Midnight Wonders

6.0.4. Midnight

As Cora and her ladies were walking through the halls, heading for the door, they ran into Magnus. Cora vaguely remembered him sitting and stirring boredly at the pot in the concocting room. He was pushing a fancy little wagon—perhaps a carriage—loaded with the lambs. There were about six in his wagon; behind him were others with their own wagons and the rest of the lambs. Each of the lambs had their blankets tied around their scrawny little limbs.

Cora had never seen them out and about the nursery, and somehow they were even cuter. "Oh, hello!" she exclaimed, hurrying over and falling into step beside Magnus. "They're all awake!"

"Is this such a spectacular thing when you are awake as well?" Magnus said dryly.

"Hello, my darling little lambs," Annabel said, hurrying down the hall to catch up with them. She smiled at Cora in greeting, then bent and patted the heads of the lambs even as Magnus tried to push the wagon faster to get out of her way.

"Where's Symphora?" Cora asked, looking around. The halls were beginning to fill with more people heading for the same exit.

"Probably outside already," Annabel said. She started to say more, but was drowned out by a strange thumping coming from above.

Cora looked up; no one else seemed to notice. When they reached the main hall, just before the doors, she saw that from the far corners where sloping steps into the Upper Yew led, people were streaming down. Cora had only ever seen her father and Felicia up top, so it surprised her to know how many people there were. She supposed this was a very large tree.

She caught sight of the King of the Yew coming down from the right corner, Felicia beside him. She was saying something, hands tucked behind her back, and Mercurius was nodding as he listened. He held his white mask in one hand.

"You go hurry on ahead," Annabel said, knowing who she was looking at.

Cora looked at Lavinia, who sighed. Cora grinned and ran ahead to catch up with Mercurius just as he and Felicia exited into the bright abounding nature outside the Yew.

"Oh, hello, Bonnie," said Mercurius, noticing her. "You look lovely."

"Thank you," Cora said. "As do you." He did, but he also looked a bit like a marshmallow, all bound in white. Well, marshmallows were lovely.

"I feel a bit like a pillow," said Mercurius.

"I was thinking something a bit sweeter."

"Did Symphora give you the mask?" Mercurius looked down at her mask, which she held in her hand. "Ah, she's held it for a long time. It still looks brand new."

Cora nodded. She was silent for a moment. Felicia had slipped off into the crowd. "I thought you said I belong here."

"You do," he said.

"But I'm leaving."

"No, you're not."

He thought she was going into the Rowan. That was still leaving. "I don't want to stay in a tree forever."

"I know you may be a bit afraid—"

"A bit," Cora admitted, though she felt entitled to such a feeling. "It would be nice if I could just stay here and be your daughter."

"You still would be," said Mercurius.

"But I wouldn't be able to see you or talk to you," Cora said.

He was silent too, then. "It would be nice," he said. Then, slightly, he opened his arms. Cora embraced him; she was quite a bit shorter, and she felt a bit like a child hugging him. She supposed she must have done this many times when she had been a child, but could no longer remember. Ah, well. She supposed memories were bound to be forgotten, and really there was little to miss because she hardly knew what there was to miss, and if she thought about it too much she thought she might start making up things to miss, which would probably make her sad. And already she was saddened by the thought that this might never happen again. But there was no time for sadness.