Her head lifted. She stared blindly beyond a wall, seeing something even most prophets might miss. "Your Majesty, I should like to take a vacation," said the small, brown person whose wings, unusually for a phantom, were large enough with which to fly. She was a spot of plain living, dressed in tanned leather and furs, in the king's study which was filled with a casual elegance designed to remind small groups exactly who ruled on this planet.

     Baslon looked up at his seer, frowning. Although the room was warm with color and richness, he was stark black and white in dress and manner, his personal colors and those of his mother. There was almost no tint to his skin. The insignia of a gold crown embroidered on one shoulder seemed out of place. "I suppose I could see my way fit to letting you do that. You haven't had much time to yourself in about a century. You deserve to have however much time you need."

     Kolano shook her head. "No, no, I didn't say it right. This involves a duty. I'm going to jump forward in time, so I won't be around. For a couple of years, actually. It involves getting someone to forget about something by not having it around. I've actually had plenty of vacations. I just make sure I'm always around at the time. But this time, I have to actually be gone for two years, so I needed to inform you. I'm really not going to have any time to myself after I pick up the something."

     For the first time that day, King Baslon put down his pen and set aside the stacks of papers and his personal seal. Kolano's eyes widened, and she bit her lower lip. "Two years?" the king asked, steepling his fingertips.

     "It should be enough."

     "Why so long? I could need you. The world could need you. Thyen requires its king to have his All-Seer."

     "It might not be long enough."

     He almost fidgeted, but caught himself just in time. He didn't pay her to give advice so he could ignore it. "Will it be long enough?"

     "I hope so."

     "Are you toying with me, kolano?" His voice was hard.

     "Oh, never, your Majesty," she said bitterly, hearing the emphasis that said he was referring to her species, the mad phantom, not her name. "I never deliberately act insane around my employer. This involves a prophecy I gave Jason. You can't prevent me from acting upon it. And, while it's not, strictly speaking, political, it would ill behoove a king to detain me. Moreover, I've got to go now, and I'd like to know if I'll be reprimanded when I get back."

     "No. Go."

     "Thanks." She vanished.

     At the castle's front gate, a vibrantly red-haired girl's eyes were blazing as bright as the sun, all traces of blue vanished. She faced a line blocking the gate that included the gatekeepers, the gatekeepers' assistants, seven pages, a collection of lords and ladies, and their spokesperson, a singer fetched from a castle orchestra who had Sirii ancestry. With the spokesperson's siren's blood, they represented nineteen of the twenty races of supernatural. The exception was human. A few feet away and carefully not between the queen and the primary exit stood a smaller knot, mostly consisting of minor courtiers and superior servants, all of whom hoped that indulging their curiosity would not involve becoming reinforcements.

     "No, your Majesty."

     Her crimson irises fired even more, nearly drowning out the pupils. "Get out of the way. Let me pass!"

     "No, your Majesty."

     "I'll turn you into a sparrow!"

     "Sir Duwabon will turn me back," the spokesperson responded, gesturing to a faerie.

     "Whoever's stopping me from levitating, I'm going to turn into a mesquite bush, then burn the lot of you!"

     "Not while we're around," said one of the elves. The vampires in particular looked relieved. "You don't think you can burn us, do you?"

     "Witch!" she growled, and all the elves got very stiff and proud very suddenly.

     "While terminologically accurate," Kolano said, materializing at the Queen's elbow, "it shows a lack of respect for tradition. For instance, I know you don't like it when someone calls you a witch. Do you know what that means?"

     Cherry glared at her sullenly.

     "You're a hypocrite, Cherry." She turned to the spectators who were trying not to participate or become the focus of the queen's wrath. "What are you doing here? I predict that if you don't find some way to improve yourselves, you'll all come to a bad end."

     Feet shifted. "We were just . . . expanding our minds," one muttered, the head of an entire floor of the castle, in charge of thousands of people. She couldn't meet Kolano's eye.

     "Expand them elsewhere, if at all possible. And you." She turned and scanned the blockaders, finally staring down the gatekeepers. "There are twelve gates in this castle wall. Have you left eleven unguarded?" There was mumbling and gruttering. "Well? Back to your posts! You!" Her finger stabbed at a couple of the apprentices who were lodged in the main gate house. "Do your duty. Open!"

     "Sesame," Cherry mumbled under her breath. Her eyes were slowly changing back to purple.

     "I heard that," snapped Kolano. "You're going to play three games of chess for stakes because of that."

     "No!" Cherry protested.

     "Hmph. Yes. It's just retribution. In the future, behave. Why isn't the gate open yet?"

     "Please, All-Seer," said the master gatekeeper, "It takes a little longer to key the spells."

     "Well, hurry. Who's interfering with the queen's levitation?"

     Two leprechauns briefly raised their hands, keeping their eyes down.

     "Fine. Good for you. Now stop it." She put a firm hand on Cherry's arm. "You stay grounded." Cherry jerked away. "If you don't, it's another chess game," she added as the patterned stone gates began opening. "Everyone else, out of our way." The little crowd slowly parted and began dispersing. Kolano seemed to think, then smiled slightly and called after them in a higher-pitched voice, "Stagnant spies! Go justify yourselves to the orange ebony forest!" And she laughed maniacally, adding quietly to Cherry, "Now the phantoms' reputation is intact."

     "No harm in that. What? Did Baslon decide to let me go? You're not keeping me prisoner any more?" asked Cherry sarcastically.

     "I'm coming with you."

     "No, you're not."

     "Do you want to play a game of chess over it?"

     "No!"

     "I did you a favor, getting them to let you go, so don't complain, hypocrite." Kolano set out. Cherry hurried beside her.

     "I'm not a hypocrite."

     "You're quick enough to collect on favors you do for others." She found the trail head and stumped down it, pausing to find a stick to use as a walking staff, her wings swaying to help keep balance on the narrow switchback edge and occasionally spreading to catch the air when she stumbled.

     "Not always." Cherry tried to push past Kolano, but was not permitted and soon gave up. "Not always."

     "Granted. That doesn't make you other than a hypocrite."

     "But I'm not!"

     "Do you want to know how to prove that?"

     Cherry glared with sullen suspicion at the back of Kolano's head.

     "Well?"

     "Sure."

     "Keep quiet."

     Cherry steamed in silence all the way to the valley floor, six thousand feet below the castle, going from permanent winter into Mediterranean summer. Around the time of the sun dawning over the Alpine peaks, Cherry burst out, "Are we going to walk the whole way there?"

     "Unless you can come up with a better way to travel." Kolano didn't look around, although they were now walking side by side, having long since abandoned the narrow path that headed to the east and to the summer grounds of the local elf and were tribes.

     Cherry considered for a few paces, then said, "You're no good at running, so I can't do that." Kolano looked insulted. "If I changed into a horse, your wings would get in the way of riding me. I'm not saying that you transporting is better, exactly, because I won't expend any energy, and you know what happens when I get too much of a build-up." Kolano nodded, having been through it several times just over the year and a half Cherry had been confined to the castle. "But it's quick, and I won't have to endure your quick tongue for as long." She reluctantly added, "Or you mine."

     Kolano grinned wryly. "Good girl. All right, we'll trip on over." She took Cherry's hand and a deep breath. In an instant, they were three miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, under nearly eight thousand pounds of pressure per square inch in perfect dark. Cherry's hand flared with purple elven fire, keeping it raised and behind them, out of Kolano's line of sight. It illuminated a collection of over three hundred portals and doorways including, closest to themselves, a long, dark, blue-grey tunnel. Cherry, breathing easily, immediately darted through. Kolano eyed the tube narrowly, then tucked her wings tightly around her body, touched her belt knife for reassurance, and pushed off the muddy ocean floor.

     Although wincing in anticipation of pain, she felt nothing but a faint sensation of falling. On the other side, as always, it was somewhat disappointing to see no difference whatsoever. However, her lungs were bursting, the pressure and lack of oxygen were starting to give her a headache, and if she had to breathe the water it might be a long time before Cherry bothered to bring her out of unconsciousness, which would probably cause her to fail in her purpose. She quickly grabbed Cherry's hand and teleported without thinking.

     They materialized in the middle of a busy intersection. Cherry whirled, jerking Kolano in front of her, and staggered forward as an ancient station wagon hit her from behind. Brakes squealed all around them. The sports car behind the station wagon did not have good brakes, and Cherry staggered again. Gasps and curses filled the air. The owner of the first vehicle quickly turned his car off and jumped out, babbling, "I'm so sorry, I didn't see you, are you all right?" Then he stopped and gaped at Kolano. The driver of the second car in the accident was just getting out, her face fuming.

     "I'm fine," Cherry said, grinning sheepishly. "Kolano?"

     "I think you broke one of my ribs," Kolano gasped, flexing her wings, which made the man stop harder and the woman from the other car stop dead. Not only had all traffic stopped, but hardly anyone close enough to see was using a horn.

     "Sorry about that," Cherry said to everyone in general, covering anything that might be considered something to apologize about while observing the prevailing mood. "Uh . . . Kolano, maybe you should get to the sidewalk while I take care of this." Seeing Kolano's blank look under the shock, she pointed. "The raised area where no cars are." She paused. Kolano still didn't respond. "Oh, come, you know what a car is! Get out of the way or you'll be hurt more! Sorry," she added to the drivers. "I . . . um . . . guess I wasn't looking where I was going. I suppose I should make amends. Will monetary be sufficient?" She briefly considered levitating the cars out of everyone's way, but decided not to. They seemed to have decided that they just hadn't seen Cherry and Kolano run into the street, and might continue believing that if she didn't give in to a desire to lecture the humans on the cultures and species who had emigrated to another world, and how no one on that world would think so loudly of Kolano as a 'winged freak' in such a derogatory manner.

     Stunned, the man nodded, but the woman's eyes narrowed. "I'd like to see your driver's license, please. I want your name, number, and address." She was thinking very blatantly about money and the court systems.

     "I don't have one," Cherry said cheerfully, running through her mind about her available human currency and wondering if she'd have to go to the nearest bank. "Actually, you should be asking for my passport, but I don't have one of those, either. I'm an illegal alien." Her five-hundred year old Yorkshire nobility accent made this believable, even if no one was able to identify it. However, she berated herself as all eyes remained glued to Kolano. It was time to leave. Mentally and unobtrusively, she redesigned her trousers to have pockets. Still working purely with her willpower, she reached to her storage space, set aside from the universe, and filled her pockets from it. Then, with her hands, she emptied those new pockets onto the ground, making a pile of yellow metal while hoping the market value of gold had not gone down in the United States in the last two decades. Finally, screwing her face up in concentration, she jotted on a scrap of parchment what she remembered of how to contact her human-raised father's solicitor, although she suspected the company no longer existed. "Here. Hope this direction is useful." She shoved the paper at the man, who she figured might deal a little more fairly if he came out of his shock somewhat, but not too much. He took it in a daze. "I've got to get Kolano to a hospital." She chuckled at the different language that allowed her to call her companion a 'phantom' in front of all these people without anyone understanding the word except those who would also understand the circumstances, thereby preventing panic. She glanced up at the building in front of her which read 'Ste. Elizabeth's Hospital,' limped to Kolano, and hustled her inside.

     Within, Cherry grimaced at the smells of sickness and medicine that permeated the everlastingly white halls and at the stares Kolano received, but kept moving. Hopefully they could take care of business before trouble arrived, which it eventually would. "Sorry for the rough handling," Cherry said quickly, "but it was better that I took the whole blow. I heal faster." She shook a leg out, wincing at the sounds the bone made. Cherry also got injured with less ease. Kolano might have wound up smeared across the pavement, in enough pain to regret that she couldn't tell Cherry how a phantom died.

     A cherubic boy of about four years tottered over before his father could catch him and tugged on Kolano's pant leg to get her attention. "How come you got wings?" he wanted to know.

     Also curious, but desperately wanting his son away from such a strange creature, the father snatched his son up and muttered an apology.

     Kolano glared at the father and attempted a motherly smile at the son. "I was born this way," she said more gently than to most adults, although she hadn't been born that way, not quite.

     "She's an angel," Cherry put in with a malicious smile.

     "Half an angel!" Kolano protested. "I'm only half an angel, Cherry Amano Tudor, and you know it!"

     "Yes, a fallen angel." Cherry's eyes, bright with mischief and anticipation, darted around, hunting for signs and maps.

     "What is that supposed to mean?" Kolano asked, hurrying after Cherry and clutching her rib cage. Now that Cherry was in front and more impatient, her longer legs required Kolano to jog to keep up.

     "It's monotheistic mythology, Kolano. Ignore it. You wanted to come in the first place. Quickstep and make yourself useful!" She found a map of all the floors on the wall and scanned it in segments until she had located the maternity ward.

     "Useful how?" Kolano demanded, nearly out of breath by now.

     "We're trying to find an artist-creator."

     "I know that . . . idiot. The kid . . . who was born a little . . . ways from here a year . . . and a half ago, and who . . . is no longer here."

     Stunned and perplexed, Cherry stopped short, allowing Kolano to take deep breaths and rest, half-crouched over her side. "Then what?"

     "Our healers remember everyone they've birthed," Kolano reminded her.

     "The record room!" Cherry exclaimed. "I need the birth certificate and the parents' direction, and that's where you'll be useful."

     "How?" Kolano asked wearily.

     "You'll be able to tell which child born that day is the one I should go to."

     "I can't just call up a vision on demand, Cherry."

     Cherry wagged her finger scoldingly and announced in a sing-song, "You can when there's elven fire around!" Kolano suppressed annoyance and concentrated on how grateful she should be that Cherry had not sung all out in the hypnotic siren's voice, which she used all to often to get her own way when she was not angry. Kolano found herself supremely ungrateful and silently, bitterly apologized to the gods as she waited for Cherry to race back to the map. She wished she could transport to a place she'd never been without any possible danger or embarrassment, like landing a few yards away in the middle of human vehicular traffic. "Come on, Kolano, this way!" Cherry ordered, and Kolano prepared herself to run again. This time, though, they were soon intercepted by a nurse in white.

     "Hey, stop that running! This is a hospital, not a z . . ." He saw Kolano. "Z . . . zoo. . . ."

     Kolano rolled her eyes at him. "Be grateful I'm not flying."

     "You're a bit sane today, eh?" Cherry mocked. "But now you see what fun humans are. They all think they're insane when you act normally around them. See you later," she told the nurse, then grabbed Kolano's hand in an effort to tow her at a greater speed.

     "My ribs!" shouted Kolano, and doubled over in pain when Cherry let go. The things she did when associating with the royal family were beyond what any phantom, any species of supernatural, should endure.

     Cherry stood tapping her foot, then sighed impatiently. "I guess it's a ride after all. Hop on." She shook her head so her flaming hair flew in all directions. A ripple started at the top and where it passed it left, still red but short, rough fur on a gigantic feline. It took less than a hundredth of a second for the queen to become a lioness.

     People screamed. Up and down the hall, shouts came. Several ran for the nearest stationed phone. Doors slammed, and Kolano buried her face in her hands. "Oh, Cherry, don't do that!" Cherry grunted a roar and pushed up against Kolano. "I can't get on. You're too big. Lay down." Cherry grunted again, but lowered her belly to the floor and tolerated Kolano to half fall over her, trying to jostle her ribs as little as possible. Then, with a leap, Cherry went off deeper into the hospital, causing havoc when people saw her and when she did not watch her tail as she went past a paper-covered desk.

     Very few people cared to chase a lioness, and no one was able to chase her for very long, because Cherry's multi-racial stamina carried over to her new form. So, when she stopped (sliding somewhat on the slippery tile floor) in front of the records room, they were alone, and Cherry resumed her humanoid, fully clothed state unobserved, dumping Kolano on the floor. "Here we are," Cherry said with bright satisfaction, and twisted the knob out of the door.

     "Carelessness!" Kolano exclaimed. "You had better make reparation here, too."

     "Yes, O Seer of Totality, Omniscient Scrupulousness!" Cherry intoned, then chortled and went into the dark room.

     "You've been around Ralozeiauoy too long," Kolano muttered, following. "I'm going to make those chess games last a long time, you hear me, Cherry Amano Tudor?"

     "Where do we start looking?" Cherry asked, studying the aisles of file cabinets.

     Kolano leaned forward to study the labels on some of those closer to the door and made a disgusted face. "These don't make sense!" she grumbled. "I can't even tell what these letters are!"

     Cherry glanced at her incredulously. "You can't read? You're a Seer! How can you not know how to read? It's perfectly plain English! You can speak English."

     "I know elven runes and human runes, and these letters are nothing I've ever seen before," snapped Kolano.

     "Oh." Cherry rolled her eyes. "Not human runes. It's a little more specific. You know Norse runes. Those are mostly extinct, Kolano."

     "They had strong magic." Kolano scowled at Cherry. "How can they be extinct?"

     "Probably for the same reason that we're extinct. Humans went to war, then forgot about them, and they left the world. Something else took their place. Roman letters, for the most part. These." Cherry leaned in close. "It says, 'Gynecological Survey, 1973.' What does that mean?"

     "It means you don't want to look in that drawer. Look for something on maternity, birth, nascency, the like."

     Cherry glanced at the aisles of records and snorted. "Looks like you'll have to have a vision just to find where we look first."

     "Cherry," Kolano growled, "even if you insist upon forcing a vision, neither you nor I have any means of controlling what it will show me, or even that I'll remember it or tell you anything during it."

     "Then we'll just make more visions until we get what we want."

     Kolano boxed Cherry's ear with one wing. Even though she knew it wouldn't hurt Cherry and she might bruise herself, she couldn't help it. "That increases the chance that at least one will be extremely painful and debilitating! You know that, unless you haven't been paying attention for the past two hundred years!"

     "Three hundred," Cherry corrected. "To round off. I've know you for two hundred seventy-nine years."

     "Remarkable," said Kolano dryly. "And you can't even tell me how old you are."

     "I can tell you how old you are, and larger numbers are harder to deal with," Cherry said with magnanimous forgiveness towards herself. "You're thirty thousand, seven hundred eleven years and two hundred twelve days. The vision?"

     "Forget it. You have poltergeist ancestry. I'm half poltergeist. I say we rely on luck."

     "Oh." Cherry looked faintly disappointed, then shrugged. "Okay."

     Kolano walked down the aisle, then considered the option of left or right. She glanced over her shoulder at Cherry, who was watching her closely. "Look, I don't know how to invoke luck."

     "Luck be with us," Cherry intoned in a falsely deep voice.

     "I don't think that's the way." Kolano closed her eyes, paused, and spun on tiptoe, flapping her wings gently for balance. When she stopped, she walked in the direction she was facing without openeing her eyes. "Say when," she called.

     "Uh . . . okay. When."

     Kolano looked, and turned down the aisle, figuring that luck was with her after all since she hadn't bumped her nose. "And again!"

     Cherry waited a little longer this time before calling out, "When!"

     Kolano stopped, glanced consideringly from side to side, then whirled around a few more times. Her finger ran down the list of drawers. "Cherry, come read this to me." A moment later, when there was no responce, Kolano turned around and nearly jumped out of her skin to find Cherry already quietly squatting behind her. Cherry grinned mischievously, rose to her feet, and leaned over Kolano's head for a look. "Maternity, May 1980." She looked at Kolano. "I don't keep track of Anno Domini years."

     "What makes you think I do?" Kolano snapped irritably.

     Cherry made an incomprehensible gesture. "But is this the right year? We need to know."

     "You need to know. I couldn't care less. What are you going to do to the poor kid? I'm sure he'll be better off if you don't decide to be his fairy godmother. There's got to be a reason I had such an emphatic vision last year. I had a headache for weeks. I wish you'd stop doing things that my visions want me to stop."

     "Sorry."

     "You don't sound sorry. What are you going to do with the kid?"

     Cherry glanced at Kolano out of the corner of her eye, then opened the drawer and started sifting through files. Kolano watched her for a while, then said, "He's probably better off without your benevolent impulses."

     "I had a vision, too."

     "Figures. What did you see?"

     "I don't see things. I just know."

     "Lucky. I wish my visions would do that to me more often. What did you know?"

     Cherry kept sifting through folders, but now she chewed on her lip, thinking quickly about how to answer Kolano's question while still trying to decide which of thousands of children was the one she wanted with no way of deciding and unaware that she even was looking in the right place. "It was . . .

     "Cat and Crowned Head written into being
     By a human, created everything.
     Plotted mischief forces your life's path;
     Born this morning; do not loose your wrath."

     "Are you going to pay any attention to it?"

     "Of course! What do you think we're doing right now?"

     "I meant the 'do not loose your wrath' part," said Kolano. She suddenly looked thoughtfully at the drawer, and reached in under Cherry's arms to pull out a folder. She opened it and rifled through the sheets of paper it contained until she claimed a birth certificate. Then she paused, and pulled out the one behind it, too. She put the rest of the folder back and closed the drawer.

     "That one?" asked Cherry gleefully, eyes glittering like coldly distant stars.

     "One of them," said Kolano, leaning back against the file cabinets.

     "What do they say?" asked Cherry, almost hopping in her excitement.

     "What are you going to do with them?" demanded Kolano.

     "Yes, but what do they say?" Cherry persisted.

     "What are you going to do with them?" Kolano repeated very carefully.

     "Nothing to anyone who's not this creator kid. I just want to see him." Cherry snatched the certificates from Kolano's hand. Kolano grunted in annoyance and started to reach to grab them back, then decided it would be an unsuccessful effort at best. Cherry read both certificates and the current address attached to them carefully. "Him. Her. Which one?"

     "I don't know," said Kolano honestly.

     "Well, you will. What a silly name. D-y-u-a-a-x-c-h-s. That's Americans for you. Melting pot of the world. I wonder what they melted to get that? Well, let's go to Chicago."

     "I don't think so. Not until you tell me."

     Cherry frowned petulantly, then demanded, "Will you stop stalling as soon as I tell you?"

     "I promise, as soon as you tell me what I want to know, I will take you directly to where you want to go," said Kolano.

     "Oh, all right then. See, I finally figured out how I can die. I just kill whoever created me before I can be created. He was only just born, so he can't have created me yet. Now let's go."

     Kolano clenched her fists. Her mind whirled as she kept her promise.

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