A/N

I was worried I wouldn't be able to upload this, FF.net was acting a little funny.


Day broke through the window, and I was already awake. The night was restful to be sure, but I wasn't all that comfortable sleeping in other people's beds.

All of the other girls were asleep, along with Mr. McCoy. I stole down the staircase as quietly as I could so I wouldn't wake them up. When I got halfway down the stairs, I heard Adelia talking.

"-can't lift it off entirely. My magic is good, but it isn't up to her standard. You won't be totally human."

"And what shall I be?" Crepuscule's muffled voice asked.

"Probably along the same lines of a changeling. I can give you two forms. But you'll have to change into the creature you are every once in a while, or the consequences could be bad."

"How 'bad'?"

"You could die."

I wondered if I shouldn't go back to my bed and feign sleep. I mean, this was obviously a private conversation.

"I would like to consult my Mistress, before I make a decision."

"Mistress? Aren't those girls a little young for that?" Adelia teased.

"I would never!" He squawked indignantly.

I tried not to laugh.

"I'm sure you wouldn't," She said smugly.

"My lady, I have no idea what you're trying to suggest, but I'll have you know that I am an honorable man!"

"Right now you're a dragon."

"That's besides the point!"

I was biting my lip now. Adelia was obviously baiting the poor creature.

"And I'm sure honorable is what every girl you've come across has wanted. Take Esperanza, shining example."

I'm pretty sure Crepuscule was utterly speechless by now so I started walking down the stairs again.

"Ahh, country. Good to see you."

This morning she was wearing the same dress that she wore yesterday. Her hair seemed a little messy. Crepuscule was lying on the floor beside the chair she was sitting in, looking sulky.

I rose my eyebrow slightly. They must have been talking all night.

"Good morning Adelia. Good morning Crepuscule." I said warmly as I sat in a chair across from them.

"We were just discussing on how to get the enchantment off him."

"I see. Did you get anywhere?"

"Oh I can take it off. Just not all the way. I better go see if the gargoyle is awake, talk amongst yourselves." She got up and stepped around Crepuscule, and headed up the staircase.

Awhile after she was gone, Crepuscule lifted up his head slightly.

"Lady Danny, may I ask you something?"

"My brain is here for you to pick."

"What?"

"Nothing. Go ahead."

"As my mistress, I must ask you if there may be a decision that changes my current state, and if that decision interferes with my duty towards you, and—"

"You talk way too much, Crepuscule. I'm not into the whole courtiers thing, so you'll have to speak in terms I understand. I'm going to guess at what you're trying to tell me now, and interrupt me when I stop talking if any part is wrong."

Crepuscule nodded and I started.

"Since you think of me as your, uh, mistress, you think that everything you do goes through me, and because of that, you now want permission to make a change to yourself that might be better for you, and then you're worried that if you change, you may not want to go running around anymore, and you'd have to ask me about that too."

He looked faintly surprised at me and then nodded.

"And the thing you are most afraid of is that I'll say no, dooming you to a life of thanklessness and depression, even though even if I said no, it doesn't really matter, because you could probably roll me into a ball and play soccer with me and I wouldn't have a chance."

"What's soccer?"

"It's a game I'm not all that great at but it doesn't matter because sometimes the audience is too busy beating each other up to care."

"I see." It was painfully obvious he had no clue.

"Now that we have your point of view, let me place mine…I am not your mistress, master, ruler, caretaker, or otherwise. I can't even master the concept of stay out of trouble. You have to be your own person no matter what anyone else says."

"But I have been a servant for many years."

"Exactly! Why don't you do something you like for a change? I mean, I don't have the right to tell you not to be happy Crepuscule. This is your life. And from now on, you are not to even act like my servant, my soldier, whatever. I'm cutting the strings, you are not in my service, now you have to make your own decisions."

He was totally silent. I was out of breath. That was the longest bit of speech I had ever said. And I'm not good at all about public speaking.

Then he nodded slowly, as if trying to sort something out. "Very well. I will ask Lady Adelia to change me into my true form."

"Good for you!" I cheered.

"And after that…I don't know. Lady Danny…may I ask for some advice?"

"Go ahead, just don't take me at face value."

"Should I go back to the first House I served at?"

"Why bother? You're a free man now."

"Perhaps…but according to law there I must go back and beg my freedom of him." He looked surprised at himself.

"But if you already have that freedom, then why go begging for it?"

"This is true. How very strange…" He tilted his head sideways. "I appear to be remembering things…long before Lady Esperanza."

"She's not Master anymore?"

"No." He said firmly.

"Good for you again. Looks like you just grew a backbone." Adelia came trooping down the stairs. Her dress was red this time. Her hair was straight down, with no hint of a curl to it.

"I thought you were checking your gargoyle." I said.

"He seems to be more interested in guarding the door than the top of the tower. Oh well. Do you to want breakfast? Everyone else is still asleep."

"Please."

"That would be most kind."

She waved her hand in an agitated way at the fireplace hearth and an explosion of ash covered the room with a light dust cloud.

"Drat. Knew I should have gotten the Demights to clean my fireplace."

"Demights? You have them?" I asked, alarmed.

"I don't have them, have them, they show up every once in a great while to take the ashes from my fireplace and my trash. They do that to everyone, I'm fairly sure. They're the universal packrats. They live in the Black Mountain Ranges."

Suddenly the air was clear. And there was a table full of skillet of eggs, bacon, and some other things.

"Hope it didn't get into the food." She muttered as she poked a knife into a toast. The toast didn't get up and poke her back, so I guessed it must be safe to eat.

I filled up a small plate of bacon and a few eggs and a piece of toast, and helped Crepuscule fill up his plate. I sat back down, nibbling on a piece of bacon.

Adelia sat in her chair and nibbled on the piece of toast she'd been poking.

"After breakfast, Lady Adelia, could you be so kind as to help me change back into my original form?"

"I guessed Danny here would be the one you were calling Mistress. She is one of the youngest ones, though."

"She is not my mistress. I am free to make whatever decision I choose, good or bad." Crepuscule said primly as he used his claws to fold a piece of toast in half and popped it into his mouth, chewing daintily. I almost had a fit of laughter right there, to see him eating so prissily.

"Glad you got out of that stage. Fine, finish your breakfast and meet me in the garden. You might want to bring a blanket." Adelia said as she put her plate aside and got back up and headed out into the hall and out of the tower.

"Why the blanket?" Crepuscule asked, mystified.

"You might not have any clothes on." I said, the only explanation popping into my mind. "She's saving you embarrassment."

"Oh." He finished his breakfast swiftly and then shook some crumbs off his foreleg. "Do you know where the blankets are?"

"There should be a few extra in the sleeping quarter, I'll be back."

I ran up the stairs as quietly as I could, pulled an extra clean blanket from the cupboard like the one in the bath. I then came back down and handed the blanket to Crepuscule, who took it gingerly in his mouth, and left the tower. I considered following him, but then decided Adelia would probably have enough to do without me hovering on the sidelines, being distracting.

I sat back down in the comfy armchair and heard bumps coming down the stairs. Apparently I hadn't been quiet enough, the others were awake. Jean came down, hair a little messy but infinitely better looking than a few days ago, followed by Kitty and Jubilee, suffering the same fate, and then by Rahne who was practically bouncing, which was odd, considering Kitty is supposed to be the bouncy one, and then by the lumbering form of Mr. McCoy.

"Good morning! Oh wow, look at the spread, I'm so hungry!" Yes, Rahne was definitely acting Kitty's part.

Things started to straighten up as soon as they all got some food in them. First the conversation turned to the food, and how it was the best they'd ever tasted. Of course it was. All food tastes like the best when you're starving. Then the conversation turned to where they would go next, and how to cross that plain that, oddly enough, I wasn't hearing any grumbling from.

In fact, I was hearing some very different voices… some of them sounded a bit like Rahne.

"But how do we cross a plain that gets hotter than Roberto when he gets angry?"

"We aren't on the plain anymore." I said simply as they finished their breakfast. They all looked at me. I felt nervous. " At least, we aren't in the part that is so hot. We've moved."

"Moved?! To where?!" Jean exclaimed. I shrugged. I wasn't good enough with geography or this planet to know.

"Well, at least we don't have to deal with the heat." Kitty said happily.

"But what do we have to deal with now?" Jubilee asked.

"Killjoy."

"I am not!"

"What's all of this now?" Adelia came walking back in, looking like she just worked an entire work without stopping to eat and sleep.

"You look awful!" Kitty blurted out before she could stop herself.

"Thanks. That spell was a pain in the ass. It kept trying to morph on me. I'll be right back, none of you move." She ran up the stairs.

"Great job with tact Kitty." Jubilee whispered fiercely.

"I said what I saw."

"What part of lying did you fail in your last school?" Jubilee retorted.

"Come now, let's stop fighting." Mr. McCoy said firmly.

Adelia came rushing back down the stairs with a bundle in her arms, looking remarkably better though she seemed to be out of breath. She didn't even say anything as she wnet past them and ran out of the tower.

"Do you think we should help?" Rahne asked worriedly.

"No, I don't think so. We should leave it to her." I said calmly. More calmly than I felt. What if Crepuscule was hurt in some way?

A few more minutes of fierce debating left the room divided on whether we should go or stay. Thankfully, Adelia came back in before we could make a concrete decision.

"Sorry for the whole running around bit. I had a spell that was trying to explode some flowers. And I'd like to introduce you all to someone." She left the room for a second, then came back dragging the arm of a very handsome and very nervous looking young man.

The other girls stared, and I did too, a little.

He had dark skin, a little darker than Roberto's. He was taller than Adelia, by almost a half foot. He wasn't exceptionally broad, but he wasn't slender, the way he moved suggested that he had once been some sort of athlete, though for what I didn't know. Dark black bangs hung over his eyes, and his hair was tired back into a long braid, well down to his knees, covered in rope to stop it from getting loose. His nose was a little long, and he didn't smile because it looked as if he thought he was going to drop dead of nervousness and fear.

Judging by his looks, he was in his twenties, late twenties. Adelia, I assume, had dressed him up in black slacks, a white shirt, and a blue and white jacket, well, long jacket, I don't know what it would be called. The edges of the jacket ended about his knees.

"Who is that?" Jubilee asked.

"This would be Crepuscule." Adelia said proudly. "I undid the spell, well, as much as I could, and he is now free to spend much of his time in his original form."

There were several exclamations of surprise and congratulations and Crepuscule visibly relaxed. I grinned. The guy really had to loosen up.

He turned slightly towards me and met my eyes and smiled. His eyes were the same brown I had seen before. I grinned back. He came over towards me and held out his hand. I got up and shook it.

"Thank you." His voice was barely above a whisper.

"No problem."


Well, that was rather interesting. But the road calls!

PrincessOfWildfire: Hope your curiosity as satiated. And I hope you liked the chapter!

Asteria: Yeah, she is sort of like her, isn't she? Well, I won't deny that I get inspiration from old greek mythology as well as other places. Good, the understanding bit was what I was going for. Hope you like the chapter!

Raliena: No worries, I'm glad you liked it!

Anon(girl): heh, I'm glad you liked the chapter! I hope you like this one just as much!

Herman shall take the reviews again, and hopes you all have a wonderful day!