Alternative Facts

"The first thing to remember," Quentin said. "Never fight the Beast on his home turf - an away game, or whatever."

The Physical Kids – Quentin, Eliot, Alice, Margo, Julia and Penny, all young magicians in training –appeared on the snowy streets without fanfare, returned to their home-land at last. Quentin felt the heat and intoxicating atmosphere of Fillory slip away.

He caught the eye of a food vendor across the road. Only a slight tremor of his hot dog revealed any surprise by their sudden appearance. Quentin realized how hungry he was.

"A sports analogy," Eliot said with a minimum of eye roll. "That simply elucidates everything."

"The middle of New York City," Alice protested. "Isn't there some place less conspicuous?"

"The only trap I could lure him into," Quentin said. "Trust me, it nearly worked last time."

"Last time?" Margo, Eliot and Alice repeated, incredulous.

"You want to explain that noise in your mind?" Penny said. "Or is that literally the sound of your brain cells dying?"

Penny was a mind reader and had the unfortunate habit of blurting out all of Quentin's thoughts for peer review.

"Chatwin's Chatroom," Quentin said. "Least that is what I call it. I've got all my memories from the last five times we've had to do this. Pushing that information through a temporal boundary makes this kind of feedback, an echo."

"Can I get that exposition a bit slower and without the crazy person accent?" Margo said.

"I just know what is going to happen, OK?" Quentin said. "Julia has the kill spell and the super juice, but she still needs sixty seconds to cast it. The rest of us just have to distract the target and stay alive. Eliot, no need to leap in with the dagger."

"Restrain my swording," Eliot said. "Extremely understood."

"He's almost here," Quentin warned. "Julia, you good?"

Julia's expression was blank. That was the new normal. She had just found out about Alice and Quentin.Quentin couldn't expect her to be overly enthused about working with him.

"Enthused?" Penny scoffed. "Dead man walking."

"I'm good," Julia said. "Let'skill him."

In a sudden burst of moths, magic and chaos, the Beast arrived. Innocent bystanders, who had just been trying to lead their slightly above normal New York lives, screamed and panicked. But that could not be helped.

Over the din, Quentin shouted instructions. They worked as a cohesive team, weaving spells in perfect sync with each other, energizing each other's wards and shieldings as the Beast attacked them in turn with thunderous magic.

Then the Beast figured it out.

"That's right, Martin," Quentin taunted. "Come get me."

He was the final distraction. The last few seconds depended on him. The Beast's fingers flickered through inhuman gestures in a blur of motion.

Quentin could not breathe. The world went dark. Then darker.

It was happening again. Death smelled like melting snow, hot dogs and mustard.

Quentin was oddly OK with that.

-

"When does it stop?" Julia was demanding to know. Quentin wasn't sure to whom she was talking. He didn't want to wake up yet.

"I mean, maybe you just want us trapped in a time loop, forever. It's the most humane way to deal with your brother, isn't it? You know Quentin won't survive another round of this chaos. He was sensitive to begin with, imagine feeling yourself die a million times."