“Please, put everything back just the way you found it.” Prin said. “I don’t want Aster to know we did this. Touched all of her stuff. I don’t know how she would react to it.”

“It’s unlike you to be . . . dishonest.” Elwin said. “Not that I am disagreeing or anything.” He scanned the shelf above the bed, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Like perhaps a pair of little wings. He carefully moved each candle and knick knack, putting them back in their own clean shadow in the dust.

“I know, I hate it. It’s just . . . seems paltry compared to the big secret. Aster isn’t like Valor . . . I don’t want her to know who I really am. She might hate me. Or worse yet, she might be afraid of me.” Prin said. He went to the vanity and peered closely at the extensive variety of little jars and scented potion bottles.

“It’s not who you really are.” Elwin said. “Why would you even say a thing like that? Aster knows who you really are. Not this . . . thing you can’t help turning into. For brief spells.” This creature, this hungry stomach with a cannibal’s sharp teeth.

“However temporary, it is who I am now.” Prin said. He held a little jar up closer to his face and picked up the pink powder puff resting on top. “Remind me not to sneeze.”

“Don’t think about it too much or you definitely will.” Elwin teased, deciding for the moment to let the conversation drift to pleasanter topics.

Elwin peeked under each pillow, before moving on to the side table. Nothing very interesting. Well, okay, all of it was very interesting but none of it seemed relevant to the matter at hand. Elwin picked up a string with strange frosted glass beads, the triangle shaped teeth of an animal, bits of shell, and other unidentifiable oddities, strung along its length and knotted in between. He got so distracted for a moment that he almost forgot to notice exactly where each item had been, so he could properly put it back there.

“Aster is a very curious person.” He muttered.

“Yes.” Prin agreed, wolf-sharp ears picking up everything, even when it wasn’t intended to be heard. He slowly slid open the vanity drawers, with a scraping that sounded a little painful. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.” Prin sang.

“Nothing yet.” Elwin said, “You know, I don’t think Aster is actually afraid of anything.”

“That’s what’s worrying me at the moment.” Prin said. As he shut the vanity drawer there was a thump from underneath. “Shit, I think I broke something.”

Elwin went to the vanity and looked around for broken glass or anything like that on the floor. “Don’t panic.”

Prin stooped to pick something up. It was a small book with one corner blackened by soot. “It’s just a book. It fell from underneath.”

Elwin got on the floor and spotted a piece of dangling twine hanging from underneath the vanity. “This must have been where it was, hand it here and I’ll put it back.” He held his hand out for the book.

“Just a second. . .” Prin murmured. He opened the book carefully, the pages making a crinkling sound.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“Prin!” Elwin had been surprised enough to hear him say shit, but now this? “You wouldn’t be reading someone’s private diary, would you?”

“I wish. Looks like it’s written in some kind of code, or maybe a language I’m not familiar with.” Prin turned the brittle pages to what would have to be the most recent entries. “I just want to know if there’s anything about me in here.”

“Curiosity killed the cat.” Elwin said. He suddenly felt very nervous and self-conscious. What if Aster forgot something? She might come back any second. “This has nothing to do with what we came in here for.”

“Satisfaction.” Prin said, still peering closely at the pages. “Brought it back.” He held the book out, open so Elwin could see what he was looking at. It was the detailed sketch of an eye. Even in black ink on an ivory colored page Elwin couldn’t help but recognize it.

“That’s you alright.” Elwin said.

“Is it!?” Prin didn’t seem to know. Elwin had forgotten that he barely knew what he looked like. Or rather, even with recent access to mirrors, still hadn’t caught up to the amount of time others have looked at themselves and contemplated their own reflections.

“Unmistakable.” Elwin said. “What surprises me more is . . . Aster is such a good artist?”

“I kno-ow.” Prin groaned. “It’s hardly fair.”

Elwin laughed at him. “No one ever said gifts were handed out equally.”

Prin stuck out his tongue. “Oh, hey, look at this one.” He held out a picture, framed on both sides with that strange cryptic writing, of a woman.

Her hair was pulled back in a bun, but rendered less severe by a few loose curls that had come loose and bobbed and floated near her pretty ears. She looked young and beautiful and brave. The expression of serious gravity in the line of her mouth, almost undermined the playful quality of her eyes. Elwin was willing to bet she had red hair. The family resemblance was strong, although there was something even more of the imp, the trickster, in Aster.

“Must be her mother.” Prin said. “She doesn’t have any sisters.”

“Let’s put it back. I don’t want to get caught.” Elwin said.

“Okay, fine. Not like I can read it anyway.” Prin put it back where it had fallen from, tying it securely in place.

“There isn’t much left in the room, as far as places to hide. I think we are about to face the possibility that it isn’t in here. And maybe never was.” Elwin said.

“El, something happened. Unexplainable by conventional means.” Prin said earnestly.

“That happens a lot lately.” Elwin said.

“This was different. I don’t think you believe me.” Prin went to the wardrobe. “I would think with all that has happened it would make you more likely to believe in things . . . out of the ordinary, not less. How about in here?”

Elwin untied the ribbon that was holding the wardrobe doors closed, and they immediately popped open with a grateful sight.

“I do believe in things. I just like some kind of proof, like, seeing it with my own eyes. Something like that.” Elwin said. “Even you didn’t really see it, right? Not in a way that made you sure.”

“Right. Okay, but what else could it be?” Prin asked. He flipped through the dresses, feeling the different fabrics with attentive appreciation as they passed through his fingers. “Aster is really an artist.”

“Some sort of hallucination, or . . . eh, hell if I know.” Elwin said. He suddenly stopped and pulled out the flower decked white gown from the party.

“When the “simpler explanation” causes you to have to jump through even more mental hoops then the supernatural one, it’s time to hang it up.” Prin teased. He reached for the dress in Elwin’s hands.

“Fair enough.” Elwin laughed. “I’m sorry.”

“What for?” Prin hesitated, his hand hovering above the flowers at the neckline of the dress, as though afraid of what he might touch.

“I couldn’t jump high enough to get through my own mental hoops.” Elwin said lightly.

“Happens to the best of them.” Prin said. His eyes though, were far away, distracted. He lightly grazed the silk flowers with the tips of his fingers.

The flowers rustled suddenly as though disturbed by a sharp breeze, and Prin’s eyes grew large, pupils dilating. Something, Some Thing burst from among the blossoms and flew directly at Prin’s face.