"She's just a child, this Daphne." Daivi whispered to Sandra. It was midnight of that night, and Daivi's room was shadowy, lit only by a smallish candle on a small table, at which the two sat across from each other. "You haven't known her long, I know. The pigtails are just the beginning. It's one thing to be excited, but this girl abandons all sense for these schemes of hers, this making everybody so happy, especially for love. She had us all in knots our first day, trying to get Ianthe and Aubrey in the same blanket in the cold; and as for Comolrin's castle, the place where Myki and I lost our memory...well, that was her fault, too, right from the beginning. Soon's she knew that this Bryan bloke was there, she led a charge right in, got Myki'n me captured, and Aubrey, and eventually herself, too--it's a good thing Ianthe knew what she was about, and that Aubrey, too, or we'd still be in there, rotting 'til the end of time while Comolrin did who-knows-what. Panics like anything, too--broke down crying at D'rai's bit of stuff today, took off running who-knows-where after Elisay ran off for a minute, and I guess Maik caught her sobbing one night, too--that's what brought us to the castle in the first place. And, what's more, D'rai tries killing her, and what does she do but fall for all his stuff about being changed? It's asking for trouble--she just doesn't know when to tell someone to shove off. And o'course we couldn't get rid of him ourselves--we all have to follow her lead, just because she decides to play noble and accept the bloke who tries to kill her, else we'll look like cowards. Well, not a scrap of all the so-called bravery she's pulled has gotten us anything yet but trouble. She's dangerous. It's a good job some of her friends know what they're doing, that's all I have to say."
       Sandra frowned. "Maybe so, but I don't trust that Ianthe, either. She won't tell us what went on in her test--she'll only tell everyone who's been tested already. I asked her for even a bit, and she said she wouldn't tell me until I'm tested, too--she says we'd come to the wrong conclusions--but she won't say what the right conclusions are. And Naomi won't tell hers, either, except to Ianthe, Elisay, and Daphne--and maybe that Blake, I don't know. What do they know? What are they hiding?"
       "Hmph, whatever it is, count on Maik at least to know it, too," muttered Daivi. "He'll know everything, just like he always does. If he can't worm it out of Daphne--which should be no difficult task, knowing the two of them--he will out of somebody else. And he's got Daphne's weakness for D'rai himself--got him out of prison, brought him back...I've known him forever, and he's never been so forgiving as that--he's probably done it so little that he's gone to the extreme, not knowing where to stop. He knew going in what D'rai'd done to Daphne. Why he didn't collar D'rai when he had the chance, I don't know...unless he had something to gain."
       "It's like all the tested ones are like that. What about Myki and Ananda...and Blake?"
       "Of the lot of them, Myki's the hardest to pin down--he certainly acts normal enough, though he spends a lot of time around Ananda. Ananda...I don't know, but there's something a bit funny about her, too."
       "I know what it is--Gavin," Sandra replied. "She and Naomi have shown Gavin a lot of attention--and have talked to each other a lot, too, and mostly in whispers. And she and Daphne are linked--both of them claim to have touched death and walked away without a scratch. ...We used to talk all the time, Ananda and I; since she hooked up with Myki and went on her test, I've hardly gotten a word out of her."
       "And as for Blake, he's never liked us," Daivi added. "He's always stuck to Naomi and her friends--though he doesn't seem to like Aubrey much--until he came back from his test. Suddenly he's making an effort to talk to everybody...well, except D'rai. That's a change in him, too. Now the only question is, why?"
       "I think D'rai and Illuminati are really working together--they pretend they aren't, but I'm not so sure."
       "That could be; everyone's very careful to accept D'rai, until now, but that could be part of some scheme. What's Illuminati doing to them when they're away for tests?"
       "Whatever it is, they're all in it together. The only ones out are those who haven't been tested," said Sandra.
       Daivi shook his head. "Even some of those who haven't are gone. Elisay knows everything--she must--and she's had a fight with Piyteur, and he won't tell me why. If Piyteur knows, then it's about that...and if he doesn't, then I think Elisay planned the argument so he'd let her alone--so he wouldn't come to know too much. ...Sometimes I think we're the only ones left. There's some sort of conspiracy going on. We'll have to stay close; they'll be after us next."
       The two of them continued talking, theorizing as the white wax dripped down the candle's sides like milk.

       So it begins, Illuminati. Just as with the candle, so the trust of your esteemed group begins to melt away. I will not have to lift a finger to achieve my purposes; they will do it themselves.

       When they are tested, they will see their folly, and be sorry for it.

       Will they?

       The day had been somber and quiet for the Applebus crew and their entourage of Teraa, Neo, and Satoru. The new Applebus home members had found their rooms, but D'rai's outburst had shaken them all, and as the afternoon progressed, the mood became increasingly oppressive and dreading. The sky outside their abode had turned cloudy and gray, adding to the weight that seemed to hang over all their heads. No rain fell to break the tense atmosphere--literally and figuratively, the house seemed to be lying in wait for a storm.
       They had been grateful to Illuminati at first for bringing them back to the Applebus home, but the atmosphere of the house was changed. The coziness had turned to stiffness; whether from the change in atmosphere or from the rift D'rai had created, none could say. They tried to fall into their old pursuits--reading, writing, drawing, singing, idle chatter, walking in the garden--but even those activities soon grew stale, and everything was tainted in any case with their troubled manners. Many fell asleep, only to have deep and strange dreams that vanished immediately upon wakening, leaving the dreamer with only a feeling of dread and a brow beaded with sweat.
       Small groups huddled together, talking in murmurs--sometimes sharing details of tests, if they could, sometimes theorizing about the other tests, sometimes reflecting moodily across their journey. Couples temporarily abandoned each other in favor of friends, except for Daivi and Sandra, who from that afternoon on would only talk and eat together. Even Gavin, Teraa, Neo, and Satoru were affected by the mood, and stuck to themselves, trying to play games, but glancing uneasily at the others all the while as they came and went in their clusters about the house.
       D'rai, meanwhile, stayed by himself, wandering aimlessly about the house, never drinking, eating, sleeping, or employing his time in any form of pleasure. He wore a scowl, and refused to meet eyes or answer questions, but was mentally tortured by the effect that he felt he had brought to the house. They had finally trusted him, finally accepted him...and now everywhere he looked, he felt stared at, secretly thought of as a traitor and a murderer.

       Look what it's done, Illuminati, all this uncertainty. Most difficult on your beloved humans...and Gavin. Come, I'll even strike you a bargain--give me one of them as a hostage, and I'll tell you of D'rai's test. You may win the victim back if you can.

       They are not mine to give, and I would refuse you even if they were.

       My dear Illuminati, you cannot help them this way.

       How would you know? ...Your gift of persuasion may be higher than mine, but my knowledge is greater overall. I refuse your bargain because I have no need for it.

       You're only bluffing.

       Am I?

       Daphne awoke with a start. She felt dread, and sweat along her forehead...but her dream had not vanished this time.

       Another day passed, much the same as the one before. Midnight of the second night at the Applebus home found D'rai sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace in the library of the Applebus home, his knees drawn up to his chest as he stared at the flickering flames. He listened as the clock softly struck twelve. The rest of the house was dark and quiet.
       He started violently and turned around as he felt a light pressure on his shoulder. Daphne had crept in and laid her fingertips on his shoulder, and was standing behind him shyly in pajama pants and a T-shirt, her hair loose and her glasses on.
       "Sorry. I'll go," he said shortly, getting up.
       "No, don't," Daphne broke in quietly, if a bit stiffly. "I came to find you."
       "Oh...what for?"
       "Can I sit down?"
       D'rai nodded and craned his neck to the side to look at her. "You sound like you've got bad news," he said, trying to hold a shy stiffness out of his voice.
       "Well, not--not bad, necessarily," Daphne replied, trying to keep a nervous quickening out of hers. "But I get a strange feeling out of it--I mean--I mean every time I think about your test, I get the same odd feeling."
       "What's that?" D'rai asked.
       "I feel like I did with Reûic," answered Daphne rather cryptically. "I think I'm supposed to be your help, since Illuminati can't."
       A faint hint of a smile--whether gentle or amused, Daphne could not tell--played upon D'rai's lips. "So it comes back even to you--Reûic. I was never sure he would have any effect on you. But what do you mean? What was Reûic like?"
       Daphne's hand stole behind her neck and rubbed at it, involuntarily betraying Daphne's shy embarrassment, though D'rai didn't know enough about her to know it. "You'd laugh, probably," she said. "It wasn't...I don't know...I mean, it was mostly very innocent...at least in a romantic sense. See, before Maik, no one'd ever liked me before--not that I know of, anyway, 'cept one boy in preschool who bothered me, and he doesn't count--but anyway, at that point, Maik and I didn't even know the other liked us. So Brie--the Reûic figure--was really my first boyfriend."
       "Okay," D'rai said--patiently, and seemingly understandingly, both to Daphne's surprise.
       "Just--I also don't have that many guys who are friends; Aubrey and Bryan--he was with us for a little while--were my first ones since about the fourth grade, so that's a lot of what he was at first. He wasn't handsome--he was more cute, and not Hollywood at all. He was very boy-next-door: you know, he looked like he was younger than he was--he had really curly brown hair and really dark blue eyes, and an oval, paleish face--and he was friendly and easygoing--but he was poetic, too, and psychological, and he loved to read. And it seemed like everything I'd ever done or felt, he had, too. We could sit and talk about things for hours, and I felt like he was an exact equal--we were about equal, intelligence-wise, but he was much more talented...but I never felt like I had to prove myself to him. He was like me--cautious sometimes, but when I felt like doing something, I don't know, mischievous--and that's mischievous for me, so probably not much" --she smiled-- "he would, too. But he was more global and, like...world-wise than me--I mean, he was pretty innocent, but he had this manner like he could go up to anyone in the world and just strike up a conversation, or be at home anywhere he went--so he looked maybe a bit younger than me, but seemed older. He taught me things, and I taught him things, and we were both so happy. He called me Aisali [EYE-zuh-lie]--a corrupted-English version of "eyes alight", he said, 'cause I was always wondering and innocent--and I guess I was, with him. So I called him Brie [bree]...and it's nothing to do with the cheese--it's what we called a 'word current' when we talked about this sort of thing: Brie sounds sort of like the Spanish word libre, which means "free", 'cause his personality was so easygoing; and that word sounds like libro, Spanish for "book", which we both loved, which sounded like brio, which is English and means panache, which he definitely had...which sounded like Brie, completing it. You can laugh now if you want, but I've got more to say."
       D'rai smiled. "No, it's not so much funny as...I don't know, sweet or somethin'."
       "Well, it was just--just that he got everything. He had the most incredible sense of how things were, and how they could be...he wasn't a revolutionary or anything, but he was just...poetic is the only word I can think of, but that doesn't work for all of it. And so he started almost as a best friend and everything, but before too long, I fell for him, and he for me. And I was scared, 'cause I didn't know anything about anything like it--I didn't know how to be somebody's girlfriend--but he, as I'd found out, had never been liked, either--which surprised me, 'cause there was this air about him that made you feel like he would have been--and he said we'd learn together. And we did--it's weird, but it still makes me want to laugh when I think about us trying to figure out how to kiss each other."
       D'rai was smiling again--but shook his head quickly when he saw Daphne glance at him. "It's not that it's funny...well, I mean, it is a little, but...I don't know...I don't know, there's something all that makes me feel like, but I don't know what it was. Just...you talk about him like he really was like that."
       "Well...he sort of was," Daphne replied, shrugging shyly. "He was real to me like that, and it was a while before I could differentiate between what he'd been and what he really was. I mean, it's sort of stereotypical that females want a soulmate in a guy, right?"
       D'rai shrugged. "I'd guess so. I've never been much loved, either."
       "I mean, he wasn't so much a love object. I mean, he was, but not in the same way that it probably was for a lot of us. With me, I guess a lot of the romantic stuff was experimental--and, you know, we were so alike, and it felt so good finding someone who always knew what I meant...and who I never felt jealous of. I mean, the beauty was that we were attuned to the same things, but were different people. There were differences between us...but it was more like...I don't know, it was never a hindrance. We always saw it as another way to say something or feel something. It was...incredible. I mean, we gave each other new ideas, yeah...but we also put words to a lot of ideas we'd had before that we hadn't been able to find words for. But towards the end...it got different. It stopped being so...innocent. Just...he had so much power, and we went off, supposedly, in search of experiences we'd always wanted...and, well..." She trailed off into a sigh.
       "Well?" asked D'rai finally.
       Daphne squinched up her face, groping for words. Finally she sighed again. "I--I guess it's this--people always think that if they've got power for this or this or this, they'll somehow be able to use it only for good. I always figured, you know, if I had the power, I'd feed hungry children and save lives and do noble, heroic things when no one else would. And we did do a little--a very little--of that sort of thing, in a very watered-down form. But...almost all the time, we didn't. We used his power..." --she sighed again-- "...well, really, I used his power...to be all the things I'd ever wished I could be, and almost never for the right reasons. I mean, I like being admired, and I want to be talented. I mean, everybody does, but I guess lots of times I try to convince myself it doesn't matter, or shouldn't--but to me, at least at this part of my life, it really does, whether I say so or not. It bothers me a lot when I see someone doing something I think is really cool, and I can't do it. So I spent my time being things I wasn't--and going after things that I scowl after in real life. I mean, I hate it when people are in, like, entertainment just for the limelight, and they think they're so talented, and they somehow deserve better treatment than everybody else, and marry for a skewed conception of love. But I started getting into that..." --she blushed-- "...'cause, see, Brie and I did theater--improv and singing and playing and stuff. I mean, 'cause with him, I had everything I'd ever wished for--quick wit, and I could play whatever I wanted, or sing it, and sing it well. And we did other things, too--athletics, which I've always been jealous of, and I could be graceful, which I'm totally not in real life, and...and I was pretty. So much that I even believed it myself. And so many people are willing to tell you how great you are, and after a while you start to believe it--and soon it stopped being about helping and was turned into a big thing to see what else I could get admiration for--and I got all knit into this new image of myself...I was so public that I had to watch everything I did--my life was playacted. And since Brie had taken on the role of our agent and publicist and everything else, he ran most of what we did. And there was, like, no such thing as humility, or social awareness, or even morals very much--unless showing traits like that made others feel good about you. It was all about making people laugh and getting this...this power high, this thing where you could make people admire you, and they would really miss you when you went away. I mean, it made me happy to make them happy--even Reûic couldn't keep all the good out of it..." --she smiled wryly-- "...but once the whole thing was over with, and I was back here, it scared me. I mean, how far would I have gone? It kind of reminds me of Naomi with Rai--not that you've heard that yet, but..."
       D'rai nodded. "How'd you get out of it?"
       Daphne rubbed the back of her neck again. "Not like Naomi and Ianthe. They got out by remembering love. I just got out because I wouldn't stay there anymore. It went like this--one night Brie and I were doing improv again, and we'd been going for a while, and were really on with everything--we had great chemistry, our timing was great, the lines were coming off better than they ever had--when suddenly I looked out into the audience, and there was this little girl sitting there in the front row...and she wasn't listening to us; she was reading. She looked about eight, and people all around her were laughing and watching and looking at us...and she was there, lost in whatever story it was she was reading. And you have to understand, when I was little, I did that all the time. I dragged a book along no matter where I went--and that's why I was always good at reading and writing: because I spent all my life doing them. And she even looked a little like I did then. So when Brie and I took a break, I came out to talk to her.
       "Brie saw me talking to her, and remembering being a little kid and stuff, and he came over to us--but he started teasing the little girl about not paying attention, and reading all the time. The little girl looked sort of hurt, so I told him to go away, and I finished talking to her, and gave her the flower I'd had in my hair, and told her to read as much as she wanted.
       "Then I went backstage and asked Brie what he'd done that for. 'I was doing her a favor,' he said. 'I'm surprised you encouraged that in her, considering.'
       "'Considering what?' I'd asked.
       "Brie looked at me like...like...I don't know, with that condescending, patronizing look you get a lot of times from parents when they think you're being silly--I hate that look coming from anybody, and I hated it most of all out of him, 'cause he'd never been like that before. So he explained, 'You said so yourself when we met that you'd always spent all your time reading, and so you'd never gotten good at much of anything else. I'm surprised you reinforced that sort of thing. You're a role model, you know.'
       "I could feel my cheeks warming up--we hadn't fought before--I'd always gone along with his way of running things because he always persuaded me that it'd be best. 'Role models encourage what'll help people.' I'd said. 'You and I were certainly helped. We spent hours on end reading stuff, and we weren't much different from her.'
       "'But you weren't happy. I could feel it. You wanted something more, and that's what I offered you...and that's what you took. And now you're not afraid of fame and glitter anymore. You used to tell yourself that sort of thing wouldn't make you happy--but it was really because you were afraid of it.'
       "That made me mad pretty quickly, 'cause it felt almost true--but it wasn't. And I realized that he'd been doing that to me for a long time, persuading me on almost-truths. 'I was happy with you then! Happier than I've ever been! And I was afraid of what fame would do to me!' I'd said--and I was getting louder by then, of course. 'And look what it's done!'
       "'Yes, look!' he'd argued back. 'It's made you everything you wanted. And anything you want later, you can have. It's mine to give, and I'll give it to you. I made you my equal, remember?'
       "That made me even madder. 'You said we were equals already!' I'd yelled at him. 'And you said yourself that power was dangerous!'
       "'I was afraid of the power I held. I said it to make myself feel better--and so did you. But you helped me out of that, and I helped you. C'mon, Aisali, can you look me in the eyes and say you don't want all this?' He put his hands on my shoulders and craned me back and up so I was looking into his eyes. 'We're everything we ever wanted, and it can go on forever if we want it to. Aren't you happy? Now, c'mon, maybe we should take a vacation or something. Maybe we can't stand so much excitement yet. Let's take a break after this show and go somewhere, anywhere you like. Then we can decide if we want to leave all this.'
       "It was tempting...but it still didn't feel right. 'Why don't you want to leave?' I asked him. 'Why do you like this better than what we had? 'Cause obviously you do.'
       "He kind of sighed. 'What's there to go back to? Sitting and coming up with fancy-sounding things, just all on our own? We can make other people happy--and we can be happy making them happy.'
       "'But...but how important is that kind of happy? What about happy as in changing lives?"
       "There's no such thing as truly happy, Aisali. I told you all about that, remember? But we can content them for a while--you and I. You're already doing it. Look at their smiles."
       "But what will it all matter in a while?"
       "What will anything? C'mon, don't do this. You're tired, I know. Just one more show, and we'll go find some other happiness, somewhere else."
       "And what about things that aren't happy? Should we spend our whole lives chasing happiness? Once you said we shouldn't. What happened to sadness--and humility--and fear? We learned from those, too--and they made us closer. You said people couldn't just single out what felt best.'
       "'Aw, Aisie, c'mon, don't throw that back at me. We were little then--we didn't know. Don't go back to that kid stuff, huh?'"
       Daphne gave D'rai a half-smile. "Okay, if all the other stuff made me mad, that made me furious. I pretty much lost it at him. 'Kid stuff? You make it sound like years and years ago! All right, you like psychology--or liked it once, if you don't now--so how about it: Whence came this magical "coming of age", O enlightened one? What taught us better? These lights, these people? And when did I stop being your love and companion, like each of us said the other was, and start being someone who owes everything I am to you? When I "let you help me", like you said before?'
       "Suddenly I stopped and really considered that--and finally figured it all out. 'If you've got the power to make me this way, you've got the power to make people how we want them, too--and the places we've been. You're telling me this is being what we've always wanted to be--but I don't think this is really anything! You didn't just take me here--I think you arranged everything!' And I know how dimwitted it sounds that I didn't see that before, but really, back when things were innocent, he was so trustworthy. Even now, I can hardly remember anything he said back then that wasn't worth trusting. I pulled myself back and stared at him. 'What are you really, Brie? What's your real name? And what do you want out of me, that you'd arrange it all like this?' I don't know why I asked him what he was, instead of who--I never figured he was anything but a person--but it came out that way. I'm sure the whole thing sounded like some sort of melodrama, but that's what I said." She laughed a bit nervously, then continued.
       "I guess he figured he couldn't talk his way out of everything anymore, 'cause when I finished asking him that stuff, he gave me this look, sort of condescending again, and said, in sort of a mocking voice, 'So you want to see the real Brie, then? So be it...grayling!'"
       "Grayling?" asked D'rai.
       Daphne laughed-without-laughing, exhaling a short breath through her nose. "A word Brie and I had made up before the power stuff began. It's a derogatory term for someone innocent who's become corrupted--the white is tainted, see. He was trying to make me mad when he said it--implying the power had made me one."
       "Ah," said D'rai.
       "So anyway," Daphne said, resuming her narrative, "Brie stood up really straight, put his arms way up, and brought them down again really hard--and suddenly we were back in the lair where we'd been bewitched--or whatever--in the first place, and I saw him as Reûic. He looked like he did when we saw him with Gavin and Illuminati. And I wasn't like I'd been before--I was back to the way I am now.
       "He was standing up straight, and somehow I'd fallen over and was on the floor, propped up by my elbows. 'Welcome back to reality, Daphne,' he'd said--you know, towering over me. 'You shouldn't have come back, you know. You're far worse off here than under Brie. Now you have nothing, and there's no one here to save you. There's only this empty room...and me to rule it...and you, my lovely little puppet Aisali--truly aisali now.'"
       D'rai looked at her again questioningly, and Daphne gave yet another wry lopsided smile. "Looked it up in this library this afternoon. Aisali isn't a broken-English 'eyes alight'--it's a word in another language--forget which one, but one I've never heard of before--to describe a snared baby animal."
       D'rai's eyebrows lifted. "Hm," he commented dryly, "an irony-loving villain."
       "I guess," Daphne replied. "Anyway, he kept talking, and his voice had this lilt to it like he was laughing at me: 'Here you are, then, expelled from the world that applauded you--but you expelled yourself. That wasn't wise, Daphne, as I said...for all of Brie's secrets are mere nothings...but yours, my gullible dear, are not. I know all your insecurities, I know what you love, I know what you hate...and I can play upon them all. You had your chance to serve me willingly, Daphne, in any way you chose...you no longer have a choice now. You will fulfill my wishes now.' ...Like I said, it seriously sounds like a B-movie, doesn't it?" Daphne gave another quick laugh.
       "What's a movie?" asked D'rai, looking somewhat blank.
       "Oh...guess I'll have to show you sometime. D'you have acting? Plays?"
       "Sure. The dominion's done that stuff for hundreds of years."
       "Oh, okay. Well, I mean it sounds like a really badly-written play, then."
       "Ah. In that case, yeah, it kinda does. But what happened?"
       "Well, I guess it was pretty dangerous, but I was so mad at him that I just wanted to spite him. 'That's what you think,' I'd said. 'You might as well let me go to whatever else exists. There must be people somewhere. I won't serve you.'"
       "'Oh, you will serve me,' he said. 'You'll see. Besides, there's nothing more than this.'
       "But something told me that wasn't true, and so I started trying to figure out what else did exist, and suddenly everything started to come back...the Applebus, and then my family and friends, and home, and school, and finally church-stuff and God...and I kept picturing them and defying him. 'I won't serve you. Not anymore, no matter what you do. Let me go!'
       "And whether that really did work, or whether that's when Naomi and Ianthe broke his power, I don't know, but everything vaporized, and I found myself running for the Applebus with the others."

       Daphne looked down and played with a strand of her hair [oh, heh, I guess I could, then--wrote this after my hair got cut, but forgot I couldn't do it anymore until I tried]. "Well, that's that--that's my Reûic-story. Maik doesn't know it, actually. I didn't ask about his with Ràspia. I guess I'm not sure I want to know."
       D'rai had heard Maik's, back in the Indilani cell, but he was preoccupied with another matter at the moment. "So what does this have to do with me?"
       "Oh!" said Daphne. "Well...I keep dreaming about it--about the whole thing, start and end, only I always wake up when Reûic's got me in the dark room, before I get away. And everyone else's nightmares go away...but not mine. I think I'm supposed to be your help--your help for your test, I mean. I think my dream and your test are connected somehow. Maybe Ràspia's going to come to you. Or maybe it's something else. Either way, and even if it's not connected at all, be careful, okay? I...I don't know how much of what you said is right about...about why I switched places with you in the Rojane jail. I just know that I did what I was supposed to, and it worked. Maybe you're right somehow--maybe it was just because I wasn't supposed to die. But I don't think it's that. ...Either way, you're going to be tested, too. So just...I don't know, just watch it, okay?"
       D'rai nodded. "Okay."
       Both fell silent then, unsure of what to do, eyes to the floor. Finally Daphne got up and left, leaving D'rai to stare again at the flames. He exhaled deeply as she left--fighting down the side of himself that wanted to call Daphne back and tell her he was sorry, and then thank her for the help. After a time his eyes blurred, and, lulled by the heat, he stretched out on the floor and sank into sleep.
D'rai and T'be...