Prologue:

      The sun set at an unnatural pace to the west of the Castle of the 
Sun, the home of the Summer Court.  If it had eyes, it would have 
seen unbelievable devastation.  Bodies were strewn about the 
rubble, some burnt, some frozen, some ripped apart, some simply 
crushed by the rubble.  Four men and four women lay in the heart 
of a blinding storm of chaotic multi-colored energies in a crumbling 
room which had once been concealed, but now lay open to the 
elements.  Two of the men and two of the women were fading away 
slowly.  Both of the women and one of the men were dead.  Only 
one man survived in the heart of the storm, and he was doomed.

        Or would have been doomed.  A hand clasped his and 
suddenly, he was halfway across the palace.  The storm of energies 
began to grow, starting to spread across the palace.  The man 
opened his eyes.  "Titania! NO!!!!!!!!!"  He paused, feeling faintly 
ridiculous as the event of which he had been trying to warn her 
had somehow ceased to exist.  He looked around the devastation, 
then up at the woman standing over him.  He could see her shadow 
moving as the sun set, which unnerved him, for it should not be 
setting so fast.  In fact, it shouldn't have been setting at all, for the 
last he remembered, it was early morning.  

        His brain felt fuzzy and he couldn't even remember the name 
of the woman he was talking to.  "I...what happened?  Where is 
everyone?"

       "Dead.  They go to be reborn."  She gestured about the ruins.  
"Gaze upon what you fools have done."  Her voice was rising, and 
fury marked her face.  "Thousands of years of work and you have 
begun to undo it in an instant."

       "If the other courts had not interfered," he began, standing up 
and dusting himself off, "We would have..."  His heart sank.  Titania, 
my love, I'm sorry you must live without me for a time, he thought.

      "You would have destroyed all of Arcadia and handed over 
your souls to Caligoro; that's what would have happened.  As it is, 
the entire race of Sidhe and close to half of the other fae either 
have died or will die.  And when you are reborn, there may not be 
much left of Arcadia for you to return to."   

        Oberon felt like he was being lashed, as if her words had 
actual physical force behind them.  He shrank.  He tried to summon 
his pride to retort, but it melted.  "What can I do as penance?"  he 
asked quietly.

        The woman smiled angrily, which was disturbing to see.  
"Come with me.  There is much for you to do."

        He went quietly.

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

The Summer People

Chapter 8:  The Queen of Elfland's Daughter

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

Angel said:

       I got matched against Jennifer Cochrane at our latest fencing 
club meeting.  She makes me nervous.  I think it's mostly her 
attitude.  She doesn't come to the meetings often, but when she 
does, she looks like she expects everyone to fall at her feet.  Several 
of the guys do.  She and I have the same hair color, but somehow it 
looks wonderful on her.  Maybe I should grow my hair out like 
hers.  It goes down to just below her shoulderblades like Tanya's 
does.  

         We put on our masks and got into position.  "Ready?"  I asked.

        She laughed.  "Born ready."

        I wiped the floor with her.  Okay, I'm exaggerating, but she 
was pretty sloppy at first.  She got serious after that and gave me 
more of a fight, but I pretty much tore her up.  That surprised her.  
When she lost, she tore off her mask and said, "How did you DO 
that?"

        Thomas laughed nearby.  "She practices, unlike you.  Didn't 
you see her nearly beat Cindi last weekend?  And the time before 
that?  And we all know Cindi would clean your clock."

        Jennifer frowned and stalked off, her blue-green eyes flashing 
with irritation.  Thomas watched her go and laughed.  "She has a 
short fuse, Angel.  Don't mind her."

       I waved my sword about, slashing As into imaginary 
opponents.  "I'm about ready to become the new Zorro, I guess."

       "We can cast Jennifer as the commandant."  We both laughed, 
and sat down to watch some more matches.  

       Cindi came over and sat down by us.  "Hey, Angel, you doing 
anything tonight?"

       "I have some homework, but not too much to do.  Why?"

        "My old fencing tutor is going to be in town tonight.  I'd like 
you to meet him."  Cindi leaned back against the wall.  "He's on his 
way off to some tournament in California.  He's afraid of planes, so 
he's driving."

       Thomas said, "Can I come?"

        Cindi nodded.  "Dr. Hutchinson is coming too.  Mr. Sandberg is 
great.  You'll like him."

       "As long as he's not descended from Louis XI, we'll be okay,"  
Thomas said, winking at me.

       I noogied him, as was my duty.

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

Harry said:

       My roommate Donny and I are both physics majors and we 
have the same science classes, which helps with studying.  It also 
means we have the same lab section for chemistry, which is 
required for the B.S. that we're both getting.  This has advantages 
and disadvantages.

         The good thing is that Donny does good lab work.  The bad 
thing is that Donny enjoys practical jokes.  Chemistry labs are really 
good for such things.  Luckily, he wasn't up to no good today.  We 
were just doing some simple chemical mixes and reporting the 
results.  The only difference between this and what we did in my 
high school chemistry class was that now we actually understand 
what we're doing, rather than just blindly following instructions 
and reporting results.  

       What we were really doing was discussing plans for Halloween.  
Somehow, Donny and I got stuck planning the floor Halloween 
party.  We had close to two weeks to plan, though.  "You think we 
could get Tanya's mom to come?"  he asked.  "She's a babe."

        I laughed.  "She's married, Donny."  Donny thinks he's 
Superfly.  Maybe he is.  He does usually have a girlfriend, though 
he goes through about one a month.  

       "Yeah, but they won't know that.  She and Tanya could go as 
twins or something.  She'll come, won't she?  We'll need more 
women."

        "Tanya and Angel are both gonna come."

        Donny looked at me, calculatingly, then turned and added a 
few drops of iodine to the stuff we were messing with.  He then 
turned back to me.  "How'd you get two girlfriends, anyway?  I 
thought I was pretty slick, but I've never managed that."

      I laughed and watched the chemical mix, waiting for it to do its 
little dance, so to speak.  "I only have one girlfriend, and that's 
Angel."

       "Man, I know you and Tanya have been like this,"  he twined 
two of his fingers around each other, "since the dawn of time.  
There's no way you two could be that close and not be bonking 
each other on a regular basis."  He grinned.

       I blushed a bit.  "Tanya and I have never had sex."

       "Yeah right.  That's not what Katherine said."  He smirked and 
watched the liquid turn purple.  We noted this down, then started 
on the next phase, adding some powders to it.

       I blushed more.  "Katherine wasn't there...Uh, I mean..."  That 
had just come out wrong, unless I wanted to give him the wrong 
ideas.

        He laughed.  "You four made enough noise to wake the dead, 
according to her."  He paused and looked at me.  "So did you trade 
off, or were you all in one bed?"

        I looked around.  No one else SEEMED to be listening.  "Donny, 
we did not trade off partners!"  Although I think we all thought 
about it, I thought, then hit myself for thinking that.

         He laughed.  "So you were all in one bed.  So, is she as good as 
she looks?"

       I whacked him with my notebook.  "Twice as good as you."

       "So you confess?"

       "I don't confess anything!"  He laughed and I started worrying 
about what kind of rumors were going to be circulating.

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

Angel said:  

       After Harry finished his lab, we all rendevoused and headed 
down to the Commons for dinner.  It was sphagetti night, and I ate 
with gusto.  I like sphagetti a lot.  Mom used to make it every 
Monday night.   I ate like a maniac.  They had cherry pie, which I 
hate, but which Harry and Tanya and Thomas all love to death.  
They all had big heaping mounds of it.  All you can eat sometimes 
means all you can stuff down your throat until it makes you sick.  
Tanya gets sick every time they have cherry pie, but she seems to 
think it is worth it.  

        There was something odd about the cherry pie, but I wasn't 
sure what.  It had the look of something seen at twilight, the sort of 
clear sharpness that things normally only have in Viewmaster 
pictures and other stereoscopes.  As  Thomas was about to dig into 
his piece, he noticed me staring at his pie.  "You want some?"

        Tanya shook her head.  "Angie would rather be eaten by wild 
dogs.  Is something wrong?"

        "Something weird about your cherry pie,"  I said.  "I'm 
probably just imagining things."

        Thomas frowned and stared at the pie.  All was silent, and I'm 
sure we all looked ridiculous.  He said quietly, "It's enchanted."

        I stood up.  "Splinter must have infiltrated the kitchen!"

        Thomas reached out and sat me back down.  "Not unless this is 
a really weird plot.  These have love spells on them."

        Harry dropped his fork.  "Like, as in fall in love with the first 
person you see?"

        "Very carefully designed.  Hand tailored for each of us."

        Good thing I hate cherry pie, I thought.  "But how could they 
be sure we took the right piece?"

        "The serving lady for that end of the line must have been 
replaced by the person who did this."  Thomas said.  "They did a 
good job, too.  If I hadn't known to look, I wouldn't have realized.  
Mine is supposed to make me fall in love with you, Tanya's instills 
love for Harry, and Harry's piece makes the eater fall in love with 
Tanya.  I'd guess there was probably a fourth piece with your name 
on it."

       Wouldn't take too much magic, I thought.  "But who would 
want to do this?"

        Harry said, "Unless it's a random prank, they must know a fair 
amount about us."

       Thomas said to Tanya, "Come with me.  We need to go take a 
look at her, and let her know her plan failed and we want to know 
why."

        Tanya thought for a moment.  "I have a better idea.  Here's the 
plan..."

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

Harry said:

      Tanya comes up with crazy plans.  Still, her plan did have some 
logic to it.  The best way to see who set a trap is to trigger it and 
wait to see who comes running.  The problem with this, of course, is 
that being in a trap is usually unpleasant.  The problem with this 
trap was that it was potentially too pleasant.  It would be far too 
easy, for obvious reasons, for Tanya and I to fake being madly in 
love.  

        We started with holding hands on the way back to our dorm.  
I prayed that only the villians and not anyone I knew would see us.  
On a campus this size, news travels in seconds once someone who 
knows your name sees something.  So, of course, we ran into Donny 
at the front door of the dorm.  He simply looked at me and grinned.  
I'm dead, I thought.  Donny should have been named 'Telephone' 
by his parents, because he practically lives on it.  "I'll never believe 
you again," he said, winking.

        Tanya said, "What did Harry do this time?"

         Donny laughed.  "Nothing.  Nothing at all."  He ran off, 
laughing maniacally.

        I turned to Tanya.  "You know, he's gonna tell the whole 
universe."

        She winked.  "That's the idea, dear."

        Tanya and I headed to my room, while Thomas and Angel 
went to go get ready to meet Cindi's old fencing instructor.  All my 
faerie adventures were starting to get me behind on homework, so 
Tanya and I were going to buckle down and work on all the reading 
we've been missing.  We have a history class together as well, 
Eighteenth Century Europe.  I'm taking it for fun, while it's part of 
her major.  We had a test coming up, so after spending two hours 
doing miscellaneous reading for our other courses, we started 
drilling each other.

        "Who was Louis XIV?"  Tanya asked me.

         "The so-called Sun King.  He ruled from 1660 to 1714 and set 
the style for absolutist monarchy.  He also built Versailles.  What 
were Jacobites?"  

         She thought for a moment.  "They were the people who 
wanted to restore the line of the Stuarts that ran from James II 
through his son James, the old Pretender.  What they had to do 
with anyone named Jacob, I have no idea."  Tanya lauged a little.  
"Angie's mom probably claims to be related to them, though."

       I laughed.  "She's pretty funny.  It surprises me that Angel's 
so...she's not like her mom very much."

       Tanya nodded.  "I like her mom, though."  She paused and gave 
me one of those looks which I had come to realize meant she was 
about to ask me something weird. "You know...you and Angie..."  
She trailed off.

        "Me and Angel what?"  I noticed she was staring at the mirror.  
She suddenly lunged forward and kissed me passionately.  I 
blinked and fell backwards, instinctively wrapping my arms 
around her.  We kissed for a while.  It felt like a lot longer than it 
probably was.  

         She finally broke off the kiss and whispered, "Someone is 
scrying us through that mirror.  We need to go somewhere private, 
so I can tell you something I'm starting to suspect.  I think I know 
who is scrying on us."

        I nodded, and said loudly, "Let's take a walk.  It should be nice 
and cool."

        She tickled me and whispered, "Try not to sound so robotic 
next time."  She got up off me and said more loudly, "That sounds 
really romantic, Harry."  She took my hand, helping me up, and we 
headed out.  

        We headed to the park, which is right next to campus.  
Thornton City Park is beautiful.  I really like it.  I could hear the 
trees whispering to each other very faintly.  They were 
complaining about the cold.  I laughed loudly.  "Nice to see I'm not 
the only person who hates cold weather."

       "Hmm?"  Tanya said.  

       "The trees don't like the cold anymore than I do."  I patted one 
of the trees.  "Wish I could help you, but weather magic isn't my 
thing."

        'That's okay,' it whispered back.  

       Tanya smiled at me.  "You'd make a good dryad, Harry."

       I laughed.  "I'm no fairy."  I winked.  "That's what you're for."

       "Actually, you could be a fairy."  Tanya stepped a little closer 
to me.  "And I'm starting to think you are one."

        My heart sped up a little.  "No way.  Wouldn't someone have 
come and told me by now?"

        Tanya said very quietly, "Not if you're Duke Ironwood's son."

        My jaw dropped.  "He...he told you this?"

        "Come on, Harry.  He was hinting so hard when we had that 
dinner with him that I can't believe I took this long to figure it out."  
She sat me down under the tree, then put an arm around my 
shoulders, so I put one around her waist.  "You've both got the 
same affinity.  His wife has the same one as him, being a dryad, 
which makes it almost certain that his son has the same one, 
although it doesn't always happen like that.  You were born on 
exactly the right day to have been switched."

        "Thousands, maybe millions of people were born on that day, 
though!  It's like astrology.  So many of them are born in a 
particular sign and the signs are so fuzzy, you're almost guaranteed 
to find some things that fit."  Me a faerie?  I couldn't believe it.  It 
did have a certain appeal.

        "You also are learning magic at a ridiculously fast speed in 
your affinity.  You were doing things in a few days that many 
mages spend months or years working up to."  

        I couldn't say anything to deny that.  I did seem to have 
learned pretty quick.  "Is making seeds sprout that hard?"

        "Harry, there are no bluebonnets in Duke Ironwood's realm.  
Not until you created them from nothing."

        "..."

       "The Duke hand-designed his realm.  He knows every kind of 
plant in it.  And I'm certain he thinks you are his son.  The whole 
love pie thing makes sense now."

       "It does?"

       She turned and gazed into my eyes.  "Duke Ironwood and 
Mother want their children engaged.  But I'm in love with someone 
else, they know.  Duke Ironwood was spying on us in your room.  
The love pie was intended to make me fall in love with you.  They 
think you're his son.  Why else would someone bother to use magic 
to make us fall in love with each other?  Now, if your pie had been 
aimed to make you love Splinter, or if only one person had been 
enchanted...but clearly, they think you're his son and they want to 
see us get married."  She laughed.  "Pretty ironic, eh?"

        If they had tried this in High School, I certainly wouldn't have 
fought it.  "That would mean the real Harold C. Crags would be in 
the hands of the Unseelie,"  I said quietly.  "They captured either 
the Duke's son or the boy he was traded for, right?"

       Tanya said quietly, "Yes.  The same for the Queen's daughter.  
Who was born at about the same time as the Duke's son."

        "And Angel was born at about the same time as me,"  I said 
quietly.

       "The Queen's affinity is air,"  Tanya said quietly.

        I stared at the ground.  "No way."  My head was spinning.  It 
couldn't be.  Part of me wanted to believe her, but I just...I didn't 
feel like a faerie.  Then again, I had no idea what it felt like.  
"How...how could we be sure?"

        "We take you to the Queen.  She can identify faeries on sight.  
It's one of her talents.  There's a few other faeries who can do it."  
She leaned over and kissed my ear.  I shook a little. "I know where 
to find one of them who lives near here.  We'll go see her soon, 
okay?  She's run off somewhere again, but she should be back in a 
few days.  I hope, anyway."

        "Okay,"  I said quietly.  My head was spinning.  What would I 
tell my parents?  Should I tell them if I found out?  "How...how did 
your Mom take finding out?  I mean...really."

        Tanya said, "She's still my Mom and I still love her.  Duchess 
Silverwind may be the person who gave birth to me, but Mom's the 
one I really care about a lot more.  If...If you are one of us, I don't 
think your feelings about your parents will change, and I hope, if 
you tell them, that they'll take it as well as my Mom did."  She 
sighed.  "Knowing your Mom, though, probably not."

        "Mom will blow her stack."  I sighed.  "If she knew about all 
this, she'd blow her stack whether or not I'm a faery."  I leaned 
over against Tanya.  "But I wish I could tell her."

       "Well, look at it this way.  If I'm right, the four of us won't 
have to worry about being seperated by anything."  She smiled.  "Of 
course, it could mean being harrassed by Splinter for all of eternity 
too."

        I noogied her, and soon we had a proper riot going.

***************
       
Angel said:  

       Thomas and I cruised over to Java House.  I don't get to ride in 
Thomas' car often, but it's always fun.  He has a red Porsche, which 
he drives way too fast.  We usually cruise with the windows down 
so his stereo serenades the neighborhood, then stick out our 
tongues at people waving their fists at us.  Okay, we act really silly.

       We headed into Java House, holding hands nervously.  I hope 
the faeries are spying on us to make this worth it, I thought.  Not 
that I mind or anything, but...we shouldn't be doing this.  Tanya's 
probably smooching with Harry somewhere, I thought.  I fumed 
and gripped Thomas' hand tighter.  Cindi spotted us and waved us 
over.  Dr. Hutchinson was there.  He's my fencing teacher.  He's thin 
and wiry, with very thick wrists.  His hair is short and black, and 
he has a neatly trimmed moustache and beard.  I like him a lot. 

       Dr. Hutchinson smiled.  "Good to see you, Angela."  

       Cindi turned to the man next to her.  "This is Mr. Sandberg."  
He was tall and stout, with huge arms that looked bigger around 
than my head.  He was nicely dressed in a suit, although it barely 
fit him.  His hair was short and brown, heavily riddled with grey.  
He gave me a broad smile.  

        He shook mine and Thomas' hands.  "Nice to meet you.  Cindi 
tells me that you two are very good."

       Cindi got us a table while I replied.  "Thomas is much better 
than I am."

      We sat down and flagged down a waitress.  Thomas said, "Not 
any more.  I need to practice harder.  You're catching up."  He 
leaned a little closer and put an arm around my shoulders.  I nearly 
jumped. 

       Don't panic or freak out, I thought.  Act natural.  Having 
Thomas' arm around me was sending my body and mind into a 
state of chaos, however.  "Me?  Naah.  You and Cindi are the really 
good ones."

      Mr. Sanderberg said, "I understand you trained with Ralph 
Enders up in New York, Thomas?"

      He nodded.  "Mr. Enders was very good.  He still eats my lunch 
when I go home."  

       The waitress finally came and we made our orders.  Thomas 
and I just got drinks since we had already eaten at the Commons.  
Dr. Hutchinson said, "So, have you been seeing a coach on the side, 
Angela?  You really have improved dramatically in the last few 
weeks."

       "I guess your lessons finally all sunk in, Dr. Hutchinson."  I 
tried to think of a good reason why, but I couldn't.  "Everything I 
know about fencing, I learned from you."  And Lancelot, but I won't 
mention that part.  I smiled a bit.  "Or maybe I snuck off to Camelot 
and trained with Lancelot."

       Everyone laughed.  We discussed a lot of fencing stuff that 
would probably bore you, after that.  Finally, it was time to go 
home.  Mr. Sandberg said, "Wish me well in my tournament."

      "Good luck!"  we all said.  He and Cindi left together, since she 
was going to drive him back to his hotel in Austin.  

       As I was about to go, Dr. Hutchinson said, "There's going to be a 
tournament here in Austin in December.  I think you should enter, 
Angela."

        "You really think so?"

       He nodded.  "You've always been one of my better students, 
but now...I think you're one of the best I've had in my twenty 
years here.  Having you and Cindi and Thomas all at once...well, my 
cup runneth over if you know what I mean."

        I laughed.  "Thanks."

       He waved.  "Good night!"  He took off and so did we.  

       As we headed back to campus, Thomas missed the turn to TX-
80, which is the quickest way back to campus.  "Hey, you missed 
the turn!"  I said.

       He smiled.  "I have something to show you."

       "What?"

       "It's a surprise."

        We cruised out into the countryside, ending up parking by a 
field in a clearing in the woods.  Thomas hopped the fence, and I 
followed.  We came to a little pond, with a few bored cows standing 
around.  He took my hand.  "Close your eyes."

       "If you dunk me, you die,"  I said flatly.

       He laughed.  "C'mon, Angie.  Work with me."

       I laughed back and closed my eyes.  I felt a weird sense of 
movement without moving.  He said, "Open your eyes."  I did.

        The pond now stood in the deep of the forest, with many 
animals lounging around and drinking from it.  Several pixies sat on 
the tree branches.  The air was much warmer than in the real 
world, for I was in Faerieland.  He sat down and smiled.  We could 
see the stars shining clear and brightly.  "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

     I sat down by him and smiled.  "Yes.  Is all of Faerieland this 
beautiful?"

     "Even the frozen ice of the Unseelie lands is beautiful.  
Dangerous, but beautiful."

      "Why is it so warm?"

       "Faerieland knows only winter and summer.  The seelie lands 
sit in eternal summer, while the Unseelie lands know only winter.  
The areas like this, which touch your world, alternate as the rule of 
the Court changes at Beltaine and Samhain."  He looked at the pond.  
"Let's go swimming."

      "Now?  It's nearly eleven!  I don't have a bathing suit, either."

      He grinned.  "I can fix that."  He concentrated for a moment, and 
suddenly, I was clad in a reddish-gold bikini.  It was a bit more 
modest than any of Tanya's, but since I normally wear a one-piece, 
it was a lot more revealing than anything I owned.  

      "Hey!"

      He gestured and now he was wearing some red and green swim 
trunks.  "You'll have to catch me to get me to change it back."  He 
ran down to the water and leaped in.  I ran after him.

       Thomas swims very well, while I do not.  The pond was just 
barely too deep in the middle to touch bottom.  I chased Thomas 
back and forth across the pond.  He was laughing maniacally.  After 
a while, I relaxed and started having fun.  Finally, I managed to 
grapple him and dragged him over to the shore.  "I got you!"

       "I suppose I have to pay a toll now?"  he said, grinning.

       I laughed.  "Pay the troll or be devoured."

       He kissed me.  It was a surprise.  A very pleasant surprise.  Far 
too pleasant.  For a few minutes, I simply kissed him back, unable 
to stop.  A mixture of fear, joy, and anticipation rushed through me.  
I could feel myself getting turned on.  Several old fantasies of mine 
rushed back into my head.  I had to stop before I followed the 
script they all presented to me. 

        I pulled out of the kiss, but I couldn't quite make myself leave 
his embrace.  I whispered, "We...we'd better not do that again."

       He whispered back, "One of the pixies is watching us.  I 
recognize him from Duke Ironwood's court.  We'd better head back 
to campus."  He said loudly, "We'd best save that for in private, 
milady.  You are right.  The woods do have eyes."

        I could hear pixies giggling.  I climbed out of the water and it 
ran off me in seconds.  I called up a wind and it blew me the rest of 
the way dry.  Thomas called our clothing back up, and we headed 
back to the car quietly, reentering the mortal world.  "I need to 
learn to do that,"  I said.

        He nodded.  "I will teach you when we both have time."  We 
headed back to campus.

        I wasn't sure what to say.  I had enjoyed his kiss, his embrace 
too much.  We parted with few words back at the dorm.  He headed 
up to his room, and I went to mine.  Harry was crashed out in my 
bed.  Someone had thrown a towel over the mirror, and Tanya was 
sprawled out on her bed.  Harry was hugging Mr. Bear, my ancient 
Teddy Bear, who I love most of all my possessions.  I quietly got 
into my pajamas and clambered into bed with Harry, snuggling up 
to him, as was necessary if we were both going to fit.  "I love you, 
Harry,"  I whispered.  

        He muttered something incoherent, then said something a 
little more clearly, "But Alex, Angel is my girlfriend, not yours.  If 
you have to kiss someone, you should kiss Thomas.  He'll kiss 
anyone."  He then muttered something about fish.  I blushed a little.  
I'm not just anyone, I thought.  Why he's dreaming about Alex 
kissing me...that's just weird. Slowly, my brain tangled itself up, 
and I drifted off to sleep.

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

         The next day, I headed off to class in the morning.  No one 
should be forced to do physics in the morning, not even someone 
who likes it, like me.  Actually, no one should be made to do 
anything in the morning.  Anyway, I digress.

       As I headed up to the back door of the Anderson Science 
Building, I noticed some of the flowers were looking pretty bad.  I 
could hear them crying, very faintly.  I looked around.  Not too 
many people were around, so I kneeled down to take a closer look.  
The poor things weren't built to take cold weather, simply put.  
Why this university persists in planting flowers when it starts to 
get cold so they just freeze to death, I don't know.  It wouldn't 
really get too cold for another month, but I could tell they were 
hurting.

         Magic doesn't work too easily, at least for me, in the mortal 
plane, but I started trying to draw on some power to help them.  It 
took me ten or so minutes, but slowly, I was able to feed them 
strength.  They all looked healthy and sounded much happier when 
I was done.  I stood up and smiled.

        I nearly jumped out of my flesh when Mr. Greene said, "Hmm.  
Guess I won't have to replace them after all."

        "Uh hi, Mr. Greene,"  I said.  He's one of the campus custodians.  
Angel knows him better than I do, but he's pretty nice.  
 
     He smiled.  "Hello, Harry.  Considering taking up botany, or are 
the flowers just more beautiful than usual today? I saw you 
kneeling there."

       I laughed.  "Just talking to the flowers to meet my quota of 
insanity for the day."

       He knelt down by the flowers.  "Sometimes, I almost think I 
can hear them talking."  Looking up, he smiled.  "Good luck, lad."

       "Luck?  What do I need luck for?"

       "Don't you have a test today?"

        I suddenly realized I'd gotten confused as to the day of the 
week.  I was trying to go to the wrong class.  My watch said I had 
my test in five minues.  Time to run.  "Thanks!"  

       Running like a maniac, I made it into Sam Houston, up the 
stairs, and into my seat just in time.  Tanya turned and said, "I was 
wondering where you were going."

       I noticed a couple of people in the front of the class looking at 
us and whispering.  Tanya got a big grin and leaned over and 
kissed me on the cheek.  "Good luck, dear."  More whispering.  I 
blushed and contemplated raining down hot death on Donny and 
lots of faeries.

      The test seemed to drag on for eternity.  Tanya finished twenty 
minutes before I did.  She was waiting for me in the hallway as 
soon as I walked out.  Hooking arms, we walked off to the Commons 
to grab lunch.  Slowly I relaxed, though I was still pretty tense.  

        No one tried to enchant us at lunch.  We split up for our 
seperate classes.  I had Linear Algebra with Donny, who was 
grinning at me like the cat who ate the canary all class long.  After 
class, I went over to him.  "Donny, why are you smiling at me like 
that?"

        "I don't know, Mr. Mack Daddy.  Why don't you tell me?"  We 
started heading back to the dorm.  

        "Don't make me kill you, Donny.  You know I hate cleaning up 
corpses."  As we walked, I spotted several other guys I vaguely 
knew, all either grinning at me or staring like I was some kind of 
god.  

        "So are you going to be upstairs getting it on with your ladies 
tonight?  I have a date, and I'm hoping to bring her home, so to 
speak."  He knocked on a tree as we went by it.

       I laughed.  "I promise I won't walk in on you until it's REALLY 
embarrassing."

        He stuck out his tongue at me.  "Try it and I'll walk in on you 
some time."

        Tanya would probably invite you to join us, hoping to see you 
blush, I thought.  But then you'd probably say yes.  I laughed.  "Do 
that, and I'll get Angel to send Alex to kick your ass."

        He let out a yelp and shut up.  About a year ago, he made a 
pass at Alex and she taunted him in the middle of the commons.  
Loudly and effectively.  He was hiding for weeks after that.  We 
took the elevator up.  I split for Angel and Tanya's room.  He 
started laughing and shouting rather embarrassing suggestions I 
won't repeat as I walked towards their room.

        Katherine let me in.  Katherine is tall, blond, and skinny.  She's 
a junior and occassionally games with us when she's between 
boyfriends, which isn't often.  I've always wondered how she finds 
so many boyfriends.  Not that she isn't a pretty cool person, but she 
just...I dunno.  I'd never fall in love with her.  A lot of guys seem to 
find her irresistible, though.  "Hiya, superstud.  You people won't 
make too much noise tonight, will you?"

        I blushed.  "I'm hardly superstud."

        She winked.  "If you ever need a substitute, I'm not dating 
anyone right now."

        I blushed horribly.  "KATHERINE!"

        Sitting down on her desk, she giggled.  "You people have been 
a lot more quiet than the first night.  So what's it like, anyway?  
I've never done it with more than one person at a time."

        By now, I felt like my entire body had turned red.  "I haven't 
done anything with anyone but Angel!"

        My credibility was immediately shot as Tanya stepped inside 
and draped herself over me like a cloak.  She kissed my cheek and 
said, "Guess who."  She giggled.  

        Katherine laughed.  "I take it Tanya and Angie had a body 
swapping operation, then?"

        I would have banged my head on the wall, but Tanya was 
holding me too tightly to move.  I babbled something incoherently.  
Trying to undo the aftermath of this 'clever plan' was probably 
going to take another 'clever plan'.  

       To make matters worse, I started to get aroused.  This was NOT 
a good time for that.  I tried focusing on Katherine, except then my 
brain started painting scenarios involving her and Tanya.  That was 
not a road I needed to be going down.  

        To make matters worse, Tanya said, "You doing anything right 
now, Kathie?  You want a shot at Harry?  He rents cheap."

        I was redder than a tomato.  To my horror, Katherine 
sauntered over to me in a way that I recognized from the times I'd 
seen her with various boyfriends.  I felt like a deer in headlights.  
"Uh..."

        Katherine smiled.  "Sure.  I feel like a test drive."  She moved 
closer.  I took a deep breath.  They're just teasing.  They have to be 
teasing.  "You have to get Angel's permission first,"  I said.  "They 
have joint custody of my body."  That should get them to back off.  

        Katherine sauntered over to the door of Angel and Tanya's 
bedroom.  "Hey, Angel.  Mind if I have my way with Harry?"

        I heard her laugh loudly.  "Go right ahead."

         That was almost enough to send me fleeing into the 
wilderness.  Wrenching loose from Tanya, I slipped past Katherine 
and ran in and hid behind Angel.  "Protect me!"

       Angel laughed loudly and turned to Thomas, who I now saw 
was sitting on Tanya's bed doing homework.  "Thomas, I command 
you as my knight to go seduce Katherine so she can't bother Harry."

       Katherine said, "Well, that might slow me down for two or 
three minutes."

       Tanya stuck her head in the door.  "But then there will be no 
one to save you from me!"

        Angel chose this moment to whisper to me, "We're being 
scryed again.  Better mug for the camera, Harry."  She got up and 
went over to Thomas.  "Up to you to defend your honor then, 
Harry."

        Tanya and Katherine closed in, tickling me until I was about 
ready to die.  Then Angel and Thomas joined in and we had a full 
fledged war going.  I managed to crawl out of the middle of it.  It 
was around then that I suddenly realized that Angel normally 
doesn't like tickling.  She does enjoy wrestling, but not being 
tickled, but now she was loving it.  The previous alliances had 
broken up and now he was tickling her.  She was clearly enjoying 
it.

         Tanya got out of the tangle, which was now Katherine and 
Angel versus Thomas.  She sauntered over to me, smiling wickedly.  
"I'm coming to get you."

         I felt strange.  I've heard the term hot flash, but I'm not 
really sure what it means.  I don't know a better term for what 
happened to me.  Suddenly, I wanted Tanya so badly, I could 
barely breathe.  When she walked over to me, I wrapped my arms 
around her tightly and kissed her fiercely.  There was something in 
the air.  I could feel power throbbing.  Magical power.  Or maybe it 
was just the blood pumping faster in my veins, and my desire 
running wild.  I slid an arm up inside her shirt before I stopped 
myself.  

        Tanya jumped when I did that.  She pulled out of the kiss and 
smiled at me.  Her voice had a sultry tone.  "Harry.  You want to?"

        I took a deep breath.  Glancing over, I could see Katherine was 
trying to get Thomas' shirt off.  Angel was helping. He was flailing 
about and laughing like a maniac.  Everything was teetering on the 
edge.  The power was fuzzing my brain.  I wanted Tanya.  
Desperately.  Part of my brain remembered what Angel had said 
about us being scryed.  I whispered, "Angel said we're being 
scryed.  And...I think I can feel magic in the air."

         It was getting harder to think about anything except how 
much I loved Tanya and how desperately I wanted her.  She cocked 
her head slightly, then her eyes hardened.  "You're right, Harry."  
She glanced over at her beds, then laughed faintly.  "The beds.  
Very clever.  I've got to learn how to make better wards for that 
mirror.  Once we avoided one trap, we never thought he might have 
gone for redundancy.  And this one was a lot more subtle."  I felt 
her relax slightly.  She kissed me again, this time more gently.  

        She turned loose from my arms and said to Katherine and 
Angel, "Hey, orgies don't start until after ten.  You three should 
know that."

        Katherine, Thomas and Angel all froze in mid-grapple, as if 
realizing what they were doing.  Katherine actually blushed, then 
let go of Thomas' shirt.  Angel looked even more embarrassed.  
Katherine looked at her watch.  "Ack!  I've got a study group!"  She 
ran off.  I laughed.  She's always been a good bluffer.

************************
Angel said:

        After that, we all went off to the park to plan what to do 
about our room being enchanted.  We didn't want to just break the 
spell, as we didn't want to alert the Duke until we could confront 
him.  Finally, we decided to send Harry up to Thomas' room tonight, 
since Thomas' roommate was going to be gone for a few days, so as 
to remove temptation.  We would have just sent him back to his 
room, but he told us about Donny's hopes for the night, and while 
Donny usually isn't quite that successful, it would have been pretty 
embarrassing if this was the time it actually worked.  

       Tanya went off to a study group, while I did my Anthropology 
homework.  The phone rang, so I answered it.  "Hello?"

       "Hiya, Angel."  It was Alex.  

       I smiled.  "Hiya, Alex.  Whassup?"

       "Is it still okay if I come down for Halloween?"

       "That's the plan.  Tanya and Thomas are pretty worried about 
it."

        Alex said, "Yeah.  After that, the Unseelie are gonna be able to 
unleash everything they have at you guys, if they're still interested 
in you."

        I frowned.  Not news I wanted to hear.  "I'll feel safer with 
you here."

        "So will I."  Pause.  "I mean, you...uh..."  She babbled a bit 
more.  "What I MEAN is that I wish I could be there more often.  
It's hard to be able to help you from this distance.  Like when 
Harry got kidnapped."  Her voice got a little harder.  "I wish I'd 
been there to help you kick some butt."

      "Yeah.  I miss you, Alex."  I wish she had been able to come 
here.  She's my oldest and my best friend.  Sometimes I miss her so 
much I can hardly stand it.  

      "How are you and Harry doing?"  she asked.  

       I glanced over at the mirror, once again covered with a towel 
and covered with the best wards Tanya could manage.  "We're 
doing well."  I whispered, "I can't talk about some things.  I may be 
being scryed on."  I hoped that faeries didn't know how to bug 
phones.

       We talked about a bunch of other stuff, but it probably 
wouldn't interest you too much.  Finally, we said goodbye and I 
went back to homework.  Homework took way too long.  Finally, I 
turned on the TV to get some mindless entertainment before bed.

       Katherine knocked on the wall over my bed and stuck her 
head in.  "Got a minute?"

       "Sure."  I was a little embarrassed about what had happened 
earlier.  We had almost...If Tanya hadn't broken the mood, I think 
we would have made love to Thomas.  Sure, the magic helped, but 
too much of me wanted that without magic.  I thought about the 
pond and shivered.  

        She sat down on my bed.  "I...what I did..."

        "We were just playing around."

        She stared at me and said, "Just...just tell me one thing.  What 
exactly is going on with you four?  And how do I...um...well, answer 
the first part."

        I got up.  "Come with me."

        She blinked.  "Huh?"

        I put on my jacket.  "Grab your jacket."

        She got her jacket and followed me downstairs and up the 
slope of "Muggleton beach" to the Quad.  I sat down on one of the 
benches and said, "I'm dating Harry and Tanya is dating Thomas.  
And that's it.  We're all pretty close, but..."  I took a deep breath.  
"Anything else is just playing around, like this afternoon."

       Katherine stared at the ground.  "You call that playing around?  
If she hadn't stopped us, I would have been going after his pants 
next, and I know you would have been too."  She took a deep 
breath.  "I've never even been that turned on when I've actually 
HAD sex.  I had to..."  She stared at the ground harder.  "It probably 
would have been better than all the times I've had sex, too.  At 
least it would have been with a decent guy."

        "Katherine, don't be so hard on yourself.  You've had some nice 
boyfriends."  

       "And I dumped them.  I'm such an idiot."  She sighed, then 
looked up at me, her hair blowing a little in the cool night breeze.  
"How'd you get such a hunky cool boyfriend?  Heck, you've got two 
of them."

       "Thomas is not my boyfriend!"  I said sharply.  "As to Harry, I 
guess I'm just lucky.  Tanya and Thomas made sure we got 
together, but it worked out really well.  He's the first guy who ever 
loved me."

       "Second.  If Thomas doesn't love you, I'll eat my hat."  She 
chewed on a lock of her hair, which she always does when she's 
nervous.

       "You don't have a hat."

       "I'll buy one and eat it.  Don't lie to me, girl.  If you can't
tell, 
you're blind.  You four are so tight it scares me sometimes.  I wish I 
could be part of something like that."  She stared at the ground 
again.

        I reached over and patted her hand.  "You'll find someone, 
Katherine."

       "The only good thing about my current boyfriendless state is 
now I have time to rejoin your D&D game if you'll have me."

       "Sure!"

       "That'll give me more chances to seduce your boyfriends."  She 
grinned, apparently back to her usual self.  "Do they let you be on 
top?"

       "KATIE!!!!!"

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

       I couldn't sleep.  Images of the afternoon kept coming back to 
mind.  The feeling of holding Tanya tight in my arms haunted me.  
He'd nearly gotten us that time.  I looked over at the phone.  I 
wanted to call Angel and Tanya and get them to join us, but I was 
afraid of what might happen.  "You asleep, Thomas?"

       "Who can sleep?"  He muttered.  "I keep thinking about 
Angel's..."  He fell silent.  "Uhhh..."

        I laughed.  "If the Duke had been a tiny bit more subtle..."

       "If Katherine hadn't been there, I'd have...I...Ugh, sometimes I 
hate being a faerie.  As it was...well, I'm glad you two had the sense 
to stop us.  Getting a pang of jealousy at how close you and Tanya 
were helped."

        "I can't imagine you ever being jealous of me."  I rolled over 
and looked at Thomas, who was on his stomach facing me.

       "Harry, the woman I love was in love with you from the 
moment I met her.  I've had days where I went out in the forest 
and started burning things just to relieve my frustration."  He 
sounded very irritated for a moment, then his voice softened.  "So 
I've been very jealous of you at times.  The two of you have a 
history together I can't match."  He sighed.

       "It...You know she loves you, Thomas."  I felt guilty now.  

       "I know.  And I love her, but..."  He sighed again.  "Not that I'm 
much better."

        "Let's not just depress ourselves, okay?  We're both really 
lucky guys to have the girlfriends we have."

        He nodded.  "Yeah. Let's get some sleep."

***********
Angel said:  

        Katherine joined me for lunch the next day so we could 
discuss how to work her new character into my D&D campaign.  She 
hadn't played with us since the first two weeks of the semester 
after she started dating Joe, so she had decided to make a new one.  
Of course, the stupid soda machine in the Commons ran out of 
syrup for the Dr. Pepper machine RIGHT before I got any, so I had 
to settle for Coke while Katherine taunted me with my glass of Dr. 
Pepper.  Coke always tastes funny to me, and the Coke tasted extra 
funny today.  Harry drinks the stuff like there's no tomorrow, 
though.  Commons Coke usually has too much carbonated water and 
not enough syrup, but this time there was too much syrup, I 
thought.  It was sweeter than usual.  I wonder if they got the Pepsi 
and the Coke mixed up again, I thought.

      We spotted Tanya and Harry, who had a flock of people around 
them, which kinda surprised me.  I mean, Tanya attracts guys like 
flies, but Harry doesn't normally attract swarms of women.  For a 
moment, I felt intensely jealous.  Then my brain turned off.

      Well, not exactly turned off.  Looking back on it, I can realize I 
was enchanted, but at the time, it seemed so natural.  Third time's 
the charm, I suppose, though not exactly in this case.  I scarcely 
noticed that Katherine went over to sit by Thomas, who was across 
the table from Tanya.  He looked pretty confused as he sipped his 
milk.  Normally, he has tea with lunch, but the tea machine had an 
out of order sign on it.  She leaned over against him and he nearly 
jumped out of his seat.  I sat down on the other side of him 
focusing on Tanya.

        The reason for that was that I had suddenly realized I was 
madly in love with her.  Some tiny part of my brain was wondering 
if I had gone mad, but most of me was busily and quite happily 
obsessing over her.  I felt sad that she didn't notice me because of 
all the people she was talking to.  Thomas turned to me and 
whispered, "I think someone has enchanted the soda machine."

        I sipped my Coke.  "Really?  What makes you think that?"  

        Katherine suddenly pulled him around and kissed him.  Good 
idea, I thought.  I reached over and tugged on Tanya's hand.  She 
turned around and her eyes lit up.  "Angel!"  She gave me a smile 
that made me feel all mushy inside.  She squeezed my hand and 
winked at me.  

        Harry noticed me now and smiled as well.  He leaned across 
the table and whispered in my ear, "Save it for tonight."  I blushed.  
He glanced over at Katherine, "Looks like Thomas won't be lonely 
tonight."

        I laughed and whispered back, "I think I finally understand 
what you see in Tanya.  She's so...so...amazing."

       The girls flocking around Harry pulled him back and soon he 
was trying to field multiple date invitations at once.  Thomas finally 
yanked loose from Katherine.  She smiled at him.  He smiled 
nervously at her, then looked over at me. I was making googly eyes 
at Tanya.

       Giving a strangled cry, he got up and went over to the soda 
machine and stared at it for a little while, then grabbed Katherine, 
Tanya, myself, and Harry and dragged us all over to the hallway 
where the bathrooms are.  "Throw it off, people!  You're all..."  He 
looked over at Katherine.  "Acting weird."

       I held Tanya's hand, smiling like an idiot.  "Love isn't weird."

       He muttered something under his breath.  Katherine clung to 
him like Saran Wrap (TM) and Harry stood behind me and Tanya 
with arms around both of us.  Thomas began to bang his head 
against the wall until Katherine stopped him.  "Dear, you'll hurt 
yourself."

        "Don't you all think you're acting just a little strange?"  He 
sounded rather strained, but at the time, I couldn't understand 
why.

       I glanced over and saw the horde of people starting to drift 
after  us.  "I'm fine, but those people look a little obsessed."

       Thomas swore and handed us each a penny.  "A present for 
everyone."  We put our pennies away.  I was starting to wonder if 
maybe something was wrong with Thomas.  There was a sudden 
yanking motion and everyone but us vanished.  Everything looked 
strange, translucent and impermanent.  

         Katherine looked around.  "What's going on?"

        "Someone spiked the soda machine with drugs.  You're all 
starting to hallucinate."  His voice took on a soothing tone and we 
all found ourselves nodding in agreement.  

        "We're all going to walk home and then the drugs will wear 
off."  We all nodded and followed him out the door.  Katherine was 
still clinging to him.  I was clinging to Harry and Tanya.  I think we 
all started singing something, except Thomas who looked 
embarrased.  

         He was softly humming something to himself, a different tune 
than ours.  We stepped inside the dorm, and suddenly, we were all 
yanked back into the physical world.  At the same time, I felt like 
flames had run through my head.  Stabbing pain made me give a 
cry of pain, and then my mind was clear.  Tanya and I leapt away 
from each other as if we had been electrified.  Katherine let go of 
Thomas and stared at her hands, then at us.  "What...what the hell 
happened?  I...Weren't we just in the Commons?"  She shook her 
head.

        Thomas said, "Someone spiked the soda machine and I had to 
get you all out of there before you embarrassed yourselves too 
much."  He looked very sad for a moment.  "Don't worry, Katherine, 
you're not going mad.  Good thing I had milk, I guess."

        She was shaking.  "I...I'm sorry, Thomas.  I shouldn't have 
been hanging on you."

         He shrugged.  "I can't say I mind having a pretty girl hanging 
on me."  He winked and his usual confident smile returned.  "But 
then, Tanya might flay you alive, so you might want to run."

        "I think I...I think I'm going to lie down for a while."  She 
wandered off to the elevators."

         Thomas said, "This has GOT to stop."

        I nodded.  "I say we go visit Tanya's faerie friend and go see 
the Duke as soon as we can."

         Harry said quietly, "You'd better go fix that soda machine 
first, Thomas."

       He nodded.  "I'll go do that.  Everyone get ready."

***********

Harry said:   

       Skipping our afternoon classes, we headed out to see Tanya's 
faerie friend.  We chatted about various inconsequential things as 
we headed out onto Texas 80, then out into the countryside.  My 
head was spinning.  What if I was a faerie?  What if only one of us 
was a faerie?  What would I do if Angel was going to live forever 
and I wasn't?  Or vice versa?  I had a sudden keen appreciation of 
why faeries often don't take mortal lovers.  The thought of 
watching her age and die while I had to go on without her for 
eternity horrified me.  

        As we headed out into the countryside, there was a sudden 
jolt, and Thomas' car was suddenly driving down a cobblestone 
road through an enchanted forest.  Let me say that driving down a 
cobblestone road at sixty miles an hour is not something I 
recommend to those with weak stomachs.  Angel started to turn 
green.  I didn't feel good either, and I don't get carsick, normally.  

        Tanya finally got Thomas to slow down and we turned off the 
cobblestone road onto a dirt road that slowly dwindled.  Finally, 
Thomas parked the car and he and Tanya suddenly assumed their 
faerie forms.  It was almost instantaneous, unlike Alex.  They were 
still dressed in their modern clothing, which was fairly humorous to 
see.  

       Flamehair whistled and four dun horses galloped out of the 
woods.  I helped Angel get up on the back of one, then vaulted on 
myself.  We rode slowly, and I stayed near Angel to help her.  She 
was starting to turn green again after a while.  I've had some 
experience horseback riding, but she's had hardly any experience.  

       After about an hour, we reached a beautiful lake nestled in the 
woods.  The trees just suddenly stopped about fifty feet from the 
water, which was ringed by a fringe of grass and small bushes.  
Aquamarine walked to the edge of the lake and shouted, "HELLO!"

        The water boiled and a woman rose from it, standing upon its 
surface.  She was clad in shimmering blue, and had sea-green skin 
and long orange hair.  Her hands and feet were webbed and her 
eyes were a deep purple.  She was ugly for a faerie, which meant 
she was only moderately attractive instead of disgustingly 
beautiful.  

       She smiled at us.  "Greetings, Aquamarine.  I see you have 
brought guests."

        I bowed clumsily.  "Nice to meet you.  I'm Harry."

       Angel bowed as well.  "And I'm Angela."

      "I'm Flamehair."

       "My name is Lady Telmarine."  She smiled and formed a chair 
for herself from water.  We all sat down on the grass.  "What brings 
you to my humble abode?"  She asked.

       "We think they may be fae,"  Aquamarine said.  "But we can't 
be sure.  We need you to test them."

      Telmarine looked us up and down.  "What makes you think 
that?"

       "We have reason to believe they may be Duke Ironwood's 
missing son and the Queen's missing daughter."  Aquamarine said 
flatly.  Angel visibly jumped.  I guess they didn't tell her 
everything, I thought.

       "Hmmm.  Most fae awaken to their true selves by that age.  
Still, it is possible.  Those two children are still missing."  She stood 
and held out her hand.  "Take my hand, Harold.  I will start with 
you."

        I walked over and reached, but I couldn't reach her hand.  "I 
can't reach you from the shore."

        She smiled.  "If you believe, you can do it."

       Part of my mind was rather uncomfortable.  Disturbing 
thoughts flickered into my mind.  I decided to deal with them later.  
"Is this a..."  

       She frowned slightly.  "I mean no blasphemy.  I am not the 
Lord of Heaven.  But this is a place of magic.  Magic never works if 
you do not believe in it.  You will never find power unless you 
believe you have it.  Come to me, Harry."

       I closed my eyes and focused my will.  I knew that I could 
hear the plants.  I suspected I would have to hear the water.  
Kneeling, I listened.  The voice of the water just barely registered, 
even fainter than the plants in my own world.  Drawing power was 
easy, talking to the water was hard.  It wouldn't pay attention, and 
I had to repeat myself several times.  Finally, the water got the 
point, I hoped, and I stepped out onto it.  

        It felt like ground beneath my feet, but I didn't dare to look.  
Step by step, I walked, hearing it splash.  Angel gasped.  Finally, I 
reached Telmarine, and she took my hand.  "Very good.  I take it 
they've given you some magical training."

       "A few days."  I opened my eyes, but I didn't look down.  "Now 
what?"

       "Have they taught you to breathe water?"

       I flapped my lips wordlessly.

        "Ahh, the answer is no.  We'll do this the fun way."  She kissed 
me fiercely.  My arms flailed about mindlessly.  Angel shouted 
something I couldn't hear clearly.  I finally broke off the kiss with 
effort, just in time to sink beneath the surface of the water.

       I was in the process of breathing in, so I swallowed a lot of 
water.  For a moment I panicked, then realized I wasn't drowning.  
In fact, it was warm and pleasant.  Telmarine smiled at me.  
"Surprising, eh?"

       I nodded.

       She gestured and called up a shimmering globe of light, then 
sat down.  I sat down, though I wasn't quite sure what I was sitting 
on.  "Now what?"

       "We have mad passionate sex."

        I blushed horribly.  She laughed and said, "You mortals are so 
gullible, sometimes.  Actually, I just need you to stare into this ball, 
while I perform a few tests."

        "What will it do?"

       "Show you parts of your past.  You should see the face of your 
true mother, among other things.  It's hard to predict.  From 
watching, plus certain other tests, I will determine if you are Fae."

        I nodded.  It made sense.  I stared into the globe.

                                   **********

       Lucy rocked the baby's cradle.  She was four years old, and she 
thought her littlest brother looked just like a raisin.  "Mom, are you 
sure they gave you the real baby?  This one's ugly."

       Cathy frowned.  "Your brother Harold is not ugly.  You looked 
just like that when you came home from the hospital."

       "No way!  I'm cute!"  She grinned at her mother, who laughed 
and stroked her short brown hair.  

       I was watching, but I couldn't say anything.  I had to admit I 
looked like a raisin.  Somehow, I could hear their thoughts and 
know their hearts, but I couldn't touch or change anything.  Not 
even my point of view would change when I tried to move.  

       "You go play,"  Cathy said.  Lucy laughed and ran off.  Cathy 
turned to the baby.  

        I could hear Mom's thoughts.  This would have been useful 
back in High School.

       My beautiful baby boy, Cathy thought.  She bent down to pick 
him up.  A flicker of worry ran through her mind.  He was such a 
quiet little boy.  All my other children screamed constantly.  Why is 
he so quiet?

         He was a doll.  

        I blinked.  What the hell...

       For a moment, Cathy could do nothing but stare, trying to deny 
her own eyes.  She touched him.  Nothing but cloth.  It didn't even 
look like a real baby anymore, just a baby doll, though a decent 
likeness, except for not looking like a raisin.  

       Cathy screamed.  She couldn't think of what else to do.  Her 
baby boy was gone.  Gone without a trace.  He...he was there just a 
minute ago, she thought.  He had to be.  She got down and looked 
on the floor.  Did he get out of the crib?  The door was closed.  He 
couldn't have just opened the door and crawled off.   A few day old 
baby couldn't crawl.  I...I fed him a few hours ago, she thought.  

         Desperately, she tried to pull herself together.  I fed Harry at 
noon.  It's now three or so.  There's only been three hours, and he's 
been in here most of the time.  I left Lucy with him while I went to 
do laundry.  I...I didn't put him in the washing machine, did I?  
Cathy shook herself.  I'm getting hysterical.  Someone had to have 
taken him.  That doll didn't just create itself from nothing.  Unless 
God took Harry.

        She almost slapped herself.  That's not just blasphemy, it's 
stupid.  Why would God leave a doll behind?  I'm not making any 
sense.  Have to find ...George.  Yes, he'll know what happened.  She 
laughed hysterically.

        It was painful to watch.  I couldn't believe it.  I'd never heard 
about anything like this happening.  There was no way they 
wouldn't have...the doll.  A glamour.  The faeries.  No.  No way.  I 
shook my head.  This couldn't be right.

        I'll just ask Lucy what happened, Cathy thought.  Yes, she 
must have seen something.  Why didn't she tell me?  "LUCY!"  she 
half-screamed.

        Silence.

        "LUCY!"  

        Silence.

         Cathy flung open the door and ran out into the hallway.  
"LUCY!"  She tripped and went sprawling, crashing into a badly 
place bookcase, which fell over on her.  Frantically, she crawled out 
from under it, trying to clutch everything that hurt at once.  

        Faint breathing drew her attention.  She turned and looked.  
Lucy was asleep in the hallway.  I almost stepped on my child, she 
thought.  She staggered over to Lucy and shook her.  For a moment, 
she thought Lucy was going to become a doll as well, but Lucy 
simply muttered something about rain and kept sleeping.  "Wake 
up!  Wake up LUCY!"  Cathy began to cry, clutching her daughter.

         I could feel Mom's pain like I was living through it.  Starting 
to cry, I tried to reassure her, even though I knew it was futile.  

       There were footsteps in the hallway.  Cathy turned, clutching 
Lucy desperately, determined to defend her.  "YOU CAN'T HAVE MY 
DAUGHTER!" she shrieked.

       Two women stood in the hallway.  One was short and stout, 
dressed in a simple dress of blue and gray.  She carried a wrapped 
bundle.  The other was tall and beautiful.  She had dark brown skin 
and long green hair topped with one of those silly looking medieval 
women's hats with the long trailing veil.  She wore green and 
brown, layers of silk, satin, and lace, with a long train being held up 
by two pixies.  Cathy stared in shocked disbelief.

        I knew the woman.  It was Lady Rowanford.  

        "We have saved your son.  The Unseelie sought to take him."  
The tall woman gestured to the short one, who brought forward the 
bundle.  It was a boy, who still bore a remarkable resemblance to a 
raisin.  The woman knelt and offered the child to Cathy, who 
grabbed him.  She recognized her son.

        "My boy, my boy, my boy..."  Cathy sobbed and babbled.  

        The tall woman knelt.  "I am truly sorry.  You should not have 
to bear this burden.  He will be much better watched from now on.  
I promise you.  In the name of the Seelie Court, I swear that I will 
not allow this to happen again if it be within my power to prevent 
it."  The air glowed around her hand, and she reached out, tracing 
marks upon the brow of the boy and the mother.  The marks faded, 
sinking into their flesh.  "Now, sleep and forget.  Let your burdens 
be eased."

         Cathy slumped over, sinking into slumber.  She clutched the 
boy to her with one arm, and her daughter with the other.

         The two women stood.  The shorter one said, "Is what we are 
doing any better than what they did?"

        "He is far closer to her son than the doll the Unseelie left 
behind.  She will never know, and what she does not know cannot 
hurt her.  Indeed, she will be his mother far more than I will.  He 
may bear my blood, but she will be the one who will mold him.  
Most likely, I will not even recognize him when our paths cross 
again, Yusa, and neither will you."  She sighed and turned to leave.  

       "I don't understand.  Didn't you just place a rune of warding 
upon him?"  Yusa followed Lady Rowanford.

       "I am not the one who must guard them.  I cannot, for it would 
simply draw the Unseelie back here.  Indeed, no one must know of 
this.  Not even my husband.  He lacks the self-control to stay away."  
They stepped out the door of the house, and into Faerieland, where 
the new housing development was still unbroken pine forest.  

       "But how can you be so sure?"

       "Time is one of my affinities.  A weak and unreliable affinity, 
but sometimes, I can see what is to come.  You will tell no one of 
this, either."

       Yusa nodded.  "Yes, m'lady."

        Flicker.

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

       My brain was in the spin cycle.  How could this be true?  I 
thought the Unseelie took her son, not me.  How did she get me..or 
her son...or whoever that was, back from the Unseelie?  Without 
getting whoever he was switched with, back?  If this was true, and 
I was a faerie...something weird had happened.  Unless maybe the 
switch hadn't occurred, the unseelie grabbed the Duke's son, then 
came back for me...wait, if the switch happened, then the unseelie 
came back for the real faery boy, then the Duchess recovered the 
faery boy, but not the real Harold...it made some sense.  Still, it 
just...But I had sensed that the Duchess wasn't lying.  She really did 
believe that was her son.  Could I believe any of this, though?  Was 
it real or some kind of trick?

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

        Another vision began.  This one was a lot more vivid.  Instead 
of being viewed, I was experiencing it.  It was my birth.  Suffice it 
to say, I now understand very well why people usually don't 
remember it.  It was a terrifying experience.  I guessed halfway 
through what was happening.  

        It ended with me out in the cold air, feeling pressure that my 
baby mind couldn't recognize, but which I knew were hands 
holding me.  The world was a blur.  More pressure and some sort of 
face with hair looking at me.  It could have been Mom.  It could 
have been Lady Rowanford.  It could have been Elvis for all I could 
tell with eyes that had never been used before.  

        My ears, however, were a little more prepared.  I heard 
voices.  A man said, "It's a boy."

        Joyous laughter.  Then a woman's voice broke through the 
laughter.  "I want to hold him."  It was Lady Rowanford's voice.

       Flicker.

                                      **********

          It still wasn't proof, but I was a little more convinced.  
Anyone who could fake that...Surely they could just make me 
believe them.  Tanya did trust this person.  Still, I just...It could be 
a trick.  The only thing they would have to have changed from my 
real memory of being born was the voi...

         I tried to remember my mom's voice.  I couldn't reach it.  Not 
her normal voice.  Part of me still heard her screaming from the 
vision, but somehow, I couldn't reach her voice.  With an effort, I 
pictured hugging her before she left.  Somehow, I couldn't reach 
her voice.  Dammit!  I want to hear her voice!  Something was 
blocking me.  A veil hung before my sight when I opened my eyes.  
I grabbed it, realizing I was floating in some sort of misty void.  I 
could feel the water I was breathing, yet, I couldn't see it or touch 
it, only taste it.  

         The veil rent asunder.  Beyond the veil, people danced before 
my sight.  People I had known.  People I had forgotten.  Nearest to 
me of all, two women floated, both naked.  In fact, all the people 
were naked.  I closed my eyes, intensely embarrassed, especially 
because one of them was my mother.  Focusing my will again, I 
tried to wish them all clothed.  It worked.  

        When I opened my eyes again, everyone was dressed exactly 
the same as I was.  Seeing my grandmother in blue jeans off in the 
distance was fairly amusing.  I stared at Mom.  "Say something," I 
whispered.  Why can't I remember your voice?

         She spoke.  "I love you, Harry.  Don't cry.  Everything's going 
to be okay.  Tanya's not going to die."

        I remembered that.  Tanya had been horribly ill, and I was 
afraid she would die, that everyone would die.  I thought it was my 
fault somehow, that I'd done something bad and she was being 
punished for it.  

       Mom had held me close and said that to me.  And then she had 
said, "I had a dream, and she got all better.  And my dreams always 
come true when they show me the future."  She hugged me tightly 
and kissed me.  Mom's mom was from Ireland, and Mom joked 
about having the Sight, sometimes.  She always did seem to know 
when I got into trouble and how.  

        A thought struck me.  I looked at Mom and the Duchess.  
They...they looked similar.  Somehow, I hadn't been able to see this 
before.  I looked at Mom and wished her hair green.  It changed.  I 
wished her skin to turn the dark brown of Lady Rowanford's skin.  
It changed.  I wished away the years of aging, back to how she had 
looked when she was thirty.  They looked enough alike to have 
been sisters.  More alike, in fact, nearly twins, though Mom lacked 
the ethereal beauty of the dryad.  

        This didn't prove I was a faerie, but it made it pretty likely 
that either I was the duke's son, or I was the one he had been 
switched for.  This was too much of a coincidence.  It couldn't be a 
trick. I still couldn't be sure, but...

        I thought of an idea.  I tried calling up a mirror.  I got one.  I 
stared at myself in the mirror and began altering my image there.  
Guessing that the duke's son would be a Sidhe who resembled a 
dryad, I began altering the image in the mirror.  My skin darkened 
to the same deep brown of Lady Rowanford's skin.  My ears 
became pointed.  What color should my hair be, if I was a faerie?  
Black like the Duke or Green like Lady Rowanford?  Black like his, I 
decided.  My hair darked to black with a faint green sheen, in the 
mirror.  

        Only one thing was lacking to give me a full idea of what the 
Duke's son would look like.  If he was faerie, he'd be a lot more 
handsome than I was.  Unfortunately, I had no clue how to do that 
to the image, so I tried raw willpower.  To my surprise, it worked.  
Given this was just some kind of vision, it didn't surprise me too 
much.  The image was barely recognizable as me.  I made a face 
and it made the face back at me.  I laughed.  My voice sounded 
different, which startled me.  It was my voice as I heard it from 
things like tape recorders.  You know how you can't hear your voice 
as people really hear it.  Well, now I did.  This was faintly 
disturbing.

       Flicker.

                                   **********

      I was back underwater with Lady Telmarine, who was holding 
a long blue rod over me and making odd noises.  She had a shocked 
expression on her face.  "Well, that answers our question," she said.

      "Um...why are you staring at me like that?"  I asked.  My voice 
still sounded...well, like my real voice.  (Okay, that sounds weird.)

       She held up a mirror.  I looked in it.  The duke's son as I had 
imagined him in the vision was looking back at me.  Was this just 
another vision?  "Nice trick."

       "It's not a trick.  Take a look at your hand."

        My hand was the same dark brown as Lady Rowanford's.  I 
fainted, naturally.

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

Angel said:

        I sat on the shore with Thomas and Tanya and practiced 
fretting intensely.  She could be doing anything with Harry.  
Anything at all.  "Are you sure you can trust her?"  I asked for the 
fifteenth time.

       "She won't try to do anything to him or warp his brain,"  
Aquamarine said.  "She can be trusted as much as any faerie."

       That failed to reassure me.  Before I could continue, she rose to 
the surface.  "I've started on Harry."  She looked a little nervous.  
"Your turn, Angel."

       Something funny was going on.  "You can do both of us at 
once?"

       She nodded.  "Walk to me."

        I walked over to her, stomping angrily, without even thinking 
about it.  "If you've done anything to Harry..."

       "I have done nothing to Harry nor incited anyone to do 
anything to him."  She had an evasive look on her face.  I didn't 
trust her, but I couldn't see another way out of this.  She touched 
my forehead, and I could feel the power rush through me.  "This 
will let you breathe."

        We sank into the water.  It was cool against my skin, but 
reassuring, like a good shower.  I felt safe, even with someone I 
wasn't sure if I could trust.  The water whispered all around me, 
bidding me welcome and caressing me.  The tenseness of my 
muscles oozed out of me.  I looked around.  We were inside some 
sort of room, with a long table, covered with dozens of unique 
figurines.  

      Lady Telmarine smiled at me.  "Take a look at them, examine 
them carefully, and tell me which one you like best."

       I blinked.  "What does that have to do with anything?"

       "Trust me," she said.

       I didn't, but I went over there anyway.  Swiftly, I saw that 
each was a different kind of faery, both male and female.  Some 
were people I knew.  Tanya was the Sidhe.  Alex was the Ogre.  
Lady Rowanford was the Dryad.  The pixie looked disturbingly like 
Moe from the Three Stooges.  I laughed a little when I saw him.

        Picking a favorite was difficult.  Alex and Tanya were both 
very well done figurines, but I also found one of a little dog-eared 
human-like figure who only came up to Tanya's waist, waving his 
tiny sword in the air, to be really cute.  

        Eventually, Telmarine came over to me and said, "Having a 
hard time?"

        I nodded.  "These three are my favorites."  I pointed to the 
little dog-man, Tanya, and Alex.  "Although the 'Moe' pixie is kinda 
cute, too."

        She gave me an odd look like I was insane, then smiled.  "I 
suppose having two that look like friends of yours does bias the 
selection."

        I laughed.  "True.  Do I have to pick just one, or is this good 
enough?"

        "I find it interesting."  She held up a painting.  It was sort of 
odd, basically, a series of splashes of color forming slashes across a 
black background.  I didn't expect faeries to collect modern art.  
"Find the color you like best."

        That was easy.  I pointed to a reddish-gold slash.  "That one.  I 
wish I had hair like that.  It's a really beautiful color."  

        She smiled broadly.  "You could do that with magic, you know.  
What is your affinity?  I noticed some skill with water.  More than 
your boyfriend."

        "I have a water affinity?"

        "You didn't have to spend time invoking power to do it, unlike 
Harry.  What affinity did you think you had?"

        "Wind."  

        She smiled very broadly, showing her teeth.  "Wind and water.  
A good combination.  Any other affinities?"

        I thought hard.  "I really haven't tried anything else."

        She held out a crystal ball.  "Gaze into this and tell me what 
you see."

        I stared into it intently.  "I see your hand badly distorted 
through the glass."

        Putting away the crystal ball on a shelf, she laughed.  "Well, 
you won't be a master of scrying any time soon."  She walked back 
to me.  "How comfortable are you with your body?"

       "I suppose I could be in better shape, but I'm kind of lazy.  I 
do fence, though."  

        She laughed.  "I mean, would you be uncomfortable if I asked 
you to strip?"

        I blushed.  "Yes."  That one time...I was insane, I think.  The 
time with me and Harry and Tanya and...well, anyway.  

        "Well, just pull back your sleeves, then,"  she said.  

        I took off my jacket, since the water was warm, then pulled 
back my sleeves.  My arms were pale.  I don't tan much, and it's 
past tanning season, anyway.  Light freckles dotted my arms, which 
didn't quite look right.  She ran a finger up and down my right arm, 
leaving an odd tingling sensation in its wake.  It wasn't quite 
heat...maybe it was sort of like having a very, very faint electrical 
current running into me.  Or something.

        Suddenly, I realized why my arms didn't quite look right.  I 
used to have fairly skinny arms with no muscle tone.  Now I had 
defined muscles.  I wasn't ready to appear on the cover of a muscle 
magazine, but my arms were clearly thicker and they looked 
stronger.  
        
         Telmarine muttered something, then started on my other 
arm.

      "Did you say something?"

     She nodded.  "If you think you're in bad shape, I'd be interested 
to see what you define as good shape."

      "Uh...This seems to be new."  I tried to remember when the last 
time I had really looked at my arms was.   Naturally, I didn't have 
a clue.  

      "Have you always had this skin tone?"  She asked with a casual 
voice that sounded forced.

       "Yeah.  I was pretty tan my senior year, though.  That was 
three years ago."  Why was my skin tone so important?

        She ran a finger along my ears.  I couldn't stop myself from 
shaking a bit.  "What about your hair?"

        "It's been mousy brown since I was old enough to have any. 
Although Alex and I both dyed our hair blonde in the eleventh 
grade in a desperate...um, anyway."  We had both been after Andy 
Schumacher, who only dated blondes.  I must have been possessed 
to go after that guy.  He was a total bozo, but for three weeks I had 
the most horrendous crush.  As it was, neither of us succeeded, but 
it took forever to get my hair back to normal.  Not that normal had 
really pleased me either.

       She laughed in a manner that relaxed me, though I wasn't sure 
why.  Maybe because it was a sort of rueful laugh that radiated a 
sincere sympathy.  "I've done foolish things for men myself.  I 
understand.  Was Alex your boyfriend?  Or did you just want him 
to be?"

       I laughed now.  "Alex is my best friend.  She's female, and 
she's an ogre.  Although she hates being called an ogre."

       "Ogres are steadfast friends and horrible enemies.  You are 
fortunate to have one as an ally.  So you were both after the same 
man?"  She was probing my legs.  "Nice muscles here too."

       My legs?  Nice muscles?  Has someone put me in a different 
body?  "Yeah.  Neither of us got him, though.  I think neither of us 
was stupid enough."

      "I'm sure your current boyfriend is much more handsome than 
he was."  Her voice shook a bit.  She sounded slightly nervous.  The 
finger ran up my leg, then skipped past my butt, and up my back.  

       I shook a bit.  My whole body was feeling a bit weird from 
whatever she was doing.  "What exactly are you doing?  And yeah, 
Harry is a lot cuter than Andy was, anyway."

        "I'm reading the pattern of your essence.  I'm getting 
contradictory results, however, so I'm getting confused."  She 
frowned intensely.

       "Contradictory?  Like what?"

       Running a finger across my shoulders and up the back of my 
neck, she said, "Do you fear the possibility that you might be fae, 
Angela?"

       "What's that got to do with anything?"

       "Answer my question."  She stood and stared at me intently. 
Her eyes were a deep purple.  For a moment, I could sense the 
power within her.  Her magical strength was strong.  Her affinities 
were water, because she was a naiad, and animals, which were her 
personal affinity.  She had a slightly weaker affinity for divination 
as well.  This whole lake was her realm.  She had forged it by her 
will from the mists.  My mind reeled with knowlege, and recoiled 
from the contact.  

      Disoriented, I said, "Eyes really are the window of the soul, 
aren't they."

      She smiled.  "Yes.  Now answer my question."  Her voice was 
firmer now.

       "Yes.  It does scare me.  It would mean...I'm not who I've 
always thought I was.  That the real Angela Bedos-Rezak is out 
there somewhere. That I've been living her life."  I stared at the 
ground.  "I wonder what she would think of me."

       "And you're worried about losing Harry if one of you is a faerie 
and the other is not."

        I jumped.  "Did you read my mind?"

       "It's a logical guess."  She finally took her hand away from my 
body, and looked thoughtful.  "Something is blocking my ability to 
divine your true nature, and I'm guessing that it is your fear."

       "Something is blocking you?"

        She nodded.  "Given you are a mage of apparently a fair 
amount of power, it's quite likely that your own subconscious is 
blocking me.  Either that or someone grafted the soul of a racoon to 
your leg."  She laughed.

       "What?"

      "I'm getting different information from every bodypart.  Your 
right leg tried to claim you were a racoon.  However, if you are a 
faerie, I've narrowed it down to two possibilities."  She held up a 
single finger.  "First, pale skin is quite common in the mortal 
seemings of Sidhe."  She held up a second finger.  "Secondly, this 
muscle growth is common among Ogres shortly before they awaken 
to their faery nature."

       "Maybe I'm a Sidhe/Ogre crossbreed."

       "There are no real crossbreeds, although some faeries do bear a 
fair resemblance to one.  All Fae can interbreed and breed with 
humans as well, but the child always ends up the same breed as 
the parent of the same sex, except for the children of a faerie and a 
mortal.  For some strange reason, they sometimes end up as some 
other breed entirely."  She shrugged.  "For that matter, there have 
been a few cases of mortals turning into faeries after a lot of 
exposure to faerie magic and the like.  The lay of Xiu Ling is a love 
story that revolves around that.  Anyway, the key thing now is we 
have to break through your fear."

       "What if it isn't my fear?"

       "Then you'll need to find someone with an affinity for 
dispelling magic.  I'm not much good at breaking enchantments."  
She frowned.  "What bothers me is that I had this same problem 
with your boyfriend."

        I suddenly realized that Harry was still down here 
somewhere.  "Where is Harry?"

       "He fainted, so I put him to bed to rest and got you."

       "What, did you make him work out?"

       "Ahah!  Good idea!"  She turned to the wall and a door opened.  
"Follow me."  

        I followed her into a giant aquatic work-out room.  It was full 
of blurry shapes that began to resolve themselves into various 
work out equipment as I looked at them.  She took me over to a 
bench and got a long bar and some weights.  "Lie down."

        I laid down.  "Shouldn't I warm up?"

       She shrugged.  "I pulled this image from your mind.  You know 
more about these places than I."

        I wasn't really sure what to do, so I did some jumping jacks 
and pushups and stuff, then laid back down.  "What good is a 
weight test going to do?"

        She smiled.  "Trust me."

         The first set of weights was easy.  She added some larger 
weights.  That only took a little effort.  The third set was harder.  I 
wonder if I could augment my strength with magic somehow, I 
thought.  Drawing power is faerieland is easy, compared to back 
home.  I drew in power and tried to feed it into my arms.  
Suddenly, the weights felt light as feathers.  We escalated up the 
weight scale.  Eventually, the weights started to actually bother me 
again.  

       "Okay, I think we're gonna hit my limit soon."  I lowered the 
bar and she started taking weights off it enough so that I could sit 
up and put it away.  "How much did I lift?"

        "With magic, about nine hundred pounds.  You did about two 
hundred before that."

        I stared.  "TWO HUNDRED?"  No way.

       "Is that a lot?  I really don't know much about how much 
mortals can lift."

        I picked her up and lifted her over my head.  She blinked.  It 
was difficult, but I shouldn't have been able to do that at all.  I put 
her down.  "I...uh..."  I wasn't using magic now.  At least, I didn't 
think I was.  I was getting seriously stronger.  "Is Harry getting 
stronger too?"

       "I didn't get to that before he fainted."

       "So why did he faint?"

       "Well, I tried a risky technique with him and it didn't work too 
well.  I think he saw something unpleasant."  She paused.  "Well, 
actually, it worked great, but I couldn't wake him up afterwards."

        "WHAT?"

        "Well, he's definitely a faerie.  But now he seems to be in some 
kind of trance or something."  She paused.  "Do you know someone 
named Cathy?"

        I thought hard.  "I think that's his mom's name."

        "Ahh!  It makes a lot more sense, then."

        Why didn't she tell me this before?  I was starting to get mad.  
"Take me to him.  NOW."

        "Follow me."  We walked through a maze of rooms, finally 
ending up in a simple bedroom where someone was snoozing on a 
bed.  A very handsome man with short black hair with a greenish 
tint to it.  Clearly a sidhe, although he had dark brown skin and all 
the sidhe I had met were pale.  He was dressed just like Harry.  

       My brain took a few seconds to draw the conclusion.  It WAS 
Harry.  He was a Sidhe.  Whatever she had done to him had brought 
out his faerie nature.  I went over and shook him.  "Wake up, 
Harry." 

       He muttered something about Rumplestiltskin.  I laughed.  
"Come on, Harry, open your eyes."

        "I think he was warded by more than just his fear.  Someone 
put a spell on him to keep people from being able to tell if he was 
faerie or not, and he triggered it on himself when he found out the 
truth in his vision.  Or so I'm guessing."  Her voice was very faint.

        "So your test caused him to be forced to sleep?"

        She nodded.  "Uh, something like that."

        I frowned.  "How do we wake Harry up?"

        "Well, the kiss of a Prince or Princess is generally a cure for 
these sort of things.  Royal blood, to be precise.  A good enchanter 
could probably break him out of it as well."  She shrugged.  
"Unfortunately, I don't exactly keep royalty in my medicine chest."

       I sat down on the bed by Harry and stroked his hair.  "I'm 
royalty, although it's from a long, long ways back."

        She blinked.  "Didn't you people kill all your kings or 
something?"

       "We don't have one, but one of my ancestors was a French 
King, according to Mom."  I stared at Harry.  He was hard to 
recognize at Harry.  All his little physical flaws were gone.  What 
remained was sort of...the pure Harry.  The perfect Harry.  If Harry 
had worked out all his life and always eaten the right diet and all, 
he might have sort of approached his current state.  

        Having Harry be a faerie changed everything.  I had been 
afraid of it.  I was still afraid, but now I wanted to be a faerie.  We 
could be together forever.  Also, I feared I would lose him to Tanya, 
if they were both faeries, and I was not.  I should have known 
better, but fear isn't very rational.  

        "Try kissing him, then.  It can't hurt."  She smiled at me.  "The 
kiss of a faerie princess, of course, is even more potent."

       A faerie princess.  I might even be the Queen's missing 
daughter, I thought.  We have the same birthday or at least close to 
the same.  It was an appealing thought.  The Queen's daughter is a 
sidhe, I'd assume.  It would fit.  

       I shook my head.  Wishful thinking.  I was no princess.  
Tanya's mortal form was beautiful.  Surely the Princess was 
gorgeous as well in her mortal form, wherever she was.  If I woke 
Harry with a kiss, it would be because of good old Louis XI.  Slowly, 
I bent over to kiss Harry.  

        His lips still looked the same as the last time we kissed.  An 
odd detail to notice, I suppose.  They parted slighty and he 
muttered, "Pass me a muffin, Angel."

         I laughed.  It was hard to kiss him after he had just said that, 
but I did it anyway.  Our lips met and I closed my eyes, wrapping 
my arms around him.  Kissing someone who is asleep is weird.  I 
gave it my all, and I felt him begin to stir.  His arms flapped about 
a bit like he was going to try to fly, then they wrapped around me.  

        Suddenly, I became aware that he smelled like bluebonnets.  I 
could sense the magical energies in his body.  My senses seemed 
hyper acute.  His clothing made little crinkling noises as he sat up.  
His breathing changed its pace, switching to the faster speed of 
someone awake instead of asleep.  The arms wrapped around me 
felt stonger than usual, his embrace firmer.  I could taste his lips. 
He tasted like Harry.  Okay, that sounds really bizarre, but I don't 
know how else to describe it.  

       I do have royal blood, I realized.  Either I am the princess, or 
Mom is right.  Only way to be sure would have been to have Mom 
kiss Harry.  I laughed at the thought.  Harry opened his eyes.  He 
has the most beautiful green eyes.  That and his lips were the only 
parts of him that were still the same.  He started to pull out of the 
kiss, probably to say something, but I wouldn't let him.  

        I leaned forward, pressing him back down onto the bed.  I was 
feeling extremely naughty, and things would have progressed quite 
further if Telmarine hadn't said, "Not to hurry you, but I don't have 
all day."

        Harry blushed, but not as much as I did.  I popped out of the 
kiss, but stayed curled up to Harry.  "Sorry."

        Harry looked at himself.  "Um...how do I turn back to normal?"

         Telmarine shrugged.  "I haven't had a mortal form in so many 
centuries, I can't remember anymore.  I'll go get your friends. 
Maybe they can tell you."

       She left, and I leaned over and finished snuggling up very 
close to Harry.  "Guess what, Harry?"

        He gave me a weird look.  "You're actually Splinter in 
disguise?"

        I noogied him.  "No, you goober.  You were enchanted, but I 
was able to wake you out of your enchanted sleep because I have 
royal blood."  I kissed his cheek.  "But for some reason, she can't tell 
for sure if I'm faerie. I'm starting to think I must be, though."

       "Well, I was starting to suspect during the tests, but this kinda 
clinches it."  He began fiddling with my hair with a free hand.  "So 
what's your evidence?"

       "I lifted her over my head without using magic and it wasn't 
too much of a strain."

       He boggled.  "Over your HEAD?"

       "Even underwater, it shouldn't have been that easy.  And look 
at my arms."  I pulled back my sleeve.  He stared at my muscles.  

      "Where'd you get those muscles?"

       "It could be a sign that I'm an ogre, like Alex."

       "Should I buy you some purple pants, then?"  

       We were both wrestling as I tried to noogie him when 
Telmarine got back with Aquamarine and Flamehair.  Flamehair 
said, with a laugh in his voice, "Should we wait for you two to finish 
your quaint native mating ritual first?"

        I threw the pillow off the bed at him.  He laughed as it struck 
him in the face.  Aquamarine stared at Harry.  She looked far too 
happy about this.  A thread of worry tried to tie me up, but I 
fought it off.  I clung to my growing certainty that I had to be a 
faerie too, and it sustained me.  "Can you guys tell Harry how to 
turn back to normal?"

       "Just think about being Harry again,"  Aquamarine said. "It 
may take a little concentration at first, but pretty soon, you'll be 
able to change with only a tiny effort."  She sat down on the end of 
the bed and changed back into Tanya.  "It's easy for me, now.  It 
may take a few minutes.  Just think about being yourself."

        Harry closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.  I could feel the 
tension in his body.  Minutes passed.  Nothing.  He was still a sidhe.  
Not that that was a bad thing, but he was gonna have a hard time 
passing as himself in his faerie form if he couldn't figure out how to 
turn back.  "It's not working."

        Telmarine frowned.  "Bah.  Whoever enchanted you did quite 
a job.  I'm pretty sure now that it's not just your fear that was 
blocking me earlier.  And I suspect the same applies to your lady 
friend.  She doesn't seem to be afraid now, but I still can't get a 
clear impression of her true nature either."

        Harry frowned.  "I think I know who did it to me."

       "What, you think Splinter did this somehow?  But why?"  
Flamehair asked.

        "Not her.  We have to go see Lady Rowanford.  Now."  He 
explained what he had seen on the way.  

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

Harry said:

       We made a grand entrance in Thomas' car.  I have to say that 
watching someone drive in Renaissance clothing is rather funny to 
see.  Aquamarine transformed Angel and I's clothing on the way 
there.  My outfit was a little more sedate this time, a blue and black 
embroidered coat, a nice white buttoned shirt with a ruffled collar, 
and black knee length breeches, gathered at the bottom, with white 
tights under that down into my boots.  Angel's dress was fairly 
similar to the one she had worn the last time, except for being cut 
slightly differently and having a bluebonnet pinned to it on the 
right.  

        The heralds were a little more alert this time, probably 
because I had a look on my face fit to kill.  "Is Lady Rowanford 
here?"

       He stared at me.  "And you are?"

       "Her son."  I gave him my best glare.  "I want to see her NOW."

       My friends lurked behind me and did their best to look 
menacing.

        The female herald gulped.  "I didn't know she had any 
illegitimate children."

        I shouldn't have done it, but I reached over and grabbed her 
by the shoulders and picked her up.  "I am NOT illegitimate.  You 
WILL find her, and you will do it now."  I put her down.

        She glanced over at the guy, whose name was Haroun.  He had 
a long green beard and pitch black skin.  When I say black, I mean 
black like a room with no light.  Black as in black ink.  I still had no 
idea what kind of faerie he was.  Haroun said, "I'll go find her.  You 
stay here and wait for polite guests, Laurelin."  He stomped off, 
grumbling.  

        I stood and fretted while people wandered by and stared.  
Angel whispered to me, "You shouldn't have grabbed her."

       Letting out a great sigh, I whispered back, "I didn't mean to...it 
just sort of happened.  I got mad, and...it was hard enough keeping 
from throwing her through a wall, or something."  My head was 
spinning, and I could hardly think straight.  I felt like someone had 
turned up the volume on all my impulses.  When I looked at Angel, 
I wanted to pick her up and run off to a quiet corner and make 
love to her until we dropped dead.  My stomach was starting to 
rumble, and I wanted food desperately as well.  It was sort of like 
living in all capital letters.

       My senses were heightened as well.  I could hear people 
whispering dozens of feet away, and I could hear the conversation 
in the great hall almost as well as if the door had been open.  Faint 
perfumes that I hadn't noticed during my first visit now teased my 
nostrils, and when Angel held my hand, I could feel the blood 
pumping through hers.

         It was incredibly distracting, which combined with my brain 
conjuring up dozens of silly ideas per minute, was making it hard to 
think.  No wonder faeries are so flighty, I thought.  Who can 
concentrate through all this?

       Haroun soon stomped back.  "The Lady Rowanford will see you 
in the blue room."  He resumed his position in front of the doors to 
the Great Hall.

       Aquamarine led us to the Blue Room.  Lady Rowanford was 
there, clad in an elaborate blue and white dress that must have had 
at least five layers, and probably more you couldn't actually see 
through the various cuts and spaces in it.  How she could wear it 
without dying of overheating, I had no idea.

        The room itself was an intimate parlour, furnished with low 
couches, a central low table and several very nice padded chairs, all 
upholstered in shades of blue.  The floor was a dark navy blue, and 
the walls were a light sky blue with white and grey clouds.  

       Lady Rowanford rose from one of the padded chairs and 
waved to a page boy to bring us all some drinks, which were dark 
green in color and served in golden cups.  The page boy was a cute 
little Sidhe with dark blue hair and bright lavender eyes.  "Hello, 
Aquamarine, Flamehair, Angela."  She turned to me.  "So my 
husband was right."

       I stormed over to her.  "Don't play games with me!  You knew 
from when I was a tiny little infant!  Now that ward you put on me 
seems to have me stuck as a faerie!  I'm gonna have a pretty hard 
time at school if I'm stuck like this!"

        She blinked.  "You know?"

        "Why didn't you just say something the first time I came 
here?!?  And who tried to put love enchantments on our food at 
school?"  I started ranting a lot of other incoherent stuff.  When I 
got to the Roanoake colony, she started talking over me.

       "I had to swear an oath not to reveal to anyone who you were.  
Not even my husband.  He would not have had the self-control to 
stay away from you as long as was necessary."  She sighed, then 
stared intently at me.  "I am sorry, my son.  It was the best way to 
protect you.  You had to be fostered, and it had to be that family.  
We often have no choice in such matters."  Sighing again, she 
hesitantly reached out and put a hand on my shoulder.  "But it 
shouldn't be causing you to have any problems reassuming your 
mortal form.  Not unless..."  Now, she looked worried.  "Sit down."

        I sat down on one of the couches, with Lady Rowanford on one 
side and Angel on the other side.  She placed three fingers on my 
forehead and closed her eyes for a few seconds.  I could feel 
magical energy flowing into me.  "Well?"

        "Someone's been having a field day."

        "What?"  That sounded bad.

        Angel said, "What, a bunch of people have put spells on him?"

        She pursed her lips.  "There's a very old, very clumsy, but 
very powerful spell on you.  I think that's the one locking you in 
that form.  It appears to be intended to prevent shapechanging.  
How you got past it to assume a faerie form in the first place 
though...then there's my ward.  There's some vestiges of some kind 
of emotional enchantment.  You've still got a waterbreathing spell 
on you, but it's fading.  Now the interesting thing about the 
shapechanging prevention spell is that it's sort of layered.  The 
innermost layer seems to be broken, but there's several dozen 
layers, sloppily done, but strong."

       "Can you break it?"  Angel asked.

       "Yes."

        I gave a great sigh of relief.  

       "But it's going to take hours.  The weird thing about this 
enchantment is that it must be years and years old.  So, if it's this 
strong now, it must have been ridiculously strong when it was laid."

       "Can I get some food first, and then we can get this fixed?  I'm 
STARVING."  My stomach grumbled, reinforcing the point.

       "Is there any way I can help?"  Angel asked.

       "I'll help too,"  Aquamarine said.  

        "For what I'm worth, I'll help too,"  Flamehair said.  "Assuming 
we wouldn't just get in your way."

         Lady Rowanwood sent the page boy, whose name was 
Amethyst, for some food.  

          Angel said, "Can I ask you something?"

        She smiled and said, "You just did."

        Angel frowned, then said, "Do you know...can you check 
if...Lady Telmarine thought I might have something similar to what 
was blocking her efforts to examine Harry.  I'm wondering if..."

        She nodded and traded places with me on the couch.  Leaning 
over, she placed her fingers on Angel's forehead.  Angel closed her 
eyes.  I sat back, looking over at my friends.  Aquamarine smiled at 
me.  Flamehair looked nervous.

       "Is something wrong?"  I asked.

       "The fire is muttering incoherently."  He got up and walked 
over closer to the fireplace, and began speaking to it with a strange 
language which was beyond my comprehension.  

       I turned to Aquamarine.  "Should we worry?"

       "It's probably just complaining that someone used low-grade 
fuel.  Some fires are really picky about that."  She laughed, then 
reached over and squeezed my hand.  "Don't worry, Harry.  Lady 
Rowanford is one of the most noted Seelie mages.  She'll have you 
back to normal in no time."

        "I hope so."  What am I going to tell Mom about this?  And 
Dad?  My brain started spinning in a dozen different directions.  
Nightmare visions of my parents running in fear haunted my mind.  

        She frowned.  "What's wrong, Harry?  You don't look so good."

        "Mom's gonna freak."

        Nodding, she replied, "We'll cross that bridge when we come to 
it."

        Lady Rowanford lowered her hand.  "I bet you never had 
acne."

        Angel laughed.  "How did you know that?  Yeah, Alex got 
pimples by the truck load sometimes, but I never got any.  She 
would get soooooo jealous."  She leaned over, resting her head on 
my shoulder.  

        "You have also been warded as Harry was by me.  However, in 
your case..."  

        "Yes?"

        "They self-destructed right as I began to probe them.  They 
lasted just long enough for me to tell they had been constructed 
with a time limit.  They were old wards, though, placed on you 
within days of your birth."  She frowned.  "And I think they sent 
out a signal when they dissolved."

        Flamehair shouted, "INCOMING!"

        We all turned.  The fire in the fireplace roared up, turning the 
fireplace into a solid wall of flames.  The fire began to bulge out, 
forming a serpentine head and neck, about six foot in diameter.  
Flamehair was concentrating, trying to hold it back, I guessed, but 
he wasn't having much success.

       Aquamarine vaulted over the couches, a spiraling tide of water 
forming around her as she jumped.  She unleashed it all at the fire 
serpent, which shrank from the assault.  I stood up, but didn't 
know what to do.  All I could do was plant magic, which wasn't 
much help inside a building.  Watching the serpent, I could see it 
was some sort of magical construct.  Power was feeding down the 
chimmney into it.  

        Angel had run over to join Flamehair and Aquamarine. Wind 
was whipping about her, and slowly, the flames inside the shaft 
began to flicker.  Whatever was feeding it sent more power, and 
the flames resisted her wind.  Lady Rowanford had her eyes closed.  
I could tell she was using power, but not what she was doing.  She 
spoke.  "Don't batter it with winds, Angela.  Suck the air out of the 
fireplace."  

        There was a loud clanging noise and suddenly, smoke billowed 
out of the fireplace.  It sounded like the flue had been closed.  The 
air whipped about by the fireplace, and the fire began to gutter.  No 
more smoke erupted either.  The snake struggled against the 
powers mounted against it, but it was outmatched.  Flamehair made 
a stabbling motion and it fell apart.  The fire went out.  

       I gave a sharp sigh of relief.  "Someone made that thing."

       Lady Rowanford nodded.  "Without Flamehair's warning, it 
would likely have done much damage to us.  I thank you."

       He bowed and grinned.  "Glad to help."

       "Is there any way to tell who sent that?"

       "When Amethyst returns, I will send him to get my divination 
equipment."  She turned to Angel.  "Anyway, the wards dissolved, 
so I was able to see your true nature."

       "And?"  Angel's voice was tight with anticipation.  She looked 
nervous and hopeful at once.

       Amethyst walked in with a plate full of bread, cheese, and a 
big hunk of roast beef.  My mouth watered with anticipation.  
Aquamarine, Flamehair and I waited for Angel as one pig waits for 
another, all grabbing food as fast as we could.  I thought I was 
starving, but they ate like food was going out of style, then looked 
embarrassed when Angel and Lady Rowanwood stared at them.

       She rose.  "Come with me, Angel."  Turning to the rest of us, she 
said, "Enjoy your meal.  We'll be back soon."

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

Angel said:

       I followed her through a maze of passages.  "Why won't you 
just tell me?"

       "You must see it," she said.  We turned into a small room with a 
bookshelf on one wall, a table with papers scattered across it, and a 
full length mirror on the wall.  "Stand in front of the mirror."

        I stood and looked at myself.  Normally, I'd never wear a 
dress like this, but I looked good in it.  "Now what?"

       "This is a mirror of truth.  Command it to show you the truth."

        "Umm...mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them 
all?"  I laughed and Lady Rowanwood gave me a strange look.  
"Mirror, show me the truth."

         The mirror shimmered and instead of reflecting me, it 
reflected a beautiful sidhe, with long reddish gold hair cascading 
down her back.  Her eyes were a bright emerald green, and she had 
pointed ears with a small emerald earing on her left ear, just like 
the one on my right ear.  I had thought my dress looked good on 
me.  It looked three times better on her.  She looked hauntingly 
familiar and I suddenly realized that I had seen her in the mirror 
briefly many days ago just before Harry and I had...anyway.  

        I had the feeling she looked like someone else I knew as well, 
but I couldn't think of who.  "Who's that?"  I asked.

       "Your true self,"  Lady Rowanford said quietly.

        I boggled.  "No way."  Being around faeries meant overdosing 
on beauty.  This woman was breathtakingly gorgeous.  Most of the 
girls I'd known in high school would have been willing to commit 
murder to look that good.  "I...I'm a sidhe?"

        "All you must do to become her is to reach out your hand and 
take hers."

        Slowly, I began to reach for the mirror.  Excitement was 
making my arms tremble.  She reached out her hand to me.  Of 
course, that was because she was a reflection.  It was reassuring in 
a weird way to see she looked as nervous as me.  

        I willed myself to believe.  No way I was going to screw this 
up.  I must be the Queen's daughter, I thought.  I am the Queen's 
daughter.  Mom's probably going to want me to find Faerie princes 
for my sisters to marry.  Laughing, I touched the surface of the 
mirror.  It rippled and my hand passed through, grasping the 
reflection's hand.  Somehow, it was solid.

        A thrill ran through me and the world spun.  Power coursed 
through me and I let out a cry of joy.  My body shook.  Smells I 
hadn't noticed before, the faint perfume of lilacs on Lady 
Rowanford, suddenly struck my nostrils.  Harp music was being 
played somewhere in the distance.  Every muscle in my body tried 
to tense at once, then relaxed.  

        The rush of sensation faded to a slightly lower level, though 
still higher than usual.  Lady Rowanford smiled at me.  "Exciting, 
isn't it?"

         Reaching up, I touched my ears.  They had sharp points on 
top now.  The reflection reached up and touched her ears as well.  I 
laughed and my voice sounded different.  It sounded like...Well, 
you know you can't really hear what you sound like, right?  Now I 
could.  It wasn't quite the same voice, though.  My voice had 
become musical.  Normally, I don't like the way my voice really 
sounds, but now...now I liked it.  "Let's see if I have the same 
problem as Harry."  I tried concentrating on my old self, and a few 
seconds later, I flickered back to normal.  Thinking of my Sidhe self 
transformed me into my Sidhe form again.  I laughed happily.  
"Let's go fix Harry.  And I want to grab some food before I starve 
myself."  My stomach rumbled loudly enough to rouse the dead.

       We walked into the middle of a shouting match.  Duke 
Ironwood was there and he and Harry and Flamehair and 
Aquamarine were all shouting at the top of their lungs.  "Don't you 
try to deny it!"  Aquamarine shouted.  "You tried to enchant us!"

       "I was just trying to help!"

       "You call that HELP?"  Flamehair shouted.  "Help YOURSELF, 
maybe!"

       Lady Rowanford banged the door shut loudly to try to get their 
attention.  They didn't notice.  Harry was waving his arms about 
wildly.  "I'm sorry, but we're not getting married!  Especially not if 
you try to mind-control us!  You didn't even bother to ASK!"

        The Duke said, "You have no choice!  You're my son and if I 
say you get married..."

       "I may have your blood, but I couldn't care LESS what you 
want!"  Harry shouted.

       "Ahem."  Lady Rowanford said.  "I think..."

       No one paid any attention.  The Duke started waving his arms 
about now.  "I am your FATHER!"

       "My father is named George, he's a physicist, and he would 
NEVER have sent me off to be raised by someone else!  I may have 
been born to you, but frankly, I couldn't care less!"  I had hardly ever 
seen Harry this angry.  He was getting red in the face, although it 
was hard to tell due to his faerie form's dark skin.  

       Now Lady Rowanford looked angry.  "SILENCE!"

       Everyone turned when she shouted that.  The Duke was about 
to shout something at her when he saw me, and to my shock, he 
dropped to his knees.  "Your highness.  I...I did not know you 
planned to visit us."

       Aquamarine and Flamehair dropped down as well.  Only Harry 
was left standing, and he looked fairly bewildered, his anger gone.  
It was all I could do to keep from laughing until I fell down.  

       "I am sorry we ignored you, my queen.  We were discussing 
the marriage of..."

       I don't normally play practical jokes, but I just couldn't resist.  
I walked over to Harry, who was staring at me.  I said, "What a 
handsome lad.  Perhaps I'll just carry him off for myself."

        Harry stammered something incoherent, and I swept him into 
a kiss.  I was laughing fit to die inside my head.  Finally, I broke off 
the kiss.  Lady Rowanford was laughing.  The Duke looked like he 
was going to die from shock on the spot.  Flamehair blinked, then 
started to laugh.  Aquamarine looked like she wanted to run me 
through with a spear, but carefully blanked her face when she 
realized I was looking.  You'd think they'd recognize my dress, I 
thought.  I whispered to Harry, "Cover me, Harry."

        He blinked, then grinned.  "Ah, I find myself smitten with this 
lovely lass."

        Aquamarine looked like she was about to explode.  The Duke 
was twitching like he was going to detonate as well.  Flamehair 
began laughing hysterically.  I couldn't stay serious much longer.  I 
turned back to my mortal form and grinned.  "Do I really look that 
much like the Queen?"

        The Duke simply toppled over, then looked up at his wife and 
said, "Most men would have you executed for that, dear."

        Aquamarine simply stared at me as if I was the source of all 
evil.  Flamehair said, "Geez, Aquamarine, couldn't you recognize the 
dress she was wearing?  And the bluebonnet.  That should have 
been a DEAD giveaway."  He fell down too, but from laughter.

        Harry whispered in my ear, "Nice timing on your return."

         Aquamarine finally said, faintly, "Now we know why the 
Queen took an interest in you."

         I walked over to her and hauled her to her feet, since she was 
still kneeling.  "C'mon, get up.  I guess I'll have to go talk to...the 
Queen soon."

         Aquamarine nodded quietly.  "Yes.  Maybe this weekend.  
Samhain is coming, and we need to see her before it is too late."

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

Harry said:

       We got me fixed up so I could turn back to normal.  It took a 
long while, and everyone but me was pretty zonked afterwards.  
The Duke took me aside while everyone else was eating, trying to 
get their strength back.  We went out into the garden and stood 
under the stars.  The night sky is different in faerieland, or at least 
that part of it.  Some of the constellations were gone, and others 
were, well, more blatantly obvious.  The Duke said, "I suppose our 
reuniting could have been better handled."

       I laughed faintly.  "I think we all could have done without the 
enchanted pie."

       "I'm not a person who is good with words, Harry.  Or with love 
or ...well, I'm good at fighting and accounting.  But I will do my best 
to be a better father than...my first attempt."  He laughed a little 
and turned to me.  "Because, like it or not, centuries are going to 
pass, and those you see as your family now will pass away, while 
your mother and I will not."

        I nodded, staring down at some violets.  "I'll cross that bridge 
when I come to it."  I looked at my watch and sighed.  "We have to 
get going.  I've got early class tomorrow."

       "Well, come see us as soon as you can.  I'd like to get to know 
better what sort of man my son is."

       "And I've got to figure out what to tell my parents."  This was 
not a prospect I was looking forward to.

       "Don't.  It's best to not drag mortals into faerie affairs they 
can't cope with.  I think you know that from personal experience."  
His voice had a kindly tone.  "Hopefully, they won't be targeted by 
the Unseelie because of you."

        I did not want to think about that.  

       "Let's go.  I'll let you know if we ever successfully divine who 
sent that firesnake attack."

        We all headed home.  I got to drive the cool car since Thomas 
was too zonked to drive.  So, of course I got a speeding ticket.  Sigh.  
It was worth it, though.  

        I had breakfast with Angel the next morning.  She is a 
morning person, anyway, but she was extra-perky that morning.  I 
got pancakes and fruit, while she got waffles and bacon and eggs.  I 
said, "Are you going to tell your folks?"

       "I don't know," she said between bites.  "I think Mom would 
probably think it was cool.  The hard part would be to keep her 
from bragging to all and sundry about it. "

      The scary thing was that I could easily see her mom doing that.  
"What about your dad?"

       "He'd try to sell the faeries life insurance."  She laughed.  "I 
dunno.  They both adapt pretty well to whatever life throws at 
them.  I don't know about your folks, though."

       I sighed.  "Mom's gonna detonate.  Dad's probably gonna want 
to try to study me, even though he's a physicist, not a biologist."

       Angel reached over and took my hand.  "I'll go with you and 
help face them down, if you want me to."

        "I just...a vision of the future would be nice right now."

        Angel closed her eyes.  "I forsee..."

        I laughed a little.  "A likely trip to Burger King tonight?  My 
test tomorrow?  Tanya getting out of bed right about now?  You 
taking a shower that lasts less than half an hour?  Naah, that could 
never happen."

         The food fight was about to commence.
       
*****************

Epilogues:

       Cathy knew she had to be dreaming.  She was standing on a 
frozen lake in her pajamas, but she wasn't cold at all.  The lake 
stretched out to the horizon, except to the south, where a spur of 
land jutted out into it.  A huge ramshackle castle that looked like it 
had been slowly built over decades, following different construction 
plans each time, stood on the end of the spur and far off to the 
southwest, she could make out lights that looked like a town.  Far 
off, she could make out lights darting across the ice, as great 
sledges pulled by reindeer and lit by lanterns swiftly crossed the 
lake.  As she watched them, they came closer.

       Soon, she realized she was actually moving closer to them.  
This was one of her special dreams, she realized, which bothered 
her, for they always came true, yet she had never had one like this.  
They were all dreams of friends and family, not of strange lakes 
and castles that looked haunted.

         Further distinguishing them from her normal dreams were 
the plethora of inhuman creatures.  Some of the sledge riders 
looked almost normal, except for pointed ears and strange hair 
colors, but most were strange in some way, from scaly skin to being 
twenty feet tall to extra limbs.  Yet, even the ugly ones were 
beautiful, which confused her.  

        It wasn't exactly beauty, she realized, but rightness.  No 
matter how warped they were, they were MEANT to be like that.  
To have three eyes and blue skin was the nature of the sledge 
driver.  Beauty is in part a sense of rightness, and in some way she 
couldn't fully understand, he was right.  He was what he SHOULD 
be.  

        They were singing badly mangled Christmas carols.  The 
driver seemed irritated by this.  "You idiots, it won't be Christmas 
for months!  And we don't even CELEBRATE Christmas!"

        One of the passengers, a short red-skinned woman with huge 
eyes and blue hair said, "Most good songs about snow are Christmas 
songs.  Unless you want us to sing 'Hazy Shade of Winter' over and 
over like we did during the first three days?"

         The driver swore and Cathy covered her ears so she wouldn't 
have to hear.  I must be mistaken, she thought.  This can't be one of 
my special dreams because it can't possibly be real.  

       When the collection of gremlins, goblins, and whatever else 
they were started singing, "Hazy Shade of Winter,"  she laughed and 
joined in.  She looked up at the castle and wondered who lived 
there.  Maybe it's Santa Claus' house, she thought.  

        The world flickered and she found herself just outside the 
gates.  She flew in, for in her dreams she could fly.  She had wanted 
to be a pilot when she was younger, but she lacked the sense of 
spatial relationships.  Driving was hard enough.  Having to think in 
three dimensions would have been a recipie for disaster.  

        A party was in progress.  Hundreds of people, all dressed in 
elaborate medieval and renaissance garb frolicked about, dancing, 
singing, and eating.  Her pajamas flickered and became an 
expensive green and black satin dress with lace trim.  It was a 
substantially more daring outfit than she would normally have 
worn, the skirt slit up the sides and the neckline plunging further 
than any bathing suit she had ever worn when sober.  

        Somehow, she found herself dancing with a huge green man 
with red eyes, dark brown hair, and small fangs.  He was quite 
handsome despite this and he smiled at her.  "You dance quite well, 
Countess Crags."

        She laughed.  Me a countess?  Only in my romance novels.  It 
rather reminded her of some of her regency romances.  "Thank you, 
Lord Copperfield.  My mother worked hard to teach us all to dance."  
Ballroom dancing was one of Cathy's favorite things to do in all the 
world.   Wait, how did I know his name?, she wondered.

        "So where is your husband?  Should he not be here to escort 
you?"  Lord Copperfield smiled at her, and Cathy felt her heart 
flutter a bit.

        What am I thinking?, she thought.  Her lips moved of their 
own will.  "He doesn't like to dance."  That was true.  It made her 
crazy sometimes, the way she had to browbeat him to ever get to 
go dancing with her.  "So the Lady Cromwell and I came without 
our husbands."

        She saw Olivia nearby, dancing with a hairy-legged satyr.  
Olivia waved.  Cathy laughed a little and waved back.  

         As Lord Copperfield started to reply, the trumpets blew and 
everyone stopped.  A woman, regal and beautiful, with fair skin 
and long black hair that went down to her mid-back, walked in, 
arm in arm with a nervous looking man who was perhaps the most 
handsome man Cathy had ever seen in her entire life.  Both of them 
were exquisitely dressed in silks and velvet in colors of blue and 
white, and the woman had a delicate golden crown of woven 
together snowflakes with a different gem at the heart of each.  She 
knew their names on sight.  He was Moradel, the consort of the 
Queen of the Unseelie Fae, and the lady was that Queen, Teleute.  

          Everyone bowed, so she did too.  Moradel said, "The feast of 
Samhain is upon us!  Tomorrow will be New Years' Day!  Let us 
celebrate the beginning of six months in which we all shall be free 
to walk between the worlds!  Let the Seelie tremble and our nation 
rejoice!"

        His wife nodded, then said, "Tonight, the Wild Hunt rides at 
our command!  Let all see who shall be the targets of the hunt!"

        She gestured and the air shimmered over her.  Two figures 
appeared over the crowd.  Cathy recognized them.  Angela 
and...Harry!  She gasped.  

        The Queen spoke further, but the image began to fade.  Cathy 
listened as hard as she could, but at the same time, she wanted to 
deny it.  No, this can't be one of my special dreams!  It can't be!  
This isn't real!  I DENY IT!

         The dream popped like a burst bubble.  Stranger dreams 
followed.  Harry riddling with a severed head.  A sword fight 
between two identical people.  A talking teddy bear.  Two women 
playing chess.  One of them advanced her pawn to the eighth row 
and checkmated her opponent.  All of them felt like one of her 
dreams that came true, yet none of them made any sense.  

        She woke up, breathing hard.  George, her husband, was still 
sleeping peacefully.  Snuggling closer to him, she tried to go to 
sleep.  Eventually, exhaustion swept her worries away.  I must 
have just had something bad for me to eat before I went to bed, 
she thought, as sleep took her.

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

        The phone rang.  Jennifer Cochrane seized the opportunity to 
abandon her statistics homework, which was boring her, and picked 
up the phone.  "Hello?"

        The voice on the other end of the line was male and deep and 
completely unfamiliar to her.  "Tell Teleute that I have her 
children.  She'll be seeing her eldest soon enough.  Or her head, 
anyway."  The man laughed briefly, his tone mocking and bitter.

         Jennifer stared at the phone, her hands shaking slightly.  
"Who is this?"

         She began tracing a rune upon the phone with one finger, 
praying she could keep him on the line long enough for it to work.  
"Your mother's first husband."  He paused.  "And third, if you look 
at it in a certain way."

         Jennifer blinked.  Huh?  Her mother had only been married 
twice.  Well, four times if you counted the mortal marriages.  She 
thought hard.  Mother was married twice as a mortal, right?  
"You're going to kill your own child?"  

        He laughed, even more bitterly than before.  "I am her 
husband from before her mortal life."

       "Mother was never married before her mortal life!  She was 
only a child during the great disaster!"  The man must be mad, she 
thought.  She waited for the magical trace to go through.

        "You are such an idiot, but I suppose she raised you that way.  
That's why I didn't bother to grab you as well.  Given she stole you, 
I doubt she'd care if you died.  You're nothing but a pathetic pawn 
who doesn't even know the truth."  He laughed again, mocking her.  
Jennifer didn't take being mocked well.  

        "If I'm such an idiot, then why did you bother to call me and 
tell me all this?"

       "I'm not fool enough to contact her directly and let her find 
me."  Pause.  "Not anymore.  Once I was her fool, but no longer.  I 
shall not let her use me again.  Now, she will dance to my tune."  

        Jennifer drummed her fingers on the table.  What was taking 
that tracing spell so long?  Was the man calling from the moon or 
something?  "So what did she do that made you so angry?"

        "She blew me up.  Twice.  I would have learned the first time, 
except I couldn't remember the first time until after the second 
time she blew me to bits.  She took quite a few people with her the 
first time.  They didn't call it the Great Disaster for nothing."  He 
laughed again.

       "Mother didn't CAUSE the great disaster!  It was Titania and 
Oberon's fault!"  Everyone knew the Seelie were responsible for it, 
due to irresponsible magical experiments, Jennifer thought.

       "Ye gods, you're pathetic.  You believe that entire line of crap 
she fed to the rest of her children, and you're not even one of 
them."

       "I AM QUEEN TELUTE'S DAUGHTER!"  Jennifer shouted into the 
phone.  "What makes you think I'm not?"

       "Ask her about what happened to the Spring and Fall courts 
some time.  See if she can explain that."

       "The what?  What the hell are you talking about?"

     "Tsk.  Such language from self-proclaimed royalty.  By the way, 
you need to learn a new tracing spell.  It's rather easy to attach an 
explosion to it before it comes back.  Have a nice day."  The phone 
exploded in a storm of electricity, bits of plastic flying across the 
room.  Jennifer was hurled out of her chair and into the wall on the 
far side of the room.  

         Mark found her when he got home from the library an hour 
later.  "Jennifer!"  He sprinted across the room and knelt by her 
side.  "Wake up!"  He shook her gently, and slowly she roused.

      "Aspirin," she moaned.  He got her some, and she took them.  
"That bastard.  If he does anything to my brothers and sisters, I'll 
have his HEAD!"

       "Who did this?"

       "Some maniac with delusions of having been married to 
Mother."  She stood.  "We have to go to her, now."

        He yawned.  "We really need to bug her to have a phone 
installed.  This midnight rides aren't good for me."

         She leaned over and wrapped her arms around her lover.  
"Hold me," she whispered, starting to cry.

        He held her tightly.  "What's wrong?  Why are you crying?"

        "Say you'll love me no matter what happens."  Her voice was 
tight and nervous.  He was glad she was in her mortal form, for she 
would have been crushing him with her arms if she had possessed 
her faerie strength.  

       "From the moment we first met, I knew you were the one for 
me, though I was too young to understand what that meant.  I 
would gladly go and live in the middle of the jungle, hunting lions 
with my bare hands, if that is what you wanted.  All I want is to be 
with you."  He moved a hand up and stroked her long mousy brown 
hair.  

       "And I love you, Mark.  More than I understand."  She fell 
silent, simply holding him.  "If he comes after you, I'll rip out his 
lungs.  I'll rend him limb from limb.  They'll be shipping him home 
in pieces."  Her voice was fierce.  "He'll wish he had never been 
born."  Her voice softened.  "Come on, Mark.  We'd better get going.  
It's not getting any earlier in the evening."  She sighed and 
reluctanty released him, then lightly bopped his hand with hers.  
"Wondertwin powers activate!"  She laughed and cast off her mortal 
form, becoming her faerie self.

        Mark laughed.  "You left out, 'Form of...a muskrat!'."  He too 
assumed his faerie form.  "Shape of...diet Coke!"

        Splinter made a face at Opal.  "How you can drink that evil 
stuff is beyond me."  

         He made a face back.  "How you can drink Pepsi is beyond 
me.  No wonder the Unseelie get a bad rap from the mortals if we 
go around drinking evil sodas."

        The trip to Teleute's castle was delayed by a highly necessary 
effort by Splinter to noogie her lover to death.