In an uninjured form, wearing a bike suit that the ShadowFeet brochure assured me would be the best protection available even if it was not being used as a hazmat suit, I waited for the other kids to show up at the place Olaf had told me they were going to meet up at.
I scratched at my leg where I was injured in my other form. The itching, I was told, meant I was healing. The bike suit and gloves I was wearing prevented me from effectively scratching, but without them, I was about to cause actual damage to this form while trying to claw at the itch. I needed to go to my hospital Fairyland, but I figured I would save up and give them two forms to heal after my likely bike wreck in the mountains around Oslo.
As two young men biked past me and nodded as they passed. A girl in a warm-looking bike suit rode up and stopped a little way in front of me. “You’re new.”
I nodded. “I’m Phil.”
She asked, “America?”
I nodded again.
She said, “Grethe.”
I asked, “What?”
She said, “My name is Grethe.”
Three more boys showed up. They looked like they were maybe seventeen.
One said, “Hi hi.”
Grethe answered, “Hi hi.”
Another looked at me and said, “Hi hi.”
I replied, “How are things progressing?”
The third one said, “Yo.”
I nodded and said, “Yo.”
Another boy came up on a bike and made a follow-me gesture as he slowed and then biked past.
Grethe said, “See you at the bottom.” She followed the boy who just passed us. The three boys followed her. Before they were out of view, Olaf and Nils came into sight. As they got close, Nils gestured for me to follow.
When it was clear ahead, I could see all five guys and Grethe on their bikes in front of me. There were places where there was no stopping, but it was a laid out bike trail. It had seen better days and some places had been eroded away by rain, but for the most part it was an okay trail.
When I was young, fifty years back, kids were expected to risk their necks like this when playing. Nowadays in America, a place like this would be barricaded and fenced off so no one sued the owners. Here in Norway, it seemed they believed in letting their children take risks when playing. Maybe it was because their better healthcare was better than America healthcare. My healthcare was even better than the Norwegian's and I was feeling like I was being brave.
Nils skidded out ahead of me. I stopped a little past him and got off my bike, but he waved and got up like he was okay. I watched until he rode past before getting back on my bike. Another kid waved a finger at me as he passed me.
This was fun, not at fast as sailing through shadows, but sometimes shadows don’t provide easy paths, so having a good mountain bike handy was going to be worthwhile.
At the bottom of the hill, the group was gathered and I joined them. Otto and Nils both hugged me. I had seen Norwegians doing this, so it didn’t seem out of place to me. They were drinking coffee and the sad sandwiches they seemed to live on, so I took out some Norwegian Christmas soda and chocolate-covered marzipan pigs from my pack. I had several bags of the marzipan pigs, so I offered an extra bag for them to share. I’d already placed a gateway near a Norwegian shop so I could come back and get more marzipan pigs.
They started asking questions. I could tell that Nils and Otto had already told them about me since the other kids knew I’d made a sculpture that sold for five million euros, but oddly they didn’t act like that had turned me into a rich person. It was impressive to them, but my possible wealth didn’t seem as important.
I answered a lot of their questions, but when they started to zero in and ask me questions that were harder to answer, I decided to deceive them by telling the truth.
“So you have a company with a lot of machines and staff to build this stuff?”
“Truth is, I am a Fairy king and I make most of it in Fairy. It is easier to make a model with gossamer and then make it Real. But I have a company that lets me fake making this stuff in Real so I don’t reveal my magical nature.”
Nils said, “I knew it. No one but a Fairy could possibly eat that much marzipan and not get sick.”
Otto said, “Nils hates sweets. Don’t listen to him.”
I grinned. “Doing magic burns a lot of calories, so I get sick if I don’t eat like this.”
Grethe was staring at me. Not like she was in love or disgusted, more like she really believed me when I said I did magic. I’d probably gone too far.
I went back to my bike and waved to them. “I need to get back to work. This was fun. Call me next time you have something planned.”
I added some assist to the speed, not enough to be noticed but enough to put some distance between me and the group before any of them decided to follow me.
I was nearly out of the clearing and about to be riding under trees again when I glanced back. Grethe was head-down bicycling behind me and just far enough to safely brake if I stopped suddenly. My plan to stop and go to shadow was ruined. I turned off on a trail going uphill, hoping she’d continue on the paved area, but she followed behind me. The hill was getting to be steep and hard to get up as we got further from the paved trail. I had glanced back and skidded out. My bike was nearly magical but it wasn’t that magical.
The suit was pretty close to magical, though. I didn’t feel a scratch apart from where I was injured in another form of my body.
She sat beside me. “You hurt?”
I said, “No, my suit protected me.”
Grethe asked, “Is your suit magic?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. Maybe. Either way, it’s pretty amazing. You don’t really believe in magic do you?”
She didn’t smile, just looked straight ahead. “Sort of. Not really. But, yeah. Not until I met you.”
I looked up at the trees. “That almost sounds like a confession of love.”
Grethe made a laugh like a short grunt. “Nope. I’m not into boys. Not into girls either.”
I asked, “Why do you believe in magic?”
She dusted some dirt of her gloves and mostly just smeared what was nearly mud into them while doing it. “I’ll answer this using your same trick. I was born able to tell when folk lied. Well, the reverse really. Truth sounds different. I can’t know if it’s really true except sometimes, but when they believe it’s true, it sounds different. Sometimes it rings like a bell. Sometimes, I know it’s really true.
“That’s why I am not into boys or girls. Everyone lies. They just do. When you were starting to skirt the truth, you decided to tell the truth to avoid our knowing the truth. When you said you were a Fairy king, it rang. Do you really do magic?”
I thought about it for a moment. “If it happens, no matter what it is, it is real. What a person calls magic, miracle, or science is all based on your understanding. If it happens then it’s real, your or my lack of understanding does not make it magic. Computers are real. Do you really know how they work?”
She asked, “Do you?”
I decided not to answer since I was able to make and modify something very like and in many ways more advanced than the computers she knew. There were things that were too complex for me to solve though so my answer wasn’t going to be simple.
Through the trees, I saw the rest of the group ride past on the paved road below.
She said, “My parents divorced because of me. I was little and I could tell a lie from truth. I figured it out and shut up. I was taken away for a while.
“I started swimming as a sport since you could be with people and make friends and maybe not talk. After you get on teams, you start talking. I lifeguard at a water park.”
I looked up. A few flakes of snow were drifting in the air.
Grethe smiled. “First snow of the year. It’s early.”
I asked, “You have water parks in Norway?”
She nodded.
I asked, “You mountain bike a lot?”
She got up. “I can hang out with people and not talk much. I’m beginning to get over not talking, but when people lie, I shut up. We should go. If it gets slick, riding can be rough downhill.”
I looked up at the gray sky through the trees. I had no way to tell how bad the weather might get.
Snow was falling, none of it was sticking, but the road was getting damp. We stood straddling our bikes, and I held out my hand. “Want to take a shortcut?”
She took my glove in her glove, and I took us into shadow, bikes and all. We sailed through the trees. The gray day in the open areas didn’t have enough shadow, so I found the nearest edge of woodland and brought us out in the woods near a road.
She took her hand back and looked up at the trees. “Like diving into water.” She went back into shadow. I’d thought she was too old to become a Goblin. I didn’t have the feeling like I was adopting her, but now I felt responsible. She may have already been part Goblin. I went into shadow to make sure she didn’t do anything foolish.
The small flurries of snow had given way to a short drizzle which stopped by the time I’d taught her as much as I could in an hour. I warned her of the dangers of shadow stepping. She knew the area, so she found paths through shadow into Oslo.
I felt the presence of an Efrit, so I made note of the spot as we sailed through shadow. Near my hotel, I stepped out of shadow.
Grethe stepped out beside me. “Where next?”
I said, “I have to go to work now. Be careful in shadow.”
She nodded and slipped back into shadow. Her ripples faded into the distance, and I was free to investigate. I slid back into shadow and back along the way we had come. In a stone-walled alley shaded by bushes that came over the walls, I glanced around and switched forms to put my bike away. I walked down streets paved with brick and stone until I passed by and was walking away from the feeling of invasive evil.
#
Two men in an outdoor dining area were talking in a language unknown by man.
“Peracai, we are not that close.”
“I can offer you a gateway to riches.”
“I will not part with a prophet or even let a prophet point to one that could be made a prophet for anything less than a gateway to the next world.”
“It is too soon to depart.”
“This world is edging too close for you not to have a gateway ready. If you hold them too long, there are those that may decide to push back against you. Be warned, Cuyan.”
In the reflection off my milk glass, I saw Cuyan lean back. “If I had a prophet, I might heed your warning. You are not making me love you.”
“I think the boy is trying to follow our conversation.”
“Let him try. His kind will gasp and die as sulfuric fumes blow over them. He will die as he was born. Ignorant.
“I cannot give you a gateway to the next world. Nor access to one. But I can let you know where many of the mighty have moved yachts and built homes.”
“Well, then, maybe I can give you a seer.”
“A seer? Is that the best you have?”
“Best I will give. But a seer will show you what could happen if you play false by me.”
Without looking at the reflection, I could tell the were both looking my way. I got up and made sure they didn’t get a good look at my face as I walked out.
#
In a nearby shop, I’d purchased a range of clothing that looked like what Norwegian ten-year-old boys would wear when I felt the evil moving. By the time I was out of the shop with my purchases, it was clear, by the feeling of their evil presences, that they had separated and one was leaving the area fast. I didn’t want to lose either of them, but I wasn’t sure how to track them both.
I turned into an owl to try and get an aerial view. It was a mistake. I was in air and I felt the nearer presence coming for me. In owl form, I attracted them. I turned into a rook and dove. I could not feel either of them as a rook.
Before I was a Goblin, I saw a submarine movie on TV. It was black and white and I couldn’t remember any of it but the set and the feeling and the ping noises as they tried to blindly find an enemy submarine. With my Goblin brothers, I used to play a game on paper where we sunk each others’ battleships by choosing grids to fire on. This felt like that.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
I didn’t know if they could sense me as a raven, but I was without any sense of them. If I turned into me, and they were there to see, my game might reveal itself. This was like fishing for big ones in a dark muddy bog where the locals don’t like strangers fishing their favorite spots. Sometimes you just have to cut bait and run.
I flew off until I was out of sight or hearing of anyone and then landed. No one seemed to be near, but if I’d been followed, they might see me transform.
#
I took myself to my Fairyland hospital and turned into myself with my leg skinned up but more or less healed.
The ten-year-old-looking girl nurse started to cut away the blood-soaked parts of my jeans with a pair of large scissors.
The little girl doctor turned off the TV and picked up a jar of gauze. “Would you prefer to be unconscious, or do you want to act all brave in front of girls?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Seems like I would be braver if I let you knock me out.”
She nodded. I felt her try to knock me out. I decided to let her since the jeans being pulled off the scabs they covered wasn’t something I wanted to keep feeling.
#
I was dreaming that we were standing beside a set where the actors were being filmed for a subtitled Korean drama. I saw the subtitles even though I was right there watching it being filmed. The actors were eating lasagna. When I woke up, the nurse told me food is medicine, and I needed something substantial.
When I finished eating, I started picking up plates to take to the kitchen when a small Fairy in a maid suit gave me a hard look. I put the dishes down, and she smiled like she had just decided to let me live. I was wearing my ugliest jeans shorts, so I went to my Anabranch Fairyland and took to shadow.
#
I swapped clothing on several forms so I could blend in on the streets of Oslo and tested my various forms. If I was going to be playing a game of hide-and-seek with an Efrit, I wanted every advantage and to know all my disadvantages. I had a form of myself where I sensed the Efrit, and they didn’t seem to sense me, but my range was not as great as my normal form. As an owl, I had the most experience spying on Djinn, but I didn’t know the ranges. As a raven, I didn’t detect them.
My sense of them was different in different forms. Before I was possessed for the first time, I’d never sensed them. Afterwards, I did. My best advantage seemed to be my original form with some dental work and shaping of my jaw.
Swampy in her small bat-winged Fairy form came in the window and sat on the sill. “Phil, if you’re going to keep attracting new girls, and I think you are, I’m going to have to have you help me reduce the numbers, or prognostication’s going to get complicated. Grethe is no real threat, but she is a complication.”
I shrugged. “I’ll look eleven soon enough, but that hardly makes me an appropriate target for romance. How do I reduce the numbers?”
She put a finger to her chin like she was being cute while thinking. “There’ll be big party for Goblins on Halloween this year. The moon will be full for three days, and the prophecies say that bad things are coming, there’ll be some serious music and serious partying. You should try to attend.”
I asked, “In Gary, Indiana?”
She said, “That one will be bigger, but the one I’m thinking of is less rock and more bluegrass. The one you want to look for is in Virginia.”
I looked back at the outfits I was putting on in various forms and realized I wasn’t going to be comfortable changing into them with Swampy watching. Back when I just thought of her as a cute Fairy, it wouldn’t have bothered me, she was just like one of the boys. Now that she had a solid form that had interesting curves, things were different. “Swampy, I need to see if I can find a pair of Efrits first. Am I in a hurry?”
Swampy said, “You have a few days.”
#
When I returned to my hotel room in Olso, I detected the Efrit immediately. My owl form was a beacon so I couldn’t use it, but my rook form was blind to what I needed to see so it was useless apart from being able to fly. I left the hotel, still feeling the Efrit’s presence, and then spotted him. Cuyan, the one that was looking for a prophet, was hurrying through the streets. I let him get as far away as I could feel him. I had a direction sense of him that wasn’t precise, and it faded as he got about two blocks away. At three blocks, he was hard to spot and hard to pinpoint for direction. Flying from rooftop to rooftop and using my rook form’s sharp vision to spot him, I turned into myself to test range further. I lost the feeling nearly six blocks away. I tested my various forms and could not detect him until I turned back into an owl. I saw him collapse and the dark shape started coming for me.
#
It was too soon for me to confront him. I wanted more information, so I went to Fairy, turned back into me with my jaw slightly fixed, and returned to my hotel room in Oslo.
Outside in the streets, he was still hunting for me. I kept watch over him. He appeared to be working himself up into a rage as he searched. I saw binoculars in a window display, so I went in and bought a few pairs of them and a telescope.
#
It was dark when the Efrit gave up and boarded a yacht. He sat by a hot tub set into the deck, and a servant brought him supper. I sat on a roof well out of sensing distance watching with binoculars and eating a catfish poorboy.
He picked up his phone and started talking. He disrobed and got into the hot tub. I finished my sandwich and continued surveillance. It was slow so I summoned Caerwyn.
“I’m watching an Efrit making phone calls. How do I intercept his calls?”
Caerwyn asked, “Where are you?”
“I’m in Oslo on a rooftop using a pair of binoculars to watch the guy. He’s in a hot tub on the deck of a yacht. Not the biggest I have seen, but it looks pretty fast.”
Caerwyn said, “Perfect, let me get some stuff and then you bring me there.”
#
Caerwyn was carrying a heavy battery system in one hand and a large case in the other. He opened the case and pointed. “Phil, hook up the power while I set up the antenna. How long has he been on this call?”
I started uncoiling a power cable. “Not long. He’s made several calls, and none of them lasted too long.”
Caerwyn pointed to the box. “Then plug the coax cable into the stingray and give me the other end.”
I connected the power to the Stingray unit and started uncoiling the coax cable. “How do we do this?”
Caerwyn slid off his backpack and continued setting up the antenna. “All the software is on my laptop. After we get it set up, we can find out what our options are. If we can’t hack the existing cell tower, we either wait for him to make a new call, or we interrupt service to end this one.”
I handed him the end of the coax cable. “Where did you get this?”
He said, “This thing? It’s three years old. Some police were trying to spy on a friend so I tracked it and confiscated their setup. The cops didn’t have a warrant, so I figured I was preventing crime. If we lose it, it hardly matters. The laptop was theirs as well. As are most of the security cameras we’re about to setup. We are going to set this up to record and send the calls to a dropbox. If it gets confiscated, no big deal, I have better and I’ve been needing an excuse to get one I read about last month. Toss me that power cable.”
After securing everything and protecting it from the rain, Caewyn set up the cameras to watch the equipment and to watch the yacht.
“Thanks, Phil. This will give me some entertainment for a while and it’s nice getting out.”
I finished making a gateway to my transport Fairylands so we could get back before I replied. “I haven’t done gifting before, do you want to see if I can gift you with some Efrit languages so you can tell what they’re saying after we have a few recordings?”
Caerwyn said, “Go ahead and gift me. Mom worries about me not practicing but coding a speech-to-text translator for a language usually does the trick for long-term memory.”
I asked, “Caerwyn, there is going to be some serious Goblin partying this Halloween. Full moon and all. One party will be at the place you went to in Gary. The other will have bluegrass music and is somewhere in Virginia. Do you want to go to either of them?”
Caerwyn said, “Maybe. I like the music and getting out, but I was dropped pretty hard by the Goblin girls. I don’t think I’m their type. Yeah, I know, but looks aren’t everything. I mean, they saw me and of course they fell in love, but then when I got serious talking to them it was like I was—I don’t know, but I wasn’t their type. I overheard one say I sounded just like Dread Daddy-O. Apparently, that isn’t a bad thing but not what you want a boyfriend to sound like.”
#
With time sped up, we gathered in Hubert’s kitchen in Snipsnort. Hubert, Anthony, Caerwyn, Mrs. Nelson, and I listened to the first of the Efrit’s conversations. Hubert and Anthony agreed that there was no point in trying to gift either of them, but if we translated out loud they could pick up the language quickly.
When it finished, Caerwyn rubbed his forehead. “Translating this is going to be a pain. It’s an alien language. It didn’t originate in our universe. Phil, should we subtitle this or just collect their viewpoint?”
Mrs. Nelson said, “Subtitles so Hubert and Anthony can learn the language. Three colors on separate lines, one that gives the meaning and one that is literal and one that take a words or phrase and describes the allusions the word or phrases refers to.”
Caerwyn asked, “Should we call them by pronounced name or meaning? From this one conversation, I think we need Venn diagrams to plot out all the groups these things belong to. We may need Venn diagrams to identify them, because it seems like a lot of them keep more than one host body, some of the host bodies will serve them without being inhabited and some of them share host bodies between them.”
I imagined the crazy wall of Venn diagrams we’d need and decided that if the wall started getting too big, my only answer would be to get rid of the Efrits who made things too complex.
#
As Caerwyn sat in front of his monitors working on translations for Hubert and Anthony, I sat back and thought about how to draw the complex relations the Efrits had. I was trying to listen to the conversations and give Caerwyn input, but I found myself loosing focus and drifting off. I resisted it for a while, but then I decided to just take a nap.
#
I woke up holding a crystal ball in both hands. I remembered a dream where I was on a glass throne saying, “No more time, never mind,” as I looked into a crystal ball.
I looked over at my friend still working on translating. “Caerwyn, what’s this for?”
Caerwyn looked at me and then down at the crystal ball. “Did you make it while you were sleeping? Can you make things while you are sleeping? I don’t know. Look into it and see if you can see the future.”
I held it up. Inside the ball, I saw a menu which scrolled as I looked. The first line said, “Stare at the dot to select an item.”
The second said, “Message to Phil.”
I looked at the dot and the menu changed.
“Show in crystal ball”, “Show in area,” and “Advanced actions” were on the new list.
I selected, “Show in area,” and then followed through menus until I’d selected an area on the table and chose “Play.”
A Fairy with bronze feathered wings sat on a glass throne.
He leaned forward. “I am you and you are me. Caerwyn, if I guess right, is able to see and hear this, so I won’t be giving any embarrassing secrets away. Well, maybe I will, but get over it. So you went to sleep, and I managed to wake up mostly intact.
“Free from my body and the stupidity of mortal form, I looked at Caerwyn working away at translating evil nonsense that matters and my Phil body snoozing away. I didn’t look like I was going to stay asleep long, so I had to hurry.
“First, I needed a way to talk to me as Phil since he wasn’t going to remember any of this when he woke up. I considered gifting him, but that might end up in a feedback loop and cause brain damage. Gifting myself might not work out. I thought about gifting things I didn’t know, but that might make me crazy instead of just daft. Still, it’d be cool to know what I don’t know. Maybe worth the risk.
“Phil didn’t remember the mirrored ball that Lady Kissykiss had me as Phil make multiple copies of. The mirror ball projected illusions, and even had the option to keep people’s imaginations from interacting with the illusion when accuracy is needed and not just illusion.
“That ruins everything if you’re trying to turn an old black and white Twilight Zone episode into a three dimensional color image, but reality tends to ruin most good plans. Still, I had chosen to be mired in reality, so I gotta work with the tools I got.
“When Bran the Blessed and the Dread Lord worked over the designs for their illusion maker, they left a lot out since they didn’t want them too complex so their illusion maker wouldn’t get possessed. That meant they had to keep sections that should be together apart, and frankly, their work is hobbled. But then, since they don’t know possession the way I and I or you and I do, Phil, they didn’t know you could make it smart, tight, and nasty-tasting if someone tries to take it over.
“So, here you go. I put some instructions in on how to fix the cameras in your tripod and art equipment. Given a few months work, I think I’ll be able to follow instruction and figure out how to use, modify, and make more of these crystal balls, but I don’t know. Being in mortal form limits brain efficiency.
“Oh, just great. I’m waking up. Phil, use this to make your Venn crazy wall. That was the point of the dream. And, oh, the crystal ball can translate, and well, no more time, never mind—”
Caerwyn asked, “Does this mean you’re daft?”
I winced. “Probably. But a lot of us are daft when we dream. I just take it a step further.”
Caerwyn asked, “Can it really translate?”
I looked at the crystal ball. “I just got it, so I haven’t tested it, but why would I lie to myself?”
I held the crystal ball. As far as I could tell, this was unique and something I had made. Sort of. My sense of me kept getting further and further away.
Mrs. Nelson was shouting from downstairs, “Stop, Phil, Caerwyn, Stop.”
Caerwyn opened the door. I could hear Mrs. Nelson coming up the stairs.
“What ever you are doing or about to do, stop immediately.”
Caerwyn said, “Mom, we weren’t doing anything.”
From further away, Hubert’s voice asked, “Phil, Caerwyn. Don’t play any of the recordings. Phil, be careful with what you just crafted. It’s precious.” His voice became clearer as Mrs. Nelson came into the room. She let out an exasperated sound and started picking up empty drinking glasses.
Hubert continued as he came up the stairs and into the room. “Phil, I see you making more of the crystals in the future, but I fear it being broken if we use it before you make more of them.”
He came in and looked at the crystal ball I was holding. “How appropriate. Phil, that crystal’s resonance lets me see glimpses of the future. Now that I see bits of future, other seers will be looking for us. Don’t play anymore of the recordings until we have a way to do it without drawing the wrong attention.”
I held up the crystal. “I may be able to duplicate this in an hour or so if I work at it. It may take a month to understand it, if I can understand it.”
Mrs. Nelson turned to Hubert. “I thought you said he made it.”
I gestured with my head to a box with packing materials that was stacked with several other boxes on top of unopened boxes of computer equipment.
Mrs. Nelson looked at the boxes I was gesturing toward. “Caerwyn, you need to tidy up.”
I said, “No and yes, I made it but, never mind. It’s complicated. Could someone bring over that small box with packing material? I want to put this crystal ball where it won’t roll away while I study it.”
I put it in the box where it was secure but visible and set the box on the table in front of me. I got comfortable, closed my eyes, and started looking at it in a different way. I relaxed my mind and let the method of filing things away take hold and filed away the exact details of how the crystal ball was made. Then I started working.
#
The crystal ball had an effect that prevented examination, but it recognized me and let me see what I needed to see. It was beautiful. Transparent layers in resonant, electronic, and optical circuits laid out with beautiful grace that few could possibly ever see. The me that was me while I was dreaming was showing off. If I was going to ever fall victim to Gossamer Art Derangement Syndrome, it would be while examining this.
The rules gifted to me like a program my mind could follow to build a recording that kept moving me past trace and line of exquisite art made of layers having the same index of refraction and clarity or compensation to give it the same refractive properties as the rest. Hidden bits were reflected around so it all appeared transparent and even the configuration of the microscopic reflective surfaces were arranged with precise artistry.
#
As I finished studying the crystal, I took a deep breath and made a duplicate of it. Having it copied and having that copy in my mind, I realized that I had been gifted with parts of this in various gifts and parts of me had designed this. I was pretty sure it wouldn’t take me an entire month to figure out most of what I didn’t already grasp about the crystal ball I held in my hands.
Caerwyn was sitting beside me doing translation work. I made a stand for the crystal ball and peered into it long enough to make it display the words, “Caerwyn, this one is for you to play with,” appear over it. I slid it and the crystal ball over next to Caerwyn’s keyboard.
Anthony was near the doorway, he glanced at Caerwyn, and then gestured for me to follow him. At the bottom of the stairs, he stopped and turned to face me. “Hubert and Mrs. Nelson are cooking shrimp Newburg. Hubert wants to see you as soon as possible.”
I handed Anthony a crystal ball and stand before running down the stairs.
In the kitchen, Mrs. Nelson gave me a plate with shrimp Newburg over noodles.
Hubert sat beside me. “We didn’t have any puff pastry ready. We’ll make that next time.”
I made two stands and made crystal balls to put on them and started eating.
Hubert and Anthony picked up crystal balls. Hubert held his up. “It is good the see things clearly, Phil, when we slow down and return to speed, other prognosticators will know someone just joined the game. We need to disarm a few of them before they start looking our way.
“You have a recycling center in Arizona that’s mostly shut down. An occasional delivery is accepted and when enough stuff builds up, it’s loaded on a train car and taken to one of your active sites to be processed. I want you to make up a delivery for it. Fill it with stuff that resonates the way I used to need it to resonate.
“Archer will be lured there. You’re able to create a corpse. If you can fake your death and leave a mangled body that Archer can take as evidence you’re dead, we can buy some time, and they won’t link the new prognosticator with you or as me. You’ll have to play dead for a while so get all the resources from your identity in Real that you’ll need.
“First thing you need to do when we slow time down is to summon the Queen of Shadows. Give her a crystal ball and tell her you’re going to die soon, but plan to come back.
“This way they’ll keep your estate going so you can still use it when you come back. The crystal ball will be a message to them and in their hands, it will give me security from anything Archer or the rest have planned.”
I stopped eating and took a drink of the ginger ale Mrs. Nelson had set beside me. “Thanks, Mrs. Nelson. The crystal ball there is yours. Hubert. What message are we sending them?”
Hubert said, “A confusing one. I haven’t figured out what it means apart from our needing to do it.”
I had stopped talking and had just gone back to eating when Lord Loadstone summoned me.
“King Snipsnort, there is some worry at Realmsedge since their ships are not coming back. I have assured them that it is due to the sped-up time, but there is some worry.”
I had a mouth full of food so he disconnected before I could tell him anything.
I covered my mouth. “Our speeding things up and staying that way means the ships that went out have not returned for a long time. I want to study this crystal ball, but it might take me a month, so I am going to go to another Fairyland to speed time so this one can return to being functional.”