Eliot lay beneath a canopy of shimmering white crystals, each one refracting iridescent rainbows across the stone walls of his chamber. Lilly and Quentin sat on either side of his bed, surrounded by five furiously casting Fillorian healers. Quentin's trembling fingers brushed a stray hair from Eliot's pale face, his eyes studying every detail as if to memorize every dip and curve of his jaw. He'd barely left Eliot's side since his Gollum had been slaughtered at the bank. Margo was even more bossy and sharp with her servants than usual, and they'd taken to giving her a wide berth whenever they heard her heels tapping purposefully down the halls.

It had taken a Herculean effort to convince a pregnant Fen to leave her husband's side and get some sleep. Dark circles had settled beneath their weary eyes, and a somber weight found its way into each of their chests. Hope was gradually slipping through the cracks each time the magic would sputter out, and the healers were forced to start their enchantments anew. Lilly had summoned two of the best healers The Valley had to offer, and still, Elliot hung in the balance between life and death. The spell, if completed, would bring his consciousness from the clay of his Gollum and back to the flesh and blood of his true body.

"Is there anything else we could be doing?" Quentin muttered, his eyes never leaving the face of his fellow king. Margo crossed her arms and gave a deep sigh. Her expression was grave. The weight of her crown had grown tenfold since Eliot fell ill.

"Hold off the war until he gets back." Quentin looked about to argue. He loathed being useless to help Eliot. They all did. "I had a pigeon drop a confusion spell on the Lorian castle. They should be moving slowly about now."

"How can I help?"

"Honestly, you can go back to Brakebills and check on Julia. You know you want to."

"If anything changes--" He looked desperately between Margo and Lilly. The latter of the two reached out to squeeze his hand as Margo cut him off gently.

"I'll enchant a two-way mirror to Brakebills, like when Rupert yelled at Jane through the vanity table in the books." Her voice was soft and comforting. It was rare for Margo to show her soft side, but her friends knew that when it truly mattered, Margo would be there for comfort, protection, and anything in between.

"And I'll try to stabilize the brownouts enough for them to finish enchanting. He'll be okay, we're watching over him." Lilly nodded to show her conviction was true. Quentin's eyes began to sparkle with tears, and he hastily wiped away any evidence.

"Hey," Margo crossed the distance and sat on the edge of Eliot's bed. She reached out a hand to stroke the side of his face tenderly. "Don't worry. My takeaway lately is that anything can happen at any time. So, just be there for your friend while you can. Here," Margo reached into her breast pocket and held out the portal button. Quentin hesitated a moment as if waiting for permission. When none came, he took the button and placed a lingering kiss on Eliot's cheek before hurrying out of the room. Lilly and Margo shared a sorrowful look.

"Go," Lilly jutted her chin towards the doorway. "I'll make sure he's okay. You need to see to your duties as interim High King." Margo bit her lip and nodded. The guards stepped away from the doors to allow her out. Lilly sighed at the sudden emptiness. The healers still worked vigorously around Eliot, but it was silent and unbearably lonely. Eliot's personality had been an undeniable presence that calmed her without a word when she felt herself losing her grip. The responsibility she'd inherited from Elias as the heir to The Valley, and then ambassador to Fillory, weighed heavily on her. But Eliot seemed to make it less like a burden and more like an adventure, despite his constant complaining. This empty vessel of a man gave her no comfort.

"I don't know if you can hear me, El, but if you can, I need you to come back to us," Lilly whispered over him. She reached out a hand to intertwine her fingers with his. "Margo and I, we can't run a kingdom without you. We couldn't even handle waking up every morning knowing that you wouldn't be there. I've lost too many people I love already and I need my big brother. I know it seems like I don't need anyone, but I need you. So, please, don't leave me." Salty tears spilled down her cheeks and dripped onto their joined hands. His skin was so cold and lifeless, that when she pressed her forehead against the back of his hand, it felt as cool as a slab of marble. A healer, Alek, placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and whispered a request for her to move so that they could reach the correct area for their spell. Lilly hastily wiped her cheeks and settled a little closer to his legs.

She watched in a trance as they worked, unsure how much time passed before Fen returned, changed and fresh-faced. Her eyes had none of the light happiness they usually held, but she had at least slept. Lilly found herself doting on the young woman quite often. It was a habit she hadn't been aware of until Penny pointed it out to her one night after Lilly ordered him to travel to Brakebills and get Fen a cone of mint ice cream to curb her pregnancy cravings. Lilly smiled fondly across the bed as Fen settled into an empty armchair, her skirts billowing around her.

"Has anything changed?"

"We had another brownout while you were sleeping. They've only just begun again." Fen swallowed the lump in her throat and leaned her elbows on the edge of the mattress. Her eyes trailed over the golden silk threads fanning out from a wrap-around Elliot's head and leading up to the shower of crystals. Light pulsed through each one, waxing and waning as the wellspring struggled to produce the necessary magic. Lilly grabbed Fen's hand with both of hers and ran her gaze over her face, assessing each line of worry spider webbing across her skin.

"I know that this wasn't what you imagined when you dreamed of your future with Eliot. I know you must be terrified of what would happen to you and the baby if--" She swallowed hard, unable to voice the possibility of Eliot not pulling through. "I won't let any harm come to you or the baby. You'll always have a place with me in The Valley. Margo might come off a little prickly sometimes, but I know she loves you, too, and she'll fight tooth and nail to keep you safe. You have a family with us, okay? You don't need to worry."

"Things haven't been conventional. I'll give you that. But I do love him. He's my friend, and if I can't have a lover in him, then a friend is all I need. I just want him back." Fen sniffed, rubbing at her eyes with a free hand, then reaching down to hold the tiny bump of her stomach.

"Me too. We'll bring him back. I promise."

Queen Margo gathered up a pile of official documents from the heavy wood carved table of the throne room and turned. Waves of black chiffon fanned out around her as she faced her companions. Penny looked out of place beside the two women dressed in the finery reflective of their station in the kingdom. Lilly's gown made him look more akin to a beggar than a royal consort.

"Penny, could you bring this to Dean Fogg, have him look it over?" Margo held out the bundle of parchment. The edges fluttered with the force of the movement. "He said he'd help us rule, so let's see him put his money where his mouth is and get off his cushy tenured ass." Penny looked displeased but nodded all the same.

"I'm not your royal carrier pigeon, you know." Margo scrunched her shoulders.

"Debatable."

"I just can't sit on my thumbs in Fillory, Q." They looked towards the entrance, where a very irritated Julia Wicker stomped in. Quentin trailed after her, looking like he wished to be anywhere else.

"Look, you had the thing before, the Haxenpaxen, that... that was making you invisible, right?" Julia stopped to face him and crossed her arms. He ran a hand through his hair and let out a little huff. "So, we're in Fillory. There's a lot of crazy shit here. So find something else. Then you can go back." The glare she gave Quentin could've killed him on the spot.

"You don't get it. There isn't time." Her protests were ignored, and Quentin finally acknowledged the three others in the throne room.

"Uh, okay, look, I am going to go back. I'll help Kady. We're... we're gonna keep working." Quentin held out a hand to grab their attention. "Margo, Uh, Julia needs to stay here for a while. It's an emergency."

"Fine." Margo rolled her eyes with a grumble.

"Thank you." His shoulders visibly relaxed, and he turned his pleading gaze on Lilly. "Could you keep an eye on her, please? I need someone I trust implicitly." He glanced pointedly at Penny as if to say, anyone but him. Penny rolled his eyes. As much as they liked to pretend they weren't friends, it had been proven time and time again that they would risk their lives for one another. Quentin twiddled with the sleeve of his shirt, eyes flitting about the room as if to avoid landing on something or someone in particular.

"Dude, are you okay?" Penny crossed his arms and raised an inquisitive brow. "You're singing that stupid Imagine Dragons song in your head again." Furrowing her brows, Lilly looked between them questioningly.

"I'm fine. Nothing to see here." Quentin's words blurred together in a rush. He flicked open the button's case as quickly as he could and disappeared.

"It's a nice place." Julia looked around the castle appreciatively. Margo scoffed and turned on her heel. Lilly's look of disdain was enough to convey how she felt about this situation to Julia. She didn't seem bothered in the slightest and swept towards the thrones lined up at the apex of the room.

"Somethings up with Q-tip." Penny stared pensively at the place Quentin had stood moments before. "He only ever sings that obnoxiously when he's trying to hide something. His mental wards are still shit." He shook his head. Despite their Occlumency classes with Jane, Quentin was still as easy to read as a stop sign.

"You really need to stop calling him that." She let out a light laugh at the nickname anyways. "He's been avoiding me." Her smile melted into a frown. She'd voiced this thought many times to Penny over the last months, but she'd given Quentin the space he wanted. She wondered if that was the wrong decision.

"I'll try to get something out of him. But he's a grown-ass man. I can't force him."

"Technically, you can." Part of her thought that might be a more efficient way. "Just make sure he's safe." Penny smiled in a way that Lilly had come to know as a silent promise.

"Hey, uh," Penny reached out to grab her hand, and she turned to look up at him. "Can I talk to you about something? It's kind of important." Penny swallowed hard. She could see in his eyes that he was conflicted.

"Of course," Lilly placed a comforting hand on his arm and guided him away from where Julia spun to observe the architecture.

"I went to The Library the other day to fetch a book for Mayakovsky. While I was there, the Librarian sort of offered me a job. She said they could help me get magic back.

"What's the catch?"

"If I sign the contract, I'd be agreeing to an eternity of servitude to The Library."

"Well, fuck."

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't considering it. Mayakovsky has had me picking up his fucking drycleaning for half a year. I'm useless without magic."

"That's complete bullshit and you know it." Lilly gave him a stern look and pursed her lips. "You are more than your magic. I don't love your magic. I love you. And if you sign off on an eternity of servitude, you're signing away everything we've fought so hard for. We will find another way. We always do." Lilly set her jaw and stared into his eyes with an intensity Penny felt with his whole being. The slightest shimmer of tears lined his lids, but after a moment he looked away and cleared his throat.

"I gotta fetch some stupid plant book from The Library for Mayakovsky, and I want to check in on Kady, see if she needs some help with this god-killing shit. I'll see you soon, okay?"

"Alright, just be careful." She squeezed his arm, and he leaned down to press his lips to hers. She shut her eyes for an instant, and when they opened again, he'd disappeared. Lilly turned her gaze on Julia, who'd been watching their conversation out of the corner of her eye.

"Trouble in paradise?"

"None of your business."

"Guess we're stuck with each other. Come on, you can help me do some research."

Whitespire's archives couldn't hold a candle to what they'd been before The Beast took hold of Fillory. A majority of the texts had been destroyed or lost to neglect. But there was still a sizable collection of scrolls and spellbooks filling the shelves. Lilly glanced up from the massive leather-bound book to assess Julia sat across from her. She'd taken to playing with the book worms, whose job it was to sort and maintain the texts. They seemed to enjoy the company, and Lilly listened to pages flutter as Julia flipped through each book and set it aside for the worms to reshelve.

"I know we aren't friends, and you don't like me. Totally get why, by the way. But I was wondering if you could help me with something?" Lilly straightened at the request. Julia leaned both elbows on the table and rested her chin in the palm of her hands. "You're an Illusionist, right?"

"Yeah, why?" Lilly resumed skimming the page of her book, though she wasn't paying attention to what any of the words meant.

"I need something." Of course, you do, Lilly thought. "I'm in Fillory because Reynard is hunting me. I got rid of his baby, and now he wants me dead. I can't go back without something to hide me from him. If you're an Illusionist, maybe you can help me."

"You want me to make you something strong enough to hide you from a literal god?"

"Yes," her resolve was admirable. Julia's eyes had a steely quality that Lilly had rarely seen in anyone. It was the look of a survivor. From what Quentin told her of Julia's past, and what she now faced, Lilly knew that was true.

"I wish I could, but I'm still in training. To make something that strong, you'd need a Master Magician." Lilly frowned at the book in front of her. "I can help you find one, but The Beast killed almost all the Magicians in Fillory. You'd have better luck at Brakebills."

"That's not really an option right now." Julia's expression soured at the limitation Quentin had imposed upon her.

"Q just wants to protect you."

"My brain knows that." Julia leaned back in her seat and watched as the book worms hefted up the literature she'd been skimming and carried it off down the table. "But I don't feel anything."

"You lost your shade, Julia. We don't know how that's affected you yet. Don't be so hard on yourself."

"What do you care? You hate me."

"I don't hate you." Julia raised a brow. "Okay, maybe a little. But despite our differences, I don't think you deserved what happened to you. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. You saved us at the bank. You saved Penny, and I won't forget that."

"I'm different now. I don't know exactly how, but without my shade, I don't feel like the me that did all those things. It's like a weight is off my chest, all the guilt and pain and trauma is just gone. But I know that I need to stop him. Kill Reynard so he can't hurt anyone else like he did me."

"I hope you succeed. I really do." Lilly gave her a sympathetic smile. Julia was beginning to prove herself. Her words lingered in Lilly's mind long after their muttered conversation had ended. She mulled over what this might mean for Julia. Would she be a better version of the troubled woman she'd proven to be, or would her loss of shade only amplify her unreliable nature? Quentin seemed to be cautious when it came to her, but would he be willing to stop her if she pulled another deadly stunt? Heavy wooden doors swung open with a deep groan, and in marched Margo with her trademark look of determination.

"Lilly, what do you know about Fillorian trees?" She asked, stopping at the end of the long table they were working at and placed both palms flat to lean forward.

"Uh, hello to you, too." Lilly rotated her body so she was facing the queen.

"That bald Illusionist dick is messing with us again. Has a whole ass army on the other side of The One-Way Forest of intelligent trees or some shit. Apparently, they're endangered, and I can't chop them down without starting a civil war, so I need solutions, and I need them fast." Margo snapped multiple times to emphasize her need. Biting her lip, Lilly wracked her brain for any useful information.

"Jane tried to cross the one-way forest in the books." Her memory of the Fillory books was still as sharp as ever. Knowledge of the childhood stories had saved their life ten times over.

"Yeah," Julia sat up in her chair, her eyes alight with interest. "The trees had some sort of ambassador, a dryad. You need to negotiate with her." It was easy to forget that Julia had once been as in love with Fillory as Quentin was.

"That worked for Jane? Sold."

"Great. I'll come with you." Julia hopped up from her seat, the chair legs scraping against the tile as she did.

"Yeah, no, that's not happening." Holding up a hand, Lilly gave her an incredulous look. "I promised Q I'd keep an eye on you."

"Yeah, I don't care." Julia placed a defiant hand on her hip. "Look, I know the books almost as well as Quentin does. Margo can watch me just as well as you could." The glare she received was lethal. "I'm bored. Let me be a little useful, okay?" Her voice softened at the end and she gave Lilly a look almost like a child asking a parent if they could go outside and play.

"Fine. But you're on probationary status with me. Don't do anything to fuck it up." A grin broke out across Julia's face.

"Yes, Mam." She did a mock salute. Margo nodded and looked Julia up and down appraisingly.

"I do the talking. You just stand there and look vaguely indignant or whatever." Her heels began tapping as she flipped her hair over a shoulder and swept off down the corridor. "Let's go."

It wasn't long before Lilly had exhausted the castle library. Eliot's healers were still no closer to finishing, and she feared it wouldn't be long before the damage was irreversible. The royal carriage took an hour to reach The Valley, and when it did, she sent it on its way without her. There were many unseen eyes in Fillory, the trees had ears, and a royal carriage parked in the middle of the forest would raise too many questions. The Valley would remain a secret until Lilly was positive her people would be protected. Slipping through the almost invisible rift she'd left open at the northernmost edge of the barrier. Penny used it most often so that Lilly didn't have to open it every time he came home.

Nodding a quick greeting towards the guards watching the rift closely, she hunted down her grandfather. She found him with the children, a smile stretched across his face as laughter filled the air. His hair had greyed completely now, and his face showed the age that was swiftly creeping up on him. Lilly watched as he scooped up a little girl who'd been pulling at his sleeve and hoisted her up into the air. If Jane hadn't been forced to flee Fillory, maybe that could've been her in his arms.

The spell that retained Elias's youth was a special sort of Horomancy, one that Lilly had failed to replicate. If Elias was right, and Jane had passed a bit of her power to her, she hadn't found it. So, now she watched, as day by day, her grandfather aged at a rate she would've thought impossible. He looked up as she approached, and with a few words and a gentle nudge, he sent the children scurrying off to play among the trees.

"I need to speak with you about something important." She gave him an apologetic look, wishing that this was a social call instead. She'd had very little time recently to spend with her grandfather, and she felt every moment of wasted time. Her training sessions with him were often cut short now due to one emergency or the next. Ava had been less than agreeable since Lilly had missed three of their sparring matches that week.

"How is the king?" Elias asked, a somber expression replacing his lighthearted one.

"Not good. The healers can only do so much. The Wellspring situation is proving more meddlesome than we thought." Lilly hooked her arm in his and pulled them into a leisurely stroll through the village.

"I'm sorry, I wish I had another option for you, but I'm afraid his ailment is rare, and the healers we sent are the best we have." His hand enveloped hers, and he gave it a light squeeze in comfort. She leaned into his touch and rested her weary head upon his shoulder. The comforting touch of a grandparent was something she'd always wondered about as a child.

"It's not that I need a solution for." Lilly took a breath and let the light scent of cherry blossoms calm her raw nerves. "I think that if I find a way to stabilize the time between brownouts, maybe they can heal him." Elias hummed softly in thought, and Lilly looked up at him with hopeful eyes.

"Our magic is different." His tone was not unlike that of a teacher. "We draw from magic reserves within us, as well as The Wellspring. The brownouts don't fully affect us." It hadn't escaped her that The Valley wasn't afflicted with the same total outages of magic that the rest of Fillory was.

"Why?" She looked around at her people, going about their days as usual as if they would hold the answer.

"We're magical creatures. Magicians are those who've learned how to manipulate the ambient magic The Wellspring provides. We are magical ourselves." He slowed to a stop, pulling back just enough to look down at her. "I can give you an amplifier. Something to strengthen that part of you enough to help stabilize The Wellspring. I don't know how long you'll be able to maintain it. They'll need to work fast if they're going to save him." His conviction was soothing to her. Her hope had begun to dwindle with each brownout, but he remained ever positive. Never did he tell her to give up her efforts or prepare for Eliot's inevitable passing. It was his faith in her that kept her going.

"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." A grin broke out across her face, and she lifted herself on her tiptoes to place a kiss on his cheek. Eliot might just have a chance now. If she had anything to do with it, he'd be back on his feet by sunrise.