The baby cried. "Give him a bottle," Ophelia instructed from the passenger side.
"He's not hungry," Claire retorted from her seat behind her mother.
"He's crying, of course he's hungry."
Claire took a bottle from the side pouch of the diaper bag crammed with the suitcase at the foot of the car seat. She held a finger on the nipple as she shook it before she offered it to the baby. Enrique greedily filled his mouth with fluid and then let it run down his chin. His screams now were accentuated with gargling. "I told you, he's not hungry. He spat it out."
"Figure out what he wants."
"He's tired. He's just too stubborn to fall asleep." Claire offered her pinky for him to suck on as she expertly took a wipe from it's package with one hand to wipe the milk from his neck rolls. Her finger pacified him, but it was getting pruny from his saliva.
"How much longer," Ophelia groaned to Javier. She'd had a migraine that refused to be slept off.
"Not too much longer," he assured.
"We're lost, aren't we?"
"Not lost. Merely misplaced."
The words triggered some thoughts for Claire. So many children had gone missing that the school district began consolidating the student bodies. There was also a silent push to evacuate the depopulating towns without inciting panic. After all, no one understood why the children were disappearing. She was uneasy with the prospect of becoming lost during such an epidemic. She took out a campaign button from her pocket. It was one of those things that didn't make it in a box, and a trash can wasn't available for so long that keeping it in her pocket was easiest. When she was younger, it was special to her to be the only kid she knew who had their last name on a button. It lost its appeal over time, but it was familiar, and she wanted to cling to the familiar before she was forced into yet another new environment.
Javier found a scenic stop close to a bridge. It seemed that the old road used to go through a passage in the mountain, but the road was redirected to go around instead. "I wonder if there was a cave in-"
"Don't go that way! The road's been abandoned." The asphalt that was left was bleached with age and crumbled so that it was almost like gravel.
"We won't be long," Javier assured. He parked on the worn road. "We should stretch our legs. Maybe the fresh air will put Enrique to sleep."
Enrique was pacified by the new environment. He still refused to sleep, but his drowsy eyes looked curiously about at everything from where he was strapped in his seat. The car seat rocked against Ophelia's hip as she walked. Javier carried the diaper bag. They walked through the tunnel, and it was like stumbling upon an oasis. This side of the mountain caught the rain that came in from the coast, as was apparent by the lush vegetation. Weeds grew in from around the stones in the pathway. Behind trees and under bushes were the remains of brick or stone structures. A cliffside opposite the channel they walked through had an odd resemblance to the aqueducts. Bridges stacked on bridges for the entire surface of the stone formation, and tapered off into stairways at the edge. A ledge loomed over head and cast the family and oasis in shadow. "This place looks abandoned," Ophelia surmised.
Javier sniffed at the air. "Someone's here, and not just a vagrant. I smell food."
Ophelia stopped to sniff. "You're right."
Claire stared up at the overhanging ledge. It made her uneasy, like it would cave in on them at any moment. She followed her family down the rugged stone steps. As they descended they heard the white noise of churning water. The pool that was fed by a mountain spring carved through the stone in such a way that it seeped through the gaps in what could be described as stepping stones. The Nuñez family crossed the body of water to what appeared to be a quiet town. It was too quiet- no one played on the shores or called from store fronts. Yet the fabrics over the pavilions were vibrant and colorful, rather than bleached from neglect in the sun. But perhaps not a lot of sunlight made it here.
"Maybe they're having a siesta," Javier suggested.
Ophelia continued to inhale the pleasant scent of food. "I hope whoever's cooking is open." By now Enrique had fallen asleep, rocked to tranquility from the sway of his car seat.
They located the source of the smell. It was a buffet. "Hello?" No one answered Javier's call.
"Papa, something doesn't feel right." Claire felt like they shouldn't be there. People in their town had gone missing, and that was when they didn't stray.
"It'll be fine. If they don't take debit, I have spare cash. Let's take a break from the road, we can still make it home before nightfall." Claire cringed at the reference of the new house as their home already.
"I'm not hungry," she stated. "I'll go stretch my legs."
"You ate too many granola bars," Ophelia scolded. "Don't be gone for long."
•••
Claire wandered about the cobblestone streets. She puzzled over the banners at the storefronts. Some of them were written in an alphabet that didn't look familiar, which was unusual considering the exposure she'd had to other languages. Bridges seemed to be a common theme, and was centric to the architecture. Bridges even crossed over bridges at intersections. It made her think of the haunted mansion in a nearby city, which had stairs that went to the ceiling and doors that opened down to the next floor or outside from a higher level. There was a particularly large bridge closer to the descending ledge where the spring water cascaded.
She looked over the edge of the bridge and took in the scenery of the valley as the colors shifted and faded from the sunset. She considered her life, where she'd been, what would change forever, what would become of her. She was so engrossed in her thoughts she didn't realize for a time the hooded figure that watched her. Finally she perceived him. He looked as perplexed at her existence as she was of his. "You can't be here. You don't belong. Get out, before it's too late, before he sun sets!"
His urgency, which confirmed the very thoughts that echoed within her since they crossed the tunnel, convinced her. The shadows, however, already stretched and threatened to blend into darkness. The ridges and bridges that filled the cavern were suddenly illuminated from crystals embedded in the stone in veins. There was not a single standard lamp that she could see from the cobblestone paths she ran.
She called throughout the village for her parents and relocated the restaurant she'd left them at. In their place were the largest cats she'd ever laid eyes on, lapping up the broth from the bowls her parents left behind. Fortunately they paid her no heed, though their ears twitched at her gasp. If she had seen any signs of a struggle she would have assumed they killed her parents. Her brother's car seat was empty, but there was no trace of blood, no shred in the fabric.
She ran to the plaza. The architecture itself seemed to shift. Rocks moved and she realized she was surrounded by creatures that rose from beneath the decorative bridges that filled the place. She tried to go back to the stone crossing that went through the spring, but a frigid river flowed where she had crossed before. Besides it's depth and force, the temperature would prove fatal. She felt encumbered as she ran, but didn't understand why it was hard for her to move, like her bones were made of lead. She turned back to the village and trudged up the hill and tumbled into a mound. She felt like her body was turning to stone.
A light footed creature approached her. A thin chain was draped around her neck, and hands fidgeted with a device in front of her face. She heard the clicking of gears, a clink of metal, and a hum of energy, and her body suddenly ached. Her form became supple again, her joints flexible, her weight lighter. She looked up to see the hooded boy from before.
The hood was dropped. She saw his horns now, as well as slitted eyes and tusks. "What's happening," she pleaded.
"You didn't make it in time. The amulet will keep you from turning to stone. It's fortunate you're a Bright."
"A what?"
"A special kind of human." That was an odd sentence. "Only a Bright can wield the amulet. It counters her magic."
"Who's-"
He held a finger to her lips. A long, pointed ear twitched. His eyes bore into hers and she heard the meaning of the word silence as if being commanded. She obeyed it.
A pale form with horns and the softest glow of gold and blue paced along a ledge carved into the cliffside as if searching for intruders. It continued on when it didn't notice them.
"Her guard dog," the boy elaborated. "This is her domain. You don't belong here."
"My parents. My brother. Where are they?" She was too panicked to cry, though once the adrenaline died off there would be little to dam the flood.
"If you want to save them, you have to make yourself useful. It's the third rule of the code. "Everyone and everything is a tool to get what you want." You have to become a tool. Only then can you rescue your family. Go to the boiler room and ask Blinky to give you work. Do not take no for an answer." He held out a hand and helped her to her feet.
"Who are you?"
"I'm called Shadow."
•••
Claire discovered that the village was only a scratch at the surface. Shadow referred to an entire cliffside as a palace. There were tunnels that descended to the lower levels- the height of the level denoted class, and he suggested that she would have a better chance at survival if she "stayed low". When a frog the size of a soccer ball called out Shadow's name in a song, he insisted that he couldn't accompany her since he was already expected somewhere.
She descended the slopes. The stone became slick a few steps down, and it's dark color absorbed all light that otherwise would have carried from the surface. The stone steps were shallow and tilted, and she slipped down some paces as though she were trudging down a glass slide into a black hole. During a slip, the amulet fell out from beneath her shirt. It glowed. She held it out in front of her to watch her step, it's blue light reflected off the shards of obsidian.
She found entrance into a chamber that had a soft orange glow from another doorway. She stowed away the amulet under her shirt once more. The place matched the directions and descriptions Shadow gave her, but still it was completely novel to her.
She walked carefully, sweltering from the heat of the room and her multiple layers of clothes. She squinted through the steam and found a figure hard at work on a strange contraption. Adjacent to the figure were crowded surfaces, cluttered with bowls and jars and dried plants and rocks and tools.
"Hello?"
The figure turned warily as he continued to petal at a bicycle- like contraption. "What are you doing down here? And what are you?"
"My name is Claire, and I would like some work…"
His large nostrils flared. "How is it that a fleshbag has come to understand the Stone Tongue?" He squinted at her with his many eyes. "Could it be… another Bright?"
She considered the amulet but didn't make a move to disclose it's existence. She didn't know Shadow that well, but his entire demeanor emanated secrecy and she suspected that the jewelry wasn't to be revealed. "I want to work." She changed the subject and brought up her purpose.
The troll blinked. "I don't have any work to give you."
"Please. I want to work. I'm useful."
"If you render my gnomes useless, I'll no longer have their companionship. No no, I do not require your assistance. And besides, you are more useful than this." He turned back to his task that had been neglected for too long already. With his legs he pumped at a bicycle machine that pulled belts and turned gears. A set of arms sorted through orders clipped onto a line that his many eyes skimmed over, and another set of arms ground a concoction in a mortar and pestle. Little creatures in pointed red hats carried to him ingredients and tools.
Distracted by this new world, Claire asked the troll what he meant when he called her a Bright and whether Shadow was one.
"The Mistress of Shadow's shadow. You've met him already? No, one must be human to be a Bright."
"Are there other humans here besides me?" She hoped the whereabouts of her family would be revealed.
"Only in the nursery. Humans are only considered useful around here as a component for her creatures. She makes spies for the surface world."
"Surface world?"
"Where you're from."
"Where am I?"
A woman entered the chamber. She had shoulder length straight, black hair and emerald eyes. "Got your grub," she said to the troll and stopped when her eyes met Claire's. "-a fleshbag?!"
"My niece."
"I don't buy that for a second." Blinky indifferently took the vessel from the woman and drank from the bowl. When he finished, he resumed. "She wants work."
The lady scoffed and looked Claire up and down. "She's too old to be useful."
"Quite the contrary. The sorceress would appreciate a willing servant, anywho."
"Willing? You have a point there. We'll see how strong her will is."
Blinky made one last request before she left. "Tell Arghamont I say hello." She rolled her eyes.
•••
Claire stared at anything and everything. If she weren't concerned that Shadow used the word "rescue" in reference to her family, she would have wanted to ask Nomura about the culture and creatures and architecture and everything unfamiliar. There was one question that seemed appropriate enough to ask. "If you're not human, then what are you?"
"Changeling," the large grey troll that operated the elevator interjected.
"Mind your own business," Nomura spat.
"What's a changeling?"
Nomura glared at the troll to dare him to answer. He didn't. "A shapeshifter. I have a troll form, and a human's form, borrowed from a familiar. It helps me fit in on the surface, but I won't be stationed for a time. So I do the decorating. For the guests."
Arghamont announced when they made it to the top floor. Claire thanked him and stepped off. Nomura turned to the troll. "He says hi."
The biggest grin crossed the troll's face. "Tell him I say hi, too."
She didn't bother to respond and led Claire to a stairwell. It was inside a turret, and the stone stairs spiraled up. The narrow windows were not straight, instead they followed the natural grooves of the stony mountainside outside. "Her chambers are inaccessible from the elevators," Nomura elaborated.
"What's with the trolls? Do they mean something else when they say hi?"
"Not really. They just miss each other. They're probably planning on running off together. When that day comes, they'll be smart to keep the message the same."
When they reached the landing, Nomura gestured to the gaudiest set of doors. "This part you have to do alone," she warned. "Good luck." She'd already descended by the time Claire made it to the door. She knocked timidly.
"Come in." A woman's voice carried as if she stood between Claire and the door. Claire jumped in response, and reluctantly reached for the handle, afraid she'd touch an invisible person. The handle turned itself before her fingers reached it and the door opened slowly. She took a deep breath, calling upon her experience on stage to keep her calm. She took too long for the caster's liking. "I said come in."
Claire recognized that it was not her moving her body, but rather that she was being compelled to obey. Already she disliked this woman that conducted every soul here like she owned them. Her feet stopped her in the middle of a thick, elaborately decorated rug, where she could see a woman seated in a lavish throne at a massive hardwood desk. She was gaudy in her dress as well as in her taste in decor. Claire couldn't guess the woman's hair color due to the size of the golden crown that towered from her head. She seemed occupied by a crystal ball, which had marbles hovering around it like planets orbiting a star. The woman would change the tilt of a marble's orbit and jot notes on a parchment. Claire waited for an invitation to speak, but wasn't sure that it would come. After a moment, Claire cleared her throat. When she wasn't stopped, she stated, "I would like some work."
"I have enough servants." The gold clad woman rolled her eyes and otherwise ignored the existence of the girl.
A dark troll came in from the same doorway Claire had come from. He was black, with narrow grooves that glowed blue like his one eye. His build was broad. He sniffed at the air in a similar manner to Javier. "A fleshbag?"
Morgana put the quill down and smiled at the troll. "It is dinner time, isn't it?"
"I am useful," Claire blurted.
"No you're not, you'll get in the way."
"I am useful." She tried not to whimper as the troll tilted his horns when he considered her.
"You'll be useful if I feed you to my minions. Perhaps an Abbysinian." The woman rapped her nails on the desktop. Her fingers were armored in such a manner that there appeared to be blades that protruded from her knuckles.
"I am useful!"
"Who told you to say that?! Was it him?!" She scratched something in the air with her fingers and the armor on her finger tips sparked. Claire felt a tickle on her mind. She felt herself focus on the colors she saw in the valley at sunset. The woman scowled. "He couldn't hide from me if he tried. I know it was him. Ugh! I don't understand how that worm succeeded to bind me to such a contract!" She used telekinesis to suspend a document and quill before the girl. "Sign your name." The black troll licked his tusks at the meal he would miss.
Habit commanded her to read the document, but desperation and the urge to survive instructed she do as she was told. Recognizing that the quill was designed for calligraphy, she signed her name very carefully. The page was whipped out from under the writing utensil. The page hovered before the witch and she twirled a finger. Letters lifted off the surface of the parchment. "You are Maria now. You will be assigned your work, and if at any point you violate the code, you will become an Abbysinian unless I come up with something more useful." In a snap, the quill flew like an arrow to the desk. Claire thanked her reluctantly. She got what she asked for, but did not recognize any progress in acquiring what she actually wanted. "Shadow."
Claire jumped at the apparition beside her. "You called for me," the cloaked boy from before asked.
"Assign her work. She's made a deal."
"Yes ma'am. What's your name?" He directed the question to the new hire.
"I'm Cl- um, Maria."
"Let's go, Maria."
Again she resisted the urge to whimper when she felt the breath of the troll as she passed him. Just as they were about to go through the door, the woman called to the boy. "No more," she warned. Her voice echoed throughout the chamber as if every wall warned him.
"Yes, ma'am."
His tone was cold. He didn't seem like the same boy from before. Maria followed him down the stairs toward the elevator again. "What's an Abbysinian," she asked him.
"Don't talk to me." Suddenly bitter, she bit her tongue. Did he trick her? He was silent all the way down the elevator ride. Arghamont regarded the boy with sad eyes, but he too didn't speak.
•••
"She'll be eaten first thing if she serves the trolls. We can't take her in our department."
"She's so scrawny. Can she do anything?"
Shadow was indifferent to the casually thrown insults. "She'll work hard, and if she doesn't, you can do what you want with her. She's already made a deal with the Pale Lady."
The changelings grumbled their surprise. She was officially protected by her signature, it seemed.
"Nomura, you said you needed an assistant," the foreman suggested.
"Woah, what do you think I do, buff my nails? She can't keep up with me-"
"It's settled, Nomura gets the newbie!" Everyone worked together to throw Nomura under the bus.
"This is harassment," she accused her peers before demanding that Maria follow her.
She was escorted by Nomura back to the elevators. Their quarters were on a lower floor. "You did it," the changeling cheered once they were alone. "You survived the witch!" Her demeanor softened toward the girl, but Claire was made wary by her words. "You must honor the code for as long as you're working here. Rule number one: there is honor among assassins."
"Assassins?!"
"Did I stutter? Rule number two: rule number one is a lie. There is no such thing as honor." Claire shook her head, wide eyed. These were the worst rules she'd ever heard. "Rule number three: everyone and everything is a tool to get what you want."
"... is that all the rules?"
"It's the code. There's other, lesser rules specific to your line of business, but everyone honors the code."
Claire wanted to retort that rule number țwo rendered her statement mute but was too exhausted and confused. "Nomura? What does Shadow want?"
"That mutant? To exist as long as possible, just like the rest of us. He's just better at making himself useful. But at what cost? He's become so close to her that he's practically an extension of her. That's why they call him Shadow." She looked away from the elevator doors at the unusual sound. Maria sniffled. Then sobbed. Streams lined her face. "What's wrong, new girl?"
•••
The sky was grey with the warning of the hour. Dawn stole away the colors of the landscape, and it was at this time that the balcony doors from the sorceress's chambers were opened. The gold and green of the witch's garments were dull in the dim light, and contrarily her companion's boney pallor glowed. She turned to address the hooded figure that stood with them on the balcony before she reached her talons to her champion and in a clap like thunder they were gone. The hooded figure turned to close the door. He stepped backward and leapt onto the rail before he let his body drop below.
•••
She couldn't sleep. Perhaps she was suffering from shock. Perhaps she was in a coma, existing in a terrible dream that felt like reality. She missed her parents. She missed her brother. She missed her clothes. Currently she had on a simple undershirt and shorts that comprised the slip of her uniform. There was a house waiting for her to make it her home. Her friends had been transferred to the other school and were waiting for her. Instead she was in a bizarre place with creatures that made little sense and wanted to eat her. She regret every wish she'd ever made as a child to live in a world with a rabbit hole to dive in.
The room she and the other servants of her division were crammed into was on one of the lowest levels, but on the side of the structure that looked out over the valley below the mountain. The balcony doors were open to allow in the breeze chilled by the spring and the shade of the terrain. When the sky began to change color, she hid her face under her bedding to try to force herself to sleep.
"Fleshbag." She looked up not at the name she was addressed by, but at the familiarity of the voice. The boy with the cloak from before looked at her from over the rail at the ledge, visible from the open door. Part of her wondered how he got there. The other part considered scolding him for the pet name. "I can take you to your parents," he whispered. She forgot the insult in an instant. She glanced around to make sure no one else was awake, grabbed her slip-on work shoes, and went up to him. He leapt over the rail and turned his back to her. "Hold on."
"What?"
"You've never been portal jumping before. This is going to make it easier." He crouched slightly. Uncertain, she made a loop with her arms around his neck and shoulders. "Don't let go," he instructed. He took out something that reminded her of a large, collapsed spyglass. It telescoped, but into a staff. From where he held it, a dark color seeped across the surface. He pointed it at the air in front of them and a black disc grew from a point. As he charged at it she couldn't help but squeeze his shoulders.
Sound was muted, like being underwater. But she could breath. Colors were muted. Her skin felt nothing, no temperature, no breeze. It was like being in one of those dreams just as they started to go sour. Momentarily she speculated that the boy jumped off of asteroids, as large clumps of dark matter drifted and collided in this strange realm.
Another hole swallowed them and she was overwhelmed by color and sound. She breathed heavily as though someone shook her awake from a deep sleep.
Maria glanced at the surrounding slopes. She was still within the glamour field- though it wavered like a mirage, she could see the palace carved in the side of the mountain on a different slope from where they stood. The colors of sunrise peeked over the crags of the mountain where it scratched the sky. "The Cat's Cradle," Shadow explained as he pointed at a structure nearby. It looked like the face of a stone hut, but the rest of the structure was also carved into the mountain. She went through the door.
She was surrounded by large cats. The place purred with mewling and yowling. Most of them seemed like wild breeds, but then she recognized that some were just very large versions of domestic breeds. "Since your parents indulged in the food, the witch thought they would be most useful if they replaced what they took."
Claire's expression was that of frozen shock. She looked at the faces of all the felines in the glow of the crystal lanterns. Were every one of these creatures at some point human? Did this have anything to do with the people that had been disappearing? Could she recognize some of them?
She tried to cover her face to suppress her sobs and to keep her stomach from emptying out. She back tracked out of the Cradle. She found a tree to lean against and tried to take deep breaths to keep from hyperventilating. Shadow caught up with her and held out folded garments. "I saved your clothes," he offered.
She accepted the fabrics and squeezed them as she would have Suzie Snooze. "My Papa Skull shirt! I thought they were thrown away."
"You'll need them when you go back."
"But what about my parents-"
"You have to remember who they are, or they can't change back. It's how the changelings do it. The ones that survive the process, anyway."
"Is my brother here, too?"
"He's in the Darklands. Only the goblins can go in and out from there freely. He's what they call a familiar now."
She glared at him. "And you? Do you have a familiar?"
"I'm not a changeling." There was a tremor of uncertainty in his voice.
"What are you?"
"...I don't remember. I forgot my name."
"Your name?" He nodded. She considered her own. She pondered. There was a problem. "My name… Maria wasn't my name, was it? I mean, I know that's part of my name. Was I always called that?"
"You have to remember." His expression pleaded with hers. "She used the name Maria to curse you with bitterness. You're more than that. You can't let the light die."
"The light… what did you call me? When I first got here. You said that's why I could wield the amulet."
"A Bright."
"That's what my name means. Bright, or clear-"
"Claire."
"That's it. That's my name. I'm Claire." He smiled softly. He looked relieved. She felt relieved. She felt in her pants pocket and found her mother's campaign button. "Claire Maria Nuñez. That's my name. I can't believe I forgot my own name."
"That's how she traps you," he warned. "Don't ever forget who you are. And if you want to save your parents, you have to remember them, too." She nodded, still staring at the button. Her mother was a politician. She wanted to protect their town. She hoped that as a councilwoman she could contribute what she could to prevent more children from going missing. Her father was the heart and emotion of the family, and the best cook.
"...I made you something." Shadow reached into a satchel and pulled out a paper sack. "Don't worry, it's human food. I still remember how to cook."
She looked inquisitively in the sack. It was a sandwich. A really good smelling sandwich. She took a bite. It wasn't her father's chorizo, but it still tasted amazing. It didn't have those weird, earthy, metallic flavors everything else here had. A tear slid down her cheek. She took another bite and tried to swallow her tears with the food. Shadow warily placed a hand on her shoulder. Somehow it made her sob harder. Uncertain of what else to do he hugged her. She cried into his cloak. "You'll get them back," he tried to assure. "You and your whole family will leave this place and live together and stuff." Laughter choked her sobs. Clearly he wasn't used to consoling, but his words were on point.
•••
"For the portals to work properly, the bridge must be in working condition. If it can't be crossed from above, it can't be crossed from below." Maria took mental notes from Nomura's instructions as she mixed the mortar. It was a joke for them to assume that she could carry the pails the same way that the changelings did. By switching to troll forms to do the heavy lifting, they admitted that it was a hard job for a fleshling.
In a flash, Nomura became a monstrous creature. With her powerful legs, she leapt up to the top of the bridge.
"Wait! How am I supposed to go up there?" Maria pleaded after the changeling.
"Figure it out. Didn't you say you were useful? You'll get eaten at this rate."
Maria looked about. There was a gutter the goblins climbed in and on. She took some cord from the storage room and used the rope to tie the pail to her waist while she climbed the gutter. When she ended up in the way of the goblins, they sidestepped and watched her with intrigue. Nomura laughed at the girl's tact. Maria managed to reach the top of the structure from the gutter and gingerly made the landing. She picked up the slack from the rope and drew the bucket up.
Nomura rated her. "Your technique is slow, but it gets the job done." She proceeded to demonstrate how to fill the cracks in the stone. The work was rough on human hands. She couldn't rub the knots that formed in her neck and shoulders because it made her hands cramp. The mortar dried her skin and made it tacky when she washed them. Nomura explained that her hands felt sticky because they were rubbed raw from the sand in the mortar. That made Maria queasy to realize, especially when she considered that this was not a one day job.
•••
A cackle of magic alerted her when a bridge was utilized. Maria looked back, her head completely upside down from where she swung from a rope swing she made herself below the keystone. "Welcome to-" she dropped down from her perch and bowed at the guest. "Welcome to the Pale Lady's domain. Can I help you?" The floating face regarded the direction where the spring cascaded down the ledge of the mountain. The cavern was blocked from sunlight almost all of the time, except during the brief period when the place lit up with the evening sun before it rested below the horizon. Perhaps he was from another timezone, she speculated. "The sun will be shining in here shortly for sunset. Would you like to come inside?" Her eyes kept darting around in hopes of locating Nomura. But since she was a human, she had to make up for her slow pace and continue working, especially since she could survive a few rays of sunlight. The floating face nodded. She was proud of herself for taking care of a troll by herself. She amused herself that he reminded her of a floating mask character from one of Darci's video games. She opened a door for him and permitted him into the palace. She bowed to him once more and closed the door so she could get back to her job of treating the bridges. Hopefully a changeling inside would take care of the guest.
He glanced around at the layout. He wandered to a quiet corner and spat out a dull looking shard of stone. "Ah, that'll keep me here," he narrated. "Now to indulge in a treasure or two…"
•••
"What's wrong?"
"It's the bridge from Florida. It's getting clogged." One of the changelings nervously wiped his hands on his pants as he gave the news.
"Clogged? It's not a drain. You have any idea how large- you must be talking about a different bridge-"
"It's my cousin," a stout, green troll insisted. A quagawump, Maria thought they'd been called. She had hair like shrubbery. "He has fallen ill. He must rest in the pools of healing."
Nomura pulled her hair out at sight of a wall of slime attempting to force it's way through her bridge. The smell like the bottom of a swamp worked quickly to fill the entire cavern, replacing the crisp scent of the fresh spring. When it's eyes blinked at her, she resumed the act. "Welcome to the Pale Lady's domain. This way, kind guest." She went ahead of herself and attempted to direct the mound to the pools, but it continued to struggle at the portal. "Maria, make yourself useful."
Claire looked wildly at the perimeter of the portal. She saw something that resembled a bike tire jutting out from the muck. "Excuse me," she announced. Then she climbed up the goblins' gutter to get to the top of the bridge and grabbed on to the edge of the bridge to reach for a bike handle. She turned it this way and that, and finally the mound was able to slip a little more easily through the portal. Claire held on to the ledge from the bridge until the form finished passing from beneath the structure, though her hand was slimy now. At the last second her grip slipped, and she landed in the slime. "Maria, prepare the largest bath," Nomura instructed.
"Why me?"
"You're better seen and not heard. Troll culture." Claire assumed the last line was utterly made up on the spot but didn't really want to be obliged to talk to an otherworldly creature from across the country. "Right this way, um, dear guest."
Maria ran ahead and pulled the necessary cords to get the troll that operated the boiler room to allow water to flow from the healing pools. Float Face from her earlier encounter had in his mouth the lip of a basket that held the tokens for the special mixtures of herbal enhancers and soaps. "Um, thank you," Maria told him. He dropped the basket.
"Do you like riddles?"
She looked warily behind her. Nomura still hadn't caught up. So much for seen and not heard. "Typically, but I'm supposed to be helping a guest." She continued to prepare the towels for the guest, as well as pick up everything from the floor that would be rendered ruined by swamp sludge once he arrived.
"What is at the beginning of the end, the start of eternity, at the end of time and space, was in the middle of yesterday but is nowhere in tomorrow?"
"Sir, I don't have time…"
"Time is a construct. You can make it. After all, I brought you tokens. That saves you time, sí?"
She huffed. "It's E."
He gasped. "How did you know?"
"E is the most common letter in the English language. And Spanish, but that was an English riddle."
He hummed. "I'll think of a better one…" he floated off around the corner. Maria wished she could see how Nomura would've handled the interaction.
Once the sentient mound of debris settled into the pool, Maria strained to release the slope that permitted the dispense of the soap she ordered from Blinky. The pile of swamp sludge cooed and purred at the soap.
"Why was I summoned?" Morgana floated into the hall. She waved a hand so that a handkerchief saturated in perfume hovered a short distance from her nose. "Who let the pollution in," she inquired.
"Maria," a changeling was quick to accuse. After all, she helped the troll through the portal, though no one was completely sure that it indeed was a troll except for the small, self proclaimed cousin.
"Well she better get it out quick. What does it want?"
"Just a bath. The quagawump says it's ill."
"The things Floridians dump in their swamps, that doesn't surprise me."
Maria recognized the bike handle she'd fumbled with before and could not resist the urge to pull the device from the mound of the suffering troll.
"Nomura, help me take this out-"
"Seen and not heard," Nomura reminded her. All the same she crawled to the lip of the tub to examine the vehicle.
Morgana saw her changeling and newest employee struggle at something that protruded from the guest. With a wave of a hand she made manifest a rope and maneuvered one end to the duo to attach at the handle. "Aid them," she instructed the others. She draped the rope down the hall, and all the changelings eager to appease her grabbed hold of the rope. Nomura demonstrated to the human the proper way to knot the rope under these circumstances. Everyone tugged and pulled, and the bike budged. It came loose, except that attached to it was some fishing line. And attached to that was an oar. And attached to that, a complete canoe- furniture and appliances and all sorts of rubbish seemed to connect and unravel, thanks to the soap that broke up the mud that held the trash all together. Everyone fell back into the rubbish that was withdrawn from the creature. What remained of the creature stood from within the pool. "Boom, boom! Shake the room!" It stood to its full height and raised it's fist in glee at its newfound freedom.
"Say what?" Claire looked back at the changeling for some explanation of what just took place. Nomura shook her head, just as confused.
"Gratitude," the troll stated. It reached for Claire. She held out her hands defensively, and in one it carefully placed a withered alligator heart. Just as carefully it immediately cheered and ran through the hallways, stepping around the changelings and trolls. Though the structure rattled under its weight, it was precise with its movements and was able to clear out without inflicting harm on anyone. It dove onto its belly and skid under the bridge to the Florida swamps without incident.
Morgana blinked. "That was the king from the Everglades. You don't see that every decade."
•••
"Nomura, have you seen Shadow?"
"Again with the mutant?" Nomura took a bite of her foil wrapped burrito. She reclined languidly in her troll form on the balcony. She spoke with her mouthful; she wasn't interested in impressing anyone here. "He disappears for days at a time to do whatever missions the Pale Lady sends him on. It's usually him or Angor. Angor eliminates targets, Shadow steals stuff, or at least that's what everyone speculates."
Someone called that lights were going out. Maria speculated as to how glamour worked as she let her legs dangle over the ledge. She knew the mountain side was disguised to look like just that, not the side of a palace and bustling kingdom. Somehow there was also no trace of humanity on the horizon. Maria would have thought there would be an orange glow in the direction of any of the towns nearby, specifically of Arcadia, but the only lights in the sky were the stars that sparkled brighter than she'd ever remembered. She withdrew from her smock the wrinkled, dry alligator heart the Everglades king gave her. She smelled it. It might have been preserved with herbs; it had a strong grassy scent. As soon as Shadow could take her to the Cat's Cradle, she could try to find her parents and see if the medicine could reverse the witch's magic. She looked down over the surface of the lake. There was a tremor of colors as the gyre passed across the surface of the water to the tunnel of another mountain.
•••
"Ah, that's a good one." The floating stones that made up the avatar of the troll's visage parted as something that resembled a tongue pushed up at the tip of a sword on display. It fell off it's rack and down into the gap that comprised the floating face's mouth. "What treasures this place harbors."
"You can't just eat the decorations!" A frog the size of a soccer ball reprimanded the stone face.
The face turned to the frog, it's glowing ember eyes trained on the creature. "Imagine you're in a dark room. How do you get out?"
"What? I don't know."
"Time's up!" He opened his mouth wide and the stones dropped around the frog to consume him.
"Not again!" The frog was muted as the mouth closed under him.
•••
Her diurnal instinct and exhaustion kept her asleep for the earlier half of the night. Suddenly she was wide awake. She rolled in her bedding and realized that she was the only servant left in the quarters. Afraid she would be considered lazy and turned into a cat, she leapt out of the sheets. She went to the balcony where a fresh uniform was strung up to dry in the fresh mountain air. She donned the oversized smock over her slip and looked out over the surface of the water. There was something slow moving on the rail the ran from the tunnel, which was really unusual, seeing as the gyre was almost too fast to see.
She recognized Shadow. She wasn't sure how she knew it was him. He was a mass of muscle that ran on all fours, and, unlike before, under his cloak she saw that he had black fur and blue skin. She thought she saw a swarm of fireflies keep pace with him. Sparks shimmered all the colors of the rainbow, and he clearly didn't like it.
In one respect, he made the leaps up the mountain slope appear to be an easy task, similarly to how Nomura was able to jump. On the other hand, it was clear that he was in pain, and it took a fair amount of exertion just to remain upright. He bled. He limped. He was getting attacked by what appeared now to be winged rocks. She had to help him.
"Shadow! Up here, Shadow!" He charged to her voice. Trailing after him was a swarm that hissed and buzzed. He forced his way past her into the quarters and collapsed on the bed spreads. Maria rushed to close the door to keep the pests out. She was pelted by what looked like precious gems. She covered her face with an arm and the other hand braced the door against the force. It surprised her that the glass didn't break. When the clatter of crystals stopped, she turned her attention to the cloaked troll that wheezed from the pile of blankets. As he panted, steady trickles of blood dripped from around his tusks. A dark color spread through the fabrics the way the color spread across his staff when he used it. "They're gone," she assured him. "Rest- I'll, I'll try to take care of you-"
He convulsed. He growled. He curled and pounced back out the window. She called after him. He scaled the cliff side toward Morgana's chambers.
She went to the elevator operated by Arghamont. "I need you to get me as high as you can, as fast as you can, please!" He'd taken a liking to her and sensed her urgency.
"Hold on," he warned. He cranked hard at the gears. She smelled smoke from the cord. In a moment they were rocking from the highest point the elevator could go.
"Thank you AAARRRGGHH!," she called back to him as she ran. She went for the stairwell and took the steps in leaps.
She almost burst through the door if it weren't for the woman's voice. "Don't let him eat anyone else before I get down there." The woman put down the looking glass to end the conversation and huffed at the limp mass in the middle of the room. "Dispose of him, he's bleeding all over my floor. I should have sent my champion to get it. Perhaps later." She approached the door Maria listened through. Maria covered her mouth to quiet her breathing and slipped into an adjacent room to clear out of the stairway.
There was a sound like hissing, rumbling, and clicking of machinery. She kept along the wall of the circular room. There were hardly any lights in here, and it took a while for her human eyes to adjust. She heard the sound of a metal blade sing as it sliced the air beside her. She stopped abruptly and stared wide eyed, trying to see the object that nearly killed her. She couldn't see the object move, but when it retracted, she could see the glow of a golden eye. It belonged to a form that was clearly taller than her. It went over her- it's beholder must be climbing the wall- and it descended to block her way back from where she came.
"Human prey. It's been a while since I had such dangerous game." The voice sounded deep and churned like there was gravel in his throat. She was too terrified to step in any direction. She might as well be in a room of razors. Instead of running, she curled up onto the floor. The other individual was disappointed. "Why don't you run? It's no fun when the prey surrenders."
"I don't surrender, I just can't play right now, I have to help someone."
"Not that kind of game," he chided. "And the shadow already surrendered to the dark a long time ago. There's nothing left of him."
"Please, he needs help. He's my friend."
The eye blinked as if it remembered something. It moved sideways, clearing her path to the doorway once more. It continued to watch her, and she it, as she stepped carefully back to Morgana's chambers.
Two Gumm Gumms dragged the body by the arms toward a circular trap in the floor. "No! Shadow!" Maria ran to stop them.
The troll boy's eyes lit up, and it twisted in their grip in such a way that an arm got free. He kicked the same troll that released him down the pit. The other Gumm Gumm released the arm to draw out a spear. A screech sounded from within the pit. Shadow crouched and roared at the Gumm Gumm. The act exhausted him, and he blinked, and wilted back into a mound. Maria jumped between the Gumm Gumm and her friend. "Don't touch him!" It stared at her but did nothing else. It was not accustomed to anything resisting it. She turned back to her friend. "It's okay, Shadow, let me help you!" She didn't understand medicine. She didn't understand what kind of creature he was. But she understood blood, and pain. She began to tear at the baggy garment she wore. The sleeves were too long, anyway, she convinced herself. With the shreds of fabric she made tourniquets and wrapped the injuries on his limbs, but didn't know what to do about the growing pool from his mouth. The Gumm Gumm made up its mind to dump her down the trap with the troll.
There was a scream of a cicada, followed by a flash of light that cast her shadow across his body, and she turned abruptly. There was an older man in a suit of armor that stretched his limbs and popped his joints as he glanced around the room. "What terrible tastes. She was always so superfluous…"
Even the Gumm Gumm stopped at his task.
"Who are you?"
"The avatar of Merlin. And here comes her guard dog-"
Angor Rot leapt from where he'd been watching in the shadows. In a swift gesture from the avatar, the troll fell forward and stumbled over his new forelegs and squashed his new snout on the floor. He whimpered, and braced himself on all fours, a skeletal tail between his skeletal legs.
Gunmar charged into the room from another entrance. He beat his chest, but before he could roar, his form narrowed and paled. His eye turned from blue to gold, and crystalline clusters erupted from across his body. The coyote skeleton barked at the copy of his old body. The Gumm Gumm stared at what remained of his king, stupefied.
Claire turned her full body to face the intruder and spread her arms to protect the troll boy from the avatar's magics. "Don't touch him!"
"I don't need to," the old man dismissed. "The Mistress of Shadows' shadow is already fading."
The troll snarled and slammed a claw down on the crystalline cicada. "Are you entomophobic," the avatar inquired as it fizzled out.
In his stupor, the beastly Shadow writhed in pain. He scrambled to his knees but wilted again and slipped into the pit. "No, Shadow!" Claire tried desperately to stop him. She yanked at his fur. The coyote also pulled at the fabric of his cloak. The three of them descended.
"Wake up, Shadow!" Air rushed past them, and the furry troll she grabbed onto wouldn't wake. The pit was too dark to see how much longer they could fall. She climbed to his shoulders and wrapped her legs around his neck to hang on, while she pulled on his horns, his hair, slapped his face, anything she could think of. "Wake up!" She felt the roar in his throat tickle at her ankles and latched onto his horns.
A different, shrill roar answered below them. Shadow maneuvered to land on all fours, and at the sensation of a slimy surface below his claws, pounced. Right behind them speared a glowing blue tongue and snapped a jaw. The strange blue glow followed them, and Maria finally perceived massive serpents that were large enough to swallow Shadow and Maria together whole.
Shadow's eyes glowed spectral blue. He located a tunnel in the darkness and ran along it on all fours.
"Shadow. Shadow, that's a dead end. Shadow!" He snarled at her in response and continued to charge, faster and faster at the stone wall. Being comprised of volcanic glass, there was a sickly, faint glow that emanated from it, giving away it's thickness. He bowed his head down to ram through it. Claire moved her hands from his horns to his mane and curled her head down in anticipation.
•••
Blinky looked up from his task. What an odd sound to be coming from-
The sound of heavy glass shattering broke the peaceful rumble of machinery.
There was a clatter and a clamour, and a cascade of debris. There was the thunk of heavy shards of obsidian and the thud of the troll, human, and skeletal coyote as they hit the floor. The girl, despite being only a fleshbag, leapt to her feet to aid the large, furry troll. "Shadow, I'm here! It's okay!"
"It's no good. He can't hear you in this state." Blinky forgot about his work and aimed to protect the human from her desire to help the frenzied troll. It took all four of his hands to restrain her from diving into danger. The skeletal coyote growled from beside Blinky.
"What's wrong with him? He keeps bleeding, I don't know where it's coming from-"
"He's bleeding from inside," the scholar observed.
The monster threw himself against the walls of drawers like a trapped animal. The force caused some to fly out and their contents to spill. The glow in his eyes gave away his lack of lucidity. In an act of desperation he climbed up a surface, but the flimsy drawers refused to support his reckless endeavor and he fell on his back. He was momentarily stunned, and approachable. She ran to his side and called his name again, but he refused to respond. "I was hoping to use this to save my family, but here. You need this." She took the wrinkled alligator heart from a pocket on her smock.
"Powerful medicine," Blinky observed. "From Florida, by the looks of it. Am I right?"
Claire bit half of it off and forced the rest of the lump into the mouth of the monster and held his snout shut. "Now swallow-" His eyes bulged. She braced her shoulder below his jaw and latched her arms to his horns to prevent him from rejecting the treatment. The floorboards splintered as he clawed at the ground. He jerked and her grip slipped. He retched and coughed, and she heard a heavy clink behind her.
"Is that… the Staff of Avalon?" Blinky oggled the artifact the other troll spat out. "That's as powerful as it gets."
A green emerald was mounted in gold and gleamed in the light of the furnace. It didn't resemble a staff, perhaps merely the head of one. From between the gem and the setting, a curse wriggled itself free and meandered about, sniffing for prey.
"Squash it," Blinky urged. "It's dangerous, you don't want that spreading." She did, and he instructed her on a sequence of acts that included spitting in her hands and clapping them together.
The coyote sniffed at the vapors of smoke that came up from around the girl's foot. He growled at it.
The troll boy's form shrank. The fur thinned, his hair receded, back into its proper place so that the majority of what was left was a mop of kinky hair around the set of horns on the head of the boy. "Shadow!" She ran to his side again and pulled his head to her lap. She brushed aside his bangs that matted to his face from his sweat.
"He'll be fine now," the blue troll observed.
"I don't understand what happened."
"Magic is like that. You can see hers and his, battling over his body. But if you haven't been trained in magic, you won't recognize any of it. But you recognize the boy, even in his other form," the troll observed. "You know him well. That's what saved him."
She puzzled over the intellect's words. She'd only met him when she was first trapped here. But then it occurred to her, back when they were at the Cat's Cradle, he remembered her name before her. Did she ever tell him what it was?
While they tried to make Shadow more comfortable so he could rest, Blinky explained that as the servant of the Mistress of Shadows, he'd done some awful deeds. Initially he'd agreed to the magics of Merlin to make him stronger to protect his loved ones. While he was emotionally vulnerable, the sorceress offered to make it a temporary trick, and had her changeling creatures to refer to. He made a deal with her, but lost himself. He lost his name, and with it his identity. It was a similar cost as Angor Rot, who lost his soul in the deal. Angor suffered from knowing who he was. Shadow suffered having nothing left of himself.
"She's been taking advantage of his curses to undermine Merlin. I wonder what she was planning to do with his staff."
"How do you know all this?" Maria felt like there was something the troll wasn't telling her, whether he was aware or not.
"I knew his name at some point. I'm sure I did. But glamour does strange things. We were forced to address him by his new name, and consequently, forget his real one."
"What about you? Do you remember your own name?"
He whispered it. "Blinkous Galadrigal. Not the greatest name, but it is mine, and I will protect it."
"You know Arghamont's too, don't you?"
"AAARRRGGHH!, with three Rs." He smiled proudly.
"Maybe Merlin can help him." She looked sorely at Shadow. He was breathing, but he was unconscious.
"You would visit the wizard?"
"I don't know how else to help him."
Blinky scratched at his chin with one hand while he used his other arms to sort through some drawers. "I was saving this for when Arghamont and I could escape, but perhaps our fate is not to run. He hates gyres, anyway." He held out tickets to Maria. She tucked them away in her garments.
Nomura came in. "There you are. The Pale Lady is looking for you. Fart Face says you let him in."
"I did. I thought he was a guest."
"He's a monster. He came here to steal all the magical artifacts. He's been telling riddles at the consequence of becoming his next meal if they're not answered correctly, and so far has eaten two changelings and another servant. The Pale Lady says you have to get him out."
"I'll be there, just give me one sec." She went to Shadow and took his hand in hers. "Hang in there, I'll come back for you."
Nomura puzzled over the rogue's condition and the kindness the fleshbag showed him. She asked the boilerman, "What's going on here?"
"Something you wouldn't understand. It's called love." He smirked at her.
•••
Nomura escorted her and the coyote to just outside the chamber Float Face occupied. Morgana floated backward from the room as she addressed it.
"The only reason your mountain is still standing is because I consider your keep as my own, and I will collect one day!" She slammed the door shut behind her with telekinesis. Her eyes found the newest servant. "He can't leave the chamber until his anchor has been located and destroyed. Fix this mess or you'll be the next thing on his menu. What is that, you're letting strays in my palace?" She scowled at the skeletal canine that wagged it's tail at her.
"Don't you recognize him?"
"I don't keep," she grumbled the words, "discount wolves." He whimpered and hid behind Maria. Morgana floated past them, the air charged with the cackling of magic as the sorceress tried to contain herself.
Claire entered the chamber, and took in the mountains of dishes and food that had been served to appease his unending appetite. "Maria! I've been waiting for you. I've come up with another riddle, just for you."
"I would like you to leave," she interrupted. "Everyone wants you to leave, and I think this would be for the best." She took out what was left of the alligator heart. "I want you to have this. It's really special, but I think you need it most right now. It was a gift from the king of the Everglades."
He eyed the item hungrily. He recognized that it was a rare artifact and swallowed it greedily when it was offered to him.
He coughed smoke. He wheezed. "Oh, no." There was a shriek like a mountain about to split open, and ash spewed from his mouth. Maria scurried up a goblin gutter. "What have you done to me?" He wailed. Lava rocks tumbled from his mouth, along with the glisten from the stolen artifacts. "No, no, no- my treas-" he coughed again and smoke erupted from his mouth. "Help me!"
"How do we get you to leave?"
"She trapped my avatar in this chamber with wards. Destroy my anchor, and I'll- cough- be gone."
"What does it look like? Where is it?"
"It's a piece of pumice I threw in the planter by the main entrance. Hurry, please, before I cough up all my treasure-" instantly he threatened to do as much as the room filled with soot and the smell of sulfur.
She smiled. She couldn't have planned this any better herself. She dropped from the gutter and ran out of the room and to the main entrance. At the top of her lungs, she shouted, "he's gonna blow!"
Anyone that recognized Gatto knew that the warning meant a volcanic eruption. All the changelings, trolls, goblins and gnomes wailed and screamed and fought to evacuate. Maria paused at a planter to pick up the simple piece of pumice. It took the place of the heart in her pocket.
She hurried to the ledge beyond the largest bridge, where she first met Shadow. At the lip of the edge beyond the waterfall were the steep steps of a stairway made narrow by the erosion from the wind and rain. The coyote stayed at her heels. She descended to the platform before she took the piece of pumice back out of her pocket. She placed it on the ground and stomped on it. It crumbled easily, and the grains of sand that weren't swept up by the breeze drained between the wood boards of the pier. For good measure, she did the act Blinky taught her of spitting in her hands and clapping them together.
A woman with a medium build and pigtails lifted the lip of her cap at the sound. She stretched from the seat where she reclined and adjusted the settings on the vehicle to wake it up. It responded with a twirl of metal rings that spun around the gyre. "Where to?"
Maria offered the tickets. "Chester, New Jersey."
•••
He groaned in his sleep. The sound woke him. He opened his eyes slowly. If it weren't for his ability to regenerate like a troll, he would have lost too much blood to ever wake up again. Yet here he was, groggy but not as light headed as he should be. He sat up and rubbed at his forehead along his hairline. He remembered vaguely that it tickled earlier.
"You're finally awake." Blinky unfolded his hands and opened his eyes at the sound of the boy shifting about. He had fallen asleep from where he leaned against the splintered cabinets.
"Where's Maria?"
"She went to Merlin. She was afraid you wouldn't wake up."
Shadow puzzled over what happened. "I remember being lost in darkness, and I heard her calling me." He measured his breath to see how close to completely he'd healed. "She went to Merlin?" The troll nodded. "He better not-" he leapt to his feet in fight mode.
"I'm sure he's learned his lesson," Blinky assured.
•••
Angor braced himself with a wide stance, but as the vehicle rattled at the turns, the passengers were jostled and his paws lost contact with the ground beneath him. All the lights of the spectrum warped around the sphere of their vehicle like a demented boat ride through the drainage system. As suddenly as the ride began, it stopped. Angor leapt off the vehicle to heave in a corner. Maria covered over her mouth as she tried to spit out only words. "How far is Hacklebarney from here?"
The driver adjusted her hat and pointed down a tunnel. "Follow the tunnel straight that way. It drains into the river. Go upstream from there." Maria stumbled onto the platform and the cage of the gyre spun and it was gone again.
She had hoped to change her clothes during the trip, but was proven wrong. She took the time now to replace the smock with her purple ensemble, and left the shredded garment on the platform. Was it littering if she was already in a sewer? The coyote sniffed at the air down the tunnel and seemed hopeful.
The cold echoes of their soft steps were eventually drowned out by the gentle buzz of a river. Song birds welcomed them in the dusk. Angor crouched and growled at a stag that watched them from the bank. It stomped it's hoof, the only hoof with white fur at the joint. Angor immediately straightened his posture and perked his ears. The stag had glowing crystalline insects all along it's horns to give light. It turned and stomped once more before it began to walk silently down a narrow dirt trail. Maria and Angor followed it.
•••
"He didn't cough up enough to compensate for the soot stains he left." Morgana grumbled and absentmindedly snapped in the direction of the white troll that lounged on the floor. The changelings eyed him warily as he tore raw meat off a bone and clawed at the fur between his teeth. In a shimmer, the blood that soaked into the wood floor was no more, until he took another bite at the meat. "And where is Maria?"
"Last anyone saw of her, they say she ran out of the chamber shouting that he was gonna blow."
Morgana scowled. "It was a distraction. She ran to save her skin. She even gave up on her parents. Those cats must be ready to eat by now-"
"But Maria totally saved us," the frog croaked. The foreman that had failed to answer a riddle correctly nodded intensely at the frog's words.
"So? She's made such a tumult of my domain. Perhaps you'd like to take her parents' place on the menu, hm?" She looked up at the moving shadow across the room. "You're still alive," Morgana commented.
"And you're blind." Shadow walked up to her desk. The changelings quivered at the immediate tension that built at the boy's bold words.
She was ticked. She rose to her feet, not something she did often. "You know not what I can see. What I have seen. Things that would melt your eyes from your sockets. How dare you." She spat the words in rage, but Shadow countered with a calm, controlled voice.
"Something precious to you has been taken and you don't notice it's absence."
She scoffed at him. His eyes didn't look away from hers. She considered. Proudly she withdrew a set of silvered spectacles from a drawer and rest them on her nose. She looked him up and down. Dissatisfied, she glanced around the chamber, her eyes lingered on the flesh devouring monster. Her eyes grew large, her lip curled in disgust. She waved a hand in front of her and the white stone turned black, the gold eye blue.
Gunmar noticed that his claws were bulky obsidian once more. "Uh oh." He leapt to all fours and rammed through the doorway furthest from her wrath, his broad horns splintered the door frame and tore the doors from their hinges. The changelings sensed the danger and cowered against the wall furthest from the sorceress. The frog hopped immediately behind Shadow's cloak.
Morgana shrieked. She backhanded the troll- boy. Despite the wet stripes across his cheek, he still dared resume eye contact. "Give him back," she growled.
"Return Maria's family. All of them."
"You dare make another deal with me?"
"I have nothing left to lose."
She smirked. "Her heart."
His eyes widened. "I can't give something that's not mine-"
"Don't recite the rules to me, impudent fool." The green of her eyes were like poison to his sight. "I know what they are. I will give her one chance to free herself and her parents, and even her precious baby brother. And if she fails, then I will possess all of them, as well as her heart."
He slit his eyes at her. "Deal."
•••
The stag lead the travelers to an organic arch from the trees that entwined their branches overhead. It leapt, and it's body vaporized. The antlers continued to give their light from where it was fixed to the arch. Beyond it was a small, stone cottage, with a vibrant garden of numerous flowers, shrubs and herbs that perfumed the air. Angor sniffed languidly at the air, and Maria took his relaxed demeanor as a good omen.
At the door, she took a deep breath and prepared to knock when the door opened.
"Well, if it isn't the fair Claire." An older man like the one that claimed to be Merlin's Avatar answered the door.
"M- Merlin?"
"In the flesh." Instead of the shiny, dark armor the avatar wore, he was dressed in a modest, dark robe. Claire considered that it was probably a wizard's equivalent of a snuggie.
"You knew that I was coming?"
"I wasn't too certain when. It's hard to maintain a grip on the current timeline when one can glimpse into others. Come in, come in. The hunter can come in, as well." The skeletal canine wagged it's tail and trotted warily in.
Merlin prepared a soup of possum for the canine that devoured it hungrily. Merlin made the off hand comment that it was "soul in a bowl. Soul food. It's just a manner of speech." Yet the coyote seemed particularly pleased with the meal, as if for once it felt, even if temporarily, full. The blue gems in his joints glowed.
"I wanted to apologize for Shadow." She offered the emerald. "He's not a bad person, and I don't think he would have done it if he had a choice-"
"Do you have any idea what this is? What could happen if it fell into the wrong hands?"
"Please forgive him," she pleaded. "He needs help, I'm afraid he won't wake up again."
The wizard ignored her urgency and puzzled over the artifact. "My safeguard. It's broken."
"The smoke slug thing? I might have squashed it."
"... squashed it?" He laughed. "That wasn't mine. It's probably the darkness Morgana used to control the boy. No, I'm rather lazy and use the same old safeguard. Don't fix what's not broken, eh? But only the true light of a bright can do that. I wonder how you managed that." His eyes sparkled at her as if he already knew. She showed him the amulet, recalling aloud that Shadow mentioned something about a Bright being able to wield it. "I made that. It chose someone else, however." His face was down cast. "It chooses a Bright worthy to wield it and becomes attuned. When the Bright dies, it chooses another, but death isn't an always one and done deal. You see, when the last wielder's humanity died, the boy still lived, to some extent, and I feared that Morgana found a way to destroy my champions." He turned to the stovetop where he prepared a kettle of tea made from the things in the garden. "It's partly my fault, I will admit. Seeing the future is not the same as knowing everything, it just appears that way to mortals." He served two cups and directed Claire to join him at the table. "When the boy was chosen, he was afraid he didn't have the strength to protect both humans and trolls from Morgana and Gunmar, so I made a potion that would grant him the strength. It changed him. Halfway, to be exact. He struggled to get a grip on the new half of himself, and Morgana took advantage of that. She showed off her changelings and said something about helping him transform completely. He didn't understand she meant into a monster. He and his comrades all forgot the warrior he had once been." He took a sip as he recalled the contract. "If he can find himself again, however, the deal will be broken. You can help him with that part."
"How?"
"I'm afraid that's for you to find out. There's contracts and such between casters that prevent us from interfering with each other's magics, hers and mine."
•••
"Atta boy! Keep it up, you've got the right speed, now hold it…" There was a wheel like for rodents to exercise on, but large enough for the coyote to run. As his wheel turned, the whetstone spun, and Merlin held a shard of metal to it. "That's it, good boy. Now Claire, if you could bring over that amulet."
She did as she was asked. "Merlin, I can't remember. This whole time I've been in the Pale Lady's domain, it's all been smoke and mirrors that choke and cut. Everything's foggy. I'm afraid I won't remember my family, and my parents will get eaten and Enrique will be trapped and Shadow will never wake up." She blinked back tears as Merlin tapped at a wedge on the back of the device and it opened to reveal a glowing yellow crystal. "You won't be offended, Angor, will you?" The coyote didn't respond, just watched as Merlin removed the crystal. He tapped it once with the hammer and severed a tiny shard from it. He placed the larger piece back in its slot, closed the amulet and let it drape once more from it's chain on her neck. "Memories can't be gone forever. They linger not just in our minds, but in matter itself. You are familiar with the term muscle memory, are you not?" Claire watched him hammer the shard to attach it to the piece of metal. "There we go, that should protect you." He held out to her a hair clip. It shimmered gold, and in place of a rivet at the tip was the crystal.
"It's beautiful."
Angor looked questioningly at Merlin. "Whether or not you're willing to admit it, you've befriended them both. It'll keep her safe," he assured the canine. Claire added it to the others in her hair.
There was a sound at the door. "Ah, and here is our guest. Right on time. Ladies first." He gestured to the door for her to answer. She was perplexed.
She opened the door, and saw the large form standing tall. "Shadow!" She leapt up to embrace the creature around the neck, and he didn't sway under her weight.
"Claire! I found you!" He embraced her back. He looked at the wizard with familiarity.
"I forgive you for stealing my staff," Merlin began. "Can you ever forgive me for-"
Shadow held up a hand. "Already done. It has its perks." When the troll looked away, the wizard smirked and mouthed the word "had."
"Take good care of her, Shadow. Remember that darkness cannot exist without the light." The troll rolled his eyes at the wizard's play on words and crouched for Claire to climb on his shoulders. Angor crouched beside him, prepared to jump. Angor was so accustomed to portal jumping that he would be able to keep up without incident, even in his new form.
•••
Sound was muted as he traversed the shadow realm. Claire rest her chin on the top of his head as she considered something.
"Shadow, I feel like I know you. From before I ended up here. In a school that I went to, there was a boy that went missing. I'm not sure if I knew him very well, but you remind me of him. His name was Jim-"
His eyes bulged. He missed his step and writhed. He curled into himself so far and so suddenly that she lost her grip on his shoulders, and the lack of gravity pulled them apart from the motion. Angor quickly leapt aside and braced himself on all fours against a floating mound. A lumpy rock passed between Claire and Shadow, and when it no longer obstructed her view, she saw a human boy. He was limp in this space, and she feared that the drifting rocks would crush him. She found a surface to leap from and reached for him. "Jim-"
His eyes fluttered open. He shook his head and reached for her. "Claire-" Their fingertips barely latched together and they managed to pull each other close.
"Claire! I remember! I remember your play, and- I should have gone alone! Toby! This is my fault."
"It's you!" She blinked away tears. She recalled vividly the times she recited lines with the boy after school. "I can't believe I forgot, I spent so many nights looking for you. They told me to forget about you- I didn't want to- What happened?"
"The bridge. I had to go to the bridge- but I failed, and Toby- I failed."
"It's okay," she assured. "You're okay." He embraced her warmly.
"C'mon. Let's save your family." He kept an arm around her waist and with his free hand and an incantation in a foreign language, commanded the staff to steer them to the portal.
•••
Morgana paced angrily. She needed to pace to release her pent up frustration, rather than float in space as she'd become accustomed to. Finally, a black disc grew from a point in midair and from it descended the new servant girl and a boy Morgana recognized from a long time ago.
"The contract- you broke it?!" She puzzled over the male fleshbag.
"Only as the rules permitted. And we're here to fulfill the other contract, also. Maria's family. Set them free."
"The contract releases them if she can pass my test. And besides, you had your own end to hold up. Where's my champion?"
The canine stepped from between the legs of its recent traveling companions. It arched it's back and balanced itself on its hind legs. His form grew as he balanced his spine on his hips and stood to his full height. "My queen," he addressed her.
"Angor! What have they done to you?"
"They reminded me of who I was and what I've done. I have a score to settle with you. But first, honor the contract. Release Maria's family."
"Not until after the test," she snarled.
Claire stepped forward. "I'm ready."
The witch smirked. With the bulky ring on her finger, she tugged at the gemstone. It was a vessel, and a yellow spark darted from it. It zigged and zagged and found its way into Claire's ear. Her eyes ignited yellow and her eyelids drooped. Her whole body drooped. Jim lunged for her before she hit the floor. "Claire!" When she didn't answer, he glared at the witch.
"I couldn't allow you to interfere with the test," she cackled.
•••
How much of this was a dream?
She sat up in bed. She glanced down at the chevron cover. She looked beside her at the bedside table. The skull she jokingly named Johanna smiled at her. There was something off about it.
"How much of this was a dream," the skull asked her.
"My name is Claire Maria Nuñez," she answered the skull. It's porcelain face didn't change. Claire looked around her room. "This was my home. But we moved." She tried to remember what her house was supposed to look like. "We were moving, we didn't get there yet." The skull continued to smile at her all the same. Claire looked down to find she was wearing her favorite outfit already.
She descended the stairs. Her father was cooking. He went to the doorway of the kitchen to see her. Her mother looked up from her paperwork at the table. They watched her expectantly. "My parents are Javier and Ophelia Nuñez." Their faces didn't change. They simply watched her. She continued down the stairs and stopped at the baby swing. Her brother didn't bounce, but rather he watched her. "My brother is Enrique Nuñez." She continued out the front door.
There was no sun in the sky. No stars, no moon, just a glowing twilight. Her yard was populated with people and monsters. They all watched her expectantly, but said nothing. She looked into each of their faces. The bumper on her family's car split horizontally, the headlights shifted to focus on her. "How much of this was a dream," the car asked her.
"None of it." Her eyes passed over every face. She saw Toby on AAARRRGGHH!'s shoulder, who stood beside Blinky, who stood beside Jim, with Doctor Lake behind him. She saw Draal and Vendel, and something wrenched her heart at the sight of them, watching her. She saw Darci and Mary, and her other classmates, and teachers, and the other trolls and changelings interspersed in the crowd. Even Gnome Chompski was here, though barely visible above the grass. "None of it was a dream. I remember everyone."
•••
She felt her body bouncing. She opened her eyes. A chirp zigged away.
"Claire." Jim was carrying her. He stopped walking and set her gently in the grass.
"Where am I now?" She looked up past his head and saw the stone ledge. She was disappointed to still be in this prison.
"You're free. You can leave now." She looked to the side and saw that the springs had calmed enough that the stone steps were dry. She didn't like his word choice and looked back at him in alarm. "I can't go with you," he stated. "There's so much that I have to make right, here. I have to help Toby, and I have to do something about Morgana. I helped her get her strength, I have to undo it."
"Will I ever see you again?"
"I'll find you, I promise."
The amulet glowed while it withdrew itself from under her clothes and around her neck and found its way to the boy. He blinked his eyes in concentration and it obeyed his silent command. Orbs of light erupted from the device and forced their way into his chest, and consequently in a click of metal and hum of magic, he was suited up like a knight.
"Jim? I feel like I should remember this, but I don't understand-"
"I'm a Bright again. Thanks to you. You remembered my humanity." He rest a gauntlet on her cheek. "Thank you for saving me."
"But Jim-"
"Please. I have to make this right. There's so much I've done that I have to fix. Find my mom, tell her I'm okay. And don't forget me, I beg of you."
"I could never forget you." She gripped onto the fingers that caressed her cheek. She couldn't leave him, not after all of this-
"Don't look back until you're at the other side of the tunnel. Your family is already there. They're looking for you. They won't remember anything that happened here- that is your burden alone. And mine."
"Don't be long. Please." Jim nodded assuringly.
She ran. She fought with herself to heed his warning and not look back. There was something so tragically mundane about the gravel and weeds beneath her feet. She wanted to leave and at the same time there was something wrong about turning her back from something she lost that she only just got back. She let her bitterness pump her legs and drive her further and further. That witch would pay for what she did to Jim, to all her friends, to all those people. Claire was going to fill binders with drawings and written reminders. She was going to tell Enrique bedtime stories about trolls and changelings and the wizard and the Eternal Knight.
She would keep so many reminders that she could keep a torch burning for as long as she lived. And that would be her purpose on this side of the portal, to never let the light go out.
•••
"Claire Maria Nuñez, where have you been?"
Claire stopped at her name. At the crumbling asphalt beneath her feet. She looked back at the tunnel, then back at her family. Her mother was standing with a cross expression behind her open car door. Her father was stooped over her brother's car seat as he buckled Enrique in. Claire reached quickly for the hair clip with the gem in the rivet.
"None of it was a dream," she recited.
"I want to get there before the movers do," Ophelia reprimanded. Claire knew that wouldn't happen. She obediently got in her seat and buckled up, and refused to look away from the mouth of the tunnel until she lost sight as they rounded the bend.
Javier sighed as he drove. "I hope they can figure out why people are disappearing and put an end to this."
Claire looked knowingly at the stars bright enough to peek through the sunset's aura. "It's almost over."
•••
Jim looked knowingly at the stars bright enough to peek through the sunset's aura. "In their darkest hour, I shine brightest," he muttered to himself. He didn't remember where he heard the phrase from, but it was familiar, and he had to cling to the familiar. He turned his attention to the amulet embedded into the chest of his armor. He turned a gear and the blue light turned golden. The arms on it pivoted toward the tunnel. He exhaled. As long as she didn't forget him, he could find his way home.
The time would come. He turned back to the plaza at a sprint. "Tobes! Tobes, stop hopping, we need to find the others and get out of here…"