“Pieces?” Mia asked.
The girl in the checkered scarf nodded. “Bits are breaking away, and, uh… spirits are filling the space. It’s why you’ve been acting differently, why you’ve been stronger in some ways and weaker in others. The sorcerer might even be doing it on purpose.”
“This is worse?” Ben asked. He sounded angry. “We’re fake, we’re just props in some wizard’s screwed up fantasy world, but oh, we’re sorta dying but not really, and that’s the worse part?”
“Yeah,” the girl in the checkered scarf said. “It’s worse.”
“You’re lying.”
I can’t lie.
“I know because I’m going through the same thing,” she said. “A… monster took my name. Mostly my fault. Now I’m falling apart in the same way. It’s why I’m here, as a matter of fact.”
“Good to know.”
Her heart caught in her throat.
An adult voice. Or mostly adult. One she recognized.
She turned.
“Kids, meet the sorcerer.”
They were frozen in fear and confusion.
Bad instincts, really. Prey instincts.
“Most make a beeline straight for me,” Johannes said. “Ask permission. But I do suppose you do live in Jacob’s Bell, and it would be unreasonable to expect you to stay out entirely. Hi.”
“Heya,” she said.
“Padraic?” Johannes asked.
“Yep.”
“I’m going to have to ask you to leave my vestiges alone.”
Maggie glanced at the kids.
Fuck. They weren’t real, and they weren’t long for this world, but… fuck. They were still scared. They were thinking beings with a broad spectrum of feelings.
“Vestiges, children,” Johannes said, drawing his pipes from one pocket. “Find another place to hide for the time being.”
“Why-” Ben started.
But Johannes was tapping the set of brass pipes against his ring.
Metal chimed, a brief sound like that from a tuning fork.
“Begone,” Johannes said.
The kids were gone in a flash, faster than was humanly possible, darting for a hole in the floor, Mia grabbing a backpack on her way.
“There,” Johannes said.
“Not a coincidence that they have dogs and rats inside them, is it?”
“No.”
“Can I ask what the long term plan is?”
“You could. Or you could ask what you came here to ask. I have only so much time, now that we’re close. It won’t be long now before the claim to the city comes into question, I have things to see to. Metaphorical Ducks to get in a metaphorical row.”
She bit her lip.
He waited patiently.
“Can you help me?”
“Yes. Do you want my help, nameless girl?”
“I’m not so sure, now.”
“Keep telling yourself what you told them. They aren’t real.”
“I’m fairly attached to a few people who aren’t much more real than those kids are.”
“I imagine you are. I guess what I really need to know is… do we have a problem here, nameless girl?”
You mean, am I a problem you have to get out of the way before Jacob’s Bell changes over?
“Not just right now.”
“Then just right now, you have my assistance. I’m stronger than Sandra, who you saw earlier. I can nourish you in the right amounts to slow your decay. I can provide small amounts of assistance. To fix your problem, I’d need more of a commitment.”
She nodded slowly. “When you say fix…”
“I can retrieve your name from Padraic. All would go back to being the way you need it to be. Your name might be a little tainted, and Padraic would be unhappy, but he wouldn’t take it further from that. I know Faerie superior to him in the court, and I would act as the middleman, putting you at minimal risk.”
“In exchange for… a commitment? You want me to look past that thing with the kids, and…?”
“And I would want you working at my side. My allies, for the most part, are transient ones. Mercenaries, if you will. Help me take Jacob’s Bell. After that… it’s up to you. You could take a seat on my council and be my problem solver, or you could leave the city.”
Take Jacob’s Bell. Fight Sandra.
Fight Blake and Rose?
Help the man who did that to those children.
Fake children.
Whatever.
He spoke softly, “Take your time deciding. For now, however, I can find you a place to stay. Do you need anything else? I give you these things with no strings attached.”
“What time is it? I need to step outside.”
“What time do you want it to be when you leave?”
“Three thirty?”
“On a particular day?”
“Uh, I guess not. I was hoping it would be today.”
“You’ve already spent a full day in my realm. It’ll be three thirty by the time you find yourself outside. The way should be relatively clear.”
“And… do you have a phone I can borrow?”
He touched the paper she’d drawn on, and sketched a rough drawing of a cell phone. He reached into the paper and pulled it free.
It was a flip phone, ancient, worn around the edges, the sort that would survive practically anything.
“Something that will work outside of here?”
“Ah,” he said. He reached into a pocket and handed her a smart phone. “I’ll need that back.”
She nodded. “Can it call outside numbers?”
“It can.”
She nodded again. Her heart thudded in her chest.
“Just ask for me, when you’re ready.”
She nodded again.
She left.
Her fingers dialed the familiar number.
The phone rang.
She walked through the alien landscape, and it was weirder going out than it had been going in. Less hiding behind the veil. Houses with crooked roofs hid in the shadows of larger buildings.
“Hello?”
“Mom? It’s me.”
“It’s-”
“Me. Just… me.”
“What’s wrong, honey? You sound tired.”
“I’m… I’ve had a really bad couple of days. I need to talk to you, and I kind of need you to not ask about what’s going on.”
“I can do that, I’m just cooking dinner right now.”
“Yeah? No other obligations?”
“No, hon.”
They talked about inane things until the phone’s battery ran out.