In The Safety Of A Desert

Features: Silver, Glory, Hare, Landis

Preceded by: A Wolf Is Hit By A Van, Lord Grey Announces Silver's Fall

Glory shouted for the van to stop the moment she saw Silver collapse. She didn't even wait till it was completely halt to jump out, and dash toward Silver's body. "No no no no no no no no," Glory said, panic and fear all over her face. Tears streamed down her face as she knelt by Silver's sharp, bladed body.

"Please please please be alright," Glory begged, trying to get a good look at her. "Please, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Glory cried, hugging her form even as the blades stabbed into her body Her eyes were wide, and unblinking, even as tears could stop flowing down her cheeks. "Oh god, Silver, please. I'm sorry I fucked up. I think that's the only thing I can do. I'm so sorry Silver. I'm sorry that you ended up being tied with a bitch that cant do anything right. I'm sorry yelled at you. I'm sorry I hurt you. I'm sorry for breaking everything. I'm sorry I can't fix anything. I'm sorry I can't fix myself. I'm sorry for always fucking everything up, in the end."

Silver shifted, the blades twisting painfully. She growled, low and rumbling, the sound shivering through her. She shifted again.

"You idiot," Silver said, and she just sounded weary. "This is the third time I've tasted your blood now. What the hell, Glory."

Perhaps 'taste' was the wrong word. But there was blood dripping all through Silver's body, and that was a very, very strange feeling.

"Silver!" Glory choked through her tears. "You're alive!"

"Me dying isn't the concern, moron. You think you can kill me with -" Silver looked at the bag. She paused. "Glory. Please tell me you didn't just throw my bag of materials at me."

Glory shook her head. "No. Just the bottles. Well, most of them."

"They were the important part -" Silver growls, but just drops her head on the concrete. "I'm so tired, Glory," she murmured. "And you're..." Silver froze. "Glory, did you just fucking hug a sword-wolf while you're already injured?"

"I thought you were dead," Glory whispered, breathing heavily as blood poured from her multiple stab wounds. "Sorry for fucking up..." She trailed off as her body began to collapse.

(There was nothing - Silver had *nothing*, here, only pleading, only begging that a gifted favour was sufficient… please, Spirit of Mercy, *please* this was someone precious to her -)

"Fuck, Silver?"

The Hare appears, and below them the concrete has turned to shimmering sands. A desert stretches towards the horizon. Both Glory and Silver feel more themselves, more here, and free from any pain they might have suffered. Silver be without curse - but her shape would adjust to what she preferred. Glory's cuts and wounds would be eased.

"...the Fae, from before, he said you were in trouble. She sent me here - or, She sent you here." He shrugs, "Not super sure."

"What?" Glory coughs out.

Silver's a young woman again, in pink and blue, with silver in her hair. She swallows. "Hi, Hare." She's tense. "She... basically impaled herself on me. Can you help?"

Her voice is strained. Underneath it is... everything.

He sighs. "Not in the way you want, probably," a cactus blooms before Silver, pink flowers sprouting from everywhere needles aren't. "Or, not without a cost. I could keep her here, till she heals. She'd only stay as long as she wanted to, but the injuries would return, and quickly, once she left."

The Hare points to the cactus flowers, "Or, you could take those. If she eats those flowers, and only them, for three days time she'll heal. But -," he breathes in, suddenly looking very awkward. "You have her attention, Silver. She'll call on you to serve in a time of need. I don't know when or how, but she's attracted to heroes. You've given so much already..."

"I can stay," Glory said, standing herself back up. "She doesn't need to give more of herself for me."

Silver chokes on a laugh, burying her face in her gloves. "I exist to pay prices that I shouldn't." Silver's tone is nothing but bitterness. "Maybe I should take the deal. I probably won't be around long enough to pay the price."

"I won't let that happen," Glory said.

"You've paid enough. Now it's time for me to repay you back."

"Landis needs your help. Didn't you make a deal with him?"

"I don't owe him as much as I owe you. There are notes in my van on how to deal with Trojan Worms. Just follow the instructions, and you should be able to easily deal with them."

The Hare watches as they discuss, silent.

"What do you even owe me that I didn't manipulate out of you? For fuck's - " Silver just sits in the sand. "Damn it, Glory, why do I have to be the one to back down first? Every time."

"You gave me something to actually keep walking forward for," Glory says. "That's everything I really could've hoped for, when I met you."

"...She'll be comfortable here, for as long as she chooses to remain," the Hare says to Silver, "You'll still be able to reach her, I promise, if you left."

He pulls something from his pocket - a magnifying glass. "You're cursed, again. I was told you'd be in bad sorts. Your Self is...not secure."

"Do you enjoy understatements, Hare?" Silver asks. "I..." She sighs. "Yeah. I'm. Messed up." She rubs her face. "Does this place have internet access?"

"Yes. It has almost anything you could need. That's the point, kind of."

"Does it have a cure for her?" Glory asks.

"While she's here, Silver's cured," he shrugged, "There are ways She might extend her cure beyond sanctuary, but again, that's costly, especially considering she smells of...things we wouldn't want to attract."

"My Self is chronically ill and breaking down and I have not just been ignoring it, I've been encouraging it," Silver says, utterly flat. "I don't think that there's an actual cure for that. My curse is... not really the problem, even if its exacerbating things."

"What do you mean?" Glory asks. "I'll admit, I'm still pretty confused at your condition right now. I still don't get everything that's going on with what's happening with you."

"That's, uh, a problem," he says, "And there are people who could help you with that, restoring the Self. Here, it'll be quicker - but, like anything else, the progress you find will be lost outside."

Silver grits her teeth, and looks away. Even through Alabaster influence, Silver is utterly exhausted. "I told you once, Glory, that I am partly Fae. Not very much so, really, all things considered, but it is still rooted in my flesh, blood, and Self. The thing about Glamour is that, when paid attention, it grows, and spreads. Every time I change myself with Glamour, every time I reinforce my Self and identity as a shapeshifter, that influence grows stronger. I become more Fae.

"Presumably, this is a bad enough thing on its own; this goes on long enough, I tip over into Dark Fall, become part of the Court of childnappers and curse-weavers, begin to spread my tale and vie for power and title.

"Unfortunately... I'm Silver. The identity I've claimed is silver. My Implement is woven through with the metal. The idea of silver is associated very deeply with my story.

"The only Court which can bear silver is Winter."

"...is Winter as bad as that Fae made it out to be? You'll be, like, a robot?"

"Essentially, yes. I'll be wiped clean, down to one story, which I will play out for the rest of eternity or until someone kills me."

Silver doesn't sound nearly as upset about this as she really should be.

Glory didn't say anything, her eyes only wide, and her mouth slightly gaped open. It looked like her eyes beginning to water. "There's gotta be way," she manages to choke out. "Shit, there's gotta be a way!"

"Probably," Silver remarks. "Grey's suggestions aren't unreasonable, even if they - honestly - scare me even more than the prospect of falling to Winter does. Mildly amusing that the solution to too much shapeshifting is... yet another change, though."

Silver's calm is... kind of disturbing, after the murderous fury Glory had most recently seen out of her. This was completely the wrong reaction to knowing where she was going.

But then, the right reaction would have been to take steps long before getting to this point, wouldn't it?

"Goddammit, what's wrong with just not Practicing?!" Glory cries out, grabbing and shaking Silver. "You see all the horrible fucked up shit we've been through? Just... retire, or some shit. A bunch of Practitioner's on OMO have done it. Just go and live in that new Sanctuary thing that's coming up."

"Just... please, don't go," she softly whispers to her.

Silver was shaken. It was hard to tell how much it got through to her. She just... tipped her head forward, leaning into Glory. "Don't you get it?" Silver murmured. "The problem is how deeply Glamour and Practice is in my Self. Asking me to give up Practice is asking me to give up my Self, at least partly. Falling... falling would be easier." Silver laughs, a bit shakily. "Though I guess we never do really take the easy option."

"Ok, ok, ok," Glory says, taking a step back. "Let's take a look at this problem from the start, yeah? This all about your Self, right? How can we fix that? Stop Practicing is one option. What are our others? There's got like some Practice or Other out there that's all about performing surgeries on the Self or some shit like that."

"Maybe try to force a bit of the faerie inside you out? Maybe throw some goblin in you, or something?"

"...Do you even want to fix it, Silver?" The Hare asks.

"What?" Glory asked, looking back toward Silver.

Silver waves her hand. "I don't really know. I'm just. Tired. Part of me wants to stick around. Another part... nothingness sounds really appealing. Winter Fae can't really hurt, can they?"

"That's not really how I picture a good ending," Glory said, with her hands on her hips. "Going out in a blaze of Glory is far better than just... fading."

"...you could leave the Fae part of you, here." He says, "If you wanted."

Silver flinches at the suggestion.

Glory looks at him in surprise. "Really? It's that easy?"

"Well, sort of." He says, "We'd have to call Her, here. Silver would want to leave it, to be reclaimed later with a debt attached. It won't be cheap."

Glory glanced over to Silver. "I guess Silver doesn't like idea too well. Giving up too much of your Self? Can we leave just most, or a good bit of the faerie here?"

"I don't think so. It has to be a clean cut - separation of Other and Human."

"Dammit."

"You can both stay, to think. You shouldn't feel rushed or hurried here."

"If I take a nap I'll still be exhausted when I go, won't I?" Silver asks.

"And I'm assuming that time still moves the same in here as it does out there?" Glory adds.

"Sometimes, depending. For now, we've negotiated a stand still. You'll leave back to when you were, right before, unless you'd like time to match the outside." He looks at Silver, "Funnily enough, no. Small things, as long as you give up the time you sleep to here, and that it's reflected back out there, you'll be rested when you return - if that makes sense."

Silver pauses. "... not really."

"Ok, look, so you'll being giving up a huge chunk of your Self, right? It's not like your Forsworn, or lose the ability to Practice in general, right? You may be missing a lot of your Self, but you can still, over time, regain and heal." Glory speaks firmly, definite. "We can still make this all work."

"You want to cut out the thing that makes shapeshifting easy." Silver sounds like she's pleading, curling in on herself. "You want to cut my Connection to Dark Fall, to... I don't think you understand the implications of me losing this!"

“Better than becoming some robot! I’ve talked with AI’s before, and they all suck!”

"I don't - would you even care about me then, damn it? This much loss, I hardly imagine I'll still be interesting after that." Silver nearly spits out 'interesting' like a dirty word. "So fucking weak."

Apparently Silver wasn't out of emotions. This is pure vitriol... and entirely self-directed.

Glory looked at Silver, and frowned. She took a couple of careful of steps toward her,and slowly wrapped her tightly in a warm hug. “I’ll always find you interesting, no matter what. You’re the strongest person I have ever met, with or without Glamour.”

Silver just sagged into the hug, shaking. "I don't want to do this," she muttered. "I just. I don't know how to want it gone. Other shapes... not being myself is the closest thing I'd found to being safe, Glory."

“I’m here,” Glory softly whispered, gently patting the back of her head. “I’ll keep you safe. Will you let me?”

Silver made a pained noise. "Damn you, Glory, damn you. I don't even believe you can keep yourself safe!"

Glory laughed, and it was a kind pained laughter. “Yeah, well, I wasn’t really trying at the time. I wasn’t really trying at all, till I met you. Till I was sure.”

Silver scoffs. "You bloody... Now is not -" Silver paused. "Okay, fine, right now is the perfect dramatic moment for a fucking love confession, but I thought we were trying to avoid the Faerie shit?" Silver pulled herself out of Glory's grip, taking several steps back and turning away. She buried her face in her palms. "Breaking myself apart so a Goblin Princess can put me back together," she muttered. "What the fucking fuck."

Glory gave a pained laugh. “Yeah, the world is a fucking weird place. I learned to just live with it. But, we kinda put each other together, you know?” The moment those words left her mouth,  a look of contemplation began to wash over Glory's face, as if she was just suddenly on a precipice of an idea.

Silver turned around, again, standing up straight. She tilted her head. "What are you thinking?" she asked suspiciously.

“I... I think got an idea. It may be a dumb one, it may be worst than what we have in front of us, or just not work at all, but it may be all worth it in the end,” Glory said.

"Just spit it out."

“In the end, it’s all about who you are,” Glory said, smiling, slowly taking a few steps toward Silver. “About what kind of people you are going to join. Humanity? Or the Faerie?”

“I know quite well where my loyalties lie,” she says, stepping even closer toward her. “They’re with you. Always have been. Always will be.”

“I can only hope I know you well enough that I can guess where you want be,” she whispers, now standing right in front of Silver. “So I can only pray, that you feel the same of me, as I do of you.”

“Lyra Woods,” Aubrey Schlotwitz says, taking her hands into her own. “Become my Familiar.”

Meanwhile... Landis sits next to a desktop computer, its tower and monitor set up on what he calls his "map table," diagram glowing softly around it. The closet door to his home is ajar, on the ceiling, all easy access to it removed.  The two antechambers, Realmside and Earthside, are to his left and right. "Where the fuck is she?"

One heartbeat. Two. Three -

Silver yanks her hands away and takes several steps back. “Have you gone completely irrational?” Silver’s voice nearly hits a shriek. If Glory can be assured of anything, it seems, she can be assured that she can provoke emotions out of Silver even when it should be practically impossible. “You - you have not thought this through. Do you have the slightest idea what you’d be tying yourself to? Goblin fucking Princess, you, you…”

Silver paces back and forth, turning on her heel every few steps as counterarguments tumble out - who is she trying to convince? “You’d damage your relationship to your goblins, you’d tie yourself to so many Fae - you’d tie yourself to fucking Grey, to Grey! There’d be Glamour all the way through you, Autumn, Spring - if I fell you would fall with me, you’d be stuck in my patterns with me, fucking, you’d lose all your freedoms -”

Silver stops in her tracks, frozen for a moment, but not long enough for Glory to try and speak. “You’d be bound to my family,” she murmurs, and that, that is a tone of deadly horror. “No!” she snaps, just once, turning and glaring at Glory. “I am not giving any more of you to her. I. Fucking. Refuse.”

Glory quietly nods and listens to Silver's concerns, with a thoughtful look on her face. When she was done, she then simply shrugged. "That all? I'm cool with that," she says, giving a thumbs up to her.

"Oh, are you?" Silver's tone turns silky. Not entirely familiar. "Well it isn't all about you, Glory. What is this? A guilt trip? You've said sorry so fucking many times - is this just another apology? You're - I'm willing to bet that all of this is just fear of losing a friend, though frankly, this is quite another level of desperate. You've known me for - a month? Are we even at two months yet?"

"Has it really been that long?" Glory said, trying to calculate the numbers in her head. "Christ, we really need a damn break after this all done."

"But anyway, in a way, it is in part an apology. Grey said that if you fell into Winter, the responsibility would be on me. And I acknowledge his claim," Glory said. But she then shook her head. "But that's not all. Not even close to it all of why I want to do this."

Silver's voice is practically a lash. "Oh, you're doing this for *Grey* now? Have you lost all your self-respect, Goblin Princess? Binding yourself to the Faerie Practitioner for the Faerie Lord? Damage is an understatement, I'd bet that you're going to ruin your Practice, trying for this, and then where would we be at? What's yours would be mine, and that yours would be nothing - that's what you're offering up, and you expect it to appeal to me?

"You're thoughtless, you're needy, you're so fucking blunt I think I could hit you over the head with a hint and you'd fucking miss it. The moment things go bad for you? Suddenly, I don't seem to matter nearly as much as your *precious feelings*, while there I am always, always fucking afraid this is the moment you turn on me. How'd you miss how bad I was getting, Glory? Weren't you paying attention? You knew I was part Faerie, you knew my Self was damaged, how did you fucking fail to put two and two together? I had to spell it out to you. Do I ever not need to spell it out to you?"

Glory winced in pain, and in an instant her eyes flashed between anger and sadness, before she then shut them tight, clenched and unclenched her hands, and took a deep breath. She then opened them again, looking right at Silver's angered expression, and simply nodded. "Okay."

"'Okay' doesn't do it, Glory," Silver says, and her voice turns sing-song. She begins to walk, circling Glory. Silver's hair is dark, lustrous brown, streaked with silver. Is it just Glory's imagination, or are those streaks widening? "What's your retort? What's your plan of attack? Or are you just going to bull-headedly rush into this, like everything else? You haven't actually asked what I think, you know - you asked the question, I said no, what, is that it?"

Silver slips closer, almost close enough to touch, and her voice lowers to a purr; "You'd best make it good, Glory. You just offered Familiarship, right after sharing your blood with me for the third time. If you think that's not enough implied permission for me to start peeling your Self apart... Perhaps you should think again?"

Silver skips backward, light on her feet amid the sand.

Glory shrugged. "No big answer or retort really. I mean, I did literally just have this idea on the spot."

Silver sighed and turned away. "And now I'm bored. You seriously can't even make attacking you fun, Glory? Yikes."

"Well, it wouldn't be much fun for me to start attacking you either, so that seems pretty fair," she says.

"Who says?" Silver's voice bubbles up with laughter. "Go out in a blaze of glory, isn't that what you said? Us in a fit most certainly wouldn't be quiet."

"Heh, yeah. Well, when I meant "blaze" I do mean I expect there to be literally a giant fiery explosion when I die. Maybe I'll end being consumed by it, or maybe be standing in front of it, wearing some sick shades before I collapse onto the ground dead. Ooh, or maybe I'll turn into the giant ball of fiery explosion! A literal blaze of Glory! Now that would be awesome." Glory seemed to be now caught up in her thoughts of fiery explosions now, instead of the conversation before her.

Silver turns back around, and she considers Glory thoughtfully for a moment, her expression unrecognisable. She takes a step towards her, then another, then a third, then reaches out her hand and lays it on Glory's chest and -

- *pulls* -

and it doesn't hurt, this is an Alabaster's Realm it couldn't hurt if Silver tried but there is still loss as Silver begins to slowly, patiently, tug out Glory's Self in a skein of bloody-gold.

"You were saying?" Silver asks, very bland.

"Oof," Glory said, putting her hand on her chest. "Huh. Haven't felt that since I tried putting a bigger piece of my Self in the Catphish identities."

"Oh, uh, please put that back," the Hare says, quietly, but the world around them has changed. Something feels off. "You're getting close to being made to leave. You won't be able to come back, ever, if She pushes you out. Here, you need to ask before you take."

Silver... pauses, gold still bright and gleaming in her hands. "I didn't ask?" Silver inquires. "I did warn her, doesn't that count?" Silver's smile quirks. "Did you hear that Glory? If you can't talk me into putting this back, she's going to push me out. I wonder what'll happen to me after that."

Glory takes her hand off her chest, and looks at Silver with eyes that were filled with sadness and pity. But yet, despite the strength that had just been pulled out of her, she still manages to give Silver a weak smile. "You don't have to do it," she says.

Silver bristles. "Of course I don't have to," she snaps. "What kind of insane argument is that? I thought we'd fucking established that I'm self-destructive to the point of seeking out a fate worse than death, since when is it about *must*?"

Silver doesn't put it back, but at least she doesn't pull harder, or try to snap it off.

The Hare watches, nervously.

Glory nodded her head. "Yeah, you don't have to do anything. You don't have to become my Familiar. You don't have to sever the Faerie off of your Self. You don't have to stay in the Alabaster's realm forever. You don't have to just let yourself fall into Winter. You don't have to do anything that you don't want you to do. Especially anything that I want you to do." She took a step closer toward Silver.

"I'm not a particularly smart or clever girl. I'm not a particularly strong or powerful person either. I think I know that better than anyone. So, the best I can do is this," Glory says, still weakly smiling at Silver. "Give you my Word."

"This world is awful. It pretends to be kinder and more beautiful than it really is. It then reveals its true colors, and leaves with nothing but dust in the end, or threatens to take all of it away if you don't do what it says. I've lost so much of that. So much that what I thought was stable and right in the world," She softly whispers. "And I know that's what you fear, more than anything else in the world."

"You don't owe me anything. You already gave everything I could've hoped for."

"I only ever chased Stella, because she betrayed me. That was all that I had left at that point. Vengeance. I thought that once that runs out, when she's finally beaten, it was time for me to finally go away, to somewhere better maybe. But the hunt went on for so long, and soon I was just running on fumes. When I made that post on Stella's bounty, I was tired of chasing her, tired of running, tired of living. I made that post to shove that responsibility on someone else. I was ready to die at that point." She then looks up briefly into the sky, and back down at Silver. "But then I met you. And Isi, and Landis, and Seamus, and hell, even Grey! You all saved me. You all gave me a life again."

"So every moment I still live now, it's all thanks to all of you."

"I always knew, that one day, you might betray me. I'm okay with that. You have my permission to."

At the end of the day, the Familiarship is just a formality. It's not needed for what I'm about the say now. I will never betray you. If there's a time or place where you feel hurt, think of me not at how I died at your hands, but how I will always support you."

She steps up right toward Silver, and places something in her hand. The keys to her van. "Better learn to drive one day," she says, winking at her.

"Don't feel guilty for whatever happens to me. You shouldn't be bound by that. By the Fae, by your family, or by me. That's not who you are. That's not what you deserve. You shouldn't have your decisions made by others. They're yours. They've always been yours. Whether you fall into Winter, or cut out the Faerie out of you entirely, those choices are yours. I will never stop you from finding the ending you want"

"Whenever you feel hurt, or betrayed, or scared, I hope you can think of me. I hope when you think of me, you won't feel guilty, or ashamed. Don't be. You can rip me apart as you wish. I hope when you think of me, you can find yourself in better, happier place. I hope that when you think of me, you can know there's someone who will always be on your side."

Glory stood back, straight up in front of Silver. She didn't say a word, just smile, and stand, waiting and prepared for any kind of response. Whatever it is, she'll accept it.

Silver just... stood there for several seconds. Whatever Fae mood had caught her was completely fled, replaced with something dumbfounded and shocked.

"Guess its a bit late to warn you about making promises to a Fae," Silver murmured. "You're wrong, by the way. There are plenty of things I don't want to do that I still... have to do." She looks down at her hands, at the golden ripple of Self in her grip, and... opened her hands, letting it slip from her grasp and back to Glory.

"I'm not... You might be fine giving yourself over to me. But I'm not fine with Her having you. But I don't..." Silver shakes her head, frustrated. "I don't know a way out."

Glory nodded. "Yeah. I don't know a way out either. I don't know a lot of things. But I can try. At the very least, I can do that."

"I could teach you a way." Behind them a woman, wrapped in moonlight, a wreath on antlers upon her head. "But I will need a service in turn. I - and my Hare - cannot serve in the same capacity you two might. There may come a time I would call upon you both as defenders of my realm and the Council to which Hare is attached."

"To... what, be out of my Mother's hands?" Silver hisses, frustrated. "She's got me at least thrice over, damn it."

"And yet here, her claim means little. I could teach you old ways of protection," she knelt down to meet them both at eye level, "It won't be easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is. Tell me - what are the three ways by which she's held you?"

"She Claims the right to protect me with her love. She Claims the right to me with my own freely given Self. She Claims the right to direct me with my Awakening Oath, binding me to my family role."

"Can't the Familiar Ritual overpower those Claims or something?" Glory asks. "C'mon, there's gotta be something we can do!"

"If done correctly, it could serve as an easement," she answers, "The compulsion would still exist, but it would be fought by two wills instead of one. The second claim is the strongest, and would be most difficult to ignore, but the familiar bond would make your Selves different. Not enough to entirely contest it, but -," she reaches down to pull two white roses from a bush besides her.

"These roses, used in this ritual, would strengthen the inherent protections offered by the familiar bond. Your oaths to each other would be stronger and the Spirits would pay your shared words more attention." She says, "You could guard her, and she you."

Silver... froze. "You. You can. You can what?"

"Laymen terms, please?" Glory asks.

"You would be each other's Sanctuary, if you allow me to interfere."

"Laymen terms, please?"

"You - you can. Actually. Get me out?"

Of all the things that have happened today... this is what Silver apparently cannot believe.

"Not out - it isn't complete freedom," she says, looking Silver in the eye, "I can strengthen a bond made in my realm with a bit of Sanctuary. You could use that, if you're clever," she winks, playfully, "To weaken any claim over you, any compulsion targeted towards one or the other. It will be most useful against those who might wish to control one of you, when there would be two wills to fight. Yours and hers."

"You would have a choice."

"A choice is good. She deserves that, at the very least," Glory said.

"I have an out?"

"You would have a choice and a chance to fight back," she says, turning to them both, "That is what I can offer."

Silver's shaking. She's naturally pale, but she's gone clammy and white. "I. What?"

"Calm yourself," the Alabaster says, moonlight spilling onto Silver. Her mind would be cleared and made to focus. "And think. Your friend pledged much today. She gave freely, nobly. It is because of her you have this chance - very few others could offer you the same."

She looks to Glory, "You should think as well. You have given much, some might say too much, but it was done with a good heart. Your actions are bold and they don't go unnoticed. Think, did you mean it, when you proposed the familiar ritual?"

Glory nodded. "Yeah. If it will save Silver, then absolutely."

Silver... breathes. She manages to steady. She breathes. "It's... You're not just guilty. This isn't just... penance." She looks at Glory, searching. "You're not just... please, this isn't just because you're afraid of me?"

Glory looks at her with a confused expression on her face. "What are you talking about? You think I'm doing this out of guilt or fear?”

"Not... entirely." Silver wipes a glove over her face. She doesn't seem quite able to look at Glory, anymore. "Would you... would you still want something like this if I wasn't... breaking down, do you think?"

"I mean, the idea just came to me now ‘cause of what's going on with you," Glory said, scratching her hair. "But making you my Familiar? Hell yeah. No matter where we are, we're always connected in some way. Awesome. You are always awesome." She then gave Silver two thumbs up, with a wide and goofy smile on her face.

Silver settles, all the way through. "Okay, then. How do we do this?" She laughs, a touch hysterically. "I don't exactly have  a book on me or anything, and this - this? We are not... we're not rushing this more than we already are. Okay? If we fuck up this, then... fuckshit, its all bad, all the time."

"Don't worry," Glory said. "I got all the basic textbooks scanned and copied onto my phone. Just let me search through all this shit here..." Glory then began to rapidly scroll through her phone.

"Three promises should be enough, three ways in which you will act towards or what you will give the other," The Alabaster offers each of them a single rose, "Gifts have been traditional, in this part of the world. More symbolic than sentimental."

She smiles at them, "And, if I could suggest - ensure that one of the promises is of protection. Swear before me and mine, and it will be all the stronger." She stands back up, "You end the ritual by binding yourself to each other and your word."

The Hare watched from a sand dune as Spirits of all types began to form an audience, formless things, white rabbits, and vines tumbled into view. The Moon was brighter. The world seems to wait with bated breath.

Followed by: Bound By Desert Flowers