"You know I quite like having someone else here in the cottage," Thalia announced, "No offense, Fen."

Fen gave a noncommittal huff as he and Thalia descended the house's small staircase, wooden boards creaking beneath their feet with each step. Elodie had grown accustomed to the sound in the morning; Thalia was not an early riser, and Elodie had already eaten her way through half of a bowl of fresh blueberries and strawberries by the time they arrived.

"You truly make the place feel so alive," they continued to hum as they slid into a chair across from Elodie, nails clacking against the wood. A few fireflies drifted in circles around them, blinking lazy lights.

"You're an excellent host," Elodie confirmed politely. While she still had some timidness about her from the incident days prior, she had long since decided it had been a trick of her imagination or a side effect of her newness as an orator. Elodie prodded at her bowl. "I've felt like I'm forgetting something all morning."

"Forgetting something?" Thalia prompted.

Elodie's lips pursed together as she struggled to coax one of the round berries onto her spoon. "Yes, it's the strangest thing. Each day, I feel like something's off. Like I've forgotten an appointment or to return a book to the library."

Thalia tilted their head, golden curls drooping off their shoulder. "Well, we don't have a library, and I don't believe we've had the pleasure of making plans today." They pushed a finger into the bottom ridge of their lips and said, "A library isn't a bad idea. We should create one for you here in the cottage, little bookworm. What kind of books do you like to read?"

A smile slowly spread on Elodie's face. A library sounded like a wonderful thing to her.

Elodie rattled off several of her favorite titles.

Thalia promised to acquire them.

* * *

Now that they were a reasonable distance from the cottage, Elodie finally asked, "Isn't the grove this way?" She pointed up the hill in the opposite direction, away from where Fen was leading her.

"Do you still have the sprig of lavender I gave you?" Upon seeing her procure it from a pocket, he said, "Good. Put it between your teeth."

The seriousness in Fen's voice made her muscles tense uncomfortably. Elodie hesitated, but on his silent insistence, she obliged. The waxy skin on the lavender's stem tasted woody and green, but it was bearable.

"Keep it there until I tell you to remove it," Fen added, "It will ward off their eyes and ears. Come."

The tendrils of fur and wispy air grew around the gelert's body, and Elodie mounted, careful to keep the sprig of lavender safe. The scenery became a blur as Fen burst through the forest, paws barely making a sound as they brushed against dirt, roots, and leaves. The air smelled clean and bright as it whistled past them, but Elodie noticed that the little sprites that inhabited Thalia's glade fled away from them as they ran. A flock of long-necked geese startled and flew above them, up and out into a misty, unreadable sky.

Elodie's thoughts were murky with apprehension. Where was Fen taking her? And why was he so secretive about it? Her fingers gripped his fur the same way she sometimes balled her skirts in fists. Even with the doubts settling in her heart, she still trusted Fen. It wasn't an explainable feeling but a shared assuredness that he wouldn't lead her astray.

They finally stopped on a sloped hillside. The colors of this area were wrong, and unlike any natural landscape Elodie had ever seen. The grasses peaking between the snow were a mosaic of yellows, crimson, and cerulean, with jarring slashes of emerald and wine. The kaleidoscope seemed to drain at the base of the hill, where a large mound had collected and wrapped itself around a bleak gray rock. A bronze-colored yew tree sat atop the rock, with only a few leaves remaining on snow-laden branches.

It slanted at a gentle angle, so when Fen asked her to walk down the hill, she felt safe to do so. She kept a hand flat against his fur as they passed several cairns that jutted out from the ground like fingers reaching from an unholy grave. Little eyes peered out at them from behind the angry stones, and when hands reached from the shadows, Fen growled to keep them at bay.

The taste of the lavender was starting to grow acrid in her mouth by the time they reached the bottom. Fen explained, "This is Oberon's resting place. Thalia won't visit us here."

Elodie followed Fen around the mound to the other side and saw that the rock had been hollowed out. Russet roots hung from the rock, tangled and draped over a body on a crude stone dais. An unsettling number of talismans- small papers enchanted by orations with protective wards- fitted to the stone by thick cords of golden rope that swayed in the breeze. Small brass bells like the ones on Elodie's walking stick jingled in the otherwise silent grotto. It sounded like a lonely chorus of fairy laughter.

On top of the stone, golden spider lilies sheathed around a pair of antlers that grew from a middle-aged man's head. His body was decorated in copper draperies, wrapped and tangled within the roots growing downwards. Were it not for the gauntness of his frame and the forget-me-nots dappling his skin, he would have seemed peacefully asleep.

"He is Titania's partner," Fen continued with reverence, "And my oldest friend."

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Elodie brought her hand to her left shoulder and dragged it to her right, yielding reverence for the dead. She felt suddenly grateful for the lavender in her mouth, as she could think of nothing meaningful to say. Instead, she placed a hand on Fen's side to comfort him.

"The forest was supposed to be a gift for the valley. A place with life overflowing, an oration for everyone who asked with good intentions. This way, they became king and queen of the fairies." Even as Fen spoke, Elodie could feel the forest thrumming and hear water trickling in brooks nearby. "I am Oberon's first gift to Titania," he said quietly. "They complimented my fur, and I thanked them. I became their protector." Fen padded to the cold body and pressed his head against the limp shoulder of Oberon. "I realize now he meant me to be a companion for the fairy queen when he was no longer there to provide them comfort himself."

That was the original bond, her muse said mirthfully. How noble.

As if to confirm, Fen said, "I am Titania's, and they are mine."

A grave sorrow hung in the air, and Elodie didn't dare interrupt. Eventually, Fen looked back at her and said, "It didn't last. Oberon wasn't an orator, and Titania didn't notice until too late that he gave his life for the forest. This was back when you could still exchange with spirits and give away pieces of yourself for small magic. He secretly fed their dreams until he was expended. He told us he was tired. He laid down here to sleep and never woke up." Fen was quiet momentarily, in memories that Elodie couldn't see.

Much more softly, he continued, "Titania was fragile without him. They saw Oberon in every tree, every bird, every summer breeze, every empty chair... They'd lean over to tell him some joke they'd shared only to be painfully reminded he wasn't there, and telling it to me wasn't the same. At some point, they gave up."

Elodie looked at Oberon, peacefully asleep. It must have agonized them to be so tantalizingly close, to be reminded of him so constantly in that way.

"They let Thalia be orator and muse both"

Elodie's eyes widened.

"At first, Thalia was gentle, and I thought Titania was afforded the respite they deserved. But people- your people- began abusing the forest's orations. They asked incessantly for favors from the fey, often neglecting the responsibilities in their oaths. We gained a reputation for being tricksome and cruel when, in reality, we only reap what we are owed."

Fen gestured to one of the many bells decorating Oberon's shrine, and for a moment, Elodie thought she saw a skull in the winter sun's reflection. The illusion faded, but the chill hung on her spine.

"Demetrius was the first to find Oberon, and he rallied your people to question the fairy queen's sanity. From then on, Thalia stalked the forest with a new purpose. They cleared out every hunter, expanded the forest borders, and filled it with not generosity but their authority. I watched as they twisted Titania and Oberon's wishes, making the forest impenetrable and frozen in time. Stymied. Without Titania to restrain their impulses, Thalia gorged on the fairy queen's life and fed it to the forest."

Fen's eyes dragged up to meet hers. "They visited your castle many years ago as a warning, and then they intended to sleep here with him, but someone caught their attention and woke them from their slumber."

Elodie pointed a finger to herself in silent communication: me? Fen nodded his agreement.

Somehow, when I became an orator, they sensed it. Does that mean other orators did, too...?

Her muse was as silently unhelpful as ever.

"They asked me to trap you in a bond, which I've done many times for them when they wanted someone or something brought closer. But they've never released me out of whatever respect they still hold for Titania, or maybe I was too useful to them. So, for them to do it now ... they are planning something and want me out of the way."

Elodie gripped Fen's fur tighter, suddenly very aware and very afraid of how powerless she really was.

"You felt it when we met, didn't you? Thalia calls it seeing the threads of fate in the world's tapestry; divination only orators can augur through their muses."

Her skin crawled with the revelations spinning through her mind. Thalia had taken over Titania's being. Somewhere, the other eight orators might know of her presence. A chessboard that she now played on, even though she couldn't even see the pieces.

"You need to leave this forest. I couldn't tell you this where they could hear, and I wasn't completely sure until now, but this morning, I realized when you said you were forgetting something, I think Thalia is using an oration to make you forget.

Fen further confirmed, "The fairies you've sent to your castle never leave the forest." Ice crept up Elodie's spine- literally. "They mean to keep you here."

Horror dawned on Elodie's face as the pieces came together. She shook her head, and her powder-blue hair trailed in thin ribbons around her as a lonely breeze moved through this grotto. In doing so, a minuscule lavender petal peeled away from the budding flower and fell to the ground.

Fen's pupils dilated into thin slits, and his fur stood on end. "The ward is fading. We can't speak of this outside this valley, so you must be strong. We'll escape tonight, but for today, you need to keep up the facade. Can you do that?" Elodie stood there, too shocked to say or do anything. "Elodie, can you do that?" Fen snarled, sharper this time and with a glint in his teeth.

Elodie nodded weakly.

"On me," Fen snapped. Elodie and the gelert quickly absconded from the glad as more petals fell from the lavender. They left Oberon, small bells clinking a farewell behind them. Fen bounded up the color-streaked hills, and the body of Oberon grew smaller and smaller until Elodie could no longer see him behind the yew tree. With dread, she wondered if her fate would be similar to his.

* * *

As they bounded back to the forest, Elodie conversed silently with her muse.

What Thalia did to Titania ... is that something you could do to me?

Is that a command? the voice- her voice- simpered back.

No, Elodie responded firmly, I'm asking, can muses take over their orators so easily? How does it work?

It's possible. But it takes a broken consciousness to do it.

What do you mean?

For a muse to take over so thoroughly and for such a long time, there needs to be no idea of self in the orator or, as in this case, a willing disposal of self. Erasure.

Elodie smiled, and her muse added, Oh? Elodie, I didn't think you were so masochistic. Or perhaps sacrificial. A side I didn't know you had.

The smile quickly turned into a frown, but the hopeful feeling remained. Thalia has a weakness. Despite what they think, Titania is still here. If we can convince them to come back ... Elodie's chest swelled with emotions.

For once, something akin to approval crept into her muse's sound. Clever girl. Know this: I will not aid without command, but Thalia will not break my ice.

It sounded like both a promise and a threat.