Harry woke slowly as usual, and stretched before snuggling back down into the warmth of the bed and Fionn. The Fae's hair was soft as it tickled his nose. Cracking open one eye, he glanced out the window trying to guess how early it was. No one had woken them, so it had to be fairly early. But the light that came through the window spoke of it being later than he thought. Harry slid out from under the covers, trying not to wake Fionn yet. The Fae immediately rolled into the warm spot Harry's body had made, and snuggled up to Harry's pillow. After Harry had showered and dressed, he sat on the edge of the bed and leaned over to kiss Fionn awake.
"Morning sleepy-head. I'm going to go fix breakfast while you get ready. No idea why Ash hasn't bounced in here yet yelling about the Festival starting today, but maybe the twins locked her in her room again..."
Fionn laughed and pulled Harry down for another kiss. "I'm not sure that would stop her today, she was far too excited."
"Mmm. True." Harry pulled away reluctantly, and headed into the kitchen to make breakfast. As he passed the door to Fred and George's room, he couldn't hear anything, but recognized the feel of a silencing charm and shook his head. Ash's end of the hall was strangely silent, but maybe she had gone off to find the best place to start when she took them to the Festival?
By the time he had finished making eggs, bacon, toast, and fried potatoes, Fionn had appeared and set the table. But there was still no sign of Ash. Putting the food on the table, Harry headed back to the bedrooms and banged on Fred and George's door. After a moment Fred poked his head out.
"Harry! Great to see you! Ash isn't with you, is she?" Fred tried to peer around Harry to see if Ash was hiding just out of his line of sight.
"No. And I don't want to know what you two are doing. Breakfast is ready." Harry shook his head and walked down to Ash's door.
It was still eerily silent, he'd never known Ash to use a silencing charm on her room, or to not have barged in on any of them at way-too-early in the morning. Knocking on her door, he waited a few moments but there was no response. He put his hand on the doorknob and paused. He'd never actually been inside Ash's room, and it felt odd to be going in without her permission. But he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Slowly turning the knob, he eased the door open and peeked inside. Her room was done in blue and white like most of the rest of the house, but the walls and ceiling were covered in a mural that made it look like the room was open to the summer sky. Clouds were painted in random patterns, and birds appeared here and there. After a moment, Harry realized that the mural must be magicked because the clouds were actually moving and the birds were flying.
Tearing his eyes away from the scenes, he looked to see if she was still in bed. And that's when his worry returned. The bed, and dresser next to it, looked as though Ash had been in a hurry the last time she was there. One pillow had landed on the floor, and the covers were only halfway pulled up on the bed. The dresser had a few drawers open and things spilled out over the edges and across the top. Though knowing Ash, it was also possible that this was completely normal for her, not having seen her room before he just didn't know. Closing the door again he walked back into the kitchen lost in thought. Ash would have left a note, or sent a message if something had called her away. Wouldn't she?
"Where's Ash?" George looked up from his plate.
"Yeah, if she doesn't hurry up, there won't be any food left!" Fred grinned and snatched another piece of bacon off the platter.
"I'm not sure. She wasn't in her room, but as excited as she was about the Festival, maybe she went on ahead?" Harry sat down and realized that someone had filled his plate for him. Smiling at Fionn, he began to eat before Fred or George decided to steal his breakfast.
When everyone had eaten, and the dishes had been done, Ash still hadn't appeared. It was nearing 11am, and they had been hearing all kinds of interesting noises from outside for over an hour.
"I say we go to the Festival and see if we run into Ash there." Fred grinned.
"Yeah, I bet she got distracted and lost all sense of time and will be happy to see us." George chimed in.
Harry frowned and tapped his fingers on the table a moment. He knew it wasn't the best idea to go roaming around without Ash, Gideon or Laric. There were too many strangers here for the Festival, and they hadn't completed their training... On the other hand, it would be just like Ash to have taken off early that morning, and then promptly forgotten to come back for them. And he was just as curious as Fred and George were about the Festival.
"All right..."
"Yes!"
"But you have to stay with us, you know the rules Ash gave us about going anywhere without her." Harry tried to make his voice stern, so Fred and George would listen and not just run off on him. "And if we haven't found her by 1pm, we come back here to see if she's returned."
Fred and George looked at each other and then nodded. "Fine. But let's go!"
They stepped out the front door and stared in silence a moment at the sight of the crowd rushing past. Sure there were usually a lot of people in this area of The Realm, but this was insane. People of all ages and heights rushed by laughing and yelling to one another. Harry held tight to Fionn, and grabbed George's hand as well as they joined the throng. When they finally spilled out into the main square, the noise was almost deafening. People yelling to friends and family, vendors hawking their wares, musicians all over playing and singing... Harry steered them to a low wall, he thought it was the same spot Ash usually appeared in when they all traveled by Air.
Standing on top of the wall, he peered around trying to catch a glimpse of Ash or anyone else they knew. But there were just too many people. Fae skipped through the crowd, arms linked around each other. Succubi and Incubi lounged in the grass, or haggled with vendors. Gargoyles and Demons and Djinn, and people Harry couldn't name were all out and having fun. He saw a group of blue-skinned Djinn with a clear space around them, most likely due to the creature one had on a golden leash. It looked like a panther, but had no visible ears, and too many fangs, all of which were longer than a normal feline. Harry couldn't tell from here, but it didn't appear as if it had fur either, he made a mental note to go in a different direction.
"No sign of Ash or any of the Warriors we know. But there are so many people here, I could have been looking right at them and not realized." Harry said as he hopped back down off the wall. "I guess we'll just have to keep an eye out, but everyone stay close. I don't know how we'll find each other if we get separated. And remember, if we do get separated, meet back at the house by 1pm."
The Festival was noisy and crowded, but it was also a lot of fun. They listened to various musicians, bought snacks at a few different vendors, and even saw a few skits and sleight of hand. Before they knew it, it was time to go back to Ash's house. But even before Harry had searched the house, he knew Ash hadn't been there. That sinking feeling he had gotten this morning was back again, but worse. What could have happened? She'd been looking forward to dragging them all around the Festival for weeks now.
"She's still not here..." The others were now starting to look as worried as Harry felt. "I don't understand. She's never just left us before, and without saying anything?"
"Remember, she said if anything happened we were supposed to go to Pepper?" Fionn spoke softly. "Do you think we should see if Pepper can find her?"
"Yeah. Maybe she knows how to track her down." Harry nodded, and led them off again.
It was slightly quieter around Pepper's place, but there were still more people around that normal. Harry glanced at Fionn to see how he was doing, coming back to the place he had been sold to, but the Fae just looked as worried as Harry felt. An Incubi with hot pink hair and brown eyes approached them smiling.
"Welcome! Is this your first time here?"
"Ah, actually we're looking for Pepper. Could you tell us where she is?" Harry smiled a little nervously, he really did not want to be mistaken for a patron. All he wanted was for Ash to appear and tell them she had been pranking them or something.
The Incubi pouted and turned towards Fred and George. "All of you are looking for Pepper? I couldn't get any of you to change your minds?" He reached out with one hand and started to lay it on George's arm, but just before it touched him a low growl was heard. The Incubi froze and looked up into Fred's unamused face. "Right. Pepper! Uh, she's not actually here right now. She was called away a while ago, said something about having to settle a dispute." Having put both his hands behind his back when Fred growled, the Incubi now reminded Harry of nothing so much as a naughty child trying to talk his way out of being punished. "You're welcome to wait for her if you'd like? But I don't know when she'll be back..."
Harry sighed, was no one where they were supposed to be today? "No thanks, we'll come back later." As he led the group off towards the entrance he wondered what they were going to do. Ash was missing, Pepper wasn't around, and he didn't think they'd have any better luck tracking down any of the Warriors. As he was trying to figure out what they should do next, he almost missed Pepper walking in the door.
"Harry? What brings you lot here? And where is Ash? She better not be causing any trouble, there's been more than enough of that for one day already."
"Pepper! You have no idea how happy we are to see you. Though I was sorta hoping you had some idea of where Ash was. She wasn't home when we got up this morning, and we haven't been able to find her. She didn't leave a note or anything either. She didn't say anything to you?"
"Calm down. Take a deep breath and let's go to my office. You can explain once we get there." Pepper nodded at a few people as she led them upstairs and down a hallway. The office was big enough to hold them all, if only just. "You said Ash is missing? You're sure she didn't leave a note or anything?"
"Nothing. I slept later than usual this morning without her there to wake us, but even after making breakfast she hadn't returned. So we went out and saw a bit of the Festival for a few hours and went back home. Ash still wasn't there. But Fionn remembered that Ash told us to come to you if anything ever happened to her. So we did..." Harry ran a hand through his hair, if Pepper had no idea where Ash was either, something must have happened. But what?
Pepper was slowly shaking her head. "I haven't talked to Ash in almost a week. I've been too busy getting everyone here ready for the Festival, and keep getting called away on Council business. But she didn't say anything to me about missing the Festival. Did you try to send her a message light?"
"I, ah, haven't actually learned how to do those yet. Ash said she would teach me, but hasn't actually gotten around to doing so." Harry blushed and looked away.
"Typical Ash." Pepper sighed, but called up a message light. "Message for Ash Montgomery. Where are you? I swear if you've gone off to have one of your little 'adventures' and not bothered to let anyone know, I'll tell Harry and the others all about that time with the pixie, the marbles and the lake!" She flicked her fingers to send the message light off, but instead of shooting off to find Ash, the light bobbed in the air as though it didn't know where to go. After a moment, the light winked out. "Shit. That only happens if the person the message is for has invoked the spell to hide from them, or if they're dead. Since we haven't heard anything about her being captured, and she was with you last night, she must have gone into hiding."
Pepper frowned and fiddled with a pencil on her desk, flipping it through her fingers and bouncing the eraser on the edge of the desk. "Who are your Guides?" She looked at Fred and George, pencil still flicking between her fingers.
"Gideon Reed and Laric Winters." Fred spoke with little of his usual mischievousness.
"Mmmm... Gideon will be nearly as busy with Festival duties as I am. I'm not familiar with Winters, he may be able to look after you while I track down Ash. In any event, until one of your Guides can take over watching out for you, the four of you can live at my place." Pepper dropped the pencil to the desk and stood up. She headed straight out the door and back the way they came, without looking to see if any of them were following her. Harry and the others scrambled to catch up, heads spinning a little with how fast everything was happening.
Pepper led them down a few side streets they hadn't explored yet, and walked for a ways before coming out into a slightly less crowded area of the city. All the buildings they could see were old, and most of them practically screamed of wealth and power. The four stayed close to each other and right behind Pepper, they did not want to get lost here. Pepper opened a wrought iron gate, and led them down a tree-lined lane. The house they were headed for was huge, at least 5 stories tall, and looked big enough for at least 40 people to live there. It was made of pale cream stone, with reddish stone accents. Like most of the buildings they had seen so far, it had patterns etched into the stone, but they didn't have time to study them as Pepper didn't slow upon reaching the front door, she walked straight in.
"Saunders!"
A Fae with dark purple hair and purple eyes hurried into the entryway. His expensive-looking clothes made hardly a sound as he bowed. "Yes m'lady?"
"These four will be staying with us for at least a few days, is the Solaris suite available?"
"Yes m'lady."
"Wonderful. Please show them to their rooms and have one of the pages go with them if they need to pick up their things. I should be back by 6 for dinner." Pepper looked at Harry slightly apologetically. "I'm sorry, but there are many things I still need to do today. Dinner is at 6, one of the pages will come get you a little bit before then and show you to the dining room." And then she swept out of the house just as quickly as she had arrived, leaving Harry and the others with the Fae she had called Saunders.
"If you will follow me please?" He led them deeper into the house and up to the third floor before opening a door and bowing them in.
Fred whistled softly as he stared around in momentary awe, George hurried to look out the nearest window. Harry just stared, they were going to be living here for a few days? The room appeared to be some kind of formal reception room, it was done all in golds and reds with thick carpet on the floor and tapestries hanging from the walls. Heavy wood furniture with brocade was scattered around the room, and a single door was in the left-hand wall. Moving towards it, Harry stepped into the next room cautiously. It was a bedroom, with a king sized bed, dressers and night stands. This room was done all in gold and copper. Two doors led out of the room, opening the first door he saw another bedroom, set up just like the one he was in, but done all in red and orange. The second door led into the largest bathroom he had ever seen. It had a sunken bathtub that could easily fit the four of them together, a separate 3-person shower, 3 sinks, and a toilet tucked away in it's own alcove. Backing out of the bathroom, he returned to the reception room.
"This place looks like a bloody palace!" Fred was grinning brightly, sprawled out on one of the couches.
"If you think this is good, you should see the bedrooms and bathroom." Harry shook his head as the twins bolted past him. "I remember Ash saying something about Pepper being high up in the Succubi ranks, but this is insane..."
"I hope Ash is okay." Fionn was rubbing his arms as though he was cold, though the room was the perfect temperature.
"Yeah, me too."
AN: Thanks as always to my wonderful beta Nicky Noodle. And review responses can be found in the forum, which is linked on my Profile. Thanks for reading!