128.2 This Is Halloween: The Ended (SYSTEM ERROR)

Year of NO ERROR, Autumn of the LACK OF ERROR

I flung the door that led out to the great hall's dais shut behind me, regardless of the wispy tip of Sunnie's tail. All right. I considered taking a split second to pause and gather my bearings, then didn't. They could gather their jolly selves on their own time.

The door immediately to my left led into Venus' office. I skipped it and grabbed the one on the other side of the family portrait that hung between them. Mine. Sunnie bobbed curiously about the office front to poke at cabinets and shelves of scrolls, but I brushed past him and headed straight for the closet to the right of my desk. It had a keyhole, but not a key. I simply twisted the knob and the door swung open. The insides were dark, but not half as cluttered as the rest of my workspace. I puffed out my cheeks.

"Let's see here. Where would I have put the thing?" I tapped my chin, studying my diplomatic staff, with the wavy black handle, beads dangling from its branching arms, and the tiny emerald dragon at the top who occasionally crawled up and down the staff's length and sometimes a short ways up my arm. He lifted his head and flickered his tongue in greeting when he saw me. I nodded back to him, then dropped down to one knee to search among three dozen cardboard shoe boxes stacked along the closet's bottom. Each was color-coded and labeled. My sliding gaze stopped abruptly on a gray box with a black lid.

Pixie World was gone. The Pixie race was gone. H.P. was gone.

I chewed on my lip for a second, my hand up towards the doorknob, ready to pull myself the rest of the way up and search any other space in the closet, but for a moment, I could do nothing but stare at the gray box.

This wasn't right. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Instead of all this nonsense about Ancients and kiff-tying, I should be attending Longwood's coronation as new Head Pixie on short notice this evening. The Navy, Teal, and Maroon robes were supposed to contact me, deliver the news that the old wasp had kicked the bucket down the wishing well. I ought to be making preparations for his funeral services in accordance with Daoist traditions.

H.P. was gone.

Reality didn't work that way. Not really. Not like this. He'd been promising me for years that the day he expected to die, he'd slip a set of files into my hand which outlined precisely how he wanted everything organized, and contained everything he'd always promised to tell me about his past or his experimentation with magic and all the things he swore he'd never revealed even to his pixies- things he always seemed eager to share when the topics came up in conversation, and yet always procrastinated doing for Rhoswen knows why. Always with a jesting tone, but we knew he meant it, deep inside: His pixies were orderly thinkers who would get the arrangements made according to schedule. However, even he wanted his services to carry an emotional touch around the edges. Though I did not wear one of the pointed yellow hats with their purple spirals across the bottom, I was in a sense an honorary pixie myself. The only Anti-Fairy in the universe he specifically requested to be in attendance. His first choice. I was always his first choice.

I should be donning my mourning shawl and pinning the mountain-shaped Soil clasp in place against my chest, for though the Head Pixie wasn't my immediate family…

He could have been.

I wished he was.

… No. The box would have to stay in the closet where it was, stacked among all the dusty others. According to tradition, I wasn't supposed to leave the room once I lit a mourning candle, and my people were counting on me. That's why they called me High Count, after all. Best not to dwell on the Pixies' fate right now.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, forcing my gaze away from the box. Standing, I shoved water-blue outfits on hangers to the sides and searched the compartments behind them. "You deserve a real mourning period, old friend. I'll get to you later, when my people aren't in danger. You'll get a proper send-off. You'll get your candle. I'll do it right. I'm not giving up on you. I promise."

The first compartment in the back of the closet was stuffed with magical amulets. The second with an ornate white chest filled with black handkerchiefs and colored rings. In the third, I found the silver box I was looking for and drew it out. It went down on my desk. Sunnie's river-like hair flared up instantly before dropping with a plop down his back like a waterfall. He set his teeth.

"Here it is!" I unlocked the box, and it immediately played a familiar Zodii tune. I flicked my finger back and forth along with it for a moment, then unfolded the tattered scarlet cloth inside and lifted out the golden bridle.

"Oh, that's disgusting." Sunnie made a few gurgling noises like the tide sucking around bare ankles and pulling out again. "You still have that?"

"But of course. I'm High Count. Why shouldn't I have it? Dear me, I hope this thing still works. It almost looks more brass than gold." I stared at the bridle for a beat more, then raised my eyes. "Ohh, Sunnie~"

Sunnie backed away until he hit the sliding door that opened directly into Venus' office. He fumbled behind him for the lock, which couldn't have been easy for him since his own personal interpretation of himself was more like a lynx made of black crystals than a water genie, and the lock mechanism too intricate for crystal fingers. "Anti-Cosmo, don't do this. It's demeaning."

I sighed, lowering the bridle to a stack of parchment on my desk. "Sunnie, we're dealing with a major nature spirit here. We really ought to make sure it still works before we get ourselves in a thin pickle. Come on. I'll take it off when we're done."

"That's what all my mediums say. They always promise, and they always lie." Sunnie gave up searching for the lock and banged his fist on the door, still without turning his focus from me. His tail swished back and forth as I took up the bridle again and started to approach. "Don't! My powers are at your command. I submit myself to you. Don't take away the last bit of freedom I have."

I hadn't had to bridle a nature spirit in centuries, and particularly not Sunnie. Venus could catch Munn off guard easily, because without fail, he always paused to glance over his left shoulder in response to someone's shout of, "Good smoke, what in Tarrow's name is that?" Sunnie, however, was much too attentive and smart to fall for the same trick, even at his most fidgety. Now, how had I done this last time…?

"Oh, all right. You win." I turned my back and fit the bridle over my own head. The bit slipped into my mouth, so heavy that it almost made my knees buckle. My fingers moved down to fiddle with the throatlatch. "I suppose I'll just have to do the hard part all by myself. Fortunately, I should be able to manage. I'm awfully clever. Well, I suppose you may be excused, Sunnie. Your brains are clearly not needed here."

Silence.

I continued my work, tonguing the bit and wishing I could whistle as I went about it. Sunnie bobbed closer until I could feel the droplets from his watery hair dribbling against my ears. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, just planning things. Nothing to concern yourself about."

"Exactly what things are you planning?"

I didn't reply.

"What things are you planning, Anti-Cosmo?" Then, louder this time, "Anti-Cosmo? What things are you planning?"

"Oh, it's nothing. You wouldn't be interested."

"It's not nothing! I'm very interested. Tell me your secrets. Don't leave me out of the loop."

Still ignoring him, I continued to adjust the browband. Sunnie continued to watch.

Suddenly, he slapped me on the back of the head. My monocle flew from my eye and bounced on its cord. "I am the strategist who calculated and executed the finest, infallible tactics of the Sealing War. You have no right to exclude me from these proceedings. You need me."

"Give over, or else I'll imagine you as a tubby ball of lard." Still not turning to look at him, I shoved my foot back against his stomach and flared my wings. "I told you, your help is not required."

"Give me the bridle, Anti-Cosmo."

"Never! You didn't want it!"

Sunnie's tail smacked my feet from behind, hard and fast. He flipped me backwards that way, and when I had lost my balance, he slammed me by the neck to my desk. Four icy fingers closed over my throat in a warning squeeze. With his other hand, he unclasped a few points on the bridle and pulled it off my head.

"Harness me," he demanded, holding it out. He removed his hand and let me straighten up. "It's for the greater good. It's a powerful weapon and we need to ensure it still works before we bring it to the battlefield."

"Gods, you're insufferable. I hope you realize the only reason I put up with you at all is for your fantastic brains." I swiped the bridle from his hand and huffed through my nostrils. "Oh, all right. You win. Kneel down."

Sunnie did so, curling his tail off to the side. He stared stubbornly up at me as I began to fit the bridle around his face. "You know," I said as I slipped the bit into his mouth, "perhaps this was a good idea after all. Clever thinking, Sunnie."

"Of course," he managed around it, pulling a face at the tang of soft gold on his tongue. He licked the bar a couple of times. "I'm the strategist. I hope you weren't expecting anything less."

"You're certainly brilliant."

"The smartest of my brothers."

I chuckled as I finished my work and stepped back. "You are indeed. Now." The reins to the bridle lay across my left palm. I gave a soft tug. Sunnie immediately shifted from the floor into the air and came over to hover by my shoulder. I switched hands and tugged again, and he moved beside my other shoulder. "Well. Everything seems to be in order on the physical side of things. You're mine now. Which power should I try first?"

"Do the flowing acrobatics field bonus agility show. I never get to watch that when we're tied, and it makes me dizzy when I have to see it through your eyes anyway."

"No, there isn't enough room in here for that. I'll knock over the cabinets and scatter my papers… though of course, they're already rather scattered, aren't they? Oh, I know." I turned my back and flung open the turquoise curtains behind my desk. An owl roosting on the window ledge took flight with a startled pip. My fingers clenched around Sunnie's reins. "Let me see if I remember how to do this…"

I was a singer by nature. I always had been, though the ability had escalated steeply during my adolescence (and I deny being anywhere near my counterpart's cloudcar when he hit Wanda with it that fateful evening when first we'd met). Still rubbing the golden reins between the pads of my forefinger and thumb, I wrapped a hand around the leftmost bar of the window and closed my eyes.

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful, yet the faithful remain delightful. The days just keep passing slow. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow… Oh, the worshipers keep on off'ring, with the possible medi'ms proff'ring. Yet I'm still restrained below. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. And when we finally do kiff-tie… How I'll hate to go out in the storm. But I've waited for this so long, and I'll adjust to this mortal form…!"

The flakes came as I continued singing. Softly at first, some of them still warm enough to be rain, but they caught on fast. Trailing off, I reached my out with my fingers, then flicked out my tongue to scoop up some more.

"It works," Sunnie said, watching me watch the twisting snowflakes settle on the drawbridge far below (Why hadn't we ever reeled that up? Oh, never mind- the protection would be effective anyway). "Well, that's that. You said you were going to unharness me now."

"Did I?"

"Yes. I was paying attention."

I tapped one claw to my cheek, pretending to think over the question as I shifted my focus away from the snowflakes and they stopped falling. I turned to face him again. "That sounds like a promise I made before you started being disagreeable."

Sunnie's ever-teary eyes traced along the reins to my hand. Then they flicked up to my face. He bent his head, teeth audibly clenching . The river that poured from his head sloshed back and forth a bit more fiercely. One of his bracelets steamed. "Will you unharness me, please, esteemed High Count?"

"Flattery gets you nowhere with me. You know this by now." I spun my swivel chair back towards my desk and plopped down. "Stay right there where you won't get into any trouble. I have some work to do, and I don't need you getting distracted and zipping off."

"I," he seethed, "don't get distracted."

"Well, I do. And you're the biggest distraction of the lot." I studied the jumbled scrolls, ink stains, old tomes, all the pestering reminders H.P. had sent me about our brunch a few weeks back that I hadn't gotten around to disposing of yet, and sandwich crumbs on my desk, then decided to ignore all of them. It wasn't like it would really matter. "Keep track of the Ancients," I said, folding my wings. "Refocus me immediately if they approach the Castle, or if anyone should come in here seeking me. If I seem to get lightheaded from being upright so long and tip over, wake me up."

Sunnie perked up. His fingers and eyes appeared over the edge of my desk. "What sort of work are you doing?"

"First of all, a long-distance mind-meld." I put my hand through his watery hair and pushed his head back down. "Please sit still and be quiet. I need to concentrate, and Cosmo Prime and Dame Cosmo can hear through my ears while the meld is active, you know."

Sunnie curled up on the floor beside my chair to pout into his crossed arms. I glanced down at him only once, and let him stay that way as I turned my attention inward. Removing my monocle, I wrapped it in my black handkerchief and lay it to the side. Then I folded my hands and placed them both against my nose. Eyes shut.

One inhale.

One exhale.

One inhale.

One exhale.

I synced to Cosmo first, and gagged immediately. What time was it… wherever his and Wanda's latest godkid lived, again? He had meat on his tongue, wherever it was, and he'd clearly gotten into the spirit of Halloween, too. The insides of his mouth were all marshmallow mush and unsalted taffy. I'd tasted sugar through his mouth far too many times, thank you, and the tang of that junk rotting your fangs never became any more bearable. He choked on a chunk of something roasted and something sweet when our minds melded together.

"Now, now," I said aloud, twitching my ears, "I don't want to hear any complaining. Not that I can hear you over there anyway. Look here. This is a potentially cloudland-wide emergency. Sister Unseelie? Are you there?"

No response. My vision stayed completely black. In this half-melded state, I couldn't even detect the usual faint glow of my eyes against my eyelids. There was nothing at all. I tightened my fingers against one another in front of my nose.

"Sister Unseelie? Woman, pick up. This is important."

No response.

"Cosmo, help me get through to her. On the count of three, hear. Do you understand? I'm going to count to three, and we're both going to give a shove. One. Two. Three."

I waited half a second before I combined my efforts with his, recognizing the likelihood of him delaying until well after "Three". With a pop, our connection snapped into place. She had sight. He had smell and taste. We'd kept our individual senses of touch. I had the ears. My two counterparts could hear anything I spoke aloud, though them communicating verbally with me would be pointless, as my preferred sense was limited to my immediate surroundings. But, when Cosmo and I successfully pressed at Dame Cosmo's consciousness, the black in my vision flickered away to be replaced with agonizing sunlight and rolling fields of gold and white.

… Or rather, it should have.

"Uh," I said.

For someone who lived on a plane of existence situated so close to the heavenly one, Dame Cosmo always seemed so determined not to take advantage of paradise. Cosmo and I found her on her knees, pawing through a heap of compost in apparent search of something edible, or something valuable accidentally thrown away. Gray, vapory muck and brown mud from the dirt that had been brought up from Earth clung up and down her feathered arms. Rather than the pastel robes so common in her culture, she wore a pink dress decorated with white spots. Her headband kept slipping forward until it landed on her hooked nose, its huge flower petals waving and drooping as she bobbed her head.

"Sister Unseelie? There's an emergency situation playing out here in the Deep Kingdom at the moment. Perhaps you've heard of it. I have a favor to ask. Pixie World has collapsed. What can you tell me of their refracts?"

Dame Cosmo slowed her digging through the compost heap. She smoothed out two folds of her dress with a dirty hand. Then she got up and floated a short ways towards one of the recently-harvested and now bare wheat fields until she found a nice, soft patch of dirt. Crouching down, she wrote with her long talon, All rps are gone except Head.

"The other refract pixies? So they did- One moment, darling. Cosmo! Can't you stop eating that fermented rubbish, whatever is is? Oysters and clam chowder, if I'm not mistaken? You know how I get about meat. I am a fruit bat, you realize."

I could feel him stick out his tongue, letting the soft chunk drop back to his plate. It did nothing to remove the lingering taste in my mouth that wanted to force my gag reflex and fill my lap with pink and purple butterflies, but I forced myself to maintain my composure. I pushed my fingers through my hair and placed my elbows on the desk. My claws settled against my lips together. "Never mind. Take me to the mill and show me where the refract pixies live. There ought to be a few of them left; Pixie World hasn't even been down for forty-five minutes. And with haste, darling."

Dame Cosmo wiped away her marks and began to write again. Ship won't come in til later. Can it wait so I can

"Now!" I snapped before she finished. "For Tarrow's sake, Sister, can you ever think of anything besides filthy robbery? Taking things we don't need is dishonorable and unbecoming of us."

Cosmo slipped a cube of cheese inside his mouth with the leftover taffy. I let that one slide. Our counterpart drew her white wand apparently from behind her head - knowing her, she must have wedged it in her wavy golden hair - and gave it a flick. With a pop that I saw by the cloud of vapor rather than heard, we were off. Whiteness blurred my vision. I curled my toes in, realizing for perhaps the first time that I'd never shoved my shoes back on after training this morning. Well.

Dame Cosmo materialized on a faint rise, stuffing her wand back in her hair. As a general rule, the Refracted did not much like visitors, even when they were merchants with shipments to deliver. The Dame Head was one of few who controlled a cloudship port and allowed Deep Kingdom ships to dock there, no doubt because she liked and trusted the Primary Pixies rather a lot for obvious reasons. With their tan facial feathers, dark brown wings, and short purple hair instead of the normal palette of white and gold, the pixie refracts had never been quite in sync with the rest of Refracted society anyway.

I swallowed without tasting the saliva in my throat as Dame Cosmo took to her wings and flew a short ways around the rise. No honeywheat. Of course, it was Halloween. Harvest season had come and left us. A few black stubs remained here and there across the otherwise white world of rolling cloud vapor, and here was a scythe, and there was a stack of woven baskets, but mostly, the fields were empty.

The Dame Head stood staring down towards the pond, clutching the front of her pink robes with both fists. At Dame Cosmo's approach, she turned her head and fixed us with a dull stare. Tears had marked dark patches of feathers down her cheeks.

The entire valley was filled with golden fog.

Not fog, I realized a second later. Lifemist. A few straggling pixie refracts were on their hands and knees, beating their brown wings and seemingly gasping and choking as their magic pools drained away beneath them. So it was really true. The Pixie race was truly, effectively dead. Uncertain warm sickness that didn't taste a bit like butterflies gathered in the back of my throat.

"Cosmo, don't you dare barf on us."

I could practically see him lurching forward, squeezing his head with both hands, hiccoughing as his darling Wanda rushed to fawn over his every need. Unless he decided to play the other way, floating along with a happy face and not so much as a twitching eye to give away what was going on inside his brain. I'd known him to do that before, sitting and smiling as the shrieks and squeals of Anti-Fairies echoed around him through my ears.

"Sister Unseelie, I know this may not be the most sensitive subject to discuss at this time, but we need to ask the Dame Head if she knows anything about what happened. I need to know what so upset the Ancients. Sunnie thought it had originated in Pixie World… Does the Dame Head have any clues?"

Dame Cosmo appeared to relay this information to the Dame Head. She lifted her shoulders and wings in a shrug, let them drop, then motioned for Dame Cosmo to follow her into the nearby nesting building on its hill.

Inside, we first came across a hallway, then a single dining table, set with breakfast dishes of half-eaten meals. The white walls were sparse, the room majorly empty. A broken crystal ball lay in a splash of shattered shards on the floor. Beside it, Dame Sanderson hunkered against the wall with her arms folded around her ribs. I recognized her by the horn-rimmed glasses and the signature purple cowlicks. Well, that made sense. Pixie-Sanderson had been the oldest, and the firstborn always received the largest pool of magic of the lot. Of course she would last longer than the others as what was left of their magic began to drain.

The Dame Head took a small chalkboard from a hook on the wall and turned to Dame Cosmo again. Dame Sanderson flicked her eyes between the two, then lay her palms against the wall behind her and forced herself up to her feet. She must have realized there was a mind-meld in play, and that two drakes could see her on the other end of the line. Refracted damsels weren't supposed to sit in the presence of any male. Something about their avian instincts viewing height as a sign of dominance. I watched her silently, my fingers folded against my lips, as she made each aching movement to her feet. Her knees shook beneath her pink robes. They gave out, and she crashed back down to the floor.

Her blue tail flickered uselessly against the ground. With a weak hand, she made the attempt to tug the hem of her robes lower. She couldn't reach, and it seemed her spine was already stiffening up. She wore no shoes. No socks. I could see her exposed talons plainly. Clutching. Curling. Little pink things like worms in the dirt.

The Dame Head noticed the feeble movement at the same time Dame Cosmo did. She dropped down beside the smaller refract, reaching to take her head, but Dame Sanderson closed her eyes and dissolved into golden mist before they even touched.

Dame Cosmo blinked. I bowed my head.

The Dame Head tugged off her hat and leaned back against the wall. She wasn't looking so good herself, I couldn't help but notice. She had that thousand-cloudlength stare in her eyes reminiscent of the time the Head Pixie had been our prisoner of war, hunkered in the corner of his cell and clutching his shoulders as he struggled against the urge to engage in Rhoswen syndrome for the week after that… incident involved with his first attempted escape plan. The Dame Head looked like that. Despairing. Watchful. Hungry.

"Dame Cosmo," I prompted. "You have to ask her. The Blue Castle sanctuary has been targeted by the Ancients. I need to know all she's able to tell me about what may have set them off. I've heard her counterpart may have had something to do with it. Tell her that."

Dame Cosmo relayed this information. The Dame Head took a long piece of chalk between her talons and scrawled on her board before turning it around so Dame Cosmo could see.

I don't know. Came back to find them dying.

"Hmm. Has she heard from the Head Pixie as of late?"

Dame Cosmo relayed this too. To my surprise, the Dame Head turned very muddy brown in the face. She shook her head vehemently.

"Dame Head, I think you are lying. Did he say something to you? Sunnie thought the disaster that called the Ancients down from Plane 23 originated from Pixie World. What did H.P. do? Did he say?"

She wrote again on her chalkboard, and again turned it towards us when she was done: I don't know anything.

"You are a mean liar."

Pause.

Slow markings.

Underline.

Hesitant turn.

We went Daoine.

I read the word three times through Dame Cosmo's eyes as the Dame Head averted her gaze. "You went what?" I finally asked. "Don't be absurd. The amount of power required to- You can't just 'go Daoine' on the inferior planes of existence! Only an Anti-Fairy can initiate the ultimate mind-meld, and only on Plane 23. Your anti-pixie counterpart is locked away on Plane 4, imprisoned in the Lotus Palace dungeon and sealed behind the Isle gates. Firmly away from the heavenly world. You must be mistaken."

I'm not an idiot. I wouldn't tell you a lie you wouldn't believe. Truth.

On my side, I folded my arms and automatically arched my eyebrows. "Really. So after all your fairy tales and religious preaching about Fairykind Daoine forms only being achieved in the afterlife, despite the actual texts and studies passed down from those long ago who performed experiments and claim otherwise, you and your counterparts randomly got together and decided to attempt uniting into Daoine form today. Forgive me if I struggle to believe it. The Daoine form is said to be permanent, and you're clearly separate right now."

Please don't mention death or mock my beliefs.

I paused.

Daoist traditions insisted that death was the end-all-be-all of existence for Fairykind, a union between Fairy, Anti-Fairy, and Refract as one single being. It was considered the final stage of metamorphosis, after which it was said that one lived forever after in a perpetually blissful state, frozen in time, heavy and flightless, deprived of so many things that they had once held dear. Day after day for the rest of eternity. Perhaps H.P. could accept that boring state, but I was a believer in self-improvement and understanding the world. I believed in reincarnation, in returning to the world as a river or a spring to nourish nature as it had nourished me, because I was born in a Water year, because the nature spirits told us so.

As I understood it, the Daoine form was the path of the selfish and ambitious. It was the path taken by those who rejected the offer of the nature spirits to give to mortals, to live in harmony with the universe, and who instead demanded more. Wrath, gluttony, greed, envy, sloth, lust, pride- those were the components Daoine were made of; the Daoine Sìth existed, or so even the ancient texts belonging to my people admitted, but they were simply minor nature spirits of temptation and sin. The same ones we Anti-Fairies were always cleaning up after- unraveling the massive knots of bad luck they left in the energy field and dispersing them into smaller, less harmful bursts which we of course used up and dissolved immediately to clear the air. Filthy litterers- Oh, how I despised them.

I knew a part of Daoine lore that H.P. refused to acknowledge, no matter how much I pressed him. Daoine forms existed, and could be initiated by an Anti-Fairy who stood upon the sacred vapor of Plane 23, but it was a trap. A test. A lure. An inescapable vortex of promised powers with the price of madness irreversibly attached. The Daoine were demigods driven to insanity by their own ambition, and H.P. is right- just look to the effects of Rhoswen syndrome to prove it, the abuses and rapes that my people have suffered at Seelie hands. Good smoke, don't be daft. I'd kissed a Seelie Courter myself before, suffered the drawbacks of saliva exchanged across Courts, felt the burning desire to take things as far as Fairykind biology allowed, but I'd kept myself in control without so much as a follow-up caress for a week. It isn't as though it's that hard. And yet, those court cases, every time…

An entire religion had been founded on the Daoine concept and turned it into something that seemed desirable, insisting upon immortality, peace, and coexistence in the afterlife without the faintest shred of proof to back their arguments up. Forgive me if I scoff whenever I hear that Anti-Fairies will be treated equally to Fairies once the lives we're living now and the discrimination we suffer on a constant basis are over.

All this passed through my head in a matter of seconds as I stared at the Dame Head through Dame Cosmo's eyes. Here she sat before me, insisting that she and her counterparts had gone Daoine and yet unraveled again. It was nonsensical, of course. Utter rubbish. Tomfoolery.

Wasn't it? Or was the Dame Head dying like her pixies were? Was this Dame Head whom I was seeing, who sat on the floor fanning her face with her pink hat and clutching her stick of chalk between her talons, merely the outer shell? With H.P. dead, was she dissolving from the inside out? Mentally uniting with her counterparts, melding minds and spirit, with only a final shred of her consciousness left to pilot her body until her final exhalation? Could it be true, that the Daoine were creatures of the afterlife after all?

It didn't make any blasted sense.

I sighed. Cosmo had returned to eating his meat, and I couldn't be bothered to snap at him again in a ceaseless cycle. Even if everything did smell of sugar, grease, old cheese, and bloodied body parts. "Suppose the three of you did go Daoine. Is that what upset the nature spirits?"

The Dame Head wrote three more words on her chalkboard: I don't know.

"So, nothing. You can give me nothing. No part of this mind-meld was useful to me at all. Fine then. Both of you, I am breaking off the link. If you learn anything related to this pixie business, scry me immediately. I'm in my office. Do you have the contact information for my personal crystal ball?"

Dame Cosmo gave me a talons-up. Silence from Cosmo Prime.

"Put more cheese in your mouth if you understand what I said and you know how to contact me."

He did.

"Good. Use the personal ball, not the direct one. I have to keep that one clear should the Council need to get through. You are released."

With that, I waved my hand and let the meld slip away between my claws. My vision faded back to normal, though I could feel a drastic migraine threatening me below my temples. Sunnie sat at the end of my desk, holding his hand in the air beside one of my two crystal balls. As I watched, he made a sharp movement and knocked it onto the floor. It hit with a thunk and rolled across the carpet to the door that led into Venus' office. I raised my eyebrows. He watched with pricked ears, and as it kept going, he shifted his right eye so that he could look at me too.

"Anti-Cosmo," he said, his voice half a tint less level than normal. Without turning around, he slid his hand towards me. "I think that we should kiff-tie again."

I choked on my own saliva. "Right now?"

"Well, yes. It's our best strategy. If you're killed while we're tied, we'll both reincarnate in my Temple." Finally he turned around. "When the Ancients do break in here, we'll want to have our escape route in place."

"Are you mad? We won't let them break into our sanctuary. And Inkblot City just went down with Pixie World, I imagine, if the Hocus Poconos arrived to feed. The Temple-" and my voice caught. "Oh my smoke. The Water Temple. It may be gone. Sunnie, this could be it for you. If you die, you won't reincarnate."

Sunnie curled his tail around the handle of my desk's highest drawer. "I told you. My Temple rebuilt itself in its original place in Faeheim. The echo chamber has reformed and looks just like it did before that gray creep got all up in my personal space. I can see everything inside it."

I glanced beneath his tail, but the blue carpet in my office still looked like, well… carpet. No trace of mobile Plane 23 vapor at all. Apparently he was telling the truth, even if it still didn't make any sense (Since when had the Ancients ever bothered to move someone's Temple if they were going to murder the land it rested on?) But it certainly seemed that somewhere out there, his Temple was still standing. "Well," I said, trying to think of some way to dodge the offer without refusing directly, "we don't have your sacred dagger on hand, so kiff-tying is off the table anyway."

"This one?" Sunnie made a motion in empty space as though plucking an object from a high shelf. The long black knife, its hilt bejeweled with turquoise stones, materialized in a swirl of steam. He flicked it between his hands. "Here it is. Do you want anything else from my Temple? Someone left fruit snacks in one of my offering bowls. Do you like fruit snacks?"

"Sunnie!" I rolled my chair back from my desk until I hit the curtains and the wheels caught. "We can't drop everything and kiff-tie right now. This is a serious cloudland emergency! I wasted enough time fishing useless information out of the Head Pixie's refract. Where are the Ancients now anyway?"

"Coming close. He didn't veer towards Winni and Thurmondo at all. I suppose that's because all of us but Twis and Dayfry have peripheral manifestations and can't be reclaimed from our Temples. Dayfry's favor was lost eons ago, so he's in the clear unless-"

DAYFRY IS RECLAIMED

The three words echoed around me and inside of me just as before, with Twis in the great hall. I looked at Sunnie, my mouth numb. "So the Darkness is still moving this way fast," I finally guessed. "If he's reached the Love Temple, he's entered the High South Region. He's almost here."

"The Hocus Poconos and the Reaper of Souls aren't far behind. We need an escape plan." Sunnie swung his tail over to the nearer side of my desk, his stare half-lidded. The black dagger moved vaguely towards a certain scarred point on the left side of my neck. I followed it with my eyes. Cold beads of sweat took form at the edges of my lips.

"Sunnie, I said no. We can't kiff-tie now when people are counting on us."

He frowned. "Anti-Cosmo, be reasonable about this. Realize that I am the Focus spirit. Won't you be less stressed once we're tied again? Less clumsy, if nothing else."

"Get that thing away from me, you smoky card!" I jerked my foot up and flipped the knife into the air. It spun, twice, then came down and landed hilt-first in my own hand. Thank Tarrow H.P. had taught me how to do that. Of course, I'd never seen him actually do it right, but it certainly worked. I pointed the blade at Sunnie's face. He squinted. I said, "You're still wearing the bridle. You have no power over me. I was thinking I would remove it because you were being so good, but for a spirit intended to embody introspection, peace, and tranquility, you're certainly doing an excellent job of getting on my nerves."

Sunnie looked at me for another few seconds, then closed his eyes. His shoulders shook twice as he chuckled. Then, eyes lazily flickering open again, he placed his hands against my thighs and leaned his forehead into mine. His tail wrapped around my lower leg. "You're always so grumpy when we're apart. Admit it. You like tying with me. That's why you keep coming back, even when I play a little rough."

"Get off!"

"Don't you like the agility field bonus? Fewer stumbled steps, more careful balance, stronger legs, not getting stuck when flipped over like a little turtle on your back with your wings crushed beneath you? And I haven't even mentioned what your wife thinks of you in your agile state. Tongue and hands in all the right places, never so much as a fumble-"

"Prince Sunday." I leaned the back of my head against the metal bars of the window through the curtain. "Get. Off. Please."

He stared down at me, lips twitching towards a sneer around the bit in his mouth. But, he released me and drew back. His hand drifted up to his face, and he started pawing at the bridle. "All right. I'll ask again when the stakes are higher. It's the most logical strategy, and you'll realize that soon enough. Now, do you mind if I keep eating my offerings? Someone left a carton of milk in my C room dish, and it will spoil if I leave it there."

I rubbed my forehead and reached for my monocle in its black handkerchief. The dagger went on the table with a click. "Fine. But do try to stay on task."

Sunnie flicked up a watery eyebrow. "Focus spirit. Perfect split attention. I'm always on task. Would you like me to present you a list of every offering in my bowls? Maybe you'll find something that will calm you down."

"I don't need to be calm!" Using my wings, I pushed off the window and brought my chair back to my desk. "This is a high-stress situation that calls for immediate responses and actions. While the Robes are presumably busy maintaining order in Anti-Fairy World, I have to do enough worrying for all of us. Anxiety calms me down."

"These hard-to-get tactics-"

SATURN IS RECLAIMED

We both glanced up at the ceiling, and then at each other. My mouth dried- a sensation I hadn't felt for quite a long time. Sunnie pointed at the connecting door that led into Venus's office, and indicated the great hall beyond that. "Didn't you… send Saturn and his medium out to do a perimeter check about twenty minutes ago?"

"Oh my gods." I pressed my hands over my mouth and rose to my feet. "Get me to the front door. Shift us. Now."

He continued to bob where he was, but his hands moved behind his back. He lowered his head. "Maybe I made a miscalculation."

"What? You?" I swept my eyes across my desk, checking to be sure everything was in order (Well, not in order, but present). Monocle? On my face. Wand? In my sheath. Crystal balls? Oddly silent, the mists swirling inside them plain and white.

"Maybe the Ancients had no intention of damaging Pixie or Fairy World. Maybe they're hunting us down on purpose. The zodiac spirits." Sunnie turned his head. "The Water Temple stood in Pixie World until they got there. Were they looking for me? Would they leave you alone if I took off across the universe right now and didn't come back?"

I watched him, silently. "Do you think they would leave me alone if you were to leave me now and not come back?"

Sunnie studied my face, then studied his tail. "I don't know. But I do know one thing."

"Oh?"

"I want to stay here. Kiff-tied or not, I want to stand by you until the dreary end."

My knuckles scraped against my desk. I unfastened his bridle and placed it on a squashed stack of scrolls. "Thank you. Now, we're running out of time. We need to-"

Despite the thick walls dividing us, I heard the great hall erupt in screams. My wife's, accented with a rolling holler, cut above the rest.

I didn't even wait for Sunnie's response. Nor did I rush back through the short hall and throw open the door. I shot straight there with a bursting foop!

"Anti-Wanda!" I screamed when I saw her. My foop had been rushed and clumsy, especially without Sunnie there to unconsciously guide my movements, and I landed on my rear when I dropped in. That blasted woman- Scrambling up, I flew across the hall, grabbed her by the elbow, and yanked her away from the window. "I thought I told you to take the Abracatraz tunnel."

"I- Munn said- He said-" Venus craned her neck, staring past my shoulder. "Anti-Cozzie, look out!" she screeched, and tackled me to the floor. My wings twisted at awkward angles. An engulfing, sucking tube of red and black slurped between the bars above our heads. Thankfully, the children had the brains to press further in the far corners of the great hall with most of the camarilla and a few of the cooking staff who hadn't retreated to the kitchens. There were dozens of young juveniles sitting with the pups now, brought down from the upper roosting room. Good- at least now we could keep a solid eye on all of them. I fumbled for my monocle as the vortex continued to pull at empty space. Finally it gave up and withdrew.

"So those are-" I guessed, still hunkering beside her on the floor. I kept my wand gripped in my right fist, both my arms wrapped around Venus. My claws clutched the swirls of hair down her back.

"Eliminators," Anti-Poof confirmed. He sat nearby with his arms around his knees. "If you look outside, you won't be able to see the stars. The Darkness is here. We're trapped."

Venus hung her head. "I's sorry. I was too slow gettin' all the things ready. Then Munn said we coul'n't go out, or he'll see us. Have ya listened ta the hum of the energy field lately? It's all scrambled up from the reality shifts, and the Ancients are jist makin' it worse. Ain't no poofing out a' here neither when it's twisted in knots like that."

I bit my lip. "Perhaps it's better this way, my darling. If he's released the Eliminators, then sending you away from the Castle may not have been the wisest decision. You would have been unprotected. Better that you stay safe with me here."

Metal parts clicked and whirred outside. Sure, the children might have the brains to scoot back, but I, an unfortunate match of Sunnie's desire to gather the information necessary to assess this situation in full, released my grip on Venus in favor of peering between the bars of the window instead.

There were rows of enormous clockwork arachnids standing out there, eight legs and at least a hundred eyes each. Silver bodies glinted dimly in what little light could still be found outside with the stars concealed. I swallowed, but remained standing, my wings folding and unfolding as I studied their ranks. All the Eliminators out there were looking at me, and I could see for myself that they had green eyes. So where was the infamous Number 001, commander of the fleet?

The clicking and whirring came again. I twitched my ears. Something was definitely picking its way down the Castle wall. From the way it moved, I guessed it had eight legs and a spidery form just like the others. Sure enough, its small, round face appeared from above the window- at the same time Sunnie materialized behind me.

"Yeep!" He darted back to join the kids. I sunk my claws into the mortar and remained where I was, even as my wings trembled and my legs nearly gave out. Red eyes glared back at me.

"This Castle and all who reside in it are protected," I said. "This is a sanctified building. Your mind-warping authority does not extend this far. Those are Da Rules."

The arachnid kept its upside-down head where it was as its legs moved down the wall beside the window. After it had repositioned its body on the ground in front of me, it twisted its head to match its new orientation. A few dozen of the eyes blinked at me, and then the others followed suit. Several mouthparts clicked together, then stopped.

THIS MATTER IS ABOVE THE DELEGATING ADMINISTRATIVE RULES OF THE KNOWN UNIVERSE

THIS MATTER TRANSCENDS TIME AND SPACE

YOU HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO THE ERROR DATA

YOU ARE CORRUPTED

THIS FALLS WITHIN MY JURISDICTION

YOU WILL BE RECALIBRATED

My claws clenched deeper. "Ooh, I don't very much like that option. Would you be so kind as to offer me another?"

YOU WILL BE RECALIBRATED

"What is the error data?"

IT WAS ERROR

"Can you elaborate?"

YOU ARE CORRUPTED

THIS FALLS WITHIN MY JURISDICTION

YOU WILL BE RECALIBRATED

One of its legs lunged for me, straight through the bars that lined the window. It sunk into my thin left sleeve. I lurched back, and the fabric tore. When I glanced down, red blood rapidly swelled up where the cut had been made. I pressed my hand against it and scrambled backwards, bumping into Anti-Fairies and long benches as I went. 001 did not pursue, but blinked at me again. Then it latched onto the wall and clicked its way up towards the Castle roof. Its legs disappeared from the range of my hearing, try as I might to stare through the ceiling and listen for them. Outside, the row of green-eyed Eliminators began to swarm. Following suit, they crawled the walls, searching out any weak point in our defenses. Clicks, clacks, and whirrs echoed in what was otherwise squeezing silence.

"Don't worry," I called to the stunned Anti-Fairies around me, clenching my shoulder. "They can't get in. Tarrow's blood hallows this ground. We are thoroughly protected. It's going… to be… fine."

I dropped to my knees, hissing through my fangs. "Anti-Cosmo?" Anti-Wanda yelped, falling beside me. She pressed my hair back from my face and felt my forehead with her wide palm. Of course she would be checking for a fever when my arm was bleeding. Her voice squeaked. "What should I do? What should I do?"

"Don't panic, first and foremost." I leaned my head back against the bench behind me and closed my eyes. "They can't get in."

"Until the Hocus Poconos gets here in less than thirty minutes."

"Sunnie!"

"What?" As the children around him began to shift and mumble amongst themselves, the camarilla fighting to soothe their fears, he turned his head towards me. "Should I withhold valuable information? We need to pool our assets and knowledge so we can strategize."

"We need to not panic," I insisted as Anti-Scott, Anti-Kyler, and Anti-Scarlett examined my bleeding shoulder.

"I thought anxiety calmed you down."

"Devoting my focus towards solving problems calms me down, not-" I pinched my nose and squeezed my eyes shut. "Okay. Okay. From now on, if you have any information you want to add to our strategizing pool, do it with me in private. Not in front of young pups and juveniles."

Sunnie flicked over, flowing like a river down a tumbled heap of rocks. He sat down on the end of my bench, wrapped his tail around the table leg, and leaned back. "This situation won't go away if you ignore it. We don't have a lot of time before we're facing two Ancients instead of one."

I clenched my fangs as Anti-Kyler prodded my arm. The skin around the cut had rapidly gone numb. Inrita for sure. "Thank you, Sunnie, for not helping."

"Fine. I'm going to the observatory. When you want to strategize with me, seek me out there."

"Don't you dare." I reached up with my good arm and snatched the end of his tail as he snaked over my head. "First of all, you'd have to cross the courtyard to reach that area. It's not protected like the rest of the Castle, and the Eliminators might drop down on you. Secondly, we're certainly not splitting up while those things are loose. I refuse. Wait a minute." All of a sudden, I realized we were missing someone from the camarilla. "Where's Anti-Julian?"

… Oh. Right.

I met Anti-Wanda's gaze. She looked away, flattening her ears. Anti-Scarlett's grip tightened on my arm. I brought my knees to my chest.

No. Don't think about it. Just focus on who was left.

With a sigh, trying to ignore the pain in my paralyzed shoulder as the others finally released it, I lifted Venus into my lap and leaned my forehead against hers. I wrapped my arms around her torso and struggled to interlace my fingers. "I wish that you weren't trapped in this nasty situation, my dear. But since you are, I'm glad we're together."

"But…" She tilted her head. Her legs adjusted as she knelt around me, most of her weight pressed against the base of my stomach. Her fingers clenched my collar. "It's jist a reality shift mind-wipe, right? We's gone through those before when them kooky godkids gets all carried off with their own wily wishes. So's we just gotta let 'em make us funky, maybe swap our colors or switch up our wings 'til the li'l darling gets sick a' playin' and that Jorgen fella resets us back to normal. Worst case is, we gotta deal with the weirdness for a bit 'til the li'l tucker who wished it done grows up. We've done that sorta mind-wipey stuff before. Maybe we should just do what the spider loony says and let him rectiwhatsit us. I mean-" And she chuckled. Her head tipped to the side and the familiar shoulder popped up, her eyes squeezing shut. "It's not like we's a-gonna forget each other, right?"

I stared across the great hall even as I kissed her head. "You don't know that, sugarplum. There's no telling what that brute has planned for us." My arms tightened. Well, the one with active nerves still connected to my brain did, anyway. "Smoof it all. For the first time in recorded history, we haven't been granted our promised immunity and passed over without a fight. No matter how many rule-free muffins have been granted to godkids past, or how many times Cupid offers such things as a prize in his silly games, we've never been at the mercy of reality shifts before. We've never faced the Ancients' fury. Sugarplum, this one's serious. Whatever rule-free wish was made here affects us Anti-Fairies directly. Including us here in the Castle." I pressed my face into her hair. "We were targeted directly, and for whatever reason, the Ancients are ruling against us. I don't know who or how or what or why. All I know is, I'm not taking risks. I can't lose you."

"Hey." Venus placed her palm to my cheek. "I like how you said 'can't'. That means we ain't got nothin' to worry about, right?"

The image of the dying refract pixies crept into my mind. I couldn't forget Sunnie's dry comment about the Hocus Poconos feeding on their hosts. She had slain the young nature spirit who represented Pixie World. Admittedly Sprigganhame was a bundle of bitter sarcasm and absolute disrespect, prone to sticking out his tongue and making obscene gestures with his fists together and tilted in front of his chest as though he'd snapped a wand in half. But because of his bloodline as the son of Fairy World and Anti-Fairy World, he was still considered one of the Wise Ancients. He was still just a cub. Apparently, none of that mattered. The Hocus Poconos had slain the Pixies' home and the Pixie race. What could the Ancients possibly want from us, safe and meek inside our Castle walls?

"Hey," Venus said again, more suddenly this time than before. "We should get your arm fixed up 'fore it gets rotty."

I lifted my face from the soft curl at the front of her hair. "Oh, that's a simple matter, darling. We'll poof over to the Breath Temple for a healing bath-"

… Right.

I held Venus in my lap. She held my hair, leaning her cheek against mine. Our fingers lay intertwined between our chests. In silence, we trailed our eyes around the great hall together. Munn had of course returned to Venus' ears. Sunnie still sat unhappily on the bench with his arms crossed. Most of the camarilla were assembled behind him, and Venus had followed through with my order to assemble as many as wanted to gather and watch the situation play out. In total, perhaps a hundred Anti-Fairies gathered around the edges of the great hall. The other two thirds must all either be roosting, or off engaged in their own things elsewhere in the Castle, content that we would be granted our due sanctuary and their High Count and Countess would sort everything out for them.

"Anti-Cozzie? So, do you got a plan? I mean, of course you gots a plan."

"We hold out," I said simply. "The Castle is protected. They can't get in."

Venus closed her eyes. Her lashes brushed my nose. "How much longer d'ya think it'll be until the Hocus Poconos gets here?"

"Don't worry," I repeated, more firmly this time. "We are protected. Now come on. Anti-Wanda, Anti-Kyler, help me to the kitchens and let's take a look at my numb arm. Red blood, I swear. The legs of the spiders' must have been forged of solidified inrita and qualify as kiff-tie knives. This cut burns like the dickens."

TO BE CONTINUED

Part 3: Boss Stage