Brittany glanced up and noticed her audience at last. She shrugged and gave them a smile. “A little lover’s spat. She’ll be fine with time.”

“You deserve it,” Mouse grumbled under his breath.

“Deserve it? I don’t know about that. I’m quite enjoying myself. I mean, look.” She spread her arms, revealing a pale gray chest crisscrossed with stitches and scars. “I don’t have to wear a shirt! How wonderful, am I right?”

“Technically, you never have to wear a shirt,” Spar offered slowly, the idea just coming to him in the moment. He reached for his own.

Mouse grabbed the bottom of Spar’s shirt and held it down. “You do have to wear a shirt. The humans have laws.”

“Laws don’t apply to horses,” Spar returned.

“You live in the palace now. You’re not a horse,” Mouse said.

Spar’s face fell. “Oh, right. Dammit.”

“I, er, we prefer men wear shirts in public as well,” Felix offered, turning his head away slightly.

“The outdoor laborers never do,” Brittany argued.

Mouse sighed. What’s with all these nudists? “They don’t live in the palace. Clothes, Brittany.”

She sighed and started for her room. Brittany tried the knob, but it refused to turn. Grinning deviously over her shoulder at the others, she tried to turn it a few more times. “Oh, no, it looks like Clarita’s locked me out of my room. I guess I have to go around shirtle—”

Cell slung off her jacket and handed it to Brittany. Underneath, she wore a white shirt. “Let’s be civil about all this.”

“Dammit.” Brittany pouted, but put it on.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Felix glanced at his hands again, then rubbed them on his pants. “It really looks like everyone’s been affected by this magic.”

“Everyone in the palace…” Mouse muttered thoughtfully. Sabelyn… the king… Reginald? Interesting. I might need to make a few visits…

“Except you and me,” Felix replied. He bit his lip and rubbed his hands again.

“Are you okay? Are your palms itchy? You know what that means,” Spar said, raising his eyebrows.

“Huh? No! No, I’m fine,” Felix said.

Mouse squinted. No, something’s wrong. He smiled and gestured for Felix to step aside with him. “Your Majesty, if you would?”

“Oh? Y—yeah,” Felix said, following after as Mouse led the way to a little nook, just out of earshot of the others.

He didn’t even complain when I called him Your Majesty? Something’s definitely wrong. Mouse leaned in. “Your Majesty, what’s bothering you?”

Felix glanced at him, then at the floor. “Er… it’s my fault, isn’t it?”

“Huh?”

Felix nodded. Words spilled out of his mouth one after the other, coming so fast they tripped over one another. “This all happened as I cast the purification ritual on you. You and I are the only two unaffected by this spell. It has to be connected, right? Something I did, something about the purification ritual, it must have gone wrong and somehow affected—”

Mouse raised his hands. “Whoa, whoa. No way. Felix, the purification ritual is moon elf magic. Moonlight elemental. Moonlight can purify, it can cast illusions, but it struggles to materially affect the world outside of those areas. No… this feels like wild magic.”

“Wild magic?” Felix asked, looking up at him.

“Also known as fae magic. It isn’t any particular element, but neither do the fae have complete control over it.”

“Some people postulate it is the original form of magic, its purest, non-elemental form. It has the potential to accomplish anything, but never does exactly what the wielder desires,” Felix finished, putting a hand on his chin.

“Right,” Mouse agreed.

Felix nodded. Understanding began to dawn in his eyes, then flickered out, and he frowned. “But then… who used wild magic? And what were they trying to accomplish, that this was a side effect? Wild magic might be unrestrained, but it isn’t completely beyond all comprehension. Its side effects are usually related to the user’s original goal.”

Mouse cleared his throat and glanced aside. “Ah, that’s… not important. We’ll probably never know, right?”

“Quite unfortunate. Unless…”

“Unless?” Mouse prompted.

“Well… fae magic, right? there is a fae princess in the palace. If we ask her…”

Mouse laughed lightly. “Does she even have rooms? She’s impossible to track down. We might as well look for a needle in a haystack.”

“Oh, hello,” a soft voice spoke up behind him.