Like a hurried white rabbit, the love fairy kept one step out of Nikki's reach, skipping gaily through the carnival wonderland while she huffed in hot pursuit. The winged girl seemed to know exactly how fast Nikki could run, pausing at certain corners so she could catch up or pulsing pink light from her body when Nikki lost track. She wants me to follow; she wants to tell me something!
Nikki moved on autopilot, intent on activating this NPC quest, never really concerning herself that she was leaving the colourful lights and music of the carnival behind her; that she was jogging further into the darkness of the night.
She'd never really read the cautionary tales about fairies luring children out into the woods.
The chase ended down one of the lamp-lit piers stretching into the ocean. This was one of the loading docks for the water taxis. Normally a haven for couples stealing off for a make-out session or carnival staff ducking off for a smoke break, now it was eerily deserted – just the wash of ocean waves against the pillars and a pink beacon waiting at the platform's edge.
It was chilly, but Nikki moved forward unafraid. The fairy beckoned her forward like a carnival barker. "Step right up, folks! Come see the amazing fairy girl! Not too close, ladies – she likes to bite!"
"Kyu…" The cop, Tiffany's roommate, Rondarr's kidnapping victim. "It's really you, isn't it?"
Up close Nikki could confirm that same cheeky grin, and those green apple eyes ripe with mischief. The pink hair bundled up into pigtails was new, as were the butterfly wings, but it really was Kyu! "You are a fairy!"
"And you are so lucky I'm not a dude, Champ."
Kyu was dolled up for the carnival in a tight, strapless dress with arm warmers. Nikki couldn't quite pin down the colour: one minute the dress shimmered blue; the next, a band of pink rippled through the fabric like gel in a lava lamp. A layered skirt fanned around her hips like flower petals.
"Are you okay? You're not hurt?" Kyu had dotted her skin with little pink heart tattoos, each one masking a bruise she'd suffered under Rondarr. Her left arm warmer was also bulkier. It was covering a medical cast.
A slender finger shushed her lips. "Shh, questions later, just … oh, lemmie look at you!" The fairy stepped back, waving her arms up and down Nikki's figure and gushing like a proud fashion designer.
"Champ, you are all sorts of sexylicious tonight! That dress, those legs, and you are lookin' so fine without that virginity! Oh don't go stammering on me; I can smell it on ya. Snuck your fingers into a nice, warm blueberry pie, eh, eh? Girl, you are gonna be one of the freaky ones, I just know it!" The fairy paused to boogie around to an old Rick James tune. "She's a super freak! Super freak! She's su-pah frea-kay!"
Then she sighed and slumped over the railing.
"You should've stayed with your lady-friend…"
Huh? Where did that ominous statement come from? Before Nikki could ask, Kyu popped into her face, manic once more.
"Hey, say something funny! Do that nerd thing where you're all oblivious, like 'Kyu, I don't really like pie.' Say it for me? Here, I'll set you up: Hey Champ, you like pie?"
"I – I don't really like –"
"Well your lady-friend likes yours! Oh snap! Walked right into that one, Champ! I got ya good! I got ya…"
Then she pulled Nikki tight to sob on her shoulders.
"Oh Zeus… I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
"Kyu, wha-?"
"Just … promise me you won't argue with her, okay? Now look sharp; I'm about to get interrupted."
"Inter -?"
"Chiletto!" Celeste pounded down the pier, resting a hand on Nikki's shoulder while she caught her breath. "Why did you run? I worried –" Celeste stopped and narrowed her eyes at Kyu. Her nostrils twitched at the scent of sugar. "Nicole, who is this?"
"Hey, Bluebell. Really oughta keep your birdy on a shorter leash." Straightening up with sudden professionalism, Kyu snapped her fingers and muttered to the air.
"We got 'em."
Nikki startled. At her side, a uniformed police girl appeared out of thin air. Behind Celeste, a second cadet materialized, blocking the path back to the carnival. The hunter hissed and pulled her close as an entire squad of police women encircled them. One by one, their blue uniforms rippled like liquids and melted away, replaced by flowing gowns and dresses in Kyu's flower petal design. Long hair in pastel pink, lilac purple and electric blue shook free from their caps, while insect wings like panes of coloured glass spread from their shoulders. Nikki gasped - Love Fairies! - but Celeste grit her teeth and snarled a more sinister name.
"Cupidaemons…"
They didn't look like cops anymore, but she and Celeste still got the criminal treatment. Each fairy took a shooting pose – arms raised and purple spray bottles aimed.
"Hands where we can see them, Norai."
"Don't move, Norai!"
Nikki yelped as she was yanked against Kyu's chest, a spray vial pressed to her temple. "We only wanna talk, Bluebell. So hands up and I let her go." In Nikki's ear: "I'm sorry. Don't argue with her. Please don't argue with her."
Celeste glared at the ring of fairies in their flower dresses like they were weeds to be trampled. Nikki had no doubt she could pluck the wings off each and every single sprite – and behind their magic potions, the fairies trembled with that same knowledge – but they'd found her weak point and Celeste reluctantly obeyed, raising her hands. Kyu gave her a shove, and Nikki stumbled forward to join Celeste in the center of the ring.
"Cupidaemons … they do exist! But … Nicole, what are they doing on your planet?"
"The better question," a new, regal voice demanded, "is what you're still doing on my planet."
Like dogs hearing their master's whistle, the fairies stiffened, then each took a knee and bowed reverently. Even Kyu dropped her nose to the ground, a nervous tremor consuming her butterfly wings.
"Don't mind the theatrics," the new voice intoned, cold and dismissive. "They just like keeping their wings attached."
She looked and dressed human, clacking her spiked heels down the pier in a tall and regal catwalk strut. With her immaculately white pants suit and the golden jewellery clinking along her wrists and neck, she might have been a business leader or politician. Except for the mint-green shade of her hair she could have blended seamlessly with the carnival crowds. That, and the mask. Her face was hidden behind a jeweled theatre mask, a relic transported from an ancient Greek amphitheatre, except instead of portraying exaggerated joy or sadness, the golden visage kept is mouth to a thin line, eyes narrowed in aloof judgement.
She planted herself in front of them, hand on her hip to match her mask's disapproval.
"You're a long way from home, Norai. I was assured you'd leave as soon as you collected your bounty money, but here you are – lingering like a hangover." A finger thoughtfully rubbed the lip of her mask and she turned to consult the fairies.
"This is what it's like when you people get acne, isn't it?" She gestured at Celeste. "There you are – sitting in front of me like an ugly pustule. I could just squish you and be done with it, scrape you right off my skin. But the scar would be even more troublesome."
"Awesome analogy, boss. Ten out of ten!" The other fairies murmured along with Kyu.
Squish? Pustule? Nikki darted her eyes nervously. Celeste, whose bare hands held the strength to snap bones, was acting bizarrely passive: bowing her head and glaring at her boots while this fancy-pants woman compared her to a pimple! Who did she -?
Nikki's head swam with vertigo. One glare at the woman and ... oh wow! She had to grip her breast to keep her heart from fluttering out of her chest. Those perfect curves... That dreamy hair... This woman was an oasis in the desert and Nikki had to go to her! Had to gaze at her! Had to -
Celeste spun her into a protective hug, and her eyes flinched as though a spotlight had suddenly cut off. Nikki blinked and forced her eyes to adjust. Wait, what just -?
"Don't look at her," Celeste hissed.
"I have that effect on simple creatures," the woman commented. She tapped her mask. "Count your blessings I'm keeping this on, otherwise you'd be hard pressed to remember your names."
"I'm familiar with your legends," Celeste countered. "Shen-to folklore speaks of an ancient settlement that retained no memories of an entire year. The population woke as from a collective trance, finding their homes neglected, their food spent in festivities none remembered celebrating. Only the sightless among them recalled this lost time: a year of madness - poems, shrines and statues made to adore a faceless goddess. A year when they were visited by a cupidaemon queen."
"Cruel, isn't it? A face as like mine and only the blind, flea-bitten beggars remember me."
What're they … talking about? Nikki's head felt fuzzy as a jar of cotton balls. Hard to … concentrate. Every time she slipped a glance at the masked woman, her body flushed with a giddy heat and her vision blurred. The pier vanished in a dizzy haze, Celeste slipped from her thoughts. Time itself stopped so she could admire this impossibly gorgeous woman with the silhouette of a supermodel, the poise of a queen, and the radiance of a goddess!
My goddess, her mind sang. Then Celeste yanked her back and she gasped like a deep sea diver coming up for air. What she swore was five seconds showed as five minutes on her phone. What's happening to me?
"Who … are you?"
The beauty – the goddess – broke her staring match with Celeste and sent Nikki swooning. "No one special," she sang with false modesty. "Just a gardener. A gardener come to admire her roses." Her mask redirected its glare at Celeste.
"A gardener wondering how this stray weed came to root among her flowers. Seriously, though – that human? I know the scars leave you self-conscious but you can aim a little higher."
Celeste kept her face downcast, but Nikki flinched at the squeeze coming from her Valkyrie's hand. "What is your purpose here? It would be foolish to assume a fairy queen descended to this realm for simple pleasure."
"Too true. I feel dirty just lingering here. These 'carnivals' are beyond me – standing in line for cheap thrills, crowding together for the grease-soaked scraps you call 'food'. Then there's your fascination with those fire-pops!" She gestured to the sparkling sky. "It's no wonder Father kept you so enthralled with his little flash-bangs. But no, I'm not here for your fun or for small talk. You've been lazing on your ass for two whole days; time to finish the job, bounty hunter."
"Job?" Celeste raised her head quizzically, immediately grimacing like she'd looked into the sun.
"Oh, that's right. Kyu? Show them."
Wha the -? Nikki's light-headed infatuation broke when Kyu steered her aside, tugging down her dress sleeves and waving a glowing palm over her exposed shoulder.
Nikki's skin reciprocated the glow.
"Holy shit!" Under the fairy's touch, a tattoo appeared on her shoulder: a heart stenciled in sweeping calligraphy curves. It pulsed rhythmically like a blip on a radar screen. "Y-you tattooed me?"
Kyu stepped aside and shrugged. "Locator charm. Perfect for tracking down those missing keys from your back pocket. Soon as you showed up on the beach with that weird-ass alien tech, I figured we'd wanna keep an eye on you, Champ. Once I figured out you two had a little … liaison going, all we had to do was point you in the right direction."
Nikki's phone buzzed. Multiple Twitter updates. Her hand automatically opened the app, and in return, the winged fairies each raised their own phones.
GingerSnaps /at/SassafrasG
Hey, kiddo. #MonsterDog
CicelySpice /at/WintergreenC
You were very brave, Nikki. #Alert
TheTrixieOne /at/D-BellsT
Not bad for a human. #KillerDog
MadameButterfly /at/Q-T-3.14
Champ… #ImSoSorry…
"You tagged me," Nikki stammered. Like cattle in a barnyard; like a rat in a laboratory maze receiving little electrode jolts: go here, do this, turn left. Celeste read the messages over her shoulder with steely eyes.
"You were directing our every move. Prodding us forward as though we were -"
"Slaves?" the goddess finished. She snorted. "Call it symbiosis: my fairies don't usually entertain guests as crude as garduk, and you needed a surveillance net to track them down. It worked quite splendidly until you took your little lover's sabbatical. Hard to move your pawn when she's shut off her phone. Now it's time you got back to work. Your little playmate, the Slovarian? Finish the job."
Celeste's golden eyes flickered with panic. Rondarr? Nikki gulped. No, he couldn't! She glanced up at Celeste to confirm, but she'd already quashed all hints of fear.
"Rondarr was terminated."
"My fairies saw him: bursting out of the grave you dug for him, angry enough to tear this city apart." Two nervous sprites bobbed their heads in agreement. "Garduk, we can manage, but under a cloaking field he's impossible to track."
"Terms?"
"Oh, that's right. Payment. How's this? You get to live. And I'll permit you to leave. Go back to the frozen hellhole you call home and forget all of this ever happened."
Behind the woman's shoulder, Kyu raised her thumbs and mouthed stage cues: 'Say Yes! Yes!' Her Valkyrie turned away.
"My home is with –" Celeste's throat seized up in a gasp. The golden mask hadn't changed its steely expression, but the eyes beneath it narrowed with contempt.
"Are you arguing with me? With your goddess?" The air around her grew dark and heavy. Her index finger inched towards Celeste like a blade.
Nikki screamed as her Valkyrie dropped to the ground, gripping her skull.
"Don't delude yourself that this is a negotiation, bounty hunter. You are trespassing on holy ground. I've toiled for millennia to keep this planet hidden from your galaxy and no one is going to desecrate my treasure. Not the Slovarian, not those beastly garduk, and not some filthy little cross-breeding deviant from a race of slaves!"
The other fairies averted their gaze, but Kyu stepped into the circle. "Boss, we kinda need her in one piece …"
"Hmm, true." The goddess flicked her finger and Celeste collapsed in a heap. Nikki dove to her Valkyrie's side, but Celeste shrugged her off. She was gasping in pain but the Norai made it her mission to rise up, to hold and shelter her love with her body.
"Aren't you a fascinating speck of dust," the goddess sneered. "You care for this little seed, don't you? Mm… yes, I can hear your little heart beating for her. Be-beat, be-beat, be-beat," and she tapped her finger along to the rhythm, every bob making Celeste jerk under an electric current.
"Did you know? The other day some imbecile served me a plate of this planet's fruit without rinsing them for pests. There was an inchworm – a ghastly, horrid little inchworm oozing its way across my meal. Now what do you suppose I did, hmm? Well, after I tore a strip off my servant's wings, I plucked off the worm. I flicked it aside."
Her masked eyes smiled at Nikki. "Naturally, I threw out the fruit as well."
Celeste's grip went limp and cold.
They were done here. The goddess turned, motioning for her fairies to follow into the portal she'd conjured. "Finish the job and be out of my sight, bounty hunter." She looked back, and Nikki's body responded gladly to the tug of those masked eyes. A wicked leer festered under that mask. "Let your darling human remember you as a brave hero. Or she might not remember you at all."
Slowly, teasingly, her hand reached for her mask. Yes! Nikki's arms and legs crawled forward. A voice called after her, but the fog was too thick to hear. She was in the vacuum of space and this woman was her radiant sun. Nikki wanted to circle her, to spin ever closer!
The mask fell like an eclipse and tears trickled down Nikki's cheeks. The sun, she marveled. I'm looking into the sun!
Something sizzled on her cheek. Breath quickening, knees trembling, eyes … burning? Burning. She was burning up inside!
"C-celeste?" Couldn't look away; couldn't look away. Blinding white! Fiery hot! "Celeste!"
Too much. Too much! She was going to expl-
"Chiletto? Nicole, can you hear my voice?"
"Uhnn…" Groggy and tired beyond belief, Nikki sat up and rubbed her eyes, puzzled as to why Celeste was kneeling and doting on her like a bedside nurse.
"Are you harmed, Chiletto? Can you remember -?"
"Celeste, it's just fireworks…" Tackling her to the ground and covering her body like a shield was flattering, but in public? Seriously? Combat nerves flaring up, I guess.
"Do you wanna go back and grab a gun?"
She was only trying to be considerate; she never expected Celeste to tackle her with a desperate hug. "Whoa! Celeste, give me some room here!"
"I thought… I thought I lost you."
"From fireworks?" Nikki groaned. "Look I'm okay, but –" She paused to crane her neck and peck Celeste's cheek, "You're gonna have to tone it down until we get home tonight."
Did I say something wrong? That simple teasing left her Valkyrie looking horrified. Nikki stroked her fingers across Celeste's thigh. "Hey, everything okay?"
The Norai pushed her hand away.
"We should return home."
Huh? "Is this about Audrey? Because we came here to have fun; she can't take that." Leaping to her feet, a fresh sparkle overtook Nikki's eyes.
"C'mon, we're gonna get some cotton candy, and then we're gonna loot the shooting gallery booths." An alien sharpshooter and the Galaxy Arcade's light-gun master gamer. Those carnies wouldn't know what hit them! "And then, we're gonna ride the Ferris wheel, and we're gonna make out under the fireworks till –"
"Enough!"
The shout made her draw back, startled. Celeste was breathing raggedly and looking to the stars. "You've made your point," she hissed to the skies. "You've made your point." The Norai turned away while she wiped her eyes, composing herself.
"Chiletto … what if I had to leave?"
Celeste's words threw her off-balance. "W-what, you mean for a job? We talked about this Celeste. You belong he-"
"No, Nicole. I mean … if I left this world; if I never returned. You would proceed with your life, would you not?"
"What're you saying?" Her mind was drowning, but Celeste only continued her misty-eyed babbling.
"When Celara rejected me, I was overcome with ache and emptiness. I believed I would never again find someone so wonderful. Yet here I stand with you. Nicole, my absence will hurt awhile but you will find someone –"
"Why would I want to find someone else!? I want you!" Why are you saying these things? Nikki raised her hands, cupped them around Celeste's cheeks so she could pull her face close and tell her. "Celeste, you don't under-!"
Blood. Nikki drew her hands back, staring at the black liquid smeared down her fingers.
"Wh-what happened to your ears? Why are you bleeding?"
Wait, why was she asking? Nikki rewound through her memories and – she flinched. Her mind hit a full-stop. A blank space. Meeting Tiffany, confronting Audrey, the girls leaving, and then –
Urgh! A bright light flashed through her mind, obscuring everything. Going back to that moment hurt, like someone had taken a hot bulb to the photo-negatives of her memory, searing the images until they were nothing but a blinding, scalding white.
"I can't remember." No, that wasn't possible; she always remembered everything! "Celeste… what happened to me?"
"Pheromones… an aura…" the hunter muttered to herself. "A beauty that devours memory. How … how can I win?" Celeste brushed a hand through her own hair, and Nikki caught a glimpse of the dark smears running from her earlobes down to her jawline. Her Valkyrie tried to mask her quiet sob in a laugh.
"I convinced myself that I could save your planet. Kill the garduk and rid your world of an invasive menace." She gave a sad laugh. "And in the end, your world was already infested."
"Celeste, you're not making any sense! I -" Pink. It was a faint image, but she remembered a - "F-fairy? Did … did we meet a fairy?"
"Cupidaemon," Celeste corrected. "They've been aware of my presence this entire time. Nicole, they have been monitoring us. They –" She steadied herself with a deep breath. "They informed us that Rondarr is still alive."
"Alive?" she repeated. Déjà vu rippled through her head. This wasn't her first exclamation on that subject.
"Alive," Celeste confirmed, "and concealing himself with a holo-cloak. This explains how he was able to move undetected among your people."
"How do we find him?"
"Slovarians are predatory species with a pronounced sense of smell. He will be searching for us." She stood, fortified into warrior mode. "We must return to your dwelling at once. I require my arsenal."
"Right," Nikki nodded.
"Remain close to me. Rondarr could appear as anyone."
Hand in hand, they marched down the boardwalk, silently agreeing it was best to stay away from the lights and the innocent crowds of the carnival. Rondarr, alive, but that wasn't what scared Nikki. It was seeing Celeste helpless and on edge; knowing there were pages torn from her book of memories. It was the cold shame of having her mind violated. Who … did this to me?
"Nikki?"
"Oh fuck, not this shit again!"
She glanced towards the twin voices of Tiffany and Audrey. Great, the princess and the pauper had also picked the boardwalk as a retreat. But who was the boy walking with them?
"Nikki," Tiffany continued with a smile, "Look who we ran into! See? I told you she was here tonight."
A boy with dark skin and dreadlocks loomed over the girls like a shadow, an uncharacteristic grimace on his face. Anton. Wait, he was out of the hospital already? Why was he clutching an arm like it was still injured?
What if Rondarr goes after him again?
She broke Celeste's grip and ran to her friends. I have to warn him! "Anton!"
He opened his arms invitingly. "Hello, Nikkeeee."
Oh crap…
Half a second to turn and run. Half a second and Anton batted her two friends aside like trash. Audrey scraped against the concrete. "Fuck!" Tiffany's head smacked against the pier's metal guardrail and she crumpled on the ground.
Anton's good arm burst into scaly lizard talons that snatched the back of her dress; slammed a metal binder against her back. The human-sized slave bracer suctioned to her spine and snapped its X-cross pincers over her chest. The electric burst made her scream.
Celeste's golden eyes burned with fire. "Rondarr."
The dragon-armed Anton grinned in acknowledgement. "Five cycles," he snarled. "Five cycles you left me to rot like a kha-worm under that rubble. Five cycles I spent digging my way out - with this." His free arm thumped against his chest, sinking into the holographic t-shirt to tear off a splintered piece of his breastplate. The blackened slag bounced in front of Celeste's hooves.
"Chiss-nak hide armor-weave. Properly harvested, there is no more durable material in the galaxy. Solid enough to scrape through rock, sufficiently padded to cushion a fall from a great height."
Nikki's eyes darted frantically. Audrey was groaning but Tiffany wasn't getting up. In the water below the pier, something was frothing. Celeste took a thunderous step forward.
"Release her."
She's not seeing it! "Celeste –" Rondarr's claws on her throat caught her off. Anton's lips spread in a malicious smile.
"You should know that I was not the only one to survive falling from that structure." Nikki gurgled as his grip tightened; he was reaching around her to punch at his wrist-top console. "Five cycles have made him grow splendidly."
"Celeste, the water!"
She got the warning just as a gigantic lion's paw rose over the pier and smashed through the railing, inches from Tiffany's prone body. Rondarr cackled and backed away; Celeste lunged for the fallen cheerleader and pulled her back as the great, black beast rose from the depths.
Celeste's eyes went wide beneath the cavernous jaws. On the ground, Audrey craned her head higher and higher, following the ever-growing monster rising from the sea.
"Holy shit..."
Tall as a military tank and armored just as thickly. A shell of stalactite spikes over its back; in its skull, rows of teeth like elephant tusks frothing with green slime. A host of tentacles ringed its jaw like a lion's mane, lashing and whipping the air in search of prey.
The adult garduk pulled itself ashore, mouth and mane roaring at the night sky.
"What the flying fuck is th-AAAH!"
The mane of tentacles lashed out, ensnaring Audrey's wrists and waist, dragging her towards the foaming jaws. "LEMMIE GO! LEMMIE GO! NIKKI!"
Celeste caught her wrist with one arm; the other reached to the sky, palm open and calling for her rifle. The crystal bangle flickered uselessly. Out of range. She'd left her every weapon at home.
The garduk's roar had caught the attention of the carnival-goers. People were jogging over to the commotion, then screaming and fleeing in a panicky mob. Nikki flinched as Anton's voice cackled in her ear, reveling in the frenzy like this was a game to be enjoyed.
Audrey was sobbing, nails digging into Celeste's skin as she held on for dear life. Celeste grimaced and dug in her hooves, but she was on the losing end of the murderous tug-of-war. Her eyes shot towards Rondarr like bullets.
"I will end you," she promised with a hellfire glare, and Nikki saw her Valkyrie's grip on Audrey slacken. Saw Audrey's eyes pale as she realized who the scales in the Night Wraith's mind tipped towards; that against Nikki's gold she held all the weight and value of a grain of sand.
Rondarr began dragging he backwards; his discarded chunk of armor crossed her feet and she kicked it towards Celeste. "Save Audrey," she screamed.
Their eyes met one last instant.
I will come for you.
I know you'll find me.
Then Celeste snatched up the armor shard and charged the garduk with a battle cry, slashing its tendrils in full Night Wraith fury.
Embracing the confusion and chaos like a cloaking field, Rondarr made his escape, pulling her with him into the scattering crowds of the carnival.