Chapter Fifty-Six

"Cirrus?" Syaoran echoed, imagining the wispy clouds bearing the same name.

"That's right," sang the woman in the rainbow dress, twirling around like a little girl despite the wrinkles on her forehead. "Cirrus, the kingdom where childhood never ends."

Well that explains a lot, he thought, glancing at the strange, rounded edges of each multicolored building. He supposed he'd been to worlds weirder than this before. The Other has, anyway.

The woman skipped off, graceful despite her advancing age. Syaoran turned to Seishirou, watching the dark-haired man lay Fuuma on a bench and put a pair of sunglasses over his eyes. "What are you doing?"

"He's sleeping, but he'll be fine here for a few minutes while we find a place to stay."

"A place to stay?" the woman repeated, spinning around. Her dress, too thin to be comfortable in this cold, spun like a flower in full bloom as she turned. "You can come over to my house. I've got lots of snacks and toys to play with."

Syaoran was starting to revise his opinion that he'd seen stranger worlds.

"That would be divine," Seishirou said, picking Fuuma up and carrying the unconscious man on his back. "Lead the way."

The woman skipped across the cobblestone street. They walked two blocks through the crisp morning air, until they reached a yellow and red house with circular windows and a door half the size of a normal entrance. "Right this way," the woman said, crouching down to slip inside the door. "Oh, I'm Adele, by the way."

"It's nice to meet you. You can call me Syaoran."

"You don't have to be so polite. Act however you want to. The rule here is that you get to do whatever you want so long as you share and don't hit anyone else."

Yeah, definitely the weirdest place I've ever been to. "Okay."

"Would you like a snack? I've got cupcakes."

"No thank you."

"Oh." She frowned. "Well, I'll be in the kitchen making more, if you want some. I've got lots of things to play with lying around, so have fun." Adele flitted into the kitchen, leaving them in peace for a moment.

"Have you ever run across a world like this?"

"Piffle World was the closest," Seishirou said, seeming distracted.

"You've been to Piffle World?"

"Yes, shortly after your group left, in fact."

Syaoran blinked. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You didn't ask."

"But . . . How did you know I'd been to Piffle World?"

"There are many laws that bind the different dimensions together, laws that can't be bent or broken regardless of where you go. One of those rules is that dimensional travelers tend to follow others like them, jumping to places where there's already a rift in the fabric of reality."

A rift in the fabric of reality? That sounds a lot more dangerous than I thought. "What are the other rules?"

Seishirou listed them off in a bored voice. "The dead can't be brought back to life. Travelers can't encounter another version of themselves, or even step foot in the same world as someone with the same soul. There's no such thing as true immortality, only longevity. Things like that."

"But . . . You brought me back to life, didn't you?"

"It was a very complex set of circumstances. You see, in the country of Infinity, there exist practices that can restart a heart after it has stopped. According to the rules of that world, you weren't technically dead, so I was able to save you. If I had waited until the oxygen deprivation killed your brain, that would've been different. There would've been no saving you then. But because Infinity allows the heart to stop beating for a short period of time before death becomes official, I was able to manipulate the natural order of things and bring you back."

Syaoran turned the explanation over in his mind. "So, if they hadn't had that technology in Infinity . . ."

"You would've died," Seishirou said solemnly.

"I see . . ." So Fai really meant to kill me.

"It doesn't matter. You're alive now, that's all that counts."

"Right." At least he cares, he added in his mind. It's not like anyone else does.

Adele danced out of the kitchen, a plate of frosted cupcakes in her hand. "Are you boys sure you don't want any cupcakes? They're still warm."

"That's okay," Seishirou said, smiling at her as if they were old friends. Adele retreated into the kitchen.

"Do you think there's a feather in this world?" Syaoran asked, keeping his voice low.

"There is. About three miles north of here, if this little device is working." He indicated his glass eye. So that senses magic, too, Syaoran thought. Why didn't he tell me that? It seems like something that ought to have come up by now. "We'll go looking for it in a little bit, after I've made boarding arrangements with Miss Adele."

A little bit. The imprecise interval unnerved him. Whenever he'd come to a world before this one, the feather had been the number one priority. To have it pushed back to make living arrangements seemed reckless. We don't know how long it's been here. At any moment, something could come in contact with it, and we could walk into a volatile situation.

"Oh," Seishirou said suddenly. "It moved."

"Moved?"

"The feather. It just teleported half a mile east of its original position. Hmm."

Syaoran stood. "We have to find it before it goes somewhere we can't follow."

"Sit down. If whatever's gotten hold of it can teleport, it'll likely be gone before we get there. See? It just moved again."

Syaoran closed his eyes, trying to focus on any nearby sources of magic. He thought he could feel a little tingle of energy, a leftover vibration of the feather's presence, but he couldn't even pinpoint the direction. "How do you sense magic? Is there a way to do that without a special device?"

"Of course. But you're not skilled enough to learn it."

Frustration welled up in his chest. "Then teach me! You said you would teach me how to fight, how to survive, back in Infinity. Remember?"

"I remember," Seishirou said cooly. "but you're not ready, and you're not going to be ready for a long while."

His shoulders sagged. "I need to know."

"Don't be so impatient."

The rebuke hit him like a slap. He sat down.

"We'll go in a few hours. Right now I have to take care of my brother."

"I'm sorry," he whispered, looking down at his feet.

Seishirou stood and walked over to the kitchen. "Oh, Miss Adele, I have a question for you."

We'll find the feather, he told himself, staring at his feet. Seishirou's right; he's always right. And if it's moving around, that must mean something's already got a hold of it. We'll be facing an enemy whether we wait or not. He closed his eyes. There's always an enemy, always some force to fight against, human or not. I will always be fighting, no matter where I go.

In the kitchen, he heard Seishirou asking about a room for his brother, and the location of the nearest clinic. Adele answered in her soprano trill, offering them the three rooms upstairs. Syaoran tuned them out, keeping his eyes shut.

It was too early in the afternoon to nod off, and he was too careful after everything that had happened to do so, but he appreciated the mental break the inane conversation gave him. Ever since Infinity, he'd been living his life in his head as much as he had in his body, always thinking, planning, justifying his and his companions' actions. When sleep had ceased to be a reprieve, he'd retreated into his daydreams, thinking to himself, analyzing everything he heard from his so-called friends.

They never cared, he thought, all the little fragments of information flashing through his mind. I was still alone when I was with them. They wouldn't even speak to me. So I started living my life in my head. I went back to those stolen memories, lived them again as if they were my own. I was selfish.

No more. Whatever life I live now, it'll be my own.