Mab found me not long after Amun descended on me with his legion of servants in tow. He was entirely unsympathetic to my need to get to Buyan in an expeditious manner, seemingly immune to my assertions that reaching Buyan was a time sensitive necessity. Apparently there was no such thing as a meeting too important to wait for a matching wardrobe.

Oh, and never mind that my head had become a flaming skull - there would be perfumed oils applied to my face.

I was still reasonably convinced that there was actual sorcery involved in some of the complex knots required to properly fasten the more ornate costumes of my office. As I struggled out of circle of servants before they could suggest the necessity of cloaks I saw her out of the corner of my eye. I extricated myself from Amun's aggressive brand of care, and excused myself under the auspices of greeting a foreign head of state.

The Queen of Winter arched a brow at me as I approached her and asked in a tone of mild amusement. "Have you gone completely mad, Lord Warden?"

"Said pot to Kettle." I replied, hefting the leather satchel with my weapons and armor in it over my shoulder. "I do believe that you were the one who decided to risk Paradox just to get me to take a meeting."

"You agreed to take responsibility for every being aboard that nightmare of a city." Mab intoned in a voice without emotion to it. "Do you have even the remotest idea why Koschei chose to stay on that monstrosity?"

"Honestly, no - but there were a bunch of people who would die if she decided to just destroy the city." I shrugged. "It seemed like the best option."

"Wizard - My mother isn't allowed to destroy Buyan." Queen Mab replied as thought I were thick. "The Builders had long standing treaties with Winter. We may not interfere with their strongholds."

I blinked as that sunk in. "Oh - fuck."

"And now you have inherited a problem that the Gate Builders themselves were unable to rid themselves." Mab clucked her tongue. "It will likely kill you, assuming you survive my daughter's interest."

"She did seem… eager." I replied diplomatically.

"She is the Winter Lady." Mab spoke firmly. "She does not yet understand the gravity to the consequences of what she desires. I would advise you not indulge her.

"There was no indulging." I affirmed vehemently as Mab opened a way. "Really, none at all."

"Obviously given that you are whole, sane, and undamaged." The Queen of Air and Darkness replied, her lip quirking up in an imitation of joy. "She has orders to return to Arctus Minora after she assists the four Russian Soldiers in returning to Moscow."

"Four?" My ears perked up at that. "There were more of them in the throne room."

"The others are still trapped within my Brother's enchantment, along with the majority of the women you freed." Mab replied. "The Archive and the Eater of Sin had enough power to break themselves free, but the rest are still frozen in battle."

"For how long?" I groaned. "No - don't tell me, Koschei was the kind of prick who would make that sort of enchantment with the intention of having it last forever unless you know the exact counterspell, isn't he?"

"One might assume." Mab's lip quirked up in cruel amusement. "And one would be correct."

"Don't tell me - you know how to break it, but will only trade it to me for a price." I sighed exasperatedly. "Lady, we've been through this song and dance before. Do you ever get tired of the steps?"

"It is my nature to make bargains as it is in yours to deny them." Mab chuckled, a mirthless thing that sent shivers up my spine. "But given your penchant to deny Queens of Fairy - perhaps that is to be expected."

"Ah - so you know about Titania?" I replied cautiously.

"I would not speak her name so incautiously, if I were you. She is unable to take action against you for what has transpired here today, but any insults offered from this point forward will be met with extreme prejudice." Mab grinned wolfishly. "It was foolhardy in the extreme. Well done, Lord Warden."

"Uh - sure." I replied nervously. "I'd been hoping to ask Maeve to help me get back to the ship - would you mind?"

"After you robbed my sister of her vengeance for the death of my niece?" Mabs voice was practically a purr. It was the purr of a hunting cat, less about lust than about blood. "I would be happy to assist you, Lord Warden."

There was a sudden rush of frost and we appeared in the throne room, between Ammit and the Archive as the two of them accepted tinned rations out of Kincaid's pack. The merc was up in an instant as we appeared, pointing a gun at me as his eyes bugged in shock. "Holy fuck!"

"Kincaid, stand down." Spoke the Archive firmly. "He is not your enemy."

"Uh - kid, you want to tell me what the hell that thing is?" Kincaid intoned, lowering his gun slightly.

"The Lord Warden." Ammit replied, her voice reverberating with the tones of the Goa'uld. "You've only been with him for several days."

"When did he get face-fucked by Skeletor?" Kincaid growled, before looking at the Archive, horrified that he'd spoken like that around her. The little girl pulled a jar out of her backpack, holding it up till Kincaid rolled his eyes and shoved a dollar into it. "Kid, you know more swear words than I do."

"And I know better than to use them in front of a child." Ivy replied.

"Where are Ul'tak and the Jaffa?" I asked, looking at the tableau of women and ghouls frozen in time.

"Exploring the ship." Ammit replied. "There is a lot of ground to cover."

I nodded once and turned back to Mab. "Queen Mab, if it should so please you, I have a private matter to attend to with the Archive. If you would be so kind as to allow me privacy, I would take it as a kindness."

"For you, Lord Warden?" Mab exaggerated her words in a way I knew was for the Archive's benefit. "How can I deny the man who just embarrassed the entire Summer Court and has twisted Titania's own law to protect himself. It would be my pleasure. What's more, I will promise the Archive safe passage back to the Homeworld when she crosses the Nevernever. It's the least I can do for the laughter you have brought me."

And with a sudden gust of wind, she was gone, leaving me with the Archive and her Keeper.

"Kincaid has told me your price, Lord Warden." The Archive intoned in clipped british English, her face far too serious for her young features. "I would know why you would ask for such knowledge. I am not eager to have a second Moloch in the galaxy - if it is your intention to re-create this foolishness, then I assure you that I will kill myself before I give you even a word of that ritual's truth."

"Slow down there hopalong." I held up my hands in a gesture of surrender, dropping my bag on the ground. "I just need whatever you're willing to give me that can help me figure out how to stop the ritual. Breaking the furnaces doesn't seem to work, it just cuts off a single outlet of his ritual. But it just keeps on going."

The Archive considered the matter before saying. "I can't tell you anything about the ritual - not without breaking word I have given. But I can tell you what he's using to power it without violating an existing agreement."

"I'll take what I can get." I replied, pulling Clerent from my bag and fixing it to be belt of my formal robes.

"It is - " The Archive broke mid sentence as her eyes fell on the blade strapped to my waist. "Is that Clarent?"

"Uh - yes?" I patted the blade's hilt. "At least I think so."

"Clarent allowed you to touch it?" Ivy asked as though the very concept of it terrified her. "Clarent?"

"Apparently." I drummed my fingers on the blade's hilt. "Shouldn't I?"

"I honestly cannot tell if you are sincerely as ignorant as you pretend to be or the most terrifying creature I've met in years." Ivy sighed in exasperation. "It isn't relevant to your question and frankly that answer would put you in greater obligation to me than you are owed if I answered both questions. Do you wish to know about the blade or Moloch's ritual?"

"The ritual." I replied immediately.

"Wise." Ivy nodded. "Tell me Warden. What do you know of fallen Angels?"

"I know there was some big hullabaloo in heaven that ended in a lot of Angels getting sent to down below to be the nastiest demons around. Lucifer and the like." I chewed my lip. "And that 30 of them got to interact with the mortal world through coins."

"And what of their Grace?" Ivy inquired, thumbing through her steno note-pad.

"Their what?" I asked.

"Their grace - the angelic power they cast aside. The power they rejected so that they could feed themselves on hellfire, what happened to their grace?" Ivy spoke slowly. "Grace cannot be destroyed, so what happened to it?"

"Uh - I guess they put it somewhere." I replied slowly, catching on to her meaning. "Stars and Stones, are you telling me that Moloch found a freaking fallen Angel's Grace and he's been mucking around with it?"

"Anduriel's to be precise." Ivy shut her notepad and put it into her backpack. "It's why Anduriel stopped warring with Lucifer for control of hell and consented to be returned to earth along with his most trusted soldiers."

"But - but what could he possibly need something that powerful for?" An Angel's Grace was the sort of thing you could charitably describe as the nuclear option. He had a supernatural "I win" button and was using it as the beginning of his ritual, not the end product.

"That, Warden, is a question for creatures more knowledgeable than I." The Archive replied, cutting open a hole in the Nevernever and stepping through it. Kincaid followed her into it, offering me the briefest of nods before he did so.

I nodded back. The guy was a dick, but he'd gone through hell to protect the kid. I didn't like him, but I respected him.

"Fuck me, Warden, the hell are we going to do about that?" Ammit whistled, speaking in a ghoulish imitation of Warden Nanami's voice. My blood ran cold as it occurred to me that there was a thinking, breathing, living woman now condemned to serve as the Eater of Sin's flesh puppet.

It had looked like Koschei had damaged her mind bady, perhaps even beyond repair. But if there was even a chance that I'd let a Warden live with the hell I'd nearly been condemned to when Heka possessed me, I'd never forgive myself. "Ammit - I need you to look into my eyes."

"Uh - you sure about that, Warden?" Ammit replied cautiously. "You know that you don't get to unsee that, right?"

"Look into my eyes." I stared down into her glowing green pools as she stared up into my starry pits as I felt the tug of awareness that meant we were beginning a Soul Gaze. Eyes were the windows to the soul - quite literally. And I was going to get a front row seat to what had happened inside of Warden Nanami.

I walked in on a battlefield.

Warden Nanami was beset on all sides by every horrible creature I'd ever seen. Slavering vampires, cruel fairies, werewolves, dragons, demons, nightmares from beyond the outer gates… and apparently clowns? I guess Warden Nanami had an irrational fear of clowns to go along with her very rational fear of vampires. In fact there were an astonishing number of fictional monsters to go along with the real ones.

I was looking at everything that Warden Nanami had ever feared to look at, everything that had every scared her. And at the head of the army of nightmares was Koschei - looking just as ancient and crazy as when I'd first seen him. No - that wasn't right, Koschei hadn't been as big or as powerful as the dream creature that beset Warden Nanami. Which was probably why the Warden was on the ground, crying in the foetal position. Her weapons and tools had become ephemeral things - items slightly out of reach that would turn to vapor whenever she dared to grab for them. Her body was bruised and bloody from where the creatures had gotten her, obvious psychic damage causing glowing lacerations along her body that had bled through her Warden's cloak.

She was clinging for dear life onto the one thing that stood between her and the monsters, a massive serpent that devoured any of the apparitions that came too close to her. It turned to me, beady eyes glowing brilliantly green as it tore into a vampire apparition with utter glee. Ammit was protecting her from the nightmares Koschei seemed to have induced in her mind.

Damn it - there wasn't going to be an easy way to get Ammit out of Warden Nanami without driving the Warden irrevocably insane. Hell, for all I knew being possessed by the Goa'uld might be the only way to undo psychic damage that ingrained. Leonid Kravos had been an amateaur by comparison.

And then, it was done. I was left staring into the eyes of Ammit, Eater of Sin, after having let the demon who devoured the unworthy stare directly into my soul. I had given her a complete view of me, the image of who I was in totality without artifice or illusion to protect me. Ammit, without question, knew who I was.

And then Ammit, terror of the Red Court, slayer of nightmares, and warrior goddess of Nekheb, just about died of laughter.