Life is a maze in which we take the wrong turn before we have learnt to walk.

[lord_icelus]

Some time, in a place that was and is the abbey, that is in this world and in Dream

She is coming.

I can feel her, that nasty bitch, like a tooth ache or a splinter. She nearly killed me, and I still suffer for it. Partly it was my own fault, for not remembering that silly service gods like her love to throw themselves on their own swords to look

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[jack_hollow]

Steppin' on board feels like petting Kit if she's bin out in the rain; touches of smooth light fur and then a quick fading dampness an' I'm just paint all over. Try not ta look at it too hard.

"'m honoured, ma'am," I say, dippin' my head an' taking the brooch. "I would--" Dammit. "Can't say's I like the idea of you bein' gone," is what I settle on, awkward.

The sky's getting dark, though I guess the wind'll have us to the other shore before we get too wet. But the air smells funny, sharp and thin like pine needles, and when the first drop of rain comes it stings, an' I see a tiny runnel in my hand like something you might get if you dripped hot oil on flour, beading up and sinking down and...

"Miss Nanshe!" which ain't exactly a useful thing ta call but I can't quite bring myself ta tell her ta get down and then I'm outta my coat and unfolding taller than a man and holding it up like a shield best I can. Manage so's I can block most of it, while my coat lasts.

Mind, the turpentine's still workin' away on the boat, so we ain't quite outta the woods yet.

[goddessnanshe]

"Can't say's I like the idea of you bein' gone."

"I don't like it either," I say, and smile at him. "But it's best to be prepared. Too many of my brothers and sisters disappeared throughout time, not having thought ahead..."

It starts to rain, and I worry a little for Jack getting damp, and then I realise -

"Turpentine," I say under my breath. Oh, very clever. I take a long breath as Jack shields me, close my eyes and think very hard about my surroundings, and reach out for the material of dream. I'm not quite sure what I'm turning us into, but I can feel it's harder but still light enough to float.

I open my eyes and laugh a little, because I have changed us into glass. The boat is a green smooth seaglass, and Jack is fine painted glass, and I seem to be as clear as crystal. I hold up my hands and the light shines through them. My body bends and moves as easily as flesh; such is the logic of dreams. I watch the turpentine rain flow over my clear skin and pool in the boat below me, but it no longer does any harm.

"We're nearly there," I say, looking at the approaching shore. The wind rises high, too high, and the boat starts rushing at the shoreline.

"I will try to change us back to flesh," I say, over the roar of the wind, "before we're dashed to pieces on the beach!"

[mistresswanda]

Of all the strange questions to ask, Valmont asks me about the ocean. "I usually can't hear things that are---" And I stop.

Because I do hear the ocean.

We both turn to see the sea behind us, and a small boat being tossed by the waves. But no ordinary boat. It is a vessel made of mermaids tears with a man of church glass and a woman of chandelier crystal...

"Jack! Nanshe!" I cry out, realizing who they are as I go flying down the beach. "They'll be killed!"

The winds are howling, and I have no way of stopping the boat, and moreover if I wade out I might drown---

"Enough. This may be your creation, but I can still dream!" I growl at the storm and the one who might be causing it. I close my eyes, and listen for the sound I've heard in my dreams, that must be in the dreams of others. "I've been called a siren, lets see if it holds true in dreams." I start singing, a lone, beautiful song I have never heard the words to before, but I know by heart. I sing and I call out to those that dwell beneath the depths, I call for help to slow the boat, to guide it to the shore safely. It's with a thrill of satisfaction that I see heads pop up from the waves, eyes fierce and bright. I keep singing, pleading for their help; and hands come up to steady the boat as tails flip up, helping to guide it towards us.

Still singing, I take Valmont's hand and we wade out to just our knees. We cannot risk going out any further, but the mermaids cannot come closer. I stretch my free hand out towards the boat, still singing; thanking the mermaids for their help.

We are the maker's of the music, and we are the dreamers of the dreams.

[valmont_vicomte]

It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, the mermaids rising from the depths to help Jack and Nanshe's boat come to shore. They don't look like mermaids in books, with golden hair and sweet smiles. Instead their eyes are fire and their skin is seafoam-shaded, and they are perfect and strange.

They come safely to shore, and I watch bemused as a pair of glass figurines slowly change back into flesh.

"Wanda," says Nanshe, stepping down carefully from the boat and embracing her. "You are the best of god-daughters."

"So," I say. "We lost the others. But we're very close now, so I suppose we should move on before something else dangerous happens here..."

[jack_hollow]

"Prob'ly," I say, lookin' back at the sea, at the ladies sinking back under and down. "Valmont, Miss Wanda, good ta see you--"

And the waves coming up to the shore are fallin' on the sand, and hushing when they pull back. And the sound is gettin' louder, more like hissing, water on the boil and shapes in the foam that seem a little too solid an' last a little too long, throwin' themselves up the beach. Like the thing that looked like Miss Pontarlier, the morning this all started, but meaner, more claws.

I sweartagod I have about had it with water.

"Everyone c'n run, right?"

[mistresswanda]

I could weep with relief when the figures of glass turn back into flesh, and perhaps a tear or two escapes when Nanshe hugs me.

"You are the best of god-daughters."

"I try, Godmother... I try." Even knowing who she is, my title for her slips past my lips; familiar and comforting. Valmont suggests we move back towards the Abbey as Jack moves away from the water, almost warily. I look back to the water---

"Oh fuck me sideways." I sigh as I take several steps back, pulling Nanshe with me.

"Everyone c'n run, right?"

We all pivot at the same time and start the sprint up the beach. On the wet, packed sand it is a easy task; once we reach the softer and drier sand... not so much. I can hear the water screaming behind us, the spray like ice shards needling at bare flesh. Almost there, almost there, almost---

I scream as I am jerked backwards, right off my feet. I go down hard, my sword flown from my hand. Look over my shoulder even as I try to claw my way back up the sand and dig my feet in; the creatures of water managed to grab a hold of the train of my dress and they are using it to pull me back.

I feel a set of hands on my one arm, then another set trying to pull me free and back up the beach. "The skirt." I hiss out through clenched teeth. "Rip the damn skirt of me!"

It seems like a eternity of damn tug of war, but finally the green velvet tears and I slip my legs free. Without a second look back, the four of us run back to the Abbey, far from the reach of the sounding sea. I half slump against a column, and only then do I notice the bloomers. Half groan and half laugh. "Tell me we're off to a math test, and the nightmare will be complete. Everyone okay?" I ask, looking around.

[jack_hollow]

"Yeah," I say, looking to Nanshe and Valmont and politely not at Miss Wanda. Bit scraped up, nothin' too bad. "I think we c'n find a way up through the cliffs, and then we oughtta be pretty damn close." An', hell, it ain't like he c'n make it much worse, is it...?

Remind myself I oughtta not be thinkin' that way, an' we set out.

[goddessnanshe]

I breathe a sigh of relief as we reach the cliffs, with the abbey right above us. The rocks look sheer and uninviting, and so I press my hands firmly against the stone, and I think hard of dreams I have seen, of endless staircases - dreams that are often nightmares, but that I will make my own, Icelus, I will take your tortures and make them my own. And the cliff gives way, opening into a staircase.

"Let us go steadily, but quickly," I say, and we start to ascend. My heart hammers the whole time, but we make the way to the top without further effort, and we are at the gates of the abbey. There's a thick chain around the gate. "Do you suppose your sword would take care of that?" I say to Wanda.

[mistresswanda]

Up, up, up.... just don't look down. Don't look back, don't look down. You'll never know how far you can fall if you
don't.
Look.
Down.

Rather glad we make it to the top without incident. Small mercies that end at the gate.

"Do you suppose your sword would take care of that?" Nanshe asks, and I step forward to examine it. "Might..." I say, but it's doubtful. I take a step back, raise the sword, and bring it clanging down on the metal links. Sparks fly and the blow rings out loudly, but when I look closely, there is barely a scratch. "It would take hours at best." I sigh, shaking my head. "Maybe if I try the padlock..."

I run my hand along the chain until I find the lock, and curse at it when I do. It is brand new, almost gleaming. I don't have to bring the sword down on it to know that it would most likely break my blade. "Damn it all! If I only had my throwing knives I could try and pick the lock. Wait..."

The wolf brooch is still pinned to the lapel of my riding habit. Unpin it and use the pin back to try and tumble the lock. The metal bites at my fingers, as if the mouth was biting me, and the red jewels in the eyes glow as my blood trickle off my fingers, but after much grumbling under my breath, I hear a 'click', and the lock snaps open. "Viola!" I exclaim and step back to let them untangle the chain and open the gate.

"Bad wolf." I murmur to the blood covered pin as I re-pin it to my bodice. I absently wipe my hand against my bodice and hope Lucien shows up soon to fix my hand.

[valmont_vicomte]

I look from the pin to Wanda and then to the gate.

"I think," I say, remembering fairy tales - old fairytales, not ones cleaned up and illustrated for boys and girls who were to be protected from horror, but ones written to remind children to be scared of the dark - "that it may have been the blood as much as the pin which opened the gate."

"Sacrifices are demanded of us all," says Nanshe, and she sounds very sad. "I hope that is all you will have to give up, Wanda."

So do I, I think very fervently, as we walk towards the abbey.

[goddessnanshe]

We get to the abbey. It's troublingly quiet here.

"He has been here," I say, meaning Icelus, though I don't want to say his name in a place so thick with his power, "very recently. But he's distracted..." I look out to the east. I am afraid for my friends.

[jack_hollow]

Hermia, you had really better be okay, that's 'bout all there is to it... Me, here, I'm seein' something that ain't quite double; there's the Abbey itself, all grain and gentle hands and the pelican, an' in the lines of the stone and the corners of the walls, I'm seein' solid crosses, hammers, nails set neat and straight and right.

And then there's all the empty space, and the marks the fires left, an' I don't like ta look at what I c'n see there. 'Minds me of the town sign, way it was way back ago.

Fasten the pelican brooch on where my star used ta be, and there's no wrong in that. The garden that used ta grow here's a spikey mess, an' I don't look too close at the tatters in the thorns; there ain't nothin' there ta save an' I need ta help her, she needs ta make this right an' I will do anything I can.

God pounds his nails.
I want the widow and orphan protected.

'kay, then.

Open up the abbey door. There's smoke crawlin' up the walls, a smell like rotten chestnuts on a fire.

[mistresswanda]

Nanshe talks of sacrifices, and says that the enemy has been here, but is not now. She looks behind us, worried as Jack opens up the gates.

"Hold on." I murmur, looking towards where Nanshe is. "Let me take a listen..." I open up my senses and hone in on-----------

Come and wake me, come be the love I can hold now....

I'm singing. It's my voice, I know it is, but I sound so disconnected from myself. Oh no, please no... not again... his music is fading...

There is only one perfect story book ending....

Lucien, you are not alone... please fight, please...

...love me now.... My voice cracks on the last note.

.....love you, Wanda....

"Lucien, I love you so much, please, please, please don't go!..."

And then; nothing. It's silent, where he once was. So very, quiet, it's painful; this utter silence----

My scream pierces the silence. No, not a scream; I keen. A long, high pitched wail of despair and rage that reaches the heavens and the depths of hell. I am moving without thought; past Nanshe and Valmont, past Jack. Sword drawn and screaming to bring the gods to their knees, I fly into the courtyard.

"Come out you bastard!" I wail to the one who took my first love and best friend from me. "I am not afraid of you! Come out from the closet and under the bed and face meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

I'll kill him, Lucien. I swear it!

[valmont_vicomte]

What Nanshe says about the nightmare god being distracted worries me for my wife's sake, but hopefully it means we can get into the abbey quietly -

And Wanda screams, a scream that reminds me of when I was a boy and a house caught fire, and a child was pulled dead out of the rubble, and his mother saw him...

"Wanda!" I hiss, chasing after her, "Wanda, what are you doing?" And then I'm distracted by the strange sight of a gateway built in the courtyard. From one angle it looks like an empty arch, and from another I can see beyond into - starlight; and a hillside; and a raging sea. Looking at it makes me feel dazzled and sick at once.

[mistresswanda]

"Wanda, what are you doing?"

"Calling out a coward!" I screech, still charging towards the courtyard. "He killed Lucien! That bastard took..."

I stop as Valmont does when we reach courtyard. There's a doorway with a swirling vortex... and a field of roses...

and a hillside leading down into a village I saw once; long ago in Europe. And on the path, so very far away... I can see a figure with shining blonde hair walking away from us. All I want to do is to step through that arch and call him back, go chasing after him, make this right again!

But somewhere, also far away, I hear my daughter crying, calling for both Lucien... and for her not father. I can't go through that gate, I must stay here and set this all to rights. For Lucien.

"So Godmother..." My voice cracks as I swipe the tears away. "Will this help?" I take the hinge from it's safe place in my bodice and hand it to her. "Maybe I can gouge his eyes out with it?" I add, trying to smile but failing miserably.

[jack_hollow]

Turn 'round when I hear the wailing, but Miss Wanda holds herself back 'fore I can try'n find a decent way'a sayin' that maybe we ain't ready ta have him called out just yet. But then I feel... warmer, maybe, or else a little less stretched thin, an' hear the edge of voices on the air. An' guess that means that he's gonna be turnin' his attention here soon enough.

Look to Nanshe. "Tell me anything you need." Awkward's hell, but how else do I say it?