Brooding.

Stretching out her long legs, she daintily rested her cheek on her hand.

Brooding.

Her chipped, broken nails tapped the arm of the throne on which she had so painstakingly arranged herself.

Brooding.

The lightbulb flashed over her head.

Of course! How silly of her not to have seen it before.

She stood up from her throne.

A high-pitched shriek of "MYYYYYYLESSS!" echoed throughout the palace.

The servant to whom she was referring was in the throne room in a flash.

"You called, Majesty?"

"Get me my cape." The Spider Queen smiled maliciously. "I've just had a delightful idea."

Much farther away, Empathy started giggling uncontrollably.

Apathy swiveled in her chair and stared at her sister.

"For God's sake, Empathy, do you never shut up?"

Empathy never really did shut up, for that matter. This tended to drive the others on the Holiday Conclave insane, particularly when she started laughing or crying during a meeting.

This particular instance wasn't a meeting situation, but many of the Conclave members were trying to get a few much-needed hours of sleep, which made Empathy's malicious laughter that much worse.

"I'm…sorry…I can't…help…it," Empathy managed to spit out between giggles. "Somebody…must be…really happy."

"Well, try to stifle it, will you? You got people staring at you."

Empathy always had people staring at her. Many of the members were waking up, rubbing their eyes and glaring around for the source of the disturbance.

Apathy clapped a hand over her sister's mouth. "Eh heh…nothing over here; go back to sleep…"

Then Empathy let out a huge wail.

"Dammit," Apathy hissed. She put her arm around her sister's shoulder. "Okay…Em, what is it, what's bothering you now?"

"The…the…the…the…birds," Empathy sobbed. "All…our…birds…she's…taking…them…away…"

Apathy sighed. "Chair, we have a crisis. Em says it's something about birds."

The Chair glanced out from under his huge hat. "Birds?" He always spoke slowly, in a quiet voice; nevertheless, he never had any trouble making himself heard.

He turned to a woman on his right. "Perspicacia, would you mind checking all the spring holidays and see if they're having any trouble with birds?"

"Sure thing, Chair." The woman disappeared in a flash of light.

The Chair stared down the long table at a still-sobbing Empathy. "Would anyone be so kind as to get Miss Empathy a box of Kleenex?"