Well I found my password for this account, and the old email I used to use for it, so here I am and here is another revision of Chapter 1. I know I shouldn't just put out revisions but after coming back to a story from 4 years ago I felt I needed to reassess what I had written. It hasn't changed much mainly some appearance stuff and cleanup. Promise to upload more and not drop off the map again.

As I was working on the broken steps leading to the lighthouse I couldn't help but miss my friends. Being on Demonreach doing these minor repairs wasn't really for me but for them. You see Demonreach and I are like that annoying couple that just seem to know a little too much about each other. After pairing with the island's genius loci in a ritual, as long as I'm on the island, I have near limitless knowledge about the island. Which includes where to step to avoid a sprained ankle on a crumbling step and what preparations the nearest squirrels were making to prepare for Winter.

Being this far out on Lake Michigan, on an uncharted island at that, I don't get many visitors and with that not a whole lot of news either. Kind of like when I was a White Council mushroom before I got pressed into service as a Warden for the war we have with the vampires— kept in the dark and fed loads of bullshit.

With little contact between me and anything not Demonreach I relied on my friends to make the months bearable without putting a face on a volleyball and screaming "Wilson!" So, here I sit repairing the steps to make their lives a little easier when they can visit and to keep myself from getting too friendly with the closest inanimate sporting object I could find. That is until I felt a void appear on the island through my connection to Demonreach.

It was a cold sensation in my mind, and I while could not quite grasp what it was I knew it was dangerous because I could feel the thing's aura from fifty feet away. Relying on the intellectus of the island I tried to determine who or what had somehow transported themselves across miles of magic grounding water onto my island. My immediate thought was a portal through the Nevernever, but that was impossible seeing as I had set Demonreach to alert me whenever a portal was about to open. What frightened me so much after that thought was that, as I was trying to consider whatever entity had just appeared on my island, I couldn't come up with an answer. With the Demonreach's intellectus I still couldn't determine what had just appeared and that made my fear-o-meter kick into nuclear meltdown levels of alarm.

Shoving that fear and gibbering part of my mind to the side for a second, I focused on what kind of actions I needed to take. The very fact that this being was hiding itself from Demonreach's intellectus could mean it had traveled through the Nevernever to get here, whether I thought it was impossible or not just didn't matter. Some beings of this universe are more powerful than me or any mortal can imagine, Hell's Bells, there are some trapped on this very island that could tear a thousand worlds asunder in the blink of an eye with the power in their pinky—or what would amount to a pinky on some of those monstrosities.

I have seen too many people make the mistake of underestimating someone, or something, and pay for it. So, I decided to get a look at whatever had decided it was time to visit Chicago's semi-local recently relocated wizard, before I ran head long into a fight that could get me killed. Granted, I could put up a fight with just the magical gear I had on me: my pentagram necklace, my duster, my shield bracelet, and my blasting rod. Though, I wouldn't be as versatile without the rest of my arsenal, but I could still put up a pretty good fight.

I checked with Demonreach to see if I could get at least a general location of this cold emptiness in my mind. It was remaining still in the lighthouse. As far as Demonreach could tell. So, I gathered up my equipment and made my way up the steps to the base of the lighthouse deciding to circle around to the hole in the wall that was on the other side instead of trying to go through the door.

As I crept towards the gaping hole in the lighthouse to see if I could get a look at whatever was creating the numb sensation in my mind I kept a constant image of the island in my head so Demonreach could tell me if it moved. It didn't seem like Demonreach would be able to pinpoint the source but it could accurately tell where the void was within 10 feet or so, and with nowhere to hide inside the lighthouse it wouldn't be that hard to spot the intruder while still remaining behind the cover offered by the lighthouses outer walls.

As I crept along the edge of the lighthouse towards the opening I couldn't help but shudder at the chill from the cold night air. I didn't think the fear-o-meter could take much more but cold wasn't supposed to bother me; at least not any more. See, about two years ago I accepted the mantle of the Winter Knight to help save my child from some pretty nasty monsters. They lost I won—even if I'm not so sure at times.

Ever since I accepted the mantle I have been stronger, able to pull off more magic, and able to stand out in below freezing temperatures in nothing but jeans and a t-shirt like it was a comfortably cool fall day. So, whatever had pierced the power of the Winter Knights mantle – one of the most ancient powers in Faerie—scared me.

When I reached the entrance to the lighthouse I had to figure out if it was time to find out what had trespassed on my island. I figured I was never one for subtlety so I focused my will into a transparent blue dome in front of me and set my blasting rod to glowing red with the amount of energy I was pumping into it, I even put in some Soul Fire for that extra little kick, stood up in front of the opening, and said "I don't know who or what you are but you better tell me why you are here before I blast you all the way back to Kingdom Come."

"Now, now, my Knight is that any way to treat your Queen?" said the figure standing, wrapped in white silk, in the middle of the room. My heart decided to take a trip to my throat the minute I saw who had come to the island. Mab, the Queen of the Winter Fae.

She was bad news for anybody but worse for me. Being the Winter Knight and all it was my job to do what she told me; whether it was to clean the dishes or burn down a hospital filled with kittens and puppies, usually it was something along the lines of the later. Oh I could refuse whatever she gave me, but that didn't mean she couldn't make my life a living hell, and I had seen what happened to those that defied her. I got the job off of the last guy who tried to play her. I still got shudders when I thought of what she had put him though. Even with all her power though she could never compel me say yes, and that was the thread of hope I clung to thanks to some an advice from the James Bond of angels had given to me a few years back.

"Mab what do you want?" I asked as I was slowly releasing the pent up energy in my blasting rod. While powering down I noticed Mab's wardrobe had changed. She usually wore dresses that looked like they had come straight out of the Renaissance. This time though she was wearing more of Greco-Roman type clothes. Her hair fell in ringlets down to her lower back and was dark black with streaks of glacier blue running through it. She usually wore a lot of jewels but she had only a single topaz set on a slim golden chain around her neck with a ring and some earrings to match. She was also wearing a toga, honest to God, but the strangest thing about her was that she had on grieves and bracers plus a gladius at her side. That made me think that this was a mission that would probably involve burning hospitals filled with cute assorted house pets.

She replied "We will discuss that when our final guest arrives," with a feline smile slowly stretching across her face, "he should be along shortly."

I stopped pushing for info because if Mab didn't want to tell me then there was diddly that I could do to get that information. Hell's Bells I hate being a mushroom.