Lexie went back to the forum where she first spoke with Madswick and started with a simple 'Hello.'

The response came damn near instantaneously as though Madswick had been waiting for the message.

Madswick: Finally, Ms. Sparrowfoot. Have you made your decision?

Lexie: Um, kind of. First of all, I have a few questions.

Madswick: Ask away.

Lexie: How do you always know when I'm online?

Madswick: I do not. I have tags on a few topics, and I'm alerted when someone else is looking into them.

Lexie: So you don't have a tag on my soul or something?

Madswick: Of course not. That would be ridiculous. In order to sense the identity of a soul properly, I would either need to be in front of them or it would need a focused interactive medium, like a game or tarot cards. I can't simply do it through conversation over the NET, and I certainly can't tag your soul either.

Lexie: So then how did you know it was me looking into it?

Madswick: I recognized the profile thanks to a technomage friend of mine.

Lexie: I thought the Undernet made things anonymous.

Madswick: It's anonymous to some, not so much to others.

Lexie: You're not lying to me, are you?

Madswick: I would have no reason to lie. I don't have much to hide here, do I?

But I do. Lexie could sense the implication he was making, that if there was someone with something to hide in this conversation, it would be her.

Madswick: I guess at some point, you would just have to trust that what I'm telling you is true. Unless you'd like to sign a soul contract right now, and that way, you will know for sure that I'm not lying.

Lexie sighed. She didn't want to do that just yet.

Lexie: Okay, next question. When you said that you were going to help me find my uncle, what did you mean?

Madswick: I meant what I said.

Lexie: Yeah, but how?

Madswick: I don't want to give too much away, but let's just say that, if your uncle is indeed alive, he's in a place that you wouldn't be able to reach without an Eldritch companion. I happen to know one.

Lexie: You mean like an Eldritch Lord?

Madswick: You know exactly what I mean.

Lexie: Wait, hold on. Just so I get this straight. You have an association with an Eldritch Lord?

Madswick: Would it be a problem if I did? I assumed, based on your speech the other day, that you would be more open-minded about it.

Lexie: No, I'm open-minded. Just surprised. Does the headmaster know about this?

Madswick: I don't feel the need to inform the headmaster about every minor thing that goes on in my life.

Lexie: Sure. Okay, one last question.

Madswick: Ensure it's a good one. This shall be the last free thing I give you without asking for something in return.

That sounded ominous, but Lexie was expecting it. She knew it was too much to expect that he would just keep helping her without asking anything in return. He wasn't her father, who loved her, nor was he Naem, who was obligated to help her.

Lexie: Do you know how to create a shadow?

Madswick: What?

Lexie: Or a ghost. I'm trying to make a card that makes someone or something invisible.

Madswick: And a forcefield is not an option?

Lexie: I don't think so.

At least that was not what the intent indicated.

Madswick: Curious. In any case, the two things are related in a way. To artificially create or manipulate a shadow, one would need access to the shadow realm, guarded by the Dark Fae.

Lexie: Shadow realm.

Madswick: Yes. And that is also where you find ghosts, depending on the type you're looking for.

Lexie: There are different types of ghosts?

Madswick: Of course. There are shades, phantoms, wraiths, and different categories of ghouls. All are their own species. Now, is this your last question?

Lexie: I guess. Thanks for the help.

Madswick: Sure. I hope we speak again.

After the conversation, Lexie immediately went on the Undernet to search for the shadow realm. Even if Madswick was lying about not being able to see what she was doing, she didn't care if he saw her searching this one up.

Prior to their conversation, she'd been using ghosts as synonymous with souls, and had been researching from that angle, but now, reading up on the Undernet, she realized that that wasn't what a ghost was.

Ghosts weren't souls. Ghosts were simply the coating that Shadow creatures used to enter the human world to help them avoid detection.

There were different ways of achieving this. Phantoms used illusion magic to do so, camouflaging themselves by mirroring their environment. Wraiths transformed their particles into light-bending material to avoid detection.

The first would be the easier to achieve.

Of course. It was staring her right in the face. What she needed was an illusion card.

She still had a good memory of the pathway in Jace's card and recalled the illusory component. Even if she didn't, she had enough research on pathways to be able to logically put together something.

However, she ran into some trouble in that it required Sir Hoppington himself to trigger the illusion, and Sir Hoppington wasn't a thinking being. The other option would be for Theo to continuously adjust the illusion as it went, and she thought that might be too much for someone who wasn't used to working with cards.

This led her to plan B. Wraith invisibility.

Wraiths were interesting because they were said to be the souls of humans transformed into shadow creatures. As she understood it, Shadow creatures were not under the Eldritch umbrella. They were nowhere near as powerful as Eldritch and lacked the chaotic element that made Eldritch what they were, so it was much easier for a human soul to become a Shadow creature than to become an Eldritch. They could cause mischief here and there, which was why they were kept in check by the Dark Fae, and could even be argued to be a part of the Dark Fae umbrella of adoptive creatures.

The Fae even had a story of a man who had been trying to transform his sick wife into a wraith, and had killed her in the process, turning her skin to glass. Gruesome, but the story gave Lexie a schematic for what to work with.

It involved taking a pinch of the essence of Sir Hoppington and transforming it with an ancient Fae spell. She then attached this new essence to the card, and when reflected on Sir Hoppington, it would cause his particles to bend light and mirror the environment just like a wraith would.

Now this would have been difficult for a human being and might have caused immense pain and death, but since Sir Hoppington wasn't technically alive, it was much easier.

Lexie finalized by linking the three-card combo: one for Sir Hoppington, one for the invisibility, and the other for remote activation.

Once Theo was home, she went to his room to deliver the good news.

"Hey," she said. "I think I did it."

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"What?" He sat up at his desk.

She showed him the card she made. "This is a new card. It should make Sir Hoppington invisible."

"How?"

"It's a long story, but essentially, it temporarily turns his particles into transparent material. I linked it to both the activation card and Sir Hoppington, so you don't have to worry about activating all three cards, and you can just focus on activating the first one."

Lexie materialized all three cards and handed them over to him.

"You're amazing," he said. "I know I've said it before, but I wanted to say it again."

"Thanks," Lexie said. "Let's try it out to make sure it works."

They did, and it worked like a charm. One could still faintly see the outline of the bouncing frog, but particles of his skin glinted in the sunlight and were only detectable from certain angles. It wasn't perfect, but it would have to do for now.

Theo played around with Sir Hoppington, and Lexie showed him how to make the frog do backflips.

Before Lexie left, she told Theo, "So like we said, just leave Sir Hoppington hidden in Jerry's office. When you're ready, activate the starter card, and it should activate Sir Hoppington and invisibility simultaneously."

'"Alright. Guess you're with me now, Sir Hoppington. I'm going to call you Hopsy for short."

"He doesn't like that," Lexie said. '"He's a very formal kind of frog, you know."

"Got it." He winked. "Thanks again."

***

Theo didn't mention anything else about his secret mission until Ansing rolled around.

Ansing started with a big crash and some yelling. Lexie dragged herself out of bed because of it, and her body ached even though she'd not done anything physical yet.

All her fighting had been in her dreams.

Naem still had her battling bloody legions in Ganor's soul, and she could tell he was starting to get frustrated with her lack of progress. But Lexie couldn't help it. She didn't exactly know what he wanted from her, or what he was looking for, and so she couldn't give it to him.

She thought maybe they should have just stuck to how they were doing it previously, growing her base slowly. Maybe their rush to incorporate her into Naem's soul line was what was throwing everything off, because while she knew there were things she wasn't grasping about Ganor's soul, she didn't have enough context to know what they were yet.

Perhaps, they just needed to go up the soul line slowly.

Yet, when she brought it up to Naem, he said, "We don't have time for that. You need to do this."

So Lexie continued, and more often than not, like today, Lexie had to drag herself out of bed and groan.

She did her morning stretches, brushed her teeth, and went down in time to hear the cook scolding Thor for running around and breaking an entire dish of sauteed vegetables and turkey.

There was a rush to make more meals to replace the wasted food, and after having breakfast, Lexie just tried to stay out of the way for the most part. She was anxiously thinking about how many people would be here today.

Mane and Stella had decided to host a small get-together before dinner, and it would be held on their front lawn.

Quite a few [Heroes] were supposed to be at the get-together, including the elemental families. Lexie was dreading the crowd, but at least Xena and Dewie would be there. She was also looking forward to seeing Cara again and meeting the Shadowbanes, if only so that she could sneakily watch them use their powers.

Now that she'd learned about the Shadow realm, she knew that was the key to the Shadowsbane's powers. Their ancestor had likely struck a deal with the Dark Fae, which gave them access to that realm and the powers of darkness and the void.

It was interesting because Lexie had never once even thought about their powers working like that.

She had gotten used to thinking of the elements as foils for each other, shadow a foil for light, and fire a foil for water, but the way they operated seemed more like they were all discrete variables with distinct origins, and just happened to all be what humans called elements.

One of the Firebringer books on their history essentially confirmed this, too.

That meant that even after discovering what Shadow was, Light wouldn't just be the inverse of that. There was no light realm to Lexie's knowledge.

But learning about darkness and the use of light might point her in the right direction.

Mane spent most of his time in the kitchen cooking and running a small army of staff who arranged the get-together. For once, he wasn't his usual joking self. He had the countenance of an army commander.

At around noon, Lexie and the rest of the kids were sent upstairs to get ready for their guest.

Lexie wore one of the pretty dresses Xena had gotten for her and stayed in her room reading until she began to hear noises outside.

Glancing out her window, she saw that about a dozen people had already arrived.

She closed her book, took a deep breath, and walked out, spotting Torin by the staircase.

He was dressed in a formal button-down and slacks, and he clearly wasn't looking forward to this any more than she was.

"You ready?" she asked when she got to him.

"I guess."

With that enthusiastic response, they both descended the steps and out onto the front lawn, where soft classical music was playing from nowhere, and a few of the attendants were making conversation with each other.

The first set of people Lexie recognized was Kai Skysoarer and his parents. They were slender and dark-haired like him, but far more stern in appearance. They were with a little boy who was probably Kai's brother, and they were having a conversation with a woman who looked a lot like Weiss.

Speaking of Weiss, she was also early, standing by herself in a long blue gown with a glass of juice in her hand. Though Lexie didn't like her, she had to admire her posture. She stood tall, with the demeanor of a queen. She stared around boredly, not talking to anyone. When she saw Lexie, she made a subtle expression of displeasure before shifting her attention elsewhere.

The Shadowsbanes weren't here yet, to Lexie's knowledge. Neither were the Azures nor Xena. There were a few recognizable heroes, though, most of them older and probably retired.

They stared at Lexie as she walked by, and though some of them smiled at her, others were looking at her with clear suspicion. No one tried to talk to her, though. She didn't know if Stella had warned them to back off, but she suspected that might be the case.

Stella wasn't there yet. Earlier today, Lexie overheard Mane telling the twins that their mother may not make it till much later.

Lexie felt bad for the kids, seeing how downcast they looked now. Mane was carrying Tamsin, rocking her for comfort, and Theo was trying to play with Thor to distract him, but he still looked sad as he kicked the smaller ball.

Theo was in costume, which probably meant he might be leaving soon for work, too.

Lexie felt bad for the twins. She also felt really bad for Stella and Theo, having to miss all these moments.

"Torin, Lexie!" Kai finally separated himself from his parents and came to them. "Good to see that you weren't devoured by a dungeon, Tor. And Lexie. You look radiant and not nearly as possessed by Eldritch creatures as you should be. You must tell me your secret."

Torin made a grunting sound, and Lexie laughed.

"Moisturizer," she responded.

They made small talk, but Lexie was still very aware of her surroundings, which is how she knew the instant the Shadowbanes arrived.

She recognized Nikola Shadowbane from the pictures online. He was the patriarch of the Shadowsbane clan right now, tall and pale like a vampire, with a hookish nose that resembled Zakhar. He wasn't Zakhar's father, though. According to the news, he had no children with his wife, Darina, a woman with a hauntingly beautiful presence, white hair, and eyes that had no pupils.

Their lack of an heir meant that after the patriarch died, one of the other Shadowbane cousins would take over.

Most likely Zakhar.

Zakhar wasn't with them. Behind Nikola and Darina trailed two other adults and someone who looked like the boy who had fought in the AFC. He was definitely a Shadowbane, from his coloring, and he glanced at Lexie briefly as they walked toward Mane to make their introduction.

Lexie nudged Torin, who glanced over at her.

"Introduce me," she said.

Torin followed her gaze to where the Shadowbanes were greeting his father, and very reluctantly nodded.

***

Aiden was running late.

He'd spent too much time working, and now he was going up and down trying to find things that were miraculously not where they were supposed to be.

He popped down to the living room, where Tate was sitting watching TV with a bowl of popcorn.

The boy froze up a little when Aiden arrived, which made Aiden sigh.

He didn't know what to do to get Tate to stop doing that.

It was like Tate was instinctively scared of him, and it wasn't the same natural caution he showed most people because he seemed to have no problem with Emma.

Even though Emma had invaded his personal space, doting on him while checking his vitals and massaging his calves, and stuffing him full of her terrible casserole, Tate never even flinched. He just stared at her contemplatively, almost achingly sometimes.

And he hadn't given Frank the flinch either, when the other man had come over for 'routine' questioning.

Tate didn't seem spooked when Terry and Glinda came over for their interrogation. He didn't mind the entire nursing staff either.

But the second Aiden walked into a room, he was on guard again.

Aiden sighed. Perhaps there was something in the future that the kid knew about him that scared him. Or maybe it was Aiden's past.

Either way, only time and patience would cure his fear. And Aiden had patience. Lots of it.

He wished he had more time to research Tate's illness, but he already had way too many time-sensitive matters on his plate, and Tate's situation sounded like a lost cause to everyone Aiden had consulted on the matter. Even Naem.

So the only thing Aiden could do for him now was make his final days as comfortable as possible. He didn't want Tate to spend those days in fear of him.

At least, Tate was okay spending time in the living room now. Before, he would confine himself to Lexie's bedroom.

"Have you seen my pocket square?" Aiden asked.

"No," Tate said.

Aiden sighed. "Gosh darn. I can't find it anywhere, and I can't wear this suit without it, or I'll just look silly."

Hello.

Aiden froze.

It wasn't Tate who spoke.

The voice that had just spoken in his head was very familiar, but not at the same time. Had he imagined it? Was it his tired brain conjuring up voices?

Aiden waited, and it repeated.

Hello, Archmage.

Okay. He definitely didn't imagine that.

Who are you?

You should know. You are the one who put the prong in my head that helped me find you.

Aiden held his breath, his whole body going still. Everything else that had to do today vanished from his head for a second.

Alchemist.

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