Moonglade was again hesitant to walk into the dark room all by herself, unsure what was even in this one, but she did hope it wasn’t another overdone shrine to her mother.

“There are no such thing as ghosts, Moonglade,” she told herself. “They’re only pretend. You can go in, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

The young changeling balled up her courage and walked in, though a bit slowly, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the space. The room wasn’t as big or long as the previous secret one, but as her eyes got used to the space, she could see racks and racks of weapons, positioned against the walls.

“Wow, why does Aunt Ivory need so many weapons?” Moonglade touched a war axe on the blade. It was still quite sharp for an old weapon.

And then her ears picked up something. A small scuttling sound, coming from somewhere behind her. On instinct, the young girl jumped back and darted her eyes around, the sound around her suddenly amplifying in her head.

“W-Who’s there?” she called out, not expecting anyone to answer back. She didn’t even know why she bothered asking.

When nothing happened, the girl resolved to walking further in. She didn’t know why she was doing so. Right now, all her senses were on high alert, not knowing what else was lurking in here with her. What if it really was a ghost?

Silly Moonglade. Ghosts don’t exist, remember?

If anything, perhaps one of these weapons would do her some good. Shrugging to herself, Moonglade plucked a warhammer off the wall, grasping its handle in both her hands, holding it beside her head like a bat. It was a strange looking warhammer, its head shaped in a circle instead of a square, but right now, any weapon made her feel safer.

And then suddenly, out of the darkness behind one of the racks, something slithered out, moving towards her like a tendril of shadow.

Moonglade shrieked and swung the hammer, screwing her eyes shut at the same time. Everything went by in such a flash that she always didn’t know what had happened, but she had taken a few leaps back and her hammer had impacted a rack of what looked like halberds. The next thing she knew, she was lying on the floor, with sharp pains in her left shoulder and right side, the hammer rolling away on its round head, out of reach.

“Nnngh!” Moonglade felt down at her side, feeling something sharp coming out of her body, her hand coming back with blood. Every breath sent a spike of pain through her body; the halberd sticking out of her shoulder didn’t help with that either.

The young girl tried to get up, but it was too painful to do so. She considered pulling them out, but she couldn’t muster up the guts to do it.

Tears began to form in her eyes from the pain, but she still couldn’t get up. She did the one thing she knew how to do. Call for help.

“A-Aunt Iv-ory…!” she cried out.

It wasn’t long before her aunt was by her side, already crouched down beside her, one hand running soothingly along Moonglade’s cheek.

“Shh, sweetie, I’m here. I felt your pain and I rushed right over.” Ivory looked down at the weapons. “How did this even happen?”

For once, Moonglade was thankful changelings could sense each other’s pain. Back then, when she had felt her aunt’s and mother’s, she wished that they couldn’t. It had hurt pretty bad.

“Nngh, something si-illy…” Moonglade choked. “Something on the floor sca-ared me… H-Help, Aunt Ivory… It h-hurts…”

“We’re going to have to pull them out.” Ivory grabbed the first halberd tightly. “Are you ready?”

“I don’t think- AAAAAAAHHHH!” Moonglade screamed as her aunt yanked out the sharp tip in her side.

“Hush now, sweetie, the first one’s out. Use your love.” Ivory went back to caressing her head to calm her. “It’s okay. I’m here with you. Just relax and breathe.”

Moonglade did as her aunt said, focusing her love energy to heal the wound on her side; soon, it became easier to breathe again.

“Okay, next one, sweetie. Ready?” Ivory took the next halberd in her hand.

“Wait- AAAAHHH!” Moonglade yelled as the halberd detached from her shoulder. Thankfully, this one hadn’t been as bad.

In no time, her shoulder was healed as well and the young changeling sat up, rubbing at her side. She wasted no time and throwing her arms around her aunt, glad that she had been here.

“It’s okay now, sweetie. You’re fine now.” Ivory rubbed her back soothingly. “You have to be more careful, okay? Like I said, there aren’t any ghosts. Especially not in my home.”

“B-But there really was something. I saw it coming towards me. I swung that warhammer at it and it did nothing.” Moonglade pointed to her weapon in the corner.

Ivory looked at it, then chuckled. “That’s not a warhammer, Moonglade. That’s a mace.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Oh, they’re very different, little one.” The older changeling gave Moonglade’s head a pat. “Now come on, up on your feet. You’re getting your outfit all dusty.”

“So what do you think it was?” Moonglade did as she was told, dusting off her skirt with her hands. “Something was definitely in here. If it wasn’t a ghost, what was it?”

Ivory looked around for a while, then sighed and laughed. “I think it was this little cretin, sweetie.”

She reached over and grabbed something and it suddenly began squeaking. Moonglade could tell it was a rat before it got close enough to see.

“You have rats in your home?”

“I don’t know how it got in,” Ivory Wings said, looking puzzled. “This room is sealed, and my penthouse is on the top floor. Maybe our little culprit climbed through the ventilation or something. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to throw it off the balcony.”

“What, you’re going to kill it?”

“Hey, I survived, maybe it will too.” Ivory walked to the door of the hidden armory. “And you might want to wash the blood off. If your mother finds out you got hurt…” And then the older changeling disappeared around the corner.

Having enough with the dark room, Moonglade quickly scurried out and went back downstairs to look for a bathroom. Her jacket and shirt now had tears in them, and that made her upset. These were going to the trash when she got home, and then she was going to have to get more of this jacket and shirt as well. Luckily she had at least six more back home.

The bathroom wasn’t hard to find and in no time, Moonglade had her shirt and jacket off, scrubbing at them in the sink, trying to wash the blood off, though it was terribly difficult. The young changeling was also dismayed to know that one of her bra straps had been cut by the halberd as well, now hanging in two pieces by her arm.

“Just great, isn’t it?” She sighed. Walking to the door, she shut it before unbuckling her bra and examining the cut strap in better detail. It looked like it could be stitched back. Perhaps Aunt Ivory would be able to help with that later. “What a blow to my fashion, huh? Silly Moonglade. There aren’t any ghosts. You’ve told yourself that plenty of times, and still you’re scared of them. Ha. You’re scared of something that doesn’t exist. Good job. Real good job.”

She looked at her skin in the mirror, eyeing the charcoal colored skin where she had healed her injuries. If anything, she always knew where she was injured, even after healing herself. There was a circular spot on her side where the halberd tip had punctured her and there was the slash mark on her shoulder where a one with an axe head had fallen on her.

And also, since she didn’t have anything on her upper body at the moment, the young changeling took the time to admire her body in the mirror before getting back to washing the bloodstains from her clothes.

It wasn’t too bad on her jacket, seeing as most of it was red, but the bloodstains were extremely obvious on her white shirt and they wouldn’t come off.

“Come on, come on…” the girl grumbled to herself.

She couldn’t hear her aunt outside the bathroom, but she was sure that if anything happened, she would be here in a flash. That was one good thing about being a changeling, she supposed, that family was never really far away. She scrubbed some more, but the blood remained on her shirt.

“Think, Moonglade. What would Silver Rose’s home economics teacher tell her to do in a situation like this?” Then she narrowed her eyes at herself in the mirror. “I bet she would just burn it.”

Obviously, burning her shirt wasn’t an option right now, that is, unless she wanted to go home without a shirt. She would never live it down if she did that, especially if someone were to see her.

“Guess I’ll burn it when I get home.”

Seeing as nothing else could be done, Moonglade turned off the tap and hung up her shirt and jacket on a dust-coated bar to dry off.

Not sure on what she would use as a substitute, Moonglade slipped her one-strapped bra back on before pulling one of the towels from a nearby rack. As soon as she did, a cloud of dust puffed up into the air, filling the bathroom and making Moonglade shut her eyes and cough them out of her mouth.

“Ugh, gross, someone really needs to clean all this!” She waved a hand in front of her face.

When she was done coughing, the young changeling wrapped the towel around herself, covering up most of her upper body. She looked at herself in the mirror again and sighed. The towel was covering her skirt, but visible past the towel was her single bra strap and her black stockings. She looked like a walking fashion disaster right now, but at least it was better than walking around naked.

“Well, I guess that’s that…” And she went over to the door and left the bathroom.

Moonglade heard sounds of muffled movement upstairs, which must have been her aunt. A couple of minutes of searching later, as it was quite a big house, she found Ivory Wings moving a bunch of large cardboard boxes that had rolled up pieces of parchment and paper in them, all of them neatly tied with string.

“What are these, Aunt Ivory?”

“Oh, these?” Ivory Wings grunted, lifting and carrying another box out of the closet. “These are star charts. I need them to predict when the next blood moon will be.”

“Blood moon?” Moonglade knew what her aunt had told her, but how would a blood moon help?

“Yes, a blood moon. When the red moon is high, that’s when we changelings are the strongest. A blood moon brings about power, potential, and magic. I’m hoping I can use it to help the sirens.” Ivory Wings looked at her niece and clucked her tongue. “Now that kind of outfit will never do. Go to my room, it’s the third on the left down that corridor, and get yourself one of my t-shirts or something. Wandering around with just a towel is just unseemly.”

“W-Well, I have more than just a towel on…” Moonglade mashed one foot into the floor. “But yes, it’s terrible fashion. Third on the left, down the corridor. Got it, Aunt Ivory.”

“Nyeh.” Ivory remarked, then went back to moving her star charts. Occasionally she would undo the string around one of the scrolls and scan its contents before rolling it back up and stuffing it back into its box.

Moonglade didn’t pay attention to the rest, finding her aunt’s room on the left, shutting the door behind her and dropping the dusty towel to the floor beside her feet. She looked around. This was her aunt’s room. It was one of the guest rooms, but she had decorated it with dozens of wooden dolls, each one artfully painted and dressed like a miniature human, though they were all covered in so much dust, the young girl had trouble distinguishing their features. Some of them held miniature weapons or tools that seemed to add to their personality. There were shelves and shelves of the dolls, and each one’s glassy eyes seemed to follow Moonglade as she looked around for the closet.

“Which one contains the t-shirts…” Moonglade threw closet after closet open, only to be greeted with the sight of more dolls. The t-shirts would probably be all dirty as well, but she figured it was better than a dusty old towel.

At some point during her search, the tickling of the cut strap on her arm irritated the girl so much that she decided to do away with the piece of underwear as well, tossing it over to where she had dropped the towel. It was just going to be a bother to leave it on anyway, at least for now.

Finally, the fourth door she threw open revealed stacks of clothes, all in muted colors. The top layer of clothes was a little dusty, so Moonglade picked out a shirt that was underneath some of the other that looked and smelled relatively clean. Relatively was relative. There were also several outfits hanging at the side, on racks. There was a green silk kimono, a set of purple and maroon hooded robes, and, most curiously, a charred and burned set of something in black that she couldn’t quite make out the original shape of, it was too damaged and worn.

“Everything alright in here?” Ivory Wings walked into the room, smiling as she saw the dolls. “Oh. I see you found my executioner’s outfit. I always meant to get rid of it, but I couldn’t because Pierce Network was still alive. I guess now I can.”

“A-Aunt Ivory!” Moonglade’s arms quickly shot across her chest and her face turned red. “You-you didn’t knock!”

“Well, yeah. This is my room.”

“But I-I’m not…” Moonglade crouched down embarrassedly. “I’m not wearing anything on t-top. C-Could you turn around?”

Ivory chuckled, but did as her niece wanted, walking over to the towel and picking it up, along with Moonglade’s bra. “I don’t even know why you took this off. You can still wear it, one strap or no.”

“It was irritating me.” When she was sure her aunt wasn’t looking, Moonglade stood back up and put on the shirt she had taken from the pile, which was a musty blue t-shirt with a little white speech bubble on the front; the shirt almost covered all of her skirt. “Okay, you may look now, Aunt Ivory.”

“Right.” Ivory dangled the piece of white underwear in her hands. “I can stitch this back for you if you want, otherwise we could always buy a new set for you.”

Moonglade figured stitching it back would work better. “If you could, yes please.”

“Right, I’ll work on it.” Ivory dusted the towel her niece had used and moved for the door. “Why don’t you go watch the TV or something? I’ll still be a while.”

Moonglade pulled at the bottom of her large shirt and shrugged. “Sure, Aunt Ivory.”

“If you need anything, just give me a call, sweetie. I’ll come right back.”

“Mhm.” The young changeling went back downstairs, looking for the living room she had seen earlier. She found it quite easily. The living room was at least three times larger than the living room back at the Wings Estate, and it was tastefully decorated in black and white furnishing. There was a massive, wall sized TV dominating one end, and several cream couches facing it. There was even a small fridge in the corner.

“Umm, let’s see here…” Moonglade picked up the remote on a short coffee table and hopped back into the couch right in front of the TV. She flicked the screen on, which brought her to a black screen first. “Hmm, source… Which one does Aunt Ivory have for her TV channels?”

Moonglade began pressing random buttons, taking a look through her aunt’s various ports. She had six HDMI ports, which was two more than the TV they had back home on the second floor.

The young changeling eventually found the channels on the second HDMI port, instantly dropping the remote and covering her ears when a metal music band began screaming and shredding their guitar strings.

“Loud! Too loud!” Moonglade speared one hand for the remote and quickly changed the channel. Any channel was better than this right now.

The next channel she flipped too was the complete opposite. On the TV screen, she now saw a man with a strangely round hairstyle, painting a serene image of a flooded forest on a canvas. It reminded Moonglade of her friend, no, Silver’s friend, Canvas Splash.

“And add another tree here so that the first tree doesn’t feel lonely,” the man on the screen said to himself. That made Moonglade wish she would have people to hang out with all the time, but of course, she didn’t. Not all the time, anyway.

“I wonder what Canvas is doing right now?” She tapped her chin a few times. “Probably drawing or painting something, no doubt.”

However, the painting program soon proved to be too sleep-inducing and Moonglade changed the channel again.

This time, an old film was showing. At least that was what the information panel said. Filmed about twenty years ago and starring an actor called…

“Crescentlane?” Moonglade said in surprise. “Father?”

The movie was called The Seventh Sense, and the director was a man whose name she found incomprehensible.

“Sha… Shei… Shy… whatever.”

She was more interested in seeing her father, seeing as she had no idea what he even looked like.

The film began with a man walking into a room, holding a stack of papers. He had light blue skin and grey hair, but what got Moonglade’s attention were his eyes. His eyes were blue, blue like hers.

“Father? Is this him?” She inched forward in her seat, just in time to see a man with a gun show up on screen, pointing it at her father.

And then, he shot Crescentlane before turning the gun on himself.

“What? Why?” Moonglade scratched at her head.

The next thing she knew, her father was already back to work in his psychiatric ward, as though nothing had happened earlier.

She wasn’t sure if he indeed was her father, but she could see the similarities. They had the same nose and forehead, and definitely the same eyes. She didn’t know how she could tell, but she could feel that this man on screen was Crescentlane.

“Why would mother hide you from me, father?” Moonglade continued to watch the show as a young boy was introduced. “Why would she not want me to know who you were?”

But at least now she knew what her father looked like and that actually made the young girl feel a little happy. She had always wanted to know.

Crescentlane looked to be quite the handsome man. Moonglade knew that was one reason why her mother had married him.

She continued to watch the movie, pulling up her legs onto the couch and leaning forward, more interested in her father than the actual plot. It seemed that the boy her father was talking to was able to see ghosts or something. Moonglade shuddered at the thought. She didn’t want to see any ghosts and she dreaded them appearing in every dark room she walked into. And this kid could see them everywhere he went? That was a really scary thought for her.

And then there was a loud crash from somewhere upstairs, making Moonglade jump in her seat and squeak. She turned around just in time to see a few boxes tumbling down the staircase, followed by a harrowed looking Ivory Wings.

“You okay, Aunt Ivory?” Moonglade called over from the couch.

“Yes, yes, I’m fine, sweetie.” The older changeling adjusted her spectacles. “Just carrying too many things. Well, at least I’ve found them all.”

“Do you need any help?” The young girl continued to look over the couch.

“No, no, everything’s downstairs now, hmm?” Ivory tucked some of her snow white hair behind an ear. “What are you watching there, sweetie?”

“Oh, an old movie. It’s called, umm…” Moonglade tried to remember the title. “Something about sense. But that’s not so important! Father’s in this movie, Aunt Ivory!”

“Fath-Father?” Ivory was instantly beside the couch, her eyes now fixated on the TV screen. “Yes, there’s no mistaking Crescentlane. You know, It was a shame he had to die. At least he was a better actor than your mother. I thought perhaps he had met an accident back then, but in the end, with your mother involved, I should’ve known sooner. Of course, if I had been around, I should have been the one to finish him,” Ivory sighed. “Your mother shouldn’t have to dirty her hands with such a mundane task.”

“Why do you think mother would want to hide him from me?” Moonglade looked at her aunt. “What is there to hide, even?”

“I don’t know, sweetie. You know your mother can be… difficult at times.” Ivory went around the couch and sat down beside her niece. “Perhaps she just doesn’t want you digging for him and wondering why he isn’t around today.”

“But I’ve been wondering all these years. I still am. Well, at least now I know what he looks like.”

“Mhm, yes you do, sweetie.” Ivory put an arm around her niece’s shoulders and inhaled. “And your happiness doesn’t taste too bad.” Ivory Wings glanced at the TV screen. “You have his eyes, you know. Not counting the whole slitted pupils thing, I mean.”

“Yeah, I thought so.” Moonglade watched as her father looked through a stack of reports.

“You know, I think I’ve seen this film before,” Ivory Wings said mildly, going over to the fridge and returning with two glasses and a tall bottle of amber liquid. “It was rather popular back in the day.” Ivory set the glasses down on the coffee table and poured out the liquid into both of them. “Cider, sweetie?”

“This is not alcohol, right?” Moonglade swung her legs back and forth as she watched the liquid fall into the glasses. “I’m not supposed to be drinking all that yet.”

Ivory Wings glanced at the back of the bottle. 4.7% alcohol.

“Yeeeeeaahhh,” She said slowly, scrunching up her mouth and looking away. “Not alcoholic at all.”

Shrugging, Ivory passed Moonglade one of the glasses. She sniffed the drink once, then took a sip. It tasted faintly of apples, but had a funny, almost chemical aftertaste, and it burned slightly on the way down.

“Umm… It’s warm. Am I supposed to feel warm inside?” Moonglade patted her chest. “I thought we changelings don’t feel heat.”

“I don’t think it’s that kind of heat, sweetie,” Ivory said, taking a gulp of her own drink and swirling it around in the glass. She then drank the rest of her glass and poured herself another.

“Are you sure there’s no alcohol in this?” Moonglade took another sip.

“This movie was filmed before Crescentlane met your mother, wasn’t it?” Ivory Wings said, leaning forward on the couch and sipping her drink. “I was still getting used to being back on this side of the world at the time, so I didn’t quite get a say in who she should or shouldn't marry.”

“Did you know about him? Father, I mean.” Moonglade sniffed at her glass of cider and frowned at it. There was something fishy about this drink. “Do you know what he was like?”

“Unfortunately no. You would be better off asking your mother, but I somehow don’t think you’ll get much of an answer from her either.”

“Aw…” Moonglade pouted. “She hasn’t told you too?”

“Not much. Just that he was a strong, healthy mate that she married to ensure the best possible offspring.” Ivory Wings finished her drink and poured another.

“Oh, just like that, huh?” Moonglade rubbed at her arms. She took another mouthful of her drink and shuddered as it slipped down her throat. “Uhhh, should I really be drinking this…?”

“Okay, you know what, maybe that’s enough.” Ivory took the glass from her niece and finished its contents. “I realize it might not be so pleasant if your mother finds out what you’ve been drinking.”

“So it was alcohol?” Moonglade’s face paled.

“Eh, just a little bit. Probably not enough to affect your system.” Ivory Wings picked up the bottle and drank down the rest of it. “Ahhh... That’s some good-smelling, if useless, beverage. It doesn’t even taste that nice.”

“No wonder it smelt and felt weird. You don’t think mother’ll notice the smell, do you, Aunt Ivory?”

Ivory shrugged and put the empty bottle down on the coffee table with a clunk. “Probably? We can just tell her I spilled some on you or something.”

“But you don’t spill things, Aunt Ivory.”

“I’m not what I used to be, little Dea.” Ivory looked back over to where her boxes were left. “If I can drop boxes, I can spill alcohol, yeah?”

“I guess.” The young changeling shrugged and went back to watching her father on the TV.

Now he was traveling around with the boy, solving ghostly mysteries or something. Moonglade didn’t quite get the movie and the only reason she was still watching it was because her father was in it.

“Won’t it be funny if he was actually still with us today,” Ivory Wings chuckled and hugged her niece close to her with one arm. “Like Silver Platter and the maids, just that he would actually be your father instead of some lowly servant. Perhaps that’s why your mother got rid of him. She only keeps servants around.”

“Yeah…” Moonglade watched her father smile at the boy. Perhaps it would’ve been nice if she still had him today.

“Imagine that,” the older changeling chuckled. “Your father, a servant of the Queen. Won’t that be something, being a servant of his own wife.”

“Yeah, though her own daughter being a servant is okay for her…”

“Uh huh… It’s getting late.” Ivory stood back up and stretched her arms up. “I should probably get all my charts and clothes over to the car. Why don’t you finish watching the movie? Then we can go.”

“Oh, sure, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade smiled at her aunt, then looked back at the TV.

This was some time she could spend with her father, even if he wasn’t really here, and she did like the feeling of it, and so did Ivory Wings.