Chapter 20: Dance Off

Jessica tried to mentally shake herself as she stood near the clearing where dozens of leprechauns, fauns, mermaids, and dragons in human form danced to the beat of a fast-paced swing. There were several people she had never seen before that didn’t appear to belong to any of the species she had met before. According to her interface, they were spirit walkers. The one named Azeban had a medium build and short dark hair with dark eyes. He was an oddity among oddities, wearing a trap hat made from a racoon. She wondered if it was from a real racoon or if it was just a manifestation. She had seen Rhapsody and Taxti manifest various articles of clothing before, so it was possible they were surrounded by a bunch of naked people that just projected their clothing.

Azeban glanced at her as the thought crossed through her consciousness, his lips twitching. Jessica scowled at the lack of privacy she had in her own head with so many mind-readers around. She knew Rhapsody could read minds, but she hadn’t known if the others were also telepathic as well. Apparently, some of them were.

Her eyes were drawn back to Michael as he danced with a tall elf. She frowned in frustration when she realized she was staring again. Michael wasn’t even her type, so why was she suddenly so obsessed with him? True, he was the only male human around, but there were plenty of hot elves and dragons to focus her attention on. Maybe it was due to the fact that he seemed unable to stop looking at her, triggering an automatic response of some kind.

“You going to dance, or what?” Shelley asked with a raised eyebrow and knowing smile.

“I’ll get around to it,” Jessica muttered in annoyance. She had been hoping that Michael would ask her to dance. So far, he had stuck to elves and fauns.

“Come on,” Shelley drawled in a dry voice. “Let’s go make him jealous.”

Jessica reluctantly let Shelley pull her over to the dance area. Her partner was a pretty good dancer, considering how long it had been since she had the time for things like dances. Shelley grinned at her as she took her hands and began swinging her around to the fast tempo.

In spite of herself, she began to have fun as the two of them ate up the dance floor. She had spent years taking ballroom dancing lessons and wasn’t too modest to admit that she was an amazing dancer. The fact that Shelley was also a good dancer made the experience a lot more enjoyable. It didn’t take long to forget about Michael as her focus narrowed down to Shelley and their immediate surroundings.

“You’re pretty good,” Jessica complimented Shelley as she spun under her arm.

“I was obsessed with dancing while I was in college,” Shelley explained with a sheepish smile. “I started eating so much unhealthy food in college that I needed something to balance out the intake of calories.”

Jessica laughed ruefully and nodded. “Yeah, not having parents to harp on you about healthy dietary choices definitely results in a lot of unhealthy eating habits. It took me a few years to stop over-indulging just because I could and start adding healthy foods back into my diet.”

“When I started outgrowing my clothes, I realized it was time to show some restraint,” Shelley said with a wry smile. “It’s amazing how much more money I saved when I started eating healthy foods and didn’t have to spend a fortune upgrading my wardrobe.”

Jessica threw back her head and laughed. “That’s exactly what happened to me,” Jessica revealed with another short laugh. “I remember the feeling of dread when I tried to button up my favorite pair of pants one morning and couldn’t do it.”

They slowed to a stop as the music ended, and she finally looked around the clearing. Serenity had a constant blush as she stood with her hands on Alexis’s hips. It had been a surprise to learn that Michael had a distant cousin join their group. Jessica’s bullshit meter was beeping loudly in her head after hearing the story of how she had been invited to join them. They claimed they were worried about CIA hitmen coming after her, but they hadn’t bothered bringing any other relatives in with her. Then there was the fact that Rhapsody had already dealt with the people sending out orders to the hit squads.

There was something oddly familiar about Alexis too. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but there was something about her name and personality that seemed extremely familiar.

Jessica blinked when she saw Mystery and Michael staring at her. Mystery was haranguing her brother about something while he wore a dogged expression. When he saw her looking at him, his cheeks flushed, and he quickly looked away.

“I think you’re going to have to do the asking on that one,” Shelley commented with a wide grin. “I recognize that look. He’s too shy to ask you to dance.”

“He’s asked a ton of people to dance,” Jessica objected with a frown. “He doesn’t seem that shy.”

“Trust me, he’s shy with the right people,” Shelley assured her with a knowing smile. “He’s feeling a much deeper level of attraction to you and it’s turning him into an awkward chicken.”

Jessica laughed at Shelley’s observation, wondering if it could be true. Maybe she would go ask him to dance.

“Okay, wish me luck,” Jessica said with a grin. “I’m going in.”

“Good luck,” Shelley called out to her as she walked away. “If he rejects you, I’ll still be here.”

Jessica chuckled as she made her way toward Michael. Shelley was an attractive woman, especially as she rolled the years back on her age. She would never have let such a thought cross her mind before this assignment. She had always had a strict code for avoiding romantic entanglements with coworkers. Her code felt more like guidelines now. Her perspective had undergone a major overhaul after finding out about souls, afterlives, magic, immortality, and other universes.

Mystery grinned when she spotted Jessica approaching them. Michael’s cheeks flushed when he saw the determination in her eyes.

“Wanna dance?” Jessica asked Michael warmly, an enticing smile on her lips.

“Um, sure?” Michael answered hesitantly.

She stepped up close to him and put his hand on her hip before taking his other hand in hers. He stared down at her, enraptured, as they began moving around the clearing to the next song.

“So?” Jessica prompted with a coquettish smile. “How are you enjoying the prospect of living forever?”

Michael blinked as he came out of his daze. He stared into her eyes with a thoughtful expression. “I don’t think it’s actually sunk in that I’m actually immortal.”

“It’s a strange concept to accept, isn’t it?” Jessica asked with a small smile. “We’ve spent our entire lives knowing that our time is short. Being told that we are suddenly going to live forever takes a while to sink in. Suddenly, all the things you want to accomplish in life become less urgent, since you know you’ll have plenty of time to do them.”

“That’s true,” Michael agreed, pursing his lips as he thought about it. “You know, that’s a really interesting point. Not only do we have all the time we need to do whatever we want, but the scope of things we can do has increased dramatically as well. We can use freaking magic!”

“Right?” Jessica asked with a delighted laugh. “I still can’t believe we can use magic, even though I use it all the time. I was absolutely obsessed with magic when I was a kid. This whole thing has been like a dream come true.”

Michael stared down at her, completely captivated. She felt a blush form on her cheeks as she stared back into his dark eyes. There was something so familiar about him. She felt like she’d known him for her entire life—maybe longer.

“Do you think we knew each other before our spirits incarnated here?” Jessica asked him curiously. “There’s something so familiar about you and I just can’t place my finger on it.”

His eyes widened as he stared at her. “You too? It’s been driving me crazy! I feel like I’ve known you forever and I just can’t remember any of the details.”

Jessica smiled with a wry look toward where Harmony and Rhapsody were watching them with amused expressions on their faces. “I’m pretty sure those two know something, if the way they’re watching us is any indication.”

Michael glanced over at the two of them just in time to receive a leer from Rhapsody. He shook his head as they danced out of sight from the two fairies. “Even that horrifying leer seems familiar.”

Jessica burst out laughing at his observation. “Yeah, she doesn’t have the right kind of face to leer,” Jessica noted with a shake of her head. “It just makes it look even dirtier.”

“Exactly!” Michael exclaimed in exasperation. “It makes you want to crawl under a rock and hide in hopes that you’ll never see it again.”

“I think it might be safe to say we come from whatever this other universe is that they were talking about,” Jessica commented musingly. “The Vice President asked her if she was from this universe and Rhapsody said she was from a universe far far away from here. The way she said it made me think it was the kind of distance that’s beyond our ability to comprehend. She said she came here to help save the world. I wonder if that’s why we’re here too. If so, she must have been manipulating the events that led to me being here. Otherwise, what are the odds that I would have ended up meeting the rest of you?”

“Yeah, I definitely feel like fate’s had a helping hand in arranging our lives,” Michael agreed with a small smile. His face became introspective as he continued. “I wonder what our roles are, if we aren’t supposed to be world trees like the others. After all, what else is even left for us to do?”

“Maybe they just wanted friends to be here with them,” Jessica suggested warmly. “Running off to incarnate in a distant universe must be a lonely adventure without your friends to keep you company.”

“Where do you think Alexis really came from?” Michaels asked with a nod toward a grinning Serenity and Alexis. “Do you think she’s even a human?”

Jessica stared at Serenity and Alexis thoughtfully as they danced nearby. “I’ll bet she’s one of those angels.”

Alexis looked over at them at Jessica’s words and stuck her tongue out at them before pulling Serenity deeper into the cluster of dancers.

“And she has super-hearing, apparently,” Michael observed dryly. “Either that, or she’s another telepath.”

“Or both,” Jessica added just as dryly. “It’s like being at an Xman school or something.”

“Did you ever get confused by that name?” Michael asked with an amused twinkle in his dark eyes. “You have x-wives, x-girlfriends, x-coworkers, yada yada. So, is an Xman someone who is no longer a man?”

Jessica snorted a laugh, knocking her head into his chest playfully. “I see how your mind works. Well, I suppose Rhapsody just turned a bunch of thugs into Xmen then.”

“Ew, gross,” Michael grimaced with a disgusted sound. “I wish she could do that to all the bastards out there harming children.”

“I think this leveling system she put in place might actually have a chance of cleaning up this world, eventually. Rewarding people so long as they don’t commit evil acts will probably make this a nice world to live in by 2035. I still haven’t tried using the messaging feature yet. It’s kind of unnecessary when we can just teleport to any location in the world and save ourselves the trouble of sending a message.”

“I still haven’t slept since the interface went live, so I don’t have access to it,” Michael told her with a curious expression. “I’ve been subsisting off Yuccas Fitter. Maybe I should try taking a nap so that it will appear. I want to play around with it and start earning some levels. Have you earned any levels for anything yet?”

Jessica giggled as she thought of the levels she and Shelley had gained experience in. “Yeah, I leveled up a skill called cool-headed. The description says the skill is gained by keeping a cool head while dealing with evil bastards.”

Michael let out a loud guffaw, looking down at her with a grin and a look in his eyes that sent warmth flooding throughout her body. “I’ll bet you leveled that up, dealing with people like the Vice President.”

“That bitch tried to end our assignment and have someone else replace us,” Jessica growled darkly. The memory still filled her with anger. She suddenly smiled as she thought of the sick look on the Vice President’s face when Rhapsody had denied her request. “Rhapsody showed up and said it’s us or nobody. Then she told her she was a selfish narcissist who would be stuck in a reincarnation loop if she didn’t learn some compassion. She worded it a little differently, but the message was clear. She looked like she had bitten into a lemon. I wish the interface allowed us to take pictures of what we’re seeing or maybe capture the last five minutes.”

“You know, the architect of that system is right over there,” Michael pointed out with an indulgent grin. “I’ll bet she’ll add a feature like that if we ask her nicely enough. That’s a pretty good idea. It would be the equivalent of everybody having a dash cam built into their eyes. It could save he legal system a lot of trouble when it comes to finding evidence of a person’s guilt. I had some asshole reverse into my car at a light a couple years ago and claim that I rear-ended him. Luckily, the traffic cam picked up the whole thing. This would be a great tool for dealing with scammers.”

“Do you really think she would add that kind of feature?” Jessica asked excitedly. “Because that would be freaking amazing!”

“I can almost guarantee that she’ll add it,” Michael nodded confidently. “What other cool things should we bug her to add while we’re thinking about it?”

“Did you know she added a teleport button to our interface before we learned how to teleport on our own?” Jessica asked thoughtfully. “I wonder what other kinds of features like that could be added.”

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“You two staying cool-headed?” Shelley asked archly as she danced near them with a lithe elf woman.

“One of us is,” Jessica replied with an infectious laugh. “I just got done telling him about our levels.”

The song ended and the four of them stopped dancing. Shelley’s eyes were bright as she pointed at her elf friend.

“This is Selindria,” Shelley introduced the elf with a light blush on her cheeks. “She’s a progressive elf.”

Selindria laughed a rich, throaty laugh at Shelley’s description. “She means I don’t have my head stuck in the clouds trying to puzzle out the deeper mysteries of the soul all the time. I’m the black sheep of our race.”

Jessica stared at the beautiful elf in fascination. She had waist-length honey-blond hair with a few small braids wrapped around her head. Her face was what the creator had in mind when they used the word feminine. She was beautiful in a way that only Rhapsody and Taxti compared to. Her vivid blue eyes were friendly as she gazed at Jessica and Michael, rather than the distant look she had grown used to seeing in the other elves. Selindria was as tall as Harmony and had a graceful way of moving that almost made it look like she was moving through water.

“It’s nice to meet you, Selindria,” Jessica nodded at the gorgeous elf. “I couldn’t get a straight answer out of any of the other elves, so maybe you can help me. I was just curious what life was like when there were more world trees still alive throughout the world. Did elves just mingle with the humans, or did you stay in your own cities or forests?”

“I’ll bet you didn’t get a straight answer,” Selindria giggled, the sound so infectious that Jessica found herself laughing as well. “Did they give you the spiel about life being a river that has no beginning and no end, and time is just a tapestry of memories that shape the banks?”

“Something very similar, yes,” Jessica responded with a wide grin. “To be honest, I started tuning him out after a little while.”

Selindria laughed again, her bright blue eyes sparkling with mirth and her delicate face split by an enchanting smile.

“Life was definitely different back then,” Selindria said when her laughter had ended. “Magic was used in place of electronics, so the world was far less polluted back then. Most humans treated elves like curiosities. Since we have no need of food, shelter, or sleep, we weren’t what they thought of as good trading partners. We had no industry and no interest in any kind of trade, so all of our interactions were very shallow. Add to that the nonsense the other elves are always pontificating, and it made elves look more like background ornamentation than a sentient species sharing their world. Our ability to teleport whenever we want made trying to capture us pointless. Every once in a while, there would be someone who thought they could find a way to force themselves on an elf against their will. We usually dropped them into another world somewhere and they spent the rest of their lives alone.”

“That seems pretty lenient to me,” Jessica muttered darkly. “I think I’m coming around to Rhapsody’s punishment for that kind of thing.”

“Yeah, she definitely has no tolerance for anything like that,” Selindria commented with an approving smile.

“Is it still rude to ask how old a woman is if she’s immortal?” Michael asked tentatively.

“Nope,” Jessica assured him with a smirk. “The reason asking a woman’s age is taboo is because we get so much uglier when we get older. It’s not fair that men don’t go downhill nearly as quickly as women.”

“So, how old are you?” Michael asked Selindria curiously.

“Do you mean since returning to this body?” Selindria asked with an odd smile. “Or the age of my soul?”

“Yes,” Michael answered with an amused twinkle in his eyes.

“Ah, well, in that case, I’m only a few years old,” Selindria answered, her lips quirking into a half smile. “My soul is several hundred million years old.”

“Wait, your only a few years old?” Michael asked with a puzzled crease to his brows as he frowned at her. “Do Elves grow up super-fast or something?”

“No, this is my immortal body that I return to after I finish an incarnation,” Selindria explained patiently. “It’s hundreds of millions of years old. I’m not incarnated right now—this isn’t a mortal body. All of the immortals here in the circle are transcended from higher tier souls. Whether they were former stars, planets, elementals, or older souls, they didn’t die and have their ethereal bodies move on to a different plane—they were transformed into immortal entities. That means their ethereal body was merged with a new physical body that is immortal. It’s an option that’s available to certain entities and older souls.”

“Is an ethereal body just another name for spirit?” Jessica asked with a frown. She hadn’t spent any time in life studying spirituality or theology, so the terminology was alien.

“Think of your ethereal body as your consciousness,” Selindria suggested thoughtfully. “And your soul as the repository for all of the memories you have acquired throughout the cycle of incarnations your soul has experienced. Consciousness is created by the merging of the soul with a mortal body, but it remains as a distinct entity after a mortal body dies. The soul remains attached to your ethereal body indefinitely. It’s possible for ethereal bodies to be destroyed, which leaves the soul searching for a new mortal body to attach to. People who end up with a soul that was once linked to an ethereal body will have some access to that soul’s memories, but usually not directly. The memories will just influence them subconsciously. They usually exhibit higher intelligence or aptitudes for whatever skillsets are buried within that soul’s memory.”

“So even though you are only a few years old in this immortal body right now, it’s the same one you’ve been in between incarnations?” Jessica asked curiously. “So, you really are hundreds of millions of years old, for all intents and purposes.”

“Correct,” Selindria nodded with an approving smile. “Just like the leprechauns and fauns.”

“I just can’t get over how old the immortal people are here,” Michael murmured in awe. “What must life look like when viewing it from such a long span of time?”

“I’m just a baby compared to Rhapsody,” Selindria told him with a short laugh. “Her soul is the kind of age that leaves immortals like me in awe. I have a pretty old soul, but I think those three might just be the oldest souls out there.”

“How can you tell?” Michael asked curiously. “Can you see tree rings on our spirits or something?”

Jessica snorted a laugh at the visual, glancing up at Michael with a grin. He blushed when he saw her affectionate gaze but managed to smile back at her awkwardly.

“It’s just common knowledge in some places,” Selindria answered with a shrug. She smiled wistfully toward where Taxti was dancing. “Now she is one very attractive person. It’s too bad she’s taken.”

“I’ve never seen Taxti with anyone,” Shelley said curiously. “Does this mysterious partner not come around very often or something?”

“Oh, I thought you already knew,” Selindria replied, pursing her lips as she looked through the dancers. “She’s with her right now.”

Jessica stared in surprise when she saw Taxti spinning around the dance area with Harmony. It was plain to see that they weren’t just dancing for fun. Harmony had improved exponentially from the last time she had seen her dance. They were dancing so provocatively that Jessica glanced around to see if Serenity and Aurora were present. Serenity was, and she was staring in awe with Alexis as her aunt and Taxti flitted about the dance floor like they owned it.

“Wait, but Harmony is with Rhapsody,” Jessica objected in confusion. “Maybe she wasn’t joking when she asked me to join her fairy harem.”

Selindria dissolved into a fit of giggles at Jessica’s words, shaking her head ruefully. “Taxti and Rhapsody are the same person.”

“Wait, what?” Shelley gasped, sharing a disbelieving look with Jessica. “How could they be the same person? We’ve talked to them both at the same time.”

“She’s splitting her consciousness and operating both bodies,” Selindria explained with a look of respect in her eyes. “She used to have her consciousness split into hundreds of them when she first got here. They were out of magic and starving, so she had to supply them with the energy directly from her own soul. Once the tree was rehabilitated and capable of broadcasting magic again, they woke up and she left their bodies. Taxti’s a magic hog though, so she’s going to be dormant until the other world trees are back to life.”

“So, Rhapsody is the one that’s powering Taxti up right now?” Jessica asked slowly. Something seemed wrong with that thought. “Why did Rhapsody lose her power in the first place?”

“Um, you don’t already know who Rhapsody is?” Selindria asked warily, her face showing a hint of anxiety. “I just thought you all knew, since Harmony and Mystery were with Taxti too now. Let’s just rewind this conversation by sixty seconds and pretend it never happened, okay?”

“Clarice?” Michael asked with a raised eyebrow.

Selindria blinked and then narrowed her eyes as she studied the three of them. “You obviously know her name. What else do you know?”

Jessica sucked her breath in when she heard the name. Flashes of memory raced through her mind, too fast to take hold of. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to concentrate, ignoring Michael’s concerned query. She saw midnight hair and swirling lavender galaxy eyes, always full of mirth.

“She’s a Seraph,” Jessica whispered, her mouth turned down into a frown. “I can’t remember anything else though. The only thing I can remember clearly is her swirling eyes and that she’s super playful.”

She opened her eyes and found Selindria staring at her appraisingly, her perfect lips pursed. “So, you remember some of it. You lot have a hard time staying separated from your soul memory. You’ve been through mortality so many times that your souls are never far from your conscious mind. Your souls are too strong to remain separated from your ethereal bodies for very long, especially if you are in close contact with each other.”

“Hello, Selindria,” Rhapsody’s voice arrived before she did, appearing out of thin air next to Jessica. “It’s been a while. How long have you been here?”

“I just arrived a few hours ago,” Selindria answered with a cheerful smile. She stepped toward Rhapsody and suddenly shrunk down to the same size as the short fairy, then pulled her into a warm embrace. “It’s wonderful to see you again. I heard through the grapevine that this world was the place to be if I wanted a good show.”

“I’ll just bet,” Rhapsody replied dryly as she hugged Selindria back fondly. “What else did you hear?”

“Not much,” Selindria answered as she finally released Rhapsody. “Though I did hear that you know where the Origin Realm is. There are a lot of curious people trying to find you right now.”

“How is it that you found me?” Rhapsody asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Mostly luck,” Selindria replied with a wry smile. “I heard about the issues they were having on this world and that someone stepped in to help them. They said you were incarnating and everything, so that narrowed it down a lot more. I know what a sucker for hard luck cases you are, so I was pretty sure that it would be you.”

“You’re the sucker for hard luck cases,” Rhapsody retorted with a look of amusement. “I half expected to find you here already incarnated when I arrived. What have you been up to?”

Selindria’s smile faltered briefly as she stared at Rhapsody with a look of deep regret. “I had trouble at my last incarnation. It was pretty ugly. It almost convinced me to stop incarnating. We’ll see how long that idea lasts.”

“I love the look,” Rhapsody told her admiringly, looking her up and down. “And an elf. It’s kind of crazy how often they pop up.”

“I couldn’t help noticing that you have one with you,” Selindria noted with a look of intense curiosity. “She’s different than anyone I’ve ever seen. I can’t help but speculate that she’s from somewhere special.”

Rhapsody smiled mysteriously but didn’t answer.

Michael sighed loudly in exasperation. “You do know that it’s rude to talk in code in front of other people, right?”

“As a matter of fact, I did know that,” Rhapsody admitted with a smirk. “But you’ll get over it, with time and counseling.”

The music started again, this time with a fast tempo and an aggressive cello. A cheer went up at one side of the clearing.

“I’m not going to miss this,” Rhapsody grinned exuberantly. “Melody is having a rematch with Leesha. My money’s on Melody this time.”

Jessica glanced up at Jason with a questioning smile. He shrugged with an amused glance at Rhapsody and then nodded. She took his hand, and they followed Rhapsody toward the rematch. Jason had a stupid grin on his face as they walked across the clearing. Jessica could feel his pulse speed up through the warmth of his hand. Jason. That was his name. The thought dropped into her awareness out of nowhere. She hadn’t even realized she was thinking of him as Jason at first.

Rhapsody turned back to scowl at her as they walked. Just like leering, she didn’t have the face for scowling. It just looked cute. As the thought crossed her mind, Rhapsody rolled her large eyes and sighed in exasperation. A moment later, her face suddenly morphed like melted wax and changed into a leathery skinned old woman with lines covering every inch of her face. She scowled so blackly that Jessica halted and took an involuntary step backward without consciously telling her feet to do so.

Michael recoiled from the gruesome glare as well. A moment later, her face morphed back to normal as she howled with laughter. Selindria was giggling up a storm next to Shelley after watching the display as well, hanging on to Shelley to hold herself up. Shelley hadn’t even noticed Rhapsody’s terrifying transformation. As soon as Selindria had taken her hand, she had lost all awareness of anything except Selindria.

“That will teach you to call my scowling face cute,” Rhapsody glowered threateningly as she turned and continued walking.

“Her glowering face is kind of cute too,” Jessica murmured to Jason... Michael quietly.

Rhapsody threw her hands up in the air with a curse and began muttering about fairies getting an overhaul.

They joined a crowd of people watching Leesha and Melody as they had their dance off. Jessica stared at Melody suspiciously as she mimicked Leesha’s moves with seemingly no effort. Jessica had seen her the last time they faced off, and she had struggled a lot more than this. Leesha’s face was growing tight with concentration as she tried to wear Melody down. Their dance moves became more intricate and nuanced as the minutes stretched on.

Harmony was standing to one side with Aurora and Serenity, cheering her sister on loudly. Serenity was watching her mother in disbelief, her eyes wide with amazement. No matter how fast and intricate Leesha moved, Melody followed flawlessly.

“I wonder if she turned her synesthesia off,” Jessica heard Rhapsody murmur in an evil voice.

“Don’t you dare,” Michael growled with a glare that bounced right off her.

Rhapsody turned to look at Selindria. “Are you ticklish, Selindria?”

“Rhapsody,” Michael warned in a louder voice. “No cheating.”

“Or what?” Rhapsody asked, her eyes full of challenge.

Michael frowned, as he appeared to think of a punishment that could affect the all-powerful fairy.

“I’ll spend the rest of our time here thinking of things to punish you,” Michael declared lamely.

Rhapsody slowly walked up to him, her eyes deceptively mild. His confidence drained away the closer she walked. By the time she was in his personal space, he was licking his lips nervously. She stood in front of him for several seconds before her face suddenly split open and a horde of snakes erupted out of it. Michael let out a very unmanly scream and leapt backward, tripping over several leprechauns in his panic.

Jessica stared in horror at the mass of snakes writhing out of what used to be her face. A moment later, her face closed up around the snakes and she returned to normal, laughing hysterically as she watched him scramble away. As he got shakily to his feet, she held up a hand like a snake and mimed a snapping gesture at him.

"Someday, Clarice,” Michael threatened with a helpless glare. “Someday you’re going to meet your match and be teased mercilessly. The universe has a lot of karma coming your way.”

There was a loud cheer from everyone who hadn’t been watching Rhapsody’s little show. Jessica looked back and saw Leesha laying on the ground, laughing with delight. Melody was still standing, grinning in triumph. Serenity and Aurora rushed forward and hugged her excitedly.

“Wow, Mom, when did you learn to dance like that?” Serenity exclaimed in amazement. “That was amazing!”

“I had a lot of dead time on my hands a long time ago and decided to learn to dance,” Melody answered with a pleased smile. “It all came back to me after Leesha and I danced the other day.”

“You were awesome, Mom,” Aurora told her mother in an awe-filled voice. “You have to teach me some of those moves.”

“I would love to, Aurora,” Melody replied warmly, squeezing her tightly.

Harnketi was watching her with a dumbfounded expression on her face. It slowly changed into a hungry look as she slowly walked over to Melody.

Melody looked up at Harnketi. and Jessica saw a flicker of anxiety flash across her face before she smiled radiantly at the other woman. Harnketi had noticed the expression too. Her hungry expression was suddenly replaced by uncertainty as she studied Melody nervously.

“Um, hi,” Melody greeted Harnketi, her smile fading away as she saw the worry on Harnketi’s face. “Um, I need to talk to you about something.”

As Melody finished, the anxiety was back in her voice. Jessica winced as she felt the sudden tension in the air. Rhapsody let out a low moan of displeasure.

“It’s too early, I haven’t had a chance to talk to her yet,” Rhapsody sighed dramatically. “Well, there’s no time like the present.”

Harnketi and Rhapsody suddenly vanished, leaving a startled Melody staring at empty space in sudden consternation.

“Life is never boring around Clarice,” Selindria noted with a rueful smile.

“How long have you known her?” Shelley asked curiously.

“Since my spirit was only a few centuries old,” Selindria replied softly. “She was already ancient by that time.”

“What kind of world were you on?” Shelley asked, her eyes fascinated.

“One just like this,” Selindria replied, glancing around the fairy ring. “It was beautiful before it was destroyed.”