Building Faith

By Ellf

Fools Rush In 10

Disclaimer: Jim Butcher owns the Dresden Files, any other works of fiction mentioned are not owned by me.

A short while after we finished talking to Butters, Drew showed up, clutching my purse under his arm. Today he wore a variant on what he wore the previous night: a leather jacket over a flannel button-up shirt and a pair of dark jeans. He had a cloth hat covering his dark hair, and he wore Upon spotting Molly and I, he quickly navigated through the store to hand it to me. My purse wasn't all that big, just your standard black leather satchel, in which I managed to fit a few necessary things. Drew was exuding a bit of embarrassment when he handed it to me.

"Fai, do me a favor and hold onto your purse next time," Drew said, looking directly at me, not my sister. "I got catcalls on my way in."

"Well, you do look fetching while carrying it," Molly said with a grin, but I swatted my sister.

"It's your fault that Drew had to bring it in, Moll," I said, and then I wrapped Drew into a hug. "Thanks for bringing it to me, Drew."

"You know I'd do a lot for you, Fai," Drew said. "Even if I'd prefer it not to be carrying your purse."

"Why'd you even bring it in, Drew?" Molly asked. "Aren't we going out to your car anyway?"

Drew and I blinked, and I felt Drew's embarrassment flare up again. My poor friend probably didn't think of that. Whoops.

I decided to take pity on him and change the subject. "So Drew, any trouble getting home last night? You didn't run into anything after dropping Molly with Thomas?"

"Not really, no. Cops seemed like they had better things to do than go after my baby after I dropped Molly off with the vamp." Drew wrapped his arm around my back and I leaned into it with a sigh. "Of course, I half-expected the cops to go after him with that ridiculous hunk of junk that he was driving."

"The Blue Beetle isn't a ridiculous hunk of junk," Molly and I chorused from rote memory. "It's supposed to be a classic."

"Of course," I added. "That's just what Harry wants us to think. I think it's even more ridiculous when Harry's driving it. He's got a good head on Thomas."

"Your teacher is freakishly tall," Drew said. "You wouldn't really know it from the way he acts though."

I giggled, joined quickly by my sister. "That's Harry for you."

"So, if we're heading out to my car, where are we heading today?" Drew asked as he led me and my sister out of the shop. I locked gazes with John for half a second before raising a hand with three fingers on it and pointing behind him and then at the register and computer behind the desk. He nodded, getting my meaning and started to pull some things from the shelf and help the next customer in line.

"Fai's got some plans for today that need us out and about." Molly slipped her hand around my waist, on the other side of me as Drew. "The plans aren't necessarily the best ones, but—"

"—they're the ones I have. To do," I said, cutting Molly off somewhat as we reached Drew's car.

The Ex Machina was Drew's baby, an ocean-blue '76 Mustang convertible that he'd recently redone all of the detailing and interior on. Of course, it being winter, Drew had the top up, albeit not the hard top that I knew he had in his garage. Drew avoided putting the hard top on his car whenever possible, and often he'd keep it off when he should have it on. Usually the hard top would only go one when a real bad snow was expected, and even then, he usually kept the Ex Machina in his garage in the winter time.

Drew opened the passenger-side door and leaned the seat forward so Molly could slip into the back behind him. I slid the seat back and took shotgun, closing the door.

When Drew came around and got in the driver's side, he turned to me. "So, where are we heading, Fai?"

I told him, and he frowned.

"Wait, wasn't that where…?"

"I told you that her plans aren't necessarily the best ones, Drew." Molly looked to me. "Why you want to do it there of all places is beyond me."

"You know why," I said. It was impossible for her to not know, but Molly and I didn't always agree on everything. "It hasn't been touched since, and most of what was set up is still there."

"So your goal is to, what, reappropriate it?" Molly asked. "Redirect what it was originally used for?"

"Uh, ladies?" Drew tried to get our attention. "Vanilla mortal here, what are you trying to do, Fai?"

"She's trying to do a summoning ritual," Molly said.

"A summoning ritual, like what Cece was trying?" Drew asked.

"Nothing quite so grand," I said, and Drew turned down a street that went by Millennium park. "I just want to talk to the thing I'm summoning and then have her go back."

"And you think that using there is going to work?" Molly asked.

"It will work, sis." I looked to the warehouse we were pulling up to, the one we lost Cecelia, Glenn and Jason in. "It'll work. Just one more tie for the bond."

"Right, want me to come in with?" Drew asked. "Because I'd really rather not go in there again."

"I can go in alone," I said.

"Not a chance, Fai. We're doing this together." Molly clasped my shoulder. "You can stay out here and be warm, Drew."

Drew nodded and reached over to squeeze my hand. "Don't do anything too reckless, Fai."

"I won't," I said, squeezing his hand back and smiling. "Thanks for worrying."

"Give me a holler if you need me. I'll do what I can," Drew said.

Molly and I nodded, before getting out of the car to head inside. We slipped past the chain-link fence outside and then, after sliding aside a metal panel and grabbing a glove-full of snow, we stepped inside. The interior of the warehouse was mostly burned out, scorch marks charring the ground at some areas where the gas lines had exploded, but the pentagram painted on the ground remained intact. The altar-like table at its center remained intact, albeit a bit affected by rot as it hadn't been kept up. The building itself looked like it hadn't changed at all since two years ago, and there was a good reason why. A psychic pressure hung in the building, warding off would-be squatters and most supernatural beasties. Dark magic had happened here, death and destruction and Old would-be gods. Yes, whatever enchantments that Cecelia had used had long-since been destroyed with the rising of the sun, but the impression here upon the Nevernever and upon our plane of existence wouldn't change.

I hoped to take advantage of that. Cecelia opening the gate here led to the clearing in the middle of Faerie where we were, but with my ritual, I hoped to reconnect to an area that was more aligned with the feelings left by what Cecelia had done. If the ritual went correct, we could attract the attention of Queen Mab and have her appear. If it went wrong, odds were that nothing would happen. With Molly here alongside me, I wasn't worried all that much about the worst-case scenario from this summon. We'd combine our talents and escape quickly from anything that wanted to fight.

"Molly, mind helping set up?" I asked, and Molly laughed.

"Right, I'll do your half, you focus on hers." Molly held out her hand, and I reached into my purse, pulled out my wand and tossed it to her. The most formal summoning ritual, as taught to us by Harry, has ten major components outside the circle. Five of the components involve aspects of the being you're trying to summon, and five involve the summoner. This is considered to be one of the politer ways of talking to beings from the Nevernever, and while it might be possible to get the attention of the Winter Queen in a simpler fashion, there was far more a chance that she'd be willing to listen to what I had to say if I went about it this way. For the parts to link to Mab, I chose the shadow capture crystal, now full of dark shadows, a pile of freshly fallen snow, the very building we were in, a Snow-Covered Swamp, and half of a stone that I'd chosen from outside. Representing me was my wand, my pentacle and cross necklace, one of my Magic Decks, a single drop of my blood, and the other half of the rock. Molly hadn't included any items to represent herself in this, as I was the one who wanted to do the summon, and I was the one who was going to speak.

I'd found five candles and placed them at each point on the pentagram. I lit them with an effort of will, and closed the circle with another. For all of this preparation, the actual ritual itself wasn't all that much more than gathering up energy and calling upon the being, using the thaumaturgical link between the items and the target to get her attention.

So I started. "Queen Mab of the Unseelie, I bid thee, come forth." Power gathered within me and the circle as the flames kicked up. "Mab, Queen of Winter, I ask to speak with thee, come forth." My voice echoed through the room, power carrying my words, hopefully to not fall upon deaf ears. "Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness, by these items I call upon thee, and I bid thee, come forth!"

I shouted the last bit and the candles extinguished with a gust of wind. It happened suddenly. One moment I was the only one in the circle with Molly standing outside, watching, and the next, another woman stood in the circle with me. She stood about my height with snow-white hair that went down to her mid-back. Her skin was pale, with her lips the color of frozen mulberries. Her eyes were green with catlike slits for pupils and she wore a red cocktail dress that hugged her amazingly gorgeous form. She wore heels that matched the dress as well. Her eyes and ears marked her as sidhe, and given what I knew, I didn't know whether to be relieved or worried that she didn't hold the dagger I'd last seen in the possession of the Leanansidhe. Oh God, the power I felt. Molly was lucky that she was outside the circle, lest the both of us get overwhelmed by the sheer presence of Mab. There was no doubt in my mind that this was the Queen of Air and Darkness, but then the power faded, contained itself. Mab looked at me and smiled.

"It has been a while since I have received such a… personal summon, Mortal. Most do not wish to dare." Mab's voice was cold, calculating, yet somehow sensual at the same time. She stepped toward me, and it took much of my concentration not to back away. Her heels made a slight rhythmic noise as she walked toward me. "Your mentor especially, I suspect, would have words about this."

"I hope that my summons did not come at a bad time," I said.

"The time for summons is rarely a good one, Mortal," Mab said, walking closer to me, her shoes still moving rhythmically, and then turning toward Molly. While she gave no outward reaction to the two of us, her eyes seemed to perhaps be more calculating. "If it is a boon that you wish, ask. Perhaps I will even grant it."

I shook my head. "I don't want a boon, or a gift, or anything, really."

"Then why, Faith/Molly Carpenter, did you send the summons?" Mab somehow said both of our names simultaneously. I could clearly make each name out though they came out at the same time. "I am not some wyldfae that can be called upon on a whim."

"Of course not, Queen Mab," I said. "I summoned you because I have information that is relevant to Winter, and you in particular. I know of the Adversary; of what it is called. I know of Nemesis, and I know that it has infected some key sidhe within your court."

Mab's gaze locked upon mine, icy cold eyes hiding something behind them, but I couldn't tell what. She was too inhuman. "Go on, Mortal. Explain."

"A few years back, the Leanansidhe was given a gift from the Red Court. A dagger, an athame that presumably belonged to some ancient witch," I said. "This athame contained essence of the Adversary, a corruptive essence that affected the Leanansidhe, but I believe she will come to realize what it is doing to her and come to you for help, if she hasn't already."

"The Leanansidhe, then," Mab said.

I shook my head. "I saw her with the dagger two years ago. Around your daughter, Maeve. I don't know exactly how this influence works or what needs to be done for it to work, but it's possible that she has infected Maeve already. The Adversary is insidious, and I don't know of how to actually detect it."

Mab's stare could freeze flame as she looked at me. "Miss Carpenter, this information that you have shared is dangerous and powerful."

"I realize that you have no reason to believe me," I said. "But I felt that you should know."

Mab's lips quirked up into a cold smile. "Yes, I suppose you did."

"Please be careful when you verify this information. The Adversary is dangerous," I said.

"Do not forget whom it is that you called, Mortal!" Mab came up to me, grabbing my jacket's lapels and lifting me off the ground.

"Faith!" Molly ran toward the circle, crossing the barrier and breaking it. Mab took one hand off me and waved it at Molly, causing her to float in midair as well.

"I am Mab. Assuming your information is correct, I will remove this taint from my subjects," Mab looked at me directly. "Yet still you want nothing."

"N-not at all…" I said, shivering as ice started to work its way down my coat.

"With the drums of war beating at your gate, you wish to simply pass information along, how novel." Mab lowered Molly and I to the ground. "Knowledge is power, and you have shared some, Mortal."

"I don't want anything from you," I said. "Help your subjects, help your daughter."

"Again you forget your place, Mortal." Mab cupped my chin, and then she tilted my head to the side. Immediately afterward, she surprised me by kissing me, thoroughly. Her lips tasted of frozen cherries, and her mouth and tongue were as ice. When she broke the kiss, I breathed out a puff of frost, and my heart raced.

"Perhaps you would make a good Knight, Miss Carpenter, if…" Her gaze turned to Molly. "But then, perhaps not… Listen for the drums."

And then she was gone.