There was a hint of cleaning products in the air. Shirou held Alice in his hands as they waited beside the door. The boy was dressed in the same clothing he'd worn on Friday, though with his glasses on. The large shades were hard to see through, even in the middle of a well-lit house, but it made Alice happy so he wouldn't take them off for a while.
Gyd finally arrived at the door, dressed for work and with car keys in hand. She yawned before asking, "You have everything you need?"
"Yes," Shirou pulled a small bag filled with a couple books over one shoulder.
"This is so exciting!" Nursery Rhyme cheered, not moving too much as she did so.
Gyd cringed at Alice's loud voice. The older changeling took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes before addressing the pair again. "Then we should be leaving."
Shirou followed Gyd out of the house and to the car. The sun was only starting to rise as they left the house. Its warm glow started to spread throughout the land.
"Wow, The city looks better than I thought!" Nursery Rhyme exclaimed as they drove into the city. Her big eyes peered out into the passing buildings. "Pretty newish."
"Most of the city was razed during the Second World War. Most of the city had to be rebuilt," Gyd explained, briefly looking out at the surroundings.
"I see," Shirou said as he felt sorrow for all the suffering those people must've gone through seeing their city destroyed. The history and lives lost because of the unjust ravages of war. The one saving grace he could see in this was that they were still able to rebuild. To build back what was lost and grow into something new.
"Hm. Let's go over what you will be doing today," Gyd changed the topic. "I prepared you a spot in my office. I want you to spend some time reading those books and some time going through the storage in the backroom. Organize it and see what can fit up front."
"I'll help!" Alice giggled.
"I'm guessing you don't want me upfront?" Shirou messed with his glasses. It'd be hard to explain a kid working the cash register, much less one with his features.
"Probably not, unless I need you too," Gyd answered, pausing to think things over. The silence filled with the sound of a distant dog barking. "If you do and someone comes in, do your best. If they wonder why you're working and not at school, try to play it off and ignore the question."
"Understood, anyone with half a brain can handle that," Shirou nodded. He felt more confident after how well Friday night went. He was curious about how many people may come in. "Do you get a lot of customers?"
"More than enough to turn a profit. Some items sell more than others. Some require persuasion on my part to sell," Gyd adjusted her glasses.
"Like through your art?" Shirou questioned.
"Yes, though I try to save that for last… or in high-value sales. Glamour can't be wasted too much…" Gyd glanced away from Shirou.
The younger changeling was a little unsure of what he should think about Gyd using her power to trick people into buying things. A part of him wanted to say that was awful. It forced people to want things and spend money they may desperately need. Another part of the fairy was sure Gyd wouldn't use it on good people or exploit them. It was fine. Keeping hold of his objection was hard.
He sighed, rubbing the back of his head.
The rest of the trip passed in the blink of an eye, Alice starting a few conversations along the way.
They pulled up close to the store and parked. There still weren't any people around as they exited the car. A nearly inaudible honk of a car horn was the only proof of other humans. The street lamps were still on, wasting electricity despite it being morning. An all too familiar orama of fish filled the street.
"That's the store," Gyd gestured at a small building as they approached. It was a sand-yellow, the roof flat. It was slightly too tall for a one-story building but still overshadowed by the two-story buildings on either side of it. The buildings around it looked run down, their paint old and doors marked by age. The store was better maintained and livelier. The yellow sand glowed as it spilled downward into infinity. A sign on the door identified the business as 'The Ocean's Treasures.' A chill ran down Shirou's spine as he heard the sound of waves from the sign.
"I'm surprised it isn't blue," Shirou murmured.
"Yeah, I totally expected that, too."
"I wasn't the one who painted it," Gyd's eyebrow twitched a single time as she unlocked the door.
"Why don't you paint it?" Shirou was the one to ask the obvious.
"That requires city approval. The city council… is dangerously banal. I would be undone long before I got permission," Gyd shuttered as they entered the story.
"I see. So, they're another enemy," Shirou added the city council to his mental list of threats.
The inside of the store was surprisingly large. Various things were splattered about, with very little rhyme or reason. A rack of clothing was next to a desk for sale, while the other racks were scattered around like shotgun bullets. The whole place was like that. It was almost enough for Shirou to tell Gyd to close her store for the day so they could fix this mess.
Yet, that ended up slipping his mind. His attention turned elsewhere as his body released the warmth. His ears felt a bit more energetic, his eyes glancing around faster. The wings on his back grew slightly more radiant, swushing back and forth. "It's warm."
"Pleasant, isn't it. I left that to be a surprise," Gyd said as she closed the door behind them. She walked further inside as Shirou followed behind her with Alice in hand. One or two of their steps cause the wooden floor to creak. "Here's an important lesson, Shirou. Human banality makes the world inhospitably cold to us, hostile to our very existence. The converse is just as true. Human epiphanies make the world warmer for us, but only the slightest bit in the smallest of areas. By musing many mortals in the same place, that slightest bit can grow with each epiphany. I've done my best to perform as many of them here as possible over the years. It may never be as comfortable as The Dreaming or a freehold, but it is a soothing respite from the world."
"Yeah," Shirou popped off his ear muffs. He placed Alice and his bag on a nearby table. He began to unzip the bag to put the ear muffs in. "It's nice – cozy."
"Makes me wanna nap," Nursery Rhyme yawned. She stretched as Shirou picked her and the bag back up.
"You can do it in the back," Gyd led them through the building. She gestured at one door and said it was the bathroom. There were two more doors, one in the corner and another behind the counter. The former was the small storage room, and the latter was Gyd's office.
The counter with the cash register was surprisingly clean for something Gyd was in charge of. He'd expected it to be in disarray, but the wooden space stood mostly spotless. A line of small rubber ducks lined the top of the register. They were in tiny outfits, quacking quiet songs.
"They must get annoying," Shirou frowned as he glanced at the ducks. Their quacking going on all day would grate on the Buddha's nerves.
"They know when to quiet down," Gyd placed her keys down on the counter and patted the ducks on the head, one by one.
"I think they're adorable," Alice smiled.
"You think that about anything small and cuddly."
"Yep! That includes you!"
Shirou pouted, his gaze turning away from his companion. She could be really mean when she wants to be.
Gyd led them into the backroom first, revealing a smallish room stacked to the brim with many boxes. A lot of which were ones Shirou recognized from his cleaning of Gyd's home.
Following that, they went into Gyd's office. It was the smallest room by far. It had a desk on one end with a massive white box computer surrounded by disorganized stacks of paper. A small fridge and TV were plugged into a power strip. A round blue rug with a few stains was in the center of the room. Two chairs on it. A small mini-table in front of one of them.
Shirou placed Alice down on one of the chairs and his bag on the mini-table. "You spend a lot of your time here, alone?"
"I leave the door open so I can hear if someone enters," Gyd told them with a stern tone. "I spend – at most – a few hours in here a day."
"It must get boring," Shirou crossed his arms over his chest. With how warm and energetic the space was, staying still felt like an impossibility. Doing it for hours? That'd be beyond human.
"Running a business and making sure everyone gets a fair deal takes a lot of time. If I get bored, I can call someone or surf the web," Gyd defended herself. She walked behind her desk and started to boot up a monstrously large device.
"Surf the web?" Nursery Rhyme asked the pair.
"The internet," Gyd answered first, waiting for her computer to boot up.
"Inter-what?"
"Internet. It lets you talk to people all over the world and learn lots of things," Shirou provided a better explanation.
"Like nursery rhymes?"
"Probably."
"Yeaa! I can learn about new ones! The world's secrets are at my fingertips!"
Gyd typed on her keyboard once the computer finished booting up. Shirou picked Alice back up and swiftly ran behind Gyd's desk to see what she was doing. The clicking off her keyboard was slow and heavy as if their presser was hesitant between each stroke. The password she put into the generic lock screen was only four digits long.
"The internet is popular with a couple of our kind in the area. There's also a website French-speaking changelings use," Gyd frowned and then pounded on her keyboard twice.
"Are there enough for that?" Shirou questioned, ignoring Gyd's small outburst. He quickly asked Alice if she wanted to get a better view of the computer, picking her up after she gave an affirmation.
"No one knows how many changelings there really are. Many are undone or have never gone through the chrysalis. There could be tens of thousands or more French-speaking changelings across the world."
"How do you keep bad guys from this 'website?'"
"Unfortunately, we don't have any magic arts specialized for computers. We have to use a more… straightforward approach," Gyd pulled back her desk chair and sat down. She moved the mouse around, clicking it a few times as Shirou walked around the desk. He saw her bring up Internet Explorer. The browser slowly loaded. It took a couple of moments to pull up the changeling website. The tab turned rainbow. The page loaded block by block, revealing an overwhelming number of links and colors. Animated images of cute fae creatures danced all over the page, dragging various elements of the site to different spots. Look away for one moment, and everything will be completely rearranged.
The constantly changing colors in the background were headache-inducing for humans. The menus and links moving all around would be utterly boring for those who can't see the fun in it. It was perfectly designed to drive away banal humans on sight alone. For fairies, it could only be called spectacular design.
Shirou's pupilless eyes traced the paths of all the dancing images. A list of all the various message boards and menus the site had formed in his mind. The title of the forum was 'The White Rat.'
He asked if that title had any special meaning he wasn't aware of. Alice explained she'd heard an old folktale by that name. The short of it was that a king and queen couldn't have kids but loved a little white rat. They convinced the queen of the fairies to turn the rat into a human girl that they loved. They lived happily until the king had to force his rat daughter to marry, but let her marry whoever she wished. She chose the most powerful man in the world, who she claimed to be a boy rat. The story ended with the rat princess turning back into a rat and marrying the boy rat.
For some reason, Shirou got the feeling the website was made by Pooka, but he couldn't say why. Well, he could claim it was because of all the bits about animal transformation, but that'd be pretty mean to assume that.
Shirou had no time to probe for further information as the sound of a bell could barely be heard, interrupting them.
"This early?" Gyd muttered, standing up from her desk. "I have to go handle the customer."
The younger changeling wished her luck as she left the room. The door made a loud thud as it closed shut behind her.
"Would it be okay to play with the computer?" Alice asked.
"She didn't say not to," Shirou supposed, setting Alice down on the desk in front of the computer screen. He moved the keyboard and mouse to the side to give her more space. His eyes focused on the former as he did his best to understand it. He hadn't used a keyboard too many times in Japan. The keys on this one were different, too. Probably because French didn't have to deal with the complexity of typing his native tongue. He'd need to go slow until he got used to it.
Rather than trying to navigate the fae website first, he slowly brought his mouse cursor to the top of the browser and made a new tab. Simultaneously, he pulled his glasses off and placed them aside while Alice watched the screen.
The keyboard clicked loudly as he slowly typed out a word in French. He had to stop between every letter to find the next. Nursery Rhyme had to help him a few times when he got too confused about where a particular key was hiding. His abilities were not improving, no matter how hard he tried.
Suddenly, an image of a man popped up in the corner of the computer screen.
"What the?!" Shirou jumped back in surprise as his concentration was broken. His attention turned fully toward the digital man. He looked like he was in his early to mid-twenties. His muscular upper body was fully undressed. He switched between doing weird poses and dancing. A banner saying 'click here' flashed above him.
"Should we click? He's telling us to…" Alice struggled with this technology thing.
"No, it might be a virus," Shirou moved the mouse around, not sure what he was doing. How do you deal with a virus? Virus… Virus… How do you deal with a virus in people?
Medicine.
The changeling looked under the desk, finding a large computer tower at the bottom. He pushed in the cd slot, then pulled it out. It was empty.
"Is there a plant or dirt around?" Shirou sat back up, glancing around the room.
"Not that I can see, why?"
"We need to see if the computer has a virus. I figure we skip to treating it. If it has a virus, that'll help. If it doesn't, then no harm done. I can't use my art on the computer," Shirou had no clue where to even begin with such a thing. It had all these keys and bops and was so far from himself. He lacked the guttural 'understanding' necessary to cast upon something so complex – so beyond the natural. "So, I need something to work through. I'll feed the computer through the CD player."
"Oh… too bad there isn't anything you can use."
Shirou nodded, the tip of his ears lowering. His wings stiffened. No matter where he looked, there was nothing in the room for him to work off of. He couldn't defeat the dancing man until he grew stronger and learned more. They were a dangerous foe.
Doing his best to ignore them, Shirou used the greasy mouse to switch back to the changeling webpage. It was pleasing to his fae eyes, and the idea made the same rainbow-colored sense. Running disagreeable humans off their web space was good, but his human side whispered an obvious flaw in their fellow changelings' plans.
Humans are willing to saw off their own noses with a rusty saw to spite their faces. Those who want to do their kind harm wouldn't be stopped by the website being annoying or headache-inducing. It might encourage them to dig all the harder out of stubbornness and spite. He was sure someone like that would come, maybe not today or tomorrow, but they will. All they could hope for was that the humans who hunted them didn't learn about wrought iron's poisonous effect on fae souls.
Shirou clicked on the message forums as it was being used as a hockey punk by a dragon and an eight-limbed, five-eyed zebra. It brought them to a new page, just as chaotic as the last. There was a list of various subforums and topics one could go to. The ones that drew his attention the most were the kith forums, with little logos on their leftmost end. There was one for his supposed type.
The Eshu tab was overly fancy. Far too much for Shirou's taste. The text was in a thick cursive font that looked like it came from a monk's hand-copied manuscript circa the 1400s. Its background looked like old-timey parchment.
Clinking on the tab, the rules and goals of the forum popped up on the screen. At the bottom was a check box asking if one agreed to follow them. The rules were obvious, such as being respectful and honest, forbidding spam posts and curses, along with stealing other forum users' families. Normal rules to have.
Clicking agree, Shirou was brought to the Eshu subforum. A few of the posts had short titles, but a lot of them seemed to be stretching the character limit. They read like they were trying to entice as many people to click on their threads as possible rather than being concise. The titles took things like discussing procuring ingredients into a complicated quest.
Shirou would be lying through his teeth if he claimed he wasn't interested in the exciting posts. One of them caught his eye in particular. It talked about saving a kitten from a tree. Selecting it, the page loaded faster than he'd expected.
The post was long, well over four thousand words. It might be rude to simply glance over it, but there were so many words on the page. A self-indulgent amount. If he liked what he saw, he might come back to read it later.
It only took him a minute or two to speed through the post. Shirou was interested in the part about helping the cat and the aftermath. He didn't need three thousand words subtly hyping up the poster to appreciate his actions. He just wanted the last thousand words of helping cats and people's joy.
Shirou reversed out of the post and went to look for another one. Alice ended up choosing for them, picking out a story about a girl having tea with her friends. The author sounded like they were a little older than Shirou – they even had a little childling tag beside their username. Their story still ended up being more entertaining than the last one, despite that.
The main meat of the story was her talking about helping her friends learn about etiquette and customs across various tea ceremonies. Shirou was exactly a member of the tea club back in Japan, but he enjoyed seeing some mention of tea ceremonies from there. The author's excitement was evident in the words. Especially the paragraphs gushing about all the places they wanted to go to study tea. Shirou could understand the feeling. There were so many places around the globe he wanted to go to. Basically, every area where people needed a hero.
"You know, this seems kinda dangerous," Alice warned. "Children and adults really shouldn't hang out in the same spaces. The former are vulnerable to be messed with by the latter."
"I think it's fine," Shirou rubbed the back of his head. He was a bit unsure about how that would all work for changelings, but it probably sorted itself out.
"Rules are only written because someone did somethen bad," Nursery Rhyme leaned forward and began moving the keyboard backward and forward. "Clearly, someone cursed all up in one of these threads! Kids shouldn't be exposed to bad words!"
"I think it means actually cursing people," the fairy guessed. It said no cursing. He'd assume that meant no using magic to curse people you're fighting with. That was his assumption, though. The rule was a little vague. It could do with some better wording. "Like with magic."
"I don't know…"
The door opened, and Gyd returned. She had a small frown as the bags under her eyes seemed a little bit deeper from dealing with a customer.
Alice wasted no time getting her in on the conversation. "Gyd! This forum has no cursing rule! Does that mean no foul language or no magic hexes?"
"I don't know," She sounded a bit caught off guard by the question. She walked back behind the desk, waiting a few seconds for Shirou to get out of her seat before sitting back down in it. "I don't do either."
"Helpful," Shirou murmured as he leaned on the desk. The fairy thought about hexes and what they knew about them. "Well, I can deal with any curses."
"You can?"
"I can?" Shirou repeated the older changeling's words, blinking as he considered. The sensation of knowing led to him nodding. "I can."
Spring Bad things Bad things = curses.
"Useful," Gyd acknowledged. She then sighed into her hands.
"Was the person annoying?" Shirou asked about the customer. "Or super boring?"
"Yes, on both accounts," Gyd put her face into her hands, hiding her slightly less neutral expression. A long-suffering groan escaped her lips. "It's like they expect me to be a mind reader. How should I know what they want? Or their clothing size?"
Shirou flew into the air a little bit, just enough to be able to pat Gyd's hair. "I'm sure you did your best.
"I know," Gyd removed her face from her hands, her shoulders slumping. "But since taking over the shop, I found myself loathing humanity on occasion."
"That's alright," Shirou said as he dropped back onto the floor. His wings clapped together behind him. "Everyone hates people from time to time."
Hating one another is a part of human nature. An aspect of themselves preventing the ascension of a perfect world. They strangle the person next to them over trying to climb the ladder to the world of their dreams. It was one of the contemptible parts of humans. A sign of how disgusting they could be and always will be.
The fairy frowned, shaking their Unseelie thoughts away as best they could.
"Perhaps, but it's still unbecoming of me. At the very least, I should complain after making a profit off them," Gyd admitted.
"How much?" Alice asked.
"More than he was planning to spend," Gyd sounded satisfied with herself as she looked at the computer screen. "Tea?"
"I love it!" Nursery Rhyme cheered carefully. A teacup appeared in her hand. The aroma bounced off the walls.
"I prefer coffee," the Nymph responded with a perfectly timed yawn.
"Is liking coffee and Tea mutually exclusive?" Shirou asked in a half-hearted tone. It was meant to be more a statement than a question, so he didn't bother waiting for a response. "Anyway, we were reading some forum posts."
"They're quite long."
"As long as it focuses on the interesting part, I like it," Shirou explained, glancing at the text again.
Gyd took a few moments to read the post in more detail. "I can see which parts you like… The Eshu are often good at stories… or at least ones about their interests."
Shirou wasn't sure if that was limited to any single kith or if it was something common for all living beings. There are so many topics and possibilities in the world that it is impossible to learn everything. You have to find what you like and focus on it. Things you don't like will be ignored.
"I'm curious, Shirou. What are your thoughts about cooking?" Gyd asked slowly as if trying to hide some bizarre intent behind her words.
"It's an activity. Even if it becomes routine, it's still an important act someone needs to do. The act connects the household and creates memories. If you mean actually cooking… I prefer Japanese cooking, but I'm liking French cooking too."
"Umm hum," Gyd murmured, taking the mouse and exiting out of the forum page. She looked at the time in the corner of her computer screen. "I need to start going through my emails."
"I get it," Shirou walked over to Alice and picked her up.
He'd study his books first, then help with the shop.
Shirou crossed his arms as he sat on a tall wooden stool. His eyes stared at the ducks in front of him as his feet dangled in the air. An art history book was in front of him, but he couldn't focus on it. Somehow, he'd ended up in the one position he shouldn't be in: Sitting behind the counter.
Gyd got a call from the bank, saying they needed her to come by to sign some paperwork for something or another. She wanted to close down the shop and have him go through the backroom while she was gone, but he offered to watch the counter instead. He was here to help! It was good for Gyd and the customer – if they really needed to buy something right now – for the store to be open. And he could handle it.
Eventually, Gyd agreed to trust him with this most important of tasks. He wouldn't let her down.
Alice was sitting next to the register, talking with one of the ducks in her lap. They were having a complicated debate about the benefits and drawbacks of first-person narratives versus third-person ones. It'd been interesting at first, but while the duck was articulate, its quacks were grating to his ears. Tuning them out would be best for his long-term hearing.
The changeling was caught off guard when the bell rang in synch with the opening of the door. A customer meandering in with no purpose in their step. He was on the shorter side and wore gray clothing. The man looked around the shop without even giving Shirou a single glance. He wandered over the section with used VHS tapes.
"You ready for your first customer?"
"Yes," Shirou responded to Alice. "I only hope they don't try to pay in some weird money combination."
Gyd had given him a lesson on the French Franc and the various forms before, but that didn't mean he wanted to deal with someone paying with a huge pile of the lowest-value coin. Apparently, they were switching to this new Euro thing soon, so this might actually be one of the few times he handles the French Franc.
The man eventually walked over to the counter, a single tape in hand. His small steps were stopped a few meters from his destination, frozen by Shirou's gaze.
"Can I help you?" Shirou politely asked, ignoring the brief flash of fear in the man's eyes. His wings swaying to and fro.
"You should've worn your glasses!" Nursery Rhyme pouted.
"I forgot," the changeling rubbed the back of his neck, pointly looking away from his companion. "I'll try to remember next time."
"Uh…"
"Sorry," Shirou turned back to the confused man. Hopefully, the guy wouldn't get too mad at him for talking to Alice right after asking if he needed help. "Did you say something?"
"No?" They said, not moving closer.
"Are you ready to check out?" Shirou glanced down at the VHS.
"Yes, that's right," the man blinked, looking away before walking to the counter.
The rest of the transaction went off without any problems. The customer never eased up around him, but they seemed too weakwilled to make a problem about it. They simply gave Shirou the money and left. He didn't even complain when Shirou responded to a few of Alice's comments.
"That went well," Shirou said after the man left. He pawed at his ear muffs with his left hand while his right placed the money on the counter.
"Really? How are you feeling about his cowering?"
"He didn't cower," the changeling defended the customer. "Besides, as the cashier, it is my duty to handle any issues they may have."
"That's just sad, Shirou," Alice brought her hand up to her mouth and started to nibble at it.
Shirou didn't respond to her. His gaze fell upon a nearby psyche mirror. The full-length mirror reflected more of the desk than Shirou himself, yet his eyes were held within the clear glass. There was nothing wrong with them.
The fairy's body shivered as he straightened up. He caught someone approaching the door out of the corner of his eyes. The various signs on the glass obfuscated his sight, but he didn't fail to see the pale skin and a set of slightly pointed ears. Another changeling, someone who wasn't supposed to know about him.
Shirou dove halfway down to hide in the large leg space all large desks have, only to remember Alice. As fast as a tree on fire, Shirou jumped up and grabbed the girl, ignoring her indignant shock by covering her mouth with his hand. He managed to get hidden by the time the entrance door's chime went off. Beautiful wings were contorted into shapes equal parts unpleasant and uncomfortable. Shirou hated his wings being hurt like this, but he had to make it through.
He wouldn't give up!
"Lady Gydeline? O, Lady Gydeline?" The voice approached the desk. It was the deep voice of an adult man. There was a 'smooth' aspect to his words. Shirou had to restrain himself from responding and saying Gyd wasn't there.
The changeling quietly removed his ear muffs so he could hear better. The pointed ends twitched as they heard the man's steps pause on the other side of the desk. What would this random stranger fae do next?
There was a few seconds of tapping by the man on the desk. He did it hard enough for Shirou to hear each beat on the wood. "Maybe she failed to hear me?"
Shirou's eyes widened as he heard the man walk around the desk! The changeling did his best to make his body as small as possible. What was this guy thinking?! Walking behind the desk like he owned the place?! Was he going to look for her in her office?!
The little leg area Shirou forced himself into wasn't aligned with the door. It was far enough left that he'd need to look a little bit out of his way to spot him. But Shirou was worried about his wings. A small part of them was jutting out of the space. If the guy looked down or was perceptive, Shirou would be found out.
The man knocked on the door to the office and called out for her, waiting only a few seconds before opening it. "Tis' a shame. What sort of emporium remains open without its leader? I must inform her how to do better."
Shirou frowned, not liking the man's arrogant attitude. The confidence between each syllable grated on his nerves. The guy should go and not bother them.
Thankfully, it didn't sound like he'd be here too much longer as the front door's bell went off again.
"What are you doing here?" a familiar woman's voice asked. Her tone was completely neutral, not letting anything on.
"Ah, there you are. You know, one never should abandon tender in the open," the stranger responded to Gyd. The youngest changeling felt another pang of annoyance; he hadn't put it in the cash register yet when he was forced to hide. Don't lecture Gyd for it. "Nor should a market be open without any vendors."
Gyd seemed on top of things, not missing a beat. "I had to briefly leave in a hurry. Now, get out from behind my counter."
"If that is what you wish," the man walked away while Gyd moved behind the counter.
"It is," his fairy mentor walked further than the man. Shirou nearly let out a cry when she stepped on the edge of his wings. It was ground into the harsh wooden floor by an anger-filled step. He did his best to control his movements, but trying to pull it out from under Gyd's foot made the pain worse. But, it seemed to make her realize he was there as she quickly took a step off his wing. Hints of shame and embarrassment flow off of her.
She better feel that.
"Is something vexing you?"
"Nothing that involves you," Gyd responded. Shirou could hear the cash register open as she went to put the money in.
"Very well. As you can imagine, I'm here to offer a certain proposition."
"No, Escoffier," Gyd plainly denied whatever the guy wanted. The hidden changeling was willing to bet it wasn't for the first time, either. "This is my store. No matter how many times you ask, I wouldn't sell it."
"It would be in your best interest," Esccoffier tried to convince Gyd. "A business conducted under my family's umbrella wouldn't fail. Furthermore, should our kind not stand together?"
"My finances aren't your business," Gyd sounded insulted as she slammed the register shut. "And I already fulfill my obligations to you. Our accounts are squared. There is nothing else to discuss."
"You have always been difficult. I can never understand why you such magnanimous gifts from your regent," Esccoffier sighed, barely loud enough for Shirou to hear and cringe. The man was starting to make him feel embarrassed. "If the issue is that of family… sigh… I would be willing to commit to an engagement between our lines."
Shirou turned his head around as if trying to see the guy through the desk. How to you go from trying to buy someone's store to trying to marry them?! And sounding so pained while you did it?! It was like he was trying to insult her on every possible level.
"Rejected," Gyd used a single word to express every feeling she had about his proposal.
"Would thou be willing to explain why?" Esccoffier asked, offense leaking in for the first time.
"If I have to explain why, you will not understand why. I see no point in wasting my time to explain it then. I have more pressing matters to attend to and must request that you leave. Immediately."
"Fine, but make sure you come around the freehold. You've been absent even more than usual," Esccoffier ended the conversation with a final request. His footsteps out of the store followed soon after.
"He's gone," Gyd bent down to see Shirou and Nursery Rhyme. "Do you need help?"
"Can you take Alice?" Shirou handed his companion over to Gyd. She took the small girl and placed her on the desk. The changeling then pulled himself out of the cramped space. His wings hurt as they were crushed against the wooden desk and then freed from containment. It dragged up terrible feelings from the recent past. The lights helped to soothe the panic he felt being stuck in a claustrophobic space.
As soon as he was standing up, Shirou looked at his sore wings. He fluttered them a few times to knock the dust off of them. There was a small bit of pain emanating from where Gyd had stomped. There wasn't any apparent visual damage to them.
The winged fairy scowled at his fae mentor. Indiginate fury swelling into a potent venom. "You stepped on my wings."
"It wasn't on purpose," Gyd said as if that would assuage his anger. Before he could say anything mean, she let out a sigh and slumped. "I'm sorry, that wasn't right. The sidhe fool has me seriously pissed off."
Shirou anger evaporated like dew on a hot summer morning. Stepping on his wings was a big deal, but someone else needing help was a way bigger deal. "It's okay! Just don't do it again... What's up with that guy."
"Régis Escoffier. He's the owner of the art store and landed noble in charge of Calais. The man can be a massive annoyance," Gyd leaned on the counter, looking forward to where the man left. "He's hardheaded and even blinder than me, but there is a brain under there."
"I'd think he'd be more… suave."
"Escoffier's getting desperate. He wants to be a great regent of the fae and have all of us be super close friends. I don't think he'd care that he'd pay any mind to the three Unseelie trying to overthrow him. Before you ask, I don't think he knows. As I said, he is very unperceptive of his surroundings, and those three are incompetent idiots."
Shirou nodded, admittedly feeling a little bad for Escoffier now. He wanted to bring changelings together. The chances of it happening were somewhere below absolute zero due to his stupid ideas to get it done. Especially randomly asking for a loveless marriage? Those were the worst for everyone involved.
"You wanna rant about it?"
"I… perhaps later," Gyd stood up from the counter. "When the store isn't open… How did things go while I was gone."
"One weirdo got scared of Shirou's eyes," Nursery Rhyme spoke before Shirou could. She had an unashamed look when the changeling glared at her. He took the ear muffs from her in a huff.
"Did he say anything troubling?"
"No. He bought a VHS and left," Shirou shrugged off the encounter. "Before I could put the money in the register, Escoffier forced me to hide."
"So that's what happened… You did well. Hiding from Escoffier was the correct move, and stayed professional with the customer," Gyd said kindly. She adjusted her glasses. "There isn't enough time in the day to correct every person that insults you. Often, it is best to not let it get to you."
"I was only doing what I should," Shirou murmured, placing his ear muffs back on. He ignored Alice's huff. "I'm going to hide before another changeling comes by."
"Before you do," Gyd sighed as she reached over to Shirou. He tilted his head upwards to stare into her eyes. His own pupilless blue widened as she pulled the ear muffs off. "I didn't put much thought into it when you asked. Covering your ears made sense, but that didn't make it right… As your mentor, I should teach you to be yourself, not hide yourself."
"What's bringing this on?" Shirou frowned. To help people, he needs to be less different… A disgusting thread of cold tried to thicken around his soul.
"I agree with, Gyd! Those ear muffs must be absolutely uncomfortable! Forcing your ears to be hidden like that…"
Shirou glanced back at Alice, her hands clenching her dress.
"I don't have any obvious changeling traits. Helping you manage yours is… not something I have any experience with... Trying to hide yourself to fit in is a path that leads to being undone. It means giving in to what the world wants you to be, not who you really are. Hiding your ears is an act of submission that inflicts a small cut every time you do it. No. Such a thing isn't right. Fae are meant to bend the world to their dreams, not be bent by the world."
The changeling listened to the older fae's words. A tiny part of him wanted to rebuke them, but he held himself back. He couldn't deny what she said. As a fairy, he knew she was right. Banality would eat away at them in the most subtle of ways they wouldn't even notice… Gyd's final words were an example of that. She separated the world from dreams. It was accepting the view of dreams as different from the cold, rational world. The earth is something that has to be 'bent' rather than existing in harmony.
As fragments of dreams in a dimming world, aren't they proof that isn't true? Was the world not once warm in the times of spring and only entered this era of cold due to man? Is Gyd's goal not to reverse this as best she could?
Banality truly was an insidious killer…
"I get it," Shirou nodded in agreement. It wasn't like pointed ears mattered when he never wore those glasses in the first place. "I wouldn't try to hide my ears anymore."
"Yeaa! I bet they'll be way less uncomfortable now!" Alice cheered in victory.
The changeling refused to look at her as his ears twitched.
Shirou walked through the street. Alone, a small hum filled the silent void in place of conversation. He'd have longer to hang out with his two new friends tonight since Gyd was gonna have to drive to meet with someone else after she dropped him off.
He wasn't wearing earmuffs. If humans looked closely, they'd notice the pointy end of his Autumn-world self. They may not be as long as his real ears, but their inhumanness was undeniable. They also made him an unquestionably great candidate for mall elf during Christmas.
Shirou reached the park faster than faster. He was more confident in his stride and didn't have to stop to talk with someone. There were fewer people there than last time. The age range was skewed toward older teens, with very few exceptions. Axelle wasn't there yet, but Arnaud was sitting in the same spot waiting.
"What's happening?" Shirou asked him as he sat down next to the other boy.
"Nothing," the black-clad boy answered, despite his eyes seeming to light up when they saw Shirou. "I tried to play a new game I got but hated it."
"Why?"
"Way too violent. I don't wanna run over a thousand people to get to the next level," Arnaud complained, fidgeting with his wristband. That did sound awful. Both because you have to hurt people and because you have to do it a thousand times. That has to get boring quickly. "They don't even have collectibles…"
"Wow, that really is bad. That's half the fun of a game," assuming the collectibles aren't just wasting time or elongating playtime.
"Right?! Worse, there's no story!"
"And you wasted money on it?"
"I heard the other kids at school talk about how much fun it was…"
"Now you know their opinions are stupid," Shirou nodded to himself. A game without a story is just senseless violence. The story is what gives meaning to everything else in the game. That was why story manuals were the best part of a lot of video games.
The two began to talk. Arnaud led the conversation, excitedly telling Shirou about things. The changeling added his own thoughts when appropriate. The time they spent together was nice. Any lingering feelings of being strangers faded like meat before a hungry tiger. Normally, it'd take way longer for that to happen, but perhaps it was the nature of fae to form friendships with warm humans. Just as it was their nature to repulse banal-ridden humans.
It took a dozen or two minutes, but Axelle eventually appeared in a dull yellow jacket with the hood up. She made her way over to the pair. Shirou greeted her into the conversation, helping her to merge into their talks. Eventually, Axelle brought up something interesting.
A supposedly haunted house a few streets down. According to Axelle, she heard it was haunted by the ghost of someone killed during the Siege of Calais during the Second World War. Their body was reduced to a black skidmark on one of the walls. Nothing could get rid of it. Any paint covering it would chip away in days. Mirrors placed in front of it would shatter, and those witnessing this claimed they saw a ghostly child in the reflection. Before it was abandoned, the last owners tried to cut out the entire wall and replace it, only for the mark to imprint itself on the new material while they slept. The owner, upon seeing it, lit themselves ablaze. Why? No one knows.
Arnaud was terrified of going in there. The other boy was practically shivering at the idea. That all changed after a little talking to. Axelle mocking him for being a scared cat was enough to get him to go. His eyes quivered with a need to prove he was, in fact, brave.
Shirou didn't really have much of an opinion on the matter. The ghost house sounded cool, and he wanted to explore it, but he felt a bit bad for the dead person. How rude would it be for you to be minding your own business in your home only to have it invaded? Yet, Axelle really wanted to go, and Arnaud… kinda wanted to. Going would give him a chance to help the ghost if he met it… Assuming he had the means to talk to the ghost or interact at all with it…
The dead were the opposite of spring. At best, they served as a future for what was to come. They were what today and tomorrow would be built upon. Unfilled dreams that they once held were passed down, never to be seen to completion by the lifeless corpses.
The best thing they can do is go away to the afterlife or reincarnate. Whichever happens to human souls.
With all three on board to go to the house, they began to make their way over there. A gust brushed against Shirou's wings. His instincts as a creature of flight plead with him to follow the zephyr into the night sky, joining the schools of fishes swimming through the air above. The two things that stopped him were the knowledge of the penalty man's disbelief would inflict upon him and his friends noticing something.
"Your ears…" Arnaud started before stopping. His eyes looked away. The changeling could sense the hesitation from the human boy. The black-wearing boy's concern about offending his friend reached him.
"They are weird," Axelle had no such regard for him. She cut straight to the point of his pointy ears.
"I have pointy ears," Shirou pulled back his hair to make it more obvious to them now that the wind wasn't rustling his hair. He did his best to ignore the dissonance between his human ears and his fae ears in terms of length. If only they could see his true ears.
"Wow," Arnaud stopped walking. All three stopped in the middle of the street as he pulled closer to Shirou. "Can I touch them?"
"Are they naturally like that?" Axelle moved to his other side and began to examine them.
"Yes," Shirou answered Axelle first before turning to Arnaud. "I guess…"
"I'll touch'em to then."
Shirou restrained a sigh as his ears were rubbed from two sides. It wasn't like it felt bad. The feeling was quite nice. It was just a little odd how positive their reactions were. He didn't expect it in a thousand years.
"Are you two done now?" Shirou crossed his arms.
"Yes," Arnaud took a step back, keeping his eyes on Shirou's eyes.
"Yeah, I didn't think they'd be so fleshy," Axelle added.
The changeling decided to ignore the comment. Of course, they were fleshy. They were flesh! They were ears!
The three of them began to walk again. The other two asked Shirou a few more questions about his ears as they moved. The fae answered them as best as he could. He was granted a reprieve when they arrived outside of the haunted house.
The streetlamps before it were broken. The shattered bulbs were filled with various levels of filth. The street itself wasn't much better, with cracks lining the road and sidewalk. A fragrance of fire tried to hide itself behind the stench of junk from a nearby pile of trash.
The building itself was two stories tall. All of the windows were dirty, making it impossible to see inside passed the dirt and grime. Broken cracks splintered in spiderweb-like designs through the windows on the first floor. The home might have once been white, but after no one cleaning it for… who knows how long… it had blacked and needed a good power washing… plus an ocean of bleach. That would help with the scent as well. It was enough to make Shirou gag at the stench.
"So, this is the place. You think anyone's living in there?"
"Yeah, the ghost."
"Maybe the ghost isn't real… or move on."
"I see," Shirou muttered. He walked forward, leading the charge. There was a chance a person was living there, but they'd understand. They were already sharing their home with a ghost.
"Wait up!"
The changeling reached the door as the others caught up. He was careful not to hit them with his wings, clasping them together behind his back. Reaching forward, he grabbed the doorknob. It wobbled up and down as he grasped it. An uneven feeling came from the chipped knob. The door itself had something black staining it, but it wasn't in the shape of a person. It was more of a splatter.
The door was unlocked, opening with a series of creaks. The wooden floor groaned as the three children walked into the house. The scent of trash gave way to that of mold and decay.
"This place is way scarier than the park," Axelle commented excitedly as she looked around. There was a set of stairs in front of them, with rooms to both their left and right. A broken frame lay beside the stairs. "Let's split up!"
"NO! ARE YOU POSSESSED BY THE GHOST?!" Arnaud shouted at the top of his lungs. He jumped over at her and grabbed her. She shook him off and gave him a look.
"You know, screaming might not be a good idea," the non-human boy told his two friends as he thought about it. "If you were an angry ghost, wouldn't you attack the loud one first?"
"True," Axelle smiled.
"Noooo. Stop it!" Arnaud wined.
"Okay. Okay. I'll stay with you," Shirou told his friend. "Axelle, if you want to go off on your own, I'll explore with him."
"Will do," Axelle walked over to the left out of sight. The creaks of her steps faded as she moved into the next room. Though, she couldn't close the door to it since it was missing.
"Do you want to go to the right or upstairs?" Shirou asked Arnaud.
"Which do you think is better?"
The changeling considered it carefully.
The main safety issue was the ghost. If the story of the body stain is true, the best place would be away from it. Because, clearly, that's an important place for the spirit. Messing with it would make the ghost girl mad. Unfortunately, they had no clue where it was…
Well, it'd be polite to leave this floor to Axelle. They'll take the second story to themselves.
"Upstairs," Shirou told him, walking over to the fallen frame and picking it up. It fell apart in his hands. Whatever it had held was long ruined. Tear marks made it impossible to discern what it had been. Placing the broken fragment back on the ground, they walked up the dark steps.
Arnaud complained about being unable to see and said he should've brought a flashlight. Shirou ended up telling the other boy to hold on to his shoulder as they walked around since he could see better. It may have been annoying having his wings rubbing against human hands, but he'd swallow it. That helped a little bit, with Arnaud only tripping once or twice on the stairs. The steps creaked as they were trodden upon. A few holes in them forced Shirou to give his friend specific instructions on how to avoid them.
When they reached the second floor, Arnaud let out a sigh of relief.
There was a broken window straight across from them. Light poured through it, white as the moon rather than the gold of the sun. There was a clean rug in the middle of the narrow hallway that made up the second floor. There were three doors on each side of the hall. A collapsed table blocked one of them off. If he had to bet, one or two of the doors led to closets.
The changeling was caught off guard when Arnaud walked forward toward the broken window and looked behind the collapsed table.
"You see something?" Shirou asked before noticing what looked like a small bird wing sticking out from behind the collapsed wooden plateau.
"This poor bird," Arnaud picked up a dead bird without a single ounce of hesitation in his soul. Its feathers were black, white, and blue. The head was the former, the chest the second, and the rest of it the latter. Decompisiont hadn't set in yet, but it was still a dead bird. It didn't smell too good.
"Perhaps it flew into the window," Shirou guessed as he looked at the glass. He'd heard a lot of birds run into glass. "Crashed through and died?"
"I guess, but it doesn't really matter," Arnaud said sadly. He cradled the bird. "I wish…"
"You wish?" Shirou repeaded the boy. The hesitation in the other's voice stopped him from speaking his desire. He needed to be shown it was okay. That Shirou would accept what he wished. "What?"
"Nothing…"
"Come on, you can tell me," Shirou assured him. He spoke calmly and kindly. "I wouldn't judge."
Arnaud struggled, taking moments to suppress the part of himself that was scared of rejection. "… I want to preserve it. The beauty of it… I have a little bit of skill in taxidermy and could do it…"
"Why don't you do it?"
"You're not creeped out?"
"Nope," the changeling shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.
He wasn't killing something to do it, so it was fine in Shirou's eyes. Perhaps if he was doing it to a random human body, it'd be weirder or outright wrong. They were humans, after all, and describing a body like that for your own desires would be wrong. As a fairy, part of the changeling was 100% sure about that. From that perspective, there was no difference between doing such a thing on a human body and an animal corpse. Maybe? … It'd be better for him to listen to his judgment as a human rather than as a fae.
The more important thing was his friend's soul.
Gazing into it with the eyes of a fae, he could peek into the very reaches of what made up the human before him. The bubbling of hope and creativity, waiting to be let loose upon the world. The threads of the Dreaming fed into his soul and were fed in turn by the soul's warmth. They needed a little bit more of a nudge to truly blossom.
The changeling's fae instincts and thoughts took over, guiding him to move behind the other boy. Arnaud was too caught off guard by the stirring in his soul to react in time. Shirou brought Arnaud into a hug, wrapping his arms around the other boy's neck. He didn't care if such an action would be considered weird for a boy his age to do to another similarly aged boy.
The fae's wings closed around the other human boy. A pleasant feeling emanating from the touch, completely different from the pain brought about when others touched their otherworldly scales. Their brilliance was enough to drive a human to despair if they bored into them, for they were dyed with the colors of a dream. A fairy that had forgotten its name yet still remained the same at its very core. To see that core was to know the desire that lay hidden within the hearts of all things but which would never be granted. To know its warmth, only to lose it forever. All but the strongest of will would surely end their lives if forced to endure such a loss.
They were eldritch in the truest sense of the word.
Even in this world where man could not see the colors of dreams, their warmth could still reverberate through the cold chill of this fallen world. The heat of passion and the golden smell of hope blanked the human boy's soul. The bonds that had been formed between the child of the dreaming and the blind child of the Autumn World strength, pulling their souls together for a moment.
The human soul trembled for a moment under the vastness of the blazing soul of a fae. The changeling could see and feel it all as this moment stretched on for an eternity. He knew what he needed to say to help the boy overcome the lifetime of banality. To help his friend.
"I get it and think it's neat. I'd like to see it when you're done," the changeling told Arnaud. The other boy's eyes widened at hearing the words of acceptance he always wanted to hear.
The fairy truly smiled as they knew they'd helped their friend. The warmth of dreams overcoming the cold. Encouraged on by the endless inferno that was a Seelie soul. Nothing was transferred from the fae to the human. Glamour was starting to boil in the pot that was a human soul. Though it had not yet reached an epiphany, Shirou could feel the smallest trickle of warm glamour enter his soul. A premonition of what was to come when they truly achieved Reverie.
The changeling's soul shivered at the thought of it. An instinctual response beyond the control of Shirou himself. The merest hint of the taste of dreams was savory yet horrifical tempting. It was no wonder evil fae ripped it from humans. Even with no knowledge of how to do it, Shirou could feel how to do it. Ripping out the glamour would be so easy. It's no harder than unwrapping a candy bar. Those driven by greed and self-interest – or even a lack of self-control – were truly pathetic…
"Thank you," Arnaud gripped the bird in his hands and looked back down at it. It must've died very recently; not looking decomposed at all. "I need to do it soon… I can come back here tomorrow night and do it… if you want to be here…"
"Sure," Shirou said calmly as he pulled his wings away from his friend and stopped hugging him. His smile dimmed, but his good mood remained as he saw Arnaud's peaceful expression. "I can probably do that."
He wouldn't want to leave Arnaud here alone.
Speaking of which…
"We should go check on Axelle," Shirou told his friend. "The bird can go in the corner over there – out of the sun. It should be cold enough that it doesn't decompose too much."
"Good idea… I also heard animals around here tend to decompose slower due to plastics in the water from the Avalon toy factory and the stuff from the other chemical factories! Isn't that great!" Arnaud spoke happily at things working out.
A growl escaped the fairy's throat at the mention of 'Avalon toy factory.' For a brief moment, he saw a brilliant red. The fae was almost overcome with the urge to destroy a factory. Not that Arnaud noticed at all. He just went and put the bird where Shirou told him to. By the time he'd finished, Shirou had regained control of himself.
The pair made their way down the stairs without looking out into the rooms.
They found Axelle at the base of the stairs, waiting to climb up.
"Was there anything up there?" Axelle asked, crossing her arms. "There wasn't any outline down here."
"Not that we saw," Shirou answered as they paused right in front of her.
"This place is a bust to then…"
The three of them left the building. They forgot to close the door behind them, but it didn't matter much. When the dawn broke, it would be firmly shut.
Shirou approached the so-called haunted house. Entering it without mind to thunder raging overhead, it shouldn't start raining for a few more hours or the chimerical raven staring down from the top of the roof. Its right eye missing as ash slides from the socket.
As soon as he entered, he called out for Arnaud, just in case to not scare him. He got a response from the second floor, quickly making his way up the stairs. He found his friend up there already. The broken table had been moved. Its legs were broken off, turning it into a hard, flat surface. Like a small operating table, the bird was resting on. Tools and other things were next to it, placed nearly on the rug. A big flashlight illuminated the dark space. There had been very little light the night before, but now that it was cloudy, the weather had gotten much worse.
"You have everything?" Shirou asked Arnaud upon approaching him.
"Yes. I got it all ready," he said as he gestured in front of him. He began to fiddle with his wristband. "You sure you want to be here?"
Shirou rolled his eyes and nodded. He didn't say anything as Arnaud began to taxidermy the bird.
The changeling paid attention to both that and Arnaud's soul. The boiling in his soul was ready to pour out if slightly tampered from yesterday's high. The pot tilted over as Arnaud worked. The boy's attention was hyper-focused on his task. The warm passion in his heart pushed his abilities to new heights, or perhaps it let him use his current talents to their best.
The connection between fae and dreamer was tugged by Arnaud. Though, he wasn't conscious of it. The fairy didn't resist as their soul was used to inspire their friend; no, it was more like he directed it rather than not resisting. The feeling of being needed and helping was unequaled. He could feel Arnaud's spark grow one final time, reaching a crescendo as he worked. Thoughts of completing the project, of making it the best it could, flood the human boy's mind. The fairy could feel it clearly in this sacred moment of connection and openness.
Then came the moment of epiphany. The instant Arnaud brought a dream into the world, his work was complete. The satisfaction of completion, of having done something despite being ground against the world. Of being able to do it again and better or differently next time.
Glamour sparked inside the human boy. Flowing out into the world. The temperature in the room increased by a quarter of a degree. Chills ran up Shirou's arms as he drank of the ethereal essence.
It was nothing like drinking water. Where water was cold, flowing down one's throat to support one's body. Glamour was drinking an idea, strengthing one's soul. The flavor was emotion itself. Raw. Unfiltered. The confidence brought by having an accepting friend. The joy of being able to do something you love. That you think is right.
It reverberated through the changeling. Filling him with the same emotions even as they were absorbed into him. Memories of his human half that aligned with such intense feelings rose to the surface, flashing through his mind, the few there were. His fae side, empathetic and exposed to such raw emotions, was pulled even further to the light – to being Seelie. His Unseelie side became buried deeper by its own will. Pupiless eyes shined unseen by Arnaud. They grew 'brighter' than before. More unsettling to most, perhaps, but more comforting to those who accept them.
The changeling's expression became a smile. The sheer joy in that singular moment was almost as great as in any of his other human memories. The glamour emitting from Arnaud was a beautiful rainbow, seeming to bounce off every angle in the room. They intersected at a million angles, reflecting off one another like two mirrors lined up together. Such a sight only heightened the joy in his heart, as it felt like the world was in color for a brief moment. The pure color of the dreaming, not the washed-up shades of the Autumn World.
Yet, such things can only last a moment. Disappearing in the blink of an eye as the room returned to normal. The soul of his friend was still warm but exhausted from the endeavor. Arnaud's eyes had grown tired, but the excitement still shone within.
"It's done," Arnaud directed at Shirou to look closer. The bird was preserved in a permanent state. Glamour filled it, singing of the beauty held by its owner. The feathers glistened off the flashlight's illumination. "I have a little experience, but it's never been half this good…"
"You did good," Shirou praised him as his smile slipped away. His voice filled with energy. He felt like he was snuggling in a blanket by a campfire on a snowy afternoon. "You wouldn't think it was dead for at least a day."
The changeling was in such a good mood that they barely felt rage when thinking about a polluting toy company named 'Avalon.' The other parties responsible didn't even cross his mind.
"Yeah… Now everyone can enjoy its beauty," Arnaud said as he stood up. He packed up his things and picked up the bird. He turned to Shirou. "Thanks for coming… it means a lot…"
"Any time," Shirou nodded, crossing his arms off his chest. His expression was a pathetic facsimile of Gyd's stoic demeanor. Inwardly, he was trying not to rub the back of his head in embarrassment.
Arnaud smiled before jumping as a lightning bolt flashed outside. Thunder raged a few seconds later. He looked around as if he remembered where he was for the first time. "Uhh… we should probably get out of here. I don't want the bird to get wet."
"Do you want me to lead the way?"
"Please!"
Shirou agreed, walking first while Arnaud followed behind. Unlike last time, the changeling remembered to close the front door behind them. Yet he still missed a single crucial thing. Since he led the way, he missed Arnaud wrinkling the rug. A hint of a dark shadow revealed beneath it.
The carpet straightened out with an angry thud once the pair were out of ear sight.
Vines wrapped around the fairy's human body. The sky of this dream world was an infinite blue, checkered with the fluffies of white clouds. It would suck to not have their shade.
The fae giggled with their human mouth as they enjoyed the sensation of sleeping within themselves. The clouds in the sky rose and lowered in beat with each joyous snicker. Mere hours ago, they'd regained glamour for the first time in so long. Now they slept and could feel it flowing through them.
The trees straighten up like fingers when they're being popped. His breath, the wind, flowing freely and steedly. The streams flowed with the force of his life.
The vines finished wrapping around their human body. In colors of blue and gold, they lifted it up. They grew around the air to get it several meters up. The vines swung like a hammock, human eyes opening again. They lacked iris or pupils. The entire orb was the same blue as the sky.
It was bizarre. Using these things called eyes to see. To look at one's self rather than to solely be that self.
Birds appeared in the sky, fragments of themselves singing in the sky. They all matched the one their friend made.
Most nights, they felt dragged along by their dreams. Playing parts somehow related to their human life, almost always forgetting them by the time they awaken. Then, there were these rare nights. They knew they had happened but never remembered a thing.
Peaceful nights.
The fae giggled some more. The sound of human laughter was the greatest of tunes. How they loved it more than anything. Yet, so many of their most important humans never seemed to do it… And it was sad. The miracle they innately possess yet forsake. Or were forsaken by?
No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't get their breath to match the giggles. Nor could their animals or plants or streams. It was a gift reserved solely for humans, blessed above all.
The nameless fairy began to reshape their human body. Growing mouths, snouts, and jaws belong to different species. They giggled through them. Hearing them all contain the spark sent them into a sea of endless laughter lasting between a second and a year.
It was the human soul that made their laughter so grand, not their bodies!
The fae finally managed to contain their laughter beyond a few stray giggles. Their voice oscillated between higher and lower pitch as their body reverted to its default state.
They tilted their human head. The sun in the sky spun an equal amount.
A foreign entity entered them. One tainted by darkness and sin... Such people weren't supposed to be here! They think?!
Their human body pouted as its wings flapped into the air. They couldn't remember their name yet, much less other such rules. This isn't a place where taint should be allowed to enter!
In an instant, their body was at the rude intruder's location. They already knew what was there, but they decided to look at it with these eyes.
The creature wasn't a fae being or a living human. It was a soul. One of a human that died young, most likely what humans call a child. The fae couldn't tell if they were a boy or girl; such things didn't really matter anyway. Their body looked wounded, enough to kill humans.
Ah! Perhaps it was a ghost! They did visit a place that was supposed to have one! Did they follow them here for some reason?! How did a ghost get into a dream?! Are they allowed to do that?
Those questions didn't matter, but it was a bit annoying.
Floating down, the presumed ghost didn't move. Their eyes widened in the extreme as they stared forward, agape.
Troubling.
The flowers underneath their feet were being tainted by their dark corruption. They were dying! Something needed to be done about it!
The fae moved the plants around, having them grow around the ghost's feet. They bound their ankles and kept growing to their knees, trapping them. The flowers punctured the skin of the ghost's soul, invading its body. They drank their corruption, overcoming it with ease.
A human soul shouldn't be like this, should it? Filled with a wish for… death? Something beyond the fae's comprehension. Something violently opposed to all they embody…
Something else for the list… Though, they'll forget about it when they wake up, so why linger on it?
This ghost may be an invader, but they decided it needed help.
The corruption was clearly no good. They could clean it up now, but they didn't know enough about human souls to know what that'd do. And, if they leave, they could be corrupted again. They'd say it was a certainty, given how fast the corruption kept coming back. Tasting of uncontrolled emotions, hate and fear, and all that was wrong in this world. A dark goal of destroying all life in the most agonizing way possible.
It was horrid.
The fae used their human body to nod, the act coming without thought. An idea formed in their mind.
Hands reached up and gripped the ghost's face. Brown hair trapped between their fingers as the skin seemed to melt away. Their blood become water, and the bone seeds. They feasted on the human skin as the fae pulled the arms away. Everything beyond the wrist missing, yet they dripped no blood. The bone grew back first, followed by the various other parts of the hands. Some of the fingers were a bit too short or too long, and the left hand had seven digits, but they didn't notice.
They saw the ghost's eyes move for the first time. Fear and awe started to snowball, building upon one another to multiple. The seeds finished devouring the water and their skin. Their roots started to tunnel into their soul.
"Don't worry, I am saving you," the fae spoke, the voice calming. Relaxing. The fear in the ghost's eyes lessened by the smallest amount. How much they understood wasn't clear yet. "That evil wouldn't claim you again."
The words were starting to reach them. The tiny part of themselves that opposed the corruption, restrained by it, seemed relieved. The dark part, however, raged. The embodiment of their destructive impulses hated being stopped.
The seeds kept growing, merging into one.
"You're corruption is bad news. It'll consume you again and again if I let you leave here. But I can't let you stay as here as you are," the fae explained through their human mouth, almost feeling like they were puppeting it from afar. It made the emulation of human speech feel weird. "I'll make you a part of my dream! That way, you'll fit in."
Their voice heightened as they spoke. The seeds completed their merge into a single system and continued to convert the ghost into a part of them. Turning them into another part of the fae's flesh.
Their legs come apart as toes become roots, digging into the ground. Arms were forced apart as they were turned to wood, fingers moving across their extending arms as they became branches. The nails split into a hundred different leaves. The fae took control of them to make sure they formed right, shifting their new branches into optimal positions for a tree. They were small, though, with so few leaves. Human souls were like that, tiny. A single one is not even a speck compared to their own.
The fear of the ghost tripled. Panic filled its entire being. It didn't last long. The tired eyes quickly gave way to accept. Their thoughts entered the dream they were being consumed and molded by. They thought that this was perhaps the best fate they could ask for.
Something about that bothers the fae. Their eyes stayed focused on the once-ghost. The wood grew, twisting and shrinking their torses until it was only a bit thicker than its neck. Their necks thickened as the conversation grew along their ears. They were crushed inwards as their long hair turned to wood. It connected to the neck and tightened around it, pressing into their face. Their mouth forced open as wood revealed itself from within, merging with hair strains. Lips pulled back to reveal wooden gums as teether ground against emergent wood until they were filled down into nothing. Red lips twisted to the side as they combined with the transformed hair.
The fae could see through their eyes now, for the briefest of moments before they were pushed out. Branches slowly creeped out of the eye sockets from the skull, leaves starting to form as soon as they left pushed past the eyes. The orbs were stabbed through by the branches and lingered before being absorbed. Their width crushing their nose into nothingness.
Almost all the knowledge and memories that once belonged to this fragment of the fae faded into nothingness. For a brief moment, the fae understood why this was the best fate they could give themselves.
A ghost of a murdered child. Unable to control their emotions, they fall victim to their shadow – their corrupt and destructive impulses made manifest. Ghosts are dead; they can't be killed. Leaving their souls to be used by smiths to somehow make goods or join oblivion. Oblivion… the only thing that can grant them the peace of nothingness.
Becoming a part of a beautiful dream was better than either of those futures.
The fae frowned as their understanding faded, the knowledge leaving their mind alongside all the other knowledge. Yet, they sensed a bit of hope in there. A desire they wished fulfilled that was within their power to grant. The path to it was apparent before their eyes and through the logic of dreams. Fragments of his human will force them to see it through.
Focusing on the now completed tree, the fae morphed the energy in that – the part of themselves that had been converted from the human soul – and concentrated it. The middle of the tree started to splinter and pull apart. The farthest ends started to wither and die. Their power was directed to the center. More and more was poured into there until the tree died as it split in two. A magnificent bird revealing itself.
One of a breed they'd never seen or hurried off before. Utterly unique in all the world. Its wings held countless feathers in red. It fluttered its wings before soaring off into the sky.
Normally, the fae wouldn't care about keeping things the same. It was their nature to ever change. Yet, they decided to let that bird be itself. Their soul wanted it to be that way; thus, it shall be.
The fairy melted into the ground, letting the rest of the dream exist without the human body. Simply being before they were forced to awaken and forget all that has happened. This entire encounter didn't even amount to a single grain of sand in an hourglass.
AN:
Hello, welcome to another chapter. And Santa on drugs; that last scene was hard to write.
Like I had things to add to the previous scenes, and needed to go through to vet things but I'm too drained to add them do thingss. Especially since the version of the final scene in this chapter is toned down from the original way I wrote it, which is toned down from my original idea of it. Like – I realized I'd stumbled into a Changeling the Lost fanfic out of nowhere due to how screwy it got. Punch myself to knock those thoughts away I did. Things like more bloody details in the transform and playing on the laughing bit at the start and how it equals human. It got cruel…
I want to focus on the Changeling part of the world of darkness as a means of simplifying things, but when I ended up having them go to a ghost house, I decided to do it. Then I remembered one of the most horrific lore bits in the world of darkness from Wraith the Oblivion's Sandman guild book: Wraiths that can enter dreams have to be 1000% extra careful when entering Changelings' dreams, or they could end up drawn into the realities of Changeling's dreams, with many famous and powerful going missing because they are turned – said – to be transformed into chimera creatures devoid of the previous selves or something. It was super awful, made worse by the fact it somehow isn't in the top 5 worst fates a wraith can suffer.
This also gave me a chance to show off how… dangerous a fae can be without/with far fewer inhibitions that I kinda skipped over when Shirou was in bedlam to progress in the story. Showing why it's awful to go full fae, even with the nicest little fairies in the world that only wants to do the right thing and help people. It gives a chance to show how Shirou's dreams are slightly different from normal fae dreams on occasion due to being Avalon, a massive dream and place versus a single dream or something you get it. No need to explain more, but they don't belong here. And I'm writing this right after waking up too tired to be coherint.
I wonder if I should remove the last scene or not? What do y'all thinks?
Anyway, the last scene is a wee bit horrific, but at least the others aren't! :D
Have a great day!