[ELLE'S PoV]

I rode my first roller coaster at twelve. Mags argued that that was way too old for my first ever amusement park trip, but my parents' logic was sound. Amusement parks are expensive, why pay for a kid who's too short or too scared to ride all the rides?

So, yeah. Twelve years old. First-ever roller coaster. I hated that harness thing they strapped me in with. The guy running the coaster pushed it down way too tight, and the heavy rubber dug into my shoulders. But I was thankful for it when we hit that first loop and I felt my soul try to claw its way up my throat.

All this was to say I wish that stupid door came with a safety harness. It's a good thing Marc had a grip on my arm, or I would have face planted on the stone floor as soon as we materialized in... wherever we were now.

It looked like the kitchen out of some medieval documentary. A stone oven, a hearth with a pot of something boiling over it, a big wooden table covered from corner to corner with chopped vegetables and other cooking supplies. If this is where Mags came out, it's nice to know she at least hadn't been in immediate danger.

"Holy llamas," I breathed before taking a deep breath to steady myself and get my bearings.

I expected Marc to have something to say about that particular phrase, but he was completely out of it. Like, open-mouthed wide-eyed staring at this vastly unimpressive old kitchen. He ran a tentative hand along the table's edge, his blue eyes glazing over with fresh tears. "I really am back," he breathed.

"This is your house, isn't it."

Marc nodded. "It's the Abandoned Order's manor. We all live here together."

Relief hit me first. Of all the places we could have ended up, this was definitely the best option. Other than, perhaps, directly in front of Mags. Confusion hit me next. If Mags had come out in the base of a rebel group, how did she end up in Lumina? And engaged to the prince? The trailer from SnowCon flashed in my mind, but I pushed it down. Mags could never, would never kill someone.

I glanced back at Marc, who swiped tears from his cheek. "You know, you don't have to come with me to Lumina. It would be dangerous, and you just got home. You can stay."

As much as I meant the words, the idea of parting with him so soon hurt. I was more relieved than I should have been when he shook his head and scoffed, "and leave you to wander the Realm alone? Don't make me laugh, Demon."

I adjusted my backpack straps and smiled. "My turn to be the ignorant one, I guess."

He adjusted his own pack-- we bought plain looking leather ones, so we wouldn't draw attention-- and extended a hand to me again. "First we need to get you out of here without anyone in the Order spotting you. Unlike your green-eyed friend, you are unmistakably human and therefore the bad guy."

"Well, what if I'm with you?" I frowned, taking his hand.

"I don't really ah... have that much leverage here," Marc mumbled and tugged at his feathers with his free hand. "If we run into Inari, Jakoby, Kindle, or Lydia—" he shuddered "—it would be 'kill first, ask questions later.'"

"Incognito it is."

Marc smiled and nudged me. "We're mobsters again."

I rolled my eyes. "Let's get moving."

Thankfully, the hall was empty when we exited the kitchen. Marc noted that it was quieter than usual, meaning it was likely most of the Order was away on missions.

As we rounded a corner on our way to "the spiral" as Marc put it—cryptically and without further elaboration—I quietly asked, "what sort of missions do you guys do, anyway?"

"It's not much of a 'we' thing. I haven't ben sent on a mission in months. Apparently, I get in the way," Marc answered with a frown. "But the rest of the Order does things like recon of Luminous activity, vandalization of Luminous property, and sometimes murder."

I muffled a surprised squawk.

"Of cruel Luminous soldiers," Marc specified.

After another stretch of silent wandering, including ducking past half-open doors and crouching around corners like some sort of wannabe Metal Gear characters, I whispered again. "Not to sound rude, but does your Order do anything ah, helpful?"

Marc looked offended for a second, then his expression softened to something more like regret and he shook his head with a sigh. "Unfortunately, no. We had plans to. We were supposed to be heroes. That's what Ser wanted. But he... hasn't been himself lately. And Kindle's trying his best to get things off the ground, but—" He swallowed. "It hasn't been right. For a few years now, nothing's been right, and I don't feel like there's anything I can do to change it."

At some point, we'd stopped walking. Marc twisted his grip on his backpack strap. "But I want to change it. I want to do something."

"So do something," I said. "You don't have to wait for your brother or that Kindle person. I think you're perfectly capable of making a change on your own. And if the other's don't take you seriously, find someone who will. What about that other group you mentioned? BS, or whatever." I made a face. "Not the best initials for a rebel group, but maybe you could help them with that."

Marc's face lit up. "Blood and Steel. They've invited us to join up with them a dozen times over the past few years, but Kindle always turns them down. Something about not liking their methods, but at least they get results. Maybe you're right. Maybe I should just—"

Down the hall, a horse whinnied. That wouldn't be too strange if maybe we were somewhere with windows, but according to Marc, we were in the basement of this manor. And there weren't any "horse shifters" in the Order. Whatever that meant.

A gorgeous woman with long, wild black hair passed by a ways ahead of us. She wore a simple patchwork dress, no shoes, and was gently ushering a unicorn down the hall. If magically appearing and disappearing wings hadn't done it for me, this would have been the absolute confirmation that I was indeed in another world.

I shrank back into a shadowy alcove, while Marc forgot all pretenses of stealth. He broke away from me and bounded towards the woman, scooping her up in a hug that made her yelp.

He spun her around, his voice muffled by her hair. "Faye I'm back, I'm back!"

"Yes, I can see that, hello," the woman greeted cheerfully. Once she was back on her feet, she glanced around him nervously. "Kindle isn't with you, is he? I wasn't expecting you so soon."

Marc blinked, even from this far away the hurt was clear on his face. "I... I was gone for months."

Faye smiled softly at him and bounced on her toes so she could ruffle his hair. "I'm sure it must have felt like that, missions always feel too long. But since Kindle doesn't seem to be back yet, will you help me get Buttercup into my workshop?" She gestured to the unicorn.

Marc frowned. "Again?"

I crept closer, still careful to keep myself out of view. While Faye seemed nice enough, I didn't want to risk an introduction. Especially if she was close to that Kindle guy Marc had specified as instant-kill.

"I admit the griffin was a bad call, but this one can't fly! And he needs me." She stroked the unicorn's mane tenderly as he chewed on the hem of her dress with dull, uninterested eyes.

"Alright fine, fine, let's go." Marc shooed Faye forward and grabbed the rope in his own hand. He shot a quick look in my direction and mouthed for me to stay put before disappearing down the hall.

"Did you cut your hair?" Faye noted distantly.

I waited in hyper-aware silence for several minutes, my hand tight around the pepper spray I'd brought just in case. Sure, they didn't have aerosol cans in this world, but I'd glued burlap all around the outside to disguise it. Not that that would make much of a difference if someone looked through my bag and found the solar charger, first aid kit, and smartphone. I get those things were probably a bad idea, but I wasn't planning to be here long enough for someone to question it.

"Boo," Marc whispered from behind me, catching my arm with a quiet laugh as I turned to swing at him.

"Not smart, dude," I hissed. "What if I'd screamed?"

He shrugged and pried the pepper spray from my rigid fingers. "I didn't really think about that, but your reaction was worth it. Ready to get out of here?"

"Where did you even come from? You left down that way!"

"The hall loops," he said with an illustrative twirl of his finger. "Let's go."

His expression was calm and casual, with one hand in his pocket. But I'd lived with him long enough to realize Marc was never this calm, and something was off. I planted my feet and stared him down. "Not leaving until you tell me what's up."

He sighed and tugged his feathers again. "Is that a good idea? We could get caught any second."

"Then you'd better talk quickly."

An extended silence passed before Marc finally spoke. "She didn't miss me. She hadn't even realized I was gone. And if she didn't miss me, I'm certain no one else does." Marc's stance drooped instantly, his gaze falling to the floor. "I always knew I was out of place here, it just didn't hit me until now how much."

"Ugh, Marc." I pulled him into the tightest hug I could manage without completely crushing his frail, bird-boy ribs. He returned the hug with a sigh, and we stood like that for a while. I wish I could have fully relaxed, but I stayed alert for any footsteps that might be headed our way.

"Demon, would it—would it be possible for me to, at the end of all this, return with you?" Marc sniffled, his head still resting on my shoulder. "It's just... you're the first person to ever actually want me around."

Well. I couldn't say it wasn't something I'd considered. As like, a crazy impossible pipe-dream. After all, I'd grown kind of attached to this moron, and staying in touch across dimensions would be a bit hard. I pulled back to look at him. His big blue eyes were puffy and pleading.

"Yeah, sure." A smile curved across my face. "Why not."

~*~

It was sunset by the time we reached the edge of what Marc had deemed "safe territory," which was a concerning thought. If safe territory was the manor and forest where we had to stealth around for fear of being gutted by some sort of magical creature or another—what sort of nightmare hellscape was unsafe territory?

Turns out it was more forest. This time void of most magic life and patrolled by a frankly ridiculous amount of knights.

Marc pulled the hood of his cloak as far around his face as it would go, shadowing his eyes and hiding his feathers. "Keep your hood down," he muttered. "If they can see you're human, they'll leave us alone."

"Once again, I offer you the opportunity to stay home and avoid all this." I gave his hand a squeeze, then smiled and nodded politely to a small troop of armored knights passing us on horseback, the rose-emblazoned flag of Lumina waving proudly behind them. Once they were out of earshot, I hissed, "why are there so many?"

"I don't actually know," Marc responded. "I haven't seen this place so overrun in years now, maybe something's happened and they increased security."

"Where exactly is 'this place,' if I may ask?" All I'd seen for the past three hours of walking (and walking, and walking, and walking...) were trees, birds, and soldiers. We were a good six or seven days away from the capital of Lumina on foot, but supposedly we would encounter a safe place to obtain horses (with what money?) tomorrow. The keyword there being supposedly.

"We're coming up on Eirwen, a human settlement. You might be able to secure us a room at the inn if I stay out of sight while you make the deal," Marc said.

I made a face. "See, you keep talking about buying things, but I'm pretty sure you're aware earth cash doesn't work here, so are you paying?"

He grinned the first true, Marc-is grin I'd seen since our arrival in the SR and produced a tiny blue velvet pouch from his back pocket. "Fear not my lady, for I'm no longer a... what did you call me, munch?"

"Mooch," I corrected. "And what else was I supposed to say, you ate all my pizza rolls."

"I snagged this from my secret hiding place after helping Faye with her unicorn." He weighed the pouch in his hand. "Though I think it may not have been secret enough. I remember this being quite a bit heavier."

When we reached Eirwen, the first thing that caught my attention was the wall. "How are we gonna deal with that?" I asked, unable to hide the worry in my tone. The thing was huge, and gated, and guarded.

"Well, you'll go through the front, like the human you are," Marc said with a shrug. "And I'll find a dark, unguarded section of the wall to climb. We've done it before, a whole group of us came to this village a few years back to blow up their statue of Jareth. Not the most helpful mission, as you so aptly put it, but certainly fun. And it paid well, given how much gold was on the statue. We were lucky to have made it back over the wall before the guards caught us."

His eyes were distant for a moment, no doubt reminiscing fondly over vandalism trips of old. When he snapped back to attention, he handed me the pouch. "Go ahead in, get us a room, grab a drink at the tavern if you want. It will take a while for me to find a safe place to climb. I'll meet you."

I swallowed my nerves, nodded, and made for the gate. "Hello boys," I greeted the pair of armored guards casually.

The first one huffed a very feminine huff, alerting me of my mistake, before asking, "name and business?"

For a second I considered using a fake name before realizing how stupid that was. It's not like anyone here would know me anyway. "Elle, just passing through. Hoping to get a place at the inn for the night, if you don't mind."

The second guard pushed back their helmet and raised their torch to examine my eyes. Deeming me suitably human, they nodded to the first guard, who unlocked the gate and waved me through.

"Have a great night, folks!" I called over my shoulder. There, perfectly gender-neutral. I was thankful they didn't ask to check my bag. Maybe bringing all this stuff was a mistake after all. Of course it was. What on earth—or well, not earth—did I think I would need my damn phone for? But dumb packing choices and internalized misogyny aside, I found the inn with ease.

"How much for one night?" I asked the middle-aged woman at the counter.

She eyed me and then pointed to the sign on the front of the counter. The sign was painted in shapely, red Luminous characters. Which, despite the brief lessons from Marc, I was extremely incapable of reading.

"Oh, of course," I said, pretending to consider the sign. I recognized the sound a few symbols made, but not enough to put together full words. I pulled three silver coins from the pouch and held them out to the woman. "Is that enough?"

She narrowed her eyes and pointed to the sign with more force.

"Right. Excuse me." I ducked below the counter's line of sight, quickly pulled out my phone, and snapped a picture of the sign. Maybe my packing wasn't so sucky after all. I tucked the phone in my pocket, hopped back to my feet, gave the woman at the counter a nod and an awkward-white-person-smile, then sped out to the street.

Luckily, Marc was easy to spot, even with the hood. I hurried over to him and pulled out my phone. "Quick, what does this say," I asked, angling my body to shield the phone from the view of strangers.

But Marc wasn't looking. He was staring at the center of the town market, where an imposing statue of King Jareth stood. The statue itself was stone, but accents such as his crown and the badges on his sash were glimmering gold. Marc's brows knit together. "They rebuilt that surprisingly fast."

"How long ago did you destroy it?" I asked.

"Three years," Marc said. "Roughly."

I snorted. "Is that fast?"

"For an expensive statue in an unimportant town on the edge of 'Nonie' territory? Yes."

I opened my mouth to make a joke, but the words slithered back down my throat as chaos broke out in front of us.

Over the course of my life, I've kept a running tally of all the weirdest things that happened to me. Obviously, I've been adding to that list a lot over the last few months. But the number one weirdest thing was that time a homeless woman at a bus stop claimed to be my grandmother and handed me a shopping bag of six(6) hairless Furbies.

I never thought that moment would be dethroned. But there we were, discussing the statue Marc and his buddies had supposedly blown up three years ago, when suddenly said buddies arrived with a slightly younger Marc in tow to perform that very act. The small group of three guys, a burly woman, and a fox(?) arrived on the scene whooping and hollering. Of course I recognized Marc right away, though his hair was a bit longer and he may have been a little shorter.

The only hooded member of Marc Two's posse skidded to a stop at the base of the statue and materialized a fireball out of thin air, which he hurled at the statue to the tune of shrieking villagers. The only words I could pick out amid the insanity were "dragon!" and "what?" and "shit!" And honestly, those last two were a big mood.

The statue exploded in a cloud of smoke and dust and giant rock shards. I watched Marc Two scoop up armfuls of gold bits while the fox snarled and nipped at anyone who got too close (though to be fair most people were headed the opposite direction.) Fire Guy and his extremely short friend scooped up some gold as well. Then the burly woman proceeded to lift the short one bridal-style, sprout black feathered wings from her back, and rocket off into the sky.

It only took maybe two minutes for the entire scene to play out.

At my side, my Marc was a statue in his own right, staring straight ahead with wide eyes. His already ghost-white skin looked to be at least five shades paler.

"Tell me this is normal." I knew it was dumb before the words left my mouth. My mind was already moving a mile a minute, piecing all the evidence together into something so unlikely, so impossible, that given all I'd experienced over the past three months I had no choice but to believe it.

My heart thudded. "Marc, call me crazy but I think—"

"Grab 'em, that one was one of them!" A villager pointed toward us, flagging down a growing horde of soldiers.

"Ah, crap." I sighed.