For two years, Elliot's wicked stepmother and horrible stepbrothers have been forcing him into to clean the house, dressing him in his mother's old clothes and working him to the bone without rest....

Now, on the night of the Princess's Ball, the 20 year old orphan dreams of escaping to the palace and ingratiating himself with a well-to-do woman.

When a bumbling fairy godmother bursts through the window, he thinks his dreams have been answered! Of course, they're actually just beginning.

This is the *completed* story - not a preview, like last time.

Truth in Tears

by Erisian

My dad was never one to go to church, nor one to talk about what he believed. As a teenager I asked him once if he believed in God and even now I remember his reply. He looked at me carefully from behind those antiquated black-rimmed glasses of his and said simply, “Doesn’t matter if I believe or not, son. God is either there or he isn’t. But this life, well, this life is mine to live as I choose.” At the time I was frustrated that he didn't answer the question; it wasn’t until much later that I realized he had in fact answered something perhaps far deeper.

He was like that, my dad.

Raquiel

by Erisian

Light flickers across the café table's turquoise checkerboard and the cigarette's smoke curls upward, mixing with the scent of coffee and the coming rain. Voices bubble all around to fill the evening air with bursts of laughter and camaraderie, but to them I do not listen.

Instead I stare.

My gaze is fixed upon the plain white envelope resting upon the fake marble tabletop where it sits next to an ignored saucer and cup. Yet my eyes see past it to a place so very far away, beyond the reaches of this world. To a place whose name could best be translated as the Edge.

The Edge of all things.

Lillyn is refocusing her research on the automata of Maynard Mansion.
But, of course, nothing is ever easy for her.
Maybe one or two of her friends can cheer her up.

Chapter 14 - In Nemain’s Shadow

Early Evening, November 5th, 2007 - Harborview Hospital

After their wedding Harry and Murphy are enjoying their life in Chicago. Things change however, when they decide to locate friends that hadn't made the transition to the non-magical version of reality. Can Harry maintain his grip on things when he has to rescue Murphy from the clutches of a demon in the new Never-never?

With her friends firmly on her side, Lillyn focuses on another endeavor.
It is time to research.
But now that she has so many new items from Earth she is hard pressed where to start.

It was the first of September, Mint Schwartzwald's 16th birthday, and like her father before her, she was cut up, leaving home, and following a strangely visible dirt path in the lightless void between universes.

Fortunately, *she* wasn't fleeing monsters, with only a magical staff to her name, and never expecting to return.

Unfortunately, her love life was on a timelimit, she didn't know where she was going, and she didn't know how to return home.

But, she had a path to walk on, a guarantee of safety, and a plan, and that changed everything.

Lillyn is eager to research Pasus' gift.
However, the arrival of an old acquaintance gets her distracted.