The chimera is a creature of caprice.

Nothing says this more than the way its body parts writhe in eye-burning discordance as it searches for a shape to settle in. Jasper sees a lion's mane, an eagle's wing, the glint of dragon scales, a stag's regal antlers, a snake's lithe body, and a horse's hooves, all jumbling around with an odd tail here and a rogue horn there before it eases into the form of a goat.

A goat.

There is a goat on Jasper's bed, and that goat is the chimera.

"What the hell," he says again.

He considers feeling a little more frightened, maybe trembling a bit in front of the gift-giving beast that has wielded its power in a way that has disrupted his entire life. Maybe he should grovel, fawn, flatter.

"Get out," is what he says instead.

The goat lets out a pleased bleat and begins nibbling at the cloth of Jasper's pillow. "I'm fine right where I am, but thanks," it says. Its voice comes out raspy and mischievous, and Jasper winces at the way its scruffy brown fur rubs coarsely over his bedsheets. He wishes he had another basket on hand to throw at it.

"Why are you here?" asks Jasper (and Zahara, and Lionel, and Giada, and Fallon, and Kalila, and Tai. The chimera comes to them all that evening, its form shifting into a different animal each time.)

"To give you your gift back," says the goat (or the lion, or the eagle, or the dragon, or the stag, or the snake, or the horse.)

The goat uses its hooves to push an object forward on the bed. It's Jasper's little hand-bell, molded from brass and etched with jasmine.

"You'll find that it's back in working order. You're welcome," it says, smug to the tips of its two protruding horns.

Jasper doesn't move. He doesn't want to come any closer to this hateful thing, this maniacal monster that's waged war against itself with Beledon as its playing field. He plucks up the courage to confront it with another question.

"Why are you doing all this?" he asks. "And why drag me into it? I'm not even from Beledon."

The goat sticks its tongue out, nibbles again at Jasper's pillowcase, and waggles its little white beard before deigning to answer.

"I thought it'd be funny," it says at last.

Jasper stares at it, aghast.

"Please just get a hobby," he says.

The goat looks at him thoughtfully, in so much as a goat can look thoughtful. Even that expression has an undercurrent of mockery when gracing its face.

"You have been to my world, yes?" it says, voice raspy as sand. It waits for Jasper's reluctant nod before continuing. "I know. I made sure of it. Tell me: is there any law that holds sway there? Any new sight to see? Is there a limit to what it can hold? Can you conceive of anything, absolutely anything, that has not yet happened within its reaches? No, you cannot, because it is an old world, anarchic, upside down. And I've grown tired of it."

"Then why ruin another place with your gifts and specters? You're playing with real people, with real lives," Jasper's voice rises with his anger. He wonders if anyone outside his room will be able to hear them.

"I told you already, it's fun. I've found a new world to make merry in, and I'm ready to enjoy it."

Jasper sees red. I hope Aedus Kade really does kill this thing, he thinks. Could he manage it himself? He has that long knife hidden in a box in his wardrobe, but doubts he can reach it before being gored by the goat's sharp horns.

"Get out," he says to those shining, lawless eyes. He hardly recognizes the hard iron strength of his own voice. "I don't want to talk to you again. And if Aedus Kade ever does manage to get rid of you for good, I'll be the one handing him the knife."

The goat lolls about on the bedsheets once more, leaving a smattering of brown hairs all about. Jasper feels even angrier when he sees this. He'd just washed those.

The goat, for its part, tries to mask its annoyance at the mention of Aedus Kade. It still doesn't know what the force behind that man's power is nor how he was able to wound it, old and unconquerable as it is.

"Fine, fine, fine, little wanderer of mine. Talk about ungrateful," it says. "You know, that Aedus Kade fellow of yours can't hide away for long. I am healed, and I will find him, and he will pay the price for the hurt he dealt. We will settle between the two of us who the most powerful being in Beledon is, with blood if we have to."

"Good. My best to his sword."

The goat sticks its tongue out again. "Do you want your bell back or not, Jasper Adair?"

Jasper flinches at the mention of his given name. Terrible creature, to deliver the reminder that it can lord this over him.

But: "I do want it," he says (and Zahara, and Lionel, and Giada, and Fallon, and Kalila, and Tai when they are asked the same.)

"That's what I thought," says the goat as it stands and stretches its limbs on the bed. "It's yours now. I sever my bond with it. Whatever happens to me won't matter; it will follow your will. Call it a reward for a game well-played."

Jasper has about six questions in response to that, but the chimera doesn't wait around to answer them. It leaps off the bed and clip-clops across the floorboards to the window. Jasper finds his voice again just as it reaches the threshold.

"Wait," he calls. The goat's whiskery beard sways as it turns to look back at him. "I never did figure out what my note meant. It said 'Before he forgets'. Forgets what?"

The goat's white-rimmed eyes sparkle with irrepressible mischief. "That you want it," it says.

Then it leaps out the window and is gone.

-

It would be redundant to recount the full conversations held between the chimera and the citadel's other gift-holders. Below is an overview that will have to suffice in its place:

Zahara accepts her golden amulet from the beast's lion form, then tells it to get out.

Lionel receives his silver feather brooch back from the chimera's eagle guise. He asks it how it learned to hop from world to world in the first place.

Giada grabs her talon knife from the dragon offering it to her. Having accomplished this, she threatens to bury her axe between the chimera's scales if it doesn't get out right now.

Fallon says thank you in exchange for the return of his witch's book, glad to be imbued with the ability to heal once again. Then he asks the stag to please leave his room, because he can't stand the sight of it.

Kalila, on the other hand, hesitates to accept her skeleton key back from the long, emerald-green body of a snake. Does she really need it?

She had been alone once, nothing within her reach. No family, no friends, and few prospects. Now she has an older sister in Kit, a friend in Fallon, and a 'more-than-friend, right?' in Araceli. A key that grants her access to everything couldn't possibly give her more than that. Perhaps saying no to this gift would be the culmination of a long emotional journey, signaling growth and contentment with the way things—

Wait, no. It is an enchanted key that can open anything. She wants it.

Kalila runs a finger across the wrought iron skeleton at the top of her gift. Forget the emotional symbolism. She'd have to be truly stupid to say no to such a tool.

The snake's forked tongue darts out between its teeth in a knowing hiss.

-

Tai cannot believe that the chimera decided to appear to him in the form of a horse, of all things.

He'd been woken late at night by a crawling sensation across the back of his neck, phantom fingers poking at him until he arose. The unfamiliarity of the room around him was disorienting for only a second before he remembered that this was Skander's abode, not his, and that they were still at the citadel.

Tai's eyes scanned the room, searching for the source of his unconscious unease.

Through a narrow glass door, a tall dark shape waited on the balcony. It looked right at him, statuesque in its unmoving patience.

The night painted everything in shades of cinders and shadows, but beside him, Skander breathed peacefully under a cerulean quilt. Tai looked at his sleeping form, then at the figure waiting for him in the night. It had woken him alone.

He bent down to press a soft kiss to his cheek, but was delayed in pulling back by Skander's hand unintentionally rising to brush against his shirt. "I'll be back soon," Tai told him, knowing full well he wouldn't be heard.

Then he grabbed a long knife kept on the bedside table and went to meet this cryptic visitor.

Less than ten minutes and an accusation-filled conversation later, Tai stares in unmitigated disgust at the chimera-horse's face. Meanwhile, it uses a long leg to slide his bottle of silver sand across the balcony with a gum-filled, self-congratulatory smile.

"You're welcome," it says in a wheezing voice. "Now before you try to kill me and I run away laughing, I have a message to pass on to your beloved, from a grateful old friend of his: The Emperor of Salt and the Queen of the Waters, the Thirty-Colored Bird, gives glad tidings to Iskander Johar, who has finally seen the sea."

Tai's hatred of this thing turns cold. "How do you know his name?" he demands.

"What's the dilemma? I know your name too. Wrote it on your note and everything."

"I don't care. How do you know his?"

The horse's tail flicks to the right in a spray of long yellow hairs. "I have my sources. Or I did, before that cat's defection."

'That cat'? The only cat Tai knows is—

"Puzzle?" He can't believe this. "What are you implying? My cat has never done a thing wrong in his life."

"Yes, he has: he's neglected the terms of his employment. Who would have thought that a few well-placed scratches would be all it took for him to abscond."

That's it, Tai's heard enough. The chimera is a horse, and it's giving him his gift back, and now it's telling him his own cherished cat used to be a spy for the few minutes it'd been around prior to being won over by pets and gentle affection.

Tai lunges at the beast with his long knife poised high, the blade's edge well-lit by the carpet of stars above. The horse had expected as much and dances out of reach with a whinnying laugh, leaving Tai's knife cutting harmlessly through the air. Untouched, the chimera jumps off the balcony and disappears from sight.

Tai leans over the railing in futile anger. He should have swiped at it earlier, not let it stand around taunting him. Vile creature, even if it did grant him his silver sand back.

"Tai?"

Tai turns, knife still in hand. Skander's dark hair is mussed, falling relentlessly forward over his ear mere seconds after he pushes it back. His shoulders are tense from the winter night's cold and his eyes scan the balcony in curiosity.

"The chimera was here," Tai says by way of an explanation. That wakes Skander up, expression morphing to immediately become more alert. "It came to return my gift's power. I tried to kill it, but it jumped off the balcony. Also, it was a horse."

Skander looks horrified. "What? Why didn't you wake me?"

Tai thinks the answer to that should be fairly obvious. "You would have tried to come with me," he says.

Skander looks at him the way Tai usually looks at Jasper.

"Of course I would have; it could have been dangerous," he says, anger rising. "I can't believe you left without saying anything."

Tai feels his own frustration grow. He won't apologize for being unwilling to drag him along into peril. His voice becomes bitingly sarcastic as he says, "What kind of goodbye would have sufficed? It was waiting for me; there was no time. Should I have stopped to throw a grand ceremony? Asked you for a parting favor, or a farewell kiss?"

"Well you haven't even shut up long enough for me to give you a welcome-back kiss."

"I— what?" Tai's brow furrows in confusion. Then a hand takes hold of his shirt to bring him forward, and he is being kissed.

When Skander pulls away, they've both softened. "I'm glad you're safe," he tells him. "Don't leave so suddenly again, if you can help it. And next time you try to stab the chimera, I better be there too."

A convincing argument. Tai can only hope he gets another chance at it.