I have decided to post an extra chapter today. Why, you might ask? Well, I was going through my buffer for editing purposes, and discovered I had labeled two different chapters 171, meaning that I have one more chapter than I previously thought.

By the way, if any of you are looking for recommendations, can I suggest Lair Called Home by critiqu? They just updated today, and I really like their story.

Thank you for your reviews!

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Chapter 163: Cinderellie

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Danny felt his core seize in his chest, and gasped. The dogs froze, and slowly crept back, off of Danny. Cujo whined in confusion.

"Great one, are you-?"

"Something's wrong," said Danny, stumbling to his feet. "Something's wrong!" This time it was more of a cry than a statement.

Ellie caught him, just barely saving him from face planting.

"We need to bring him back in," said Iceclaw, "do some tests."

"No, no, no," said Danny. "No. Not here. It isn't me. It's somewhere else. We have to go. Something bad is going to happen."

"What do you mean?" asked Dora. "Danny? Is Mattingly in danger?"

Dora didn't call Danny 'Danny' very often. She preferred to tease him (very gently) by calling him Sir Phantom, even as she insisted that he call her Dora. It was an oddity that extended to Sam and Tucker, when they visited.

"Yes," said Danny. "No. I don't know. Maybe. It's- It's everywhere. Everywhere's in danger. We've got to go. We've got to." He reached for his core, and his rings sparked around his waist.

"Whoa!" said Ellie.

"Stop!" exclaimed Iceclaw. "Please, great one, you'll hurt yourself."

Pandora grew slightly, and picked up both Danny and Ellie.

"In we go," said Pandora.

Danny was breathing heavily, trying to get himself back under control. "Something is wrong," he insisted.

"Yes, love," said Pandora, "and we'll find out what it is together."

They went in, Dora trailing behind the two larger ghosts, barely deigning to notice all the dogs that had come in with them. The servants they encountered retreated in confusion, staring at their princess's odd retinue.

Panic crept up Danny's throat, choking him. All these people here, they were in danger, Danny was sure of it. He didn't know what they were in danger from, but they were definitely in danger, and he didn't know what to do. He was scared.

"Hey," said Ellie, "it's okay, you don't have to cry or anything." She sounded confused, which was fine, because Danny was confused.

"This could be a side effect of your core healing," said Iceclaw. "It could have caused a surge through the area that regulates your Obsessions."

They got to the room Iceclaw had taken over. Danny was shaking his head.

"No," said Danny, absolutely certain. "It isn't just me. It isn't in my head."

"I should hope not!" said Iceclaw. "Your core should be in your chest."

"What?" asked Danny, confused. "No, I mean, um..." Why did he have to stumble across the one idiom that didn't work across cultures? "I mean, this is real. Something is happening. Or is going to happen." He furrowed his eyebrows. "Has happened?" he said, faintly.

Pandora put Danny down on the table, and Ellie down on the floor.

Danny inhaled, shakily. "What's- What's happening?

Iceclaw pulled a kind of wand, like a TSA agent might use at an airport, off of one of the machines, and waved it over Danny. He peered closely at a screen set into the wand's hilt. Danny watched with trepidation, and wished that the Far Frozen's medical gear weren't so esoteric.

"That's odd," said Iceclaw.

"What?" asked Danny, voice just a touch too soft to make it a demand.

"It's hard to see with a scan like this, I should take a more in-depth one..."

"Dr. Iceclaw," said Danny, "what's happening?"

"Well, it seems that there is a flare in your core activity, but it's not in the area governing your Obsession. It's in the area that regulates your connections."

"Connections?"

"Yes, like your connection to your lair, or your haunt."

"My- my-" Danny was panicking again. "My lair? My haunt? Is something- Is something- It's something bad, we have to go."

"Great one, you aren't in a state to go anywhere," said Iceclaw.

"It's at my lair. Something is wrong at my lair, please." He slid off the table. "We have to go."

Iceclaw picked him up and put him back on the table. Danny made a frustrated noise in the back of his throat.

"Ellie," said Dora, "you said you and Danny share a lair. Do you feel anything?"

Ellie looked back and forth between Danny and Dora. "I... I don't know..." She shrugged, nervous. "Maybe? Nothing like you're feeling. I'm, ah..." She shrugged again. "I'm pretty worried about you."

Danny groaned. "Do you guys really think I'm crazy?"

"Not at all," said Iceclaw. "Power surges can be a normal part of core healing. And it may be possible that something is happening, but we cannot just go. Your lair is too far away, and you aren't well yet."

That was... reasonable. Very reasonable. Danny still didn't like it.

"Would you like me to give you something that will help you calm down?" asked Iceclaw. "It won't get rid of what you are feeling entirely, but it will let you take a step back, and analyze those feelings."

Danny bit his lower lip. He wasn't fond of drugs. They never seemed to work properly for him.

"It's a variation on a compound you have been given before," said Iceclaw. "It shouldn't have any negative effects, except, perhaps, for making you drowsy."

Okay, his earlier thought had been unfair. He had been given medicine that worked before, but the times medicine didn't work for him still stood out more.

"Fine," said Danny. "I'll take it."

Iceclaw looked relieved. He poured the medicine out into a tiny cup from a black glass bottle. It was thick and bright green, and, when Danny drank it, it tasted strongly of ash. Iceclaw immediately after offered Danny a large glass of pink juice to wash away the taste.

"How long until it works?" asked Danny, hugging himself.

"Just a few minutes," said Iceclaw.

Danny nodded. "I'm sorry," he said. "I keep screwing everything up."

Everyone started to deny that, except for Ellie, who hopped up onto the table next to him.

"It doesn't matter if you screw stuff up. You fix way more stuff than you mess up. It's a net positive, or whatever."

That made Danny laugh. "Okay," he said. The sense of wrongness was receding, little by little, but there was still a tension, the sense of anticipation. Something was coming, he was sure of it.

But was that really so different from before? He'd known for days that someone had it out for him enough to hire all those mercenaries. He couldn't imagine that they would just stop, whoever they were...

Wait.

Hold on... Hadn't..?

Heck. They had.

"Hey, Ellie."

"Yeah? What's up?"

"The gangsters, after we fought Aragon. Do you remember what they said?"

"Not really. I mean, Vlad and I only got there right before they all ran off."

"Right, right."

"Why?"

"It's just- They said who had hired them."

Everyone's attention had been on Danny to begin with, but now that attention felt much sharper.

"Who?" asked Pandora.

"Issitoq," said Danny. "They said that Issitoq had hired them."

Dora let out a little gasp, and her hand flew to her mouth. "Issitoq? The Judge Issitoq?"

"They called him 'the big eyeball,' so unless there's another Issitoq that's an eyeball..." Danny trailed off. "I'm sorry. I should have said something earlier, but I only just..." He shrugged, helplessly.

"You were ill," said Iceclaw. "It is no wonder you didn't remember, between that and that battle." He shook his head. "But these 'gangsters' were probably lying. I can't imagine that someone like-"

"No," said Pandora. Her face had taken on the aspect of a storm cloud. Lightning was flashing in her eyes. "He would do something exactly like that."

"He's done it before," added Danny. "He tried to make Clockwork kill me."

Iceclaw's mouth had fallen open. "That's disgusting! Who would even think of trying to make a parent destroy their child?"

"Well, he wasn't really," said Danny, trying to explain, "we hadn't met yet. It's complicated. The Observants don't like me." He looked down, and sniffed, remembering all the harassment, both minor and major, he had suffered at their hands since fighting Dan. "But what I don't understand, is why all this? And why now? Not that they don't take every opportunity to beat me up, but I mean..."

"This is a bit much, yeah," agreed Ellie. "More effort than they usually spend on us."

"Yeah." Danny looked back up, and noticed that Pandora's face had twisted from just angry, to angry and something else. "Pandora? Do you know something?"

She looked at Danny apologetically. "Nothing useful," she said. "Something we discussed at the last meeting of the High Council may have set him off, but considering how irrational he always was when it came to liminals..." She shook her head. "I need to send word to the other members of the High Council. This is clearly a violation of the prerogatives of the Council of Ancients and his own oaths. If we can get the High Council to interdict him, and put him under the power of one of the other courts for investigation, he won't have the freedom to keep up this ridiculous campaign against you. May I have access to your couriers, Princess Dorathea?"

"Of course, Lady Pandora," said Dora, clearly surprised that Pandora had even asked. "Anything that may help, I will put in your hands."

Pandora nodded. "I must go write."

"I will direct the couriers to find you."

Both ladies left the room, but went their separate ways at the door.

Ellie frowned after them. "One sec," she said, and rushed out after Pandora.

Danny looked out after them, sadly. "They're keeping something from me, aren't they?"

"I don't know," said Iceclaw. "But they all love you very much. If they are keeping things from you, it is to help you."

"I guess," said Danny.

"Now, as long as we're here, I want to run a couple tests..."

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Ellie ran after Pandora. Then she realized that flying would be faster, and did that instead. She pulled up when she reached Pandora's side.

"What is it," she asked, "that set Issitoq off, exactly?"

"It isn't important," said Pandora.

Ellie frowned. "Does it have anything to do with why Aragon seemed to think Danny had a crown? Or with how neither of us changed on the nobility floor?"

"I believe Dora knighted Danny," said Pandora. "Knights are typically considered to be a kind of minor nobility."

"Yeah, sure," said Ellie. "That explains Danny. But Dora never knighted me. I should have changed."

"If the change was sufficiently small, you may not have noticed."

"Forget that. I noticed while we were there that I didn't have anything making me nobility in my past. Don't try to bring up Vlad's Dairy King thing, either. It didn't count for him."

"'Dairy King?'"

Ellie made a face. "Long, stupid story. Don't try to change the subject. What's happening?"

"A great many things, Danielle, but I'm not sure what you are implying."

Ellie put her hands on her hips as she floated down the hallway. "I'm not stupid. Neither is Danny, but he's in denial, I think. I know what the Council of Ancients does, and there's only one thing that you all could have done to make it so that Issitoq was trying to violate your prerogatives by trying to kill Danny."

Pandora pinched the bridge of her nose. "I knew saying that was a mistake."

"Wait," said Ellie, incredulous, "I was right?"

Pandora shook her head, but in exasperation, not negation, and pulled Ellie the rest of the way down the hallway to the suite of rooms Dora had set aside for her. "Do you really want to know this?" she asked, once the door was firmly closed behind them.

"If Danny or I could get killed over it? Yeah."

Pandora nodded, and gestured Ellie towards a pair of chairs. Ellie sat. Pandora didn't. She started to pace.

"When Daniel challenged and defeated Pariah Dark in single combat, Pariah lost the right to rule the Realms. The defeat in and of itself wasn't what did it, but it was the last in a long series of events, the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak. Simply losing a duel isn't enough to strip a king of kingship."

Ellie crossed her arms, and leaned back. She was half-certain that Pandora was stalling, but only half.

"Similarly, winning such a fight isn't enough to gain kingship."

"I know that," said Ellie, a little cross.

Pandora sent her a quelling look and folded her own arms. "You may, but I will tell this story as I will. I was merely attempting to reassure you that, in any event, Aragon will not become the King of All Ghosts."

"Okay, sorry."

"Do you know what is necessary to become Ghost King?" asked Pandora.

So this was going to become a teaching moment, huh? "There needs to not be a King," said Ellie, "and the Ancient Council needs to agree on a person."

"There's more than that," said Pandora, "and it's related to what Pariah Dark lost- But you aren't interested in that, I see. A candidate for kingship must either defeat or gain the approval of all the Ancients, and they must do at least one great service for the Realms, thereby gaining the approval of the Core. Daniel is the only one who fulfills those conditions. The Core will have no one else. He also has the added benefit of generally being liked and respected- or at least tolerated- in most of the Realms. We named him King at the last meeting of the Council of Ancients. Although some might prefer the terms king-in-waiting, or prince. You remained unchanged on the nobility floor because you are effectively his heir." She paused. "Not in the matter of the throne, of course. You don't fulfill all of the conditions."

"Okay. Wow," said Ellie. "Wow. Yeah. Okay. So, um." Ellie spread her hands. "Why? Pariah Dark had been shut in the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep for, well, forever. The Zone hasn't really had a king since then. It doesn't need a king. "

"Sadly, that's not true," said Pandora. "Without a king, the Realms would fall apart, and with them, the Earth. A king is necessary. As is sometimes said, the king and the land are one."

"But Danny's really the only one? Really?"

"He's really the one the Core asked for," said Pandora. "There aren't any others that could fulfill the requirements of the Council of Ancients. I believe that you would be our next choice, except that you haven't defeated Vortex or Undergrowth, and they would never support you."

"And you guys were going to tell Danny..?"

"After the trial. We thought he had enough to deal with."

"Right," said Ellie. She looked away and bit one of her knuckles. "If the Zone needs a king, and Danny's the only option, or else the world- worlds- end, then why is Issitoq trying to kill him?"

"I don't know what is going on in Issitoq's core, but it isn't quite that simple," said Pandora. "We don't want the worlds to end, either. We would find another candidate, even if we had to beat them into shape, or make them from scratch."

"Okay, okay, just, what about you, or Clockwork, or one of the other Ancients. You guys are all really strong, right? You could beat up Vortex and Undergrowth if you wanted to."

"We can't. Oh, I've fought both of those idiots and won before, and I can't imagine, say, Nephthys, or Clockwork, losing to either of them. That's not the issue. We would not be acceptable to the Core, and our oaths as Ancients forbear us from taking the throne. We would have to be released from them, before we could do so, and that won't happen. The Judges would have to agree to release us, for one, and you see the problems involved in that."

"Yeah. Okay, I can see how the eyeball jerk wouldn't let you do that." Ellie shifted in her chair. "But you can't just not tell him. This is a big thing."

"We had agreed that Clockwork would tell him. We thought that the news would be... easier to take, coming from Clockwork."

"You thought he would take it that badly, huh? Gosh, this is so messed up. I really can't imagine Danny as a king."

"If it helps, he would not fully come into power until he completed the Rite of Ascension, and he is unlikely to be able to do that until he is a hundred years dead."

"It doesn't really help."