Author: Wildbow

Go for the Throat – 23.9 | Pale

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Kennet below is dying.

Kennet found is empty.

I never had as strong a connection to Kennet above… less so now, with my house burned down and my mom not listening.

Here I am again.  Drawing this circle, and facing the risk of losing everything all over again.  Just like I did when Musser attacked and I had to claim my Demesne against them to avoid being forsworn.

The principles were the same.  A lot of power was incoming.  Kennet below was being leeched for power, losing key structures, and the result was that what remained would collapse, coming through.  Like building an extensive basement, then knocking out key walls.  Kennet above and Kennet found would be damaged, bits of that basement would crash through, and Kennet would be dangerous to live in.

After getting too restless at her Demesne, she’d gathered her stuff, Julette, two workshop homunculi, and headed to the Arena.  It looked like some hockey players and-or employees in the Arena were having a party or something that was running well past midnight, which wasn’t the most unusual thing for the Arena, so she’d thrown up a connection block and tossed a bit of glamour on the back windows, painting a picture of an empty, ordinary parking lot.  Trees on three sides around the back lot helped hide things.

She and Julette finished drawing the main circle, starting at opposite ends and then circling around, ending where the other started.  Verona set down the fifteen pound bag of salt.

“Smaller double-circle within!” Verona called out.  She held up her arm.  “Space it elbow to forearm!”

Julette watched as Verona started, double checking.  Crouching near the ground, Verona put elbow at the outermost circle, hand pointing inward, she raked the end of her chalk into a thin layer of ice to break it up enough she could put down a visible line.  The chalk was bright purple, so it was visible even in the gloom, against white snow and black asphalt.  She placed a bag of salt just outside the perimeter to mark her spot.

“Leave salt where you are, to mark the spot!  One pace, chalk mark!”

She could trust Julette to follow her instructions, have her proportions, and follow her movements in the same way.  She could say ‘one big step’ and trust Julette was doing something similar-ish.  One big step, crouch, same span to measure distance, mark with chalk.  No ice, at least.

“Same all the way around!?” Julette called over.

“Until you get to my spot!”

“-You fail, you whine, you let people down, and then you wonder why you’re alone?  You wonder why you feel empty?” Alexanderp prattled, off to the side, guarding their bags.

“Not saying anything, Seth, Cameron, and-or Chuck, creeps!” Verona called out.

The two other homunculi sat and listened to Alexanderp, all three as dumb as potatoes, one hatched too early.  It was the fleshy equivalent of dough removed from the oven before it had cooked.  Both wore clothes Verona had bought to see if she could outfit Peckersnot in something.  The larger, more complete workshop homunculus wore two layers of the clothes that had been way too big for Peckersnot: overalls, a sweater, and a sweatshirt over that, a bit too large, all probably from a stork bindle baby doll with maybe a few articles of actual baby clothes thrown in.  The smaller one wore something Peckersnot-sized that Peckersnot hadn’t liked.

Measure with arm, chalk mark, move, repeat.

Getting up and bending down was wearing on her, not helped by the fact she’d carried two fair-sized bags and eight boxes of salt all the way from her Demesne to here, but anxiety helped her press through it.  Every moment counted, but an error while doing this could be catastrophic.

Like, instead of all of Kennet below crashing through Kennet above, it’d be funneled like water through a pressure washer.  Horrification ahoy.

She reached the spot Julette had left the other bag of salt.  She found Julette’s mark in orange chalk and picked up the bag.  Julette mirrored her.

They went clockwise from their positions, using the little marks of chalk to help measure distance.  The trick was getting a smooth pour.

She reached the spot Julette had finished, connected the line of poured salt, and then adjusted, picking up a half-handful to correct the size of the pile.  “And again!  Hand’s-width distance inside the last circle!”

They ran out partway through.  Which made her worry.  She reached the other two bags they’d brought, each maybe twenty pounds, and used a box knife to cut off the corner from each.

She waited until Julette had reached her spot before resuming.  To keep things moving in parallel.

She wanted to rest so bad.  To lie down on parking lot with ice and snow on it, huffing for breath, stomach sore from the bending down and picking stuff up.

She wanted other people to live even more.

The outermost rim of the diagram was like the raised lip of a dinner plate.  It was where the decorative and outward-facing stuff went.  A distance inside was the double-ring, which they were now finishing.  Double lines reinforced, which they needed because this was where the cogs and gears went, basically.  Needed a strong frame around this engine.

“Another circle, one pace inside!”

“One circle, one pace inside, on it!”

They drew out the circle.  Where salt settled into snow and ice, it melted it, which made for a workable effect, the salt lined on either side with the shiny black of fully exposed asphalt.  There was always an issue when drawing on a surface, that any existing lines or patterns could muddle things.  This was better to do indoors but indoors didn’t have enough space.  The closest things she could think of, like the rink or the school gymnasium?  Had lines already.  The top of the arena was a bit of a mess, and honestly, after hurrying here, even with Lis’s help, lugging salt, she hadn’t felt like climbing up and down the ladder at the side of the building.

The coating of snow at least obscured the yellow lines of the lot.  That was okay so long as they didn’t have a very sudden heat wave.

She glanced back over her shoulder.  To her Sight, the flows of power out of Kennet below were no longer there, but the threat of collapse or inversion was still there, cracks spreading from damage already done.  Too many key things were too weak.

“My back.  I’m made of twigs and twine, and there’s only so much I can bend,” Julette said.

“You’re as flexible as me,” Verona said.  “Spare your back, put the big guy on the line drawing.  Innermost circle, line from twelve o’clock to eight.”

“What’s the-”

“Six is my bag,” Verona cut her off, to answer the question.

“Got it.”

Verona began drawing on asphalt with chalk, which was never super fun.  Julette hurried to pick up the homunculus, grab some salt from the bag, and position him.

With a prod, he waddled forward with a box of salt only slightly smaller than he was, pouring.  He’d been made with a focus on precise measurements and attention to details, and Verona was pleased to see that applied to the line work and even pours.

“Line’s done.  I’m not sure me bending over to pick up this little guy is all that much better.”

“Then do it yourself.  I don’t know, Julette!” Verona replied, tense.

“Sorry.”

Libra signs inside nested half-circles to distribute power out across everything.  Verona marked the half-circles on the inner rim of the perimeter, pointing toward the center.  “Um, starting from that line, at the point it intersects an imaginary line between two and eleven o’clock, go to the point that two and eleven would meet twelve and six, turn him to go to five.”

“This is where you’re supposed to throw out a side line about being flexible for Anselm.”

“Anselm might be dying or dead!” Verona answered, voice cracking.  “So no, no lines like that, sorry!”

Julette looked stricken.  Then a moment later, turned, sweeping up the homunculus, moving him into position.  Her hair hid her face.

“I thought-” Verona started, still drawing.

“Sorry.  Didn’t know it was that serious.”

“I implied…” Verona started to tell Julette, then stopped.  We’re not perfectly in sync.  We’re not the same person.

She dealt with Dad but got a pass on the heaviest of this stuff.  Mostly, with the close call on New Years excepted.

But she hasn’t been as deep into this.  Into losing Avery.  Facing Charles.

So she doesn’t get the gravity of it, always.  My fault for not telling but…

“Mal?” Julette asked.

“I don’t know,” Verona replied.

“What do we know?”

“We don’t.  We don’t know.”  Verona crawled between the segments of the diagram she had to draw on.  Her knees were so soaked it had reached the backs of her knees, and it felt like the trace amounts of salt were adding to the chafing, the abrasions at her knees and palms, and where the folds of the jeans at the back of her knees rubbed.

This was all she knew how to do.  She looked at what she still had to draw.

“Done the line.”

“Triangle with point facing down, at the nine-”

“Wait.  You’re doing something repetitive, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Swap out?”

“This’ll hurt your back more.”

“I’ll deal.  I didn’t realize it was this big.”

“Fuckin’ huge magic circle, you didn’t think it was big?”

“Point.”

“Switch,” Verona said.  She got to her feet.  She took over at the center, while Julette did the repeating pattern at the edge.  It was dumb to not have done that sooner, but Verona had wanted to retreat a bit into the meditative parts of the diagram drawing, like drawing up spell cards.

The diagram had a medallion at the center that was the city magic mark for Kennet.  The weird lines she’d had Julette doing were the main roads.  She made marks for the major hills, then the water.

She looked up, city magic running through her head, and Lis was there, standing on the roof of the Arena, looking down.  Verona wasn’t surprised to see her, like it was this thing that logically followed.

Putting her arms out to the side, she gestured to Lis.  Part demonstration, part shrug.

Lis shook her head.

“It’s not good!?” Verona called up.

“It’s not good enough.”

“Even when we finish?”

Lis shook her head.

“Avery will have the mundane items.  You saw those in action!”

Lis’s expression did not look confident.

“Fuck.  Fuck!” Verona said, turning, resuming work, thinking all the while.

This wasn’t a question of if they could stabilize Kennet, really.  Even with what Lis was saying.  It was a question of how much damage would be done in the meantime, and what the cost would be.

This was a repeat of what they’d done for the founding.  Avery had likened it to a catcher’s mitt, because of course she had.  Distribute energy, brace against it, keep everything stable.  Securing Kennet.

The warding perimeter around Kennet with the sixteen shrines was key, that was stuff going around the decorative edge of the plate.  They had signs they’d worked out for each spirit, which they did with the arrangements of twigs they sometimes used.  But the shrine spirits had been pulled away.

They didn’t have a huge power battery to empower this and give it the juice to counter whatever came flowing through.  They’d used that to make the spirits at the edge strong enough to manage the ‘splash’.

Avery hadn’t reported back that she’d found all the mundane items that would help ground this.

They had options, but the options were bad.  They could call on power from Kennet’s Others, but that drew power away from the people on the front lines.  She could give power from her Self, but something this big could hit her way too hard.

“What next?”

Verona shook her head slightly, trying to clear her thoughts.  Julette stood there, hand on the homunculus’s head.

“Spokes.  Um…” Verona made a half-circle shape with her hand, knuckles facing sky then held her arm against it at a diagonal, then reversed hands and arm.  “Right side of the Libra bits to the left side of the city magic circle in the center, vice versa, we get X or V shapes.  Reinforcement, plus it gets us a star shape.”

“Got it.”

“It’s a good job for the homunculus.”

“Come on, little guy,” Julette said.

She considered herself good at finding the possible, but something about the latest series of hits was pushing her to feel like the opposite was happening.  Thoughts spiraling, the can’ts and counter-arguments and doubt jumping to mind where there’d normally be ideas.

Come on, get it together.

She finished the city magic seal.  There were six circles she had to put in the spokes.  Three would be the key locations – her Demesne, the council seat, and Lucy’s spot.  Three would represent the three sides of Kennet.  She put a hand at her back as she straightened, then got her phone and phoned Avery.

There were twenty-nine messages from her mom and twelve from Jasmine.

“Come on, Ave.  Need to know how you’re managing before I do the exterior reference.”

Avery:
omw

Verona hurried to type.  Are you going to the Demesne?  Because I’m at-

“Here!” Avery shouted.  Arriving before the text was even sent.  “Shit, wait, there’s people inside?”

“Connection blocked.”

“I’m here,” Avery repeated herself, jogging to a stop.  Opossum-mode Snowdrop hopped off her shoulder and went to Julette and the homunculi to help.  “What’s up?”

“First off… I’m Verona Hayward, your friend, nascent sorceress, third witch of Kennet, and all that jazz.”

“Right.  Good call.  I’m Avery Kelly, partner to Snowdrop, second witch of Kennet, Finder and Path Runner.”

“Lucy’s spot?”  She pointed at the diagram.

“Memorial statue for the Dog Tags.”

“And how’s Lucy?”

“Fighting.  Said she’d handle it.  She stopped things.”

“Stopped flows.  We still need to get things stable.  I think we can, but what’s it going to cost?  How are we with collecting?”

“Three sets of twelve done, fourth looking likely, fifth is a reach.”

“I was hoping it’d be more.  We don’t have the active shrine spirits, we don’t have the power source we did for feeding the shrines, Kennet above is sleeping, Kennet below is dying, Kennet found is empty…”

“Hey.”

Avery put her hand out, like she was slapping Verona’s cheek, but it wasn’t a fast movement.  She turned Verona’s head so Verona faced her, then held fingers on either of Verona’s cheeks.

“We okay?” Avery asked.

“I’m not great.”

“What can I do?”

“I don’t know.  It’s a me issue.  It’s-”

“You didn’t sleep?”

“I barely slept.  I cut sleep short the- two nights ago, then my hand was acting up, and everything, and I’m-”

“Not doing hot.”

“Melting down, kinda.  With people counting on me.”

“Counting on us, we’re in this together,” Avery said.  “Yeah.”

“And I just need to get my head straight, but every second it’s not straight it’s worse, and I kick myself…”

“Stop,” Avery said.  She put her palm against Verona’s forehead.  “No more stress loop.  Cease.”

Verona closed her eyes.

“I did that to Nora once, she said it didn’t help, but I wish it did, and I hope the sentiment at least-”

“It helps,” Verona interrupted, her eyes still closed, Avery’s palm at her forehead.  It was the fact the palm was steady and warm that really helped.  Her own left hand was especially shaky.  Her right hand at least had the chalk to hold onto.

“I can back you up here for a minute, I’ve got everyone looking for stuff.  You wanted to draw this here, then run back?”

“Command phrase activation or signal, I was thinking.”

“Okay,” Avery said.  “Stepping away from this for a bit-”

“We don’t have a bit.”

“Lucy stopped the flows temporarily, Charles can’t pull lifeforce or lives out of the Undercity.  We don’t have a lot of time, but I’d rather get us right instead of rushing and making a crucial mistake.  Go easy.  Get centered.”

Avery pushed harder against Verona’s forehead as she said those last three words.  Verona pressed her forehead into the hand.

“Article of clothing with three flowers on it?” Avery asked.

“What?  Oh, mundane item.  No.  Don’t think.  Does an item with four flowers count?”

“Damn, have a washcloth with herbs and stuff.”

“A triangular container with a lid?” Avery asked.

“Nothing I can think of.  At my old house, yes, but it was in the basement, with costume- no.”

“Shears?  Like, two handed, trim the hedge shears?”

“Sorry.”

“Thought I’d ask.  Diagram looks good, and holy crap, are the homunculi creepy.  Seal…”

Avery dropped her hand, then pulled off her city magic pin from her backpack strap.  Her eyes flashed with Sight.

Verona looked too.

The pin looked really good, but there was a point on it that caught the light in a way that, for a fraction of a second, looked superheated.  Then did it again when different light caught it from another angle.  Viewed with Sight, Verona could see the city magic icon she’d put on the ground, in more detail.

She quickly moved across the diagram and added some lines to cross the horizontal and vertical lines, copying the more intricate version she could see on Avery’s pin.

“Your memory’s good,” Avery said.  “I’d need to double check after each line.”

“There’s no need to puff me up, I’m… that’s not it.”

“Not what I’m doing.”

“Okay,” Verona said.

“What is it, then, Ronnie?” Avery asked.

“I… we all have our demons, right?  We have this shit that keeps coming back at us?  For Lucy it’s injustice, and when injustice thrives?  For you, you… you’re okay when you’re moving, but there’s problems at your starting points and endpoints, a lot of the time.  Family and wolves.”

“Sure.  And you?”

“I keep losing things.  Any time I start to feel good about what and how I’m doing, something comes along and ruins it.  I thought I figured it out, got some people and things I could hold onto, keep safe in my Demesne.  And now Mal might not be okay?  Anselm?  McCauleigh’s off fighting.  Lucy’s off fighting?”

“Yeah.  I’m pretty scared too.”

“My mom’s being so Sylvia, she’s freaking out Jasmine by proxy.  I fucked up my relationship with my dad to the ground, then it was like I couldn’t stop myself from doing it with my mom, and what if it happens with you guys?”

“I’m letting you down.”

“Not- it’s understandable.”

“And it starts to feel like the only thing I’ve got left I’m reasonably confident and okay in is that I do these big fuck-off practices.”

“That’s why you wanted to do this diagram?” Avery asked.

Verona shrugged.  “It’s got this pressure, like, if I fuck this up… I’m so tired of getting a foothold in life, finding cool people, and then having them leave, or disappoint me.  Or die, now?  Of losing whatever I get.”

Avery reached out, tugging on Verona’s shoulder, and pulled her into a hug.  “No plans to go anywhere here.  We’re working on this together.”

“Mal and Anselm need me.  A bunch of these people in Kennet below need me.  And I’m just here, freaking out, my mom situation in my head-”

“Ronnie?” Avery interrupted.  She broke the hug and held Verona’s shoulders with arms straight out in front of her.  “I think that’s normal.  It’s normal to have your brain not working so good when everything’s going to shit.”

“I don’t want to be normal.  I want to be a sexy sorceress with a wandering bookstore, hanging with you guys, and occasional teaching jobs at magic schools where they treat me a bit like they treated Durocher, because of my big fuckoff magic stuff.”

“Goals,” Avery said.  She sighed.  “Keep that in mind, maybe?  Channel it?”

“But part of that, bigger picture, is like, I’d have Mal as someone who hangs around the shop, who’s just off enough to get looks, and she’s saying like, she could be on the fringes of organized crime and back-alley weirdness, for when there’s a situation.  So much of the market.  So many little things.  Anselm as my angsty poet friend I can ring up if I want a bit of dick, or talk creativity with.”

“Ronnie, geez.”

“I keep building shit and it keeps getting torn down and I’m spooked.  These guys are cool.”

“They’re badass,” Julette said.  She’d come up beside them.

Was it weird that she wasn’t leaning on her would-be-familiar as her confidante?  That she hadn’t vented to Julette?

Nah, because she wasn’t after what Avery had.  Maybe there was a reality where she could vent to Julette, with therapy and figuring out boundaries, but considering her closeness to Julette, in metaphorical blood, it felt like it’d be to easy to use her as a dumping ground.

She didn’t live in that reality.

“Okay, if we’re thinking three or four, then a twelve pointed star fits both,” Verona said.  “We can adapt that to either last minute.  But-”

She looked past Avery, to where Alexanderp was nested in beside her bag.

“What?” Avery asked.

“He’s preening.”

The homunculus was mugging for a nonexistent camera.  Smug smiles, thoughtful poses.

Trying to turn left.  He did little hops to try to reposition in between, but he didn’t really have hips or legs so he was mostly punching the air with his handless limbs to move.

Verona looked in the direction he was trying to move to, at first to judge the direction any augury might be coming from- the north?

Then she looked into the trees.  Sight on.

Two pairs of eyes looked back at her- no.  Not her, or her bracelet would have moved.

At Alexanderp?

The eyes met hers, and they advanced out of the trees.

A sixteen-ish year old guy with overly stylish clothes- the sort of clothes available at stores Lucy had shopped at, before, but like he’d picked the most expensive, most branded clothing.  Vikare swoops across multiple articles of clothing, with an open coat that had a big ‘Vikare’ running down one arm, swoops extending to his back.  High end boots, gold necklace, two earrings in one ear, and hair styled into a fauxhawk with frosted tips.

And, with all of that, he had circles under his eyes and a defeated expression.

The man with him was huge, distorted, and flickered like something technomancy.  His eyes were like points of green light in the gloom, in an expression cast in shadow by the long, unkempt hair that framed it, blocking ambient light.  His legs looked too short, his tree-trunk thick arms too long, and his skin looked like it lacked pores.  Waxy, with grit in the wax, hairs poking through.  He had no shirt on, and wore ragged pants with a belt of ragged clothing braided together.

He didn’t move more than a few feet from the teenager.  The teenager walked forward, easygoing, hands in pockets, and the big guy hurried to stay near him, hands thumping the ground as he used them to walk on as much or more as his actual legs.  Thumping in front, beside, criss-crossing… the teenager didn’t react in the slightest.

“Practitioner!?” Verona called out.

The teenager shook his head.  He said something, too quiet for Verona to make out.

He said something else, and pointed at Alexanderp.

The man’s breath fogged, and the fog had the telltale visual glitches around it.  Then he lifted a hand-

Avery started running.

-the man reached, arm distorting, surrounded by those visual glitches.

Verona pulled her pack of spell cards out of her pocket, drew one of the air cards and hurled it.

The explosion of wind made Alexanderp go flying, tumbling as he landed.  The hand hit icy asphalt, then swiped sideways toward the fallen Alexanderp.

Avery beat him to the homunculus, scooping up both Alexanderp and the undeveloped one.

The hand swiped the other direction, fingers bending backwards, visual glitches shedding off skin as the right hand became a second left hand, so fingers could close around Verona’s bag.  Salt was tipped over.

“Hey!” Verona shouted.

The hand pulled back.  The man dangled the bag in front of the teenager, leaning in to whisper in his ear.

Avery passed the homunculi to Snowdrop -Alexanderp was bleeding- then ran over to the teenager and Verona’s bag.

The other hand went out, blocking her way, perspective and proportion glitching out so the hand could be a wall, nearly as tall as Avery was.

She tapped feet, leaped-

The hand went up, in eerie parallel to Avery’s ascent.  Fingers moved to close around her, and she kicked the palm, doing a partial flip in the air before landing on hands and feet.

Verona circled around the diagram.

The big guy hadn’t even looked away from the boy he was whispering to.

“Hey!” Verona called out.

“Do you want a girl, then?” the big guy asked.  “Get your dick wet?  You’re old enough.  Name a girl, I’ll give you a girl.  Want a woman?”

The teenager looked so tired.

“Hey!” Verona called out.

“Let’s just get the job done,” the teenager said, pointing at Alexanderp.

The big guy reached out his hand again.

“Aaaaa!” Snowdrop screamed, running, jumping as the hand arced down.  It slammed into asphalt and tore up a section of the lot.  Thankfully nowhere near the unfinished diagram.

Avery put a hand out in Snowdrop’s direction, and Snowdrop got a little more graceful and fast on her feet.  Avery turned her attention to the teenager.

Verona, meanwhile, hurled a spell card.  Fire.

It barely hurt the guy’s arm.  Visual glitches surrounded the impact site.  A shield?

Or… she could look at him more closely now, and that waxy skin was frostbite.  Whenever it got too bad, it glitched and reset back to normal.

Avery kept trying to get past the guy to reach the teenager or Verona’s bag.  The hand unerringly blocked her.  The big guy was leaning forward to a crazy degree, top-heavy, and even with that, he didn’t fall.  The one arm reached, the other blocked.

Or blocked until he saw another opportunity to grab for Avery.

Avery ducked clear, but only barely.  Julette chose that moment to leap out of cat form, coming at him from behind.

He blocked Julette with an elbow thrust back.  Blocked Avery with his palm, moving with enough force that she stumbled back.  Avery used the black rope, stepping out from behind Julette, giving Julette a light push.

The big guy turned, arm sweeping through the air with enough size and speed that the air drove both back, before they could approach him from behind, from two awkward directions.

He held his hand out.

There was a rhythm and pattern to how he moved.  Verona wasn’t good enough at keeping track in the heat of the moment, but there was something to it.

“Ave!” Verona called out.  “I think the grabbing is automatic, third try is going to be special!”

“Yeah!”

Avery backed up.

“Same for you, Snow!” Verona called out.

Avery turned and hurled something toward Snowdrop.  Snowdrop put hands out.

The big guy’s hand snatched it out of the air.

“A prize.  A… shitty shitty prize, but a prize all the same.  Here,” the man said.

The man moved his hand, and dropped the thing.  The boy pulled his hand out of his pockets to seize it.

The ratfink key from Cherrypop.

Snowdrop continued to back away, circling around the diagram.

The teenager looked down at the ratfink key with his odd eyes.

“Cool,” he said.  He looked up at them, Avery and Verona.  His pupils were mostly white, strangely shaped.  Squares with smaller black rectangles near the top.  Calculator?  No.

The big guy leaned in, looming so close it looked like he’d fall on the teenager, crushing him.  He didn’t, though.

“You could keep one, dress her up however you like?”  The man’s voice was ragged around the edges, eager.  “Make her do whatever you want.”

“Nah,” the teenager said.  “You’re getting distracted.”

“Can we call a short timeout?” Avery asked.

“Don’t see the point,” the teenager said.

Verona looked into his eyes.  What was that?  Relating to greed.  Calculator?  But calculators didn’t have screens that big, if the black rectangle was a screen.

“Video game console?” Verona asked, thinking out loud.

The kid’s eyebrows raised.  Verona wasn’t sure why she was downgrading him from ‘teenager’ to ‘boy’ to ‘kid’, but it felt apt.  “Sure.”

“Heard about one of those.  Cursed console, only one game, game booted funny, events…”

“The dating sim?” the boy asked.

“I don’t think it was.  Life sim.”

“You know where it is?” the kid asked, that tired expression of his perking up.  “I’ll give you that timeout if you say.”

“Where did we hear about this?” Avery asked Verona.

“In the notebooks,” the big man breathed, smiling in a way that bared teeth.  He gave the bag a shake, then upended it, emptying contents onto the ground.

“You asshole!” Verona shouted.  Papers were now being scattered by the wind.  Containers of alchemy rolled on the ground.  There was also the red button…

The big hand scooped up the containers and placed them by the kid’s feet.

“I’ll destroy this,” the big guy said, as he picked up the red button.

“Whatever.”

“If you want to get rid of him-!” Verona shouted.

“I don’t.  Not like that.”

The big hand destroyed the little joystick with the red button on top, crumpling it up, then throwing bits aside.

“Dude,” Verona said.

The big guy’s finger touched a lone paper and slid it across the ground until it was in front of the boy.  The notes from Alexander on Clementine, presumably.

“Not many details,” the big guy said.

“Do you know more you didn’t write down?” the teenager asked.  “Say yes, you can have a small timeout.”

“Guy, you-”

“Guess you don’t,” the teenager said.

“Ronnie?  Any ideas?” Avery asked.

“What are you being offered?” Verona asked.  “Can we trump the offer?  Or did you make a deal?”

“No official deal,” the teenager said.  “I don’t think you can trump it.”

“Give us a shot?”

“Why?”

“Because I might not know much about that console, but someone else I know does.  Maybe someone like you?  So… maybe we can do better than whoever brought you here…”

“Doubt it.”

“Or give you that information.”

He paused.

“I could get it out of them,” the big guy breathed, looming over the boy’s shoulder.

“You’re only good at getting material things.  You fuck up when it comes to interrogation and information.”

“I’ll get better.”

“Dude,” Verona said.

“Three minute time out, she doesn’t run in the meantime?” the kid asked, pointing at Snowdrop.  “Since there’s a chance you have something to offer.”

“I won’t run,” Snowdrop said.

Mal is in danger.  Anselm.  Other Undercity people I like.

We don’t have three minutes.

“Aurum?” Avery asked.

The kid shrugged and nodded.  “Nothing direct, but…”

“Yeah,” Avery said.

“What’s your sitch?” Verona asked.

“Found a cool magic item.  Lots of people wanted it.  To hide it and personalize it, I put it in an Alcazar of my own Self.  Sometimes called sword swallowing.  Except not a sword in this case.”

“Game console,” Verona said.

“Got knocked out in a fight, once.  When I came to, it had gained ground.  Taken over parts of me.  Rooted in me.  Wires running through my veins, my eyes, my heart’s a battery now.”

“How big a battery?” Verona asked.

“Why does that matter?” the boy asked, around the same time Avery asked something very similar.

Verona glanced over at Avery, then behind Avery, at the diagram in the parking lot.

“Ronnie.  Seriously?”

“I think a lot of people would say they’re lucky.  Anything I want, he gets.  Christmas every day.  I think it’s supposed to go bad.  Get ugly.  But that’s held off.  Great, right?” the kid asked.  He sounded anything but great.

“What’s the importance of the other console?” Verona asked, to change the subject.

“There’s a few.  Same toymaker.”

“Tenmercy?” Verona asked.

“Damn.  Could be Tenmercy knows other sketchy creators of cursed items?”

“I’ve asked around, I’d doubt it.  This guy doesn’t really network, doesn’t share his name.  Anyway, I probably die if I get rid of the console that’s inside me now,” the teenager said.  “Can’t really dig into the details of how he’s made, how he works.  ‘Cause, you know, it’s my heart, my veins, my brain.  Integrated into me.  I could study one of the others.  Or feed it someone and let it go, follow it.  They loop back to him so he can collect the power the curses reap.”

“There’s a scenario where you work with us, let us do what we need to do here, and we help you,” Avery said.  “Sanctuary, good brains on the problem.  Could open your Alcazar.”

“A lot of lives are on the line right now,” Verona said.  “It’d be appreciated.”

“I don’t care about those lives.  And I’m being offered, roundabout way, a fix.”

“The Aurum?”

“Mentioned he could help me, in theory, but there’s a homunculus near here that’s blocking his view of certain things.  Fucking with our view too.”

The huge man smiled.

“That’s thin,” Verona said.  “The offer.  Nothing direct?  He can’t make a better offer because he can’t get involved, I’m not sure he could really give you a fix, for the same reason.”

“Best offer I’ve had in years.”

“Counteroffer.  Sanctuary, minds on the problem, provided nobody key dies in the meantime, and we put you in contact with someone who might have more details on the other game console,” Verona said.

“That would be Clementine Robertjon,” the big guy said.  He picked a paper out of the wet snow and held it up.  “That’s her contact information.”

The kid took the paper, pocketed it, and shrugged.

“The fuck?” Avery asked.

“He’s got some sense of the quality and contents of stuff,” Verona said.

The big guy smiled, green eyes bright in the gloom, like some appliance with an always-on notification light.

“Your offer’s worse without that.  Just as uncertain as what the Aurum hinted at, if things are as messy as they look, here.”  The boy looked at his very spiffy watch.  “About twenty seconds.”

Nothing jumped to Verona’s mind.

“Aurum’s trying to throw us off our game,” Avery told Verona.

Verona nodded.

Was there a way they could call him out on impartiality?  She wasn’t sure it’d work, especially if it got fobbed over into Charles’ court, as a question of conflicts and ongoing wars.

The boy started to walk forward, then paused.

Verona glanced back.  Snowdrop was gone.

Verona smiled.

“You still want it?” the big guy asked.  “It’s low quality.”

“For the job,” the kid said.

“Then let’s go.”

The big guy swiped the kid with a hand.  Picking him up without injury.  Then he charged forward.  Across the diagram.

No, no, no.

“Snow!” Avery called out.

Verona reached into her pocket, got her wallet, and dumped out some change into her hand.  She threw it.  If this big guy was like some greed machine…

He ignored the thrown change.

Bills?  She pulled some free, then threw them into the air.

The hand came at her, so fast she did a full-body flinch, arms crossed in front of her face.

The disturbed air from the hand snapping closed blew cold air past her crossed arms and made her striped sweater billow out, cold air tracing her lower belly.

Verona uncrossed her arms and grabbed for the hand in the same motion, finding a lone fistful of bristly hair on the back of the hand.

Avery tackled her, dislodging her.

The boy and the man ran on, around the side of the Arena.

Avery helped pick Verona up, then pointed.

Verona nodded.

Avery’s finger dropped.

From roof to inside.

There was a hatch up there.

“Black rope?”

“Black rope.”

“We’re running out of time.”

“I know,” Avery said.  “Shh?”

Verona pressed lips together, nodding.

She looked back at Julette, who pointed down at the scattered belongings.  Verona nodded.

That’s why I want you as a familiar.  Combat executive dysfunction with double the function.  Let you become who you need to become, keep each other in check.

Avery took hold of Verona’s arm.  Verona shut her eyes, and stepped with Avery, feeling her stomach lurch as Ave brought them to the roof.  They scampered across, ducking low, and reached the hatch.

They dropped inside, and came face to face with Snowdrop and Alexanderp.

“Come on,” Avery whispered.

Verona paused only long enough to lay down a spell card, then scribble around it with marker.

They’d come in at the upper level, which had the building manager’s office, she figured, and then the ways to the little skybox areas, which weren’t impressive at all.

But one of those areas was in use.  Four or five people were hanging out and were drinking.  Employees, or some employees and their friends.  Verona sort of recognized them, in the same way she could sort of recognize most people in Kennet, even if she couldn’t put names to every face.  Booker’s age, give or take.  Maybe they’d even hung out with Booker once.

Verona could hear a noise on the roof.  She wasn’t sure if she felt an impact or imagined it.

Got to fix the diagram, got so much to do, she thought.

In a way, she was glad for this.  Glad that it was sharpening her.  A puzzle of an Other, a question of strategy, not just trying to put together a solution when she didn’t have the resources.

He was able to be selective, so she probably couldn’t make him grab something dangerous.  Seemed to be aware of the contents of things, like notebooks, so she couldn’t hand him a trap.  The kid was protected…

There were things Verona knew she was good at.

Reading the intent and needs of something like Alexanderp, to know something was viewing him, specifically.

The hatch opened.  A faint amount of moonlight shone through.

The teenager dropped through, and the big guy followed.

And the spell card activated.  Light flared, bright.

Verona and Avery backed into the shadow of the unlit skybox as employees noticed.

Another thing Verona knew she was good at was unraveling this sort of thing.

What was the biggest, bluntest hammer she could use here?  It wasn’t an explosion.  That wouldn’t do anything if that big guy could block it and protect the kid.

No.  It was Innocence.

Four employees, two guys, two girls, came running to investigate- well, two guys and one girl did.  The last girl lingered back, hesitant.

The big guy had come through, but as the Innocents showed up, he retreated, moving into the walls, and briefly glitching out before becoming an odd pattern of shadows.  Lights around the teenager flickered, making shadows dance.  The big guy moved, but couldn’t move that far.

“If he hurts them…” Avery whispered.

“We can help them,” Verona whispered back.  “He owns it.”

“Okay.”

“Would you believe, this is particularly relevant-” Alexanderp announced, at normal speaking volume, which felt deafening in this tense silence.

“Fucking-” Verona swore.  She hissed, “No!” as she had to stop Avery from covering Alexanderp’s mouth.

“-to the current predicament we all find ourselves in, if in fact we are not all in a predicament at all times, for that is the nature of humanity-”

“-but actually, let me start from the beginning, that will make everything clearer-”

“He’ll explode,” Verona whispered.  The noise was drawing attention.

Avery yanked on Verona’s arm.  They crouched, hiding behind a cushioned seat that had been badly abused, and moved together as an employee investigated the skybox, phone held up with light on.

“-we will, if you’ll excuse the metaphor, or the lack of metaphor, as the case may be-”

The boy was talking to the other two employees.  The last employee kept hanging back, afraid to get involved or something.

“-and this is maybe my most important point, we will have to organize and coordinate, and make sure we settle-”

Verona saw the employee reach her hand to the wall.  Light switch.

“Black rope,” Verona whispered, squeezing Avery’s arm in the right moment.

The lights came on in the skybox, and they were blinding.  Avery moved them all in the moment that people couldn’t see.

Taking them behind the woman and into the office where they’d been partying.  It smelled like booze and candles.

“-begging your pardon if my phrasing gets heated, but the matters are, as I’ve repeatedly stressed, I know, critical-”

Sorry we interrupted your night, Verona thought.  But it’s important.

The two guys were talking to the teenager.  The two women were now backing away from the office Avery, Snowdrop, Verona, and Alexanderp were in.  Hearing the voices.

They didn’t have enough time to navigate all of this.

“-and I’ll be especially perservacious, is that a word, it feels like a word, there are some words that you read and absorb without knowing, but I digress-”

“Let go of me!” the teenager shouted.

He pulled away from one of the staff.

It didn’t look like it was becoming a thing, at least.

“-I’ll get back to my point, very important, critical even, but- was the word perspicacious?  That sounds wrong-”

The kid went down the stairs, heading for the front door.

Trying another angle?

Verona and Avery crouch-walked over, keeping out of sight of the staff, moving over to the walkway that led to the skybox opposite the first.

‘Skybox’, anyway.  It wasn’t anything fancy.  A six foot by twelve foot box near the ceiling with a bench and shelf to set drinks or scorekeeping papers on.

“-and perhaps that is the most pertinent point of all, that communication is key, and communication is hard, and if a single word can cause this much constipation- is that the word?  I think that’s the word-”

Avery reached for Verona’s face, and Verona flinched.  Then she realized what Avery wanted.

She closed her eyes, moved a crouch-step to the side.

And they were outside.  Verona nearly fell, and it was Avery who caught her.

They were on a tree branch.

“Eyes.”

She closed her eyes again.

And they were on the ground, with a view around the corner of the kid and the employees.

Snowdrop backed off, carrying Alexanderp away from earshot.

“You need to tell us what you were doing, breaking in.  This is serious,” the employee said.

“I wasn’t breaking in, it was someone else that broke in and I followed.  I didn’t hide my presence, the lights flashed, there’s someone else inside.  You could hear their voice.”

“I want to gainsay him so bad,” Verona whispered.  “But I’m worried it’d invoke the Aurum or Carmine.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m going to go.  Watch yourself,” the teenager said.  “Whatever’s going on tonight, it’s dangerous, I’m telling you.”

“Whatever, kid.”

The employee turned to walk back to the building.

Off to the side, someone stepped out of shadow.  Verona couldn’t make them out, because they were on the far end of the parking lot.

One of the St. Victor’s kids.

Arms forked out.

Harri, probably.

The huge man lunged out of shadow, hands gripping three to five of the narrow limbs each, and then broke them, squeezing and wrenching them.

More arms forked out, attacking from all angles.  The man swiped, bent, scooped up the kid, and shielded him with his broad back.  He started to run.

Two hands clapped, loud, as other, broken limbs retreated.

The employee turned around.

And the big guy disappeared into the ground.

The kid dropped, falling awkwardly.

“Are you drunk?”

“No, I’m not drunk.  I’ve just got some crazy stuff going on.  I doubt you’d believe me.”

The employee started to turn away.

And hands forked out again.  The big guy loomed out of the kid’s shadow-

And the hands didn’t even go for them.  One slapped the employee in the back of the head.

“What are you doing?  Did you throw a snowball at me?  When I’m cutting you this much slack?”

“Did it feel like a snowball?”

“Did you throw something at me?” the employee asked.

He was just drunk enough, and probably not happy at having his date or party or whatever interrupted.

“Psst.”

Avery and Verona looked up.

They walked around back, to where Julette had picked stuff up and was working on the diagram.  Nomi made her way down from the roof.

“We’re not here to help you,” Nomi said.  “We agreed in advance, it works for us to keep the school intact, try to manage issues.  We don’t want to lose our homes.  That has nothing to do with what you’re doing.”

“Okay,” Verona said.

“Harri’ll probably do okay keeping him busy.  You know there’s a shitload of Others starting to appear?”

“Aurum ones?” Verona asked.

“No.  Mostly Carmine.  But I guess that guy showed up.  There might be others.  I saw some jack in the box thing.”

“Charles is using the energy he’s drawing out of Kennet below and places like it, probably,” Verona said, feeling sick.  “Aurum’s throwing in a bit of help, I guess?”

“I should go see about the mundane items,” Avery said.  “Are we thinking that guy won’t come back?”

“Don’t count on us to do anything like that.  But he seemed dangerous, and he has stuff, so we figured we could mug him for his stuff or something,” Nomi said. “I’m going to go check on Harri, then loop around.  Yiyun and Adrian are trying to handle the stray goblins and stuff.  I’m leaving stuff behind, don’t touch it.”

Nomi threw her bag aside, against the back wall of the Arena.

“Your stuff’s a mess,” Julette said.  “I got most of it.”

“Thanks.  You’re a champ.”

Julette clicked her tongue and pointed at Verona.

Verona’s feelings were all over the place.  Like she could cry, laugh, be angry, be hopeless…

“I’m going to go,” Avery said.  “You okayish?”

“I don’t even know.”

“Snow!” Avery called out.

Snowdrop ran up to Verona, and passed her Alexanderp, who was mercifully silent.

Verona’s hand twitched.  The headache sat at the back of her skull.  Her stomach felt uneasy.  Her body felt drained.  Her knees were sore from kneeling on gritty, salty ice.

Verona got Alexanderp settled, called over the two homunculi, and then went to Nomi’s bag.  She hesitated.  Was it trapped?  A Nettlewisp equivalent?

She couldn’t afford to get hurt.

She used her Sight, checked as well as she could, and then opened it.

She dug inside, and found Nomi’s notebook with the black cover.

With Nomi’s extensive details on the St. Victor’s kids.

The Aurum throwing one obstacle their way was such a pointless distraction, and worse, it threatened more.

Verona could See the faint throbbing of Kennet.  The tilt of it.  The threat of damage done.

What are we willing to spend to stabilize?  What power do we draw on, if the Kennet Others might be fighting, needing every last bit?

It was a question of looking at all the problems, all the variables in play.  Could she turn a problem into an advantage?

Like, just for one idea, could they draw on the Others who were apparently showing up, and sacrifice them?  Blood for power, slitting throats en masse?

No.  Didn’t work.

What else?

She looked at the book.

Letting thoughts fall into place.  One of the things hanging over her head was the fact the next steps felt so out of reach.

So why not put them in reach?  Like, now?  They’d already been toying with the boundaries of it all.  They’d been doing it inside, even.  Playing with a particular sort of fire.  Innocence.

Hey Aurum, your distraction might have helped some.

She got her phone and texted Avery.

Verona:
let’s put the long term plan into play early.  talk to louise.  can you swing by where louise is at?  talk to her in private?  It’s time to make a hard call, fast.

Silence followed.  Verona went to work on the exterior part of the diagram, that would point to shrines.

The phone blipped.

Avery:
are we sure about this???

Verona:
not nearly sure enough. but I don’t see another way.

Every second Avery wasn’t replying had Verona tense.  She used that tension to motivate herself to put lines down, figure out the diagram.

What was Avery typing?  An argument against?  A doubt?  A new complication?

She looked down at her phone.  Then she found her contact list.

Mom:
Please call me back.  Jas isn’t giving me a straight answer.

Mom:
Are you safe?

Mom:
If we can talk I’m sure we can work something out.

Mom:
Would a mediator help?  Or CAS?

And so on.

Verona typed.

Verona:
leap of faith for the both of us.  I’m sorry in advance if this blows up your life.

She didn’t send it.  She deleted it.

Fuck, this wasn’t productive.  Except it was productive, if she could just figure out what to say and send it.  Lives hung in the balance as she misused her time, but if she rushed this and said the wrong thing, it blew up her own life.

Verona:
Kennet arena.  Back parking lot.

She didn’t send it.  She deleted it.

Verona:
I’m ready to show you what I’ve been working on.

No.  She needed to draw more.  Avery needed to talk to Louise.

She was motivated now.  She had to get this done.

But she’d send it.

Sleeves pushed up -uselessly, they just fell down again.  She started drawing.  Exterior shrine symbols.  The perimeter…

“Here,” Avery said, hurrying ahead to open the door.

Louise approached the threshold, paused, and then stepped through.  Her stomach swayed as she adjusted to shifting footing.  This world looked Venice-like, but its houses and buildings floated along a very wide river.  It looked like there were rapids ahead.

Having to shift her weight as the strip of walkway they were on moved with the rolling water made old and internal pains surface.  When they surfaced, they took their time going away.

Louise gripped a railing for security.

“Hold the door, Snow?” Avery asked.

“Nah.”

“To start us off,” Avery said.  “Introductions?  Verify who you are?”

“I can lie.”

“But the Others that might pretend to be you can’t.  I’m Avery Kelly, second witch of Kennet, Finder, Path Runner, partner to Snowdrop.”

“I’m Cherrypop,” Snowdrop said.  “Familiar to Snowdrop, never been to a Path that I can remember.”

Right.  “I am Louise Bayer, Aware, I can lie.  If you want a title, I’m the head of Kennet’s council seat.  Which is empty.”

“For a couple minutes.  I’ve got to give you this info out of earshot of Charles.”

Louise eyed the door, which was open to a crack.

“I think we’re okay,” Avery said.

“So,” Louise said.  She hesitated, then asked, “No word on Matthew?”

“No word on a lot of things.”

“Okay,” Louise replied, unsure if she should be more disappointed or worried.

“Four sets of items done.  But we’re not set.  I can follow Verona’s logic,” Avery said.  She sat on a barrel.  “We don’t have the backup, we don’t have power, and this is something we were considering as a play anyway.  Making Kennet Aware.”

“Like I am?”

“Very much like how you are.  It’s one step in a bigger picture thing, but… we figure we can ground Kennet in another way, like we did with mundane items.”

“How long do we have to decide?”

“Minutes.”

Of course it wasn’t easy.

“Minutes,” Louise took that in.  “And you want to upend all these people’s lives?”

“It’s being upended anyway,” Avery replied.  “A whole summer of ramping violence, trouble at the hospital.  The three kids dying.  The police.  The random Others attacking, the wraiths and ghosts after we arrested Edith.  Then in one night, several places burn down, houses like yours are demolished?”

“That was partially them targeting Aware,” Louise said.  “Me, Oakham.  Because they could.”

“I know.  Kind of.  They went after Verona’s house, but they could only do that because she’d cut ties with her dad, more or less.”

“It’s a choice we’re making for people.  It makes the world scarier and more dangerous for so many others.”

“I know.  When I pitched this at Verona and Lucy, Lucy said, you know, her mom and my parents are really saying, over and over again, this shouldn’t fall on our shoulders.  Me, Verona, Lucy.  It’s- Verona’s really not doing okay.  I think she’s hitting a limit.”

A look of deep worry crossed Avery’s face, and Louise was reminded again of how young they were.  She could only imagine what shape Verona was in, if Avery’s reaction to it cut that deep.

“You three have done a great job.  If you hit a limit, succeed or fail, I hope you’re proud of the effort, at least,” Louise told her.

“Thanks,” Avery replied.

“I didn’t try at all,” Snowdrop said.

Louise smiled a bit.

“Hmm.”  Avery made a small sound.  “Hmmm.  Trying to remember what I already said, I was reciting this in my head earlier.  Yeah.  We’re kids, we’re doing a lot.  That’s not fair, and there’s no way we can do that for another year, or another ten years.  But the way things were before we showed up?  It isn’t fair, in a very different way, if it’s the Kennet Others on their own, just waiting for the day some asshole comes waltzing in to take control and enslave them for the rest of their lives.  They needed a practitioner.  It’s shitty and stupid that they aren’t recognized as people and someone could come through like they were worried about.”

“They did come through.  Musser.  Right?”

“Right,” Avery replied.  “But that was a special case.  That’s the logic for why we were brought in, basically.”

“Right,” Louise replied.

“So it’s not fair if it’s just the Others and it’s not fair if it’s us, three kids in way over our heads, and it’s not fair if we’re here and not participating and they’re out there fighting and we’re up against a Judge…”

“Nothing’s fair?” Louise asked.

“I don’t know.  Thing is, choosing to make people Aware is a pretty big deal, and it’s a bit selfish, but not making them Aware and leaving them to go through a whole lot without getting why?  That’s a decision too, and I’m not sure I like it.”

“It’s complicated.”

“I guess the question is, you know, if it’s going to be unfair on the Innocents, is it better that they’re Aware and in more danger, or better if they’re kept in the dark?”

“Is this rhetorical or-?”

“I’m asking you,” Avery said.  “And I know it’s shitty and I know there’s not enough time, but we’ve sounded out some of the others about this topic before, you’ve spent time talking to Toadswallow, Matthew, and Miss, specifically about Innocents and Aware.”

“We have a few Aware besides me already, yeah.”

“I’d loop them in, but we’re tight on time and I don’t have their phone numbers handy.”

Louise drew in a deep breath.  It made her side hurt.  It was only when her face moved in an expression of pain that she became aware of the bloody tears.  She released her deathgrip on the railing and rubbed tears away.  “It’s my call?”

“Verona was texting me while I was on the move.  She’s mostly done.  It’s a question of how wide we want to go, do we want all of Kennet?  Some of it?  Do we try to skew things so everyone observes the supernatural the way you do?  With the option of lapsing into the ordinary?”

There was a bit of hope in Avery’s question.

“It stopped working quite as well for me,” Louise said.  “But I’m with Matthew, I’m immersed in this.  I see and remember everything all of the time, I cry blood when things are especially intense.”

“Damn.”

“Sorry.  But I don’t think it works the way you want it to… which would be my question.”

“What’s the question?”

“What do you want?  What’s the end goal of this?”

“I wish I could give you a deeper, longer answer, but the gist of it is that the Seal is rooted in Innocence.  So much of what it does is about protecting Innocence, separating the world of man and Other.  Laying out rules for who can be in charge. Except they’re bronze age rules, basically.”

“When lions feared mice,” Snowdrop said.

“Might makes right,” Louise guessed.

Avery nodded, eager.  “So we say nah.  Let’s ditch Innocence, or a good chunk of it.  Kennet or a good chunk of Kennet becomes Aware.  Baseline, we focus on the people who stayed.”

“Stayed?  At the end of Summer?”

“Yeah.  Charles’ shakeup and the Knotting of Kennet saw a bunch of people with loose ties leave, but others stayed.  End goal, stuff Verona and Lucy were excited about, was idea of a magic school, integrated populations of Aware and Other, bigger council stuff with more people getting a say in their future and reality.”

Louise had to work to remember everything she’d been told, considering the possible issues.  “And they can never leave?  They’d be complicating things for neighbors.  I’m of the understanding that that can be politically problematic.”

“Well, a lot of our neighbors are Charles’ Lords, right now.  Thunder Bay is closest and I think I can sell them on this.  As for leaving, if Matthew could use that Hollow practice to make you forget stuff, then maybe there’s a chance he can do it for anyone wanting to leave?  It’s not like Miss doesn’t have a whole Kennet with a bit of bureaucracy ready to process exits.”

“I might have an issue if my lover has to kiss everyone leaving.  Or everyone with split Awareness.”

“He kissed you to make you forget?  He’s your lover?”

Louise winced internally, wishing she hadn’t chosen that word, or mentioned that kiss.

“Sorry!” Avery apologized, but she was also smiling like she couldn’t help it.  “That’s a bit of good news on a rough night.  Look, hmm, refocusing?”

“Please.  Change of subject.”

“We really need to decide this before something collapses.  He shouldn’t have to kiss people.  It’s just an idea.  There’s other options.”

“That’s… it sounds magical, I- what’s the word?  Idyllic?  But the reality?”

“The reality will be a lifetime of work.  It’ll be challenges and intense stuff, but…”

“But,” Louise finished for Avery.  “You reduce the power of the Seal in the area, and by doing that, you reduce the power of Judges who hold positions founded in that Innocence?”

“That’s part of it,” Avery replied.  “So it’s a choice of doing this as a whole, partial, or doing it not at all, figuring out some other way.  Like Verona and I paying Self and being out of the fight, or drawing on the Others and risking their lives in their fight.  Or giving up Kennet altogether.  We don’t have a lot of power to spare, but having a bunch of Aware involved in the process should be a bit like having some mundane items grounding things.  It makes less power go a longer way.  Partial Innocence as a dampener, Awareness letting them be involved.”

“One question sits in the back of my mind…” Louise said.

“Yeah.”

“Responsibility.  Who takes responsibility?”

“Us, but the idea would be we share it out.  And I know.  If someone’s made Aware and they get hurt as a result, it comes back on the person responsible.  And there’s a big chance of hurt, tonight, especially with everything going on.”

“So it’s not only the Aware we’re considering.  It’s the Others who would be signing on to formally take responsibility?”

“That’s the idea.”

“And I have minutes to decide?”

“Sorry.”

“Is Lucy safe?”

“I don’t know.”

“Where is she?”

“She’s fighting.  Holding the line.”

There was silence on the other end of the phone call.

“It doesn’t feel like there’s an issue,” Verona threw in.

“And you can’t tell me what’s happening?”

“If I did, I’d be risking telling their side.  Charles’,” Verona said, phone at her ear.

It was Caroline Gray who showed up first, coming past the Arena to the back parking lot.  She frowned as she saw the magic circle.

Caroline Gray.  The universe had a hell of a sense of humor.

“I look forward to a day when that stops being a thing and you can all tell us everything,” Jasmine said on the phone.

Verona could hear her mother’s voice in the background.

“Hah,” Verona replied.  If you only knew.

People who were closer to the Arena were faster to show up.  Made sense.

Mia Campbell-St James.  George Mason.

“Is this the arcade stuff!?” George asked, a bit loud.

“She’s on the phone,” Caroline said.

“Holy shit.  What’s this?” George asked, approaching the diagram.

“Mess up that salt and I will kick you in the ass,” Verona told him.

“Right,” he said, laughing.

“We’re on our way.  Leaving the hospital now.”

“Hey?” Verona asked.  Her stomach was in knots.  Her hand hurt.  She was glad she didn’t have a headache at least.

“What do you need?” Jasmine asked.

“Love you,” Verona said.  “Love to my mom too.”

“I love you too, Verona.  Please let me know the moment you hear from Lucy?”

“Yeah,” Verona replied.

She hung up.

Some others were filtering in.

“Holy shit, are we doing this!?” George asked.  “The coolest thing we had going all year, shut down, now revived?”

“You think,” Mia said.  “There was something else, wasn’t there?”

“The nightmare market,” Verona said.

“There was a whole other event and you didn’t share?” George asked.

“Easy does it,” Mia said.  “We talked about bits.  Brayden and his dad were part of it, remember?”

Brayden from the sports shop.

Caroline was quiet.  She flashed Verona an awkward smile as Verona looked over.

Didn’t invite you.

“Jeremy called me.  I think he was worried everyone in class would be getting an invite except for me.”

“I don’t hate you.  I wouldn’t do that.”

“Okay.  That’s good,” Caroline said.  “Is everyone from class coming?”

“Oh, so this is an issue, then?  Should I leave?”

“Stay,” Verona said.

Nomi lurked in the background.  The sword-swallowed teenager had been scared off by police- Innocents he couldn’t really deal with.  Now, if he wanted to return, there was a cushion of Innocence around them here.  It’d be hard to pull out that magic again.

Still, he was out there.  Others were out there.

George spotted Nomi.

“St. Victor’s?” George asked, loud enough for Nomi to hear.  “They either don’t know how to party or they overcompensate like fuck.”

“Oh my god, will you chill out?” Mia asked him.

Verona felt a bit worried George was being like this.

The cat lady showed up, three cats with her, with one of the other Aware from town in tow, a woman who’d had some scares on a road trip.  Louise had introduced them, and they were sort-of friends now.

Friendly enough to show together.

“This isn’t just classmates like before?” Mia asked.

“It wasn’t just classmates before.  It was a special thing we did, bringing you guys and you guys only, that first time.”

“Where’s Lucy?”

“Busy.”  Fighting a long fight.  Dealing with the Family Man.  Waiting for us to do something.

“That’s the cat lady, isn’t it?” Caroline asked.

“She’s cool, don’t rush to judgment,” Verona said.

Caroline frowned.

“You guys were a part of something cool, I trust your judgment,” Mia said.  “Wish Lucy was here, though.  Is Avery still in Thunder Bay?”

“She’s around.”

Others came.  Verona glanced at Nomi.

Nomi’s grandmother was one person.  Verona had quickly double checked before inviting her.

Others came.  Some people from school.  One of the librarians.  More parents of St. Victor’s kids.  They parked out front and then walked around back.

“Cameron!” a woman shouted.

Verona vaguely recognized her.  Like she’d seen her in relation to some event or something.  According to the writeup, she ran volunteer things.

They’d checked who the parents were, who was cool, who wasn’t.  Some parents of the St. Victor’s kids were abusive, others were problematic for other reasons.

“Is my daughter here?  Cameron!”

Mrs. Merson had been deemed okay.

Except… something about the tone of voice.  The intensity of the questions.

Avery came back through, entering through the trees.  She raised a hand.

“Is my daughter here?  Is she okay?  Who’s in charge?  Is this a party?  Is she okay?”

George pointed the woman Verona’s way.

Verona picked up Julette, in part to have another living thing in front of herself.  She felt like it would stop the woman from-

Mrs. Merson grabbed Verona, rough, surprisingly intense.  “My daughter.  You know where she is?”

Mrs. Merson sounded shaky, lost.  Was it because she was that concerned?  Verona supposed if she had a kid and knew that kid was dating Seth, that would warrant this level of intensity.  Plus the whole dark magic and being in league to a blood goddess and the Judge of all conflict for most of Ontario and some of Manitoba.

Avery hung back, looking uneasy.

Or there was something else.

“Cameron’s away,” Verona said.

“Away?  She didn’t tell me- she doesn’t tell me.  I don’t know where she is and I don’t know what she’s doing.  I need her.”

Those last three words.  Like a punch to the gut.

“From what I hear, your daughter is talented and capable, tragically poor taste in boys, but that comes with the territory of being a teenager.”

“She’s- a teenager?”

“Almost an adult, it’s crazy.”

“No,” the woman said, airy.  “Noo.  She’s not.”

Which was enough for Verona to more or less work it out.

“Have you seen Cameron?  Is she here?”

“She isn’t, but with luck she’ll come through soon, and we’ll have a cool hangout.  That’d be nice, wouldn’t it?” Verona asked.

Like managing an echo, or the opposite of an echo.

“It’d be nice,” Mrs. Merson said.

Lots of eyes were on them.

“I’m Verona,” Verona said, extending a hand.

Mrs. Merson shook it.  “Hi, Verona.  Is Cameron here?”

Mrs. Merson wasn’t even old.  Verona used the Sight to check for curses-

“Lavender.”

Verona squinted one eye shut as Mrs. Merson touched her eyebrow and cheekbone.

“Yeah.  Lavender.”

“I drink Lavender tea.  Calms me down.”

“Me too.  Sometimes.  For headaches I get when stressed,” Verona said.  And saying those words made her feel like one of those headaches was mounting.  She hadn’t let go of Mrs. Merson’s hand.  “Your hand is cold.  No gloves?”

“I- no.  I was- it’s not important.  Cameron?  I’m so worried about her.”

“I’d offer you mine…”

“What?”

“My gloves?”

“Too small.  Your hands are so much smaller than mine.  Cameron has small hands too, but she’s young.”

Almost an adult, Verona thought.

“I’m so scared,” Mrs. Merson said, with a tremor in her voice.

It wasn’t an ‘I’m so scared for Cameron’, but an ‘I’m so scared’.

“Valid.  I’m sorry I called you out here when I can’t help that much,” Verona said.  “Do you want to go inside?  Get warm?  We unlocked the back door as a just-in-case.”

“I’ll- let me,” Nomi said.  “Hi Mrs. Merson.  We’ve met.”

“Hi.  I don’t remember your name, honey.  Heather?”

“No.  Look, um- hm, you’ve tried calling Cameron?”

“I don’t know, I-”  The woman searched herself for her phone.  “I- I don’t have my reading glasses.”

“Okay.  I don’t need ’em that much, myself, so let me- can I?”

“Do you know where Cameron is?”

“I’ll try calling her with my phone.  She’s more likely to pick up.  Let’s go inside, and try that, how’s that?  A bit warmer?”

Nomi led Cameron’s mom into the Arena.  Nomi’s grandmother went with.

Making this entire thing complicated.

More complicated was that Verona’s mom had turned up.

“Ready?” Avery asked.

“Not really.”

Jeremy had come, and was talking to Caroline.  He might’ve approached, Verona figured, but the Mrs. Merson situation hadn’t been an easy one to jump into.

Wallace.  Ian and Noah.  Savannah, Brayden.

Reagan’s friends from school.  Reagan’s mom.  Gabe and Collins’ parents.

There were a few more people they’d identified as those who’d nearly become black sheep, or lost sheep.

Two of the Aware.  Louise.  Lis lurked in the background, blending in with the crowd.

Only four of the St. Victor’s parents.  Oakham’s parents were here too.  Verona had talked to Oakham some about them and her plans.  This was a leap of faith.  A shitty one that complicated things for her friend, but Oakham wasn’t answering her phone and… she had to trust.

“Did anyone I talked to bring any of the items?” Avery called out.

Some hands went up.  Mia put up two.

Verona saw her mom approaching, and held up a finger.

She let Julette go.  Then she walked away.  She couldn’t deal with a full mom conversation right now.

Avery took the items and brought them to the diagram.  She sorted things by checklist.

“We’re up to six with some of these!” Avery called out.

Six sets of mundane items.  Okay.

Feeling the abrasions on the front and backs of her knees, back sore, Verona climbed the ladder.

Public speaking.  Her heart hammered.

She walked over to the edge of the roof.

“Verona!” her mom called out, full-body tense.

She cared.

“I’m not jumping!  I just wanted a stage!” Verona called down.

Chatter was dying down.

“Magic is real,” Verona said, to everyone present.

She saw Jasmine’s hands go to her mouth.

“A lot of you have been adjacent to it.  Sometimes knowingly, sometimes not,” she addressed the crowd.  “Someone close to you, or an encounter.  Or wandering down a dark street and ending up somewhere that isn’t the Kennet you know.”

Various concerned parents were looking more concerned.  Like they didn’t believe Verona, but couldn’t entirely dismiss the ideas.  George, who she’d specifically called out, had nearly been a black sheep, and had run into someone from Kennet below before finding his way back up.

“And you’ve stuck by Kennet, or by us.  That counts for something.  You were reasonably good, most of you, and that counts.  So we’re trusting you with this knowledge, which comes with its burdens and possibilities.”

She looked across the parking lot to the back, where Julette had navigated in cat form.  Julette began speaking, instead of Verona.  “Big things are happening.”

Heads turned.  Verona used a bit of the residual glamour from painting the windows to hide the strange activity out in the lot.

People effectively saw her talking, then appear on the far side of the parking lot, behind them all.  Those that did double takes saw that the original Verona was gone, moving across the parking lot in an instant.

“The big question for you, is are you in?  If you’re not in, there are ways to make an awkward exit.  But if you are, we need help.”

“Louise, Verona, and I are the people to talk to,” Avery said.  “The way Louise wanted to set this up, you’ll all have the freedom to bring others into this, but you have to be careful.  We’ll get into why.”

For those who looked, Julette was now gone.  There was a cat in the snow, preening herself.

She didn’t like public speaking either, apparently.

“That’s Louise,” Avery said.

Louise was crying blood, which got some attention.

Avery stepped back behind a tree to Verona’s left.

And emerged at the far right side of the back lot.

“And she cries blood because she saw something so major it altered her.  Making this decision alters you…” Avery said.  “She won’t be available to you tonight, but she’ll be your best resource if you decide to walk this road.”

“To magic?” someone asked.  One of Reagan’s friends.

“What does this have to do with our kids?” one of the St. Victor’s parents asked.

Verona slipped down the ladder.  She avoided people, and circled around to where her mom and Jasmine were.

Jeremy looked between Verona and Julette, who’d just reappeared to deliver a line.

“Can we go?” Verona asked her mom, quiet.  “You and I need to have an us conversation.  Julette agreed to handle my role.”

“Are you sure about all of this?” Jasmine asked.

“How are you doing this?” her mom asked.

Verona put a hand on her mom’s arm, pushing lightly.  When her mom didn’t budge, she headbutted her mom in the shoulder.  Resting her head there.

“Do what Verona asks.  Listen,” Jasmine said.  “It’s important.”

Verona’s mom agreed to go.

Lis was overseeing things, and the configuration of things slid.  The way to the House on Half street was cleared up for them.  Straight line and two blocks of walking.

“Something’s weird.”

“I hope you can forgive me and Jasmine.  I decided to be selfish tonight.”

“You weren’t selfish.  You scared me.”

“I was selfish.  Just how and why will become clear.  But I need a mom and I don’t get one unless I force this issue.  Hopefully you understand why I need to stay in Kennet.”

“For magic?”

It didn’t sound like her mom believed.

“Yeah.”

At least her mom wasn’t instinctively fighting her on the idea of staying.

Lis waited up ahead.

“Is Louise at the rooftop?”  Verona asked.

“Momentarily.”

“Okay.”

“You’re taking responsibility for a lot of people, doing this.”

“Who are you?” Verona’s mom asked.

“I know,” Verona replied.

“Those people will be under attack soon.  Charles is being indiscriminate, letting anything violent come to be, and pointing them loosely in the direction of their enemies.”

“Nomi mentioned.”

“No.  That was minor, by comparison.  Charles just removed the Toronto undercities.  He has power, he’s put it to use.  If they hurt the people you’re awakening-”

“Always something we had in mind, it’s okay,” Verona said.  “I hope.”

“Alright,” Lis said.

“Lucy, Lucy, Lucy,” Verona signaled her friend.

In moments, we’ll secure Kennet, but as something new, with a bunch more people in the know, now.  And that’s only the prelude.

She felt more like herself, even as she felt like she was in freefall.  Maybe because of that feeling.

Bring it, Chuck.