The bed was warm. Rain pattered outside the window. Schula was sleeping beside me, and I was content. Mama Flori promised us hot cakes for breakfast if we helped her move some sacks of flour later, and I was finally getting used to my training enough that I wasn't sore. Puko had been allowed inside the apartment for the night, and even he didn't want to disturb the cozy morning with noise. He sat quietly sleeping on the back of a chair.

What did finally disturb the morning was a knock at the door.

I groaned and pulled the covers over my head. Schula sighed and got out of bed, leaving a trail of annoyed frosty air in her wake. The door squeaked open and she stepped outside in just her tunic that barely reached her thighs.

I was almost asleep again when she came back inside.

"Wren." Her voice was soft, but it woke me instantly.

"What's wrong?" I sat up. "Is he back?"

Thain still hadn't come back. Whatever business he was conducting at the borders was taking a long time. It had been nearly a week, and every day Eberon would visit, looking more and more on edge. Schula tried inviting him to run and meditate with us, but he declined every time. I knew he was worried about Thain and it didn't look like he had been eating properly.

"Nothing is wrong, I just have a few things to tell you." She came and sat on the edge of the bed. "First, King Baeleon sends word from the Winter court. You are cordially invited to the Winter Solstice festivities in three weeks. It makes sense, they probably heard about your invitation to the Spring Equinox."

"Oh, alright then." My shoulders relaxed. "Yeah, we were expecting that. Are you and Eberon coming too?"

"Yes, we'll accompany you through all the Wyldes for the next year. But that leads me to my next piece of news." She reached out to hold my hand. "Thain is back, and wants to talk to me and Eb."

My heart skipped a beat. "Is he alright?"

"There was no mention of him being harmed, I assume he's just fine," she said. "But he wants to talk to his triquetram, I assume about what he found down there."

"Oh." Was all I could manage.

"He wants to talk to you too of course, but first he wants to fill in his triquetram," she said. "He, Thain, wants to know if you are willing to talk to him over lunch. He's ready to meet you wherever you like."

"Wherever I want to go? Not his house?" I asked. "I don't know anywhere in Thanantholl other than the River's Edge and Mama Flori's. Unless you count the street carts."

"I think he just wants you to be comfortable. I can see how meeting him in an intimate setting like his home could be alarming, since you just had a fight there." Schula offered. "If you aren't ready I can tell him you aren't ready yet. Or if you want I can recommend a nice place for lunch."

"No, I'm ready." I resolved myself. "I've thought a lot about it, and I want to fix the problem between us. I understand his frustration and..."

"And?" She raised an eyebrow.

"And I still don't have to apologize for how I am. I am not an open person. I am not required to give away my every secret just because he saved me from the mountains. But I am willing to compromise if he will."

"Good. That's exactly right." Schula grinned. "He was being bull-headed and he blew up."

"Thank you." I smiled. "So now what?"

Schula scooted off the bed and went to her wardrobe. "Now I guess I go to Eberon's and hear what Thain found. Actually, if you're that ready to face him..."

A wicked grin crossed her lips and she licked her fangs.

"What are you plotting?" I threw a pillow at her, and she caught it easily, laughing.

"Would you rather put him off his guard? You could strike first, he won't be ready for you yet. Come with me. I know you're dying to know what's going on as much as I am anyway."

"Is that wise?" I said, but already the thoughts were churning in my head. "Wait, he'll smell me before I even get close."

"No he won't, not with my magic." She smiled. "Come on, what do you say?"

"Okay, but I want to know what you're plotting," I said, surprising myself.

Plotting, I never would have been a part of something so mischievous before.

I've grown since he left, I realized. I've had half a month to sort myself out, and train my mind and body. I've experienced interest and attention, of friendship and otherwise, and it's made me realize my worth just a little bit more.

If Thain was going to treat me like a young fae, I should at least come at him as a fae.

"Excellent." She clapped her hands together. "Let's play a little game of deadly dress up, shall we?"

She ran to her stash of clothing, throwing the wardrobe doors open and basking in the fabrics. Schula's wardrobe had two sides to it. In the front it held her everyday clothing. Her preference for leggings and tunics made for comfort and function. In the back however, I saw a devious side of her.

"Um, Schula, what do you mean by deadly dress up?" I swallowed, suddenly nervous.

The first thing she pulled out was a corset and skirt, not unlike what she wore my first night in Thanantholl. There was no way I could fill out the ample cups and curvaceous hips, and I quickly paled, shaking my head. Schula just shrugged and, if anything, dove further in with determination.

"Deadly dress up is when, if looks could kill, you have the right looks for the job." She shook her hips excitedly as she sorted her clothes. "Take off that tunic and get over here."

It wasn't long before she had me stripped down to my underthings and standing in front of her.

She put me in lace, in leather, in things that were mostly straps. Scandalous things that would have me drawn and quartered with the humans, even in Sulls. But I found a small thrill in wearing them all. They made me feel strong. They made me feel like a creature of the Wyldes.

Of course, me being willing to leave the apartment in the ensemble was another mater. What Schula finally settled on, was the closest thing to my comfort zone that she had in the back of the wardrobe.

My leggings were a second skin. Black and leather, and they laced from my boots to the waistband, exposing a sliver of skin under the black cord all the way up. The top was little better. It was blood red and woven from silk that clung to everything. The neck laced closed, but it stopped low over my breasts, exposing the bit of cleavage I had managed to put on my bones over the past weeks. We fought for several minutes over how loosely I would let it be tied. In the end Schula was more persuasive than I was, and it was about as loose as it could be and still be considered laced at all. My hair was left loose, still covering my ears but it looked wild and foreign to me in the mirror. I never left my hair unbraided, it was scandalous. Schula painted my lips black and put a line of kohl against my eyelids.

"Why am I dressing like this?" I asked.

"To throw him off. I've been with Thain and Eberon for fifty years now, and I know their tastes well." Schula decided today was a day for the back of the wardrobe, and she dressed up too. Tight red leggings with golden buttons, and a loose golden tunic that tied at the sides. Much like the rest of the Thanantholl style, but there was something sultry about the way she wore it.

"And I'm appealing to his tastes why?" I inspected my neck line in the mirror to see just how much skin was exposed from every angle. A light blush graced my face under my freckles, but I felt very daring all the same.

"There is nothing like enticing a three thousand year old male to make you feel powerful." Schula grinned, examining her rear end in the mirror. "Besides, it will make it harder for him to keep himself controlled. He'll do it, but he deserves the torment."

"Fine." I fidgeted, twisting my fingers together. "Are we ready then?"

"Wait." She ran to the table on my side of the bed. "Wear this."

"The necklace from Caldon?" I asked.

"Yes, it matches the outfit." Her grin indicated additional motives, but I let it go.

"Alright, it's on. Ready now?" I huffed.

"Yes." She licked her fangs and sauntered to the door, opening it for me. "This is going to be splendid."

~

Thanantholl stared more than usual. Not that Schula hadn't warned me. It was now public knowledge that I was the found youth, the survivor, and since our return I had been bombarded with attention every time I walked out the door. Every fae I saw wanted to talk to the youth, invite the youth somewhere, ask the youth questions. Today I thought they would be staring at my clothes, but unlike the humans, how or if I covered myself was of no concern to them. No, instead they all wanted a piece of my fame. The flavor of the month.

Schula could only scare away so many of them, and the ones brave enough to approach me were stubborn about it. It took us twice as long as usual to walk to Eberon's place for being stopped so much, but his doorstep was blessedly empty.

"Do you want to knock or shall I?" Schula's grin hadn't disappeared since we left her apartment, despite the distractions on the way here.

"Ah, you go ahead." I stepped back from Eberon's door and let her approach. "You're the one they are expecting anyway."

"Shoulders straight, chin up," She ordered, I obeyed. I didn't know what to do with my hands, so as she knocked on the door I clasped them behind my back. A moment later, Eberon was at the door.

"Schula." He blinked, then spotted me, sputtering. "Wren? Ah, well, yes. Ahem. Um... Come in."

He stepped back, letting us inside, but his eyes stayed on me in astonishment. "I see you got into Schula's wardrobe, little bird."

"The study again?" Schula purred, thoroughly enjoying herself.

"Er, yes. By all means, follow me." He closed the door behind us and let Schula and I lead the way. "He's going to know this was your doing, Schula."

"I don't care," she purred.

The study was just as we had left it before, save for a giant midnight fae in an armchair. His shirt was left open in the front and he laid his head back with his eyes closed. He looked worse for his time on the border, exhausted.

"Took you long enough." He grunted, but when he opened his eyes and lifted his head, his nostrils flared. "Wren..."

Schula cleared her throat loudly. "She's here for a serious discussion of the border affairs, and whatever business you two still have can be handled afterwards like adults."

My mouth went dry and I had to hold my hands behind my back to stop them from shaking, but I held my ground and stood just as Schula had told me to. Chin up, back straight, my face a mask of indifference. Thain stared at me for a long time, and I nodded in agreement with Schula. His eyes drifted from my painted lips, down the open front of my shirt, to the long line of skin down the sides of my legs. In the end, his silver eyes set on the smoky quartz at my neck, and stayed there.

"Right, let's compare notes then." Eberon took his seat behind the desk and rubbed his temples, strands of scarlet hair falling in his face. "Thain, while you were gone the three of us went to Dwellonmar for Galavan's services. Schula and I poked around for anything about the wards we could find. As far as we can tell, Diamid wasn't hiding anything from the other courts about the circumstances they found the body in. None of his advisers seem to know anything about the problem with the wards either. Actually, out of the three of us, the one to discover any suspicious behavior was Wren."

Thain raised an eyebrow and glanced up from my necklace to my eyes, but Eberon continued.

"It would seem the fair King of the Spring court has a fairly deep interest in the 'found youth' as they call her. His people entertained her, took her around the city and of course were as appealing as possible. To be expected, I suppose, but the one to set off the alarms was Diamid himself. He invited Wren to a picnic with his family and was quite forward with questions regarding her magic. It was Puko who disrupted them just in time."

"Of course he's interested in what powers she has, all the crowns will be," Thain said softly. I didn't miss that his claws had extended slightly and were peeling little ribbons of varnish off the arm of his chair.

"No, it wasn't quite right," Schula added. "It seemed like he had more at stake than a new fae and what he had to gain or lose in her choosing the Spring court."

"So suspicion of tampering with the wards is off of him, or his court at least, but now we have a problem with Wren?" Thain asked.

"It's not enough to go off of now, but I'll be very curious to see how the other crowns react to her." Eberon leaned back in his chair. "Now for the real meat of the mystery, how was your time at the border?"

Thain gave me another glance, I couldn't read what was in his eyes and it unsettled me, but not from fear. Eberon poured him a glass of amber liquid from the cabinet behind him and he took a long drink before starting.

"The wards and the barrier are both in tatters." Schula and Eberon stiffened. "A Winter patrol took up the watch for the month, and it looks like each court sent one of their older, more powerful members to investigate not only the death, but the situation of the magic."

"Hells, who was there?" Schula took a glass from the shelf and Eberon filled it for her absently.

"Aithne, Asher, and Reghan. Took us a day to work together in the first place, then another to get on the right trail." Thain scoffed.

"Asher." Schula hissed. "I hope you left him to whatever killed Galavan."

"The opportunity didn't come up." Thain let the smallest of grins turn the corner of his mouth upward. "Believe me, I was looking for an opening. Anyway, the only trail we had to follow was scent. No footprints, no hint of anything else. At one point we thought we found a piece of ripped flesh in the bushes, maybe something useful, but it was just a bit of intestine from... ah, anyway, Galavan died in a crater of blood, and not a damned thing could be traced going in or out of it except Galavan."

"It's not like Galavan to put up no fight." Eberon scratched his chin.

"Unless it was something without a corporeal form," Schula added.

"That's what Aithne figured out first, not that it took long once we all saw the site." Thain stretched out his long arms. "In the end we had to give up the hunt after a couple days of bad rain. Everything was gone. At least we could survey the extent of the damage to the barrier after that. The wards were in a little better shape, but not much. "

"And what is the extent of the damage?" Eberon asked.

"Oh it's extensive. All of the Summer land's southern border is exposed. The Spring lands to the east are half in-tact still, same for the Winter lands to the west." Thain grunted.

"What of the Autumn lands?" I asked.

"The Autumn lands only touch the open ocean, and the rest of the Wyldes. The barrier doesn't exist up here," Schula said. "Not that much would be able to cross moving water like that anyway."

"As expected, this is going to require manual guarding while the damage is investigated and repaired," Thain growled. "Every soldier and scholar can expect a summons from the crowns any time now, particularly full triquetrams."

"And us?" Schula trailed off.

"Guard duty of a different sort." He jerked his head towards me.

"I knew we kept you around for something." Schula grinned and patted my back.

"So we're to continue touring the Wyldes with Wren?" Eberon asked. "I highly doubt that to be his Majesty's only order."

"Only two groups would have the knowledge and ability to ruin either the barrier or the wards, much less both." Thain drained his glass and set it on the desk. "This was done by a witch, or a fae. Most likely a group of them. We continue the rounds and rule out the obvious fae powers first. If we can't find our enemy in the Wyldes, we find them in the outer lands."

"Will that seem a little suspicious?" I asked. "If you're someone the king would send to investigate in the first place, won't it be odd if you aren't at the border?"

"The other crowns and who knows who else will be poking around for the same thing we are. They'd be stupid not to." Eberon rubbed his temples. "Everyone will know what we're up to, but they will let us do it anyway."

"So are we to head out again?" Schula sighed. "So soon after arriving home?"

"As soon as we can." Thain said.

"This is a more extensive trip, give me two days." Eberon said. "Pack for every occasion. Wren, you'll need a wider array of clothing. We can start with Winter since you've received an invitation to their Solstice. Try to bear with their fashions. It can be a bit... eccentric."

"I'll do what I can." I nodded at Eberon.

"Well, that's settled," Schula said. "Thain, take her to Maple Way and talk it out."

"Maple Way?" Thain asked, something odd on his face. He darted his eyes to me. I stood a little straighter and lifted my chin.

"Did I stutter?" Schula glared at him, a blizzard in her voice. Eberon was suddenly very busy cleaning papers from his desk.

"Right." Thain looked me in the eyes, darting briefly to my necklace and back. "Wren, would you accompany me to a tea house?"

I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. Schula gave me an encouraging look and waved us off. "Go on, Eb and I have preparations to make anyway."

I squared my shoulders, and followed Thain out of the house. Time to stop sulking, time to fix this thing between us.