Adelpha stretched up-side-down on the stiff, navy blue comforter that lay on Alexander's twin sized bed, irritably studying the small plaster cracks that were creeping their way out from behind the freshly hewn and painted crown molding that ran around the ceiling. The vain attempt to hide the age and decay of the building gave her reason to smirk as she listened to the familiar sounds of Alexander humming from behind the bathroom door as he dressed and groomed himself. The hardwood floor of the room, which Adelpha suspected was covered with at least ten decades worth of scratches and stains, was likewise hidden beneath a coarse, blue, wall-to-wall carpet, so new that she could still detect the chemical smells from its manufacturing wafting through the room. The large rectangular opening in the wall, designed a century ago to house a Murphy-bed, now served as a kitchenette, and was impossibly swollen with a massive, but notably cheap, refrigerator, range, and microwave that looked ridiculously cramped in the small studio apartment. Adelpha noted the pristine state of the appliances. There wasn't as much as a fingerprint or a drip of ketchup on any of them. Alexander hadn't even bothered to peel away the manufacturer's sticker from the front of the fridge.
It was a peculiar room for a man like Alexander, who while raised in his father's empire of state-of-the-art technological marvels, had been taught to authentically preserve what was ancient. Adelpha decided she didn't much care for any of it.
With a burst of steam and aftershave, Alexander emerged from the bathroom and caught sight of Adelpha with a broad smile.
"So, you're going to sleep after all?" he laughed, then scowled. "Hey, don't put your feet on my pillow!"
He yanked the pillow out from under her large claws and whacked her with it playfully. She returned this with a firm swat to the back of his legs, which caused him to fall onto the bed next to her with another booming laugh.
"I'm not sleeping," she told him, "I'm just growing bored, waiting for you to tell me what I'm actually doing here."
"I told you before!" he chided as he placed the pillow on the bed beside her and caught her claw in his hand, "I needed you."
Adelpha snorted incredulously and replied, "You've been out here for almost four years! Now, all of a sudden, you can't do without my company?"
"I never do well without your company," he insisted, drawing her claw to his bearded cheek, his bright eyes betraying a look of genuine regret, "I've missed you terribly."
Gently, she drew his hand back to her own face, pressing it there affectionately.
"I suppose you've barely had time to miss your lonely halfling friend," he added with a hint of mischief, "With your handsome lover, your adorable children, your loving clan all around you.."
"You jealous boy!" she scolded with a smile.
"I am!" he agreed, "But I couldn't settle for anything less than your happiness. That's why I made it so, afterall. Still, it wouldn't harm me to hear you say you missed me, just a little?"
"Why must I say it?" she teased him, "When you can look into my heart whenever you wish and know for yourself what is true? You used to do that all the time."
"Ah, but I was an impertinent child back then," he explained, "My manners have improved. I won't peek unless I have to. So you must tell me for yourself."
Adelpha gave him a long scowl, until he sighed disappointedly and rose from the edge of the bed, only to be tackled from behind until his impressive form was brought down to the spongy, Scotchgard-soaked carpet. Laughing, he grappled with her for a few moments, before allowing her to pin him in an affectionate embrace.
"Will this suffice, my friend?" she whispered from behind his ear as she wrapped her two warm wings around him and tucked them under his chin.
"Even better," he agreed with another deep laugh. He staggered to his feet and after adjusting his ruffled hair, he pulled her to her own.
"Come on," he pleaded, "It's been nearly a week. You have to be bored. Let's go out and see the city!"
"Goliath wouldn't like that," she replied.
"Do you have Stockholm syndrome or something?" he demanded, folding his arms across his chest critically, "In case you haven't noticed, Goliath isn't here."
Adelpha gave him a disgusted look and turned toward the only window in the room, which overlooked the park and the black lake beyond. She looked down at the street below, where many humans, mostly students, were hurrying from lamp light to lamp light, attending their evening activities. It had been over twenty years since she had last seen any humans outside the clan's exclusive band of human familiars. At the time when her imprisonment began, she couldn't look upon one without a sickening mixture of fear, anguish, and rage rising inside her. Now she felt a strange numbness as if she beheld something she was not quite prepared to believe was real.
"What is it really?" Alexander coaxed and Adelpha shook her head.
"He is right, to keep me hidden from the world," she replied after a long quiet moment, "My soul is broken. With my clan around me, I am strong enough to face the darkness. But outside the confines of my imprisonment, I am a relentless force of pure devastation, and not only for these miserable beings. For my own kind as well. Even those I love the most are not safe. Goliath was right from the beginning. The world and I can only cause each other pain. I can never be truly free."
"Maybe he was, once," Alexander conceded in an agitated voice, "But it can't stay this way forever! You'll have to face the world eventually!"
"Why?"
"Because you have…things to do!" he replied with an awkward pause that immediately caught her attention.
"What things?" she demanded suspiciously, but then she stopped. Her eyes widened as she gazed on him with a sudden hunger.
"Have you seen my fate, Alexander?" she whispered excitedly, "Tell me! Please, tell me what you saw!"
"I haven't read your fate in years!" Alexander replied with a condescending chuckle, "You'd know it if I had."
"But you do know something!" she insisted with an eagerness that was almost a hunger, "Tell me!"
Alexander looked very troubled by this request.
"The future isn't set in stone," he explained hesitantly, "And I prefer to create my own fate."
"Then let me go home," she pleaded, "I'm of no use to you here, but my children need me."
"What do you mean you're of no use to me?" he demanded in mocked outrage, "I think I am the best person to determine that! I tell you, I have been lost these last few years without you!"
Adelpha rolled her eyes at this nonsense.
"Then you must come home too," she suggested, "Everyone misses you. The clan. Your parents. You have everything you need in New York. We can only guess at what is keeping you here. I half expected to find a woman hidden away in this apartment."
"A woman?" he asked with an incredulous chuckle, "Why should I hide a woman in a studio in Chicago?"
Adelpha shrugged.
"I had a whole romantic intrigue invented in my mind for you," she informed him, "I had to come up with something that explained your extended absence. I assumed that you had met a lovely young woman and fallen in love, but you wanted to be sure that she loved you for yourself and therefore had to take her far away from the confines of your father's empire. Now you are certain that you love her and your love is returned, but the question remains whether that love can withstand her finding out the truth about your fortune, your fairy heritage, and the fact that you have a clan of gargoyles living in your own castle."
Alexander folded his arms and furrowed his brow as he pondered this elaborate fantasy.
"I like it," he said finally, with a slight smile, "But you really ought to get out more!"
"I'm not the only one!" she retorted.
"Sadly, I am not in some torrid, forbidden love affair," Alexander told her, "I'm afraid It's nothing that interesting. I came to Loyola to study, and here I must stay until I finish."
Adelpha huffed at this claim.
"Of course! There are no good business schools to be found in New York City!"
"None which offer the major I am seeking," Alexander replied with a cryptic smile.
"At least a love affair would be a healthier pursuit!" she complained further, "A young man ought to have some friends and companions. From what I see, all you do in this place is work and visit that church of yours."
"Can't a man have a spiritual awakening once in a while?" he teased.
She gave him a scrutinizing glare.
"They have churches in New York too," she reminded him.
"I know," he said gently, "And, believe me, I want to come home. I will as soon as I can. But I'm afraid no amount of henpecking from my beloved, crotchety auntie is likely to speed up that process."
Adelpha protested this with an indignant snort.
"I'm not henpecking," she grumbled.
"You are, but I don't mind it one bit," he told her, placing a gentle kiss on her hair, "What I do mind is you sulking around up here when we could be out having a good time! I have to take a call downstairs for a few minutes, but when I come back, I'm going to take you out."
"Take me out?" she repeated incredulously, "Where?"
"Oh, all the best places, of course! Exclusive dinner clubs? Rooftop dance floors with a great view of the city? A carriage ride down the Magnificent Mile? Perhaps drinks on the deck of a yacht parked out by Navy Pier? Who knows how the spirit will move us!"
"Sounds most peaceful and relaxing," Adelpha replied sarcastically, "Except for all the humans who will be screaming in terror and shooting at us the whole way."
"Nonsense!" he chided, clicking his tongue, "Tonight, the humans will be but your gracious servants! You'll see, my dear friend. I'll be back in a few minutes."
Adelpha gave him a suspicious glare as he departed through the door. Sighing, she forced open the unforgiving window pane, smelling the fresh paint on the woodwork. She ducked over the sill and settled herself on the fire escape, enjoying the bitter cold, but relatively fresher air. Her little fairy boy had grown into quite a man! As driven and arrogant as his father, but with a sense of honor and loyalty that he could have only learned from the clan. She worried about what purpose he had in mind for her, and whether she was truly equal to it. But most of all, she worried about the hatchlings in the castle, who were already missing their leader, and now her as well. It had broken her heart to leave them without a proper farewell and she wondered what they must think of her for doing so. She was fully confident in Brooklyn and Angela's ability to comfort and care for the little ones, but Sister and Orion were old enough to see through adult deflections and distractions. She hoped they would understand.
People who passed by Alexander's building regularly, on their way to class or to the beach on the waterfront, were accustomed to seeing a raggedly dressed man, smelling strongly of marajuana, who greeted folks day or night with an energetic, "Thank the Lord for sunshine, baby! Thank the Lord for rain! It's a beautiful night either way, baby! God bless you!" while holding a small plastic bucket filled with change.
His begging spiel was gentle and non-threatening, so the police and the management of the building typically left him alone. The students, who seemed to naturally come to the conclusion that the old man was among the less threatening things that might greet them on the streets of Chicago, adopted him somewhat as a school mascot. Someone had nicknamed him 'Loyola Leon', and the name had stuck, though no one had thought to confirm that Leon was even his real name. Though the occasional off-color joke was made about his habits, his misguided optimism, or his general lack of hygiene, the majority of the neighborhood seemed to think of him with more fondness than ridicule. Many of the undergraduates often came by to bring him some dinner, or a joint, and engage in lively philosophical discussion with him, particularly if they were already high themselves.
Someone who was not accustomed to seeing him was a tall, slender man in a heavy, elegantly trimmed coat, who stood beside the call button panel of the building waiting to be buzzed in. His piercing blue eyes gazed at the vagrant with open disdain, even as the jovial fellow smiled back at him, almost with deference, and wished him all the grace and happiness in the world.
"Hope you're having a blessed day, Mr. Smiley!" the tired-looking man of the streets called to the clean cut, stern-looking business man. Narrowing his eyes unsympathetically at Leon's antics, the stranger pulled a phone from his pocket and began sending another text in earnest.
He was interrupted by the arrival of Alexander, who caught sight of him as he slipped out through the rotating front door of the building, carrying a tall, cardboard cup with a pleasant scent of fresh coffee wafting from it.
"Owen!" he greeted with an affectionate smile, embracing the stern, stiff figure with a broad, muscular arm around his thin shoulders, "Have you come all this way to visit me? How are you?"
"I'm most pleased to see you sir," Owen replied in a cold tone that didn't sound the least bit pleased, "I have some rather crucial news to share with you and I had hoped I might be invited inside."
"Oh, you don't want to go in there!" Alexander cautioned, raising his eyebrows as he guided his servant away from the front door, "Let's enjoy this pleasant evening. Hey, Leon! How are you tonight?"
Owen's eyes darted back to the seemingly intoxicated indigent leaning against a concrete planter.
"Blessed as always, Mr. Alexander!" the old man crowed, gesturing to the empty space on the pavement around him as if it contained a great feast of warm food and a good deal of liquor."
"Well, it's going to be a cold night," Alexander warned him, as he bent over and placed the paper cup in his gloved hands, "I brought you some coffee from the machine in the lobby."
"Aww! Thank you! Bless you! I could use that to warm up these old hands of mine! I- oh!"
Leon withdrew his glove from the outside of the cup to reveal several notes of cash wrapped around it.
"You're too good, sir," Leon said genuinely, and then raising the coffee cup as if to toast him, he addressed Owen, "He's too good, isn't he, Mr. Smiley?"
"He is indeed," Owen replied coldly and Alexander smirked at him, shaking his head humbly.
"I wasn't expecting to see you at all tonight, Mr. Alexander," Leon continued in a jolly attitude as he sipped his coffee, "I figured you'd be out somewhere with that pretty lady I seen you with before!"
Owen looked up, suddenly a bit interested.
"Pretty lady?" he questioned.
"A fine- looking woman!" Leon teased, "Whatever happened to her?"
"To be honest," Alexander responded flippantly, "Before one day had passed, she had turned into a fine-looking monster."
"Aw, no! She didn't!" Leon cried in vicarious dismay, "Well, that happens to the best of us sometime, my man. But don't let it get you down! A good-looking fellow like you is bound to find the right lady sooner or later!"
"Thank you, Leon," Alexander replied, trying to repress his giggling, "That means a lot."
"Sir, if we're done discussing your love life," Owen interjected irritably, "I have an appointment first thing in the-
"All right, Owen, all right!" Alexander conceded, pulling his impatient servant away by the shoulder "Sleep tight, Leon!"
"You too, Mr. Alexander," Leon replied, "Good looking out!"
Alexander made his way to the crosswalk in front of his building, which was illuminated by a bright blue, university security light. They crossed the road and found concrete stairs that led into the park. Alexander turned a corner and found a small courtyard, sheltered by evergreen bushes, containing four elaborate, rod iron benches, arranged in a circle. In the middle was a concrete birdbath. The fountain was turned off for the season, but the basin was filled with dirty old water and dead leaves.
His eyes gleamed, showing a strange color that seemed to be all colors at once. The concrete path appeared to be infused with glitter, so that it sparkled in the lamplight. It was always this way, but tonight, the glitter seemed to twinkle brighter than usual, and Alexander smiled as the individual sparkles began to swirl around. Suddenly, a heavy mist rose to the top of the yews that encircled them, concealing them from mortal eyes.
As Alexander admired his handiwork, a pale, glowing face, like that of the moon, swished in front of him, blocking his path. Puck's wide, childlike eyes that burned impossibly with flames of ice bore playfully down on him.
"Now, what's this I hear about a beautiful woman?" he demanded hopefully.
Alexander rolled his eyes at his mentor's busybodying.
"That was just Adelpha he saw," he informed him.
"Oh…her," Puck grumbled and Alexander rolled his eyes again and sighed.
"You're relentless!"
"Thank you!" Puck replied, gracing him with an airborne bow as he floated above the mist-cloaked pavement, "But is it so much to ask, that I see my beloved boy enjoying the delightful, unmeasurable pleasures of a female companion?"
Alexander scoffed and drew away as the fairy pinched his cheek affectionately.
"Or even a male companion! I'm not fussy like that!" Puck insisted.
"It IS too much to ask," Alexander growled, "When you consider what happened the last time I attempted to be even remotely intimate with a girl. Or don't you remember that incident?"
"Yes. I remember," Puck replied quizzically, "So?"
"So?! My magic overwhelmed us both!"
"Yes! So?"
"She lost all will of her own!"
"Yes! So?"
"She was basically possessed! I had to come get you for help because I couldn't undo it myself!"
"I'm always happy to help you, my boy!" Puck assured him.
"Even after your help, I don't think she was ever right again!"
"Well, I'm sure it was a lovely evening and very hard to forget," Puck justified, "But that's neither here nor there. If mortal women are too frail to withstand your powers, then we'll simply have to look for love for you in the other realm."
"You don't understand," Alexander groaned in exasperation, "That's not love!"
Puck shot him a mischievous look.
"My boy, my boy!" he laughed, "You have no idea! The pleasures! The fantasies that our race is capable of! Why mortals have indentured themselves to slavery, bartered years off their lives, and offered even their very souls for a mere taste of the love of an immortal!
"Puck…" Alexander interrupted.
"And I don't mean to toot my own horn," Puck continued without noticing, "But I happen to be somewhat of an expert on the subject. Afterall, I am renowned throughout the ages for matchmaking between the mortal and immortal world. Here's my catalog!"
Puck chucked a large, purple book at Alexander who caught it awkwardly with both hands. Slowly he opened the cover and the pages came alive, shuffling open to reveal a most distressing illustration.
"Eugh!" he cried out, holding the book away from him in disgust.
"What?" Puck asked, floating up to him and looking at the page for himself.
"Oh, that's chapter eighteen!" Puck apologized in embarrassment, "That's not for you! You're too pure of heart for that! Try turning back to chapter three!"
"I don't want any of this!" Alexander protested, slamming the book shut and tossing it back.
"Ah! But whatever it is you DO want, my boy!" Puck continued to explain emphatically, his bright eyes wide with excitement and adventure, "There's magic for all of it! Oh, there's a few rules that must be skirted here and there, but I can teach it to you and then you'll be free to use it as you will. You can have any fetish, any fantasy, any…strange halfling kink…that you desire!"
"I want what my mom and dad have!" Alexander exclaimed.
Slowly, Puck's wildly enthusiastic visage fell into an expression of genuine defeat.
"Except for that," he admitted with a sigh, "That kind of love is beyond our magic."
"I know," he replied, "But that's what I want. That's the kind of love I must have. I'd rather never have it at all."
Puck gave him a scowl.
"Why do you have to be so difficult?" he demanded, as if his young protoge's need for mortal love was some sort of a perversion in his estimation.
Alexander shrugged, and then smiled.
"As they say, anything worth doing is worth doing right! If I am ever to have that kind of love, I have to learn to control my powers."
"You will, in time, my dear pupil," Puck assured him, taking on an uncharacteristically serious tone, "You must. For all their sakes."
Alexander lowered his eyes, listening pensively to the wind.
"And while we're on the subject of getting things under control," Puck began again, in a tone that indicated he knew he was breeching a tender subject, "Is it not about time you got that wretch upstairs under control?"
"Adelpha?" he asked curiously, turning toward him with a shrug, "Why? What's she done?"
"What hasn't she done?"
"I mean recently," Alexander replied with an eye roll, "All she's done since I brought her here is complain about wanting to go home!"
"I presumed that your sudden wish to bring her here had to do with your audience with Lord Oberon?"
"Yes," he agreed, but didn't elaborate.
"You understood what he told you about her?"
"I understood what he said," he replied coldly, "But I will not allow it."
"Not allow it?" Puck repeated slowly, as if the words didn't compute, "My boy! You don't have a choice."
"Who says I don't?" Alexander demanded arrogantly.
"Our lord has given you permission to take this mortal as a servant. But that privilege comes with expectations."
"I realize what Lord Oberon expects, but I do not see Adelpha as a servant."
"Well, whether you see it that way or not, dear boy," Puck replied in clear frustration, "It is what it is. You bought the miserable creature. Now she's yours to mold to your service!"
"And how do you propose I should do that?" Alexander asked and Puck's eyes flashed with disdain.
"Well I'm sure I don't know what she's good for! She's a second rate sorceress. A miserable failure as a protector. She'd probably serve best as a concubine, but you've already said you aren't interested in that. Honestly boy, find her a little white lace hat and make her a bloody scullery maid, if you like! The point is, you must use your power to take possession of her before it is too late!"
Alexander shook his head. He had always looked up to his mentor, whose skills he admired and whose company he enjoyed. Now he gazed at him with a look of disgust.
"I don't need a slave," he said simply, "And Adelpha is my friend."
Puck sighed again. Clearly the levity of the conversation was more than his light-hearted continence was fit to deal with. He was a harbinger of pleasure, merriment, and fun, not doom and gloom.
"Then I'm sorry," he replied in a huff of exasperation, "For you were never meant to truly care for her. And her, such a disagreeable wretch! How could we have ever guessed that you would? But what's done is done. And that is all the more reason that you must use your power on her now. As Lord Oberon told you, in the dark days to come, certain sacrifices must be made. The longer you wait, the harder it will be when the time comes."
"No. I will not allow it."
Puck laughed quickly at this response, first taking it as a joke. But slowly his mirth turned to confusion.
"You would defy Lord Oberon?" he accused in a scandalized tone.
"I do defy him," Alexander replied rigidly, "I will never surrender her."
"You've got me and your family!" Puck protested, "What do you need her for?"
"You're not the same," Alexander tried to explain, "She is my friend and I love her."
"His friend!" Puck spat, turning away and ranting to himself as he paced back and forth through midair, "His friend, he says! And for this 'friend', he would bring down the wrath of the most powerful being in this realm! He would risk us all, over this 'friend'. And what am I? Dragon dung?"
Alexander watched the tantrum with a slight smile.
"Must you be so jealous of her?" he scolded, "Surely you know what you mean to me! To our whole family! To be so jealous of our affection for Adelpha, it's downright unbecoming!"
Puck spun around, his eyes now blazing in uncharacteristic rage.
"Jealous?" he cried in a dangerous voice, "Jealous, am I? Of that faithless, treasonous hellion? I, who have served your family faithfully for two generations now? I, who forfeited all my powers and even my citizenship as a child of Oberon to be your teacher and guardian?"
"On the plus side, your guilt trip power seems to be operating at full capacity," Alexander pointed out snidely.
"Oh! Mock me, will you! You ungrateful quarterling!" Puck retorted as he floated to a bench and collapsed there with dramatic flair.
"Puck!" Alexander called out urgently.
"Just you wait! Owen and I shall remember this as we process your requisition for yet another bus pass!"
Alexander rolled his eyes. His lack of ability to transport himself magically was a sore spot his teacher often brought up when he felt his student required chastening.
"You're not listening!"
But Puck ranted on, not heeding him, "So powerful and cocky that you're ready to face off with Lord Oberon, but still can't manage a simple power that any halfling ought to be able-
"Excuse me, Teacher?" Alexander interrupted, waving his hand dramatically, "Did you know you're burning?"
"How can I not be burning with outrage? When my own beloved student tells me that he values a fickle, mortal friendship over the loyal servitude of-
"Puck, that bench is made of iron!" Alexander cried in exasperation.
Slowly, his mentor looked down, then shrieked as he saw the decorative bars of the bench had seared into his hands and backside.
"Ahh!" he cried, creating a whirlwind of smoke and glittery mist as he raced in circles around the empty birdbath, clutching his rear end in agony. Urgently, Alexander waved his hand over the pipe and a torrent shot out from it, drenching Puck, who fell to his knees on the concrete.
"Are you alright?" Alexander asked with a gentle laugh, extending his arm to help him back up, "Shall I kiss it to make it better?"
"I'll tell you what you can kiss!" the fairy exclaimed, fury still showing in his eyes.
"Come on, Puck," Alexander replied with genuine sadness, "It doesn't have to be that way."
"It can be whatever way you want, my dear," Puck retorted indignantly, rising into the air and spinning like a clothes dryer, splashing Alexander with ice cold water.
"I'll leave you to your own folly," Puck declared.
"But you said you had news to tell me!" Alexander reminded him.
"That I did, but now I suppose it's best to let you figure that out on your own. Perhaps your dear 'friend' can help you?"
"I didn't mean it like that," he pleaded, "You're my friend too! You mean all the world to me!"
"And when that nightmare on wings fails you," he warned, "You'll know where to go and who you can depend on! For now, I bid you adieu!"
"Puck!" Alexander pleaded again, but it was no use.
His mentor disappeared in a flash and Alexander was powerless to follow him.
"Whoa!" called a voice behind him and Alexander saw a stunned Leon, awkwardly stumbling down the path, still shielding his face from the bright light.
"What was that about?"
"Mr. Smiley's having a bad night," Alexander explained.
"Damn!" the man replied, coming to a stop by Alexander's shoulder and glancing from the scorch marks under the bench, to the spilled water that was already forming a patch of ice, to the place where the engaged fairy had disappeared.
"Well," Alexander concluded, "See you at church, man."
"I'll see you," Leon replied uneasily and the two parted ways.