I start walking to the back of the building when there is fewer people on the street, and am about to continue through the alley to the back of the building when I spot a door on the side. There is no window to peer through this time so I continue to the back, turning around upon seeing that there was no door there.

I wait outside of the door, unsure, for many moments, and finally it opens, giving me a burst of anxiety that this was the wrong door.

The server, Liz, sets me more at ease, and she brings with her a bag of trash which she throws in a bin near the front of the alley.

She leans against the wall and gestures to me.

I look around, unsure of what she wants, and after a moment underneath her gaze I simply repeat my question. “Do you h-happen to know a Silver Smith?”

She nods. ”That’s my half-brother, but I guess you already figured that out. And I assume you are the girl that I have been dropping letters for every year?” She says the last part quietly.

I nod now, and wait for a moment for her to say more, but she remains silent. My face burns at the sudden silence and I try not to choke on my words as I ask: “M-Might you know when he is to arrive?” I say successfully.

“Today.”

My eyes widen as I have to clarify, hopping that this is not as stupid a clarification as it feels and hoping that she has more information. “Do you know by around w-when he should arrive?” my hands fidget with each other aggressively, scratching at the tough skin on the inside of my thumb.

She squints at me.

“First, tell me you have good intentions with him.”

I look at her, shocked, not having expected this question and unsure of what to say, and I look around wildly as if the brick walls have an answer for me. “I… I-I don’t follow?”

“What do you want with him?” she says, and she looks as if she were assessing me for a threat. “We may not be close but he is still family and if a-” she looks around for prying ears, “witch like you is going to be around him, I need to know you’re not going to do anything to him, and I need to know why.”

I take a moment to think through my answer, allowing my mouth to catch up with my mind.

“W-we have just been f-friends for a long time and I… I need him back.” It is the best way I can phrase it.

I just need something to hold me together from all of this change.

“Don’t get in his way to marriage. He shouldn’t dwell on someone of your ilk, he needs to marry a respectable, normal woman.”

My eyes widen once more at this. I had never even considered Silver, or anyone for that matter, a person of romantic interest, and although she had misunderstood my relationship with him, I can see her concern. “O-of course, I would never.” I say, nodding, a moment after collecting myself for the sudden twist of the conversation.

She looks at me suspiciously, and I catch the feeling that she does not believe me, but she just says: “Make sure of it.” She finally answers my question as she turns to walk back inside the establishment.

“He is scheduled to be back at nightfall. ‘Said he got held up in rain on his way back.” She stops and turns slightly. “And if you do anything, anything at all, just remember, I know where to point them.” I shakily thank her but she was already through the door and gone.

I look immediately to the sky and see that it is around noon now, to my dismay. I slip back into the woods, not so far as the log, never so far, and lay entrenched in a bush at the base of an old tree. I attempt to finally get an acceptable amount of sleep, but it never comes, despite my extreme exhaustion. As I sit there I think back to my conversation with her, my mind replaying and replaying. She had… essentially threatened me, hadn’t she? At first, I brush this off, then realize that I am not the only one that can do things in this forest. Of course, she was referring to Silver, but, at this point, I have no idea what… the rest of the coven will do. If they do anything that might alert the village to a presence there, or anything suspicious happens in the village, Silvers sister, Liz, she could help hunters find the coven.

I think briefly about telling her that they are doing things but that they are not themselves and I am going to help them, but there is no possibility that she would not take it as “we should put them out of their misery” and bring the hunters.

I sigh.

All the more reason to get to the council ever faster.

Then why are you here? an oily voice whispers faintly in my head. I shake it off, knowing that, while I am here for the selfish desire of normalcy via Silver, I am also looking for supplies now that I had used some of it and lost some of it, for we had shared things among our bags.

I remind myself of this constantly as I lay, watching the sun through the leaves of the tree as it slowly creeps through the sky, ever changing, never in the same place as it was before.

Its all to obvious.

I do, from time to time, hear faint and distant footsteps that put me on alert, but they never get close.

Eventually, the sun finishes its last decent, and in the final light of the day, I stalk back to the pub and wait outside this time, for it is much busier now, most of the tables full.

I wait for ten minutes, then thirty, then forty.

I move to stand in a corner at the entrance where other were waiting to be seated, scanning the dense crowd for his signature hair.

Nothing.

Another thirty.

Nothing.

I slump against the wall and tell myself that I have thirty minutes left before I leave and come back tomorrow, and if he still isn’t here…

I go as I am now.

I suddenly remember that I have not eaten.

Ten minutes goes by, and I start to lose hope. It is past the time he should be here. I scan the crowd again, but this yield nothing.

I sigh, my legs almost to fatigued, and decide to abandon the last twenty minuets for fear that my legs could give out as I go back into the forest.

I make my way to the door as a voice can be heard above the bustle. I stop.

“We would like to welcome you all back another day by giving you a gift some familiar faces may remember. Have a wonderful evening.” The room is relatively silent.

I am about to continue out, the sudden silence making me uncomfortable, but I am stopped in my tracks again.

Music has started to drift through the air.

I know that song.

I step back from the door and turn to see them playing the first song Silver had ever wrote on the small raised platform on the far wall. I smile and force back tears as I hear the familiar tune of the song he has played many times for me, that he made for me on my birthday. It has obviously improved much since then, but the core is still there.

I lean against the wall to rest my legs slightly, eventually moving to a bench to the right of the entrance for people waiting for a table. I lay my head back and imagine that none of this had happened. That I was still 15, coming to Silvers shows, my mother normal and none the wiser about where I truly was. Still going to the willow tree on the weekend to be around each other and try out new songs.

Sprites, do I miss that.

They play for am hour and a half total, and I eventually move to a table so that my position on the bench is not questioned. I am served by different people than in the morning, so I play the same act of ‘I am waiting for someone’, hoping they would not question as the time passed by.

the waiter brings me water again, and skimming over the menu brings back the intense hunger from the hours before, but I ignore it again. My eyes almost close multiple times, and I am zoned out for the rest of the time, only taking in the familiar music. They do play two songs that I have not heard before, but they sound just as good as the rest.

As they start to pack up their instruments, I walk towards the makeshift stage.

Silver is busy helping Tom pack is hand-held drums, but Jacob sees me and smiles elatedly, pointing and mouthing ‘meet us out back’.

I nod, slightly sad that we could not just talk now, but know it is both the usually thing we did, which I had forgotten, though to my credit we usually met in the front, and that is was the smart thing to do.

I return to my table and say sadly as the waiter passes that ‘the person does not seem to be coming’, thanking him for his time, and leaving, almost running to the back where I met his half sister earlier today.

I stand, leaning, leaning against the wall, not sure what I was feeling but knowing that I was feeling little of it. The small moment of nostalgic contentness I allowed myself now feels selfish and vile after everything.

Seconds tick by ever so slowly, I almost think I had imagined everything because of how unreal it seems now, and it especially does not help that I was practically half asleep the entire time. While the wrest was welcome, it was not a comfort.

I watch the wooden door.

The handle finally turns.

They enter into the alleyway.

His silver-colored hair catches the young moonlight in a breathtaking way, but it has changed. I saw so on stage, but it feel much more real now.

They all have changed.

His hair is now straighter, though still very wavy, and haphazardly cut to just past his shoulders. Even his face, to, looks more mature.

Tom sports much longer hair now, which is unexpected, and he has pulled the nearly black mass into a tight bun at the back of his head rather than a braid, extenuating both his and his brother Jacobs round faces, and seems much more comfortable in his body, his cloths not just hand me downs from his twin.

Jacob, for his part, looks relatively the same, his hair having grown longer as well but he had always worn it in a bun similar to Tom so it was hard to tell, and he may have grown ever so slightly, but his appearance otherwise is very similar.

When my eyes shift to Lory, I cannot look away. I stand frozen, the meaning of her looks clear; she was more dolled up than usual, sporting a mild teal dress with an ostentatious amount of trim and lace, and I am not sure how she was able to afford it. Her light brown hair, brown, was in a delicate unusually curly mass on the top of her head, and the small hanging offshoots bounce as she looks around, searching for something.

Someone.

I feel tears pressing on the back of my eyes and suddenly I can hear my heart pounding. My breathing becomes ragged and I step back, cupping a hand to my mouth to try and block any sounds from coming out.

“Whoa, hey, are you okay?” I only faintly hear Silver say.

Its as if the reality of what has transpired just a day or two ago has finally set in.

Sprites, Gods, and Sprites, what the fuck just happened.

My back reaches a wall and my legs finally give out, exhausted and unfed, and my feelings amplify as Silver and Tom grab my arms and shoulders, trying to lift me up and to the forest. I take deep, shaky breaths at their command, and my legs find the ground again as we move, their hands still firmly around my arms as support, and I am grateful for the sleeves that protect my skin.

I have calmed down slightly by the time we reach a suitable area that few people would pass through, and this time I allow my knees to buckle.

They all huddle around me, my back cornered against a tree that is immediately distressed as it shares with me. The grass around me grows, inching ever so slightly to wrap me up and protect me from this world.

They ignore the grass and the fact that perhaps the tree is just slightly fitting me into its trunk, and sit silently, Jacob laying on the ground as if it were just another starry night, Silver laying on his stomach, ruining his pristine white shirt tucked into dark brown trousers and held up with suspense, kicking his legs, chin propped on the back of a hand as he looks curiously at a flower in front of him.

The flower was newly bloomed and yellow, its tiny petals still balled around the center pollen.