Vander rudely interrupts us in the middle of reading time.
"My Queen, Her Rose," he sighs as he approaches us at our lounge by the fireplace in the library. "We have another problem."
I snap the book shut and groan. "Why do you only ever bring problems?"
"Because I respect your privacy." His mothy wing smacks me over the head. "Radiant Fable Zip arrived at the Barrows. An hour late. And she wasn't alone."
"Zip is always late. She's only fast on the track. Showing up with uninvited friends is also very in character. How many did she bring?"
"One. We've brought them both here for you, my Queen."
"Yes, yes, bring them in. I suspected she was a maverick…"
"Of course." He walks away, signaling ahead.
In the space between moments, I mark the page I was on. "Sorry. Guess we'll finish that chapter before bed."
"Please." Smiling, she sits up and kisses me. "Should I make myself smaller, do you think?"
"Umbsy. They were brought to the Hells. They passed through Queensgate. Through the Queensgate. Into the Queen's Palace. Into the Queen's Library. I think they'll know who you are."
"My size can be intimidating."
"Zip will say something about climbing you like a tree."
"Holy shit, you're fucking huge! Damn, gorgeous, I wanna climb you like a tree!"
"I rest my case."
"Criiim!" Zip tosses herself over the lounge's back and nearly tackles me off of it. "I haven't seen you in ages and eons and… some other third thing! Pretty as ever, aren't you? I could just lay you out right here. Who's your–" Zip stops short as she stares sideways at Umbra. "Aw, Hells! Raven, is it? Drakeshit! Are you…"
"Yes," Umbra whispers, smiling and showing her fangs. "Corkscrew's on you, little drac. A pleasure to make your acquaintance once more."
"Before I even begin to process the total plot twist I'm going through, I have to comment on the fact that Crim taught you some of the slang."
"Wings."
"Wiiings." Zip gets comfortable on the lounge with us, her legs across my lap. "Shit, drac. That's really the Fallen Queen right there. You're so much more beautiful than I imagined."
"Thank you. My Crimson says the same."
"Clew up. Girl, is that a collar? And a leash?"
I tug at my collar, face heating up a little. "It's a… long story. But… I like it…"
"Well, sure you do, rope bunny. That tracks. It makes sense, Miss Raven."
"Umbra. My name is Umbra. You're my Crimsy's friend, so you should refer to me by name, just as she does."
Zip gasps. "Crimsy? Oh, I love that! So cute! Dead on! That means it's perfect, Miss Umbra."
"Close enough."
"Who did you bring with you, Zip?"
"Huh? Oh. Uhh… Yo, where–"
"The stacks," Umbra hisses. "Southeast row nine-fourteen Halfway down. Turning pages. With… remarkable speed. Hells, are you reading or are you skimming?"
I gasp. My favorite little moth girl. She's here.
Zip laughs. "Oh, she's reading, alright! And she'll recite it to you word for word after she's done! Peps! Get over here, girl! Weren't you buzzed to see your Crim Crim?"
Penny's tiny voice calls back from a distance. "S–Sorry! I got distracted! Coming!"
Zip has brought me an invaluable treasure.
When Penny joins us, she arrives with two arms full of books, her pink antennae glowing bright and vibrating slightly with her excitement. There's a twinkle in her eyes that I've never seen before, and she looks so happy she might pass out. After carefully setting them on a nearby table, she comes over to the lounge and sticks out a sheet of parchment with some scribbles on it in black ink.
"I didn't see any checkout system in place so I made you this myself. For your records. These are the titles I borrowed. Along with where I got them. Down to the exact placement on the shelf. The instant I'm done reading any of these books, I will be returning it to the exact location from which I took it. I'm so–I'm sorry I didn't ask permission beforehand. I just got… dis–distracted, Your Grace."
"How exceptionally polite of you," Umbra purrs, extending a hand. A few long seconds tick by. "I will need you to give it to me."
"Oh no. I shouldn't. Certainly you have a subordinate or a servant nearby for me to pass this to?"
"Ah. Yes, of course. Servant."
I hop down and accept the parchment from Penny, giving her a big hug.
After drinking some wine, Umbra sits back and flickers her black tongue. "Mm. How astoundingly inverted this is. You are afraid of me. But not in the way I expected. You've made peace with the fact I am the Fell, yet you fear me as an aristocrat of superior standing. It is anything but necessary. I care not for such contrivances as the charade of 'etiquette', and I expect nothing from you besides basic respect. Treat me not as the Fallen Queen, but as Umbra. Please, you are both friends with my Crimsy. You may be as relaxed with me as she is."
To make a point of it, I swipe the empty wine goblet off the side table like a house cat and it clatters away. Umbra slowly turns her head toward me, empty eyes blazing. With my hands held behind my back, I whistle a tune as I swish my tail side to side.
"How fucking dare you?"
"What are you going to do about it, hm?"
"I will devour you whole."
"Oh, I'm so scared. You big softie."
"Only with you," she sighs, flickering her tongue again. "And your friends. Does this arrangement sound suitable to you, Penelope? Will you please discard this frantic anxiety towards behaving 'properly'?"
"I…" She shifts in my arms, hands and antennae wringing together as she stresses in wide-eyed silence. "I can try, Your Grace. I–I mean… Yes, Queen Umbra. Lady Umbra? Ohh…"
"Umbra. Simply that."
"Ahh…" Penny's just getting more stressed. "That… That might be…"
I kiss her soft little head, nuzzling my cheek against it. "If it makes you more anxious to not do it, then maybe Lady Umbra is best, right? Can she do that, Umbsy?"
"Ah. Yes. Of course. Whatever is most comfortable. I'm well aware these rules of engagement have been burned into you from the moment you were hatched, little aristocrat. Shedding them on a moment's notice simply isn't feasible. In truth, I quite like the way Zip has spontaneously begun referring to me."
She clicks her cheek twice, pointing a finger. "Wings, Miss Umbra. Wings."
"Miss Umbra," Penny nods, relaxing a little. "Yes. That–I can do that. The rest will… Yes, take some time. But… How do you know I'm… Did Crim-Crim tell you?"
"No. I inferred. Your stress over this subject speaks volumes to the pains you have suffered because of it, and thus it became clear to me your fledgling years were likely plagued with admonishments for failing to adhere to proper etiquette. Which noble house were you born to?"
"U–Um. That's… House Lunar."
"Ah. In aeternum quaerere responsum. That explains the passion for scholarship. And you, Zip?"
"Huh? Why are you asking me?"
"Unlike with Penelope, my Crimsy did mention your familial conflicts."
"Damn it, drac. That's clipped." Zip sits up with a groaning sigh. "Why are you gnawing on my bones, Crim?"
I take offense to that. "Clew up, drac, you're corkscrewing off the drop. I was gnawing on my own bones. She bit my tail feathers, so I cleaned course. It's not like I flayed you. So fly the peaks, jackdaw. Damn."
"Wings up, drac. Course cleaned." She lifts her hands and sighs again, shaking her head. "Yeah, Miss Umbra, that's wings. House Chariot, born and raised, but I clipped that shit at the gate. Now I'm House Nothing, and flying high. Why are you dragging me into this, exactly?"
"I'm not yet fluent in your slang. Crimsy?"
"She got mad that I was talking about her business, but you were asking about my friends and I only gave surface details, so she calmed down. Then she said she left the nobility behind and has been much happier for it."
"Ah. Clipped?"
"Injured or hurt. Cut off. Left behind. Bad. Not good."
"Gnawing on bones?"
"Talking. About your own business or someone else's."
"Tail feathers?"
"My friends. My crew. People who have my back."
"Mmm. Jackdaw?"
"A good friend," I say, looking at Zip. "Someone who can be trusted."
"Yeah, false start on me. I just hate talking about this shit."
"Then let's change the subject," Umbra hums, reeling me in with my leash and pulling me up to sit in her lap. "Though I would like to say this much. Penelope, Zip, I don't know what you look like. To me, you are two voices and two scents. But the more you speak, the more you both take shape, the more clearly I see you in mind. In that sense, you are both becoming people to me, instead of amorphous somethings. This is good. Good for us all. I like understanding people. It makes accepting them that much easier. Not that accepting people is in any way difficult to begin with."
My heart flutters. That is so sweet.
"To put it simply…" Umbra scratches her claws through my hair. "All of this discussion was intended to convey that I'm not the brutish monster that your Church claims I am. I welcome you. I hear you. I accept you. Exactly how you are, without embellishments. Do you both understand me, Zip?"
"Um. Yeah, Miss Umbra. That's wings."
"Thank you. And you, Penelope?"
"Yes, Your Grace," she says, seated right on the floor, nose deep in a book. "Thank you for clarifying things. I wasn't certain what to expect, but you don't seem quite so evil to me now that we've met."
Scratching one of her horns, Zip questions, "Aren't you… evil? Sure, you're being kind, but you definitely killed a ton of Legends these past few weeks in a bloody conquest. That's pretty evil, Miss Umbra."
Her hands fold over my lap. "Let me tell you this. Perhaps it will make things clearer still. Many draconids who come to me do so because they've done something horrible in response to being made victims of the Church's abuse. Many come because they've been mistreated. Many come because they've been hurt. Because they want revenge. Because they have nowhere to go. Because they have had everything taken away. Very, very, very few draconids come to me intact and whole. But I embrace them regardless. I care for the beaten ones. The broken ones. The wounded ones. The angry ones. The miserable ones. The imperfect ones. I take them in. All of them. As equals. Aurora sends them out. So, tell me again which of us is the evil one."
It's very quiet in this library.
Zip is still laying on the lounge.
Penny has paused reading.
Meanwhile, I'm swooning.
Wow. Umbra is amazing.
"I'll bite." Zip sits up and faces us. "Obviously, we've been lied to about Miss Umbra. So tell me the truth. Tell me everything, Crim. The brew and the barrel of it. I want to know who I'll be working for by doing this distribution thing, and more importantly, what she's really about. If the motives, plans, and justifications check out… Maybe we're in business. But I'm not deciding until I know what's what. Wings?"
"Wings. I'll start from the beginning. Penny, are you listening?"
"Yes. I'm going to take notes…"
I nod, getting comfortable with Umbra.
"It started with an accursed chain."