Uncanny dangers. Unusual creatures. Far from home, daughter-and-father superhero REDEMPTOR have been trapped in the exotic Tulgey Wood by a new foe who bristles with antic energy... or is she something else? It's going take the combined creativity a...
"...That's why my dad and me are going back to Tetrapolis," Nariah said. "To find and save my mother. So if I found an Ephemera and it had to give me one wish, that's what I'd wish. To find and save my mother. So she could be free and be with me again." Chambarra tilted her head, like, that's-nice-but-this-all-that-you're-talking-about-is-definitely-not-about-me-so-therefore-I- don't-really-care-but-whatever. Just a little farther anyway, and then Chambarra would make her move.
"But Chambarra," Nariah asked, and Chambarra's attention reignited at the sound of her own name, "if you found the Ephemera, what would you wish for?"
Chambarra froze, as if startled. She shut her eyes and Nariah watched as an unsettling stillness washed down over her. Chambarra began, "Your father loves you very much. He'd do anything for you. When I was a little girl, I thought my daddy was a great hero too. That's why I thought he always had to be away from me. I used to imagine the incredible adventures he'd be off having, the people he'd save, the crowds, how'd they cheer..."
Around them the florelli shimmered into great crowds of cheering, applauding, happy people and assorted creatures. Hundreds and hundreds. Nariah smiled to see and hear them around. But as she looked closer, she saw that they didn't have any faces. They had gaping, black holes, cheering mouths, but no noses, no eyes, no hair. Nariah stepped back, freaked out, drew closer to Chambarra.
Chambarra's dark eyes sparkled as she smiled. But then she went on, "So one day I followed him. In secret. I thought I could catch him doing something so... so... amazingly brave. Ha-ha!"
Chambarra slashed her knife through the air at one of the applauding crowd. The florelli dispersed around the slash, and then rippled out and all the florelli dissolved back into swirling shadows, beating their wings.
"But," Chambarra continued, "he just went to a bar. You know what a bar is, kid? It's a place grown-ups go to drink spirits to make them stupid and fake-happy. He just sat there. In the dark. Slurping those boggis down. Doing nothing. He stayed there all day."
Chambarra gestured to the left of the path, where in a shadowy window there appeared a tavern's shadowy insides, all in blacks and whites and grays, and a man in red cape sitting alone at the bar at a stool. He was slumped forward, clutching a mug. In the mug was a glowing, twisting yellow boggi, its yellow toothy jaws snarling as it swirled in the bubbles. The silhouette of Chambarra's father the Fraud tilted back the mug to his mouth and the boggi disappeared.
"My heart was broken. I saw him as he really was. A nothing."
Chambarra's knife went sailing through the air and stabbed through her father the fraud's head. It dissolved apart into mist and the florelli dispersed back into the jungle branches and leaves. Then there was nothing there.
"So I ran away," Chambarra proudly declared. "I'd rather be all on my own than with that nothing, that phony. I got into soooo much trouble." She plucked her knife out of the tree trunk where she'd thrown it. She did some cartwheels and hypnotic sorts of dance moves through the vines and the air. "Made sooo many mistakes. So many bad people and beasts and monsters in this world, kid. If you counted for ten-thousand years all dang-diddily-day long you'd not even be halfway-done. Feels like worlds ago I ran."
Now Chambarra turned to Nariah.
"But if I, if IIIII find that Ephemera, oh, I know what I'll wish. I'll wish that my daddy was a good man. I'll wish that that day I followed him, he was a hero in red cape. And my heart didn't break. And we'd be together. And do amazing adventures together, me and him. And now that I'm grown-up, I'll be... happy. I'd do anything for that second chance, kid. Anything to make my life what it should have been. I deserve it the most, more than anyone, because I want it the most."
Her shoulder-blades bobbing up and down, her neck out, Chambarra approached Nariah, her voice darker now, "That's the difference between you and anyone else in Fait, kid. There's little old you and what you want, and everyone else in your way with what they want. You can't let anyone want it more than you. You've got to be the best. Or nothing."
Nariah had backed up into a tree-trunk. She was staring up at the woman, who seemed so much older now. Dangerous. Nariah was afraid.
"Ch-Chambarra? You're scaring me, please," said Nariah. This was her friend. She liked her. Trusted her. This was her first friend who was not her father. She was perfect.
Chambarra flinched, shook her head a few times and her short curly black hair whipped about her face. She wiped her hand casually across her face, as if removing an invisible veil.
"Crazy kid," Chambarra laughed, and put her hand to Nariah's small shoulder, calming her. Nariah exhaled, went back to smiling up at her. "If you don't want to be scared," said Chambarra, "then don't ask scary questions."
"But," Nariah countered, confused, "all I asked was--"
From Chambarra's other hand a leaf was pressed down over Nariah's mouth and nose, and Nariah's eyes went wide, then shut, and she fell asleep into Chambarra's arms. Chambarra looked behind her and saw Rene burst out from behind a bush, come racing, righteous power and colorful sylvas surging all around him. And oh, was he mad. He would get his daughter back.
Chambarra wasn't fooled for a moment. Right as Rene got right in front of her, Chambarra flicked her finger at his forehead and---
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He dissolved so easily and quickly into purple and blue florelli and it all just flew away. This, Chambarra figured correctly, must have been conjured from the last desperate thoughts of her captive before Nariah lost consciousness.
To the sleeping child in her arms, Chambarra whispered, "Sorry for this. But not really. That's just life, isn't it? Learning too late."
