Although Flea, Alisa and Gremian reported back success, of a sort- the damage to the Veil had been undone- their excursion had left them with more questions than it had answered.

And somewhere out there were three lost Fey- had they recovered with the restoration of the Veil?

Edna and Dennis had run the Special Research department of the Library for a long time, but...

"In all the time I have been here I have not heard of a thing like this.  Magic, yes, but this seems to deliberately aimed at the faerie folk.  Sheer meanness, to deprive them of their own identity," Edna complained, setting down her coffee cup on the meeting table in the Special Research conference room.

Dennis nodded.  "You know, it could be an accidental byproduct of explorations.   Curiosity?  And innocent experiment gone wrong?"

"They say there are no coincidences," Edna replied.

"We say that," Dennis said.

"Well yes, but we learned it from they, it's something they say."

"They also say what's for lunch.  Can't contemplate these things on an empty stomach," Dennis said.

"Yes, let's send for a pizza or... more, if their faerie folk around.  You know how some of them adore it.  And we can figure out what to do next."

Alisa frowned in thought, listening to what was being said.

- "Hmm... Okay, so this Veil thing ensures the Fey remain unnoticed by people like me, right? And it draws a small bit of... magic, from everyone in order to stay running, and fix faerie sightings as a trick of the light or somesuch, right? Because if that's true, i may have a theory here."

"That's more or less it," Edna says.  "It makes all of the Faerie reality seem utterly mundane.  No one completely understands how it does what it does, that's the hallmark of magic, I suppose."

"Or maybe those that do aren't saying," Dennis adds quietly.

"And we need it," Edna says.  "Most Faeries can't pass as Human.  They could never live freely without it.  They'd have to go into hiding like... like they do in most of the world."

"Well there are other Veils," Dennis says. "But I don't like the idea of anyone tampering with ours."

"Your theory is certainly welcome here," Edna says.

Alisa nodded and took a deep breath.

- "Okay, so, a lot of what we do in school is theoretical analysis. Basically, you're being trained not to confuse facts with assumptions. And applied to the Veil..."

She looked at the others.

- "What if the Veil itself is what caused the amnesia? That, in order to right bigger wrongs, it needs more magic to fix this, and ends up draining a random Faerie of magic beyond a certain threshold, after which they believe their human persona to be their real one?"

Pausing a moment, she motioned around herself.

- "And from that basis, if true, one could then continue to reason that... ALL humans are either the descendants of Faeries, or former Faeries themselves. This would need to be kept top secret by the ones maintaining the Veil to prevent panic, obviously, so they would never admit to it. Human mythology mentions problems between the Light Fey and Dark Fay -- Seelie and Unseelie -- a lot, so if there really was a major conflict in the past once upon a time, this Veil could have been placed for this world to act as a place of refuge, making all Fey unrecognizable from their former allegiance by birth."

She frowned, cupping her chin with one hand.

- "There is even a possibility that this may be true. Judging by that construction we saw, the amnesia cases started around the time the device was about ready to be switched on, the reason to build it in the first place could be due to a radical group having discovered what the Veil was doing without anyone noticing and they chose to tear it down to prevent further anthropomorphization -- err, 'humanification', so to speak -- banking on any amnesiacs in the process either being restored, or necessary sacrifices to attain this goal. If the Veil failing here would mean it failing worldwide though, it may even be something as ambitious as restoring all humans to their 'former selves'..."

She trailed off slightly, before realizing she was thinking out loud, and looked up at the others again.

- "Sorry, kind of went off on a theory there. Anyway, that's what i wanted to share: Just because two issues are caused by the same problem, doesn't mean they'd be caused by the same things. We need to be careful not to make undue assumptions, as that would make our investigative basis unstable."

Gremian raised an eyebrow at the idea that human could be Fae striped from all magic.



"Talking about undue assumptions, we might get someone that can read the old dusty symbols back there to get an idea. The symbols aren't dusty, but the books are. And old. And so up there on that list of things that you don't want me around that I won't touch the books without a ten foot pole, gloves and an alibi."

He looked around. "And... Do we have news of Proge and the other...ers ?" he asked the elders.

All this philosophy and brain-talk went so far over Flea's head that she didn't even fele her hair get ruffled by the slipstream. She was all instinct, not this jibber-jabber. She sat cross-legged on a table, watching with an exspression of total bafflement. Until Gremian's suggestion. "If you wants it, I can go look for 'em. Not a problem. Might be wise. If they suddenly wakes up as themselves in a place they don't know, they might 'ave trouble gettin' back again. I can go lead a few search parties, find out where they got to. Maybe also see if the stuff we did made a few changes. Take a few crows out, set the seals in the water onto it. There's a whole bunch of raccoons in the Bowery who ain't really been givin' back to the community. Might be good to keep 'em out of mischief for once!"

She was the local vermin's social worker now, too, it seemed.

Alisa shrugged.

- "Well, at least the explanation i gave Proge that his mind would sort itself out sooner or later would actually be true one way or another..."

Dennis exchanged glances with Flea, noting Flea's expression, and thinking along similar lines:  this was some wild thinking, where did one even start with it?

"It's true we don't know much about the purpose of the veil," he said at last.

"Or how it was made, or exactly how it works... faerie magic," Edna said.  "I suppose that's about as deep as explanation as you'll ever get from any of they Fey folk, they don't know how they do what they do, they just happily do it.  Flea... and the others of her kind, like Zoonabelle, if you meet her... they don't ever study the languages of animals like one would study French or Latin, they just know it, and they can speak to animals.  Strange thing, the animals never seem alarmed by this either."

"Well one would hope Progue would just have his head sorted out sooner or later... still it's probably for the best that we make sure.  And the others.  Somewhere out there is an Elf and a Selkie..."

"We know where Thale the Elf is, and we kind of have the Selkie narrowed down to City Island," Edna clarified.

"This is true," Dennis agreed.  "We ought to assure ourselves that they are alive and well.  They've been through an ordeal, and we have no idea if it's even over.  We also have to find out who built that thing at Fort Schuyler and why.  There's a particular Faerie who's knowledgeable of dark things.  He's been in the city... well, long than I have.. and he's something of a hunter. Faolan.  I think we should drag him into this."

"I think he'd be at home," Edna said.  "I think he likes chasing things."

Dennis and Edna decide on recruiting Faolan.

They need one or more volunteers to go fetch him, so anyone wishing to do so should let it be known, and head on over to the Emerald Door.

"Considering that Flea is looking for Proge, I don't mind asking Faolan on behalf of the Library to go look at the runes. I've seen the runes, I might pique his curiosity with me recalling." He suggested.

- "Hmm.. I'm on the fence about it, to be honest."

Alisa took a deep breath, then looked at Dennis and Edna.

- "I mean, on one side, i'm curious what other flavors of weirdness i'd run into. On the other, i'd really like to let everything i've seen simmer a bit, sleep on it so it won't end up all jumbled together into an incomprehensible mess."

Flea makes a journey back to the Bronx, to check in on Proge.

Gremian should pop on over to the Emerald Door.

Flea discovers Proge at home.  He's taking a sick day, which is unusual, as Goblins are almost never sick.  That's important, considering their lifestyle, which exposes them to a legion of pathogens.  Goblin immune systems are fortresses... magically reinforced fortresses... and here is Proge taking a sick day.

He defends himself:  "Hey. I'm a municipal worker, and I've been accumulating sick days for years.  I deserve this."

Exactly what kind of sick, that is a different story.

"I kind of lost my memory.. and then I found it again, or it found me.  Or maybe I found me, but I don't know where I was when I was out looking for me... sheesh, I sound like a Pixie, don't I?  But I figure I must have gotten something really bad, or maybe just really, really, drunk, either way I got to rest it off till I feel like I'm really me again."

Proge ponders his situation.  "I kinda remember Gremian, and a girl he was with...  whole thing is really fuzzy."

Flea planted her hands on her hips. "You watch what you say about Pixies, you lunkhead! This world would fall apart at the seams if it weren't for us keepin' it all runnin'! Pixies is in charge, even if nobody else knows it!"

She plonked herself down on a table. "Can't you remember anything else at all? We might 'ave stopped the big lightning machine thing, but them that set it up are still around! They might try again. I wouldn't give a slice of pizza for your chances if they are out for revenge! Didn't you see a face, or 'ear them talkin' at all?"

"Funny thing is," the Goblin says, "I remember talking to Gremian about what I remember, and it's like standing in front of a mirror... not that.. you know... we Goblins don't do a lot of that.*  But imagine you're in front of a mirror, and you're looking at yourself, but it's not exactly yourself, a little thing is different.  Then suddenly you're the one on the other side of the mirror looking back, and now you don't know which is the mirror side.  I was... I was on the other side of the Veil.  Completely. "

Yellow Goblin eyes squint a little under a furrowed dark green brow.

"What do humans see when they see you, Flea?  What would it be like to be that, instead of you?  For me, it's frightening.  Not being there, because you don't remember. But coming back, and thinking it could happen again.  We gotta make sure it doesn't happen to others, Flea, it's terrible."