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Dandelion and Thys immediately leaped into their role as distractions, trying to keep the fake Thys occupied. “We’re a bit busy here,” Dandelion sighed, draping his arm around Thys and drawing them in. “Can’t you take another way?”

“The fastest way is in front of me, my lords,” the fake Thys said with exaggerated patience. “I hardly wish to push you aside, or through, but I will do so if I must.”

“How rude!” the real Thys sniffed, in a much snottier voice than they were generally given to. “Who gave you the right to barge up to us like this?”

It was a perfectly good pretense that they were just rich assholes, but Viv knew it would only work so long before the lanternfish would get suspicious at the delay. She made eye contact with Caoihme and held up three fingers, two fingers— 

The lanternfish sighed and said, “My lords, I assure you, it’s fine. If you’d just move aside—” and the area flickered. The shadows in which their motley team were hidden grew deeper, and a light appeared in front of the lanternfish, pulsing, a soft, uncanny blue.

Both Dandelion and Thys stiffened, staring at the light, and the illusion over Thys flickered and vanished as the hypnotism hit Dandelion, undoing his focus.

Viv flipped her last finger down in a hurry and crammed the breakfast bar into her mouth. It was pretty good—mostly honey, cranberry, and nuts—and she could only pray that it worked. After all, the guy had said there might be some side effects.

The area lit up in a bright light, completely illuminating what felt like the nearest half-mile, the ground itself glowing so that shadows weren’t cast anywhere. It also removed the cover for all their allies except Varsha, who was hiding in the leaves overhead, but Viv had to hope they’d be able to do their parts on their own now.

Viv couldn’t do too much more herself, not yet; her feet had lifted off the ground and she was floating, she was glowing, light emanating from her skin, the focal point that was creating the light in the area. The energy rushing through her made it nearly impossible to focus. She saw Caoihme’s hands moving and the lanternfish’s blue light flicker, then go violet briefly, sputtering back and forth between the two colors as they wrestled for control of the lure. Dandelion and Thys were released, and Thys braced themself, wings opening to their full width as if they could block the lanternfish from going forward with their body alone.

“You’re alive,” the lanternfish said, voice going vague and quiet. Their black eyes widened, then widened further, impossibly large as they began to dissolve into tendrils of void-black traveling through their face, the skin peeling away. “Are you a moth or a cockroach?”

“I am whatever I must be to remain myself,” Thys spat.

A loud kazoo song started up from across the clearing—it sounded like Megalovania, which was almost as wild by itself as trying to figure out where Star had gotten that kazoo from, considering—and Viv felt a rush of energy run through her, helping to pull herself back to herself. She saw Dandelion and Thys straighten as well. 

The lanternfish began some kind of attack, their arms rising, shadows gathering at their palms—and then Adrien let out a loud cry and headbutted the lanternfish hard, ram-horns slamming into their back and causing it to stagger forward. 

Viv could hardly focus for the light pouring through her body, but the music helped, and besides, she knew she had to. She’d studied attack magic just for this; she tried to remember the incantation for lightning, the forms to spell out in gesture and power. Thys was looking up at her, and she nodded at them. Just hold the gate. Don’t let it through.

Thys nodded back, arms wide, wings wide, feet planted.

Dandelion pulled a sword out of thin air; it sparkled into being with a flash as the silver of the blade abruptly began reflecting the light that glowed from all around, making it look like the blade, too, was light. The kazoo tune was circling now and she saw a green horse tearing around the clearing; Dandelion reached out without looking, snagging Star’s mane and swinging himself up, a mounted combatant now.

The light felt like it was getting brighter inside her, stronger. She was at the final lines now, her hands drawing it out, as Dandelion wheeled Star around and began to bear down on the lanternfish.

Skin and wings peeled off entirely, Thys’s body melting away from the lanternfish’s form and leaving only shadow behind. The person who was there looked exactly like Lithway—it wasn’t them, she realized a moment later, was a distinct female silhouette instead of that masculine beauty that Lithway favored, and her features were less defined than Lithway’s were.

But whatever the lanternfish was, it was the same thing that Lithway was. Not something separate at all. One of the shadowfolk, a monster’s monster, universally feared, whose origin and powers were drenched in mystery. 

Hopelessness seized Viv, briefly.

“Enough,” the shadow person said, her voice soft and bored and melodious. Shadow slammed off her in a tidal wave; Adrien stumbled back, and Star was brought to his knees, nearly throwing Dandelion. Viv felt the shadow pouring over her own spell and thought that it was trying to block her off, to dampen her light. The light spell was still there in the broader area, still preventing shadows that would permit escape—but this clearing itself was darkening with the shadow woman’s own amorphous body. “Please. You must understand the good I’m doing.”

“Ah, I must have missed it in the two times you attempted to murder me?” Thys spat.

A grin split the shadow woman’s face like ink spilling. “You were a convenient excuse. Your living or dying means nothing to me except that you’re a loose end. If you’re willing to keep hiding, we could come to an agreement. The fae and demons deserve each other, and yet they have held themselves at arms’ length for millennia of careful alliances. And for what? Do you care for the fae realms so much? You know what they do to people. The tithes, the command over the commoners, the casting out of anyone who does not fit with their courts, the suffering. And you certainly don’t care for the abyssal realms and the things the demons do, which is far worse, far darker. Let me rule in your place, let me direct a war. Do you think either of these people deserve more than that?”

“I know what they are,” Thys said. “But war will benefit no one. Those who suffer under harsh rulers will suffer more if they are commanded to the front to die.”

“Do they do better, left leaderless? You abandoned them, so how can you care about what they do? Let me go.”

Viv felt the power inside her, knew she had to do something, but didn’t know what. It wasn’t that she bought into the shadow woman’s argument, but could she attack someone who was trying to parlay, even with such a horrible goal? Just strike someone down who wasn’t actively fighting?

It was hard to see, darkness coating her eyes. She strained around, pulling at the power in herself, and heard Varsha hiss next to her ear, “She’sss right below uss.“ 

Relieved, Viv reached out and squeezed Varsha’s shoulder in thanks. She focused again, trying to find that darkest patch of shadow, straining to hear what the shadow woman was saying to the others to convince them or lie to them or take them off guard—and in doing so, she heard the sound of distant footsteps and hooves coming from the direction of the gate.

People were coming this way up the path from the fae realms. A lot of them, from the sounds of it. They weren’t here yet, but they’d be here any moment. Viv didn’t know if any of the others had noticed, or if they were too focused on what the shadow woman was saying. After all, they were all fae, all had some investment in a potential war.

Whatever she wanted to do about this, she had to make the decision on her own and had to do it now.

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“C’mon, don’t be shy,” Ferthur said, coming closer with a twisted grin. A fetid stench rolled off him, reeking of rotting, exposed blood.

“I’m not shy,” Viv said. Probably the best bet was to not lie, but not give too much detail on any part of it, name included. “My name’s Viv. Dandelion’s just guiding us to the border because we’re planning on intercepting someone there. None of us plan to enter the fae realms—” not untrue, since ideally they’d stop the lanternfish before it got there. “It’s a shapeshifter that’s killed before, and wanted to kill one of us. It’s much more dangerous than us and all we want is to stop it.”

Dandelion seemed to twitch at that last comment, but didn’t argue. 

Ferthur let out a disgruntled sound. “I can smell the truth on you; you’re not lying. But are you sure the Exile isn’t just misleading you to get what he surely wants?”

Better to let Dandelion do the talking where possible, Viv decided, and looked at him. “Are you?”

“Of course not,” Dandelion snapped. “I don’t even want to go back. I’ve made a good life for myself in the human world and I don’t intend to give it up.”

“How could you lose your home and not want to return?” Ferthur asked, the smile wiped from his face.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Dandelion said, throwing his hands up. “It could have been centuries ago that I left, so it isn’t my home any more. And the fae lords could regularly send humans to your sort so you don’t start a war with us, couldn’t they? Not the nicest of homes to return to, even if it tends to spoil those of us on top so we don’t think of such things.”

Viv was starting to get an idea of what sort of war the lanternfish might view as possible to start, though she tried not to think about it. It’d be harder to tell half-truths to this demon when pressed if she knew too much.

Ferthur spat blood to the side. “Well, pass if you want, cross if you want, do what you want. I suppose it has nothing to do with me, then,” he said, and began sliding back into the shadows.

Although Viv wanted to feel good about this—it was a success, right? They’d gotten past, hadn’t they, and without any violence?—she couldn’t help but feel nervous. Ferthur hadn’t seemed to be appeased, and now he was at their backs instead.

But she didn’t think they’d made enemies, anyway, and demons were practically impossible to appease if you didn’t offer them anything. She wasn’t sure they could have done much better than this.

“Let’sss go,” Varsha muttered. “Before he changesss hiss mind.”

“Agreed,” Dandelion said. He, at least, seemed faintly relieved, or at least, less stiff. What he’d feared had come to pass, Viv supposed, and hadn’t turned out so terribly. “Are you all okay?”

“No problems here,” Adrien said, with agreeable nods from the other two.

Thys had stayed silent through all of that—perhaps for the best. Since Thys was ultimately the lanternfish’s target, if they’d spoken up, Ferthur might have been able to glean too much of what was going on, and god knew what he’d do with it. Still, Thys was trembling slightly, and Viv wasn’t sure if it was fear or strain or anger, even though she was able to feel some of their emotions. It all seemed to be blending together.

“Thys?” she asked softly.

“I’m fine.” Thys leaned on her, pressing a kiss to her ear.

“When this is over,” Viv asked softly, “can we make a better promise to each other? Some sort of… maybe I can know your name? Maybe I can give you something? I want to be closer, I want to help, I want…” She wasn’t sure what she was saying, not really, just that she knew that this was terrifying for Thys, coming so close to a home that wanted to pull them back in and reclaim them for its own.

Thys smiled and seemed to relax a little. Viv felt a rush of warmth, an emotional touch through their connection that felt almost physical. “I would like that,” Thys said.

Viv’s heart lifted, and for a moment, she thought it was entirely because of Thys’s response.

And then she realized that the ash was gone, as was the red light and hot air filtering through the trees. They’d returned from the abyssal realm to the in-between transit of the Otherworld, and thus the air of oppression was gone too.

“The passage to the fae realms is just ahead,” Dandelion said, indicating a place where the trees met overhead, forming an enclosed passage. “If it hasn’t beaten us here, it’ll be coming towards this place. And I can’t see how it would have beaten us here, Ferthur didn’t keep us there that long.”

Viv drew a breath, pulling away. “Okay, great. Can you disguise Thys? If it sees them here it’ll know the jig is up and we’ll lose the advantage of surprise.”

Dandelion gave Viv and Thys both a tremulous smile. “I can do that,” he said gently. “If Thys would permit it.”

“I don’t mind,” Thys said. “Everyone here knows my face and who I am, so I don’t lose myself even if I don’t look the same.”

“True.” Dandelion leaned over and kissed the air in front of Thys’s face. They seemed to shift, the air hazy around them, limbs shortening, hair lengthening, face becoming more angular and whites filling out the blackness of their eyes—until they looked much like Dandelion, a proper daoine sidhe. “If there’s one of us anyway, nobody will be surprised to see two, yes?” 

Thys raised their hands and looked at them. “I could be your sibling. Or your lover.”

“I’d be willing to play either role,” Dandelion said lightly, mostly teasing.

It was weird. Thys normally didn’t look like anything that Viv had ever seen before, but they looked like Thys. Seeing them look like Dandelion instead just felt strange. Viv seized their hand to squeeze it extra hard, drawing a look of surprise.

“What about the rest of us? Positions?”

“Let’s try to…get some kind of ambush set up,” Viv suggested. “Varsha, you go somewhere you’ll be safe but can still scent and call to us.”

“That’d be up,” Varsha said, pointing up a tree. She wound her way up there, tucking herself away in the branches, almost invisible except for the yellow parts of her sweater. “I’ve got a good view, ssso I’ll just keep quiet until needed.”

“Great,” Viv said. She glanced at Dandelion and Thys to see if they were on board, but quickly realized she might have to do the rest of the direction herself; Dandelion kept glancing behind them, down the tunnel to the fae realms, while Thys was staring into the gloom ahead of them to where the lanternfish would likely come from: the edge of a darkened city where it began to dissolve into forest. “Uhh, the rest of you, can you spread out around the clearing? Caoimhe, stick nearby so that you can interfere with its hypnosis if it tries.”

Obligingly, she placed herself a little to the left and slightly withdrawn from the clearing, though to Viv’s eyes she still stood out like a sore thumb in her white dress. No helping that, though. 

“Adrien, we want someone who can try to stop it if it tries to run, so go closer to the entry of this clearing, maybe between those buildings?” She gestured at the run-down houses. “It’ll either have to go through the three of us or back the way it came, so we want someone who can step out and cold-clock it if necessary.”

Adrien seemed to want to make a joke, but bit his lip on his helpless grin and just gave her a thumb’s up as he headed that way, stepping back a little.

“And Star, can you improve our powers now or does it have to be live?”

Star waggled a hand. “In combat is better. Like, after initiative starts. Basically, I could do it, but I might have to keep up the music to keep the power flowing, which might alert this guy that something’s up.”

“In that case, go across from Adrien on the other side of the clearing? When the fighting starts, you can step up and sing at us or… Or turn into a sticky horse depending on how things go, either way.”

“Can we not say sticky horse? It’s ‘brook horse’.”

“Adhesive horse,” Viv said with a nervous giggle. Her anxiety was rising and it was hard not to ramble. “Adhorsive.”

“Adhorsive,” Star said with delight, instantly and visibly changing his stance on nicknames. “I’ll take that.” But he did go across from Adrien.

That made nearly a full circle. A little reluctant, Viv pulled her hand out of Thys’s. “I’ll go across from Caoimhe so we’ve got it surrounded once it walks into the clearing, okay?” She gestured to the shadows of the trees on the other side of the clearing from the elverpigen. “You two, stay in front of the gate and act like, uh, snotty nobles? So that the lanternfish is focused on you guys when it walks up.”

“It’s been a while, but I think I can manage,” Dandelion said.

Thys considered, then stuck her chin out. “What a fine evening to go for a stroll, my lord,” they said snootily.

“Oh, but I was hoping to get you alone,” Dandelion purred, putting fingers under Thys’s chin.

“Good, great,” Viv said with another nervous giggle, as she too stepped out of the line of sight. “And now we wait.” She unwrapped the breakfast bar that Isaac had got from his neighbour and held it in her hand, ready to pop into her mouth the moment a fight started—after all, as with Star’s music, if they lit up the area too soon, the lanternfish could just take a long way around to avoid them.

But they didn’t have to wait long—Ferthur had delayed them just enough that they’d barely got in place when Viv saw a figure walking up the path toward them.

The lanternfish, again, looked exactly like Thys—certainly more than Thys did right now—and was calm, aloof, self-possessed. They walked up to Dandelion and the real Thys, who were exaggeratedly fawning on each other in front of the pass to the fae realms, and gave a stiff bow.

“Great daoine lords,” ‘Thys’ murmured. “May I pass? I wish to go home. I have been away too long already.”

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“I don’t super want to go to Hell and, you know, prove all of my worst relatives right,” Viv said, joking weakly, “but I think that’s the best choice. Ideally, we want to stop it from getting to the fae realms so that—so that whatever it’s planning, it doesn’t get its way, right?” 

Thys nodded. “It should be fine. The fae realm pays a regular tithe to the abyssal planes as a promise of neutrality. They don’t mess with us, and we don’t mess with them. Humans are, naturally, at greater risk, but I have claimed you and so it shouldn’t be an issue. I can’t imagine Varsha being in much trouble either; they’re much more concerned with humans than with fellow monsters.”

Dandelion was smiling humorlessly through all this, but he just nodded at the end. “No time to waste, then. I know the way well—hurry.”

A little nervous about Thys’s comment that it shouldn’t be an issue—lots of things that shouldn’t be problems were, after all—Viv just took their hand. Thys squeezed it tight immediately, casting a gentle look aside at her as they tugged her close in against their side, cuddling slightly. 

Varsha gave them both a kind of fond eye-roll—clearly just the reaction of someone whose friend had recently hooked up—but stuck close as well, clearly nervous.

The group followed quickly after Dandelion, who was striding ahead with his band close behind him. He led the way through the bazaar, tilting uphill through ramshackle shops that closely resembled those on the human side. Less witchery-focused, perhaps, more antique shops and diableries and contract law shops, but still, remarkably similar.

And then he headed down a side street with a twisted iron gate at the end of it. He and the other fae pulled in close to the center of the road to avoid coming too close to the iron—Viv remembered abruptly that fairy folk tended to hate the touch of cold iron—and, before they passed through it, Dandelion turned.

“Have you been through the other realms before, Viv?”

Vivian shook her head. “I only recently have been able to handle the Otherworld at all, honestly. So I’ve only used the portals that connect the main travel areas between different valleys.”

Dandelion nodded. “The equivalent to the Valleys are called different things in different realms. It’s ‘the pit’ in the abyss, ‘underhill’ in our realm, but they connect the same way: through gates. You shouldn’t feel too many ill effects just travelling through them, but be prepared for a jolt as we pass between realms.”

“It issssn’t very fun,” Varsha agreed. “But it’sss largely harmlesss.”

“Thanks for the head’s up,” Viv said. 

They trickled through as a group, and Viv braced herself as she passed through, prepared for a sense of dropping, perhaps, of falling, something.

Which was sort of accurate, except it wasn’t physical. It felt like her heart had dropped instead, depression hitting her with a powerful force. She wanted to cry but, in the moment, she felt too tired to do so, as if even just shedding tears would be more effort than she had in her.

It hardly seemed worth it to go through all this. Maybe she’d been the one who was out of line with all of this. Thys hadn’t even wanted to go, and for good reason. They were free if someone else was filling their role. And what about the others? Varsha would probably be safe, but would she really? Dandelion was an exile; if he went too far because Viv had insisted on this, who knew what would happen to him? And even the others weren’t powerful compared to the forces they were tangling with—they could get hurt, they could die, all because Viv was too idealistic, too stupid—

“It’s called oppression,” Caoimhe told Viv in a slightly strained voice, staring straight ahead into the twisted blackened forest they were walking through. Red light filtered through the trees in the distance and ash floated through the air; it felt like they were in a place that had only recently burned, still suffering for it, and still at threat of whatever inferno raged in the difference. 

“Oh, are you feeling that?” Varsha said. “I wasssn’t sure if it was jusst me. It’s a nasssty one, isn’t it?”

Adrien wiped an eye and held out a teardrop on a finger. “It even got me, and sadness isn’t natural to me.”

“It’ll be worse for her, though,” Star said lightly. He at least seemed cheery, unaffected by whatever was going on, or was at least pretending to be. “Because it’s something demons make for humans.”

Thys pulled Viv in closer still, wings flaring protectively with a flash of white. They seemed much, much larger with their wings open, and Viv sheltered in that. “Sorry,” she said. “I’m fine. This is a thing demons do to us?”

“It’s not made for humans,” Thys corrected Star. “It’s something they carry with them at all times that they can project on humans. It’s one of the ways certain types of demons influence certain types of humans. Not all, of course, just as not all fae cast exotic glamours as a habit, but…”

Viv leaned into Thys’s side and let herself feel Thys’s feelings instead of her own for a moment, pulling hard on their connection, surrounding herself in Thys’s adoration and strangeness and determination. “I’m all right,” she said. “I could use a distraction, though. Can we talk about what we can do? Varsha’s here to try to help us use scent to figure out what this shapeshifter is, if needed, and I have a light spell and some attack magic in my pocket, but what about the rest of you? I heard that Adrien was just a brawler?”

“Aye, no magic here that isn’t done in the bedroom,” Adrien said. “But I can pack a wallop, and even if it’s not enough to take something like this down, I’m sure it can be a distraction. Caoimhe, now, she’s no fighter, but…”

“I have similar abilities to what I’ve heard this thing can do,” she said softly. “Most of what I do is simply in merriment; if someone chooses to dance with me, I can control them as I wish. But I don’t expect to use that one—rather, I can create lights that hypnotize others, lead them astray. I don’t know how useful it will be in this circumstance, either, but I may be able to seize control of its lights, or at least interfere with its own powers in some way.”

Star didn’t seem inclined to contribute, so Varsha hissed a sigh and said, “Sssstar?”

“Oh! Me too, huh? Yeah, I’m a shapeshifter and like, do you play D&D?”

“What,” Thys said in confusion.

Simultaneously, both Varsha and Viv said, in unison, “I play D&D,” then looked at each other in some excitement. “I’m looking for group,” Viv added. 

“We can totally—”

“Okay, we can make Saturday night plans after we’re done fighting a form-stealing monster,” Star said with annoyed cheer. “But the point is, I’m a bard, I can improve other people’s powers by singing or playing music. Basically buffs or debuffs. I can also turn into a horse and stick it to me and run around wildly until I find somewhere to drown it. That plan usually works for me, but I’m not sure if it’ll work here?”

Viv giggled, relaxing a little despite the oppressive atmosphere. “And Dandelion?”

Dandelion didn’t answer. He was leading the way with a quick, grim intensity, picking each fork in the path with consideration but haste, so the others were left hurrying through the ash after him, seeing only his back.

“Dandelion can command other fae,” Thys said. “He can create great illusions and glamours. He is a master of swordsplay and of riding and his music can enchant humans however he wishes. He can grant immortality to humans, or—”

“Dandelion can do a lot of things, but mostly to humans or other fae,” Dandelion interrupted from ahead. “Just ask Dandelion what you want him to do and he’ll try his best to do it.”

A new voice, rough and grating, cut in: “Oh, well, and if what we want is for Dandelion to stop?”

The demon who stepped out in front of their path was a huge creature, some twisted and horrific combination of man and antelope, twisted hooves and hands and antlers and a human face. A crown hung off one of its antlers, dripping blood down into its hair. 

Dandelion stopped short, bringing the others to a halt. “Hello, Ferthur.”

“Hello, Exile,” Ferthur said, his voice as cheery as could be expected from a sound like teeth being ground to dust. “How have things been since you tried to interrupt the tithe?”

Dandelion gave him a smile, flashing teeth. “As you clearly know, I was punished, and all is well. May we pass? We only intend to step back into the between-realms of the Otherworld a little further on.”

“Is that so, is it? State your purpose for travelling and so on. While there is an exit to the between-realms, we both know that the fae lands lie that way as well…” The demon grinned. “Wouldn’t want to have to tell them you’re sneaking back in, do we? And oh, you’re bringing a human. This should be interesting. What’s your name, human?”

“I…” Viv hesitated, unsure what to say or do to convince this demon to let them pass harmlessly.

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Viv didn’t want to tell them, didn’t want them to be embarrassed by her own weakness. She wanted to push through, just manage somehow, but—

But she had to. They were all going to fight together, and she’d only endanger everyone if she didn’t admit the truth.

“I’m sorry,” she gasped, struggling against the pounding headache, the nausea, the sense of the dim light being too bright, the noises of the crowd too loud, the scents of the food too overwhelming. “I’ve never… managed to acclimatize to the Otherworld…”

Thys’s delicate hands caught Viv’s shoulders, pulling her down off Varsha’s back. Viv made an unhappy face in the general vicinity of the white blur that must be Thys’s face, embarrassed.

And then Thys was kissing her. 

This kiss wasn’t soft or tender or tentative. It was a possessive kiss, hard, almost biting, that strange, slender tongue curling in Viv’s mouth. Viv let out a muffled eep into Thys’s mouth, but she couldn’t help but kiss back, not while Thys was practically claiming her with it.

“Are you mine? Will you be mine, Vivian Dormer?” Thys whispered against Vivian’s mouth.

“Y-yes? Yes?” Vivian yelped, breath coming fast. 

And something… changed.

The throbbing in her head vanished—and though other parts were throbbing now instead, at least that wasn’t painful—and the background sights and sounds seemed dialed down to a reasonable range again, as if the volume on everything had been lowered. Even her hip and leg felt less painful, weirdly, and that had nothing to do with this place.

More to the point, the churning in Viv’s guts, the sense of her magic curdling, the shudders and chills wracking her as the energies of the Otherworld interacted with her own channels were… gone. 

Just gone.

“What did you do?” Vivian gasped, patting herself down as if expecting to feel something there beyond her own usually-traitorous body, her face, her torso, her stomach. “What happened? I feel… fine?”

“Yes, you should feel fine now,” Thys said reassuringly, patting Viv’s arm.

“But what—”

Thys smiled at Viv. It was a soft, precious smile, strangely shy and sweet. “We can acclimatize a human being to the Otherworld quickly. Because, you know, we can get ownership over them under certain circumstances, and spirit them away immediately, yes? It’s much as how demons can improve a witch’s ability through contract, if the rules mean that we can lay claim to you, we can take you home. Your body will ignore its usual needs and fit our needs instead. I thought it would be especially easy to do with you because we already have a channel.”

“So it’s not permanent?”

“Oh, it should be permanent,” Thys said. “If you follow rules to be freed, of course, you will no longer be mine, and that tends to have effects. But you unblocked your own magic earlier tonight without my help, so your magic is flowing now, where it wasn’t before. My stealing you away will just, I think, help show it how to flow down the channels correctly. And that is all that acclimatization is. I think it would be more strange if your body reverted entirely, after learning how to acclimatize. But, if it does revert, you know ways to accommodate now, yes?”

Vivian took stock, examining herself. It was true; the claiming, she assumed, was an effect on her, but things felt… unblocked. “I wonder why they were like this in the first place? Blocked. I have to assume it’s part of why I never acclimatized.”

Thys shrugged. “Sometimes, that is just how bodies are. Or perhaps you were cursed when young by someone who did not want you to be great. Or perhaps you simply had other needs for acclimatization than most people. Or perhaps we are soulmates and you simply needed to soulbond with me so that I could aid you when you needed it! If we are soulmates, perhaps everything is now just right!” 

In all fairness, Viv had never believed in soulmates. But Thys was practically sparkling at the thought, so Viv just just smiled. “Yeah, maybe.”

“I hate to interrupt your kisssssing in front of me,” Varsha said dryly, “but the Merry Gentry are over there.”

Viv pulled her gaze away from Thys’s face and looked around the bazaar. When she had come through before as part of moving to Branwin, it had been a blur of misery. Here, it looked… fun. Exciting. String lights and lanterns were wound up on strange, twisted trees, and booths made of a dark wood were set up all over the place. Monsters of all kinds browsed the wares at those booths, and she watched for a moment as a young headless boy was given a bit of unidentifiable fried meat on a stick; he nibbled on it, his head cradled in the nook of one arm, like a parent giving a baby a bottle.

“Ah, you’re right, over there,” Thys said, and pointed to indicate them before waving to Dandelion and his crew.

Gone were the usual glam rock looks. The band members were dressed in everything from a flowing white gown to a tunic to a thong speedo, and Dandelion…

Dandelion was dressed like a nobleman. His hair shone around his face, reflecting the lights, giving him an uncannily halo’d look. He wore a velvet tunic in dark green with gold trim and black leggings, with calf boots that sat to his thighs. 

The three of them hurried over to the band. “You have never been more conspicuous, m’lord,” Thys said, more dubiously than sarcastic.

“I know it,” Dandelion said, with a grin. “But nobody will ever mistake me for anything but one of the daoine sidhe. I should be fine as long as I don’t cross the border, so don’t worry about me. You’re at more risk right now, frankly, aren’t you?”

Thys shrugged. They looked more uncanny too, Viv noted, than they had been on earth, in ways that she couldn’t quite put words to. Fingers and limbs a little too long, movements a little too graceful. “I suppose I have accepted that. But I did not dress up.”

“You didn’t. Varsha, good to see you, as always.” He leaned in and kissed both her cheeks, then took Viv’s hands and did the same to her. “You too, Vivian. I haven’t introduced you to my band yet, have I?”

Viv shook her head. “Sorry, no. I’m Vivian, but call me Viv, hi—” She held out a hand to whichever bandmate wanted to take it first.

Perhaps predictably, that was the satyr, half-man, half-goat. He wore a leather tunic that came to his thighs and, she was pretty sure, nothing beneath. He took the offered hand, kissed it, then grinned. “Adrien, ma’am. Glad to be of service, let me know if I can help with anything else.” He gave her a lusty wink.

“She is married,” Thys put in, a little loudly.

“Aw, well, nobody’s perfect.”

Viv laughed a little awkwardly and reclaimed her hand. “We’re just glad to have your help, seriously. And you?” She offered it to the woman in white this time.

“Caoimhe,” the woman said, with a smile. She bowed; the dress at her back was loose where her back was hollow. “An elverpigen, also known as ‘women in white’. Thys and I sometimes have movie nights; you’re welcome to join, you know.”

“I am absolutely going to take you up on that,” Viv said fervently. “But is it weird that I can’t even imagine what life is going to be like tomorrow?”

“Perhaps it’s too early to judge. And…” Caoimhe sighed. “Let me introduce you to—”

The nixie was the one who was wearing just a speedo; Viv figured she should have expected as much, as water spirits infamously spurned clothes whenever they could. He was a beautiful young man with wild eyes, long hair like a horse’s mane cascading down his back, and a blueish-green cast to his skin. “My most recent registered name is Son, That Ain’t Right.”

Viv kind of froze mid-handshake. Weird enough that the guy was practically naked, but— “Sorry, what?”

“I race, so I pretty much go by whatever my rider calls me. Race horse names are wild.” The nixie with the unbelievable name laughed. “What, you don’t think we’d give out our actual names, do you?”

“We call him Star,” Caoimhe said.

“Well, it’s lovely to meet you all,” Viv said wryly. “I heard you were looking for news of the shapeshifter?”

Dandelion nodded. “Between all of us, we got enough brief sightings to form a picture. It looks like ‘Thys’ is headed right for the fae border rather than skipping between realms; they stopped and asked for directions. If we want to lay chase, we might be able to catch up since we probably know this land better than they do, but since we’re following behind we might not catch up until close to the fae border unless something holds them up.”

“Or not until past it, if something holds us up,” Thys pointed out.

“True. Now, if we want to skip through a bordering land, we might be able to angle over and cut them off before they’re too close to fae lands. However, the best realm to do that would be, well.”

He gestured to a passing demon.

“Hell?” Viv squeaked.

“Abyssal territory, at any rate, yes. Abyssal lands run close to the fae, of course, since we’re neutral to them.” Dandelion sighed. “I’m sure either option will be fine. Thoughts?”

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“It might be nice to get Yasmin if we could,” Viv said, “just because she seemed somewhat aware of the lanternfish? But I don’t think she’d be interested since I only talked to her once, so unless she’s really bored with food delivery, not going to happen. I don’t know if Varsha will want to or not, but it may be worth asking her just for her sensory abilities? Theoretically the lanternfish could be anyone. We can tell her to ditch us in case of a fight. Other than that? I… don’t know. I think Dandelion is both willing and able, but you’re the one who’s worried he’ll accompany us too far so I’ll leave that to you.”

Thys nodded. “All right,” they said placidly. “I’ll make some calls, do what I can. You focus on studying.”

“Thanks,” Viv said. She hesitated only a moment, then leaned over and kissed Thys on the cheek.

Thys’s eyes went huge and they raised a hand to touch that cheek, smiling a little. “Oh. For luck?”

“Just ’cause,” Viv mumbled. Blushing, she headed next door to her own apartment to dig up some books before she totally lost her nerve.

Viv had to shuffle some boxes around before she could find the one for her spellbooks—it wasn’t kept where her divination books were, because those were practical, while her spellbooks had been so much dead weight for her for so many years. But she’d never had the guts to get rid of them, let alone the heart to—her family would never have forgiven her for giving up.

She wondered, briefly, what they’d make of this development. Would they be pleased that she was at least able to do magic now? Or disappointed, because ultimately, she wasn’t accessing her magic because of herself but because some fae power had greased the tracks, however long it even lasted?

What would she do if it wasn’t permanent? Her heart ached at the thought. When Thys was fully well, the connection would end—that had been part of Isaac’s spell, after all, and she had only been able to mimic what she’d seen done. Once that connection had been gone long enough, would she dry up again? Shut down?

That was a future problem, she reminded herself firmly, before her tears could start to well up, and took deep breaths until their threat went away. Right now they had a very real, different problem ahead of them.

She unpacked the books, putting them on the kitchen island, and then, after a moment’s consideration, texted Thys that she’d practice in her own apartment. It only made sense; Thys was going to be calling people, and it’d be easier to memorize quickly if she were by herself. The cats were at Thys’ too, so she wouldn’t accidentally set any of them on fire if she triggered anything even in practice mode. 

Viv sat on her couch with her books and focused.

The next few hours passed in a blur. She knew most witches had to use something as a focus for their casting, whether stones or thread or whatever else, but what she knew best was fortune telling. Embedding spells was harder to learn than live-casting, so she decided not to pick up cards, and instead used her pendant, swinging it in circles while doing the recommended gestures, letting the familiar guiding weight of it guide her magic. She could feel it working, knew that this would be a good outlet for her.

She practiced light magic—hopefully Isaac’s acquaintances would have already pre-prepared a spell anyone could use, but if not, she needed to do something herself. First, she attempted to do it by will alone, as she’d managed earlier, with no success. Perhaps it had been just her desperation that had let her do it earlier, she thought glumly, like a grandma lifting a car off a toddler—though she hoped not. She hoped there was some inner power in her that nobody else had. 

But there was no point in it being that or nothing, so she studied some spells to turn the lights on and off, and did so successfully this time, her pendant whistling through the air as she did the patterns, let them spell out the silent incantation. 

From there, she moved from controlling those existing lights to a spell that let her create it, managing to place several orbs around the apartment that glowed, burning on the fuel of her magic. She thought that if she tried, she might be able to make a big orb, maybe enough to do the job, but she didn’t practice it because it was likely to burn enough magic that she’d be tired after.

No point totally wearing herself out before the big showdown.

Then she studied a basic shielding spell—no point in anything specific when she didn’t know what the lanternfish could do—and some attack magic. That she couldn’t practice to completion, not inside the house, but most spells prepared a mnemonic for the final section of a spell so that people could learn it regardless. She decided not to overprepare—simple attack spells that somehow utilized light seemed best; it fit the theme, and would hopefully help cut off the lanternfish’s line of escape if it caused shadows to move erratically. So she went for a simple lightning spell—deadly and efficient.

And then she just grabbed her backpack and shoved some of the smaller books into it. If there was something she needed on the way that wasn’t as time-sensitive as an actual witchfight would be, she could always try casting from the book. Besides, theoretically she could do bibliomancy with spell text as well. Hopefully, it wouldn’t cause any new spells to appear in there. She could handle thinking that maybe she’d just forgotten a quote that was in there or pretend it was by someone she didn’t know. She wasn’t sure she could handle actual magic text altering for her.

Viv shoved some painkillers into the backpack as well, and a bottle of water in next to it. That done, she limped back to Thys’s apartment. She felt… calm. Not ready, perhaps, because she wasn’t sure she’d ever feel ready, but as if she’d done everything she could for now. 

Varsha was inside Thys’s apartment when Viv got back, wearing a She-Ra sweater, and gave Viv a wave. “Hi,” she said. “I don’t know how much good I will be, but I don’t sssee any harm in accompanying you to play sssniffer.”

Viv gave her a helpless smile. “I promise we appreciate it,” she said, and turned to Thys, who was now wearing white jeans and a brown, flowing blouse, open nearly to their sternum. “Wait, should I change my outfit too?”

“No,” Thys said. “I am trying to wear the least mystical thing I could think of, so I seem less. Cool. Powerful.”

Biting back a laugh, Viv said, “Oh. Gotcha. I’m not sure it worked but, uh, I’ll just stick with what I have on. Anyone else joining us?”

“Dandelion and his band will meet us just inside the gate. He is strong with glamours and commands, and his band is good in a skirmish, he said—the satyr is a brawler, the elverpigen is capable of casting light that lures people and so may be able to interfere with the lanternfish, and the nixie is also a shapeshifter, as well as able to reinforce other people’s abilities with his music.”

“Well,” Viv said. “I mean, that’s a good set of skills, I think, as long as they know the risk and are careful. They’ve already gone for the gate…?”

Thys nodded. “He wanted to go through to see if he could get any news of what direction the lanternfish is going, since we know its ultimate destination, but if we want to cut it off exactly, we may need to hear what people have seen. We may wish to ambush it, find a way to track it efficiently enough to do a surprise attack.” Thys tucked some of their hair behind one finely-pointed ear. “That is it. I was not able to get hold of Yasmin; OmegaEats does not give out employee information, the skate park has no phone, and… well. I cannot imagine a stranger helping us anyway.”

“No,” Viv said. “I think that ship has sailed. Did Isaac get back to you?”

Thys held out a small baggie, inside which was what looked like a small breakfast bar. “It seems that Isaac’s neighbour is a bakery witch who recently joined the counsel. He sent this. If you put it in your mouth, the area all around you will light up. It was hurried since I asked for it tonight rather than tomorrow as planned, he said, so there may be side effects.”

“Side effects. Great.” Nevertheless, Viv took it, putting it in the pocket of her backpack. “Well, then. Shall we?”

The three of them headed off, walking downhill toward the gate. At first, they were moving a little slowly out of deference to Viv’s injury, though she was trying to ignore it; then Varsha seemed to cave and offered Viv a piggy-back ride. Somewhat embarrassed—not least because Varsha was beautiful and her betrothed was right there—Viv accepted.

They moved much faster with Viv mounted on Varsha, though she had to cling on and get used to the weird swaying movement of her long form. The buildings became more magical, lots of witchcraft parlours and hexeries cropping up near the main road—mystical energies flowed more strongly near the gate—and fewer and fewer humans were seen this far, more and more monsters of various forms.

And then they were at the gate. It was an unremarkable thing which stood in a park at the lowest point of the valley; on the other side, the hill began sloping upward again. It was a simple archway, but mists swirled within it, thick and crackling.

Viv knew that the gate itself would be there with or without the gateway itself—people had often built up those things just to feel better about its presence, feel like they were sure it was contained and not leaking—but nevertheless, she eyed the stone structure as if it was ominous and weighty in itself.

“Onward, then,” Thys said, as if this was going to be easy, and Viv didn’t protest, just let Varsha carry her through.

Pain and nausea struck as the crackling fog washed over her. She did her best not to let it show, but she couldn’t keep herself from tightening her grip on Varsha slightly. She kept her eyes closed, breathing shallowly. She knew what was on the other side of this from having so recently passed through it to move in here—an inverted version of the park, dark in an eternal night, with a monstrous bazaar around it. The park would be full of booths, full of monsters of all ages and types browsing and eating fancy foods. And she could hear it already, people calling out to each other in a variety of languages, buying and selling goods, favors, souls. Smell the meats and stranger things.

It hurt. It hurt it hurt it hurt.

“Viv?” Thys said. They’d noticed, somehow they’d noticed; Viv opened her eyes and saw Thys reaching out to her. She didn’t want them knowing, didn’t want them wasting their energy trying to fix something nobody had ever been able to do anything about. “What’s wrong?”

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