“Are you sure about this?” Lily asked Bud as he stared up at her.

Lily was fluttering about near the crystal ceiling of the Bear’s Fall restaurant. Strictly speaking, she had no reason to be up here. With her skills, Lily could keep an eye on things from just about anywhere, and she had done so many times before.

Stil… she was a pixie now, and flying in this form was just too much fun. As a half-pixie flight was tiring, something she had to practice and train for. It had taken her and her sister years of practice to be able to stay aloft for more than a few minutes at a time. Any sustained flight would be like running a marathon; she could do it, but it would require a long rest before she could do it again.

Not so now.

Her wings fluttered as she thought, and it felt like breathing. It required no more effort than standing still did. It was even a bit restful if she was honest. At least, usually.

“I’m quite sure,” Bud said, his skull stretching into a smile. “But it is your choice; I’m not ordering you or anything.”

Lily hummed to herself as she considered his… request. It seemed a strange idea to her, but she would be lying if she said she wasn’t tempted.

“Just the two of us?” Lily asked for the third time.

“Well, us and the Bard.” Bud looked over at a crash of plates hitting the floor.

“One second!” Lily trilled, her wings thrumming as she shot over to where the orc brothers were attempting to throttle each other, their dropped plates forgotten.

“He started it!” They both yelled when she arrived.

“I don’t care which of you started it,” Lily said simply, “Apologize to each other, clean up this mess, and eat like proper orcs!”

“But!” Mic complained.

“Shall I get Tru?” Lily asked, “Or your sister?”

“No!” They both yelled, scrambling to clear up their smashed plates and dropped food.

Lily glowered down at the pair as they got to work cleaning up. It was unnecessary for them to actually do it, as Way Way could easily absorb it all in a moment, but they would never learn that way. Lily insisted on that with all the certainty in her little body. Bud might have taught them to fight, but it seemed up to Lily to make them responsible.

Her old self would have worried if she had any right to make that decision.

Things were much more straightforward as a full pixie. Silly things like if people wanted her help or if she had the right to do something no longer bothered her.

There had been a lot of changes since she was reborn, and she wasn’t entirely sure they had stopped yet. It seemed like she was her and yet more herself. Everything was amplified. Happiness was now joy; mild irritation was now fury. As for when she was calm… it was as if she knew true peace in those moments.

Of course, there was a downside, too.

Lily had spent most of her life in a middle ground of emotions. Slightly happy, slightly worried, slightly happy. That was what she was used to.

She had not had a single moment of that since she had evolved.

Pixies, it seemed, did not do mild emotion. They oscillated between extremes constantly.

In the bare handful of minutes since Bud had asked her his question Lily had experienced crippling anxiety, pulse-pounding fear, utter elation, smug superiority, and now her emotions swung toward a steely determination.

“I’ll do it!” She called over to Bud.

==========

Bud double-checked his supplies as he strode down the ramp from the Bear’s Fall. He had his bow, quiver, short sword, dagger, throwing knives, and a supply of meals, water, and all the spares he could think of.

He was ready.

Snow crunched under his boots as he waited for his partner in this adventure. He had considered taking the orcs with him but decided against it. He was proud of their progress; he really was. They were a formidable group, but in a way, they were also his charges, and he hated risking them on unknown threats.

Bert’s warning to take this seriously may not have struck home with Wendy, who had stomped off a few hours earlier completely on her own, but it did with him.

“Ready to go?” Lily asked, striding down the ramp behind him.

Bud turned and nodded, marveling at the young pixie. She was in human form, with her armor hidden beneath a fur-lined cloak. Her spear was strapped to her back, with a small buckler on her arm. Her hair was tied back in a tight ponytail, and she even shivered slightly as she stepped into the cold air.

“Ready when you are,” Bud said with a small bow. “The spell?”

“Oh, it’s already done,” She smiled back.

Bud looked down at his… skin. Turning his hands over to look closer, he saw calluses on his bow fingers and even a small cut that had scabbed over his palm.

He grinned. It was an illusion, of course, but it was a work of art.

“You never cease to amaze,” Bud admitted.

“Thanks,” Lily blushed slightly, “So where do we meet our Bard?”

“At the gates of the city,” Bud said. “This way.”

They walked together down the road, leaving the Waystation behind as their feet crunched across the snow-covered road. A few flakes began to drift down as they walked in companionable silence.

“Why me?” Lily asked after a few minutes. “For the illusion?”

“No,” Bud replied. “I could get by without an illusion; there was a much better reason.” He cleared his throat nervously, a habit he had picked up from Bert as he did not, in fact, have a throat to clear. “Bert said to take it seriously, and so I am.”

“Ah,” Lily said.

“Yes,” Bud said. He knew she would get what he meant. They had often exchanged looks as the more exuberant members of the group had been doing something ridiculous.

Not that Bud minded that in any way; he loved them all, he really did. That being said, it was nice not to have to wrangle arguing orcs, bickering Multi-Bells, or calm an enraged plant Fae every now and again.

They continued on in silence again until a distant drumming began to draw closer. They followed the sound until they drew near a small mound to the left of one of the gates.

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A teen was sitting in the snow, his chest bare as he played a set of wooden drums in front of him. He looked to be barely past puberty, and his thin arms moved in a blur as he beat a rhythm out with a wild look on his face.

Steam rose from him in waves as the beat pulsed out, the flakes of snow swirling and dancing to the pulse of the music. His feet stuck out either side of the drums, bare and twitching to the beat.

Bud and Lily exchanged a look.

“You are the Bard, I assume?” Bud asked in a lul between beats.

The boy looked up, smiled, and leaped to his feet with a single drum slung across his chest as the others faded. Besides the drum and a kilt, he was completely naked.

“Hey!” In a high-pitched voice, he said, “Are you the Fae?”

“We are,” Lily confirmed.

“Hey there, Pretty Lady!” He grinned. “Hello there, Mister Creepy Archer Man!” He beat a quick rhythm on his drum as he spoke. “I’m Archie of the Drumline!” He cheered his own name, bowed again, and then turned on his heel and marched off through the snow. “Onward! To Glory! To Honor! To Bacon Sandwiches!”

“Ah,” Lily said as Bud hung his head for a moment before following the quickly receding figure. “So much for serious.”

The drumming had a strange effect as they walked on across the snow-covered landscape. Bud stared down as they walked. Each step was the same, but the distance traveled didn’t seem to match the width of the steps.

The disparity was not subtle.

“Ugh,” Lily said, looking green. “What is this?”

“The march of the Bounding Bass!” Archie called back, flipping his messy red hair out of his eyes as he walked. “Ain’t it great?”

“Do not like,” Lily said, closing her eyes as she took each step.

Bud bent down, staring closer at the ground until… there! He saw the faint blur that happened right before he put his foot down. It was quick, but his eye sockets were too good to fool.

“Is it some kind of small teleport spell?” He asked the drummer.

“Fucked if I know,” The teen laughed. “I just play the drums!”

“I’m gonna puke!” Lily warned. “I can’t do this!” She grabbed Bud, flickered into pixie form, and scrambled up onto his shoulder.

“Better?” Bud asked.

“Shhh,” Lily said, her eyes pressed tightly closed.

Bud nodded and walked on, following the strange drummer as the world repeatedly blurred for a fraction of a second during each step. One of the great advantages of being a walking skeleton was the complete absence of a stomach. He was completely immune to things like motion sickness and nausea of any kind.

He marched on, the city vanishing behind them as they moved down through valleys and over plains. The wildlife fled before the thrumming beat of the drummer, visible only as short blurs before the next step took them beyond sight.

As the sun finally broke out of the clouds and the last flake of snow landed, the trio emerged onto a frigid coastline.

The beat changed slightly, and they marched at a slower pace, the world barely blurring at all as they passed along a series of pebble beaches before coming to a stop at last.

“I feel we were denied some necessary information,” Bud noted.

“Ain’t that always the way?” The drummer asked with a wide smile. “Shall we head back?”

Bud ignored the question as he stared across the rolling waves and out at the castle in the sea. Waves broke against its walls, white foam spraying over the dark stones. Beyond the impressive walls and a high steel gate, an imposing structure rose, looming over the icy seas around it.

Aside from the placement in the middle of the bay, it was the typical haunted castle. Dark stones, grinning gargoyles, the faint wisps of tattered cloth, and even a single light burning at the top of a tower.

Bud and Lily exchanged a look. She grinned, having reverted to a human shape before the drummer had turned around.

“Shall we?” He asked.

“I’m ready,” Lily confirmed.

“Wait,” The drummer’s smile slipped. “There is no boat, and that water is not empty.” He looked at their smiles. “We are miles from anywhere, so don’t think you can get a boat either. Let’s just go back, eh?”

Bud slowly shook his head.

“Did you assume we would just give up?” Lily asked.

“There is no way out there,” The drummer insisted. “I’m not helping you.” He added as their smiles remained.

“Can you get there?” Bud asked.

“Of course,” The Bard laughed. “But I am forbidden from aiding you, so let’s just head back, no harm done.” His eyes flicked to the distant castle, clearly nervous to be so close to it.

“Then we will meet you there,” Bud said with a nod, enjoying the tension that shot through the arrogant young drummer. “Lily, would you like to fly over or?”

“No need,” She said, pulling her spear from her back.

“Then we shall begin,” Bud said, turning and striding into the surf, Lily at his side.

=============

The icy water closed over his head, and his feet sank into the soft sand, but he pushed on. The illusion faded beneath the waves, and a grinning skeleton drew his sword and dagger as he walked on. Above his head, the waves rolled on by, twisting the sunshine, distorting it as they passed.

Turning to look behind him, he saw Lily walking primly across the top of the sand, her feet leaving no trace as she looked around. He tilted his head in question, and she just laughed.

Pixies, it seemed, were just at home in the water as they were on land.

They walked on, aiming for the distant rise in the bay that denoted the presence of the castle. As they moved, they attracted attention.

Shapes moved in the gloom ahead of them, resolving into the form of large fish with wicked-looking teeth. The first to come near, he stabbed in the eye, not slowing. The second he took with a slash of his sword.

Then, the shoal was upon them. Bud and Lily fought back to back. His blades flashed as her spear struck out in all directions. In less than a minute, the fish broke away, fleeing.

The pair walked on, the waves above growing distant as they descended into darker water.

Bud was just starting to enjoy the walk again when a tentacle wrapped around his leg, pulling him under the sand before he even registered the threat. He fought in the dark, the sand fountaining around him as he stabbed with his dagger. Eventually, the tentacle went limp, and he pulled himself out of the sand.

Ah, not a tentacle, but an eel.

Lily danced back and forth, stabbing into the sand with her spear. The deadly tip left trails of blood as it came out of the sand more often than not.

Neither of them was in real danger, but blood in the water was a worry.

Grabbing Lily, Bud hurried on, his feet pushing against the sand as he got them away. After a few meters, the bloodied water faded behind them, just in time as well. A dark shape moved through the water behind them, aimed for the scent of blood. He felt Lily stiffen but resisted the urge to look back.

There are some things you just don’t want to see. And most of them live beneath the seas.

The ground began to slope upward again, and the light began to return.

Pale white coral was clustered around the base of the walls. Bud hesitated, but only for a moment. The things in the deep could smell blood from a good distance, and both he and Lily had to be leaving a trail. The best bet was to get above the waterline. And fast.

The coral was strange, almost looking like a set of grasping hands, and Lily pulled him back.

Bud gave her a look, asking what was wrong. Lily simply shook her head and pointed at the coral. She mimed grasping hands, and Bud gave the coral a suspicious look.

As the skeletal Ranger Captain looked back to agree with Lily, he saw it.

A dark shape was approaching, unhurried and huge. The first light to reach it showed a nightmare of teeth, eyes, and small ridges.

Bud made an executive decision and ran towards the coral, Lily thrown over his shoulder. He knew when she saw the nightmare fish because she screamed and vanished.

He could still feel her there, but she had made herself invisible by reflex.

The first bit of coral tried to close on his foot as he kicked off from the floor of the bay, swimming for the wall as hard as he could.

Grabbing onto the cracks in the smooth stone, Bud propelled them upward, kicking and grabbing as he rose. Something heavy slammed into the wall below them, and for a second, his foot found flesh. He kicked off once more, bursting above the surf.

Air, sound, and sunlight returned as he clung to the gaps between the stones. Lily untangled herself, and they climbed, both looking back down at the water below them.

Bud felt it all the way up the wall. It was still down there, a faintly darker bit of water visible as it swam back and forth, searching for its prey.

“Next time, I’m flying,” Lily said as they pulled themselves onto the ramparts.

“I can’t fly,” Bud noted. “But I may give it a try anyway.” He shivered, remembering a smooth shape with a mouth on both sides of its head and way too many eyes.

“What if we can’t find a boat?” Lily asked calmly. “How will you get back?”

“Simple,” Bud said, watching the shape still circling below. “I’ll wait here while you go find one.”

Lily laughed.

“So, do you think this place is really haunted?” Lily asked, peering over the walls at the surf below.

“I am going to go with yes,” Bud said absently. “Look.” He watched as the courtyard below was lit by a shaft of sunlight. Figures lurched back and forth while others stood listlessly with milky eyes staring blankly ahead.

Beyond the courtyard of zombies, stairs rose to dark wooden doors guarded by a pair of skeletons in rusted armor. The doors themselves were slightly open, and a steady flow of ghostly figures were marching out; each one walked into a zombie, slipping into the the dead flesh. As soon as a ghost entered the zombie, it straightened, and a pale ghostly armor formed over the creature.

And every single one of the possessed was looking directly up at him.