Sweat beaded on her forehead with every passing moment. The uncut pure white crystal pulsed against her chest like a second heartbeat. Lilly pressed her eyes shut in concentration as waves of power washed through her and into the crystal. Five healers hovered around Eliot's bedside, fingers twisting and folding as fast as they were able. Margo gripped onto Fen's trembling hand, the steady pressure calming her just as much as it did Fen.

"You doing okay?" Margo stared at Lilly with furrowed brows. She only nodded. Her concentration was too delicate to risk a verbal response. Lilly had sensed the impending brownout five minutes ago, and since then, her power was working to its limit, trying to act as a magical generator for the healers. A buzz of energy ran across her skin like silk, and a fog settled over her mind. The world around her faded in and out through a haze of light and colors. It was as if the crystal had at once heightened and dulled her senses. Or maybe it had launched her into a different level of perception. But every few moments, she'd dip back into consciousness, and she'd feel the heavy toll it was taking on her body.

Every muscle in her body ached and burned, but still, she pushed on. She was the only thing keeping magic from flickering out and extinguishing Eliot's life along with it. Lilly thought this was what Atlas must have felt as the world was dropped upon his shoulders, forced to hold it while his body was ripped apart.

Light began to fill the room. Thousands of tiny lights traveled up the web of strings from Eliot's Gollum to his true body. Margo took a breath as the light refracted off her widened eyes. It was working. Lilly pushed herself harder. Every second that passed, the Wellspring grew weaker, and so did she. The surge of energy brought on by the amplifier crystal trickled away like water through her fingers. All at once, they plunged into darkness.

"What happened?" Margo stood abruptly and placed a hand on the small of Lilly's back. Lilly swayed and clutched her head. For a second, she thought she might faint. "Well, did it work?" One of the healers checked his wrist and examined the dulled crystals.

"No, but--"

"Then get out," Margo spat. They paused, but one look from her and they scurried out the door. Lilly blinked rapidly to clear the daze, and gradually her senses returned. She felt the coarse crystal clutched in her hand, felt the sticky blood dripping from where she'd gripped it so tight it pierced her skin. When her eyes dropped to her hands, she saw that the once pure white crystal had turned a charred black color. Every ounce of power had been drained. The amplifier was burnt out.

"No, no, no." Lilly searched the crystal for any morsel of magic, any hope of helping Eliot. She came up empty. "Goddamnit!" Lilly chucked the blackened crystal across the room in blind anger. Her cry of frustration was muffled by the hand pressed against her mouth. Margo crouched beside her and placed a hand on her knee.

"Lil, it's okay. We'll find another way." Her words felt false even to her. "It's gonna be okay." Fen took a step forwards, tears welling in her eyes. She clutched her baby bump for any morsel of comfort but found none.

"I'm pregnant. We're about to go into war. We need the king. I need my husband." Fen's voice cracked at the end, and Margo grabbed both her hands in hers. Leveling her gaze, Margo stared intensely into her eyes. The fire behind them was not of anger or defiance but pure care and unquestionable devotion.

"I'm gonna take care of you and the kid. I will untangle this war shit somehow. I know the High King has the power, but I will hunt Ember to the ends of the world to have that stupid rule rewritten. Everything El promised, I'm gonna deliver. You hear me?" Fen hesitated only a moment before she nodded.

"Yes." Her voice was as delicate as a field mouse.

"Listen to High King Bambi." All three of them whirled to find Eliot watching their exchange with weak amusement.

"You're alive!" Fen threw herself upon him with a squeal of joy. Eliot happily embraced his friend as she clung to him. But when his eyes turned to the other two, there was an unmistakable urgency there. He tried to push himself up to sit once Fen released him.

"Where's Q? Is he-"

"He's fine, Superman. Don't worry." Margo pressed gently on his shoulder and he sank into the pillows with relief. "Not a scratch on him, thanks to you." Eliot shut his eyes and leaned his head back.

"Good." He nodded as if to assure himself. "That's good." Margo went to help Lilly move to sit at Eliot's bedside. She swiped a damp cloth from the table and instructed her to clench her bloodied hands around them. Eliot reached up to stroke Lilly's hair as she sat beside him. He knew that his recovery was thanks to her.

"I don't need to tell you how profoundly stupid that shit you pulled was. But it'll make me feel better, so I'm gonna do it anyway. That was fucking stupid!" Margo would've smacked him for good measure if he hadn't just come back from the dead.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Won't happen again, I swear. Scouts honor." He held up three fingers in salute.

"I know full well you were never a boy scout." Margo scoffed, but she was smiling. It was the truest smile she'd had in a very long while.

"Eh, technicalities."

"You missed a lot." Fen was the first to acknowledge his time away. Eliot lifted a finger to silence them and took a long deep breath.

"Alright, lay it on me."

"Well, Julia committed genocide against a forest of intelligent trees yesterday. So we're kind of on the brink of civil war. She's in the dungeons right now thinking about what she did."

"Is there ever any good news around here?"

"Well, I'd say you waking up counts as good news." Lilly have him a tired grin. There was a light knock, and suddenly there were five. Penny leaned against the doorframe like he owned the place, and even he couldn't hide the relief that flooded him at the sight of Eliot up and smiling.

"Nice of you to finally join us, El." The words were sarcastic, but it was more of a welcome back than anything else.

"You're welcome." Eliot drawled and twirled his fingers in the air in a mock bow. Penny rolled his eyes, and when they landed, they'd focused on Lilly, who looked much paler than usual.

"Lil, can I talk to you for a sec?" He jutted his chin towards the hall. His gaze flicked from her to Eliot with what she could've sworn was pity.

"Sure," she gave Eliot's hand a light squeeze. "Be back in a minute." Picking up her skirts, Lilly let Penny lead her out into the hall, all the while a sense of dread settled in her stomach. Penny fidgeted with the hem of his scarf and bit his lip. Looking over his shoulder nervously to make sure Eliot was out of earshot, he turned back to Lilly with a worried expression.

"It's Q," he whispered, and Lilly immediately sobered. "I figured out why he's been so shifty these past few months." She searched his face for any hint.

"What is it?"

"It might be better if I just showed you."

Her concern was only heightened and by the time they arrived outside the Brakebills Wards, Penny had given her a cursory explanation as to the situation at hand. He lead her to one of the outermost campus buildings. The one Jane had been murdered in. Her heart sputtered as she walked down the hall in which Eliot had been forced to kill the man he loved and stepped into the very room where her Grandmother's life had been extinguished so violently.

Water dripped lazily from the ceiling onto cold concrete stained with the rust of iron bars. Clinking chains cut through the heavy tension filling the room. Quentin Coldwater stood in the center of an impregnable cell. Runes and Roman numerals were welded into the floor and walls around it. Brakebills built this place for creatures far more powerful than the man entrapped within it. But it wasn't just Quentin they were holding. Alice was in there too. What was left of her, at least.

All this time, Quentin had kept her Niffin contained within his Kako trap. The tattoo that wound itself across the skin of his back was red and raw as a brand. It was never meant to hold something as unpredictable and malicious as a Niffin. Lilly had seen the signs. The way his gaze would flick to empty air, the irritation, the avoidance. She should've known. Maybe she would've been able to help. Yet he'd avoided her like the plague.

"Seriously, you guys, I'm in a cage. You think this is, uh, a tad redundant?" Quentin nodded to the thick irons clamped around his wrists that bound him to the ceiling. Professor Lipson circled him, studying him through a series of revelatory glasses.

"Protocol." Dean Fogg stated from outside the ring of wards. Lilly stood beside him, still dressed in Fillorian attire with her arms crossed tightly across her chest. Penny placed a comforting hand on the small of her back and eyed the way she chewed absently at her thumbnail.

"For werewolves." He gave the cell beside him a pointed look. Josh Hoberman stood behind the bars of a second cage. He was not looking at all like himself. His usually clean-shaven face was covered in a thick beard of fur. Animalistic pupils darted about the room as if unsure of his surroundings.

"Okay, technically, I have sexually transmitted lycanthropy... a very mild case. Would've been cool to actually fully wolf out." He howled at the ceiling, and Lilly couldn't mask her disdain. "Either way, it's totally curable."

"Treatable. There is no actual cure." Dean Fogg interjected. Josh pulled inward like a puppy being chastised by its owner.

"Well, silver bullet." Penny chuckled, and Lilly smacked his stomach with the back of her hand.

"Quentin, you're dying." Lipson looked him straight in the eyes with a gravity no one ever wished to see.

"Yeah, well, aren't we all?" He rolled his eyes with a huff of indignance that made Lilly's hackles rise.

"You are dying quickly. You cannot keep this thing inside you much longer." Quentin sniffed as another trickle of thick blood dripped from his nose. Lilly rushed forwards and handed the professor a handkerchief from her skirts. Lipson smiled pitifully at her and used it to gently dab at Quentin's bloody face. His eyes trailed along the stained concrete floor and focused on the lace that trimmed the edge of Lilly's lavender dress.

"Well, I can't let her go," he whispered.

"Which is why you must box her." Fogg's hands were tucked into his trousers, and his spine bent with resignation.

"I'm not doing that to Alice." Quentin immediately defended. His eyes locked onto the reflective surface of Fogg's round-framed glasses.

"Quentin, there is no more Alice." Irritation seeped through Dean Foggs' usually demure voice. No one could blame him. Quentin was being particularly bullheaded and reckless.

"This is uncharted territory. Nobody knows."

"Well, I know that you will be dead in days if you don't rid yourself of her." Lipson pulled her wheel of colorful glasses back and tucked them into the pocket of her white coat.

"Hey," Lilly held up her hand to silence any other scolding comments. "Can I have a word with him in private, please?" No one moved, and it seemed her request would be denied. Then Professor Lipson sighed and removed herself from Quentin's cell. Metal screeched as the heavy bolted lock slid into place. Penny gave her an encouraging nod before ushering Fogg and Lipson into the hall.

"Just pretend I'm not here." Josh made a zipping gesture over his lips and threw an imaginary key over his shoulder. Lilly smiled half-heartedly at his gesture, however small.

"Q," her eyes were tired and sorrowful as she leveled her gaze with his. "You can't keep going like this."

"I've been doing it for months now. I can do it a bit longer." He swallowed hard, the edges of his throat felt like sandpaper.

"Alice wouldn't have wanted this." She whispered, taking a step towards him. Lilly yearned to reach her hand through the bars and cradle his face in her palm. The runes glowed red at the mere twitch of her fingers.

"You don't know shit about what Alice would've wanted." Quentin spat, his eyes locking on hers for the first time since she'd arrived. The venom was enough to make her flinch. It took a moment of calming thoughts to school her features.

"You're right. But I know that she loved you, and she'd hate herself if she was the reason you wound up dead." It was the truth, and they both knew it. Quentin had the sense to looked ashamed, at least.

"Alice wanted to live. If there's even a sliver of a chance I could bring her back--"

"You can't bring her back if you're dead."

"I know that." He whined like a scorned child.

"Really? Cause it looks like you're trying to die." This time there was irritation in her voice.

"I can't box her." He mumbled, looking at anything but his friend.

"You don't have a choice." She was stern and unyielding as she spoke. "But Alice did. She knew the consequences of going through with that spell and she did it for you, for us. Killing yourself makes all of that meaningless. You'll be adding yourself to The Beast's body count." It was a cold dose of truth that he wasn't ready to hear. Quentin bit his lip and tried to ignore Lilly's presence.

"Look, I'll be here when you're ready to box it. But don't expect me to stick around and watch you kill yourself." Lilly whirled and stomped towards the door. She paused as her hand rested on the cool metal of the handle. Staring at the dark wood grain, she sighed. "I love you, Q." With that, she wrenched open the door, and three pairs of eyes looked up at her ashen face. Lilly ignored their questioning looks and trained her attention on Dean Fogg.

"Could you send me a message if anything changes?" His lips quirked in an apologetic smile.

"Of course." Lilly grabbed Penny's hand.

"I think I should go home," Penny said nothing, and she was thankful he didn't try to comfort her with words that could do nothing but acknowledge her pain. "He doesn't want me here." She left the Professor and Dean Fogg with only a nod and let Penny guide her through campus and past the wards, where they whisked away to Fillory. Lilly couldn't face Eliot and Margo, not when seeing them would mean explaining exactly where she'd been and the new problems that weighed on them. She didn't want to give Eliot anything more to worry about. Especially something like this.

Lilly felt most at home amongst books. Yet as she strode down the endless rows of shelves that made up The Library, the only feeling she could summon was one of unease. Her head was held high as always. It was a stance she'd developed in her months with Elias. A queen must project an heir of authority, and that would come in handy in this situation. She wasn't in one of her usual gowns, but instead a simple pair of jeans and a striped shirt.

She'd come straight from Brakebills, where she was beginning to feel more like a hindrance than an asset. Quentin seemed determined to self-destruct and her presence was only making it worse. So for most of the days, she stayed away. Close enough to be there if he needed her but out of sight. She was secretly thankful not to have to see him deteriorate. It was far too painful.

Lilly approached the front desk, where a slim tall woman examined two massive opened books. Her hands rested in the air beside her as delicately as snowflakes. A pair of cat-eye spectacles rested on the tip of her nose, and as Lilly approached, the woman lifted her eyes to look over the top of them.

"Are you Zelda?" The woman straightened and cocked her head slightly to the left. Lilly stopped before her and crossed her arms.

"Lilly Cole." Zelda raised her brows in a form of acknowledgment. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person." Her fingers twiddled in the air like a spider spinning its web. Hers was a voice not unlike a songbird, soft and lilting.

"You know me?" Lilly's forehead crinkled in confusion.

"Of course, I know all of the Life Books in this library. Especially ones as important as yours. Now, what brings you to my little corner of the universe?"

"I'm not here for a friendly chat. I'm here to negotiate." Lilly fished the roll of parchment from her pocket. "This contract is a load of shit." Zelda looked taken aback by the force with which Lilly spoke. She took the parchment and unrolled it, the paper crackling and hissing as she did. Her eyes scanned the printed words with practiced speed.

"This contract would give Mr. Adiyodi a means to regain his magic. That professor Mayakovsky has him running errands when he should be helping him." Though her words were accusatory, Zelda's voice remained ever soft.

"Signing his freedom away to an organization that only wants him to further their own agenda is even worse. Magic is not worth an eternity of servitude."

"So you're here to reject the offer, then?" Lilly paused as if to consider her words.

"No," she declared, "I'm here to propose an amendment." Zelda's brows rose in surprise.

"The contract is the same for everyone and I'm afraid I don't have the authority to make changes." Her fingers flitted in the air beside her at every dip and soar of her voice.

"But you know who does." Lilly leveled a knowing gaze on the Librarian. She maintained her cool demeanor, channeling her mother's negotiating skills.

"Well, of course, but—"

"Then you can give them a message from me." Lilly cut her off with a strong and steady cadence. "I'd like to propose a freelance position for Penny. He works for you in exchange for a library card. He can end the arrangement at any time with the condition that he returns his card and forfeits his benefits." Lilly nodded her head to the side at the last bit. She left no room for a refusal.

"They would never agree to something like that."

"Tell me what would make them agree, then." Lilly placed a hand on the front desk and leaned in. Zelda eyed the movement warily. Her eyes flicked between Lilly's hand and her stony expression.

"Well, there is one thing." Zelda sighed as if she'd much rather continue shelving books. But Travelers were much too rare to give up a chance to have another in their organization.

"Well?" Lilly nodded for her to continue and Zelda pursed her lips.

"You're a Shifter. It's been nearly a century since we've even heard of one in Fillory or any world for that matter." Zelda fidgeted with her glasses. They were attached at either end to a beaded necklace, so when she removed them they hung around her neck. "The Library's collection on them is severely limited. But if you were to give them something infinitely valuable to our cause, they'd have no choice but to agree to your offer."

"What did you have in mind?" Lilly gave her a skeptical look. If their idea of a fair contract was a life of servitude, she didn't want to know.

"A vial of your blood, perhaps?" Zelda gestured to the hand Lilly had resting on the desk. Lilly pulled it back like she'd burned it on a hot stove.

"You're joking." Zelda's eyes showed no humor.

"Our interest in it is purely academic, of course. The Library is built around the pursuit and preservation of knowledge and knowledge alone."

"Surely there's something else that would persuade them?" Lilly gaped at the audacity of the request.

"I'm afraid it would take that for them to even consider it." Zelda raised her brows in a show of finality. Biting her lip, Lilly mulled over her choices. Penny had so few options, and here was an opportunity for him to regain his magic and finally feel whole again. So many nights they'd spoken of his feeling useless without it. She'd give anything to make him happy.

"Fine, but I have one more condition." Crossing her arms, she set her jaw. "You offer Penny the new contract as if it was your idea. I was never here."

"Confidentiality is highly valued in our line of work. I will not breathe a word to Penny." Zelda gave her a cordial nod.

"And you must promise that no harm will come to anyone as a result of your academic pursuits with my blood." This took a moment of deliberation on Zelda's part, and Lilly nearly pulled the plug on any negotiation. But then the Librarian gave a single dip of her chin.

"You have my word."

"Then we have a deal."