Or So I've Been Told

It’d been a week since they’d returned from the nightmare forest and everyone was starting to find their normal again. Except for Aelwyn, who had never had a normal in this house where people loved each other. She still watched them all suspiciously, trying to hide it and sometimes knowing she failed when Jawbone or Lydia would catch her eye and force a reassuring smile. She used to be so good at lying and now she was being seen through by total strangers.

All the kids except Adaine still cut a wide berth around her, afraid in ways that they weren’t willing to say. She couldn’t just tell them she wasn’t dangerous anymore. She’d been declawed, there was nothing she could do to any of them. Not anymore, not now that she was trying to be worthy of the love Adaine kept giving her so freely. They were safe from Aelwyn and from anything Aelwyn had any power to stop, simply because Adaine loved them too.

If she ever got the time she was going to start investigating whether or not love had magical properties that could be quantified with things like transference and equivalence because it was the only way to explain why she felt that way about them.

The adults didn’t have a problem with her. Jawbone seemed to think that anything she’d done under her parents and Kalina’s direction counted as under duress and so couldn’t be held against her. By the time Ragh had been threatened Aelwyn had already been trapped in a torture bubble in Fallinel so Lydia had no grudge against her. Sandra Lynn just shrugged and said sometimes people make bad decisions and they shouldn’t be held against them forever. To be honest, it was grating, them just accepting her, bringing her into the fold like she hadn’t been a part of her parents' plan right up until her father killed her.

The other parents had been a little less weird. They all still kept close eyes on Aelwyn when they saw her and didn’t try to say she was a part of this weird little family they all had. She appreciated that, it made her feel a little more normal.

Zayn seemed to accept her right away, though it might have just been that he liked the late-night company. Once she’d recovered some from the exhaustion of being in the bubble and then being forced to travel through the nightmare forest before being fully recovered she found that trancing was a bit of an issue. She was too uncomfortable, too anxious to get in the right frame of mind to settle into trance. Zayn being a ghost meant he didn’t trance either.

So they spent a lot of long nights together like that, three in the morning and sitting at the kitchen table pouring over spell books and pretending like they were normal. Like neither of them had tried to kill people who were also sleeping in that house.

Ragh wandered in holding his head and wincing at the bright lights of the kitchen. “Thought I heard people,” he mumbled, glaring at them, though it might have just been a prolonged wince.

“Sorry, man, did we wake you up?” Zayn asked with an apologetic shrug.

Ragh shook his head. “Nightmare.”

“Ah,” Aelwyn said, racking her brain for what it was that people made for others when they had nightmares. “Do you want some tea? Hot chocolate? Coffee?”

Ragh stared at her for a moment and then said “What?”

“Ostentatia had a nightmare once while I was staying over. Her grandmother made her something to help her calm down,” Aelwyn explained turning to Zayn.

Zayn held up his hands. “Don’t look at me, I was emancipated at thirteen and was having my bills paid by Coach Daybreak.”

“Daybreak was paying your bills?” Ragh asked.

Zayn nodded.

“That guy was a creep, right?” Aelwyn asked.

Ragh and Zayn both nodded. “I never heard about him doing anything…” Ragh trailed off.

“He didn’t to me anyway. He was more into getting people to join his doomsday cult,” Zayn said.

“Yeah, used to take me and some of the other boys to religious services and stuff,” Ragh said shuddering a little.

“Okay now I need something to calm my nerves,” Aelwyn said, swirling her hand around to summon an unseen servant. “What is it people make?” she asked this time looking to Ragh. He had a parent who loved him.

“Hot chocolate if we have the stuff,” Ragh said.

Aelwyn set it to its task and turned back to him.

“He’s in hell by the way,” Ragh told Zayn. “Had to fight him during spring break. It was kinda cathartic you know?”

Zayn laughed. “Kinda figured he’d be in hell, but it’s good to have confirmation.”

“He’s real mad about it too,” Ragh said.

“I fucking bet,” Zayn said still smiling. “Is that what you were…You don’t have to answer that.”

“Nah, you’re good man. It sometimes helps to talk about it. I appreciate it,” Ragh said. It wasn’t lost on either Zayn or Aelwyn that Ragh hadn’t actually said what it was he’d dreamed about.

“What are dreams like?” Aelwyn asked. “Like not nightmare specifically. But like even good dreams. We don’t really…do that.”

Ragh sighed “Oh. Right. Uh...I don’t know they’re kinda weird. Like scientifically or whatever they’re just your brain rehashing your thoughts and memories from the day. And most of the time it doesn't like make sense. Sometimes there's a story or whatever but like. Sometimes you wake up and are like what the fuck just happened?”

Aelwyn frowned. “Weird.”

“What’s trancing like?” Ragh asked.

“Oh,” Zayn and Aelwyn said at the same time, looking to each other.

“Nothingness, sort of?” Aelwyn said. “You start your trance, and then you stop and a few hours have passed nothing really happens in the middle.”

“Sometimes I could feel the time passing,” Zayn said with a shrug. “But that’s about it.”

Three mugs appeared in front of them and Aelwyn sent the unseen servant to clean up the mess before she dismissed it.

“I can’t drink this you know that right?” Zayn asked, looking down at the drink.

“Yeah, but can’t you like, pass through it or something to taste it?” Aelwyn asked, taking a sip.

“No...that’s a myth. Then I would just taste walls when I passed through them,” Zayn said, laughing.

“Oh...well more for Ragh,” she said, pushing the mug towards Ragh.

“Thanks,” Ragh said, taking a sip. “This is terrible.”

“Nothing but critics in this room,” she grumbled taking a sip. It was awful. She’d need to study a cookbook or something if her unseen servants were going to be making food.

The three of them were quiet for a while, each lost in their own thoughts. Somewhere in the house, Aelwyn heard the shuffling of someone getting up. Probably Sandra Lynn. It was about four and that was usually when she got up for her morning run. Aelwyn really needed to get to bed. A headache was starting to form behind her eyes.

“By the way,” Ragh started, looking at Zayn. “I’m sorry for you know...you dying and stuff”

“Dayne killed me,” Zayn said with a shrug.

 “Yeah but like...he was my friend and I shouldn’t have let him kill you. It was fucked up,” Ragh said.

Zayn shook his head. “It was fucked up...but you couldn’t control Dayne and he wanted to be like king or some shit. Guy was an asshole. No offense.”

“None taken.” Ragh shrugged.

 “Everpettle’s boyfriend killed you?” Aelwyn asked.

Zayn nodded.

Aelwyn laughed a little but neither man seemed particularly offended. “We’re going to work on your self-defense skills, dear, because that man was an idiot.” She turned back to Ragh. “No offense. Also, why are we saying no offense after we insult Dayne?”

Ragh blushed a little, making Aelwyn grin. “He was my friend. And I kinda had a thing for him.”

“Why?” Aelwyn asked before she could stop herself. “First of all, he was so rude. He corrected my grammar once when we were having a conversation, infuriating. Second of all, he’s not that impressive of a fighter. After he corrected my grammar I threw him out a window, wasn’t even hard. And third, you are so much hotter than him.” 

Ragh and Zayn both started laughing but Aelwyn just shook her head.

“I’m serious. Ragh you are the complete package. You’re hot. You’re a great fighter. You’re loyal. You’re sweet. You’re hot.”

Ragh laughed. “You said hot twice.”

“On purpose. It was for effect. And to drill home the fact that you are so far out of Dayne’s league,” Aelwyn said, laughing. 

“She’s right. Way out of his league,” Zayn agreed, nodding seriously.

“You guys are so nice,” Ragh said, blushing a little.

“We’re really not. Well, Zayn is. I’m not,” Aelwyn said, shaking her head. “I’m the villain of my own little sister’s childhood.”

“You’re reformed now,” Zayn said. “Also we were all the villains of their lives at some point or another.”

Ragh’s eyes lit up. “Reformed villain squad!”

“Oh absolutely!” Aelwyn said, laughing and high-fiving Ragh.

Then Ragh reached across the table and high-fived Zayn whose face lit up. “I’ve never been a part of a squad that wasn’t also a cult hell-bent on ending the world.”

It’d been a month since they’d returned from the nightmare forest, which was apparently how Aelwyn was measuring time now, and for the most part, everything had settled. She and Ragh and Zayn had built a very odd but comfortable friendship, the Bad Kids had decided that she wasn’t going to kill them and had started to relax, and she’d stopped watching everyone out of the corner of her eye, expecting the other shoe to drop.

And important things had started to roll forward as well, like her application for a pardon and citizenship, Adaine’s official adoption, and trying to file the paperwork for their dead dad and unlikely to return mother. Not to mention she’d agreed to do her GED test in June at the end of the school year and after that was done she’d actually have to figure out what she was going to do with her life.

It had been easy before, she was to work for Kalina who would take care of her, get her into some sort of office in the government of Fallinel through her widespread connections. Now Aelwyn had to find some sort of direction by herself.

And at some point, she would need a job, not just a direction. Jawbone had adopted Adaine, he hadn’t adopted Aelwyn and she knew she’d have to start paying her way. Sooner rather than later so they didn’t have to ask. If it got to the point where someone was asking then it was already too far gone of an issue.

The kids had already left for school for the day leaving Aelwyn alone with Lydia.

“I’ll be back in a few hours,” she said as she downed the last of her morning coffee and put the mug in the dishwasher.

“Are you going to Leviathan again?” Lydia asked. While Lydia didn’t really care that much what Aelwyn got up to, she did always ask. And seemed to take special note of when Aelwyn went to Leviathan. Probably because Leviathan was the exact type of place that Aelwyn would want to be in, and probably shouldn’t be if she was going to get her pardon.

“No, just need to take care of some things in town.”

“Well have fun,” Lydia said going back to her crystal.

She went upstairs and grabbed her jacket then teleported to the middle of the woods behind the park. It was quiet all around her and she waited a few seconds just to double-check she was alone before she started walking. It wasn’t a long walk to the little trickle of a stream that had a little one-foot waterfall perfect for hiding things. She rolled up her sleeves and moved aside some rocks before pressing her palm to the smooth stone behind the waterfall and whispering the spell to unlock it. The smooth stone wall spat out a little box that she took out.

Inside were rarer components, things that couldn’t be bought, they had to be collected. Blood, teeth, hair, wedding rings, fabric scraps. She took a small vial of blood that just had an “F” written on it, ignoring everything else, and then replaced the box, sealing it again with the spell.

She’d preserved the vial nearly two years ago now, but it should still serve her purposes as long as she could get to Bastian City in the next day or two now that it was out of the box.

The next day Aelwyn took the train to Bastion City by herself, insisting that she didn’t need a ride when Sandra Lynn offered.

“I promise I’m not running off anywhere,” Aelwyn said when Adaine gave her a worried look. “If I was going to it would make much more sense for me to leave in the middle of the night through the door to Leviathan, and pay my way onto a pirate ship and have them smuggle me wherever I wanted to go instead of telling you all I where I was going.”

“Unless you’re lying about going to Bastion city and then are going to come back and go through the door to Leviathan and do exactly what you just said,” Fig said as she ate her bagel.

Aelwyn glared at her. “Thank you, Figeroth.”

But they let her leave without much more fuss and she took the train down.

She’s only been to the official ambassador’s residence in the city a few times but she knew the way. It was kept because the city was technically the capital but with the concentration of wealth and power in Elmville it had been decades since anyone had bothered living in Bastion City full time as Ambassador. Still, the family had been sent there a few times when there were events in the city and Aelwyn knew what was hidden in the basement.

A little old human woman was making her way out of the condo building and Aelwyn stopped, holding the door and smiling at her softly. “Sweet girl,” the woman said. Aelwyn barely choked back her laugh.

She let herself into the building, bypassing the half-orc at the front desk with a wave and a smile. He looked confused for a moment but didn’t want to stop her. Nice clothes and a confident walk had gotten her into a lot of locked rooms and out of more than a little trouble.

The basement was where the spare storage for the building was, each unit having a small gated-off area where they could keep their bikes or boxes of things they didn’t have a place for upstairs.

It seemed the new ambassador had already put their items in and the lock was in place.

“Should have brought Riz,” she grumbled to herself, taking out her own lock pick set. It took longer than it really should have, but she was a touch out of practice and didn’t want to use magic in case it set off any alarms. High elves had a tendency to forget about nonmagical ways of getting around things but would set alarms for even the slightest bit of magic.

Finally, she got in and went to the back wall, which was half-hidden behind some boxes. She cast an unseen servant to start pushing them aside for her while she pulled the components of the spell out of her bag of holding.

Then, after finding the small dimple in the concrete that her father had used to mark the spot she uncorked the vial of blood and started to draw a sigil on the wall.

When the sigil was complete and then put her hand to the wall and started to whisper the spell. All she had to do was trick her father’s ward into thinking she was him and it would reveal its own box of goodies he’d secreted away from the rest of the family.

After a few minutes of concentration, sweat started to break out on her forehead there was the slightest change to the surface under her hand and when she looked she saw the seam she could open up. Inside was stacks of gold coins, large gems, a few folders of papers, and a key. She swept all of it except the key into her bag of holding, put the key in her jacket pocket, and mended the wall back the way it had been.

The unseen servant moved the boxes back to where they had been, she relocked the gate behind her, and walked quickly back out of the building, wishing the guard a good rest of his day as she did.

A few blocks away she sat on a park table flipping through the papers trying to find out what the key was to. Instead of being anything particularly useful though it was proof of blackmail, paper trails of bad faith agreements. No secret deed to a secret house, no receipt for a safety deposit box. She’d still keep the papers of course, just in case she ever needed a bit of blackmailing done, why throw away good work after all. But other than that her father continued to be very unhelpful.

Unfortunately, the more helpful parent had already cleared out all their secret stores when they’d been on the run trying to end the world.

Aelwyn took herself home, reminding herself that it was still a successful day. She’d gone there only expecting the money and blackmail papers, the extra key was just a thorn in her side. And she could figure it out eventually but it chafed to not know something. Usually, when something was being kept from her she could rationalize that she didn’t care. This she wanted to know about and had no direct way to figure it out.

The next morning she came out of her trance at just before dawn. She knew she had a few more hours before Adaine woke since she’d stayed awake late into the night watching a movie marathon with Zayn. And most everyone else was still fast asleep since they required so much more sleep. It was her chance to get this settled for a while.

Sandra Lynn was in the kitchen, setting up the coffee maker and getting a drink of water. She would be heading out for her morning run in a few minutes which she had invited Aelwyn to join her on, claiming the exercise helped clear her head but Aelwyn had yet to take her up on it. Maybe someday, but not quite yet.

“Morning,” Sandra Lynn said.

Aelwyn sat at the counter and folded her hands carefully. “If you have a moment there’s something I’d like to iron out the details of.”

Sandra Lynn stared at her for a moment before nodding and leaning back against the other counter to look at Aelwyn with a soft look. It reminded Aelwyn of times she would go to Ostentatia’s house and how her father would fix Ostentatia with a look like he could see through her.

 “We haven’t discussed...room and board.”

“For what?”

Aelwyn paused for a moment, caught off guard. “Adaine and myself.”

“Oh. Well, Adaine is Jawbone’s daughter so she doesn't pay rent to live in our house. And you’re her sister so you also don’t pay to live here.” Sandra Lynn smiled and finished her water. “I’m going for a run, do you want to come?”

“No. You’re not my parents I am not your responsibility. If you want to take care of Adaine that is a choice that Jawbone and Adaine have made and I respect that.” She more than respected it. If she thought about it too long she started to cry because Adaine deserved a good man like that for a father. She was good, she should have good people. “But I live in your house and I eat your food and I’m not contributing much of anything at the moment so reasonably speaking the contribution should be monetary.”

Sandra Lynn shook her head. “If you’re that broken up about it make some breakfast. But you don’t have to. Because you don’t owe us anything. You’re family now. Family takes care of each other.”

“I nearly killed you daughter,” Aelwyn said sharply. She was not family. Adaine was in her family, Aelwyn was just the equivalent of taking in a rabid, feral street cat and calling it a pet.

Sandra Lynn turned around, slowly, guilt and pity and a deep sorrow that echoed in Aelwyn’s own soul written across her face. “So did I.” Then she walked out of the room and a few seconds later Aelwyn saw her jog by the front window.

She’d talk to Jawbone then. He had less guilt that she’d have to contend with.

And since she was up she did conjure up an unseen servant to start coffee and breakfast for everyone while she went over the GED requirements for Hudol. Theoretically, it wouldn’t be hard. She was plenty good at any of the spells they could ask of her, but it seemed the months of being trapped in a bubble had taken a toll on her muscle memory, and was having to reteach herself the proper position of her hands.

Jawbone got up before Sandra Lynn was back and he came in, smiled at her still clearly half asleep, and poured himself some coffee before grabbing a piece of toast. “You’re up early,” he said like he did every day.

“Yes, I thought it was best to catch you or Sandra Lynn early before everyone else woke up. I wanted to discuss what I owe you for room and board,” she said carefully. He didn’t have as much guilt but he also tended to be a little too giving.

“Oh, that’s going to be a big fat zero, thanks though.”

“Mr. O’Shawnassy,” she started. “I have the money so there’s no reason to feel as if you need to be careful about the matter. I am an adult who is not under your care living in your home. It only stands to reason that I would pay my fair share.”

Jawbone looked at her for a second before putting the mug of coffee down slowly. “Where did you get the money?”

Aelwyn rolled her eyes. “My father had a small cache of gold and gems that he certainly isn’t going to miss given the fact that he’s rotting into nothingness in the nightmare forest. It will supplement Adaine and I’s needs until I can get a more stable flow of income. A non-crime-based income, promise.”

Jawbone sighed. “You don’t need to worry about any of that. I will take care of you and Adaine. You’re just kids. You’re a legal adult but you’re still just a kid as far as I’m concerned. You don’t owe us anything.”

“If we were to break out the cost of having me live here, that’s not true,” Aelwyn argued.

The front door opened and Sandra Lynn came back in, face bright red and chest heaving. The unseen servant took a break from making toast and started to refill a glass, handing it to Sandra Lynn. “Thank you,” Sandra Lynn said before taking small drinks.

“Family isn’t about breaking even. Your presence here does not need to be justified with money,” Jawbone said.

“Is she still talking about paying us rent?” Sandra Lynn asked, coming to sit next to Jawbone and wiping sweat off her face with the collar of her shirt.

“Oh did she already ask you?” Jawbone asked looking over at Sandra Lynn.

Sandra Lynn nodded. “I told her that kids don’t pay rent.”

“I am not your child. Adaine is your child. Fig is your child. Kristen is your child. I am the spare thing you brought home from the nightmare forest,” Aelwyn snapped.

Sandra Lynn’s face went blank and Jawbone’s mouth started to twitch, trying not to bare his teeth.

“It is not your responsibility to take care of me. It is my job to take care of myself and that means paying rent as an adult,” Aelwyn continued.

Sandra Lynn’s eyes narrowed and Jawbone sighed.

“Okay,” he said, slowly nodding. “One copper piece per month for room and board.”

Sandra Lynn smiled. “That seems steep. That should include anything else she needs. Like gas money for the car, or concert tickets.”

“Oh of course it would include all that and her lawyer fees,” Jawbone agreed.

 “I can pay my own lawyer fees,” Aelwyn argued.

“Oh, no. They’re included in your room and board,” Sandra Lynn said, getting up. “Besides you’re making breakfast.”

“Hardly,” Aelwyn said rolling her eyes.

“I think it counts,” Jawbone said, taking a pointed bit of his toast.

June had come faster than Aelwyn had been prepared for. Ragh was graduating in a few days and then he and Tracker would be off to Fallinel. And Aelwyn had her GED test in the Hudol campus square the next morning.

Adaine was already trancing, having gone to bed early so that she could help Aelwyn with any last-minute preparations in the morning. But Aelwyn couldn’t relax enough to trance.

She was graduating, or as close as she would get now, the next day. She had every confidence that she would pass the test, that wasn’t even a question in her mind. She’d been a talented spell-caster from the time she’d been old enough to enunciate the spells and her life, her journey thus far as Jawbone would say with a laugh and an elbow to her side, had only crafted her into an even better one. She knew spells her teachers didn’t know. She’d certainly lived through more shit than most of them had. The test would be a piece of cake.

But she was graduating and for some reason, beyond any rational answer, she wanted her parents to be there. She wanted them to see what she could do and be proud. But one was dead and the other was wandering aimlessly in a nightmare forest never to escape. They wouldn’t be there. And even if they had been, the likelihood they would have been proud was small. Getting a GED would be embarrassing as opposed to an actual degree. Even if they functioned as the same thing, even if it was their fault for locking her in a torture bubble for months. No, this test would have been something to get over with quickly and move on but she wanted them there. So damn bad.

She got out of bed and went to the bathroom to get a drink of water. For a long time, she stared at herself in the mirror, thinking of how she’d imagined graduation day to be a little better than this. Just something, anything better. At an actual graduation, her parents would have been proud, with their little half-smiles and maybe shaking her hand. She’d imagined it a million times, graduating, going to college, graduating again, and once she got her job in the government that Kalina wanted her to have they’d finally be proud of the person she actually was, instead of just distantly pleased with the person she was pretending to be. She could see it all in her mind’s eye, playing out for her as it had before.

Without thinking she opened the door and went downstairs to the small office where the kids did their homework and Kristen did her crafts. She opened the drawers until she found the components she needed for the potion and then grabbed a bowl from the kitchen and went back to the bathroom, mixing it all up from the memory of doing this when crashing at a few friends' houses. She’d dyed Corey Durden’s hair a nice shade of purple one night when she’d been staying with them and hiding from her parents.

Now she slathered her long hair in the thick black goo and hoped she’d gotten it right.

Half an hour later, after she’d cleaned up all of the potion supplies, she rinsed it out and dried her hair as much as she could so that she could see the true color. It was a deep forest green that made her smile, she didn’t look anything like the her that her parents would have been proud of and this time it was on purpose. And then she laughed.

She’d given Adaine so much shit for not getting into Hudol because of her panic attack and here was Aelwyn having a full-on break down the night before her big test and dying her hair green. It settled something in her, the absurdity of it all, and finally, she was able to crawl into bed and trance.

She was snapped out of her trance by a shout next to her ear. She threw up a shield around herself before she was even really awake. Adaine was standing a few feet away with her hand over her mouth.

“What did you do?”

“What?” Aelwyn asked shaking her head and catching a flash of green. Suddenly she remembered that her hair was no longer blonde. “Oh, my hair?”

“Yeah.”

“I thought the green was a good look,” Aelwyn said with a shrug. She turned to the small alarm clock next to their bunk beds and frowned. She’d tranced later than she’d intended.

“It does. I just...it wasn’t that color last night,” Adaine said, her eyes still wide. “Are you okay?”

“Fine. I’m going to go get some coffee,” Aelwyn said, hopping down from the top bunk.

She ran into Sandra Lynn on the steps. She wasn't dressed for running. “I like the hair.”

“Thanks,” Aelwyn said.

 “You look a lot less like your dad with green hair,” she said quietly.

“That wasn’t what it’s about,” Aelwyn said even though she was smiling wide.

Sandra Lynn smiled and hummed. “Sure.”

Aelwyn shot her a look that made Sandra Lynn laugh as they hit the bottom of the stairs. “There she is! Ready for the test?” Jawbone asked from where he was making breakfast in the kitchen.

“As I’m ever going to be,” she said, gratefully taking the mug of coffee from Sandra Lynn.

“You’re going to do great!”

 There was a quiet knocking on the piano and Aelwyn went out to play the chords to open it up, shaking her head as she did. She was back in the kitchen eating the plate of food Jawbone had given her before Fig had gotten fully out of her room bubble yet.

“Whoa, like the hair,” Ragh said as he came into the kitchen. Apparently, this was why she didn’t trance so late, everyone talked early in the morning in this house.

“I thought I would lean into the rebellious former student look that they must be expecting from me,” she said with a tired smile.

“So here’s the plan,” Jawbone said, half turning around so he could watch the stove and Aelwyn at the same time. “We’re all going to take the car and drive you over before we have to head to Aguefort.”

“And I’ll stay with Baxter outside in the parking lot whenever you’re done,” Sandra Lynn said. “I took the day off work so however long it takes is fine.”

“And then I’m making root pie for dinner to celebrate,” Lydia said with a smile.

“Or commiserate if I fail.”

“You’re not failing,” Zayn said, appearing at her side.

“He’s right. We’ve practiced this. You know what they want to see and you can do it. You’re an excellent wizard,” Adaine said, sitting next to her with a determined look in her eye.

“Overconfidence has bitten me before and it’s not something I plan to repeat,” Aelwyn said. “If I pass I pass, if I don’t I don’t.”

Jawbone put a plate of eggs and toast in front of her. “And if you fail we’ll figure it out. But for now, be a little hopeful. It won’t kill you,” he said with a smile.

 “Fine. I will be hopeful,” she said eating her toast.

And true to the plan, Aelwyn got dressed in a Hudol uniform for the last time, the green of her hair standing out bright against the white shirt. She tried not to stare in the uniform too long, it made her a little sick and gave her a headache she didn’t want to examine.

Jawbone, Sandra Lynn, and Adaine all gave her big hugs before she walked through the large gate to see a collection of professors standing in the courtyard where they would be having her test since they wanted it to be a spectacle for the current students. Aelwyn didn’t know if that was a good sign or a bad sign, but there were kids in uniforms all around the high walls of the school looking down.

“Aelwyn Abernant,” the dean said, giving her a stern look from where he was perched.

“Dean Highwing,” Aelwyn said with a nod of her head and a smile.

“I see you’ve chosen to...change your hair color for the occasion?”

“I thought it was a fitting way to acknowledge the moment,” she said with a tight smile. Gods, these people were grating to talk to.

Dean Highwing, a six-foot-tall owl, shook out his feathers. “I see. Are you ready?”

“Of course.”

“Then let’s begin.”

Six hours later and Aelwyn had a splitting headache. It hurt so bad it was hard to keep her eyes open and fixed on the council of professors who were standing in front of her, each of them frowning deeply. She wondered if that was a good sign or a bad sign.

There was blood leaking slowly from a wound in her shoulder, and her hands were burnt just a little where her shield had gotten a little weak against a fireball. But she was fine and she’d done well, she knew she had from the way the kids had stayed put in their spots the whole day, gasping at just the right moments. She at least had them on her side.

“Aelwyn Abernant. I am pleased to inform you that you have passed and we will be issuing your GED,” Dean Highwing said.

A smile broke out across her face in spite of herself. “Thank you,” she said with a small nod. With a flick of the secretary’s wist a paper appeared in front of Highwing and he scratched his signature into the bottom with one of his talons. He brought it over and nodded solemnly at Aelwyn. It was her GED certificate.

“A copy will also be sent to the office of education as well,” he said quietly.

“Thank you.”

“You are quite talented despite your…outlandishness. If you were interested in calming down your teenage rebellion we do have an opening left by the departure of your mother.”

“It’s been over a year and you haven’t replaced her? That doesn’t sound like very good office management, Dean Highwing.”

His feathers ruffled again. 
 
“Am I free to leave or did you need something else from me?”

“No. Get off my campus.”

“Gladly,” she smiled brightly up at him, turned on her heel, and marched out of the gates for what she hoped was the last time.

True to her word Sandra Lynn was still sitting outside with Baxter when Aelwyn walked out. “I passed,” Aelwyn said, holding up the paper awkwardly in front of her. Before she could do anything else Sandra Lynn pulled her into a tight hug and whispered “I’m proud of you.” Aelwyn’s eyes burned, her head must have hurt worse than she thought.

They climbed up onto Baxter, Aelwyn having to close her eyes tight against the bright shining sun. The nice thing about flying on Baxter was that it was too loud to hear anything, people couldn’t talk on Baxter and so they flew home in silence. By the time they were home Jawbone and the kids were back, or she assumed based on the van sitting in the driveway.

They went inside and Adaine sprung up from the couch to rush over. “I passed,” Aelwyn said again, only to be wrapped up in another hug. This time by Adaine, Jawbone, Ragh, and Zayn.

“I knew you could do it,” Adaine said quietly.

“Good job, kiddo,” Jawbone said.

“Now we’re graduating together!” Ragh said.

Zayn stayed quiet at least.

When she was finally released from the hug she was herded towards the kitchen. “You’re hurt,” Adaine said, finally paying attention to what was in front of her. 
 
“I know,” Aelwyn said, smiling and shrugging. She was having a hard time not wincing away from the lights of the house, or the sounds of people shouting over each other, but she kept it under tight wraps. She hadn’t told Adaine about the headaches that split through her skull every time she got tired. The only people in the house that knew were Ragh and Zayn, and only them because they’d spent one-night comparing war wounds and she’d sworn them to secrecy.

“Kristen,” Adaine said, waving her over.

“I’m fine, really. It’s nothing serious,” Aelwyn said trying to wave them off. A healing wouldn’t fix her headache, no spell or potion she’d found had been able to so much as lessen the pain. The only thing that worked was trancing. “If I could go trance for twenty minutes while you all wrap up dinner I’d be good as new.”

“You should eat,” Sandra Lynn said. “I was watching through the gate and it didn’t seem like you stopped for lunch.”

“Just another reason why I should trance,” Aelwyn said with a tight smile.

“Food first,” Lydia said, setting down a plate of elven waybread in front of her. It looked new and was warm when Aelwyn picked it up. “The pie will be done in an hour or so.”

A shot of cold went through Aelwyn as Zayn passed a hand through her head, the cold numbing the pain for a second that almost made her collapse in relief.

“Have you thought about what you’re going to do now?” Sandra Lynn asked as she sat down next to Aelwyn and tore off a piece of the waybread. “This is better than home, Lydia.”

Aelwyn’s head was pounding and she didn’t really want to have this conversation right now. She was still too lost, too confused to think about a proper plan for her life, and the idea of admitting that made her skin crawl. But these people were paying her bills so she sucked it up. “I don’t think I want to go to college if that’s what you’re asking. Not right now anyway.” She didn’t look over to see Adaine staring at her with wide eyes but she could feel it.

“Oh yeah?” Sandra Lynn asked.

“Yeah. I think I’m gonna get a job. Figure some shit out first before I start throwing money at a university,” she said, forcing herself to take a bite of the bread as the pain returned.

“Well, let me know if you need help. I’m still friends with the guy who runs the Black Pit. They might have an opening,” Jawbone said, a smile in his voice. Aelwyn felt something unwind in her back. They weren’t mad. Her parents would have been furious, the kind of furious that came with punishments that lasted years. Even just for mentioning the idea.

“You’d make a hell of a bouncer,” Sandra Lynn said with a laugh.

Aelwyn smiled at her, and Sandra Lynn smiled back, wide and happy and a little bit proud.

“And with your partying days I’d say you probably know how to make a mixed drink or two,” Jawbone said. “And if not you’d be able to learn a few recipes no problem.”

“Well if your friend has an opening I would gladly take it,” Aelwyn said.

“I’ll text him, not a bad guy to work for. No benefits though,” Jawbone said with a shrug.

“I suppose I’ll have to learn some healing spells after all,” Aelwyn said with a smile. She didn’t want to look at Adaine who wouldn’t be mad, but she might be confused and Aelwyn wasn’t sure she could deal with that right then.

A few days later was the Aguefort graduation where Ragh was getting his diploma. The whole house went except Aelwyn who stuck around and prepared for the party. She was the one to greet the other parents who were arriving to celebrate as well as Ragh’s more extended family members. She was also in charge of making sure none of the food that Jawbone and Lydia had started before they’d left burned, which was a full-time job as the whole kitchen was full of cooking food.

She and the unseen servant hung banners and streamers, stirred soups at regular intervals, made sure that everyone already there had their choice of drink, and went through the house to make sure that all the doors that should be closed were.

Eventually, though Aelwyn heard the roar of the Hangman, followed by the strangely cheerful rumbling of the Hangvan’s engine, and then finally a normal engine that had everyone else in it. Then the front door burst open with Ragh in his graduation cap first, followed by the rest of the gang. “Thank you for watching everything,” Jawbone said quietly, going to the kitchen and inspecting her work on the food.

When Ragh finished being hugged and picked up by his family members he went to her and picked Aelwyn up in a big hug. “I’m so sorry I had to miss it, darling,” Aelwyn said as she hugged him back.

“No big deal,” he said before stuffing a spare graduation cap on top of her head. “I missed yours.”

The party was loud and happy and filled with hugs and tears. Even as it wound down people didn’t stop smiling, patting Ragh on the back and telling them how proud they were. It made her proud to see it. Ragh was a good man and he deserved the attention and accolades.

He and Tracker were leaving the next day, which sucked. They were headed off to Fallinel to fix Galicaea, which Aelwyn kept telling Ragh was great, it was important. But she didn’t want him to go. He had easily wormed his way into her heart and she didn’t know if she had it in her to say goodbye.

But she would, she’d smile the whole time and tell him to send her lots of pictures. And she’d be here when he got back. If he came back. Fallinel was a wonderful place, even if their only exposure to the country had been the admittedly weird Kei Lummenera. Maybe he’d fall in love with Fallinel and stay. Though his mother was in Solace, so he’d have to visit sometime. It wasn’t the last time she’d see her friend, she reassured herself.

Fig, and the rest of the Bad Kids, had no sense of self-preservation. Aelwyn was sure of that. They were in the kitchen, studying some documents and maps of some sort when she’d found them that morning. But then Fig had stood up and said “We should just go to their place and take a look around. Like we did with Johnny Spells.”

“That didn’t exactly go well,” Adaine pointed out.

“Yeah, but we got the palimpsest,” Riz countered.

“And got into a race that nearly killed us,” Gorgug said

“I also got the hangman out of it,” Fabian argued.

“Where are you all trying to go?” Aelwyn cut in before this became a rehashing of their adventure against Johnny Spells which gave her a headache every time she remembered that creep.

“That mobster Crawshank has a connection to the Night Yorb,” Riz said. “He might have been in possession of the orb that is linked to the Yorb at some point. Might even still have it.”

“Joey Crawshank?” Aelwyn asked, her blood going cold. She’d had a lot of dealings with Crawshank’s gang. They were real deal dangerous.

“Yeah,” Fig said.

“Absolutely not,” Aelwyn said, shaking her head. “That man will turn you inside out with a look.”

“Oh come on,” Kristen said, shaking her head and smiling. “He can’t be that bad.”

Aelwyn fixed her with a flat look. “You misunderstand me, Applebees. I’ve seen him turn someone inside out with a look. You’ll all be dead before you get anywhere near whatever you’re looking for.”

Kristen’s grin fell. “Oh.”

The whole group was quiet for a while and Aelwyn thought she might have actually gotten through.

“Then just one of us should break in and take pictures of the documents, he’s bound to have ledgers,” Riz said.

“What part of absolutely not did you not understand?”

“The part where you’re not my mother,” Riz shot back.

“I can call her and let her know about this if you like,” Aelwyn snapped.

“Oh my god is this what having a sibling is like?” Riz said, rolling his eyes. “We can take care of ourselves.”

“Splitting up probably is a bad idea though, Riz,” Gorgug said.

“Have any of you considered that I, a former member of the criminal underworld of this stupid town, may possess information on these people that is beyond your reach and you should consider?” Aelwyn argued. 
 
“What do you think we should do?” Gorgug asked.

“Finally. There’s a reason you’re my favorite, Gorgug,” Aelwyn said rolling her eyes. “If you want information on anything Crawshank is doing you should talk to his son. He’s an idiot, easy to intimidate, and if you ask enough questions about things you don’t care about, he reports back to his father that you’re looking for something you don’t actually care about and you get good information that doesn’t change as soon as he gets back to the compound.”

“That’s actually helpful,” Riz said.

“Thank you. I especially appreciate the tone of surprise,” Aelwyn said, rolling her eyes.

“How do we get ahold of him?” Adaine asked.

“You don’t. Aren’t you on summer vacation?”

“Yeah, but a good mystery-” Riz started.

“Please don’t finish that sentence,” Aelwyn cut him off. She looked at all the expectant faces turned to her and sighed. “Fine. I will reach out to him and we will all go talk to Jarret.” She turned around and started heading upstairs to get her things. “This is exactly how I wanted to spend my day off.”

She sent a sending out to Jarret who agreed to meet her at the mall, in the bowling alley which had been his present from his father to manage as a front for their work. She dragged the rest of the kids with her, telling them all to relax and don’t look too interested in the place but also not interested in him.

“You run with a crew now?” Jarret asked as Aelwyn walked in.

“They entertain me,” she said as she went to the counter, leaning up against it towards him casually.

“Kids.”

“I was younger than them when you and I first met,” Aelwyn said with a grin.

Jarret smiled and shrugged. “Somehow I don’t think they’re as tough as you were,” he said before throwing a knife at Kristen. Aelwyn threw up a shield around all of the kids and glared at him.

“You’ve been out of the game for months and you come back with a new crew that you spend a spell to protect?” Jarret sneered at Aelwyn. “I never thought I’d see the day when Aelwyn Abernant went soft.”

Aelwyn’s smile faded and before she’d thought it through she’d already shot a spell at him, hitting him square in the chest and knocking him a step back, leaving him doubled over and gasping for air. “Say it again,” she said calmly.

“What are you doing?” Adaine asked in a message.

“Say it. Again,” Aelwyn repeated, taking a step around the counter and towards Jarret. She pulled her knife from her belt and tipped his chin up to look her in the eye with the end. His eyes were wide and panicked, knowing he wasn’t going to be able to say anything because his throat had closed up along with necrotic energy flooding his body and sapping his life from him. “Say it.”

All he managed was a faint croak mouthing something that looked close to “I’m sorry.”

“My crew is mine to kill or protect as I see fit, and if you raise a hand to them we’re going to have problems. Do not forget who I am because I have been settling business elsewhere. Your daddy can’t protect you from me anymore now than he could two years ago,” Aelwyn growled.

He nodded quickly.

“Good,” she said, standing and cutting his chin a little as she took away the knife. She dispelled the curse.

He took a deep gasping breath. “What do you want to know?”

“Have you considered going back to Fallinel?” Aelwyn said suddenly, staring up at the ceiling. The kids had spent their day visiting the Astral State College and Aelwyn hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it. 

“Why would I go back there?” Adaine asked, from her bed below.

“Because, dear sister, there are good universities that you could attend. And as the elven oracle, you wouldn’t have to worry about paying for them. Starshadow University has an Oracle College that would be quite fitting for you,” Aelwyn said, closing her eyes and trying not to let the fact that she was crying slip into her voice.

“They kidnapped me.”

“Yes, but if you go willingly they won’t have to kidnap you and trap you in a bubble will they?” Aelwyn said, trying to sound annoyed and exasperated. Fallinel really did have the best schools for Adaine and just because Aelwyn could never leave Solican borders again didn’t mean her sister had to stay so confined. There were crystals and letters and spells if they wanted to stay in touch.

“Would I ever be able to leave again?” Adaine asked, sounding as irritated as Aelwyn was trying to.

“It’s not as if the Oracle couldn’t travel and once they thought you were cooperating they’d relax,” Aelwyn said. Maybe she’d even be allowed to come back to Solace in a hundred years or so, to visit Aelwyn. They were elves, what was a hundred years to eternity?

There was a shuffling below and Aelwyn quickly wiped her eyes before Adaine’s head popped up a few seconds later. “Do you really think so?”

“Of course. Eventually.” She patted her sister on the cheek in a way that was just a touch condescending. “We aren’t humans, you have the time. And your friends could visit.” 

“You couldn’t.”

Aelwyn shrugged. “I assume you’ll learn the teleport spell eventually, dear sister. It’s really not that difficult.”

Adaine started to crawl up onto the bed and Aelwyn sighed as she moved aside to make room.

“It’s not like I can visit you on the Astral Plane or anywhere outside of Solace without risking being arrested by Fallinel. And I’m not going to ask you to stay here just so I can come see your dorm room. I don’t care that much,” Aelwyn said, rolling her eyes. She cared very very very much. She wanted to see the dumb dorm room, hang pictures on the wall and bring her sister food when she worked herself into the ground. She wanted to be a big sister, she’d fucked it up for so long and she was just now starting to figure it out. “And if our mother ever got out of the forest she is still a wanted criminal in Fallinel. She couldn’t come bother you.”

“I can handle our mother.”

“You know outside of nightmare forests people tend to frown upon murdering people.”

They were silent a long time. “Are you worried about the money?” Adaine asked.

Aelwyn shrugged. “Downside of living forever is that there's never a point where the debt just goes away. Your principal told you that.”

Adaine shrugged. “If it ever got bad I could just go rob a dragon.”

“Didn’t you just deal with that curse?”

Adaine shrugged. “I’m not going back to Fallinel.” 

“You should consider it.”

“No. We can figure out the money and the -”

“Adaine. You didn’t have a choice in being the Elven Oracle and you can say that’s unfair, but you also have a job that you need to tend to. You can’t just ignore it, especially not if you want to be the oracle for everyone as you say. And that means attending the best schools for it. You can’t hold yourself back just because -”

“Of trauma?”

“Sometimes you have to stuff down our feelings and do the thing that serves your goal,” Aelwyn said. 

Adaine was quiet for a while, staring at the bedspread. “You’re talking like you did before,” she said quietly. 

“Well, you could use some of what I had before. You’re too soft to survive this world.”

“It’s not as bad as you think it is.”

“Yes, it is exactly as bad as I think it is. And you won’t always have your friends to protect you. Sometime very soon you will be on your own and if something happens to you because I didn’t prepare you I…” Aelwyn trailed off because if something happened to Adaine she didn’t know what she would do. “I have failed you enough, I won’t fail you in this.”

Adaine shook her head. 

“I’m not saying you have to. But I am saying it’s the smart choice. And it’s what I would do if I were you,” Aelwyn said.

“So not going is the stupid choice.”

Aelwyn rolled her eyes. “It doesn’t make it the wrong choice to not go to Fallinel. There are more factors in this world than smart. But don’t throw away options for no reason.” Aelwyn grabbed Adaine’s hand and squeezed. “Just put it on the list.” 

“Why us?” Katja asked suddenly, staring at Aelwyn. She had just come in for a fresh cup of coffee and then would go back to the Wizard’s Tower but apparently, none of the kids knew how to leave the kitchen and go somewhere else because all of the Bad Kids and the Seven were standing in the kitchen drinking soda and passing around six different bags of chips.

The girls had just returned from their mission against the Gorgon Queen and they were all hanging out comparing stories to the boys who had gone to their first Durden party and were pretty proud of how cool they were now. Ragh had told Aelwyn and Zayn the whole story a few days before, the day after it had happened and Aelwyn had spent a good long while laughing at them. Robbing their vice principal/mother’s boyfriend was bad enough, but it was exactly their luck that something would go wrong during stealth mode to bring back Chungledown Bim.

“She’s not gonna give you a real answer,” Ostentatia said with a glare at Aelwyn.

“She’s right. I’m notoriously untrustworthy,” Aelwyn said with a smirk.

“No, I wanna know,” Antiope said, her voice cutting through a little like she didn’t expect Aelwyn to actually disobey and leave anyway. It made something in Aelwyn want to stand up a little straighter but also walk out the door.

“Why? Will it make you feel better if I tell you some sob story about you all just being in the wrong place at the wrong time?” Aelwyn asked, rolling her eyes.

“You don’t have to antagonize them,” Adaine scolded.

“Is it so wrong that they want to know why you trapped them in a crystal? I know why I was taken but…” Zelda asked, and Aelwyn had a soft spot for her. The quiet girl who was filled with a wild rage, Aelwyn had a hard time not caving when Zelda asked for something.

“Fine. Zelda, you know why you were taken. Tough luck, falling for Gorgug, though it seems to have evened out by now,” Aelwyn said, leaning back against the doorjamb between the kitchen and the living room. Gorgug glared at her but Aelwyn shrugged it off. “Antiope, you were taken because your family is a little too good at what they do and there’s no better way to break a family than taking a child. Penny, you’re a snoop who kinda freaked out Kalvaxas and he was certain would find him out. Katja, your father has so many enemies that kidnapping you was about disguising the kidnappings of the others as maybe something related to his enemies. And Danielle, you were a threat to the hoard with your little anarchist schtick. There everyone feel better?”

“What about me?” Sam asked, glare sharp and focused on Aelwyn.

“I honestly don’t know. Because Everpettle’s a huge bitch?” Aelwyn shrugged.

“And me?” Ostentatia asked.

“Because I’m a huge bitch?” Aelwyn said with a smile before she turned out of the room, ignoring the yelling following her.

Eventually, she did get to come down from the Wizard’s tower again because the Seven and everyone else who didn’t live there had left. Now it was three in the morning and she and Zayn were the only ones up. They were sitting in the living room, the TV turned down low and watching the latest episode of Solace’s Next Top Model when there was a knock at the door.

“I’ll check,” Zayn said, standing up and going invisible as he disappeared through the wall to the front of the house. He came back a second later, just his voice saying, “It’s Ostentatia.”

“What could she possibly want?” Aelwyn asked mostly to herself, getting up and opening the front door.

“The truth this time. Why me?” Ostentatia asked, barging into the house.

“Please come in,” Aelwyn said, rolling her eyes and shutting the door behind her. “What are you talking about?”

“Why did you take me?” Ostentatia asked, her eyes looked wet and red like she’d been crying but was too angry to let them fall.

“I told you earlier: I’m a huge bitch.”

“That’s not a real answer. That’s not an answer that the Aelwyn I knew would have been satisfied with,” Ostentatia said, getting in Aelwyn’s face. 
 
It wasn’t the real answer. Aelwyn had been told to take Ostentatia off the table because Ostentatia was the person in the world who saw Aelwyn as a whole. She didn’t just see the bitchy sister, dutiful daughter, or wild child partier. She saw all of Aelwyn and accepted her. And worst of all if Aelwyn had told her what was happening, if she’d confessed to Ostentatia then Ostentatia would have found her a way out of it. She would have managed it somehow, by some miracle. And that made her a threat to the plan so Aelwyn had been ordered to lock her away. And because Aelwyn lacked any kind of real backbone when it mattered she’d caved and done it.

“It’s the truth,” Aelwyn said, rolling her eyes.

 “And our friendship didn’t mean anything?”

“Our friendship, if that’s what you want to call it, was the reason. You trusted me Ostentatia and that made you weak and vulnerable and blind. You believed me, you trusted me, and it made you a target,” Aelwyn snapped at her.

Ostentatia stared at her for a moment, her face morphing into rage. “So it’s my fault for trusting my friend?”

“It’s your fault for not realizing that I don’t have friends,” Aelwyn shot back. “Now get out of my house.”

“They should have left you in that forest,” Ostentatia said, turning around and stomping out the front door. Aelwyn caught it just before it slammed so that it wouldn’t wake anyone.

She sighed deeply and turned to Zayn who was silently watching her. “What?” she asked, suddenly tired and flopping onto the couch.

“Nothing. Sometimes I forget how good of a liar you are is all.”

 “Shut up and press play.”

Aelwyn leaned over the railing of the stairs outside her room and yelled “Ragh! Are you here?”

“Kitchen!” he yelled back immediately.

She grabbed her bag and crystal and headed downstairs. There was a part of her that always delighted in the yelling through the house. It hadn’t been allowed in her house as a kid, if you wanted to talk to someone you just found them you didn’t yell to see where they were. Yelling felt like a family on TV, like loving each other was easier in a glossy world where the biggest bad was a math test someone failed, and you could yell to see if your sibling was downstairs.

She hit the bottom of the steps with a spring in her step and turned towards the kitchen. “Can I–“ she started and then cut herself off when she entered the kitchen and saw Ragh leaning against the counter towards his boyfriend. “Corey Durden.”

“Aelwyn Abernant,” Corey said with a smirk. “Been a while.”

She smiled wide, walking up and wrapping him in a hug. “Someone stopped inviting me to hang out.”

“Since when do you need an invitation?” he asked, squeezing her tight.

“It’s these damn kids I live with these days, they keep insisting I learn manners,” she said with a laugh, pulling away to get a good look at him. Because of the mind reset she’d done, to her it had been a little over six months since she’s seen him, but in reality, it’d been much longer and she could see it on him. He was taller, with a new beard, and a new tattoo on his arm.

“They were invited to the party a few weeks ago but I don’t remember you there.”

“Yes, but if I had gone with them I would have had to help them get the booze. And it was much funnier to hear the story of them trying to rob their vice principal,” Aelwyn said with a laugh.

“What were we supposed to do?” Ragh asked, shaking his head.

“Door to a pirate island, dear heart,” Aelwyn said, shaking her head. “Anyway, can I borrow your car?”

“For what?” he asked, already taking out his key ring and starting to remove the car key.

“There’s some concert at work tonight that Zayn said gets pretty intense so I want to have the extra spell energy in case things break bad,” she explained, leaning up against the counter. Zayn was coming later, and more than likely it would be fine, but she liked to conserve her spell energy where she could.

“Where do you work?” Corey asked.

“Bartender at the Black Pit, Jawbone hooked me up with the job. He was right; management isn’t so bad but the benefits suck.”

Ragh tossed her the key.

“Thank you, darling. I promise to only set it on fire a little bit,” she said with a grin. She had, at one point, set his car on fire while borrowing it. She’d mended it, and it had been fine, but it’d taken a few weeks before he’d forgiven her enough to let her drive again.

“Or not at all,” he said with a smile.

“I expect you at my birthday party,” Corey said, stopping her for a second to turn around again.

“And when is this mysterious birthday party?”

“Saturday night. The lumber mill over on Fir.”

“Did they shut it down?”

“Barkstock did, by making a giant tree grow out of the middle of the floor.”

Aelwyn laughed, loudly throwing her head back. Sometimes she loved Danielle. “Yeah, that sounds like her. I’ll be there.”

**

Aelwyn arrived outside the old mill around ten o’clock, and it was dead silent, with not a car parked outside. She let herself through the gate and continued forward, a wary bit of anxiety going over her as she did. She prepared a small shield, and readier herself in case she needed to shoot lightning. But one step to the next cars appeared and loud music and lights were coming from the factory. She turned around and looked at the barrier to see if she could spot it and found herself impressed. Jessie’s illusion magic had certainly improved.

She walked past a few people smoking outside that she didn’t recognize off the bat, but she also wasn’t trying too hard. She’d spent most of her time at these parties so drunk or high that she may have partied with those people a hundred times and not recognize them.

Inside there was indeed a large tree growing out of the center of the floor, six feet across at least, and reaching up and breaking through the ceiling thirty feet above. Near the trunk some office chairs and a couch had been gathered, as well as a table laid out with different bottles and a keg to the side. “The late great Aelwyn Abernant,” Jessie said as she approached the group on the couch. Corey and the rest of his adventuring party were there as well as Ragh.

“In the flesh,” she said, accepting his hug and the kiss on the cheek. She and Jessie had hooked up a few times and it was easy for her to relax into their casual affection. “And for you,” she said, handing Corey the bottle of Goliath wine she’d gotten from the Baronies a few days before. Leaving the borders of Solace was dangerous for her since Fallinel had gotten it in their minds that kidnapping one Abernant was a good way to get the other and without the backing of Solace she was vulnerable. But it’d been a quick trip and the Council of Stars was unlikely to be looking for her in a liqueur shop at the base of the Chaos Mountains.

“Oh is this the shit you brought me last time?” he asked, uncorking it.

 “Yes, it is,” she said, plopping herself into an office chair next to them and summoning an unseen servant to get her a beer. The last time they’d drank it everyone had been drunk well into the next day and nothing had cured the hangover that had followed each of them for nearly a week.

He gave her a look before he took a long drink. The party was just getting started.

An hour later and the party had reshuffled. The Bad Kids had arrived and undergone their hazing. A small blood sacrifice with little mines in the floor to give them a scare every time someone cut their hand and said the nonsense that Corey and Tiarella had made up back in their freshman year when they’d decided that new people coming to their adventuring party’s parties needed to prove that they could hang. It had always been Aelwyn’s favorite, Tiarella was an artificer and she always made the bombs with little colors that exploded so beautifully.

The bombs had scared Ayda so badly that she shot a bolt of fire at the first one.

Now Aelwyn was on the couch, a little bit tipsy and thinking about cutting herself off so that when she tried to teleport home they didn’t end up in the middle of the ocean.

“Why, really?” Corey asked as he sat down next to her. Or more plopped. The Goliath wine had made him a little loose-limbed.

“Why really what?” Aelwyn asked, laughing at the serious look on his face.

“Why didn’t you come to the party with Ragh and your sister’s friends?”

Aelwyn turned away from him and looked out into the party. Zayn was dancing, Adaine and her little friends were huddled in a corner talking, Ragh was arm-wrestling Cagan, Jessie was drumming on the mill equipment to the delight of a small group of people. None of the Seven were there. Though there had been a time when Ostentatia and Sam both wouldn’t have missed Corey Durden’s birthday party. They were great parties, always. “I’ve known you a long time, Corey. And I’ve seen you forgive a lot of people for a lot of things. Disloyalty was never one of them.”

Corey put an arm around Aelwyn. “You wanna know another thing I don’t forgive people for?” he asked a little too close to her ear.

“What?”

“Using their children as soldiers,” Corey said, pulling her close.

“I was hardly a child soldier,” Aelwyn said, tears burning the back of her eyes. Gods, living at Mordred Manor was making her soft if she was going to cry all the damn time now.

“You weren’t an adult,” Corey said.

“That doesn’t matter.”

 “Maybe not to you and maybe not to Ostentatia. But to me it does,” Corey said. “Now drink and catch up.” He handed her the bottle of Goliath wine and she took a long drink.

**

Aelwyn woke up with a splitting headache and a revolting stale taste in her mouth. Rolling over made her nauseous and the small amount of sunlight coming in through the window made her wince. It’d been ages since she’d woken up this hungover and it felt like shit.

Quietly, she climbed down from her bunk, dug around in her drawer until she found the small potion vials she’d been looking for, and snuck them down with her, downing one as she went down the stairs. Immediately her hangover dissipated.

In the kitchen Sandra Lynn, Jawbone, and Lydia were all sitting at the table grinning at her coming in. Their smiles faded when they saw she wasn’t hungover. “How? I heard you all come in last night,” Lydia said, shaking her head and laughing.

“Oh, I’m sorry we didn’t mean to wake you,” Aelwyn said with a shrug.

Ragh and Corey came in next, and Corey put a hand out. “Don’t let me down now, Abernant,” he mumbled, though it was barely intelligible.

She put a potion vial in his hand and rolled her eyes. He downed it back and then sighed. “I gave you the recipe,” she said shaking her head and giving the last one to Ragh. The kids would just have to suffer.

“And I have a bunch of them at home but someone didn’t teleport us to my house,” Corey said with a grin, taking the cup of coffee that Ragh poured for him.

“No one was stopping you from teleporting to your house after I brought us home.”

“Why are you all being so loud?” Fabian asked as he, Riz, Max, and Gorgug came into the kitchen from where they’d all fallen asleep in the living room.

“How are you not hungover?” Max asked, glaring at them. “Oh shit, Jawbone.”

“Not on duty,” Jawbone said putting up his hands.

“If you party as hard and as often as us you don’t get hungover anymore, I’ve told you this,” Corey said with a shrug.

“That might be true. My father was never hungover,” Fabian said from where he was resting his head on the cool stone of the counter. Ragh gave him a cup of coffee too.

“Being hungover would require a level of sobriety that I’m not sure your father ever reached,” Aelwyn pointed out.

“Aelwyn,” Sandra Lynn scolded.

“What? I’d met him a few times and he never seemed sober to me. Which is fine. The man was a pirate living on land, could we really expect him to be sober all the time?”

“He was...usually at least a little drunk or high,” Fabian conceded.

“For the love of Cassandra, shut up,” Fig said, stumbling into the kitchen. Aelwyn rolled her eyes and summoned an unseen servant to start some breakfast.

“That’s what you get for sleeping in the living room,” Zayn pointed out, sitting at the counter next to Aelwyn.

“I was in my room.”

“Your room is the living room,” Zayn said, shaking his head.

Kristen was the next to stumble in, then Adaine who was wearing a pair of sunglasses that no doubt came out of her jacket. “How?” she said after a moment, looking at Ragh, Aelwyn, and Corey who were all totally fine.

“Practice,” Aelwyn said with a shrug.

“They took a potion,” Sandra Lynn said, shaking her head.

“You’re no fun,” Aelwyn whined dramatically.

“I know,” she said with a shrug.

“You have a hangover potion this whole time?” Max snapped at Corey, shoving him and making Corey sway a little. He was a little shorter than his younger brother but he certainly had more mass. And was always braced for a fight.

“Technically it’s Aelwyn’s.”

“By that logic, it’s my father’s,” Aelwyn laughed.

“Our father gave you a potion for hangovers?” Adaine asked, her face screwed up in confusion.

“Oh, gods no. I stole his spellbook when he was trancing a few times and took out whatever I wanted,” Aelwyn said, laughing. “He had far more potions in there than spells. Which reminds me I have a potion for panic attacks if you ever want it. I know you get your meds from the jacket but in case they ever decide not to provide their services.”

“He had a potion for panic attacks and I’m just finding out about this now?” Adaine asked, her anger seemed to have burned her hangover away.

“He didn’t use it. He got it from our grandmother because the panic attacks are passed down,” Aelwyn shrugged.

“Why don’t you get them?” Adaine asked, distracted for a moment.

“I’ve had one or two, but I never developed the fear of them like you and father did” Aelwyn explained.

“But our father got them?”

“Yeah, but instead of taking the potion, he preferred to avoid the things that triggered his panic attacks, which happened to be casting magic. That’s why he rarely cast a spell above a second level,” Aelwyn said with a shrug.

“How do you know all of this?”

Aelwyn laughed. “I kept a detect thoughts running on our parents constantly pretty much since I learned how to cast the spell.”

“Why?”

“How else would I learn these things? Or just to say the right thing at breakfast,” Aelwyn laughed again and shrugged.

Jawbone cocked his head to the side. “Do you do that to us?” he asked, gesturing to him and Sandra Lynn. The whole room went still, all eyes on Aelwyn.

Aelwyn froze for half a beat, uncertain about whether or not to lie. Jawbone hated lying but a detect thoughts was a big bit of spying. She opened her mouth to say “no” but something tightened in her chest, shooting a headache through her mind, and then she said “yes.”

For a second she froze, it was familiar this feeling and it made her a little sick. She tried to say that her hair was naturally green, but instead, it came out “My hair is naturally blonde.” Zone of truth. She was going to kill Kristen.

Aelwyn turned to see Kristen trying to suppress a laugh, and her anger flared hotter. “You want some truth Applebees?”

“Aelwyn,” Adaine said in a warning tone.

The smile on Kristen’s face faltered for a second.

“Your parents are going to hell and unless something drastic happens so are your brothers,” Aelwyn sneered but barely got it out before Fig punched her in the mouth.

Aelwyn stumbled back a bit.

“No fighting!” Sandra Lynn yelled.

“You want some truth too, Figeroth? Someday your precious Ayda is going to die and forget you and all you’ll be is a note in her story and that’s if you rate getting in the notes,” Aelwyn spat at her. 

Adaine shoved her that time. “Stop it.”

“She want-”

“Stop!” Adaine shouted, glaring at her.

Aelwyn glared back then turned out of the kitchen. She didn’t go up to the wizards' tower where she knew Adaine would follow to yell at her. She also didn’t want to go anywhere else because she had nowhere else to go. It wasn’t like when things had gotten too stressful at home and she could go hide with Ostentatia or at Corey’s. Corey was downstairs and had just witnessed her near meltdown, and Ostentatia would rather kill her herself than give her a safe place to hide.

Instead, she let herself out of a window and crawled up the side of the house until she was on the roof. It wasn’t ideal, Ragh and Zayn still knew she liked to hang out up there. But Ragh was busy and Zayn would give her the time to breathe. 

She stayed up there for a while, in her pajamas and basking in the sun, purposefully trying not to think about what she’d done. Or admitted to having done before.

But when the time the sun was high in the sky Jawbone was the one to crawl up next to her.

“I need to get better at hiding from you people,” she grumbled as he sat next to her.

“Yeah. This was my last hope, if you left the house we’d have been fucked trying to find you,” Jawbone said, stretching out in the sun next to her.

“I know what you’re going to say,” Aelwyn said with a sigh.

“That seems unlikely, knowing you,” Jawbone said.

“You want me to apologize to Kristen.”

Jawbone was quiet for a while. “I do. But that was going to come at the end of the conversation.”

“You had something else you wanted to say first?”

“Yeah…I’m sorry.”

 Aelwyn’s eyes shot open and she looked over at him, but he seemed earnest and honest.

“I shouldn’t have asked you about the spell in front of everyone, that should have been a private conversation,” Jawbone explained.

Aelwyn was quiet for a long while, staring out at the city. “I don’t do it all the time. Not like I did with my parents. Just…sometimes you clearly want something and I don’t know how to give it to you.”

“I want your honesty,” Jawbone said. Like it was simple. Like it wasn’t some trick to trap her. And maybe, she admitted to herself, it wasn’t a trap. Maybe he really thought he meant it. 

“You think that. But isn’t it nicer when the answer you wanted is the answer you got?”

“Not if it’s not true.”

“It’s not hurting anyone.”

 “I suppose that depends on the type of questions you’re using it on.”

“Are you asking?”

Jawbone hesitated. “Yes. I am. Please don’t cast a spell on me to figure out what I want you to say.”

Aelwyn sighed and didn’t cast it. “I use it for things like what I want for dinner. And whether I need help with a spell. Or if I want a ride to the lawyer’s office.”

Jawbone stared at her for a second shaking his head. “You’re using it for things I genuinely don’t care about the answer to.”

“But you do. You don’t even know it. You want me to say that I want your chili for dinner. You want me to not need help with the spell because you don’t actually know how to help and not being able to help makes you feel weird. You do want to give me a ride to the lawyer’s office because you want to be supportive and show me that I’m not alone in this fight. They matter to you so I just tell you what you want.” 

Jawbone put his paws over his eyes and sighed. “But they’re not important.”

“I know the answers to the important things. I already know you want me to tell Sandra Lynn her hair looks nice, and I already know you want me to help Adaine and Zayn with their homework, and I know you want me to say yes when you ask me if I’m happy here.”

Jawbone got quiet again and Aelwyn knew she’d said too much.

“Look-”

“When I ask you if you’re happy here I want an honest answer. Have you been lying to spare our feelings?”

Aelwyn shut her eyes, tears burning at them. “I don’t know. And I can’t tell you that when you look at me like it’s important whether or not I’m happy.”

“It is important.”

“It’s not. It’s important that Adaine is happy. And that my being here, most of the time, makes her happy. To be honest… I don’t know that I can be happy the way the rest of you can. I don’t know how to be loved, Jawbone. And that’s all any of you do you tell each other you love each other every twenty minutes and it is baffling. And it makes me uncomfortable because I don’t like things I can’t understand. But it doesn’t hurt and I have to take that to mean something too. And sometimes, sometimes I am happy. But sometimes someone casts a spell on me in the kitchen and I remember who I am,” Aelwyn ranted, shaking her head and trying to hide her face so that he couldn’t see her crying. 

Jawbone’s hand moved like he was going to put it on her shoulder before he thought better of it. She sighed and grabbed his hand, putting it on her shoulder. It was heavy and just as disconcerting as it was comforting.

 “It’s fine.”

 “I don’t think it is,” he said, patting her twice before taking his hand away. “So you’re not unhappy. But you’re not happy. And you think that the person you are when you’re hurt and scared and feeling vulnerable and betrayed is the person you truly are, deep down?”

“Don’t use your therapist voice on me, please. Yes. And it’s true. Who we are when we’re hurt is who we are deep down. It is our truest selves. I hurt Adain-”

“You’re wrong.”

“What? No, I’m not.”

“You are. You’re completely wrong. The person we are when we’re hurt is a facet of who we are. And what you did downstairs was over the line. And so is casting spells on people to try to give them the right answer to innocuous questions. But that just means you made a mistake. It doesn’t mean you’re destined to hurt everyone you come in contact with. You apologize and move on.” 

“But here’s the honest truth of it. I’m not upset with myself because I did something wrong. I’m upset that I did it publicly and got caught. I don’t feel bad for what I said to Kristen she had it coming. I don’t feel bad for detecting your thoughts to answer your questions correctly. I don’t feel guilty for any of it,” Aelwyn said, shaking her head. 

Jawbone looked at her and shrugged. “Okay.”

“And even if I did, which I don’t. I’m not any good at apologies, I don’t know how to do them. I don’t understand the point even,” Aelwyn shook her head, trying to explain this disconnect.

Jawbone shook his head. “I don’t think that’s true. I don’t believe for one second that there’s a thing in this world that you would not be good at if you decided you wanted to be.”

“They don’t mean anything.”

“Not if you don’t mean them.” Jawbone stood and stretched. “I’m going back inside.”

Aelwyn nodded and watched him go, speaking when his head was just about to disappear over the edge. “I’m not sorry. But I won’t do it again. Detect thoughts on you or Sandra Lynn or Lydia.” 

Jawbone grinned. “I appreciate that.”

A few days later Aelwyn found herself standing outside of Aguefort Adventuring Academy waiting for the final bell. She’d been avoiding most of the family since the little fight in the kitchen. Zayn was the only one who wasn’t mad at her, and Adaine slept in her room so they were the only people she’d seen. Corey had offered to let her stay with him if things were too tense at home like she had when they were teenagers, but that would just make Adaine mad. It was better to just stealth in and out of the house so that she never crossed paths with the others, but the evidence that she was still there was around. 

The bell rang and kids came rushing out to their cars or their rides. Riz was the first out of the school, his eyes catching on Aelwyn and glaring. She just shrugged it off and rolled her eyes as dramatically as she could so he could see her from where he was watching across the parking lot. The rest of the kids trickled out slowly until Aelwyn saw Kristen and crossed the parking lot to them.

“Kristen. Come with me,” Aelwyn said, not allowing room for argument. Too bad the kids she was talking to had no idea how not to argue.

“Why?” Fig asked, sharp and one hand holding on tight to Kristen’s arm.

“That’s between me and Kristen.”

“Where?” Kristen asked, her eyes and voice steady. It was a little unnerving. Usually, she was a ball of emotion.

“The library,” Aelwyn said.

“We’ll g-”

“No,” Aelwyn cut off Fabian. “Kristen comes with me alone. We’ll be back at the manor in time for dinner.”

Kristen watched her for a long time before she nodded. Fig held her back until Kristen turned and smiled at her. “She’s not going to hurt me.”

“Am I losing my edge?” Aelwyn asked Riz who was still glaring at her.

Adaine rolled her eyes at the joke.

Kristen crossed over to her and once she was close enough that Aelwyn wouldn’t accidentally grab any of the others she teleported them to the public library. 

“Why are we here?” Kristen asked, following Aelwyn up the steps.

“You mentioned a few weeks ago that you and your family used to take weekly trips to the public library,” Aelwyn said as they went in.

“Every Thursday,” Kristen whispered.

“They do it on Tuesdays now,” Aelwyn explained, leading her to a quiet section where no one would witness her cast invisibility on Kristen.

“How do you know that?”

Aelwyn shrugged. “The harvestmen aren’t gone just because Daybreak is gone. I keep an eye on all threats.”

“Are they threatening Adaine?”

Aelwyn shook her head. “No. But they are a threat against you, given your history. And you are important to Adaine. Which means that by extension they are threatening Adaine’s happiness which only I am allowed to do.”

They stood near the entrance for a long time, Aelwyn flipping through books and Kristen shifting back and forth on her feet anxiously, the squeak of her shoes giving her away. Then the Applebees came through the door, the three boys rushing through the doors followed by their mother hissing at them not to run. “I’m going to follow Bucky,” Kristen whispered.

“Don’t forget to dispel the spell before you talk to him,” Aelwyn hissed after her. “I’ll distract your mother,” she whispered, unsure if Kristen was even still there.

She swept her hair back, stood up straight, and put on her best “ambassador’s daughter’s” smile. “Excuse me,” she said, going up to the mother who was looking at her own books and shadowing the youngest. “I hate to be a bother,” Aelwyn said. “But I think I’ve seen you around town with the Helio worshipers and well…no this is completely inappropriate. You’re busy.”

“No, no. What is it?” her mother said with a large smile. It was warm but not the way that Sandra Lynn or Jawbone was warm. Maybe it was because Aelwyn understood what was beneath it but it was almost too sweet.

“I just… you see I was raised to follow Galicaea, but over the past few years I’ve felt so drawn to Helio and I just wondered, if you had the time, if you would be willing to tell me a bit about it,” Aelwyn said, bracing herself.

The woman’s eyes lit up. “Oh of course. I’m Donna. Donna Applebees,” she said holding out her hand. “What’s your name?”

“Bogarial Frogariel,” Aelwyn said, shaking her hand and smiling wide.

“Oh well, why don’t we find a place to sit and chat? My kids are getting their books for the week so we have to stay but I think talking in the lobby’s alright,” Donna said.

“Oh thank you so much. It’s so important to have kids read, and to have multiple kids who are so passionate about reading that they were excited to come in and look for their own is a credit to you.” Let it never be said that Aelwyn didn’t know how to stroke the ego of someone she’d rather kill with her bare hands.

“Oh, it’s been a trial. Their sister passed last year and I think sometimes that these trips are the only thing they look forward to,” Donna said with a sad smile. “That and service on Sundays.”

Aelwyn felt a rage bubble up in her and for a moment she understood, fundamentally, the rage that Ragh went into during a fight. It was bright and hot and protective and indignant and Aelwyn was pretty sure she could lift a car. “Oh, I’m so sorry for your loss.” 

“It’s been hard, but we’re getting through,” Donna said, nodding. “Having Helio is so important for that. You see…”

It was over an hour later when Bucky came back, his eyes a little red but smiling wide. Donna was still talking about how great Helio and the community they were in was and Aelwyn had not only promised to attend service on Sunday but would also go with them to lunch afterward. The other boys had already come back and with the arrival of the third Donna finally excused herself.

 “We’ll see you on Sunday?”

“Absolutely,” Aelwyn said with a wide smile. “I’m going to go get those books you suggested.”

Donna waved goodbye and Aelwyn headed further into the library where she finally let her smile fall. She texted Kristen to find her and found her in the YA section sitting on a stool flipping through a book and pretending she wasn’t crying.

“Are you ready to go back to the house?” Aelwyn asked instead of offering any comfort. She wasn’t good at this. “We’ve been gone long enough that I’m sure all your friends think I’ve killed you and ran off to the baronies by now.”

Kristen looked up at her and smiled, tears running down her face. “Yeah. Let’s go home.”

Aelwyn snapped her fingers and they appeared outside the manor. Before they could walk in Kristen stopped her. “I’m sorry for casting Zone of Truth on you.” 

Aelwyn shrugged and opened the door. “Forget it.”

“Oh good you’re back,” Adaine said in her totally inconspicuous voice that did not mean that she had been waiting in the living room the whole time. The rest of the Bad Kids were also sitting there, looking up, their faces doping when they saw Kristen’s face.

“Why is she crying?” Fig asked, already standing and with one fist on fire.

“No, no. It’s good. She took me to see my brothers,” Kristen said, but Aelwyn was already escaping into the kitchen. She didn’t need to hear this. An Applebees-caused headache was already forming.

Jawbone and Lydia were cooking while Ragh sat at the counter with Sandra Lynn working on his resume. Aelwyn went to the fridge and got out a juice. “Quick survey of the room: have we considered killing Kristen’s parents?” she asked casually.

“Yes,” Lydia and Jawbone said while Sandra Lynn and Ragh both said “No.”

“Interesting split. I vote kill them,” Aelwyn said, leaning back against the counter and dropping her voice. “I had to talk to her mother today and she told me Kristen died.”

“What?” Jawbone asked, his voice more growl than usual.

“Yeah. I was distracting her so that Kristen could talk to her brother and she said that the boys were having a hard time because their sister passed last year,” Aelwyn whispered angrily. She didn’t know if that was the story the boys had been told and if not she certainly didn’t want Kristen to know that that was the story her mother was passing around to strangers.

“I’m changing my vote to murder,” Ragh said.

“Great. How many pro-murder votes do we need before we do it?” Aelwyn asked. 

Just then Adaine walked into the kitchen. “You took her to go see her family?”

Aelwyn rolled her eyes. “I took her to the library. Her brothers and mother happened to be there. Unrelated events.”

Adaine rolled her eyes and walked back out of the room.

Jawbone was smiling at her. “Told you so.”

“It wasn’t an apology.”

Everyone in the room fixed her with a sharp look and she signed. Okay, maybe it was an apology.

Aelwyn was at work, music blaring, people talking loudly over the bar while she mixed drinks. It was a weeknight so it was technically one of their slower nights.

She looked up at the group she was serving next and froze for half a beat as she found herself looking Antiope Jones in the eye. “What can I get you?” she asked, reverting to the normal script.

“We need information,” Antiope said, motioning at the whole group of The Seven that was also leaning up against the bar. Aelwyn’s eyes caught on Ostentatia, who was smirking at her, for half a beat longer than anyone else. They weren't friends, and they'd never be friends again, but there was something about being ex-friends which hung heavily around Aelwyn's neck whenever Ostentatia was around.

“Try a library. We serve alcohol here,” Aelwyn said, intending to turn away and go to the other end of the bar so that Hank had to serve them.

“I’ll take a death spiral,” Ostentatia said with a grin.

Aelwyn couldn’t help smiling even as she leveled a glare at Ostentatia. Death spirals took a while to mix, and Ostentatia knew that. And Aelwyn knew that Ostentatia couldn’t stand them. “Okay.”

The rest of the group caught on and each of them ordered a different, obnoxious drink that would take Aelwyn time to make. “Gorgug said that you know people involved in the criminal side of town,” Zelda said, perching herself up against the counter.

“He’s a smart one, Zelda. Don’t let him go without a fight,” Aelwyn said, placing the dark, swirling, sour grape drink in front of Ostentatia before she started working on the fruity cocktail Sam had ordered.

“We need to know everything you know about Sidgrut Keggut,” Antiope said.

Aelwyn shook her head, mixing the drink. "Start with Keggut wasn’t a criminal,” she said. It didn’t feel right to sell him out, he’d been out of his mind and kind of an ass, but he’d at least thought he’d had noble reasons for them. Better than half the people who walked around free as a bird in Solace. The line between Adventurer and Criminal was thin whenever Aelwyn looked at it.

“The Guild has asked for us to bring him home, he’s causing trouble in Highcourt,” Antiope explained.

“What do you mean he’s not a criminal?” Danielle asked.

Aelwyn put the fruity drink in front of Sam and started on Antiope’s drink. “He wasn’t running in those circles; he was hunting those circles. There’s not a mobster in town that didn’t want that man dead,” Aelwyn explained.

“How’s he still alive?” Sam asked.

“He’s hard to find. Hard to catch. Hard to kill,” Aelwyn said with a shrug.

“Why’s he hunting them?” Antiope asked.

“Something something his son was murdered,” Aelwyn said setting down Antiope’s drink and then starting on Katja’s.

“Was he after the right person?” Penny asked.

“No. Until now, I guess. The person who killed his son was a duke or some nonsense out of Highcourt. Hit and run by a guy who’d never driven a car before,” Aelwyn shrugged. “Guy had some shady connections, paid to have the body dumped which made it look like a mob hit. The police don’t like looking too hard at mob hits, especially not for some random adventurer's kid who also has a part-time job restocking vending machines. Bad luck, that’s all it was.”

“You got all that from when you were dealing?” Ostentatia asked.

“No,” Aelwyn said, rolling her eyes. “I learned all of that from being the Ambassador’s daughter and listening in on conversations that weren’t my business.”

“And now he’s after that duke?”

“How would I know? You’re the one who said he went to Highcourt,” Aelwyn put Katja’s drink down in front of her with a little more force than necessary before she poured out the simple shot for Penny and then started on Danielle's drink.

“Highcourt has twenty-seven living dukes,” Penny said. “Which one is the one who killed his son?”

Aelwyn thought back for a while but couldn’t remember. “It was a long time ago, I don’t remember.”

“You don’t remember?” Ostentatia asked, clearly disbelieving.

“I didn’t care that much at the time about some dead kid,” Aelwyn said, setting down Danielle’s drink. Just Zelda’s left.

Ostentatia opened her mouth to say something else when a human man came up behind her, running his hand along her spine from neck to what Aelwyn could only assume was her ass. “Excuse you?” Ostentatia asked, one hand going to her war hammer.

Before she’d thought it through Aelwyn conjured a mage hand and slapped the man’s hand away. “Walk away,” Aelwyn said sharply, pointing in any direction away from them.

“Didn’t mean any offense,” he said, with his hands up. “Didn’t know she was your girlfriend.”

“If she were my girlfriend I would have just killed you. Now walk away,” Aelwyn said, snapping her fingers.

“I don’t need you to defend my honor,” Ostentatia said with a glare.

“And I don’t need him randomly groping people in front of me.” Aelwyn smiled sharply. “Sometimes things aren’t about you.”

“Can we focus on the issue? The guy is going after whoever killed his son but we don’t know who it is because Aelwyn can’t remember,” Antiope said.

“The man spent a decade burning through every mobster and low-level criminal in Elmville before he realized the person he hated was in Highcourt, what’s the likelihood he even knows which duke he’s going for? Maybe he’ll kill them all just for good measure,” Aelwyn said.

They were all quiet for a long moment while Aelwyn finished up Zelda’s drink.

Ostentatia looked to Antiope. “I fucking hate it when she's right.”

“We all do.”

When Aelwyn got home that night she didn’t go directly to trance as she usually did. Instead, she crawled up into the attic and found the small box of her father’s blackmail papers she’d pulled out of his hidden safe all those months ago. By a small magical light, she began to sift through them, hoping to find something about Keggut.

After about an hour of searching, when her eyes had started to burn from straining to read in the low light she found three papers paper-clipped together about what the Duke of Greenhills in Highcourt had done.

She packed the rest of the papers away and snuck back down into the main house and into her room. It was four in the morning and delivering the papers would have to wait until a reasonable hour. Aelwyn put the papers under her pillow so that Adaine wouldn’t see them when she got up and then tranced.

She woke up a few hours later to the sound of the front door slamming shut. She looked over at the lock and sure enough, the kids had just left for school. For a while, she stared up at the ceiling trying to decide if taking the papers to Ostentatia really was the best idea.

But she’d already put the effort into finding them so someone might as well get some use out of them.

Which was how she found herself an hour later with Nona Wallace’s dagger in her side. “Ow,” Aelwyn said, holding onto her side to try to slow the bleeding.

“You kidnapped my granddaughter,” she said, glaring at Aelwyn but not making a move to stab her again which she took as an okay sign.

“I didn’t say I didn’t have it coming but it still hurt,” Aelwyn said.

“What’s going on?” Ostentatia said, coming around the corner and seeing Aelwyn. “Why are you here? Why are you bleeding?”

“Your grandmother stabbed me,” Aelwyn snapped. “And I brought you some stuff about Keggut I found in some of my father’s things.”

Ostentatia took the papers and flipped through them.

“If I were you I wouldn’t go around showing them to just anyone since they won’t hold up in court anyway and even trying will get a target painted on all of you, but you shouldn’t go into battles unprepared,” Aelwyn said, trying to be casual while still bleeding.

“Thanks. Do you…?” she trailed off looking at Aelwyn’s wound.

“Please. Unless you’re just going to stab me again as soon as Ostentatia heals me,” Aelwyn said, looking to Nona who was still glaring at her.

A nearly unbearable warmth wrapped itself around Aelwyn, healing the wound on her side. How familiar the warmth was was like a shock to Aelwyn's system; she hadn't even known how much she'd missed Ostentatia’s magic until just them. There was something deeply comforting about it. It was stronger now too. Aelwyn wished she could say something about that.

“Thanks. And the next time you need information do us all a favor and don’t come to where I work. It’s rude. I do still have a crystal,” Aelwyn said, rolling her eyes but smiling.

Ostentatia shook her head but she was smiling too. “Don’t have your number.”

“Is that your way of asking for it?”

“No,” Ostentatia said before shutting the door in Aelwyn’s face.

“Hello, children!” a voice came from the living room. All of the Bad Kids were over, as per usual, and were sitting in the kitchen, hunting for snacks while Aelwyn tried to study at the table with Zayn. She hadn’t been able to find a secret study yet, but she was certain it existed and prayed that she found it soon. “Oh,” the voice said and then Arthur Aguefort walked into the kitchen with a frown.

“You missed,” Fig laughed.

“Yeah, you’re usually so good at appearing right where we are,” Adaine said. Aelwyn narrowed her eyes, she didn't like that. People who didn’t live in the house should really use the front door, in her opinion.

“Well it seems that someone has put a bit of an anti-scrying charm up on the house, so I just popped into the living room.”

Zayn nudged Aelwyn, or rather his hand passed through her shoulder. Aguefort clocked the movement.

“You!” he shouted.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“That’s a very powerful charm you put up! Well done. Of course, it wouldn’t stand up if I genuinely tried to break it, but it would take me more than a moment. Maybe even two moments.” He grinned at her and she laughed.

“Why did you put an antiscrying charm on the house?” Adaine asked, shaking her head in disbelief like Aelwyn had done something wrong.

“You have a country of people who want you back in Fallinel, I thought it best if they couldn’t find you where you sleep,” Aelwyn said, rolling her eyes. She’d finally been able to finish carving the runes into the stones of the fence that circled the property and get the spell together a few days ago. It had been holding up nicely so far, though she and Zayn were still trying to calculate how long it would last before it would need refreshing. Permanent magic was hard, but runes could last years without needing to be updated.

“They’re not going to kidnap me. It’d start another war,” Adaine said, shaking her head.

Aelwyn gestured at herself. “And we all know how above kidnapping and starting a war they are.”

“She has a point. And I did almost start that war because they kidnaped you on spring break,” Aguefort pointed out.

“You’re the one who made the key that goes to Leviathan, right?” Aelwyn asked. She’d been meaning to reach out to him to get a better sense of what exactly it was, her identify spell had been vague at best.

“Oh yes. So my daughter could visit Miss Faeth,” he said, sitting down in the chair across from her and ignoring the students he presumably came to talk to.

“Is it teleportation? Or a rip in the fabric of space-time? Or something else?” she asked. “I want to put up an anti teleportation field around the house as well but if I don’t really want Fig to strangle me while I’m trancing because she can’t go see her girlfriend.”

His eyes lit up. “Oh, it's a teleportation spell linked to the door, however a rip in the fabric of space-time would work better. Area of effect spells could possibly transfer through that rip though.”

“And it would be more permanent which might not be the way to go given that Ayda and Fig are only high schoolers,” Aelwyn pointed out. “Linking your school to Compass Points might be the better choice for a permanent arrangement.”

“True,” Aguefort said, thinking on it for a moment. “Though Ayda did cut me out of her life once so it might not be the best choice. And Leviathan moves so it wouldn’t be the same spot in space all the time on that end.”

“Then how does the teleportation spell work to link it? Most of the time it does have to be linked to a spot in space, you can’t teleport to be with a person, you have to scry and then teleport,” Aelwyn argued.

Aguefort paused for a moment considering it. “We’ll need to break down teleportation and link the way that it finds the space to be able to rip spacetime and create a form of teleportation that is not susceptible to anti teleportation fields.”

“If we use scrying on a piece of material, a floorboard or a keystone we’d be able to bypass teleportation altogether because if we’re using teleportation as a conduit to rip space-time then we run the risk of not being able to pinpoint our location because of the anti teleportation fields,” Aelwyn pointed out. "Which completely defeats the purpose."

“And we’ll have to find a way to undo the tears cleanly because we don’t want to leave scars in the fabric of space-time or we won’t be able to reopen them in the same spots,” Aguefort said.

“Or it might unravel as soon as we try to put it back,” Aelwyn agreed. She could feel the adrenaline pumping through her as she considered how to tackle the problem. It was fascinating to work with Aguefort and she was almost jealous of Adaine for attending his school instead of Hudol where all they did was rework already solved problems. Not that this was in the Aguefort curriculum.

“Quantum space!” Aguefort said suddenly.

“Of course! If we don’t tear space-time but just enlarge the space between electrons and force ourselves through then it would snap back into place as soon as the spell was dispelled by the force of the bond,” Aelwyn said, grinning and grabbing the paper that she’d been working through calculations with Zayn on and turning it over to make notes.

“A little bit of chronomancy to freeze the two atoms we were forcing apart at our tear, and as soon as the freeze was lifted pop they’d go back together,” Aguefort said, always smiling, with a little glint in his eye.

“Not that this isn’t fascinating,” Adaine cut it. “To watch the way your brains work which is apparently the same way.”

Fabian coughed. “Did you come here to talk to Aelwyn or did you need to tell us something?”

“Oh, right! You’re all going to fail your classes if you don’t submit your quest proposal,” Aguefort said, not really paying attention.

“What proposal? Did we do that last year?” Fig asked, looking around at the rest of the group.

“I did it for you last year because I wanted you to go get the nightmare king’s crown back for me,” Aguefort explained. “Your antiscrying spell could also use some work as well. It’s not bad for a first attempt, but it won’t keep Fallinel at bay if they want to.”

“And it adds a dark spot to the middle of the city so it’s not hard to guess where a person is if you expect them to be in Elmville and they can’t be scryed on,” Aelwyn conceded. “We wanted to know how long we could keep the antiscrying up without maintenance. But we also thought that adding an element of misdirection, a fake scrying vision of a whoever is being scryed on if they’re in the house then the antiscrying charm itself wouldn’t have to be as strong.”

“You’d have to be able to create one for everyone who entered the house,” Aguefort pointed out.

“A handful of base illusions that then anyone who entered the house could be added to if they were scryed on and then more detailed ones for people who were here frequently or lived here could provide enough cover,” Aelwyn said.

“Interesting,” Aguefort said quietly. “I look forward to putting it to the test.” He smiled, the bright twinkle still in his eye before he teleported away.

“I think my sister might actually be Arthur Aguefort,” Adaine mumbled, shaking her head.

Aelwyn glared at her. “Fuck off.”

For a high school, Aguefort really did have lax security, Aelwyn thought as she walked through the halls looking for Aguefort’s office. It was the middle of the day and at Hudol visitors didn’t get through the front entrance before they were being logged and they certainly didn't get to wander through the halls alone.

Aelwyn found the right door and knocked, peaking her head inside and found Arthur Aguefort staring into a purple orb before he looked up at her and smiled. “Miss Abertnant, to what do I own the pleasure.”

“You’re a chronomancy expert aren’t you?” she asked, taking a seat in one of the chairs in front of his desk.

“Yes,” he said with a grin. “Are you interested in becoming a chronomancer?”

“No. I do need to talk theory with you because I think chronomancy might be the key to getting spells to last longer.”

“I’m listening.”

"Who wants to be the first person to go through it?" Aelwyn asked, looking at the door that was shut but she had just "unlocked" with the new key that should force a hole in the fabric of space time and allow them to go to Compass Points.

"You go first," Fig said, giving her a light shove.

"No. Send Baby in," she said, pointing at the little monstrosity that followed Fig around everywhere.

Fig gasped. "How dare you?"

Adaine shook her head, rolling her eyes. "I guess I can just summon Boggy again if I need to," she said before setting him down and opening the door to shoo him across the threshold. They all saw Compass Points on the other side and a Boggy hopped across into it, settling comfortably while staring back at them.

Aelwyn grinned. "Well I think this is cause for a celebration drink at the Gold Gardens," she said before stepping over the threshold, bracing for something though nothing followed. She was fine, nothing had happened, she was in Leviathan. It'd worked.

A quiet trilling alarm started to sound in Aelwyn’s head. Someone had broken through the antiteleportation filed she’d put around the house. She burst out of her room where she’d been reading and started to sprint down the stairs, seeing Aguefort in the middle of the entryway talking to the Bad Kids who were sitting in the living room.

Aelwyn shot a lightning bolt at him from the tips of her fingers but he deflected it with a shield. The kids started yelling, telling Aelwyn to stop.

He turned to her and smiled. “It was almost good this time.”

“It took me seven hours to put up that field,” she said, shooting another lightning bolt at him. “I’m going to kill you.”

He countered and shot a fireball at her that she threw up a shield against. “You can certainly try.”

Aelwyn smiled, an idea coming to her.

“Aelwyn!” Sandra Lynn yelled from downstairs.

Aelwyn came out of her room and leaned against the railing as she yelled back down. “What!?”

“Someone’s here to see you!” Sandra Lynn yelled.

Aelwyn frowned. Who the fuck was there to see her? She went downstairs and standing in the hallway was Aguefort. Her first instinct was to throw a fireball at him but she hadn’t actually heard the alarm for the teleportation field and when she reached out a bit with her magic both the teleportation and the scrying fields were still in place. “You got past it without breaking it?”

“Yes. By walking up the front steps,” he said, smiling wide.

Aelwyn tried to suppress her smile but Sandra Lynn was giving her a look like she was impressed. Or maybe even proud. “You didn’t teleport through it?”

“Oh I could have, but that spell you have set up to trigger is nasty, and I have a date tonight,” he said, laughing brightly then getting deeply serious. “They hate it when I show up disheveled.”

“Of course,” Aelwyn said, losing the fight to her smile.

“But! Before I do that I needed to bring over the contract,” Aguefort said, a folder appearing in his hands. He handed it over to her.

“For what?” she asked, wondering if she could cast detect magic on it without him noticing.

“For your apprenticeship with me! Take your time to peruse the contract and bring it back when you’re ready. Just by tomorrow at ten, I’ve told the staff that I have a new apprentice already and HR has some concerns about how you’ll be paid,” Aguefort said with a shrug. “I made a meeting with him to iron out all those details with you.”

“You want me to be your apprentice?” Aelwyn asked, opening the folder cautiously and seeing that it was just a contract, though it seemed to be nearly a hundred pages long.

“Yes. Until the inevitable day when you betray me in an attempt to succeed me and I am forced to strike you down.”

Aelwyn smiled up at him. “We’ll see who does the striking down.”

He laughed loudly and then turned himself into a raven. Aelwyn turned to Sandra Lynn who was still standing nearby. “The kitchen window isn’t open is it?”

“No,” Sandra Lynn said, shaking her head.

Aelwyn opened the front door. “Arthur!” and then the raven swooped back through the room and out the door.