Author: Wildbow

Wild Abandon – 18.3 | Pale

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“Avery!?  Downstairs!”

The call came from downstairs.  Her dad.

Snowdrop was busy being a goblin sage in training and an ambassador, so Avery didn’t have the lookout she often had back at the Thunder Bay house.  She had to go in blind.  She snatched her bag as she passed it, and made sure she had her spell cards.

Elizabeth Driscoll.  The moment Avery was in sight, Elizabeth let it out, “What the fuck are you doing with my little brother?”

“Talking.  We talked.  We brought him back safe.”

“Who gave you permission to talk to him?”

Avery’s dad put his hands on Avery’s shoulders.  She kind of wanted to shrug her way free of it, but at the same time… no?  She didn’t want to break even the tenuous connections.

“Is anyone in the backyard?” Avery asked her dad.

“Just Grumble, and he’s sleeping.  I can bring him inside.”

“If he’s comfortable and happy, let him stay that way,” Avery said.  “Uh, excuse me,” she said, as she moved closer to Elizabeth, easing her way outside.  She went to close the door, but her dad followed her out.

Right.  Complicated practitioner diplomacy with the parents watching.

This was still weird.  She glanced over and made sure the windows were shut.

“We can talk here, if you keep your voice down,” Avery said.

“If you haven’t noticed, I’m not in a ‘voice down’ kind of mood.”

“Then maybe I should go back inside?” Avery asked.  “And you can go to the council. Louise and the rest can explain things.  We’ll be out of the way of innocents.”

“How innocent is he?” Elizabeth asked, looking at Avery’s dad.

“I don’t know how you measure that,” Avery admitted.  “He knows general stuff.  No Aware grooves or anything that I’ve noticed.  Except maybe a connection to Kennet found.”

“My brother my not be innocent, but that doesn’t mean you can snatch him up like you did.”

“Not me.  It was a foundling.”

“You collectively.”

“Either way, she’s still figuring things out, one of our residents of Kennet below asked her to see if she couldn’t find someone for us to talk to – a loner, someone on the right side.  Ten year old drawing diagrams in the dirt with a stick for fun fit the bill, I guess.  I only found out about it after she’d been sent on the errand, only found out it was Dom when he was halfway to the place I was meeting Luna and whoever she found.  Wasn’t me, wasn’t even us, big picture.”

“But you talked to him.  You gave him a deal to bring back to us.”

“Yeah.  Not even a deal, exactly,” Avery replied.  “More of an offer.  We’re not asking for much here.  What we want is to get you guys out.”

“Things are dangerous.  You don’t have control over your entire… element.  Kennet below, you’re admitting you don’t know what the other hand is doing, if you’re saying it wasn’t you, these people are acting on their own.”

“We have guidelines.  Rules most of us keep within.  The people involved kept to the rules.  Helping the town, not starting anything big.”

“And if something had happened?  I know for a fact you have the one faction in Kennet below who attack people, rob, steal, cause trouble.”

“The Stuck-Arounds?  They’re barely a faction, and they’re mostly confined to Kennet below.”

“What if you’d been attacked by the more aggressive practitioners on our side while he was with you?”

“Then…” Avery was a bit bewildered by the question.  “We’d get bad karma, I guess, for showing poor hospitality?”

“That’s not nearly good enough.”

“And I’m-” Avery was still a little caught off guard.  “-isn’t you guys being dangerous a you guys problem?  Sorry your parents brought him into a dangerous area and didn’t watch him?”

Elizabeth looked like she’d start raising her voice again.

“He’s safe now though?” Avery’s dad asked.

Avery nodded.

“It’s good you care about him,” he said.  “This world seems-”

“I’m sorry, um-” Elizabeth interrupted, raising a hand, shaking her head, and sounding not very sorry.  “-beg pardon, I’m being rude, but you don’t know.  You’re not part of this world, you just have one toe in the water.”

Avery used the opportunity to get thoughts in order.  “Dom’s apparently safe, we were pretty responsible, I think, we got a message to you guys in the safest way we could without the messenger being at risk.  From your guys, who are way more out of control and, like, problematic, than our out of control problematic guys.”

“He’s off limits.”

Avery wasn’t sure how to respond to that.  She sat down on a stair, then put her bag down beside her.  She craned around to look at her dad, trying to think of how to handle this.

She knew how Lucy would handle it, and Elizabeth would probably be pissed off.  She had no idea how Verona would handle it, but it was bound to complicate things.

They needed and wanted peace, even if that was with someone frustrating like this.

“I’ll let others know then.  That doing anything else with Dom would be antagonistic.”

“Please,” Elizabeth replied, tone terse.

“Sorry.  It seemed like, I don’t know, Dom would get to be front and center, look good, that might be something he wanted?”

“In this environment, with this much going on, being front and center is a dangerous place to be.  It’s people who stand front and center who get shot first, when bullets start flying.”

“We don’t really have the guns,” Avery replied.

“Please don’t be quippy or cute,” Elizabeth said.  She had to walk down a few steps to be at eye level with Avery.  “Just keep him clear of this.”

“Did you guys discuss the offer, at least?”

“A way out.”

“Yeah.  For any and all of you.  We can arrange a way for the people who are stuck doing the civility course.  If they want, anyway.  They can skip it.”

“At the cost of being fined, for skipping out on a writ.”

Avery nodded.

“Losing something random?  Could be the nose of your face, your soul, cherished possession, key memory,” Elizabeth replied.

“Could be your left sock, penny in your pocket.  Just saying it’s an option, I don’t know what they want to do.  But if someone decides to stay to do the course, we can extend the offer to them.”

“We’re looking into it.  Looking into our own options.  But it sounds like we want to say yes.  Talked to Jessica Casabien.”

“Oh, how is she?”

“She’s fine.  She’s stepped back in a big way from practice, since helping her cousin.  But there are others who need help, and she’s made a small business of it.  We made an offer to buy her help.  She said no.”

“Why?”

Elizabeth looked at Avery’s dad.

“Don’t mind me.”

“I have to mind you.  Things from deep places got stirred up.  If the Ruins are the deep ocean, then what we’re seeing is like… something down there that eats the corpse of blue whales that sink to the bottom.  Whole.”

“Good reason to say no.”

“Felt like she was going to say no before that even came up.”

“Really.  Was the offer insulting?”

“It was exceedingly generous.  There’s money in amounts people retire with.  This was… let’s say it’s halfway to there.  If she got all of us through.”

“Okay.  I think I know why she said no, then.”

“It’s too much.  Too intense.  I don’t think she trusts you guys.  Then you add an amount she doesn’t trust?  Kind of a too good to be true thing, coming from people who aren’t very… true, I guess, to begin with?”

Elizabeth nodded to herself, leaning into the railing.

“We like Jessica,” Avery told her dad.  “She backed us up.  Skipped out before the end of Summer, but she helped lots before that.”

“Good to know.”

“Cyn and Martin say the spirit world is in a similar place.  Warrens aren’t suited to large groups moving through.  Especially the way we’d want to.  Any big group draws attention and you inevitably lose a few people in the trip.  But we’d want to split up, each of us going somewhere separate, so we’d draw that initial attention, then we’d split up so we’d be vulnerable to getting picked off.  America Tedd thinks maybe half of us would make it.”

“Yeah.  Faerie?”

“Don’t have a good Fae practitioner to be a guide.  Silas is running the family business, Estrella went with Musser.”

“It’d probably be the same as the Warrens, huh?” Avery asked.

“I wouldn’t think someone who lives in a place with strong Fae and goblin presences would say something like that,” Elizabeth said.

Avery thought about saying something like ‘no comment’ and decided against it.  “What you’re saying lines up pretty well with what Nicolette was saying.  Zed’s not comfortable transporting through the Digital Aether.”

“Sure are a lot of these… places?” Avery’s dad said.

Avery nodded.

“More than humans know of,” Elizabeth said.  “These are the main ones.  And you’re proposing a way out?”

“Yeah.  I put out feelers, I think it’s doable.”

“There was discussion around your offer.  The sentiment is you’ve created a problem and now you’re selling- or offering a solution.”

“Charles created the problem.”

“The Carmine Exile created the problem of the monsters out there.  But Kennet created the problem of blocking communications.  The Bugge remains an omnipresent threat, we struggle to get calls out.  We can, but every time we try, the Bugge gets a foothold.  Then you’re making an offer where you, as the sole party that can provide an answer, offer the rescue.”

“Hmm,” Avery murmured a reply, nodding.

“We want communications opened back up.  Call the Bugge off.  Call the other things off.  We can find ways we know and trust, that get us out of here.  Our own ways, our allies and friends.”

“Hmmm.”

“Can I get an actual reply?” Elizabeth asked.

“You could.  Will you swear?  That you and everyone that isn’t explicitly on Kennet’s side, that is currently or was very recently in Kennet won’t use the freed-up communications to mess with us, assist Musser’s efforts to take over?”

Elizabeth frowned.

“Oh, wait, let me add, because I forgot.  Or you pledge amends, three times what we lose or suffer, three times any information gleaned we did not want you to glean, and so on.  As a stopgap, between failure of the oath and you being forsworn.”

“Three times.”

“If we lose Kennet, you or the Driscoll family could give us three towns of equal or sentimental value, free of Musser’s grasp.  There’s a lot at stake, you know?”

“I don’t think that’s possible.”

“And I don’t think us losing Kennet is reasonable.  And I think we’d hurt, a lot, if we gave you that.  If you don’t agree that it’s that dangerous, then you could swear agreement and prove me wrong.”

“The idea of what harm is differs between my perspective and yours.”

“Agreed upon third party mediator?” Avery asked.

“I’m not going to swear that oath.  No.”

“Okay,” Avery answered.  She shrugged a bit, and kept her shoulders hunched up some.  “Then we’re not likely to give you free communication out.”

“It might help you if you do.  People are antsy.  We’re- there’s a lot of different personalities and family cultures crammed into limited spaces, and there have been for a few nights straight.  People have lost family, friends, they’ve had their lives turned upside down.  If there was one person like that in those cabins, they’d be a lot to deal with, tiptoe around.  You know?  But there are dozens.”

“Powder keg,” Avery’s dad said.

“That implies the flame hasn’t been put to the powder yet.  There have been blow-ups.  Anger, frustration, debate.  Old rivalries and inter-family divides from decades ago resurfacing.  There’s no patience.  Not for each other, not for the wait for critical information,” Elizabeth said.

“I gave you some info.  I can give you more.”

“I’m not sure if that would make things better or worse.”

“Maybe you take the info and you decide?” Avery asked.

“What do you have?”

Avery held up a finger, then got into her bag, pulling out the laptop.  It took a second to boot up.

She exhaled heavily.  “I’m in contact with Nicolette.  A bit with Zed.  Because of the sheer amount of reports we’re getting, the Black Box isn’t really enough.  That’s, uh, it’s a system a practitioner called Rad Ray Sunshine made.  It keeps track of the more dangerous Others, the places you have to watch out for.  No-go zones.  It’s also for sharing information.”

“Not enough?” Elizabeth asked.

“The old interface doesn’t work.  It marks out areas in red and different colors, and you click one and it gives you an info box and a link to where you can look stuff up.  But there’s some dense areas, especially around the cities, where you can’t even click on stuff because there’s so much overlapping.”

“You can click on the city name, to-?” Elizabeth stopped talking as Avery shook her head, pitching the statement as a question.  “No?”

“Turns out if you have five overlapping things in one area, it won’t bypass to let you click the city name, so you have to do weird camera stuff sometimes, if that even works.  Even with that, if you do get to the city name, you zoom in, see the city broken up into regions, and… too much, sometimes.”

“I guess Ray will be glad that more than five percent of practitioners are using his tracking system,” Elizabeth mused.

“I don’t think that many more are using it.  I think even with just the five, maybe ten, mayyyybe fifteen percent, it’s still too much for the system to conveniently help with.  Nicolette’s working on a ticket system with Zed, kind of a side thing, to attach to the Black Box, and sort and prioritize what’s there.  She’s hopeful that people will engage with it and provide information if they know it helps make them a priority.  Lets the Augurs know what to emphasize, too.”

“And put a higher price on,” Elizabeth said.

Avery shrugged.

“I might be off base,” Avery’s dad said, “but I’m reminded of something similar at work, my boss was trying to get the employees to use the work wiki to track documentation changes.  It was like pulling teeth, and we had total code spaghetti in places, with no idea who to ask about certain implementations…  After cutting back on work for as long as I did, homeschooling you guys, I definitely wanted that wiki working, felt his pain.  He tried doing things so his devs wouldn’t work on something unless it was clearly documented.”

“I’m not sure I got all that,” Avery admitted.

“Now you know how I feel,” he said, with a half-laugh.

“Sorry, how is that relevant?” Elizabeth asked.

“Oh.  It didn’t really work.  Everyone had too much to do, their own deadlines to meet.”

“You think people won’t use Nicolette’s priority system?”

“I don’t know.  Maybe they will, because it sounds like life and death… except the older I get, the more I think people don’t pay enough heed to even the life and death stuff.  Or especially that stuff.”

“Same with us,” Elizabeth said, sighing.  She looked at Avery.  “And?”

“And the work hasn’t really budged.  Um, one second.”

Avery texted Nicolette.

The replies usually came back pretty fast.  Nicolette kept her phone in arm’s reach while she worked.

She made a call.

The call, at least, got picked up.

“Hello?” Avery asked.

There was silence on the other end.

Avery shook her head, looking over at Elizabeth.  “Someone picked up but-”

“Hello.”

The voice was male, breathy, smooth.

“Hi, is this Seth?  Or Chase?  Or-”

“No.  Not any of those.  Then-”

“Avery Kelly.”

The voice kept interrupting her, so she kept her mouth shut.  Elizabeth moved closer and Avery put the phone on speaker phone.

“We would insist you join us for tea, Ms. Kelly, but I’ve been told to leave certain things alone.  It would be such a shame for you to miss out.  If you invited yourself, I’m sure it would be fine.  Or would you like to host us?  All you need to do is say the word.”

Elizabeth reached for the button to end the call.  Avery beat her to it.

“I’m not planning to say the word to him,” Avery said.

“Good, because I think that’d be a good way to die, or worse.  Do you have an open space for me to work?”

“I- not really?  Dad, is the car in the garage?”

“Can we?” Avery asked.

“Why?”

“Just… no questions?  Emergency.”

“Go.  I’ll hit the button.”

He went inside.  Avery got her stuff and went around the house toward the garage.  As they were halfway down the driveway, the door opened.

The floor was flat and concrete.  Elizabeth immediately started drawing a circle.

Avery admired the ability to draw a circle and have it be that round, just by hand.

The circle went into a square.  Straight lines too.  Then at the corners, Elizabeth made some notes.

Avery tried Zed.

“No answer from Zed.”

Avery’s dad came down the driveway.

The notes were phone number, postal code, latitude and longitude, and then a neat little chalk drawing of the Blue Heron Institute’s logo.

The inside of the circle began to fill with chalk.  The chalk mapped out the Blue Heron Institute.

Elizabeth crossed the diagram, sat on her heels, and drew a line parallel to one side of the square.  The line disappeared nearly as fast as she’d drawn it.  The image shifted, centering on the central building.

An eye shape followed by a line- that disappeared fast too.  The image zoomed in.  The constant work of the chalk drew out the interior walls.

“Close that?” Elizabeth asked.

Avery looked at her dad, and he stepped inside.  She hit the button to close the garage.

Things were illuminated with only the old lightbulb and the light that seeped in around the side door and beneath the big door.

“Can you put the laptop down, flush with one side of the square?  Opposite me?  And your phone.”

Avery did, before sitting down.  With all the unused and old bikes mounted on the one wall, waiting for various kids to get old enough, and the snowboarding and skiing equipment, she had to make sure not to lean too far back and bring any of it cascading down on top of her.  Not that it was a real problem, probably.

“Other reference points help clarify the image.  Uhh, wish I had more on me.  If I had the things from the cabin…”

“I could go if you need me to.  Or could I be a point of reference?”

“You were kind of expelled, so no.”

“Damn.  I could run to the cabin.  If you’d swear I’d be safe.”

Elizabeth shook her head.

“Who was that on the phone?” her dad asked.

“I’ll answer later.  Just let me… Oh!”

Avery got into her bag, found the little binders with the old investigation notes.

The letter and printed out class list from the Blue Heron, and the map.

She placed those down along another edge.

“Good,” Elizabeth said.  “Means I don’t have to spend as much.”

She reached into a pocket and pulled out a folding knife, then unfolded it.  She held her hand over the diagram.

“Wait,” Avery said.  She moved around, then sat at one face of the square.  She put her hands at the edge.  “As guardian of Kennet, in the interest of protecting one of Kennet’s allies and friends, I ask that power be put toward this effort.  Let Elizabeth Driscoll guide it.”

Her dad was watching.

“You can just donate power like that?” Elizabeth asked.

“I hope so.”

“We’ll see.”  Elizabeth used the knife and sliced the backs of her fingers, between first and second knuckle, then let the blood drip down.

Red added accent and color to the image.

“Friend and foe,” Elizabeth said.  “Let blue blood drip for friend, let red blood drip for foe.”

The blood dripped.

As it did, little moving dots appeared on the floor.

“Oh wow.  You got us more than halfway there with words alone,” Elizabeth said.

“It’s not the point, or even in the top ten reasons I’m fighting so hard, but if Musser took over, I wouldn’t be able to anymore,” Avery murmured.  “It’s probably in Verona’s top ten reasons.  She likes the magic.”

The dots illustrated what was happening.  Three red dots came down the hallway, at a lazy pace, and a fourth circled around the school.  The blue dots were in a cluster together.  They were moving toward the library, but as the red dot came inside, they stopped and went into the kitchens instead.

“These are the tea party bogeymen, we think?” Avery asked.  “Mention of tea, the numbers…”

Elizabeth pointed.

Two more had just appeared.  Western wing.  One of the rooms.

“They’re coming from Nicolette’s room.  That’s her desk.  I need to use your laptop.”

“Go ahead.  Do you want me to move it, or-?”

Elizabeth was already on her feet, moving around.

Avery looked back at her dad.

“Factions, bogeymen, strange worlds, and this.”

“It’s been a year since I last did technomancy, give or take a few weeks or months,” Elizabeth said.  “And your laptop’s not set for it.

“Kinda freaky you can spy on people like this,” Avery noted.

“I can’t, normally.  But we were consulted at one point for the school layout.  Bristow’s addition.  We got some permissions, in exchange for promises.  Kind of like what you wanted me to swear.  I think I can make the argument that it’s an emergency, special circumstances.”

“But you’re not sure?” Avery asked.

“Nicolette’s a friend.  It’s worth the risk.”

“For sure,” Avery answered.

“How do I get webcam access?  I use a different brand.”

Avery got up and hurried over, pressing the button combination, minimizing windows to get to the desktop icon.

“And- the call, okay, same program I use,” Elizabeth said.  She dialed.

“That’s Zed’s number, right?  I tried.”

“Zed’s number, but different extension.”

The screen flickered in a way that made Avery think it was going to break, then resolved into an image of a face, overexposed.  It took a bit to clarify.

Nina.  Zed’s Librarian Animus.  She was backed by what looked like fifteen overlapping notetaker applications that scrolled at different rates, each filled with writing.

“Nina, is Zed okay?” Avery asked.

“I haven’t looked.  Why?”

“Invading Others at the Blue Heron.  They’re coming through the computer.  I know you have access to the library computers,” Elizabeth said.

“I do, but I made certain deals.”

“With emergency provisions?  Like I did with the planning?”

“Yes.”

“Apply the provision.  I can’t move the laptop around without distorting the image, but I can swear to you that at the current moment, I am looking at a map of the school, red dots for enemies, blue dots for allies.  Nicolette and the other Belangers are on the defensive, retreating, while Others close in on them.  It may be the same for Zed.  They’re coming from the computer.”

“I can’t do much.”

“Get me access to the computer.  Relay what I’m doing.  Give me a clear picture.”

“Text okay?  I work best with text.”

“I’m a fast reader.”

“As everyone should be.”

Avery sat back, nervous, watching as the text scrolled on, describing various things, programs, and files.

“Close that.  Move that aside.  Tell me if it changes.  Close that.  Close that.”

There was a lot, but Elizabeth quickly narrowed it down to three programs.

“Invitation to tea,” Avery said, pointing.  “They insist.”

“I saw it.”

Elizabeth typed some more.  Cordially refuse your invitation to tea, it is frankly callow and bullish if you are to insist anything, given where things stand and your treatment of prior guests.

The message apparently went through.

Then it reappeared, with an error message struck across it.

“Damn it.”

“They’re technomancy Others?” Avery asked.

“No.  But they’re a big enough presence they’re bleeding into other spaces.”

“Like the Hungry Choir?”

“Sure, maybe.  I wasn’t part of that.  Let me focus?”

Avery shut her mouth, watching.

Elizabeth tried two things.  One was code.  It didn’t work.

The other was a shorter command.

The red dots disappeared.

“That worked,” Avery said.

Elizabeth exhaled.  Then she sat back up.  She picked up Avery’s phone, and when she did, the chalk diagram distorted, then scattered, becoming a blurry smear.  “Zed.  Text him.  Copy down what I wrote.  Kill, space, BB, dash, RRS, extension, zero-zero-thirteen, set, one-six-one-five, all.”

Avery showed Elizabeth.

Elizabeth nodded.

“And that stops whatever’s after him?  Kills them?”

“No.  But it tells him what he needs to stop them.  He’ll know what the command is for. Now we wait.”

“What happened?”

“It’s the black box.  Putting them into the system, they were marked as enemies,” Elizabeth said.  “I think they’re rigged.”

“Rigged?”

“They’re rule-based, instanced bogeymen, they respond primarily to triggers, rituals spread around as urban legends, usually.  Say the right words while sitting around a candle with your friends at a sleepover, get murdered, that sort of thing.  Except here, based on what they were flowing from, it’s a bit different.”

“Charles got crafty.”

“If you call them an enemy, especially in text or- I’d believe it works with any hostile practices firmly aimed at them, they… respond.  They have the right to invite you to tea first.  And you don’t survive tea.”

“Aim the wrong practice at them and before you can use it, they interrupt?”

“More appear behind you, grab you, take you to tea.  The black box software declared them a priority threat, opposition.  I think the Lordships, any Lord is going to end up saying hey, you’re not listening to me, I’m going to have to deal with you if you won’t obey.”

“At which point it’s a declaration against them, they get to respond by first inviting the person to tea…”

“Or asking the other person to host them for tea.  But I don’t think I know any practitioners who are good enough to be Lords but stupid enough to offer to host a random Other.”

“Why?” Avery’s dad asked.

Avery turned.  “Oh, hmm.  Host as in parasite and host.  They’d possess you or something.”

The phone rang.

Avery picked up.  “Zed?”

“Hey.  Thanks.”

“Elizabeth did most of it.  You okay?”

“Cut up some.  I can heal with practice.”

“And Brie?”

“She’s fine.  Tougher in these situations than I am.  She fought them pretty hard, bought me time to get my phone out of my pocket and type what I needed.  What the fuck was that?”

“Zed,” Elizabeth raised her voice a bit to be heard.  “Thirty bogeymen.  They respond to provocation, declarations of war, ill intent, that sort of thing.  That command only kills that one entry, you have the credentials for that.  But if anyone takes it on themselves to re-enter the information on the thirty, it’s going to happen again.”

“And they go after that person?” Zed asked.

“No.  Because anyone and everyone using the Black Box counts as a person tacitly agreeing to cal them enemies.  They can go after anyone using it.”

“Fuck.  The Blue Heron?”

“Already covered that.  But I don’t know about anyone else.”

“Ray is going to be so pissed, fuck.  The project was already a nightmare for him.”

“I don’t know if it helps, but I think it was explicitly designed to mess with this sort of thing.  Any project that works well enough is going to get negative attention.  People should understand that.”

“Gotta go.  Thanks again.”

“Luck!” Avery called out.  She wasn’t sure if she got the word out in time as Zed ended the call.

They sat back.  She checked her phone, looking for Nicolette, but there was no reply.

“One thing after another,” her dad said, quiet.

“I think that’s probably not the only trap Charles set,” Avery said, looking over at Elizabeth.

“We were theorizing about that.  We were also wondering who is affected, who is protected, who might be collateral damage.  It seems you’re safe, huh?” Elizabeth asked.

“Didn’t ask to be.”

Elizabeth nodded.

“I think Musser’s on that list too.”

“He got out safe and he’s been mostly unobstructed, yeah.”

Avery got to her feet, picking up her phone and laptop, and moved them somewhere safe, before opening the side door of the garage.  She cranked on the water, and unspooled the hose.

Grumble was on the back porch, sleeping, like the world was going on like normal.  And her mom was at the window of the kitchen, peering through, out toward the back yard and the garage.

Avery shot her mom a smile, and got a bit of a smile in return.  Then her mom stepped out of view.

She gave the hose a test squirt.

Nothing came out.

“Oh.  I turned it off for the colder weather.  Here,” her dad said.

He turned something inside the garage, and the water flowed.

“Thanks.”

She checked with Elizabeth, then sprayed the diagram down.

“I’ll talk to the others,” Elizabeth said.  “Maybe if we present this as a trap, instead of an attack, it could change the mindset around it.  Something of the Carmine Exile’s design, meant to snare us, that we need to think around.”

“Maybe.”

“I’ll talk to them about your escape route.  It’d help if I knew more about what it is.”

“Paths.”

“Paths.  Okay.  You think that’s out of Charles’ reach?”

“Pretty darn sure.”

“You’re the one taking us?”

“Maybe.  Probably.  I’ll figure it out, figure out the best way to go.  Then I’ll give you instructions, walk you through it.  But this can’t- I can’t do it if I’m going to get ambushed by America for a fourth time, or if people are going to be idiots.”

“I’ll run it by them.  Might be a bit.”

Avery nodded.

“How do I get out of here?” Elizabeth asked, before motioning to the side door.

The button was partially hidden by things hanging from the ceiling.  Her dad reached past it to bang it.  The garage door opened.  Chalky water ran down the driveway.

Elizabeth walked away, checking her phone.  “Frick.  Battery low.”

Then she broke into a run.

Avery took her time getting the hose put back, sorting out her laptop, and checking to see if Nicolette had any messages.  The old compost bin was in the corner of the garage and served as a stand for the laptop.

There were notices on the black book, warning about the thirty bogeymen without referencing them directly.  And the ticketing system had a bar at the top.

There may be slight delays in Belanger contract fulfillment due to injuries.  We ask for your patience.

She didn’t know Wye’s number to call him.

Lucy was talking to her mom and watching over the situation in the city, handling the front lines while Avery was at the flanks, keeping track of their various allies and stuff.  Avery would go out on patrol later, maybe.  Verona was handling her Demesne.

She thought about earlier, and dozing off with the virtual equivalent of having her head in Nora’s lap, and having Nora be happy about it, and that was a little bit of a recharge in the face of all of this.

“I guess you saved lives just now?” her dad asked, startling her a little.

“I guess.  Didn’t really think about it.  I didn’t do that much.”

“You were pretty cool.  Scary stuff, but cool.”

“Seems to be the way a lot of this goes,” she replied, quiet.  Little dribbles of cold water had run down from the handle and down her sleeves, and it was uncomfortable.

“What you were saying about oaths before.  Pretty cool.  I was- I remember, back when you had your bad patch, near the start of the year?”

Avery nodded.  The lonely patch at school.  It had technically been from fall onward, but still.

“I worried you were going to withdraw too far.  Be too passive.  Hearing you be assertive like that?  A lot of this scares me, but I love that.”

She stepped over and hugged him, hard.  He hugged her back.

They went back inside.  Avery paused as she saw her mom in the kitchen, still, fussing around leftovers.  She had a moment to watch as she kicked off her wet shoes.

The house was quiet.  Aunt Clara and Aunt Tracy and Uncle Sean had left with the rest of the kids.  Grumble was sleeping, Declan was playing his games, Kerry was drawing quietly at the dining room table, and Sheridan was lazing around somewhere.

Her dad went to her mom, hugging her.

Avery ventured into the kitchen.

“Our daughter’s pretty cool,” her dad was saying.

“We knew that already,” her mom murmured back.  She turned to look at Avery.

“Hi, honey.  Will you be eating at home this evening?” her mom asked.  “We still have the baked ziti.”

“Thanks for doing that.  I don’t know.  I’ve got to make a phone call, figure some stuff out.”

“Okay.  Speaking of figuring things out, I don’t know how to bring this up or- I don’t want to scare you away.”

“It’s hard to think of a way you’d scare me away.”

“What’s the plan?  I understand what you’re doing is important… as much as I understand any of this.  Louise did a good job of explaining a lot of it.  But for right now, our lives are on hold.  Do we go back to Thunder Bay?  Can we?  When?”

“Oh,” Avery answered, quiet.

“I’ve got work.  You all have school.  And I know how it sounds, when there are… crises.  Dangers.”

She edited her words and volume so Kerry wouldn’t hear in the next room.

Avery nodded.  “I wish I had a clearer answer.”

“Could we set the agenda, loosely, for tomorrow morning?” her mom asked.  “First thing?  Up at six thirty, in the car by seven thirty, three hour drive gets us back by ten thirty.  You get sorted, back to school at noon?”

“Would give us a free hour to clean up after Rowan, after any megahuge party he threw,” Avery mused.

“Not funny.  I’d go overboard.  I’m- I’m really trying, Avery.”

“I know.”

“I’m trying to take this in stride, and absorb it, and everything, trying to breathe.  I don’t know.”

Avery’s dad took her mom’s hand in his own and kissed the back of it.

Avery swallowed hard.

Nightmare situation.

“Sorry.  I’ve been kind of ass, handling this,” Avery said.

“Not around your sister,” her dad said.

And her mom laughed, that nervous laugh that jangled Avery’s nerves.  Like all the stuff she was holding back came out in this panicked little laugh that was anything but happy.

Kerry looked over.

“Keep drawing.  Show me later, okay?” Avery asked.

Kerry nodded, and resumed drawing with more intensity, filling spaces in.

“Sorry,” Avery told her mom.

“You know I love you?”

Avery nodded.  But you have to.

“I adore you.  I cherish you.  I’m proud.  I’m torn up we didn’t do better by you.”

“You’ve done good.”

“You have to say that,” her mom whispered.  “We put you in the background enough you were their first choice for someone vulnerable.”

“But you also raised me okay enough I- I have strengths.  Stuff I’m good at, that lets me do okay at this.  They originally planned for us to be total boobs, total idiots, making mistakes, just… nobody people who wouldn’t shake the boat too much, wouldn’t enslave them, would fill the seat and let them say, hey, we have people on the job already.  No need to come.”

Her mom shook her head, looking like she was going to talk twice without actually getting to the point of getting words out.

Finally, on try number, three, she said, “In the movie- I don’t know when we watched it.  The kids went exploring, urban area, found a dwarf who made them super toys?”

“I don’t think I saw that one.”

“We saw it with your younger siblings.  But it’s- I think of that movie a lot.  How angry the parents got.  It’s so stupid.  They weren’t- they weren’t real people.  There was just the one thing, you know?”

“Not really?”

“I’m not making sense.  Am I making sense?” her mom asked her dad.

“You’re okay.”

“It was only the dwarf, and the little enclave of dwarves that was on screen for a few minutes, and that was it.  That was all they had to figure out.  Then they figured it out, and life went back to normal.  Normal life, but the dwarf helped the town.”

“Oh.  Yeah.  Standard formula, huh?” Avery asked, quiet.

“I’m worried I can’t figure this out.  And that there’s no normal.”

“It’s like biology,” Avery said.  “There’s still parts and things they don’t know how it all works, Mr. Lai said.  There’s still things in physics, particles.  People spend their entire lives trying to advance human knowledge, what, point zero zero zero zero zero zero one percent forward, in one subfield of a field?”

“I don’t- I’m not-” her mom started.

Avery saw the squeeze her dad gave her mom’s hand.

“You’ve got enough on your shoulders,” her mom said.  “I’ll work on the me part.  Please tell me you’ll be safe?”

“I’ll try.”

“And if there’s- anything concrete you can give me?  Schedule, plans.  Ideas about what I can do to help?”

“Okay.”

“Get yourself sorted.  Let me know as soon as you know about dinner.  And if plans change and tomorrow morning won’t work, let me know as soon as possible?”

“And you go without me?” Avery asked.

Nightmare.

“No.  But we’ll have to figure something out.  Maybe talk to that council Louise mentioned.  Because if they really truly can’t do this without you… something needs to change.  Jasmine said as much and I have to agree with her.”

Avery’s dad nodded.

“Okay.”

Avery went upstairs to get sorted out, put the laptop aside, because she didn’t want to get it crushed if she got ambushed again or anything, and then grabbed her running shoes with the runes on them from her luggage, moving quietly so she wouldn’t disturb Sheridan’s nap.  She also changed out of the top that had gotten wet from the hose.

“Need help getting blood out of clothes?” Sheridan murmured.

“Hm?  No, I’m good, I think.”

“Lemme know,” Sheridan said, before turning over.

Venturing downstairs, she overheard her mom.  It sounded like she wasn’t far from the stairs.  She and her dad had moved away from the dining room where Kerry was drawing.

“I don’t know what the future looks like anymore.  We could plan the day.  We could plan for the kids to go to college.  We could plan around work and careers.”

“Yeah.”

“I can’t plan around this.”

“We’ll work it out.”

Avery made a deliberate thump as she went down one stair.  The conversation below stopped.

She sat on the bottom stair to pull her running shoes on and lace them tight.

“Not making that phone call?” her dad asked.

“I’m going to do it while I’m out,” Avery said.  She grabbed her bag, deer mask attached to the outside of it, then went to the door.  “Love you guys.”

“Love you,” her dad said.

“I love you so much.  Stay safe.”

Avery flashed a tight smile, then headed outside.

I took the future from her.  The plan.

She wasn’t sure how to fix that.

Send me cozy thoughts, she willed Snowdrop.

Snowdrop sent her cozy thoughts.

Then, a block away from home, she made the phone call.

“What the hell did you do?” the person on the other end asked, gruff.  “Open Pandora’s box?  What the hell is happening in your neck of the woods, Avery Kelly?”

She was a little taken aback.

“Just kidding.  You didn’t have anything to do with the stuff I’m hearing about, right?”

“Not directly, Mr. Garrick,” she said.

“Shit.  ‘Not directly’ is a lot closer to responsibility than I would’ve thought when I made the joke.  You okay over there?”

“It’s messy.”

“Sounds like.  Any chance you can tell us how things went?  Jude’s keeping quiet and I’ve felt like I’m three seconds from snapping and grounding him for the better part of today.”

“Don’t.  Please don’t.  Things went okay.  He was a big help.  Sorry that we did that so last minute, I know it was messy with the family politics.”

“Don’t say another word about that.  That’s on us.  Okay?  Things went okay?  Just okay?”

“The Founding worked.  It’s pretty cool.  I’m not sure it was the magic one-shot solution we hoped it would be, but… it worked.  Jude was instrumental- no.”

“No I mean… Jude was heroic.  So do whatever the opposite of punishing him would be.”

“He’s in a mood.”

“Because I screwed up.  Don’t put that on him.  He- he was great, he was super.  But things were chaotic, I was rushed, I’ve been rushed for a while, one crisis after another.  I let him down.  I let you guys down.”

“I’m sure you didn’t.”

“I’m not- I’m not some superhero, you know?  I’m not the next Hazel, achieving anything like walking the Paths for a hundred years.  I’m just- pretty normal.  I got lucky enough to have power from how I came to the practice, lucky to have some talent, maybe, a good mentor.  Jude was closer to being a superhero, this weekend.  He stayed when I had to go.  He helped me through the Paths.  And he did some of that after I let you guys down.”

“Avery.”

Jude’s voice.

“You’re okay,” he said.

“Okay?”

“You called for a reason.  And I don’t think that was to puff me up any.”

His tone was really hard to read.

“I want to puff you up.  I really am grateful.”

“I’m glad it helped.  But what do you need?”

“I- I’m not sure.”

“Not sure?” Jude’s dad asked.

“I guess I wanted to call to sound you out.  Something like eighty practitioners crashed our town, to support a big Musser Lordship claim.”

“Holy shit,” Jude’s dad said.

“Sixty-something still around.  I don’t know if we’re in bad shape and I shouldn’t even be calling to ask for information and advice-”

“What did you do, Jude?” Jude’s dad asked.

“He didn’t,” Avery insisted, at the same time Jude said, “I didn’t.”

“Right,” Jude’s dad said, sounding unconvinced.

“-I don’t know if I shouldn’t be calling, if I’m okay to call for the advice, if I’m taking these people onto a Path, which Path might be best and safest for one-time travelers, maybe.  Except I’d have to run it a bunch of times, to take different people to different destinations.  If I didn’t take them all to the Blue Heron.  Or…”

“Or if I’m okay to offer a business opportunity.”

“What opportunity?” Jude asked.

“Maybe you guys want to do it?  I owe you guys.  I owe you a lot-”

“Not to gainsay you, but I don’t see how you do,” Jude’s dad said.

“I do,” she said.  Jude said I had to repay some of what I got.  “If there’s a cost involved, let me shoulder some of it, and then some.  If that means I’m in your debt, okay.  I’ll work on it over the next while.  But we’d be looking at getting sixty people in… I think we counted thirty cars.  Possibly thirty different destinations.  You’d come, pick them up, take them, and go.  And I’d cover some of the costs, taking it on as debt, plus some extra.”

“Jude,” she heard Mr. Garrick say.  “You know more than I do, right?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s this about owing?”

“I won’t say.”

“Is this about you bringing back Max’s things?”

“I won’t say.”

“Hmm.”

“I say we do it,” Jude said.  “Take the offer as it stands.  Consider this like… like the negotiation.  How Clay stood in.  Got privileged information, said to take the deal.”

“We’re on the other side of it, I’d say, s’far as debt goes.”

“A bit.”

“Don’t want to go too overboard,” Jude’s dad said.  “Some ways Paths get priced, like us running an errand to look for something lost, if we multiplied it by thirty, we could own her for life.  Don’t want to do that.”

“No,” Jude agreed.  “But go a little overboard.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Sorry to drop this on you, Jude,” Avery said.

“No, don’t worry about it.”

Avery ran her fingers through her hair, heart heavy in her chest.

“Don’t suppose we could squeeze out a marriage deal?” Jude’s dad asked.

“In a relationship,” Avery replied.  “Sorry.”

“Doesn’t rule anything out.  Live your life, get life experience, then when you turn eighteen-”

“Don’t be gross, dad,” Jude said.  “Times have changed.”

“Feels like I’m in a weird spot in this conversation,” Jude’s dad said.  “Between you and Jude, huh?”

“I guess,” Avery said.

“Not the worst thing in the world,” Jude’s dad said.  “My boy, getting his head into the family business, working this stuff out.  This isn’t a small job.”

“Are we in a position to move thirty groups through the Paths?” Jude asked.  “You’re in a position to answer that.”

“I’d have to ask the others.  Family politics.  If I agreed to something this big without consulting the family, again, someone might consider hiring a hitman to remove me.”

“Yeah, uh, let’s not risk that,” Jude said, voice soft.

“But I think yeah.  I think, just talking business, if these groups- sixty something people, if they can’t figure out a good way, but we think the Paths are clear?”

“Spirit world’s got hazards that gave a top shaman pause, same with Ruins, Warrens have problems, it’s a lot.  It’d be nice if we could scout it, make sure that the Carmine Exile hasn’t screwed something up there too…” Avery trailed off.

“Out of his jurisdiction,” Jude’s dad said.

“Yeah.  That was my thought,” Avery agreed.

“If moving around’s a difficulty, they’re in a pinch, and we’re the only good way they have of moving around, maybe that’s an advantage to us.  So let’s give them a real cheap trip, this one time.  Get them out of your way?”

“Yeah,” Avery said.  “Ideally, please.  The getting them away part more than the cheap part.”

“That might rustle up future business for us.  We can try making ourselves available.  It’s a good opportunity.”

“Yeah?”

“Let me talk to the family.  Gotta play politics.  Might be they ask for money, or for more from you.”

“Okay,” Avery said.

“But I’d like to make this a little easier on both of us.  Let us see this Founded place.  We can make notes, see what we can learn.  Bit like a Path, but without as many worries.  Give us a writeup?”

“Can do.  It’s pretty tame.  But you’ll want to get a pass, and you’ll need masks.  Or any face coverings that were face coverings first and foremost.”

“Sounds like a plan.  I’ll be in touch.”

“Okay.”

The call ended.

Avery wanted to let out a huge breath, but she had to take one in first.

She broke into a jog, going to rendezvous with Lucy.

It was evening.  Avery’s stomach was full of leftover baked ziti, and she couldn’t even pass on the feeling of satiety because her mom had snuck Snowdrop some.

“We’re losing the market,” Lucy said.

“What?”

“America’s a celebrity to goblins.  Especially in this area.  If we can’t shake her, get things to calm down, then we might end up with more local goblins against us than local goblins willing to try the market thing.”

“Can’t help you there,” Snowdrop said.

“You can do a bit,” Lucy replied, “But as much as the goblins might adore you, America’s got you beat.”

“The goblins hate me a lot, actually.  So abusive.”

“Let’s hope we’ve got this worked out,” Avery said.  “If she shows…”

They were partway down the street when she saw her parents with Jasmine.

“You sure you want to do this?” Lucy asked.  “Bringing them?”

“Bit too late to say no, right?”

Jasmine looked tired.  Which kind of matched her to where Lucy and Avery were.  And her dad seemed okay, but it was okay in a hard to read way.

It was like… she’d spend her entire life with her dad.  For a lot of that time, he’d just been her dad, and her teacher.  She’d never spent the time really thinking about who he was, or what he was about.  Not until she’d come out.

It hadn’t just revealed who she was to him.  It had also given her her first serious look at who he was.

And it hadn’t been a clear look.  The reality of it hadn’t settled in right away, until she’d been in that house without her mom, Sheridan, or Rowan.  Because he was hard to interpret or anticipate.

Her mom was easier.

“We’re doing this?” Jasmine asked.

Avery nodded.

“Where do we go?”

“Inside,” Lucy said.

“Inside?”

Lucy nodded.

They walked inside.

Avery put her bag down.  She opened it, then pulled out the wooden masks.  “Had to shop around, put in a special order to get this done fast.”

Deer mask for her mom, unpainted, it was just wood, and burnished an orangeish color.  Her dad’s mask- she had to pause and screw in the antlers.  A slightly darker tone to it.

Lucy had a fox mask for her mom.

“Not the same masks as before, huh?”

Avery shook her head.

They donned the masks, tying ribbons where necessary.  Snowdrop grabbed onto Avery’s arm, became an opossum, ran across her shoulders, down the other arm, and hopped down, landing in a squat, wearing a different outfit, wooden opossum mask included, with its mouth open in a silent scream, teeth bared.

“You have your ID?”

“We drove, so of course,” her dad said.

“Then I think we’re good to go.  Miss!” Lucy called out.

“Miss!” Avery called.  She saw her dad move his hand.

“Miss!” they all said.  The parents joined in, Avery’s mom a half-beat late in realizing the others were saying it.

The lights shut off, came back on bright, and blinded them momentarily.  The brightness faded.

The layout of the house had changed slightly, to accommodate the way down.

“Thought it would be fun to try that,” Avery’s dad said, voice muffled slightly by his mask.

“Dork,” Avery said.  “Come on.”

Some Foundlings were out in the street as they ventured outside.  Avery waved at the woman with the toddlers in helmets like something from an endgame boss in one of Declan’s games.

Together with Lucy, she drew a circle on the ground.  It was something from one of her books, and some Finders and Path Runners used stuff like this, working it into a Demesne or somewhere in their workshops.

Exits from a Path could have a lot of possible destinations.  Falling Oak Avenue tended to deposit the finder on a street or road labeled ‘Oak’.  Oak Blvd, Oak Rd., Oak Drive.  If someone wanted to exit Falling Oak Avenue and their town or whatever didn’t have an ‘Oak’ anything, then it would send them to the nearest town that did.

This diagram could help with that, allowing certain markers.

The Path here was a little nastier, and put people in the way of something that was going to bite them.  Wolf.  Nearby hunting ground with bear trap right under their foot.  Something rabid.  Furious patient in a mental hospital.

Doing it like this, she could include a circle at the border of the larger circle, write down a language in a script from some language in India she didn’t know, and then place down some chattering teeth from the toybox back home.  She cranked it, then sent the pre-written text.

“The Garricks, huh?”

“They’ve helped me out a lot, they’re helping us out here.  Things are a bit tense and weird with Jude.  I mentioned that.”

“Briefly,” her dad said.  “I talked to your mom about it.”

“Hmmmm, they’ll arrive any second, but if they talk about marriage… don’t agree to anything?”

“Uh what?” her mom asked.

“Practitioner thing.  Inter-”

The first Garrick appeared.  Jude’s dad, zipping from sky to circle in half a second.  Dust and moisture lifted off the ground for half the block, making everything appear momentarily hazy.  The chattering teeth bounced into the air, and caught on one of his fingers.  He was wearing the pilot’s cap with earflaps, with a yellow scarf around his lower face.

“-marriage.  Jude’s dad.  Cliff Garrick.”

Jude’s mom, a brother or cousin, sister, and Jude himself all appeared.  The teeth bounced between them as they made their appearance.

Then other cousins, including Lance, and Adorea, then uncles, the uncle’s kids, Luca and Finn included, and a couple of aunts all appeared, filling the circle.  The teeth broke on the last arrival.

Fifteen in all.  It looked like they’d color coded the scarves by family branch.  Jude’s grouping was yellow, others were blue, red, and white.

“It is, let me say, exceptionally weird to dismount from a Path, and end up somewhere so… Pathlike,” Jude’s dad said.

“Feels like we did something wrong,” Lance said.  “Little heart stopping moment.  Like missing a stair, but existential dread instead of smashed-face dread.”

“Avery,” Jude’s mom said.  She approached, putting hands on Avery’s shoulders.  “Lovely.  Congratulations.  I’m so glad your ritual worked well.”

“So are we,” Lucy said.

This is going to blow up.  The secret about what Miss did, or my mom’s going to lose it, or someone’s going to attack and a Garrick will get hurt.

“Kelsey Kelly.”

“Esme Garrick,” Jude’s mom said.  Avery’s mom had offered a handshake, which led to Esme letting go of Avery’s shoulders to properly answer it.  Which might have been the point.

“I’m told you recently became aware?”

“I suppose?  I don’t understand much of this.”

“Well, I’m happy to tell you everything you need to know.  If that’s alright?”

“That’s appreciated,” Avery’s mom said.

Esme glanced at Avery, who nodded once.  They’d laid that out in advance.

There was really not a lot left to preserve, as far as Innocence went.

“To start with, you do know your daughter is excellent?  We’re all fans.”

Avery chuckled nervously, taking the opportunity to duck out and around that little conversation.  To Jude’s dad, who was right there when she circled around, she said, “Thank you for coming.”

“Happy to help.  Look at all this, huh?  Look at this.  You didn’t aim for anything small, did you?”

Avery shook her head.

“Can’t have been easy.”

“It wasn’t.  I’m going to say hi to the rest of the family.”

“Alright.”

Avery had established that in advance too.  That she couldn’t play favorites.

Jude’s Uncle Peter was the big one.  White scarf.  He had been the guy who was meant to be next head of the family.  At least, until Jude’s dad had started making nice with Avery.  He was also the one who had sent Jude’s cousin Adorea on the trip to the Stuck-In-Place.

“Thank you for coming, Peter,” Avery said.

He took her hand in both of his, shaking it.  In the process, he passed her a business card.  “Happy to help.  I’m told you consider the debt the Garricks owe paid?”

“Yes.”

“Concluding our first official business,” he said, holding onto her hand still.  “Call me.  Talk to me about the Cakewalk, and our next steps.”

“Actually, about that,” she said.  “As a token of goodwill.  For us concluding our first official business.”

She gave him the paper.

“The solve?”

“Its not perfect, apparently, but it’s mostly reliable.”

“That’s… certainly a token.  Thank you.  It’s said by some that it’s bad karma to engage in an unequal deal.  Something for nothing.”

“It’s fine.  I’ve been clumsy, asked for last minute help, or forgotten things, or upset the family, or disrespected someone or something, and I hope this makes up for that.  Save some lives, maybe.”

“Getting us closer to the official Promenade complete.”

“That too.”

Miss got Max killed in self defense, and I kept it a secret.  This is about that upset, that forgetting, the disrespect.

Jude apparently thought it was better that they all didn’t know.

Snowdrop ran off, and Avery turned her head, looking.

Snowdrop tackle-hugged Luna Hare, ‘biting’ her in the neck with the mouth of the open opossum mask.

“You’re terrible,” Luna said.

“Hi Luna!” Avery greeted her.  “You can identify our families by the masks, I hope.”

“I think I can manage,” Luna said, trying to look prim and proper while also trying to get Snowdrop to unlatch from her.

“And these are the Garricks, who I think color coded themselves by family branch.”

“So noted.  I’m to be your guide.  Not that you need one, but we’re trying to build relationships,” Luna said.  She leaned more and more right, bringing her right shoulder closer to the ground as Snowdrop ‘bit’ her, then finally pushed Snowdrop away, the nose of Snow’s mask catching on the edge of hers as they parted.  Snowdrop stumbled a few steps away and laughed.

There was a hint of a smile on Luna’s face as she pulled her mask down.  She pulled her bag around front, and opened it up.  “Papers.  Permission slips.  If you’d take one when I call your name?  Peter Garrick.”

The man Avery had just been talking to took one.  Avery had passed on word ahead of time, that there should be an order.  Jude’s dad had agreed to it.

Making nice, making sure they didn’t feel like they were being constantly demoted in favor of Jude’s dad.

“Reece Garrick.”

Finn and Luca’s dad.

“Cliff Garrick.”

And from there, partners, then by declining age.

Finn was the last.

Luna looked very satisfied as she finished, as far as Avery could tell with the mask there.  She ducked low into a curtsy, hand out.  “If I may?  I’m told we have a schedule to keep.”

“Please do,” Avery said.  “If there are no questions?  Or anything else?”

“Anything we need to know about rules, special qualities of this place?” someone asked.  One of the other family heads, maybe.  The wind stirred around him and not the people near him.

“No need to eat, tiredness will affect you differently, you could stay up indefinitely without needing to go to bed,” Luna Hare said.  “Gets a little tricky because it’s always night.  I use the television schedule.  I like to wake up to certain shows.”

“You have TV?”

“And radio.  And other things.  I’m happy to take you on a tour through our downtown area later.”

Luna continued on as tour guide, leading the way.  They moved as a group down the streets.

“My goggles keep fogging up,” Adorea said.  “Dad took the good ones and these aren’t making a seal against my face.”

“You should have run Up In Smoke,” Peter told her.  “There’s a boon for that.”

“A boon?” Avery’s dad asked.

Jude’s dad explained, “Along the way, an Other will blow smoke into your eyes.  Leaves you mostly blind.  Five to ten percent of your vision left.  But once you find your way through, the most something can ever blind you is that same number.  Five or ten percent.”

“That sounds fantastic.  Why doesn’t everyone do that?”

“Indeed.  Why didn’t you do it, Adorea?” Peter asked.

“Movie.”

“Oh, what was that?  Do tell us.”

“It was a movie.  Ride Shotgun.  It was pretty good.  Friendships are important too, you know.”

“I do know.  But I also like the fact I can see even with my goggles fogged up.”

“Do you want to borrow the eyeliner?” Avery asked.

“Can I?  Will I be okay removing a goggle?”

“Maybe step off to the side and ensure nobody sees?  Make sure you don’t walk by a window or someone overzealous might take offense,” Luna said.

“Thanks.”

Lucy had turned to smoke, and scaled up to a high place.  She walked on a series of connected balconies parallel to the path they were taking.

Then a few younger Finders did similar things, jumping up or going to high places, leaving it as Luna Hare, the adults, Avery, Snowdrop, and two older kids on the ground.  And Jude.

Lucy looked a little miffed, Avery thought.  That she’d gone off to keep watch, and they’d flocked after her.  Or copied her.  And now there was no point.

Not that there was a lot of point, when Kennet found being Kennet found meant they couldn’t be attacked.  Allegedly.

Miss was there on the horizon, sitting on the peak of the ski hill, paperwork on her knee.

“The kids look healthy and happy,” Jasmine noted, looking around them.

“We try,” Jude’s mom said.

Luna Hare said, “Kennet found is great for your health, as you can get plenty of rest, you don’t need to eat, and you can prioritize you.  It’s a safe place.  We’ve already made deals with Kennet below, to take in a few of their less able and elderly.”

“Not the oldbodies, I hope,” Lucy said, from directly above Luna.

“No.  Why does everyone keep saying that?”

“Because they’re super nice and too good for this place,” Snowdrop said.

“Kennet found is very nice, actually,” Luna said.

“It’s such a balance, the kids,” Jude’s mom said.

“Impossible balance,” Jude’s dad said.

“School, proper training, magic things, gradually warming them up to face two entirely different worlds.  The human world and all of this…” Jude’s mom said.

“I’m not sure it’s even possible for a child to be fully prepared to face the human world,” Jasmine said.

“You did a pretty good job with Booker, I hear,” Avery said.

“Did you hear that from Lucy?  Because she’s a little biased,” Jasmine said.  “Don’t get me wrong.  Booker is a treasure, I’m immensely proud.  But he’s had wake up calls about what the world had in store for him.  A tough first semester.”

“I stand by the idea that if everyone in the world was more like Booker, the world would be in a great place,” Lucy said, a little haughty, or affronted.

“How old is he?” Avery’s mom asked.

“Eighteen.  He’s off at University.”

“We have one that just finished.  Jude’s oldest brother.  We pay him to draft texts we sell to the practitioner community, he’s putting the money toward a home, allegedly.”

“Allegedly,” Jude’s dad stressed.  “It’s fine.  So long as he puts up with us when we ask for help configuring the television systems, I won’t ask too many questions.”

Jude’s silence felt like a crushing weight on Avery’s chest.

Sucked.  Really sucked.

“We make them learn first aid.  But that’s good for any kid to know.  Especially active ones,” Jude’s Uncle Peter was telling Jasmine.

But as much as the Jude situation sucked, her mom was talking to the family.

That was part of why she’d made the extra push to do this.  Before talking to her mom, she’d intended to just maybe ask for advice.  Or to call and leave a message.

But her mom was floundering, wondering what the future looked like.  And Avery figured this might do.

She hadn’t really accounted for the effect of the more active part of the Garrick clan all showing up.  There were a few absent she might’ve recognized if she’d seen them, like the old man who’d helped at the Promenade, but eh.

What she saw was a gradual change.  Super gradual.  Every sentence was like, one percent difference.  Her mom relaxed a bit.  Seeing that this family was still a family.  Seeing them have the same concerns.  The same worries about what this world had in store for them.

I want to get past the bad crap.  Then maybe there’s something similar to what these guys are doing in my future.

How in the hell was she meant to get past the bad crap?

They each had a job, and in the chaos of it all, they hadn’t had a great opportunity to chase that down.  Avery was meant to find allies for Kennet.  Lucy was meant to find someone who could take the Carmine Throne.  Verona was meant to find a solution.

And they’d taken some small steps.  This, for Avery.  Lucy had made friends with more goblins and Dog Tags, establishing a network.  Verona had come up with the idea for Kennet Found, and done the legwork in setting it up.

But it felt less like progress and more like they were fighting like hell to maintain a position in the midst of a situation that was changing and evolving.  Holding onto friends when it looked like they were going to pull away.  Making more alliances with possible Carmine contenders, while others died and left.  Coming up with something to give Charles and his sanctuary less of a foothold in Kennet, while he put his master plan into effect.

Even in the other goals.  Like keeping family intact.

This was less a step forward, and more a move to hold onto her mom, before all the magic garbage and America’s shitty stunts did any real harm.

But it was at least working okay.

The big family dynamic was, like, home.  It was familiar.  They’d just sent their family away.  That was good, and Avery hadn’t expected how good it would be.

The reassuring voice.  The- just having people she could introduce her mom to, that didn’t come with horrible caveats like Toadswallow having a dangerous and vulgar side, or Miss being responsible for…

Avery struggled to encapsulate it in her head.

…For a lot.

Luna led the way, prattling on, though it seemed only a few were listening and taking notes.  Snowdrop periodically tried to mess with her, taking her hand and making her spin while walking, or poking, or trying to make her laugh, or getting junk food and holding it out for Luna.  It was like Snowdrop’s natural disposition for chaos drove her to natural, light antagonism with prim, orderly Luna.

That, or she’d spent too much time around goblins.

Avery hoped some of Luna’s style would rub off on Snow.  It’d be nice to have a sweet familiar.

Her mom laughed, and it wasn’t a nervous, high-pitched laugh.

Please don’t ruin this, Avery thought.  Please don’t let anything screw this up.  Don’t attack, don’t fight, don’t let secrets come out, don’t let Kennet below riot, don’t let the wrong people stumble in.

She tapped her shoes three times, then leaped up to where Lucy was.

“My mom’s doing okay?” Lucy asked.

Avery nodded.  “Yeah.”

“We ready for this?”

“I have no idea.  How are you doing?”

“Wanting this done with.  It’s good to have you here, you know?”

“Sorry I’m probably leaving.”

“Nah.  It’s good.  Be where you need to be.  But it’s nice while you’re around.  Verona does this a lot.  I know it’s not her fault right now, she’s gotta do the Demesne claim, but when it’s not that, it’s something else, like she’s doing alchemy, or in the Undercity.”

“You could tell her you miss her.”

“I worry it’ll be too needy, and it’ll push her away.  Because that’s a thing, you know?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s nice to have someone else around, when she’s not.  But at the same time, I’ve had no time for Wallace, and it feels shitty, because I was just giving him flack for ignoring me after his surgery.”

“Oh, for sure.  I told Nora I’d be back.  I get you.”

“We gotta arrange a double date, somehow.”

“What would that even look like?  You taking Wallace to Thunder Bay?  Because I think bringing Nora to Kennet would be, uh, fast.”

“Weren’t you just very pleased with yourself, texting me to say you had your head in her lap?”

“By phone.  Kind of!  Super great moment.  I have Snowdrop to thank for it.”

Lucy chuckled, face hidden by the mask.

“I can’t tell if Luna wants to murder Snowdrop by now or if she’s having fun with a friend.”

“I want to murder Snow sometimes.  Snow!” Avery called out.

Snowdrop stepped away from Luna.

“Go opossum mode and go easy, or come up here.”

Snowdrop went opossum mode, crawling on Luna.  Just the fact she was there and crawling along her arm and shoulder seemed to do more to break Luna’s attempts at giving a good tour than all her antics as a human.

They walked along the rooftops, jumped down to cross the bridge, then went up to more rooftops to stand watch while the parents and Garrick adults walked and talked, with a few Garrick adults taking notes from Luna, or walking around the edges of the group and taking notes on Foundlings.  There was one guy who looked like he was being obnoxious, talking to Foundlings who wanted to get on with their night, so Avery hopped back down.

As they got closer to the valley, Miss turned, then came down from the ski hill.  She shrank as she approached, and there was a resulting effect that made it seem like she wasn’t getting a lot closer.

Until they reached the sidewalk that bordered the black grass that led into the valley, and Miss was just a few paces away.  Leaves and bits of black grass stirred, along with Miss’s black hair, creating an illusion that made it feel like any drift, movement, or fixed placement of the eyes on a point of Miss’s face would reveal something.  It didn’t.

“Miss, I gather?” Jasmine asked.

“Jasmine.  A pleasure.  Mr. and Mrs. Kelly.  Garricks.”

“I’d like to talk.  I know now isn’t the time, but I do want to talk.”

“Shall I find you, at a quieter time?  It’s hard for me to leave, but I can make some time.”

“Please.”

“This is our Promenade solver?” Jude’s dad asked.  “Avery Kelly’s source?”

“And mentor,” Avery said.

“I am,” Miss said.  “I provided information on the cakewalk as well.  I know a little more.  I’m happy to talk later, if you want to make a return visit.  We can modify your passes, allowing second visits.”

“I have so much to ask,” Jude’s dad said.  “But we have work to do, don’t we?”

Avery looked past him to Jude.

Jude, who was quiet, mostly ignoring Adorea, except to answer questions.

“We can talk again,” Miss said.  “The Garricks and myself, myself and Jasmine.  Mr. and Mrs. Kelly, if you wish.”

“I don’t think there’s much that’s too important,” Avery’s dad said.  “Put us at the bottom of the priority list, but don’t forget us, how’s that?”

“Alright.  Shall I take you over?  I’ve glanced, and kept an eye out.  I think we’re reasonably safe.  Luna?  I know you wanted to stay away from the main group.”

“I’ll stay back,” Luna said.

“Can I fill out a memo?” Avery asked.

“What’s this?” Jude’s dad asked.

“Just a way of thanking her.  Earns her a bit.”

Avery took the paper from Luna, and filled out the various spaces in the form.

“Thank you,” Luna said.

“Very good explanations, can I fill one out as well?” another Garrick asked.

Luna happily handed over the papers.  The Garricks who’d taken notes filled out the forms.

“Thank you.  You’ve been very kind.  Good luck.  I hope your trips to the Paths go well.”

Luna hurried off, back toward the houses.

“Then if you’re ready?” Miss asked.

They got together as a group.

And the wind stirred, the grass picked up, and so did the little specks of seedling from the tallest, almost wheat-like bits of grass.

Some got in Avery’s eyes, making her blink.

When her eyes opened, she was looking at about twenty-five practitioners.  Her bracelet ticked madly to tell her she was being watched from the one direction.  They stood down in the valley, looking up.  None looked especially happy.

Avery glanced around, but nobody was up and awake, paying enough attention to see that people had materialized from nowhere.

“Twenty-five?” Avery asked.

“Twenty.  Four undecided and observing.”

It looked like Cyn Gaspard was one of the undecided.

Fence-sitter in the problem solver vs. conflict practitioner divide?

Twenty was less than half of the sixty-something that were still in Kennet.  Disappointing.

But at least they hadn’t been attacked the second they’d appeared.

“We had a debate, and the uneasy agreement we came to was that if they can’t cooperate, they should stay behind,” Mr. Martin said.  Sal’s dad.  The spider breathing shaman.  “We agreed it would hurt inter-practitioner relationships if they interfered, they should leave and let us meet you.”

“It was complicated.  Some have familial or friendship ties to people you’ve captured for the three or seven days,” Elizabeth’s dad said.

Avery nodded.  “But you’re okay?  We’re good to go?”

“We’re eager to get home, and to see what we can do to fix what’s broken.”

“I’m happy to introduce you to the Garricks, at least those of you who don’t already know them or know of them.  They had working relationships with Mr. Belanger and Mr. Sunshine.  They’re friends of Edward, which is apparently a big City Magic name out in Quebec.”

There were some nods.

Avery looked at Jude’s Uncle Peter.

“If you could group up by intended destination?  We have fifteen available and willing tonight.  If you have more than fifteen destinations, some will have to wait,” Jude’s Uncle Peter told the assembled group.

“And the price?” Mr. Driscoll asked.

“Covered by Ms. Kelly and Kennet as a whole,” Jude’s dad answered.  “If you ever wanted another trip like this, we tend to start at ten thousand.  Doubled if it takes longer than an hour or if you want a Path boon while you’re at it.  Tripled if there’s danger before the Path or at the post-path destination, tripled if you’re requesting a dangerous Path.  Multiplicative.”

“And you’re looking to do business with us in the future?”

“We’re open to it, assuming good behavior,” Jude’s Uncle Peter said.

The discussion continued.  Different groups feeling each other out.  Jude had walked over, and Avery hadn’t not noticed.  Jude touched her arm, and she followed him to the side and away from the group.

“That’s a lot.”

“That’s twenty-four out of sixty-something.”

“It’s a lot.”

“It’s been a lot for a long time.  I tried to explain that, before.”

“You’ve hinted at it even before then.  Yeah.”

“I’m sorry, Jude.  I really am.  It was really great of you to not refuse to talk to me.”

“I heard you talking me up to my family.  Did you mean for me to hear that?”

“I’m a bit embarrassed you heard it.  I just thought… I really really didn’t want to put you in a bad situation.”

“Thanks,” he said.

They watched the adults interacting.  It sounded like they were talking oaths, for extra security, on both sides.

“It sucks, not being able to message you and complain about my family.”

“I’m so behind on messages.”

“I figured.  It’s cool.”

Avery nodded.

“Pretty awesome, that Lost town.”

“Found, technically.”

“Technically, sure.  But it’s also a Lost town.  Sounds better too.”

Avery grunted, in a ‘nyeh’ sort of way, without outright refusing or disagreeing.

“If you’re trying to convince my family you’re not the next Hazel, you gotta calm down and stop pulling stuff like that or handing out solves.”

“I gave your uncle the-”

“I saw.  It’s good.  Thanks for following through.”

Avery nodded.  “I’m looking forward to maybe getting a chance to calm down.  I don’t know what’s happening here though.  In Ontario.  The various attacks.  There was a scare earlier-”

“Jude!” Jude’s dad called out.  “Listen for this part!  You’re taking one group!”

“Gotta go,” Jude said, sighing.  He took one step, then paused.  “We’re okay?”

“That’s totally up to you.  I screwed up.”

“We’re okay, I guess.  I get it, I think.”

“Thank you.  I’m glad.”

“Maybe call me a hero to my dad again.  I imagined sparks flying off his brain at trying to process that.”

Avery laughed a bit.

The talk about locations, who was going where, and other things carried on.  The invading group was debating internally about how dangerous the destinations were, and if they should establish a precedent about that, for future billing.

Which made it sound like there was future billing, which was great.

“Then shall we go first?” Jude’s Uncle Peter asked.  “Taking one small group?  And we can call the Kennet group and they can pass on the message?”

There were nods.

“Peter Rhys Garrick, I gainsay you, for fifty-three days, for fifty-three falsehoods made.”

The group parted.

He was at the back.  Charles.

“Do you contest?” Charles asked.  He stood there, red, regal in a messy, raw way, like a king of old might’ve been, rather than a modern king, wearing red beneath a heavy fur coat, beard and hair thick, eyes crimson.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

The words felt like they would’ve come out of Lucy’s mouth, but they had come out of Avery’s, instead.

“My duties,” Charles said, calm.  “We’re overdue for a talk.  Let’s converse, before this goes any further and I find myself noticing more people overdue for a thorough gainsaying.”

Next Chapter