"Don't you leave me here," said Jo running into the water.

"I can't hear for the splashing," said Jay, not even wading as he got further out.

"You heard exactly what I did."

"The party? Probably invite-only."

"I don't want to go to the party," said Jo, drawing or splashing alongside him. "You're pretending not to have heard what I did."

"What did you hear?" Suzé asked from further ahead.

"Don't you say it," said Jay, stopping in the water.

"I thought I heard something," said Jo, moving up to the gentle rail that girdled the fountain precinct like an outer ring. Although it looked more like half-submerged pylons in the current circumstances.

"Can't say the current set is to my liking," Suzé continued, glancing in the direction of the beats. "Bold Italics is more my thing."

"I heard something else."

Suzé turned back. "So I did hear an owl."

"Yes, that's what he heard," said Jay, moving toward the mini pylons. "An owl."

"It was too high for an owl," Jo replied, glancing at Jay. "Besides which, you've just said that you didn't hear anything."

"I've heard them go higher," Suzé added. "Soprano territory; but definitely not a screech."

"Wait, what's that?" said Jay, pointing.

"Changing the subject isn't going to work," Jo almost growled.

"I think we've all gathered that the water is not as deep as it looked from the path," Suzé added, swishing a foot.

"Not the water," said Jay, stepping over the pylons. "The cake - no - the fountain."

"I'm not falling for it," said Jo, moving forward but not crossing the mini-pylons. "Admit that you heard–is that supposed to be happening?"

Unlike the terrace above with the twinkle newts or golden frogs; the base level of the fountain was composed of a good-sized walkway. Into which water streamed in from above and flowed out into the base-lit front pool. Yet the water didn't spill down as one great sheet. Rather it descended in leaping jets; as if a group of people, spaced at intervals, were pouring jugs of water. Only, on the sides of the first terrace where the water was not flowing, Jo could make out the full rain bowed form of a shield; Complete with devices and emblem.

"No wonder you've picked it out," he said, staring at the quartered device of three golden wheat sheaves against a lilac-clouded pink sky; and a star-lit night sky with the lunar form of a bird.

"Two owls."

"The shield," said Jay, standing near the causeway that leapt over to the fountain. "It's the same design as the one on the lapel pin."

"Goodness, so it is," Suzé added as she stepped over the pylons. "And what do I see a little to the left?"

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Jo could see it. Same as the picture in his mind's eye of the lapel pin he had been given on the Investiture. The Crowned Swan against a night sky with seven stars. Only the lapel pin had a full coat of arms with a golden helm; crown swan crest; ermine and delft blue mantling; plus golden hare and flame-maned and tailed unicorn supporters.

"Why in all the Patchwork are - they - on that," he said, also crossing over the pylon rail.

"I'm not touching it," said Jay, taking a step back.

"You don't have to," Suzé yawned. "It knows you're here."

"It?" Jo whispered, as the bottom of the fountain pool flushed with light. Light that condensed into the shape of two numerals and two all too familiar words.

"Seven and Six," he breathed.

"Song and Sonnet again," Jay turned around. "I'm not doing it."

"I've just said that It knows you're both here so you don't have to," Suzé added. "Saying that, 'It' might be the wrong word. They will know that you have been here."

"Our would-be opponents?" said Jay. "So we can go back because they've runoff. That's great!"

"They'll come back if you start shouting like that," said Jo. "Thank goodness there's a party in here."

"Are there only two shields on the fountain," Suzé asked.

Jo joined Jay in looking at Suzé.

"Fountain," Suzé continued. "Shields. Are there just two?"

"No, there's four," said Jay. "What does that mean?"

Jo looked at the fountain. To the right of the shields that he and Jay had pins for, a third and fourth now glowed; with matching words and numerals in the water.

"Two and Three," he said.

"Play and Opera?" Jay added. "I'd have thought Play would have had the butterflies and dancing sheep. Not the griffins and hill-top towers."

"Never mind who's supposed to have butterflies and sheep," said Jo. "It's two Houses. Two Houses that know we've been here."

"Make that four," Suzé's voice came from the other side of the fountain.

"How did she?" Jay began.

"Let's just see and get it over with," Jo answered, running around the shore to the sand of spilling water. He hadn't even reached Suzé when another shield came into view: A unicorn rampant with wooded glade, hilltop town; nearby pool and a sky with stars and a crescent moon. Soon to be followed by yet another on reaching her: A golden hare rampant in a jade and turquoise landscape as much in the day as the unicorn had been at night.

"Chorus and Orchestra," Suzé said as Jo looked at the words in the pool and took in the radiant numerals for Twelve and One.

"We're not... alone..." said Jay, looking at the shields and then the water.

"Well, it is the Sixfold," Suzé replied.

"But I don't understand," said Jo. "They've both got animals that appear on the emblem on the pin that I have."

"You can always ask them."

"Whaa-" Jo gasped as he and Jay both whirled round and nearly ran into each other.

"Don't worry, they're not here," Suzé chuckled. "But here might be better than within their bounds. Parks are neutral ground, remember?"

"Oh can't we just go home," Said Jay. "I don't need this at this time of night."

"And you think I want to be out here, chaperoning? We wouldn't be here now if you two had kept going the last time."

"I don't want to remember last time. I blocked it."

"Kept going?" Jo "Where to?"

A sharp, soprano squirrel chirp sliced off the end of Jay's sentence, so different from the rhythmic beat. "There it goes again," said Jo. "I knew I wasn't hearing things."

"That or Jay has an unusual way of saying 'Time'," Suzé added.

"I am here, you know," said Jay, looking up at the nearby outline of trees.

"Don't I know it."

"Look, none of us want to be out here," said Jo, looking upper left and upper right. "Even if there is a party."

"There's still spaces," said Jay. "You can pay at the Gates."

"You wanted to be in bed before," said Suzé.

"I'd go in there if it means I don't have to meet the after-sunset park life."

"Are there carriages outside," Jo added. "I'm not walking back."

"Should be, but I can book one if they've all taken."

"I don't believe this," Suzé continued. "Tell me I'm not hearing this."

"We wouldn't leave you out," said Jay.

"Might cool things down a bit," added Jo.

"Like my feet need anymore cooling," Suzé replied, striding towards a nearby lantern and the yawning path beyond.

"Well, that didn't work," said Jo, turning to go after her.

"What are you talking about," said Jay. "It doesn't finish till four."

Jo stopped and turned back. "You've been saying that you wanted to go back all night."

"Do you really want to meet what's in here?"

Jo took a breath.

"Don't blame me if it all goes rhombus-shaped," said Jay, splashing after Suzé.

"Rhombus? What's a rhombus got to do with it?"