Almost done with the first week of school! Wow, I'm tired.

Black Cat: The lair is Ellie's as well, but she isn't as aware of it as Danny is right now, because Danny's been through some stuff she hasn't. As for Dan, he and Danny are too hostile to each other to share a lair.

Potkanka: Yep, navigators are highly sought after. I'm very happy you had that reaction to Vlad's part. The sympathy, followed by remembering that he is kinda a jerk is exactly what I was going for. With the trial, Danny is a witness and a victim. I've made the ghost legal process substantially and explicitly different than the human one, because I don't know a huge amount about legal systems either. I think that in an American court, though, Danny wouldn't necessarily have to testify, as long as there were other witnesses. I have this vague impression that prosecutors try not to have victims testify if they're traumatized or young... I don't know if that's true, though...

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! I'm sorry I couldn't answer you all.

Also a big thank you to my beta reader, kimcat! She has a DP story now, as well, you should check it out!

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Chapter 156: the Tutors

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Danny, despite wanting to spend at least some time talking with his friends and older sister before they were all separated again, spent most of his remaining time on the ship either asleep, in a sick doze, or dazed, and the rest in fevered (literally) preparation for leaving.

Dr. Iceclaw kept packing snow around him. The snow kept melting. Danny kept feeling awful and hot, although now the heat was concentrated in his stomach, rather than radiating throughout his limbs. His core was happier, although it was still distinctly uncomfortable.

Danny didn't understand. He'd been out in weather that was hotter, he was pretty sure, and he'd been okay, so why was this bothering him so much? Was it the supernatural element? The 'tangling' Dr. Iceclaw had described? He shifted, and the ice crunched around him.

Ancients, but he was miserable. This'd teach him to eat random ghost artifacts. Not that the amulet had been random, exactly, or that he had meant to eat it.

When Danny was roused from his semi-stupor, he was confronted by the sight of Dr. Iceclaw wearing an odd kind of sling. He eyed it with some suspicion, but sighed. It wasn't like he was up for any heavy flying, and this way he could take advantage of Iceclaw's nice, cool, temperature. Maybe he'd even be comfortable.

"I know this isn't ideal," started Dr. Iceclaw, looking somewhat awkward.

"It's fine," said Danny. "It's better than me trying to hold onto you by your fur the whole time. You'd have none left."

"And I'm the only one with a core cold enough to produce ice," added Iceclaw.

"Okay. Yeah. That sounds about right."

"You will also be able to rest while we travel," offered Iceclaw.

"Okay."

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Danny found that he could hide quite nicely in the sling. If he didn't look out, no one would know he was there. Of course, for the moment, he wanted to look out. Jazz had stepped away to use the bathroom. Sam and Tucker were waiting with Danny and Iceclaw, half asleep. Their journey through the Tower hadn't been as long or as taxing as Danny's, but it had been a journey, followed by a taxing battle, and they'd been napping with Danny.

"Do the rest of my classmates know that I'm going?" asked Danny.

"Ah, no. They were asleep when we made the decision, I'm afraid," said Dr. Iceclaw. "Your teacher was still awake, though. He asked to see you off."

"Oh," said Danny. "That's good."

Tucker yawned hugely, then looked at Danny apologetically. "I still can't believe you have to go. It's so- It's- I don't even know. You'd better not disappear on us. No getting assassinated."

"Yeah. As long as you don't disappear on me. No- Um. No dying. Or getting in trouble. I'm the only one that's allowed to get in trouble."

"Ha, no way!" said Sam. "I guarantee we can get in trouble just as well as you."

"But you're not allowed," said Danny, with a bit of a whine.

"Not allowed what?" asked Jazz.

"To get in trouble, apparently," said Tucker.

Jazz had the audacity to snort. Danny gave her a small glare and hid.

"We'll do our best," said Jazz, in a conciliatory tone. "But you'd better focus on getting better, okay?"

"Hey, that's what I said!" said Tucker. "Well, almost."

"Mf," said Danny.

The door creaked open. "Are you guys ready?" asked Ellie.

"If you guys are," said Jazz.

"Should be," said Ellie. "They got the last of your equipment assigned, and stuff. Hey, Danny, how are you doing?"

"Fine," said Danny. He poked his head out again. "I'm gonna miss you. I don't wanna go again."

"This time we'll know where you are," said Jazz.

"Unless you get kidnapped again. Don't do that, it isn't good for y-"

"Shut up, Tucker," said Sam, elbowing him fiercely.

"Hey!" complained Tucker.

Danny laughed, weakly. "I'll miss you," he said.

"We're not saying goodbye just yet. We're seeing you off, remember?"

"Mhm," said Danny.

Taking this as his cue, Iceclaw began to make his way up through the ship, Ellie and the humans following behind. They had to take a detour or two, to avoid engineers and carpenters making repairs, but otherwise made good time.

The escort assembled on the top deck was small, perhaps six or seven Elysians. From what Danny remembered of the earlier conference, it was necessarily so. Danny was impressed by the size of the pack Pandora had assigned herself, and by the fact that someone on board had packed pajamas for Mr. Lancer, because that was what he was wearing. The old teacher looked incredibly out of place.

Jazz took pity on his nerves, and waved him over as they walked (or, in Iceclaw's case, flew).

"You aren't all going are you?" Mr. Lancer asked, his voice thin with stress.

"No," said Jazz. "We're just here to see Danny off."

"He's really quite ill, isn't he?" worried Mr. Lancer. "Where is he?"

Well, Danny wasn't all that visible where he was. "Hi," he said.

Mr. Lancer jumped about a foot, and then pressed a hand to his heart. "Oh," he said, faintly.

"Are you okay?" asked everyone, more or less simultaneously.

"I'm fine," Mr. Lancer said, waving off the concern. "More importantly, Danny, what happened? I was under the impression that Ellie, here, had helped heal you?"

"Swallowed something I shouldn't have. Need it removed." The laconic description made it sound like Danny was a toddler that had swallowed a Lego, or something. "You should be asleep," he finished, by way of turning attention from himself.

"I will be soon enough, I suppose... I had wanted to make sure all my students were safe first, but, well..." the teacher trailed off, uncertain. "I'd like to see you off, first."

"Mhm," said Danny, trying not to feel guilty. "Okay."

"Danny, just, please, be safe."

"I'll try," said Danny.

There was a yip from below, and Danny twisted to see what it was.

"Don't do that!" said Iceclaw, alarmed. "It's just your dog."

"Oh," said Danny. "Okay."

The teacher peeled off of the group when they reached the soldiers, who quickly swarmed around them. There were apparently a lot of checks they had to go through. Danny settled down into the sling, and most of what was going on around him devolved into a white noise and babble.

Danny had almost dozed off again, but when he detected movement towards the side of the ship, he woke himself. He poked his head out. They were standing by the railing of the ship, looking out at a small collection of doors cupped by a geodesic egg with a missing end. A single humanoid ghost floated, reclining, among the doors, along with several oddly colored clumps. Danny squinted.

"Are those flowers?" he asked.

"Yes," said Pandora. "The Tutors keep several species of ghostly flora, for protection."

"Oh," said Danny.

The Tutor, because that's who that ghost had to be, waved at them.

"Time to go, then," said Pandora. She nodded to the captain, then turned slightly, so as to address a greater number of people. "Safe travels," she said, lightly.

Danny's goodbyes to his friends were just as short. There wasn't a lot to say, and Danny was too fatigued to say much of it.

The ghosts took off smoothly, the navigator, Cynosura, leading the way. The other ghosts fanned out, forming a sort of protective bubble around himself, Iceclaw, and Pandora.

This was the only leg of the journey the wisps were going to follow him on. Even if they could pay the Tutors (a proposition the navigator doubted), the tolls at the Architect's Gate might be too much for them to go through with the others, and then they'd be stranded in Method, far from home or friends, and vulnerable with that distance. They wanted to come, anyway, but Danny had finally resorted to a small, exhausted tantrum to get them to agree to wait for him in Elysium. They hadn't been happy. In fact, they had been downright sulky. Some of them were even complaining about Cujo right now. But Cujo's case was different. He could take care of himself. Usually.

Danny kept his eyes on the ghost as they came closer. It was a girl, a woman, with long, braided, lavender hair, and an almost-transparent purple-striped coat that rippled strangely, even for a ghostly thing. She was otherwise quite mundane in appearance for a ghost.

"Hi!" she said, cheerfully, though she had her face shyly half-hidden behind a book. "Do you guys need to use the door?"

"Yes," said Cynosura in a repressive tone.

The ghost blinked, and the edge of a smile slipped past the book. "H- Hey, Cynosura, haven't seen you in a year or two, how are you?"

"Fine. How much is it to use your door to Method?"

"You- Um." The ghost's eyes darted over the little party. The book inched back up, covering more of her face. "You're not going to introduce me to your friends?"

"No."

Although her face was now completely covered, the ghost's body language clearly showed a pout. "Then you can't use our door."

"We're in a hurry."

"Then you can hurry in another direction. We like to know who we let through our door."

"Don't be dense, Mar. You know who this is."

"No I don't," said Mar. "Is- Is this going to be some kind of- of 'Don't you know who I am?' stuff, is it? Because that didn't fly for me when I was al-alive."

"Mar-"

"Cynosura," said Pandora, in a chiding tone.

"My lady, this is the Tutor, Mar. The only one I've ever met, despite there theoretically being more. Mar. This is Queen Pandora of Elysium, Ancient of Hope, Doctor Iceclaw of the Far Frozen, Abderus, Dictys, Physcoa, Timandra, Enyeus, and Meda, also of Elysium, and Ellie. And Cujo."

Mar peeked out from behind her book, and looked straight at Danny. "Your name is Cujo?"

"No, he's my dog."

"Um."

"My name is Danny-"

"And he's very sick," interrupted Cynosura, "which is why we want to use your door. So if you would-" she prompted, gesturing at the door with her hands.

"Oh! Sorry. I didn't realize. Ah, so, still have to charge you. Um." She opened her book. "Did you know, if you have a powerful laser, you can use it to pick up microscopic objects? It's called laser tweezing." She smiled nervously. The smile slid off her face. "Not that one. No." She turned a few pages. "The color magenta doesn't exist as a discrete wavelength of light, it's just your brain's way of telling you that you're seeing light that isn't green, because red and blue receptors in your eyes are lit up, but not the green ones, and red and blue are on opposite sides of the spectrum of visual light!"

"Excuse me," said one of the Elysians. Danny thought that it might have been the one introduced as Abderus. "But what does this have to do with a toll?"

"It is the toll," said Mar. "Or at least it's how I get the toll. Cynosura didn't explain?"

"I didn't explain, because it doesn't make sense. You can't feed on the emotions of other ghosts."

"Au contrare, mon amie. Just because you can't doesn't mean I can't."

"You mean- You're like Spectra."

Mar made a face. "Oh, gross. No way. Don't compare me to her. Ick. I feed on the excitement of discovery! Curiosity! Sort of. It's complicated. You've already paid, anyway." She shook her head. "Here, let me so a few more. Maybe you can pay for all of them, even if you are sick. It's so hard to do for people who were born before the advent of the scientific method. They think they know everything, and I'm just babbling nonsense."

"This is why I advised you to make the ship wait, my lady. The last time I was here it took hours before she was satisfied."

"You just don't have any sense of wonder, Cynosura. Especially for someone named after the Ursa Minor. The constellation is used for navigation in the northern hemisphere of the human world."

"I am aware."

"Did you know Polaris is the brightest Cepheid Variable in visible in Earth' night sky?"

"You told me that last time, and I still don't know what it means."

"It's a type of star that changes brightness," said Danny. "Because they pulse. They change size and temperature."

"But the way they pulse, the rate at which they pulse, has a direct relationship with how bright they are," said Mar, picking up the thread.

"So they're a good standard candle for figuring out how far away things are!" finished Danny.

Everyone stared at him in faint bafflement.

"Oh! There you go!" said Mar, closing her book. "I'll get you going then. You said Method, right?" She put her hand against one of the doors. "That would be this one."

Danny looked curiously at the door. It was somewhat different than the typical Ghost Zone door. It had a lock on it, for one. For another, it had a translucent framework of tubes and rods connecting it to the geodesic egg. So did the others. Was it just to keep the doors anchored, or was there some other purpose to it? One of the rods pulsed oddly, and Danny decided on the later option. Maybe it was to keep the doors leading to where they were supposed to go.

Mar pulled a key from her coat, and inserted it into the lock. "Here we go. Remember, there's no way to come back until we're manning the other side, which will be," she checked a watch that Danny was sure hadn't been there a minute ago, "in about an hour, I guess. I mean, seriously, there won't even be a handle, and I don't open to knocks. Okay?"

"Reasonable rules," said Pandora.

"Okay," repeated Mar. She pulled open the door. Beyond was a landscape Danny could only describe as sparkly.

The navigator and the Elysian guards went first. As they did, the wisps kissed Danny, briefly, sang a few sad notes, and flew off.

Pandora motioned for Iceclaw to go next. As Iceclaw went forward, Mar's coat rippled, twitched and then morphed into a small, almost catlike creature with long, ribbon-like wings. It extended it's head towards Danny, large eyes whirling, and made a small chittering noise.

"Oh! I think Lie likes you. That's unusual." She put one hand on the small creature's head and scratched its ear. "He's usually very shy."

"Is that a chameleon moth sphinx?" asked Iceclaw. "They're quite rare, aren't they?"

"Y-Yeah. Sort of. Hey, I can't keep the door open for much longer, so..."

"Right, right," said Iceclaw, stepping through.

Danny had looked at Method once before, from a doorway in the Library of Tongues. It looked much the same from here. Geometric, smooth, shining glass buildings. Pyramids, crystalline shafts, and octahedrons were the most common shapes, although Danny could see rectangular prisms, decahedrons, dodecahedrons, and other, more exotic shapes. Many of them were labeled in neat, ghostly writing, or minimalist Latin characters. Twisting black and silver walkways wound through the buildings, and the ubiquitous floating doors. Small floating islands sprouted decorative floral arrangements and gleaming lamp posts filled with blue light. Ghosts, singly or in small groups, flew leisurely between buildings, or walked on the pathways. It reminded Danny of an airy atrium, even though it wasn't actually enclosed, or maybe of a futuristic Utopian city in a science fiction movie.

It was very bright. Too bright. Even the doors were silver and reflective, rather than the more natural (to Danny's eyes) purple. He hid in the sling.

"Well," said Pandora. "Here we are. Lead the way, Cynosura."