Author's Notes:

Reading Swirled before this is very strongly recommended

(Void Knight)

It is a good day. The skripinagas are singing, and I am trying to copy down their songs. It isn’t going very well. The skripinagas sing too quickly, and never the same song twice, and I am not very good at writing sound anyway. I have read a book about it that the nice ones let me have, but I have had little time to practice. But I still get to hear the skripinagas sing, even if I can’t share that song with anyone else.

Something changes. I hear a new voice sing, clear and beautiful. The skiripinagas fall silent. They recognize the song of a carba, just as I do. The carba itself shows up a moment later. Its eyes shine white in the black of its face, and the tips of its spines seem to glow. The carba sings again. There are no words to its song, not the kind of words that the flippy girl listens to, but I understand what it means.

“Of course,” I reply. “Just a moment.”

I put my paper and pencil away, lie down on my bed, and then slip out of my body. It will sleep, and the nice ones will think I am still in it. As long as I get back in it in time, it should be alright. I hope it will be alright. It’s a very good body.

The carba sings again, and bounds off through the wall. I follow it. I see shalderai swoozing by on either side of me, but the carba is leaving footprints of light behind it, and as long as I stay in those they don’t dare touch me.

And then we are elsewhere. We have gone a very long way, because it is night here. We are standing outside a small house. Nargles flit here and there, sparkling under moonlight. And there are snorkacks browsing in the yard, several of them. A good sign. Snorkacks don’t stay near people who are not nice if they can help it. And neither do flumphs, and I can see a whole colony of those in the woods on the other side of the yard.

The carba leaps up again, and I follow after it. There are certain advantages to not wearing your body. I could never make that jump while I was in it. We pass through a window, and land in a bedroom. There is a girl there, lying in her bed but still awake. She is pretty, I think. She has pale skin like the bright one, the elder of the two that kept my song for me. Her hair is almost the same shade, and her eyes are shiny, like silver. She sits up, and I see a hint of feathers at the back of her neck.

“Hello?” she asks.

“Hello,” I reply. “The carba brought me here. It told me you wish to see what others don’t?”

Her face twists, and a glindell pokes itself out of the wall in anticipation.

“Yes,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to dream, to believe, to wonder. I wanted magic to be real. And now everyone’s saying that magic is real, but it’s not what I wanted. I wanted something to marvel at, and I got more of the normal.”

I nod and smile. “I can give you marvels, but there will be a price to pay. What you see, no one else will see, and there will be those who cannot understand that. That is why I do not give this sight to everyone.”

“My father will understand,” said the girl. “And Snow Fox, my boyfriend. And the rest of my friends. That’s all I need.”

“We shall see, little one,” I say. “Close your eyes.” She does, and I walk forward and carefully brush my finger through each of her eyes, then lay my hand upon her brain for a moment. She flinches slightly. I am not surprised, my touch must feel very odd without flesh.

“Open your eyes,” I say. She opens them, and they have changed. Now they are twin pools of swirling silver, like mine save for the color. The carba sings again, and a colony of cattorwallens scamper out from under her bed.

Her jaw drops a bit. “They’re so beautiful…” she murmurs. One of the cattorwallens climbs up onto her bed and into her lap, and she strokes its fur.

I smile. “I will return in a few weeks, see how you are doing. If you’ve changed your mind and no longer wish to see like this, I can take it away again. It’s not all beauties and wonders that this shows you.”

The girl smiles. “I’m sure it will be worth it, whatever the cost,” she replies.

I turn to go, but stop and turn back. “What is your name?” I ask.

The girl looks up from the cattorwallen in her lap. “Truth Seeker,” she replies.

“Goodbye, Truth Seeker,” I say. “I am Screwball.” And with that, I turn and follow the carba back into my room. Once we are there, I slip back into my body and sit back up. My body aches a bit, but that is alright.

The carba takes a seat on my floor, and begins a song. The skripinagas join in, and I smile. Yes, this is a very good day.

(FoME)

Mr. Discord flinched up with a sound like a French horn with laryngitis.

All three sirens looked up from their hands of cards. "Something wrong?" Sonata said over her aces and eights.

"I have a distinct sense that this is going to lead to a religion," muttered Mr. Discord, folding his five Jokers.

Adagio quirked an eyebrow as she considered all five pieces of Exodia. "What will?"

"I don't know, but—"

Mr. Discord's cell phone cut him off by crawling out of his pocket, jumping into his hand, and saying, "Brace yourself," in a helium-infused version of his voice.

He gritted his teeth and took the call. "Hello, Abacus."

"Custom ring-action."

"Yes, I felt it too."

"If I did, it wasn't intentional."

"My thoughts exactly. I'll go see her tomorrow. I would not be averse to seeing you there."

"Talk to you eventually." Mr. Discord disconnected and took a deep breath. "Well. That could've gone worse."

"I get the sense that we're missing some context," said Adagio.

"Do you care?" Aria and Mr. Discord said simultaneously, to his amusement and her disgruntlement.

Surprise flickered across Adagio's face before she got the confident mask back on. "You know, I think I do."

Mr. Discord rolled his eyes. "I might say it's none of your business—and it isn't—but I get the sense that that wouldn't dissuade you."

Adagio gave a grin that complemented her pointed teeth. "No. No it would not. For one, who was that?"

"My ex-wife. We apparently both got some manner of psychic twinge regarding our daughter at the same time."

Aria choked on her own incredulity, dropping two Islands, a Counterspell, and two Get Out of Jail Free cards. After she spat it out and shot a dirty glare at Mr. Discord, she said, "You spawned!?"

"You are far from the first children I've raised, yes."

Adagio tossed her hair. "We are centuries old, born in the primordial seas of another world." She frowned as her hair kept undulating from the toss. "And stop that."

"Age is just a number, child. And no matter how nosy you are, this will be a strictly biological family affair. All of you and Abacus would either despise one another or get along swimmingly, no pun intended." Mr. Discord's mouth twisted into a crooked smile that nearly fell off his face. "To be frank, I'm not sure which would be worse."