My fifth cup of tea steamed beside the woven grass mat where I sprawled, leaning on my good elbow. My wounded arm was still stiff and sore. The others and I sat in a semi-circle before Ashwynn’s throne. We’d strategized our PKer ambush until the stars faded into daylight. I yawned, eyes closing, and noticed the glow from my inventory. Loogie wanted out.

  I’d have preferred to keep him a secret from Ashwynn and the deputies. Guess that wasn’t in the cards. I sat up straight and looked around. Everyone was weary and unfocused, in varying degrees of lounge and silence, besides Ashwynn. He was into this.

  “The terrain you choose has to be favorable. Boxing it into a trap is your best bet,” Ashwynn debated, cold eyes glittering energetically.

  Akilah scowled over her wooden teacup, steam curling between her and the Heartland Lord. “Oh, so like a trap where you put cheese under a cardboard box and tie a string to the stick that props it up? Cartoon logic only works on cartoons.”

  I snuck Loogie into the palm of my hand. Its turtle face tipped up, sapphire eyes revealed by its blinking lids. I gave its tiny head a gentle stroke, and its eyes closed with pleasure. It made a barely audible peep, yawned, and started crawling up my arm. I shot a look up to see both Ashwynn and Akilah looking at me.

  “Er,” I said, glancing around, “Does anyone have any blood?”

  Elora lifted her head from her feline curl on her mat and squealed. “The murderpillar!”

  “The whatnow?” Akilah asked, her tone offended.

  Ashwynn rose from his throne to bend a knee beside me. He smelled like fresh flowers. Must be nice to be so magical you just smell good by your nature alone. I smelled like a gym locker, but that was mostly because of my belt. Stupidly useful belt.

  His expression grew bemused as he looked at the fuzzy yellow caterpillar creature. His gaze flicked up, “Where did you get this? I’ve never seen the like.”

  “It’s an ancient orc super being… thingie. Old Fang says that it’s a Wind Chaser and brings about prophecies of change. It’s bonded to me. I’m like, its mom,” I explained.

  That drew a rich chuckle from the Heartland Lord. His pale brow arched, but he said nothing else, other than to wave a sprite near to request a dish of fresh blood. The sprite buzzed off to fetch it. I grabbed a lock of my hair and twiddled it in Loogie’s face. The little bug nipped at it, vibrating my hand with the subaudible purr it liked to make when it was playing.

  I glanced at Akilah, who scooted across the floor to get to me. Elora was already leaning on my undamaged shoulder, smiling like a doof at Loogie. Akilah shot me a look before leaning close to look at the Vash’Ora.

  “When were you going to share this?” she asked, eyes narrowing.

  “When you told me what you were building in your workshop,” I shot back.

  She rolled her eyes, then reached out to stroke the caterpillar with a light touch. “So soft.”

  I grinned and nodded. I flicked a look at Fig, who seemed apathetic to the little bug. Interesting. Zeke leaned forward on his mat, mouthparts twitching. My eyes narrowed as I warned, “This isn’t for eating, if that’s what you’re thinking, Zeke.”

  “Gosh darnit. Stick to my ribs,” Zeke said, using his voice box.

  I took it to mean he wanted to eat my Vash’Ora. That’d be a big hell no. I’d kill him to protect it, without a thought.

  While Akilah tickled under Loogie’s chin, I turned over Ashwynn’s idea in my head. The PKer was nearly invisible, so trying to ambush it out in the open would be stupid. We had to bottleneck it somehow. And then trap it there.

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  “Actually, a cheese under the box situation might work if we modified it. We have to make it think there are plenty of exits—then slam them all shut at once.”

  “And who’s gonna be the cheese?” Elora asked, tugging my notched ear.

  I flinched, remembering that not long ago, a rat had taken a nice chunk out of that ear.

  “Not you, if you don’t want to. I’ll do it,” I offered.

  “Can’t we just leave the bracelet by itself in the trap?” Akilah asked, not sold on the risk.

  “I have some questions I want to ask it,” I said. “I’ll do it, and you guys will save me, because you’re awesome.”

  “Or maybe we won’t and you’ll get snipped in half again,” Akilah grumbled.

  “You’ll rescue me,” I said. Confident.

  They would. The trauma from last time would galvanize them, just like it would for me. We were all oriented towards action, in our own ways. I glanced around, feeling Jake’s absence again. I sighed and looked down at Loogie.

  “We get Jake and Frag back, and we find a spot to set our trap. Zeke, Gl—Cody, where did the PKer like to hit PCs?” Glasses looked up from picking at his mat with a blank look.

  “You sure use strange words, partner,” Zeke said, antennae waving around the brim of his cowboy hat, as if they’d pick the meanings from the air.

  “Oh yeah,” I grinned sheepishly, glancing at the others. My world’s gaming terms were lost on them. “The Killer, where did it attack past targets?”

  “We can get a map from Savage,” Glasses offered, sitting up now that it sounded like we were onto something.

  A sprite landed beside me with a small dish of blood and placed it beside my teacup. I didn’t ask where it came from, but I hoped it was from an NPC. Didn’t matter to Loogie, luckily. I placed the bug beside the dish, and Loogie squirmed over to dip its tiny face in and lap at the thick, dark red surface.

  “Let’s do this,” I said.

  “You’re crazy,” Akilah replied with the air of someone resigned to their role.

  With a plan in mind, we finally slept. Ashwynn put us up in windowless rooms nestled beneath the bark of Gleamholt, a suite of two rooms where Akilah, Elora, and Fig claimed the one with the bed, and I got to sleep in the attached sitting room with Glasses and Zeke. Living the dream.

  I’d rather have dogpiled with the girls, but in this body, that would have been awkward. Blankets on the bare wood floor beside the door was good enough. The scent of the tree was thick, caught in every breath without any windows. The doorway had gaps at the top and bottom, leaking a welcome breeze that curled in from the swirling core stairwell. Set in the base, a smaller, sprite-sized door was nestled within, like a dog door.

  I lay on the floor, hands propped under my head, looking around the room, tired as hell, but with my mind too busy for sleep. The smooth, spiraling patterns of wood lured my gaze down the wall, where there was no seam, simply a transition from vertical wall to a horizontally flat surface. Globes of tiny fire spirits—as the fae called them—drifted, giving enough light to see color. I should’ve asked Elora what the word for them was. The furnishings were all crafted from the giant ash, lured into shape by magic. I assumed, anyway.

  Glasses passed out on the couch in a pile of cushions. Zeke had crawled up the wall and clung there, fast asleep. Soft voices drifted from behind the curtain to the other room. Akilah and Elora whispered. Couldn’t hear what about.

  I sighed heavily and closed my eyes.

  I woke to a sprite knocking on the little door.

  “Repast, and news,” the sprite called through the wood while I knuckled the sleep from my eyes.

  Repast? Eh. The fae and their flowery words. I leaned over to open the small door to let her in. She looked enough like Petal Dew that I felt a frown start as I asked, “What news?”

  “Lord Ashwynn sent the request to Lord Zayan, and your map is here,” the sprite said, using both hands to shove the large parchment roll through the sprite door. “His lordship invites you to break your fast with him.”

  “Breakfast isn’t enchanted, is it?” I’d only drunk the tea from the night before after watching Fig and Glasses do it with no obvious effect. The tea had been safe. Last night, anyway.

  “Naturally not,” the sprite said with a hint of offense.

  “Sorry,” I murmured, then narrowed my eyes at her. “Feast of Friends put me off fae meals.”

  She giggled and fluttered away. She knew what I was talking about. Little asshole.

  I picked up the map and unfurled it, ideas blooming as I did. A tight smile tugged at my lips. I saw our course. All I had to do was follow it.

  To the inevitable ends.

  -ARCHIVE-