Avie is bringing Oliver home with her tomorrow. 

This is the right thing for her to do.  Oliver is terribly unhappy in his own realm, after all.  Being with Avie will make him happy. 

She has everything planned out.  Oliver has been diligently coached on matters of Avie's realm.  She's given him a crash course on everything from the everyday technology her people use to the way to wear his hair (mussed up, like you don't have time to make it neat—a look he will easily be able to pull off).  She's taught him all of the names of the most popular bands and the scandals associated with them. 

He's almost got her accent down.  If he doesn't slip and say "ain't" too many times, Marcella will never know he's not a boy from their town in need of a job (that's the story she has planned for Marcella).  When she goes to retrieve him from the Dual Realm, she'll bring with her clothes she picked up from a thrift store.  Once he changes, he'll blend right in.

This has to work. 

Marcella will give Oliver a job and after a while, she'll come to learn that Avie has fallen in love with him, just like teenagers do all of the time.  Their relationship won't seem unusual at all.  Oliver will be fine living in Avie's realm, she's sure of it, but if he does show any signs of the realm contamination sickness Marcella talked about, she'll bring him back to the Dual Realm immediately. 

She refuses to dwell too long on his family, especially sweet little Marylou.  Oliver says they'll be okay without him.  If he's not worried about them, she shouldn't be either.  She isn't stealing him away from them.  He's coming of his own free will.  It was his idea, so....

There is no reason to doubt her plan, and while she's in the Dual Realm, she doesn't.  It seems foolproof and perfect while she's lying next to Oliver in a field bathed in the orange rays of early evening.  It's a different story at home where reality tends to get shoved in front of her nose.  If Marcella hadn't read the stupid newspaper this morning, for instance, Avie wouldn't have had any reason to feel so insecure.  Yet there it is:  Marcella shows her the headline on the front page, large evenly-spaced letters spelling out trouble ahead. 

Once Avie reads those words, there's no un-reading them. 

Avie sighs as she ponders the grim news.  Yesterday, a young Caller named Josef Reyes stood before a crowd of festival goers at a crowded city carnival and declared his ability to journey through the realms.  This being illegal and from the ignorant mass's perspective highly improbable, his declaration was met with both scoffs and alarm.

Then he did it—he mumbled his un-magical magic-sounding mathematics before disappearing right in front of several thousand onlookers. 

No one has seen him since.

To say the authorities disapprove is a wild understatement.  The crackdown, according to Marcella's paper, has been immediate and harsh.  From now on, all citizens are to expect random scans of their homes and places of work for traces of other realm matter.  Several people have already been arrested and it hasn't even been a full day since Josef Reyes vanished into the Fold.

"It's a good thing we gave up all of that realm work long ago," Marcella says eyeing the drawers containing her old notes.  "No reason to suspect us of anything, especially once I get rid of those."  She takes the papers from their drawer and heads out behind the hotel to the burn barrel.  Avie watches from the balcony as Marcella places each sheet into the flames, one by one. 

Tiny ashes alight upon the wind, lines of them traveling up past Avie like a flock of birds, lost and directionless as they swirl into the dimming sky.

Avie doesn't need those notes anymore, but still, she is sad to see them go.  This is Marcella's final concession—an admittance that she will not fulfil her life's work by unraveling all of the realms' mysteries.  She will never be acknowledged for her great achievements either.  Even Reyes, though generally despised for his actions, has received his due fame.

Marcella pauses in her work, a thin stack of papers grasped in her hand, the only remaining evidence of her brilliant discoveries.  She catches Avie watching and gives the slightest of nods before tossing the last of the papers into the flames.

Avie could be mistaken, but she thinks she caught a look of defiance in that nod. 

Perhaps Marcella doesn't need what's on those papers any more than Avie does.

A/N: Well, did you catch it? Did you? There is a link to Unseen in this chapter, and if you notice it, it will explain one of the major left-over mysteries from that book. If you haven't read Unseen yet, you may want to avert your eyes from the comments below, just in case it contains any spoilers.  For those of you who have read Unseen...discuss!  A cyber gold star to whoever figures it out and mentions it first!

As always, your reads, votes, and comments are so very appreciated.  Thank you!  

This author's note wouldn't be complete without a nod to the chapter's dedicatee!  Today, the honor goes to @SuperheroNumber23.  She's another one of my lovely, loyal readers/commentators.  She has three stories on Wattpad, fanfics about people I don't know because I am old (well, one involves Clark Kent—I do know who he is!).  You probably do know who they are, so go and check her stories out!