Prologue:

       Queen Glorianna was holding court when the heralds blew the
trumpets to announce the arrival of a Seelie Duke.  Before they could
actually announce his name, he stormed through the doors and up the long
green carpet that formed a path from the doors to the throne.  He shoved
Countess Greentree, who had been speaking with the Queen, out of the way
and stood at the very edge of the dais upon which Glorianna's throne sat.

        His name was Duke Ironwood, and his hair was a deep brown, shot
through with streaks of grey, though not from age.  It was the mark of his
office, just as Countess Greentree, who was a dryad, had hair that changed
with the seasons.  He wore blue and grey clothing to match his eyes and
his streaks.  Right now, he was almost frothing with rage.

       "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY SON?"  he shouted.  The walls shook,
being made of delicate crystal, and tiny echoes of his voice rebounded
through the room and adjacent ones.  "How could you send my son to be
raised by commoners?  To grow up in a COTTAGE!  I stood by your side in
the dark years after the Great Disaster and this is my reward?  I DEMAND
AN EXPLANATION!!!!!!!!"

         If Queen Glorianna's will had not been supreme in the palace, her
hair would have blown back around her throne from the force of his
shouting.  As it was, she had to make a positive effort to prevent any
unfortunate side effects from Ironwood's unleashed rage.  If he became
much angrier, the palace would begin to shatter.  He was on the verge of
losing control completely, and the wrath of a master mage has power that
he or she can rarely control.  When that mage is fey, it can only hurt
matters.

        Her voice was icy, far different from its usual warmth and good
cheer.  "Duke Ironwood, have you so far lost touch with reality that you
have forgotten the greatest rule of the Changeling rite?"

        His lips flapped for a few seconds without making any coherent
sounds.

        "The mortals may believe that there is no method to our choices,
that we simply trade children according to our whim, but you should know
better.  Don't you even REMEMBER your youth?"  Glorianna glared at the
Duke, who wilted a bit, then rallied.

       "Which youth?  I've taken on a mortal life six times that I can
remember, and more that are too fuzzy to recall.  But EVERY single time, I
was a noble of grand repute, just as I am here!"

        Several people snickered and he glared at them.  They shut up
since none of them felt like being forcibly reincarnated today.  

       "Oh really?  Was this the time you were a petty mercenary captain
who shot your way into a Dukedom?  Or perhaps the time the Emperor had you
murdered before you could do that to him?  Or..."

         This time a lot of people laughed.  The Duke wilted again for a
moment, then returned to the attack.  "Okay, perhaps I wasn't ALWAYS as
important, but I was never a peasant!"

         "You got lucky,"  Glorianna said flatly.  "Do you think I WANTED
to insult you?"

         The Duke blinked, having not really considered this.  Militarily,
he was a genius.  Interpersonal relations had never been his strong point,
however.

        "Why would we ever send our children to live as peasants if we had
a choice?  Yet, even the mortals know that virtually all changelings
become peasants.  Has it been so long that you have forgotten why?"  She
thought a moment.  "Hmm.  Well, it has been close to three hundred and
forty years since you were 'assassinated'.  Have you even entered the
mortal world since that day?"

        He thought for a moment.  "I believe I visited my 'grave' about a
hundred and fifty years ago.  That was the last time."

        "Even in its heyday, there weren't very many nobles.  The nobility
dwindles even as we speak.  The day shall come, I fear, when none will be
left.  If we were to place our children as nobles, we would have to steal
virtually all noble children.  But more importantly, we must obey the law
of destiny.  Only the children marked by fate can be taken.  Those we take
are those whose destiny it is to be taken.  They were born to enter
Arcadia, just as our changelings were born to enter the mortal world."
She looked around the room.  "How many of you were noble in your last
mortal life?  Raise your hand."

          For a moment, there was dead silence as nobles looked
uncomfortably at each other, then five hands out of eighty went up.  The
other seventy-five all looked hideously embarrassed.  The Queen spoke
again.  "My own daughter had to be handed over into commoner hands.  You
can see that I showed myself no more favoritism than you.  I did what I
had to.  In the end, I had no choice."

         Whispers circulated around the room during the three minutes of
silence that followed.  Finally, Duke Ironwood sagged and stared at the
ground.  He had never paid any attention to how changelings were sent out
into the mortal world before.  While he himself had been sent as a
changeling several times, he had never had any children of his own before,
and he had no more memory of the circumstances of the times he had been
traded for a mortal child than a mortal child usually has of coming out of
the womb.

        "How...how soon can I see him?"  The Duke could already hear the
headchewing he was going to recieve from his wife when he returned to his
own lands.  His wife was only not present because she had been called away
to attend the birth of Marquessa Shalya's 
daughter.  She wasn't going to be happy about this.  

        "You WILL stay away from him until he awakens to his true nature.
And that is a thing whose time no one can predict.  It could happen
tomorrow, or it could happen when he is old and grey.  Still, if it
follows the usual course of events, it should happen in about sixteen to
twenty years."

        The Duke flapped his lips silently again.  Finally, he said, "That
long?"

        Countess Greentree said, "I see you slept through both your
etiquette and your natural history lessons."  She was frowning and waiting
for an apology for his earlier rudeness.

        It was going to be a very long wait.  

       Duchess Silverwind, who was standing nearby, said, "This could
complicate matters.  What if he gets married before he can marry my
daughter like the Duke and I have arranged?"  She was tall, with long blue
hair, clad in the reddish gold reserved for those who had the blood of the
royal line in their veins.

        The Queen contemplated ripping off the arm of her throne and
beating them both in the head, but almost instantly rejected the idea, no
matter how satisfying it would be.  "You know that rarely happens.  Our
kind find it hard to form lasting attachments to mortals, unless we bring
them here."  There were more whispers at that.  The Queen had defied all
tradition by taking a mortal lover herself, although given that her
parents had both died in the Great Disaster, it was perhaps not quite as
surprising as it might be.  What more, the man himself had been a
commoner.  She might speak of nobles and commoners, but no one was sure if
she really believed in such distinctions anymore.  

       She had carved her way to the throne in the anarchy after the Great
Disaster, whose cause was still disputed, had laid waste to the nobility
of Arcadia, slaying almost all of them and forcing them to be reborn and
pass into the mortal world.  It was widely believed that meddling mortals
had something to do with it, for any slaying by faerie hands resulted only
in an awakening in the land of the fallen, unless it be by cold iron, in
which case there was no returning from it.  

       She herself had been a great Queen, and Duke Ironwood, her greatest
ally, had been a brilliant general.  It had taken close to a hundred years
for her to restore order when she finally returned to Arcadia in 1603.
Things had been even worse for her great enemy, Queen Teleute of the
Unseelie, who had suffered decades of captivity at her hands during their
mortal life.  It had taken Teleute close to two hundred years to rebuild
the Unseelie court, and since then, the two powers of Arcadia had been at
war, on and off again.  

        Duke Ironwood said, "Well, we shall see what we shall see, I
suppose.  I am ready to recieve the boy for whom he was traded.  I shall
raise him to the best of my ability."  He turned to the Duchess.  "Perhaps
he and the girl for whom your daughter was traded might be engaged instead
of our own children."  He sighed and felt like an idiot for all the things
he had failed to take into consideration.

         Glorianna sighed.  "I have bad news."

         The Duke frowned.  "What kind of news?  Did the child die?"

         "Unseelie assassins slew the deliverer of the children and took
all four of the mortals they had been switched with."  She sighed.  "We
had hoped to recover them, but we learned too late. They have already been
taken to Teleute's court."

        "But if she has the children, she can use them to find OUR
children!"  Duchess Silverwind shouted.  "My daughter is in DANGER!"

        Duke Ironwood began getting angry again.  "Why weren't we told
sooner?"

         The Queen sighed.  This was not the ideal time to reveal this,
she thought.  "We had hoped to recover the children, as I said.  I have
set people to watch over them.  They will be as safe as any changeling can
be."

        More shouting broke out in the hall.  This was not a day that
Glorianna would remember happily, or remember at all whenever she had the
choice.  

        That night, she sat on one of the balconies of the palace and
watched a fireworks display over the lake that surrounded the island on
which her palace sat.  While the Seelie lands remained technologically in
the Renaissance at best, mortal technology worked perfectly well in most
realms, and the Seelie often considered fireworks to be the most perfect
mortal invention of the last four hundred years.

       Her consort sat by her side.  She knew taking him as a lover was a
mistake for a wide variety of reasons, but she had denied herself many
things for hundreds of years.  Faeries find it hard to not indulge
themselves, and in the end, she had given in to temptation.  "Do you ever
regret that the mortals who study your plays will never see the vast
majority of what you've written?"

       He laughed faintly.  "I wish I could go back without dying so I
could batter a few English professors in the head."  He jumped slightly as
one of the fireworks let out a great explosion.  "You'd have made a great
actress if we'd had any back then.  You can say anything with a straight
face."

         "Are you angry with me, Will?"

       "I can't say I'm pleased that our daughter may be in the hands of
the Unseelie.  We don't even know how many of them actually ended up being
delivered or not."  He looked over at Glorianna, who was doing her sphinx
impression again.  "Or do we?"

       "I never lie to you, Will.  You know me too well."

       "That's not an answer."  He frowned.  She was hiding something.
Even he, her lover and one of her oldest friends, could never be sure what
she was really thinking or really wanted.

       "The Unseelie may not be able to tell themselves."

        He blinked.  "What?"

        "Changelings and mortal babies can be switched because they look
like each other.  There's no way to just look at them and tell."

        He nodded.  "In other words, we have a few years before anyone can
be sure which children are which."

        "More or less.  I will do my best to recover all the children.
You will see our daughter again, Will.  This I do swear."

         That was enough to reassure him, for a faerie's word is her bond.
Unfortunately, the promise you hear isn't always what it seems to be.       

*************

Angel said:

        The mirror in our room rippled as Aquamarine and I stepped out of
it.  I put down my stuff and Aquamarine sighed, then turned back into
Tanya.  It wasn't a physical transformation, exactly.  It reminded me of
someone taking off a disguise, almost.  Or shrinking.  I had seen it
twice, but I still couldn't quite understand it.

        We stood and stared at each other silently for a minute.  It was
all so obvious now, though I would never have guessed it.  Finally, I
said, "So how soon are you going to tell him?"

        "Not today," she said quietly.  "I'm exhausted.  I've got to
figure out how to...what to say."  She sighed.  "What do you think...he's
going to say?"

         I sat down and started unpacking my stuff.  "I don't know.  I
think he's gonna be hurt that you never told him before."

       "I couldn't," she whispered.  "I wanted to keep him out of all
this."

        "You failed,"  I said.  I regretted it almost instantly.  Tanya
started to cry.  "I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to be snide.  I just..."

        "I deserve it," she said.  She crumpled up into a ball and began
crying onto her knees.  "He's going to think I don't trust him, and he's
going to get mad and hate me and..."  She was starting to babble.

        I got up and came over and sat down by her.  I wasn't sure what to
do, but I had to do something.  I couldn't just watch her cry.  I'm not
good at touching people when they need it, not like Harry is.  Especially
when I've got good reason to be aggravated with someone.  I did it anyway.
As she continued to babble, I leaned over and hugged her.

        She almost screamed, then leaned over and hugged me so tightly I
could hardly stand it.  "Angel, you're such a good friend, thank you for
not yelling at me, you're the best friend I have."  She cried, soaking my
shirt.  

        I made my best soothing noises and tried to keep my rib cage from
snapping under the pressure.  "Harry's not going to hate you."

        Tanya babbled something incoherent into my shoulder, then started
to pull herself together.  "I was so stupid.  I should have just told him,
then..."  She trailed off.  I think she just remembered who she was
talking to.

         With a lot of effort, I managed to not laugh.  It wasn't easy.
"Well, now you can tell him."  I didn't know what else to say.  I had a
rather unkind sense of triumph I had to suppress.  Tanya is my second best
female friend, despite our rivalry, or maybe even because of it.  At least
I'd never have to worry about her getting along with Harry.  That wasn't
too much comfort at the moment.

       She sighed and sat up, letting go of me.  "I think I'm going to
call Mom."

       "Does she know?"

        "No, so I don't know how I'm going to talk to her about this,
but..."

        I took the hint.  "I'll go take a walk.  I'll be back in a
half-hour or so.  

        "Thanks for being understanding, Angie."

        "My pleasure,"  I said, taking off.

*********************

Harry said:

       Donny walked in as I was unpacking.  "Yo, Harry, you back from your
weekend trip with your gf?".  

        "No, you're just imagining me," I said, stowing the suitcase in
the closet.  "Feel free to jump on your bed all night if you like."

         He laughed.  "So, where'd you two go?"

        "We went camping with some friends."  It was sort of true, in a
vague way, maybe.

       He nodded.  "If you and Angel ever need this place to yourselves,
just lemme know and I can go crash with Fred.  Although I'd probably sleep
through anything you did."  He pulled out the drawers under his bed and
started looking for some clean pajamas.  

     Our beds are kinda unique in my experience.  Well, unique to this
campus.  Each bed has two long drawers under it for your clothing.  In
fact, the beds are basically a long and very short dresser drawers with a
mattress on top.  It's very convenient as long as you remember to not move
your bed to where the drawers are facing the wall.  

     I went and took a shower, then got dressed for bed.  Donny was
already asleep when I came out.  I wish I fell asleep that fast. He sleeps
like a rock.  I spent a lot of time thinking about Angel and magic and
faeries and everything.  Right as I was about to fall asleep, the mirror
rippled and a man stepped out of it.  He was tall with long straight black
hair that went down to the bottom of his shoulder blades.  He was dressed
in an elaborate 'Henry VIII' outfit, if you've ever seen that one picture
of him that shows up in all the books about him, although he was
substantially thinner than Henry, who was getting portly due to
gout-induced lack of exercise by that point.  Or so Tanya told me.  She's
a history major.  Anyway, I'm rambling.

        I stared at the man groggily, wondering when my mirror had become
a waystation on some faerie highway.  He had to be a faerie, though he
lacked the pointed ears I'd expected.  Once my vision cleared a bit more,
I could see his skin was faintly blue tinted, and he had a long blue sword
strapped on his left side.

        He turned and stared at me.  I stared back.  He said, "You are
Harold Crags?"

        "Are you here to kidnap me?"

        "No."

        "The answer is yes, then."  I crawled out of bed.  "Let's go in
the living room.  My roommate is sleeping, and he's not used to people
stepping out of mirrors."  I resolved to take the mirror down tomorrow.

        He followed me out into the 'living room', which is really a long
room connecting the two bedrooms, with a pair of desk cubicles at each end
and a door to the hallway in the middle of the wall opposite the bedroom
doors.  There's also a dinky little kitchen connected to it, but we never
use it.  We have a few chairs.  I gave him one, while I sat in my desk
cubicle, turning the chair around.

       "So who are you?"

        "My name is Sir Timoleus of the Narwhale.  I am one of Duke
Ironwood's knights."  He paused, clearly expecting some sort of response.

        "Nice to meet you.  Can I ask why you came this late at night?"

        "I'm sorry. Due to time differences, it was three in the afternoon
or so when I left."  He looked around.  "What an odd room.  I take it that
four people live here?"

        I nodded.  "Two per bedroom.  Anyway, why did Duke Ironwood send
you?"  I yawned.  "Sorry to be so blunt, but I'm tired."

        He smiled.  "I like people who are honest and direct.  The Duke is
interested in meeting you."

       I blinked.  "How did the Duke even hear of me?"

        "He has had trouble with Splinter and her lover, Opal, before.  I
suppose he is curious as to why she is after you, but honestly, I have no
clue."

       "Sure.  If he wants to drop in some time, I'd be happy to see him.
Just give me some warning so Donny isn't around when he pops out of the
mirror or whatever."  I yawned again.  "How about Tuesday afternoon?
Donny has a lab from one to five."

        "I will see if that is acceptable."  He got up.  "I shall go and
let you sleep."

        I soon fell asleep, hoping no one else would drop in to say hi.

**************

Angel said:  

       I wandered through the largely quiet, sleeping campus, enjoying the
feel of the light fall breeze on my face.  My new magical sense of the
wind seemed diminished back here at home, but I could still hear its song.
I hadn't figured out how to actually make it do anything, but I was pretty
sure that would come along easily.  It certainly didn't work like in the
vision.  I'd already tried that.  

       My wanderings brought me back to the place where it had all begun,
a place where the leaves lay heavily upon the ground.  I stared at the
leaves and moved to the middle of them and closed my eyes.  I tried to
remember what I had been thinking that day.  I felt the wind begin to pick
up and I tried to visualize the wind whipping the leaves around me in a
whirlwind.  Slowly, the wind grew stronger.  I must have been there for
five or ten minutes by the time it reached the level I wanted.   Finally,
I opened my eyes.  The leaves were blowing around me in a great spinning
vortex.  I was tremendously excited.  My first real magical working.  I
felt like a child with a new toy.

         A voice cut through my contemplation.  "Isn't that how you got in
trouble the first time?"  It was a man's voice, though I didn't recognize
it.  I tried to look, but all I could see was leaves.  I imagined it
stopping and it did.  

         The man was short, with a commanding presence that reminded a
little bit of pictures of Napoleon I had seen.  His hair was short and
white, and he wore a simple green tunic and brown trousers.  Along with
his deep blue eyes and pointed ears, he looked sort of like a faerie
peasant.  "Still, I suppose no one is likely to see you at this hour."

        "I...who are you?"

        "You may call me Tacitus.  It is as good a name as any other."  He
smiled.  "You are Angela Bedos-Rezak, correct?"

         I nodded.  "Yes.  Umm...how do you know who I am?"

        "You and your lover are starting to make waves in the Seelie
community.  Few mortals have escaped unaided from the Unseelie.  In
addition, you have the patronage of a Duchess' daughter and a Count's son.
There are rumors as well, rather intriguing ones."  He walked a little
closer.  

        "What kind of rumors?"  I leaned up against the nearby tree and
yawned.  I was getting tired.

        "It is said that you have seen Ariel."

       "Yeah, twice.  Is she reclusive or something?"  I was starting to
wonder what exactly this Ariel person was really up to, besides looking
for an honest woman.

       "Ariel appears to few but nobles and those desperately in trouble.
Most faeries consider her to be a myth, though I know better, having seen
her myself."

        "Which category do you fall in?"  I looked the man up and down.
The trouble one, I suspected.

       "I met her after I had made a big mistake with messy consequences.
She helped me work to fix those mistakes, but I'm still working on it."
He sighed.  "Be careful with magic.  It can bite you on the nose, Miss
Bedos-Rezak.  And it usually does."

         "I don't have much choice.  It's the only way to stop Splinter.
Even if I become the best swordfighter in the world, she can still clobber
me with magic."  I stood back up.  "I have to go get some sleep.  Feel
free to come and chat some time, Mr. Tacitus."

         "You can expect more visitors in the days to come.  Your
reputation is beginning to spread.  Be warned it may attract as many fools
as people worth meeting."

        "I'll consider myself warned."  I went home and went to bed.

*************

Harry said:

       Monday came and went.  Tanya was acting freaky all day and I
couldn't figure out why.  I wanted to talk to her and tell her about our
adventures, but she kept running off.  She also looked ready to cry, but I
couldn't figure out why.  I asked Thomas and he just grunted.  Angel had a
funky look too.  By the end of the day, I was aggravated with everyone, so
I went off to the park.  Luckily, our school is right next to the main
city park, so it was a short walk.  

       I sat down under a tree, opened my bag of chips and a soda, and
just hung out with myself.  I could sense the life of the tree once I was
in contact with it.  My new senses seemed muted, or maybe the range had
just shrunk.  They were stronger here than on campus, though.  I could
hear the tree talking, almost, though it wasn't saying anything coherent.  

      I sat there for a long time, just relaxing.  I was now ahead on my
homework thanks to that trip, so I could take some time off.  Normally, I
don't like being alone, but sometimes, I HAVE to be alone or I'll go nuts.
Everyone else had apparently gone nuts, so it was up to me to stave off my
impending insanity.

     A tap on my shoulder woke me out of my reverie.  It was Tanya,
carrying a picnic basket.  "Hi.  Got time to eat with me?"

       "Sure!"  Where Tanya cooks this stuff, I have no idea, but
sometimes she just shows up out of the blue with good home cooking.  This
was one of those times.  Fried chicken and rolls.  She's a great cook.
Angel and I can't cook to save our lives.  If we do get married, we'll
starve to death.

        Once I'd gotten some food in me, I asked, "So what's wrong, Tanya?
You've been acting weird all day.  Did Angel tell you something about our
trip that made you worry?"

       Tanya twitched in an exaggerated fashion.  "Harry, I...I mean..."
She broke off and stared at the roll she was holding as if it held the
secret of life.  "No, it wasn't something she told me."

        "Did Thomas do something stupid again?"  No wonder he just grunted
when I asked him, I thought, then ate some more fried chicken.  "This is
really great food!"

        "Only the best for you, Harry," she said quietly.  "You always get
the best I can give you."

        I nodded and munched on a roll.  "Yeah.  You're my best friend in
all the world.  Well, not counting my girlfriend, of course.  So what's
wrong?  I want to help."

        She paused and ate her roll, perhaps hoping it would unlock some
secret for her.  "And you're my best friend in all the world, Harry, not
counting my boyfriend, of course."  She stared at her plate.  She looked
guilty as sin, though I had no idea why she would be feeling guilty.  

        I put down my food and moved over by her.  "What is wrong?  You're
acting like someone shot your mom or something."  I paused.  "Mom's okay,
right?"

        "Mom isn't half as stupid as I am.  She's fine."  She glanced over
at me, then back at her plate.  "She didn't even say I told you so," she
whispered.

        "Huh?"  This was the weirdest I'd ever seen Tanya act when sober.
"Can you just tell me what's wrong?  You know I can't ever guess that sort
of thing well."

         She reached into the basket and pulled out a napkin, then reached
over and wiped my lips with it, then crumpled it a bit and wiped her own
lips.  I was now reasonably confused.  I didn't think my hygiene was the
problem.  Heck, I've seen her kiss Thomas with greasy lips.  "I really
dated some idiots in high school, didn't I?"

       "Has one of them shown up and started harrassing you?  I'll get
Angel to challenge them to a sword duel for you."  I laughed a little.

        She missed her cue and didn't laugh.  "No, I don't think I'll ever
see any of them again."  She paused.  "Harry, why didn't things ever work
out with any of those girls you dated in High School?"

        I couldn't bring myself to tell the full truth.  "The only one of
them that I had anything in common with ended up dating Andy.  Most of
them...well, I bored them, and they bored me.  Reciprocity isn't always
good."  I thought about all of them, trying to understand something I'd
never really thought about.  "I did kinda like Jill, but she dumped me for
Tommy Taylor.  And Lynn decided I was evil after I knocked that soda on
her on the first date."  I recounted a few more horror stories.  "Mostly,
though, I just think none of them were the right person for me.  They
couldn't hold a candle to you or Angel, or even Alex, and Alex and I used
to fight every time we met."

        "So...why didn't you ever ask me out?"

        I gulped.  I didn't know how to answer this.  "Because I was
afraid you'd say no, and it would wreck our friendship, and I couldn't
have gone on if that had happened."  I wanted to ask if she would have
said no if I had asked, but I couldn't muster the courage, even now.

        "Do you remember the night I got drunk and you came over and kept
me from doing anything stupid, then slept in my chair until the morning?"

        I laughed faintly.  "Which time?  I had to do that three times,
remember?"

        She laughed in a sad way.  "After my three hardest breakups.   You
were always there when I needed you.  Always.  I remember the time I got
mono and you came to see me every day and no one else would come near me
for fear of getting sick."

        "I remember when I had the flu and you brought me cookies every
day."  I said quietly.  "And all the times you chased off bullies who were
harrassing me.  I owe you a lot too."

        She turned and stared into my eyes with an intensity that
frightened me.  I was like a deer in headlights.  She started to close the
already not too large gap between us.  "There's something...no, two
somethings I've never told you, Harry.  It's been weighing on my
conscience for a long time, and you deserve to know.  I won't blame you if
you want to kill me afterwards, or if you never want to talk to me again,
but..."

       "Don't talk like that.  If you didn't tell me, I'm sure it was none
of my business."  What on earth could she be talking about?

        "Harry, the first thing is..."  She gulped, then continued.  "I'm
Aquamarine, Harry."

         "..."

       "I've known about my heritage since I was thirteen or so, but I
never told you.  I wanted to protect you.  I was afraid you'd get drawn
into faerie politics and get hurt or killed or worse."

       Worse than being killed?  I didn't really want to know.  I tried to
speak, but my brain was shorting out.  "I...so why didn't you tell us once
this got started?"

        "I didn't want to admit I hadn't been totally honest with you all
these years.  I thought it would blow over quickly, and we could just
continue being the same as we had been before."  She stared into my eyes
again.  "I'm sorry, Harry.  I lied to you for no good reason at all."

       "I can't blame you.  After what I've seen...I was better off not
knowing.  But, on the other hand, I'm glad you told me."  The moment she
said it, it all became blatantly obvious.  No wonder Aquamarine had been
acting so weird.   "That's the important thing, is that you trust me
enough to share it with me.  I could hardly believe that you and Thomas
could trust us to...He's Flamehair, isn't he?"  He had to be.  Tanya
wouldn't twotime.

        She nodded.  "He's the best love I've ever had.  You...you like
him, don't you, Harry?"

        I nodded.  "He drives me nuts sometimes because he's everything
I'll never be.  I guess I know why, now.  Still, he's a nice guy, and I
think he's perfect for you.  Too bad he didn't show up until after high
school, though.  I wish he and Angel had gone to our high school."  

       "So...you're not mad?"

        I sighed.  "I'd have worried less if you'd told me.  I spent a lot
of time worrying about you being in danger when you were five feet from me
instead."

        She turned her head away.  "I'm sorry, Harry.  Flamehair wanted to
tell you from day one, but I wouldn't let him."

        I put a hand on her shoulder.  She reached up with her hand and
clasped my hand, then slowly turned back to face me.  I said, "I'm not
mad, Tanya.  So what's the other thing?"  I was a little mad, but she was
so shook up, I didn't want to make her feel worse.  I'd never seen her
this panicky except for the times after she'd been dumped.  

         She stared at my chin, and then my ear, and then my forehead.
"The other thing I never told you..."  She gulped.  "Harry, could you...I
mean..."

        This was utterly unlike Tanya.  She virtually never gets nervous
like this.  It had to be something horrible, or what she thinks is
horrible.  "So the fact that I'm a faerie doesn't bother you at all?"

        "The fact that you didn't tell me kinda bugs me, but I think you
being a faerie is kinda neat.  And I feel a lot safer knowing Angel has
you there to protect her at night."  I squeezed her hand.  "I like
faeries, except for white haired maniacs like Splinter.  Are you about to
tell me she's your sister or something?"

         Tanya laughed a little.  "I think I'd die if I found that out."
She stared into my eyes again, then smiled a tiny smile.  "It really
doesn't bother you at all," she whispered.

        "You're Tanya.  Even if you get blue hair and throw water around
sometimes, you're still the woman I..."  I paused.  "You're my best
friend, and I think you proved you're still you by telling me the truth.
I guess you'll still be around when I'm dead and gone, but we can have a
lot of good times until then.  And I'll see you in Heaven one day, I
hope."  I hope Faeries can go to heaven, I thought.

        She gulped.  "Oh Harry..."  She leaned forward.  My eyes
involuntarily flicked down because I could now see down her shirt.  I
forced myself to not do that.  "I...I..."  She shoved a note into my
hands.  "Read this in just a second, okay?"

       I blinked.  "Uh, right."

        "I love you, Harry.  Now, read the note."  She turned and stared
off across the park.  She was physically shaking.  

         My jaw tried to fall off my face and sink to the Earth's core.  I
had started to get the feeling as the conversation progressed that
something like this was coming, but I was still utterly in shock.  The
note was labelled, 'To Harry'.  I could tell it was Angel's handwriting.
Unlike Tanya, Thomas, and I, her handwriting doesn't stink.  

        I opened it slowly, afraid of what I might find.  It said, 'Dear
Harry, Tanya told me everything.  Yes, everything.  Once she finishes
confessing, please come with her to see me, so we can all discuss this.
Maybe we won't break too much of the furniture.  Love, Angela.'

         I gave out a deep sigh of relief.  It wasn't a breakup note,
which I was scared it might be.  Not that discussing this with Angel was
going to be any easier, but still...  I looked up at Tanya and said the
words I had wanted to say for years and years.  "I love you too, Tanya."

         She spun around.  Her face was a mass of tears and hope, which
makes for a strange combination.  She said very quietly, "What...what did
the note say?"

        "Soon as we finish eating, we have to go see Angel and talk about
all this."  I sighed.  "I hope your health insurance is paid up."

       "Harry, I...She...You...What are we going to do, Harry?"

        "I guess we'll figure that out."  I picked up my food.  "We'd
better eat before this gets cold."  I wanted desperately to grab her, to
hug her, to kiss her, to comfort her.  If this had happened before I fell
in love with Angel, we'd have been making out in the grass by now.  As it
was, I knew if she touched me, all my defenses would collapse, and I'd do
whatever she wanted.  I wanted her to touch me.  I think she knew it too.  

         We finished our meal with minimal conversation and headed back to
the dorm to talk to Angel.  We were both shaking.  I had no idea what
would happen next, and it terrified me.

**********************

Angel said:

        That afternoon was the worst afternoon of my entire life that
didn't involve any physical pain.  Tanya and I had worked out something
that vaguely resembled a plan, but now I was regretting it.  I tried to do
homework, but I just ended up wanting to chop various sociologists in half
with an axe.  I tried to go eat dinner, but it tasted like cardboard.  I
tried chatting with our suitemates, Mindi and Katherine, but I was too
much of a spaz to do anything but fret.

        Finally, I ended up watching this cheesy tape of music videos from
the late eighties.   My eldest sister had given it to me as a gift for
reasons I may never understand.  Still, it was a flashback to younger
days, and it helped me forget what was going on, until a song I normally
like came on.  I usually like 'Little Red Corvette'.  Unfortunately, my
brain started conjuring up a mental image of Harry singing it about Tanya.  

        I would have screamed, but that would have panicked my suitemates.
I looked at my watch.  What was taking them so long?  A mental image of
them making love in the grass filled my head.  I wished again that I had
had more time to plan this, but I had never thought it was possible Tanya
actually loved Harry.  I thought he was just being as stupid as I get over
Thomas sometimes.  What if Thomas loves me, I thought, then discarded the
idea.  No way.  Looking back, I could see hints of how Tanya felt, but me
and Thomas didn't have anything like that.  

        Maybe if we had made love, I thought, then discarded the thought.
Lovemaking can't make someone love you, unless they already do.  It can't
drive someone else out of their head.  At least, I didn't think it could.
I couldn't speak from experience.  

        The suite door opened.  I heard footsteps.  I was sitting on
the bed, shivering, with Billy Idol starting to sing 'Dancing with Myself'
on the TV as Thomas walked in.  "Hi, Angel!"  He blinked.  "Hey, what's
wrong?"

        I stared at Thomas.  "I...I think I...I think I'm about to lose my
boyfriend."  

        He blinked and sat down on the bed by me.  "What makes you think
that?  You and Harry seem to be tighter than ever to me.  Did you have a
fight?"  He looked really worried.

        "He and Tanya..."  I didn't want to say it.  Surely Thomas has
some idea how she feels about Harry.  He has to know.

        Thomas stared at me very intently.  His voice wavered just the
tiniest bit as he said, "Did they...do something?"

         It was reassuring to see that even Thomas, who I sometimes think
is majoring in suave sophistication, couldn't quite bring himself to say
it openly.  "No.  But Tanya has gone to talk to him about it, and I'm
afraid...I'm afraid he's going to dump me for her.  He loves her.  He's
loved her for so long, and she's loved him for so long.  It has to be
meant to be.  I'm just getting in the way."  I sighed and stared at the
floor.  "I can't compete with Tanya."

        Thomas frowned.  "Don't sell yourself short, Angie.  I think you
can compete with Tanya in every way that counts.  And you've got strong
points she doesn't."

        I continued staring at the floor.  "Name one."

        "You're a good planner.  You're organized.  Tanya is a chaotic
mess who has problems planning anything.  The last time we went camping
together, she was in charge of the food.  She forgot to get any.  You
wouldn't have done that."  Thomas put a hand on my shoulder and a thrill
went through me.  I felt guilty for liking that.  

        "Well, all my planning didn't get me out of this."  It was my plan
that sent her off to see him without me and now it's all falling apart.
Looking back at this, I can see I was being ridiculous, but it all seemed
very real at the time.  "She's just so perfect.  So beautiful and funny
and..."

        Thomas said, "Angie, I just can't understand how you can't see how
pretty you are.  If you realized how attractive you are, your head would
get so big there wouldn't be room for Tanya to sleep here anymore."

         I laughed a little, and finally turned to face him.  "If that's
true, why haven't any of the men I've ever liked fallen in love with me?"
Certainly Thomas had a rather wide window of opportunity with me if he
found me attractive.

        "First of all, Harry DOES love you.  Secondly, the only reason I
never asked you out was that I liked you too much to drag you into one of
my love affairs.  Until I finally got together with Tanya, they were all
messy and short.  I wanted to be able to be around you for a long time."
He was very quiet and his face was troubled and hard to read.

        I stared at him.  I couldn't believe it.  Thomas really found me
attractive?  I'd always assumed he was just trying to cheer me up.
"I...you...you really think I'm pretty?"

        "Angie, I have very good taste in women, and you're one of the
best I've ever met.  Higher quality than almost all the ones I've gone out
with.  When you told me that you loved me, I nearly blew my secret on the
spot."  He got very quiet.  "I bet you were thinking there was no way
Thomas would ever find out, eh?"

          I laughed a little.  "I just...So you really...you..."

          He nodded.  "Harry loves you.  I KNOW.  I've been inside his
head.  I did a better job of protecting my secrets than he did."

        I started.  I hadn't gotten around to asking Harry what his
initiation was like.  "You're really sure?"

         "I have total faith that Harry won't dump you for Tanya, and
every intent of taking his place if he does."  Thomas stared intently at
me.  "If you want me."

        I nearly fainted.  "I...you mean it?"

      He took my hand with his.  "Would you like me to swear an oath?"

       It was incredibly overwhelming.  My emotions were now in full churn
mode.  He had to be serious.  Thomas does play jokes, but not like this.
This was beyond flirting and silliness.  "No...you don't have to swear an
oath."  Slowly, the chaos in my mind began to calm.  Harry DID love me.
My longing for Thomas hadn't been completely ridiculous.  I wasn't going
to be utterly alone.  Something inside me snapped, and I felt a tremendous
sense of..something.  Something good.  I got up and went over and stared
into the mirror.  

        I was a rumpled mess.  My clothing was wrinkled, my face was a
tear-stained mess and my hair was going in all directions.  I didn't look
very beautiful.  And yet, I felt different.  I got a brush and started to
brush my hair.  "They'll be back soon."  This time I meant it.  "Tanya
went to talk to Harry about everything."  The brush began to bring order
to my hair's chaos.  I could feel my strength returning with every stroke.
"So just hang out here and wait for them."  

         I had stopped crying and my face was starting to return to
normal.  I felt like a sculptor carving something out of rock.  I could
feel the power I had felt after my initiation.  I wasn't sure what I was
doing, but it was magic.  With every stroke of the brush, I could feel the
power building.  "Thomas, find me something nice to wear, okay?"

        Thomas muttered something I couldn't quite hear, then started
digging through my drawers under the bed and in the closet.  I used to
have very short hair, but I started growing it out some when I came to
college.  Tanya's is longer than mine, but she's been growing her hair
just about forever.  Finally, my hair was in order.  

        Thomas brought me the clothing.  It was just a T-shirt and a long
blue skirt that had no right to be worn together.  They clashed like the
Cowboys and the Oilers.  This is what you get when you send a man to pick
out your clothing for you.  I laughed and took it.  "Hope you didn't
enchant these like the last time a faery gave me something."

        Thomas laughed.  "Those pajamas Tanya gave you are enchanted, by
the way."

         I stared at him.  "No way."

         He dug them out for me.  I could just barely sense the power in
them.  "..."

       "Anyway, go get dressed.  I won't look."  He turned around.

        "Maybe I want you to look,"  I teased.  

        "Maybe I'm watching you with my magic."

        I laughed, then went into the bathroom and changed.  It was a
weird outfit, but I was in a weird mood.  I got out my makeup.  I don't
use it much.  Part of this is that I only have a vague idea what I'm doing
when I use it.  My mom gets allergic reactions to most makeup and never
really taught us to use it properly.  However, Tanya's taught me enough
that I no longer end up looking like Malibu Barbie when I try to wear
makeup.

         Makeup and warpaint are related in origin, I think.  I could feel
my power almost crackling, looking for release.  Or maybe it was just my
nerves.  I could hear Thomas had turned on the TV and was watching one of
Tanya's Tenchi Muyou tapes.  She has a lot of Japanese animation, mostly
because her mom gives her ridiculous amounts of spending cash.  How her
mom affords it on a professor's salary at a small town Texas college, I
don't know.  

        I finished applying it and looked at myself.  For a moment, the
mirror flickered.  I thought someone was going to step out of it, so I
jumped back.  I had glimpsed a woman with long red-golden hair.  She
looked familiar, though I didn't know where I might have seen her.  She
looked as surprised as I was, and then the image was gone, and it was just
me in the mirror.  I shook my head and chalked it up to stress.

        I hope it's not bragging to say I looked good.  I had dressed up
for dates before, but somehow I felt more attractive in my silly 'War-kon'
T-shirt and blue denim skirt than I had felt in my prom dress.  Maybe it
was because I was getting ready to see someone I loved.  Maybe it was the
magical power I could feel surging through me.  Maybe Thomas had enchanted
my clothing.  I stepped out of the bathroom.  "Okay, shower me with some
more praise."  I laughed.  I'd never felt this confident in my entire
life, I think.

        Thomas looked up and smiled.  "You look beautiful as always."  He
thought for a moment.  "How's this for a plan?  When they come in, I'll
fake left. You fake right.  Then I grab Tanya and you grab Harry and we
each drag them off to the appropriate bed and make love to them until they
pass out?"  His eyes were twinkling.  

        I laughed.  "Maybe we should be making out when they walk in."  I
couldn't believe what I was saying.  I just felt so...so powerful.  I
wonder if Tanya feels like this all the time, I thought.  That would
explain a lot.  

        Thomas smiled at me.  "We can save that for tomorrow night, okay?"

        I laughed loudly.  "And we'll make them watch, okay?"

        We were both laughing as Harry and Tanya walked in.  They both
looked as shaken and nervous as I had been when Thomas arrived.  I stood
up and stared into Harry's blue-green eyes.  He stared back at me, and his
eyes widened.  "Wow, you look good, Angel.   I..."

        I walked over to her.  Thomas was approaching Tanya, who was
staring at me with a really weird look.  I had an evil grin on my face.  I
turned to face Tanya.  "You told him everything?"

        Tanya stared at me.  She looked a little frightened now.
"I...Angie, what are we going to do?"

         I smiled at her.  "I don't know about you, but I'm going to kiss
my boyfriend until he turns bluer than your faery form's hair."  I spun on
my heels and grabbed Harry, pulling him into the tightest embrace of my
life.  Our heads almost slammed together, and I unleashed all the power I
felt on Harry.  

         For a moment, he floundered, then his arms wrapped around mine.
Tanya started to say something, then I heard more mushy, kissing noises
from nearby us.  I'm not a passionate person.  I focus a lot on
self-control.  Thomas was right.  I am order where Tanya is chaos.
However, this time, I was the passionate one.

         Finally, we broke off the kiss to get some air into our systems.
Harry said, "You...you're not mad?"

          I should have been mad.  On another day, I would have either
been down in the pit of despair, or incredibly angry.  But I wasn't.  I
finally believed that I could really be loved.  I had power.  I had spent
too much time worrying about fate, whether I was able to compete with
Tanya, and all that jazz.  I would make my own fate, or die trying.  "You
love me, don't you?"

        He nodded.  "I love you a lot, Angel.  But I also..."  

       I silenced him with a kiss, though this one was short.  "I know you
won't betray me, Harry.  I shouldn't have doubted you.  If I could control
how I felt about Thomas, I should have known you could control how you
felt about Tanya.  I trust you, Harry."  I was heady with delight.  Harry
loves me.  That was the most important fact in the world.

        He blushed.  "I don't know if I can trust me."

        "Then we'll just have to cram four people in one bed, I suppose."

        Harry blushed.  Thomas blushed.  Even Tanya blushed.  I never
thought I'd see that day.  I laughed, then kissed Harry again.  "So,
Tanya, looks like all those offers you've made to crawl in with us weren't
completely futile.  Are we going to use your bed or mine?"
I was on a roll.  They were all so embarrassed, I could probably have
gotten them to do anything.  The power in me roared for release again.  

        Harry gulped.  We were still embracing each other.  I started to
drag him towards my bed.  "Well, Thomas, you'd better get moving if you
don't want me to grab you too."

        "Ahh, so we are following the plan?"  He laughed and started to
drag Tanya towards her bed.

        She blushed.  "But...shouldn't we..."

        "It'll be harder to switch partners afterwards if you're
upstairs,"  I said, laughing very loudly.

        Harry babbled something utterly incoherent.  I pushed him down
onto the bed and climbed on top of him, kissing him fiercely.

         I could hear noises from the other bed that told me that Tanya
and Thomas were starting to get down to business.

        Naturally, this was the moment that the fire alarm went off.  

***************

Harry said:

      I wanted to scream.  Tanya stopped kissing Thomas and said, "So what
did you do this time, you bad boy?  Did you set someone on fire and not
tell me?"

       We all laughed, then reluctantly got up and headed outside.
Muggleton has a very nice fire alarm system, except that like all school
fire alarms, it's intended to be overly sensitive.  Better safe than
sorry.  I REALLY didn't want to go outside.

        We didn't say much while hurrying out of the building.  Nothing
worth the bother of repeating.  Finally, we all found a bench to sit on
together while everyone else milled around and complained.  Angel plopped
down in my lap and leaned back against me.  I put my arms around her
waist.  It's strange how you can go from despair to joy in such a short
time.  Angel's transformation had been more extreme than mine, though.
What had happened to make her so confident?  I'd hardly ever seen her like
this before.  I liked it, but it scared me.  She was so sexy, I could
hardly stand it.  I wanted her desperately.  I had made my choice.  I
glanced over at Tanya, who was snuggled up to Thomas as if we had never
had our discussion.  I remembered what Thomas had said about fickleness of
faeries.

        But was I really any different?  Almost every day, I swung back
and forth on my relationship with Angel.  I knew Angel had struggled as
well, but suddenly, she had such certainty...I had to know how she got it.
I whispered, "Angel...How...How did you make up your mind?"

        She turned her head around and smiled at me.  "I finally listened
to all the compliments you and Thomas and Tanya shower on me.  I finally
understood how you could love me.  I never had a boyfriend before you
because I never really thought I deserved one.  I had the chance...to take
Thomas."

         I got really BIG eyes.  "..."

        "We could have traded.  It would have been easy.  He likes me, she
likes you.  But that would be giving up.  I love you, Harry.  I want you.
I want Thomas too.  But I choose you. "

        I glanced over.  I could see Tanya and Thomas were listening in,
though they were trying to not look like they were.  I'm sure Angel knew
that too.  I said, "I...you'd really take me over Thomas?"

         "Do you really want to be on top of Thomas?" she teased. 

         Tanya snorted and started to laugh.  Thomas fell off the bench
with Tanya.  I blushed tremendously.  

         "I love you, Harry.  I choose you.  Do you choose me?"

          I stared inside my self at my soul.  I loved Angel.  I loved
Tanya.  They both loved me.  I couldn't love both of them, could I?  Then
it struck me.  If you couldn't love more than one person, then you
couldn't love your mother and your father.  You couldn't love God and
still love anyone else.  It wasn't a matter of choosing who to love.  It
was a matter of chosing who to make a commitment to, who to give the
primary claim on my heart.  

        I believe in faithfulness.  Angel was being faithful to me, and I
would be faithful to her.  I loved Tanya, and she loved me, but I had
already given her up once by going out with Angel.  We made a great
couple.  This wasn't going to be easy, but suddenly, I believed we could
do it.  Angel had proved I could trust her to be faithful.  I would be
faithful to her.  "I love you, Angel.  If you can trust me, then I'll
trust me too."

        She smiled at me.  "Good, then go kiss Tanya."

         I blinked.  "Wh...what?"

          Thomas coughed loudly.  Tanya made a weird noise.

         "You two have been in love for almost as long as you've been
alive.  I think you deserve a kiss for all the hell you've both gone
through."

        Tanya and I both stared at Angel as if she had gone insane.
Thomas smiled.  "Do I get a kiss too?"

        Angel winked.  "If you ask me nicely.  Or were you asking Harry?"

         Angel and Thomas both laughed.  I started to wonder if they had
been taking drugs while Tanya and I had had our talk.  I said, "We...ought
to wait until we get inside.  So people don't notice."

        Everyone started to head inside as if I'd just given the cue.
Angel smiled.  "We won't have long to wait then, will we?"

        I had never been so scared in my entire life.  Tanya seemed
vaguely stunned.  Thomas was grinning like a hyena.  

        We headed upstairs.  We entered Tanya and Angel's room.  I stared
at Tanya. She stared back.  It was the real test.  Could we kiss each
other and stop?  If we couldn't, then we'd never be able to have a
relationship with the people we were with.  I suddenly realized Angel knew
that.  That was why she posed this test.  

          I walked slowly over to Tanya.  We were both trembling.  I had
never really kissed Tanya when we were both awake and sane.  I had to know
what it was like.  We stared at each other for a moment, and then I said,
"I love you, Tanya.  Ever since we were little."

         She said quietly, "I love you, Harry.  Ever since we were
little."  She stepped closer to me.  

       I reached out with my arms, and she shook as I drew her into an
embrace.  We inched closer to each other.  Finally, our lips met and eyes
closed.  I don't know how long we kissed.  It could have been eternity.
It was sweet beyond measure.  Wild fantasies of this leading to her and me
and Angel and Thomas in one big tangled mess on the bed swept through my
mind.  I fought them off, but not with a lot of strength.  I wanted that.
The important thing was that even when I was kissing Tanya, I was still
thinking of Angel.  

         Okay, that sounds weird.  What I meant was that my love for Angel
was strong enough to stay with me, even in this situation.  That was all
the proof I needed, at least at that moment.  I gazed into Tanya's eyes
and I could see she was having a similar experience.  We broke off our
kiss, but not our embrace.  "I'll always love you, Tanya.  You'll always
be in my heart.  When you need us, Angel and I will always come, won't we,
Angel?"

        Angel nodded.  "Whenever you need us."

        "And I'll always love you, Harry,"  Tanya said.  "You know you can
count on me."

          I released the embrace and turned to Angel, who stood up and
almost threw herself into my arms.  Tanya turned nervously to Thomas, who
grabbed her and pulled her down into an embrace.  He said, "I love you,
Tanya.  I know this won't be easy, but I love you, anyway."

        "And I love you."  They kissed.  So did Angel and I.   It was so
sweet that if anyone had been watching, they would probably have died of
cavities.  

        When the kissing stopped, we were all flushed.  Angel said, "And
now we come to..."  She paused.  "The hardest part."

       I boggled.  "The hardest part?"
 
       She smiled evilly at me.  "Cramming four people in one bed isn't
easy, you know."

       I fainted.  What else could I do?

*********************************

Angel said:

        You're probably wondering if I'd gone mad.  Maybe I did.  I
couldn't keep up such a state of flirtatious confidence in my own
attractiveness and deservingness of love forever.  Not at that point.  But
I could keep it up long enough to make it count.

        Harry woke up pretty fast when I took off his shoes and socks and
tickled his feet.  He flailed about in a cutely futile manner.  I smiled
at him.  "I was joking, Harry."

        Tanya said, "Well, I'm game."

         Thomas nodded.  "Seems logical to me."

        Harry was about to die.  He stared at the three of us.
"You...you're joking."

        "Do you want us to be joking?"  Suddenly, it seemed like a good
idea to me.  I wanted Harry desperately.  We all wanted each other
desperately.  Well, maybe not everyone, but enough of us to make it work
out okay.  

        Harry gulped.  "Am I the only sane one here?"

       Tanya thought for a moment.  "Yes."

        I laughed.  "Well, we'll just share a room instead of a bed,
then."  Yes, that's a good idea, I thought.  If we can do this with them
watching, we'll be showing how much we love each other.  

        Thomas carried Tanya over to the other bed.  "Are we going to
sychronize or just go free-style?"

        "And do we get to tag off?"  Tanya giggled.

        I looked at Harry and started to wonder if maybe I was acting as
weirdly as he was looking at me like I was acting.  "Harry, I won't make
you do this.  Maybe I'm acting a little weird.  Am I scaring you?"

         "I want to make love to you, Angel.  So badly, I can hardly stand
it, but...I don't have any protection."  He then whispered very softly,
"And I'm not really sure how to use it.  I mean, I know the basic idea,
but..."  He blushed.  "And I don't want to get you pregnant.  I mean,
that's one reason we were waiting..."

        Thomas opened one of Tanya's drawers and pulled out a box.  "I
always forget to carry these, so I try to leave them everywhere I might
need them."  He winked.  "Try not to scream too loud, okay?  Last time
Tanya and I did this, Mindi and Katherine came running in because they
thought Tanya injured herself."

        You don't really need to know how the rest of this went.  I 
got the instructions I needed.  Suffice it to say that we didn't all end
up in one bed, but we were all naked and feeling pretty good when it was
all over.  It wasn't the solution to all our problems.  You can't fix this
kind of mess in a single evening, but it was the start of REALLY trying to
fix it instead of sweeping it under the rug. 

         *********************
       
Harry said:

        I woke up at three AM or so, thinking I had just had the craziest
dream of my life.  I couldn't have possibly had Tanya tell me she loved me
and had mad passionate sex with Angel all in one day.  Maybe ONE of the
above, but both?  No way.  

       Yes way.  A few seconds after waking up, I realized there was a
woman in my arms, and we were both fairly naked.  I couldn't remember
clearly to even guess which of the possible candidates was in my arms.  My
brain was whacked out, confusing fantasy and reality.  Since I can't tell
the color of someone's hair with my fingertips, and the light was bad, I
had to try to go by hair length.  I was pretty sure it was Angel.  I heard
Tanya mutter something from the other bed, which confirmed it.  

        I tried to remember things more clearly, but my brain was fuzzy.
I wanted to sleep, but I couldn't, for some reason.  Had I slept with
Angel and Tanya or just Angel?  I was pretty sure I'd kissed Tanya, but I
didn't think we'd done more than that.  

        I couldn't believe we'd all been so horny.  I guess the stress
release did something.  Especially with Angel.  I could hardly believe how
she'd been acting...or how glad I was she had done all that.  I slowly
dropped off to sleep again.


         I got woken up by Angel, who shook me awake.  Thomas and Tanya
were still knocked out in the other bed.  Angel looked vaguely panicked.
"Harry!  Wake up!"

         I woke up.  "Bwuh wha?"

         "Harry, did we..."

          "Unless Thomas and Tanya hypnotized us and stole our clothing,"
I said.  Which wasn't necessarily a bad theory, but I was pretty sure it
wasn't the case.

        She gazed into my eyes, then slid up my body slightly and kissed
me on the lips.  "I wish I could remember it all more clearly."

        "I think we enjoyed it."

        She very lightly noogied me.  "Don't make me hurt you, Harry."

        It's amazing how different a state of wild abandon and calm can
be.  Don't think I didn't find Angel's body attractive, because I did and
I do.  However, I'd never thought I could be in the same bed with a naked
woman I was in love with and not want to make love to her right that
instant.  I suppose I had had inflated, or perhaps totally deranged
expectations.  It wasn't that I didn't want to make love to her again
eventually, but I wasn't burning madly with passion like I had the
previous night.

        I suppose all those nights in the castle together did it.  I had
gotten used to having her body by mine.  The lack of clothing did turn me
on a bit, but not like it would have without that.  I guess.  My body
tends to do what it wants without consulting me, anyway.

      She smiled at me.  It was a beautiful smile.  I could have lain
there forever, gazing into her eyes.  

        So of course, Sir Timoleous chose this moment to step out of the
mirror and say hello.  "Mr. Crags, Duke..."  he trailed off.

        Angel shrieked and pulled the covers up over both of us.  The
shriek startled Thomas and Tanya, who snapped awake.  Well, Thomas did.
Tanya looked pretty groggy.  "Zat you, Mom?"

       Sir Timoleous blushed.  "I did not realize I would be walking into
a tryst.  Perhaps I should look into learning how those phone things
work."

        I pulled the covers down enough that I wouldn't have to talk
through them.  "You could say that.  Please tell me the Duke isn't about
to step out too."

        "The Duke is not about to step out too.  Anyway, he will be
expecting you this afternoon at 2 by your time.  I'll come by your room to
pick you up."  He paused.  "You will be in your room then, correct?"

       "I'll be dressed too,"  I said.  "Even though you didn't mention
that part."

        Tanya laughed.  I could hear Angel muttering something about
breaking all the mirrors everywhere.  Thomas looked nervous.

        He bowed.  "Until we meet again."  He stepped into the mirror and
vanished.

        Thomas said, "Duke Ironwood wants to meet you?  He sounded shocked
or surprised.

        "Yeah.  Is he a bigshot?"

        Tanya said, "Is the Pope catholic?  Does Utah have any Mormons?
Does Superman fight for truth and justice?"

         Thomas said, "He is the Queen's chief general and a very long
term ally of hers.  I don't think he's visited the mortal plane or taken
much interest in it for a very long time.  Why does he want to meet you?"

        I shrugged.  "I have no idea."  I stuck my head under the covers.
"You can come out now."

        Angel slowly crawled back up to where her head stuck out, then
laid it down on my chest and turned her face to Thomas and Tanya.  "Can
you bring guests, Harry?"

        "We can ask.  I can't see why he would mind."

         "Well, if you can't, Angel and I will just share Thomas tonight,"
Tanya said.  "You're man enough for it, right, Thomas?"  She swirled her
hand around his chest.  Thomas has a fair amount of chest hair, unlike
myself, who looks like a poster boy for hair removal techniques.  

       Thomas looked over at us and did a double-take.  I guess he hadn't
quite really fully thought about the fact that all four of us were naked
in the same room.  He said, "Bu...uh...you...naked...bed...
umm...here....and..."

        Tanya looked at Thomas.  "What, you've forgotten all the times
you've seen me naked before?"

         Thomas said, "Um, refresh my memory.  Do all four of us NORMALLY
have sex in the same room?"

        "I'd say last night was the first time,"  I said.  

        Thomas tried to say something, but failed, then tried again.
"Umm...did I really...I mean...I remember that...uh, Angel, did you..."

        Angel blushed.  "I was acting really crazy, wasn't I?"

        Tanya said, "If you were crazy, we need to go nuts more often."

         I had never seen Thomas freak out before.  It was a learning
experience.  Thomas is pretty emotional, but I'd never seen him actually
phased by an experience.  "So was having sex as a group part of this
package deal or..."

        "Is that a hint?"  Tanya said, sliding a hand down Thomas' back.

        "Let me rephrase that.  Will we be doing this again tonight?"

        "I don't see why not,"  Tanya said.  

        "I'm game," I said.  I was game, and more importantly, I rarely
get to yank Thomas' chain.  This was my revenge of sorts.  "You can
demonstrate some techniques for me and Angel, since we're new to this."

        Thomas fainted.  Tanya laughed.  "Nice acting, dear."

         I looked at the clock.  "AAAH!!!!  I'm going to miss Chemistry!"

         Angel looked at the clock.  "And breakfast."  She stretched and
sat up.  The sheets slid off her, exposing her chest.  I gazed admiringly.
Angel has a very nice figure, though not quite as good as Tanya's.  

         Thomas had sat back up and was making gasping noises and staring
at Angel's breasts as if he had never seen such a thing before.  Of all
the behavior I might have expected from Mr. Sophisticated, this was not
it.  Angel blinked and blushed.  "I...uh..."  she clutched the sheets
around herself, but she seemed rather pleased by his reaction as well.
Having lost all the sheets, I reached on the floor and got my clothing.  I
threw it on, since I was in a hurry.  "Come by my room at 2, everyone.  I
have to get to class.  If I miss this, I'm gonna look like an idiot in lab
tomorrow."   I took off running.

 **************

Angel said:

       I scrambled out of bed and opened the drawers under my bed and
dragged out some clothing.  Luckily, I didn't have class until eleven, so
I had time to get dressed.  I glanced over at Thomas, who was still making
faces.  I laughed a little.  Once I got a bra and some panties on, I
dropped the sheets and put them back on the bed, then started digging out
some more clothing.

        Tanya was laughing her head off.  "Cut the innocent act, Thomas."

         He muttered something incoherent.

         "Give him a striptease!"  she shouted.

         I wasn't that bold, but I was feeling sexier than I ever had in
my entire life, not counting the previous night.  I finished tossing on a
t-shirt and jeans, then sauntered over to them.  "We'll save that for
tonight, okay?"

         Thomas fainted again.  Tanya looked at me and winked.  "You learn
fast, grasshopper. I like that."

        I laughed.  "I have a good teacher."

        Thomas muttered something about doom.  I said, "Well, I'm going to
go see if I can dig up some food, if there's anything left at the commons.
You two coming?"

         Tanya said, "Sure.  Lemme take a shower.  C'mon, Thomas."  She
dragged him naked across the room to the bathroom we share with our
suitemates, then vanished out of sight into it.

         I went back to my bed and plopped down to wait.  I couldn't
believe it.  I'd made love with Harry.  I'd wanted to do this for a very
long time, but I had been so worried about getting...pregnant.  Well,
Harry used a condom and I've been taking the pill.  I hope we're gonna be
okay.  A cloud of fear tried to close in, but I drove it off for the
moment with my happy memories.  A lot of last night was fuzzy, but I
remembered a few things clearly.  

       I thought about Thomas and Tanya in the shower and felt a rather
delicious surge of desire.  I was excited and embarrassed at the same
time.  There was a certain temptation to join them, but I fought it off.
The previous night I probably would have done it, but I wasn't feeling so
bold anymore.  That had been abnormal, though it had been an abnormality
that I enjoyed.  A lot.   I'd enjoyed Thomas staring at my bare chest too,
although it embarrassed me at the same time.  

        It embarrassed him too, which surprised me.  I guess some of his
usual sophisticated swinger act was just that, an act.  I'm gonna need to
talk to Harry this afte...oh yeah, we're gonna go meet that Duke, I
thought.  Well, soon.  I hugged myself happily.  I love you so much,
Harry, I thought.  I hope I feel like this forever.

         They finally came out, got some clothing, got dressed, and we
headed over to the Commons, as the Thornton U cafeteria is called. It's a
very short walk, since it's just on the other side of Locke, which is
right next to Muggleton.  Of course, we have kitchens in our suites, but
we're all too lazy to cook.  Tanya and I use our suite's refrigerator to
keep fruit and cokes cold, pretty much.  Katherine and Mindi actually
cook, so sometimes we can talk them into feeding us, but I try not to do
that too often.  

         After breakfast, I had Cultural Anthropology to go to, so I bid
Thomas and Tanya goodbye and ran off to class.  As usual, we learned more
about Dr. Warwick's children than we did about Anthropology.  Better than
the time we discussed sheep farming in San Angelo in my World Civ class,
but that's a story for another time.

         Mr. Greene was busily planting more flowers in front of the
Anderson Science building as I crossed the quad, so I stopped to say hi.
"I can't believe you're planting flowers in October."

        "Well, it doesn't get too cold, and since they'll just give me
more to plant when these freeze to death in January..."  He sighed.  "It's
a silly job, sometimes."

        I sat down by him.  "Well, if you remember our last talk, I think
I made my choice."

       "You think you did?  So you're not sure?"  he teased with a twinkle
in his eye.

       I laughed.  "Harry and I made a big commitment to each other.  I
guess I finally really realized he loved me.  It just hadn't quite really
sunk in."

       He grabbed another set of small plants in one of those plastic
things that looks sort of like an egg case, then broke more ground with
his spade.  "Now the hard part starts."

        "The hard part?"

        "Sticking to a decision is always harder than making it.  With
time, it gets easier.  The more we act in one way, the easier it becomes
to act that way.  The more you act on your love for Harry, the stronger it
will grow.  Love is the hardest work of all, and the best."  He sighed.
"As my wife used to say."

        "What happened?"  I didn't know he had ever been married.

         "She died."  He sighed.  "I haven't seen her in what seems like
forever."

         I patted him on the shoulder.  "You'll be together again, one
day, in heaven."

        "We weren't exactly what you'd call godly people.  All I can hope
is that our reunion will be better than our parting."  He began planting
another flower, a poppy.  

         "What happened?"

         "She blew herself up in an experiment.  I was the only survivor."
He sighed.  "So now, I just garden.  No risk of explosions."

         I felt awful for him.  "That's horrible.  I'm really sorry for
you."

         He sighed.  "It's over and done.  All I can do is atone."  He
started on another poppy.  "Oh, tell your friend Tanya that a Mrs.
Silverwind is wandering around looking for her.  Something about empty
rooms or something."

        "Empty rooms?"

        He shrugged.  "She was babbling something before she asked me if I
knew where to find Tanya Cromwell.  The weird thing was..."  He paused and
looked around.  "There was this girl with her, who looked just like Tanya.
You'd think they were twins."

       "Weird.  Well, I gotta go.  Thanks for talking with me."  I got up
and brushed the dirt off my jeans.

       "Thank you," he said.  

        I got back to the dorm.  Tanya had left a note that I should come
down to Harry's room, so I did.  Everyone was hanging out and discussing
our next D&D game, which I suddenly remembered I needed to finalize the
plans I had for it.  Harry was teasing Tanya and telling her she ought to
be playing an elf, so they started wrestling right as I came in.  

         I felt a surge of jealousy and tamped it down, frowning.  No more
jealousy!  Bad mind.  No biscuit.  I thought about what Mr. Greene had
said.  Tanya looked up and said, "Hey, Angie, you need to help me kick
Harry's butt. "

        "Why?"  I reminded myself to tell Tanya about the lady who was
looking for her in just a second.

        She thought a moment.  "Just 'cause we can."

         I laughed and joined in, so of course, Thomas pitched in to save
Harry.  All thoughts of that Silverwind person slipped right out of my
head.  We were a horribly tangled mess on the bed when the mirror
shimmered and Sir Timoleous stepped out.  The man has the worst timing
I've EVER seen.  "I have come to..."  He trailed off and blushed.

        Harry looked up, then at the clock.  "Uh...hi."  It was 12:30.  He
was early.  We swiftly disentangled ourselves.  Harry said, "This is my
girlfriend, Angela Bedos-Rezak."  He put an arm around me.  "And these
are..."

         "Lord Flamehair and Lady Aquamarine."  Sir Timoleous bowed.  "We
have met before."  He bowed.  "Are you ready to go?"

        I nodded.  "Let's do it."

************************

Harry said:

        My third trip through mirrorland, as I call it, was about as
disturbing as the first.  We stepped out into a very nice room that looked
stolen from one of Tanya's Regency Romances.  She made me read one of
those once.  BLEAH!  I surmised it was likely Sir Timoleous' room.  The
fact that he took off his sword and hung it up on the wall when we entered
reinforced my assumption.

        He turned and looked at us.  "Hmm.  You'll all need somewhat more
suitable garb."

        Tanya and Thomas assumed their faerie forms and were suddenly clad
much more appropriately.  Unfortunately, Angel and I couldn't do that.
Sir Timoleous said to me, "With your permission?"

         "Can we make sure I get this outfit back afterwards?"  I'd
already lost one set of clothing to something like this.

        He nodded.

       "Zap at will."  Angel nodded as well.

       My new clothing was hot, but impressive, although hose have never
been my thing.  I had a Henry VIII hat, a long white buttoned shirt, a
brocaded red and black satin jacket over that with big poofy sleeves that
gathered at a tight cuff buttoned with gold, knee length poofy pants and
long white hose down to my shoes, which now looked like slippers.  

        Angel looked beautiful in a long blue dress with a huge skirt that
I suspected would make it hard to get through doorways.  It was laced up
the front with white cords from her waist to about halfway up her breasts,
then opened up into a wide, square cut-off area that showed off her
throat, her upper chest and the top of her cleavage.  The sleeves were
bunched at the shoulders and only went down to about halfway above her
elbow.  She was wearing long blue matching gloves that came up almost to
her elbow.  I could see she was blushing a little, but I thought she
looked beautiful.

         Sir Timoleous said, "Does either of you have a heraldic symbol?"

        "A black cliff on a blue background,"  I said.  Tanya laughed
faintly.  I had gotten a shield like that at a Renaissance Festival a few
years ago.  I thought it was cool, even though I had no real use for it.
I decided to get Dad to mail it to me.

       "A white lion, uh..."  Angel trailed off, probably trying to
remember the heraldic term.  Neither of us knows much about real heraldry.
The stuff I've drawn for my D&D characters tends to break every law of
heraldry known to man and sends Tanya into conniption fits.

       "A white lion rampant on a royal gold background,"  Aquamarine
said.

       Sir Timoleous coughed and stared at Aquamarine for a moment.
"Really?"

        Aquamarine smiled her most evil grin.  "Quite certain."

        I assumed he was wondering why her symbol had a non-standard
heraldic color.  Royal gold is what Tanya calls the sort of reddish-gold
color, sort of like strawberry blonde hair, that the shield Angel got had
on it.  It's a pretty color.

       For a moment, Sir Timoleous simply stared at her, then he smiled
faintly.  "This should be amusing."

       "What should be amusing?"  Angel asked, clearly as confused as I
was.  

        Sir Timoleous wiggled his fingers in what I suspected was a
completely unnecessary manner, since he hadn't done it before.  A few
seconds later, I had little black cliffs all over my outfit, and Angel's
dress was now reddish-gold with white lions.  "Shall we go?"

        Aquamarine nodded, a twinkle in her eye.  I had seen this twinkle
before, and it usually meant something we would laugh at MUCH later was
coming.  

      We headed out of the room, down the hallway, and down a staircase.
Rounding a corner, we then passed through a doorway into a foyer.  Through
the open doors to the outside, we could see a beautiful garden, while
through the closed doors to our left, we could hear talking and music.
Two bored looking heralds, one man, and one woman, stood in front of the
door.  The man had the darkest skin I've ever seen.  He was black in an
entirely literal sense.  He wore a blue turban on his head and had a
rather jarring green beard.  The woman was tall and thin, with brown skin
and green hair.  I guessed she was a dryad like the other one I had met.
They both wore blue and black livery of identical style, though cut a
little differently for their different heights, for the woman was nearly a
foot taller than the man.

        The man said, "None shall pass."

        They both held long golden horns, and the woman lightly bopped the
man on the head.  "Will you STOP that!"

        Sir Timoleous laughed.  "Haroun, next time, try that with someone
you don't know and maybe it will work."

        He shrugged.  "I'm too lazy to wait for someone I don't..."  He
trailed off for no apparent reason as he looked at us.  "I take it one of
these is the guest you were sent to fetch?"

         Sir Timoleous nodded.  "I'd like you to announce their arrival."

         Silence.

         I wondered what we were waiting for.

         Finally, the woman said, "I suppose you could tell us who we're
supposed to announce?"

         "Aren't you people being paid to recognize people by their
heraldic symbols?"  Flamehair said, looking aggravated.

        The woman said, "I know you two, but your companion's symbols are
strange to me."

         Haroun didn't say anything.

        Aquamarine said, "Announce the arrival of Sir Harold Crags and
Lady Angela Bedos-Rezak."

        I whispered to her, "Since when was I a knight?"

        She whispered back, "Since I said so."  She winked.

        The heralds swung the doors open and blew their trumpets,
announcing our arrival.  We strode into the great hall, which was about
three hundred feet long, supported by elaborately carved pillars which
resembled trees.  When I took a closer look, I saw that in fact they were
trees, and the roof was somehow woven from their tangled upper branches.
The floor was carpeted with blue and grey carpet which was decorated with
an elaborate spiraling pattern of blue and grey triangles.  Dozens of
people milled about, and at the far end of the hall was a huge chair on a
dias.  Tables were pushed up against the walls, and I guessed the place
doubled as a dining hall.  The Duke was talking to some Sidhe woman in a
dress quite similar to Angel's, except that hers was decorated with silver
colored clouds.  Her hair was long and blue, but I couldn't see her face
from this angle.

         A few seconds later, I had one of the most surreal experiences of
my life.  I saw Tanya standing off to one side, talking to a huge,
green-skinned ogre who was very ugly and very well dressed.  She was
dressed in a blue version of Angel's dress, but with the silver clouds of
the Sidhe noblewoman.  I poked Angel and pointed.  She did a double-take.
"That looks like..."

        Aquamarine said quietly, "That's my...sister."

         "I thought you were an only child,"  Angel said.

         I realized what she meant.  "That's the girl you were switched
with."  I knew changelings had been switched with human children, but I
hadn't really thought about it, until now.  I wonder what she's like.

         Aquamarine nodded, but didn't say anything.  She looked
uncomfortable.  As we got closer, the Duke looked up and blinked.  The
woman turned round and blinked as well.  She looked a lot like Aquamarine,
I realized, and a little like Mom Cromwell.  She had the same smile.  I
almost expected her to say, 'Hello, Harry.  Looks like you've found out
our little secret.'

          Duke Ironwood stood up.  He was an impressive man.  He was tall
and heavily built, with black hair streaked with grey.  He was dressed in
a highly regal outfit, complete with a long blue cape and a simple silver
diadem set with a diamond.  A sword hung at his belt.  He was the only man
in the entire room who was armed with anything larger than a knife.   The
blue-haired woman was the only other person armed, as she had a sabre on
her belt.  She was staring at Angel for no reason that I could tell.

         "Greetings, visitors.  You are welcome at my court.  I am glad
you have honored me by accepting my invitation.  This is my friend and
close ally, Duchess Silverwind. "  The duchess bowed.  "We have heard some
interesting stories about you, Sir Crags and Lady Bedos-Rezak.  I ask that
you consent to speak with us a while, and we shall dine in private and
discuss some matters that may interest you."

          I bowed and Angel did her best to curtsey.  "I would be happy to
dine with you,"  I said.  

         Angel nodded.  "Sure."  She suddenly started, for no apparent
reason.

       Everyone was staring at us, and I could hear whispered bits of
conversation.  Flamehair looked vaguely amused for no apparent reason.
Aquamarine looked very nervous.  

         Lady Silverwind said, "I'm glad you came, Aquamarine.  I have
things I need to discuss with you, and when I came looking for you on your
campus, I couldn't find you."

         Aquamarine spluttered wordlessly then said, "You...you actually
came looking for me on campus?"

         She nodded.  "This nice gardner fellow gave us directions, but
when we tried to follow them, we ended up inside something called a
'biology lab', whatever that is."

         Angel and I laughed, then tried to act like we weren't laughing.
"I hope they didn't try to experiment on you,"  Angel said.

          Flamehair laughed as well, now.  "They would certainly regret
that.  How soon shall we be dining?"

         "In about two hours.  Feel free to roam the grounds or socialize
with everyone while you wait.  I will be dealing with some legal cases in
a few minutes.  Sir Timoleous, bring them to the Green Room in two hours."  

         Sir Timoleous bowed.  Duchess Silverwind said, "Aquamarine, come
with me.  Lady Bedos-Rezak, would you like to join us?  I would be
interested to learn more of you."

         Angel looked at me.  I shrugged.  She turned and said, "Sure." 

         Aquamarine didn't look too happy as the three of them went over
to the girl who looked like Tanya, and the ogre, then departed.  Sir
Timoleous said to me, "Well, we have two hours to kill.  Would you like a
tour of the grounds."

         Flamehair said, "Let's go horseback riding.  I have heard the
Duke has quite an excellent stable."

        I perked up.  I enjoy horseback riding.  My cousins live in rural
Oklahoma and they have horses on their farm.  It's the best part of any
trip there.  Unlike squirrels, horses love me.  "That would be great.  I
haven't had a good ride since we went to see my cousins back in early
August."  

        We went to the stables and picked out some horses.  I got a nice
chestnut stallion, while Sir Timoleous had a roan horse and Flamehair
picked out a blue stallion that rather frightened me.  It looked mildly
insane.  "What's my horse's name?"  I asked. 

        "My name is Marcus Aurelius.  Nice to meet you,"  the horse said.  

       I nearly jumped out of my skin.  "Uh...sorry.  Horses don't talk
where I come from."

       Sir Timoleous said, "I was quite surprised Marcus let you pick him.
I take it you like this fellow?"

        Marcus nodded.  "I don't know why, but there's something soothing
about you, young man."

        "Uh, thanks."  I put the saddle on him and mounted up.  "You don't
mind being ridden?"

         He did the horse equivalent of a shrug.  "It's a living.  Putting
up with all these idiots who can't talk gets boring sometimes, but it
beats dealing with those macho idiots who go around trying to become boss
and get their own herd of fillies.  I can talk, but I don't fight so
well."

       "Let's go,"  Sir Timoleous said.  We rode out of the stables and
through the small town inside the walls of the huge castle I now saw we
were inside.  A river ran by the town with a road along it.  The road was
flanked by a huge forest of trees ranging from five hundred to two
thousand feet in height.  They were huge, and many of them looked to be
made out of metal.  Their branches interlocked at the top, forming a huge
roof that dimmed the bright sun to a soft light.  Hardly anything grew
between the widely spaced trees.  It was indeed, almost perfect for
riding.  The ground rolled softly, forming shallow valleys, low hills, and
downs.

         Marcus said, "Let's race.  Just riding around bores me.  I've
seen this forest so many times..."

       Flamehair grinned as his horse tried to toss him off and failed
miserably, then somehow smacked into a tree.  "Well, I suspect I've
handicapped myself.  If you like."

       I nodded.  "Sure."  I'd done this with my cousins.  I always lost,
but they had more time to practice than I did.  

        Sir Timoleous said, "All right.  When I shout, Go, we go."

        We lined up our horses as best we could.  

        "GO!"

        We took off, and I took the early lead, probably because Marcus
knew what to expect, while the other horses took a while to fully clue in
to the fact they were expected to go full tilt.  

        We raced down into a small valley, vaulted over a stream, then
bolted up the other side and across a long down, that suddenly dropped
off.  I almost fell off when we landed on the steep slope beyond.  At this
point, the crazy horse started pulling ahead.  I could hear Marcus
grumbling.  

        I said, "Umm...did we decide how long we're going to race?  How do
we know who wins?"

        Sir Timoleous shrugged, "Whoever doesn't fall off?"

        I didn't like those terms.  As it was, it became irrelevant when
we crested a hill and eight archers down in the valley opened fire on us.
They were ugly little critters, about three foot tall with purple and tan
skin, wearing black leather outfits that looked rather like they thought
they were ninjas.  They had huge pointed ears nearly as big as their heads
and wrinkled pig-like faces.  Sir Timoleous said, "What are Unseelie
Goblins doing this far south?"

        "We can worry about that later!" Flamehair said.  

        Sadly, horses can't stop on a dime, and we were going full tilt.
We ended up riding right through the middle of them, sending Goblins
running for their lives.  We crested the next hill and took cover in the
next valley.  Flamehair said, "Harry, stick close to me, since you aren't
armed."

       "Neither are you!"

        Flames danced about his hands.  "Armed enough, though I'd rather
not use fire in a forest."

        A forest.  I tried to calm my mind, and then I could hear the
trees talking, faintly.  It sounded like they were speaking high up in the
air.  We could hear the goblins getting closer.  Sir Timoleous drew his
sword.  "Luckily, we have horses, and they do not.  Still, it seems like a
rather clumsy assassination attempt.  Who sends goblins to do
assassination?"

        I heard a tree say something about hundreds more of them being on
the way.  I paled.  "Um, the trees say there's several hundred more on the
way."

       "..."  Sir Timoleous looked rather disturbed, then blinked.  "You
talk to trees?"

        "Well, I haven't figured out much else I can do, but..."

         Flamehair grinned.  "Maybe all the pinecones will knock out the
goblins instead of you, now."

        "Hey!"

        Marcus said, "I suggest we run for it."

         We charged over the hill with no real plan.  Flamehair hurled a
blast of fire at the oncoming arrow barrage and toasted it, then we
crashed through the goblins.  Sir Timoleous didn't need his sword.  I
could hear the trees grumbling about unnecessary fires to the west of us.
I shouted, "Thank you,"  as we left the forest, then we raced back to the
castle. 

***************

Angel said:  

       I was starting to wonder why Aquamarine was acting so fidgety.  We
walked over to the girl who looked like Tanya.  The Duchess said, "Irene,
your sister is here."

        Irene, the girl who looked like Tanya turned to us.  She smiled
confidently and looked like she knew a secret that no one else knew.
Maybe multiple secrets.  "Aquamarine!  You need to come home more often.
We miss you.  Will you and Flamehair be staying long?"  She sounded just
like Tanya too, except maybe a tiny bit deeper voiced.  It was surreal.

        I tried to curtsey again.  It was fairly easy in this dress,
though the amount of bosom I was showing off made me a bit nervous.  I
wasn't showing off quite as much as the duchess and Irene, though.  They
were both better built than me, which seemed to be almost standard in
Faerieland, at least for the Sidhe.  Everyone in the room was
frighteningly beautiful.  I did my best to project an air of confidence,
which didn't stand out in a room full of confident, beautiful people.  

       Irene looked at my outfit.  "I don't recognize your symbol.  What
house are you from?"

        Aquamarine laughed faintly.  "House Capet."

        I had no idea what she was talking about, but played along.

       Duchess Silverwind said, "Who?"

       Aquamarine adopted a sort of lecturing pose, gesturing with one
hand.  "In the tenth century, the line of Carolinian monarchs had reached
a state of degeneration and general patheticness.  Toward the end of the
century, a nobleman named Hugh Capet became King of France.  Angela
springs from that noble line through Louis XI."

        Now I knew what she was talking about.  My mom claims to be
descended from Louis XI.  Usually, this is right before she starts yelling
at us in French because we didn't do something.  She's from France, by the
way.  Dad's great-grandfather was also French, but they met when he was
stationed in Germany.  What she was doing in Germany, I'm not quite sure.

       The Duchess said, "Ahh.  Now I understand why you wear royal gold.
I had thought I knew all who qualified to wear that color by sight."

       Irene curtseyed to me.  It was rather gratifying.  I got a small
sort of quasi-curtsey from the Duchess.  That was VERY gratifying.  Irene
then said, "Oh, this is my friend, Theseus."  She pointed to the nearby
ogre.  He bowed grandly.

       "A pleasure to meet you."

       The Duchess said, "Theseus, we have matters to discuss in private."

        He nodded.  "I shall see you at dinner?"  He said hopefully to
Irene, who smiled.  

        Irene said, "I hope so."

        We headed out of the great hall and went out into the garden.  "I
understand you are studying some sort of arcane art at the school that
Aquamarine is attending?"  the Duchess asked me.

        I laughed.  "You could call it that.  I'm majoring in sociology.
It's the study of how people interact in groups, to put it briefly."

       "Ahh," she nodded, though I suspected it was still all Greek to
her.  "Do you practice any sort of magic?"

        I tried to remember my trick from the other day.  Soon, I had a
cool breeze circulating.  "I'm just learning."

        Irene said, "My own talents run towards fire, like Flamehair."
She got a bit of a dreamy look.  Aquamarine frowned.

        "Wind and water are my own affinities,"  the Duchess said.  "I
understand you are Sir Crags' lover?"

     I blushed a bit.  "Yes.  We've been together since last April."

      Irene said, "He is a handsome fellow.  Does he come of a noble line
like yourself?"

       "Harold's family has higher social status than my own."  Which was
true.  We barely kept ourselves afloat, while Harry's family is
comfortable, though not rich.  

       That impressed them.  "Indeed,"  the Duchess said thoughtfully.
"Anyway, Aquamarine, there has been a new development in your engagement."

       I blinked.  "You and Th...Flamehair got engaged?"  This must have
happened in the last few hours, I thought.

       Aquamarine blushed and muttered, "Mother claims she and Duke
Ironwood engaged me and his son shortly after our birth.  Nevermind that
no one even knows where this son is."

        Irene said, "Aquamarine, you should be happy they didn't engage
you to a troll, like happened to your cousin."

        I tried hard not to laugh.  "So why is the Duke's child missing?"

        "The faery who delivered him was assassinated, and the children he
was transporting...some of them fell into the hands of the Unseelie Fae."
Duchess Silverwind frowned.  "We don't know if the Unseelie captured his
son and the Queen's daughter, or if he had already made the switch, or
just one switch.  We don't even know exactly what the Unseelie did with
the children."

        Irene kneeled down and plucked out a violet, then conjured a small
brooch and pinned the violet to her dress with the brooch.  "I shudder to
think that I might have fallen into the hands of the Unseelie."

        Aquamarine said faintly, "Flamehair and I were the last two
children he had delivered before the trip where the Unseelie got him.
Poor Robin. "  She sighed.

        "But you don't even know where he was taking them?"  That sounded
weird to me.

       "Some children are delivered to specificly planned parents, usually
Spring People who are aware of the existence of Faeries," Irene said,
"Like Flamehair was."

        "But most are delivered by the Deliverers, specially trained
faeries who know how to read the skein of Fate and find the right child
with whom a child is switched," the Duchess said.  "Thus, most changelings
strongly resemble the child for whom they are changed, as with Irene and
'Tanya'."  She sighed.  "Anyway, the Duke claims he has a strong lead as
to where his son is."

       "Where?"  Aquamarine asked.

       "At your university, I believe.  I suppose he thinks young master
Harold has some knowlege that may help him in finding out where his son
is.  And of course, we're both interested in hearing out why Queen Teleute
has sent one of her children after your head."

        "Splinter's an obsessive nutcase,"  I said.  Actually, we hadn't
seen her in a while.  Maybe she's given up, I hoped.

       "Mother, I have no intention of marrying the Duke's son.  I've
never met him, and he probably doesn't even know he is a faerie, or he
would have shown up by now."  Aquamarine put her hands on her hips.  "I'll
go live as a mortal if I have to.  Mom isn't going to try to force me to
marry anyone."  

       Arranged marriages.  I shuddered.  At least I don't have to worry
about Harry's dad marrying him off to someone.   I wonder if Flamehair has
a marriage arranged for him as well.  

       Irene said, "Be respectful to our mother!"  She frowned at
Aquamarine.

       The Duchess sighed, "You are so stubborn.  I shouldn't have waited
so long to come looking for you, but the Queen insisted I wait.  You will
marry the Duke's son."

       "What if he never even shows up?  I'm not going to wait forever for
him.  He might even be dead."  

       Things went downhill fast.  I tried to stay out of this, other than
offering an occassional comment in support of Aquamarine.  They were all
screaming at each other when the trumpets blew loudly.  They fell silent.
"We're under attack?"  Irene said.  "Did I mishear that?"

        The Duchess said, "I'm going to find the Duke.  Aquamarine, Irene,
protect our guest."

        I hope Harry's okay, I thought.

****************

Harry said:

       Somehow, I ended up in the Duke's war council, perhaps because they
didn't have anything else to do with me.  We met in a blue room with a
large round table surrounded by thirty or so chairs.  The walls were
covered with long beautiful tapestries, showing various battles.  Most of
them were between armies of faeries, but two of them were not.  One
depicted an army of humans in chainmail and leather in the middle of a
hilly desert, trying to fight off some group of bow-wielding nomads.  I
guessed from their cross symbols that this was some incident from the
crusades.  The other picture was of two armies with pikes and muskets
going at it near a walled city.  One of the armies had a flag I didn't
recognize, but the other one looked vaguely familiar.  It was a
double-headed black eagle on a white background.  I resolved to ask Tanya
later.  

       We had plenty of space, since there were only ten of us for the
twenty chairs.  The duke, Duchess Silverwind, Sir Timoleous, Aquamarine,
Flamehair, myself, a dryad,  a pixie and a brownie who shared a chair
since neither of them was more than two feet tall, and Sir Ptolmaeus, the
castellan, sat and stared at the magical map that he had conjured
up for our convenience.  "As far as we can tell, three converging groups
of Unseelie are closing in.  How they got this many troops hundreds of
miles into Seelie lands, I don't know.  I got a message from Caer Annon
and the other fronteir Caers and they said they haven't even had a raid in
several weeks.  Normally, the Unseelie wait for the balance of power to
shift after Samhain, anyway."

        The Duke nodded.  "How large are these columns?"

        "We estimate about four hundred goblins per column, a handful of
ogres and sidhe, and two or three ice walkers.  One of the columns has a
tiny group of sidhe cavalry on nightmares.  The rest are all on foot.
About half the goblins are archers and the rest have javelins and axes or
other hand weapons."

         "How widely separated are the columns?"  I asked.  If they're
coming from wide enough directions, we could beat them in detail.  I'm not
much good at hand to hand combat, but I've been playing wargames since I
was ten.  That's how I got into D&D and other RPGs, from miniatures
warfare.   

        "They're advancing slowly. There's a several mile gap between each
group right now.  Two of the columns are moving to cut the two roads,
while the third comes straight at us.  It's the one with the ice walkers."
The castellan said.

        "That means they'll cut us off from the road to the Queen's
Palace!"  the pixie pronounced in a remarkably loud voice for someone only
six inches tall.

        Sir Timoleous said, "Without any giants or siege equipment, we can
easily hold them off until help comes."


        Flamehair said, "If we wait, they could march on the royal palace.
Indeed, this might just be a bluff to keep us from barring some part of
their forces from doing just that.  How well stocked are you for a siege,
sir?"

        The Duke said, "We can easily hold out the few days it would take
to relieve us, but I'll be hanged before I let some goblins scare me into
hiding inside castle walls.  Also, we don't have enough men to adequately
defend the walls if they do get siege equipment.  I wasn't anticipating an
attack here."

         "How many men do we have?"  I asked.  

        The Castellan said, "A hundred archers, mixed race.  Thirty or so
pixies.  Sixty or so swordsmen of variable skills.  A dozen competent
magicians, counting those present.  Maybe a dozen or so more minor
magicians.  Three ogres.  Twelve Satyrs.  A talking horse and three dozen
cavalry.  One hundred and fifty pikemen, assuming the town guard is
actually ready to fight. Another three hundred or so poorly armed townsmen
who are almost as useful in a field battle as an angry brownie."

         The brownie frowned.  "HEY!"

        The Castellan said, "Oh, I didn't notice you, Tyr."

       "Damn tall people!"

        He and the Castellan were about to go at it when the Duke said,
"Enough!  We do not have time to quarrel, or listen to your rantings about
brownies, Ptolmaeus.  If you have any suggestions, anyone, speak now."

         Duchess Silverwind said, "I think we ought to just hold our
ground in the castle.  They'll never take it.  Goblins are too dimwitted
to successfully coordinate an attack on multiple points. They'll just come
on in a big wave and die."

         The Duke frowned.  I could tell he didn't want to stay in the
castle.  Sir Timoleous said, "We could try a raid under cover of magical
darkness to try and take out their leadership.  If the goblins aren't
mounted, a group of cavalry could do it.  We rode through their ranks
unharmed several times earlier today."

        A babble of voices broke out, arguing the merits of several plans.
I ignored them and looked at the map.  There was a hill just across the
river from the castle, which was on a hill itself.  The forest came up to
the edge of the river, although it had been cleared away in a wide ring
around the castle on this side.  I thought about how huge the trees were.
The river was only about three hundred feet wide.  The shortest of the
trees was taller than the river was wide.  If you chopped them down, you'd
squash the defenders of the wall on that side, and they were broad enough
to ride a horse on.  "Has anyone scouted the other side of the river?"

         "Without boats, they can't get across, and we've seen no sign of
boats,"  Sir Ptolmaeus said.

        "They won't need boats."  I said.  In fact, we'd pulled a stunt
like this in one of Angel's D&D campaigns.  "They're going to cut down
some of the trees and just walk across on them.  Assuming the things don't
just crush the castle walls when they fall."  

        The Duke frowned.  "Alisandra, go send some scouts to see if Sir
Crags is correct."

        "Do you have enough boats to ferry any troops across the river?"
I asked.  I was starting to get into this.  "If we can seize the heights,
we can fell the trees ourselves and prevent them from doing so."  I
paused.  "Although knocking down all those trees would be a lot of work.
Then we can try to strike the goblin columns one by one.  Use the town
guard to defend the castle walls, since that's easy, while the rest of the
forces sally out and try to crush them before they can link up."

        The Duke smiled.  "I know a way to keep them from using the trees
against us.  I have an affinity for plants."

        "That's my talent too, although I hardly know what I'm doing.  Can
I help?"

         He smiled more broadly.  "Timoleous, get the boats ready.
Ptolmaeus, get the archers ready.  We're going to go do some gardening."

******************

Angel said:

       I got bustled off to the great hall to wait for the leaders to
finish conferring.  Several dozen men and women, mostly Sidhe, milled
about.  Irene was with me.  "Does this happen often?"  I asked.  

        "No.  I can't understand how the Unseelie got an army this deep
into our lands.  We're only a few dozen miles from the capital by the
road, unless the lands have shifted again."  Irene looked about, fretting.  

        "So, you were raised by Duchess Silverwind?"

        Irene nodded.  "She's been the best mother a girl could ask for.
Being a mortal in the Faerie courts isn't always easy, the way people are
afraid of me sometimes, but..."

         "Afraid of you?"

        "The presence of a mortal increases the real consequences of
anything happening.  Faeries who like each other sometimes fight to the
death just to see who is better, because they know they'll simply wake up
at the next sunrise in the land of the fallen.  Even death is only an
annoyance.  But if I'm there, or any other mortal, whoever falls will have
to undergo rebirth and forgetfulness.  As long as their mortal seeming
lives, they won't be able to fully remember their previous lives.  The fae
are insanely reckless sometimes because they can get away with it."  She
sighed.  "I feel like a party wrecker sometimes."  Brightening back up,
she said, "I understand you and my sister are very close friends."

        I won't mention we both love the same guys, too, I thought.
"Yeah.  Tanya and I have been roommates for over two years now.  She's
known Harry for longer than me, though.  They grew up together."

        "Harry...oh, you mean, your lover."

        I laughed faintly.  "Yeah, he's my boyfriend."

        "Have you met...Mrs. Cromwell?"

         "Your mother, you mean?"

         Irene looked faintly embarrassed.  "My birth mother, yeah."

         "She's great.  I really like her a lot."  I paused.  "So you
haven't met her?"  I guess not, I thought.  It would be kind of hard to
explain.  "Do you know what happened to your father?"

          "He's still marr...oh, you mean my birth father.  Sorry.  I
don't know.  Aquamarine told me he ran off when she was little, but she
doesn't know why."  She sighed.  "She and Mother fight all the time, so I
don't get to see her much."

         "Because of the engagement?"

        Irene nodded.  "I thought Mother was going to finally give up on
it, but now that the Duke thinks he's found his son, she's determined to
go through with it, and what Mother wants, she gets.  Were you and Sir
Harold arranged or did you get to choose?"

       I laughed loudly.  "Chosen.  Our parents approve of it, though.
Mom and Dad really like Harry, and his parents like me."

        "I hope I can get to know him better.  Aquamarine has spoken
highly of him to me."

        I wonder if she'd fall in love with him like Tanya did, I thought.
She sems a lot like Tanya, though more...controlled?  More formal, anyway.
Just as beautiful.  I studied her carefully.  If she and Tanya dressed the
same, it would be very hard for me to tell them apart.  They did look
different, but some of it was Irene's different hairstyle.  Tanya's is
long and straight with these slightly arched bangs in front.  Irene's hair
was wavy and only about half as long.  Same color though, and the same
eyes.  The same build too, although Tanya is a bit more muscular than
Irene.

        She looked down at herself.  "Do I have a stain or something?"

        I laughed again.  "You just look so much like Tanya."

        "I was just thinking that you look familiar, but I can't think of
who you look like.  Maybe Aquamarine showed me a picture of you.  I
remember looking at a photo album of hers a few months ago.  That must be
it."  She stared off into space.  "I think you scared Mother when you
walked in, dressed in royal gold and she couldn't recognize you.  Mother
prides herself on her royal lineage and can recognize every other wearer
of it by sight."

        "How closely related is she?"

        "Queen Titania, Queen Glorianna's mother, was her
great-great-aunt.  I think there's a line through Mother's father as well,
but I'm not sure.  Queen Titania had a ridiculous number of children, and
their descendents intermarried a lot.  Glorianna only managed to take the
throne because they hadn't had time to hate her as much as some of them
hate each other.  She was Titania's last child before the Great Disaster."

        "What exactly was that?"  I looked around, and watched everyone
fret.  What's taking them so long to make up their minds in there?  And
where is Harry?

       "Close to five hundred years ago, there was a war between the
Seelie and the Unseelie.  Not that there isn't still one, but anyway, this
was a lot more serious.  It was a war to the hilt, as the expression goes.
The King and Queen of the Unseelie and some of their retainers managed to
break into the old Summer Palace, and performed a rite to try to destroy
it.  King Oberon and Queen Titania tried to stop them and failed.  They
disrupted it just enough that a total magical disaster resulted.  Oberon
and Titania were slain utterly, along with the Unseelie King and Queen.
The true death from which there is no returning."  Irene began to pace
back and forth, assuming the same lecturing pose that Tanya does when she
talks about history.  

      "So then there was a civil war?"

      Irene shook her head.  "Every sidhe in Arcadia was forcibly
reincarnated and hundreds of thousands of other faeries found themselves
in the lands of the fallen the next morning.  Total chaos resulted.
Dozens of realms either dwindled away to nothing, or were usurped by
non-noble fae in the years of chaos that followed.  Slowly, the sidhe
found their way back, and with the help of those who remained loyal,
rebuilt the two kingdoms.  Large chunks of Arcadia still have only loose
ties at best to the courts.  It's only in the last century or so that
things have fully returned to normal."  She paused.  "I hope I'm not
boring you.  I tend to lecture sometimes."

       "No, I hadn't been able to get a straight answer on this, so I
really appreciate it.  So Glorianna is about five hundred years old?  Any
connection to Spencer's Glorianna?"

       Irene laughed.  "Perhaps if you visited the royal court, you could
ask him.  I would assume they are one and the same, more or less."

       I boggled.  "Spencer is still alive?"

       "He was a faerie too.  He still writes quite good poetry."

       Soon after that, we wandered off into a discussion of poetry, which
I suspect you wouldn't find too interesting.

***********

Harry said:

        We landed on the far side of the river with two dozen archers, a
swarm of pixies, the dryad, whose name I learned was Lady Rowanford, the
Duke, myself, Flamehair, and the satyrs.  The Duke sent Flamehair with the
archers, pixies, and satyrs to harrass the approaching forces and slow
them down long enough for us to do our thing.  I was very nervous.  I
didn't quite want to admit that talking to trees was about all I'd figured
out how to do.  "Okay, now what?"

       "Take the lady's hand with your left hand, and mine with your
right."  I linked hands with them and we formed a tiny circle.  She began
to chant in a strange tongue, making sounds that I didn't even think a
human throat could pronounce, like bird calls and the sound of trees
creaking in the wind.  Then again, she wasn't exactly human.  

       "Now, while my wife does that, we will lend her our strength,"  he
said.  "Close your eyes and imagine a cord connecting you to me and to
her, a circle which our power circulates around, so that she may tap it."

        I tried to do so, then said, "Wait, she's your wife?"

        The Duke laughed a little.  "I thought you knew."

       I didn't.  Looking back at it in my mind, I could see it, though.
They didn't act too much like husband and wife, more like close friends.
Although, I suppose you should be close friends with your wife. Anyway, I
closed my eyes and tried to imagine forming a cord to each of them.  At
first, I didn't feel anything, but then I could sense the power beginning
to well up inside me.  

        My whole body began to tremble, and I could feel them shaking too.
Their grip tightened on my hands, and I probably would have crushed theirs
if I didn't have a weak grip.  Suddenly, I felt power flowing into me from
the Duke, and I tried to pass it on to Lady Rowanford.  Unfortunately,
this was like trying to empty a lake through a small pipe while a large
river is feeding into it.  I tried to widen my link to the dryad, but I
could feel power backing up inside me.  I tried to speak, but I couldn't.  

        I could understand what she was saying now.  She was asking the
trees to uproot themselves and move down the hill until the battle was
over.  They wanted to help, but the trees down the hill didn't want to
make room for them, and they were having an argument.  I would have
laughed.  I could hear other trees muttering irritatedly about fires off
to the west of us, and why isn't anyone doing something about this.  

          The trees about us began to rustle.  I could feel their presence
now.  I could sense how healthy they were.  I could sense the tiny plants
and moss that clung to them, the ivy that grew on them, the bushes that
clustered wherever a little light drifted down.  The seeds that lay
dormant in the ground called out to me, asking me to help them grow, to
bring them light so they could live.  There were spores in the air asking
for my help as well, little mushrooms who wanted to be born.  

         A cacophony of tiny voices, asking, pleading, begging for help.
Above them, the voice of the rustling trees boomed.  I could hear one tree
cursing another one out for no reason I could tell.  I had never really
thought about how many living things there were in a forest before.  I
muttered, "How can dryads sleep in a forest if everything is talking all
the time?"

         The Duke laughed faintly, his eyes closed.  "I know what you
mean.  Whenever we go to her holdings, I can't sleep very well either."

         "Shhhh,"  Lady Roanford hissed at us, then went back to
petitioning the trees.  I could hear shouting far off.  

       Suddenly, all fell silent.  I blinked.  The trees began to move.
One by one, their roots pulled up from the ground, and they swayed, like
someone half-asleep trying to get out of bed.  Their roots moved like
snakes, whipping about, and stretching out.  They pulled themselves along
with their roots, which had to be incredibly strong, I realized.  Slowly,
the trees began to slide down the hill.  
 
       The hill was barren when they left, covered with leaves and pine
needles, dotted now by only a few scraggly bushes.  The seeds began
begging me for help.  This was their chance.  I couldn't say no.  I
unleashed the built up-power, and a wave of green rushed out in a
spreading circle from around my feet.  It was created by grass sprouting
up through the leaves and needles, almost devouring them.  Flowers began
to sprout in patches.  A knot of bluebonnets sprung up around me in a
circle.  The duke stared, and so did I.  Lady Roanwood smiled.  "Thank
you, Sir Crags."

      Within about two minutes, the hill had become green and lush, dotted
with small bushes and flowers.  Most of the power had run out of me,
though I could still feel a little bit of it.  "Wow," I said.

       The Duke smiled.  "Nicely done."  He looked at the bluebonnets.
"Hmm, never seen these before."

       "They're pretty common where I come from.  They're called
bluebonnets."

       Lady Roanford knelt and whispered to one, which somehow snaked out
of the ground and wove itself into her dress, so that it looked like she
had one pinned to the front.  I could tell it was still alive.  She was
sustaining it.  "They're very nice.  Perhaps you could make us some for
the garden."

        I laughed nervously.  "Uh, I could try."

        She looked over at the Duke, "Perhaps you are right."

        He just smiled.  I didn't find out until later what she was
talking about.

**********************

Angel said:

       Finally, the Duke assembled all of us in the great hall, and I
didn't have to fret any longer.  Harry ran over to me and gave me a big
hug, then said,  "You're not going to believe this."  

       "Believe what?"

        "I managed to make every seed on a hill sprout and grow to
maturity with magic!  It was just...I couldn't believe it."  Harry told me
what he had been up to.  By the time he finished, Flamehair and Aquamarine
rejoined us.  

        Aquamarine said, "Oh, Harry, this is my sister Irene."

       Harry bowed.  "A pleasure to meet you."  He stared at her.  I could
easily guess why.  A tiny part of me fretted some more, but I squashed it
mentally, then latched onto Harry's arm.

       The Duke finished talking to several people and began bellowing
orders.  Irene and her mother stayed behind at the castle. Her mother was
put in charge of the forces defending it, with Irene as her chief
assistant, which seemed to be irritating Sir Ptolmaeus.  The Duke took us
with him in the main force, while the pixies and satyrs went out to
harrass the largest of the three approaching forces and slow them down.  

       The worst part of it was trying to ride a horse.  I've done this
only twice before.  I managed to stay on, but didn't look too dignified.
Getting my dress turned into chainmail made me feel a little more secure,
although I wasn't used to moving with so much weight on me.  I had to take
off my ring for stopping magic so the Duke could put a spell for warding
off arrows on Harry and I.  

       "You have a wind affinity, correct?"  the Duke asked me.

       I nodded.  "Yeah, though it takes me a while to get going."

       "Good.  I want the others to support you so you can make sure their
arrows don't get near our forces and their arrows reach them swiftly."

       I wasn't so sure I could do this, but I was willing to try.  This
is all so crazy, I thought.  Riding forth into a battle with a bunch of
faeries.  Two months ago, I never would have believed any of this.

       We met the Unseelie on the road.  They were carrying a flag which
was a black faceted gem on an ice-blue background.  There were several
hundred three to four foot tall malformed human-like creatures, with skin
colors ranging from mauve to puce to a sort of pale peach color with blue
stripes.  They were incredibly ugly and noisy.  Many of them had bows.
The rest had formed a rather tiny shield wall, which seemed unlikely to
work well, given that any full-grown human could reach over it.   There
were maybe ten or so ogres scattered along the goblin line, and six sidhe
dressed in black and ice-blue surcoats over their chainmail.  What really
bothered me were the three fifteen foot tall walking ice sculptures.  The
trees closed to them were slowly freezing over, and they left a trail of
ice wherever they went.  

      The duke formed up his pikemen on the right, extending from the
river, onto the road, and across it, then place his cavalry on the left,
and the archers behind the pikemen.  He told us to stand behind the
archers and keep the wind going, then rode forward to the pikemen.

       I gulped.  "I...hope I'm up to this."

       Harry said, "You'll do fine, Angel."

       Flamehair said, "Just pretend it's our D&D party you're putting
through hell, and it'll work just great."

       We all laughed.  Aquamarine said, "If that dragon shows up again,
I'm gonna kill you."

       Harry said, "Okay, everyone join hands and uh...try to feed your
strength to Angel."  He looked at me.  "I think that's what we did."

        I took Harry and Flamehair's hands.  They joined hands with Tanya.
How symbolic, a tiny part of my mind said.  I told it to shut up.  They
closed their eyes, and suddenly, I could feel power flowing into me.  I
could hear the wind more strongly.  I felt the joy it takes in motion, its
curiousity, its desire to go everywhere and see everything.  

        Harry's power flowed into me through my right hand.  It had a
flavor, almost.  It was solid, strong, and comforting.  I smelt its color.
I know that sounds bizarre, but I don't know how else to describe it.  It
was green.  I remembered the flowers Harry had sent me for my birthday.
Only Harry would send his girlfriend bluebonnets as a birthday present.
It wasn't the only present, but it was the one I remembered.  

       My left hand brought me Flamehair's power.  It surged into me like
a bolt of lightning, or what happened to my friend's little brother who
stuck a fork in a power socket.  It filled me with confidence.  I felt I
could do anything.  Energy was crackling through my veins.  I remembered
all the times he had pushed me to try something new, to be more than I
was.  He had invited me to join the fencing club, which I thought I could
never do well.  Now, I was the third best member of the club.  I could do
this.

        The experience of Aquamarine's strength was strange.  It flowed
through both of them into me.  She was blue to Harry's green and
Flamehair's red.  It surged and ebbed like tides on a beach.  It was hard
for me to fully comprehend it, for it came to me mixed so strongly with
the power of the others that I could hardly tell it apart. The power that
mixed with Harry's took on its comfort, its quiet strength, its depths.
The power mixed with Flamehair's was vibrant and alive, confident and
outgoing.  Where the first was a quiet river, it was a raging sea or a
rushing stream.  She was everything I'd ever wanted to be, but never
really believed that I could.  If anyone I'd met ever had feminine power,
she was the one.  I remembered long talks, the fun we'd had together.  

       At first, I couldn't concentrate on doing anything with the power
they gave me.  I was trying to draw in power myself, though I wasn't sure
how, and trying to not be overwhelmed by them.  Slowly the wind began to
spin about me in a lazy, weak whirlwind.  'Hello, young one.  What would
you wish of me?'

       'Ward off their arrows,' I asked.  'Guide our arrows on their way.'
I spoke, and my voice was the wind.  It was scary and exhilarating.  

       'Give me strength,' it demanded, and I did.  I fed the power into
the wind, and it roared to life.  Aquamarine's and my hair whipped about
as the wind shifted and began to blow from behind our army, rising from
the ground to fly overhead.  The archers began to shoot back and forth.
The wind rushed about, smashing arrows and tossing them aside.  I could
hear it laugh.  It took joy in its work.  

        I laughed as well.  I was drunk on power.  My brain was fuzzy.  It
was hard to remember if I was the wind or Angel or Harry or Thomas or
Tanya.  I could see them from above, although my eyes were shut.  The
battle was stretched out before me.

       Goblins aren't great warriors, especially when their own arrows
come back at them.  Their archers fled after the second volley.  The
shield wall crumbled as the pikemen stood at a distance and simply reached
over it with their pikes.  The cavalry broke their flank and drove them
around into the river.  The goblins began dropping weapons and leaping
into it.  The current carried them away.  

         The Sidhe tried dueling the Duke's magicians at first, but that
didn't last long.  They soon fled, along with the Ice Walkers.  The ogres
weren't smart enough to run, and they all got herded together and finally
surrendered.  

         It was a remarkably bloodless battle, but I was too tripped out
to care.  The hardest part of this proved to be stopping.  I was enjoying
this too much, and having a hard time recovering my sense of what was
going on besides myself making the wind rampage about.  

        Finally, the power stopped flowing into me, and at the rate I was
sending it out, I soon drained myself as well.  My eyes snapped open.
"Wow."  I passed out.

*************************

Harry said:

      Angel didn't wake up until we got back to the castle.  The rest of
the faery forces withdrew before reaching the castle.  I guess the sidhe
who got away told them what was going on.  We pursued them and found a
magical road they had apparently used, which wasn't supposed to be there.
The Duke forged some wards with his magicians, then took us back to the
castle to get some dinner before we would have to leave.  Unlike some
parts of Faerieland, the Duke's realm is almost completely in sync
timewise with ours, although it's a fair number of hours off from ours.  

       We dined in the Green Room, which resembled a small English pub in
a lot of ways, right down to the bar and bartender, although he was a
satyr, which isn't quite standard for English pubs, I suspect.  We ate
with Irene, Duchess Silverwind, Lady Rowanford, and the Duke.  I got the
impression the Duchess wasn't too glad that Flamehair was there, as she
kept looking over at him and frowning.  

      The food was amazing.  I can assure you that roast basilisk doesn't
taste like chicken.  We had vegetables I've never heard of, hearty
helpings of rolls, and very nice spiced wine.  I tried to not drink too
much, as I didn't want to get drunk, and it tasted pretty strong.  

       Duchess Silverwind said to Angel, "I commend you on your modesty
about your magical talents.  I understand you displayed quite a bit of
skill at the battle."

       Angel blushed.  "I had a lot of help."  She reached over and
squeezed my hand.  I smiled.  

       "So how long have you been studying magic?"  the Duchess asked.

       "About four days,"  Angel said.

       The Duke, Lady Rowanford, and the Duchess all nearly spewed food
all over the table.  Irene had the misfortune to snarf on wine, which I
suspect is not pleasent.  Aquamarine tried hard not to laugh.  Flamehair
couldn't control himself.  The Duke turned to Harry, "And you?"

        I pretended to think about it.  "Maybe ten to twenty minutes
longer than Angel."

         Lady Rowanford gave her husband one of those looks, the likes of
which someone normally only receives when the children have done something
like setting the house on fire, shaving the cat, and starting another
world war all in one day.

        The Duchess said, "You're kidding."

        I took a bite of basilisk, and Angel said, "We both had a lot of
help.  We still don't really know what we're doing."

       "Well, most faeries master their affinities fairly quickly, then
take longer for other things, but the average mortal takes months to do
anything like either of you have done,"  Lady Rowanford said.  "I'm
impressed."  She gave her husband another funny look.  

       Irene just stared at us.  She looked a little bit jealous, but said
nothing.  

        Flamehair said, "Well, we had to use a risky initiation method to
get past the usual preliminaries.  I didn't really want to, but the Queen
ordered it."

        The Duke nodded.  "I understand Glorianna has taken an interest in
you."

        I nodded.  "So I hear, but I have no idea why, unless she's
planning to start sponsoring physics research or wants a sociologist on
staff."

       Duchess Silverwind down a large gulp of wine, then said, "Perhaps
she is aware of the strength of your magical talents.  Few mortals these
days have the knack, and we search for them to nurture their skills.  I
believe your mortal parents were like that, correct, Flamehair?"

        He nodded.  "Yeah.  I was lucky and have mortal parents I don't
have to hide all this from.  I wish more changelings had a situation like
that."

        Angel said, "So your parents consented?"

        He sighed.  "My mortal counterpart died three days after he was
born.  They eagerly jumped at the chance to get a son to replace the one
they lost.  But it would have been voluntary, anyway.  They were both
infertile, and Duke Silverhand, my faery grandfather, tried to use magic
to help them conceive.  It's not his strong point, though."

         For a few seconds, we were all quiet, thinking about that.  The
Duke said, "So, where are you two from originally?"

         "I grew up in Tyler, Texas with Aquamarine,"  I said.

        "I've lived in Plano all my life.  Not by choice.  Plano beats
slow torture, but not by a lot,"  Angel said. 

         "What would your birthday happen to be, if I may ask?"  the Duke
asked with an oddly calculating look.

        I thought for a moment.  "May 17.  I'm a day older than Angel."

        Angel nodded.  "May 18.  I should have been May 17, but Mom likes
to complain in detail about how I refused to come out and held out until 2
am on May 18."

        The Duke, the Duchess, and Lady Rowanford gave each other one of
those looks that parents give each other when they've caught you with your
hand in the cookie jar and your other hand in the candy bag.  I had the
vague feeling of jaws closing in.  "And you're both 20?" the Duke asked
with a voice that was a little too casual.  

        Irene looked over and gave him a funny look.  I could tell she
could smell this was leading up to something.

        Angel said, "Yeah.  Flamehair's birthday is only about a week
before mine, and yours is two days before that, right, Aquamarine?"

        Aquamarine suddenly snarfed for no apparent reason, then gasped
out, "Yes."  She stared at me, so I stared back at her.  I tried
telepathically asking her what was going on.  It didn't work.

      Lady Rowanford said, "So what are you going to do about Splinter?
Made any plans yet?"

       "Well, we're trying to prepare ourselves for the trouble that's
going to ensue when Halloween comes around and the Unseelie can send an
army after us,"  Flamehair said.  "So Aquamarine and I are going to spend
as much time as we can training them in preparation."

        "If you ever need a refuge, you are welcome to come stay with us,"
the Duke said.  "We owe you a debt of gratitude for your help."

        I smiled.  "Thank you.  We're still trying to come up with a real
plan.  She hasn't tried anything in a while.  We're hoping she gave up,
but she may have just gotten smart."

        "I don't think she gave up,"  the Duchess said.  "That army that
attacked us flew the flag of her lover."

        "..."  I blinked.  What kind of nut would want to be her lover?

        Irene said, "Moonstone, right?"

        "Opal,"  the Duchess said.  "It's rumored that his magical
affinity is time."

        "..."  The Duke was definitely non-plussed.  "TIME?  That's such
an incredibly rare affinity...maybe one out of every million faeries or
so.  Maybe more so."

        "It makes him a highly dangerous opponent.  Still, if it was him,
he should have realized how futile that attack was."

        "Not everything can be foreseen, or the Queen's own daughter
wouldn't be either lost or in Unseelie hands."

        "The Queen's daughter was lost?"

        Lady Rowanford nodded.  "The Unseelie slew the man delivering our
son and her daughter.  We don't know if the Unseelie did it before or
after he delivered them.  They were born within eight hours of each other.
We know they both went into Texas, but that's about all anyone knows.  We
can guess that our son is probably Sidhe like his father, and that
Glorianna's daughter would be Sidhe as well, but they might never wake up
to their true selves if they are never found.  The boy should have a plant
affinity like his father and I, and the girl is probably attuned to air
and water like Duchess Silverwind and the Queen.  We can guess a few other
things, but it's all guesswork, really."  She sighed and started eating a
roll.

        "Uh, if we find them, we'll let you know,"  Angel said.  "When did
they go missing?"

       "May 19, they were taken to be delivered.  Who knows, they might
even be someone you grew up with."

        Angel twitched slightly.  "What is the Queen's husband?  He
wouldn't happen to be a...ogre, by any chance?"

        I looked over at Angel.  No way, I thought.  If the Queen of the
Elves is Alex's mom, I'll just die on the spot.  

        "He's a mortal.  Which confuses matters.  She should be a Sidhe,
but...mortals and faeries rarely manage to have children together.  Weird
things often happen when they do."  The Duke stared at the table.  "And
technically, he's her lover, not her husband.  The Queen is forbidden to
marry a mortal, not that you could tell from the way they act."

        Angel looked over at me.  I looked back and boggled.  "How many
children do they have?"

        "She's the only one."  The Duke said.  "Her heir has to be found,
or it could mean all out civil war one day."

       Angel said quietly, "I know a female faerie born on May 18.  She's
my age, too.  She's an ogre, not a sidhe, though."

        "What's her name?"

        "Alex."  Angel said.   "If she has a faerie name, I don't know
what it is."

       We discussed Alex a little, then we had to leave shortly after so
we could get back in time to do homework.  I was utterly exhausted and
slunk back into my room and passed out instead.  I had meant to just go
get my homework and do it at Tanya and Angel's room and stay with Angel,
but I just went thunk, instead.  She didn't call me or anything, so I
assumed she did the same thing.

*****************

Angel said:

     I was really seriously clonked out.  I slept for twelve hours, then
went to fencing club.  I got matched up against Cindi. Given that Cindi
can kick my butt twelve ways to Sunday and I'm one of the best people in
the club, I was pretty nervous.  

       I couldn't see her face through the mask, but I knew her confident
grin she always had.  "En Garde!"  I fenced defensively.  The only way I'd
win was if she screwed up.  However, she was fighting defensively as well,
so I soon realized we might end up here all day.  The only thing to do was
to press an assault.  

       Well, maybe not the only thing, but I wasn't in the mood to fence
Cindi all day until time ended.  To my surprise, I managed to batter her
sword away and scored a point.  Usually, she lets me score once, but I was
pretty sure I actually earned that one.

        Now she went on the offensive.  I gave ground to the extent that I
could, putting my lessons from Galahad to use.  Her foot slipped slightly
and she stumbled ever so slightly.  It was enough.  I darted in and tapped
her shoulder.  Point two.

       I think that spooked her.  She unleashed a barrage of lightning
fast assaults.  I'd never seen her move this fast with anyone but Thomas.
To my surprise, I actually held her off for a while.  Finally, she scored
a point.  We were both breathing pretty hard.  

       The next point was fairly amusing.  It was like watching a high
speed movie that had been slowed down.  We were both tired.  She said,
"Have you been holding back all these months, Angel?"  She asked.  

       "No."  I said.  It was the truth.  While I was yapping, she managed
to snag me and got the point.  We were two to two.  Everyone was staring.
I smiled grimly.  If I manage to win this, I'll be so happy I could die.

        The last point match was slow and careful.  We were both going by
the book, so to speak.  Each of us husbanded our last strength, waiting
for an opening.  The room was utterly silent.  Only the padding of feet on
a mat and the tiny clink of the swords gave a clue that the room hadn't
somehow been drained of all sound.  

         I wished I could circle or something, instead of being restricted
to such a confined space.  I'd learned a few tricks I couldn't use without
more mobility.  I might have won if I could have used them.  As it was,
Cindi finally caught me in an error and snagged me.  She pulled off her
mask.  "You HAVE been holding back."

       "I swear I've never held back in any match here.  You're the one
who always holds back so you don't accidentally put someone's eye out or
something."

        "So you improved that much in one weekend?  Are you seeing another
fencing instructor on the side and where do you hide him?"
We walked over together and sat down while Thomas took on a guy named
Andrew.

        "I just practiced a lot."  It was sort of true, even.

       She shook her head.  "You're holding out on me.  Did you find a
magic ring and wish for more fencing skill?"  She laughed.  "Or a magic
lamp?"

        I laughed.  "Okay, I admit it.  I went to faerieland and trained
with one of Arthur's knights."  

       We both laughed, if for different reasons.  


***********************

Epilogue:

       The middle-aged blond looked like any other burnt out bum in a
small Texas town.  The Smithson Diner in Point Blank looked like any other
small town diner in rural Texas.  Point Blank itself was almost
interchangeable with dozens, perhaps hundreds of small towns in Texas
where nothing ever happens.  The man who walked into the diner couldn't
have been picked out of a lineup of good old boys by most people.
Appearances are frequently deceiving.

        The middle-aged man was wearing a rumpled dress shirt that had
seen better days, like maybe the fifties.  He wore torn jeans and scuffled
shoes and a tie that was little more than a few strips of cloth barely
clinging together.  

      He slowly ate his hamburger, muttering to himself.  "Gotta find her.
Bastards.  I'll kill them, I will."

      The cowboy-hat wearing good old boy paused and pushed his hat up. It
kept leaning forward and trying to topple off his head.  The waitress
stared at him for a few seconds.  What kind of moron can't keep a cowboy
hat on his head ?, she wondered.  When he sat down by the old looney who
wandered through town every so often, she concluded he must be nuts too.

       The good old boy watched the nut stop and scribble some words on
his napkin.  He was inscribing a seventeenth century love sonnet in
French.  The man carefully folded the napkin, then wrote an address on it.
He handed it to the waitress.  "Mail this for me, will you, Rhonda?"

        The waitress took it.  She was used to this.  She kept the
messages and showed them to her friends.  They'd finally figured out he
was writing messages in French when the high school's history teacher had
been here the day this happened.  The guy must be foreign, they'd all
concluded, though his English was really good for a foreigner.  

        The good old boy said, "I take it you're familiar with Racine."  

        The bum started and stared at the man, the rubbed his eyes.  He
stopped his mumbling, and his voice cleared.  "You recognized that?"  He
sounded utterly shocked.  

       The good old boy quoted the next poem from the collection in
flawless French.  "I'm more educated than I look."

        The waitress nodded to herself.  Another foreigner. Must be trying
to pretend to be an American for some reason.  I wonder if I should call
the police.

       The man sighed.  "It's been so long."  He got a hopeful look.
"Have you seen a little girl, about this tall?"  He held his hand just
high enough off the ground to be a little five year old girl.  "She's got
long blonde hair like me and her mother, and she was wearing a..."

        The man interrupted him.  "That was fifteen years ago.  She has
aged, you know.  Much as we might not want to admit it."

         The waitress brought Billy Joe another cup of coffee at one of
the tables and listened in discreetly.  Maybe it's a relative of his, she
thought.  He seems to know why the guy is so whacked out.

         The man cocked his head.  "What year is it?"

        "1996,"  the good old boy said.  

         The man's eyes flared open.  "WHAT?"

         "You've been searching for your daughter since they took her away
for fifteen years."

         The man twitched.  "No.  It's not possible.  I told my wife it
would only take a few weeks."  He stared at the table.  "She's going to
kill me.  But I had to do it.  She wouldn't believe me, but I had to find
the bastards who stole our child."

         The good old boy nodded.  "They still have her.  Do you want to
know where she is?"

        The blond man leaned forward.  "YES!  I'll do anything!  Just tell
me where to find her!"

        "It will cost you, Charles."

         The blond man stood up and shouted, "I don't CARE what it costs!
I'll pay any price!"  

       Everyone stared and Billy Joe pulled Darlene over, "He's not gonna
try and waste everyone like happened in Humble, is he?  Want me to get my
shotgun from the truck?"

        She looked at him.  "He doesn't have a gun unless he ate it and
plans to cough it back up like a hairball.  But keep an eye on him."

       The good old boy grinned.  "Come with me."  He got up and started
to leave.  The man followed him like a puppy.  The good old boy stopped in
the doorway and looked at the man.  Such a brilliant mind wasted, he
thought.  Why hasn't someone recruited him before, he wondered.  He's
perfect for us.  I suppose God watches over fools and children in truth.
But he doesn't watch them closely enough.

        He stepped out into the night with the blond bum in close pursuit.
Darlene went back to the bar and looked at the napkin.  It had the same
address as the last six.  The same name on it as well.  I guess Olivia
here is his wife.  She's probably wondering where he is...heck, I can
afford a stamp and an envelope.  It can't hurt.