Exton

I stop in at Pax Aeternum long enough to clean up a bit - shower, shave, change clothes, stuff like that. I think I may burn the others; they stink of the thing I killed, which I'm told is called a kahligar. Garbage by any other name still stinks….

I place a call to Mortuis before heading to the Manse; I don't want to be barbecued by his security system, and God knows what he may have added to it by now. He sounds surprisingly amiable today, which makes me wonder what's wrong. Normally Mortuis makes one of those vow-of-silence monks seem positively garrulous.

He's there, where he promised, when he promised. At a gesture, the wards recede; and as soon as I'm through, they come up again so fast I can feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

He leads me back to the Manse, and now I can see why he was so friendly; the place looks like a political convention, only with fewer thieves and liars. I grin and follow my host. Alise hands Stoney a baby and throws herself at me, hugging fiercely and even depositing a kiss on my cheek. I catch my breath and start looking around for Raina.

Ah, there she is! Leaning on K'thyri, walking stiffly. Fucker must have hurt her worse than I thought….

"Raina," I sketch a minimal bow and take her hand for a minute. "I come bearing gifts. A souvenir from the Unformed Plane." I reach into the large shopping bag I brought and bring out the kahligar's head, stuffed and mounted. "Turns out they have some pretty decent taxidermists over there. I thought you might like to have this."

She almost goes over hugging me, but Ky keeps her upright, and when I can breathe again, she says, "That is so cool. You killed it yourself?"

"With my little bow and arrow." I grin. "Actually with a 12-gauge, but who's counting?" I look around, but the crowd is too thick and too mobile. "That brother of yours around?"

"He was here just a minute ago… there!" She points over by one of the gazebos.

"Thanks, Rae. I'll drop by later and tell you the whole story of Jack and the kahligar - if you're a good girl."

A wicked grin flashes in her eyes. "You have no idea just how good I can be…."

I weave through the crowd and find Erik with Star. Lobo is dancing by her feet and she's tickling Mera's toes, delighted at the tiny smile.

"Erik." I clasp his hand firmly in what I hope is a fair approximation of the Viking way.

"Jack." That's the entirety of the conversation right there. Strong and silent, or maybe he just doesn't want to contribute to the general havoc.

"I have something you should see. I was getting ready to head back home and I saw this guy skulking around the fringes of the crowd. It was like Sesame Street, you know? One of these things is not like the other…. Nary a pointed ear in sight. Anyway, I have a big curiosity bump, so I hollered for him to wait - and that's when he bolted." I grin broadly. "The Wlydfae went - well, wild. He hadn't gone four steps before he had so many darts in him, he looked like a porcupine. He was dead when I got to him, and I didn't want to bring two heads home, so I snapped a picture with my phone. Have a look…."

I flip open the phone and go to the right picture. Erik's breath hisses in.

"It's him."

"I thought so. So that's the last of them."

"Yeah. We can stop looking." He turns and motions for Star to come over. "You need to see this, Princess…."

Her face goes very still when she sees the dead face of the human who raped her. I have to tell the whole story all over again, and when it's done, she gives me a solemn-faced hug.

"I'm sure you kids have stuff to talk about, so I'll leave you to it," and I go in search of munchies.