The plan for the day was simple:

I take Evelyn and find the Crone. See what she has to say about all of this and see what she can do to fix it. I have to get Elvira back here and get this girl back to where she comes from.

We had left the house early. This was important as we couldn’t risk being recognized, which meant no drivers or using cars that could gain the eye of the shutterbugs. Something I neglected to do before, but I can admit I wasn’t in a proper headspace. It didn’t matter now since time had been reversed. But now I need to be alert for all of this to work.

So we…borrowed some clothes from some of the help.

Of course, this all meant we had to walk from the estate. Which was a trek in itself from the front door to the front gates. If Evelyn wasn’t here, it would’ve just been me and the rows of perfectly trimmed hedges and the foreboding trees bonding. Along with the birds and the distant sounds of the trollies and motors. And it was about a 25-minute walk.

It would’ve been nice ambience but it would’ve gotten old for me real fast. Though the current alternative is…

“I get not wanting to use the cars but…y’all don’t got no bikes? No wheelchairs? Nothing?”

I rolled my eyes. It took her 9 minutes to start complaining…and 11 for me to start running out of breath.

I ended up taking a seat…just for a moment, but her whining wasn’t what I needed to hear.

“My dear, whining will not get us there faster,” I stated, it was obvious there was some exhaustion in me.

“You know what would? A car.”

This was a far cry from the panicking mess last night and the doe-eyed midnight snacker that I spoke to in the dead of night.

“I told you already…if we use one of my family’s motors, then our disguises won’t mean a damn thing. Shutterbug informants will squeal and they’ll come down like vultures. My mother may be a Duchess and a Conwyn, but ANYONE caught associating with unregistered Arcana will face heavy scrutiny.”

Evelyn let out a heavy sigh. “Yeah, yeah, I know.”

“And yet, I had to re-emphasize the risk being taken. I don’t enjoy these disguises, you know? But if I wear anything even resembling black, someone could recognize me.”

“Really? You’re grumpy 'cause you can’t wear black?”

“Really?” I mocked. “You’re grumpy from a little walking?”

“My grumpiness is more reasonable. There’s no reason your family needs a driveway this long.”

I scoffed, a smug look popping up on my face. “You weren’t complaining about it when we came in last night.”

“That’s because IwasinaCAR!” She shouts, the birds settled in a nearby tree scattered at the noise.

“It’s fine. There’s a trolley stop not too far from here. It’ll take us to where we need to go. Then we’ll have to traverse some backstreets to find her.”

“So what’s the plan if she can’t fix it? Or if it’ll take her days to fix it? Months or years even?”

“…” I shrugged. “I’m…not sure. Why are you even thinking about that?”

“I can’t help NOT think about it. This mess is making me anxious.”

I stood up, patting away whatever dirt made its way onto the back of my pants. “No need to panic. Even if there’s waiting, we’ll just…keep you out of the public eye until then.”

“That’s bound to fail.” She muttered, louder than she intended but I ignored it.

“Come on! Break time’s over.”

❮❤︎❯

We finally reached the main gates, thankfully the streets were still empty by the time we got there. This meant no one would notice two urchin-looking women sneaking out of a manor and assume we were thieves. And as if our luck couldn’t get better, here was the trolley in all its white and lemonade-yellow glory.

The stop wasn’t far off luckily. Plenty of tourists take the Beldam line for its attractions, which include our estate. The line is named after a local folktale: The Wailing Beldam.

A woman who supposedly made the Homestead River that cuts through the entire city. There are many variations of the tale but it always ends with a Beldam whose children were murdered in front of her and she cried so much that her tears broke through the earth and created the river.

My mother is fond of it which is why she wanted the Beldam Estate when we moved back to the Empire. Rumors of it being haunted had wooed her in a way she hadn’t felt since meeting my dad…her words, not mine.

Every previous occupant before us never lasted more than two years. Meadows knows they’ve tried. This leads to now where tourists want to get a good look at the “creepy Beldam estate”. Funnily enough, the estate isn’t even the “grand attraction”, it’s only the namesake.

It's especially useful now as the Beldam line is the only street car that crosses the wide Homestead River which specifically connects The Spoons to The Forks. Names for two of the more wealthier districts in The Capital (yes, it does get a tad confusing), with my family and I residing in the Spoons.

“I don’t think I’ve ever ridden one of these things before.” Evelyn was in awe as she gazed out of the car’s window with her knees on the seat like a child.

I shrugged. “Your fancy little world doesn’t have streetcars?” I asked as my own gaze lingered at the window across from me.

“We do. They’re just really rare. Unfortunately, the car is king, and public transport like this is constantly phased out unless it can be used as a tourist attraction.”

“Well, I don’t use it much. It’s too much extra nonsense. Ginny’s always pressuring me to use them whenever we hang out. Eventually, Evie joined in on it.” I could feel my connection to reality fading as I thought back to those days. “Those two…always talking about taking in the sights and taking things slow…I’ve not seen them take it slow ever but there they were…lecturing me.” I let out a soft chuckle.

I noticed her staring at me with a somber look. She looked like she was contemplating saying something but turned back to look out the window.

“Why do you think the spell didn’t work…fully, I mean?” She asked.

I shrugged again. “I don’t know. The Crone did say the spell might not work but I didn’t think it would turn out this badly.”

“Do you think…maybe you were too late?”

“Pardon?”

“Like how long had it been since she died when you went to see the Crone?”

“I guess…maybe a month…it took me some time to find her…—the Crone, I mean. But if it had a time limit, wouldn’t she say so?”

“Maybe she didn’t know. Maybe she did and didn’t care to tell you.”

“Well, if it’s the latter…I’ll have her arrested…no…that’ll backfire. Maybe I can set a mob on her.”

“Maybe let’s focus on telling her what happened instead of plotting to kill her early on.” Evelyn giggled nervously.

A pause washed over the both of us. The silence gave way to the sound of the city gradually waking up alongside the sound of the streetcar ringing its bell.

“I’m terribly sorry about what happened to you.” I spoke suddenly. “If I knew that…an innocent person would suffer…” I let out a defeated sigh. “I would’ve listened to Ginny. This was all a foolish idea.”

More quiet….

“When my uncle died, my mother was…DEVASTATED.” Evelyn’s voice was soft. “She used to cry every night. It was like a wailing woman. He was her twin and all. My siblings all took turns sleeping next to her at night. It was my idea. If I was the only one doing it, I thought she might worry that the others didn’t care. We even got a few complaints from the neighbors. But we felt loss too. And these were people we knew. People who knew why she was crying and…I remember my younger sister, Aisha, was so pissed off and she nearly pulled a knife on this one guy. She might’ve killed him if my brother Toni didn’t step in. He yelled at her later, telling her it was so freakin’ dangerous for her to pull something like that. Losing someone is never pretty and grief can make you do…a lot. You don’t think about consequences to drastic actions. Even the ones that seem more thought out. Besides, it’s not like YOU killed me. Some random deity did…unless you can summon trucks out of nowhere.” She joked.

I giggled. “No. I’m quite sure I don’t have that ability.”

Evelyn finally sat down in the seat properly as she laughed with me before giving me a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out. And I promise not to freak out during it…a lot.”

❮❤︎❯

There was a plethora of locational and social separations within The Capital but none were more noticeable than those that lived within the walls of The Capital and those that lived in the surrounding Hoovervilles.

The touristy Beldam Line would never dare to make any of them a stop. Instead, once the car made it to the Teaspoons, Evelyn and I would hop off and get a ride from one of the local Pedicab drivers who did travel into the Hoovervilles.

We didn’t necessarily need to go into West Hooverville, as the abandoned church that I met the Crone in was just at the cusp. The church being that far out was an attempt to bring in more followers to the Church of Ferto. But the church was heavily damaged during a particularly harsh storm and no one ever made it a point to fix it up. Truly, it sounded as if the Church of Ferto got lucky in finding a way to cut their losses.

And after some time it just became occupied by squatters, eventually the Crone seemed to have swooped in and claimed it while still allowing the squatters to stay as a means of cover and so long as you wanted something from her, you’d do best to help keep the cover going.

I stopped the pedicab once we arrived at the street I easily recognized from last time, stepping out of it and helping Evelyn off as well. I paid the driver and he quickly rode off. I walked ahead, casually grabbing onto Evelyn’s hand in order to guide her through the winding backstreets until we finally arrived at the front door of the abandoned church.

We approached the door and gave the code knock. A quiet followed that made me anxious. An anxiety that is promptly shooed away when one of the double doors opened and revealed an elderly woman wrapped in pine green garbs.

She stared the both of us down for almost a minute. “Can I help you young ladies with something?” She spoke in the gravely voice I recognized.

“You probably don’t recognize me but you helped me…in the future.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, young woman.”

I lowered my voice. “You’re an Arcana. A powerful one. You helped me turn back time but something went wrong.”

“I did no such thing…you know Arcanas are illegal and here you are claiming some random—”

I groaned. “The Trees Never Died”

Her rambling stopped for a moment before she flashed a smug grin. “I don’t do business without the code. Someone I supposedly helped would know that. Come along girls.”