Shadows consumed me, whisking me away from the throne room to an empty void. I blinked as a pillar of light formed around me blinding after the utter emptiness I had been in. I poked my staff into the shadow outside the pillar and watched as it melted into utter blackness. Pulling it back into the light I sighed with relief as it returned to the light, apparently undamaged. I wouldn't have put it past Mother Winter to strand me in a void of endless, caustic shadow and just wait for me to go mad and off myself. It would have been her style.

"I know you're there, Mother Winter." I spoke to the void, reasonably confident that I knew where I was. But it would do me no good to show fear. Mother Winter was the predator among predators, Winter's frozen heart. She was the cool hard need to survive, an unforgiving force of pure nature. "I thank you for this unexpected invitation."

"Well, well, well - Wizard, or do I call you god now?" There was glint of sparks in the darkness as Mother Winter's iron teeth ground together. "What do I do with you?"

"Nothing, I believe." I replied, willing my speech not to quaver with the fear I actually felt. I mean, come on - the woman had just grabbed a city out of the sky on a whim. I wasn't even in the ballpark of being able to do anything to stop her if she meant me harm. "I have done you no wrong, Mother Winter."

"Haven't you?" I could hear the sounds of a cleaver being sharpened against a leather strap - though I couldn't place where exactly. "I believe it was you who tossed my son's feet across the threshold of my kingdom - forcing him to break my Law."

"He had already defied your law, my Queen." I replied firmly. "He stole the Archive from Nevernever."

"He never stepped foot on my realm though, did he. You stepped his feet in for him." I could hear the sound of the cleaver being struck against something wooden, a table or cutting board perhaps. "Some might assume that a mother would do most grievous harm on behalf of her child. Some would assert she ought to."

I actually laughed. It was a manic thing, as fearful as mirthful but it was a genuine laugh. "Sure - but not you. Koschei was defying you, he was flaunting the fact that he could disobey you without actually disobeying you. I just forced him to actually face the music on this one."

There was a loud thwack of a cleaver on wood that sent shivers down my spine as I heard someone shuffling towards me. Granny cleaver's face glowed hideously at the edge of the magical pillar of light, her iron fangs spread wide in - holy crap - she was freaking smiling. "Yes, Harry. You did."

Oh, Crap.

I suppose it would have been too much to hope that Granny Winter didn't know who I was. But I really had hoped. And then several thoughts connected in the back of my head which had been percolating for the past several days. "It was you. You're the one to ordered Queen Mab to tell Titania that I killed her daughter. You're the one who arranged for the Archive to know who I am. You're the one who ordered Titania to make sure that the Archive would bring me back to Archangel."

"Am I now?" Mother Winter's teeth sparked as she chuckled. "And why would you assume something like that. My daughter is always going off and doing things without consulting with me. What makes you so important?"

"I was the only one with even half a chance. I'm the only one who can take mordite to the skull and shake it off - at least I was until Ammit god a wizard host." I groaned, realizing how stupid I'd been. Mab had basically done everything but have a marching band walk through Nekheb with banners saying "it's a trap" and I'd just blundered into it because I was terrified to Titania. I'd never even considered that Mab might not be the one pulling the strings here. I mean, it's freaking Mab. "It didn't matter to you how much collateral damage would happen, you knew that once Koschei escaped and kidnapped a child his days were numbered."

"That is certainly one way to interpret what has happened. I do not deny that reigning in my son's treachery brings me joy." She smiled her horrific, gangrenous grin - smiling with all the joy of a rotting corpse as she continued to speak. "But I have yet to decide if the good done by dealing with my miscreant of a son is balanced out by my obligation to protect family, even if that family isn't of fairy."

She held up her hand, displaying a small glass globe containing a single snowflake. As she rotated it between her fingers I realized that it was Buyan. An entire city and she was rolling it on her palm like some tawdry bauble. She looked from me to the glass ball, following my gaze. "Do you like my new toy, Warden?"

"I like a number of people in it." I replied cautiously. "I would prefer that they not be damaged."

"And what would you do if I gave it to you?" Mother Winter's voice was daggers and frost as she clutched it. I winced as her fingers tightened against the glass - not enough to break it but enough that the popping of her arthritic knuckles terrified me that she might. "Would you do something so tawdry and mortal as taking it for your own? Do you plan to take responsibility for those within it?"

"I bear responsibility for the welfare and survival of the people on that city, yes." I replied, unable to tear my eyes away from the glass ball. "I would see to their safety and welfare, yes."

"Do not just say it. Swear it to me." Mother Winter replied. "Swear that you will take responsibility for the people in Buyan."

"I swear it." I replied breathlessly.

Mother Winter's smile grew crueler than I could have possibly imagined as she tossed me the glass bauble. "Then take it, Lord Warden."

I grabbed the glass bauble in confusion, catching it in my hands and cradling it between them as though it might break at any second. "You're just giving it to me?"

My blood chilled as Mother Winter replied to me. "Warden, I cannot think of a punishment more fitting than the responsibility you have just elected to take."

There was a click of arthritic fingers and suddenly the space I was in flooded with light as soot was cast off the windows of a small, medieval cabin. I looked over at a long wooden table to the cleaver. Apparently the horrific, fleshy sounds I'd heard only moments ago had been root vegetables of all things. The wizened crone of winter didn't seem to like the light, but she tolerated it so that she could be seen.

"Um - what do I do with it now that I have it?" I'll admit it wasn't a particularly articulate question but damned if I could figure out how to return the city to its normal size.

"You toss it into the air, obviously." Mother Winter rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Honestly, you're barely a god at all."

There was a creak of ancient hinges as a door swing inward, the smell of Autumn's last breath caressing the air with the smell of mulled wine and spices. A cheerful woman entered the cottage, the lines on her face and hands caused by laughter rather than hardship. Mother Summer arched a brow at me, looking to her contemporary and asking. "As he is not dead and in a stewpot I am left to wonder, why is there a Goa'uld in my house? Why is the architect of my granddaughter's death not in pieces."

"Because Aurora's death was necessary and we both know it." Mother Winter replied firmly. She walked over to the root vegetables and grabbed from the table, carrying them over to the stewpot. "Family is held to a higher standard."

As she lifted the lid off the boiling pot I was greeted by the piteous screams of Koschei. I closed my eyes, looking away as though not seeing him trying to climb out from the boiling vessel would save me from his cries. "Mommy, please mommy don't - don't do this to me mommy - I love you. I love you!"

I shuddered as the top slammed back down, silencing Koschei as he his atavistic bellow of "Why don't you love me? Why don't you love me!" pierced my very soul.

That was going to haunt my nightmares for a while yet to come. I looked to Mother Winter as she stared at me, her face unreadable. "Pardon me for asking, Mother Summer, but weren't you the ones who told Wizard Dresden all he needed to know?"

"Speaking about one's self in the third person is a sign of madness." Replied Mother Summer.

Double crap. I pressed the issue anyway. "That doesn't answer my question, your highness."

"Necessity does not divorce me from my love for my grandchild." Mother Summer replied. "I am guided by the wisdom of the heart. You're right that it is foolish to feel anger, but I would be lying to say that I have forgiven you for this necessity."

"He has taken custody of Buyan." Mother Winter replied, stoking the flames before pointing to Clarent with her red-hot poker. "And Clarent."

Mother Summer's eyes narrowed in incredulity as she looked from the first object, then to the second, then back at me. "Oh, you poor child."

You know. Eventually I'm going to make a deal with the Fae where I'm the one who screws other the other party. I mean statistically it has to happen at least once.

"I apologize for my rudeness, Mother Summer, but I have an appointment with your daughter. I promised Eldest Gruff that I would turn myself into him to negotiate the terms of my surrender." I looked from her to Mother Winter. "May I take my leave?"

Mother Winter waved me off. "Go, godling. You will not have the stomach to endure what comes next."

Mother Summer considered me briefly before opening the door. "I believe your transportation has already been arranged."

I all but fled the cottage. I didn't what to know what Mother Winter had in mind for her baby boy if boiling him alive was the part she felt suitable for public consumption. My hands shook with fear and my legs buckled under me as I reached Mother Summer's herb garden. I bit back bile in my throat, not wanting to vomit in the cottage garden for fear that Granny Cleaver might use it for some ritual.

A pair of thick leather hunting boots appeared in front of me as someone huge jumped off a stag. I looked up to see the Erlking. "Greetings Lord Warden."

"Morning Earl." I took his outstretched hand, noting that he'd wrapped it in mortal fabric to allow himself to touch my ferrous gauntlet. "I see you managed to get my guys to me."

"Indeed, Lord Warden. How could I resist the urge to help men to go on such an auspicious hunt. And one for Mother Winter's own table, no less?" The Erlking laughed without any mirth to it, though I knew it passed for joy as far as he was concerned. "Would that I were able to join you Old Hunter."

"Tell you what, Earl. The next time an insane, nigh-immortal, power mad gate-builder ends up trying to kill me, you're welcome to join me in kicking his ass." I stood up woozily. "In fact I insist that you help."

"I will hold you to it, Old Hunter." The Erlking's mirthless laugh of joy continued. "But for now, business. You have a debt yet owed."

"Yeah, I know." I replied. "How do we play this."

"First there is the matter of the Bane you carry with you." The Erlking gestured to, well, everything I was wearing. "You dare not enter negotiations with the Summer Queen bearing that much of the bane."

"I'm supposed to go there unarmed and unarmored?" I sighed, protesting even though I knew he was right.

"If you are forced to fight where I'm taking you, there is no amount of the Bane that will save you." The Erlking replied, pulling a leather sack from his stag. "Place your belongings in this bag and you have my word that they will be returned to you if you survive your meeting with Titania."

"Let's just get this over with." I replied, already suspecting where he would take me. I stripped off my armor and weapons, tossing them into the Erlking's sack. Though ensorcelled to take many items within it in spite of it's relative size, it was apparently not of fairy make. Iron did it no harm. I reticently placed Buyan into the sack. I'd spent a lot of time keeping the people in my care out of sacks today. It felt weird to put them back in one. But in the sack I had the Erlking's promise that my belongings would be returned to me.

That was something at least.

I was naked and unarmed, but if this went wrong that was the least of the indignities I would suffer today. Most of the flesh on my body seemed to have remained, though there were irregular rips across my chest, legs, and arms exposing bones and starlight. I allowed the Erlking to help me onto his stag .

We didn't talk as the stag went through the Nevernever. Earl wasn't the talkative sort and I was too busy figuring out exactly what to say. I didn't have as much time as I would have preferred. The stag moved through countries and continents of fairy so fast that it was virtually teleporting.

I had formed my half a plan into at least something resembling a plan by the time we reached a small wooded glen. Though seemingly inconspicuous, as we breached the glamors surrounding it, it was readily apparent that my suspicious had been correct. We were heading for Titania's seat of power.

Unlike the Winter Court, Summer had no permanent stronghold. They followed the seasons through the Nevernever, relocating the Summer Court to whatever portion of the Nevernever was closest to Summer's warmth at the moment. As a consequence the structures and defenses of the Summer Court moved. Some were more traditional structures like wooden caravans or palinquins on a grand scale moved by giant beasts of Summer. Titania's great fortress, however, was a massive tree on the scale of most cities that dragged itself along the forest floor with octopus like roots that would gently move any intervening trees and rocks out of the way, re-planting them where they wouldn't be obstructions.

All manner of creatures made their home in the traveling caravan of Summer. Satyrs, centaurs, elves, sprites, and creatures of every description, they were all as bright and beautiful as the creatures of Winter were cold and calculating. But the Kingdom of Summer was not a place of song and joy - not today.

Today Summer was in mourning for the loss of their beloved lady.

And I was the one who killed her.

Yay me.

A horde of monsters did not descend upon me when first we landed, which was at least something. The Erlking let me down from his stag and said, "I will wait for you here, Warden. This is something you must do alone."

"You sure about that?" I groused. "Because I'd feel more confident with you and a goblin army with me."

"You have agreed to surrender." The Erlking replied firmly. "I would not dare to interfere with you completing a bargain. Nor would I tolerate you breaking one. I am standing in for your godmother, after all. I could not allow a charge in my care to do something so… rude."

That… ugh… freaking fairies. I'd been hoping if this went tits up that I could at least rely on the Erlking to back me up. He'd done it before against summer. But that was before this became a matter of fairy honor. It was probably physically impossible for the Erlking to allow someone to break their word.

Here's to hoping that plan "a" worked. Yeah - sure. That would happen. After all the universe loooves Harry Dresden.

"Warden." A wizened voice brayed out from the entrance to the Summer Palace. Eldest Gruff stood, waiting. He looked me up and down as I walked up to him, his lips curling back in a smile. "Generally when one comes to surrender they only divest themselves of their weapons, not all worldly possessions."

"I didn't want the Satyrs to feel left out, what with always being naked and all." I shook the Gruff's hand as he offered it to me. "Seemed the best way to avoid someone assuming I snuck a weapon into the Summer Court."

"While the sentiment is wise, the Satyrs are perhaps not the sources of wisdom I would look to in a delicate negotiation." Jibed the Gruff, though his eyes still glinted with anger.

"Well I just got done kicking Koschei's ass and I'm tossing myself bare ass naked to Titania's mercy." I snorted. "I don't know how their wisdom can be any worse than mine is."

"How did you know?" Asked the Gruff.

"Huh?" I answered lamely.

"How did you know what Aurora was going to do?" Replied Eldest Gruff. "How did you know that she had gone mad."

"I've seen it happen before." I replied, omitting that the "previous time" had also been Aurora. "Kind of hard to miss once you've been through it once."

Eldest Gruff nodded once. "And why did you not inform the Summer Court rather than setting the mortal Wizard against my Queen?"

"By the time I realized what was going on, it was too late to fix her." I gestured to myself. "And let's be real. I'm not a credible source."

Eldest Gruff tilted his head in the slightest of nods. "I believe you."

"Well at least somebody does." I exhaled, looking up at the massive tree. "Not that it matters."

"Doing what is right always matters, especially when one can expect no reward for doing it." Eldest Gruff disagreed. "Come, Warden. Titania has agreed to listen to your terms."

"Uh, she has?" I blinked. "I half expected her to have you eviscerate me when I walked through the door."

"Oh, I would have." Eldest Gruff replied. "If you'd lied to me."

Ge-he-freaking-rate.