Author: Wildbow

Crossed with Silver – 19.9 | Pale

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“Literally no gift I ever give feels right,” Nora groaned.

“We could do another joint shopping trip later, then, make sure the bases are covered,” Avery said.

“I know I’m supposed to say yes to any chance to spend time together, but I don’t think my gut could take it.”

Avery turned around, walking backwards, so she could look at Nora as they talked, hand gripping the handles of the cloth shopping bags she carried.  “That bad, huh?”

“It’s pretty bad.  The best part of Christmas is I’ve given the gifts and I can start mentally repressing my regrets and everything.”

“Aw, is it that bad?  Can I see your list?”

“Don’t walk into anyone,” Nora warned, reaching for the front of Avery’s coat, which was open because they’d been going in and out of stores and moving around enough to get warm.  She tugged on one side, steering Avery.

“I’m good.”  Avery was already moving that way.

“How are you good, though?  Do you have eyes in the back of your head?  Here.  Don’t read the bit I’m folding.”  Nora folded the bottom quarter of the paper.

Avery took the list, holding it with two fingers, so the folded bit was held against the back of the page.  It was scribbled down.  Mom, Dad, Luke, Henry.  Various ideas were down, some crossed out.  Only ‘dad’ was apparently done, with a line through it.

“But you got the gloves for your mom, right?” Avery asked.

“I get two things, at least, so if they hate one they at least get the other.”

“And you’ve got all these ideas for your brothers…”

“Kind of?  They’re not good ideas, and there’s a family rule, where they’re twins, but they’re not the same person-”

“Aren’t they kind of, though?”

“-so it’s not allowed to get them the same thing.”

“That’s a major pain in the butthole.”

“And the gifts have to be basically equal, and it never feels like they are.  And you know how my dad’s really chilled out, you know?”

“You could say he’s so chill he’s semi-comatose.”

“But there’s two times I really- I bonered it up, the most recent time was last Christmas when I ordered something but it didn’t come.  My dad’s semi-comatose, but shortchanging my brothers is like, that gets me the disapproving look.”

“Ugh.”

“And it did eventually arrive but until then it felt really bad.  My mom could beat me with a sack full of doorknobs and it wouldn’t feel as bad as my dad giving me that look.  Because he doesn’t give me much to go on, right?”

“Being beaten with the sack might feel as bad, once you’re actually in the moment.  She doesn’t actually-”

“-Okay.  That’s rough though.  Can’t get them the same thing.”  Avery glanced over the list.  Games, toys, clothing…

“And my dad, like, for his actual present, he doesn’t care.  He gets everything he wants for himself, because he’s retired and he like, does bonsai and grows cool flowers and does carpentry without glue, screws, or nails.  I could get him a piece of paper with a smiley face on it and I think I’d get the same gently pleased response as if I bought him a… I dunno, a microwave.”

“Don’t actually buy your dad a microwave.  Or give him a piece of paper with a smiley face on it.”

“I know.  But what do I give him?”

That part of the list was very blank.

“Woodworking tools?”

“He’s got expensive ones from Japan he gives a lot of care to.”

“Huh.  Another hobby, maybe?”

Nora let go of Avery’s coat to put her hands to her head.  “Don’t even remind me.  I’ve repressed this.  It feels so bad, he does it but it’s like it’s an obligation, not a thing he wants to do, and then he gently drops it almost exactly two months after the holiday or birthday and I see those painting supplies or the brewing kit stuff every time I got to the workshop space in the garage.  Brewing!  It sounded like he was interested when he was listening to dads at Henry and Luke’s school thing, but he doesn’t even drink!  What was I thinking?”

Nora took hold of Avery’s coat again, nearer the collar.  “What was I thinking!?”

“I think there’s way worse reasons to get gifts than ‘something he seemed interested in’,” Avery said.  “I’m more curious how a teenager gets brewing kit stuff.  Is that even legal?”

“Mom helped.  I was twelve.  I saved up a bit.  What was I thinking?”

Nora tugged on Avery’s coat, steering her one way, then tugged on both lapels, leaning back, to bring her to a stop at the crosswalk.  Avery could navigate on her own, even walking backwards, but she let Nora handle it.

“You were twelve.  I think you’re okay.  Is your mom easy at least?  You’ve got ideas.”

“She just gets really worked up over stuff over the holidays.  There’s always something.  Which makes me feel like I want to do more for her, to make up for stuff that I have nothing to do with.  Except this year I do have something to do with it.  Last year it was the house being mid-renovation and paint when family came over and this year it’s the idea of me going away.”

“Do you want to cancel or-”

The response was so sudden and intense that Avery was a little surprised.  She let out a one note chuckle.

“Don’t be mean.  I want to come, I’m nervous but I want to come.  Oh my god, I need to get something for your family too.  Walk signal’s green.”

They crossed at the crosswalk, surrounded by Christmas shoppers.

“It’s really fine.  All you have to bring is yourself, and stuff, like clothes.  And a toothbrush.”

Nora’s eyes were wide.  “I’d feel bad if I didn’t bring something.  Let me crib from your list?”

“Don’t get something for literally everyone, that’s too much.”

“But-”

“My brother’s girlfriend doesn’t, okay?  So… don’t.”

“Okay, but…”

“Look, if you really want to bring something, you could bring something for the whole family.  We alternate between puzzles and block building projects every Christmas.  Last year we did a puzzle, this year we’re doing the Birdcage prison thing from that movie series.  It usually takes a few days with Declan and Kerry fooling around and Sheridan intentionally sabotaging the project.”

“Should I get that, then?”

“I think they’re like, a hundred and fifty bucks, so no.  But if you got a puzzle to do on the side that’d be a nice project for anyone who doesn’t want to build the supervillain superprison.  What do you think?”

“Sounds doable.”

“They’re like, twenty bucks, too, so… doable?  We could go in on it, since it’s for my family.”

Nora nodded.

“Come on.  I think the bookstore has a bunch.”

They walked down the block to the big bookstore chain.  There was a coffee shop built into one corner of the place, and a third of the store was taken up with stuff that wasn’t books, ranging from mugs to children’s toys.  Probably said something about the state of the world.

Puzzles and classic board games were in a back corner of that third of the store.

“We could go with something on theme, Birdcage puzzle to go with the big project.”

“Then it’s really obvious you tipped me off.”

“Maybe.  Hmm.  And I’m imagining my Grumble being grumbly about the superhero stuff.  Doesn’t get it, yadda yadda.”

“What does he like?”

“Nature?  Something nostalgic, quaint?”

“Okay.”

“Do you know if your mom’s going to let you come?”

“Not sure,” Nora said.  “She’s really unsure.  I think she really wants an excuse but can’t find one.  I think she really wanted the party to be a tiny disaster so she could avoid what feels to her like a big one.  But then I came home early.  Dad stuck up for me.  Said he was proud.”

“Cool.  At least something good came of that.”

Nora looked around, waiting until an older woman picked up a puzzle and walked away, and the coast was mostly clear.  “I’m thinking of coming out to my dad.  Just my dad.”

“Oh wow.”

“I’m almost positive I know how he’s going to react.  Which is not reacting.  And I’d like him backing me up like he did over the party, later.  You know, if it ever accidentally comes out?”

Avery nodded.  “Heavy.  Is this because of what Jeanine pulled?”

“A bit.”

“Sorry.”

Nora shook her head quickly.  “No.  Don’t be.  I get the feeling I would’ve ended up on the wrong side of Jeanine one way or another.  If I ever came out or got a girlfriend.  From what I heard, she’s that type.  It happened at the GSA club, apparently, twice.  She decides someone’s a problem or her enemy, then everyone else is either her ally and helping her or they’re her enemy too, and it spilled out past the GSA club, and by the end three out of four people in the club had seen what it’s like to be her enemy.”

“And the club collapsed.”

“I think the way it was going to go, either the club was going to walk away from that or they were going to stick together and be so afraid of being Jeanine’s enemy again they’d go her way all the time.”

“Good for them for breaking up, I guess.”

Nora nodded.

“Would’ve been better to kick her out.”

“Probably, I don’t think club rules allowed that though, so…”

“Ugh.  I remember Oli saying she was labeled a bully, and he thinks it was unfair?”

“There was a whole thing about that.  That’s how I heard about things, because it leaked out of the club, and you couldn’t do group work or go on a field trip without it coming up.  After people started calling her a bully, she got pulled into the office and there was a big sit-down, and the faculty, who are really strict about bullying, decided she wasn’t one, and so everyone seemed to think that decided everything in her favor.”

“Ahhh.  Huh.”

“I think people just didn’t have the words to explain what was going on.  So they used the word ‘bully’, and to the school that’s a word with very specific meaning, tied to specific things, and once it went to that, it all got twisted.  She is a bully.  Just not in a way that the school’s good at explaining.”

“You’ve been thinking about this a lot.”

“I’m mad,” Nora said.  She met Avery’s eyes.  “She said stuff about you.  She said stuff about me.  She was going to blow up your social life or worse- imagine if the school found out and had to investigate this stupid rumor, and it meant talking to your mom, or if my mom found out through the school board committee stuff and didn’t let me come for Christmas.  Or spend time with you.”

“Yeah.  Metaphorical bullet dodged, there.  I can take some lumps, I don’t care that much about my school social life.  I’ve got enough people I care about, I think I could stand being discluded again.  If I had you, and stuff.”

Nora nodded.

“But I wouldn’t want it to affect us.”

Nora smiled.

“I’m glad it didn’t get back to your mom.”

“So far.  But it could.”

“Yeah.  It did for me.  Just to like, warn you, I guess.  I told some kids at the campfire at a party at the start of summer, my sister heard almost right away, then my dad heard a few weeks later.  Like, people don’t have better things to do than talk about who a thirteen or fourteen year old likes or loves?”

Nora’s eyes widened.

“Talking generally,” Avery said, moving the shopping bags to the other hand, because they were digging into her fingers.  She slung them over her shoulder.  “I haven’t, hmm, haven’t grappled with that question.  The L word.”

“Me either.”

“But I sure am into you,” Avery said.

“Sure am.  Same.  I’m just gonna, don’t move for a second.  Let me get a really clear mental image of this scene, okay?”

“What?”

“For when I wake up from this really unrealistic dream.”

“Take a picture on your phone.”

“Well obviously that’s not going to be there after I wake up.”

Avery started to move.

Nora hurried around the table with the puzzles on it and pushed Avery back to where she’d been.  “I didn’t say no.  Let me get my phone out.  Don’t move.”

Avery fixed her hair, then posed, still holding the shopping bags.  She let Nora take the picture, then walked around the table, putting her arm around Nora’s shoulders, and took one of both of them, arm outstretched and raised over their heads.

“Send me that one.”

“Can do,” Avery replied.

It felt nice.  A warm moment on a cold evening.  A moment she wanted to stay in.  She could understand why Nora had described it as dreamlike.  Too good to be true, when there was so much out there that- that wasn’t.

Horrible things.  Scary things.  Things she didn’t know how to handle, because they felt so insurmountable.  She was ignoring a lot of those things.  Putting too much onto the others.

“How are we with deciding on the puzzles?” Avery asked.

Nora picked out one.  It was a group of five kids in 1920s clothing, viewed from above, all laying stretched out in a field of red flowers.  “Quaint?  Nostalgic, maybe?  I like the colors.”

“Sure.” Avery put it under one arm.

“Wait, wait,” Nora said.  She put it down, then dug deeper into the pile to find another copy of the same puzzle.  “This one isn’t covered in fingerprints with tears in the plastic.”

“Sure.”

“And I want to get a box of chocolates or something too.  In case they don’t like the puzzle.”

“Okay.  Not obligatory, but if it helps you.  Can I go in on that?  I’d feel bad if I’m the reason you’re digging into pocket money.”

Nora hemmed and hawed over that, then nodded.

They went over to the cash, and Avery grabbed a plush duck with a squeaker inside that quacked when squeezed, that was probably a dog toy.  “For Kerry’s stocking.  I’m going for a duck theme.  She should get a kick out of it, especially if it annoys my parents.”

“I was going to ask to see your list.”

Avery dug her list out.

“Holeeee shh-ugarballs.  That’s a lot of presents to get.”

“It’s not all that bad.  Mom, Dad, Rowan, Sheridan, Declan, Kerry, Lucy, Verona, Lucy’s mom, something small for my online friends Jude and his family, Fernanda, Raquel, Zed, Nicolette, Liberty- you met Liberty.  Then my friends and I are splitting up responsibilities for Other locals, and saying it’s from all of us.”

“I would implode with a list like that.”

“I like giving gifts.”

“Gifts are anxiety.”

“Oh, here.”  Avery spotted some chocolates by the cash.  “My family likes these British ones.  Or mostly they fight over half of the chocolate types and snack on the rest over a few days.  Safe bet.”

“Imagine getting chocolate and not wanting to eat them right away.”

“And I still have your list… let’s see.  I’m going to write down ‘Avery’s family’, and cross it out.  There.  One more thing done.”

“Aaa.”

“And you’re not allowed to be anxious- I told you what worked, so blame me if it doesn’t work out, somehow.  Which it won’t.”

Avery took everything over to the cash, then paid for the duck, puzzle, and chocolates, with Nora protesting.  Then she took a twenty from Nora at Nora’s insistence.

They went back out onto the street, joining the crowd of shoppers.  Nora checked her phone.  “My parents are getting fussy.  They’ve already got my dad on his way and asking where I am.  I should probably get home.  Want to call it quits here?  Finish another time?”

“We can for sure finish another time.”

“Want a ride?”

“Hmm, I think I’ll stay.  I’ll make my own way back.”

“What?  Oh.  Sure,” Nora said, looking like she’d realized something.

Sorry, not shopping for you.

“I’ll wait with you.”

Nora nodded.

They found a parking lot to wait for Nora’s dad in, and sat.  Avery buttoned up her coat after a bit, because it was chilly.

“About coming out to your dad…”

“I dunno if I will.  But I’ve been thinking about it.  Knowing me, I might just come right out with it at some point.  When the moment’s right.”

Avery nodded.  “Good luck.”

“Is it fair of me to ask him to keep a secret from my mom?  Would my mom be hurt?”

“I don’t know.  I think it’s okay to let him know, make sure you have backup.  Sheridan, of all people, was my backup.”

“But my mom would be hurt, being the last to know.  Or the last to know along with my brothers.”

“Probably.”

Nora sighed.

“At least your brothers would be nice about it.”

“They’re nice about everything.  I was watching a movie with the family, The Last Battle Between Good and Evil, and there were two demon-possessed twin boys holding hands in a burning building and I’m sneaking glances at my family for the entire part of the movie they’re around.  Like, does no one see it?”

“Maybe they’ll go the direction Declan did and you’ll end up missing the time they were so nice it was eerie.”

“I want the masks to crack.  I think the reason gift giving makes me so anxious is my family doesn’t ever give you a good idea of what they’re thinking or feeling.  My dad doesn’t show much of anything, my mom hides everything behind this constant cloud of stress, and my brothers are, I dunno, both?”

“Constant cloud of stress?”

“Not stress, but happy.  And then I feel like the weird one out.”

“After my place on Christmas, you might go back to wanting hidden emotions.”

“If I get to come.”

“Maybe try telling your mom-”

Nora’s dad pulled into the parking lot.

“-that it’d be helpful to my family if you gave an answer sooner?  And lock it in?  Buying food and stuff.  And you bought things for us.”

Nora nodded.  They stood up and started walking over to Nora’s dad.  “I’ve been thinking about what to say.  Making deals to not eat too much sugar.  And with the party, I think the thing that got her to agree to let me go is like… this is a big life experience right?  She told me before about staying with her cousins for a while and then coming halfway across the country on the bus.  And then she realized I’d want to do the same and stopped talking about it.”

“Good card to play.  Can we video chat tonight?  Last thing before we sleep?”

Nora nodded.  “Text only though.”

“Yeah.  Have to do that anyway, unless Sheridan falls asleep with her earbuds in.”

They walked over to the car.  Nora climbed in, and Avery handed over the bag with the chocolates and puzzle, taking the duck.

“Aren’t you coming?” Nora’s dad asked.

“Nope.  I’ve got a few more errands to run.”

“I’ll drive you to them.”

“It’s okay.”

“You’re fourteen, I don’t like leaving you here.”

“I’m meeting someone, there’s lots of people around.”

He didn’t look like he believed her.  “Can I talk to this someone?”

“What, like… on the phone?” Avery asked.

“Yeah.”

Snowdrop didn’t have a phone.

Avery reached out with an impulse, and craned her head around.

“Is this a boy?  And is it a boy your parents know about?”

“It’s a girl and my parents know her.  Hmmm…”

Come on, Snow.

Snowdrop came through the Warrens, which made Avery wince.  Avery could feel her fall awkwardly, then get back up.

Come on…

“Hey dad?  I’m sure it’s fine.”

He didn’t reply, eyebrows slightly raised.

And Snowdrop was up, out of the Warrens, in an alley, coming around.

End of the parking lot.

“There she is.”

Snowdrop approached at a run.  Avery waved her over, and she redoubled her efforts.

She came to a stop beside Avery, giving Avery a side-hug.

“Don’t hug me, you’re muddy.”

“It’s not that bad.  Not like I fell in a mud pit or anything.”

A Warrens mud pit, you tit.

Snowdrop looked at Nora’s dad in the car.  “Oh.  Sketchy situation.  Bye.”

“It’s fine,” Avery told her.  “This is Nora, Nora’s dad.”

“Nice to meet you for the first time, and I think I’ve met you before.”

“Have you?” Nora’s dad asked.  He looked at Avery.  “She looks young.”

“Older than I look,” Snowdrop said.  She was still breathing hard from the run.  “Hi, I’m Octavia.”

“I won’t be too long before I go home.  We take the same bus,” Avery said.

“I’m a good bodyguard,” Snowdrop said.  “I’m tough.”

“And your mom’s okay with this?”

Avery nodded.  “Yeah.”

Nora’s dad looked like he had reservations.  “It’s late.”

“I won’t be long.”

“Okay,” he said, frowning.

He didn’t drive away.

“Really truly, it’s okay.”

He adjusted the gearshift.  “Be safe.  Stay where there are people.”

“Will do,” Snowdrop said.

He pulled out.  Avery gave a little wave, and watched Nora go.

“Sorry for the short notice.  Thanks.”

“What a pain,” Snowdrop remarked.

“I guess I’m going to have to explain to Nora who Octavia is, without lying.  That’s going to be interesting.”

“Did I call myself Octavia?  Weird.”

“Oh well.  How are you doing?”

“I’ve been busy, being good.  Did you know there’s barely any places around here giving out free samples?  No cider!  No treats!”

“I’m aware.  I can tell when you’re eating.”

“There was a lady, she thought I looked very prim and proper and respectable.”

“You’re eating pity food, Snow?”

“No!  I wouldn’t do something that low.  I didn’t get the goblins any when they wanted some, I know we don’t want them to spread.”

“Controlled spread.”

“Yeah, that.  We don’t want controlled spread either.”

“You good to go?  Let’s get this done, we’ll head back, I can tell Nora to tell her dad I got home safe.  I don’t want to scare them off from letting Nora come.”

“I mean, I haven’t had enough free samples…”

“Snow.  You’re going to get fat.  And slow.  Before the Promenade.  We need you in fighting shape.”

“Horrible.  I’m not even exercising with goblins these days.”

“That’s worrying too, you know.  They’re too rough with you.”

“Nuh uh.”

Avery steered Snowdrop around, and led her away.  “I wasn’t aware I was with Nora for as long as I was.  I hope it’s not too late for Sebastian.”

The message came through on her phone.  A text from Nora.

Nora:
Octavia?

It was one issue in a whole bundle of issues.  Because she knew if Nora came out, there was a kind of tacit deal, that Nora would maybe want Avery to reveal her secrets and things.

And Avery wasn’t sure how to even begin handling that whole deal.  She typed a response for now.

Avery:
someone Liberty and I know.
I’m making sure she’s ok.
we can take the bus back toward my place after.

That got a barrage of more questions, about if ‘Octavia’ was homeless, and other things.

It felt bad, leaving stuff out.

Snowdrop and the Zoomtown boon guided her through the crowd while she texted.  It wasn’t until Snowdrop nudged her that she realized she’d reached her destination.

Sebastian Harless was up in the window, looking out, already wearing his winter things.  He stepped away, and the lights went out.

A bit later, he emerged.  One of the lower-rank people from the Thunder Bay council, about forty or fifty, Sebastian looked like the classic public defender from shows, except in a slightly nicer suit.  A big part of that was that he looked far more tired than a man his age should.  Lines in his forehead, lines around the eyes, like the bags had permanently set in.  His hair had probably looked great first thing in the morning but was tousled and messy now.  The thing that kept him from looking old was that his hair hadn’t even started to gray yet.

“Sorry.  Were you waiting long?” Avery asked.

“Not long.  It’s fine.  I was doing crosswords.”

“Multiple?”

“Ending one, starting another.  Here.  Your documents, as requested.”

“Thank you,” she said, taking the folder.  “Can I e-transfer you the money?”

“If you pledge it.”

“I pledge to transfer you the funds, in an amount we agreed on, in a timely manner.”

“Thank you.  That’ll do.”

“I’m going on a bit of an extra shopping trip, and I’ll drop these off.  I dunno if you want to come-?”

“A shopping trip there?”

She nodded.

“There’s a dress code, as I understand it.”

She nodded again.  “I can cover you.”

“Sure.  From my very limited experience, it’s probably a good idea if I’m there to explain the paperwork.”

“Cool.  And if there’s anything you want to pick up…”

“There isn’t anyone.”  He said it in a way that didn’t make it sound like it was a good thing or an okay thing.

“Oh.”  No family?  No partner?  No kids?

She didn’t want to pry, but the tiredness that seemed set deep in his bones made more sense.  Like, knowing his history, that he was awakened, and it had all gone wrong, and the person that had awakened him had died.  That was a big part, but it didn’t account for all of it.  Adding in that deep loneliness?  She sympathized.

“Hey Snow?  You know the way better than I do.”

“Pshh.  You’re on your own.”

Snowdrop led the way.  It was a walk, but at the heart of it, they had to navigate a tract of the city that spent a certain amount of time where there were no people, on their way out to the nearest patch of nature.  Getting seen for just a second or two cost them minutes of walking.

“My friend Lucy’s been wondering a bit about Law practice.  I was wondering, is there any chance she could tap you as a resource?”

“Acgh,” he made a sound like someone clearing their throat after a gulp of very cold water and sighing at the same time.

“We could pay.”

“It’s not that.  Let me get back to you on that?”

“It wouldn’t have to be a master-apprentice type thing.  Just… maybe borrowing books you’re not using.”

“If it was master-apprentice, I’d give a hard no.  But this?  Feels like it could become one if I wasn’t careful.  I want to be careful.”

“Okay.”

He put up a hand, like indicating for her to stop whatever she was doing, when all she was doing was walking and thinking.  “I’ll think on it.  Let me sit on it for a bit.  Then, if I said yes, I’d need to know what she’s doing.”

Avery nodded.  “We could write up a report about what we’re trying to do.”

He put up a hand again.

“You’ll think on it.”

“Yes.”

Down by the water, between highway and water, there was a bit of woodland.  They evaded sight of the cars, traveling over a bridge, wound their way around the woods, under that same bridge, and then past that space into more nature.

It was dark, and the fireflies Avery had picked up from the Scarecrow Keeper swirled around them in lazy circles, illuminating their surroundings.

“Could you light up the path ahead of us a bit more?” Avery asked.

They did, extending the loop.

“Thanks guys,” she said, winking at them.

“Been a long time since I’ve done something like this.”

“You haven’t been to the Faerie courts?”

“Not much.  And this isn’t quite the Faerie courts.  Similar, but…”

Avery nodded.

They walked for a couple of minutes – just long enough that it felt like they should be running into more city, or actual roads.  But the dark wilderness kept going.

Little lights shone through.  Moonlight came through the branches, and eyes in the darkness looked at them.

She slowed as she saw those, and let them come out to her.

A gnarled little old man sat on a branch, looking at them with eyes that glowed like embers in the dark.  There was a fairy that looked like a brownie in the extended roots of a tree, eyes like glowing slashes in his face, and a family of tiny little people wreathed in heaping furs that were easily twice their body weight, peering out of the furs with eyes that were round and totally black.  Glimpsed for a moment, they might’ve been mistakeable for a mother rabbit, father rabbit, and a newborn rabbit.

“I come in peace,” Avery told them.  “With a deal for the head of the traveling traders.  Hye.”

She held up the papers.

The gnarled little old man nodded, turned, and unfolded limbs about three times as long as they seemed they should’ve been, with bits on them like there might be if she pulled roots of a plant out of the ground- fibrous and branching.  He swung his way down to a lower branch, facing a certain direction.

Avery took his cue, walking up the path and then turning that way.

The thicket of trees was especially dense here, leafless branches mingling together to form a seemingly impenetrable barrier.  There was a spot higher up- Avery might have missed the silent flight of an owl that flew down to a roost near that spot, letting lesser fairies out of a birdhouse that was mounted on its back, before taking off again.  And there was a spot below.

There were places near this spot that allowed a larger being through, but Avery wasn’t that privileged.  Yet, at least.

She opened her bag, got out the High Summer glamour and a packet of the petals she’d been saving up, and did Sebastian first.  She had to find bits about him that were High Summer enough to let the glamour take hold, and there really weren’t many.  She did his tousled hair, the fact he’d gotten some sun, and then went with what the glamour allowed.

Shrinking him down, while dressing him up as a brownie-like fairy.

She did herself next, while Snowdrop stepped back and away.  Red hair, golden checkmarks from the summer that were still there, if faded, the faux fur ruff of her coat with the antlers on it…

She put on her deer mask, witch hat, and cloak, and made those part of it, exaggerating the antlers.

This was the kind of place where a witch hat would be more fitting than not.

She shrunk herself down, then faced a Snowdrop that was about four times larger than her, in opossum guise.

Hopping up, she landed on Snowdrop’s back, and helped a wizened, tiny Sebastian up.

“Long time since I did any of this,” he said, again.

“I hope it’s a good experience,” she said.

The fairies let her through the gap in the thicket.

Into a part of the woods where lanterns hung from most surfaces, trees had been hollowed out into buildings, and lights shone out through the knots and the windows that had been inset into surfaces.  Snow glowed a dull orange from the various light sources.

Fairies were gathered- as busy as she’d seen this place.  Unlike Fae, these guys were the type that tended to have things like butterfly wings, and tended to be small.  They came in a wild variety, each one as different from one another as a goblin could be, but where goblins tended to be naked or half-naked, these guys put a lot of emphasis on clothing.  Big hats, robes, furs, old fashioned clothes, stolen or borrowed articles.  There was a fairy that looked like it was halfway between a stump and a really gnarly sweet potato that was toddling around while wearing a baby’s overalls.  There were some the size of mice, and some the size of Kerry.  Woodland animals had been put to work.

Riding Snowdrop without reins, Avery relied on the familiar bond to nudge Snowdrop this way and that, into the fairy market.

It wasn’t a Fae market.  A lot of the goods here were things that wouldn’t necessarily deserve stall space in a run-down Fae market.  Foragers displayed the things they’d foraged, there were stalls with varieties of mushrooms, there were some with cool bits of wood, bits of animal.  Four fairies were working together to cook seasoned meat on a campsite kerosene stove.  One with a burner as big around as if Avery had put middle fingers and thumbs together to make a circle… if she were big.

“Here, Mr. Harless.  As thanks for coming…” she said.  She got the envelope with the petals in it, and opened it up.  She gave him two petals.  “It works as a currency here.”

“Oh, thank you.  Sweetening me up so I agree to help your friend?”

“Didn’t cross my mind, actually.  If anything catches your mind, let me know, we can stop.  But I think the best bet is to wait until we get to the end, check to see what’s in stock at the traveling merchant’s.  Then buy on the way out if you want.”

“I’ll take your advice.  I didn’t expect this to be so big.”

“It’s… hmm.  Pretty big,” Avery said.  She stuck a foot out to scratch Snowdrop behind the ear.  “Nobody really paid attention to it, which seems like a bit of a shame.  Could be a good thing though.  Means nobody’s interfering.”

“True.”

“The Lord of our city doesn’t really pay attention to this kind of thing, it happened under our Council’s noses, and the Others who would notice it more are like, well, Aze is an elemental, there’s The Record, who wouldn’t really come here, Ashumare Ashumare wouldn’t be welcome, and then there’s Gilkey, who I could see coming here, if he wasn’t dangerous for the locals.”

“Quite,” Sebastian said.  “And he’s gone.”

“Yeah.  These markets spring up in the outskirts and natural parts of a city or town, usually.  Problem is, they have direct competitors.  Here in Thunder Bay, we had the Legendres actively dealing with those competitors, so this place could flourish more than in most other towns and cities.”

Sebastian nodded.

He probably already knew, but he let her talk.

“That’s in the past, though.  It’s apparently been a pretty rough season for them.”

“Let’s see what we can do about that, then.”

Avery tore off a bit of a petal about as big as her face.  She held it out.  “Could someone point me to Hye?”

A fairy that was about ninety percent a shaggy mane of hair and ten percent twiggy body with arms and legs sticking out of the hair pointed.  Avery passed the petal down to them, holding onto Snowdrop’s ear for leverage.

Down a side road, past some stalls, into a slightly better part of the market.

A this end, the highest end goods were about the worst things one might see at a Fae market.  Magical trinkets, bits and bobs.

“Hye’s a traveling fairy.  A lot of time, markets like this, a fairy might find an actual magic item, or a group of fairies might feed a cat glamoured food until it becomes a bit strange, then bring it here.  But like, that’s years of income from selling berries or decorated twigs, right?  For what?  A knife bigger than you are?”

“Right,” Sebastian said.

“So markets like this that reach a certain size usually have a big trader who’ll go from here to a Fae market, drop off stuff of interest with cooperating parties, who pay them.  Sometimes they’re in charge of a market like this, sometimes not.  Hye’s the closest thing to a fairy in charge.”

“I gathered.”

“Avery,” the fairy at the big stall said.  He was Kerry’s size, which made him a giant compared to a lot of the locals.  He had skin that looked like fire-kissed wood, and hair so straight and silky it looked like corn silk.  Smaller fairies brushed his hair with a pair of combs, one very nice looking, the other old and battered, missing teeth.  His eyes weren’t in the sockets, but she knew he could see quite keenly.  He kept his eyes somewhere not on his person, but close enough to watch her from angles.  “You’ve dressed up more than last time.”

“Happy to do it, if it’s not too over the top.”

“No such thing.”

“Main reason I didn’t for my other visit was I didn’t want to culturally appropriate.”

“Hmmm?”

“A respect thing.”

“When in Rome…” Hye said.

“In some places the metaphorical Romans would not be too happy I’m doing as they do.”

“I’ll take your word for it.  What do you have for me?”

“Paperwork.”

He put out a hand.  She gave him the papers.

“Anything in stock?” she asked.  She showed him the envelope of petals.

“Ah, too bad.  I had a tidbit, a folded cloth.  Can be a kite, hanglider, parachute, an emergency garment, or a fair-sized tent.  Good for a traveler.”

“Oh dang.”

“Dang indeed, but my apprentice bought it off me before it could even be put out for display.  He has the right, and I think he needs to get himself prepared.  He has a whole polycule of romantic interests lined up.  Three wives, one husband, if he can get himself established as a businessman.”

“Pretty good incentive, I’d guess.”

She gave him a moment to read.

“Your friend there wrote this?”

“I outlined it, he made it legalish.”

“I sense traces of him in the words,” Hye said.  He turned to the last page.  “Harless?”

“That is me.”

Hye went back to the page he’d been on.  “Why the roundabout way of talking about oathbreaking?  Forswearance?  Do you expect to dodge this deal, take this escape route?”

“Ms. Kelly’s request.”

Avery added, “I just don’t like forswearing.  Practitioner or Other.  If that was a dodge, it would be a pretty bad one.  It’s a steep cost.”

“But not as steep as it could be,” Hye noted.

“I can’t see any loopholes yet, and I’m good at loopholes.”

Avery flashed Sebastian a smile.

One of the fairies who was combing his hair found a snarl and pulled the hair away from the side of his head, using fingers too tiny for Avery to see to de-tangle it by hand.

“Walk me through this?  The reasoning?” Hye asked.

“It’ll be dry,” Sebastian warned.

“That’s fine.  It’s business.”

Avery listened for a few minutes, and it was dry.  And it was dry stuff she’d sat down with Sebastian to talk over, three nights ago, after Verona had asked about expanding the market.

“Do you mind if I step away?  To shop?”

“Feel free,” Sebastian said.  “I’ll call your name thrice if there’s anything new?”

She nodded.

She led Snowdrop away, and walked on snow that her foot would have penetrated if she wasn’t tiny.  Snowdrop trundled along beside her.

“This is fun,” she told Snowdrop.

Snowdrop sneezed affirmation.

There was a stall in the higher-end part of the market, which had decorated pendants something like ivory inlaid into ebony, and vice-versa.  She put her hand out, and felt something that radiated off them like heat.  Except it wasn’t heat.

“Lifeforce and deathforce,” the cowled fairy with two faces told her.

“How safe?”

“Don’t wear either too long.  Too much life, your body will grow against itself.”

“Cancer?” Avery asked.

The fairy nodded.

“Too much death, you rot alive.”

“And how are they for replenishing?  Do they regenerate that lifeforce or deathforce?”

“They pick it up.  Ambient.”

“Hmm.  Is it dangerous to be around?  If it’s drawing in ambient energy?  I heard about a ring that sucked all the lifeforce out of a classroom of students.”

“It takes what’s available.  It’s not forceful enough to take what others have.”

“What about a ghoul?”

“They’ll want to be careful.  They should be able to hold what they have and take what the stone gives, but if they’re very weak…”

“Got it.  But it should be good, right?  For a pick-me up?  On a bad day but not a terrible day?”

“It will.”

Avery texted Lucy, confirming, since Lucy had put the ghouls on her shopping list, and then agreed to trade, buying two.

Snowdrop stuck her nose into a display of interesting rocks, and Avery bought some.  There was a nail cursed to imbue clumsiness in those trying to use it or those stuck with it, and she got that for Ramjam.  He’d find some use for it.

A fairy was acting as a banker, selling glamour from various courts, and Avery set about bartering for that.

“Six petals of High Summer glamour for glamour of five different courts.  High and Low Spring, Low Summer, High and Low Fall.”

“Seven for five.”

“You’re coming out ahead.”

“Seven for five, I must insist.”

Avery Kelly, Avery Kelly, Avery Kelly.

“I’m being called away.  Glamour of five courts for six fresh petals of High Summer glamour, picked off a rose tonight.  Last chance.”

The fairy banker looked anguished, then conceded, “fine, but you ought to come back and give me a better deal next time.”

“I will give it some consideration.”

“Bah!”

Avery took the containers, put them in her jacket pockets- three in one, two in another, then hopped astride Snowdrop again, for a quick ride back over.

She went back to Sebastian and Hye.

“I have concerns,” Hye said.

“About the contract?” Sebastian asked, mildly surprised.

“No.  This is fine so far.  But circumstances aren’t.”

“The goblins?” Avery asked.  She glanced at Sebastian.

When she’d raised the topic of this market with the local council, and asked for Sebastian’s help, the goblins had been a point of discussion.  That it was coming up here was not a surprise in the slightest.

“That’s part of it.”

Avery raised her eyebrows.  The eyebrows on the glamoured deer mask went up to match.  “Part?”

“I’ll get to that.  What can you do about the goblins?”

“Already started.  Some loose rules about respecting territory.  My opossum partner is a Goblin Sage in training.”

“Not something I would boast about, but carry on.”

“She’s pretty cool.  So is Liberty Tedd, an acquaintance, and just using her name and being able to call myself her friend, that helps.  We’ve negotiated a ceasefire.  The goblins will respect your territory.”

“No more raids?”

“That’s the idea.  They want a discount.  Ten percent when they pay, or whatever they can fit in their mouths on a once-a-season visit.”

“I don’t need any special talent to know that has loopholes.”

“It also has room for mischief.”

Hye leaned back, and four fairies flew out and worked, wings fluttering, pushing at his back to keep him from falling over while he reclined.  He ran fingers through silken hair.  “Hmmm.”

“Anything that isn’t slightly antagonistic is a pipe dream, so… work it into the system.  A tiny bit of casual mutual abuse and bullying.  With deals to keep it at a low level and keep things from escalating,” Avery said.

“I was thinking about that.  Arrange a meeting?  Between me, three top merchants, and one of theirs?”

“They’ll probably want to match you in numbers.  For fairness.”

Hye nodded.  He turned pages in the business contract.

“I’ll set it up then.  What else?”

“Set something up for if you’re gone.  I’ll deal with this Harless fellow in your absence.”

“I plan to be away, so that makes sense.  If that’s okay with him?”

Sebastian nodded.

“You don’t have an easy source of glamour, right?” she asked him.

“Not an easy source, no.”

“He can come in through the back.  I’ll give him the means of getting in touch.”

“That’s good, but why- why this?” Avery asked.  “Just making sure, you’re not planning to… remove me, right?”

“No.  I ask because certain forces have their sights on you.”

The traveling merchant of the fairy market pointed upward with a slender, dark-wood finger with a long, pearly fingernail.

Avery looked, as did Snowdrop, which let Avery take hold of Snowdrop’s head-fur and lean back more to get a good view.

She had only a glimpse of an owl that looked like it was made of silver from head to tailfeather and talon, before it took silent flight.

“The Wild-”

“Don’t be saying it, child, lest you invite more of it.  Yes.”

“I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong.  I’m not even- I barely have anything to do with that Court”

The merchant shook his head.  “You misunderstand.”

“What do I misunderstand?”

“You’ve done something terribly wrong already.  You got their attention.”

Avery looked up, scanning for the silvery owl, and she couldn’t see it.

“But as long as you have an alternate, should you meet a premature end, our deal can proceed.”

“Okay?” Avery asked, unsure.  “We’re good?”

“I’ll see about bringing some business to Kennet.”

“And spreading the word?  This works best if it’s multiple fairy markets reaching out.”

“We can talk about that after we’ve had a first attempt.  I want to see for sure that any fairies selling there will be unmolested by your goblins.”

“There’ll be some minor stuff, I’m pretty sure.”

“And we’ll get ours in too.  I’m sure they’ll find our presence obnoxious enough,” Hye said.

The fairy seemed very much like a goblin in that moment, enjoying the idea of being a pain in the ass.  The only difference was he was pretty in his own weird way, and he called it mischief, instead of being an asshole.

“I’ll pass on word then, we’ll coordinate.  Either get you set up in Kennet below, or in Kennet found, if we can create a market extension there.”

“I’ll look forward to it.”

She glanced skyward, looking again for the owl.

“Don’t worry,” Hye said.  “There’s no use in it.  When they come for you, you won’t see it coming.”

He signed each page of the contract then handed it to Avery.

She looked it over, Sebastian at her shoulder.

Ink smudged a line, marring the text.

They won’t need a reason.  They find what they seek.

She wiped at the page, and the ink came away, leaving the text as it was meant to be.

“Why is it that Declan is allowed to be full dumb about so many things – including being crummy about girls, including his cousins, including his old best friend-”

“We’re not talking about Declan, Sheridan.  We’re talking about you.”

“No, no, no, no, nononono.  Because I think there’s a serious fairness issue in this family.  Why is Declan allowed to be full dumb but I can’t be half dumb about math?”

“A twenty-three percent, Sheridan.”

“Fine, why can’t I be seventy-eight percent dumb, then?  Oh, look, math!”

“This is about skills you do need to pick up.  Skills we expect Declan to pick up, even with his disability.  Which is not the same thing as him being dumb.  You need to know basic math to navigate the adult world.”

“Rowan was a fuck-up, across the board, I know he got some marks as low as this one mark of mine-”

“Don’t fucking bring me into this.”

“And we know from our experience with Rowan that you’re going to need what you’re struggling with now.  If you’re getting a twenty three percent now, that’s going to mean worse grades if you can’t figure this out.  And figuring it out requires work and you’re fighting me instead of trying to put that work in!”

“Listen to me, you’re cutting Rowan all this slack, you’re cutting Declan all this slack, including still with his shittiness-”

“He got punished for how he treated his cousin.”

“So much slack, still, and the commonality I’m seeing is they’re outies instead of innies.”

“What?”

“Dicks, mom.  They’re boys.  They get passes, they get flexibility, they get patience.  You’re sexist, mom.”

“No, I’m not.  This?  Right now?  This is me giving you the same kind of focused attention we’re giving to Declan’s struggles.  I promise you, he likes it about as much.  Again, I remind you, it’s a disability.  If you’d like to be tested-”

“I don’t want to be tested.  What I want is a bit of fairness.  Grumble gets a pass-”

“Grumble is not our child.”

“Grumble is basically your child.  And he gets a pass on being a stodgy old asshole sometimes, saying so much crap about gay people and immigrants.  Rowan gets a pass on floating through life and he’s living here and he’s getting a ton of slack here now.  Declan gets a pass.”

“It’s not a pass, Sheridan.”

“I get one bad grade, and I’m not disabled in a way tests will figure out, but I’m basically the trash heap of Kelly family genetics-”

“You are not at all a trash heap, Sheridan.”

“You completely forgot Avery, up until she, as far as I can tell, murdered someone.”

“Oh we’re back to this,” Rowan cut in, sounding bored.

“Oh my god.  Your sister, I hope, didn’t murder anyone.  This joke wasn’t funny the first time.”

“It’s feeling less and less like a joke, the weirder you are with her.”

Avery chose that moment to step out of the stairway.

“Where have you been?” her mom asked.

“I- do you want me to answer that question in detail?” Avery asked, looking at Sheridan, who stood in the kitchen, and Rowan, who was lying on the couch, arms extended over one armrest, foot over another.

“See?  Murderer talk,” Sheridan said.  “Don’t murder me, middle sis.”

“I like you so while I’m not planning on murdering anyone, outside of any emergency situations, I will especially not murder you.”

“Thanks hon.”

“I want to talk to you seriously,” her mom said.  “Don’t disappear on me.”

“Not planning to.  But I don’t see why I’m in trouble.  I told you where I’d be, laid out the plan, then I stuck to that plan.”

“You are fourteen, it is-” Avery’s mom turned around to read the time on the oven.  “-Eleven thirteen at night.”

“I took steps to be safe, I was with trustworthy people-”

“Even if I believed you were safe, which I’m not entirely sure I do, you need sleep, you can’t be coming and going and bothering the landlord after eleven.”

“You arguing with Sheridan is probably bothering the landlord more,” Avery noted.  “And I think I’ve established I don’t need sleep like most people do.  I function.  I go to practice in the mornings, I’m doing… reasonably, with school.”

Avery’s mom rubbed at her temples.  “Why do even basic facts of reality like needing sleep and needing math have to be knock-down, drag-out fights in this household?  I want to talk to you after.  We need to figure out more policies and ways of staying in contact.”

“Are we seriously doing this?” Sheridan asked.

Avery’s mom closed her eyes, rubbing at her temples.  “What are we doing?”

“I love how we’re having a fight then she walks in and I’m like, immediately forgotten.”

“I’m not forgetting you, Sheridan.  I was just mentioning Math.”

“You’re basically forgetting me.  I’m getting the- the back burner!  It’s like, you forgot her, before the murder-”

“Not a murderer.”

“Your sister is not a murderer, Sheridan.”

“I’m going with that until someone gives me some explanation about what’s going on.  You forgot her, before, but you fed her, you gave her the basic basics.  Now I’m there?  I don’t even get a full argument out of you?”

“You want to argue this more?” their mom asked.

“Yes!  Bring it!  Bring it on.  I had whole quips about school stuff not mattering a lot, like cursive writing, and having dreams now.”

Her mom looked so stressed.

“Sorry, Mom,” Avery said.

“Nice move, sis,” Sheridan said.  “Sneaky.  I’ve got her on the ropes, and you duck under, offer her a bit of compassion, scoring big points.  Is that kind of social savvy why you get away with the murder?”

“Again, not a murderer.  I’m vegetarian.”

“So was Hitler.”

“Wow.  I’m being compared to Hitler?”

“I actually don’t know if he was vegetarian, but it sounded quippy.”

“It was,” Avery admitted.

“Please, girls, both of you, give me thirty seconds to think?”

“If I could have thirty seconds, actually,” Sheridan pressed, “I’ve tried to make this argument twice now, and I think it’s really relevant that I haven’t yet been able to get to Kerry, because we keep getting sidetracked before we get that far.  Which is really symbolic.”

“Your dad is making Kerry a priority right now.”

“Dad doesn’t know how to parent Kerry because he homeschooled all of us except Kerry.  And we’ve already established the sexism thing.”

Avery’s mom’s voice was pure exhaustion.  “We haven’t established any such thing.”

“She’s going the Avery-last-year route.  And the me route, currently.”

“I’m trying to stay in touch,” Avery said.  “We had to do an adaptation for class, and I convinced my group to adapt Kerry’s story.  We were video calling.  I’ve commissioned Verona to draw something about that, too.”

“Which is wonderful,” their mom said, fingers still at her temples, eyes still closed. “I love that.”

“She’s still being forgotten, mostly,” Sheridan said.

“What are we trying to establish here?” Avery’s mom asked.  “We’re bad parents?  Have we failed you?  Have we failed all of you?”

“No, not my point,” Sheridan said.  “I just want fairness.  The girls are getting an unfair deal here, the boys and old man get slack-”

“I don’t think it’s unfair to expect you to treat a bad grade in a class that needs you to master the foundations like Math with seriousness.  I don’t think it’s unfair to expect Avery to come in at a reasonable hour and to stay in contact- especially when her- her friend’s parents reach out, worried.”

“Nora’s parents called you?  What did you say?” Avery asked, alarmed.

“We can get into that after.”

“In the after-school special, end-of-the-episode moment she gets,” Sheridan said.

“We’re not in a TV show, Sheridan.”

“Seriously though, what did you tell them?” Avery asked.

Sheridan snorted.  “And again, just going to point it out, we’re sidetracked before we run down the list to Kerry.  It’s a fun kind of horrible once you notice it happening.”

“Stop, both of you.”

“But-” Avery started.

Her mom put up a hand.

But the Christmas plans.

“I had more I wanted to say,” Sheridan said.

“I’m asserting parental authority.  To spare my sanity.  No more.  Sheridan, you’re grounded until you raise your grade.  You have an exam coming?”

“Two days.  But that part is like, one question at the end, the last thing we learned this semester.”

“If you need a tutor, we’ll get you one.”

“Can it be a sexy college guy tutor?”

Avery’s mom raised her hand.  “Please.  Let me continue.”

“I know I don’t have a shot in hell, but I’d appreciate the eye candy.”

“Sheridan, if you don’t let me continue, you will be super grounded.”

“What does that entail?” Rowan asked, from the couch.

Their mom shot a death glare at him.  “I don’t know.  But Sheridan won’t like it.  And neither will you if you press me, Rowan.  You’re an adult but you’re living in my house.”

“Apartm-” Sheridan started, stopping as their mom looked at her.

“Avery, I can’t do this tonight.  Call your dad.  He’s expecting a call from me, I know he’s up.  And for Kerry- I don’t know.  Let’s set up a family meeting.  A video call, at the next opportunity.  We have six days until we go to Kennet.  Let’s try to squeeze in two or three before then.  And we’ll start the list with the youngest first.  Now, on threat of being super grounded, nod, and go do those things without biting my head off, sniping at me, quibbling, or any of that.”

Sheridan nodded.  As did Avery.

“Give me thirty minutes before any questions or details.  Make sure they’re good and low stress ones.  Or come to me tomorrow.  Go.”

They split up.  Rowan started to get settled for bed, and Sheridan went upstairs.  Avery took the kitchen table to set up her laptop and reach out to her dad.  She had a view of her mom collapsing onto the couch.

Avery used the computer to dial.  Her dad popped up, wearing a bathrobe.

“You’re not my wife.”

“Mom’s taking a bit to chill out.  Sheridan argument.  And stuff.”

“She mentioned Sheridan’s grade.”

“I was late coming back.  Eleven thirteen.  Might as well tell you before she tells you, right?”

“Sure, okay.  Were the reasons good?”

“Getting a lot done.  Had to travel to an out of the way spot,” Avery said.  She checked the coast was clear.  She could hear Sheridan upstairs.  “Shopping with Nora. Met contract guy, brought the contract to the fairy market.”

“Faerie market as in very scary manipulator faerie?”

“Fairy with a y, and lowercase ‘f’.  Which isn’t like, danger-free, but a lot of them are so small they only keep one thought in their heads at a time.  You can see their schemes coming.”

“Okay.  Good night, then?”

“Maybe.  The most capital of the capital-F Faerie are poking around.  But I think Lucy and Verona are dealing with more of that.”

“Jasmine asked me to check in with them.  Sharing the load.  I’ll ask.”

“Okay.”

“How worried do we need to be?”

“I don’t know.  I really don’t.  I keep getting warnings…”

She was keeping her voice low, but she suspected her mom could hear.  Her mom didn’t move or say anything, though.

“I’ll ask,” he said.  “What else?”

“Went shopping with Nora.  Nora’s parents apparently called mom because I didn’t take their offer of a ride home, I really need to know what mom said.  If this ruins Christmas plans.”

“I’ll talk to her after we’re done.”

“She suggested a family meeting.  Every two days, which sounds like a lot but might be good to squeeze in and coordinate?  At least to start?  I figured I’d mention it so she doesn’t have to.”

“There’s no need for you to handle parent stuff, okay?  We can handle that.  It sounds like she’s stressed, but we’ll handle it.  You have your own stresses.”

“Okay,” Avery said.  “It’s mostly about not letting Kerry be the one to slip through the cracks.  And Sheridan will want to say you guys are being sexist.  If she wasn’t using it for ammo for this one argument.”

“We’ll handle it.  A family meeting sounds nice.  If noisy.”

“Yeah.”

“Am I handling the debrief then?” he asked.

“Sure.”

“Okay.  What do you need?  A dad?  Post-mission cooldown and reality check?  Mission planning for what’s coming next?”

“I’ve got exams.  But I think I’m okay with those.  Not great or even that good, but okay.  I’ve got to squeeze in homework tonight.”  And a video call with Nora.  “Not much to do a post-mission on here.  Aside from the fact there are Faerie investigators poking around, it was good.  Turned tiny, handed over a contract, Snowdrop did the bulk of the work talking to the Thunder Bay goblins, negotiated a truce, basically, with them.  They’ll do some business in Kennet.  We’ll see how that goes.”

“Good.”

“Mission planning, I guess?  If you’re going to handle the thing with talking to mom about Nora and Christmas plans?”

“I reassured them,” Avery’s mom said, from the couch.

“You did?” Avery asked.

“But the more I reassured them, the less I felt sure, myself.”

“Sorry.”

“I know.  But that’s the reality.  They threw me a curveball, which I think came from you.”

“Curveball?”

“Apparently Nora told them we need an answer ASAP so we can plan around it.”

“Oh.  that.”

“Which we don’t, we’re flexible, but I- I think I convinced them,” Avery’s mom said.  “She’ll come.”

Avery felt a thrill.  “Thank you.”

“I reserve the right to veto.  I need you and your dad to both be able to come to me and tell me that Nora and you and all of us will be safe.”

“There’s no guarantees,” Avery said.

“Give me the closest thing to a guarantee you can.  You need to handle this Musser business first, right?  That’s before Christmas?  And the Faerie thing?”

“Yeah.  A few things.  The others are tackling that.  I’m helping from the flanks.  Setting up the market stuff is part of that.”

“Okay,” her mom said, in a way that made it feel the conversation was over.  “Just give me the closest thing to a guarantee you can.”

“You get all that?” Avery asked her dad.

“Enough.  Okay.”

Sheridan came downstairs in her P.J.s and went to the fridge, so Avery muted her dad and switched the conversation over to school.

“Mission planning, then,” her dad said, after Sheridan was gone.  “What’s next?  You’re running assist?  And hopefully coming home before eleven.”

“Before ten,” Avery’s mom said, from the couch.  “Unless you run it by us first, and take extra steps to assure us you’re okay, and check in every fifteen minutes.”

“Yeah,” Avery said.

The ghost market was in shambles, still.  Months after the fact.  The only reason a lot of the people were still here was that they couldn’t leave.

As Avery understood it, these were heroic spirits.  A bit animus, a bit echo, a bit other stuff.  Organized echoes.  The imprints of important people in history made manifest, carrying on their core roles.

The echo of the log-and-stone manor that had once been overlaid the ruins of the manor that had fallen… which was more ruined since a primeval had come tearing through.  Going after Maricica.  The organized echo of a place stood at a crossroads, and a few Fairies and the occasional Fae lingered.  Some were doing cleanup.  Laborers that had their hands go through the things they were trying to fix more than they moved those things were inching debris off to the sides, or putting stones back onto walls.  Ten, sometimes, doing the work of one man.

She had the contracts with her, starting from the same point she’d had with the fairy market.  This was just escalating that.

At least she was dealing with a Heroic figure, basically, and not a Faerie.  Word was the people here had been convinced they could build a grand enough castle and settlement that they’d get an in with government, banks, trade, and more.  People would want to come here.

It had crumbled, after a too-hard winter, been forgotten.  Maybe not helped by the fact that the walls between realms had been thin here.  Thin enough that they’d breached, and this had become a crossroads, one that made Heroic spirits manifest more easily, because of intersections of spirit and ruin, and there was something that made the Faerie comfortable here too.

The Heroic spirits that could manifest here weren’t strong.  And outside of this corner of reality, they couldn’t really exist.  So they remained.  And the scattered few Fae- Avery could only guess why some remained.  Apparently a lot of Faerie nobles liked to exile lesser Fae to remote wilderness, and some were established around here, sneaking out or sneaking over to do business and amass wealth or power that would potentially help them in the future.

Some of the more major spirits of this lineage had the archetype of ‘builder’, and as they moved through the reconstruction efforts, the lesser echoes and names of the family found strength, and became more physical, with the ability to do more labor.  It really felt like the work only happened while they were overseeing it.

Snowdrop ran over to help lift some stuff.  Which seemed to disrupt the echoes as much as it was actual help.  Avery hadn’t fallen asleep until one, and then she’d been up at five forty-five to get ready in time for morning practice in the big gym.  She’d offloaded fatigue onto Snowdrop, and Snowdrop, having slept heavily, was energetic now.

The man in charge who Avery was waiting to meet was ironically the man who had led this settlement to ruin.

Some here were hunters, with no hunting ground.  Others were politicians.  The parts of their personality that clung to those archetypes were strongest.  It made them strong willed, hard to deal with.

A complex echo told her, “He’s taking tea.  He’ll see you when he’s done.”

Avery rolled her eyes.  “That power move got old a long time ago.”

“He’ll see you when he’s done.”

“Tell him…” Avery looked around.  “Tell him he needs this as much as we do.  There’s nothing much to really negotiate for.” Or with.

The echo stared at her.

She went on, “The faster we set this up and get underway with a connection between this market and ours, the faster we all find our way to a better place.”

“He’ll see you when he’s done.”

Echoes.  Inflexible, and they liked scripts.

“Okay,” Avery said.

The echo left, skipping along from place to place without always going from A to B, like a film missing frames.  Every skip came with a blurring of the edges.

She stepped away, pacing, watching the efforts.

One of the Fae that was setting up a market stall was staring her down.  She wondered if there was anything Wild Hunt about that.  Was he informing them?  Did they need informants?

She waited until one of the Heroic Hunters passed by, a figure with a bow in hand, face shadowed by his hood, with no actual face below.  Light glinted off the more echo-ey bits of him like light turning iridescent as it hit snow.  “Excuse me?”

He stopped, turning toward her.

“Someone passed through here once.  Around the time it all got ruined.”

“It’s all been ruined time and again,” the hunter told her.  “We help sustain things.  We feed the people.  They start projects they’ll never finish, because disaster comes.”

“The giant monster disaster.  I’m looking for a man made of poison.”

“Our hunting grounds are limited.  More limited with him here.”

“He’s here?  Gilkey?”

The hunter pointed.

She looked in the direction of the manor, where the Heroic Architect Lord was taking tea, then she looked in the direction he was pointing.

“Is he staying?  Will he be there if I wait for this meeting with your lord to finish?”

She didn’t want to wait.

“He’s not leaving.  He has nowhere to go, like so many of us.”

“Hopefully if this contract works out, you’ll have more options,” she told the hunter.

He didn’t respond.  She wondered if he could.

Gilkey wasn’t leaving.  yeah, she didn’t want to wait, even knowing he’d still be there.

“I’ll be back.  If anyone asks where I’ve been,” Avery said.

The Hunter dipped his head in acknowledgement, like a single, low nod.

She broke into a run.  A signal to Snowdrop saw Snowdrop stop what she was doing and run to catch up.

She didn’t have to go all that far.

Past a certain point, the trees were all dead.

And past that point, even the snow wouldn’t freeze.

“Don’t come closer,” he said.  His voice came through the trees.

“Hey,” she said, keeping her voice gentle.  She grabbed a lacrosse stick off her charm bracelet, shook it out to full size, and used the end to draw a circle in the muck.  She hugged Snowdrop close.  “There you are.”

“Here I am,” Gilkey’s voice came through.

“I knew you latched onto the Primeval that was hunting Maricica.  But I didn’t know what happened after.  I thought you’d make your way back.  Or maybe that she made a deal with you.”

“She did.  That I was to kill her pursuer.  I tried.  I pushed myself hard, and I tried, but I couldn’t.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m stronger.  Dangerously strong.”

“We could try to figure something out.”

“I’d like that.  It’s why I’m here.”

“Were you- you didn’t expect me sooner or-?”

“No.  I thought a Fae would come.  Another deal.  One I’d surely regret, but… it would be a change in my situation.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m glad it’s you,” he said.

“I’ve got to head back, I’m expected for a meeting, I’d be gainsaid if I didn’t try to attend.  But I’ll come back?”

“I’ll make a deal.  A transaction.  The same I’d offer to a Faerie, in exchange for help.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I want to,” Gilkey said.  “Come back when you’re done, and I’ll tell you what I saw.  I had a unique vantage point to see when a Faerie became Abyssal and when an Abyss-tainted Faerie became a goddess.”

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