In a large candlelit chamber half-carved from stone and half-tiled, men sat at tables watching three men perform. One was singing a song I couldn’t understand, but I could feel the loss and sorrow the singer projected.
The audience was mostly Daemon men with few Goblins and a few humans in the mix. I backed up and stepped out of shadow before returning to the entrance.
A Daemon woman looked at me and smiled. She pointed at me and two women with short fur and cat ears leaned in towards her as she whispered to them.
A slender Goblin girl spoke to me in Portuguese.
I asked, “Do you speak English?”
She said, “The cover charge is twenty euros. Are you with someone?”
I looked around the room. Pedro and Lucas were looking at the performers. I didn’t have an issue with being associated with them.
I paid her. “Yes, I’m sitting with Pedro and Lucas.”
She led me to their table and left a menu. I looked it over and couldn’t read it. I slid it aside and watched the musicians performing.
A little later, the Goblin girl came to our table with a bottle of wine, opened it, and took out the cork. She took a glass out of the pocket of her apron, poured a bit into the glass, and tasted it before nodding and filling a glass in front of me and nodding for me to taste it.
I shook my head.
The girl gestured to one of the girls with cat ears and short fur. “She sent it for you. It would be rude for you to refuse.”
I took a sip, it was sweet, and I could tell it was strong. I looked over at the cat girl and gave a low wave. She made a claw-like gesture towards me.
Lucas leaned over to me. “I think she likes you.”
I asked the girl who brought the wine, “Can you give your best chicken dish to each of the ladies at the table?” I looked at Lucas and Pedro. “And three for this table. Oh, and if you would be so kind, what is proper for a tip?”
She laughed. “We charge a lot, so you don’t have to tip, but if you want to show off, we are always glad to take your money.”
She looked at Lucas and Pedro. “We usually make the folk that disappear regularly pay in advance, but we trust the Ankou.”
I settled the bill and rounded it up.
As she left, Lucas leaned toward me again and looked at the cat girl. “The doñas de fuera definitely likes you.”
I whispered back. “I may be of age, but my body is a bit young still.”
Lucas said, “Phil, you may be missing an opportunity you will regret for years to come.”
I made a point of looking at the musician. “I expect to have a lot of regrets as I grow older. I’ll have to learn to sing Fado.”
A pair of waiters came out with our order and put three extra plates on our table. The Daemon lady and the two cat girls came and sat with us. The cat girl who had made the clawing gesture to me sat beside me. She looked younger than the others. Maybe sixteen.
She was close, attractive, and I was nervous and embarrassed.
As we ate, her leg kept making contact with mine. I didn’t want to offend her, and I kind of liked her but I was embarrassed by it all.
The Daemon lady said, “I am Luan.” She gestured to the girl beside me. “This is Findscop.” She gestured to the other cat girl. “And this is Eriu. We are all Cats.”
The girl beside me said, “By that she means we are Picts.”
As we ate, Luan managed to keep the conversation going. “You know that Lisbon is one of the oldest cities, older that Paris or London. Olisipo, that’s what we called it ages ago, was always a delight.”
She paused to eat a bit and continued, “We all recognize Lucas and Pedro, but you are new in town. Will you be staying long?”
I shook my head and covered my mouth to finish chewing. “I plan to come back and visit all the museums, but I will probably be leaving in a couple of days and definitely will be gone by Saturday.”
Findscop, the cat girl beside me, gave a sad look. “So soon?” She wrinkled her nose. “You have two girl cats. Are they cute?”
I nodded and found my eyes caught in hers for a moment.
Luan asked, “What brought you to Lisbon?”
I said, “I was being commissioned to make a work of art but the man who commissioned it stole it and maybe planned to get me in trouble. My friend and I had to leave Casablanca quickly, and this was the destination of the first plane we could board.”
Findscop asked, “Where is your friend?”
I said, “Sleeping in the hotel. He is mortal and does not know about any of this.”
Eriu asked, “How will you get back to visit the museums?”
I looked at the musicians while trying to figure out how to politely avoid the question.
Findscop put her arm around mine and held onto my arm. “He’s a King, can’t you tell?”
I quickly glanced at her and looked down at my food. “How could you tell?”
Findscop said, “You met my gaze and were able to look away. Even a child would have kissed me. Only a king has that sort of willpower.”
I smiled, looking down. “Yet I don’t feel strong at all.”
Findscop let go and picked up a piece of chicken on her fork. “Phil can summon me when he wants to come to Lisbon. Or he can get here by other ways, and I will just have to hunt him down. I like hunting.”
Luan said, “He could break the spell of your eyes if there was another that he loved truly. Is there someone else you love, Phil?”
I smiled since I had perhaps been given an out from a complicated situation. “I love an amazing woman who is quite possibly the most beautiful woman who ever lived.”
Luan seemed to glow. Men at other table turned to look at her. She was in the moment a blazing beauty. “Is she as fair as I am?”
I smiled. “I love a woman named Goldilocks.”
Luan asked, “The Goldilocks?” She leaned in and whispered, “As in Helen of Troy?”
I nodded.
Luan said, “You know you can’t trust her.”
I said, “I love her and I am the only one that really understands her.”
Luan laughed. “And what are you to her?”
I smiled, “I am her apprentice.”
Lucas and Pedro exchanged glances.
Pedro said, “On second thought, I don’t think we should take Phil to any museums. If something happens we might get blamed.”
Lucas said, “Yep, tonight, take him to the Oceanário de Lisboa. That’s probably safe enough. Sorry, Phil, we have to keep our reputations clean, and if it gets out that we took Goldilocks’ apprentice on a tour of the museums, and something happened, we could be in a lot of trouble.
#
I summoned Pedro and he brought me to a large walkway a short distance from the water. I looked at Pedro and Lucas and turned. One of the beings that possess others was nearby. I felt it getting nearer. Pedro and Lucas stepped up beside me.
Lucas asked, “Do you feel it?”
I nodded. Out over the water was a dark thing. It kept distant and then it quickly left.
Pedro said, “It’s gone. Probably in a host now. Do you think it’s host is dying?”
Lucas shook his head. “We will probably never know. It stayed over the water and it never got close. Now it is probably hidden. It’s probably back in its host. Why do you think it came out?”
Pedro touched my arm. “You still seem alarmed.”
I nodded. “How much trouble will I be in if I deal with such a thing?”
Lucas said, “We think we could deal with one if it was out in the open and near. Those things are ancient, though, and they can invade your mind in your sleep. Best to stay ethical, stay positive, care for others, and pray before you sleep.”
I asked, “Sorry. I can’t just stand here.”
I turned into an owl and took to the air. The feeling disappeared. I flew back down.
“Gentlemen, it is gone.” I took out money and counted it. “Here’s payment for the tour. I have other things I need to do.”
Lucas said, “This is four times what we agreed on.”
I said, “Two guides, and you are worth twice what you think.”
I turned back into an owl and took to the air. I flew along the shore and saw the boat that had passed by the one I’d been on two days ago. I flew to the yacht but it was warded. I landed on the pier and looked at the ropes holding the yacht in place. With a ward-breaking dagger held in my teeth. I turned into an otter and made my way up a rope and into the yacht. On the yacht, I turned into myself and slipped into shadow.
As I explored the ship, I felt the presence again. I slid through shadow and felt two more presences but these were different. The first one tasted of metal. That was my clearest impression, and it didn’t quite make sense. The new ones tasted like bitter salt. It wasn’t really taste, but that was my impression.
A man was laying down on a bed. He had two daggers on the bed far from him. He closed his eyes, and the dark thing came out of him.
I bound it to the world of death as it entered me. I took it to the world of death and made the creature a Fairy as I realized I should have left a gateway on the ship.
#
I went to the transport world and to the gateway in my hotel room. I took to shadow then took to the air. I was close to the marina and the yacht. I flew down and landed on the pier by the rope I had climbed up earlier. I needed to turn into an otter, but I felt a wave of nausea and realized I was hungry from too many transformations and too much travel between worlds.
I sat as myself on the pier and ate a few chewy peanut candy bars. I finished a bottle of root beer and turned into the otter with the knife still held in its teeth.
On the ship, I hid a gateway and shadow stepped to the room.
The man sat in a chair, looking in a mirror. He held one of the daggers like he was ready to use it on himself. The other dagger was on the bed. The daggers were the presences that felt like bitter salt. There was something evil and angry within them. I stepped out of shadow and picked up the dagger on the bed.
The dagger whispered to me. It wanted blood, it wanted death, and it wanted oblivion. It wanted revenge on everyone alive. I took it to the world of death, dropped the dagger, bound it to the world, and made the spirit in the dagger a Fairy. I left as it charged me. I sped time in the world of death and returned to the ship. The man was looking at the place where the dagger had been on the bed. I watched him from shadows.
In Arabic, the man said, “I have a dagger you intended to use on the Lisbon paranormal authorities. I think it might work on you. Come back into me, master. I will end both of us when you do.”
I feared the dagger in his hand. I had held one just a moment earlier, and my impression of it was that if I flicked it at something, it was certain to hit it and certain to kill.
I shadow stepped out of the room so he could not see me and aim the dagger. From outside the door, I said, “The master will not be coming back. Put the dagger down. I will be taking it away.”
The man asked, “What do you want?”
I said, “Just your slippers.”
I heard something soft hit on the floor as the man said, “Even if my master is gone, there will be others. They are too strong. I refuse them.”
I felt the dagger screaming. I slid into shadow and back into the room. The man was disappearing, and the dagger he had pushed into his own throat was disappearing with him. He screamed as he faded away. I heard running out in the hallway. I looked down, picked up the single slipper he had dropped, and went back into Fairy.
#
In a transport Fairyland, I sat on a stone floor and looked at the slipper. There was a hint of toxicity. Nothing deadly, but maybe enough to make me throw up. This had a metallic feel but it was different from the feeling of the spirits. This was the metallic feeling of metals best not ingested.
I sighed and licked the sole of the slipper. Metallic. I felt a linkage to a Fairyland, so I spit it out. I had just spit up in my Fairyland. I needed a mop or something. I went to my hotel room and turned on the water in the bathroom and rinsed my mouth out. I took a washcloth and wet it before going back to Fairy and cleaning up where I’d just spat. I left the cloth in the Fairyland of Death and returned to my hotel. I contemplated showering while sitting on the edge of the bed.
My phone vibrated. Jeffery’d sent a message. “You awake too? I can’t sleep and we probably shouldn’t try and do percussion this late. Do you want to take a walk?”
I texted back. “Good idea. I’ll be right out.”
#
As we walked the streets, I realized I’d missed a unique chance to test my other forms and see if the possessing spirits could be detected by or detect me in my various forms. Maybe I could test them in a Fairyland. I wasn’t thinking things through the way I should be.
Dwight the wizard said the spirits would be able to tell he was no longer possessed at a hundred yards. If the possessing spirit was on the yacht when he detected me outside the Aquarium, the range was probably ten times that for me. Pedro and Lucas had detected the spirit as well, so I didn’t know the range for everyone.
As we walked, we passed a few tourists. We stopped to look at some tile work, but I didn’t think Jeremy could see it well in the dark.
We got near the castle I’d met the Ankou.
Jeremy said, “We should try to visit the Saint George Castle during the day.”
From behind, Pedro said, “Yes, that would be a wonderful place for you to visit.”
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I turned, stepped back, and tried to make a gesture to indicate that my friend wasn’t savvy to the supernatural.
Pedro smiled at me. “Sorry, I should introduce myself. I am Pedro and I have just recently become a guide, but I am afraid I am not a very good one. Would you like a small tour of the streets?”
Jeremy nodded.
Pedro turned and led us to a park area where a few people were quietly gathered.
Jeremy made a gesture for me to follow and started running. I followed and we ran down cobble streets until we were well out of sight.
Jeremy waited until he’d caught his breath. “If that Pedro guy, and I suspect that isn’t his real name, was leading us to get mugged, I figured we had to run when we had a chance to.”
I smiled. Jeremy seemed to err on the side of caution, but I was impressed with him for two reasons. He could run at a good pace on sometimes rough ground and had great endurance. I keep busy so I’m in pretty good shape. I was only a bit winded by and not winded enough to have to stop, but Jeremy was in amazing shape for a human.
He smiled at me. “You kept up the whole way. I think we can probably get some rest now.”
#
Sitting on the crenelations of the Saint George Castle making gateways, it was not long before Lucas and Pedro sat on crenelations beside mine.
Pedro asked, “Why did you run?”
I finished the gateway I was working on. “My friend saw the group in the park and decided that you might be taking us to get mugged. He figured that was a good time to run away.”
Lucas nodded. “I keep telling Pedro not to mug people, but some folk never listen.”
Pedro said, “Bad joke to be making, Lucas. We need to maintain our dignity and trust in the community.”
Lucas said, “We felt you bind the spirit.”
I asked, “Can we not talk about such things? There are things that listen.”
Pedro asked, “Are you a psycopomp?”
I shrugged. “What I am confuses me. I have enemies that attack me the moment they detect me. I try to return the favor.”
Lucas asked, “Where is the spirit now?”
I looked out at the water in the distance. “That’s a mystery that I can’t answer. He was a Fairy for a short while. Now what was left of him powers a peaceful Fairyland.”
Lucas said, “A couple of times a year, we detect one. Maybe it is just this one. The feeling comes and disappears. Can we summon you when another one shows up?”
I nodded. “Please do.”
Pedro asked, “Do you hate them?”
I said, “When a foul thing enters you, and you have no control, it is a horror. On occasion, I have been bitten by horseflies. As a result, I would almost prefer to be bitten by one as long as that gives me the opportunity to kill it. It’s kind of like that. I don’t hate horseflies, but I’m willing to suffer if it gives me the chance to get rid of one. Someone has to deal with these monsters.
“These dark things do no end of horror. They live surrounded by wealth and cause suffering wherever they go. Really, we should not talk of such things.”
Pedro said, “These walls have history. So much that impressions left are just going to blend into more history and be hard for our tiny impression to be read.”
Lucas said, “We owe you for a tour you never got.”
I shrugged. “Sad how we tourists get ripped off. I’ll be sure to give you low votes on Yelp.”
Pedro said, “We can probably make it up to you. Have you seen the Quinta da Regaleira?”
Lucas shook his head. “One of us needs to stay in Lisbon.”
Pedro started pounding his fist against his palm. They both started counting in Portuguese and Pedro made paper while Lucas made a gesture with three fingers.
Lucas said, “Fogo derrota madeira.” He looked at me and said, “Fire beats wood.”
#
Lucas led me down a beautiful spiral stairway like a tower that was instead a hole in the ground. The mansion he showed me was wonderful. I wanted to use it as inspiration to make one in Snipsnort. Maybe more than one.
Lucas said, “This is on the edge of Lisbon, not all that far, but we try to keep one of us in town at all times.”
I said, “This more than makes up for what I missed.”
Lucas asked, “Tell me the truth, do you really know Goldilocks?”
I nodded. “I am her apprentice.”
Lucas asked, “Are you an art thief?”
I smiled. “No, but I may be one soon. A man stole art from me, and he was probably planning to do worse things to me. I may be returning the favor soon.”
Lucas asked, “How?”
I asked, “Would you like to visit Fairy for a bit?”
He held out his hand, and I took him to a storage Fairyland where Goldilocks had her collection of statues that I’d made.
Lucas looked up at the statue of Goldilocks with spread angel wings. “You do know her. This is a rather specific collection of statues. Do you really love her?”
I shifted gateways and made an illusion of a percussion tree as if Goldilocks were a nymph in the tree trunk and then made it real. I made a copy of my cajon with images of Goldilocks, Maud, Olivia, Cat girl Findscop, the Daemoness Luan, Swampy, and Nea Gray dancing in a border around the base of the cajon. I made it real and sat on it. I started to play and realized I had started showing off, and Lucas had come here to learn about art theft.
I opened gateways and shifted them around until I had a view outside the crates. Most of the gateways were still on Mansour’s yacht, but I had gateway on parts of the tree that had been partially put together in a gallery.
I listened as best I could through the gateway and then opened it so we could step in.
I pointed to the half-assembled percussion tree and whispered, “That was stolen from me.”
Lucas nodded. “I figured since I saw you make one.”
We quietly looked through the gallery. After a while Lucas whispered, “Let’s go back to the castle.”
#
On the battlements of the Saint George Castle, the first hints of daylight were showing.
Lucas said, “I will need to check, but some of that art was probably stolen from people in Portugal.”
I nodded. “Let me know. It’s getting early so I need to get some sleep.”
Lucas said, “Pleasant dreams.”
#
I woke up from a dream that bothered me. As I swam to wake up and get clean, Swampy landed on a stump near the area I was swimming.
“You had a dream. What was it?”
I winced. “It had a girl in it. I’d rather not repeat those dreams.”
Swampy said, “Dreams have meanings. What was your dream?”
I said, “There was a girl I knew. A Goblin girl. She dropped a purse, and I had to carry it around for a while before I could return it. It was one of those little girl sort of purses with long straps and shaped like a cat head. The last thing a boy wants to carry. Embarrassing.
“In the dream, the girl was taking the purse from me, but it was like it was several purses and the straps were tying my wrists together. I kept trying to give her the purse, and I was getting worse and worse entangled.”
Swampy lay on her side on the stump and it showed her curves so I looked away.
I asked, “What does it mean?”
Swampy said, “The same thing your looking away means. Was the girl cute?”
I said, “Nia? I guess so.”
Swampy asked, “Are you not admitting it to yourself or just not admitting it to me? Do you like her?”
I shook my head. “I don’t dislike her, but I have mixed feelings about her family, and she seemed cold to me the last time I saw her.”
Swampy said, “Now it all becomes clear.”
I asked, “What does it mean?”
Swampy said, “It means I need to eat a lot more bananas. I need to stay with you for a while. My visions say that I will end up cute, and there are more possibilities for me in the future than I ever dreamed possible. I need enough mass to be full sized, and I need it quickly.”
I asked, “Isn’t my dream supposed to be about me? I don’t mean that selfishly, but that’s what I always thought.”
Swampy flew over to where I was treading water. She got close to my face. She looked at me and smiled. “Your dream means you are about to become a real boy. The pills you are taking are working. It means I am going to have to work hard to make sure this Nia girl doesn’t steal you from me. I am not saying you belong to me, Phil. What I am saying is that if I play my cards right, you will.”
She turned and flew away. I found myself noticing that she had nice legs and curves.
I slipped under the water and thought about what I was going to do for breakfast.
#
Swampy was waiting for me. “Be the you in your art clothes.”
I winced. “Really?”
Swampy said, “Really. Summon Goldie. I want to meet her.”
I turned into me in my paint-stained overalls.
Swampy smiled. “Perfect. Tell Goldie that you are going to be visiting places in Lisbon, and you will be happy to copy artwork she likes. Tell her you are going to get art supplies for doing en plain air.”
I summoned Goldilocks. She appeared dressed in hiking boots and holding two bags with tripods strapped to them.
Goldilocks handed me one of the bags. “Don’t worry, it wasn’t really stolen.”
I didn’t quite know how to take that, but I put the shoulder strap on and took us to my hotel room in Lisbon.
Swampy landed on Goldilock’s shoulder and smiled at me. “Goldie, this going to be your lucky day.”
Goldilocks asked, “Have we met?”
Swampy said, “We met just now. I’m Swampy. Phil, if you would be so kind as to call Jeremy and ask him to meet us at the Saint George Castle we can get started.”
Goldilocks said, “I haven’t been to Lisbon in ages. We have to get egg tarts. You can’t go to Lisbon and not get egg tarts.”
Swampy took to the air and landed on the table where I had guides and brochures spread out. “We get egg tarts and bean tarts in two hours. Right now, we are going to a grocery.” She pointed to a spot on the map. “Phil, I will stay with Goldie, shadow step to this grocery and summon us.”
I looked between them and got an impression that I didn’t want them talking for long. I pulled back the curtains and shadow stepped out to the street and stopped for a moment to find the best path. I didn’t care if other Goblins noticed as I sped to the store and let the shadows ripple behind me.
#
Just a short way inside the entrance to the Castle, Goldilocks set up a tripod and got ready to paint a view of the city below.
Swampy landed on Goldilocks’ shoulder. “Phil, is this a good pose?”
#
I was painting a picture of Swampy and Goldilocks when Jeremy walked up.
Jeremy looked at the sketch I was painting on then looked again at Goldilocks. “I was going to call you, but I saw you from the entrance.” He looked meaningfully at me and then Goldilocks.
I pointed to the painting. “This is Swampy and this is my mentor, Goldie. Swampy, Goldie, this is Jeremy, a fellow percussionist who I am traveling with.”
Jeremy said, “I remember Swampy from the first tree. Goldie, it is a pleasure meeting you.”
Swampy said, “When I was living, men acted like they didn’t see me. Nothing has changed.”
I was distracted by fuzzy memories of practicing with a watercolor set almost identical to this one. I had painted Lady Kissykiss over and over. Most of the paintings had been taken off and disposed of by a Cleaning Fairy. I tried to remember it, but it was like a dream with just a few elements and moments and a disturbed and lost sort of feeling.
I opened my eyes and looked up. Goldilocks was asking, “Phil, are you okay?”
I winced. “Yes, sorry. I was reliving a memory of my happy place back when it was not my happy place.”
I felt like it was all memory, but I felt like three artists were fighting over what to do with the paint. I had brushes in two hands. One was just painting with water, and the other was coming in with a green so dark it was almost black. I checked that I was not possessed as my hands seemed to know what they were doing. I was there and doing it, though, so I relaxed and like playing the cajon, I let the paints take me where they were going.
I added the warmest burnt sienna. Without remembering doing much watercolor at all, I went into a creative fugue. I felt like I needed more hands, and the colors in the world around me were dancing as I looked. I was in the dappled shade of a tree. I had set the tripod up so the paper was in full shade, but the sun had risen since I started, and now the light was dancing on the page as the wind blew past.
Like going into shadow, but instead going into colors, I felt time stop and spin as I painted. I wondered if I was going mad or having a seizure. I had no fear of going mad, just a curious observation amidst the creative dance. I couldn’t stay in this place and paint. The water would not flow from the brush. Without time, there was no change.
All of this thought happened in one moment of color. I breathed out and I was painting again and under the tree as if I had never left, but in fact, I had never left.
There were sparkles in the light around me and bright spots of light that had always been there but they had never been what I paid attention to. The sparkling glare on the water too bright to look at was something I’d always looked away from. In that moment, the dancing bright light was like shadow. I closed my eyes so I could see my eyes from inside my eyes with the surgical gifting of sight Lady Kissykiss had given me. Others had gifted me with the ability to see inside things, and I began changing my eyes while painting dots like the range of colors I had on may watercolors palette.
I had been altered to resonate and be able to tune resonances to resonate and connect with Hubert in ways that would be secure. While painting, I was tuning myself and laughing inside because I had no conscious way to know if what I was doing would even work. I was painting a painting of my eyes inside my eyes and laughing madly at the crazy wonder of it all. I had to memorize the painting, so I could compare it to what I was seeing. I had to memorize the scene in thirty colors and shades of gray. I had to memorize the paper and the structure of the paints. The paints, inside the paints were so pure and so wonderful.
I stepped back to admire my painting of myself that was myself and my ability to see myself in my own painting since I had painted the insides of my eyes that I saw with. I saw my painting through my painting and had to use colors in tiny dots to make the bright I needed to paint bright enough. I could not see with my physical eyes close enough so I laughed out loud and felt the fog from my happy place surround me but with all the colors that made white fog as I borrowed parts of my rook form and parts of my owl form to make my eyes more technical. Then I had to use my eyes and go back to fog and use my eyes.
Someone was shaking me. It wasn’t helping me fix my eyes. I laughed. Maybe I should fix their eyes first so I could see what I was doing!
I looked and the fog faded. The sparkle of the light through the trees on the Saint George Castle seemed to fall back in tone and blend back from the rainbows and into white light with a warm yellow balance.
Jeremy let me go. “Phil, you were shaking.”
I smiled since he’d been shaking me and looked at the painting. It was unfinished but some paintings need to stay unfinished.
Jeremy looked at the painting and up at Goldilocks who was still painting her landscape of the view below. Jeremy looked back at the painting. “My uncle has never collected watercolors. If he saw this, he would start. You could name any price you wanted.”
I asked, “Why this painting?”
Jeremy said, “When a painting is a real thing, a thing of beauty, and it has the feel of a bright cartoon and the light and color bring you joy, that is what my uncle thinks is the best in art. Plus, you managed to paint a kind of scary looking but really hot devil fairy on Goldie’s shoulder and that takes it over the top. She looks real and yet she looks like anime. The golden ringlets of hair behind her lead you to look at the curve of Goldie’s face, and I don’t want to even say anything about how that is. She probably hears that sort of compliment all the time, and I’m sure it’s gotten old.”
Goldilocks turned and looked at Jeremy. “No, really, Jeremy, say what you are thinking. It never gets old.”
A pair of men in trench coats ran to the wall beside us and looked out over the view. One turned and looked at Goldilocks. “Você sentiu isso?”
Goldilocks ran a finger through one of her ringlets and drew the coil out before letting it go and having it bounce. “Sorry, not everyone speaks Portuguese.”
The man asked again, “Did you sense it?”
The other man still looking out over the tile roofs of the city below said, “We know a Daemon when we see one. We felt a daftness incursion. You had to have felt it.”
Goldilocks whispered, “Some folk around here are not savvy to what you are saying. Perhaps plain English and by plain English, use normal words that won’t confuse anyone.”
The first man said, “Hopefully, it was just a passing thing.”
The other man looked at my painting and then at me. He looked at Swampy then back at my painting.
He jerked his head towards my painting, and the other man looked at it.
They looked at the matching tripods that Goldilocks and I were using then looked back at the art and then at me.
One of them asked, “Are you a Fairy king?”
Jeremy backed up.
Goldilocks said, “Don’t worry Jeremy. See the trench coats they are wearing in this heat. Well, it’s not hot yet, but it will be. They are doing anime cosplay, and they think we are doing cosplay too. I get that a lot with my ringlets.”
Jeremy appeared to relax, but I could still tell he was being wary.
One of the men in trench coats said, “Whatever. A daft incursion is more important than a few words that might confuse someone who does not realize this world is a mystic place.”
He looked back at me. “I asked a question. Are you a Fairy King?”
The other man was summoned, but he was answering it in Portuguese. I heard him say the name Lucas then the name Pedro, so it confirmed my suspicion that this was the day shift of the Ankou.
I said, “Tell Lucas and Pedro that Phil says hello. I felt something but I’m pretty sure it’s gone now.”
The man spoke again in Portuguese and said my name. He nodded to me. “Lucas says you handle things that are out of reason. He also mentioned that you knew Helena de Tróia.”
Both of the Ankou looked at Goldilocks.
Goldilocks smiled. “My name is Goldie. This is my apprentice, Phil, and these are my new friends, Jeremy and Swampy.”
Jeremy laughed. “This really is a bit daft.”
The men in trench coats bowed.
One said, “Very good. Enjoy your visit. We will be watching carefully.”
Goldilocks said, “Good. I feel safer already.”
The man said, “That isn’t entirely how we meant it.”
We watched as they walked further up into the castle.
Jeremy said, “They were strange. Who knew cosplay was that big in Portugal?”
A girl in a ruffly short skirt who’d been standing nearby said, “It’s huge. I didn’t recognize the anime they were doing. It wasn’t Stray Dogs or Sword Art.”
A girl dressed in a more sedate dress said, “I haven’t seen Attack on Titan, but it looks kind of like that. A lot of manga has trench coats. Vash wears a trench coat but it’s completely different.”
Goldilocks came around and looked at what I had painted. “Phil, this is going to be a real problem. I’m going to want this painting and so is Swampy.
Jeffery looked at the painting and asked, “Is Goldie your art teacher?”
I said, “She’s my teacher and my muse. There is no better teacher. When your inspiration and your model is also your instructor, everything is perfection.”
Jeffery looked over at Goldilocks’ painting. “Not much would distract a student from a teacher like her. How much do you charge for lessons, Goldie?”
Goldilocks said, “Sorry, I only take students who show the right talent.”
Jeffery sighed.
The girl in the short dress asked, “What anime is Swampy from? Now I want to dress just like her.”
The girl with her said, “Me, too. Is she from a video game?”
Swampy said, “Tell them I’m from a manga named Swamp Witch. A hideous Mulatto—”
I interrupted, “I don’t use that word. Ever.”
The girls looked at me.
Swampy said, “A hideously scarred girl with skin the shade of milk coffee—”
I said, “There was a manga about a slave girl who was beaten and scarred terribly. She was of mixed race and became immortal, kind of like Peter Pan. She met a Fairy King in the swamp who gave her a magic banana so she would be bound to his Fairyland when she died. An Evil Djinn attacked, but she turned into a crow and stabbed him in the eye with her beak and killed him.
“As a Fairy, because her heart was so pure but her past was so dark, she became a beautiful Fairy with bat wings.
“Despite being so lovely, she is really bossy and is constantly telling the lumpish-looking Fairy king what to do. The Fairy king is kind of stupid and just does what everyone tells him to so it mostly works out.”
The girl asked, “What’s the name of the Manga?”
I said, “Swamp King. It started out about him, but it quickly changed to being about Swampy. I think the handful of fans that read it preferred looking at pictures of Swampy over the pictures of the slow-witted Fairy king.”
The girl asked, “So she is pardo? Now I really want to be her. I’m pardo.”
Goldilocks sat on the low wall and started putting up her painting and tripod. “If you live long enough you will discover that race is mostly a lie made up by bullies. So are nationalities and a lot of religions. Anything that can be used to divide people will be grabbed onto by bullies. There are traits that people have, but mean people add hatred and lies and then deceits become taken as truths.
“You can love your land, your language, and your traditions, but when men tell you to hate those who have done you no harm, know that they are the enemy of your faith, people, country, and home. Even if they are your father, king, or priest, never let them teach you anger without reason.”
I asked, “How does religion fit in? People choose their religion.”
Goldilocks’ ringlets bounced as she nodded. “Historically, religions have been forced on people. Religious authorities attack anything that isn’t their religion and that ends up making the religion mandatory. If you ask a person what their faith is, they’ll have to think about it, but if you ask about another faith, they can instantly tell you how wrong it is.”
As I took the paper block with my painting on it from the board that was mounted on, Goldilocks took it from me and smiled. “If you don’t stand up to bullies, they will keep taking and taking.”
I said, “A smile like that is more than enough payment.”
We explored the castle and accumulated a small cluster of high school age kids. I was mostly ignored as they showed Jeremy and Goldilocks around. While looking at a display of artifacts, I thought about the world I had just linked to by licking the bottom of a slipper.
No one was paying attention to me, so I slid a gateway into a hiding spot and went to that Fairyland.