Thralls were useful things. Sure, they were scary-looking and pathetically easy to disintegrate (unless they attacked en masse, as I had learned through painful experience), but they were servants first and foremost. Danni's servants, Pariah's servants, and my servants. That would take some getting used to.

Danni sent a thrall to tell Sam and Tucker what was going on. I watched closely, trying to figure out how she could summon them at will. She barely even needed to say a word. Pariah didn't need words at all to command them, but he let Danni do the ordering. I think he did that for my benefit- if I was going to reveal my heritage to the entire Ghost Zone, I would need to know how to boss the thralls around.

Another thrall was ordered to stand at Jazz's bedside (hopefully she wouldn't freak out upon waking up and seeing a glowing skeleton staring at her) and help her find Sam and Tucker. They could explain what was going on if we weren't back before she woke up. We probably wouldn't be. The Observants were notoriously slow.

Their Council Chamber was exactly the same as I remembered it: huge, round, and filled to bursting with terrified eyeball creatures in green-and-white robes. The whole Council was there, all one hundred and sixty-nine of them. They'd probably been waiting in that same position since Ammut left.

The Observants rose as one when Pariah (and me and Danni, but I'm not sure they noticed us) appeared in the chamber. Their eyeball heads remained fixed on the ground. No one dared make eye contact with the man they'd condemned to centuries of enslavement.

"I understand that you have fulfilled your duties?" Pariah had changed completely from the guilty, broken man Danni and I had confronted only minutes earlier. He was regal and calm, poised and confident, every inch a king.

"We have, Majesty," murmured the spokesperson. Don't ask me if it was male or female; I can never tell with Observants.

"Explain."

"The River Styx, sire."

The king went perfectly still. "Of course," he breathed.

I glanced at Danni, trying to figure out what was going on. We both knew what the Styx was- everyone in the Ghost Zone did- but we couldn't figure out what the Underworld's largest and most famous river could do to help us. Its waters held mysterious powers, but I couldn't think of any offhand that would help our situation.

"There is still one problem, however," the spokesperson continued. "We do not know how much of the story to tell."

That was my cue. "All of it," I told the Council. Many Observants jumped. Apparently they hadn't realized that Pariah hadn't come alone. "The Ghost Zone deserves to know everything, so we'll tell them everything. The only thing we have to decide is when."

The Observants did not seem happy with my decision- or, more accurately, with the news that I'd made a decision. They had wanted me to delay as long as possible, because every day I delayed was another day they stayed in power, another day their reputation stayed intact.

The poor spokesperson looked sick. "We have not decided when," it babbled. "We thought- we didn't realize you had made your decision, Highness." It swallowed.

"Neither did I," I muttered.

"Pardon, Highness?"

I blushed. "Nothing."

"We should probably consult Clockwork about when to make the announcement." Either Danni had figured out what the River Styx had to do with this or she had decided to ignore it. My money was on the second option.

"We shall send for him," the spokesperson yelped. It gestured at the Observant nearest the door. "Retrieve the Master of All Time."

The unfortunate eyeball jumped. "W-with your leave, my liege," it stammered. Kowtowing in terror, it backed out of the room.

I glanced at Pariah, wondering if he would explain the mysterious Styx plan. He didn't oblige. Instead, he resumed speaking to the Council. "You will make your confession before I appear. Then Lord Clockwork will tell the story of how I regained my freedom from Djall and from the Sarcophagus. However, he will not name my children until the very end, at which point they will take their vows on the Stygian waters and elaborate on what he has said."

I felt like hitting myself. Beside me, Danni cringed in embarrassment.

The River Styx is the River of Vows. If you're in direct physical contact with it while making an oath, you have to keep that promise. It's physically impossible not to. People who try go into a nine-year coma. When they wake up, their powers are reduced to a bare minimum until they fulfill their oath.

If Pariah swore on the Styx that he was telling the truth about Djall, the Ghost Zone… okay, they might think that as king he could weasel around the river's powers. But the Observants would be irrevocably bound. So would Danni and Clockwork and I. If the ghosts didn't believe Pariah, they would have to believe us.

"Then I shall appear and address my people," he concluded. "I expect you to have your script prepared by this time tomorrow."

The Observants babbled their agreement, nodding frantically. A couple of them shifted towards the door, paused, glanced at the stern king in their midst, and settled back into their seats.

A portal opened in the center of the room, and Clockwork floated in. He was accompanied by the cringing Observant, which sprinted to its chair and did its best to disappear without actually turning invisible.

Unlike the Observants, Clockwork was in Pariah's good graces. He did bow to his liege lord, but it was a lot shallower than the Council's terrified groveling.

Pariah smiled at him, the brilliant dazzling expression that made me understand how anyone could unite the entire Ghost Zone into Kantara. "The decision is made, friend Cephissus," he announced.

Clockwork smiled back. His eyes were distant, unseeing, seeing more than we ever could.

We waited with bated breath as the Tempus Lord gazed into the future. He shifted through his forms: adult, elder, adult, child. The child's face relaxed. Perfectly content, he returned his gaze to the present and declared, "All Hallows' Eve, and the Golden Age will begin anew. Worry not, Majesty, for all spirits know that you are the true king."

And Cephissus, Watcher of the Past, Guide of the Present, Seer of the Future, Tempus Lord, Master of All Time, knelt. His hood had fallen, leaving him bare-headed and humble, the first ghost to offer fealty to his king in three thousand years.

Pariah's beatific smile widened. "Rise," he commanded gently. "I have never demanded that from my friends, only my enemies." He gave the Observants a significant look before returning his gaze to Clockwork. "And you are by no means my enemy."

Clockwork rose. He met my eyes briefly, turned to Danni, and vanished. He, too, had a script to prepare.

Danni and I exchanged glances. Like pretty much everyone else in this room, we had to write a script too. But unlike Clockwork and the Observants, we couldn't start yet. We had to wait until they had finished their first drafts so we knew where to begin.

"I would speak with my children in private," Pariah announced.

"Sure," I replied absently. Then, realizing that we were kind of in the middle of a great historical moment, I amended my words. "I mean, we hear and obey, oh king."

Danni snorted.

We followed our father out of the Council chamber to a smaller adjoining room. It had been intended for smaller audiences with one or two Observants and their petitioners, but it served our needs perfectly.

We chose the three comfiest chairs and sat. Not for the first time, I wondered why Djall had inflated his stolen body to such monstrous proportions. It can't have been very comfortable to be a zillion feet tall. How in the world had he walked through buildings without going intangible all the time?

"Never backtrack," Pariah advised, trying and failing to hide a smile. "At least not immediately. Give them time to forget before changing your words."

"And make sure you don't sound stupid," Danni added. "Seriously, that sounded like something from a bad fantasy novel."

I stuck out my tongue at her. She stuck hers out too.

Pariah watched our interaction with paternal amusement. "You would be well-advised not to do that in public," he commented dryly.

"We're not in public," Danni pointed out. She remembered why we weren't still in the Council chamber and added, "Why not?"

"What was it you said about not sounding stupid?" I teased, shoving her side.

She began to stick out her tongue, glanced at Pariah (who was obviously fighting back laughter), and retracted it. "What I was trying to say was, what did you want to talk about?"

His smile faded into an unfamiliar expression. He didn't answer for several seconds, just long enough for my heart to constrict. Please oh please don't have second thoughts….

But once Pariah Dark had made up his mind, his mind stayed made up. He wasn't wondering how to break horrible news to his children; he was trying to phrase his request.

"I know very little of this modern world," he finally said. "Next to nothing, in fact. But if I am to rule again, I need to know what happened after my reign. I need to know this new time's culture, its history, its politics, everything you can think of."

I grimaced. "I'm not sure how much we can help you with that. I'm a history buff, but most of my knowledge is of the Human World, not the Ghost Zone. I know the basics of Barrens and Borderland history, but not much else."

Not much else that was relevant, anyway. I'd done a lot of research into the War of Power and a bit into the preceding Golden Age, but Pariah had lived through those eras. He knew more about them than I ever would.

Plus it was just embarrassing to admit that I'd kind of obsessed over him for the past three years.

"It would probably be better to ask Clockwork," Danni admitted.

He shook his head. "He is busy enough already. Besides, I have no doubt that you know more than you give yourselves credit for. Have you not travelled throughout the Mortal Realm, Danielle?"

"Yeah. I've only done a little travelling through the Ghost Zone, though."

"At this point, Danielle, I need all the knowledge I can get."

"Even of the Human World?" she asked hesitantly.

"The two worlds are more alike than you would think," he reminded her. "And don't forget that most of my subjects originated as mortals."

I glanced at my twin. She shrugged. "It couldn't hurt, I guess," I mumbled.

We spent the next hour or so scheduling. I was in charge of history, since I'd done a lot of research into that line of study, and Danni would cover the political situation of modern world because she'd seen so much of it. Our 'classes' would mainly focus on the human world, but all three of us agreed to do a lot of independent research on the Ghost Zone's history and state of current affairs. We thought that Jazz, at the very least, would be interested in helping out with that aspect. Maybe we could even get an Observant to tutor us.

Actually, scratch that last thought. It would be too nervous and we'd never get anything done.

Around this point, I remembered that Pariah could do that mind meld thing with the Ancients and suggested that since they had been around even when he wasn't, maybe they could accelerate the learning process. Pariah called them in to discuss it. The Ancients told us that yes, they had been there at many of the Ghost Zone's most important moments, but they didn't know everything about the Underworld's history. They could and would speed things up a lot, but we'd still have to do a fair amount of research.

My twin gave them an odd look and asked, "Would you guys mind going through some of the history books? Because that would really speed things up."

Thou art canny, Shade Princess.

We took that as a yes.

Ammut would have gladly given us her memories, but she had spent most of the intervening years in the Human World. Scary sees-lady say help come from not-here. Scary sees-lady right. Master-pups from not-here. Lucky find master-pups. Only visiting. But know not-here things. Will give not-here things to master and master-pups.

There was only so much that Pariah could handle without his head exploding, so he said thanks but no thanks to Ammut's generous offer. I made a mental note to ask about the 'scary sees-lady' and directed our conversation back to the tutoring schedule.

Pariah had a third thing to learn, something that pretty much anyone could teach him. He had been locked in the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep for three thousand years. There had obviously been a lot of technological and cultural change in that time. He had to learn everything from how to use a toaster to why nuclear warheads were Very Bad to the greatest hits of Elvis Presley.

Danni and I decided to split 'Modern 101' into several segments: science and tech (hopefully Tucker could cover that), new worldviews (Jazz's forte), and pop culture (which we refused to give to Sam. She's Goth. She hates pop culture stuff. Oh well. We could figure something out).

Of course, Pariah wasn't the only one who had a lot to learn. As prince and princess, Danni and I would have to discover the wonderful world of etiquette and politics. Joy. Well, at least it couldn't be worse than trig.

We had our goals. We had a rudimentary schedule. We had hope.

What we didn't have was a solution for my problems in the Human World.

I really thought that the conspiracy to overthrow part of the human government would show up in this chapter. It didn't. It got pushed back to the next one, that's all. But even that is only a plan to overthrow it. You'll have to wait until chapter 12 or 13 before you see the plan in action.

Any guesses on who the 'scary sees-lady' might be? Clockwork will tell us eventually, but it's fun to see your horribly wrong guesses.

There's a poll up on my profile about which story I should write next. It doesn't include the third book in this series (which shall exist, eventually) because I KNOW I'm writing that. If you have any requests, PM them to me.

-Corona