Author: Wildbow

In Absentia – 21.11 | Pale

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“Literally had to go to Montreal to find these,” Adorea said, putting a plastic bag of Avery’s protein bars on the table and sliding them over.  Avery caught the bag and immediately emptied it, packing it.

“Thank you.”

“Less than forty minutes,” Peter said, arms folded as he leaned against the wall in the corner by the whiteboard.

“You have a cut on your arm,” Sheridan pointed out.

“I know,” Lucy said.  She’d pulled off her sweatshirt to get runes drawn, and she’d removed the bandage because it was getting in the way.  They’d had to rework the organization of the diagrams around her elbow because they were worried the line would interrupt the sequence of things, same way a line in the dirt could be a minor barrier against practice.

“So it’s me, Jude, the three girls, Snowdrop, and, uh, Guilherme?” Cliff asked.  “Will he drive with us?”

“I can’t imagine that,” Avery said.

“So is he coming?”

“I figure we drive and he’ll be there when we stop,” Lucy said.

“Wild,” Sheridan said.  “Where is he anyway?”

Avery, still organizing her bag, pointed backwards and to the side, at the window.

Guilherme was out there in his old man guise, sitting in the snow, back to a tree, usual posture.

“You know, if we put aside all the crazy magic stuff, leaving the old guy out in the cold is hilariously awful.”

“Sheridan, not the time,” Avery’s mom said.

As things got closer to launch, Avery’s mom was getting more anxious.

Verona was sitting at the end of the table, hands at her hair, pushing the back part up just a bit, because the shaggy bob was getting long.  Her sweater was in her lap.  Lucy drew on the back of her neck.

Avery reached for Verona’s bag and checked, then unpacked it, sorting things.

“I have a system,” Verona said.

“Does that system involve… spilled package of sour shrunken heads?”

“Ohhh, that’s what the gunk was.  I was worried something-” Verona fake-coughed to cover up a syllable before finishing, “-chemical leaked.  I went emergency mode.”

“But not emergency mode enough to clear out your bag?” Avery asked.

“You’re so fussy these days.”

“Yeah.  You know, with everything going on?”

“Peckersnot’s got a good nose, he smelled it before I trashed the bag and laptop and everything, licked my laptop clean.”

“You had sugary gel on your laptop?”

“Are we all ignoring the fact Verona’s named a… cat?” Sheridan asked.

“Not a cat,” Verona said.

“Named something Peckersnot?”

“I wanted to name him Snoogie,” Avery said.

“Don’t go and do that to a goblin,” Cliff groaned.

“I thought it was cute!”

Avery emptied the bag, then pulled the liner out inside out over a trash can, wiping at it with tissues.  Crumbs, bits of powder, and flecks of dried stuff fell into the can.

“Just go ahead, put my clothes, underwear, whatever, out on the table, where everyone can see, empty my mess from my bag…”

“I need to do something, I’m restless.”

“That feeling’s not going to get any better,” Cliff warned.  “You three going to drive me crazy when we’re on our way there?”

“I was wondering, actually, can I come?” Avery’s mom asked.

“Gets to be more of a squeeze,” Cliff said.  “That’s you in the passenger seat, Jude in the back with the girls, or you in the back with the girls.”

Lucy pulled the corner of her mouth back and down, teeth clenched.

“I wouldn’t do that to them,” Avery’s mom said, after looking at Lucy.  “Cramp their style.”

“It’s okay if it’s Jude though?”

“I don’t mind,” Avery said.

“Me either,” Lucy said.

“Jude?  Girls get priority for sleeping.  They’re the ones going into battle.”

“Battle,” Sheridan commented.  “Wacky.”

“Thirty-five minutes,” Peter reported.

“I don’t mind,” Jude said.  “Pulling an all-nighter?”

“I really appreciate all of this,” Avery said.

“Are you sure you don’t want breakfast?” Esme Garrick asked.

“I usually skip it,” Verona said.

“Half the time you skip mornings,” Lucy pointed out.

“But I do whatever needs doing.”

“Going to have to change that when you’re running that bookstore.”

“Maybe.  I could have night owls as my exclusive clientele.”

“Could,” Lucy said.  “Stop wiggling.”

“We’ll eat on the road,” Avery said.  “If that’s cool, Jude?”

“Yeah.  I had donuts, so I’m good.”

“Do you have what you need, Jude?” Peter asked.

“Go bag all sorted.”

“You’re really stepping up.  Good,” Peter said.

“Gets to spend the day crammed in a small space with a bunch of cute girls?  No wonder he’s motivated.”

“Shut up, Adorea.”

“Spell cards,” Avery said.  She reached into her bag and slapped some down.  “Let me see ’em.”

Lucy stopped doing runework on Verona and went to her coat.  She got out three separate packs, one of which was a little thin.

Verona, shaking out her arms and shoulders, from the soreness of holding her hair up, reached into her right pocket and got out her pack.

“Do we want to do some on the way over?” Avery asked, pulling the packs around to be in front of her.

“Gets annoying in a moving car,” Verona said.  “Pen or marker jumps every time there’s a bump.  Figure we’re basically making explosives, half the time…”

“Please be safe,” Avery’s mom said.  Snowdrop, beneath her hands, sleeping in her lap, roused slightly, as if sensing her stress.

“Yes mom,” Avery said, with an eye-roll implied in her tone.  Lucy was too busy with Verona to see if there was an actual eye roll to go with it.  Lucy’s hand pushed the straps of Verona’s top out of the way to draw.

It made Lucy think of John, and the things she didn’t have.  She hated feeling that way.  But if they went by what Avery had been saying… was the idea that she was supposed to strive to catch up, connect family to this?  Or find some other avenue?  Were they all constantly in a game of catch-up with each other, motivated by jealousy, a desire to hold their own?

She wished her mom was here and a dog familiar was there to keep her mom more relaxed.  Not as cuddly as Snowdrop- that would be weird, if John was that.  But a stabilizing presence?  She could see that.

“You’re short on water stuff, Ronnie,” Avery said, flipping through the cards.  “Want some of mine?”

“Sure.”

“Maps of the area,” some random Garrick reported, bringing stuff over.

“Thank you, that makes things tidier,” Cliff said.

“Maps?” Avery asked.

“Of Lordships on the way.”

“I think we’re really okay if we do what we did when we went to the Alabaster and deployed Percival,” Avery said.  “Starting out on the border, walking the long way around to it, starting from a friendly Lord’s territory and then crossing over at the end.”

“These things matter.  You can technically take a day to get somewhere if you shuffle your feet by the side of a road, taking a minute to take what would normally be a step, but it’ll count against you.  We make this a trip, there’s more clout to it.  Possibility to take detours, shop on the way.  Plus you three get to rest, prepare, talk,” Cliff said.

“Okay,” Avery said.  “Thank you.”

“I much prefer you being warm and watched than you walking through the wilderness or by the roadside in the winter,” Avery’s mom said.

Lucy thought of her mom, and hoped things were okay.

He unfolded the map, looking over it.  He frowned.  “Who updated this last?”

“Shane,” Clayton said, from the hallway.

Cliff wrinkled his nose.  Shane would be a touchy subject.  He’d been one of the Garricks who had sold out to Wonderkand.  “It’s correct?  I hate I have to ask that.”

“It’s correct,” Clayton replied.

“Lordship changed over here.  Windsor,” Cliff said.

“Retired,” Peter replied.  “Things are… in flux.”

“You’ve heard this sort of story before,” Clayton asked, still in the hallway.  “Guy crosses the wrong family, the Lord and family that used to run Windsor.  His family gets wiped out, except for the guy’s elderly dad, who negotiates a deal to be left alone.  Elderly dad figures out he can get around the truce by taking a potion to become someone else in mind and body, becomes a little girl named after one of the murdered granddaughters, or maybe she is a granddaughter, who knows?”

“Who knows?” Cliff asked, without humor.

“Murders the whole next generation of the Lord’s family, going right for the kids.  Bad look for the Lord, getting attacked like that.  Our old man realizes too late that he’s losing control of his murderous little-girl self, ends up having to band together with the Lord he was going up against, to exorcise her.”

“Don’t think I’ve heard that one,” Sheridan repeated.

“You sure?  I just told you.”

“Har har yuck yuck.”

“Notecards,” one of Jude’s female cousins said, ducking in through the door and tossing a plastic bag with some school supply company on it onto the conference table.  “Same kind you said you liked.”

“Thank you!” Avery called out.  “Just in time, too.”

“Thank you,” Lucy said.

But the teenager was already gone.

Having the right kind meant that there weren’t slightly different dimensions or corners sticking out that would poke at them when reaching for them or putting them in a pocket.

“You can fudge the lying thing, huh?” Sheridan asked Clayton.

“It’s not fudging that much,” Clayton replied.

Lucy wasn’t sure if the fragmented, overlapping conversations and her inability to follow what was going on was being felt more because she was tired, or because it really was that chaotic, everything moving, people dipping in and out to drop off supplies or do their individual parts of a greater setup.

She was also suspicious Sheridan thought Clayton was easy on the eyes.  A bit of an age gap though- Clayton was in his twenties and Sheridan was sixteen or seventeen.  She didn’t get the vibe that Clayton was receptive, or even aware.

“Verona’s pretty good at it,” Lucy said.

“When it’s not eight-something in the damn morning,” Verona grumbled.

“I think you’d be okay at it if you started taking this more seriously,” Lucy told Sheridan.

“Huh.”

“If someone pushed me on it, I’d say ‘revenge gone too far’ is a classic,” Clayton said, smiling.  “You can establish a lot of room with a ‘sort of’.”

“That’s true,” Lucy said.  Mostly because it was polite to play along and help avoid gainsaying someone.  The ‘don’t sneeze in someone’s face’ of practitioner society.

“Who’s in charge now?” Cliff asked.  “Of the Windsor territory?”

“Who even the fuck knows?” Peter asked.  “Someone else took the Lordship but I think they had a few of their kids get killed too.  The little girl picked up some practice, which is a real bad sign if you’re basically drugging a new personality into existence, shows that personality is getting too big for her boots, taking special kinds of initiative.  The prior Lord retired but I think she was on his heels for a while.  Whole mess.”

“More importantly, does this force a detour?”

“I think you can drive through.  Keep life simple for ’em, I think you’re clear to pass through.  So long as you don’t stop and give a ride to any stray kids, you should be fine.”

“Alright.”

“Twenty-eight minutes, by the way.”

“You should have more spell cards,” Avery said, to Lucy.  “Especially given the situation you’re walking into.”

“Won’t object.  Anything that gives me smoke is great.”

Avery began carefully moving cards over.

“If only there was a good way to get into the House on Half Street,” Verona said.  “I’m pretty sure I’ve got chemical stuff.”

“Bit awkward,” Lucy replied.

“When you say chemical stuff, I imagine you talking about drugs,” Sheridan said.  “Makes this conversation make more sense.”

“Sheridan?” her mom cut in.

“Oh god, yes, I know, I know, be good-”

“No.  Go let Rowan know I’m going to be going with Avery.”

“Until we’re close to the border,” Avery pointed out, turning to look at her mom.  “Then you let us out and go back with Cliff.”

“Does it have to be me that tells Rowan?” Sheridan asked.

“Yes.  I told you to cut back on the jokes, you didn’t.  Go on.  Let him know, last chance to ask me something or check in with me before I’m gone.”

“You could call him.”

“After Avery using our phone in random places got our service temporarily shut off?”

“Good point,” Sheridan said.  She yawned.  “I might take a nap after you go.  Been up most of the night.”

“Do whatever works, but cooperate with the Garricks.  Before and after I’m gone.”

“We’ll give you a rundown on more practice stuff after it’s quieter,” Peter said, as Sheridan got out of the office chair and moved past him.

“Cool.  Thanks.”

Sheridan left.

When she was gone, Avery’s mom said, “Sorry.  She takes after her dad.  She responds to stress and uncertainty with jokes.”

I think the entire world makes her stressed, Lucy thought.

Lucy finished with Verona.  “Close your eyes, Kelsey?”

When Kelsey didn’t immediately close her eyes, Avery held a fanned-out fistful of spell cards up in front of her mom’s face, which was only partially effective, but her mom took the cue and closed her eyes.  Lucy gave a series of sharp taps to parts of the diagram on Verona’s neck and shoulders, and each lit up momentarily to her Sight.  Even distribution, responsive.  Good.

“Cool.  You’re set.”

“Thanks,” Verona said.  “Gotta remember to keep a scarf on while we’re at any rest stops.  Permanent marker on our necks and stuff.”

“Yeah,” Lucy replied.  “Avery, you good?”

Avery had used gold marker for hers.  She nodded.

And Lucy was set too.

They’d sat in a circle for the first part, each of them doing the others’ right shoulder and arm, then switching to left.  But Sheridan and the Garricks had sufficiently distracted Avery and she hadn’t done a lot of Verona’s, so Lucy had finished it.

“Twenty-five minutes.”

“We wanted to leave a bit early, in case anything came up,” Avery said.  “Cut fifteen minutes off that?”

“Ten minutes then.”

“Are things okay with Rowan and Sheridan staying behind?” Avery’s mom asked.

“Things are great with those two staying behind,” Peter said.  “Fresh perspectives.  We’ll give them the rundown, call you or your husband if we’re getting into something more tricky.”

“Okay.  Thank you.”

“‘Course.”

“I’m going to go get my things.  I shouldn’t be long.  Avery?  Meet you guys- where am I meeting you?”

“End of this hallway.  Room with the doors.”

Avery’s mom gave a sleeping Snowdrop to Avery and left, jogging down the hall.

Lucy felt a pang.  That her own mom wasn’t here, that she didn’t have that same support.  She pulled on her sweatshirt, being careful to minimize how much the permanent marker got smudged- as much as that was possible.

“You good, all set?” she asked Verona, the next closest thing to family.  “Besides not being a morning person?”

Verona nodded.  She’d pulled her sweater, the black dyed coat, and her backpack on, earmuffs around her neck, the ends of her gloves sticking out of the coat pockets.  Her thumb rubbed at her palm as she stood by the table, taking stock.  She looked worn out.

Lucy looked out the window, and met Guilherme’s eyes.

Sensing her motives, he got to his feet, using a hand to brush snow off his shoulders, stood tall, looked off to the side, and then stepped into the space between the last evening’s shadow and this morning’s light, that was just peeking out through the trees.

He’d meet them later.

They got things together, then went down the hall.  The Garricks who were awake parted to let them through, then gathered, in the room or in the hall.  Most of the clean-up had stopped late in the evening and hadn’t resumed this morning.  There was just a few breakfast plates and a lot of coffee mugs that had been brought down.

“Keep in touch?” Esme asked.

“Will do,” Cliff told her.  “Except when we get close- let’s not play with fire when it comes to that technomancy.”

“Makes sense,” she told him.  “Jude?  Be good.”

“That’s the plan,” Jude replied.

“Take a small box of donuts,” Leona told them.  “For the trip.”

“I’m not really a donut person,” Verona said.

“Snowdrop’ll eat most things.”

“It’s my special talent,” Snowdrop said.

Lucy had the sense the Garricks were just fussing, wanting to take care of them and help, without knowing how.

They sorted through the available doors, checking notes, and settled on one.

It was hard to fill the silence.  There were more things to say in the way of goodbyes,

“Dog tags?” Lucy asked, fishing the tags out from beneath her collar.

“Horseman and Angel, for me,” Avery said.  “They can keep up with me okay when I really get going.”

Lucy picked those out, then handed them over.

“Black, Pipes, and Elvis,” Verona said.

“Leaving Grandfather, Mark, Fubar, Ribs, and Doe for me,” Lucy said.  She thought about that for a second.

Avery’s mom was back, carrying a bag.  Sheridan and Rowan in tow.

“You don’t want someone else for backup, Ave?  Fubar?  He knows a surprising amount about tech, you’re going up against the Aurum.”

Avery considered.  “Okay.”

Lucy nodded.

“And here,” Peter said.  He reached out.

Avery put out her hands.  Peter went to put one knotted-up ‘down to earth’ baseball in each of her hands.

Verona elbowed Avery before her hands could close around the baseballs, “Hey.  Grab his balls and say thank you.”

Avery gave Verona a look.

“It’s early.  You know how I get.”

“I know how you get,” Avery said, taking the balls.  “Thank you, Peter.”

“Lucy, Verona?” he asked.

Lucy put out her hands.  He gave her one.  Gave Verona one.

“Might not work as well for you as it does for her, if you haven’t walked the trail, but it’s something.”

“Thank you,” Lucy and Verona said.

“I know this is serious business.  Stay in one piece.”

“I really appreciate everything,” Avery said.  “Looking after my siblings.  Supplying us, helping us, giving us a space.  I really hope that all this works out, and Kennet found gets somewhere good, and we can make it something that’s great for you guys.  Supplies, information, cool Others.  Take things to the next level.”

“Still thinking big?”

Avery shrugged.  “This feels big.  What you’re doing.  I want to do something big to repay it.  Especially given how our last visit went.”

“That’s… it wasn’t ideal.  But I trust you can make it up to us later,” Peter said.  He looked like he wanted to say something, then seemed to change his mind.  “Getting close to that deadline,”

“Be good,” Avery’s mom told Sheridan and Rowan.  “You wouldn’t want Avery going on your podcast to ruin your reputation.  You wouldn’t want her spoiling things with Laurie.  Best behavior.”

“I don’t think Sheridan’s podcast compares to what I’m doing, no offense Sher,” Avery said.

“The podcast is way more important, yeah.”

“Ha,” Avery replied, without humor.  “I’d say never change, Sheridan, but… change a little.”

Sheridan smirked.

“You look so serious, skates,” Rowan said.

“It’s serious,” Avery replied.

“One minute,” Peter said.

“Yes?” Jude asked, reaching for the door.  “It’s okay if they see?”

“Yes,” Avery said.  “I already showed them one.”

He opened the door, and it swung wide, blown further open by wind on the other side.  The Promenade opened before them, trains, mass Others, shops, and the distant, open gates.

“It’s not the easiest path, but it felt fitting.  Symbols matter, right?” he asked.

Lucy nodded.

“Shouldn’t be too bad as long as we arrive on the last length,” Avery said.  “Mom?  Stay with me.”

They stepped through, and the heavy winter clothing they wore felt off, considering how balmy and sunny it was on the promenade itself.

Avery led the way, guiding her mom through, toward the gate.  Lucy followed, thumbs hooked into the straps of her bag, nodding acknowledgment to a passing Other.

They were about two thirds of the way to the gate at the end when Lucy heard Rowan speak with a kind of hushed awe.

“It’s different.  Seeing a strange scene through a doorway in our own house, and seeing this.  My mom and middle sister going through and disappearing into the weirdness.”

“I think Rowan sort of gets it,” Lucy reported.  “Seeing you go through.”

“Seriously?  Only now?” Avery asked.

“That’s Rowan,” Avery’s mom said.  “More tortoise than hare.  Steady.”

“As someone who’s more hare than tortoise, I resent that,” Avery said.

What would Booker be?

They ascended the broad stairs and reached the central area at the end of the Promenade.  A couple of Garricks were walking around, taking notes.  The area was multi-level, kind of like Kennet found, but more dramatic, with whole paths and things arching overhead, connecting sections.

A rusted and decaying metal cube was suspended in one three-dimensional halo of arches and bridges, making a vague, agonizing scraping sound as it rotated slowly.  Some Lost picked up fragments and took them away, tossing them into the trash receptacles or over the edge, through the gaps and into open sky.

The leftmost, rightmost, and bottommost spaces were empty, with similar ‘halo’ framings but nothing inside.

“Make a note?” Cliff asked.  “I’m sure the other teams are keeping track, but…”

“Yeah,” Jude said.

“Have you been able to get over there yet?” Avery asked.  She pointed up at the metal construction.  “Or any of the others?”

“Don’t think we’re supposed to yet,” Cliff answered.  “There’s other gates, other areas to travel to get here, they look like they connect to our end, but they don’t.”

“Any hints, any clues?”

“Some.  But that’s not important right now.  You’re focused on your thing, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Come on.  The doors around here consistently lead to the same places.  Let’s find our way through, stay on your schedule,” Cliff said, gruff.

Lucy watched Avery’s mom as she looked up at the constructions, spellbound until Avery tugged on her arm.

They navigated their way past stalls and things that had set up, here, the Promenade bleeding over, and went to one of the building faces that faced the constructions, about twenty stories tall.  The doors changed as they approached.  Stairs were on the outside, so they could walk along ten doors, go up the stairs, walk along a concourse past ten doors on the next floor up.

They only needed to go up one floor before Cliff indicated they were where they wanted to be.  “Eyes closed.”

Lucy closed her eyes.

Cliff’s hand at her shoulder guided her forward, through the door.  The shadow of the overhanging balcony and a nearby tree made the lighting dark, but as she stepped forward, bright light shone against her eyes, through her eyelids.

“Stop,” Cliff said.

Someone bumped against her arm.  A door closed, then opened, and she could hear distant traffic.

“And open.  We’re here.”

‘Here’ was a dingy bathroom they were crowded into.  The door was open to the outside, for what looked like a motel and gas station.  A ways down the road was a highway, cutting through mountains and trees.

Lucy tilted her head to let the cold slide past her as she walked through the door, stepping through.  The group of them emerged from the bathroom and rounded the corner, with Cliff leading the way to a space at the end of the motel parking lot where a large RV was parked, with a man smoking.

“Can’t waste much time,” Cliff said.

“Not a problem,” the man said, handing over a set of keys.  He looked over their group, waving a hand through his smoke as the wind blew it their direction.  He took a step away from them.  “Sorry.  Here, I’ll let you go.  Talk to you later, Cliff?”

“Yeah.”

“Esme know about the new woman and kids?”

“Ha ha.  Appreciate this, man.”

The smoking man nodded.  “Growing up there, Jude.”

“Be weird if I didn’t.”

The man walked away, hand raised.

“A bit ahead of schedule,” Cliff said, opening the door to the RV.  “You guys got the back, there’s two beds, or a bed and a couch, depending how you do it.  He said there was a table…”

Lucy climbed through, then navigated her way to the back.  There was indeed a table that could be flipped up, with a leg pulled out and locked into a slot to fix it firmly in place.  “This works.”

They settled in.

“That was Ed, by the way,” Jude said.

“That was Ed!?” Avery exclaimed.  “I should’ve said hi, or things.”

Cliff explained, “He went off to tour the spirit world kingdoms and things, delved pretty deep into the spirits of cities.  Now he wanders, tries to stay in touch, but getting him to sit still and spend time with you is a bit of a trick.”

There was some brief conversation, sharing out of snacks.  The donuts were put on the fold-out table.  Lucy and Avery were on the bed at the very back of the R.V., and Verona and Jude occupied the futon-couch-bed thing that looked like it pulled out into a lumpy, small bed at the R.V.’s middle.

“It was super nice of them to arrange this, but I’m worried,” Avery murmured, almost quiet enough that Lucy needed her earring to catch what she was saying.

“What’s that?”

“Just… would prefer to be moving.”

“We are moving.”

“You know what I mean.”

Lucy nodded.  “At least we can rest.  We pulled an all-nighter.  We set everything up.  Now’s the part where it takes us a day to get there.”

Avery nodded.

Lucy grabbed a pillow and put it down, resting against her hip, and Avery flopped over, curling up, head on the pillow, Snowdrop hugged to her chest.

Lucy took a moment before Avery fell asleep, and pulled off her coat, putting it over her own legs.  there was a blanket already tucked between window and the back of the seat.  It was warm enough, so Lucy draped it over Avery.  She sat, leaning against the corner, while Avery took up two thirds of the bed, curled up a bit, her head pressing against the pillow between them.

After the hustle and bustle and the chaos, the conversation died out, and it was like there was a silent agreement to take a break.  To not talk, not strategize.  Verona had her laptop out on the table, and from the way she and Jude were interacting with it, it looked like some simple game they were playing.

Resting her head against the narrow, tall window at the head of the ‘bed’, Lucy looked out at the trees to the side.

Tired as she was, Lucy didn’t sleep.  She had a challenge set before her, with just as much notice as the others had had.  Avery had been forced to launch into her recruitment plan, putting ‘troops’ into motion.  Verona had been asked to cobble together a plan.

Lucy now had to dwell on how she’d handle this meeting.  Facing down their enemies.  Facing down Charles.

She could have stayed back to do this, she didn’t need to be part of this car trip.  But they were together, and they were stronger together, encouraging each other’s strengths, and shoring up one another’s weaknesses.

She looked at Avery, who was already fast asleep, and used her Sight, and she could see the cloud of negativity around Avery’s head.

How, when she had her mom here?  She had the Garricks.

Snowdrop stirred, looking up at Lucy, and Lucy imagined Snowdrop had to know it too.

Snowdrop lowered her nose, then snuggled in tighter.

Lucy took Snowdrop’s cue.  Rest now.  Deal with that later.

They sat on a picnic bench they’d brushed free of snow, while Cliff filled up with gas.  Mostly getting fresh air.  Snowdrop stomped through the snow.

“I did the math,” Jude said.  “Last night, while you guys were going all out.  I was convinced it would be a really cool moment, in the middle of a hectic day.  Calculated time zones, researched this thing with the trip to see the Aurum.  Well, I looked up the Alabaster stuff, same deal.  That’s clearer.  Figured we were in the clear, Dad gases up, I steal you guys away for a moment.  At eleven this morning, go to Perth, Australia, catch the fireworks and new years celebration.”

“Can we?” Lucy asked, sitting up straighter.

“Time zones don’t work that way, I don’t think,” Avery said.

“Yeah.  You got it faster than I did,” Jude said.  “I was really excited for, dunno, four hours that I could take you guys back in time, basically, and give you fireworks and celebration.  Didn’t seem like you even noticed the New Year happening while you were running around last night.”

“I saw fireworks,” Avery said.  “Over the water.  Was just a small town, so it wasn’t anything super major.”

“Jude, were you really that desperate to kiss a girl on New Years?” Verona asked.

“Stop,” Avery said, pushing Verona’s arm, nearly pushing Verona off the picnic table.

“It was a sweet thought,” Lucy said.

“Wish there was a way to do it.  Would’ve checked to see if we could leave early, catch something, but you were busy and then I started getting ordered around by my Dad.  Figuring out… this.”

The R.V.  The maps.  Supplies.

“Thank you, Jude,” Lucy said.

“I didn’t pull it off.”

“Thank you anyway.”

“You guys just seemed so… are you happy?  Are you okay?” Jude asked, leaning forward.  He sat between Lucy and Avery, and kind of leaned forward, looking from his right to his left, to try to see their faces.  “Because you’ve been going so hard for so long, dealing with crazy stuff, sometimes overlapping.”

“I’m okay,” Verona said.  “So long as I’ve got these guys.  I’ve got McCauleigh back.  She slept in this morning and I’m so glad.  I’ve got my Demesne, I don’t know what the area around my Demesne is going to look like in a few weeks.  I don’t know what it looks like now.  But I think I can do this.”

“I miss my mom.  I miss my brother.  Being around your big family, seeing Avery get to have Rowan and Sheridan with her…?” Lucy asked.

“Might be a bit overrated, those last two,” Avery muttered.

“But you get ’em.  You get family.  You’ve… I’m jealous.”

“Fair,” Avery said, voice soft.

Snowdrop had stopped playing around, and sidled closer, sitting by Avery’s feet.

Like… Avery wasn’t really broadcasting emotion in an obvious way, but looking at Snowdrop was a pretty big clue.

“Ave?” Lucy asked.

“You say all that, how can I complain, right?” Avery asked.

“You can complain.  I can see you in my Sight.  You’re dealing with something.”

“I can see it without sight,” Verona pointed out.  “You weren’t yourself last night, running around.”

“It’s stressful.”

“Yeah.  But is that all it is?” Verona asked.

Avery’s breath fogged in the winter air.

“I thought I was going to be the one to handle being out and about the best,” Avery said.  “Dealing with cool people I’ve been staying in touch with?  Seeing the world?  Doing my thing with the Paths?”

“Sorry if we put too much on your plate,” Lucy said.

Avery shook her head fiercely.

Lucy waited.

“I hate to bring up something touchy,” Avery said, voice soft.

“It’s okay,” Lucy told her.

“The end of summer?” Avery asked, as if challenging Lucy, as if testing ground.

“It’s my turn, isn’t it?  Verona had to deal with a whole lot of shit, and everything she got into practice for… I don’t want to get into that with Jude here.”

“I can go if that’s easier.”

“It’s fine,” Verona said.  “Life was shit, I figured I’d use practice, become Other, ditch humanity.  Sure felt like ditching humanity a few times along the way.  But like I told ya, I’ve got these dorks.”

“And Lucy?  I feel like end of Summer was when things got hard for you.  Like… it’s okay if I talk about it?”

Lucy nodded, lips pressed shut.

“There was no justice in what happened.  What we said to the Alabaster, that final point of order?  Really drove that home.  And you got into this for- to enforce justice?  To have fangs?  To fight to protect people and ideas?”

“Yeah.  And for the ability to get revenge, to be unjust, to… other stuff I thought I wanted.”

“I didn’t get into this for a girlfriend,” Avery said.  “I didn’t get into this for markets.  Didn’t even know they were a thing.  I didn’t get into it to save Kennet or anything great.  I got into this to have friends, and maybe it’s selfish but a bit of me felt like… if we did this, you can’t leave.  We awoke together.  I got into this to go to cool places.  I got into this to be seen again.  By ghosts and goblins, if not my family.”

“Ave?” Verona asked.

“I know.  I know,” Avery said.  She leaned forward.  “How shitty is that, right?  Out of us three, I get my wishes.  I’m semi-famous?  Weirdly?  I’m seen.  I’m going to cool places.  What the fuck, right?  The Promenade?  These paths?  Road trips with my friends?  I’ve got you guys and you’re super and I ask you to do something wild and you go all out.  So all out.”

“Haven’t had my turn yet,” Lucy said.

“But you’re going!  You’re doing this!” Avery exclaimed.  “We’re doing this.  I’ve got Snowdrop and she’s- she’s a warm fuzziness in a lonely part of me I didn’t know was there.  And Charles might win and we’d have that, still.  I still have that fame, I have you three, I have the Promenade and Paths.  I could keep working with you, Jude, and the Garricks.  You know, if I don’t bring another evil tech god down on your heads.”

“Would be ideal.  Rude way to get woken up.”

Avery hiccuped a laugh, but the smile was fleeting.  “I get my wishes granted…”

Lucy nodded.  She didn’t want to say it.

“But you’re not happy.”  Verona said it anyway.

“I feel like I’ve always been the one that’s optimistic.  I bounce back.  Hell, you could drop me off a skyscraper, I’d bounce, I’d be okay right?  I keep the mood up.  But that part of me feels really tired right now.”

Lucy sighed.  She put an arm around Avery’s shoulders.  Avery leaned into her, resting her head on Lucy.

“She’s crying.”

Avery’s mom, so distant Lucy couldn’t make out her face, was standing by the R.V., looking their way.

“It’s a lot for a kid.”

“Should I-“

“I think they’ve got it handled.”

Do we? Lucy thought.

“It’s all the new stuff,” Avery said.  “Different stuff.  I feel like a lot of it’s not going to be okay, even if we win.  It feels like the closer I get to the dreams I had, the farther I get from everything else.”

“-didn’t want this for her.  We were so spooked, about them going out into the world, the school system, everything.  We kept them in homeschooling, they did so well.  Then high school, she wants to go, and now this.  All of this.  It’s a nightmare.”

“I wish I knew what to tell you,” Jude said.

“It’s the same stuff, isn’t it?” Verona asked.  “People?  Places?  We’re just… we’re making the places.  We’re raising Kennet up, and we’re a part of it, so if Kennet’s seen, it’s you being seen too.”

“It’s all connected,” Lucy said, building on what Verona said.  “We’re connected.  Your success and the Garricks’ success, it’s all tied together.  We’re- we’re not getting further away, Ave.”

“Feels like it.  Feels like everything we’ve done up until now could just blow away like a dandelion puff.”

“What we’re doing, what we’re fighting for?  Everything we’re setting up?” Lucy asked.  “Nah.  You got some goblins and fairies working together.  We’ve got business going, and they can raze the market to the ground, they can put an army in the middle of Kennet, and I bet, I really do bet, that there’s going to be people who see this really cool thing we did and want to keep it going.  So they’ll fight, or they’ll set something up.”

“Even with the Garricks,” Jude said.  “Raised some eyebrows.  Got people thinking about cooperating more with Lost.”

“Yeah,” Lucy said.  “Okay?  We’ve fought, we’ve talked to Ottawa, we’ve made a mark.”

“The Promenade?” Verona asked.  “If you hadn’t been there, what would’ve happened?  Wonderkand would’ve got it.”

“Ninety nine percent sure they would’ve,” Jude said.

“And that Lost that helped you out?  Gave you an easy job?  They wanted you to win, not Wonderkand.  Because you’re the Path Runner who works with Snowdrop.”

Avery smiled a bit, putting a hand on top of Snowdrop’s head.

“Charles and Maricica could win, and we’ve done enough that it’d count for something, okay?” Lucy told Avery.  “People we’ve inspired, goodness in Others we’ve worked on, the stuff we’ve set up, the things we tried.  That counts.  You don’t have to be optimistic, if that metaphorical muscle is overtired or strained.  We’ll take care of that for now.  There’s enough kernels of goodness that we’ve seeded in enough people that I think we’re doing okay, whether this works or not.”

Avery smiled a bit and nodded.

Lucy dropped her arm from the hug and nudged Avery a bit.  “And I’m saying that as the person who might be more cynical than Verona.”

“I resent that,” Verona said.

This kept happening.  Them hitting breaking points, getting too tired, the missteps in confidence.

It would get worse, it would accumulate.

Three more Judges to overcome.  And we’ll have to deal with Maricica on the way.

“Come on,” Lucy said.  “Your mom is fretting, and we need to get going.  If I’m going to stay optimistic, I need some time to think about how I’m handling my part of this.”

Avery nodded, getting up from the seat.  Snowdrop tackle-hugged her from the side.

I need time to think about how I’m going to find any glimmer of optimism when dealing with the people who are going to be at the sword moot, Lucy thought, as she approached the R.V..  People who’ve wronged us, attacked us, people who mostly got power and decided to use it to crush others.

Including…

They’d broken away from the others, Jude and Lucy leaving as the others went up to go face the Aurum.  They’d hit a Path, gone through a narrow slice – minimal challenge, no real Path-running benefits except to see the sights, and they’d stepped out of the door of the old shack that was on the shore, facing the point where the narrow river that bisected Kennet touched Lake Superior.  The same point Verona had launched off from before doing a trip out onto the water to see Charles.

They were alone.  That was a problem.

“Oh no,” Jude said.  “Back through?”

“No,” Lucy murmured.

“Lucy Ellingson.  Allow me to greet you with-”

The ice collected at the shore broke.  Water swelled and surged until it bulged higher than the shack.

Like a tidal wave that had realized it was late, rushed forward, stopped, and then tried to look normal, it peaked, then broke.  As it broke on the shore, the water turned in on itself, focusing itself up the river, avoiding Lucy.

Charles sidestepped the worst of it.  “You coordinated with friends.  Lucy Ellingson, I gainsay-”

“Enough with that,” a woman said.  Lucy recognized her as Ann Wint.  She’d looked her up online, and found some minor charitable foundation that was her real-world cover as a full-time practitioner.  “We have things to do.  You, Carmine, must arbitrate.”

“I must arbitrate?”

“It is your role,” Ann said.  “Are you abdicating it?”

“No, but another of my roles is to gainsay, and I think if I wait, I’ll have an even harder time.  Lucy Ellingson-”

“-Must be allowed to participate in proceedings, and if you interfere with this nonsense-”

“-Utter nonsense,” the scarred woman Lucy knew was Deb said.   “With an unprecedented number of failed gainsayings.”

“-as she says, you’re acting against your role, undercutting your own ability to be an impartial judge.”

The water churned on the shore, wave crashing into wave.  A boat was moved closer to them.

“Whoever said I was impartial?  The seal is fundamental, and a break in one’s word affects everything, even whatever you have planned here.  This is overdue.”

“You abdicating is overdue in my opinion,” Lucy told him.

“Lucy Ellingson, I gainsay you for-”

“Bullshit,” Lucy replied.

“Nonsense,” Ann said.  “You waste everyone’s time.”

“Enough with that,” Deb said, and the word was punctuated with a crash of a wave against shore.

Depositing the three Oni practitioners on the shore of coarse sand and the broken black slate of the area, with corners more round than they were on the shore of Kennet’s river.

“-for a statement made September seventh, you, Lucy, said you thought that some of the people downtown looked like they came from the undercity of Kennet.  You did not think this-”

“It had to pass through my head for the words to come out of my mouth, didn’t it?”

“It didn’t pass through your head in a coherent way, and even your opinion on the people you talked about changed before you were even done speaking.”

“Rule of discourse,” Lucy argued.  “Saying we think something is commonly accepted as a way of not being overly committed to our word.  It’s a statement of opinion-”

“Which you did not clearly hold, and it’s only accepted as convention because of the assumption that the thoughts are actually in your head.”

“Nonsense,” Ann repeated.

“We would never get anything done if we accepted that as a way of doing things,” Deb said.

“I wouldn’t complain if that happened,” Charles said.

“Let’s not accept that as convention, Carmine,” Deb said.  “No.”

“Bull?” Mike asked.  “Are we doing this already?”

“We’re doing it already,” Lucy said.

“Bullshit, then!” Steyn raised his voice.  “Fuck you, Carmine!”

“Bull!” Davion added his voice.

The others were coming in.

“Fine, even if I accept that, I can move on to-”

“Let’s not move on,” Ann said, archly.

“Bull to your moving on!” Steyn said.  He looked… stricken.  Like, he was giving his all, facing the Carmine with feigned outrage, when he was really scared.

“We, as I said, have proceedings here.  You, as I said, have a role as arbiter.  The gainsayings can wait until after.”

“The gainsayings impact her role in the proceedings.  Gainsayings I can lay against you-”

Another wave crashed into shore.  An old man was there, dry as day.

The boat was close enough to land on the shore, but didn’t quite find purchase on the slick rock.  The water moved to position it for a push.

“You lay nothing.  Gainsayings can wait, must wait, for this to be what it needs to be,” Ann said.

“Seconded,” Deb joined her voice to Ann’s.

“Thirded,” Lucy said.

“Agreed!” Steyn said.

“And as the eldest of the Musser clan,” the old man said, straightening, picking his footsteps across the icy shore with its wet, slick rocks, “with the understanding that this is a point of procedure and I haven’t missed anything crucial, let me add my considerable weight to the group here as I agree with them.”

Lucy’s heart hammered.  She met Charles’ eyes as he glanced her way.

“Points of practice and Law are enforced in part by the many.  The many who override you, Carmine,” Ann said.  “You may arbitrate on nuance and fill in the gaps, you may act when others don’t, and you may mediate as we order you to mediate our affairs today, without undue interference, but it’s ultimately our patterns that hold sway…”

“…Our conventions and connections that lay the framework…” Deb said, standing beside Ann.

“…And our establishment…” Abraham Musser’s dad or uncle said.

“…and us saying bullshit!” Steyn joined in.

“…That decide how these things go,” Ann finished, looking a bit annoyed with Steyn.

Charles stood there, on black rocks and white snow, backed by trees and the husks of buildings that had collapsed decades ago, grown over with moss that had died in the cold, trees growing through them.  With so much of it being black and white, the red of his hair, coat, and eyes were startling.

“This is your approach then?” he asked Lucy.  “First you arrange a false contest for the seat of Carmine-”

“Not that false.  Wouldn’t really have complained if someone had come and won.”

“I think you could’ve complained.  There are forces in this territory who could’ve chosen the role and they would have been much worse.  Abraham Musser Junior?  Or Gerhild?”

Lucy shrugged.  “I don’t figure I’d have complained.  I’d have done something.  Like I’m doing something now.”

“First you create the most annoying thing you can, then you plan to shout me down?”

Others were arriving.  The Hennigars got off the boat.  Single individuals were arriving by water.

“Or is this an attack?”

“An attack gets twisted into a forced contest, right?  Just like if someone hunts the Alabaster?” Lucy asked.

“It can be.”

“It’s not an attack, not like that.  The combat practitioners of the area have agreed to a sword moot.  Because we would like to include Anthem Tedd in that, we’re holding it in Kennet,” Lucy explained.  “And you are the most appropriate person to oversee things.  Would you set the stage for us?”

“Set the stage for proceedings I don’t yet understand?”

“Yeah.  You’ve pulled a lot of bullshit, Charles,” Lucy told him.  “If Verona can B.S. her way through a book report on a book she didn’t read and get a B+, you can do this.  Give us a space for everyone who’s coming.  Make it accessible to Anthem Tedd.”

“Explain this to Miss so I don’t have to fight her on this?” he asked.  “Her territory was put in a position that is hard for me to reach into.”

“Does not explaining mean you have to spend more power?” Lucy asked.

“I can push to act there, but it costs me, yes, but it also hurts her as much or more than it hurts me.”

“Okay.  Fair enough.  I’ll help, then.”

The other arrivals were still coming, showing up at inconsistent rates.  The individuals from Montreal.  The battle puppeteer.

“Some of them aren’t from my region.”

“We can get into that later,” Lucy said.

“Keeping me in the dark?”

She didn’t reply.

“Come,” he said, and he started walking toward Kennet.

Raising his hands, he altered the way.  The area where the space between hills pinched in, the path, the old road to the shoreside factories and mills that were now overgrown, and everything else was turned more Carmine.  Black rock on either side was slick with icy runoff already, and that runoff took on a red tint.  Snow increasingly looked bloodstained.

Lucy let him go ahead a bit.

He looked back at her.

“I’m not walking with you,” she said.  “Not away from everyone here who’d argue against a gainsaying.  Not if it looks like we’re in any way cooperating.”

Position, posture.

As if to echo that thought, Guilherme made his appearance, walking over to stand by Lucy’s side.

Charles walked to Kennet, and Lucy waited until she had people behind her, Guilherme with her.

She turned to Jude.  “You don’t have to come.”

“I think if it’s okay, I won’t?”

Lucy nodded.

“I’ll wait by the shore.  If it gets late I’ll assume you found another way out.”

“Thanks, Jude.”

He smiled a bit, looking nervously at the growing number of practitioners gathering on shore, and kind of fixed his hat while also sort of tipping it in respect or acknowledgment, as he walked back toward the shack.

As she resumed walking, she pulled the dog tags out from around her neck.  House keys and weapon ring removed, Yalda’s ring and John’s tag clenched in her hand, she cast the rest down.

Snow blew into a dense cloud that rolled up off the ground, and Grandfather, Doe, Ribs, and Mark fell into step behind her, emerging from the thick snowdrift.

“Thought you’d call on us sooner,” Grandfather said, voice soft.  He looked around.  “You didn’t take us far.”

“John rescued you, through everything,” Lucy said.  “Pulling you halfway across the continent felt like it’d be messed up.”

As they walked, the sky got darker.  It was morning, but they approached into twilight.

The Carmine stood at the threshold, defined by the perimeter, looking over at Kennet found, with its arching streets and bridges.

Miss was there, on the far horizon, where she was as tall as any of the ski hills, hair blowing.

“Have things been okay?” Lucy asked.

“No they have not,” Grandfather told her.

She nodded.

Miss came forward to meet them.

“Hello, Lucy.  Welcome back, Guilherme.”

“We’re having a meeting,” Lucy said.  “Would you permit a space to be opened?”

“Center of town?  Analogous to where I set my throne, in Kennet above and below?” Charles asked.

“Temporarily,” Miss replied.

Charles glanced back at Lucy.

“Temporarily,” Lucy stressed.  She reached for a good justification.  She didn’t want this to be something toxic.  “Doing so otherwise is like setting up a throne or permanent institution.  It turns what we’re doing into something we don’t intend.”

“And?” Charles asked.

“If we call for a Carmine-sanctioned duel and you turn that dueling space into a permanent arena, that changes the whole context of the duel, gives it weight we didn’t intend-”

“You don’t intend this to be weighty?”

“We intend this to be something that’s very different from you getting to mark out a bloody patch of territory in someone else’s domain.”  We intend for it to be the opposite, even.

“Temporary, then,” he said.

Miss turned, and moved her hand.

The space was cleared.  Bridges shifted.  The river ice broke, surging, and an island emerged from the center of it, water running on either side.

Charles left them- or appeared to.  Lucy knew he kind of extended into every space in the region he had oversight for.  He could hear everything.

“Thank you,” Lucy told Miss.

Miss was silent, watching as Charles worked.

“The others are working elsewhere.  I won’t say on what, because Charles would hear.”

“I assumed,” Miss said.

A bit curt?  Voice short?

“Is it a problem?” Lucy asked.  “That we’re doing this?  That we’re fighting back?”

“I don’t mind that you’re fighting back.  It’s the how of it.”

“Creating this space?  The people coming behind me?”

“In small part,” Miss replied.  “You’re giving them power, doing this.”

“I’m hoping it’s… restructuring power.  I’m hoping it’s codifying it.  If we accept that there’s always going to be practitioners who fight, then isn’t it better to organize things?”

“I suppose we’ll have to see,” Miss said.

They watched as Charles worked.  The others were catching up, talking among themselves.  Forming alliances and factions already.

Lucy knew she should be back there.  Making alliances herself.

But this somehow felt important.  Touching base with Miss.  Miss being upset.

“Is it that we weren’t here, defending Kennet?” Lucy asked.

“No.  That is very understandable.  You were shut out.”

“Then why does it feel like you’re mad?  Don’t leave me guessing.  I hate being in that spot where I’m guessing about motivations.”

“Do you remember the anecdote I told you once?  Starving travelers, invited in?”

A starving traveler offered work and sustenance, only for the deal to go wrong.

An allegory for the Seal.

Allegories for more violent Others who needed certain sustenance.  Allegories for deals made in good faith, that got twisted, like the patch of forest granted to humans, who then expanded that forest to insane proportions, spreading its trees across the world.  Civilization.

“I remember.  It stuck with me.”

“Yet here we stand, don’t we?  Here I stand, and it’s hard not to feel a touch bitter.  I’ve given in and cooperated despite it being my greatest fear, that I allow myself to become part of the fabric of things.  Now, here I am, a fixture, afforded my territory, a fenced-in area I can control, shape, and change, but still a fenced-in area.”

“Miss…”

Lucy trailed off.

She could feel Miss’s ‘gaze’ on her, even though Miss didn’t have eyes.

“I know it’s not your intention, Lucy.  I know you’re dealing with problems as they come.  But I am ageless and you live in the moments.  Decisions you make for those moments, even vital moments, they are things I must carry forward… not necessarily forever, but with forever as a possibility in mind.”

“Like this thing today?” Lucy asked.

“Yes.”

“I’m really truly just trying to keep doors from closing.  To leave room for Kennet to be something that grows, that gets more interesting, that has its markets, that… isn’t fenced in.”

“I know.  But this marks the second event in a matter of days, which weighs heavy on the future of the ageless, precisely because we’re ageless.  You killed the Alabaster.”

“She killed herself.”

“She killed herself at your hand, unwillingly.”

Lucy considered, then nodded.

“I wish that hadn’t happened,” Miss said.

“She was stagnant.  She was corrupt, helping Charles.  She wasn’t willing to cooperate or be straightforward.”

“I agree.  I know.  I still wish it hadn’t happened.”

Lucy swallowed, and the lump in her throat kind of got in the way of her having the full force of air in her words as she said, “I think we might agree on that.”

“What analogy do you think would be drawn, to that action?”

“I don’t think my head’s in that space right now.”

“The meaning of these things in the scope of those metaphorical travelers and negotiators, facing the long term, being unable to see the short sometimes, that is something I think constantly about.  Where we fall in the fabric of it all has always been a concern for me.  I’m concerned.”

Lucy was a bit lost for words.  She hadn’t expected to be put in this position by Miss.  She’d been braced for an argument with fucking Mussers and shitty Hennigars.

Guilherme spoke, saying, “If the children were going to do things exactly as we would’ve done them, then there would be little point to having them at all.”

“Far be it from me to argue with a Fae,” Miss said.

“A sure way to unfair judgment against you.  But it’s equally unfair to hold back your words out of fear of being successfully argued down,” Guilherme said.

Lucy took the opportunity to make her argument, “What I’m doing here, I’m trying to lay groundwork for something good.  Proposals, truces, less fighting, less random fighting to test the waters and test each other against each other-”

“Less dick measuring contests,” Doe commented.

“Less dick measuring contests, or sword measuring contests, or whatever the fuck they do,” Lucy agreed.  “Less invasion of spaces, without them having to be demesnes and lordships.  Protections for sovereign spaces like yours, Miss.”

“But if you’re argued down, it could be the opposite.  Dismissal of those spaces,” Miss said.

“That’s possible.”

“Solomon, too, was trying to do good.  He was good, I’d even argue, even if he was forsworn in the end.  But he was making decisions for a particular time, a particular set of moments.  I don’t think he imagined how things would get twisted.  How practitioner families and dynasties would become so fixed a force, capable of directing and controlling everything else.”

“This isn’t that.  This isn’t that big, this isn’t codifying things on that level.”

“I know.”

“What if we set it up, so it’s temporary?  It lasts four years, and then ends automatically.  It has to be set up again.”

“And if they gather forces, or twist meanings, or have the meeting to renew the terms in secret, before the true meeting can begin?”

“I don’t know what you want, Miss,” Lucy said.

“I want a lot of things, and perhaps I’m being unfair.  I’ve been under a kind of siege for nearly a week now.  I’m strained, and my unhappiness may be coming out here, aimed at this, when it’s not entirely deserved.”

Lucy watched as Charles put the finishing touches on the arena.

“It’s not all sunshine and roses on our end either,” Lucy said.

“When I agreed to the founding, I agreed in part because we assigned you girls the role, and it balanced the scales some.  In my frustrated moments, I think about how I’ve signed on to something that will outlast you girls, short of me being killed and all of this torn to pieces.”

Lucy nodded.  “Goes back to that analogy.”

“It does.  I try to tell myself I’ve created something I do love.  I’m fond of the foundlings. I’m fond of the parts of my town that reach into Kennet below and Kennet above.  I don’t even wholly mind the interactions, juggling things like Biscuit the drug dealer, or foundling children making games of testing the bounds of innocence.”

“That’s good.”

“But so much of this.  The fact that he is there, putting something ugly in my town…?”

“I’m really hoping this ends up bothering him a hundred times more than it bothers you.”

“That’d be good,” Grandfather said.  “Gotta say, Miss?”

“What do you have to say, Grandfather?”

“It’s war.  It’s the opposite of compromise, but at the end of it, it’s the same, right?  Both sides end up unhappy?  Difference is, in compromise, you hope that you come out happier, in the tradeoff.  In war, you hope the other guy is more unhappy than you are.”

“I think, in light of that, even after all these months of struggle, I’m far from being a warrior,” Miss said.

“Yeah,” Grandfather agreed.  “You know, many soldiers, without the training, won’t shoot to kill.  They aim over heads.  They play the role without feeling it in their hearts.  Firing squads have failed to kill men because everyone subtly aims to miss.  Most have to trick themselves.  For the real warriors, for Dog Tags like us, for the goblins, for Guilherme here, and I think even for Lucy, there has to be a mean streak.  A willingness to hurt.”

“Costs,” Ribs said, in his rough voice, the Blast Dog speaking through a scarred face with an opening at the one side, where scar tissue didn’t fully bridge the space between cheekbone and jawline.

“It does cost,” Grandfather said.

“For all my concern, you have my support,” Miss said.

“Thank you.  I really want to catch up, and I’m worried I won’t get to.”

“Best to wait.  Focus on this now.  I hope, if me talking to you has done anything, it’s conveyed the importance that this goes well.”

“Yeah.  Well, it’s not like I was about to treat it like it was nothing,” Lucy said.

A goblin had run up to Lucy’s ankle.  She thought it might be Cherrypop, but it was a stranger.

She looked back, and saw America and Liberty at the back.

“Go,” Miss said.

Lucy nodded.

She walked forward, and the Dog Tags joined her.  Guilherme walked in parallel, keeping closer to the woods.  A few more goblins caught up, and Lucy recognized Tatty in their number- then some more besides that.

She motioned, and Liberty caught up, followed by America.  Others, especially individuals and ones from smaller families, like Davion, Steyn, and Mike, they came too.

Raquel was coming from the far direction, from deeper in town.

They walked to the bridge and they crossed to the platform.  An island of black iron, vaguely rusty, so the snow and runoff was reddish.  A fire blazed in the middle, and seats and tables ringed it.

Others sat as well.

“We’ll have to wait until everyone’s here before we get properly started,” Lucy said.

“You’re not running this meeting, are you?” Ann asked, arch.

“I arranged it.”

“Which is a very different thing.”

“I’m proposing, to start, a limited term for all agreements made here.  We’d have to figure out a way that this can’t be manipulated in any bad way.”

The arguments came out against her, against those arguments, overlapping.  There were dismissals, others wanted to prioritize other things, or to keep to the outline Verona had whipped up, building off of that.  Ann protested that she wanted to set up a structure for how this meeting would be run.

Lucy leaned over her desk, listening intently, watching, earring primed to catch the whispered alliances.

Others were still coming.

The St. Victor’s kids.  Anthem, walking with Raquel now.

Lucy eyed Charles, aware they had to keep him tied down here.  It wasn’t just about staying on top of this whole thing.  It was about staying on top of Charles, being ready to challenge a key point, make it a duel, make it something Charles had to commit to managing.

They’d timed the arrivals, they’d given watches and times to the goblins and fairy groups, and they’d timed this to coincide with Verona and Avery making their play against the Aurum.

Verona, Avery, I hope you’re doing okay, Lucy thought, as a kindness.

A kindness before she committed to the mentality and mode required to participate on this stage, with its requisite mean streak.

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