Traveling between London and Paris via the chunnel train looks cool, but it's really expensive. Maybe Madeline paid for their tickets with her rock star money. Other things I learned from googling: rock stars have little privacy, no free time and constant travel; it sounds like the worst job ever! 'Madder' is a plant that makes a red dye, it isn't a great rock star name but I couldn't think of a better one.

12 160 Vera ~Madder~

It's horrendously early and we're waiting to board the yellow and white chunnel train. Shimmergloom's sitting on her suitcase and dozing. I'm trying to stay awake by reading about Miss Nadine's friend on my phone.

Stage name, Madder (It's a plant, apparently.) Real name, Madeline Whitfield. Reddish very dyed hair, nose piercing, earrings all the way up both ears. She dresses like Tisiphone, and like Tisi, she pulls it off at least on her social media. Madder sings with fire and smoke machines and occasionally smashes up her guitar on stage. But in spite of the wanton destruction of musical instruments she's known to be a pretty decent person who treats all the people working at her shows well and is nice to her fans.

Until last week when she wrecked her hotel room, freaked out at her tour manager, and retreated to her house. And hasn't come out. The epic meltdown is all over the internet.

I'm having a moment of sympathy for Miss Nadine when my phone chirps a video call from Mom. I tap the delay icon since we just got the boarding call.

Miss Nadine is back with our seat assignments and the three of us file onto the train, find our seats and settle in for the least scenic ride ever. Miss Nadine across the aisle opens a book and Shimmergloom promptly goes back to sleep. I plug in my phone and put my headphones in and see that Miss Nadine has bought us entertainment for the ride: a season of Project Runway and all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. That's really sweet of her. The train starts, its low hum effectively canceling any chance for eavesdropping, and I tap to answer the call from Mom.

She's outside somewhere, a sunny-with-flowers kind of place with lots of other people around. She turns the camera and there's Twig and her friends eating popsicles watching something going on in the street.

"It's the Day of the Rose—kind of a mothers-and-fathers day in Magix. For some reason the tradition is to scare the pants off all mothers and fathers by letting their offspring race bikes through the city."

From next to her Dad says, "It was less hair-raising when we were the ones doing the racing. Where are you?"

"I'm… on the train, we're going to London to visit a friend of Miss Nadine's." Whose meltdown I was just reading about, but I don't say that.

Mom turns the camera back to herself and says, "Do you think sine it's the Day of the Rose you could..?"

My birth parents come into view behind her and I realize Mom just called so they could see me. I try not to be angry. I do a big smile for them since they can see my hologram. "Hello! Happy whatever day!"

I'm just watching on the tiny screen of my phone but I can see how they both light up, like just talking to me is the most amazing thing ever. And I feel bad for not talking to them more, even while the crawling mix of anger, pity and awkwardness I feel makes me want to hang up and just forget they exist.

Mom says, "Tell us about school? I want to hear too."

So I talk about classes and designing and the cooking show and how Monique snuck beer in. My mother attempts to look stern. Behind her my father reappears after a moment out of view, holding a bright green plastic sword.

My mother notices. "Tyndal..."

"The nice nurses at Saint Erana's can't object to this!"

He looks so gleeful that I find myself smiling. "You like sword fighting?"

There's a moment of uncertainty as if my father's just remembered I'm talking with them. "Yes, I do. Funny hobby for a diplomat but ever since I was at Red Fountain...I love it."

We're in different worlds, just talking over technology, but I feel something. "So do I, since the first time at a renaissance fair." Foam swords and bike helmets, me and Twig were seven and we took the class over and over all weekend.

The memory cracks through the moment of connection I felt. I have real parents who let me wave foam swords and tried to keep me safe. Does it matter if my birth father and I have something in common? But I should offer something. "I—we should—want to have a match, when I'm in Magix?"

"Of course!" My father says, "If I'm well enough to have a real sword by then." He balances the blade of the plastic sword on his hand and flicks it into the air, catching the hilt.

On their end of the call the bike race roars by and the crowd cheers. Mom says, "Maybe we should let you go; it's about to get very noisy here."

I nod. If we talk more it might get awkward, and I'm sleepy, I don't want to risk saying the wrong thing. "All right. I'll message you when we get there. Enjoy the race." I smile at all my parents.

Mom turns the camera so it's just her and says, "Thank you Vera."

We hang up and my heart's racing. Why do I feel so uncomfortable just from a short, nice, talk with my family? Families. I'm exhausted. Well I did get up super early to catch the train. I settle back in my seat and start my entertainment. I'm asleep before the end of the first challenge.

And I'm back in the World of Dreams.

The forest is all deep gray sky and green and violet shadows. Much nicer than sitting on the train, it's dark and quiet. I'll go down to the shore and look for treasure among the stones.

The sky is getting lighter, the shadows shortening and fading. Somehow I thought it was always dusk here. I find a fallen log to sit on, avoiding the glowing mushrooms growing at one end, and watch the dawn. As the sky fades pink the forest changes around me. Pale green mist gathers and comes together to solidify into grass and bushes and leaves on the trees. In the light of morning the World of Dreams is lush springtime. It's beautiful but I think I like the night better. I wander through a forest now dripping with flowers and vines. I'd like to see what the beach looks like now that everything else is different, but I'm not sure where I am. There's no sense of trespassing, even though I know people live here I'm not worried I'll meet them.

Shimmergloom is probably here too somewhere.

It takes a while, long enough for me to wonder how much of the train ride I've spent here, before I find Shimmergloom lying by a stream. Her tangled black hair is trailing in the water and her hand is down… petting baby alligators?

"...alligators?"

"Vera! You be here again!"

"Mmhm. Is that bad?" I kneel down for a closer look. Yep, definitely baby alligators. Cute!

"I suppose not. Getting Lost be bad, but maybe you're just here."

"The train is boring and we got up really early. What's with the teeny gators?"

"This be the nursery! When they grow up they'll walk and talk like we do… I don't think Mr. Barrie put them in his book."

Alligator people? Not in the book. "There was the crocodile that bit off Hook's hand and wanted to eat the rest of him."

"I be asking around after I saw the movie and nobody admitted they did it. Maybe Hook lost his hand some normal way before he even came to Neverland. If a pirate gets hurt on a voyage it can get bad. There be no hospital at sea."

It feels like we should know for sure, but I guess Hook wouldn't just tell people.

Shimmergloom gives one of the baby reptiles a goodbye pat and rolls upright. "Come meet my ancestors!"

"Ok." It doesn't feel like we're going to a graveyard, which is where my ancestors are. But this is Neverland.

We only walk a little way before we come to a clearing with a waterfall tumbling down a stairstep of rocks that form little sparkling pools. It's beautiful, even in this beautiful place. Lights like fireflies, faint in the sunlight, circle above the water.

Then they come streaming over to us and they're fairies. Real fairies, tiny ones, only six inches tall. Their wings are big and sparkling and their hair and bodies glow. Shimmergloom holds out her hands and they swarm to land on her, making a sound like tiny bells.

"These are your ancestors?" They spiral around us, tugging at my Dreamix clothes and my long hair. "Hello!...do they talk?"

"They be talking. You can't understand?"

One, with dark skin and a mass of bright blue hair, hovers in front of me and chimes—like a cricket chirping but more musical. But I don't hear anything like words. "I'm sorry, I can't understand you."

The little fairies chime and Shimmergloom says, "This be Vera, my friend! She isn't Lost, she's a magical being, come to help us. There be someone trying to use the shadow magic, do ye know any scuttlebutt of bad magic?"

They answer, but even if I could understand I'm too busy just looking. I've seen lots of fairies but these tiny ones seem even more magical. They're different from us, less human somehow. Three tiny fairies are talking, their bell-voices overlapping in harmony. Shimmergloom nods and says, 'Aye.' and after a few minutes looks at me and translates, "They came here a long time ago to hide the spells of the shadow magic so nobody else could find them and do… whatever, some bilgerat did something… that was their mission. They hid the spells somewhere… I think they buried it. And forgot where!"

"Forgot?" I repeat, incredulous.

"The ancestors don't take things seriously. They be small, so their thoughts be small too. Mama got big because she started having big feelings for my Papa even before they met." Shimmergloom explains this as if it makes perfect sense, and maybe in Neverland it does. The ancestors not taking things seriously does seem to be true. A few of them still flutter around us but the rest have gone back to playing in the waterfalls, without any concern for the fact that we're here talking about evil magic.

"So the shadow magic was just buried somewhere?"

"Aye… nobody lived here then so it was safer. My ancestors were the first people here, they met the Spirit of the world and that's how magic came here and turned this realm into Neverland! Well, there be more to it I think..."

A tiny fairy is tugging at one of my veils, pointing to a circle trampled in the grass. I glance at Shimmergloom for translation.

"They be wanting us to dance." She holds out her hands and smiles.

"Shouldn't we..." I don't know, give a little bit more attention to the evil magic? "Grandmother, someone might have found the shadow magic. If any of you remember where it was buried, please tell Tinkerbell so we can make sure it's safe."

The tiny fairy chirps something that sounds like, "Ok!" and keeps tugging at my veil.

"Come on Vera, it be fun. Like this..."

It's not hard to dance when half a dozen tiny fairies are keen to show me the steps by pulling on my clothes. Shimmergloom and I raise our joined hands and turn in a circle as a line of tiny fairies spirals around us. There is music, it's very faint because the band is so small but once I get in time with the rhythm it starts to be really fun. The tiny fairies in their line pass before my eyes, all different colors and shapes of laughing girls. It's hard to imagine they were once warriors on an important mission. I'd kind of like to be tiny like them and just have fun forever.

I'm thinking this when I hear, faint and far away, "Mademoiselle Barrie? Mademoiselle Hume? Wake up, we 'ave arrived."

Shimmergloom stops and sighs, "Sorry Grannies. We have to go back." She closes he eyes and disappears. I hesitate, my hand still outstretched, and the little ancestors grab at my fingers and trill. I think they want me to stay and keep dancing. And I wouldn't mind…

"Mademoiselle Hume?"

"Vera, avast!"

Fine. I close my eyes and open them to the hubbub of passengers getting their luggage and filing off the train. I rub my eyes and yawn, wishing I could wash my face. We wait until most of the crowd has gone before claiming our carryons and getting off the train. Then there's station stuff and customs since we did go to another country and Miss Nadine orders a car to take us to her friend's house. It's a long drive and I zone out while Shimmergloom stays glued to the car window watching the city and the funny mossy walls that line a lot of English roads.

We finally arrive at a house that's like something out of Downton Abbey. It's not a castle but a big gray stone box of a building with an amazing garden around it. I've seen palaces in the magic dimension but it doesn't make visible Earthly wealth any less impressive.

"Wow." It's good to be a rock star, I guess.

Miss Nadine smiles from the front seat, "But think of the housework, Mademoiselles. I believe Madeline 'as dismissed the housekeeping staff since she's been unwell."

"We'll help!"

"Merci, Mademoiselle Barrie."

"Shirley, don't volunteer us!"

Miss Nadine's patient smile fades as the car parks and we unload our luggage. Nobody appears from the big house to welcome us and I ask something that wasn't on the website, "Does Madder, um, Mrs. Whitfield? Does she live here by herself?"

"Oui, except for the help."

Still nobody appears, and Miss gets on her phone and after a few minutes more one side of the big front door opens.

Madder doesn't look like a rock star right now. She's wearing sweatpants and her short hair is lank and flat. But she does manage a smile at her friend. "I lost track of time. Come in, introduce your students."

I'm embarrassed for her, having strangers see her looking so sloppy. But she just waves us in. The house has been modernized with carpets and furniture, but underneath the ancient wood paneling and sculpted ceilings show the age of the house.

"Maddy, it iz so good to see you. These are my students, Mademoiselles Vera Hume and Shirley Barrie. I thought they might benefit from a little break from school."

That reason doesn't actually make sense, but Madder doesn't seem to notice. She gives us a tired smile and I say, "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Whitfield. I like your music."

A bark of laughter. "You don't look like my usual fans."

"Well I loved some of the lyrics." I add with perfect honesty even if it comes out awkwardly.

Miss says, "We 'ave been all morning on the train; I'd like to freshen up and I'm sure the girls would too."

"Right. Upstairs and to the left, take any rooms you want. I think there's food in the kitchen. You can scrounge."

We grab our bags and head up the sweeping staircase. There's a hall with half a dozen guest rooms, a little dusty but fully furnished. We take the first three and I put my clothes in the dresser and my sketchbook on a cute table by a window.

"We be intruding." Shimmergloom says behind me.

"Yeah. Madder invited us to come with Miss Nadine, but I don't think she actually wants us here. And she still has her shadow so we can't do anything."

"There be darkness around her. But maybe not magical darkness."

"I think we should stay in our rooms a while, let them talk."

Shimmergloom nods. She's looking at the framed photographs on the guest room wall. "Who be these?"

I go over and look. "Famous people. Musicians and actors. I think they're Madder's friends who visited here" I don't know most of their names but I recognize some faces in a 'that guy from that one movie' kind of way.

"They look like pirates!" Shimmergloom points at a picture of a rock band. Is that grunge rock? They do look pretty grungy. I laugh.

"I think they're musicians. Look at these guys, they have wonderful clothes."

The photos in our rooms occupy us for a while. Madder has had a lot of famous houseguests. After some time Miss Nadine comes by our door, "Can you two stay out of the way for a bit? Raid the kitchen when you get hungry, Maddy is always 'aving guests eat her food."

We nod and I say, "If… we're intruding here..."

"Non. It is all right."

After Miss goes back to see Madder, Shimmergloom and I kill some time exploring our rooms, which are a lot nicer than our dorm at school and less creepy-opulent than the castle on Coventry. Still, Madder must be really rich to have so many guest rooms without even having any personal stuff stored in the closets or anything.

When lunchtime comes and goes and my stomach starts grumbling Shimmergloom insists we raid the 'galley.' So we basically sneak downstairs. There's the entry hall we came through, a big modern living room with a giant TV, gaming rigs and beanbags. A rock star party room! I've been to real magical worlds but I still want to experience the magic of those top of the line gaming goggles.

We peek into a perfectly neat parlor with antique furniture and a piano so polished we could probably see our faces in it. The next door we try is the kitchen.

"Oh dear."

Shimmergloom sighs. "We best be swabbin' the decks."

The kitchen is a disaster. Overflowing trash cans, piles of dirty dishes and a mountain of takeout containers. The floor is sticky with spills of curry sauce and soda.

"We can't just..." It's rude to clean someone else's stuff when they didn't ask. But if the someone else usually hires maids to clean it anyway..?

And there's really no excuse for takeout to be sitting around out of the fridge. The room stinks.

Shimmergloom opens the window for some warmish fresh air then gets to work on the dishes and I start filling a garbage bag with everything that's obviously trash. Miss Nadine turns up as I'm considering the fridge, which is bigger than my family's but basically empty. Fish and chips is great, but for every meal?

"What a state this room is in! Merci, girls, we would 'ave no place to eat."

"Is it all right..?"

"Oh, oui, Maddy hires her cleaning done, she iz used to strangers in here. Carry on, Mademoiselles."

"Aye! We'll get this galley shipshape!"

"We can't cook though; there's not much here and half of it is expired."

The fridge has a screen on it and Miss Nadine uses it to order food delivered. "I am thinking we will be here a while… or not. Maddy is not 'erself, she asks us to stay but I wonder if she really wants company. This mess iz not like her. Is she perhaps sous un sortilege? Under a spell?"

Shimmergloom shrugs. I hesitate; Madder still has her shadow, and I haven't sensed any magic here, but then I'm cleaning a very mundane mess so would I even notice? "I don't think she is, Miss."

Miss looks disappointed, but she just says, "Well, we can 'ave her house civilized at least."

So we keep cleaning, and pretty soon the groceries are delivered including snacks and some dinner kits. I can cook one of those if I have to.

We take snacks back to our rooms and pretty much lay low. I do some drawing and Shimmergloom reads while posing for me. It's fun.

And it's good that we got to relax because dinner is… tense. It's takeout but from some fancy place, and Miss Nadine and Madder talk about people they know in the music and fashion industries. It's kind of thrilling to listen to because I've heard of a lot of the people, seen them in magazines and really admire some of them. I can't believe I know someone who knows famous people!

Madder had been droopy and pepless before but now she's full of life, talking a mile a minute in a surprisingly dainty voice with a neat clipped accent. Her voice is really classy when she's just talking instead of screeching lyrics into a microphone.

Conversation wanders from current celebrity gossip to where all their friends from the WoW show are now.

"Vincenzo was just at ze school doing an episode if his show. He iz just the same."

"Do you remember the frijoles he made at the WoW finale? They were the best! Oh, I heard from Silka last week." Madder turns her phone to show us a video of a woman in arctic gear squinting in the sun. She waves and calls in a heavily accented voice, "Hello from Weisshorn Climate research Center base camp! You should come up here to film a music video!" And Silka sings, off-key, "Cold as ice, your heart's so co-old!" before someone else tells her to stop goofing around and the video cuts off.

Madder grins and Miss Nadine chuckles. "What iz Silka doing up there?"

"Repairing electronics for a scientific expedition. From her videos I think she's having a grand time."

I remember Silka from footage of the WoW show. She was a snowboarder who froze up on a big jump and lost her spot in the finals, but somehow got it back later on. I remember just because I felt sorry for her for freezing on national TV. I ask, "What was Silka's talent, in the finals? We could only find a few videos of it."

Miss answers, "Silka can fix anything. Watches, appliances, old phones. It's amazing."

"She's lovely. Keeps inviting me to visit their camp in the Alps but I like my camping more civilized. With room service. Nadine, maybe you should take the girls."

"There be more snow in that video than I've ever seen in one place." Shimmergloom smiles charmingly.

Madder smiles back but seems suddenly distracted. She gets up and begins picking up her plate and the debris of takeout containers, then puts it all down again. "Please excuse me." She hurries out.

Miss Nadine's eyebrows draw together as she looks after her friend.

Shimmergloom stands up and starts cleaning up herself. "Miss Madeline be nice! But she ran out like there was a lit powderkeg in here."

"You use the strangest expressions, Mademoiselle Barrie!"

I get up too, "We'll clean up, Miss, we did enough already that more is fine."

Shimmergloom sighs and fluffs her hair and mutters something about maid costumes, which I'm not sure how she even knows about. But I think Miss is about to ask if we can use magic for something so I'd rather get away.

When we get in the kitchen with the door closed Shimmergloom waves a hand and the dirty dishes levitate and glow and sail themselves into the dishwasher. "Enough of that! It be worse than homework!"

"Which we still have to do even though we're here." I remind her.

Shimmergloom's amber eyes turn to the garden outside the window. It's drizzly, the green grass faded to gray by the descending English night. "If we could be getting above the clouds I bet it's lovely."

"Unless someone sees us. Miss already knows but she might still freak out if she saw us transform."

But Shimmergloom heads for the door, "I won't go too high, I just..." She squirms, wiggling her shoulders. So I follow her outside.

Madder's garden is England lush and dripping rain. It's quiet, it feels like we're in the middle of nowhere even though I know the nearest neighbor isn't that far away.

Shimmergloom bends over and her wings unfold from her back. It's just dark enough that they sparkle white. Her ears poke out into points. "That be better!"

I can feel the magic of this place pushing up under the soles of my feet. I look around once more and close my eyes. My hair goes weightless and I feel my clothes change against my skin. Oh, it feels good. My hair and scarves flutter down to obey gravity once more.

"Ye should try your magic to figure out what's wrong. Ye be a Witch of Truth."

I could. I hold out my hands as if I could feel the shape of things in the air. There's certainly something wrong with Madder, she does not seem like the kind of person who would freak out and wreck a hotel room, but she did. If we knew the truth maybe we could help her.

My magic tugs at me. I'm not actually feeling anything with my hands, but imagining that I am helps me understand what I'm getting. Whatever it is, it's in the parlor with the piano. Looking in through the window my eyes are drawn to an arrangement of photos on the wall—which I can't see from here. And we probably shouldn't poke around Madder's house at night. "Those pictures. We'll have to go look at them tomorrow. Maybe Madder would tell us who's in them."

Shimmergloom's hovering a foot above the ground, her wings going like a hummingbird's. They still suddenly and she drops lightly to the ground. "Aye."

"I guess we could sneak in our spy suits but that seems kinda rude."

"Nah, better hit our bunks. This morning was early. I'll cast a spell around the house to keep lookout in case the Shadow Thief decides to sneak aboard." She takes the silver bell from the collar of her fairy outfit and gives it a little shake. The notes fall from it as tiny silver lights that zip off leaving a trail of glitter around the garden. I'm relieved when the lights fade to ordinary night so I can stop worrying someone will see. Shimmergloom folds her wings down and her fairy clothes change back to her ordinary ones.

I have to change back too. There's a moment when the magic doesn't want to let go, then I let out my breath and release it and my Dreamix clothes melt away.

So we go to bed.

The long day catches up with me and I sleep late. When I get up there's a message on my phone: Miss and Madder have gone out for breakfast and we should entertain ourselves.

When I peek into Shimmerglooms room she's still a lump under a blanket. It feels really weird to be alone in someone else's house, but Madder's place is weird—it's so big and it's clear she doesn't really live in all of it. So I raid the kitchen and find raisin bread, my favorite breakfast.

I munch happily away while I explore the nonpersonal rooms of the house. Madder has some neat stuff she bought with her rock star money, and some really old stuff too. Was this her family home before she got rich and famous?

Magic tugs my hands towards the parlor and I cautiously open the door. It's a big room and it smells… old. Like it hasn't been used in a while. The piano is closed and dusty. The tingle of magic in my fingers leads me to some framed photos on the wall over a dresser. I'm expecting more celebrities like all the other photos in the house, but these are family pictures. There's little Madder with her parents and a bunch of pugs, and a black-clad butler in the background. She's adorable as a kid, but her folks look so stuffy. There's little Madder on the piano—this piano, in this room. The internet didn't say she also plays the piano. Little Madder is smiling in the picture but her eyes are sad.

Then the pictures change—I guess this was when Madder got discovered. Lots of guitar playing pictures. Little Madder looks happier but her parents are in the pictures less, replaced by the family butler. Who is a wonderfully stereotypical butler, in the traditional black coat and everything. Even Queen Ravenna didn't have a real butler!

"This be Miss Madeline's family?" Shimmergloom's hair is wet and she's eating oatmeal out of a mug.

"This is what my magic wanted to show me, it's Madder's past. I think she was a piano prodigy as a kid, normal kids don't get up on a stage like that.'

"Nobody be playing that piano in a dog's age."

"Mm… look at all these pictures, what do you think?"

Shimmergloom stands back and looks over the history of a life in a dozen photos. "She looks sad."

"That's what I thought."

"I wonder what happened to her friend." She waves at the butler.

That's a good question. After Madder's pictures start having other rock stars in them the butler and the herd of pugs just vanish. Well I guess a rock star on tour wouldn't have time to take care of pets. But it's sad isn't it, to lose track of someone who from the pictures seems to have been pretty important in Madder's childhood. Magic prickles, telling me the butler is important. We'll have to find a way to ask about him when Madder and Miss Nadine come back.

"I think we should get out of here now, I don't want Madder to get weirded out that we were looking at her stuff."

"Aye."

I step back, but to my surprise magic pulls at me to open the lowest drawer in the carved dresser. And then it fades. Whatever the 'truth' is I wanted to see, there's more of it in there.

I open the bottom drawer. Old silver platters and things wrapped in special felt. And a silver spoon, silver plated lighter, and a baggie of white powder.

"Oh no." Everything Officer Gomez told us about drugs comes charging through my brain at once. White powdery ones are the worst ones.

"What be that?"

"Um." I close the drawer. "That be bad stuff. Now we really don't want anyone to know we were in here. Let's go hide somewhere and I'll tell you what it is, I guess nobody in Neverland does drugs."

We're scooting upstairs to hide when the front door opens. Madder and Miss Nadine are arguing but Miss keeps switching to French so I'm not sure what they're talking about.

The morning sun through the front door casts their shadows on the floor—no, only one shadow.

Shimmergloom mutters, "This be more bad stuff."