Sonny closed the valve on the pipe when it became clear that Agalon was gone. The luncheon had been uneventful, but everyone downstairs had been too preoccupied with listening to touch their own food. As Sonny screwed the valve closed, Orenda held her hands over their food to warm it, then took the teapot in both hands and held it until it boiled.

She was just pouring the tea when the door burst open and Bella came charging into the room. She had apparently been given a set of clothes, because she was wearing the same workdress that most of the Brigaddons wore, and she made a straight line to Gareth and threw her arms around him. He returned the embrace with a wince, and she pulled back when she noticed.

“Are you alright?” She asked.

“I’m alive, love,” he said, cupping her face, “Are you alright? I would have gone after you! I’ve been bedridden for days because of that goddamn rabbit! I’ve got brand new scars! It’s destroyed my belly-dancing career; I’ve no way to provide for you now.”

Bella laughed and leaned in to kiss him.

“Ain’t that sweet?” Sarya asked from where she leaned against the doorway, “Ifin I still had my fiddle I’d play ya some reunion music. I done told her what happened while she was puppified. I hope y’all are happy. I had to ride with and eat with that cop!”

“I was so worried,” Bella laughed.

“Must have been an adventure,” Gareth plopped down and the bed and held his torso with one hand, “Did you find them?”

“I didn’t remember who I was looking for,” Bella explained, “But I was alone when I woke up- in some farmer’s field. I walked for a day, trying to keep close to those fences, trying to stay in shadow, but there’s nowhere to hide out there. I found a clothesline and stole a sheet during the night, but I had to run- I think I was spotted. It all worked out in the end- Draco found me, and Sarya showed up soon after with the cops.”

“They found me walkin,” Sarya said, “Wasn’t much else I could do- hey!” She fell into a fit of giggles as Barbra Allen appeared behind her and tickled her.

“Let me through, ladies,” Falsie demanded with a smile and came into the room followed by Junior.

“Food?” Junior asked, “Is it lunch time?”

“It’s like half past one, Junior,” Sonny rolled his eyes, “Did you lock yourself in that workshop and forget to eat again?”

“I guess I did,” he admitted, “We’re working on a new prototype for a better gun- I… let me go wash my hands. I should eat.”

Orenda began to portion out the food and pass it around. She heard Anilla make a grunting sound and apologise, and hypothesized that Junior had run directly into her in the hallway. This assumption was confirmed when she came into the room.

“All of the babies are asleep at once!” She proclaimed.

“Bullshit,” Sonny said.

“I promise!” Anilla said, “They really like it when you sing to them. I think that’s the secret. Honey told me to come in here and eat?”

Sonny took the piece of cornbread off the plate Orenda had made for him, said, “I gotta go talk to Mary Sue” and left the room.

“I’m so glad you’re alright, Aunty Bella,” Orenda said.

“Pour me a cup of that tea,” Draco said to Orenda, “I’ve got to scry Impy and let him know everything worked out in the end.”

“Mary Sue,” Orenda said as she stumbled into the living room after another hard day of work to find her sitting on the couch knitting while the children played on the floor with the toys that were strewn about there.

“You look exhausted,” Mary Sue said.

“The reaping of the hay is even worse than the fruit harvesting, I believe,” Orenda laughed and plopped down heavily next to her, “Do I look any stronger yet?”

“It takes a fair bit longer than that,” Mary Sue explained to the tune of her needles clack clack clacking away.

“Mary Sue,” Orenda said again.

“Yes?” She asked.

“After the harvest,” Orenda said, “Are we going to start training properly? Are you going to teach me how to fight?”

“I told you I would,” Mary Sue said, “I’m a woman of my word.”

“Ha,” Sonny said, and Orenda turned her head to see that he had stuck his head out of one of the rooms in the hall that led to the medical chamber, but he was gone in an instant, as if he had only intended to call her out, and then had gone back to his business. She was beginning to grow accustomed to the way siblings acted. The Brigaddons very often did things like that, insulted each other or made snide comments, and no one ever seemed particularly offended.

“Do you know anything about sterilite armor?” Orenda asked Mary Sue.

“I know about everything there is to know about it,” Mary Sue said, “Why? Do you want some?”

“That would be ideal,” Orenda said.

“I mean, we’ve got a big batch of sterlite angora from the last time we all shifted,” Mary Sue shrugged, “We’d have to card it and spin it. If you wanted to help it would make it easier. And it takes a long time to knit anything. Do you know how to knit?”

“No,” Orenda said, staring at her needles, “But it’s almost mesmerizing.”

“I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said,” Mary Sue said, “About fighting the Emerald Knight. I don’t know if it’s a good idea.”

“It isn’t a particularly good idea,” Orenda said, “It’s simply what’s going to happen.”

“The thing is,” Mary Sue said, “You know about the Burrow, and Commander Agalon ain’t gonna cover for us forever. Things are changing around here. If you get caught… the queen can see inside people’s heads. She can read minds. She can find out everything you know.”

“It’ll be the last thing she ever sees,” Orenda said with the confidence of one who cannot afford doubt.

“The thing is,” Mary Sue said again, “If it ain’t the last thing she ever sees, she’ll know everything. She’ll know about us. You’ve got one chance, Rendy. If you mess up the first time, it ain’t just you that’ll go down. It’s all of us. If you want to do this, you have to do it right, the first time. You have to kill them both the first time.”

“It isn’t impossible,” Orenda said, “Everything that lives can be killed.”

“You ain’t the first one to try it.”

“I’m the first one with the sacred staff,” Orenda said.

“Rendy that staff don’t work for shit,” Mary Sue said matter-of-factly.

“I’ve got something that works,” Junior said as he came into the room followed by Falsie, cleaning something with a cloth. “That I made just for this occasion. Rendy, look at this.”

He held out something for her, something that Orenda recognized as a gun, like the one Gareth had, but it had definitely been modified. In the place where the cylinder met the handle was a circular protrusion.

“It can hold up to six shots,” Falsie explained, “And we’ve modified the bullets. We’re pretty sure they won’t explode- you know, more than they’re supposed to.”

“Pretty sure?” Orenda asked.

“But it’s loud as hell and it kicks like a mule,” Junior explained. “But I mean… it works. Throw your damn shoulder out, but it works. I’ve got a lot of ideas for different models- some bigger that can shoot bigger ammo- Oh! I think I can design one where the actual bullet comes apart and hits multiple places at once. I think you could take a deer down with it- those big ass bucks with the horns that can gorge right through a person. Get in our wheat field now, motherfuckers.” He laughed and Mary Sue took the gun from Orenda.

“Does this have projectiles in it?” She asked in a tone of warning.

“No,” Junior sighed, “I knew you’d tear your ass. But we do have the proportions down so we can turn them out in the forge like we’re making horseshoes. As long as we can get gunpowder we’re golden. That’s the hard part. As far as I know you can only get that stuff on the fire continent so I’ve only got what the pirates brought with them. I can make maybe 20 shots if we use it all, but I don’t know that Uncle Gary will give it all up. Count on maybe like… six or ten.”

“And they probably won’t explode,” Falsie said proudly.

“That’s amazing,” Orenda said.

“Well,” Junior said, “Back to the grindstone, I suppose. We’ve got to make another one for Gareth. Then we’ve got to find a way to get gunpowder so that we can make them for all of us.”

“We’re not supplying an army,” Mary Sue told him.

“Why the hell not?” Junior argued, “Look around! How long has it been since someone came through here? Security is tightening. People are scared to run! Xandra sent an expedition to the frozen north! That bitch thinks she can own the world. We’ve got to take it back, piece by piece. Mary Sue, we are an army. We’re Knights of Order. We’ve already got the fire continent.”

“Did you say you had plans for this?” Orenda asked, “Do you mean like schematics?”

“Yeah,” Junior said, “They’re a standard thing so I can make as many as I want.”

“Can I see them?” Orenda asked as she stood.

“Yeah, they’re in my workshop,” Junior shrugged. “It’s kind of junked up in there. Nobody will come in there but me and Abby.”

“I know some people who may be incredibly interested in your device,” Orenda said, “Who have access to all the raw materials. You’re right. This is the sort of thing that could outfit an army.”

Junior’s workshop was, in fact, ‘junked up’. Orenda had thought she had seen crowded rooms before, but Toli’s chests had nothing on this place. There were various gadgets, in various states of assembly and disrepair, not just on every available surface and the shelves that lined the walls, but also hanging from the ceiling. The room was nearly all tables, counters, and shelves, including a counter with a water pump built into it, and every inch of it appeared to be in use.

Junior led her to one table in particular, upon which was laid out a sheet of parchment that had been pinned to it. On it were various drawings of the gun showing every piece of it and how it fit together.

“That’s the six shooter,” Junior explained, and picked up another of the seemingly endless pieces of rolled up parchment that littered the place. He unrolled it, and Orenda saw the bullets he had described with the projectiles and gunpowder together in one casing. “And that’s the bullets.”

“Brilliant,” Orenda said and held out her hand. A flame erupted from it, and Bubbider appeared within it.

“Orenda!” She exclaimed. “I’ve not heard from you in so long I was beginning to grow worried! But you’re alright! You’re safe!”

“How goes the good fight?” Orenda asked.

“Not well,” Bubbider frowned, “The Djinn is angry. He refuses to help us. We’ve had to fight the Urillians head-on, and we’re not able to get any supply runs. We’re having to ration our food, praying that we last until the Allisanian army reaches us.”

“I have something that may turn the tide,” Orenda said. She closed her eyes, concentrated, and when she opened them she could see the entire room that Bubbider inhabited. She seemed to be in some sort of library, where she had been pouring over some sort of old book. More than that, now that Orenda could see her, she noticed something unmistakable, and the sight took her breath away. She was in such a shock that for a moment she was unable to find words.

Bubbider had two completely separate magic signatures. Two souls burned within her, and they were not the same.

Finally she blurted out, “Are you pregnant!?”

“Can you tell?” Bubbider asked, “I’ve been trying to hide it!”

“You can see it from space!” Orenda told her, “You must be halfway along!”

“I’m not!” Bubbider told her, “And I don’t think you can see it! I think you’re lying!”

“I absolutely can!” Orenda argued, “You look completely different! And I’m not wrong!”

“You can’t see it, Rendy!” Bubbider sounded angry, “You can’t possibly! One doesn’t start showing until the fourth month! You’re lying! You guessed!”

“The hell I did!” Orenda laughed, “You’re pregnant!”

“Not enough for you to see it!” Bubbider argued, “There’s no way you knew that!”

“I admit that you’re not big and swollen,” Orenda said, “But you’ve changed. The way you stand has changed, the way you look has changed, the way you wear your clothes has changed- and there is a fire burning inside you that does not belong to you! It’s so strong I can see it through the scry! Why are you trying to hide it?” She paused and added, “Also, congratulations.”

“There’s no way you can see it through the scry,” Bubbider crossed her arms and glared at Orenda, “You’re just… arrogant and proud that you guessed correctly. I should have never told you that I had lain with a man!”

“I absolutely can,” Orenda laughed, “and so could anyone you were trying to hide it from!”

“Orenda!” Bubbider snapped. “Stop it! Don’t you understand? We’re in the middle of a war! This is the worst possible time for this to happen!”

“Well what the hell did you think was going to happen?” Orenda asked before she could stop herself, “You knew what comes out of that thing. It isn’t coffee.”

“Orenda!” Bubbider shrieked.

“So,” Orenda asked, “Boy or girl?”

“I’ve not had access to any healers,” Bubbider said, “The elven ones certainly wouldn’t help me, and the human ones are with the army. But… I think it’s going to be a son. It just… feels like a boy, you know?”

“No,” Orenda said, “I don’t know. I never plan on carrying any children. Do they feel different inside you? I can’t imagine they would.”

“I’ve heard others say similar things,” Bubbider said, putting one hand over her womb, “That they can tell things about the child, before it’s born. He feels like a boy, and like he will be a scholar. He’s intelligent, I can feel it.”

“Like his mother,” Orenda said. She laughed and continued, “I think that means it will be a very stupid girl. She’ll be running off ledges. You’ll have to keep her on a leash.”

“Perhaps,” Bubbider said, “But if she was to be everything I feel she won’t, I would still care for her with my dying breath.” She paused, looked away from the flame, then back and said, “Is it really that obvious? I’ve not told my mother or Ali. Do they know? My mother isn’t a mage… she probably can’t see it… but Ali…”

“If he doesn’t know he’s blind,” Orenda told her, “Maybe he’s just being polite. He would have to know he fathered it.”

“Yes,” Bubbider said, looking down at the child she was growing within her. After a few minutes she asked, “What did you want to show me?”

“This,” Orenda said, and concentrated as hard as she could, “Grab something to write with and redraw this. There are two of them. This is a weapon called a gun- it’s made of interchangeable parts, and if you can get the gunpowder from Henoluhur, you can equip yourselves with a weapon that can put the nonmages on par with the Urillian mages.”

“Rendy, that’s brilliant!” Bubbider said as she studied the schematics.

“It was created by Falsie- that is, by Harold Hilleart, a great dwarven inventor and a genius with clockwork, and by Xaxac Brigaddon the Second, another great inventor and master of many things I have never seen before. He’s a human, and Thesis knows that will piss the Urillians right off!” Orenda laughed.

“Can she see me?” Junior asked.

“Can you see him?” Orenda asked.

“I only see you, Rendy,” Bubbider said.

“No, she can’t,” Orenda told him, “likely because you’re made of sterilite.”

“Wait,” Bubbider paused in her writing, “You’re with Xaxac Brigaddon? The white rabbit?”

“I’m with a Xaxac Brigaddon,” Orenda said, “His father is dead. Tell Lapus that I’m sorry. I traveled as quickly as I could.”

“That explains what’s wrong with the djinn,” Bubbider said sadly, “He’s in mourning. Perhaps we can get him to talk to us, now that we know what’s wrong.” She paused for a moment and then said, “The White Rabbit is dead… was it the Emerald Knight?”

“No,” Orenda said, “It was his son, Lapus Brigaddon. He also attacked us and nearly killed Gar- that is, nearly killed Captain Nochdifache. So much has happened, Bubby.”

“Tell me everything,” Bubbider said, so as she copied and drew, Orenda told her all that had passed since they last spoke.