(Posted May 29, 2018)

Snake Eyes

In which Julius participates in his canetis ritual on the final day of the Winter of the Twisted Ivy, and encounters a young dame who is positively soaked

Beyond the courtyard gate, Mona and I lost sight of Trish and Lacy almost at once. We kept up with Daniel and Demetria almost to the edge of the woods, despite the shoving, squirming throng all stampeding in that direction. A few of our peers dared to travel by wing, although many more weren't brave enough to challenge the skies without the aid of echolocation. Trish didn't seem to know that fear; I could only assume she'd memorised her route from decades of careful map study. It sounded like something she would do. She came from the Anti-Twigfall colony, after all, and they were notorious for being a pompous and pernickety lot. Her family had likely taught her that failing her canetis was not an option, for the shame it brought upon them would be insurmountable.

"This way," I told Mona, veering farther to the right than most of our noisy travelling party. "The course they're on will drive them into the more tangled areas of underbrush, while I happen to have familiarised myself with the more barren running paths I've traversed when my energy levels are bursting at the seams. Good smoke, I wish I felt such an urge to run right now. At least Luna's Landing is only a short way's down the road."

Mona jumped on top of a mossy rock and off again, as opposed to hurtling the whole thing as I did. "Perhaps we should put preparation into practicing pacing?"

"Hmm?"

"You flee fairly fast," she explained when I paused on a knoll. "Exhausting energy in earnest."

I surveyed the ditch cutting across my path, rather put off by the terrible quiet of the bare-leaved forest. Our noisy peers had scared what few woodland creatures we had into hiding, and my ears couldn't pick up so much as the burbling of a stream. "Well, I am inclined to reach Luna's Landing as soon as absolutely possible, darling. I should hate for Trish and the others to take down a demon and cross the finish line without us."

"She shouldn't! Seriously?"

I skidded down the ditch and opened my mouth to answer Mona. Before I could, a snap of short spikes plunged into the back of my neck, aiming down along my spine. By the time I processed they were there, I had been flipped on my head and rolled further along the ditch. My churning stomach hit a scaly coil. My wings bunched against my back as something crushed them close in a way they weren't meant to bend.

Then the pain kicked in. Fangs? Were those fangs? Maybe not fangs per se - there were so many of them - but teeth, yes. My body flooded with a storm of heat. When I blinked a few times and realised my limbs were pinned to my side, I could recognise the long, orange body of a glider snake glimmering in the embers.

"No, no, no! I'm much too brilliant to die so young, especially like this. Help! Help!"

Every time I opened my mouth to scream, its coils tightened around my midsection. I heard my ribs splinter before I felt them. My arms and legs went limp as bones cracked.

"Julius?" Mona called from higher ground.

The teeth didn't leave the back of my neck, but the snake's thin tongue flickered about my ears. Everywhere it caressed, my neck and back flared with boiling heat as though they'd been touched by Ghostfire.

"Help," I squeaked in the end. My angle was slanted, so I saw a lot more dirt than sun. With every passing second, I became more and more convinced that I had wet myself. "Help. Oh gods, help."

Mona skidded down the slope, kicking up a burst of dust. "You're feeling fine," she called. "You can't croak. Keep cool. I'll really rush to your rescue."

I wriggled my fingers in her direction. My arm was still pinned, and thoroughly broken, but at least the fingers moved. "It bit me- I think I've been poisoned."

"Can't. It constricts. It's very venomless."

"It bit me," I stubbornly repeated in a whisper as the snake tightened its coils.

Mona shook her head. "Biting behaviour begins because big bullies bother both bending-"

"Mona. Now is not the time." The hooked teeth slid out of my neck. I only knew this because the snake's head appeared in front of me, upside-down. Or perhaps I was the one who was upside-down. Its eyes were the hard, distant eyes of an animal taking no thought in this event except that it wanted to stay alive. I watched with raised eyebrows as it dropped open its lower jaw and began pushing me into its mouth.

"It's vacant of venom," Mona went on. "Each icky inchworm has inrita embedded in its spit. Its inrita ends intense magic. Painful 'inrita poison' paralyses, perhaps, but that's a partial plan. The taught term is entirely 'inrita'. 'Poison' isn't part."

"Really?" I drawled, thinking that perhaps I needed a simpler-minded life partner. By this point, the coils around my limbs had dropped. My entire body was inside the snake's mouth. Every wet surface sent my nerves screaming with pain, but the most I could do to fight it was squirm my hands and feet as I began oozing headfirst down the warm, red throat. "That's very interesting, and also very unhelpful right now! Can we please focus on getting me out of the giant snake?"

"'Giant'. That's generous. You're just generally-"

"Mona!"

She sighed. "Super sorry. Sit straight, stomach slider. I'll hail help."

I swallowed. Cruel word, by the way… swallowing as you're being swallowed. The snake's throat closed around me, squishing and squelching and crushing until even my shoulders were stiff. Rippling muscles dragged me deeper. I was a worm in a hole, a snake in a snake, with no hands to stretch in front of me to slow my descent.

Not that it was even a hasty process. Each centimetre I progressed felt agonising. As the snake's throat tightened, my body blocked the light and plunged me into blackness. Inrita stung my eyes until the tears were no longer from stress. I continued crying anyway. At first I opened my mouth to do so, but the inrita filled it and made my tongue sting. My gums burned. Even my hard teeth ached. Echolocation was useless and rang too loudly in my flattening ears. After that, I suffered in silence. When my throat ached and there was no one but the snake to hear, what was the point?

I was never going to pass my canetis now.

Abruptly, my centre of gravity changed. My stomach twisted. I tilted so my head was pointing upwards again, and my feet to the ground. Even in the dark, I sensed the tunnel clench shut ahead of me. Then the clench moved until it was right in front of my nose. Then it kept moving, forcing me back. In a few swift sweeps, I had moved backwards along the snake's throat, whereupon I fell from its mouth and plopped to the cinders. Limp, suffering, but alive.

I lifted my eyes to find Anti-Bryndin holding the snake with both hands behind its head. Mona dangled by her claws from the lower jaw. When she saw I'd dropped out, she let go.

"Him! I mean, them! Hey. How's it hanging?"

"I can't move my limbs," I said, not moving my limbs for the moment. "Ooh. Talking hurts."

Anti-Bryndin still held the writhing snake in his claws. He brought it to his open mouth, clearly about to bite it (perhaps so he might expose and drink of its karmic weave)… and yet he changed his mind. He lowered the snake to his waist again, clinging to it with one hand. He rubbed the button on his scarf in an unhappy way.

After a minute spent paralysed, and with Mona's help, I managed to sit up. Oof. Oof. Everything burned. My bones would rapidly heal, but for now, they seared with stabbing pains. I pressed my hand against my chest and swallowed again. "I say! That nasty creature nearly ate me up."

"Yuck." Mona twisted around, straining to get a better look at the orange thing. While she did, I became uncomfortably aware of the wetness between my legs, and hoped she wouldn't notice.

Anti-Bryndin replaced the snake on the ground and gave its head a pat. It returned this gesture with a disgruntled look before turning and creeping off into the undergrowth. He watched it go with his hands braced on his knees. "Yes. You pups are small, and you need to watch for snakes. But, they will let you go sometimes. Anti-Fairies are hard prey to eat. Gliders like to squeeze food until it does not breathe. Because Anti-Fairies breathe when Fairies breathe, and they can use magic and change their shape, gliders learned to eat us fast so the inrita in their mouths makes our bodies stop for a small time. When prey is weak, they eat. They only bring weak prey inside their mouths."

"Oh, brilliant," I said sarcastically. The hair sticking in my eyes was damp with the goop of the glider's throat. My limbs were still paralyzed enough that I decided against the effort of brushing it away. Tutting his tongue, Anti-Bryndin scooped me into his arms. I cried out at his grip. He noticed. Before I could stop him, he pulled off my tunic to observe for injury, and stopped.

"?"

I covered my leg with my hands. He held me away from his body, looking me up and down.

"Julius? The snake broke your ribs. Why are you not screaming out of pain? Oh," he realised. "Your body is bitten by frost. You are part numb. Your fur was already dark and sick, and I did not notice the purple until now. Why did Sunnie bite you with cold?"

I clenched my teeth. "'Tis the season for it, Anti-Bryndin."

"Have you chosen to roost alone without very padded garments? You should roost with roostmates. Hy-Brasil is too damp and cold for Anti-Fairies when they roost alone." Anti-Bryndin shook his head. "I will take you to the Breath Temple now, so you may bathe in Winni's healing fountain and he may bless you. The injury is severe. Maybe too severe for my healing Breath kiss. We will force regeneration on you so you will be reborn of new smoke that Sunnie did not bite, and which the snake did not break."

My core flared so strongly in my head, it nearly forced the lid of my forehead chamber open. I'd never had to go to the Breath Temple before, and frankly, the thought of regeneration terrified me the way some of my peers feared dragons. Especially with Clarice in the picture. I didn't even want to know what dying might do to our intertwined souls. Would she steal control of my body and leave me the one trapped in the unconsciousness of my brain? I kicked my legs. "No! Please let me finish my canetis, High Count. Please! I have to rid myself of these chains. Please don't take me to the Breath Temple right now. I don't want to go!"

"But your ribs have broken?"

"I don't care! I want to finish my canetis!"

"… I will let you finish it, yes. This injury is bad, though. I will take you to the Temple tonight, when the canetis is done. We will regenerate you. It will hurt you, but this is not good."

That bought me time, at least. I'd have to think up a clever way to wriggle out of that Temple visit later. Anti-Bryndin put me down on my feet again. Exhaling, struggling against the shriek of broken bones, I turned to Mona. "Phew. That was a wee bit of a nasty shock, I do say. Hmm. What do you think would have happened if that snake had succeeded in swallowing me? Anti-Fairies can't die. Do you think, perhaps, that I'd come out its other end intact?"

"Ew." She pushed me off with her hand. "Maybe many multitudes might manifest in slimy snake stomachs, regenerating rapidly and repeatedly for remaining races."

I grinned, even though the muscles in my face ached when I did. "Ooh, that is worse, isn't it?"

Anti-Bryndin patted Mona's head beneath her crown. "Mona has the right thought. Anti-Fairies eaten by large animals are stuck inside. They become smoke with death and then regenerate with fresh life, many times. Inrita is bad for Fairy opposites. Small touches drain magic. This is how Fairies die. Anti-Fairies will not die from it, but there are many screams of pain. Inrita over the whole Anti-Fairy body will make the honey-lock without power. An Anti-Fairy inside a glider snake with inrita could not get out even with the power of honey-locking. This is how an Anti-Fairy is trapped."

When he said that, I stiffened. "Wait a moment. Did you just mention the honey-lock? As in" - I held up my hands, prepared to use them as puppets to demonstrate my thought process - "when Anti-Fairies are stricken by the forces of the universe to mate with their counterpart's mate's counterpart, so that they may produce pups appropriately and all genetic relations between our counterparts may remain balanced and stable? That honey-lock, yes? The same honey-lock that holds the universe's ultimate power over the servants of homeostasis such as ourselves? Do you mean to imply that that response can be prevented by dousing oneself in inrita? And the universe can do nothing to force an Anti-Fairy bathed in inrita to mate against their wishes, try though she may? Are you quite certain? That's not what I've always heard."

Anti-Bryndin looked at me in some surprise, but nodded. "The honey-lock is the most powerful thing, except for one thing. Inrita is the poison of dust and smoke. So much inrita will quiet the locking part of the honey-lock. The Anti-Fairy changes colour to their iris colour, but does not have the magic to fly, fight, or lock."

"Really now…" I turned and followed the trail of the departing snake with my eyes. I touched my fingers to my lips. "No honey-lock. How interesting."

Anti-Bryndin moved his attention in the same direction as mine. Then he wrapped his hand around my shoulder. "Julius, inrita is the worst pain. Glider snakes are not for playing. They are the worst predator to Anti-Fairies. It was your fate to escape the snake today. This snake was a wee, wee babe. This was the inrita on you of a gilder snake pup. If the snake was wide, inrita would swallow you with much pain. We could not get you out unless it was dead. This death would take many years, or may be the end of Julius forever. Be careful of big snakes. Inrita is the strongest thing. Is this okay?"

"We'll be careful," I promised, still staring. Contact with inrita blocked the effects of the honey-lock. So there was a weakness to its alleged "universal law" powers after all. Perhaps I'd been focusing my reproductive system studies in the wrong direction all this time.

Anti-Bryndin tightened his claws into my shoulder. Startled, I faced him head-on. His fingers were latched around the yellow button on his crocheted scarf: Winni's favour.

"Julius. You should not chase the snakes. Not now. Not ever. Unless you are attacked by a snake, you should not fight snakes. Is this okay?"

I hesitated. Then bowed my head. "Yes, High Count."

His eyes softened. Taking my chin between his thumb and forefinger, he leaned down and pressed his lips against mine. A shock of cold tore down my spine, flaring my wings. Instantaneously, I knew exactly why Anti-Bryndin was forbidding me from entangling myself in the up-close studies of glider snakes. Such enormous serpents had devoured so many Anti-Fairies over the years; it was for reasons like these that we didn't brave the High Kingdom lands where the Fairy Refracts staked their claim, for they held mastery over the tamed prairies, and would have left us with nothing but the areas riddled with gliders large enough to swallow Fairy World houses.

The scathing memory of inrita paralysing my limbs and tearing the molecules of my skin apart, over and over in endless waves, crashed down on my shoulders. I wrenched away from him, clutching my hand to my chest and gasping hard. Gods! The pain lasted for only a quarter of a second, and it had already faded now. But the burn had seared across my mind, and it weakened the muscles in my knees. Anti-Bryndin didn't want that horrific suffering to be part of my fate. He was just trying to keep me safe.

Oh, gods. Could all that absolute pain really have befallen me if I'd been snapped up by a snake who wasn't a mere pup itself? I didn't want to see another glider ever again for as long as I lived!

I pressed the heel of my hand to my temple, blinking and shuddering still. "Wha-? What the-? Good glory!"

"No snakes," Anti-Bryndin reminded me, pulling back. He didn't seem at all ashamed at what he'd done in kissing me. It wasn't an intimate act, but something akin to a ritual, as naturally as he had greeted the creche fathers who brought their own colonies up to Luna's Landing for the New Year holidays.

Slowly, my eyes moved from his mouth to his scarf button, which he was no longer fingering. Anti-Bryndin had carried that favour longer than I'd been alive. It marked him as a man who had given himself so wholly to the nature spirit of Breath, Winni, within the deepest chamber of the Breath Temple, neither held anything back from the other. Anti-Bryndin had, in a sense, raised a sacred knife to the karmic pouch on the left side of his neck and not merely torn loose his karmic weave, but taken his own life completely. Of course, with few exceptions, so long as their hosting counterparts lived on, Anti-Fairies could not die. He had simply burst into smoke.

In perfect tandem, he and Winni himself had allowed raw Anti-Fairy smoke and nature spirit steam particles to blend together during the regeneration process until they shared blood and bone without distinction, and Anti-Bryndin's body reformed, with Winni alive and thriving beneath his skin like a second core. Anti-Elina and Thurmondo had done much the same within the echo chamber of the Leaves Temple, and so had many who held seats on the camarilla court. Such an act was known as kiff-tying, the most reverent whisper to leave a mortal's lips. Anti-Bryndin was chosen of the spirits to lead us as High Count, as all the Anti-Coppertalon line back to the days of Anti-Shylinda and Anti-Kahnii were, and no one could ever argue against that.

And you know, come to think of it, I stroked Anti-Robin's blessing tokens in a very similar way when I was calling upon the influence of the Seven in my life. Winni was the nature spirit who held mastery over Breath, Communication, health, remedies, teaching, sewing, rest, and self-care. What exactly had Anti-Bryndin wanted to call upon him for when rubbing his button just now?

And hadn't I… seen him hold and kiss… both my mother… and Anti-Elina… this… exact… way… before…?

Mona inadvertently broke off my train of thought. Anti-Bryndin's comment of Anti-Fairies ending up trapped inside a large predator had left her shivering. Now, she tugged the sleeves of her amauti over her hands and pushed me again. "Come quick. We can catch our crew."

"… Yes. Yes, we should go." I cleared my throat. "Thank you dearly for the rescue, Anti-Bryndin," I called, waving back at him as the pair of us scampered off. He watched us in detached silence, running the twists of yarn on his scarf through his claws until we couldn't see him anymore.

While Mona skimmed above me, searching from the air, I scanned the ground with eyes and ears. We were so far behind the others now, and I didn't really anticipate any of the released demons to be left lying in our path, even if they were tamed. We couldn't travel quickly. Even when I tried to force myself onward, my ribs gave me some discomfort. They would heal within a few days or weeks, and sooner if I didn't run. But oh, I wanted to.

"There!" I shouted up to Mona as our march to Luna's Landing drew to its end. Heavy chains on my wings or not, squeezing pain or not, less energetic mood or not, we made it. "The forest breaks ahead, and there's one of the lookout towers. We're nearly there now."

She ducked down, pulling in her wings and coming in at a trot to join me. I slowed my limping walk to almost a crawl. We were on the high cliffs; Luna's Landing was a lowland city, embraced in a bowl-shaped valley. Despite the need to get down there in search of our fellows, I paused for a moment to wrap my hands around the railing and peer out over the lookout point. Our capital city was a sight I never tired of taking in, particularly at its most festive time of year. And, I also had broken ribs, even if my frostbite had numbed some of the pain. I deserved a spot of rest.

Fairy World had been built upon clouds, but Anti-Fairy World had its gorgeous islands of floating rocks. Some were black, others blue, others white, and so many more in between. Luna's Landing was built beneath stunning scarlet and crimson cliffs on all four sides, like a crater gouged by the moon. Multicoloured, luminescent crystals sprouted from the nooks and crannies along the rock face, lighting the path which Mona and I were to follow down to the simple silver gate that would allow us into the market. Certainly, our shops may not be as tall as those in Fairy World. They may resemble rounded military bunkers more than the standard Fairy ideal of four wooden corners and sloped shingled roofs I'd seen in my study books. But they were ours, and they were perfect.

Even from here, I could pick up the beautiful melodies of musical instruments pouring up the mountainside. Of course. Today was the final day of the year. At midnight tonight, as depicted in the mural on the wall of the bottom creche roosting room, winter would reach its end. Then Thurmondo, nature spirit of Leaves and Curiosity, would lose all but a small selection of his memories. His eyelids would fall shut with heavy sleep and his anxious fears would fade, sending him collapsing to the dirt. His tears were due to soak the soils of worlds for the next six weeks, until he awoke in Winni's patient arms. Alas, poor Thurmondo. Each and every year he went down sobbing, insisting he would recall Winni's winter cruelty and not subject himself to yet another year that started off with flowers and ended with bruises and chains. And every year, his memories disappeared, and he fell into Winni's grasp all over again. I think that as Anti-Fairies, it's in our nature to admire him for it. As a pup with bruises and chains myself, I know I always did.

Thurmondo's springtime form was a playful one, representing innocence and the joys of youth. There were instruments playing for him all across Anti-Fairy World today, but no singing, of course- never singing on this day. Thurmondo was to be honoured with something that would stick with him. He always found comfort in melodies even if he couldn't recall the words.

And throughout the city and its skyscape below, dozens upon dozens of cheering, swooping Anti-Fairies dodged to and fro. Some played games of tossing balls, others flirted, and still others were there to track those of us undergoing our canetis so they might witness the ceremonious events unfold. At this time of year, our capital was always bursting over with visitors, and as I stood there on that overlook, I couldn't suppress my grin. So these were my people, sharp in the mind and creative in the arts. Why, I felt enormously proud to be an Anti-Fairy!

Of course I'd travelled to Luna's Landing a hundred times before, but it always stole my thoughts away. My biggest fantasy, sometimes, was to pay a personal visit to Faeheim before I turned 10,000. Anti-Penny would bring me there eventually, once I was expected to continue my acolyte training in the Water Temple. I hoped the Fairies had done as lovely a job designing their capital as we had done with ours. I couldn't wait to catch my first legitimate glimpse.

Two structures stood considerably taller than all the rest in our low, rounded city. The leftmost one from here was the Love Temple. Its foundation was circular, its roof and four towers domed. The sides of the building were layered in massive steps, each level outfitted in decorative wraparound walkways. For the festivities, the paths had been lined with purple paper lanterns, spiralling all the way from the building's public base, where the public crowd entered when attending marriage ceremonies, to the dome at its top, intended for quiet private worship and which also housed the living quarters for the acolytes born in the Love Year.

Two statues, taller than any person, taller than any living giant that I knew, taller than half the building, flanked the Temple's ground entrance. Both were hummingbirds: one whose head was low with its tail pointing to the sky, and one whose head was tilted back, wings lifted in flight. Traditionally, even before the Barrier went up, Fairies weren't exactly welcome here. Luna's Landing lay deep inside our border. It hadn't been our capital back when Tír Ildáthach and Hy-Brasil shared the same sky. We hadn't needed one. We'd had a simple, tiny city near the Blue Castle; that was all.

The Fairies had changed that. Now Luna's Landing was where my ancestors had built themselves up after the war, after being cast out from Tír Ildáthach in waves you could have swum through. Long ago, our people had lived side by side in harmony. Not as equals, but in harmony. Sure, the stereotyped image of that time period is of a happy Fairy family treating any Anti-Fairies who lived with them as servants or pets, but it wasn't uncommon custom for Fairy and Anti-Fairy counterparts to actually coexist beneath the same roof. Everyone had ties, everyone had family, even though we came from different backgrounds. There had even been blended families, who found ways to express their care for one another other than the intimate relations rendered impossible by our differing reproductive systems.

Those practices had ended with the war. Cross-Court marriages had been cancelled. Even between my grandmother Anti-Miranda and the Fairy drake she loved. Sigh. I was born in the wrong generation. And now, more and more these days, it seemed, Fairies would beg and plead for access to the Love Temple. After all the mockeries made against our culture, all the historical attempts to suppress our practices, they still wished to cherry-pick the ideas they liked and act as though that made them our champions. The war was their parents' war, they said. They hadn't lifted a finger against us, so couldn't they still marry each other in our Temple if they wanted to?

They wished to invade our place of safety and make our sacred place of worship a busy tourist site? Fine. Shortly before I was born, clever architects had built a precise, scaled-down version of Dayfry's Temple in present-day Crowfeld on Plane 4. It sat right at the edge of the cloudscape where it overlooked the scorched remains of the Shadow Bridge, which once had led between our world and Earth. As one of the final acts of war, Fairy soldiers known as the Mulberry Division had chased Anti-Fairy settlers from Earth "back" into the sky, and shattered the Bridge behind them.

The location was perfect. This second Temple stood near enough to the Fairy World border that the invasive Fairy pests who wished to perform their marriage ceremonies in the Love Temple could do so, and acolytes were trained to behave exactly as though they stood in the actual building. It made the temptations of Luna's Landing all the more alluring to foreigners, but we held firm. Luna's Landing was ours. Crowfeld was a trial basis. To Fairies' faces, we called it The Temple of Affection. Behind their backs, we knew it as The Temple of Lesser Love. I'd seen it once on a trip to Crowfeld with Anti-Penny. It was small koralins compared to the original thing.

Just on the other side of the square from the actual Love Temple perched the Grand Archives building. It commanded more regal and pompous energy than the Temple did, as its intention was to educate the masses as well as deliver just punishment upon anyone who went against tradition and broke one of our few sacred laws. Whereas Dayfry's Temple honoured him, the Grand Archives building exuded a different kind of power. It housed the public library on its lower floors, and provided the three members of the Anti-Fairy Council - the Navy Robe of the High South Region, the Teal of the Lower East, and the Maroon of the Far West - with a place to gather and conduct business on its highest floor.

Anti-Fairy architects had designed both this building and the Temple, and they were both so gorgeous and fitting for their purposes. There at the lookout railing, I rested my head on my folded arms and sighed. According to Anti-Elina and Anti-Penny, this was the work Tarrow had called me to do. I may never have the chance to design a Zodiac Temple, but my duties were critical nonetheless. Ponder. Practice. Pray. Appease the local spirits of whichever area my travels led me to. Communicate with mediums of lesser spirits who protected streams, caves, and groves of trees. Educate the masses. Dedicate myself hard enough and long enough, and perhaps I'd win the honour of designing large monuments for major spirits too. It was my fate. It was decided. Such was our way.

"Look sharp!"

My ears snapped around at Daniel's warning cry. I jerked up my head just in time for a large, slippery thing to fly into my face and bowl me into Mona, sending us both rolling across the ground. "Catch it!" Lacy squealed, melting out of the shadows. Mona shrieked with delight.

"Massive mustelid! My mom's!"

It was obviously a Water demon, built mainly into the lithe body of an otter with the wings of a speeding falcon in place of forelegs, and spiralled chimera horns curling from between its ears. Rather than fur, its skin appeared tough and sleek like that of a sea lion, and a gorgeous dark mottled blue in colour. Its tail was lengthy like a ribbon of yarn, snaking through the sky. Oh, thank Rhoswen. Truthfully I'd dreaded a fate of facing some type of beaver, as I didn't much care for their squat bodies and gnashing teeth. I despised beavers. It's those disturbing centre fangs.

"I know that one," I said as the demon scrambled to regain its footing with only two feet. "Anti-Penny calls that brute Atticus. And I do seem to recall that he hates me."

Atticus darted away from us and launched himself back into open air. He took off over the glowing city, with Lacy and Demetria in hot pursuit. Trish and Daniel cut him off up ahead, trying to pin the creature to the cliffs. Atticus brought his forepaws together and dove like an arrow towards the valley. His rapid shift in direction caused all four of them to collide. Atticus performed a flip, hind paws kicking, ribbon tail lashing, and seemed to mock us all with his chirping cry. He banked towards the cliff again, trailing bubbles of bad luck in his wake.

I knew what I had to do. The canetis was not a ritual where one should stand idly by with injury and watch his teammates go on without him. Everyone ought to put forth the effort, everyone ought to truly earn their juvenilehood. And if it came down to it, my ribs would prevent me from chasing the creature down the street. I backed away from the rail, keeping my eyes on the beast as he flew up the cliff-face towards us. Then I charged, and jumped.

I hit Atticus in midair. He screamed and flailed against me, but I encircled him with my arms. My weighty chains dragged us down. Tumbling through the air, we plummeted towards the rocks. And of course, my wings didn't work. I glanced around in struggled panic, fighting the wind tearing at my eyelids.

"Wait! Oh, gods. What have I done?"

This wasn't a young umbra so weak a pup could handle it, but a full-fledged demon. Were Atticus to die upon impact, he would burst and scatter all the bad mojo which had given him solid form in a great whirlwind of splatter. I'd never channelled that much karma before! It would rush out of control! Besides that, how was I to explain to Anti-Penny that I myself had been responsible for the death of her favourite companion?

In an instant, my teammates swarmed around me, ready to quell my misgivings and buoy me up. Choking on my own spit, I untangled myself from the thrashing demon. He hit the ground. I didn't. Not directly, anyway. As a group we swerved, rolled, and bumped up against the demon we had brought down. When he struggled to get up, Daniel dragged himself over and punched him in the face. Atticus turned over on his side, mewling pitifully and offering his belly up for rubs. We all looked at each other, and laughed with relief. Trish brought her fangs to his neck, found his karmic pouch, and used her teeth to draw out his karmic weave. As a group, we knotted the correct threads of fate together to disable Atticus' brain from communicating with his legs, and put his weave inside him again. Then we hefted him up and hauled him down the street. What a glorious day.

The canetis was a ritual of travel and teamwork. It emphasised the way even small groups could be powerful, and that while all Anti-Fairies were united as one whole, we were not a mindless force, but individuals too. By this, I mean that although our cohort left the Blue Castle courtyard together, each successful team of six were released from the bonds of childhood as they brought their captured demon across the finish line, and we were not required to spend the night waiting impatiently for our peers. It gave the ritual that little personal touch.

My team wasn't the first to reach the Love Temple by any means, but we weren't the last either. After waving to the crowd and accepting our cheers, we were ushered from the Temple steps back to ground level so as to make room for whomever came next. Eager parents pushed forward, as respectful extended family members hung back, withholding their praise for a more personal and less hectic moment. Two representatives of all our kin unlatched the rings from one ear while the child squirmed with excitement between them, fluttering their wings.

Standing in the busy street, twisting my head more and more with every passing wingbeat, I waited anxiously for Mother and Augustus to show up. Yes, for many of my peers, the canetis was a special occasion indeed. At long last, their ears would no longer be weighed down, and an entire world of sonar and echolocation lay open for them to explore. It was much like being allowed to uncross your eyes after fifty years spent staring at the tip of your nose.

But for me, the canetis was so much more. Augustus had failed to pass his ritual time and time again, so for once, I was actually first to do something I so desired. Oh, I knew Mother would hate every second of it, but very soon she would come forward with the wand and key to unlock my chains.

Where were they?

I waited.

And I waited.

Five other teams of six came forward with demons large and small. Finally, I could take it no more. I pushed in the opposite direction the crowd was moving - towards the Love Temple - and instead made my way into the dining district. Despite the visiting colonies, tonight was a special night, for tonight one had to bring a young child with removed canetis rings turned sparkling black in their palm to be allowed to eat in any of the Luna's Landing establishments. There were simply too many Anti-Fairies, and this was to be a time of coming of age, a time of families.

I located Anti-Dixie and Anti-Penny chattering with Mona at a table outside of Amethyst Corner Feasting, just where they'd always promised they would be. "Excuse me," I said, remaining respectfully on the other side of the fence. "Anti-Penny, could I borrow your crystal?"

They saw the chains still entangled around my wings, and their laughter stopped. Anti-Dixie and Anti-Penny exchanged a look. As she rose and came towards me, Anti-Penny cleared her throat.

"Mon ami, I assure you, Anti-Dixie and I would both be delighted to remove your bonds."

"No," I said. "I want my mum and brother to do it."

"I understand." She drew her crystal from her acolyte satchel and passed it through the metal bars. I turned my back, inhaling to gather my thoughts. My bare toes squeezed into the pebbles and ashes.

She answered. She'd had a crystal made into the cap of her staff long ago, for after all, she was a fine warrior and Anti-Bryndin's personal bodyguard after Anti-Buster, and was intended to be available for scrying on a constant basis in case there should be news of any emergency.

"M-Mum? I just passed my canetis. I'm in Luna's Landing."

"Oh," she said distractedly. "Was that this year?"

I closed my eyes. "Can you come take off my chains?"

"All right, all right, I'm on my way. Don't drive yourself to a fit, good smoke. You don't want to go crazy in the head like- your father, do you?"

She waved her hand over the crystal on her staff, distorting her image into white mist before I could reply, and without asking me where in the city I was. I returned Anti-Penny's ball, and spent the next hour rubbing my hands up and down my arms, staring at the sky and waiting a little longer.

She did come, but Augustus had decided not to accompany her. Of course. Can you even believe him? Just a little scathing criticism, and he refuses to show his face during the most important ceremony of my puphood. Were our roles reversed, I never would have behaved that way. Our traditions came before our cowardly stubbornness, and he was shaming only himself by choosing not to be here.

Anti-Robin wouldn't have missed my ceremony for the universe, no matter how much food the Castle servants were expected to prepare for the coming feast. In fact, his spirit was probably standing at my shoulder this very minute, trying his hardest to remove my poor bonds. Poor Father, separated across the veil from his most respectful son.

My mother came at last with the key to my padlock in hand, and I waited with brimming energy, never speaking to her, never moving. Mona had turned to hug and accept congratulations from some of her late-showing relatives, but at that very moment, she turned around and pressed her face into the bars of the restaurant's fence. "Wait, where's-?"

"Ahahahahahahaha!"

Abandoning the accursed chains, I crashed my wings down with the force of typhoons and blasted into the air. True, my wings were pierced from the gashes where my bindings had been tied for so many years, but those were small and insignificant. I powered upward nonetheless. The sheer force of my speed piercing through the sky whipped at my face, pasting my ears flat against my skull.

"Tarrow almighty, I am free at last!"

I spiralled two dozen, three dozen, four dozen times as I climbed higher and higher before the muscles in my chest and shoulders (not to mention my injured ribs) even began to ache. Spinning to a half-halt, I flipped over sixty meters above ground and allowed gravity to wield her course. As I plunged back-first through the freezing sky, I locked my arms behind my head and smirked as I had never smirked before.

"I embody the breath of elation! I pave the path of desire untold! Oh, dear Father, if you could only hear me now."

The ashy ground was coming up fast. Removing my arms, I rolled sideways and came out of my dive in a brilliant swoop. Deep below, Mona, Anti-Penny, Anti-Dixie, and so many others peered up at me with ears cocked forward. I skimmed barely over their heads, bushing their fur in my wake. My wings pumped, each beat electrified. Faster, they cried. Higher, they shrieked.

More.

I swerved away from the city, flying straight towards the cliffs and altering my course in a direct vertical climb. Surpassing the lookout tower, I aimed my course vaguely towards the Blue Castle. How far did it look from here? Farther than I imagined, or even closer? I parted my jaws and squeaked a wave of sonar into open air. It came back sooner than I'd anticipated, and instant terror overtook me as I realised why. No longer was I walking at the pace of a small pup, but careening forward at maximum speed. Reacting fast, I banked to the side and ducked an enormous black tree branch which nearly throttled me.

"Good smoke!"

Ears and eyes working together, I veered through the looming forest trees, my smile breaking out through my initial fears. Apart from the time when I'd gotten Ambrosine accused of child abuse and his license suspended, I'd never felt better in my life.

When I returned to my study at the Castle after supper, I did so by wing. I barely noticed my aching ribs and stiff, frostbitten legs. I didn't even want to land long enough to open the door, and simply flipped on my stomach to hover while I worked at the knob. Once inside, I shut the door behind me and let my clothes fall immediately to the ground, completely blocking the thin crack separating the door from the floor. I didn't intend to remain in my study long- just long enough to dress in my nightwear, for today our creche would be moving up to the juvenile roosting room, and I wanted to be there for it as soon as possible.

I'd actually done it! Done what Augustus never had, done what my mum had always implied I never would. I felt lighter than the cloudlands. Why, if I could fly, I could do anything! I could stand against Mother's abuse and Electro's biting commentary. I could resist the feelings of worthlessness that tended to crowd my soul at times when I remembered Ambrosine and the intelligence test results. In fact, I almost didn't want to go back to squinting at smudged-up scrolls under the dim candlelight! Not just yet, anyway. I wanted to work on solving something else for a while.

My eyes fell on my father's canteen. The one with the smoking volcano painted on its front. It dangled by its strap on the back of my desk chair. I'd never thrown it out, partly because my ties to my father were so affectionate, and partly because it reminded me of the time Mona and I had been so rebellious, which was, as you will recall, the day I'd had one of the biggest thrills in my life. You know, come to think of it, I'd never actually managed to pop that thing open. Hmm.

I took the canteen from the chair and gave the lid a sharp twist. To my amusement, it split off without a struggle. I laughed. Well then! It would seem that I really had grown in strength as much as brains over the last forty years. Perhaps I really could do anything I put my mind to. Experimentally, I replaced the lid. I screwed it on as tightly as I possibly could, waited for thirty seconds or so, then pulled it off again.

"Hmm." Lifting the canteen near my eye, I squinted into the darkness of the pouch. It was filled nearly to the top with sloshing water. Probably the very same water I'd filled it with in preparation for mine and Mona's trip across the Fairy World border four decades ago now. With a shrug of my loose wings (Oh, how glorious it felt!) I brought the flask to my lips and took a long sip.

Something solid bumped against my fangs as I drank. Something squishy, like a worm.

Worms were delicious, but my automatic instinct to spring back kicked in first. Sputtering, coughing, I spewed the water across the room- and a ball of bright purple flew out with it. A trail of smoke followed behind it, twisting and coiling as the purple blob rapidly took on form. By the time she crashed against the wall and slid, stunned, to the floor, she had fully grown to a creature somewhat my own shape and size.

It was some sort of a damsel, I deduced by the long black hair lying in wet tangles over her face. A small, young damsel, with soft brown skin instead of blue fur. From the waist down, her body morphed into a wispy violet tail that swirled and twisted like a plume of smoke. From the waist up, her body was bare. The poor girl wasn't in the frame of mind to be embarrassed. She lay on the ground, her entire sopping wet form shaking and heaving. The water droplets along her arms steamed and crackled with boiling energy.

"What in the absolute name of twirling smoke?" I stood in the middle of my study for a few seconds, beyond perplexed, then dropped the canteen to the floor. I ran over and crouched by her side. "How-? What-? I say, are you quite all right?"

Her ancestry was Fomorian. I deduced that much by the snake-like tail in place of legs. One of the eelementals. Not the Water Tribe, for her tail did not end in fins like the Merfolk. Nor was her lower body comprised of rock, which ruled out the Milesians of the Soil Tribe. Hmm. With my assistance, the damsel managed to rise to her hands and, well, "knees" I suppose. She hunched over, gasping and shaking still. Water dribbled from her soaked hair and puddled on the stone floor. I looked wildly about the study, then snatched the black blanket I sometimes wrapped around myself when working late through cold nights. It was my favourite blanket, crafted from what I assume was the finest wool to ever pass beneath habetrot knitting needles. While it wasn't exactly a towel, she needed it right then more than I did. I placed it around her shoulders and scrubbed the water from her skin from head to toe. Well, not entirely head to toe, seeing as she didn't have toes, and I tried to avoid the more sensitive areas on her body.

"Who are you?" I blurted. "How did you end up in my father's canteen?"

Her response left her in a gasping whisper. I cocked my ears forward. "I'm sorry? I'm afraid I didn't quite catch that."

She lifted her head. The curtain of soaked hair concealed most of her face, but I made out the bright glow of two searing blue eyes. "L-Liloei. I am called Liloei by my people."

She pronounced it "Lih-low-ay". "Oh. Were you living in my father's canteen?"

Her chest heaved. She was young and hadn't developed her full damseline shape quite yet, but I still averted my eyes hastily as she fell forward, grabbing for my shoulders. "H-help. Please. Dry me off, I pray thee. I am so wet and cold."

"Um…" It probably shouldn't have been the biggest priority in my mind, but suddenly I remembered that she was a damsel and I was technically standing there naked.

"Genie," she rasped, tightening her grip on my elbows. "F-Fomorian. Genie. Fire Tribe. Wet. Help me quick, I pray thee, or I shall die."

"Oh! Ah…" I fumbled for my wand, and didn't find it at my waist. My eyes zinged around the study, and I spotted my clothes still abandoned by the door. Scrambling over as quickly as my aching body could, I picked up my discarded tunic to snatch the wand from my sheath. As I did, Liloei fell to her side and screeched as though suffering incredible physical pain. Her tail lashed across the floor, smothering the room in a cloud of lilac smoke.

"I'm coming, darling! Hold fast!" Abandoning my tunic, I rushed back to her side and flailed my wand around her. To my horror, it didn't so much as spark. It drooped as though merely noodles. I stared at it, then gave it a shake. "Really? Now? It was working just fine this afternoon. Good smoke, I have got to get this thing replaced."

Liloei groaned and hugged the blanket around her. I looked at my wand, then at her, then threw the wand away and fell to my knees at her side. "Good woman, tell me precisely what I can do to help you. Where does it hurt?"

"Door, door," she wheezed. "Shut the door…"

"But it is shut. Dear me, you're delusional too. Here we are. Let me see now." I reached for her cheek. Her hair was still damp, and I wasn't sure there was anything I could do about that. She'd bundled herself up quite nicely in the blanket, like some sort of pastry, and that should dry her body. How long did a damsel's hair normally take to dry? I had no idea. Mona's habit of splashing after animals in the pond often led her to soak herself all over again just after wiping off. In contrast, Harriet preferred wringing her hair with a towel over and over for perhaps half an hour until she rid herself of every last drop, and Teresa, for smoke's sake…

My ears flicked back. Wingbeats in the corridor. The energy field spoke of irritation, without offering specifics. Who was that? I opened my mouth to shout for help, before Anti-Elina's voice echoed through the door.

"Julius? Is there a damsel in there with you?"

I stared down at naked Liloei. She stared up at naked me from the floor, dazed and drained. Her tail continued to thrash about. Did she even understand the question? Had she heard it at all? Despite the sip of water I'd taken, my mouth had dried completely.

"No, High Countess. It's just me."

I heard Anti-Elina hmph. "The last step of the canetis ceremony will be underway in just a moment. Hurry and dress yourself, and join us at the bottom creche. You're keeping us all waiting. Anti-Bryndin also requested I remind you that he intends to take you to the Breath Temple tonight."

Her wingbeats drew away down the corridor again, sharp and commanding. I grabbed my hair in two fists and yanked it down around my ears. "Oh my smoke. I can't believe I just lied! And to the High Countess! Oh no, oh no, my karmic weave is going to be wrapped in tangles around my throat by morning if I keep this up. I'll never get those knots unwound. Oh no. Oh no."

"Help," Liloei whispered. She'd started to push herself up on her forearms, but couldn't seem to raise her head.

"I'm sorry. I don't know how to- I'll- I'll-" I moved my eyes between her and the door, trying to organise my scattered thoughts. Okay. Okay. Um. Let's see here. A genie named Liloei had spilled out of my father's canteen. She was wet and fading in my study. Anti-Elina was in the corridor. She could help me. Oh, she would be livid to hear the way I lied (Not to some random Fairy, but to her), but I would take whatever scolding or swatting I deserved. Liloei was dying at my feet. Her life ranked above my pride. I darted over to the door.

"No," she groaned. "You'll break… it…"

"I'll get help," I assured Liloei, keeping one eye on her as I reached for the handle. It turned to smoke beneath my fingers. Before I had the chance to gasp in shock, the door itself began to crumble into nothing. Where it melted away, it left solid stone wall in place behind it. The floor rattled beneath my feet. Smoky tendrils clasped around my legs.

"No!" I lunged for the splintering door, crashing my left shoulder against it with enough force to knock it apart. I expected to spill forward into the corridor, but the force of magical backlash catapulted me back into the study, slamming me like a small cake into the opposite wall. The door exploded inward. Just as I looked up, my skull cracked against stone. Pain shot across my eye. I managed to let out a long, piercing squeak before unceremoniously flopping over, collapsing on top of Liloei. When I lifted my head, the only colour I could make out for certain was royal purple. My vision swam with white spots and smoke. Glistening golden blood dripped down from my head to the back of my hand. Yellow, to mirror Cosmo Prime's mood. Not mine. Never mine. What a cruel joke.

Eyelids flickering horribly, I let myself fall limp.

Swim.

All darkness.

All dark still.

Blackness for a time.

I don't know for how long I remained unaware of the world, but gradually I managed to stir myself awake. It was incredibly hot. Scorching, in fact. Were we still in my study? The stone beneath my cheek felt like that of my study floor, and believe me, I'd slept on it quite a few times.

"Here," someone murmured. "Take this, I pray thee."

When I looked up, through my blurry vision, I could make out a hand offering me my tunic. A soft, brown, furless hand. Liloei was facing the other way, her arm stretched out behind her. She was as tiny as I remembered her being, really not much bigger than me, and I was but a pup. Well, technically I was an official juvenile now. Oof.

Liloei's black hair was now dry and styled in a single sweeping plait, instead of dangling like scattered octopus tentacles from her head. It reached halfway to her waist. Her tail appeared comprised of both swirling lilac smoke and glimmering light. She wore no clothing herself, though appeared flustered to be in the same room with a naked drake, even if we belonged to different species. Not that it technically mattered, I supposed, since as I recalled from my studies, those of the Fomorian tribes could alter their lower halves and mate with anyone regardless of parts or biological sex. Well, any adult.

I took the tunic and pulled it over myself without speaking. The process was gradual. My arms were sore from sleeping on them wrong, and black insect-like spots swarmed me no matter which way I looked. "Dressed," I mumbled when I was finished buckling my belt. I wiped my hair from my face. It kept sticking on my left side. Liloei turned around, curious, and immediately winced.

"Eef. Thine eye."

My brow furrowed. "What?"

"Thou hast got a little…" Liloei motioned to my face with a flutter of her hand. Confused, I pressed my fingers to my cheek. They came away tingling, cold, and sticky as though I'd just touched a thin sheet of ice on a pond. I lowered my hand in front of my eyes, slowly tilting it one way and then the other. I found it thoroughly soaked in golden blood.

"What," I muttered again, more as a statement than a question this time. I pushed my clean fingers through my hair. I blinked. I blinked again, unnerved by the struggle of my eyes to adjust to the room around me. The longer I studied the blood-soaked hand, the tighter my throat constricted. "Wait a moment. Oh no. Oh no… What-? Why-? I… can't see. Why can't I see? My left eye. My left eye is… it's completely blind? What? Oh. I see. I mean, I don't see. I'm utterly blind on my left side now. My eye is still here, but I can't see. Oh. Oh dear."

Liloei remained silent, bobbing in the air with her hands resting on her general lap area. I raised my head, and when I did so, she flinched away again.

"Is it that bad?"

"It is not that good."

"Oh. Oh." I wiped at my face. At least I wasn't hurt anymore, which meant I wasn't losing magic, which meant I was no longer bleeding. The Fae were notoriously fast healers. If I wasn't incapacitated now, then I'd be fine if given a little time.

I blew upwards at my bangs. Far too many hairs stuck in the blood around my eye for comfort. I resolved to take my time bathing to rinse it all out. Setting my hands on my knees, I looked around my study. The purple smoke was gone from the room, except for that which comprised Liloei's tail, of course. I had my borrowed library scrolls. My crumpled papers in my overflowing wastebasket. My clothes in their old worn trunk. My roost and my climbing netting on the wall. My corner chamber pot. The tall racks where I kept all my research and my father's painstakingly organised notes. My one soft chair in the corner beside its candle on the tiny table. But something was missing that shouldn't have been.

"I say. What the bloody smoke happened to the door?"

Liloei turned her head. Together, we gazed upon the offending plain wall. She coiled the tip of her tail. Her whole body flattened as she exhaled.

"Yes… It wouldst seem that my lamp hast been expanded to encompass the entirety of thine bedchamber."

I shifted my eyes… eye… over to her. "What does that mean?"

She drew my father's canteen from the floor and held it in both hands, taking in the painted volcano on its front. Idly, she wrapped the canteen's strap around her wrist. "Where once I held dominion over this small vessel alone, I now have been chained to these four walls. Thou didst try to flee a genie's lamp from the inside, which is why thou wast smitten by the backlash forces of magic."

"My study isn't a genie's lamp," I said. "I'm no genie. And to the best of my knowledge, no foreign magic was cast on me to hex me here. That doesn't make sense."

Liloei held the canteen out to me. "I resided within this vessel for many years. Nearly four centuries, I suspect, though I cannot ascertain the details. The rules of a genie's lamp are simple ones: I can only be freed from my vessel by a creature considered to be non-magical."

"Beg pardon?" I asked, horrendously offended by the implication.

"There is but one exception." Liloei lifted her pointer finger to silence me, bobbing gently nearer. "The genies of the modern ages may never leave an enclosed space unless another creature shall first allow them out into another space. Should my lamp be opened within a solid, enclosed area, then I am granted the ability to transition from mine little vessel" - the canteen - "to the larger areas of what has then become mine vessel too."

"You were able to leave your lamp for my mouth, and from my mouth you moved into my closed-off room," I realised. I dropped my gaze to my tunic. Liloei inclined her head.

"This is so. My sincerest apologies for the damage done to thine eye. Thou breakest the seal that didst allow me to treat this space as though it were my lamp. The universe, as you Faeumbra say, was left to balance itself."

"Herself. The universe considers herself to be female."

"Mm. As I could not be forced to return to my vessel, thine chamber was forced to accommodate me."

"Oh. So then, the universe really did turn my study into your lamp to achieve homeostasis. She always finds a way." I looked around the room again, painfully aware of how very sparse it seemed. Sets of both simple and ceremonial clothing. A dirty plate. Scrolls I'd memorised long ago. One blanket. One roost. One cluttered desk. One wobbly chair. "And… that's why the door disappeared, too. Genie lamps envelop the nearest source of magic. No magical creature can exit a genie's lamp on their own. The magic of the seven Fomorian tribes, of which you Genies are a part, is much stronger than that of Fairykind. I read about that."

"I am afraid thou art just as imprisoned in here as I, until some force on the outside releases us both." Liloei looked pointedly at my grubby training wand, abandoned on the floor. "Yes. Some non-magical source. With much sadness in my heart, I must make known unto thee that we appeareth to be within a room inside what I assume must be a magical Anti-Fairy manorhouse in your magical cloudland world. The non-magical races will not venture here. I am afraid there is but little hope for us both."

I clenched my arms around my stomach. My wings swept forward, then beat themselves out again. "But… I got you out of my father's canteen…"

"I didst not properly escape my lamp. Not as in forever. I simply moved from one enclosed vessel to another. Thine garment wast draped before the door, sealing thine chamber shut. I remain imprisoned. But…" Her shoulders lifted, then fell in apology. "How shalt we move from here into the enclosed hallway? Not so, when you Anti-Fairy are a people whose windows are barred and open. Who out there shouldst even think to try anything which might save us, if they do lack the knowledge that we are gone? Nay. You and I shalt live out the remainder of our days in here."

"Oh. I see…"

The concept sounded deluded when she spoke it aloud, but I didn't know enough about genies to argue against her. I sniffled. Then I laughed, and laughed, and beat my hands against the floor as I howled. Liloei floated backwards.

"Hast thou cracked thy mind?"

Through my tears, I choked out, "It's s-so funny, isn't it? I suffered almost fifty years with my wings tied up, all in desperate anticipation of this day, of my freedom, a-and I was good and obedient and I worked so hard, and it doesn't even matter now, does it? I can't fly about in here. Not the way I need to. Ohh, the irony absolutely kills me!"

There was nothing Liloei could say to me, although she raised her hand in my direction as though she wanted to try. I covered my eyes with both palms, and gave up pretending I was the held-together type.

"Oh no. Oh no! I was s-supposed to perform my Tarrow dance with Mona tomorrow. She's going to be waiting for me backstage, outfitted in her pretty Soil brown dress with all the buttons and lace, wondering why I simply never showed. Why, everyone will assume I flew off the moment I was able to, just as they always insisted I would! Julius the Unrestrainable, they called me. Anti-Bryndin will search up and down for me so he might drag me to the Breath Temple for regenerative healing, but he won't find me anywhere. Anti-Elina will take careful note of all the trouble I'm causing her. Caden will wonder why I never bid him good-bye. Electro will have my hide for skipping chores. And poor, poor Mona. I'll never have the chance to kiss her now. I shan't ever sire pups of my own. The very last words I ever flung at my brother were horribly cruel in nature, you know what I mean? A-and there's a whole week of festivities for the turn of the zodiac cycle that I was so looking forward to…"

Liloei knelt down in front of me, holding my forearms in her gentle hands. "I know it may not seem to be much comfort to thee now, but at least thou canst appreciate my presence. At least thou art not alone here. To be alone can be the most painful of fates."

"Ah-buh-buh! Don't you dare give me that. It's all your fault I'm in this bloody mess in the first place! Hic. No, no, no. I can't stand it in here. It's like being trapped by the anti-cherubs when I was lifesmoke all over again. O-only this time, Augustus isn't coming for me. No one knows where I am. They don't. They don't!" I clenched my fingers in my hair, yanking my bangs down over my eyes. My wings flapped in agony. Another hiccup wrenched my chest in two before I could try and stop it.

Shoving Liloei off, I tucked my head between my knees. How long had I been unconscious? Was it past midnight in this timezone yet? My ears went flat at the thought.

"Good gods, this can't have really happened to me. It's another of my delusions. That must be it. But if it isn't, then that means it's most probably tomorrow now and I- I don't even know what Mother Nature named the new year. Why, isn't that the most dreadful thing you've ever heard, darling?"

"Is it?"

"Yes!" Both hands clapped over my mouth. I screamed words which for the sake of politeness don't bear repeating. "Oh my gods! I'm an Anti-Fairy trapped inside a genie's lamp, and I don't have the slightest clue what year it is at all!"

END ACT 1