Nico looked out the window of the drawing room. The last day of October was clear and frosty. A drab landscape of bare trees and soggy, yellowish brown marshes lay in front of him.
He noticed a flock of crows sitting among the branches of a nearby tree. There were seven of them.
Nico remembered a rhyme his mother had taught him:
"One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be told,
Eight for a kiss,
Nine for a wish,
Ten for something you don't want to miss."

According to this rhyme, the seven crows were an omen that Nico would be faced with a secret, either his own or someone else's.
The cast of A Midsummer Night's Dream were gathered in the drawing room to rehearse. Nico and Miss McLean went over the scene where Lysander and Hermia agree to elope.
"Therefore, hear me, Hermia," Nico read aloud. "I have an aunt, a dowager of great revenue, and she hath no child. From Athens is her house remote seven leagues and she respects me as her only son. There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee and to that place, the sharp Athenian law cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me, then, steal forth thy father's house tomorrow night and in the wood, a league without the town, where I did meet thee once with Helena, to do observance to a morn of May, there will I stay for thee."
Solace stood by the window where the tree filled with crows could be seen. He listened to them read the scene with his usual puckish smile, the one which always got on Nico's nerves.
An eighth crow joined the flock.
"My good Lysander!" Miss McLean read. "I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow, by his best arrow with the golden head, by the simplicity of Venus's doves, by that which knitteth souls and prospers loves, and by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen, when the false Troyan under sail was seen, by all the vows that ever men have broke, in a number more than ever women spoke, in that same place thou hast appointed me, tomorrow truly will I meet with thee."
The performance was interrupted by Solace clapping. 
"Well done," he said.
"We're not finished with the scene," Nico replied.  "Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena.
"God speed fair Helena whither away?" Miss McLean added.
Dona Reyna was supposed to join in with call me you fair but Solace started clapping again before she could.
"Would you please let them get on with it," Miss Chase said.
She, Hazel, and Miss Titan were sitting by a window, surrounded by trimmings for their bonnets. Despite her scolding, she was laughing at Solace's antics.

Nico could not understand why Solace enjoyed teasing him so.
When rehearsals were done for the day, Hazel came and sat with Nico. She opened up her sketchbook to show him the drawings she had done recently. They looked like scenes from a nightmare: slaves toiling in the fields under the whips of demonic overseers; scrawny, ragged children being torn away from their mothers; a beautiful woman, who looked like a slightly older version of Hazel, wasting away from some illness.
"These are haunting," Nico said.
"I took your advice," Hazel replied. "And turned my bad dreams into drawings."
The one of the dying woman was the best executed, the most detailed, and the most impactful.
"Your mother was stunning. She looked just like you."
Hazel gave him a little smile. She was lucky to have been taken away from all of these horrors but she had not made it out untouched by them.
"What have you got there, Di Angelo?" Solace said, peering over their shoulders.
Nico glowered at him.
"Drawings I've done recently," Hazel replied.
"They're very good."
"Thank you."
"Have you ever thought of drawing a portrait of your brother as a subject from history or literature? He'd make a good Hamlet; I can see him brooding in a cemetery, holding a skull in one hand. That gloomy expression he has on now would be perfect."
Nico's face stretched into an exaggerated smile to spite him.
"I think that would make a very nice picture," Hazel said.
"Solace," Zhang cut in, "We're going to run the scene where Puck and Oberon plot to trick Titania."
Solace nodded to Nico and Hazel before walking away.
"I don't understand why Solace keeps vexing me," Nico said.
"He's just trying to get you to lighten up," Hazel replied.
"I wish he wouldn't... Don't you think there's something odd about him?"
"He's a bit eccentric but that comes with the territory of being a hermit."
"He told me that he used to study medicine in Edinburgh but, for some reason, he had to give it up. He was very mysterious about the whole thing."
Nico returned to the window. Four of the crows had flown away, leaving four behind.

After rehearsals, Lady Thalia proposed a walk in the garden.
"Why?" Miss Titan said. "It's cold and rainy outside." 
"It's just a little bit of drizzle," Dona Reyna replied. "Which is good for the complexion."
"Still, we'll all get soaked to the skin and catch our deaths of pneumonia."
The English climate did not seem to suit Miss Titan, who was usually found huddled up by the fireplace. Her thin, muslin frocks were impractical for traipsing about on a misty, blustery, October afternoon. Thick shawls covered the pale yellow, high-waisted, open-front gown and white petticoat she wore. A large cap with wide, droopy ruffles partially obscured her face.

"Miss Titan has a point," Hazel said. "It would be much more pleasant to stay inside, where it's warm."
"Fine. Suit yourselves," Lady Thalia replied. "Whoever wants to stay behind can do so."
Nico joined the group who went on the walk. He wore a thick cloak of green wool and heavy boots to protect himself from the cold, damp weather.
Solace accompanied the group as far as the hermitage. He sang as they walked a long the pond at the bottom of the rose garden:
"But tonight is Hallowe'en and the faerie folk will ride. Those that would their true love win at Miles Cross must bide. First, let past the horses black and then let past the horses brown. Quickly run to the white steed and pull the rider down. For I'll ride on the white steed, the nearest to the town. For I was an earthly knight, they give me that renown."
The young ladies were enchanted by his singing and asked what was the name of the song.
"It's an old northern ballad called Tam Lin," he replied. "It's about a changeling who is enthralled to the faerie queen of the forest and the maiden who falls in love with him. On All Hallow's Eve, she rescues him and brings him home to be her husband."
"Tonight is All Hallow's Eve," Miss McLean said.
"Aye, and one of the few times of the year when the veil between the seen and unseen worlds is thin enough for fairies and spirits and other such things to pass through. Anything is possible then."

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

Lord Skye announced that he had a special treat for them that evening: a man named Mr. Morpheus would present a magic lantern show.
Miss Chase and Miss McLean clapped their hands with excitement.
As he disappeared into the thicket of trees surrounding the hermitage, Nico fancied that Solace resembled Tam Lin, the changeling from the ballad he had sang.

Mr. Morpheus set up his magic lantern in the drawing room after supper. Zhang brought in glasses of an icy liquid.

"It's Turkish rose sherbet," Miss Chase said. "My cousin Magnus sent me the recipe and I asked the kitchen staff to make it for us tonight."
"It's delicious," Miss Titan replied.
She lounged in an armchair, a pale, languid figure in a light green and yellow striped gown.

"It's a special treat for a special occasion."
Miss Chase winked at Lord Skye. He knelt in front of Miss McLean.
"Piper McLean," he said, presenting her with a gold band set with a large piece of citrine. "Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

Miss McLean stood up and helped him to his feet.
"The honor would be all mine," she said.
Lord Skye put the ring on her finger and she kissed him.
Miss Chase raised her glass of sherbet.
"To Lord Skye and Miss McLean."
"To Lord Skye and Miss McLean," everyone else joined in.
Nico looked over at Reyna, who was sitting next to him. Her face had gone pale and the corners of her mouth drooped. She lifted up her glass and said: "to Lord Skye and Miss McLean."
"And I have another special treat for us this evening."
Miss Chase produced a package containing a block of a sticky, resinous substance.

"What is this?" Nico said.
"It's hashish. Another of Magnus's presents. You smoke it like tobacco or opium."
As Mr. Morpheus finished setting up the magic lantern, Zhang was sent to fetch clay pipes for everyone. The hashish was crushed into smaller pieces which would fit in the bulb of a pipe.

Colorful, moving slides, depicting hellish scenes of demons, monsters, ghouls, and skeletons, were projected onto the wall. Sound effects, such as beads rattling about inside of a drum for rain and coconut shells against a board for demon hoofs, enhanced the scenes.

The hashish made Nico feel as though he was floating- a pleasant, calming sensation- and sent him into a dreamy, fog. Colors and sounds were muddled together and the eerie noises and gruesome images of the magic lantern show seemed more amusing than anything.

A/N what the gang is up to is pretty much the 18th Century version of getting high and watching a scary movie.
here's a video of what a magic lantern shown from this time period would have been like.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

One of the stories told in the slides was about Lady Mary who killed her four husbands and is cursed to travel out every night at midnight in a carriage made of their bones and bring back a blade of grass from a the mound on which her castle stood until the mound is bare. Nico found the sound of rattling bones which made up Lady Mary's carriage particularly funny.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

Hazel shrieked during the tale of Lycaon, a Greek king who tricked the god, Jupiter, into eating the flesh of a human sacrifice. Jupiter punished Lycaon by turning him and his sons into wolves. The moment when Lycaon changed from man to wolf was the one which frightened Hazel.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

Miss McLean used the darkness and a pretended terror as a pretext to sit closer to Lord Skye and rest her head on his shoulder, something she would not dare do under the scrutiny of light.
The rest of the audience watched the magic lantern show with glassy-eyed wonder.

Nico bid goodnight to Hazel at eleven, when she and the other young ladies went to bed. He retired a little while later. In the hallway outside of his room, he passed Reyna.
She had thrown a purple cloak over the gown she wore to dinner.

Her head was covered by a purple calash hood and her delicate slippers had been exchanged for a pair of brown riding boots.

"Going out?" Nico said. "It's almost midnight and the rain is coming down in sheets."
"I won't be out long," Reyna replied. "And I don't mind the rain. I just need some fresh air to clear my head."
Her purple cloak fluttered behind her as she continued down the hall.
"Goodnight. I'll see you in the morning."