Sebastian showed up about an hour and a half later, with beer and Mexican food. Christian and Lilly had gotten the cafe mostly set to rights, so while Lilly and Arc carried the food, Christian and Sebastian helped Sean up the stairs.
"Gently," Christian told Sebastian. "He's got a broken back."
"It's getting better," Sean told Sebastian. "I'm glad to finally meet you. Christian's a nice kid."
"I think so," Sebastian agreed. "He says you're quite venerable."
"That's kind of him. That's better than being called 'really, really old' I suppose." Sean made an audible yelp as they shifted him up the stairs. "Apologies, I'm usually a much better host than this."
Inside the apartment, Lilly and Arc were in the midst of an argument. Apparently, Arc liked the previously-sealed third bedroom better than the one Sean had prepared for him, and his mother was attempting to reason with him. Christian pitied her. Attempting to reason with a small child was not unlike reasoning with a stump, and Lilly was coming up short.
"That other room is still a mess, Arc!"
"It looks out on the street! Please, Mama! I want that room!" Arc had that look that only very small children can manage when eager for something. Lilly looked annoyed.
"All the furniture is in the other room, and we're in no position to move it tonight!" she argued. "If Sean is feeling better in the next few days, then we can talk about moving you in that room, but not before."
"Christian could move things!" he reasoned. Christian laughed.
"I don't think so, squirt. I'm only in slightly better shape than this one tonight." He and Sebastian helped Sean onto the sofa. "Listen to your mom. She's a smart lady."
"Mmmm...okay." Arc acted as though his arm had been twisted. "Mama, can Christian help me bring my suitcases upstairs?"
"Yes, he can, if that's okay by him." Christian murmured agreement, and followed Arc downstairs.
"My name is short for 'Arcturus,' did you know that?" Arc asked. "Your name isn't short for anything."
"No, it's just Christian." He always felt unsure around children, though they seemed to like him well enough. Arc took his hand in a friendly fashion.
"Do you think my mama is pretty?"
"Well, yes. She's pretty." Christian felt a little awkward with this line of questioning. Arc gave a sagacious nod.
"She's very pretty, but most people don't notice. They see all the scars and it scares them away. Sean didn't get scared away though." Arc swung Christian's arm merrily. "Mama said Sean said he didn't care about her scars. So that makes him a good person for Mama."
Christian had no answer for this. He remembered Lilly warning Kongming about the expectations of the Kings, and the price she had paid, but he hadn't had the opportunity to give it much thought. He'd never seen her without long sleeves, but it was only early spring. His stomach turned a little. It must be a heavy toll, if it turned most people away at a glance. A sudden fear knotted his insides. How much longer would Sebastian be willing to tolerate Christian's own burdens?
If he had any plans of leaving, he gave no indication of them that night. Sebastian seemed relaxed, even about Sean's stories of long-ago adventures. If anything, he seemed to find the ancient warrior's immense age to be fascinating. Christian and Arc helped Lilly move boxes to one side of the room or the other, mostly so that she would have room for her own sparse collection of furniture and her robust assortment of books and vinyls. Arc wanted to start unpacking his own belongings that night, but stopped when Lilly reminded him that he was changing rooms in the next few days. Instead, he dragged out an immense drawing pad and started scrawling upon it. It kept him quiet and out of the way, which seemed to suit her.
"Christian, I think I'm nearly ready to try to pull you back into one piece," she said after she closed Arc's bedroom door mostly closed. "Oh, no, not tonight," she amended, seeing the look on his face. "I need to get into the sub-basement in the library. That's the weakest point between realms, and safer than trying to find a proper door for either side."
"Will she help?" Christian asked, seizing Sebastian's hand. It was cold against his. "Have you asked her?"
"She cannot offer direct assistance, I'm afraid." Lilly sat down between Sean's feet like a cat. He gave her a sleepy smile of pleasure. "At best, she can perhaps keep the other Kings and Queens from interfering. We will have to move quickly when we do this, which is why we must be completely prepared."
"What can I do to help?" Sebastian asked. Lilly looked startled. "He's incredibly special to me. I need him to be healthy and whole."
"You can make sure he takes care of himself. It's obvious that his current state is taking a toll on both his halves. There is not much that can be done for the other half of his soul, since we cannot communicate with that half."
"Show Lilly your arms," Sebastian told Christian. Obediently, Christian pulled off the wristwarmers he was wearing and shoved up his shirt sleeves. His wrists were raw and red, and the symbols from the shackles his imprisoned half wore stood up in welt-like relief across his skin. Lilly leaned forward to examine them, her fingers light but insistent.
"This is both promising and troublesome," she said at last. "You and your missing fragment are increasingly close to becoming one, despite time and space. My worry is that it's this part of you that is going to be absorbed if we do not move with haste."
"Well, maybe that's what's supposed to happen," said Christian. Sebastian flinched next to him. "Maybe that other one is the actual me, and I'm just the errant bit of dream-stuff, floating about like a ghost."
"You're missing the point." Lilly looked thoughtful. "How to explain the unexplainable...you're both actually you, both with physical form and awareness. It does seem that the part that dictates controlled awareness passes between you, with this you being the primary possessor. It also seems that the part of you that's over there is getting a greater bit of control at all times, or if you prefer, you're existing in a dream-state here. You're sharing one another's physical state. Despite being well-fed and well-rested, you look more sickly by the day, and you're being burned by the shackles in which Her Veiled Majesty keeps the other you. I'm fairly certain that if we were to see that part of you, you may look sickly and scarred, but nowhere nearly to the point you would expect, given your diminished powers and shoddy diet over there."
"So if we both have physical form, how do we recombine?" Christian pulled his sleeves past his hands, self-conscious of the way Sebastian kept looking at his wrists. "I know I can bend the laws of time and space, but this seems a bit out there even for that."
"Well, if we knew exactly how you survived before, when you were in extremis--"Lilly began. Christian interrupted her.
"My brother and sister." Everyone stared at him. "June and I compared notes. We aren't one hundred percent certain until we see Oliver, but I'm almost sure that it's what happened. They lent me the strength to get through it." It made him sick to think about it, leeching off his siblings' life forces to preserve his own.
"They would have been affected," Lilly mused.
"June has been. Things seem to fall into place for her in the most natural way, just sheer unbelievable good fortune. I would assume Oliver has been affected as well." Christian shook his head. "I cannot put them at risk again."
"No, I see that." Lilly sat in deep thought, her hazel eyes flickering in the dim light. "This should not present as great a risk, but if it does go awry, the consequences could be traumatic."
"My brother and sister are not in the offing, even to make myself whole," Christian said firmly. "We'll find a different way."
"Then I will need more time to plan," Lilly said at last. "I have a few ideas, but I need time to find which ones will prove to be the least risky."
"If you need me, you have me," Sebastian murmured. In the quiet of the room, he could have shouted it and been heard as clearly. "I need him, all of him." There was a desperation in those blue eyes that Christian had never seen before. "He needs to be whole again."
"And he will be," Lilly assured him. "I will keep your offer in mind. You don't make a gift of yourself cheaply. I hope you realize this."
"I don't care. I hope it doesn't come to it, though." He wouldn't meet Christian's eyes, but his hands were shaking.
"As do we all." Lilly looked grim. "But the danger to all the realms of the universe is far greater than any danger you might suffer."
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