"The Tesla Flexion has only been successfully employed once before. Luckily, we're using the original equipment, left to Brakebills by the man who invented it." Lilly stood uneasily beside Julia, listening as Dean Fogg presented them with the proper spell and execution. It was a highly nuanced spell, and while she was sure both she and Julia could execute it, she didn't like how volatile the contraption was.

"Nikola Tesla?" Quentin asked, his eyes growing wide with excitement.

"No, Fred Flexion," Fogg corrected. At this, Quentin deflated. "And it's only been used once before because-- Three people died trying to shut it down last time."

"Lovely," Lilly huffed. There was always a catch. Her sneakers squeaked against the concrete as she stepped over trailing wires. They reminded her of the bundles of knotted vines and roots that erupted from the Valley's forest floor. The canvas flaps of a tent-like structure glowed with diffused light from the fluorescents illuminating the empty classroom. Round bulbs with coils of wire lined the interior of the tent. They would amplify the spell and allow the fabric of their timelines to intertwine.

"What's the tent for?" Quentin asked, eyeing the contraption dubiously. Lilly paid no mind to the words spoken next, too focused on reworking the spell in her head and flexing her fingers in preparation.

"The Flexion is a fold between two different realities. The tented area is where they cross over." Fogg turned to face the tent and the women positioned themselves on opposite ends of it. "Now, Ms. Wicker, Ms. Cole, and I will work together to cast the Flexion, but if we hold it longer than two minutes, we will all die."

"Well, don't sugarcoat it," Quentin mumbled like a scolded child. The Dean ignored him and continued in earnest.

"Get the answers that you need, and then get out. Understood? And try not to touch anything in there. Matter from different realities occupying the same space can create a paradox, more like an explosion. As well a mess of problems for the people who'd find what's left of our bodies. Touch nothing." Quentin swallowed his rising anxiety and turned towards the tent.

"Got it," he nodded, the assurance more for himself than Fogg. Once he stepped inside, the three others took their positions around the tent. Lilly looked to her companions in turn. Each could see the others from their vantage points, and within moments they were ready. With silent nods, they began to cast.

The results were instant. Magic flowed through them like electricity down a conductor, and the lights began to flare and buzz incessantly. Lilly couldn't see the inner workings of the Tesla Flexion, only the one, then two shadows conversing within. Her ears strained to hear, but she couldn't discern anything above the whir of the machine.

If all went well, The Wellspring would hold up long enough for them to finish. She didn't want to think of what would happen if magic cut out in the middle of their spell. Lilly tried not to dwell on the unsavory possibility too long and focused all her attention on the repetitive motion of her hands and the magic she wielded. Just as her arms began to grow tired, a shrill chime erupted from the alarm clock, and Dean Fogg shouted a warning to Quentin. The shadows grew close, so close that for a split-second, Lilly thought he'd ignore the warnings, and doom them all with a single touch.

The lights burst in a shower of sparks and glass. She barely managed to fling her arms up to shield her face before shards rained down on them. The hum of working machinery gradually faded until there was nothing left but the still shrieking alarm. Julia silenced it with the snap of her fingers. The two shadows had once again become one. Quentin pushed aside the cloth draped entrance with one arm and crunched over glass glimmering in the fading light filtering through slatted blinds.

"Well, how do we kill a Niffin?" Lilly picked her way over wires and glass as she spoke, stopping a few feet from him as Fogg and Julia followed.

"You can't. Not really." Quentin ran a nervous hand through his dark waves and shook his head. "In all her research, she only ever came across one Niffin being killed. In Victorian London, a man's wife Niffined out, and he used an ancient Mayan spell to bind his soul with hers so that when it inevitably killed him, she'd come with him. I don't think any of us are ready to make that sacrifice." A deep frown curved her pink-stained lips.

"So we'd need to trap her inside one of us? Like you did with the Cacodemon sigil?" Julia asked, eyeing his shirt as if she could see the dark lines of the tattoo Alice was trapped in.

"Except, this time, we'd need to let her kill us." A grave silence fell over them, and Lilly rubbed her forehead to dispel the tension gathering there.

"There has to be another way." She looked over at Dean Fogg, who seemed to ponder Quentin's words with great deliberation. Quentin shuffled, and bits of glass clinked together beneath him.

"There is- sort of." Quentin began, using his hands to emphasize his words. "When Alice was trying to bring Charlie back, she thought that if she could find his shade, she might be able to repair the connection between body and soul. Therefore, reversing the transformation to Niffin. But that's a shot in the dark at best." Despite his admittance that it would be close to impossible, Lilly saw the spark of hope in his eyes. Hope was a dangerous thing.

"If we find where the shades are kept, we can try to take Alice back with us," Julia suggested, watching Quentin's expression in a way that told Lilly she too recognized the familiar and troubling look on his face. Quentin's unwavering faith in Alice's Niffin had already resulted in deadly consequences. He would grasp at any chance to bring her back, and Lilly didn't like having a loose cannon of a friend. There were too many ways it could end in disaster.

"Shades go to The Underworld. It's only accessible to the dead. But there's a catch. The living can access The Underworld with the help of a Gatekeeper. An ancient one. A being older than the world itself." Quentin began to pace across the room and back as he spoke. It was a sure sign of his manic tendencies, and after a moment, Lilly took his arm and guided him over to a covered table where he perched himself atop it.

"Okay, how do you find one of those?" She asked him, trying her best to give him something specific to focus on. When Quentin got excited, he often struggled to find the words to express his thoughts and ended up blabbering about this or that as his brain ran a mile a minute. Giving him a purpose, a trajectory for his mind, was always helpful.

"She's still looking." He huffed, tucking his legs beneath him like a pretzel. He glanced over at the Tesla Flexion and bit the inside of his cheek. "Whatever happened in that timeline, it fucked her up big time. She was not our Alice."

"Well, that bodes well for us," Julia muttered.

"I did warn you," Fogg reminded them. He crossed his arms over his chest. He loved to say he told them so.

"I know, I just didn't think--" Quentin ran a hand through his hair anxiously.

"So, we find a Gatekeeper. We've done the impossible before. We can do it again." Placing a hand on Quentin's back, Julia gave him an encouraging smile. It didn't reach her eyes. Lilly nodded absentmindedly, too focused on reworking all the information of the past few minutes.

"I'll check with The Valley. You two research here." She finally announced.

"Okay, I'll let you know if we find anything," Julia responded for Quentin, who had once again been swept up in his racing thoughts.

A cloud of dust flew into the air as Lilly slammed shut a book that she was quite sure hadn't been touched since long before The Chatwin siblings were even born. The Valley archives had become quite familiar to her, and she'd come to know their keeper, an old man named Hector, well in her time spent there. She'd lost track of the hours she'd spent with her nose in one text to another, searching for a solution to whatever problem plagued Fillory that day. This time the solution she needed was for herself and The Valley.

A ceramic bowl piled full of food was placed on the table before her, and Lilly glanced up to see her grandfather. It was strange that she hadn't even heard him approach. He made much more of a commotion coming and going now that he was forced to walk with a cane. She had to squint through the glare of indirect sunlight to see him. Thankfully he pulled out a chair and took a seat beside her, propping his cane against the table. It was enchanted by Yakia to ease aching joints and help with mobility. But there was only so much it could help. Elias shook as he lowered himself down into the carved seat, and she was overwhelmingly aware of the toll time had taken on his body.

"I figured you hadn't eaten yet." Lilly looked at the bowl of rice, beans, and vegetables piled high before her. It smelled divine, and it was then that she realized just how hungry she was. Her stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten since breakfast. Penny was more often than not the person to pull her from her obsessive research and make sure she was tending to her most basic needs. Since he began working with the library, she'd seen less and less of him in the daylight hours. Elias had taken to making sure she was eating and taking breaks. He liked to tell her that she got her fixating tendencies from Jane, and to distract her from the pile of worries she'd accumulated, he'd tell her stories of their time together.

"You'd be correct." Lilly gave him a bashful smile and pulled the meal closer to her. "Thank you." She took a few bites and immediately felt better. It was often hard to tell how much of her discomfort was from stress and how much was from not eating.

"You aren't Bloodreigna yet, you know," Elias observed her closely, his wrinkled hands resting on the table before him. "You don't need to make sacrifices like this. Our people will understand if you take a day off now and then." His voice was cracked and strained with age, and a wave of sadness went through her. She pulled a half-hearted smile and glanced back towards the book she'd just finished reading.

"If Alice somehow found a way into The Valley, if even one life was lost because of it, I could never forgive myself." Lilly put down her spoon, her appetite suddenly vanished. She sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. "Alice is my responsibility. I will make whatever sacrifice I have to if it means The Valley will be safe."

"At least I do not doubt your ability to rule. Who taught you to be so good?" His eyes sparkled with joy, and it warmed her heart to see the pride in them. She loved her grandfather so very much.

"Must be in my blood." She teased, and Elias laughed lightly.

"Well, If I can't stop you, would you like some help?" Lilly glanced around at the piles of untouched books and sighed in defeat. Elias raised both eyebrows in his infuriating, 'I know you need it', sort of way.

"I'd be an idiot to say no." There was no way she was going to make it through all of them, even with the aid of a speed reading charm. Instead of struggling to stand again, Elias waved a hand in the air. One of the books atop a far pile flapped its pages over at his command. It settled with a small cloud of dust onto the table.

"Alright, what have we got here?" He flipped through the pages, scanning the first few for a hint of the subject matter. His fingers expertly drifted across worn pages, and she wondered how many times he'd been in these archives when he was young. Elias spoke of his time before leadership fondly, but it was clear that he loved his position and the people he cared for. Lilly prayed that she would slip into the role as seamlessly as he had.

"These are all the books that mentioned The Underworld, Gatekeepers, or Ancient ones. So far, I've got nothing." She shrugged, dragging the next unbearably thick tome before her and heaving it open to scan the index.

"Have you tried looking for information on portal creatures?" Elias didn't look up from the book he was reading. "Mermaids, unicorns, Suriels, and such?" Lilly furrowed her brows in question.

"I didn't know they could create portals."

"They've been in hiding since The Beast took over Fillory, fleeing to one world or the next." He waved one hand in the air as he spoke, adding a flourish to his words. Shifters were by no means the first magical creatures to be forced into hiding by The Beast. "Quite a few went to Earth." Lilly thought back to her first-year trials when she'd been forced to dive for Margo's ridiculous bracelet. They'd mentioned mermaids in the lake, and she wouldn't have believed them had she not seen the glimpse of a massive tail and dark hair in the depths.

"You think one of them could bring us to The Underworld?" She watched his face intently, though he did nothing more than scan the page and purse his lips in concentration.

"Undoubtedly," he nodded. "Finding the right one, however, is a much more difficult task."

"So, we narrow it down." Lilly bit her lip and scanned the stacks with a decisive eye. "Eliminate based on origins, range of abilities, and access." She listed each one out on her fingers. When she looked back at her grandfather, he was grinning from ear to ear.

"Brilliant girl." Elias reached out to brush a finger beneath her chin affectionately. She couldn't help but duck her head and smile. "Let's get to work." With Elias's help, they quickly narrowed their search. Books rearranged themselves and flew around the room, now and then plucked from the air by Lilly to be flipped through. It went on like this for almost half an hour until Elias called out in triumph.

"Ah, here we are!" He still sat in the same chair, unable to rush about the room and snatch up books like his granddaughter. Lilly was more than happy to do the heavy lifting. After all, he had cut her work down to almost nothing. She leaned over his shoulder, casting a slight shadow over the page. On it was a charcoal drawing, and words scrawled around it in haste. "Your Gatekeeper is a dragon." Sure enough, the drawing depicted a massive scaled beast, breathing fire. A creature older than time. A Gatekeeper of The Underworld.

"Where were you four hours ago?" Lilly beamed and bent down to give him a big kiss on the cheek.

"Maybe this will teach you to ask me first." His tone was one of humor, but she did take note of that for future endeavors.

"I need to send word to Julia and Quentin. Will you be alright walking home?" She assessed his current state, his frail arms, and stiff legs.

"I'm not as fragile as I look." He shot her an indignant look. When she hesitated, he began to shoo her out the door. "Go, I'll be fine." Lilly rolled her eyes but stepped out into the evening air.

"I love you!" She called, waving over her shoulder with one hand while the other clutched the book they'd found to her chest.

"Love you, too." He replied, but she was already sprinting down the path.

Lilly sat cross-legged on the soft blanketed mattress of her cottage, tracing idly along her quilt with the swirling patterns. It had been a gift from the seamstress, Mirella. 'For the future Bloodreigna', she'd said. Lilly had nearly refused it. A gift given so easily was something she'd never been too used to. But before she could pull a few coins from her pocket, Elias had placed a hand on her arm and thanked the woman.

Lilly wasn't sure she'd ever get used to being a leader. No one in The Valley had ever been anything but kind to her. Never said anything about having a foreigner for a queen. She had a sneaking suspicion that she was the only one who felt strange about it. As time went on, she settled into her role, and now she stood before a choice that could save or doom her people.

"We had a bit of a development on the Reynard front today." Penny stepped out of the bathroom, mussing up his wet hair with a towel. Lilly glanced up at him curiously. "I collected this book for The Library, and long story short, the woman who had it, Harriet, put a Motus Hex on it. The guy who stamped it ended up killing himself just so he wouldn't open a door and get something for her."

"Holy shit." Her back straightened, and her brows knitted together with concern. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. But it turns out that behind that door is something called the Poison Room. It's where they put knowledge so powerful and dangerous it could destroy worlds."

"You think that the key to killing Reynard is in this Poison Room?"

"We know it is. Harriet packed up and disappeared, but she left a call card behind for Kady. The Ars Deicidium." He reached over to his desk and lifted a small parchment note card as if to prove it.

"And you're going to get it?" Penny nodded, scanning her face for a reaction. For a moment, she said nothing, just sat in contemplative silence while Penny shifted his weight fretfully between feet. "You don't have to do this."

"And you don't have to go to the Underworld." He came to stand before where she sat at the edge of their bed. Chin tilted upwards, Lilly gave him a sorrowful look.

"The Poison Room. I don't like the sound of that." Penny placed a hand on her cheek. Shutting her eyes, she leaned into his warmth.

"If we're going to kill Reynard, I think this is the only way." He muttered. His eyes trailed over every crease and line of her face, reveling in the beauty of such tiny details. Her lashes fluttered open, and their gazes met. They'd been through so much together, stood as one against so many foes. It was so easy to see the resignation in each other's expressions. Lilly licked her lips with a sigh.

"Killing a god." Her chocolate eyes shone with tears. "We've all lost our minds." A bitter breathy laugh erupted from Penny's chest. He took her hand in his and brought it to his lips.

"That ship sailed a long time ago." She gave him a teasing shove and a halfhearted laugh. It dissolved almost instantly. Lilly once again looked up at him, and this time there was an unmatched intensity there.

"You come back to me." It was more of a command than anything else. But the fiercely protective love was all Penny saw.

"Only if you do, too." He leaned down to press a kiss on her forehead, letting it linger a second longer than usual. This wasn't goodbye. There was no finality but a promise to never go anywhere the other couldn't follow. Lilly snuggled under the comforter and watched as Penny made his way to his side. With a sharp click, he flicked out the light and climbed in beside her. In the darkness, Lilly laid her head on his chest and let the steady, reassuring thump of his heart lull her to sleep. Just like every night before, and everyone to come.