The door to 'Dirt' was a hole in the wall on a retail street in the middle of the city. All the stores had closed hours earlier and since it was too early for the drinking class to be out and about, there were precious few people to provide cover for them as they made their way in a tight pack through the streets. They'd moved the Tarago from the Queens Domain down into the city, a block over from the club. Aidan kept Vivian close beside him, and Mitch kept Keary between him and the shop fronts, shielded from the road. He'd never admit it, but there was a fine sheen of sweat on his forehead and he still looked pale.

They loitered around the door until a burly guy in a security jacket opened it.

"Hey," Aidan said pleasantly. "We need to talk to Sarah. Can you tell her that Aidan's here?"

The bouncer looked less than impressed but he turned without a word and went back into the club. He locked the door behind him so that they couldn't follow. When he came back his scowl was even deeper, but he opened the door and nodded for them to follow him in. The stairs went down into the darkness and led to a narrow corridor lit with painful purple light. Keary's shoulders almost touched the walls on either side, and Viv snuck her hand forward into Aidan's as the oppressive feeling of being wildly over her head, started to make it hard to breathe.

Finally, the corridor opened into a cavernous space with a bar against the left hand wall and a stage at the far end. Behind the bar was a broad-shouldered woman with electric blue hair in a messy bun on top of her head and blood red lipstick on her full lips. When she looked up at them she sighed, and Viv was shocked by the profound sadness in her eyes.

"I'd have come up to the domain to see you earlier... But I figured you guys could use the sleep." She said, then gestured to the stools for them to sit, and pulled a packet of Ibuprofen and water from under the bar. These she put in front of Keary. "You're gonna need them."

"You know why we're here?" Aidan asked.

Sarah nodded. "Justin isn't half as clever as he thinks he is..." she sighed and leaned against the bar. "He came here. A long time ago. And thought he asked cryptic questions."

"So you knew what he was planning?" Mitch demanded.

Sarah glanced at him guiltily but shook her head. "Not exactly. And more to the point, I told him flat out that he wouldn't survive whatever he was attempting. I'm still just a human, whatever stupid sight I might have, and no human can see elf shit clearly. You're all obscured in mist and secrets and you don't like sharing your shit with anyone else so... Don't you sit there and have the craps with me because one of your little friends lost his shit and chucked a massive tanty."

"He killed people! People we know! Family!" Mitch snarled. "Do you think there are so many of us that their loss is nothing? There are millions of humans! Billions! You're everywhere and we are so close to gone here!"

Keary put a massive hand on Mitch's shoulder while Aidan put his hands on the bar and leaned over to look Sarah in the eye.

"What did he ask you?"

"He wanted to know his doom. His undoing..." she said carefully, her eyes locked with Aidan's.

"And what did you tell him?"

She looked away and made eye contact with Vivian. "I drew him a picture of your face." She said.

"What?" Viv gasped.

"You are the thing he fears most in the world because your face is what I was shown when I asked to see his undoing." She said slowly.

"How?" Aidan demanded. "What exactly did you see?"

Sarah held up her hands. "Just her face. Literally her face..." she sighed and took a step back away from them. "It was like... it was literally like her face was going to end him. Bugger up his plans. Not even anything she did specifically. I don't know, that's all I got. You people don't read right, it's never particularly clear."

"Alright so try again, now," Aidan said. "Justin's plan didn't work, and now most of his fighting force is trapped inside the sanctuary or bailed up trying to keep the rest of our family out of the way. So what's he going to do now? What do you see?"

Sarah sighed. "Come out the back, I'll see what I can get."

They followed her around the bar and through a door into the back room. Without saying anything she set up a candle on the small round table in the corner and then sat in the chair and stared at it. Vivien hung back, she didn't feel comfortable going in. Aidan had gone in right behind Sarah, then Mitch moved past her into the little room. She felt Keary move up behind her and shuffled forward a little and he moved forward again until he filled the entire doorway, sealing her in like a cork in a bottle. She looked over her shoulder at him and he frowned down at her.

"I'm scared." She whispered.

"I know." Keary rumbled quietly.

At the table, Sarah's eyes rolled back in her head and she rocked back and forth. This went on for an interminable period, at least to Vivien, but finally Sarah's mouth opened and a voice came out without Sarah’s lips moving.

"The lost boy will tear down the walls... Draw the veil and meld the worlds... There will be no there and here." The voice rasped painfully.

"What can we do?" Aidan asked.

"Your fate is set. Her fate is set. All Fates are set."

Aidan shook his head. "I don't believe that! If Justin tears down the walls a lot of people are going to die!"

"Yes."

"What do we do?" Mitch breathed.

"You will fight. You will lose. You will go on. Go to the foot of the mountain, below the cascade... You'll find them in the old stones. Go. Now. Witness."

Viv clutched Aidan's hand, staggering when Keary put his massive palm on the small of her back to hurry her along. The streets had started to fill with people dressed up for a night out, people stumbling home after working late. Viv lost her footing on the stairs in the carpark and Aidan nearly popped her shoulder out trying to keep her on her feet. Keary was behind her though and hauled her up with one arm around her waist.

In the car, Aidan went for the driver's seat but Mitch pushed him out of the way.

"I'm faster," the little man said, and Aidan didn't argue. Instead, he piled into the passenger seat while the others got in the back.

"I don't understand," Vivien gasped. "Where are we going? What was she talking about." Aidan and Keary were looking at her and she didn't like their expressions. "Why are you looking at me like that? What's going on? What did she mean?"

"You're going to stop Justin," Aidan said reverently.

Keary shook his head though, "That's not what she said. She said Vivien would be his undoing... That's not the same thing, necessarily."

"He's right," Mitch turned around in his seat to say. "Don't freak out." He winked at her, his breath completely under control already.

Viv hated him a little, in that moment, as she struggled to calm her heart and cool the burning in her chest. "I can't do anything, I can't fight, I can't... I don't know..."

"It's OK," Aidan put his hand over hers where it sat in her lap. "I'm sorry. We shouldn't have gone weird on you. We're going to the Female Factory on Cascade road. That's where the Oracle sent us."

"How do you know that? She could have meant anything!" Viv objected.

Mitch shook his head. "They're names we recognise. It's part of the deal with Oracles like that, she wouldn't tell us anything we couldn't work out. The first thing you think of is almost always right."

"Why are we rushing?" Viv asked as the Tarago squealed around the corner and she was forced to brace herself against the side of the car.

"She said 'now'," Keary rumbled.

"When an Oracle says 'now', she means ‘Now”," Aidan said. "Not, 'when you're ready'. Trust me, we'll get there exactly when we're meant to; but only if we haul ass."

"This is nuts," she squeaked as Mitch ran a yellow light.

"Just stay close," Aidan said gently, "I swear I won't let anything happen to you."

Keary took a deep breath experimentally and winced as the stitches in his side pulled. "Still stiff," he grumbled.

"Maybe you should sit this one out?" Mitch suggested.

The look Keary levelled at him was pure venom and Mitch held up one hand in surrender under its weight. "OK, OK, I take it back. Jesus..." He turned back around to look where they were going. "Tear yourself open again, bleed all over your pants. I don't care."

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Aidan squeezed Vivien's hand and tried to give her a reassuring smile. It came off more like a grimace and she swallowed hard.

"Aidan," she whispered. "I can't do this... I can't..."

"You don't have to do anything," Aidan said earnestly. "Just stay near me, OK?"

"OK... OK." She looked out the window. Again she noticed how the people seemed perfectly normal. They walked down the street. They talked on their phones. They smiled and they laughed, and they had no idea how close they were...

"Don't park too close, Mitch," Aidan said.

"I'm not stupid," Mitch snapped and pulled to the left. He stopped the Tarago in front of a run of small shops.

They all piled out and Vivien's knees nearly gave up on her. She felt light-headed and sick to her stomach. Her hands shook and all the blood drained from her face.

"Perhaps you should stay here?" Keary suggested when he looked at her.

"She can't!" Aidan said, "You heard the Oracle."

"The Oracle said she'd be his undoing, not that she'd fight him, not even that she'd be there," Keary disagreed. "Look at her, she's about to lose her lunch."

Viv glared at him and stood straighter, "I'll be fine," she said as firmly as she could.

"Right, for the walk there maybe. Have you ever even gone hunting? Killed anything? Jesus, Aidan," Keary took a step forward to touch Aidan's shoulder but Vivien barged forward with an angry glint in her eye.

"I'll be fine," she said again, more confidently this time. "I'm not some damsel who needs to wait in the car."

Keary looked her up and down for a moment. The colour had returned to her face and she stood straighter, with one hand on her weapon and the shield in her other... She didn't lean against Aidan anymore and she didn't cower when Keary loomed over her for a moment longer.

"Better," he grunted.

Vivien blinked as the huge man started to get his massive shield and lance strapped to his arm. "He did that on purpose!" She hissed at Aidan.

Aidan grinned at her, "He's big, not stupid."

"You think anyone's gonna notice all this glowing shit?" Mitch asked lightly.

"You think it matters?" Keary retorted.

"Fair point." Mitch laughed and brandished his two short lances, "Alright, glowy weapons, check. Ostentatious shields, check."

"Terrified civilian who doesn't know what she's doing?" Viv mumbled.

"Check," Mitch said as he licked his finger and drew a short tick on her upper arm.

"Eww!"

Everyone laughed and then without talking about it, they all crossed the road and walked down the slight incline to the old female factory.

"This is nuts," Vivien mumbled to herself as she trotted along through the dark streets. "You guys are elves. Elves! I'm a freakin' Elf and we're going into battle with other elves for... What? What's he doing?"

Aidan held up a hand to stop them and they crouched down behind a low stone wall where they wouldn't be visible from the site.

"Alright, bringing down the veil means one thing. He's given up the idea of trying to get the Tuatha De Danann to let him back into the sanctuary... he's going to merge those two plains."

"What do you mean merge them?" Viv asked. "What would actually happen?"

"Best we don't waste time talking about it and just try to stop him," Aidan said. "I'll explain everything after, I promise.” He glanced at the others pointedly. “Right now, see Justin, kill Justin."

Mitch's grip tightened on his two short lances and he frowned. "We're there then?" He asked quietly. "We're killing our brother, on sight?" When Aidan turned his gaze to Mitch, the little man held up one hand in submission. "Hey, I'm not arguing. I just," he stopped and looked down at his hands again, then back up at the others. "I just think we should all be on the same page here."

Aidan sighed, "If he succeeds, if he does this, he'll kill a lot of people. Who knows, maybe ALL the people. Everywhere. Human's don't fare well in the mist. You know that." He wiped sweat from his forehead and looked at them all, one face at a time. "He's one Danann. One Danann, against potentially the entire human race. This is why we came here, why our parents came out from the Sanctuary... To protect them." He gestured to the houses around them, "We came here for a cause, to do the right thing. It's why we're not in Avalon under the mountain. It's why we're out here. He's not worth all of humanity, or half of it, or a third... He can't be allowed to do this. Agreed?"

Slowly the others mumbled 'agreed' until only Keary had remained silent. Aidan looked at him sadly, his face clearly showing he expected his old friend to argue with him, but Keary shook his head and settled his shield on his arm.

"He betrayed us. He dishonoured himself. Attacked his brothers." He hit his fist against the face of his shield with a dull thud. "Thomas is sealed up under the hill with Firbolg. He was our brother. Justin is dead."

The others remained crouched, in stunned silence for a moment at Keary's pronouncement, until Aidan put his hand on the huge man’s shoulder and squeezed it. Vivien, on impulse, put her hand on his other shoulder and gave him a weak smile. Partly because she felt like the big guy was in pain, pain that hadn't really been acknowledged with the loss of his cousin, but also in an attempt to show him that there were no hard feelings about before. She was ready. As ready as she could be anyway...

The outer wall of the female factory had been damaged by years and weather. It was patched up all over with wire baskets of stones which levelled out and smoothed the wall. There was one large opening closed off with thick wooden doors riveted together with cast iron. Aidan looked at Keary who eyed the door for a moment and then glanced down at his injured side and shook his head. He pointed to the far corner with his chin and Aidan nodded. Keary led the way along the wall and the others fell in behind him.

Aidan placed one palm flat on Keary's lower back. Likewise, Vivien felt Mitch's hand. She looked at Aidan and after a moment lay hers on the small of his back, closing the line. Something like electricity, tingly and alive, seemed to move back and forth along the line, like some kind of secret whispers that Vivien didn't understand. They moved together and she found that she could stay cleanly in line with them by feeling the way Mitch's fingers moved against her back.

At the gap in the wall, Keary stopped and peeked around into a courtyard lit by three large cast iron cauldrons filled with firewood. The flickering light made his face seem older, more menacing. Though Vivien realised that might have been his expression. He had the look of a man going to war. After a moment he moved forward. The line followed him smoothly. They crept through the gap and around to the left. The Visitors Centre was closed. The blinds were all drawn but a flickering light shone beneath them.

At the main double doors, Keary paused again. This time when he looked back at Aidan he grinned. Aidan nodded once and dropped his hand. When Vivien felt Mitch do the same, she too drew her hand back and Keary moved to stand in front of the doors. Mitch scooted around from behind and took up a position beside the huge man. Aidan on the other side. After a moment Keary held up one hand with three fingers up. He dropped one. Vivien started to hyperventilate. He dropped another finger. Her vision started to swim, she couldn't focus. He dropped the last finger, hunched, flexed his back and with a hard kick, booted the doors open.

Inside was a child's nightmare. Monsters, Firbolg, Vivien corrected herself, crouched in a circle around three men in robes who chanted in unison. The language was alien. Beautiful. Seductive but terrifying at the same time. Behind them, his face exultant and his eyes manic, Justin stood staring at the door as though he'd known they would come. When his eyes fell on Vivien he faltered slightly but a moment later he threw his arms up over his head. The fires that roared in the massive cauldrons around the room spiralled up as though caught in some convection of air and spun out until there was a ring of fire to protect the casters and their terrifying audience.

"You're on the wrong side here, brothers!" Justin yelled. “And you,” he hissed at Vivien, “Do you even know what you’re fighting for? What are you anyway? You’re nothing!”

Vivien gripped her shield so hard her fingers cramped and her knuckles turned white.

“What are we going to do?” She asked the others, the heat of the flaming circle harsh on her face.

"There's nothing for it," Keary hefted his shield and turned away from them. "If I knock him out, at least you'll be able to douse the flames."

"Wait!" Aidan grabbed his arm, "Just give me a sec." He cast his eyes around frantically around the court until he saw an ornamental tree growing in pathetic, sandy soil. Aidan bent all his concentration on the loose dirt.

One particle at a time, then in a trickle, then finally a smooth river, the soil separated itself from the roots of the sad little tree and drifted through the air. It floated, level with Keary who bounced on the balls of his feet, his shield ready. When the soil bunched itself into a blob about a metre wide, under the careful control of Aidan's talent, Keary did a half squat and when the soil partially smothered a section of flame, he dove over it and rolled to his feet on the other side.

Justin let out a scream of inarticulate rage but Keary didn't slow down. The moment he found his feet again he charged, and the chagrin on Justin's face was mirrored in the hiccuping of the flames which kept the others out.

"You can't win!" Justin screamed. "It's not you! It was never you!"

Aidan grabbed Viv's hand and turned to face her, "you have to get in there."

"What? Me? Why me?" Viv stammered.

"Because he's afraid of you!" Aidan said earnestly. "It's the only thing that makes sense. He didn't know about us, he didn't know about your Mum but he still came after you. Why? Because The Oracle saw it! She saw his future, his biggest threat, and it was you."

"But I can't fight, I can barely swing this thing!" She looked around as though someone would turn up to present a more reasonable argument. "Aidan, I can't..."

He shook his head. "You're the only one who can..."

Inside the ring, Keary and Justin circled one-another. The smaller man's eyes darted around wildly. Justin brandished two short lances before him in a defensive pattern. He looked nervous and calculating.

"What are you even fighting for, Keary?" Justin asked. "Aren't you tired of being locked out?"

Keary faced Justin in silence, his expression implacable, until from the corner of his eye he saw Vivien roll through the flickering fire. The momentary distraction gave Justin enough confidence to lunge, but Keary caught the blow on his shield and spun the smaller man away. "Get behind me!" He growled at Viv, who followed his command and fell in behind and to his left to cover his weaker side. Justin's eyes darted between them.

"You don't even know," he hissed at Vivien. "They won't let us back in! They won't let us back in, so I'll burn their walls down."

"Vivien," Keary said in a tightly controlled voice, "Break and hamstring."

Viv took a deep breath. "Break," she called with as much confidence as she could muster and moved to the left while Keary moved right.

Justin's eyes tried to spin in separate orbits to follow them both but it was impossible. Keary was the bigger threat, massive and looming and impossible to ignore; but Vivien's face had been pointed out to him. She was the one. She was the one who could end him. Keary stomped hard and the sound made Justin's head snap around. In that moment of distraction, Vivien darted in with her shield raised and slashed low at the back of his thigh. Justin screamed and whirled with his short lance. The blade connected with Viv's shield, driving it back towards her. She stumbled backwards and as she fell, the force of Justin's blow drove her shield down allowing the blade of his short lance to cut across her face. He saw her go down and his eyes flared in a moment of dizzying triumph... But then he flinched as Keary roared.

Keary feigned to the left, forcing Justin's weight back onto his injured leg, then he corrected and lunged right. His shield connected with Justin's shoulder. The smaller man howled as his arm popped from the socket under the onslaught of the much greater weight. Crushed under Keary, who still bellowed in anger, Justin couldn't control the flames through the pain, and the others rushed in.

But it was too late.

The hollow chant had stopped and the Firbolg, who no longer looked like hideous monsters but jubilant men, threw up their arms in celebration as all around them the electric lights began to go out.