The new room has stars out the windows, and everything in it looks artificial and polished and not at all like the rest of the court. There are people there; Rána's one of them. So's his red-haired brother, and a human girl of maybe twenty. They are talking; they swing around curiously to look at her.

- she has no idea what's going on but whatever it is is kind of terrifying and she's not sure she can stick to her resolution not to cry given whatever it is.

" - sorry," she says, not really thinking. "I didn't mean to interrupt - "

"No, by all means come on in! This is a magic place called Milliways; when you close the door time stops passing in the world you left from, so you can stay a while without missing anything back home."

She is not sure how this is different from how time normally is, but it seems inappropriate to ask. And interacting with Rána's brother, directly, in what is supposed to be her ( - their - no, his - ) room, especially when she feels like talking to anyone might cause her to say something very unwise, is -

She looks at Rána. Surely he'll at least tell her what she's expected to be doing right now.

He does not seem aware he's supposed to be doing this.

Also, several other things are weird: his hair is elaborately braided in some fashion that looks like it'd have taken hours, and he's wearing clothes, tangible clothes with actual properties, rich elaborate pretty ones. So is his brother, actually. The girl is wearing something weirdly tightly fitted to her body.  

He also looks a little different but that might be mostly the clothes and hairstyle. 

"Also the bar gives out free drinks," he says.

She's really confused about what these people are doing right now. Really, horribly confused, and kind of upset that nobody has told her, even though she has no particular reason to know.

"Okay," she says, very quietly, and shuts the door, and stands by it holding her baby. She doesn't say anything else, because she thinks if she does she will cry.

I think you should - ask Bar about food for her and get her something and get her to sit down.

Me? Why?

Because she's in pretty bad shape, and less scared of you? She's not really thinking about why? 

"Sure," he says out loud, "whatever. Bar can I have something for her to eat?"

Bar seems to think Catherine is in urgent need of fat and protein because here is a steak sizzling in butter and a milkshake and mashed potatoes with bacon and cheese in them.

Well, Bar's the expert there. He casts around for a place for her to sit that's a little ways off from the people she's apparently scared of, carries the plates over there. "uh, hi. I'm Alex. Why don't you sit down and eat something?"

- and now she is really scared, because Rána has just introduced himself, and she has no idea what that means but she suspects it isn't good.

"I don't - really understand what's happening here."

He shoots his brother an annoyed glance.

"Uh, it's okay, Milliways is pretty bizarre until you get used to it. It's magic. There are lots of different worlds, and Milliways lets people from different ones into it, sometimes. We're not from the same world as you, but we can probably still help you out - depending what you need help with - there's an infirmary if the baby's sick -"

She hugs her baby a little closer. She's aware that they're not from the same world, but she doesn't know why they're saying it now - and talking to her like they don't even know who she -

" - should I just go back to your father's house?"

Another, bewildered, frustrated glance at his brother. "...do you know people who...look like us?"

Nodnodnodnod.

"Okay. Well, there are lots of different universes, and some of them have copies of the same people in them - the same but in different circumstances, stuff like that. 

Uh - I think probably in some universes most people who know me would be pretty scared of me. Is that... what the problem is?"

"I just - I don't understand what I'm supposed to be doing - "

There is no way I am the best person to be doing this!

I do indeed observe that you are not doing very well at it but she's terrified of me.

Then go and get the Karen or something.

He stands up and leaves.

She hugs her baby and trembles.

" - you're not - you're not the person I know who looks like you," she tries.

"No. I'm not. And I don't know - how you knew him or what you knew about him but I'm not going to hurt you, no one here is going to hurt you."

She breathes deeply. Carefully. Rána does not care about her, but he hasn't knowingly left her here without a lifeline, he has not suddenly stopped caring about whether she's terrified, he did not invite his brother to his room and then fail to warn her or explain this, he is not more terrible than he was this morning. He's just not here. A fairy who looks like him and doesn't know her at all is here.

...this is also, actually, pretty terrifying. Possibly more terrifying.

She is so thankful that she hasn't touched the food yet. She goes on not touching the food.

"Sorry. I was - confused."

He takes several steps away while she is thinking all this through and raises his hands in the air as if to make a point about how they're not holding anything.

"Uh, okay. It's fine. Would you....like me to leave."

 No, then she would be alone except for that other person over there, but if she shakes her head - 

"I don't - I don't want to make requests, or anything - "

Well what the fuck do you do with that. 

He can think of lots of people who'd think he was dangerous to be around and some who'd think he was dangerous to accept food from but he actually can't think of anyone who'd think he's - whatever she seems to think he is. But then, alternate universes. In one of them Karen was a Slayer and in the other she worked for Wolfram and Hart.

"Okay," he says. "I'm going to go sit down ...over there, I guess. The food's not - poisoned or anything, it won't hurt you in any way, I just got it because it seemed like you might need to eat -"

"'m not supposed to accept favors," she says, quietly. "I don't think. If you're not him."

"Him being - the alternate universe me? Rána?"

Nod. She can answer questions, that's good, that'll pay off whatever debt she accidentally incurred before she started thinking about it.

He looks anxiously at the stairwell. Maitimo's not back. He might be a year, or something. 

"I feel like I have not succeeded at communicating that nothing bad is going to happen here. I don't - know where my assumptions are wrong."

"I just - I don't want to get stuck here without him. Or my son, he's still - he's with - the person who is I guess not your father."

"You're not stuck. You can go back through the door anytime. It'd mean a lot to us if you didn't, yet, because Milliways is really useful and if your world stays in contact with it it might be able to help you too, but you can leave any time you want."

Nod.

Maybe if he just sits here for a while she will eventually calm down or think about a clear explanation of the situation.

She is calming down a tiny bit but is not going to offer useful information without being asked for it because that's rude and she is hardly in a position to be rude.

He's not expecting her to talk he's hoping she'll think about things more clearly than she's currently doing.

Well, she's pretty scared, and she didn't fully process the thing about time being stopped, so she's still hoping that Rána will find her soon, hopefully before she messes up and asks for something, because then she will belong to other people, and she is really supposed to avoid belonging to other people, because even though she's mostly just a slave right now she's at least not a mistreated slave, and she's pretty sure things can still get significantly worse from there.

She snuggles her baby and waits.

He walks over to Faith and whispers. 

"I don't think I should be talking to her right now but I think someone needs to?"

"Wow. If you think I'll be better at it you must be desperate."

"Well, here's the problem, right, she's convinced that she shouldn't talk to anyone until her Rána comes through the door, and I'm not sure she caught the thing about how he won't."

"Gotcha."

She grabs her popcorn and hops down from her barstool and heads over to the trembly lady with a baby.

"S' a cute kid. How old?"

" - I don't remember. Nine, ten months, I think."

"Don't remember, huh?"

"Fairies don't keep time the way I'm used to."

"Huh. Never met any fairies, myself."

What the hell does that mean, man?

I have no idea! I mean, I guess it means that there are fairies! - the one, Rána, he looks like me and - I think he enslaved her because she was thinking about it earlier - 

Huh. That's kinda fucked up.

You don't say. That's why I thought - anyone but me should be -

No, I get you, yeah.

"Uh, so, I dunno fairyland, but whoever you left on the other side is gonna be a while, right, because time freezes when you're in here. So you could hang out here as long as you wanted with no consequences, they wouldn't even know."

"I am aware that fairies are fast and that when you're with them humans are so slow that they look like they're stopped. I've been fast for almost half a day. I don't know why everyone thinks this is the confusing part."

"...I think that's different, whatever that is, none of us are fairies. Like, Alex is whatever Alex is, but - hey, you're not a fairy, are you, Alex?"

"Nope! We call ourselves Quendi. I've never heard anyone call us fairies."

"See? No fairies."

"Obviously not," she says. And they can't be, if they were they couldn't lie about it. 

...so what exactly are we trying to do here, I'm not actually an expert on freeing people from fairies, if I were gonna I'd ask, like, the dog or someone.

I sent Maedhros to get Karen and maybe he'll also think to get Wishbone but who knows how long it'll take them to get back? I just want her to not run off back to fairy slavery before we get a chance to pitch her on, instead, not fairy slavery. 

Makes sense.

"You gonna, like, eat any of that, Bar made it special for you. I bet it's good."

"Shouldn't accept favors."

"...okay, but like, the fairies can't stop you here, you're not gonna get in trouble for it."

" - I realize you're not fairies, but I don't know how any of this works, and I do not want to be given things because I don't want to belong to anyone else."

I got nothing, man.

"Uh," he says from across the room, "in my universe, slavery is bad, and illegal, and no one practices it, and if they do, we make them stop that. And accepting favors from strangers doesn't mean you owe them a damn thing."

"Well that's not how it works in mine."

"Uh huh. But you're out of it. And you don't have to go back."

"Yes, I do, I left my son there. And it doesn't matter - what you think of things, it matters what fairy thinks of things, and I can't see the fairy rules, so as long as Rána isn't here I should just - probably shouldn't even be talking to you."

"We can figure out some way to get your son."

"I have five children. One of them is here, one of them is with the person who is not your father, and three of them are hundreds of miles away, and Rána is going to help me get them back when the night is over, and I don't want help because I don't know anything about you, except that you look like him, and it could be a terrible situation to end up in your debt."

"I'm sorry. I'm not - I don't think you could possibly trust me, in that situation. And I don't know anything about how fairies work."

She doesn't really know what that means, or whether it's a bad idea for him to end up in her debt if she answers more questions, and so she sighs and snuggles her baby.

She should probably go back through the door and find Rána before she gets kidnapped again, she won't get as lucky as last time twice. She just doesn't really want to - deal with the thing where he doesn't care about her, really, especially now that she's upset again, so maybe she can just wait a little bit for her heartbeat to even out again and then go find him.

It super does not sound like she should go back to this guy ever, actually. 

"Is there - some kind of interaction it's safe for us to have under the rules of fairyland?"

"If I answer questions then that's - we'll have to even it out, after, but - if fairy is counting it up then you can't hurt me."

"Well, that's good, I don't want to hurt you. That means that you're okay with me asking questions?"

"Yes."

"Okay. What are fairies?"

"Fairies are - they're like humans, but they move very fast, faster than people can see, and they have a debt system that - tracks how much they've done for people, and how much people have done for them, and if they do something that fairy thinks is horrible, like lie, then they and everyone who they owe or who owes them will suffer for it. And if someone is in your debt you can hurt them, and if you're in someone else's debt and you try to hurt them then fairy will punish you, maybe kill you for it. And they don't die except by violence, and they don't need to eat anything besides dew, and they can follow paths that make them very small sometimes, and they don't understand what evil is. And you should not interact with them unless you are desperate."

"Wow. Okay. 

And you were desperate and - made a deal with fairies?"

"Yes."

"With a fairy who looks like me?"

"Yes."

"With a brother who looks like my brother?"

Nodnod.

"God. I'm sorry.

If you could have your kids and have your deal with fairy undone, do you know what you would want?"

" - I don't want to go back, either. I don't regret it." She regrets not realizing sooner that he didn't care very much about her, but she really doesn't want to talk about that.

"...okay. I guess I would feel better about you deciding that if you'd seen more...options... but I don't know how to show them to you and a lot of them might require learning a new language. But you can decide that, if you want to.

Are your children also slaves?"

"I don't think so. He's been careful about that. The baby can't be, they don't think she's a person yet."

"That's kind of concerning."

"Not a person until you start gaining debt. Can't gain debt until you can talk."

"Are they gonna hurt her?"

"I don't think so."

"So," he waves his hands helplessly. "When I meet someone who is incredibly traumatized and a slave and pretty sure this is the best she can hope to do, the thing I assume is that she's being competently abused, not that she's being treated okay.

That wasn't a question, sorry, I meant to turn it into one but - is saying things bad if they're not questions?"

"I don't - I don't think so, as long as it's not - if you give me information that I asked for then it counts against me, see, and I can't always tell what counts as asking."

"Well that sounds awful. 

And the food counts as something bad?"

"Food is - how I got stuck in fairy in the first place, if you eat food they give you then you can't leave until you've paid it off. And it's very expensive."

"Well, Milliways has lots of really valuable stuff. You could use that to pay off the fairies and get out of slavery, maybe, depending how it all interacts."

"I don't - I'd have to talk to Rána."

"The man who enslaved you."

"He's more trustworthy than you are. He's been able to hurt me for months, and he hasn't, except for - he mostly hasn't, and you're - a very confused person who claims to be from a different realm entirely, who doesn't know what a fairy is, and who I've only been talking to for the past ten minutes."

"Most people don't enslave people."

"Most people can't."

"I think even most people who can, don't. Where I'm from."

"Not where I'm from."

"Where are you from?"

"...England, originally, and we didn't keep slaves there when I was a girl, but I'm sure they do now."

"You do? England in my world super doesn't."

"Well I haven't been back to check. Everywhere else conquered by Scandinavia does, as far as I can tell."

"England in my world has also not been conquered by Scandinavia."

"Well mine has."

"I'm - sorry to hear that."

"'s why I wanted to get away. The Emperor kidnapped me and - he's a lot worse than the fairies."

"Things can get - really, really, really bad. But - even if the fairies are doing well in comparison it doesn't look like they're doing that well in absolute terms."

She does not have a lot to say to that.

He is the worst person for this in every possible respect, really. 

"If you wanted to get your fairy, you could hold the door open. Then time would pass in his world and he could find you."

She walks over to the door and holds it open.

Well maybe that was a bad call. But it's what she wants? That has to count for something?

She's gonna hold this door open until someone outside notices or someone in here prevents her from doing so. Can't take forever, whatever it is has opened itself into his bedroom, which he presumably has to come back to at some point.

It doesn't take too long at all. He's wearing visible clothes, fancier than usual; he walks up, looks at her, does a double-take at the door and the contents. "Hey. What's -

What the fuck are you doing, stop it right now."

" - I'm not doing anything -"

"You are doing something. It is putting you in my debt. I don't know what it is. If you don't stop it immediately I will make you."

"Oh. - huh.

Am I still doing it."

"No." He steps in front of Catherine and into the room. "Don't do it again. Who are you, and what is this place?"

" - place's called Milliways. It's an interdimensional bar. I don't control it. It opens in different places randomly. On this occasion it seems to have opened into the land of the fairies."

"What were you doing earlier?"

"I was reading your mind."

"Don't do it again. Are you doing it to her, too?"

"She doesn't belong to you, buddy."

"She absolutely belongs to me. Don't read her mind either. Are you doing any other weird things I can't see."

"No."

"Are you okay?"

"I think so. Came back to the room and this was here. They gave me food but I didn't eat it."

Hug. "Just stay here and stay quiet, okay? We'll - figure this out."

Nodnodnod.

"Why do you look like me?"

"I assure you I'm not delighted about it."

"Why do you look like me."

"The interdimensional bars connect universes. Different universes have - different versions of people. I take it you are the asshole slaveowning version of me. I think the families usually match, too."

"Why'd you offer my slave food?"

"Because she looks dead on her feet! Look at her! I've seen ghosts with more color!"

"No, you haven't. Don't you ever do that again."

"Look, I don't know what the hell -"

"Don't say things that aren't true."

"Don't enslave people. Does it work when I do it?"

"If you lie to me again you very well might die."

"Where I'm from that's not even considered a lie. Also I really doubt your system stretches into Milliways. Most things don't."

"I think I should get someone else."

"Kinda feeling the same way, yeah, except they're already on the way and thanks to the way Milliways is they might take ages."

He leans out the door. He calls out to someone. He instructs them to go get his brother.

Is Catherine doing okay, she does in fact look kind of dead on her feet though it might just be the terror from this unexpected situation.

"I don't - I - was sad, and I didn't want to talk about it, and then this happened, whatever this is. He has someone who looks like your brother, too, the red-haired one, he went to go get someone else."

"Great. We can set the two of my brother loose on each other.

You don't have any debts to him, I think the system's thinking of him like a sped-up mortal - which is probably what he is -"

"I am not mortal."

"Well, that's lovely for you, have you got any of it to go around?"

"Not yet. Probably quite soon."

"Huh."

"I can't say I'm wild on giving it to slavers, though."

"I'm immortal anyway. The person you could withhold it from is her."

"- if you stay here, we can pass it along once we have it."

" - okay."

They glare at each other a bit more. 

...she will just stick very close to her fairy. Who is not really hers, but at least she kind of has some idea how he's going to treat her. Probably.

(She's gonna grab more popcorn. And also hang out in case anything really goes to shit in a way that she feels at all qualified to handle.)

He heads upstairs, gets Wishbone, and knocks on Karen's door.

"....hello?"

"Hey. I'm sorry to bother you. We're trying to help someone in the main bar, and it turns out all of us are spectacularly disqualified from helping in this particular case, so Faith's doing it alone, and the person we're trying to help might need some advice that doesn't come from a sixteen year old with superpowers and problems with authority -

- uh, she wandered into Milliways from slavery in fairyland, and the people she knew in fairyland appear to be alternate universe versions of us."

"Well.

"I'll take a stab at it."

"Thank you. I am sorry to bother you but - she's got a baby, she looks not great, and - it really really can't be us -"

Nodnodnod. "I - have no idea whether I can actually help, but I can totally give it a shot." 

And she heads downstairs to meet the person who's been enslaved by fairies.

The person who has been enslaved by fairies is next to her fairy, who has gotten himself and his terrible alternate universe fancy-dressed version to even and is now pacing and waiting for someone else to show up.

"Oh, thank God. Or maybe thank Milliways. Karen."

"Hi! I hear you've found an interdimensional slave who finds you guys even less reassuring than I did."

"Yep! Also now she has called in her owner. I'm sorry about that. It's kind of my fault. Uh, Karen, this is -"

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

" - what?"

"You can't just - go around calling people by their birth names!!"

"You did not mention that!"

"I thought everyone knew that!"

"Assume that everyone does not know any things."

"...what happens if people do? Uh, if it's not rude to ask questions, I'm not super up on my fairy lore."

"Cecelia, can you explain to the mortals how they can avoid problems, it won't entangle them if you do it -"

Nodnod. "If people learn each other's birth names they'll be entangled, like with debt, and hurt each other when they do things the universe disapproves of, except for names you can't get rid of the entanglement by evening out the debt. I should have said, I'm sorry - "

"She previously explained that debt accumulates when people interact, and if you're in someone's debt, or the other way around, then you both get punished when either of you does something the universe disapproves of, like lying. It counted "I've seen ghosts with more color" as lying. So -- we should avoid interacting with the fairy, mostly."

"Okay. This information would have been good to know thirty seconds ago, but we work with what we have. What all causes debt?"

"Asking questions. Accepting food from people. Hearing stories. Hearing music. Seeing art. Hugs. Sex. Accepting gifts or favors. Having been born, children have debt towards their parents. Violence causes debt, but if you hurt someone who you're in debt to then fairyland doesn't like it and it'll punish you. Humans mostly don't incur debt towards each other, I think, that's why I have to explain."

"Okay. That sounds... complicated and scary. But if humans don't incur debt towards each other then that means I can give you food, right, do you want food?"

She looks at Rána.

"- I'd rather not take the chance. Are you hungry, we can get food from home -"

"...not very. I don't think."

Nod.

Glare.

"Okay. Uh - before I came to Milliways I was also kind of a magical slave, and now I am basically not, I think, and I would kind of like to talk to you about whether you're happy, and stuff, about how your life is, and whether you would rather not be enslaved to fairies, but I'm not sure how much we can have that conversation with your owner person standing there, you know?"

Nod.

"Do you wanna come upstairs, maybe?"

"I don't think so."

"...maybe just, like, across the room? And you can have your fairy person between you and everyone else so if I try anything he'll get there first."

...uncertain look at Rána again.

"I haven't done anything wrong, I don't know why they're so - we stayed in court overnight because you wanted to -"

Nodnodnod. Hug. Because he seems like he needs one and maybe so does she.

Hug.

I don't really know what to do with that. Wolfram & Hart doesn't really give people hugs.

I think maybe it would've been good for her if everyone was chiller about the slavery but - well if so I fucked up at that.

Uh. 

I thought you were doing great.

Hm.

"Um, we're not gonna separate you from your person if you really don't want that. I'm not even sure we can, Milliways might object. We just wanna make sure you get to pick for yourself where you live and what you do, you know?"

Nodnod.

" - don't wanna belong to anyone else."

"You don't have to belong to anyone."

"She picked me. And I'm doing my best and I don't even - you haven't even said 'that thing you did, that wasn't good enough', you're just saying -"

Everything is hard and confusing and she still feels really terrible about the fact that Rána doesn't love her or anything, actually, obviously, but at least he's not mean, ever. And these people aren't mean, not right now, not obviously, but they're asking her to make decisions that she doesn't have any of the information or security that she would need to make properly, and at least while she's where she is nobody's hurting her.

"I don't - I don't really know what everybody thinks is happening. Or what they want to be happening."

"I want you to talk to Karen. You don't have to decide anything, just - to have talked with a person who has good things to think about. I think we're trying to get your - owner's - permission for that."

"I don't mind if she talks to humans if she wants to. But you're scaring her. And even if she talks to them she should - if there's a problem she should tell me about it so we can fix it, I wouldn't just leave her -"

Hug.

She comes a little closer, slowly. "Not gonna make you leave. Promise. Just wanna sit over at that table and talk about some stuff."

"You won't leave without me?" she asks Rána.

"Course not. - even if you want me to."

Hug.

She heads over to the table with Karen.

He will watch them anxiously, then.

"Okay. So. Can you, like, tell me how you ended up enslaved to Rána?"

"Found him in a fairy ring in the forest. Uh, I'm not -  I wasn't allowed to go to forests, before I met Rána, I was a concubine of the Emperor of Scandinavia and I wasn't allowed to leave the palace by myself. Um, my son walked towards the ring, and when I caught him there was a fairy in it, and I could see how the people around us were slow, because fairies and people in fairy rings are so fast. And - I told him about the Emperor, and about me, and he said he might be able to help me get my children back, and he seemed nice, and I didn't know whether he'd keep being nice but I figured everything was already bad enough that it was worth trying? And I took the food he gave me and I asked him questions and now I owe him and that means I belong to him. And he has been nice, he's helped me feed the children, and he asks me what I want, and he doesn't want to hurt me, and - it's just so much better than it was before."

"So you were already a slave, basically."

Nodnod.

"And now you're still a slave, but one who doesn't get, like, hit, or anything, and that seems like a good deal?"

"It's not just that he doesn't hit me. He's - he's really kind, and considerate, all the time, he's - until earlier today I thought - I don't know how much he actually cares about me but he acts like he does, most of the time, enough that - I think I got confused about it, earlier. And that's really the only reason I'm upset right now, which I think it making everybody much more concerned than they should be, if you'd met me yesterday I wouldn't've been - like this."

"What happened earlier today?"

" - please, it's stupid, it's really really stupid."

"...it's important to you, though, right? So maybe it'll, I dunno, help me figure out what's going on."

This is stupid and she shouldn't share any of this information but she doesn't have anyone else to talk to and is not going to have anyone else to talk to until - maybe ever.

"He doesn't love me. That's all."

"Ah."

"Okay. Well. That explains some stuff, anyway. Um... but you still think he's, like, good, and stuff, because he rescued you from this Emperor guy and he's nice and he listens to you and he doesn't want you to be scared or hurting, right, even if he doesn't like you?"

Nodnod.

"But he is still keeping you enslaved, and he wouldn't let you go if you wanted. So he's only taking the choices thing so far."

"That's how humans are, when fairies get humans. Like - exotic pets, or something, I think. But some people are much nicer to their pets than others. And some animals don't know how to take care of themselves."

Nod.

Okay. Well. So one thing is that she was a slave before this guy picked her up, and she likes him better than the last guy.

I guess that makes sense.

Yeah. The other thing is she, uh, seems to be, like, in love with him, or something. I am not sure whether I should really tell you that but heck if I know what to do with this information by myself.

I guess that does make things really complicated. 

There's that thing - where hostages get really attached to their captors just because they have to give their captor's mood so much - prominence in their life -

Yeah, that sounds likely, probably? She says she doesn't think he feels the same way about her. So that's, like, any points for self-awareness, maybe?

Yeah. Maybe, uh, she can eventually think about whether she ever wants to have a relationship with someone who does love her.

Yeah.

What do we do with her for now? 

I don't know.

Ugh. I don't want to get them a room knowing -

Yeaaaaah.

I guess it's not worse than wherever they were at before, but...

But there we're not cooperating. 

Is there any way for you to ask her if she'd like a separate room maybe?

Yeah.

"So one thing is like, we want you to be able to think about this and be safe while you think about it? And we maybe need to sort some other things out down here, between your world and our world." Not that she and the others are actually from the same world, but their worlds are, like, closer, maybe. "Do you think maybe you want a room to rest in before we talk about more stuff?"

"I'd want him to be there. I don't know anyone else."

"I mean, we're not gonna stop you from coming down to see him, but this way you could have your own place, too?"

" - don't wanna be alone."

She wants them to share a room.

Well I am super not an expert here but - mostly you can't help people by imposing whatever you think is good for them. I think. I guess. 

Does she know about the existence of birth control? Would she want it?

Well that's an awkward conversation but it's probably an important one, so -

"Do you, um, - we have stuff that can keep you from having more babies, if you're - if you'd want that."

" - oh. We're not actually having sex."

"Oh. Okay. I guess it's a moot point, then."

Says they're not having sex.

Thank you for checking.

Yep. I think we should just give them the room, then, probably, she seems - really stressed.

Uh huh. 

He goes to sort this out with the bar.

"Okay. I guess we can probably get you a room together, if you guys want that."

"Have to talk to Rána. And - don't tell him, about the - I was being stupid, before."

"...I won't tell him."

Says not to tell anybody about the bit where she's in love with him and he's not with her. Or, well, not to tell him.

Well I'm not planning to tell him anything at all.

Well, that should do it.

She leaves the table to head back over to Rána. "She wants to get us a room here."

"I want to leave. But - he meant it, about the immortality, and -"

Nod.

"It'll probably have a bed."

"Yeah."

Cling.

Hug. She really really wishes that the hugs meant more than they actually do, but at least she gets them at all.

"Immortality sounds important, probably."

"Is that all she wanted? For us to stay in their court?"

"I think so. And - wanted to know how I ended up here with you."

"I wish I understood why they wanted to take you away. I understand wanting you - of course people'd want you - but -"

"They seem really worried about everything. I guess - lots of people don't take care of their slaves - "

He doesn't say anything.

He comes back down the stairs, accompanied by a dog.

"Hey. We're gonna get them a room."

"-okay. Are they -"

Instead of finishing the question he turns and watches them.

"Don't talk to the fairy, especially don't tell it your name." He hands Karen a key. "Room 204. I'm assuming if you give it to her then -"

"Yeah. Uh, do you wanna come upstairs?"

She looks at Rána again.

He looks at Alex. "How long would we have to stay here, for the immortality?"

"Honestly I have no idea, their room doesn't have to move at the same pace as yours. 

You get, like, half a point for giving a shit about it, though."

"I was thinking the same thing."

"I guess we'll take a room," he says to Catherine.

Nodnod. She can follow Karen up, then.

So Karen takes them to their room and opens it for them and then hands Catherine the key. There are two beds.

"You guys gonna need anything else...?"

"If you lie or attack people - probably just fairies - you're indebted to or break agreements or swear oaths falsely or anything like that you will hurt her very badly."

"...okay. I'll - try not to do any of that stuff. Thank you for telling me."

Nod.

"'M gonna go back downstairs," she tells Catherine. "Time is funny in Milliways and some rooms move at different speeds than other rooms, and the speeds change, so if nobody comes for you in a while you're gonna want to come downstairs and get us so you can have, like, food, and stuff. If you need anything - either of you - you can come downstairs and someone'll help you."

Nodnod.

He's tense until she leaves.

Well, she's gonna leave.

Good.

She steps into the room. There's a crib for the baby, but she doesn't put her down in it.

Right, their room. Aside from the space with the beds there's another room of stone and shiny metal, with an enormous mirror on the wall. He spends a while trying to figure out whether it's safe to approach because that seems easier than thinking about anything else. 

"Do you know what any of this is?"

"Um, a mirror? A really big one? I don't know what any of the other stuff is."

"Huh." He glares at it suspiciously for a while.

She sits down sadly on one of the beds and sets Ragna down so she can crawl and explore the space.

He comes over and hesitates for a second and then sits down on the same bed. Reaches for her.

She leans in and lets him hold her. It is not a very enthusiastic hug, but it's something.

"I can't actually make you stay, you know."

"Hm?"

"If you - decide to run off with them - nothing I can actually do about that."

Hug.

"Still don't have the kids. And I don't - 

" - I like you."

He squeezes her. Breathes a little unsteadily. 

"I thought you liked me. Now I just feel - confused."

"Thought you liked me," she says, very quietly. "Or - not liked, I know you like me, I thought you - "

"Hmmm?"

It hurts so much, to make herself say it, but she doesn't know what else to do about any of this.

"Man came by your father's house and said you were sleeping with someone else. Just before I found this place. And I - if they'd asked me yesterday I wouldn't even have thought about it, but yesterday I thought - was stupid to think, but - "

"I wasn't actually there today, I climbed a tree -

- I don't think I - get what you mean -"

"I forgot, okay? I forgot I was a slave. You're so good all the time and you act like I matter to you and you let me decide things and - I forgot."

"And that was good for you?"

"I - felt like I mattered."

"You - do?"

She's really confused and tired and is maybe just going to cry here, as quietly as she can, because she does not know how much more humiliating herself she can take.

He's so concerned and confused. And doesn't want to let go of her because -

Maybe he will start crying too.

Oh no. She made him sad. Very unfair that being sad about how little she matters makes him sad, too. Also confusing? Maybe he feels like he's not taking good enough care of her? Which is very unfair because he's been taking really good care of her, it's just that she got confused about what they were, is all -

She can at least keep hugging him? Maybe that will help?

" - m'sorry."

"I just don't understand what I did wrong."

"You didn't do anything wrong. 's why I didn't want to talk about it. Just - then I found some kind of - whatever this is, in your room, before I was done - adjusting, and they were all concerned about me being your slave, and - I don't want to leave, I just - want things that I can't - that aren't reasonable to want, and I wasn't done accepting things and then - m'sorry - "

"If I didn't do anything wrong and you're this upset that's kind of worse since it means I can't even fix it."

"M'sorry. I was gonna get over it, I just - then everything else - "

Nod. Snuggle.

"So I should just - get us food sometimes and let you process? - do the hugs get in the way of letting you process? It's just that it's really hard to let go of you, right now -"

"Make it pretty hard to remind myself you don't - love me - but every time I remind myself it hurts - "

"I, uh, don't know what love means to mortals exactly and I don't know how anyone other than my brother successfully uses words for feelings and is sure they used them the same way as other people interpreted them but I - 

- I liked the way you thought about me yesterday? And I don't understand what - made you decide it was wrong -"

"Yesterday I thought you didn't want to be with anybody else. Was stupid to think it, just - "

"I don't want to be with anyone else."

- she wants to believe it so badly. But it isn't true, it can't be, it - but fairies can't lie -

She doesn't mean to cry harder but she thinks she is anyway. 

"- wanna matter to you - "

...pat pat pat?

"I feel like if you did not matter to me then I would've left when you wanted to stay the night in court. Because I hate staying the night in court."

"That's why I thought you did! And all the other things! But - "

"But what?"

"But obviously it's not the sort of mattering that means that you don't want to - I know I can't, I know it's not reasonable to expect you not to sleep with anyone else when I might never be able to, I know it was stupid to think you wouldn't go to other people, but I was stupid, okay, I thought I was enough, I thought you were happy with me anyway, I thought - "

" - this is about me having sex with people?"

Nodnodnodnod.

"...among humans, is it normal to - like the people you're having sex with more than other people in your life, or something?"

Nodnodnod! 

"I mean - not always, but - if you're already in love with someone, then - people don't just - "

"- there's some amount of liking someone where you don't want to have sex with other people?"

Nodnodnod.

"Okay. That is not really how fairies do things. I know fairies who were - by all appearances deeply, deeply in love, had many children together, risked their lives for each other a hundred times over, so deeply entangled you might as well think of them as one person - 

- and they'd still have sex with other people, same as they'd still talk to other people, same as they'd still listen to stories told by other people..."

"Okay. Well - for humans sex is different than those things."

"Oh. Okay. - I didn't know that."

"Okay. 

"Well now I don't know how you feel about me again."

"We are staying in this stupid horrible place where everyone hates me because there is a small chance they can make you immortal and I can have you forever."

Hug. Very clingy hug.

"'m so sorry. I just - it seemed really clear, when I heard, I didn't know fairies were different that way, and I've never met anyone who really loved somebody who was enslaved to them, and - I got scared, and I love you, and I want you to stay, and it hurt, thinking you didn't - "

"I was upset earlier because - because it didn't seem fair that you'd just leave - I wouldn't - if we wandered into some place with lots of other nice friendly humans I wouldn't just go 'well this is an even better deal than what I had going'"

Nodnodnod. "Don't wanna leave. Just - was thinking I didn't matter to you and was just a slave who'd gotten confused, and then everyone kept saying it at me, like it was obvious, and - I opened the door and waited for you as soon as I knew how, still, I was just - confused for a bit, and I'm sorry - "

Hug. "You didn't do anything wrong."

Hug. "You either."

"Haven't had a slave before. I didn't really think about how you're supposed to - feel, or what you're supposed to do..."

"Where I'm from people are not - nice, to their slaves, slaves don't really matter, at least not - whether they're happy, or get to have things they want, or lives that have good things in them, and I just - I thought maybe fairies were different and maybe I wasn't really the same thing anymore, that maybe I did matter after all, and - I don't know what we are, but whatever we are I want to be - important to you - "

"You are really important to me. I - dunno if that's because fairies are different or because you are."

Nodnod. Hug.

"Don't wanna leave. Don't - know exactly all of what I want, here, but I don't wanna leave."

"Good."

Snuggle. She can't kiss him because this stupid horrible bed is here, but at least she can snuggle him.

Maybe if they just hold each other and eventually fall asleep everything will be less confusing in the morning.

This seems like a good plan.

"Okay," says Karen, arriving back downstairs. "Apparently if I lie or break agreements then it'll hurt her really badly, and they both looked super concerned about everything, but they're up there."

"What a mess."

"Why's he here?"

"She wanted him here. I didn't - I don't know, maybe I shouldn't have told her how to do it, but she really wanted him here."

"She really likes him. Apparently."

"It's impressive, considering he has absolutely nothing going for him."

"He's good-looking."

He sputters at him for a second and doesn't say anything.

"Um, when I talked to her she said she was a slave before she ran into him, and then jumped ship because she thought he might be better than wherever she was before. And still thinks he is." Shrug. "She thinks he's nice. At least comparatively."

"Are the kids his? Or - prior?"

"Um, I think at least one of them's not, she said she was following one of them when she found him in a fairy ring. I dunno about the others."

"How many kids?"

"She said five, earlier. Most of them in his world."

"Probably doesn't wanna leave them, then."