The Fight For Rights

by almalamaemperorkusko

After ten years of silence in a cupboard with her only friends, the spiders, one of them talks to Annabelle Potter! As an arachnatongue - a witch who can understand spider language - Annabelle befriends and allies with spiders around the world as she goes out into it, and together they start an unstoppable change: The fight for the sentient rights of all sapient nonhuman species!

12. Living In A World Like This

January 1, 2005 - Rynegaul Village

Annabelle woke gradually in her bed.

She listened to the noises from the open window. She breathed in the air, took in the scents. Stayed like this for a while, just...just like this. Just...for a while, until a soft rustling of caught her ear, and the sun was blocked out by something moving in front of her.

Annabelle opened her eyes and stared up at Anju, who had her feathery wings crossed in front of herself. There was a frown on her face.

"Annabelle, honey, I've given you as much time as I can, but now it's past time for you to wake up. Do you remember we have things to do today?"

Oh... "Yeah," Annabelle said blearily.

"Well then...please get up, and start getting ready?"

"Okay. Yeah...okay...sorry, just..."

Anju's frown deepened. She shifted her wings into feathery arms, and reached down to grab Annabelle under an armpit. She hauled her up and shook her a little. She put a hand in front of Annabelle's face; incredibly cold water rained down on her head. Anju waited five full seconds before dispelling the water and drying Annabelle off. "Please, get ready to go. I'm sorry, but we can't have a bad start - not today. Can we not have a bad start?"

Annabelle touched a very alert hand to her cheek. Ran that hand through her short cut, messy hair. Brushed her long bangs out of her eyes. "Yeah, okay. I'm sorry - I'm up. I'm...see? Totally ready."

"You're not ready yet."

Oh, right... Annabelle fumbled with the waistband of her pajama pants, drew her wand. She focused, pointed it at herself: her pajamas disappeared, were replaced by day clothes; another flick and her mouth was full of water, direct; a third and final flourish had her short hair brushed back properly as if done by brush or comb.

"I'm ready," she said clearly, shifting on her feet and flapping her arms at her sides like a penguin. "See? Totally ready. Let's do...what're we doing today?"

Anju looked at her a bit more patiently now, in her satisfaction. "We're going to drop the kids off with Norberta and Emerich, and then we're going to visit Daphne, and then we're going to drop you off at your therapist's office, and then I am going to work. After all that's done with, later this afternoon, you and I are going to make it on time for the magi-arachnid cultural awareness and exchange meeting."

"Yeah," Annabelle said firmly. "Yeah, we're...going to make it to all that. No problem."

"No problem," Anju repeated.

"I'm really fine, Anju! Just- slow start." Annabelle hopped up and down, flapped her arms wildly like she hadn't done since...well, since a couple months now honestly, just to make herself smile and giggle. "See? Thank you for getting me moving! I needed that."

"You're welcome." Anju sighed. She took Annabelle's hand, pulled her in and gave her a long kiss. "Let's get the day started."

"Yeah!" Annabelle grinned. "Let's do it." She flourished her wand at her sleeping bag, and it rolled itself up and popped out of existence. "So- the kids are...?"

"All awake and ready to go," Anju replied, cocking her head and sweeping a wing toward the open bedroom door. "They have been for over an hour now."

"That's good! That's great! Yeah. Great. I'm- proud of them," Annabelle mumbled out, flushing and squirming inside.

Anju smiled. "Tell it to them."

"Yeah, no problem." Annabelle breathed, looked up at the ceiling, and she smiled. She focused, and apparated. She immediately checked herself over - no splinching going on. Great! she encouraged herself. Standing in the middle of their expansion charmed entry room the size of a football field, she turned on the spot and glanced around. Nothing in sight. So that meant...

Annabelle turned her gaze upward, scanned the very, very high ceiling space. There! She pointed her wand at her own throat and altered her voice, increased the volume to absurd levels. "Hey! Everybody get grounded - or get...grounded." She watched with a smile as her six children, all of them nearly six and a half years old now, floated and fluttered their way down toward her.

Immediately upon touching down, her daughter Aki shot forward with a magical burst and slammed into her brother, Ren. Ren toppled over with a yell; Aki fell over too, in a high fit of giggles. Jemma, Shyri and Tej all laughed along with her. Kafe gave a half sort of smile and shuffled his wings against his sides, looked at his feet.

"Hey!" Annabelle said sharply, keeping her arms at her sides and her palms spread flat on her thighs. "Hey - come on, Aki, don't screw with him so early. Or- or at all. How many times have we told you...told you not to do that? Ren, are you hurt? You okay?"

Ren got to his feet, red-faced. He sent a hateful look at Aki (along with a cry of a really foul word in a certain harpy language), who stuck her tongue out at him and giggled some more.

Okay, then, he's fine.

Annabelle shook her head, touched her hair briefly. "Alright, uh- uh- yeah, good job everyone for...being all ready to go so early. I'm- proud of you for that. You know it's...it's good. Good...job...annnnd now we're going to get you all off to Norberta's!"

Instant noise. Shrieking, laughing, gleeful and high and excited. And then a whole six-kid shoving match broke out for no valid reason whatsoever - at least as far Annabelle could discern.

Annabelle grated her teeth hard, resisted the urge to bring her hands up over her ears. Still, she flinched horribly and cringed where she stood from it all. She took a step forward, then another. "Can everyone stop it?!" The words burst out of her, loud and harsh.

It got the job done, as much as she instantly regretted their escape from her: all her kids stopped, looked at her. Except-

"Aki, come on, for fuck-" Annabelle cut herself off swiftly. She stepped back, clenched her fists at her sides. Breathed. Breathed. "Aki, let go of Jemma's hair, would you? Tej, stop making faces at Kafe, you know he doesn't appreciate it! Shyri, don't laugh at your sister! Or- with your other sister! Come on. Can we all just-"

Anju floated across the cabin's expansive entry room, and immediately was using feathery arms and strong hands to grab Aki, pull her away from Jemma; she gave Tej a sharp look and a sharper, "Tej, stop it right now, or you're not even going to Norberta's today."; next came a look at Shyri and a hurried word of, "Stop laughing at Jemma this instant! Do you want to go see Norberta? I thought so..."

As everything slowly, very difficultly and haltingly started to settle, Annabelle took several steps back, breathing in and out. She half turned away, reached into her jean pocket and began twirling her newest favorite paperclip in her fingers.

"Everyone's ready to go see Norberta?" Anju spoke, clear and firm, eyeing her children one by one. One by one, she got affirmatives back. It was a really subdued group - for once. "Good. Now..." She looked to Annabelle. "Where's the portkey?"

"Uh..." Annabelle focused, gave her wand a wave; a sparkling rainbow tree branch appeared to hover in front of her kids. "Okay, everyone grab hold, and nobody lets go until we're there. Got it?" she went on, stepping forward to grab the stick herself. Anju gripped it a moment after, gave her a look again.

Their kids all shifted their wings to feathered arms, and they joined their parents in latching onto the portkey. Still, Annabelle cast a sticking charm on their hands. Just...to be sure.

"All right, the portkey turns on in ten seconds," said Anju clearly. "So everyone, let's count it down together, to make sure we're all ready. Ten..."

On "two" the portkey activated. The world spun and whirled for some long moments before stopping again.

Annabelle did away with her sticking charms, and her kids stepped back and fell back - all of them laughing; she flinched.

"Okay, everybody get moving!" Annabelle said loudly, making a shoo-ing motion toward the mountain cave's wide entrance. "Keep it going, keep- being good for momma here, all right?"

"The portkey was off," Anju said quietly, as they watched their kids step into the cave mouth and begin shouting and echoing as much as they could over one another. "You're sure you're fine?"

"I'm sorry. I know I- I messed it up, and I could've hurt you, or the kids, or myself, but I...I thought I had it. I've done it a hundred times before."

"At least nothing did happen," Anju sighed. She put a feathered hand on her arm. Looked at her with imploring, worried eyes. "Just keep trying your best for me, all right? Everything's going to be fine."

"Yeah. Okay. I uh-"

A great roar blasted out of the cave, echoed up and down the mountain and trembled the trees and brush. Some birds took off nearby for better prospects.

"Who's there?! That smell, I know that smell! I smell rinciri flowers, I smell smelly feathers, and- oh, look, I was right!" Norberta slinked out of the depths of the cave, hunkered herself down and snapped her tail forward around her body. She tapped Kafe with the lightest touch in the chest, then swished her tail away and poked at Aki with enough force to get her to stumble back. Aki immediately grabbed onto, and then jumped onto Norberta's tail wholesale, laughing and grinning ear to ear. "All the little ones are here again!" She swished her tail carefully about the air, sending Aki this way and that. She put her tail straight up, hung her upside down, then brought her to her backside and set her down there.

Norberta stepped out of the cave and onto the mountainside proper, her slitted eyes on Annabelle alone. "Mother, I'm so glad you could make it! I haven't gotten to see you since - oh, was it two weeks ago now?"

"Yeah, I'm glad to be here too," Annabelle replied, a big smile coming over her face. She stalked up to Norberta and hugged her long neck, kissed her snout all over. Norberta bumped her hard in the chest, then gave her face a dragon kiss that involved a lot of sloppy, wet tongue motions. "How're you and Emerich? How's Sevra?"

"Emerich spends more time with her than I do," Norberta answered, dismissive. She twisted her long neck around to look at Aki. The girl was doing her best - which was to say, entirely to no effect - to try and tear out one of Norberta's spikes. "But she seems to be doing just as well as she usually is - she's nearly full size, now. We're going to take her to see Charlie again at the end of the month. I don't think his answer is going to change about her, but every time I hope it will."

"That's great!"

"Yes. Very great." Norberta whipped her tail up over herself and gently smacked Aki on the butt, startling her out of her futile efforts to tear out a back spike. Norberta turned her gaze to Anju. "How is your work going? Is the hospital's stressful period over with?"

"With the holidays past us, yes, things should be getting back to the usual level of stress," Anju said seriously. She smiled up at Norberta. "Thanks for asking, sweetie."

"You're welcome. I just was-" Norberta stopped. She ducked her head and peered under herself. There was Jemma and Tej, together piling dirt and mud onto one of Norberta's hind claws. "-I was just doing some work myself lately, and I was getting stressed over it, and it's not even a regular thing, but yours is, so I thought I'd ask you..."

"So, how's your work going?" Annabelle spoke up; she flicked her wand at Jemma and Tej, and the pair of them were pulled out from under Norberta as if by a giant invisible hand. Annabelle tried to sort of...glare down at them in front of her as she said, "Yeah, no - kids, don't play around with Norberta like she's a...playground."

"My work's going fine! I think I'm a good teacher - and, I don't mind having your little ones play around with me like this," Norberta said, giving a little puff of amusement that rippled smoke out her nose. "It's not like they can hurt me. They're funny little things."

"That isn't the point," Annabelle said, breathing a deep breath of cool mountain air. "The point is that they need to learn to respect other people's boundaries in general." She directed this last bit at Jemma and Tej, with a try at an even sterner glare. They looked suitably...not pleased with themselves over it. Or maybe they were just scared of her? God, were they scared of her? Had they ever been? Would they ever be? Annabelle never wanted to find out. "They're really, really terrible at doing that. Especially Aki."

"They've gotten better, particularly this past year," Anju interjected firmly, with a sideways look at Annabelle. A little head shake. She looked at Norberta with a smile. "They've gotten better, trust me."

"I've noticed that," Norberta admitted. "But I still don't mind it."

"We do, so try to mind it for our sakes, please?" said Anju.

"Alright," Norberta said. She curled her tail around Aki and lifted her up off herself, set her down in the dirt again. "Boundaries: minded." She curved her neck to look at Aki behind her, and narrowed her cat eyes at her a little. "No more climbing around on me, all right? Anju and Annabelle don't want you to do that. It's rude. Understand?"

"Y-yes," Aki said dutifully - only because it was Norberta, Annabelle reflected - and oh so reluctantly still. She kicked at a bit of dirt. "No climbing," she repeated, much more obviously sullen.

"You got it," Norberta said, voice rippling with pleasure. She looked at Jemma and Tej. "That goes for you two, too, you hear me?"

"Yes!" they chorused, scrambling out from under Norberta as she started to shake one of her hind legs.

"Where are Kafe, Shyri and Ren?" Anju spoke up, looking toward the cave entrance. "Was anyone watching out for them?"

"Uh, no - shit," Annabelle muttered. She apparated over to the cave mouth, stepped into it.

"I'm sure they're fine!" Norberta called out after her without much worry. "They're probably just inside with Emerich...and Sevra. Oh, yeah, then they're probably not fine. Sorry!"

Fuck your scaly ass, you stupid- agh. Annabelle apparated further into the cave, apparated again, again, down a left tunnel, into an open chamber with a deep and wide lake in the center of steamy waters. And there were the rest of her kids. Sitting off to the side, with the sleek black, scaly form of Emerich curled up around them. Sevra, great and large in her nearly fully matured state, was on the other side of the chamber, hunkered down with her slitted eyes trained on her father - and Annabelle's kids. Her dark blue scales glistened in the light of a roaring bonfire.

"Emerich, hey," Annabelle spoke cheerfully, starting over on slightly shaky legs. "I uh- sorry they wandered in so far, so fast, I...I don't even know how they did it..."

"Would the answer be, magic?" he replied, a dose of mirth in his easy voice.

"Norberta's gotta stop rubbing off on you," Annabelle sighed, shaking her head.

"As you can see, it's too late for that." Emerich pointed at Annabelle's kids with a lazy tail flick. "And, I actually think it's me that needs to start to rub off on her. She's never been very much 'into' the parenting role, that's been very clear to me in these ongoing years."

"Yeah..." Annabelle scratched at her head, ruffled her own hair. She squatted down in front of her kids, rested her arms on her knees. "So, are you all behaving in here? No giving Emerich trouble? No provoking Sevra? You know that if you do that there's going to be hell to pay, in addition to the limbs you're not going to have anymore."

"I haven't," Kafe said softly, but certainly.

"I'm not," Shyri spoke quickly. Ren nodded his agreement.

Annabelle smiled. Looked to Emerich. "Have they?"

"They've been behaving to your people's standards," Emerich informed. "And I've been making sure Sevra does the same for my standards, as well as she can behave without true intelligence."

"Great." Annabelle stood. Stretched her legs out one at a time, gave a little kick to one. "I guess I'll leave them in your capable...claws. Probably best to split them up early, honestly - avoid a lot of the bullshit they get up to as a big group for a little while."

"Anna! You said bullshit!" Shyri cried, utterly scandalized.

Annabelle flushed. "Yeah, I did. And- uh- that was bad of me. Sorry. I won't do it again." She gave Emerich a nod, then apparated back out of the whole cave system.

"Are they all right?" Norberta asked.

"Totally fine," Annabelle replied. "They're all huddled up with Emerich. Sevra's actually staying well away, for now."

"Oh, that's probably because she knows he'll tear her apart if she tries to mess with them while they're under his direct love and care," Norberta said gleefully. "She's stupid, but she's not stupid."

"Stupid Sevra," Aki said, her tone mimicking the gleefulness of Norberta's not a second ago. In fact, more than that: the words were a direct quote from Norberta some few weeks back. Annabelle dimly wondered how her daughter had even remembered that so clearly and spontaneously.

"Aki, no!" Anju said harshly, turning to gaze down at her daughter with utmost disapproval. "No. Never say anything like that again! You don't say that about people. Would you want someone to say that about you?"

Aki looked at her feet. Shuffled her wings. "No..."

"There you go," Annabelle put in, trying to sound half as stern as Anju. "That isn't okay, Aki. If you say anything like that again, uh- I'm going to take you home and you can stay there, all right?"

"Alright," Aki repeated quickly, head coming up fast. "I'm sorry! Bad Aki, bad, don't say that! Aki, say sorry to Sevra."

"Yeah..." Annabelle sighed. "You can say sorry to her later." She looked to Norberta. "She can, can't she? Could you...make sure she does? And, you know, doesn't get her face eaten in the process?"

"Annabelle," Anju huffed. Her eyes were on their other kids, who were floating around with each other a dozen feet off the ground, making spirals and loops.

It was a real surprising show of coordination on their part. Annabelle marveled at what her kids could accomplish when they weren't trying to make each other's lives a complete and utter living hell, all for the sake of shits and giggles.

"I can do that," Norberta said firmly. "Me and Emerich."

"Good," said Anju. "Thank you."

They spent another half an hour or so just visiting, talking and laughing, and collectively watching over each other's kids.

Then, Annabelle and Anju apparated away, leaving their kids in the capable claws of two beloved people.

---

Gwendolyn City, Northern United States

Annabelle knocked sharply on the door with her metal fist.

The door opened quickly, and the silent apartment hallway was filled with thrumming, throbbing music of obscene volumes.

A long, clawed, pale hand stretched out to snatch Annabelle and Anju up and pulled them inside; the door slammed shut of its own accord.

Now it was just here, this, trapped in musical explosions. Literally: every time the bass blared, the magical sound system would open up like a wide mouth and let out a booming blast of floating, multicolored musical notes and symbols - along with a random array of shapes and animal images of all kinds. This all floated around the room like bubbles, swirling and weaving in and out of each other, all around; underneath tables, between chairs, behind dressers and paintings and knickknacks. Crescendos and pulses of music caused these shapes and images to pulse themselves, and their sizes to momentarily explode and expand before shrinking down again.

"DAPHNE, HOW DO YOU EVEN LIVE LIKE THIS?!" Annabelle yelled over it all.

Daphne, a wide grin on her face, lifted a hand and showed her a clawed middle finger. She twirled and hopped, danced and spun around the room without a care, that grin just getting bigger and bigger. And every time she made eye contact with Annabelle, looked down at her from her absurd and still-unaltered height...

Annabelle darted forward and grabbed Daphne's hand, pulled her to her and started to dance with her. Wild and furious, around and around they went together. The shapes and images, pulsing and bursting, flowed around them into a whirlwind. A tornado of shifting colors and patterns. It all moved around their arms in spirals, ringed around their waists and weaved between their legs, and between both of their bodies in general. They bunched up between and expanded, pushed them apart, shrunk own and flew off toward Anju to surround her head like a halo.

"I'm so, so happy to see you again!" Annabelle shouted up at Daphne, a grin about as big as Daphne's overtaking her. "How's Maria?"

"In her room - busy," Daphne replied, in that echoing, magical voice of hers. She was talking at normal volumes. Her voice was heard at normal volumes. She gestured with a clawed hand toward a closed door. "Probably sleeping. Probably alone. Either way...wouldn't open that door; she's gross when she sleeps."

"Yeah, I bet," Annabelle laughed loudly. "So how is this all-"

Daphne flicked a finger at the musical speaker system in the corner; the music cut out. All the shapes and images popped out of existence like popped bubbles.

Silence. Clear vision. Clear room.

Annabelle let Daphne go and stepped away. She stuck a finger in her ear and gave it a hard twist or two. Shook her head. Resisted the urge to wrap arms around herself, and the onset of nausea. "Still listening to Shards of Oblivion? You've really made this place your own in just three weeks, you know that?"

"Yes, I know," Daphne said proudly, gliding over to a large sofa and falling back onto its length. Her long legs hung off the side and the end of the whole thing. She paused, gave Annabelle a scrutinizing look. A frown. "Sorry for the music - forgot your whole sound thing - do you want to get something to eat or drink? Pretend it's your house." She lifted a long arm and twisted her wrist to gesture blindly toward a kitchen area.

"It's okay - thanks," said Annabelle, apparating over into the kitchen to rummage around the cupboards and cabinets. "Anju, do you want anything?"

"No, no - it's too early for anything," Anju refuted. "I'll get something somewhere before I head to the hospital a bit later. Thank you, sweetie."

"Welcome," grunted Annabelle, snatching up a box of spice-laden crackers from a high cabinet. She apparated back to the living room with it and sat herself down on an armchair. Anju simply lowered herself to the floor in the middle of the room, down to her knees, sat back on them and folded her wings. "Soooo...Daphne...you really did amazing getting this place. I mean, when the care facility said they thought you were ready to be set up with a program like this, it uh- I mean- it's great. Compared to where you were at even just two years ago - and especially six years ago - it's so great."

"Yes," Daphne smiled. She lifted a hand, started to wave it about in time to the imaginary beats of the music she'd had on a minute ago. "I love- love this place. It feels good to be here. I finally caught up with you," she finished, with a little laugh.

"You did," Annabelle agreed. "And hey, you'd actually be...ahead of me, if it wasn't for Anju. I'm just living with her, you know, and I only helped her with the early reconstruction, and now I do the daily upkeep around the village - some errands now and then for her, too - but I couldn't do this. What you've done here. This is- you know, this is mage city living, and it's...it's great. I couldn't handle it."

Daphne smirked. "Thanks - I know you couldn't. You like your out of the way, quiet places. Living out there...in the wilds...perfect for you."

Annabelle stuffed three crackers into her mouth at once. "Yeah, yeah it is. I love it out there."

"I love it here," said Daphne simply. "Maria loves it."

"That's good. She's been really good, hasn't she? No hurting herself or anything lately?"

"Not in weeks," Daphne confirmed, smiling. "I check on her. All the time. I make sure. She's better too."

"Good, good. And...you two are still keeping in touch with the care facility counselor?"

"Yes, mom," Daphne snarked out - totally good-natured, of course. "I wash my bras and clip my nails too."

"No you don't."

"Shut up."

"Love you."

"Idiot." Daphne giggled quite suddenly. "Lovely idiot. My lovely idiot..."

Annabelle smiled. "Yeah, that's me: the lovely idiot."

"Hey," Daphne spoke, as if a thought had struck her. "You know Gertrude and Teafa...booked...booked..." She stalled. Faltered. Her eyes glazed, and her lips moved silently. "Booked...thing at...sing, sing and they dance, you...know? At...Gwendolyn downtown...place...name...what's the name? What does it mean? Booked a...?" She let it trail away, staring at Annabelle in equal parts frustration and hope.

"Act? Gig? Routine?" Annabelle rattled off, her heart bursting for her friend. "You're saying they're going to be here? Play here? I heard they'd started a band or something, but I didn't pay too much attention to it otherwise." I should have. I feel like a shitty friend for it...

"Yes," Daphne said, seeming to shrug off her prior struggles and move on. "They're doing that soon. At the downtown- pub place. It has a stage for itself. They have posters. I'm going to go. I wanted to ask you to come with me. When was...last time you saw her?"

"Uh..." Annabelle's brain went blank. "No clue? A few months ago? A year, maybe?"

"Try two, sweetie," Anju supplied, empathetic.

"Oh, damn," Annabelle muttered. "Yeah, I- yeah! I'd love to go with you. Hang out, see Gertrude again. Yeah. And Teafa. Hope she's past the whole bitter racist shit she was still on about last I met her. Well, not racist, but, you know...speciesist."

"Still really funny," Daphne snorted. "Scientists now say most of us humanoids share common ancestor. Same DNA and shit. It's how we have half and half kids together all the time - well, that and a big help from magic to smooth out the details. Magic seems to fix all the genetic errors they say should be occurring in us all because of the mixing. Incompatible stuff. Anyway...it means Teafa hates herself too."

"Oh yeah, she definitely does," Annabelle said seriously. "In more ways than just that one."

"Maybe she'll get over it," Anju said, soft and contemplative.

Annabelle smiled. "Well, Gertrude's the best person to help with that. So it's a good thing they're...apparently doing a band together."

"Yeah." Daphne smiled too. "Gertrude's a rude little asshole, but she has a good heart."

"Yeah," Annabelle echoed. "So, so- do you have any plans for a job or something? Does Maria?"

"Not yet," Daphne said. "We're working on that. Still talking to care facility about it. Have to show them a year and a half of good living first, no big mistakes - they give us a budget and manage our legal stuff. I swear I'll die bored before then though."

Annabelle laughed.

Daphne looked to Anju. "Still working at hospital? Times were...you were 8 AM to 2 PM, then break until 6 PM, then 6 PM to 12 midnight?"

"That's perfectly spot on." Anju smiled warmly. "I still am, yes. It's been terribly busy the past few weeks, but it's going to slow down again soon, thankfully."

"Glad to hear that," Daphne said, totally earnest. She was quiet. "When you and Annabelle going to put a ring on things between each other? Or whatever harpy culture has for a marriage equivalent?"

"Uhm..." Annabelle looked at Anju; Anju looked at her. They both sort of shrugged. "We haven't thought about it. Things are fine how they are, and it's not like a legal status about it would change much for us, with how we're living and all. I mean, it's nice that it's an option for us now - nonhuman intermarriage bills that've been passed in recent years are so great to see in human societies - but..."

"We're not too pressed to do it," Anju added. "Maybe in another few years?"

"Maybe," Annabelle laughed.

"Cute," Daphne giggled. "I love you two."

"And we love you right back," Anju assured. "You're an amazing person, who's done some amazing things in her life. If it wasn't for you, Annabelle wouldn't be half of who she is today! And I wouldn't have met her because of it. So, I suppose...thank you, Daphne, for leading me to the woman I love so much. The woman I never thought I'd ever love so much."

"Same here - thanks, Daffy," said Annabelle, flashing her friend a most affectionate of smiles.

Daphne stretched out on the sofa, gave a fake yawn. "Any time. Call me if you need a matchmaker again in future. First time was free, next time I'll charge you."

"Uh-huh."

An hour's worth of visiting time was spent with Daphne before they had to leave. They left with a promise to return at least every two weeks; it was something Annabelle wanted to hold herself to.

After seeing Anju off to the hospital and getting in a quick meal together - Annabelle had pushed it - Annabelle found herself at the little office building of her long-standing counselor.

"How's your coping?"

"Coping?" Annabelle repeated. She stretched out on the cool, good-smelling leather sofa. Looked at the ceiling. She twirled a rubber band she had looped around her fingers. Loved the isolated room, that silence. "The coping is fine. It's- it's the...the after, and the before that I just...seem to suck at."

"Don't sell yourself short, Annabelle."

"Don't make goddamn short jokes at me, Jenny. They weren't funny when I was thirteen, they're not going to be funny now."

"Oh, shush - you know it wasn't intentional." Jenny Hargrove leaned forward in her chair, looked Annabelle in the eye on the neat leather sofa. "So," she continued on, serious again. "would you like to tell me a bit about that?"

"About...?"

"The before and the after."

"Yeah, okay. I- I mean- I don't know. Anju's still just...a hell of a lot better than I am with the kids. I think I'm doing okay, she says I am, but...I don't think so, sometimes. We've kind of already talked about it, and she says I'm ineffectual because I'm always holding myself back. I'm...scared to, you know..."

"You're scared that, in trying to be more assertive and commanding, you'll cross the line into becoming abusive."

"Yeah. Ever since they were just hatched, that's been my number one fear in the world. A-about myself. I know how I am, you know how I am. Those days I had as a kid, when I had to come see you again because I'd just lost it and hit Daphne, or Lisa, or a teacher...I never want to have a day where I am that way again - but toward my kids instead of just my friends or strangers. Not that it was good when I was, even toward them! But, you know! I've used every single trick and strategy and coping mechanism I've ever known to always keep myself from even getting close to that. To how my relatives were to me. To how I know I can be, to my own kids if I...just for a second, if I...if my hand comes up, if I have that anger. I never want to do that. If I do, I'm going to throw myself in the nearest jail cell and throw away the key."

"And that's good of you to recognize. I'd say you've done very well these past six years, Annabelle."

"But..."

"But, I think, that if you want to be a bit more effective as a parent, you need to start taking tiny steps toward being more assertive. You need to let a bit of what you're always doing go. You need to trust yourself, Annabelle. Trust yourself with your kids."

"I'm too scared."

"I know. And you can be scared - scared is fine, healthy, even - but crippling fear...not so much. You need to let that go, you need to get past that. Just...just ease up, Annabelle. Just try to ease up a little. Trust yourself."

"No," Annabelle refuted, shaking her head. "No, I- I can't."

"Annabelle," Jenny began, quiet and kind. "have you ever once hit any of your kids?"

"No!"

"What about Anju?"

"No."

"Well there you go. You haven't done it once in six years of parenting and domestic partnership: why do you think you'd start now?"

"Because I- I could! I always can, I...I have before, with others. I don't want to, but it happens!"

"You don't think you've grown up since then? Learned to properly restrain yourself? Learned to step back, take a breath, get away when you feel you have to?"

"I have, I just...don't think it'll be enough one day..." Annabelle mumbled. "One day it's going to be too much stress, I'm going to be in too bad a place, and I'm going to get way overstimulated, and I'll go too far, and I- I don't want to..."

Jenny sighed. "Alright, then. You know I can't force you to do anything...but I hope you'll also remember that, in all these years I've worked with you, my advice has never steered you wrong. Has it?"

"No..." Annabelle mumbled, looking away. "I guess not."

Jenny just looked at her.

"I'll...think about it?" Annabelle said, filling the silence. The words were wrenched from her teeth.

Jenny smiled softly at her. "That's the best I can hope for from you, for now, I think."

"Yeah, it is." Annabelle laughed, her anxiety spiking. She balled up her metal fist in her lap and squirmed it around. Played with her jeans. Pinched and tugged. "I uh- I- I saw Daphne today! And Norberta, again, too. I hadn't seen either of them in a while. It was nice. I- I feel nice today. Better than I have in a while. I know the motto, the whole thing, you know, about how if you just get moving it's like a train, and it'll keep going, and how doing different things helps a lot too, and...yeah, I feel good."

"Good. I'm glad."

"Yeah, me too. Except- uh..." Annabelle sighed; she looked down at her rubber band and stretched it to the point of nearly breaking, then let it snap against her hands. "Except- something that keeps popping up in my head the past few weeks..."

"Yes?"

"My aunt. She's uhm, getting out of prison - rehab, whatever - in two months. I already told her, last time we met, that I was going to be there for her when she got released, you know? I said that, and I- I've hoped that she's stayed the same as what I- I mean- who I saw that visit-" Annabelle cut herself off. She twisted the rubber band into X's and knots around her fingers individually. Pulled it all tight to cut circulation. She stared down at her discolored fingers and bit her inner cheek. "I hate her, I hate everything she ever did to me, everything she said, but I- she apologized, and she- if she's going to be better, shouldn't I stick with it? With what I told her? With um- how she is? How I promised I'd give her a chance? Or should I just not show up and forget about it? I know, I know the whole thing about, 'Forgiveness is about you, not the one who hurt you,' but I just feel like...or, never mind, is this all just childhood stockholm talking? Me wanting to give her a chance, have her in my life again? Is that me wanting approval from her, or being scared to upset her by cutting her entirely, forever? Not even doing this, giving her this chance? I just, I just- I can't- I don't know-"

Annabelle turned, let out a long breath, and slammed her flesh and blood fist into the wall above the back of the sofa. She kept breathing. Fast, hard. Shallow as could be.

"Annabelle, you-"

"I know, I know! Don't hurt yourself, don't hurt other things when you get stressed, or pissed, I know! I just- I can't stop thinking and I don't even know what I should be thinking!"

"I can see that. I see you, Annabelle, and I can hear what you're saying, and I can tell what you're feeling. But we can't discuss it like this. You need to get calm again. It's okay if you want to vent it all out for me first, but you do need to calm down for me, okay?"

"Yeah," Annabelle breathed a harsh breath. Her throat was hurting. Too tight. She brought her fist down and buried it in her lap. Twisted it into her shirt. Clutched it in her metal fingers tight. "Yeah...I'm- s-sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to just-"

"It's all right!" Jenny said quickly, but kindly. She sat back and folded her hands - didn't try to reach out and touch Annabelle at all. "Annabelle, it's perfectly all right. It's normal, and natural, what you're feeling. You know this. You know me. You know I'm not mad at you, I'm not upset. Right?"

"R-right..."

"Would you like me to leave, and give you a few minutes?" Jenny spoke softly.

"Yeah. Please. Sorry."

Jenny stood, and left the room with a quiet snap of the door.

---

Beaverhead National Forest, Montana USA

Annabelle and Anju arrived, hand in hand - errr, wing - in the middle of the woods. The latter was a bit fatigued, but she was still smiling as her eyes roamed the area.

"What do you think?" Anju spoke, nudging Annabelle with her wing.

"This is great - I love it. Almost reminds me of home. Except for, you know..." Annabelle gestured around herself, at the tall, thick trees strung across with great layers of webbing that stretched on for many miles.

"The scenery is beautiful," Anju added on, a smile on her lips. "I can see why they'd choose it."

*Actually, we chose it because it was fairly isolated from any of your nonmagical people's dens. With the aid of magic - even more so.*

Annabelle turned, found herself eye to eye with a very large magi-arachnid of sleekness, glossy emerald exoskeleton, and a pair of grabby crab type limbs in addition to the usual mandibles and the like. *Hey!* she smiled. *I'm Annabelle Potter!*

*Oh, I'm aware - the Queen speaks very highly of you,* said the magi-arachnid, a note of satisfaction in their tone. *My name's Laiken.*

*Good name - nice to meet you.*

*And you, too.*

*Sooo...* Annabelle glanced around them. Waved a hand at the small scattering of humans standing about. No more than a dozen. *There doesn't seem to be too many people here. Yet...or at all?*

*It's...uncertain.* Laiken mimicked her, gave a look around the forest.

*At least a few people showed up at all.*

*Yes,* Laiken agreed. *I'm aware of the historically ingrained fears the majority of your people has for 'arachnid' species - and 'serpents' too. I understand it to be a defense mechanism of sorts?*

*Something like that, yeah. Don't take it personally. Humans- we tend to- we categorize, we generalize, it's how our brains are I guess. But...when we get down into the individual, the exceptions and the personal...then we can actually throw away that other stuff and get past it all. It just...it takes face to face, it takes time.*

*I understand that. I've already seen it, in a 'family' of your humans who were recently rescued from a fire not far from here by some of my kind, from another tribe in this region. I've also heard about other humans choosing to stay put, hide, and injure themselves and die rather than share a proximity with my kind, no matter what the reason. Still other humans seem to feel nothing toward us but a desire to harm us on sight - and they do.*

*Yeah, those humans are dumb.*

*Perhaps.* A pause. *That's why we're having this 'awareness event,' isn't it? To make dumb humans become...less so.*

*That was...a joke?*

*Yes. Was it acceptably humorous? I've heard that humans respond to humor better than anything else.*

Annabelle ran her hand through her hair. *It was good. I just- I- uhm- I'm not exactly the best choice if you want to judge humor. I don't get it, myself. I'm...different from other humans, you know. Mentally. In my brain. Errr, soul, that is - or both - um...you know what I mean!*

*I see. I won't waste further attempts at humor on you, then.*

*Thanks,* said Annabelle honestly. *It's just awkward for me...sooo...*

*You're welcome.*

"Okay, so, this is Laiken," Annabelle spoke to Anju. "They're...uh..." She paused. *Sorry - are you running this whole thing, or is it one of the others here?*

*We're all 'running this thing.' We have help from another Speaker, like yourself, who will be acting as 'translator' for us. We're grateful to them for agreeing to do so for us.*

*Right. Okay.* She shook her head. She looked toward a group of five humans, while Anju introduced herself to Laiken properly. Another Speaker was here? She'd only run into Kyle because he had been actively seeking her out, because he had actively known about her ability. But here...now...she'd be meeting a third Speaker in her life. And it was all thanks to...well, herself. To this...brave new world she'd brought crashing down on everyone. A world that could allow for such private, unknown people to come out into the open with themselves.

Annabelle really wondered just how many others were out there in the world. Was her gift actually something relatively common? Was it just something everyone kept secret, out of preference or stigma, or did they never learn it about themselves to begin with?

That'd really be something.

*Which person's the Speaker here?* she asked Laiken. Laiken rotated on the spot, lifted a limb and gestured toward a lone human, standing clear and apart from anyone else. They were silent, drawn in on themself; their unkempt, short blonde hair ruffled in the breeze. They had their head down, their eyes on their own shoes. *Okay, thanks.* She glanced at Anju, uttered a quick, "Be back in a second," and started off across the forest floor. Leaves crunched under her boots, and bits of webbing stuck to them too.

*Hey!* Annabelle said loudly.

That head came up fast. Wide, light blue eyes regarded her. Thin lips parted. *Hi.*

*Uh, yeah, uhm...* Annabelle smiled, stuck out a hand. *Nice to meet you and stuff. I'm Annabelle Potter. I heard you were a Speaker too, and I've only ever met one other person who was, so I thought while I was here, why not introduce myself?*

*I'm Quinn.* Their head dropped to their chest again.

*Nice name. I like it.*

Quinn's eyes remained fixed on their feet. *Thank you.*

Annabelle smiled. *So, how'd you first figure out you could talk with spiders - and magi-arachnids, too?*

Quinn lowered themself to the forest floor; as they did so, leaves and webbing and twigs all became displaced, floated aside to make a little clearing of solid dirt. They still didn't look at Annabelle. Their eyes were roaming around themself, this way and that in an almost frenzied manner, all across the ground. Sometimes their eyes would flicker up to a tree trunk, or a particular bunch of branches, but then they'd be back low again.

Annabelle sat down too, right across from Quinn. She folded her hands in her lap.

*I grew up here,* spoke Quinn, in quiet tones. They were smiling, though it seemed more to themself than to Annabelle. *I live in a den not far from this spot. The...magi-arachnids made me one of their own, when I was little, and they raised me. They taught me magic. They protected me. We were quiet, and we were together with ourselves. Until you changed things for everyone, along with the Queen you inspired.*

*Nyllia.*

*Yes. The foreign ruler. She has a very different way of managing the tribes compared with any previous queens before her.*

*Different, but not bad, right?* Annabelle didn't really want to think that Nyllia was making people upset or whatever. Was she turning out to be a shitty ruler or something? *I mean, she put in laws for the tribes, across the dens, to stop them all from attacking and eating anybody who comes through these parts, and she's...done other stuff too. Good stuff. At least, uh, good by most standards of morality.*

*Different, but not bad,* Quinn spoke. Their eyes spared a moment to flit up and meet with Annabelle's, before darting away again. They smiled again. *Things are quieter than they were before.*

*Yeah, I think that happens when you're banned from being in a state of total war with each other like all these tribes used to be.*

*The Queen's rule isn't enforced absolutely; there are still tribes that are interested in creating conflict with the rest, and with the non-arachnid societies too.*

Annabelle brushed absently at her short hair. *Yeah...how's that going?*

*The Queen's tribes are finding it all a lot more difficult to take a den alive. Turning the captured dens themselves into prisons for their previous inhabitants makes it easier - it cuts out transport issues to our own dens - but it's still taking a long time to sort out. Especially because there are members of these tribes who are in minority to their own, and who always opposed the view of continuing the wars. It takes time and conversation to sort those out from the rest. The liars don't help, either,* Quinn finished thoughtfully.

*Have you ever met Nyllia in person?*

*Once.*

*What did you think about her?*

*She's level-headed, reasonable, fair and just. And she cares. Maybe more than she should - more than her nature should allow for.*

*Is that good or bad?*

*Most of the time, it's good, I think. She's taking most of these tribes in a new direction, one seldom explored in the entirety of their histories together across the world. But other times, in some situations, it's clearly been a bad thing. It's made some things more difficult.*

*Yeah? How's that?*

Quinn's frantic gaze passed over Annabelle's face - lingered a heartbeat. *She can't make decisions that should be made, that most of us are telling her she should make.*

*Like...?*

*Destroying dens entirely, quickly, instead of sending in droves of tribe warriors to suffer and linger, and suffer more for lingering. Accidents, escapes, riots, lies and spies. And then there are the eggs and infants to be sorted out, taken in, and raised by our tribes; it's not a short, easy thing to deal with. And all of this, it's hurting and killing many just to do it, when those lives would've been saved by just...burning these dens from the outside. We have the magic to do it, most of us have the will to do it. It's the Queen's will that holds us back from such actions. Her will...causes unrest, and negativity. Bitterness, anger and grief. Spite. These are things our tribes are feeling, as time goes on, as we commit to her way of doing this.*

*We.*

*Yes. I've already heard about several members of our tribes leaving it for others. For the opposing, warring tribes. Other individuals just leave the tribe and stay apart from all of it.*

*That sucks.*

*Yes, it does.*

*You considering it?*

*Sometimes I do. More and more, lately; I'd like to use it as an excuse to leave my tribe and venture into human civilization - to experience what I should have had from the start.* There wasn't any mourning in the statement, no wistfulness - just...casual curiosity, a distant interest.

*If you need the excuse, I'll cover for you.*

Quinn smiled, looked Annabelle in the eye for a full, heavy second. *I appreciate that.*

*Soooo...this whole awareness meeting...thing...*

*Yes?*

*Did you guys come up with it on your own, or was it Nyllia's idea? Is she forcing you to put it on and all?*

*Both.* Quinn laughed.

---

Rynegaul Village

Annabelle took up the mirrorcaller and settled back onto her bed. The bedroom was dark and quiet; it was perfect.

"Nofhug?" she said into the mirror.

"Annabelle." Cheerful eyes within a dark green face peered out of the glass at her. "Is there something you need?" the rough, deep voice of the orc continued.

"Yeah. It's...uhm..."

Nofhug's dirtied, green face twisted. Lips spread ever so slightly, revealing teeth and prominent lower jawed fangs so typical of her people. "You want to hear about Oguk again."

"Yeah, if it's not, uh- if you're not..."

"How many times must I tell you: I enjoy talking about my child. Zir exploits within and beyond our clan are to be celebrated, not forgotten. While, yes, often times my soul still hurts for zir, I would not do zir the disrespect of ignoring that ze was ever here on this Earth. Zir accident sent zir to the next world, but that does not mean ze was never here."

"Sorry."

"It is fine. You did me no offense. I am glad you keep such an interest in zir, yourself. Ze spoke about you often - you brought zir much fame and fortune, by association alone. And of course, you brought zir a deep and true friendship. One I admit I could never have seen as being possible between one of my people, and one of yours."

"Yeah. Okay. Uh...so, whatever you want to tell me about...just...you know, when you're ready."

"Of course." Nofhug's dark green lips held a great and light smile. "Let me think..."

---

After a long conversation with Nofhug, Annabelle still remained alone. Still in the dark and quiet of her room.

She sat, cross-legged, against the bed's headboard. She was focused, had her wand out. Pointed at the sizable block of wood in her hand. She was cutting at it, shaping it as best she could - carving something a lot more interesting than a cube from it.

She only had her memories to go off of for reference, but...if she could get the design right...

Two hours passed her by with this, until she was done and satisfied.

Annabelle rolled off the bed and carried the fresh wood statuette through her home. Down the hall, turned and passed through kitchen, dining hall, into the sitting room. There was Anju, on a mirrorcall with someone whom Annabelle gleaned was a friend from Anju's work.

Annabelle hid the statuette under her shirt as she walked over and sat with Anju on the sofa. Anju gave her a befuddled, amused look - gave a glance at her misshapen top - and returned to her call. A few minutes later and Anju ended her call and set her mirror aside. She reformed her wings, losing feathered arms and talon-ended fingers to their natural state again.

"What do you have there?" Anju said, gesturing an amused wing at Annabelle's lap.

Annabelle glanced down and pulled the statuette out. Shifted to the side and held it up. She hesitated, then gave it a tap with her wand - the statuette came to life, the wings spread, and on those wings water coalesced. Formed, but never actually dripped off of it. To her touch it was wet, but she never got wet. "Uh- I- I made this for you."

"Made what-" Anju froze as her mind took in the carving. The features. The water. "Oh...oh you, oh...Annabelle..."

"Yeah. It's- the concept is uh, ondine? It's - um, it's- from the whole creation story, right? The goddess Kyaru and the...water, dripping off her wings? When she was making the skies, all the clouds and the water they had in them. She made it all, and then it all came down on her, and then she couldn't fly in that first rain of the world? And then, uh, that's um, the burden of- that's the regrets, the sorrow, the- and that's how the oceans came to be. Once she'd shed all the weight, all that water, freed herself, and she was able to go higher again, faster again. She didn't regret making what she made, how it turned out. Because after that, she met up with Reika, who had come up out of her ocean, and...I have this right, right?"

"Yes," Anju confirmed, quiet. Almost toneless.

"Yeah. So, I just...I'm sorry if it's like, uhm, if I messed up the culture, if it's like- appropriation or- I don't know, I just- I've learned stuff from you over the years, I've participated in stuff, and...I knew about this and I knew...it was important, and special, and...your village used to make them." Annabelle offered the little wooden object to Anju. "I know it symbolizes all that stuff - remorse, regret, sadness, you know - and I know I've got a lot of that here. I've been a pretty shitty, uh- domestic- domestic partner person lately, and a shitty parent too, and I'm sorry for it all, and I'm- I'm going to work on being better. Even if I...if I gotta get on meds, you know, chemical pills or magic potions. Doesn't matter. As long as it...helps me. I don't want to...treat you this way, I don't want to be uh- you don't deserve it, you know, having to put up with my shit. Like this morning! I wasn't good, I wasn't getting up, and I screwed up the Portkey, and I just- I just- so...yeah. This is...this is an apology and a promise, from me to you, Anju."

Anju's lips shook. She gazed at the object in Annabelle's hands with shimmering eyes. A wing came up, feathers brushed the carving of Kyaru. "You...you really did this for me? All by yourself?"

"Yeah. I mean, I had to use my wand, a bit of magic to make the cuts, and the whole water thing, but...I didn't just bring it up out of nowhere or anything. It's...as natural as I could make it. I tried to stick how- you know, how you said your people always made them. Sorry, though, if it- uh, if it still looks like shit anyway. I wasn't sure about-"

Anju sprang onto Annabelle, wrapped her in her wings and started crying into her shoulder.

"Yeah..." Annabelle trailed off, stroked Anju's backside. Held her gently - awkwardly. "You're welcome."

---

January 13, 2005 - Gwendolyn City, California USA

"What would you like this evening, Ms.?"

"Nothing. I'm good - just going to drink some water." Annabelle held up her wand and recently conjured glass.

"Ok." The waiter turned attentions to Anju. "If that's all, we'll have your drink in a moment, then."

Anju gave a wide smile and a nod. "Thank you."

Annabelle leaned onto the table, propped her head in her hands.

"Are you feeling okay enough to do this?" Anju spoke, brushing her cheek with a wing. "We could go home, I'm sure that Gertrude will understand."

"No, I'm good," Annabelle said quickly. She lifted her head and put her hands in her lap. "I'm great, I'm- just fine! I just need- water. I don't drink enough of that stuff these days. It's just - headache. Dehydrated. It's not a big deal. This is important for her, and I said I'd be here," she added, in what she couldn't help but be a quiet murmur.

"All right." Anju's wing brushed her again in that way she always had. Gave her that look with those warm eyes. Annabelle looked her in the eye right back, long enough to smile at her, then looked away again as the familiar discomfort and anxiety set in.

After Anju got her drink, they ordered some food together.

Annabelle kept her eyes on the stage as she absently dug into her meal. It was still an empty stage; where were Gertrude and Teafa? Thankfully, it didn't take long for her to get an answer. Hardly a minute had gone by when there was a loud pop from up on the stage, and there they stood.

Gertrude, small and assured, and clad in all black; black dress, black leggings, black slippers, and a chain necklace with a chicken-egg sized, black spinel gemstone. Her outfit was still in her usual, preferred state of torn and tattered - though, Annabelle thought it really complimented her whole look, as opposed to making her look any sort of unkempt.

Teafa, on the other hand, was clad in a flowing gown of grass green, to compliment her gray skin, glowing white hair and silver eyes. It was an intricate gown of ruffles and long trails - but not in any way that might have made it appear oversized on her. Her waist-length hair wasn't hanging in shimmering curtains, as per her usual: it was made up into several buns and a high, thick ponytail atop her head.

Teafa flexed an absent hand beside herself, reached up and tapped the side of her mouth. She stepped forward to the stage's edge, centered. Her melodic voice reached across the bar, heard by everyone as if she were standing only a foot in front of them instead of a good dozen or more that she actually was. "Hello, people. My name is Teafa - and back there is Gertrude - and we are The Quiet R Experience. We are here to perform a few original pieces we've created together. We hope you enjoy them. If you do, be sure to drink more, tip more, and give your thanks to the bartender over there, Ms. Paula Rose, for letting us be here in Gwendolyn's third most popular bar tonight."

Annabelle nearly facepalmed. To those who didn't have any time spent around banshees, those standard melodic tones were probably taken for enthusiasm and enjoyment, but, to someone who had been around them before...Teafa was absolutely monotone, and sounded bored out of her damn mind. The utter height of disinterest in the crowd she was supposed to be playing to. Of course, that was classic Teafa, when faced with humans. Then again, with the response she got from the people seated around Annabelle - a few light claps of appreciation, a whistle or two, and chatterings about - could anyone deny it was working anyway? Teafa didn't need to do anything more than phone it in to get any sort of positive feedback from an ignorant audience...and was that so bad?

Maybe? Maybe not. Regardless, Annabelle sure laughed about it (causing a few nearby eyes to commit a mix of staring and glaring).

"Everybody hold onto your asses here, because we don't have any Freezing Charms on these lips!" Gertrude gleefully burst out. She gave a hand a little shake, and in her grasp appeared a small, glossy black guitar. A full set of drums came into spontaneous existence off to her left; a pair of drumsticks, clearly enchanted, hovered above the center drums in waiting.

Teafa snapped her fingers at Gertrude, impatient and impassioned; Gertrude flashed Teafa her middle claw, then she stamped a small foot to start off her enchanted drumset and took up strumming her guitar.

Teafa drew breath and fixed her gaze on a point far over the heads of the bar patrons. She brought her slender hands up to her chest, and began to sing.

Annabelle gave the stage her fullest attention. Not ten seconds in and Teafa was very casually hitting some of the highest notes, making the most rapid changes in pitch and timings that Annabelle had ever heard in her life - or thought could be possible.

Possible for some people...but not at all for human people.

Sharp confidence and raw passion was just rippling off Teafa, like waves of a tsunami. Annabelle could feel it around her, all around the bar. And Teafa was smiling ear to ear, whirling left and right with precision and expertise, every twirl of a heel, each step aside, forward and back, and every motion of an arm to flow into a burst of magic this way and that, to produce swirling colors and miniature fireworks, that melted into liquid and ringed Teafa's waist and limbs in pattern and sync with her. It was a very far cry from the flat, droning woman who'd done the introductions to the act.

"...you know you're not the only one who seeeeeeeees the wooo-o-ooo-orld for what it iiiiissss-uh-uh-uh!" Teafa's high notes just rose and rose, switching into pure frequency and tones that droned in the bar. They switched back down again in an instant, back up into frequency, higher, back down, back up again. And all the while, Gertrude's small hands were flying about the strings, flicking and striking in combinations galore, and making transitions in a near frenzy of chaos that somehow still managed to sound pleasing and actually intentional.

Teafa's singing went on, faster and more wild, but with an order to it that was beautiful. Gertrude's strumming matched her in rising insanity of order. On and up, down and slow, fast and faster. When it seemed to be nearing the end, Teafa shot straight up into frequencies again - and stayed there. And then she just kept going, higher and higher-

The noises all stopped entirely. But Teafa was still up there, hand to her chest and singing her soul out in a noiseless pantomime. Ten seconds passed, filled with nothing but the frantic solo guitar-ing of Gertrude, and then Teafa's singing all cut right back in again, shrill and gorgeous and vibrating - and the bar was following suit. Glasses shattered, tables exploded, chairs broke out from under people, and the liquids in people's drinks and bottles began to bubble like they were boiling over.

Annabelle's seat shattered under her, and she fell flat on her ass among splinters. She felt the telltale tingles of magic buffeting her like ocean waves, and she understood. Teafa had gone right past plain old impossible vocals and frequencies, and all the way up into her species' trademark magical screams. The screams that could get so high they could cause entire buildings to collapse, and slaughter an entire village of hundreds by making everyone's heads explode.

Thankfully, Teafa stopped way before that point. Her magical screeching died away, and she bowed her head. She sort of blinked around herself, stared out at the damages she'd caused as if finally seeing it. Then she pulled out a wand, her gray cheeks flushing silver, and repaired everything with a grand sweep and a spattering of panicked cries of, "I'm sorry, sorry, sorry, so sorry!" She shoved a silver hand into her dress and tore out a huge wad of cash from a nonexistent pocket; Gertrude leapt at Teafa and half-seriously swiped at her with a horrified cry of, "Goddammit, no, we need that!" Teafa stumbled over to the bar counter and spread it all out. "Sorry - take this for the damages, and for everyone's food and drinks! Won't happen again!"

"The kind of singing you just pulled off, I might just allow it," the bartender waved off, staring at her with a weak sort of grin on her face. She turned and gestured at the crowd. Not many people were getting up and leaving. And the tips jar was clanging with galleons. A wave of Ms. Rose's wand and every glass, chair and table was repaired without a crack or seam. "See? All fixed up. You and your crazy little lady friend can keep going tonight - no harm done."

"Well, all right," Teafa said hesitantly. "Right," Teafa breathed on, brushing a stray lock of silver behind an ear. She left the bar and strode back up onto the stage. "Gertrude, warm up, you're on in two minutes for main act."

"Do you have any idea...how much fast food I could've gotten with that money you wasted?!" Gertrude croaked, kicking at her guitar and vanishing it into thin air. "Why do we even make money with these acts if you're just going to get rid of it first chance you get? Some of that was my half!"

"Then the patrons and owner of this establishment will be very grateful to you for paying for their damaged goods," Teafa said lowly, a hiss of warning in her voice. "Warm up, blow their minds, and you can make back twice what I gave away."

"You bitch," Gertrude rasped. "Learn to control your voice - I'm not losing more cash to you losing control of your voice-"

"I'll show you losing control of my voice!" Teafa snarled, baring her perfect teeth. "Apparently the humans think it's a good thing I got so carried away with my passions, and considering how much you love to talk about how much you love them, and how much I should love them too, you shouldn't have a problem with it!"

Gertrude stared up at her. She shrugged. "Oh, well okay then." Clearing her throat, she looked out across the bar. She held out a small hand to her left, and a microphone zoomed into her grasp. Teafa flicked her finger at the drumset to poise it again, as well as conjured up a new guitar. Teafa didn't seem to have any intentions of playing either instrument, however: both were swathed in magic, hovering on the stage alone. Teafa, rather, stepped up and took a position beside Gertrude, placing a hand to her chest again. Backup singer, it seemed.

"Okay, people, this next song we're going to sing for you is one that I wrote!" Gertrude yelled out, nothing but delighted. "And I'd like to dedicate it to the beautiful woman at the table right over there - Annabelle! It's been a few years! How have you been? I saw you in the papers again a few weeks back! That was a crazy read, let me tell you. Oh, Anju, you're here too? What a surprise! But a welcome one, for sure. How are the kids?"

Annabelle groaned, looked across the bar at Gertrude. Waved at her with a lazy metal arm. Did her best to mouth, "Later!"

Gertrude flashed her a grin, toyed with her hair, and then she dropped her eyes to the microphone in her hands. She focused herself. Prepared herself.

Then, she sang. Soon enough, Teafa joined in, and the act was in full swing.

Some minutes later, after it ended, Gertrude went through a second song. Then, Teafa sang through two more compositions. After they were completely done and over, Annabelle got up from her table and moved to meet them in front of the stage.

"How have you two survived the past couple years together?"

Both women became lost in memories.

"It's been hell," Gertrude admitted freely. "But we work good together in the depths of hell, don't we?"

"We do," Teafa confirmed, glaring. The glare quickly melted into an amused smile, however.

"And it makes the sex even more of a hell of a time!" Gertrude continued, her grin widening. Teafa smacked her on the shoulder, turned away and lifted her chin with a little huff.

"I don't know why I still love her, or why she loves me, but I do and she does," Teafa informed Annabelle, shaking her head.

"Well, uh, do you want to sit down with me and Anju over there at our table?" Annabelle gestured. "We can talk, drink some sweet stuff - maybe eat, if you two haven't tonight?"

"That sounds great," Gertrude enthused. She gave Teafa a pat on the thigh and scurried over to Anju.

Teafa looked after Gertrude, shook her head and sighed. A side glance was given to Annabelle. A pause. Nervousness. "Have you...ever been in a mall building before?" she said, almost spontaneously.

"Um, once or twice," Annabelle replied. "Why?"

Teafa shifted her stance. A hand came up to twirl a stray silver lock. "Gertrude said I should...ask you to take me to one sometime. She says it's one of the best places to see a mixture of...samples of everything there is to know about human culture."

"Well, I don't know about that, but...sure," said Annabelle, smiling. "I'd love to go to a mall with you. We could get some nice food, maybe try out clothes?"

"Right." Teafa gave a nod. "Just- tell me when you'd be free to do that, and I'll apparate to you as soon as I can that day."

"Okay. I'll have to talk to Anju about it first, though."

"That's fine," Teafa said, a little quiet. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

---

March 8, 2005

Annabelle stood outside the prison, hands in her jacket pockets and her back to the wall.

When she saw the doors open, and she saw Petunia stepping out into the warm air and bright sun with a bag slung over a shoulder, she breathed a quick breath and ran a hand through her short-cut hair. Brushed her bangs out of her face. She pushed off from the wall and apparated right over to her aunt; Petunia startled, let out a yelp, and quickly backpedaled.

"Anna- Annabelle! You- you cut your hair," Petunia blurted, eyes traveling upward as she clutched at her chest. "It...it looks...nice."

"You mean it makes me look like a total tomboy dyke bitch?" Annabelle rattled out.

Petunia shook her head. "No, I mean it looks nice," she said, a bit firmly.

Well then, that's actually reassuring. "Thanks. You ready to go?" Annabelle replied, holding out her metal arm.

"Y-yes."

Annabelle shook her hand a little, gesturing. "Then take it, and let's go." Petunia grasped her metal hand, stared down at it for a moment. Annabelle disapparated, taking her aunt with her.

They reappeared out in the grass on outskirts of the village. All around was the field, the forest stretching out. In the field was Norberta, settled down and snoozing.

Petunia swayed on her feet, turned a little paler, but she managed to keep her composure. "This is your home?" she spoke, looking it all over, all around. She had a smile on her lips. It was nothing but sincere, and kind, and warm - the kind of thing Annabelle had spent her whole childhood wishing to see directed at her yet never once had...

She was only getting it now, in her adult life. She wasn't sure how to feel about that.

"Yeah, this is home," Annabelle said simply, letting her aunt's hand go and starting off across the field for Norberta. Her aunt followed, slow and hesitant - even timid. What an ironic role reversal, Annabelle thought. She stalked up to Norberta and gave her snout a light little bop. The dragon daughter woke, batted her eyes at her and stared at her. Lifted her head and stretched her long neck this way and that. She flexed her wings, flapped a bit, shifted on her feet and stood up proper. Her tail uncurled, stretched out behind her and flicked about like a cat's. Then she looked at Petunia, noticed her.

[This is her?] Norberta spoke lowly, as neutrally as she could.

[Yeah. Please remember what we all talked about: don't just start tearing into her, please. Sure, if she hasn't changed, if she insults you or does anything inappropriate, then go for it - I'll probably beat you to it - but don't do anything unprovoked.]

[I know - I'll behave if she does.]

[Same thoughts here, Norberta, trust me.]

Norberta blinked. Dipped her head. [Okay.]

[Okay.] Annabelle switched back to English, turned back to her aunt. "Petunia, this is Norberta. She's my...sort of...unofficial, adopted daughter."

Petunia eyed Norberta with very real, raw fear and shock. She swallowed hard. "H-hello, Norberta?"

Norberta breathed a little puff of flames out her nostrils as she stared down at Petunia. Then- "Hello, Petunia Dursley."

Petunia stared. Then looked at Annabelle. "She...speaks english?"

"Yeah."

"A-all right. And...what you two were just...?"

"That was dragon talk. Her people's language. Pretty ancient, but it's infused with magic, and so it's sort of an immortal tongue thing. It's always the same, always going to be there. In recent years, it's taken a lot of researchers and a lot of study to find out how to...how to allow dragon kind to speak in english again; they used to be able to, a thousand years ago, but they lost that. And now their people have it again, so...it's all fine now."

"I...I see. That's...good."

"Yeah..." Annabelle smiled up at Norberta, took her head in hand and hugged her. Snuggled and kissed her a little. "It's nice to have options. And nice for her to be able to...have her own voice. Her own agency, her own- you know. She doesn't have to always have a translator, which got frustrating for her once she started dealing with humans on a regular basis. And a lot of them."

Petunia was quiet. Her eyes were roaming Norberta's massive, scaly form. Magnificence and beauty, reflective in sunlight. She blinked a little, shook her head. "I- I'm glad to...to meet you, Norberta."

"I can't say the same," Norberta responded, raising herself to her full height, stretching out her neck and spreading her massive wingspan. Shadows were cast on the immediate area. Sunlight refused to pass through her wings. "I don't know if I'll ever be able to say it, knowing even half of the things you did to my mother when she was young. I've seen her deal with the pain, and the memories, and I've seen her cry and scream and I've seen her act out in ways that you taught her to - by example! You damaged her, you didn't just hurt her. You put sick things inside of her, like enduring curses that poison her, and she experiences those affects more than I like seeing in her. More than she ever likes seeing in herself. She wishes she was different, she's always trying so hard not to be how you made her! I can never...see all of that in her, and ever think about forgiving you for it."

"But..." Norberta flattened her wings at her sides with a sharp motion, nearly a blur, like a snap of two fingers. A great rush of wind blew across the field, nearly toppled Annabelle and Petunia. Norberta slung her neck low, stretched out her head to put her face right in front of Petunia's. "My mother says I'm not allowed to eat you, or believe me, we wouldn't be having a conversation at all right now. But since we are, I'm going to give you a warning: if I see your hands anywhere inappropriate on my mother, on her wife, on any of her children, or on any of our friends tonight, I will eat you alive and I will swallow you whole, and then a few hours after that I'll make you into the very literal embodiment of just what I think of you. Fortunately, my own child isn't around tonight to be in any danger," she concluded.

Petunia stood there, quivering and wide-eyed. She certainly drew back, took some large strides away, but she didn't cower. "I understand you - and I understand your feelings. You're perfectly fine to have them about me. I deserve them. And I promise you that I am not going to hurt anyone in this household."

Norberta pulled her head back, drew away. "Let's just see," she hissed with dragon fury.

"Right," Annabelle said briskly. "Let's go inside, and let's sit down. I'll get dinner started in about half an hour. We can do some more introductions later, too, once everyone starts showing up."

"All right..." Petunia, shaking, followed Annabelle over to the cabin door.

They entered the cabin together, and Annabelle led the way through the normal sized entry hall. Half way across the wooden flooring, the room shook and shifted. The ceiling shot up dozens of feet, the walls stretched out twice as far. The room was now as spacious as a football field.

Annabelle turned around with a smile, and watched Norberta enter the cabin as swiftly and delicately as a cat; the doorway, of course, had expanded as well. Norberta very comfortably stretched out to her full height, and let her wings flutter a little as she crossed to reach them again; behind her, the doorway shrunk down to its usual dimensions.

"What just- your house, it..." Petunia was at a total loss for words as she stared around herself. Shocked out of her mind. A part of Annabelle enjoyed seeing that. Petunia laid eyes on Norberta. "She...you...came inside too?"

Norberta revealed her long, sharp teeth. "I do that, yes. With permission from Anju, my mother hired some very talented mage architects to do this for me. It allows me to go anywhere in this cabin that anyone else can go, and be very comfortable about it."

"That's- that's- a-amazing," Petunia choked out, taking another look around. Her eyes went to the high ceiling in particular. She stretched up a hand, as if expecting it to be some illusion. Then she dropped her arm to her side, and looked at Annabelle. "I had no idea magic could do things like this. I...had thought it always was just...just..."

"Point a stick and make a bright light?" Annabelle suggested. She laughed. "Magic is so much more than that, Petunia. It can do so much more."

"I...I can see that, now." Petunia gave a weak smile. "It's...fantastic."

"Yeah. Come on." Annabelle took two steps in the direction of the dining room - the flower-laden wood archway that acted as visual divider between the two zoomed forward and shrunk down, and four more steps brought her and Petunia into a normal old dining room with a long table and many chairs. They continued on through it into the living room. Norberta passed out of the entry hall and into the dining room behind them; the former room shrunk to normal size, while the latter, now occupied by her, grew to accommodate her size. The dining room resumed normal dimensions after, while the living room grew for Norberta as she entered it.

The bookshelves, TV, sofas and armchairs all drew closer, to meet in the middle of the room to compensate, and to retain their original positions, as well as their original positions in relation to one another.

Petunia stared out across the eighty foot expanse of carpet, her eyes going to the forty foot high walls of wood, and the flowers and hanging trinkets still on them. "It...doesn't look...it should have snapped in two?" She looked to Annabelle with shock, with doubt. "Wood...doesn't just stretch..."

"It's called magic," Annabelle replied, stressing the word. On her aunt's face, she didn't see any of the flinching or disgust she had always seen as a child on summer vacation from Hogwarts, when she'd mistakenly mentioned such freakish things in her relative's presence.

"Yes, of- of course," Petunia said quickly, nodding. "I'm- sorry. I just never...saw much of it before...with Lily, our parents, and..." She fell silent. She dropped her head. Remorse. Shame? Her head came up again after a moment. She looked into Annabelle's eyes, with some determination. "You- you have a...w-wife?" she spoke, stumbling over the word but honestly seeming to try not to. It was foreign to her, maybe even instinctively weird or disgusting, or whatever she thought about it...but she was trying to not let it be. Annabelle...could appreciate that. Her aunt was different, she was trying. And that mattered. Because she'd certainly never even tried to be anything decent to Annabelle as a child. "Is- is...she around?"

"She's out flying with our kids - and Norberta's husband," Annabelle answered. She tried to smile. Sat down on the sofa and pulled her legs up and under herself. She lay an arm on the armrest to prop herself up. Steady. Support. "I usually join them - sometimes I use a broomstick, other times it's a magic carpet, and still other times it's this newly developed set of enchanted wings that are unbelievably difficult to even control - but today I had other things to do, so I just had them go out without me. And Norberta just wanted a lazy day today, otherwise she'd have gone too."

"Oh." Petunia eyed an armchair, glanced at Annabelle. "May I sit down?"

"Sure."

"Thank you, Annabelle." Petunia settled into the chair, clasped her hands together on her knees. Looked at Annabelle. Looked at Norberta a few times; Norberta had settled herself down behind the couch, draped her long neck from over the back of it, and was resting her chin on Annabelle's feet. "Have you...heard from either Dudley or Vernon over the years?"

"No."

"Oh," Petunia said quietly. "I...I haven't heard from Dudley in...since the night I...and I haven't...heard from Vernon either, these past two years since his release. I hope Dudley's...turned out okay."

"Yeah, I hope so too," Annabelle agreed. She remembered what her cousin had been like as a kid. But he'd been just that: a kid. She didn't hate him or anything, not like she did her aunt and uncle. She just...actually sort of had no feelings about Dudley one way or the other. "So do you want anything to drink or eat?" Annabelle asked suddenly. She pushed Norberta's head off her legs and stood. "I have water, lemonade, tea - sugary stuff? What kind of food would you want?"

"Just water would be fine, thank you. And you don't need to go through any trouble to make anything to eat - I'm fine!"

"Okay." Annabelle apparated into her kitchen, flicked her wand; a cup floated over to the sink, which started to turn its own knobs and pour its own water. The cup, once full, disappeared into thin air with a second flick of her wand. Annabelle apparated back into the spacious living room, sat back down on the couch and faced her aunt.

Petunia's eyes were glued to the glass floating in front of her. Apprehension. Anxiety. She glanced at Annabelle, then reached out and took it. Took a small sip. Held it in her lap. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Total silence.

Annabelle enjoyed it. But...she also enjoyed a little background noise. She flicked a finger at the TV; it flickered to life - news channel.

"Do you...like to watch the news?" Petunia asked, in strained tones of false cheer.

"I don't like to, but it's a necessity when it comes to my work in the world," Annabelle said. "And...just...uh, just some things I like to keep track of."

"What do you do for work?" said Petunia, in earnest interest.

"I help people," Annabelle replied. "When I can, where I can, I help people. I'm sort of an activist, and an advoca...advocate? Yeah. Also, sometimes a part-time emissary, too, for magical Britain's Ministry of Magic in relation to nonhuman governments and sensitive situations, when I get called in for it. But I also work in a bookshop as an actual, paying job for the family - can't live off my parent's fortune forever. It was already getting low a few years back, so my wife and I realized we had to do something about it. I figured why not make it something to help fuel the family, and be something I actually already like doing? I- uh, I like books," she finished lamely. Of course her aunt knew that already: she'd given her that book on arachnids as a child, the only real gift she'd ever gotten from her relatives.

"I see. And...your w-wife? Does s-she work?" Petunia asked quickly. She wanted to stay away from that subject as much as Annabelle did.

Annabelle smiled. "Yeah. She works at a magic-specialized hospital, in a mage-founded city called Gwendolyn. Some of our friends live there, too, so it's nice. And what about you?" Annabelle inquired, looking past her aunt's shoulder. "You never had a job before, as far as I know - never worked a day in your life. You're going to have to get one now. And a house or something."

"Yes. The...magical prison- ah, rehabilitation center set me up with a few job possibilities, and a temporary housing situation to get me started."

"Good luck with that," Norberta snorted; little flames shot out her nostrils. "Oh, I know! Maybe you can get a nice, cozy little cupboard under some stairs to live in!"

Petunia's face flushed deep. She looked down at the floor.

[Hey.] Annabelle gave Norberta a little nudge in the face with her foot. [You said you were going to behave. She's behaving, so you behave too.]

Norberta looked at her out of the corner of a slitted eye. She opened her mouth wide, then closed it around Annabelle's whole foot. Annabelle sighed, and tugged her foot out of Norberta's jaws. She gave her a non too gentle kick in the face with a slobbery shoe. Norberta growled at her, and lifted her head high out of reach.

Annabelle sat up. Looked up at her. [Norberta, listen, if you can't do it, that's fine - I understand! - just go to some other room, or go back outside. I'll be fine on my own here. But we're not going to- to sit here and be cruel and petty, all right? That isn't right. That just...makes us as horrible as she was to me.]

[Fine.] Norberta stood. She flicked her tail sharply, cracked it on the floor with a sound like a whip. [I'll be outside. If you need me, be sure to yell, and I'll be right there for you! I promise you, mother. Okay?]

[Thank you. I will. It'll be fine. You can come back in again when Anju and Emerich and the kids get back for dinner, all right?]

[All right. Just remember to yell if you need me, or if you just need to get away from her and you need me to watch her for you!]

[I will, Norberta. I promise. Just - go. I can defend myself if I have to now, I'm not a kid anymore.]

Norberta gave a last, narrow-eyed look at Petunia, and then she left for the back door; the living room shrunk down to its normal state, with her departure, putting a solid wall behind the couch and bookshelves again.

Annabelle eyed her aunt. She breathed. She sat up straight. Looked past her aunt's shoulder as best she could. "Listen to me now, aunt Petunia. It's just us in the house now, so I'm going to tell you how tonight is going to go for you, along with some rules that you are going to follow at all times, or else...or else you're going to be kicked out immediately, and you're not coming back. Ever. If you fuck this up, if you- I swear to god, that's it for you. And depending on- on h-how badly you fuck this up, on what you do, you might even get hurt, and things will get more serious. Like, law enforcement serious. So I want- I want you to listen to me really, really damn carefully on this here, okay?"

"I understand you." Her aunt matched her pose, sitting up straighter. She gave her a serious, but sort of subdued look of attention. "I'm listening to you, Annabelle."

"Okay. All right. When my wife gets back..." Annabelle stopped. Her stomach rolled and burst. She swallowed. She looked away from her aunt. She clutched her wand tight in flesh fingers. Her metal fist closed at her side. She breathed. Breathed. Again. She gave the rubber band on her wrist a quick snap against her skin. "I- when Anju gets back from flying with our kids, and once everyone gets here...we're going to do introductions. I'm going to tell you the names of my kids, you're going to get to see them for a minute, and I'm going to tell them who you are to me. To them. And that's it for them. I'm sending them to their rooms after. They'll be there all night, and they're going to eat back there, too."

Annabelle swallowed some more spontaneous spit that had welled up in her mouth, continued. "The hallway over there, that leads to their rooms, mine and Anju's room, and the bathroom. If you need to use the bathroom, you're going to ask someone, and they're going to take you down there and they're going to stand in front of the door the whole time. When you get out, they're going to walk you back to the kitchen, living room, or dining room. But you're never going to be in that hallway alone, you hear me?"

"I understand," was all her aunt said. Very quiet, and in a very respectful tone.

"Okay. And- and if you want to go outside, get fresh air or something, someone's going out with you, too. There are things around here that you don't want to mess with - important stuff, cultural stuff. This whole village is...it's all Anju has left of her people. Don't break anything. Don't touch anything. Do you understand this? If you want to- to look at any of the totems, or carvings, or- you can look, but don't touch them."

Her aunt nodded. "I understand."

"Alright. And...yeah. Yeah, just- I get that this is going to be your first time around nonhuman people, but please try to not stare, or insult anybody, or be a speciesist piece of shit about it. I um, look, I won't lie and say that some of my friends aren't really...easy to get along with, but Anju and I are going to do our best to reign them in. Keep them on their best behavior here for you. So, there's that. Yeah."

"All right. I appreciate that, Annabelle. Thank you."

"Yeah." Annabelle drew breath and apparated to the kitchen. She fell against the counter, let out her long, shaking breath and jammed the cold faucet all the way around. She cupped her pale flesh hand and silver metal together, took the water up and threw it into her own face. She took another, let it splash down over her hair. She shut her eyes and braced herself there. Opened them up to look out the window; Norberta was sitting at attention only a few feet out the cabin. They made eye contact. Norberta started for the door with narrowed eyes and a set jaw - Annabelle shook her head at her quickly. Held up a hand and made a shoo-ing motion out the window.

Norberta hesitated. Looked at her a moment or two. Then she backed away and sat back down.

Annabelle ran a steadier hand up over her face and through her hair. She set her open palm on the counter and began to tap.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve...stimulation, stimulation, stimulation, give me stimulation...

---

"Petunia, this is my wife, Anju, and these are our kids: Kafe, Ren, Tej, Shyri, and Aki and Jemma. Kids, this is...my aunt. Your grandaunt? Great aunt? Yeah. So, that's...yeah. She's my mother's sister. And, um, aunt Petunia, here these are Gertrude and Teafa, Adelyn, and Confiance. And this is, of course, Emerich, Norberta's husband. Then we have Daphne and Maria, and last but not least, we have my friend Kyle."

"We still aren't friends," Kyle mumbled out, awkwardly shoving his hands in his pockets and dropping his gaze.

"Debatable," Annabelle retorted, sticking out her tongue. She long knew by now that Kyle's nature was just to be contrary; he'd gotten close to her years ago already, and didn't really mean it when he said things like that.

"It's nice to meet you, Petunia," Emerich spoke lowly, in pleasant tones. He bowed his midnight black, scaly head at Petunia. Blinked with slitted eyes of brilliant green.

[No it's not,] Norberta muttered.

Emerich looked at her. [Isn't it?]

[Yes, it is,] Annabelle firmly interjected. For now, anyway. [Be nice, please.]

"It's nice to...meet you too," Petunia replied, in something of a daze. Her eyes swept around the room, taking in all the nonhumans.

"So you're the auntie I've heard so much about," Gertrude rasped. She hopped up onto a stool and scrutinized Petunia, up and down, from level height.

Petunia blinked. "Annabelle's told you about me?"

"Oh yeah. She lived with you when she was little. She said you were strict and distant." Gertrude flashed a grin. Brushed dark hair out of her eyes, peered ever more intently. "Bet I can break you of that."

"Gertrude..." Annabelle warned.

"What? I got Teafa out of her human-hating shell!" Gertrude exclaimed, pointing with frantic claws. "Why can't I have a go at getting your auntie out of her shell too?"

"Please," Petunia addressed Gertrude, flushing intensely. "I- it's- flattering, but I...am not interested in that sort of thing."

"You sure? If you want to come back to it later, I can-"

"Gertrude, fucking shut up, for fuck's sake!" Annabelle burst out, slamming her fist on the counter. She breathed, hard. In and out. Counted to five - counted to ten. Drew another breath. Gripped the counter with an open hand. She looked around the kitchen, meeting all eyes in a grand sweep of gaze. Because all those eyes were on her. "Everyone here...when they agreed to come to this little party...agreed to behave. With each other, with everyone else here - and that includes Petunia. And she- she's not into...being propositioned or flirted with like that. She's, uh, the wrong person to do that with. She's never- she's not-"

"Everyone agreed to behave themselves weeks ago," Anju spoke up firmly, sweeping her gaze around to everyone in the kitchen. "No one's going to change their minds on that now, or they're not going to be welcome here for a while. So can we all have some dignity and respect for each other while we're here please?" She gave Gertrude a sharp look.

"Oh, fine," Gertrude pouted, crossing her arms.

"I'm right with you," Confiance murmured, fluttering over to land on Gertrude's shoulder. She huffed, set her elbows on her knees and rested her head in her hands. "I was told this was a party! This is going to be so boring."

"We're going to behave ourselves," Teafa said, in level tones. She set a slender hand on Gertrude's arm. "As much as we might not want to around people like this one," she added, with a disgusted look at Petunia, that had the latter woman ducking her head and flushing crimson.

"I hate to agree with the resident racist," Adelyn sighed, shaking her head. "but she's right." She gave Gertrude a sharp, scarlet-eyed look. "You're going to have to behave yourself tonight - just for one night. You can do that, can't you? For Annabelle's sake?"

"I guess I can," Gertrude said heavily. She lifted an absent hand and brushed Confiance off her; the fairy woman swore and righted herself in the air after a short tumble. She looked at Anju, then at Annabelle. "Sorry."

"It's fine," Anju said kindly. "Just keep it together for one evening, and we'll be okay. Adelyn, why don't you take Gertrude and Confiance to the living room? The TV is running, and anyone can feel free to watch whatever they like. There are snacks set out, too, and refreshments."

"Come on," Adelyn spoke, grabbing Gertrude's arm and dragging her off the stool. Gertrude tore her arm out of her grasp and kicked her, then started off for the living room. Confiance hesitated, stuck her tongue out at Anju, then fluttered off after them. Teafa gave a more heartfelt apology to Anju, and followed her girlfriend quickly.

Daphne and Maria traded quiet murmurs, the latter squeezed the other's arm, and they both walked out the back door of the cabin. Shortly after, Kyle followed them out, keeping his head down.

"Right." Annabelle turned to her children. "Kids: go to your rooms, please. Have fun, watch TV, draw, read, do some barrel rolls and air laps around your rooms, practice your magic - whatever. Just go there and try to stay there until it's time for dinner; Anju or I will bring you all your meals then. Oh, and don't start shit with each other, please! I don't want to have to come back there for that!" The boys left first. Then the girls. Floated off down the long side hallway. Annabelle watched Aki immediately surge forward and tackle Tej, and the pair began floating and banging around with feathers and laughs and loud shrieks of mirth. At least it was playful this time. God knows how long that's going to last, though. She shook her head at them and looked to Adelyn. Leaned against the counter. Ran a hand through her short hair. "Sorry about all this. How've you been? It's...been a while."

"Oh, I've been just fine, thank you for asking." Adelyn strode forward and swept her into a sudden hug. She drew away. "The loss of my son is still here, it's still hurting, but I do still have my daughter, and I have a lot left to still be here for."

"Speaking of which...where's she at?"

Adelyn grinned. "Oh, she's with her boyfriend again."

"Uh-huh." Annabelle grinned, too. "Are you expecting to be a grandmother anytime soon?"

"I'd never have expected to even still be a mother at this stage of things," Adelyn replied. "But here I am, so..." She spread her arms. "I suppose we'll just have to wait and see."

"Yeah. Guess so."

"Can we all move to the sitting room?" Anju spoke up. She gestured at the stovetop and flames. "Dinner's well on its way, but I'd like to just be there to keep an eye on our more...uppity guests." She sighed, gave Annabelle a look. "I'm sorry, sweetie, I do love them, but I'd also love for them to learn to be a little better about managing themselves in my house. It's been six years, and Gertrude's only slightly improved on her manners and her general sense of appropriateness."

"I know," Annabelle sighed. "I wish she'd be a little faster at bettering herself, too. It's not all too acceptable. Not after six years of it. If she gets too bad about it tonight, I'll just tell her to leave, okay? Right? We talked about this, yeah. I mean, how she acts is fine if it's just the two of us, or if it's us hanging out together on any average day...but this is like- you know, all formal and special, so she really shouldn't be acting like this..."

"I'm sorry," Petunia said quietly. "People here are angry with me. That's fine, that's expected, and I deserve every bit of it after all I did to you as a child. I shouldn't even be here, Annabelle. I'm ruining your evening."

"Maybe," said Annabelle. "But, on the other hand, you being here or not, Gertrude's just being a little asshole tonight for some reason. I don't know if she had a bad gig earlier, or if someone else put her in a bad mood, but...she's being a bit more foul than usual. And that isn't okay of her, no matter what else."

"Let's go, please," Anju spoke again. She floated off across the room. Everyone else followed her, out through the dining room and into the living room.

"Confiance, don't touch any of my kids' shit," Annabelle snapped out immediately.

"I was just wondering what it was for!" Confiance quickly fluttered back from a bowl of powder on a high bookshelf with her hands raised.

"It's medicine - Aki has a misaligned wing, she needs it for the pain on longer flights," Annabelle said shortly.

"Got it! I won't take any of it - not even a little grain! Not this fairy lady, no ma'am, not- hey you're actually pretty when you're up close."

Petunia reared back as Confiance shot right for her face, hovered in front of her. "E-excuse me?"

Annabelle growled her frustration. "Just ignore her, she just loves screwing with people - just sit down, please. Confiance, she's not interested, find something to do. Gertrude, the point of a TV isn't to sit an inch in front of it: you'll burn your eyes out."

Confiance listened to her, thank god (as did Gertrude; she very quickly shuffled back on the carpet, putting her back to the sofa). Everyone else found ways to occupy themselves, too - and each other. Some idle chatter was had, some laughs, some jokes (and through it all, Petunia stayed off on her own).

Then, dinner was prepared, all set out. Everyone was retrieved, and herded over into the dining room. The dining table stretched out several dozen long meters in an instant to accommodate them all.

"So...everyone's seated," Anju spoke; her normal tones reached everyone as if they were still seated shoulder to shoulder with one another. "We took note of and acquired what everyone wanted - or needed, in some cases - so everyone should feel free to enjoy themselves here."

"Bloody meat," Gertrude cried, starting to take the large slab of steak in hand. She stopped. Gave a glance at Anju; she made a big show of taking up her fork and knife, and then properly utilizing them.

"Bloody meat," Norberta agreed with satisfaction, dipping her long neck to the table's surface to bite into a magically enlarged steak.

"This is very good," Emerich told Anju, after tearing into and swallowing half his giant steak whole.

"Thank you," Anju replied, smiling at him.

"Bloody meat and pure blood? Oh, you didn't have to go through the trouble," said Adelyn, gratitude glinting in her scarlet eyes. She took up a glass of dark red, held it daintily in hand, and gave it a long sip of savoring.

"Pretty sure we did," Annabelle responded with a smile. "You're our friend."

"Well." Adelyn raised her glass, flashed a smile in return.

"I wanted to go swimming," Confiance said, with a mournful look at her appropriately proportional dishes. The Jell-O bowl in particular.

"We know - maybe later," Annabelle replied, stifling a giggle. Confiance, of course, didn't mean simple swimming: she meant skinny dipping.

Everyone dug in, in silence and a pleasant little atmosphere. Until it was broken.

"Are you some kind of vampire?"

All eyes went to Petunia. Some of them were shocked, some of them were amused, and some were looking offended by proxy.

"Yes," Adelyn said absently, setting her glass down. She plucked a knife off the table and twirled it between her fingers, then set to work cutting up a very rare slice of meat. She fixed her scarlet eyes on Petunia's staring face. "I imagine this is your first time ever meeting one of my kind?"

"It is," Petunia confirmed, slow and quiet. "Why do you drink b-blood if you can eat normal food just fine?" She gestured to the rare steak.

"Well, the thing about that is: I can't," Adelyn said patiently. "Oh, I can bite it, I can chew it up, swallow it, digest it...but it does nothing for me. When I eat normal food, as you put it, I can never taste it, and it will never provide my body with any sort of nutrients. Only blood can do that for me now. Although, as with this steak here, if blood is mixed in with my foods I can get a flavor out of it again. But that comes from the blood, not the food itself. If I mix blood with meat, or blood with, say, sugary cookies or fruits, it will give me all sorts of different flavors for each. But food on its own? Nothing."

"I...see. And...you don't drink people's blood, do you?"

Adelyn smiled in a way that showed she wasn't offended. "With someone's consent, proper screening for magical diseases, and a slow process where we keep an eye on the amount taken - as well as how it's taken - yes, I sometimes do."

"I-"

"I know, you were going off of the nonmagic tales of vampires who feast on the unwilling in their beds at night, or those who jump on people in dark alleys and drag them away," Adelyn interrupted, waving a hand of blue-painted nails. "I won't fault you for that: it is, of course, the only thing you've ever known about vampires until recently. There's no insult in ignorance, only if you remain ignorant. Although," she continued, a frown taking over her face. "I won't lie and say those tales didn't come from somewhere. There are plenty of vampires out there who live a life of assault and violation of others for their own survival or just their satisfaction - the most famous one of them all being dear Alucard."

"Alu...Dracula?" Petunia stared. "He was...he was real?"

"He was real, yes," said Adelyn. Her frown grew deeper. "A foul but powerful man, he was - and even more so as a vampire. He made his living with wanton abductions and slaughter. He would round up towns and villages, capture them in his hypnotic thrall, and then feast on dozens and hundreds in the streets, all night long. And if there were any left after he was done gorging himself, he'd abscond with them to his great castle, and place them all into a sleeping state on the lower levels. He'd keep dozens upon dozens of them like this, feasting on one until they were bled dry and dead, and then moving on to another. He always kept a good, constant supply for himself. Hence why he lived so long."

"But he's- he's dead now, yes?" Petunia stammered, pale-faced.

"Oh, yes." Adelyn grinned. "With the rise of modern civilization, magical government law enforcement and military forces were sent after him in droves, and they did manage to overwhelm him - and kill him at last. Though, his bloodline does survive," she added, with a bit of a shrug. "The Daughter of Dracula, I think she's known as to the world at large. No idea where she is or what she's been doing - no one does; she's really a sort of myth among vampires, honestly - but I'd like to hope she's been living a good, solitary life that's been nothing like her father's."

"Well, I- I'm glad that he - she - isn't a p-problem. And I'm glad to hear that you aren't, either," Petunia finished, in a rush.

Adelyn's frown returned for a brief moment. Then she shrugged; she threw her head back and downed the rest of her drink. "Most people are," she replied. She turned to her right and immediately began engaging Norberta in conversation.

"Hey, isn't it a little funny how your scientists are still all freaked out about everything?" Confiance directed at Petunia conversationally, jumping on the opportunity like she'd been waiting for it.

"I- I don't understand what you mean..." Petunia said cautiously, like she didn't trust herself to speak at all. At least she seemed to realize she'd said something wrong to Adelyn, Annabelle thought.

Confiance gestured at the secondary dining room television set, where an informal panel of people were in a deep discussion about magic, souls and bodies. "You thought it was the brain that held a person! Consciousness! You thought brains made sapience possible. Now you know it doesn't, and you're all freaking out over it! It's funny to watch."

"F-from the- perspective of...someone who already knew that wasn't true...I suppose it could be funny," Petunia allowed, quiet and halting.

"It's hilarious!" Confiance crowed, doubling over in her minuscule chair. "You've all been so- so confused and frustrated about, oh, how can your brains let us talk, how do we think, why can't 'animals' think like we can? Oh, evolution, oh genetics! Haha. No, no, no, and nope! You've all been so stumped by little tiny spiders being as intelligent and emotionally capable as yourselves because you keep trying to think in terms of brains! But guess what? The brain has limits, the brain is just a fleshy thing! Of course it can't hold a whole sapient being! But souls? Souls are intangible, they're probably bigger on the inside than the outside or something! They don't have limits to what they can do, or the information they can hold! It doesn't matter what the size of the body or brain is, because the soul can fit into any body size and still be what it is! A person, a consciousness! They're where and what a person really is, and the body and the brain are just vehicles to hop in and out of! The soul goes to the afterlife, the soul stays back as a ghost, the soul can survive outside the body in a few different ways and get into another if it wanted to! Souls, souls, souls - not brains, brains, brains!"

"I...see."

"A lot of your scientists are still crazy about it, because they just can't accept that souls exist!"

"A lot of people can't accept that souls exist," Annabelle interjected, hoping to avoid any further spirals of conversation, ala Adelyn. "And it makes sense. The majority of the billions of people in this world have grown up in a world where souls are nothing but myth and legend and imaginary concepts. Now they have to come to grips with the fact that they're very real, and always have been." She paused. "And the whole confirmed afterlife thing - pretty sure that rocked the world more than any of this sapient nonhuman, soul-to-body-size revelation stuff. Most people seem to be getting a good handle on that stuff, and plain magic itself being a thing. But the afterlife? Ghosts? That's really done a number on a lot of people."

"Some of it good, some of it bad, of course," Adelyn spoke up casually. She waved an airy hand about. "For some people it just doesn't compute, while for others it's given them a brand new perspective on life itself. I've seen a wide range of reactions in my travels."

"Regardless of any of it though, yeah, people are going to be up in arms about all of it for a long time to come," said Annabelle. "It's totally upended philosophy, religion, and even moral and ethical viewpoints for a lot of people. Not to mention laws..."

"What do you mean by that?" said Emerich, voice full of innocent curiosity. "Philosophy, ethical viewpoints? How has that changed because of this information?" he went on to clarify.

"Can we not get started on that rabbit hole?" Norberta whined, flicking her tail out to lightly smack Emerich's hind leg.

It was too late for that; the entire table soon participated in diving into that hole, which led to a long, complicated series of discussions over the next hour and a half.

"Can I marry you? You'd become the twi tume of my kingdom if you said yes," Confiance was saying to Petunia, at the tail end of the table's great philosophical discussions. "I've never had an outsider be one before, never heard of it either - but there aren't any laws against it. So it could happen!"

"I- I don't- think that would work out between us..." Petunia said, pale and wide-eyed.

"Your loss," Confiance snickered. "I offered you a kingdom, and you threw it in my face. I'll remember that. You'll remember that when I get a hold of some shrinking potions!"

"Is she telling the truth?" Petunia asked, glancing at Annabelle with a hint of fear. "Could she really...do that to me?"

Gertrude spoke before Annabelle could. "Your Alice In Wonderland fable is based on a true story - Alice was a lost little witch in the woods, who lived about a century and a half ago. What does that tell you?"

"Magic can shrink people," Annabelle informed Petunia. "But it's a rare thing. Rare potions, rare ingredients, rare flowers - or rare spells and rituals from nonhuman mage types. But it's all rare enough you'd never have to worry about it. Not unless someone was really determined..."

"Oh, I'm determined," Confiance giggled.

"She's not really a queen of any kingdom," Teafa informed Petunia airily. "She's a lowly thief, and a liar, and-"

"Excuse you? Pot calling the kettle black?" Daphne snorted, glaring at Teafa with glistening pure black eyes. Her echoing, magical voice was full of contempt. "You're a racist singer profiting off the same people she hates, whining about how humans are so bad, they hurt my people, but you don't hesitate to walk into the largest magical city in magical america and-"

"I don't hate humans, I'm scared of them," Teafa responded, turning her chin up at Daphne. "And why shouldn't I be? They torture, rape, kidnap, and burn villages to the ground just because they can. They did all that to me, personally, and nowadays I've learned that on a larger scale they have things like missiles and nukes - and they haven't hesitated to use them! I've been reading about their effects on people. Do you know how horrible it is, how disgusting, how depraved, how..."

Spiraling, Annabelle thought, discomfort flooding through her body. She gripped the edge of the table hard.

"I- I suppose- s-someday I might be happy to...tour your kingdom?" Petunia carefully stammered out, loudly over Daphne and Teafa. Deliberately so. "But I wouldn't like to be shrunk down without my consent."

"Since when does consent matter to you?" Annabelle snarled, jumping to her feet. Silence fell over the table. Everyone was looking at her. Annabelle felt a familiar texture against her palm; she looked down to find her wand in her grasp. When did I do that? She looked in her aunt's general direction. Her face was heating up, and her stomach was squirming. Her legs were jelly as she collapsed onto her chair and hunkered down in it. "I'm sorry! Aunt Petunia, I'm sorry, please, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to, please, I'm so sorry, I'll n-never do anything like that again!"

"It's fine!" Petunia said quickly, reassuring. Smiling. "Don't worry, Annabelle! It's all right. You're fine! Please, don't worry yourself. It's fine."

Anju lifted her arm and touched her feathered hand to Annabelle's cheek. Annabelle froze - appreciated the breeze of motion, and the coolness of the feathers. "Do you want us to go to the bedroom for a while?" she said simply, softly.

"I...yeah," Annabelle choked out. "Yeah. Sorry, sorry - bye." She apparated away, reappearing in her bedroom. Hers and Anju's. She flicked her wand shakily at the fireplace; flames and warmth and light sprung to life. She settled onto the bed, curled into the blankets.

Anju quickly came floating into the room from the hallway - the door shut with a magical breeze and a sweep of her wing. She hovered onto the bed, lay herself down and pressed up against Annabelle.

Silence. Quiet. Warmth.

Anju wrapped a wing around Annabelle, shifted even closer to her, gave her a kiss on the back of the head. Talked to her, told her things were fine, told her she was okay, told her...that nothing she said or did tonight was going to get her hurt, that it wasn't bad, that she wasn't bad, and told her that her aunt could never lay a hand on her again. Reminded her that...that it was different now, she was different, and her aunt was different, and reminded her that, too, what she was feeling now was...

Minutes passed them by like this, until Annabelle came back to herself. Stopped her violent shaking, her sniffling and her hiccups. She turned over to face Anju, ran her fingers along the inside of her wings, carefully and absently rustling the feathers. She pressed her nose into it all and sniffed, loved that earthy smell and Anju's natural scent, combined. She smiled; Anju smiled at her, too - she'd always allowed her to do this, and she'd even commented on it being "cute" and other such things. With that scent in her, Annabelle quickly grew ever calmer, until it was completely so: it was so comforting, relaxing, always.

Smell, touch...they always helped Annabelle. Sensory comforts. Almighty stimulation.

"How're you feeling?" Anju spoke quietly, eventually.

"Good," Annabelle mumbled. "I'm good again. I'm- I'm good. We uh, we should get back to everyone..."

"If you feel like you want to - I'm sure everyone would understand if you weren't up to it anymore," Anju whispered, kissing her cheek gently.

"I'm- I'm up to it. I am, really - promise. Adelyn, Gertrude, Confiance...I haven't seen them all in a while. I don't want to be a shitty host by asking them all here and then not, you know, being their host. They all had busy lives they had to arrange this invitation around."

"Okay." Anju's wing lifted away, exposing cooler airs onto Annabelle's skin. Sweat dripped down Annabelle as she rolled away and got up off the bed. Anju sat up, stood up.

"Okay." Annabelle smiled. Breathed. Let it out. She led the way out into the hall, back to the dining room. Nobody was moved from where they'd been. Though, Kyle was missing entirely, and Daphne and Maria's voices could be heard elsewhere in the sitting room. And...

"So you're a nationalist?" Petunia was saying, strained and quiet, to Confiance.

Confiance's voice floated back across the table in tones of light laughter. "Oh no! No. According to your definitions, I'd be a patriot. Patriotism is striving to make your home better by holding it to the standards it claims to aspire to. A patriot sees flaws in their country and aspires to do better. A nationalist believes the opposite. Their country is already the best thing ever, and to even suggest it could be improved upon in some manner is traitorous. And if there is a problem, its not the nation's fault, it's the undesirables leeching her lifeblood. I know my kingdom has problems, but I have hope that it can get over them."

"That's...such a positive attitude. I- admire you for that."

"Well thanks, sweetheart."

A pink-faced Petunia looked away.

"Uhm," Annabelle started, shifting on her feet. Wringing her hands at her waist. "I uh- sorry, everyone. I didn't mean to...I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Norberta spoke first, kind and firm. [She deserved that shot.]

[No, she didn't,] Emerich spoke up.

Norberta huffed flames out her nose, turned to glare at Annabelle. [I hate you for instilling a sense of morality in my partner. Things are so much more boring now.]

[Sorry.] Annabelle shrugged, laughed a little. She took her seat again, looked up and down the table. Anju joined her in it, touched a wing to her for a moment and gave her another of her smiles. "So, uhm...how was everyone's meals?" she said pointedly, gesturing at the empty, or partially empty plates and bowls.

Cue everyone appropriately gushing and complimenting on the food.

"Great," Annabelle said. Nodded. "That's great. Uh, also, does anybody know where Kyle went?"

---

Annabelle stomped heavily into the small, outer village cabin. She knocked her fist on the wall. "Hey."

"Hey." Kyle didn't look at her. He was staring into his lap. Had his hands together.

Annabelle smiled. Gestured at the dusty bedding. "Can I sit with you?"

"Sure."

She did. Annabelle palmed her paperclip of the week and slid it into her mouth. Gnawed at it furiously for a moment or two. "So, where've you been? It's been like a year, I haven't seen you. Also, more recently, you know, why'd you bail out on the dinner party?"

"Long disappearances tend to be the case when you're running from a death cult."

"Yeah, but...you could always stay here. Plenty of houses to take up residence in. Anju doesn't mind - she loves it, actually. Sort of wants to rebuild her community, replace the old one with a newer one."

A sigh. "I'll think about it. But I need to go now. I promised to meet someone else, and I'm not contributing much to this party of yours."

"Natasha?" Silence. "Why're you still stalking that girl?"

"Why are you still stalking that boy?"

"His name is Joseph. And, because I murdered his mother. You're stalking your kid because you saved her life in a hospital once and got her a nice new home."

Kyle lifted his head, met her eyes. He smiled just slightly. "Not too different. We're both still stalking them."

"Well...hey, want to just both stop? It's feeling kind of creepy at this point."

"I'll stop when she's eighteen."

"When you know she'll be safe, out of the house and able to defend herself." Annabelle nodded. "All right. Yeah. That's- great."

"What about you?"

Annabelle scratched at her head, threaded fingers through her short-cut hair. "I uh- I'm just, you know, waiting for him to grow up a bit more so I can actually...tell him. Sit down and talk, you know? He deserves to know, but he has to be capable of really understanding it all first. A six year old can't really...get it yet."

"Yeah."

"Yeah. Soooo, you sure you don't just want to stick around?"

Another sigh. Kyle looked at the floor. "We're not a good combination."

"No, we're not," Annabelle agreed. "Not really. But, if you were to take a house here, you wouldn't be really around me, you know? You'd just happen to be living nearby. You could pick this one, for example! On the furthest, absolute edge of the village. I wouldn't get in your business, you wouldn't get in mine. Nobody would come over and bug you, and you wouldn't even have to ever see me or Anju or Norberta up and about, as long as we came and went at different times."

"Fine. But you stay away from me unless it's something important. Please."

"All right, I promise," said Annabelle.

"And...thank you." Kyle...he almost smiled at her again. "For that, and for this party invitation. It's really cool. I've never met so many nonhumans before."

"Yeah, it's great, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

Silence between them.

"So," Annabelle started, shifting on the bed. "Want to get back to the party?"

---

"Maria-"

"I HAVE TO GO, I CAN'T BE HERE, PLEASE!"

Daphne grabbed Maria's arm and dragged her in close. "Maria, come on, we're all fine here, we're all safe here! And we talked about this before: you don't really want to-"

"Yes I do! You're going to die, she's going to die, and everyone's going to die! Everyone's dead if we don't go back! She already- we have to go, I- I need her, I need to-"

"Maria, shut up and drink this!" Daphne wrapped Maria up tight and pulled her to the floor. Struggled to get a vial to her lips. "Stop - hitting - me!"

"Nobody's safe here! Daphne, get off of me, let me go, we have to go, we can't-"

Daphne poked her in the stomach, and muttered a quick word. The next ten seconds she kept holding onto Maria, kept talking to her, until Maria stopped fighting her, and her black eyes closed and she went limp in her arms.

"Sorry. Sorry- everybody. I didn't think she'd have a freakout like this tonight..."

"It's alright," Anju said softly, getting down and brushing a wing over Maria's pale face. "No one's upset, it's all right. Just tell us what she needs. Does she need to get back to your apartment?"

"Yeah. We should go." Daphne stood, lifted maria up and held her in her arms like a bride on wedding day. "Sorry - sorry - sorry," she murmured out as she passed everyone, heading for the back door. "Didn't mean to ruin the atmosphere."

"Nothing's ruined," Annabelle spoke firmly, grabbing Daphne's arm as she passed. She looked up, looked her in eye. She smiled. "You're fine, okay? We had a great time, and I liked seeing you again. And Maria."

"Yeah. Fine, see you around," Daphne snorted. She shook her head. Stared down at Annabelle a moment, her face twisted. "We're a damn mess." She walked on by.

With Daphne and Maria's departure, the dinner party slowly winded down. Norberta and Emerich were next to leave, about an hour later. Then, Annabelle discovered Kyle had left after she went back to check on his newly rented cabin (after a talk about it with Anju, that was). Gertrude and Teafa were next to go, with the latter reluctantly admitting she'd had a good time in the presence of humans. After them, Confiance fluttered out the nearest window and disappeared into the woods (but not before blowing a kiss Petunia's way). Second last to leave should have been Adelyn, though...

"You don't have anywhere else to be tonight?" said Annabelle, on entering the sitting room to find Adelyn slumped in an armchair. She frowned. "Adelyn...? Hey!"

"Wha- what?" Adelyn startled violently and sat up straight in her armchair. "Oh...hello. Yes, I..." Her scarlet eyes shone with cheerfulness - yet there was something else there that Annabelle noted...

"Are you hurt or something? You looked-"

"No, no: I was sleeping."

Annabelle sat down on the sofa, turned toward Adelyn. "Sleeping? I thought you couldn't do that. Like, ever?"

"True, and not even Stunning spells or average sleeping potions would do the job for a vampire - but, in these past six years there's been a wonderful blend of magic and biology to create new areas of research, which have produced a brand new line of potions that actually can trigger the stages of sleep in a vampire's brain. Including the ability to dream again." Adelyn lifted a small notebook off her lap and held it up for Annabelle to see. "This is for me to keep track of them. Write them down, get all the details." She sighed in a wondrous, heavenly way. "In a thousand years of living, I'd entirely forgotten what it actually felt like to fall asleep, to dream, to wake up all groggy and grumpy. Never been able to do it again, since being turned: until these past few months now."

"That's great."

"Yes. These past few years since I met you, my life has turned around in a way I never thought it could. I've felt more human again in recent years than I ever have, and I can never thank you enough for that."

"Well, uh, you're welcome. Glad I could help."

Adelyn smiled at her in a most beautiful way.

"So you're not a morning person?" Annabelle said, filling the silence. She glanced down at her arm and snapped her rubber band against her skin in idle. She smiled at the little sting.

"I wasn't," Adelyn answered, shaking her head. "I think that's changed now, though."

"Huh."

"Where's your aunt?" Adelyn asked casually.

"Outside with Anju." Annabelle snapped her rubber band a little harder. "She wanted to know more about the- culture and history and stuff, so Anju's giving her a nice tour."

"That's nice."

"Yeah. It is."

"You're doing very well tonight, Annabelle. I've spent ninety-eight percent of my life, up until recently, running from all my problems. Hiding from them all." Adelyn gave her dream journal a gentle, loving caress. "I've met and been...involved with...people like your aunt before. And...well, people a whole lot worse. Not that I'm comparing terrible people, or traumas. I just...I've just stayed away, waited for them all to die before I ever chose to go back anywhere near where they'd once been. But here you are, and you've invited her into your home, you've laid down the law to her, you're...amazing, and strong, and so much better of a person than I ever have been."

"Thanks," Annabelle whispered. "I'm just trying to be better than her. That's all, really. I mean, I'm not some superhero, or some angel or whatever, you know? I just don't want to be her, as much as I can...not be her."

"You're doing very well with that."

"Thanks," Annabelle repeated. She breathed. "I'm glad to have you over. Um, since you're sleeping again, do you want to sleep here? I could transfigure the sofa into an actual bed for you..."

Adelyn giggled. "Oh, I'd love that. A sleepover, the modern english refers to it as, yes?"

"Yeah." Annabelle laughed. "We'll have a sleepover. You can portkey away in the morning."

"That sounds fantastic. Thank you."

---

March 28, 2005 - Mountains, Northern USA

Annabelle appeared on the mountain with a little pop.

An array of dragons, all shapes and sizes and colors, were laying about the dirt.

At the head of them all, was Norberta. Pacing back and forth absently, and talking. Addressing them all.

[These scrolls are recountings of Aldren, a rare dragon from back in the day - just over a thousand years ago - who spent his time living up in these very mountains, meeting with nondragon individuals who wanted his advice, guidance, and assistance due to his long life of over eight hundred years at the time. He was one of the most knowledgeable and talented of our kind when it came to our brand of dragon magics - when he died, he took all of that with him, so most of what I could teach you to do here won't be anything too big or amazing. My efforts to collect surviving information about our magic hasn't really yielded much more than bits and pieces, sadly; human mage societies in the past thousand years have taken a lot of time to either erase that knowledge, or hoard it in museums and private collections.] Norberta huffed flames. [And even more sadly, not many of them have been too willing to hand it over to me because of ownership rights and other legal things that I hate to bore you all with.]

Norberta flicked her tail and stretched her neck out. Yawned. [Anyway, getting back to Aldren. More than being a dragon magic expert, though, he was a credit to dragons everywhere in the moral and ethical realms, and he's one of the best examples we have of what we ought to be today. He was way ahead of his time, and ostracized because of it by most of our people back in those days.]

[So you'd like us to all just sit around listening to endless complaints and whining from humans, orcs, house elves and who knows what else, for our entire lives? That's what you want our lives to be?] A dragon inquired. Female, on the smaller side, sleek and dark green. Venomous fangs and venomous pointed tail.

[No, Loapeoth, I'm not saying that. Not exactly, anyway!] Norberta said quickly. [The point is...the point is...that we need empathy! We need...cooperation! We need to know how to do that, like Aldren: how to work with other species, how to understand them and care about them. We can't just hold ourselves all high and mighty, as the sky-soaring, flame-breathing lords and ladies of the world just because we're bigger, or faster, or...or can do some real damage to towns and cities on our own. None of that makes us better. It never did in the past, and it won't now. It doesn't give us the right to do whatever we want, to whoever we want.]

[Why?]

[Why what?]

[Why doesn't it all give us the right to do that? The humans committed...what's that word...genocide? Or is it sterilization? Both words, actually. They did that to us, and it's stayed with us for a thousand years, until now here we are and our children are still suffering from it! I've tried having three kids before, and all of them turned out to be...nothing but mere animals. Beasts. Like I used to be, myself. I remember those years, growing up. I recall every detail of those cages, and the way those humans would tear off my claws, bind my wings to my sides, put a weight on each of my limbs, and a metal wrapping around my face so I couldn't even open my mouth. I remember every single time that they flashed those magic lights at me, made me feel like crying out with the pain - but that metal muzzle prevented me from doing that. All of this was done to us - to me, personally - and some of that is still happening to our children even as we speak! So why...why shouldn't we go and hurt them back for it? Why are we supposed to get along with them, talk to them, understand them?]

[Because it isn't right,] Norberta said simply.

[Self-defense. Defense of others. It can be right, but you don't seem to want to let it!] Loapeoth argued fiercely. [Why should they get to hurt us like that, hurt our children, cripple our entire civilization, and get away with it? Why should we let them get away with it? Why are we just sitting around like this on a mountain?!]

[They shouldn't get away with it,] Norberta answered, quiet and steady. [They won't. When we actually form a new society, we're going to get restitution and- and reparations from them over it all! I have big plans for that, trust me. They won't just get to ignore what they've done to us, and to our kids. I'm going to make sure of it - but it's going to take some time to get that ball rolling. And...anyway, look Loa, not letting them get away with what they did doesn't mean going out and razing entire cities or eating them alive. It means that we...right now, we can bring charges against specific human individuals, we can get justice in courts, in the laws about abuse and kidnapping and all that stuff. But it doesn't mean going out and slaughtering people - especially not people who had nothing to do with it.]

Loapeoth paused. Narrowed her eyes. Her tail swished about as she rose to her feet. [Then why aren't we doing that?]

Norberta got up, too. Took two steps forward. [We are!] she spoke firmly. [A lot of us are. Some dragons out there have gotten legal representatives among certain human societies, and there are some cases going through the systems - several of them have even been won. Easily! The humans who did those things, they were locked up for it, taken out of their homes and lives for it. That's enough for us. It should be enough for you.]

[Should it?]

[Yes!]

[Why?]

[What do you mean, WHY?!] Norberta said shrilly, disbelief and exasperation dueling in her voice for dominance.

[What if I don't feel satisfied by that outcome? What if I'd feel better about it if I could go and eat them?] Loapeoth spoke slowly, drawing out her words as if she were speaking to a slow dragon. [Those specific humans - not anyone "innocent" like you don't want me to - who did those things to us, and to me, and to my children? To your child!]

Norberta snorted flames. [Well, then tough shit, Loa: that's what laws are for. They hold us back from just giving in to those feelings, those thoughts, and becoming mindless, idiotic monsters and mobs. The very same animals and beasts you're so pissed off about once having been made into! They ensure fairness, and justice, and truth. Going out murdering people won't do that.] Norberta paused. [You could have burned and eaten some humans in your actual escape from the cages, and the weights, and the muzzle - I'll bet you did - and that is when it would have been justified...but it wouldn't be justified now. You're way past that point - sorry.]

[What if I don't care?] Loapeoth hissed, enraged. [Why should they get to burn us, to lock us up, to make us scream and weigh us down and make our children practically stillborn for all the use we can get out of them, and we don't get to do anything to them except...except legal things, like restitution, and reparations, whatever those all are?!]

[Because we want to be good people,] Norberta growled. She stomped forward and stood tall over Loapeoth, spreading her wings and stretching out on her legs and with her neck. [If you want to be a shit person, if that's what you want to do with your newfound sapience, then you're just going to end up back in a cage again for it until you can learn to behave like any civilized person. Do you understand me, Loa?]

[Yes...] Loapeoth said stiffly. She dug the claws of her right foreleg into the dirt, several inches deep. She ducked her head, and her body sagged wholesale. [Yes, I understand you.]

[Good.] Norberta looked at Annabelle. Dipped her head just so. [I think that's enough for today.]

[Why?] Loapeoth followed Norberta's gaze very pointedly. Swept a foreleg in Annabelle's direction. [Oh, that's why: your human handler is here for you. She's here, so you drop everything and go running to her. You leave us, your own kind, your students, because a human wants you to!]

[No, I'm ending class early because you are pissing me off!] Norberta retorted, a growl entering her voice. [I let you into these lessons because you came to me and you told me you were interested in it all. And because you said you were scared, and you said you wanted a safe place to be, and to learn about the modern world and what your place might be in it. If you don't think I'm creating that kind of environment for you anymore, or giving you the information you need, then feel free to leave. I won't miss you.]

[So you'd abandon me? Just like that? Over the well-being of humans?]

[Okay, uhm, why don't you just-] Annabelle started. Stopped when that green snout whipped around, those eyes lasered into her.

[Loapeoth is my name, human! The name I had to choose for myself after your kind sentenced mine to one thousand years of...being nothing but some pathetic, scrabbling, abused, locked up animals! We dragons were strong, we were powerful, we were feared and we were prominent! We were everywhere, and we had magic and knowledge and we had life!] Loapeoth slammed her poison-tipped tail against the dirt, stamped a foreclaw and tossed her head while she yelled to the skies. She stomped forward, advancing on Annabelle. [What do we have now?! We have no knowledge, we have no magic, we have nothing to us! And it is because of you! You did this to us! To our ancestors, to us, and to our children still! You did this to me! And yet still to this day you lord over all of us, you get so much land, so many numbers, all those scattered cities and towns, and you claim yourselves to be the highest, greatest, best form of life on this planet! You do anything you want, to anyone you want, and it's just fine because it's you doing it! Humans!]

Annabelle took a step back and held up her hands. Flesh and metal, palms outward. [Hey, okay - I understand your feelings, I can't- I can't imagine how...how upsetting all of this has to be, to learn about your history, and about the role that some of my people played in it, and...and what happened to you personally wasn't right, it wasn't okay, and I'm sorry...but I think you should listen to Norberta, all right? You just need to calm down here, and if you really want to get some kind of justice for your mistreatment, then I promise you I'll go to all the governments of the world and personally bring your case to their attention. I'll get it fast-tracked, I promise-]

[HUMAN PROMISES MEAN NOTHING!] Loapeoth opened her jaws wide and blasted out a stream of blue flames, swirling and spinning and spiraling and beautiful - and dangerous. Annabelle threw up a magic shield, braced against the fire; it wasn't enough, not without her wand in her hand. The barrier twisted and bubbled, bent inward, like huge fingers were being pressed into it. And then it broke, into fragments and particles of emerald that scattered to the wind. Before Annabelle was surrounded by the flames, before she could be lost in it all, something large moved between her and Loapeoth to block it. Norberta's great, leathery wing came down over her, swept her in toward her and then under her belly. Two foreclaws reached back down, under herself, and scooped Annabelle up and held her tight to cool scales.

Annabelle struggled to draw her wand admist roaring and thundering shakes, flames streaming this way and that. Movement and motion all around her.

Annabelle was pretty sure she threw up once or twice - probably on Norberta.

Norberta was lifting her wings to flap them, to go airborne, when Loapeoth darted forward and slammed into her flank with a shoulder. Norberta rolled with the impact, sprung herself up and lashed out with a foreclaw that tore into Loapeoth's face. She shoved and shoved, relentlessly pushing Loapeoth backwards. Then, Norberta swung her whole body around and her tail wrapped around Loapeoth's neck. Tightened and coiled several times over. Norberta flapped her wings, and with a great rush of magic she was soaring high above - and Loapeoth was being dragged along with her. Sheer force of gravity and acceleration tightened her tail around Loapeoth's throat like a noose for the hanging.

Loapeoth dangled, thrashing below with blind panic. She dug her claws into Norberta's tail and began ripping into her flesh with desperation, tearing and tearing as deep and fast as she could. Blood spilled down over her, muscle and tendons were shredded and hung loosely out of Norberta's torn open tail. Norberta twisted and shrieked in agony, let her tail uncoil and swiped down with both her foreclaws, tearing bloody gashes along Loapeoth's forehead and eyes - and dropping Annabelle from her grasp in the process (a situation Annabelle resolved by apparating down to the ground again). As Loapeoth spread her wings and gained her bearings, hovered in the air beneath Norberta, the latter opened her mouth and unleashed a stream of icy cold magic; Loapeoth's slitted eyes widened in total shock, but that was all she could do before she was enveloped in the magical ice. She became a big, frozen block; this block instantly started dropping like a stone.

Annabelle immediately aimed her wand skyward, catching Loapeoth in a levitation spell. She slowed her descent, set her down gently. She began casting all manner of binding spells about the ice block, preserving it as it was and further trapping Loapeoth within it.

Norberta landed heavily, cradling her mutilated tail against her flank, tucked under a wing. Heavy breaths and little noises escaped her mouth, high and drawn out.

Annabelle rushed forward and cast healing magic on her until she was satisfied. They breathed sighs of relief.

"What do we do with her now?" Norberta asked. She hesitated. "What do you want to do with her now? She attacked you - do you want to get law enforcement on her? Press charges, I think you call that whole process?"

"No," Annabelle shrugged. "I'm good, thanks. I don't want to...report this or anything. I don't want to ruin her life when she's just so- so hurt, and scared, and angry, and none of it's her fault. What do you want to do with her? She's your student, your people."

Norberta shrugged her wings right back at Annabelle. "I don't know."

"Well, figure something out," Annabelle laughed. "You're going to have to deal with things like this all the time if you're really going to remake and lead an entirely new dragon nation," she went on, smiling a little.

"I don't want to just throw her into prison - you're right about that. She'd never learn anything from humans. She needs to learn from me. Even if she doesn't want to right now," Norberta finished thoughtfully.

[We'll watch her for you.]

Annabelle and Norberta both turned to see a small, purple-scaled dragon slinking forward from the others (very small; he wasn't any bigger than an average human).

[Excuse you?] Norberta retorted. [You'll watch her? She's poison, she's damaged, and she gives a good thrashing - as you just saw! What do you think you can do to help keep her in line, Spyrio?] She punctuated the little dragon's name with a snort.

[What you're teaching us,] the little purple, male dragon replied, determined and a little excited. [If you let us learn specific dragon spells sooner, we could use them to bind Loapeoth if she gets violent and angry again!]

[If she tries going after a human again, we can be there,] spoke up a large, blood red dragon with a sharp horn on her snout, and a triple bladed tail end like a typically-imagined devil's pitchfork. [We're supposed to be learning how to be good people. Morals, ethics, following laws - most of the time - and fitting in with the world. Let us prove that we can do that for you. For the restored dragon society - whenever that comes about.]

"So, how about that? You want to...bump your students up a level?" Annabelle smiled. "Put them through the express course?"

"I don't know." Norberta shook her head. She regarded her students a long moment. "What if I do, and then they go off with all this rare and old magic and they use it to hurt and kill, because my lessons didn't really sink in for them? Because they couldn't let go of some feelings, like Loa?"

"If they do," Annabelle started carefully. "that isn't your fault. You're not responsible for how they choose to live their lives, or how they might choose to use what abilities or information they have. They're the only ones who can make the choice, in the end. If they do make the wrong one, then that's sad, and horrible, but it's on them - not you. And...if they do, you can track them down and kick their asses for it, right?"

"I suppose," Norberta huffed. She narrowed her eyes at her students. [Fine! I'll speed up your practical magic lessons. I'm glad to hear you talking like this. It's good,] she finished softly. Had she been human, she would have been smiling. [You're all good.]

Annabelle glanced at Loapeoth's ice block, and her mind dared to wonder a fleeting thought at the sight, no matter what she'd said to reassure her dragon daughter: How many of the students here are going to stay good?