcast to get our analysis.’  The information for where to actually listen in was unreadable.

“Okay, yeah,” Avery said.  “That’s something we should talk about.  Want to walk, so we can talk more without being overheard?”

The others nodded, except for Ken, who groaned a bit.

The others got to their feet, Verona pulling her bag on.  They sorted things out and then walked away from everything.  Ken kept more of a pace with Verona.  Avery walked ahead a bit, and looked around, just to make sure the coast was clear enough.

“Saw one of the ephemeral birds earlier,” Verona said.

“I stopped in to talk to Rook,” Lucy said.  “Not much to say.  The one Snowdrop caught yesterday and brought in isn’t singing.”

“Drat.”

“We’ve got Bridge too, still.  He’s stubborn.  I think a lot of these Others are immortal, really changes things up,” Lucy said.

“Don’t have to worry about how long you sit in a jail cell if you live for thousands of years?” Avery asked.

Lucy shrugged.

“Shrines are okay?” Avery asked.

“So far.  Goblins are guarding ’em, being gross and annoying enough to scare off the animals,” Verona said.  “I did up some wards to help when I went by this morning.”

“Good stuff,” Avery said.  “I’ll do more tonight.  What was the bird doing?  The one you saw while you were out.”

“Watching, until I scared it off.  Came back around a few times.  Being a bit cartoony.  Don’t you get that vibe?”

“A bit.  Cartoony how?”

“I dunno.”

“Clever, resilient, really animated, not following normal rules,” Lucy said.

“Yeah!” Verona said.  “There’s a bit of that, y’know?”

Avery nodded.  She looked down at the paper that advertised Musser.  “So… what the heck?  There was Breastbiter the goblin on TV-”

“Goblin chonk,” Lucy said, deadpan.

“-and there was a thing on the radio about a…”

“Ondvarg?”  Lucy asked.

“Our ephemeral wolf?” Verona asked.  “And Musser’s mystery candidate… what the heck?  Is this another Wye thing?”

Ken, beside Verona, raised a hand.

“What?” Avery asked.

“I didn’t realize that was how it would happen,” Ken said.  “I thought, you know, visitors, lots of outside attention, lots of inside attention, I should smarten up a bit, focus.  Keep an ear to the ground, be ready for these guys to turn up and for this thing to happen.”

“What did you do?”

“I… started getting ready.  Adapted,” Ken said.  “Wanted to watch out, make sure I told you guys if I got any clues about what was coming down the line.”

“So we’re getting hype segments on the radio and TV, this stuff popping up?” Avery asked.

“I guess,” Ken said.

Avery considered that.  She nodded to herself, frowning, then decided, “I’m down.  Yeah, this is cool.”

“Weird,” Lucy said.

“But it’s information, and helpful?”

“Should be,” Ken said.  “Bracing for impact.”

“As long as we know what’s going on,” Avery said.  “You didn’t know how it would work?”

“Nope,” Ken said.

“Is that usual?” Lucy asked.  “For a city spirit, or a spirit in general?  Not knowing how their powers work?”

“Any insights?” Zed asked Jessica.

“You study realms stuff, you know your way around spirits, some, from the Ruins delving.”

“I mostly handle spirits in… the same way you’d handle rabid dogs.  Fence them off, manage the occasional one, don’t let them ruin your day or your week.”

“You can’t handle this spirit,” Snowdrop said, leaning into Avery, arms raised.  “Unmanageable, hard to bribe with food, horrible for petting.”

“I don’t think I’d be comfortable petting anything capable of talking to me.  It’s weird,” Jessica said.

“That’s a great and sensible line of thinking,” Snowdrop said, dead serious.  “You should make a point of spreading it around so everyone can adopt it.”

“You’re fine,” Avery told Snowdrop, smoothing down her hair.

On the far side of the street, Mr. Sitton was walking with his daughter.  He looked over at them and nodded once in acknowledgement.  A bit grumpy.  The daughter, twenty or so, looked even grumpier.  It was mean to think, but she kinda had a face like a thirty year old, with creases set into it from frowning a lot.

“Ken, Zed, Jessica, and I were all talking about how to get things a little more skewed in our favor,” Verona said.  “Wasn’t long before you guys turned up, so you didn’t miss much.”

“My input was mostly being anxious about talking about practice stuff where people might overhear,” Brie said.  “I’m still new at this, and aside from my parents I haven’t been around people since I awoke.”

“Innocence helps,” Lucy told her.

“Until it doesn’t,” Brie replied.  “It’s like saying a phone case is water resistant.  It’s not water proof.“

“Sounds right to me,” Verona replied.  “Just don’t dunk ’em in all the way, should be okay.”

Brie sighed.  “Should isn’t… I’d rather be safe.”

“That’ll take you far,” Zed told her.

“I’ve already been putting some focus into making things harder for the Witch Hunters, but they resist it,” Ken said.  “Couple of them turn harder into anything I do to turn them away.”

“A bit of wind in their faces, they walk harder into it,” Zed said.

“Except it’s not wind.  It’s a turn in the streets, a road that loops back on itself,” Ken said.  “Putting obstacles in their way, police, construction.”

“Sounds expensive, power-wise.”

“Might be,” Ken said.  “I’m not good at…”

“At?” Avery asked.

“This.  If I was, I wouldn’t be a slowly dying town.  I don’t know what gets results, what the results are supposed to look like.  There’s a bit of what I do, it’s throwing shit at the wall and seeing if it sticks.”

“Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence,” Verona said.  “Well, Ken’s been doing that with the animals and it works better, but that raises a bunch of questions, y’know?”

“Oh yeah,” Avery replied.  “Raises feelings.”

Lucy nodded, hair bouncing behind her head.  “Like we’re playing chess with a bunch of animals and they’re thinking two steps ahead.  So when they back off, it feels like they’re doing it on purpose, and not because we made it annoying enough that they had to stop.”

“Besides, Maricica is behind them and she’s way more than two steps ahead,” Avery said.  “Which gets us here.  Having this conversation.  I’m worried we’re being listened to, especially knowing Guilherme said the animals can spy and stalk prey despite some practice-based protections.”

“If you give me a minute, I can set up a room or a space,” Zed said.  “And I’ll need power.  Some power poles and streetlights have outlets, if you go looking…”

“Here.  I’ll bring us to a safe point to talk,” Ken said.  “This way.”

They followed Ken.

Avery spotted Ms. Hardy across the street, hair black, eye makeup on point, wearing a loose-fitting top that billowed in the breeze.  Ms. Hardy looked like someone who really liked the heat.  Maybe it was the short hair, or the clothes she wore, or the sense that she’d traveled the world, been to Africa, India, and other places, and she’d acclimated to it.

Avery wanted that.  She wanted to go places and bring back good things from them.  But she wanted those places to be really out there.  She couldn’t think of a lot of things that were cooler.  Or more terrifying.

Humans were meant to explore and it was maybe a huge tragedy that that exploration had hit some really intense walls.  Space, the ocean, intense metaphysical dream spaces that could chew a little witch up and spit them out.

She waited, a bit antsy, hoping for Ms. Hardy to look over, and when Ms. Hardy did, she wanted to wave or call out but she didn’t want to look like a dork, either, so she paused awkwardly, smiling, and then waved just as Ms. Hardy was looking away.

“People we want to protect huh?” Verona asked.

Avery looked at her friend.  Verona watched Ms. Hardy.

“She’s important to you?” Verona asked.

“Yeah.  Even if, like… sometimes I feel like she changed my life, helped me figure out a lot of stuff, but when it comes down to it, I’m not someone she’d think of nearly as often.”

“Louise,” Lucy said.

“What?”

Lucy pointed down the street.

“No!” Snowdrop complained.  “I hate her.  She sucks.”

Louise was walking their way.

“Is this the Carmine influence?” Avery asked.

“What?”

“Like, we ran into some sorta racist storekeeper that gave Lucy the cold shoulder, and that caused a whole thing… my fault, I went overboard.”

“I wasn’t part of that.  Blame Avery one hundred percent,” Snowdrop said.

“And some old guy scared me…”

“I ran into Jeremy and his parents,” Verona said.  “Awkward but not so bad.”

“Mr. Sitton was walking by, just a little while after I was talking to Avery about him,” Lucy said.  “Some people giving me the stink-eye.  Which isn’t unusual, it’s not unusual to run into people, but…”

“Is this the Carmine influence?  Stirring conflict?”

“Or my fault?” Ken asked.

“Yours?”

“I was getting more organized, reeling in some of the slack, keeping an eye out for the intruders.  Making sure I didn’t have to push things as hard to get them put in their way.”

“So… did you reel in our slack?” Avery asked.

“Some.  I thought you’d want to be more able to respond, or get places.”

“Does that mean you’re- does that shorten the gaps between us and key people?”

“Liz Driscoll from the Blue Heron talked about this,” Zed said, with a tone like he was excited to have something relevant.  “Mapping out a city you’re visiting so you can find the key hubs, major players, essential people for each thing you need to do.  The guy who knows all the rumors, the person who sells what you need.”

“It’s good, then?” Ken asked.

“Uh.  It’s dangerous, too.  As Lucy experienced, I think.  It shortens the roads between you and enemies too.  You can go full noir detective, if you really ramp it up, go from mugger to romantic encounter to guy who wants to kill you to essential lead for that important thing you’re supposed to be doing.  Either get shot in an alley or come out of it tired but successful.”

“At least Louise is a friend,” Avery said.  “It’s not so bad, if we’re being pulled toward friends.”

“A terrible friend,” Snowdrop said.

Louise made it to them.  “Here you all are.  Hi Snowdrop.”

“It’s annoying when you single me out,” Snowdrop told her.

“How are you?” Avery asked.

“Health’s a little worse lately, kidneys acting up… but I shouldn’t complain.  Funny we cross paths.”

“We’re apparently crossing a lot of paths today,” Avery said, glancing at Ken.

“Is this family?” Louise asked.  “Don’t let me interrupt.”

“Friends from out of town, and Ken who’s… local,” Verona said, indicating Ken.

“Local?  I haven’t seen you.”

Ken frowned.  “You have, but it’s fine.  I’m not that memorable.”

“Unless it’s ski season,” Verona said.

Lucy elbowed Verona.

“Oh, you ski?” Louise asked.

“Skiing… defines me, a big part of what I do, how I get by,” Ken said, reluctant.

“If you can get by with something fun like skiing, isn’t that the dream?” Louise asked.

“Maybe, but they’re dreams punctuated by stressful reality,” Ken said, morose.

“That’s life, right?” Louise asked.  “Anyway, I’m out for a walk while I’m still able, get that time in before I’m more housebound.  Don’t let me keep you.”

“Yeah, don’t,” Snowdrop told her.

“Maybe I’ll see you around, Ken. I hope I see you girls around.  Snow, I know you’ll stop in.  Which reminds me, Avery, Snow, I hope those things you asked for and swore up and down you weren’t going to misuse didn’t get misused?  Right?  Please?”

“No, don’t worry,” Avery replied. Asked her for cigarettes and gave them to Lott, the Complex Wraith.

“Good.  I’ll see you,” Louise said.  “Enjoy Kennet, strangers.”

Louise walked away, a little slower than Avery had seen her move before, a bit of a limp, not like her legs hurt, but because other things hurt.

Avery frowned.

“Small town friendliness, huh?” Zed asked.

“She’s awful,” Snowdrop said.

“She’s neat,” Verona said, “even if the complaining…”

“Is justified?” Avery asked.  “Being sick sucks.  I know you don’t like that stuff, cause-”

“Cause reasons, sure, and she holds it back,” Verona said.  “Sometimes it gets a bit much.  That’s fair, right?”

“I think that’s fair,” Snowdrop said.

Verona stuck out her tongue at Snowdrop.

“It’s fine,” Lucy said.

“This way,” Ken said.

“Did anyone else get the impression she like, locked onto Ken like, ooh, he’s interesting?” Avery asked.

“Yep,” Verona said.

“Did she?” Ken asked.

“And that might be why the town’s birth rate is low,” Verona said, sticking a thumb out at Ken.

Lucy sighed.

“Hey, if Louise actually went out with Ken and did stuff with Ken, could we say she, like… dated the whole town.  Literally?” Verona asked.

“Only if we’re saying it nicely,” Lucy said.

“Hard disagree,” Snowdrop said.

“Definitely saying it nicely,” Verona said. “Like, mucho cred if you can pull it off, lady.”

“I’d rather not like… hypothesize about real people?” Avery ventured.  “Especially when one of them is right here, walking with us?”

“Kennet in general tends to stagger through these things in pained obliviousness,” Ken grumbled.  “Then they get drunk and fumble my way through things, and if they fumble persistently through it all, the relationships stick.”

“Oh my god, that’s so depressing,” Verona said.  “That’s the norm?”

“It’s a fair-sized chunk of those on the market for a relationship,” Ken said.

“Horrifying,” Verona said.

“It’s not just me, then, huh?” Avery asked.  “Romance is dead and it was a really sad death?”

“Drowned in a shallow puddle that tastes like weak beer and pee?” Verona asked.

“Oh my god,” Avery groaned.  Lucy patted her back.

“Essentially,” Ken confirmed.  “Add in some stubbed-out cigarettes and you’re moving closer to reality, not further away.”

“Stop, mercy!” Avery cried out.  “Please.”

“At least we managed a bit of a fairy tale romance,” Zed told Brie.

“If the fairy tale is Hansel and Gretel, with the witch putting the kid in the oven at the end,” Brie said.

“You’re not a witch,” Zed told her.  “You’re not knobby enough.”

“Yet.”

Avery looked back at Louise.  “I wonder why she’s getting sick again.  Is it because Charles is gone?  Matthew gave Charles some of Louise’s health problems, and then they sorta healed Charles.”

“Ray’s still got the guy in custody,” Zed said.

“Which brings us back to… stuff.  How far are we from where we’re going, Ken?” Lucy asked.

“Here,” Ken said.  “I didn’t want to open up while she’s here.  I’ll relax some of the slack.”

“Might be best,” Lucy told him.

As they walked around a building Avery felt like she recognized but couldn’t place, she saw stairs she could vaguely place as a mesh of the stairs that cut up the hillside in the general direction of Louise’s place, and a set of stairs that led down to one of the more beach-ish areas of shore where some of the residents did their swimming.  Concrete rectangles and metal pipe as a railing.

The stairs led up the side of the building, under an arch, around the back of the building, up-

The more up they went, the more it felt like the buildings were crowded in together, and the harder it got to see the logic behind how things fit together.

She saw a bit of mist and reached out to touch it, and it was more solid than she’d expected.

Small bits of graffiti decorated surfaces, bits of trash were packed into crevices, and the scenery in the distance was only intermittently visible, as they walked around.  Each time it disappeared from view and then reappeared, it took on a slightly different look.

Snowdrop became more spirit than anything, slightly blue-tinted, wispy at the edges.  She became an opossum and perched on Avery’s shoulder, eerily light compared to her usual dense mass.

Like they’d moved to a high place, but the view to the south was of Lake Superior, and that view curved upward, and it became possible to see the lake at the horizon… and where lake became sky was hard to make out.  Bowdler Hill to the east and Greensey to the west loomed upward, curving in like horns.  The highway and trees lined the north, trees and mist becoming sky at some indeterminate point.  The colors of it all were both washed out and vivid, like every location of note had been painted neon bright, neon pink, bright green, then hidden behind inconsistent mist.  The ski hills could, if she squinted, appear as if it were winter.

Past bridges, past railings, past rooftops and concrete archways that allowed passage beneath roads, she could see top-down views of people walking this way and that.

Ken situated himself on the rooftop.  The space was square, but there was a ring painted around it in red.  Tiny arrangements of stone and wood punctuated that ring.

“Built yourself a spot?” Zed asked.

“Miss said I should.  A place where I’m safer, where I can see it all at once,” Ken said.

He stood there, at the roof’s edge, his back to them, and K.T. walked out from in front of him, even though there wasn’t any space between Ken and the railing.  An older teen of indiscriminate gender, wearing a beanie cap with long hair sticking out the bottom, and the kinds of loose clothes the snowboarders around town wore in warmer weather.  K.T. leaned against the railings that met at the eastern corner of the rooftop, arms draped out to either side.  Behind K.T., Avery could see the looming Bowdler ski hill.  The more popular of Kennet’s two.  Most people went to Bowdler until they knew the hills backward and forward.  Sometimes Greensey would make more difficult courses and jumps to lure people in, but just as often, Greensey would get worse conditions from the way the sun wind and rain hit Kennet at certain angles.

Another figure stepped away from Ken, similar to how K.T. had, but playing on light and shadow more.

K. McKeller Steel was an old, old fashioned guy, behind the times, run down.  Lucy had mentioned having clothes that looked nice and she’d been offended at being assumed poor.  This was… McKeller had had money once, a long time ago, and the wear and tear to face, body, and clothing, hair loss and evidence of drinking had done a number on him.  He carried himself like someone willing to pick a fight, someone with pride.  Another facet of Ken, who slouched his way away from where Ken stood.  He took the south corner of the rooftop, then knocked back a hit from his flask.  He looked like the human equivalent of a room that had been smoked in for a lifetime without the walls getting a scrub.  Like a sepia image filter on the phone, but from tobacco, not some color palette invented by the designers of a phone app.

At the south corner, he was framed by the factories and disused buildings of southern Kennet, the long roads, the gravel lots, the areas where stone hills had been cut into to make way for roads.

When Nettie stepped away, it was a trick of the eyes, the fog rolling past, Ken’s ear becoming her nose in the vagueness of deep fog, his hairline becoming a shaggy sweep of hair.  She evidenced problems in a different way from McKeller.  He’d been ruined, and she was just tired.  Her hair was in a side-ponytail that didn’t suit her age, and she wore a knee-length denim skirt and a simple tank top.  She took the north corner.  Downtown Kennet, graffiti, people.

Leaving Annette O., who dressed in brighter colors.  Her clothes weren’t new or high fashion, or maybe a few articles were, but it was through careful budgeting, careful choices.  Annette had a family, in abstract.  Annette worked.  Annette juggled fifty things in a town that was… not helping with the juggling.

Annette was closer to Avery’s parents.  Except, like, Avery’s mom had left for greener pastures.  Closer to Lucy’s mom.  To Verona’s dad.  Maybe Ms. Hardy, a bit.

The sprawl of homes and houses sprawled behind her, reaching upward like paper that curled at the edges.  The wind blew her hair sideways.

“You wanted to talk about something in private?” McKeller said, his voice a rough smoker’s burr, worse than Louise’s.

Behind him, the overly muscular engine-headed spirit briefly rose up to the level of the rooftop, peering around, before dipping down toward the red painted circle on the rooftop’s edge.  A shrine flared bright.

“You were put here to be knocked down, apparently,” Lucy said.  “They’re coming after you.”

“We’re tougher than we look,” Nettie said, behind Lucy, forcing Lucy to turn around to face her.  “We endure okay.”

“I mean, yeah,” Lucy said.  “But this is a very real problem.  We need to work out their avenue of attack.”

“Or circumvent it,” Verona said.

“If they hurt you, they hurt all of us,” Avery said, directing her concern at Annette.  “They hurt residents.  They hurt kids.”

“Isn’t that your job?” McKeller asked.  “Protecting this?”

He touched a toe to the ring of red.  The perimeter stirred, the red becoming redder.

“You’re a big target,” Zed said, joining the conversation.  “That’s a lot to protect. If they get to you as an individual spirit, Kennet’s Anima Corporeal, they get to the town.  If they get to the town, they can get to you.  To… this.”

“We’re trying to help, but we’re… not very good at it,” Nettie confessed.  She looked drawn into herself.  “We’re trying to rally the community.  There’s a kernel of that in Kennet.  Get spirits in line, focus the power of the shrines.”

“That’s good!” Verona said, bright.  “But…”

“We need cooperation,” Avery said, as Verona trailed off, unsure how to follow up.  “We need communication.  We need to figure out what the weak point might be.  Brainstorm.”

“We make it a focus to avoid thinking about things too hard,” K.T. said.  “Politics, stresses, ugh.  Just… coast.”

“I get you, definitely hear where you’re coming from,” Verona said.  “But we might be coasting toward disaster, if we can’t unravel this.”

“Well said,” Lucy said, to Verona.  “Don’t you have any fight?  Any pride?”

“It’s a fight to make ends meet at the end of the month,” Annette said.

“Are you proud of Kennet?” Nettie challenged Lucy.

Lucy shook her head slightly, while trying to find the words, and in that little head shake, betrayed the real answer.

McKeller scoffed, like he’d seen it too.

“Maybe this would be better if we just talked to Ken?” Avery asked.

“Ken is a lump of a man who has the worst traits of all of us,” McKeller said.

“It’s true,” K.T. said.

“And the best traits?” Avery asked, hopeful.

“That’s not the way it works,” Nettie said.  “If you’re a good person who’s done something horrible, that horrible is what sticks.”

“The good is what gets people to come back to keep helping,” Lucy said.  “The good is what gets people to care about the bad stuff you did.  If you don’t have any good, they’ll just dismiss you and push you out of their lives.”

Are you thinking of Paul?  Avery thought.  It only hurt because you cared?

The little betrayal of Ms. Hardy not caring back as much as Avery had wanted, not doing the one-on-one meetings, as much as all that made sense… it hurt because Avery had cared so very much.

Verona looked pensive.

She’s seeing her dad tomorrow.

“What are you thinking?” Nettie asked them.  “What’s the plan?  You care enough to want to save us, save Kennet…”

“Some happy memories, key people,” Avery said, and she aimed that at K.T.

K.T. nodded, and when K.T. got nodding, the other three started nodding a little as well.

“Big thing would be to figure out what weaknesses we can patch up,” Lucy said.  “Brainstorm the avenues of attack, Jessica knows some stuff about spirits and protections, Zed is pretty into the realm knowledge.”

“Some,” Zed said, frowning.

“And you know Brie has power.  You know that power.”

“A soundtrack of children singing has played in this spot longer than we have,” Annie said.  She looked at McKeller.  “Most of us.”

“It’s not that old a song,” the worn out old business owner agreed.

“We don’t brainstorm,” K.T. said.  “You get that, right?  If Kennet was a place that collectively brainstormed and came up with magical solutions and fixed stuff, we’d be a town of startups.”

Nettie said, “We’d have businesses that do more than build third-rate, front-facing interfaces and record-tracking software for hospitals and move databases around.  Our downtown wouldn’t have a quarter of the shops all closed down or going out of business.”

“We’d have industry, still,” McKeller said.

“Our kids would be going off to University on the regular,” Annette O. told them.

“I mean,” Avery said… and she turned, looking at each of them.  “When there’s something really horrible and bad on the horizon, all signs pointing to trouble, couldn’t you maybe give that one hundred and ten percent?”

“You think we aren’t already?” Annette asked.  “Working extra hours, looking after people, trying to make ends meet?  Scraping by?  We’ve been giving more than a hundred and ten percent for a long time and we’re tired.”

Avery could see past Annette to her mom and dad, in that.  A dangerous tiredness in two people that had then gone on to almost break Avery herself.

“Defeated, disappointed,” McKeller added.  “The world rushing past us, leaving us in the dirt, spitting on us.  New immigrants, grinding away our culture…”

He looked at Lucy as he said it.

“Immigrants are our culture,” Lucy said.  “We’re, with limited exceptions, immigrants.  We butted our way into Canada, that’s a problem on its own, but don’t go pretending like oh, that new group is the problem, ruining something that was right.”

Avery looked at Jessica, who was frowning.  Unlike when Avery had touched on the topic back in the Blue Heron classroom, Jessica didn’t look like she was particularly upset at Lucy.  Not that Avery was super great at assessing that sort of thing.  She’d be way less anxious if she was.

“We’re dealing with our own shit.”  Nettie’s tone was apologetic, as she interrupted.  It was almost like she apologized for McKeller.  She looked over at Zed, Jessica and Brie.

“We’re… not really incentivized to push that much harder, y’know?” K.T. asked.

“I mean, survival?” Lucy asked.  “Pretty big incentive.”

“Surviving for what?  One more winter of skiing?  One more school year with less kids attending?  One more year of events, stores giving their all downtown, only for more stores to close, less people to get people excited?  There were barely any fireworks on Canada day.”

“It was dry, apparently,” Verona said.  “Jeremy told me.”

“I don’t want to say there’s no point,” K.T. said.  “There’s a point. I get it.  It’s not all bad.  The people are cool.  But you’re asking for big change, mobilization from Kennet as a whole, and-”

“There’s no motivation,” Nettie said.

“You’re asking for extra resources from a well that’s run dry,” Annette commented.

“It sounds more like you’ve given up,” Lucy said.

“I mean, duh?” K.T. replied.  “Have you seen Kennet?  People don’t come here for much, except cheap skiing.  They exist here because their families gave birth to them here, mostly.”

“Guys,” Jessica said, her voice low.

They looked at her.

“I think… you’re fighting a losing battle.  Ken and the spirits that split off from him are moderate spirits, but they’re tied into…”

She indicated the environment that had been painted all around them.  A Ken-styled section of the spirit world, reflecting Kennet and its spirits.

“…When I was in the Ruins and something moved through like this, I realized it’s like trying to empty the water from a coastline with a bucket.”

Avery looked at Annette.  A reflection of her parents in some ways.

Lucy looked at McKeller.

Verona looked at K.T.

“Charles raised the idea of making you,” Lucy said.

“Apparently so,” McKeller told her.

“Maybe this defeated, defeatist nature is why?”

“Cig said they wanted to paint the town red.  What does that mean?”

“Who knows?” K.T. asked.  “Listen, we’re happy to help where we’re useful.  I think anyone would be.  Spirits?  Great, we’ll guide, we’ll sort things out, push out the weak ones that we can.  But this isn’t us, you know?  We’re representatives.”

“But…” Avery said.  “Isn’t there a side to Kennet where this is you?”

“A side?  I don’t think so,” McKellar said.

“Are you sure?  Like… can I try?” Avery asked.

“We won’t say no,” Nettie said.  “We do want to survive.  We do want answers…”

“You’ve just given up?  Describing yourselves as defeated, too tired?” Lucy asked, her voice too hard.

“We’re being practical.  There are only so many hours in the day,” Annette said.

Avery walked over to the ring of the perimeter’s power.  She turned, taking in the scene, and then touched the border.  She drew out a faint streak of blood, a line that came from one shrine to the center.

Each of the four aspects of Kennet was backed by a scene, each of those scenes cast some light.  Where the shadows cast by the four figures met, there was a patch that Avery circled.  It had to be a related to them.  She connected that- nearly bumping into Lucy who had picked up where she’d started, connecting another shrine to the center circle.

“What do you need?” Zed asked.

“Ummm…”

“Items, awakening items,” Verona said.

“You sure?  You’re not awakening Kennet?”

“Clean the spot,” Jessica said.  “Always a good starting point.”

“I’ve got regular tap water and spirit water,” Avery said.

“Spirit water’s good if what you’re doing is spirit based.”

Avery nodded.

She wet the center circle, cleaning it, while Verona and Lucy drew out more lines.  Verona placed five items in a circle around the center.  They surrounded that with food items.

“Kennet’s got a magical side too, right?” Avery asked, standing back.  “One more dimension of Ken?”

The clouds of the spirit world moved rapidly across the sky.

Avery bent down, touching the edge of the circle.  Verona and Lucy mimed the movement.

“So… rise with us,” Avery said, standing slowly.

The shadow at the center rose up slowly.  Something between the various members of the Kennet council, eyes a dark red, face coagulating blood, body bloody, an elegant dress, long hair.  The clotted blood that coated her seemed to account for the lumpiness of goblins, the slender figure beneath a representation of the fae, the eyes something of Alpeana, Edith, and Matthew.

“Chiming in again to remark on the fact that this is the kind of power that puts you closer to Raymond than like, ninety-five percent of the kids in the east wing this summer,” Zed said.

“Noted,” Verona said.

“And I gotta ask, do we trust all of the forces contributing to this gestalt?” Zed asked.  “Because she looks sinister.”

“I might be able to answer that question if I remembered what gestalt means,” Avery said.

“Everyone put together to become something more,” Verona said.  “The Judge used the word, I looked it up.”

“We trust most of them,” Lucy said.

“It helps if you name it,” Jessica said.

“Which is why we named the shrine spirits, yes, for sure,” Verona said.  “What name works?”

The spirit of Kennet’s Other side looked around, stepped forward, and crossed the smaller circle that had enclosed the overlapping shadows.

She collapsed, structure giving way, dissolving into the blood alone.  Avery jumped back about ten feet to get clear of the splash.

The lines and circles drawn into the roof faded, drying up and flaking away or soaking into and through the rooftop until they were gone.

“I guess we’re not that powerful after all?” Verona asked.  “Is it because I’m gainsaid?”

“You’re plenty powerful,” Zed told them.

“She’s not a side of Kennet,” McKeller said.  “She’s not knit into Kennet as a whole, into its streets.  She doesn’t mingle, interconnect.  The goblins stay out of the city center when they don’t have Ken’s help, the Faerie lived in a cave, John stays on the fringes in his quiet hours and walks the perimeter in his busy ones.”

“A cardboard cutout, falls over without the extra dimensions,” K.T. said.

“Sorry,” Nettie said.

“It’s probably a good thing,” Annette said.

“Why?” Avery asked her.

“Because if it was that easy to pull out a side of us, that’d be the kind of weakness someone could exploit.  They could pull out a narrow, violent slice.  Or a self destructive slice.”

“But that’s not doable?” Verona asked.

Annette shook her head.

“So we’re back to square one?” Lucy asked.  “Which is you guys telling us you can’t help brainstorm, because you give up?”

“That’s an unfair way of putting it,” McKeller told her.

“There’s another option,” Lucy said.  “But I- I don’t know the ethics of it.  I don’t know how okay it is.  I don’t mean to offend-”

“Oh great,” McKeller groused.

“What are you thinking?” Nettie asked.

Lucy paused.

To gather thoughts, maybe, or because it was tricky to bring up.  The three of them had discussed it as an option.  An emergency option.

Avery felt like she had to push herself a bit further to make up for what was coming down the road.  She spoke up, ready to take the hit, to be the one who got yelled at.  “Maybe… if Charles created you with some ulterior motive in mind, maybe we un-create you.”

K.T. scoffed.

“Temporarily.  Your spirit would be kept alive,” Lucy said.  “Again, don’t know the ethics, this is up for debate, we do want your input.”

“Is it up for debate?” Annette asked.

“Yes?” Lucy asked.  “I hope?”

“We’d be taking you out of the picture, temporarily, so they can’t get their hands on you.  Or they can’t get their hands on Kennet and indirectly get their hands on you.  I don’t know how that works,” Verona said.  “But Cig made it out to be a pretty big deal.  They want to paint the town red and you’re… the town.”

“It’s a pretty short jump in logic,” Avery told them.  “If you can’t help us figure out an idea, then for the sake of protecting Kennet… its residents?”

She turned to Annette, but the pitch wasn’t as effective this time.  Annette had her arms folded, and didn’t look happy.

“Speaking of short leaps in logic,” K.T. said.  “Can I try one on you?  Shower thought type of deal.”

“Sure?” Verona said, sounding unsure.

“Our existence as an Anima in physical form is an apparent weakness for Kennet, yes?  Something that can be targeted?”

“Yes,” Verona said, glancing back at Lucy and Avery.

“Can you say you’re absolutely sure that that weakness goes away anytime soon?  What if they stay out there?  What if they try again?”

“We have a lot of good reasons to believe the threat dies away at the end of summer, one way or another,” Lucy said.

“A lot of reasons isn’t absolute certainty,” K.T. said.  “And if you aren’t absolutely certain… can we be absolutely certain you’d bring us back?  You brought us in, gave us some extra purpose, helping out spiritually…”

“…now you’re trying to justify killing us…” Nettie added.

“De-materializing,” Verona clarified.

“Temporarily,” Lucy added.

“And we’re not trying to justify it, exactly,” Avery said.  “We’re raising the idea for debate, because we don’t have a lot of options.”

“Are you sure it would work?” Annette asked.

“It’s hard to be sure of much,” Avery replied.  “The world isn’t a place that makes you very sure of much.”

“Maybe you should make sure before you talk about these things,” McKellar said.  He stepped away from the railing.

The spirit world peeled away.

They were ejected from Ken’s little pocket realm, onto the street.  It took each of them a second to find their bearings.  Zed, Jessica, and Brie followed a second later.

“Well,” Lucy said.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it,” Verona muttered.

“That didn’t work out.  I think we upset him,” Avery said.  “I hope it’s the kind of upset he can get over, like… we’re all stressed, lot on the line, that makes it easier to get upset.”

“I tried to be gentle about it,” Lucy said.

“Me too!”

“Many beings, Other and otherwise, don’t take well to talk of being killed.”

“Dematerialized,” Lucy clarified.  “Temporarily.  They’re a spirit, they’d still be a part of Kennet… it’s like putting someone in a coma where we know they’ll be safe until we can diagnose the thing that’s almost certainly going to destroy them.”

“Pulling on your mom’s medical know-how there, Luce?” Verona asked.

“A bit!”

“Might’ve been good to use that analogy while we were trying to sell them on it,” Avery said.

“Fat fricking chance,” Lucy said.  “They’re stubborn.  Bullheaded, argumentative-”

“Giving up too easily, not facing the future,” Verona added.

“Yeah,” Avery said.  She groaned.  “Frig!  What do we do?”

Lucy shrugged, shaking her head.  “We deal.”

“Keep an eye on things, get organized as best as we can,” Verona said.  “I’ve got to get through tomorrow, then I should be good for our endgame.”

“Good luck,” Lucy said.  She looked at Zed, Jessica, and Brie.  “How are you guys doing?”

“Good to keep going, I think,” Zed replied.  “Where do you think you’re at on the Wye thing?”

Lucy looked at Avery.

“I have an eerie feeling it’d be a repeat of that conversation we just had, same ideas, different words,” Avery said.

“Apt,” Verona replied.

“I might try, but…”

“Setting expectations low,” Jessica said.  “I’ve… I’ve had a lot of those conversations, or I’ve seen them.  People who gave up, people who got locked into a path that wasn’t good for them.”

Avery nodded.

“We’ll be in touch,” Zed said.  “Let us know what you’re doing.  Makes the difference between me being able to kick back and relax, and me keeping my shoes on in case I need to run to the rescue.”

“He loves running to the rescue,” Brie said.

Avery smiled.

“I do, but not if I’m worrying the time it takes me to figure out where I kicked off my shoes to is the time some kids are getting eaten alive,” Zed said.

“I’ll try to remember,” Avery said.

“Nice try tonight,” he said.  “Don’t get too discouraged.”

Avery nodded.

Jessica gave a short smile by way of goodbye, and the three older practitioners walked off in the direction of the campsite.

“Gonna head back before it’s too late,” Lucy said.  “Want to come?  I know you’re on shrines tonight, but we could go with.”

Avery shook her head.  “Maybe some company for the shrines, in case we get ambushed again.”

“Cool.”

“See ya,” Verona said.  “Keep your phone charged.”

“For sure.”

The other two wandered off.  Avery looked at the opossum on her shoulder.

Snowdrop sneezed.

Avery looked up in the general direction of the stairs and where they’d ascended to Ken’s little spirit world.

“Why can’t you just reach out, communicate?” Avery murmured.  “Accept the help and support?”

Snowdrop bit her earlobe lightly.

“Yeah.”

Next Chapter