#so I think he just saw an Uncomfortable Weird Scary forest patch and was like yep. this looks like a good ground for a possible improvement

[thormanick]

Not me half-jokingly considering a couple of days ago that Kaveh is immune to Dendro damage bc Who On Earth in their right mind would just walk into the withering zone to build??? A house??? Nobody, absolutely no one, except Kaveh

And today in the livestream they announce “oh yeah he’s immune to Dendro cores exploding within the vicinity” lIKE. I FEEL VALIDATED-

[shadow-light19]

The Wolf of Lilac Lake: The Discovery Part 2

Summary: The trio consults Nerris on proving if David might actually be a werewolf.

Previous Chapter: https://shadow-light19.tumblr.com/post/173904829782/the-wolf-of-lilac-lake-the-discovery-part-1

Next Chapter: https://shadow-light19.tumblr.com/post/173939849117/the-wolf-of-lilac-lake-the-dog-whistle

“I’m not shitting you! You didn’t notice the cut?” Max whisper-yelled at Neil and Nikki.

The trio was huddled together in the boys’ tent after curfew.

“What Max, do you think he’s a werewolf or something? Supernatural creatures don’t exist. I’m surprised you of all people would believe that.” Neil scoffed.

Max gritted his teeth.

“That’s the thing, I don’t. Monsters and shit don’t exist but I can’t figure out why David and Rusty would have the same fucking cut in the same fucking place.”

“Well, maybe werewolves are real? I mean, Harrison can do magic.” Nikki pitched in.

Neil glared at her.

“Magic isn’t real and you know it. It’s a trick.”

She shrugged. “I’m just saying, we’ve dealt with weirder stuff already. I think it would be awesome if David was a werewolf. He could give us rides through the forest or just be a fluffy friend. Do you think he’s actually scary if he gets mad as a wolf? Or if he has sharp teeth and growls when he gets really angry?”

Max smacked his face with his hand.

“You know what? Sure, why not. Let’s say he is a fucking werewolf okay? How do you find out for sure?”

Nikki grinned and made her way out of the tent. Neil and Max looked at each other in confusion before turning back to the opening when they heard struggling.

“Oww! Nikki, let go of my cape! You’re going to make me lose HP if you keep pulling on it like that.”

Nerris was thrust into the tent and Nikki followed.

“You’re kidding…” Neil huffed.

“Now what’s this I hear about a werewolf? I can make you a charm that can repel werewolves.”

Max walked up to Nerris and put an arm on her shoulder.

“Listen Nerris, this is going to sound weird, but Nikki thinks David might be a werewolf.”

Nerris let out a squeal. “That would be amazing! We’d have a supernatural creature in our party! That would give us such a huge advantage over other night creatures like ghosts and witches!”

Nikki shoved Max out of the way.

“We met a wolf yesterday that we named Rusty and he is bigger than Max! It had a cut on its neck that is a copy of one on David’s neck!  We want to know how to tell if David is a werewolf?”

Nerris huddled the others close.

“There are several ways to see if someone is a werewolf or not. The three easiest ways are to touch the person with wolfsbane, touch them with silver, or to see them transform.”

Nikki frowned. “But David washes the silverware and sets up meals all the time. He’s never been affected by it before”

Max rolled his eyes. “Nikki, it’s cheap-ass silverware that Campbell bought. The asshole probably bought stainless steel shit. That wouldn’t affect David in the slightest.”

Neil dug a book out from his desk. “I have this book that David gave me about local plants and their properties. It’s part of Science Camp.”

He flipped to the Table of Contents and then to a different page.

“It says here that wolfsbane is a tall flowering plant that is best recognized for its sagging bell-like flowers. The flowers grow in clusters on tall stems and can be in many colors including yellow, purple, and blue. It is toxic to humans and should not come into contact with bare skin.”

Max grabbed his hair.

“Goddamit! Now we’re going to have to fucking walk through the forest to find this stupid fucking plant because I know there isn’t any silver in the area and no way are we going to just catch David transforming if werewolves aren’t fucking real!

Nerris laughed. “I have some wolfsbane.”

Everyone just stared.

“I picked some up the last time we went hiking and have been growing a small bunch on the edge of the camp. I cast a growing charm on them and they are already flowered. I’ll let you have some if you let me see if they work.”

Max shrugged.

“Sure, Nerris. We’ll try it out once you get the flowers. It won’t be hard to break into David’s cabin and since he should already be asleep, it’s just a matter of placing the plant on him and seeing how he reacts.”

Nerris grins and runs off to grab the flowers. Neil, Nikki, and Max walk out of the tent and head over to David’s cabin. Max peers over the window sill to see David still asleep in bed.

“Okay, when Nerris gets back with the plant, I’ll pick the lock, and Nikki will quickly touch him with the plant.”

Neil raises his hand. “Do we even know what the plant does? How do we know if it’s affecting him?”

Nerris pops out from the side of the cabin. “If he is a werewolf, it’ll probably burn him if it touches him.”

Max turns to Nerris. “Wait, so it’s going to fucking burn him?”

Nerris nods. “In general, wolfsbane is a dangerous plant. It’s poisonous to humans so you have to wear gloves like I am. It can kill if ingested and if touched, can cause mild to severe poisoning. I figure if we barely touch him he should be fine. We’ll need to wake him up though so he can wash it off, it shouldn’t do more than maybe make him slightly nauseous or dizzy. If he’s a werewolf though, it will leave a light burn mark on his skin as well.”

Nikki and Neil looked uncomfortable.

“I don’t know about this Max. I was okay with it before but now? I don’t think I want to accidentally poison if I get too much on him. And if it burns, he might get really hurt.”

Neil nodded.

“I agree with Nikki. Maybe we should just call it off and leave him alone?”

Nerris holds out a single petal with her gloved hands.

“I only brought a petal. This won’t be enough to poison him unless he ingests it somehow. I can touch him with it though since I know how to handle it.”

Max frowned but tried to play off his worry.

“Alright fine.  I don’t care if the dumbass gets hurt from this and hey, if he gets sick, maybe I’ll be able to use it as a distraction to get away from this shitty camp.”

Max walked up to the door and picked the lock. He held it open for Nikki, Neil, and Nerris to walk through. Nerris walked up to David with the petal. He was asleep with one arm out from the blanket, hugging a piece of wood. She looked at Max and waited for him to signal he was ready. Just as she started to bring to petal up to David’s arm, his face scrunched up. Nerris quickly backed away. David let out a sneeze and woke up in fright.

“Wolfsbane!” He shouted and backed into the corner between his headboard and his window.

The others just stared at him.

“I’d say that proves it,” Nerris stated.

She carried the petal back to the garden and left the trio standing there. David relaxed when she left the cabin and turned his confused gaze to the remaining campers.

“What are you guys doing with wolfsbane and what does she mean by ‘that proves it?’”

Max broke out of his shock.

“She means, that we proved you’re a fucking werewolf.”

David bit the corner of his lip in fear and nervously laughed.

“What are you talking about? Werewolves don’t exist.”

Max pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Don’t fucking deny it. I noticed that you had the same cut as Rusty and there’s no way you could’ve known that we had wolfsbane with us while you were asleep unless you could smell it with some fucking werewolf enhanced nose.”

David stuttered and put his hands out in a ‘hold on’ motion.

“Yeah, can you transform back into Rusty? I want to pet a dog right now and you make a very fluffy wolf.”

David rubbed his face with his hands and sighed.

“You know what? Fine! You’re right. I am a werewolf.”

Nerris walked back in and threw her gloves in the trash. David sneezed.

“Nerris make sure you wash your hands really well, alright? I really need to have Quartermaster get rid of your patch of wolfsbane. One of the campers could fall into it.”

Nerris washed her hands and came back.

“Could you transform? I want to see what your wolf form looks like.”

“Yeah, Rusty. I wanna see this.” Max chimed in.

He made no attempt to hide the excitement from his expression. David saw the rare smile on Max’s face and sighed in resignation.

“Okay, but please don’t tell you anyone else okay? I don’t want to get hunted down.”

They nodded. David closed his eyes and the kids watched in awe as red fur started to appear all over his body. In seconds, there was a large red wolf sitting on the bed. Nikki grinned and jumped onto the bed. David laid down, tail wagging, as Nikki started scratching his ears.

“Who’s a good boy? Who’s a good werewolfie?!”

Max walked up to David and scratched his chin.

“I have to say, David, this is probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. You’re not so lame after all.”

David barked and licked his face. Max glared at David but backed up when he jumped off the bed.

“What’s up, David?” Nerris asked.

“No Nerris! Wolf David’s name is Rusty! You gotta call him Rusty!” Nikki whined.

Rusty gave then a stern look and gestured with his head outside. The kids groaned and didn’t leave until Rusty pushed them towards their tents.

“Alright, fine. We’ll go to bed.”

Max turned and walked out of the cabin. He couldn’t wait to see if he could use this to mess with David even more.

[mtjester]

Chapter 7: Avaloki’s Worldview

Chapter can also be read on the Witch King blog.

The cottage was as humble inside as it seemed on the outside. There were two makeshift mattresses on the floor, a rickety table, a leaning wardrobe, and a wide fireplace designed for cooking. The fireplace and the hearth were the only parts of the cottage that were made of stone. Herbs hung from the rafters, filling the cottage with a variety of fragrant and earthy smells, and protective charms circled the ceiling where the thatched roof met the wood and plaster walls. Rags were shoved into any open crevices, plugging up holes. All of it was covered in a thin film of dust and soot. Sydney loitered, trying not to touch anything as Avaloki lit another candle and set it on the table. She had never been in such a modest home before, and it made her uncomfortable.

“Um, it’s hard to say what’s been touched by magic in here. Can you sit?” Avaloki asked, moving to do something behind her. Sydney moved to the table, reaching out to the chair, but she suspected that she already knew the answer. She cursed under her breath as her hand passed through the wood.

“No.”

“Oh, uh...that’s not good. I wonder where you’ll sleep,” Avaloki said. She could hear him rustling around, and he brushed past her to examine the coals in the hearth, now wearing a patched and flowing nightgown. Sydney started, and suddenly everything made more sense.

“You’re a girl!” she said before thinking, and when Avaloki turned to her with a questioning look, she bit down on her tongue. It wasn’t exactly obvious; Avaloki’s body was athletic and angular, and her mannerisms weren’t especially masculine or feminine. She didn’t seem put off by the exclamation, but Sydney still felt like she had to say, “I mean, not that it wasn’t—your clothes just threw me off in the dark.”

“Oh! No, that’s okay,” Avaloki said with a laugh. “I get confused about it sometimes, too.”

“You—what?”

“Well, with the witch thing and whatnot.”

“What...do you mean? Confused about being a girl?”

“Well, yeah, because...when you become a witch, all that can change. It’s that way with the queens, at least. It’s kind of a relief, actually, because now I don’t have to think about any of that very much anymore. I just do what I want. That’s the nice part about being a witch.”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to have to think about it, though. I think you’re just supposed to know.”

“You sure do seem to be thinking about it pretty hard right now!” Avaloki said, laughing again. “Either way, it’s fine with me, whatever you think. My grandmother calls me a girl, so you can, too, if you want.”

“Oh...okay?” Sydney said.

Avaloki seemed to consider the conversation over, and she examined the floor. “Maybe I can put some quilts down for you, and it’ll make it easier to sleep anyhow...?”

Realizing that Avaloki had no idea how bewildered she was, Sydney cleared her throat and said, “Um, so...is it—is it just you and your grandma, then?”

“Yeah, it is now,” Avaloki answered. She opened the door and went outside, still talking, and Sydney could hear her as well as if she were still in the house. “It was me, my grandma, and my mom when we first moved out here. We built this house ourselves, me and my mom. It was hard work, and it took a really long time. Some of the nicer exiles out here helped teach us how to thatch a roof and all of that. I spent a lot of time in a tent when I was young. It’s much better to have a fireplace, especially in the winters, and it’s good for warding off the nastier things that live out here, too.”

“What, um...what about your dad?” Sydney asked, scrambling for small talk as Avaloki came back inside carrying an armful of wood. A pained look flashed across Avaloki’s face, and Sydney immediately regretted asking.

“My dad left, you know, as soon as he found out my mom was a witch’s daughter. I think he maybe has a new family now somewhere in Urothal, but I haven’t heard from him,” Avaloki said, kneeling at the hearth and poking at the coals.

Sydney didn’t know how to respond. After a brief hesitation, she cleared her throat and said, “Sorry.” She was beginning to wish she was still sleeping in the middle of the forest with a prince who didn’t want to talk to her.

“It’s okay. There’s nothing to do about it,” Avaloki said. “After all, wouldn’t you be a little bit scared if your wife turned out to be a witch? And your mother-in-law a murderer? So I never really blamed him much.” She flashed Sydney a sincere and reassuring smile before returning her attention to the hearth. Sydney wondered about what had happened to Avaloki’s mother, but she was afraid to ask. The conversation died, and with it died Sydney’s social confidence. Whatever she had learned and mastered from a lifetime’s worth of political functions had failed to prepare her for the situation she now found herself in. Poverty and witchcraft and absent family members? None of it was in her small talk repertoire. She stood in silence, growing more uncomfortable with each wordless moment Avaloki spent building up the fire.

Finally, Avaloki spoke up. “So, where are you really from?” She glanced at Sydney, and her shy expression told her that she was feeling just as hesitant about asking questions as Sydney was. Sydney felt a wave of relief and released a small, grateful sigh. For once, she wasn’t the only one who was floundering. Avaloki, misinterpreting the sigh, said, “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“No, it’s fine,” Sydney said, happy to have something harmless to talk about. “I guess I’m from...a different world? I was going to the river near my house to have some time to myself, and then I saw this amulet, so I went to grab it and I saw the prince’s face in the river. Then I fell in, and I was here.”

“The prince?” Avaloki asked with interest, turning towards her and hugging her knees. Sydney could have slapped herself in the face.

“Some guy. Never mind. Forget I said that,” she said. “Um...where I’m from, we don’t have all the weird supernatural stuff you have here. The magic and the spirits and all that...we don’t have any of that stuff. Or at least—I mean, we have stories, but all of it is just fiction. We don’t have gods and immortal kings and sibyls.”

“You don’t even have gods?”

“Well...we do, but they’re—um. You know, maybe I’m not the best person to talk about this. I mean, my family goes to church when it matters, but I don’t think my dad’s into it, and I’m…” She shrugged.

“But if there aren’t any magic or spirits or gods, how does anything happen?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean...what about fire and weather and things like that? How do those things happen without spirits?”

“Oh.” Sydney sighed and rubbed her cheek thinking. “Well, some people believe in spirits. It’s not like I’ve never heard of anything like that before. But, for the most part, we use science to explain that sort of thing. You have science here, right?”

Avaloki laughed and shrugged. “I’ve lived most of my life in the mountains, so I don’t know about anything either way!”

Sydney smiled. “Guess that’s that, then. I’m guessing you’re not super knowledgeable about the way spirits work, either? I’m still confused most the time.”

“Not like the Wardens or the Kings know about them,” Avaloki replied. “I think they talk about this sort of stuff at Kalon, or maybe in the monasteries around Yotuni. The Sibyl probably understands it. But not me.”

“Well, at least I’m not alone, then,” Sydney said, and Avaloki smiled.

“It’s okay to not understand everything anyway,” she said. “It’s like...when I was a child, especially in the city, I was afraid of spirits. Everyone in the city thinks spirits are big, scary monsters that live in the mountains. But when I came out here, I learned a lot about spirits. They’re not all scary monsters. Some of them are! But not all of them. There are even spirits inside the cities where humans live. Look.”

She took an iron and moved a hot log to the side, then propped a new log against it. The dry wood caught quickly from the coals resting beneath it. “Most people don’t know that fire is a spirit, but it is,” she said, glancing at Sydney. “It’s just gentle. It likes people, because people free it and feed it, so it gives us warmth. But it’s greedy, too, so if you give it too much, it’ll get out of hand. People in the city use fire all the time, but nobody ever thinks about it as a spirit. You can live just fine without knowing everything.” She bent down and whispered into the hearth, and a small flame puffed up in a joyful arc.

“Huh,” Sydney said.

Avaloki smiled. “I like spirits. The longer I’m out here, the more I like them. They help me, and I like to help them, too. They don’t hate us nearly as much as people think they do. Well...most of them don’t. They’re nervous around humans they don’t know, since human can be reckless. But hate and fear are different things. Sometimes.”

“But what can a human do to a spirit?” Sydney asked. “I mean, you can’t hurt fire. You can’t stick it with a sword or anything like that.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Avaloki said. “But fire can’t live if all its food is gone. And there are spirits everywhere. Spirits help move energy from the dead into the living, and they help move the seasons and the harvest. But sometimes, humans get greedy and push themselves into the spirits’ territory. They cut down forests and dam streams. That’s okay for some spirits, but what about the spirits of the trees or the river? They get killed. I think that’s why humans and spirits fight…humans kill things all the time without thinking about it.”

Sydney thought about it, remembering the junk she often found floating in the river outside her house. “Yeah...” she said, “when you put it that way, if I were a spirit, I’d probably be mad about that, too.”

Avaloki smiled humorlessly at the hearth. “Humans build their lives on dead things. Like the table and the chairs and our food and clothes. Even our Guardians have to die to become Guardians.”

“Wait, what? Like…sacrifices…?”

“Oh, no, not like—that’s not what I meant,” Avaloki said, and she laughed. “Sorry, I keep forgetting that you don’t know! It’s just our amulets. When Guardian mothers put their children’s souls into amulets, they have to kill them. Not like how you would normally kill something, but with a ritual. They separate their body and soul, and the body becomes empty, like a corpse. Or maybe not like a corpse, but a puppet, since it’s still alive as long as the soul is alive. That’s why it’s so dangerous for a Guardian’s body to become possessed. Our life energy is removed from our bodies. Does that make sense?”

Sydney grimaced and shrugged. “About as much sense as anything else,” she said.

Avaloki pursed her lips, thinking. She reached into her nightgown and drew out her amulet, which she had relocated from the belt of her trousers to her neck. “The closest part of a human to the spirit world is our souls, which is our life. When your soul is in your body, it’s dangerous, because your life is vulnerable. Human bodies are big, soft, and fragile. They’re not well-protected, and when the soul is in the body, anything that kills the body kills the soul, too. But when you take it out, you can protect it. The body will always heal if the soul isn’t damaged, as long as the wound can be healed. Because they’re connected, if one is okay, the other is okay, too. It’s when the soul is killed that there’s a problem.”

Sydney looked down at the prince’s amulet resting against her chest. “But isn’t it dangerous to take your soul out of your body? I mean...” She gestured at the intangible pendant.

“Uh, well…” Avaloki said. “Usually, we’re very careful with our souls. I’ve heard that warriors leave them with their husbands or wives when they go to battle. You can keep it out of danger that way. The body is far more vulnerable than any amulet, definitely.”

“I still don’t get how you control your body if your soul is in another place,” Sydney said.

“Weardcraft,” Avaloki said. “They’re still connected. There is a line of magic that keeps them together. Something like being possessed hurts the connection. When the amulet isn’t near the body, a spirit can fill the body up and rub away the connection until it has full control.” She tucked her amulet away. “That’s why our amulets also serve as wards, and why we have to wear protection if we leave our amulet behind. But if we do get possessed and the connection is broken, at least the spirit isn’t hurting the soul itself. We still have the person’s essence, and something can be done. If a normal person gets possessed for too long, they’re in a lot more trouble.”

Sydney stayed silent for a moment, staring into the fire and filing away the new information. She thought about the prince, doing who-knows-what outside with Avaloki’s grandma keeping watch. “How long does it take for the connection to break?” she asked.

Avaloki glanced at Sydney and, obviously guessing what was on her mind, said, “It depends on the spirit. Weak ones take a long time.”

Sydney looked down at the amulet, searching for some sign that such a magical drama was taking place. It looked about the same. “Does it matter that it’s not physical anymore?” she wondered out loud, holding it up.

“I...don’t think so?” Avaloki said, scooting closer. Her eyes wide with interest, she tentatively reached out to touch it with the very tip of her finger. It slipped through the surface. She pulled it back. “It’s a beautiful amulet,” she commented in an almost whisper. “He must be very important.”

“Yeah, uh, I don’t know about that,” Sydney said, dropping it quickly. “He’s too much of a jerk. Really, once you meet him when he’s not possessed, you won’t care how important he is or isn’t. You’ll just want to get away from him.”

Avaloki didn’t reply and continued to stare down at the amulet, reaching up to mindlessly pull and twist her hair, apparently deep in thought. Sydney grew increasingly uncomfortable. On one hand, Avaloki was helping them and seemed so far removed from human society that she probably wouldn’t care if the prince was a prince, but on the other...she was a witch. Or so she said. Sydney was wondering how rude it’d be to tuck the amulet away while Avaloki was examining it when she finally spoke.

“Why...don’t you possess him?” she asked.

“What?” Sydney said. Of all the things she expected, that wasn’t it. “Me? I can’t possess anything!”

“Well, you are a spirit, aren’t you?” Avaloki asked, scooting closer.

“Not really! I mean, sort of, but what I really am is a human with bad luck!” Sydney said, scooting away.

“But you are a spirit!” Avaloki insisted. “And if you’re a spirit, you can possess people! And if you can possess people, you can possess the Guardian and he can have his soul back!”

Sydney paused. She hadn’t thought of the possibility, and it seemed a little outlandish, but… “But I don’t know how to possess anything,” she said. “It can’t be that easy! Fire is a spirit, but I’d like to see you try to get a flame to possess someone.”

Avaloki furrowed her brow and reached up to pull and twist her hair again. She examined Sydney with a critical eye that was much different than the way Sydney was used to being scrutinized. “Maybe you just have to concentrate,” she finally said. “You’re not fire. You’re a strong spirit, and you should be able to do it! I can tell.”

“Concentrate?” Sydney repeated.

“Yeah. It’s all about Will. In order to affect the world, you have to will something to happen. The more Will you have, the more powerful your influence is. That’s how weardcraft works, and maybe that’s the way you work, too.”

“So you want me to just will myself into the prin—into the guy’s body?”

“Well, you should start small first! Try sitting on the chair.”

Avaloki pointed at the chair, and Sydney glanced at it with doubt. Her mind recalled the hunt for the bone in the woods, and she remembered what the witch had told her: “But you are real. You must believe in that.” She frowned.

“This feels hokey,” she said. “Are you trying to tell me I should just believe I can sit in the chair? And then, somehow I’ll be able to take over people’s bodies, just like that?”

“Really want to sit in the chair!” Avaloki said, encouraging her with growing enthusiasm.

Sydney grimaced. Avaloki was obviously fixated on this topic, and she couldn’t see any way out. “Okay,” she said, standing. She walked to the chair and turned her back to it. “I guess...I want to sit in this chair.”

“And you will sit in the chair!”

“I will sit in the chair.”

“Okay, now sit!”

Sydney sat—and fell through the chair to the floor.

“Well, that didn’t work,” she said, standing up and rubbing her butt.

“Okay, try again!”

“What, again? It didn’t work!”

“That’s why you have to try again! You just need more practice. Believe harder this time!”

Sydney tried to sit on the chair four more times, and each time she fell to the floor, Avaloki made her get up and try again to the mantra, “You will sit in the chair!” Sydney repeated her words, muttering, “I will sit in this chair,” growing more frustrated each time she failed. The fifth time, she stood up growling in frustration.

“Why is it so damn hard to sit in a chair?” she demanded. “It’s a chair! It’s for sitting! I’ve been doing it my whole life!”

“Are you going to sit in it this time?” Avaloki asked with excitement.

“Probably not! Have you been watching?”

“No, but this time, you will do it. You’ve been doing it your whole life!”

She looked up at Sydney, confidence written on her face, and Sydney grit her teeth.  “Right. Right! It’s a chair. And I am going to sit on it.”

She concentrated all her thoughts on her butt and the chair, reminding herself what it felt like to sit, and she sat. She felt a strange sensation of unnatural solidity in her butt, a sensation that wasn’t anything she was used to. It felt as though she was barely catching herself on the surface on the chair, and her skin prickled. She looked down.

“You’re falling through a little bit,” Avaloki said, suppressing a laugh.

“Yeah, but I’m on the chair,” Sydney said with growing excitement as she looked around the seat. “I can touch things. I’m not completely not real!”

“You’re just a weird spirit!” Avaloki said.

“I’m just a weird spirit! And now I can touch things again! I guess I just have to try harder to do everything I used to do as a human?”

“It seems that way!” Avaloki said. She grinned, an impish gleam sneaking into her expression. “And now it’s my turn!”

“Your turn?” Sydney ask, struggling to get out of chair. After a moment, she just let herself fall through. “Do you need to practice sitting on chairs now?”

“No, I mean, you need to try to possess me now!”

“What? Wait--now? Possess you?”

Avaloki nodded, the playful glint still dancing in her eyes.

“No,” Sydney said, putting her hands up. “No way.”

“I can just take off my amulet really quick, and all you have to do is try to fill up my body. If anything goes wrong, my grandma is just right there, and my amulet is close.”

“No! That’s weird! And kind of disturbing, frankly,” Sydney said, standing up.

“No, no, no, it’s completely fine!” Avaloki said, standing up as well and yanking her amulet over her head. She dumped it on the table and spread her arms out. Sydney stared at her. “Do you want me to close my eyes?” she asked, and, without waiting for Sydney’s reply, she squeezed them shut and turned her head to the side.

“You’re—are you crazy?” Sydney asked.

Avaloki peeked at her out of one eye and exhaled loudly when she noticed that Sydney hadn’t moved, letting her arms drop to her sides. “Think about it, though!” she insisted. “If you can possess me, you won’t have to sleep on the floor!”

“I thought this was about the pr—about the guy!”

“That, too.”

“No way.”

“It won’t be that bad. You might not be a spirit forever, so why not do spirit things while you can?”

Sydney crossed her arms and looked into Avaloki’s eyes, noticing for the first time that they were a dull gray, a muted echo of the prince’s silver. Avaloki wagged her eyebrows. Sydney released a slow sigh, and Avaloki grinned, throwing her arms out and turning her head to the side again with her eyes squeezed shut.

“If something goes wrong, you can’t blame me,” Sydney said. Avaloki suppressed a laugh and nodded. Sydney squared her shoulders and, trying to overpower her uncertainty, walked towards Avaloki. Feeling awkward, she stopped in front of her, wondering what to do with her hands and how to adjust her posture. She considered moving behind Avaloki instead, but after a second of fidgeting, she decided to stop stalling. Sucking air in through her teeth, she shut her eyes and lunged forward, falling straight through Avaloki’s body and landing painfully on the hard, dirt floor.

Avaloki shuddered and made a strange sound. Hearing Sydney groan, she turned around. “I guess it didn’t work,” she said, looking at Sydney with obvious disappointment.

“Guess not,” Sydney said through gritted teeth.

“That’s too bad. Sorry.” She knelt down next to Sydney. Sydney eyed her, rubbing her shoulder, and shrugged.

“No big deal. It was worth a try,” she said, pushing herself off the ground despite the pain throbbing down her arm and over her hipbone. “But let’s not do it again. All this falling down is getting to me.”

“Okay,” Avaloki agreed. “We can try again later. I’ll get your bed ready! Even if you can’t actually sleep on the bed.” She rushed to the wardrobe and threw the doors open. One nearly fell off. She knelt down, and Sydney got a view of the wardrobe’s innards; a variety of esoteric items were hanging from racks and pegs, but there didn’t seem to be many clothes or other personal belongings. When Avaloki stood up again, she was holding a pile of beautiful, hand-stitched quilts.

“Wow, those are really nice!” Sydney said, looking over the rich colors and intricate patterns.

Avaloki laughed, her cheeks turning a soft shade of pink. “My mother used to sell them,” she explained, laying them out carefully on her grandmother’s lumpy mattress. “She used to sew good luck into them, and people would buy them for their children’s naming ceremonies. She tried to teach me, but I wasn’t as good at it. The only one I made by myself is this one.” She tugged at the corner of the quilt at the bottom of the pile.

“Wow. That’s...pretty neat.”

“My mother’s were always better,” Avaloki responded, but she looked pleased with herself. “We’re not allowed to sell them anymore anyway.”

Sydney shifted from foot to foot and said, “You know they won’t do any good for me. You don’t have to get them dirty.”

“Maybe,” Avaloki said, smoothing the magnificent collection with open affection. “But maybe they will. I like to think my mother’s magic is still in them. Maybe they can sooth you, even if they can’t keep you off the floor.”

Uneasiness settled in Sydney’s stomach, and she wondered again what had happened to Avaloki’s mother. She was still too nervous to ask. Shifting her weight, she shrugged and said, “Okay. I’ll give it a try.”

“Good,” Avaloki said, standing up. “You should get comfortable. I’m going to go take my grandma some tea and smoke my pipe outside for a bit. I hope you don’t mind...I’ll stand some ways in the woods if it bothers you.”

“Smoke?” Sydney asked, somewhat surprised. “No, it’s fine. It’s your house.”

“That’s a strange response!” Avaloki said with a laugh.

“If you say so,” Sydney said. “But as far as I’m concerned, do what you want.”

“You’re so trustful. I like you,” Avaloki said. Sydney was so taken aback that she couldn’t reply, and Avaloki laughed again. “I’ll try not to wake you when I come back in.”

“It’s fine,” Sydney said. “Do what you need to. I’m tired enough to sleep through it.”

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