Bundled in an itchy red scarf, Crow knitted autumn flowers together into a chain. The unicorn Nova stood by, munching contentedly. "What's it like to be a unicorn?" The orphan asked plainly.

Nova twisted her ears towards the girl. *What's it like to be human?* She returned. *I've only been a unicorn, so I really can't tell you how it's different than anything else.*

"I don't know what it's like to be human." Crow said, not looking up from her chain. "I don't think I am one."

A snort from the grass. *Of course you're human, child. You've got two legs and two arms and a poor sense of smell. What else would you be?*

"I didn't mean human that way," Crow sighed, looping her chain into a crown. Nova came over from her grazing spot.

*How about this: I will let you explore my mind, so you can feel what it's like to be a unicorn... or at least this one. I will look in your mind and tell you if I find a human in there. Deal?*

Crow nodded.

Pixel felt wonderful. He hummed as he stirred the pot of soup he was serving for dinner and added a little more salt. The arrival of Amaruit seemed to fill a gap – he felt whole in a way he never had before. He wished there was some way he could convince Score and Helaine of Amaruit's goodness. Normally he would have thought up some logical explanation, but something was happening here that overruled his head and settled in his heart. He tasted the soup. Delicious.

A slight twinge in his gut let him know she was approaching. Pixel felt a preemptive blush warm his cheeks and quickly turned away to rummage through the herb cabinet.

Amaruit did indeed enter, pursued by Score, who was looking a bit odd. "Look!" the girl snapped finally, "if you really loved me, you'd prove it by staying here with Pixel while I try to get you out of this!"

"But I want to be in this, in love, forever!" Score protested, but he took a seat at the table while Amaruit exited.

Pixel was stunned.

"You love her?" He asked. "How can that be? What about Helaine?"

"What about me?" Helaine asked with a smile, sauntering jauntily into the kitchen and tasting Pixel's soup.

"Well, I guess you're nice enough." Score frowned and his face spasmed a little, as though he were about to heave. A second later, he composed himself. "...but nothing compared to my goddess, my Amaruit."

Only Pixel saw the brief flash of pain in Helaine's eyes. He might have realized then just how close Helaine and Score had come to finally being honest with their mixed-up feelings, but he was still in shock from seeing lovesick Score. Immediately, Helaine-the-warrior took over.

"Well, who said I wanted to be anyone's goddess anyway?" She said, perhaps a little too bitterly. "Your soup tastes wretched." She informed Pixel, and stormed out of the kitchen.

He put the spoon to his mouth again. She was right.

Score looked at the slammed door with some interest. "What was that all about?" he asked. Pixel stared in disbelief.

"What do you mean? You absolute jerk! Didn't you know that Helaine is in love with you?"

Score blinked. "Well..." he smiled to himself "I think I was beginning to get that idea."

"Then why in heaven's name would you say something so cruel to her?"

"What did I say?" Score asked, doing a fantastic job of acting baffled.

"You told her she paled in comparison to Amaruit, don't you remember?" Pixel's voice lost a little of its angry edge.

"I love Amaruit!" Score said, a little automatically. He blinked again, as though clearing his head. "Helaine must hate me now." He said sadly, looking down at his hands.

"I don't blame her!" Pixel snorted. "Don't you care about her feelings at all?"

"I care... I care very...much." Score sounded as though he was having to strain to say the words. "About her. Helaine."

"Then what is your problem?"

"I drank a love potion." Score said easily. "And now I'm in love...er... the farther away she gets the less I feel it. I think. And when you say her name, I feel it. A lot."

"A love potion?" Pixel calmed down. Things made a lot more sense now.

"I don't have a lot of control over myself when...she.... is around. And I really can't...talk...about... Helaine. It's hard."

"But that's okay! We can fix this! Go tell Helaine what happened and we can all figure out a solution together."

Score shook his head. "Can't."

"Why not....oh." Pixel figured it out. "Your true feelings are for her, so the love potion has to work extra hard to overcome them...and you even harder to overcome the potion?"

Score nodded miserably. Pixel sighed, then procured paper and a pen. "At least write her a note, tell her what the truth is."

So Score took the pen, and stared at the paper. He found it exceedingly difficult to write, but not because of that stupid love cocktail. Finally, ink touched parchment. This was the first of many.

Dear Helaine,

I imagine you are incredibly angry. Go ahead. In some deep corner of myself, I am angry too. This morning, something wonderful happened, and we pretended it didn't happen. This afternoon, something horrible happened, and I'd like to pretend it didn't happen either. I drank a love potion. It's a long story. But I'm not really in control of myself any longer, not around Amaruit,(here there was a crossed out line where he had written 'the beautiful') and especially not around you. I'm sorry. Things could have turned out a lot better, but as usual, I screwed up.

-Score

He wordlessly gave this to Pixel, who scanned it and frowned, but set off to deliver the message.

Helaine was in her bathroom. She had yet to cry, but wanted to make sure she was in the shower in case that happened. So stupid... she should have known that it was really an accident. Helaine undressed and stood under the spout, casting the spell to make the water nearly scalding. She jumped back with a shriek when icy rust-colored water sprayed her. She recast the spell, focusing hard. Something in her magic snapped and went wrong.

Her shower turned into a dragon.

Helaine scowled and tried throwing another spell at it. Instead of a fireball, petite dining room chairs shot forth from her hands and bounced off the porcelain hide of the shower/dragon. The beast turned its head towards her and sprayed her with more freezing water. Helaine snarled and grabbed her sword, conveniently leaning against the toilet. The old ways were best.

When the metal first clipped the hard scales, sparks flew. The ceramic held firm, so Helaine focused her attention on the coiled metal of the shower head that now had eyes and a nose. It resisted her best attempts and spat water at her again. Helaine cursed and changed tactics. She rammed the heavy pommel of her sword into the dragon's side. The white scales cracked, and the beast wailed in pain, drenching her again with the filthy water. Helaine slammed the pommel into the cracked hide and was rewarded by a thick stream of water. She repeated this action in another spot, and another, until the beast laid down and cried mournfully as all the water ran out of it. As soon as it died, it transformed back into a shower, albeit a broken one.

Pixel stepped through the broken door frame. "Helaine!" he yelped, and threw her a towel. She had the grace to look a little embarrassed as she covered herself, but mostly she was confused about her shower.

"Why did you go berserk on the shower?" He demanded, staring at the rubble of tile and metal.

"It turned into a dragon." She said simply, drying her sword on the bottom of her towel-dress. "I just wanted some hot water, and the magic went wrong... I could feel it. It was just like before."

"You mean... back when we were eleven?"

"When we all hated each other."

"And we created those monsters to fight the trolls?"

"Exactly like that."

There was silence while they contemplated the significance of this. Helaine perched on the toilet and picked splinters of ceramic out from her feet. The towel slid up her thigh and Pixel flushed a deep violet.

"I'm... uh... I'm going to go look at our map, see if I can find out what's up. And I'll tell Score, too. He should know about this."

At his name, Helaine stiffened, but continued with her task. Pixel remembered his purpose for coming into her room.  "Here," he offered her the paper, "this is for you." He hurried out.

A letter? Helaine opened and read, forgetting her feet. It was in Score's handwriting, doubtless, but she had to read it twice to be sure it was him. She set her finger on the words 'love potion'. Girls on Ordin were always saving up money to buy love potions from local midwives, hoping to get their old vile husbands to adore them. Helaine had never heard of one that actually worked. She carried the letter with her back into her bedroom, and after dressing, wrote on the back:

If you truly are bespelled, find an antidote. If you are a lying rat, leave me alone.

Helaine sent the letter to Score with a touch of her sapphire, then gingerly returned on bloodied heels to fix her shower.

Score received the note, but unfortunately was distracted by the stunning face of his beloved at the time of its arrival. Although he was focusing hard on what she was saying, he could hear the love potion whispering "Isn't she pretty? Isn't she magnificent?" It was like trying to see clearly through fogged glass. Only a hazy misty idea of truth was reaching him.

"...so, as far as I can tell," Amaruit was saying, "there is no cure."

Deep inside, Score's heart stopped.

"There is nothing in the Book of Magic. It's permanent. I'm so sorry..." She sighed, and exited the room as quickly as possible.

Left alone, Score could feel the fog of love begin to burn off, and he picked up the parchment on his lap. It was his letter. On the reverse was Helaine's scorching response. He used his emerald to freshen the paper and remove the writing.

Dear Helaine,

There is no antidote. I am a rat, but I'm not lying. I can't leave you alone. We'll send Amaruit (the remarkable, the incredible)  to the other end of the Diadem. When I'm far from her, the influence lessens. Because it's you 

Pixel walked into the room, stopping Score's train of thought.

"The magic is wrong." He said shortly.

"What do you mean?" Score asked, putting the letter down and getting up to stand next to his friend.

"Helaine's shower just turned into a dragon. The-"

"Is she okay?" Score interrupted.

"She's fine. But she said it was exactly like before, when the analog on Jewel was incomplete. We need to get there, and fast, before anything else goes wrong." Pixel rubbed his forehead.

Score almost laughed. "I thought we'd retired from this saving-the-universe business when we settled in on Dondar. Silly of me."

*Pixel!* Nova's voice sounded inside the boy's head. *We need to talk!*

"Is she breaking up with you?" Score joked. Pixel ignored his friend. It was like him to deal with stressful situations with humor.

*About what?* Pixel returned.

*Crow. She's.... she's something else.*

Pixel and Score exchanged worried looks. "We have to split up." Pixel said finally. "Someone has to check on Crow and Nova, someone has to go to Jewel, and someone has to keep an eye on Amaruit. Much as I hate to admit it, we can't really trust her yet. Especially not now, with all this insanity happening."

Score nodded. "We can't bring my buttercup of delight to Jewel. We don't know if she's powerful enough."

"And you can't be with her because you'll go oogly-bananas and drool a lot." Pixel added. Score winced, but it was true. "Okay, I'll take Amaruit with me to see Crow. You and Helaine go to Jewel, and see what's happened."

Score flinched. "I don't think Helaine is feeling particularly pleasant towards me right now."

"Well the fate of the universe matters an itty bit more than your personal life. Now GO!"

*****

And the Author says "Fie!"

My excuse: Mononucleosis with a secondary strep infection.

So.... review! And read the other Diadem stories... or write your own.

Aroo!