---=Chapter 70: An Alliance of Necessity---=

It hardly seemed fair that Hands should be showing up now. For that matter, it hardly seemed likely.

"Sori, you fucker. You double-crossed me?" Despite looking like a werewolf, my voice still came out as the baritone I was in my masculine ether body.

Hands smiled, and it appeared genuine—amused. "Too trusting by half, but not as much a fool as I feared," he said as he walked in. "But you're only half right. Sori did come to be, but not to betray you. He claimed you'd need an exit."

"Last I saw, you were trying your hardest to kill Sori and weren't exactly gentle with me," I said, anger adding a growl to my voice.

"You're immortal, Oberon. You can't expect me to play with kid gloves." Hands replied deadpan.

"I SAID IT HURT!" I shouted, leaning forward and taking an infuriated step at the suited man. My original tenor voice and Nia's alto joined my baritone scream into a discordant cacophony of voices.

I jumped in surprise as the Shadow Alcove literally shook with my rage, to the point the crystals clattered on the shaking shelves. My hands were clenched and my teeth were bared in a snarl as I glared at the humanoid dolphin monster.

"Interesting. Perhaps Sori was wrong; perhaps you didn't need help after all, and you'd rather stay at odds. Of course, you're trapped in the dream while I've been given access to the Shadow—"

"Temporarily," Sori's voice butted in. "Don't get all high and mighty. Sam needs an exit, or I'd make him swear to delete you."

"Of course. As you can see, ours is an alliance of necessity. Unfortunately, that need extends to yourself. We may never be friends, but I believe our goals align enough for us to work together."

"Well, then we have a problem," I sighed, my shoulders slumping in resignation, "because I decided I can't let Sori hold Nia hostage."

"What!?" Sori asked. "You're kidding; I thought we'd settled this. You leave town, and I'll give you the girl for food or whatever."

Sori's voice still came from empty air; I wasn't sure why he wasn't appearing. Hands just raised his eyebrow at Sori's suggestion that I might eat Nia, but he didn't seem overly concerned.

"What? No, see, this is part of the problem. I wouldn't ever eat a person—"

"Not even a Dolphin?" Sori interrupted.

"No, Jesus, not even a dolphin, and definitely not a human child. More importantly, her life isn't yours or mine to barter with."

"Then we're back to Forest Lake being destroyed down to the bedrock. How is that better?" Sori complained.

"It seems neat to me that each of us would be expected to compromise, Oberon." Hands said, rubbing at his bare chin. "Were it up to me, we'd leave no. The Eye would also like you gone immediately, and you want to spend eternity trying to save people who run from you on sight. None of us are getting exactly what we want."

I nodded, conceding the point. "I get that, but again, Nia has no part in that. And right now, she has no voice other than me. I don't have the right to act only on my own interests here."

"Well, Sam, we both know you're an unapologetic liar, so I can't just take you at your word," Sori said, projecting his own habit on me.

On the shelf next to me sat the only blue memory crystal. I nodded toward it. "That's the crystal with my memories of the last two months. And I've gained my shadow back. According to you, that's all I'd need to regain my body. What if I left that with you as insurance instead?"

"Hmm, well, you are really vain. I suppose I could trust you to a little with that in my pocket. Still, it doesn't give me leverage over your timetable in the same way. Besides, you'll still need to use Nia's voice. How do you expect that to work if I let her go?"

Hands and I stood a few body lengths away from each other, the tension slowly building in my shoulders and back as I lowered my head and growled. "So what now, we try to kill each other?"

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I was in no shape for another fight. My throat was bruised, my bullet wounds throbbed, and I didn't have nearly the practice molding the ether that Hands had, not that I was sure that would work here in the Shadow Alcove. On top of that, there was no telling what kind of tricks Sori might pull out. This wasn't a fight I could realistically win, but I wouldn't just roll over.

I saw one of Hands's pointer fingers tapping thoughtfully against his leg. It occurred to me that I wasn't sure if he was here in the flesh or as a mental construct. Whenever I'd been in the ether with just my mind, it felt solid, and that didn't change just because I was physically present.

"What if you release the girl into my custody." Hands said, glancing between me and an empty space over his shoulder. "She can be kept safe in my Dreamland. There's a community of people who will look after her, I'm sure, and Oberon can keep an eye on her at his leisure. If he decides to go back on his word, I am more than motivated enough to offer her up as leverage."

"That might work. You understand you'd have to give me access to your Domain to maintain Sam’s voice—or rather, Nia’s voice.” Sori’s voice seemed to be coming from the empty space Hands was addressing, making me wonder if Hands could actually see the Eye.

“As I told Oberon, each of us must compromise. If we can agree to this shared goal, however reluctantly, I can do my part to ensure its success.”

Of course, it wasn’t that simple, and we spent the next quarter hour hammering out a deal.

Ultimately, I agreed to let Hands take custody of Nia on the condition that she be allowed outside contact and that Hands and Sori teach us how to make illusions. Kay might no longer be Bogey, but she’d gotten that way when she thought her daughter had become demon-possessed.

Kay wouldn’t be the only one who’d react badly to Nia’s bat wings and horns. Even if Kay’s immediate calls for murder were likely to be uncommon, I didn’t want people reacting to her with fear for her appearance if it could be helped.

Hands agreed to try teaching Nia but was clear that he could make no promises she could learn. Sori was adamant that he be the one to teach me for some reason, and I was too excited thinking about how much easier illusions would make things to realize the trap he’d laid until it was too late.

After that, it was time to free Nia from the golden exit, where she still stood frozen mid-step.

“I really think we should wake up Alice first,” I said as Hands and a still invisible Sori followed me out of the Shadow Alcove and into the ship's hull.

“It would just waste time; some of us are actually busy, you know,” Sori replied. “She’ll be fine; I promised no more glamours on her, remember?”

“You were toying with her emotions even before illusions were brought into things.” I countered. “She’s going to be a wreck, and the only one she even kind of knows is me, and that’s barely.”

“Good thing you finally vanished her mom’s blood from your hands then, huh? Or— can human children recognize the scene of familial blood? They can, right? I mean, I can, and I’m an eye.”

“You don’t know why you are. But no, Nia wouldn’t have known it was her mom’s.”

I could have told him that it wouldn’t have mattered, that she would have still been scared. I could have said that I didn’t want to be the kind of person who killed easily or freely and that it was a symbolic gesture. The truth was, I just hadn’t thought of it.

Maebe, Alice, and Jessica would need to be brought into the Shade Alcove to reconnect with their memories, but Sori seemed to think that they’d just slow everything down with questions, and he wanted to get his part done.

As it turned out, we were both wrong. Nia wasn’t fine, but neither was she looking for comfort. She was pissed that Sori had toyed with her and manipulated her emotions to trap her. Sori wanted me to hurry up and ‘give her to Hands,’ but part of the reason I’d agreed to this was because it allowed me to ask her what she was willing to do.

“So, if I go with Hands, I’ll be his prisoner for a year, but I’ll get to learn to make illusions?”

“Only sort of a prisoner.” I objected.

“No, she’ll totally be a prisoner,” Sori corrected.

“Okay, yes, but Hands will make sure you’re taken care of, and Alice can come visit. It’ll be more like boarding school than a prison.”

“What about my mom? She—is she...” Nia trailed off, tears filling up her eyes as she looked for a question that could encapsulate the nightmare she’d lived through.

I sighed and put a furry arm on her shoulder. I’d chosen to remain in my werewolf form since it was the one she was most familiar with, but I allowed myself to transition to my more masculine self, the fur bleeding away into nothingness. “Honestly Nia, I don’t know. I hope so, but we’ll have to see. Your sister, for sure, though.”

Nia stiffened as the change began, but she relaxed when my voice stayed the same.

"Okay," Nia said quietly.

"Okay? Are you sure?"

Nia shrugged, "I guess. I mean, I can just pretend it's a magic boarding school."

My eyebrows shot up and I turned to look at Hands, an idea coming to me.

"Hands, how do you look in a beard?"

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