{"id":756,"date":"2024-09-21T09:27:40","date_gmt":"2024-09-21T13:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/?p=756"},"modified":"2025-01-28T23:29:57","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T04:29:57","slug":"the-changeling-game-chapter-67","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/the-changeling-game-chapter-67\/","title":{"rendered":"The Changeling Game, Chapter 67"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\">\ntt {\nfont: .857em menlo, monaco, consolas, monospace;\nmargin: auto;\n}\nh2 {\ntext-align: center;\n}\nh2.chapterhead {\nmargin-bottom: 2em;\ntext-align: center;\n}\n  .nowrap {\n    text-indent: 0;\n    display: inline-block;\n}\n<\/style>\n<p><b>Title:<\/b> The Changeling Game <small>(Formerly <i>Identity Theft<\/i>)<\/small><br \/>\n<b>Author:<\/b> Ardath Rekha<br \/>\n<b>Chapter:<\/b> 67\/?<br \/>\n<b>Fandom:<\/b> <i>Pitch Black<\/i> (2000); <i>The Chronicles of Riddick<\/i> (2004); <i>The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury<\/i> (2004)<br \/>\n<b>Rating:<\/b> M<br \/>\n<b>Warnings:<\/b> Adult themes, controversial subject matter, harsh language, violence<br \/>\n<b>Category:<\/b> Gen<br \/>\n<b>Pairing:<\/b> None<br \/>\n<b>Summary:<\/b> Even as the official story of where Audrey has been for almost two years begins to spread, she must confront the real reasons behind her disappearance.<br \/>\n<b>Disclaimer:<\/b> The characters and events of <i>Pitch Black,<\/i> <i>The Chronicles of Riddick,<\/i> and <i>The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury<\/i> are not mine, but belong to Universal Studios.  I just <i>wish<\/i> I were in charge of their fates.  No money is being made off of this.  I\u2019m writing strictly for love of the story.<br \/>\n<b>Feedback:<\/b> Absolutely, the more the better!  Shred me, whip me, beat me, make me feel grammatical! I post \u201crough,\u201d so I can always use the help. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<input type='hidden' bg_collapse_expand='6a8e6dc64f0129095590914' value='6a8e6dc64f0129095590914'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-more-text-6a8e6dc64f0129095590914' value='Long post is long. Click to read the story.'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-less-text-6a8e6dc64f0129095590914' value='Hide the story again.'><button id='bg-showmore-action-6a8e6dc64f0129095590914' class='bg-showmore-plg-button bg-green-button  '   style=\" color:#D9ECFB;\">Long post is long. Click to read the story.<\/button><div id='bg-showmore-hidden-6a8e6dc64f0129095590914' ><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"chapterhead\">67.<br \/>\n<u>Suspended in the Tangled Web<\/u><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cOh no, sweetie, it\u2019s okay! Don\u2019t cry!\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Audrey reached out, gathering Elodie up as her baby sister\u2019s face crumpled. The little girl had been <i>fine<\/i> until their mother had started crying. And for some reason, what had set <i>her<\/i> off was the realization that Audrey had grown six full inches since her disappearance.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Alvin was hugging his wife already, trying to comfort her, so Audrey held Elodie close and rubbed her little sister\u2019s back. <i>It\u2019s okay,<\/i> she told the little girl silently. <i>Everything\u2019s going to be okay.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Elodie went quiet against her, sniffling but already relaxing. <i>Who\u2026?<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>She doesn\u2019t know who I am yet,<\/i> Audrey thought. And she wasn\u2019t \u201csending\u201d the way Sebby had; Audrey could only hear her thoughts because she was <i>listening<\/i> and deliberately touching her sister\u2019s mind. Gently, carefully, she dug deeper, trying to see what kinds of concepts Elodie would understand.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She had a dozen words she could articulate easily, another two dozen that frustrated her because she couldn\u2019t get her mouth to shape them properly\u2014Audrey could remember feeling vexed like that when <i>she\u2019d<\/i> been tiny\u2014and a hundred more words that she understood when she heard them but couldn\u2019t call up at will yet when she wanted them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Family,<\/i> Audrey told her. Elodie hadn\u2019t yet met any of <i>Audrey\u2019s<\/i> cousins, she realized; they were all children of her father\u2019s siblings. But she had a Cousin Josephine on <i>her<\/i> father\u2019s side.  <i>Like Jo-Jo. But even closer.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Alvin and her mother were watching the two of them, both looking stunned. Apparently Elodie was usually wary of strangers; the way she was now cuddling up to Audrey was unexpected.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The precinct Captain\u2014Minter\u2014walked into the interview room, shaking his head, and sat down with them. \u201cI have all the paperwork here. I\u2019d advise you to read it carefully before you sign it, but you <i>are<\/i> both lawyers so hopefully you don\u2019t need that advice from me. It\u2019s\u2026 not a <i>great<\/i> situation, but I guess we\u2019ll make do with what we have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d her mom demanded. \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong <i>now?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Minter sighed. \u201cYou\u2019re not her legal guardians. You\u2019re \u2018interim custodians.\u2019 She\u2019s still legally a ward of the Federacy Witness Security program. Every Sunday she has to go back to them for \u2018debriefing.\u2019 Which, apparently, will take up the whole <i>day.<\/i> The rest of the time, she can stay with you, as long as some\u2026 stringent\u2026 conditions are met.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cSuch as?\u201d Alvin growled.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cShe can\u2019t ever discuss where she was for the last twenty-two-plus months. She\u2019s not allowed to talk about what she saw, who she\u2019s been with, where she was kept, or any other particulars related to the case or cases she\u2019s part of. You\u2019re not allowed to ask her about any of it. The WitSec program is retaining all authority over her medical care, schooling, and living accommodations, and reserves the right to take her back at any time. Any travel plans must be cleared with her handlers, especially if they include a Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI\u2019m her <i>mother!<\/i> How the hell is this possible?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cIt\u2019s\u2026\u201d Minter rubbed his face with one hand as if pushing back against a headache. \u201cIt\u2019s honestly surprising they\u2019re giving her back at all. I couldn\u2019t get many details from my contacts in the program.  Whatever it was that happened, the threat to her life was big enough that they couldn\u2019t even tell law enforcement she was somewhere safe. You <i>know<\/i> what that means, Al.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Alvin nodded tightly. He\u2019d gone pale.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>He\u2019s thinking \u2018organized crime,\u2019<\/i> Audrey thought, pretending that she was too preoccupied with her sister to listen. <i>It\u2019s a few orders of magnitude worse than that, but as long as he takes it seriously\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cBut something changed. They think it\u2019s safe to return her now, but it might not be if anyone outside of their own \u2018inner circle\u2019 figures out <i>why<\/i> they took her. Shit, these kinds of cases\u2026 everybody in the precinct today has already been sent NDAs they have to sign if they want to keep their jobs and stay out of the glue, even the fucking <i>janitor<\/i>. Yours are in the stack, too. Odds are all of our comms are gonna be tapped for <i>months.<\/i> None of us are allowed to tell anyone, on or off the record, who really had her all this time. Just\u2026 take her home and be happy you have her at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It took an hour for her mother to read through all the fine print on the forms, and another half hour of arguing with Alvin before she agreed to sign everything, once she understood that those signatures were the only way she could take Audrey home\u2014or ever see her again\u2014at all. Audrey spent the whole time playing with Elodie, bonding with her beautiful baby sister.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYou need to tell John,\u201d Alvin said as they finally drove home.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cDamn it, yeah\u2026 he\u2019ll be relieved as hell to know she was somewhere on Deckard\u2019s World the whole time,\u201d her mother replied, her voice still wobbly. \u201cHe was so scared she\u2019d\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Her mother glanced warily back at her. She pretended to be entirely focused on playing with her little sister.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cHe thought she\u2019d show up on Furya,\u201d her mother whispered, apparently still unaware of how <i>good<\/i> her hearing was, \u201cand get Quantified. I\u2019m amazed WitSec didn\u2019t figure out what she is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">So her mother had always known. The whole <i>thing<\/i> with the fortune teller had been, as <tt>MilitAIre<\/tt> had surmised, about scaring her into hiding her abilities even from herself.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">That, at least, was one of the traumas <tt>First-AId<\/tt> had been able to <i>fix.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cA lotta people to call tonight,\u201d Alvin said as he turned into a familiar part of town. Christmas lights and increasingly elaborate decorations adorned most of the houses they drove past. \u201cI guess we need to figure out what we\u2019re telling all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cMaybe just tell \u2019em I ran away and finally came home,\u201d Audrey suggested.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cBut they\u2019ll think such awful things,\u201d her mother protested.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWe can\u2019t exactly take back the missing person posters,\u201d Alvin pointed out. \u201cEverybody knows we had no idea where she was. If we suddenly try to pretend that she was off at some boarding school, or in a hospital, they\u2019ll know we\u2019re lying. And if we say someone abducted her\u2026 then we\u2019ll have to lie a whole lot more and keep a lot of stories straight. Simplest is best.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">He caught her eyes in the rear-view mirror.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cSorry kiddo, but we\u2019re gonna have to let everybody think you spent the last twenty-two months out on the streets somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She shrugged and nodded. It <i>was<\/i> what she\u2019d suggested, after all. <i>Everybody\u2019s gonna think I\u2019m the kind of kid Imam thought I was.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She wondered how many of her old school friends would be forbidden to hang out with her by their parents. Not that hang-outs had happened all that often, even before\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><tt>MilitAIre<\/tt> had gone over, at length, the likely scenarios that people would spin out about where she\u2019d been and what she\u2019d done while she was missing. Thief. Drug addict. Kiddie prostitute. Sleeping on the streets, scavenging food from dumpsters. The kinds of stories that <i>nobody<\/i> included in the child-runaway adventure genre stories kids read, because they were <i>too<\/i> true, too <i>real<\/i>. Both her mother and Alvin were currently feeling relief that she\u2019d been spared those scenarios, neither of them realizing that her actual path\u2014even if she had been mostly spared sleeping on the streets\u2014had been every bit as harrowing as any of the ones they could imagine.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Accomplice to a felon. Fugitive. Cybercriminal. Murderer. Jack B. Badd.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The scenarios people would come up with could never approach the darkness that had actually surrounded her\u2026 and slid inside her. She doubted anyone would come up with a story that was worse than the truth.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Audrey had mentally prepared herself for the weirdness of walking into her mother\u2019s house again, six inches taller than she\u2019d left it, with Alvin and Elodie now living in it. It was still jarring.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The living room had been redone. The funny part was that it reminded her of the way it had looked when <i>she\u2019d<\/i> been little. Her mom\u2019s preference for white furniture and carpeting had given way to the reality that babies, toddlers, and little kids were <i>stain magnets,<\/i> something Bettie Paige MacNamera had swiftly chosen to forget once Audrey had been old enough to shame into not climbing furniture. And, more specifically, once Audrey\u2019s father had moved out and she\u2019d traded \u201cMacNamera\u201d back for \u201cHawthorne,\u201d and the \u201crustic\u201d style John MacNamera had preferred for gleaming, white furniture that even the cats had feared to touch, much less sit upon.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">That untouchable furniture was gone again. Alvin, evangelical streak aside, seemed to have some kindred tastes in d\u00e9cor to her own father, down to similar fishing trophies.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Huh.<\/i> Maybe living with him would be less alien than she\u2019d expected.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Esther, her sleek grey coat puffed out and her body flat to the floor, scuttled through the room and past, into the back hall, to hide in the basement. That had gone about as well as Audrey had expected. She wondered which pieces of furniture Goblin and Jade were hiding under.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The dining room hadn\u2019t changed much. Except\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Had they made some weird kind of shrine out of her spot at the table? Her favorite place-setting was out, and it looked\u2026 <i>dusty.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The kitchen, at least, looked normal, although things had moved around a little.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">By the door between the kitchen and dining room were a whole series of markings that had been made since she was younger than Elodie, measuring her height as she grew. The last one, labeled <tt>January 1, 2516<\/tt>, marked her as 5\u20194\u201d tall.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">This, she realized, was what her mother had been crying over. All the markings that had been missed in the intervening time, six inches\u2019 worth of growth, trips to stores for new shoes and clothes, the moment when the two of them would have been standing at eye level with each other before Audrey shot up again and passed her by\u2026 memories that could never be made, never be recovered. She could feel her mother struggling with it again.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cLooks like we need to make a new mark here, yeah?\u201d she asked, trying to keep her own voice steady.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cLooks like,\u201d her mother answered, her voice breaking on the words.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Audrey turned around and hugged her before either of them could set Elodie off again. Alvin, his expression remarkably wise, took the little girl out of the room.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Not such an asshole after all\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">After a while, they composed themselves and went upstairs.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She\u2019d heard of parents turning their lost or missing children\u2019s rooms into shrines. She\u2019d been warned that her mother might have done that while she was gone. It was still weird to see. To remember that she had once been the girl who had lived in this space\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Of course, she thought, most of the decorating had been done by her mother; she hadn\u2019t <i>had<\/i> very strong opinions about such things. Her mom had liked the white frills and lacy curtains. Most of the colors in the room were pastels. Audrey found herself wondering how much it might bother everyone if she changed it up. Maybe some brighter colors\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She realized that she was envisioning dressing it up like she and Kyra had dressed up first their apartment and then their room in the <i>ait Meziane<\/i> house. Bright colors and patterns, driftwood and shells\u2026 would it be safe, she wondered, to make those kinds of changes?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Maybe not right away. The fact that she\u2019d come back with new tastes and interests was something that had to be slowly, subtly introduced.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Frills, pastels, and unicorns it is\u2026 for now,<\/i> she thought, interested to note that the bedspread and pillowcases had been washed recently. They had been trying to keep the room ready for her to return at any moment. Part of her was a little amazed that it had paid off for them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">And part of her wondered if Audrey MacNamera would ever really come home to them at all.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She resolved to try <i>very hard<\/i> not to make her mother wonder the same thing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>None of the clothes are going to fit me anymore\u2014<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The doorbell rang. Both she and her mother turned toward the bedroom doorway as they heard Alvin walk over to the front door and open it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAlvin! Oh my God! Did I see <i>Audrey<\/i> get out of your car just a little while ago?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Viola Trent, neighborhood gossip. <i>So it begins.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Whatever they told Viola would be what the whole town ended up \u201cknowing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Her eyes met her mother\u2019s, and she saw the same resigned knowledge in them. \u201cHere we go,\u201d her mother mouthed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYou did, Viola. Audrey\u2019s back home.\u201d Alvin was managing to sound extremely friendly, which Audrey found a little amazing. Twenty-three months of having her for a neighbor ought to have tried his patience by now.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThat\u2019s wonderful news! Where has she been? Is she all right? We were all talking about how there\u2019d be another vigil in just a few more weeks\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cShe\u2019s fine. She\u2019s settling back in. We\u2019re just glad to have her back home where she\u2019s safe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYou might want to call the family now before <i>she<\/i> does,\u201d Audrey whispered, and watched her mother\u2019s eyes widen in alarm at the thought.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI\u2019ll message their comms,\u201d her mother whispered back, sitting down on her bed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It was a simple message, sent simultaneously to everyone in the family\u2014including, Audrey noticed, her father all the way on Furya, although that message would probably take a week to reach him\u2014with little embellishment:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;margin-top: 1em;margin-bottom: 1em\"><tt>Audrey\u2019s safe! She\u2019s home!<\/tt><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>I guess I am,<\/i> she reflected, sitting down too and looking around. Toys and games that she\u2019d once played with sat in their customary places, none of them things she yearned to play with now. She hadn\u2019t thought about them, much less missed them, even once on her run. They felt like artifacts of a life that wasn\u2019t even hers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Funny how it was Kyra\u2019s centuries-lost stuffed rabbit that suddenly came to mind and put a lump in her throat\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">A pair of reflective eyes were staring at her from beneath her dresser. <i>There you are, Goblin\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She had <i>definitely<\/i> thought about, and missed, the cats.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Downstairs, Viola was still trying to get the gory details out of Alvin, who wasn\u2019t inclined to play along.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYou hear such terrible stories about teenage runaways and their fates. And all those traffickers and the things they do to children, too, it\u2019s so unsettling\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cLike I said, Viola, Audrey\u2019s fine. Now, I don\u2019t mean to be rude, but we have a lot to do now that she\u2019s home. Thank you for coming by.\u201d He managed to get the door closed seconds before both his and her mother\u2019s comms began chiming.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">While they talked to various relatives, Audrey took over Elodie again, letting her little sister show her around <i>her<\/i> room and tell her\u2014in what was largely babble to anyone but an esper\u2014all about her favorite toys and games.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>I\u2019d never have left if I\u2019d known you were coming,<\/i> she thought wistfully. No wonder her mother and Alvin had rushed the wedding\u2026 no wonder Alvin had been feeling stressed and surly when he\u2019d moved in. Everything made a new kind of sense now.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYou are the most beautiful little girl <i>ever<\/i>,\u201d she told Elodie, just as Alvin appeared in the doorway.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYour father\u2019s family wants to come over tonight to see you. Is that all right? Or do you want to wait until tomorrow night?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWhat works better for you?\u201d she asked him. \u201cThis is a whole lot to drop on your plate out of the blue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI think your mother would rather wait until tomorrow night. Are those all the clothes you have? Should we take you shopping for some tomorrow?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She shrugged. \u201cThe safe house had stuff for me to wear, but\u2026 it\u2019s basic government issue stuff. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m gonna fit into my old clothes, though, so probably.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">That actually made him crack a smile. \u201cNo, I don\u2019t think you will. Tell you what\u2026 you and your mom can go pick out some things tomorrow, and I\u2019ll get everything set up for an <i>organized<\/i> gathering tomorrow night. A real welcome-home party, even.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cSounds good,\u201d she told him, cuddling her little sister close. The way he looked at and spoke to her now, fond and avuncular, was so different from the uncomfortable way he\u2019d treated her before.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Being a dad has mellowed him out,<\/i> she decided. <i>I might have made things \u2018too real\u2019 before, but now reality has taken over.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Word had spread, and the local news services had picked up the story, too. <tt>MilitAIre<\/tt> sent her comm a link to one story, a brief vid clip showing her emerging from the courthouse with her mother and Alvin on either side of her, an image of her Missing Persons shot in the corner of the screen for comparison. <tt>Audrey MacNamera Found Safe, Returned to Her Mother<\/tt>, the caption read. No details about her whereabouts until then had been made available yet, a peeved-sounding news reader added.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Neighbors began trying to drop by, most of them bringing baked goods or casseroles.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Elodie, meanwhile, decided that she\u2019d been held enough and it was time to go walking. She let Audrey hold her hands while she did, but insisted on the two of them going down the stairs together. Audrey was so focused on her baby sister that she barely noticed several would-be guests gawking at her from the foyer.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cShe\u2019s so <i>tall<\/i> now!\u201d she heard a familiar voice gasp. Apparently Viola had come back.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">More visitors arrived almost as fast as Alvin and her mother could get rid of the last ones. Not really ready to talk to a lot of people yet, Audrey sat in the living room where they could, at least, get a quick glimpse of her from the foyer, playing with Elodie, feeding her baby sister dinner while the adults fended off guest after guest, finding out which foods Elodie liked best\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThey\u2019re never going to stop <i>coming,<\/i>\u201d Alvin groaned during a brief interim when no one was at the door.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWe could turn out all the lights and hide upstairs,\u201d her mother suggested.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWorks for me,\u201d Alvin agreed. \u201cIs that okay, Audrey?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cSounds good. You wanna go upstairs, Elodie Jane?\u201d She lifted her cooing little sister up out of her highchair, carrying her on her hip as she cleared the used baby food plate into the kitchen.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cShe\u2019s so <i>good<\/i> with her\u2026\u201d she heard Alvin saying to her mother.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cDid <i>you<\/i> tell her Elodie\u2019s name?\u201d her mother asked.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cNo, I thought you must\u2019ve\u2026 I guess her handlers told her at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Yeah, Audrey reflected. They had. It had been a huge and, in some ways, terrible shock to realize just why her life had abruptly upended, one that had taken several days to fully process. If only she\u2019d known sooner\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>I\u2019d never have left,<\/i> she thought again. <i>I\u2019d have stayed, tried harder to be friends with Alvin\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She\u2019d wondered just what that \u2019verse might have looked like, where no Jack B. Badd had ever boarded the <i>Hunter-Gratzner<\/i> or been among its survivors. Would Fry have died in the subterranean cave, her cries for help unheard by the others in time? Would Johns have been forced to make a <i>real<\/i> truce with Riddick in the aftermath, given that no one else was left who could pilot the skiff? Would everyone have gotten off-planet before the eclipse, or would they have still ended up in the darkness, picked off one by one until only Riddick himself was left to pilot his way off of that desolate world? Would he have been able to fend off the mercs on the <i>Kublai Khan<\/i> even better without her and Imam in tow, or would he be locked in a prison, made of his own frozen body, even now? <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Would Kyra have been sent to New Dartmouth to stand trial? Would all of the <i>Scarlet Matador<\/i> survivors have drowned when the syzygy brought the tide above their floors in Mansour Plaza? Would the New Marrakesh Spaceport have stayed whole, or still burned when a Tomlin who didn\u2019t understand what he was up against tried to fight the Quintessa Corporation\u2019s claims that there had never been a Level Five Incident? Would Pritchard and Makarov still be hunting women and girls across the Federacy? Would little Omid Heydari still have his mother?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Would the \u2019verse have become a better place, or a worse one, if she\u2019d known <i>one small thing?<\/i>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>I\u2019d be a <b>three<\/b>-dimensional critter,<\/i> she thought, <i>with no idea I was an esper. Maybe I\u2019d never have found out\u2026 or maybe I\u2019d have gotten a nasty shock someday when Quantifiers arrived at my school to run checks\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It bothered her to think that her choice, rash and headlong as it had been, and as much as she regretted it, might still have been the <i>right<\/i> one. That, somehow, all of the chaos and grief and spilled blood might have been the clearest path. She and <tt>MilitAIre<\/tt> had argued about the might-have-beens a few times while she struggled with her new knowledge.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The debate had spread out to all of the AIs, and then <tt>EntertAIn<\/tt> had made her watch two films called <i>Sliding Doors<\/i> and <i>Run, Lola, Run,<\/i> following them up with several twenty-first century films about alternate universes and their effects on consequence and accountability. Oddly, Audrey had noticed when she\u2019d done a small search of <tt>EntertAIn<\/tt>\u2019s library, the premise had stopped featuring in vids altogether right as the first Star Jump ships launched. Why, she\u2019d wondered, had confirmation of the Many Worlds Hypothesis <i>ended<\/i> the desire to speculate about how the multiverse would work?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Well, I won\u2019t ever leave again. Elodie\u2019s here. She needs her big sister. She\u2019s growing up on a planet that isn\u2019t kind to girls or minorities or people who are different\u2026 she\u2019ll need me to protect her from all of that and help her see through it.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It didn\u2019t take long to clean up and stack all of the gifts of food into the cooler. They turned all the downstairs lights off and hurried upstairs before any more wannabe-guests could sweep up to the doors. Later, her mother suggested, they could come down for a late-night supper.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Alvin took over Elodie to give her a bath, while Audrey followed her mother back into her old room.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThere are some things I really should tell you,\u201d her mother said, sitting down on the foot of her bed. \u201cI don\u2019t know if they\u2019d have made a difference, almost two years ago\u2026 but I\u2019ve spent the whole time you were gone <i>wishing<\/i> I\u2019d told you, so\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Audrey was digging through her slightly musty dresser drawers to find the much-too-big-for-her nightgown she\u2019d been given as a Christmas present just over a month before she\u2019d run away, which might finally be the right size. She looked up and nodded at her mother. \u201cOkay\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Her mom sighed, looking down at her clasped hands. \u201cWhen I get pregnant\u2026 I turn into a real <i>bitch<\/i> for a few months. I didn\u2019t know that about myself until\u2026 well, until Elodie. When your father and I first met, I was finishing up law school and still lived with my parents. We had a fling and I got pregnant with Katharine\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Katharine, who had been lost to a second-trimester miscarriage. Audrey remembered the story.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI started fighting with my parents, constantly. I didn\u2019t understand why, but\u2026 well\u2026 they threw me out. Said they were done dealing with my shit. John\u2026 it wasn\u2019t <i>supposed<\/i> to be a serious relationship. He was this ex-Serviceman who was just starting at his security firm\u2026 but he offered to let me move in with him. I didn\u2019t know where else to go, and then we found out I was pregnant, and he proposed\u2026 just in time for me to lose her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Audrey felt her heart twist. She hadn\u2019t known this portion of the story\u2026 not completely. Neither of her parents had told her how they\u2019d met or married before. \u201cI\u2019m so sorry, Mom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI\u2019d picked out the name and everything\u2026 Katharine Hepburn MacNamera\u2026 and then if we had a boy, we\u2019d name him Spencer Tracy MacNamera\u2026 well, John said he still wanted to marry me and\u2026 I really <i>did<\/i> love him, and he\u2019d stood by me through the worst and at <i>my<\/i> worst\u2026 so we got married. And then a few months later, we started having troubles, fighting constantly\u2014well, <i>me<\/i> fighting with <i>him<\/i> constantly\u2014and I was about ready to give up on the marriage when I found out <i>you<\/i> were on the way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Audrey nodded and then gasped, realization striking her.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cMom, when you and Dad started fighting, before he moved out, I\u2026 I kept having dreams I was going to have a little brother\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Her mother\u2019s eyes closed and she swallowed. \u201cYou were. I didn\u2019t know it yet\u2026 but you would have. I just kept picking fight after fight with your father and I couldn\u2019t understand why\u2026 but\u2026 after one of them I got so angry that I headed into town, I didn\u2019t even really know where I was planning on going, but I ended up in this little toy store. And something about the aisle with baby toys suddenly made me suspect\u2026 so I got a pregnancy test and took it. And I was so excited that I wasn\u2019t watching where I was going as I was getting on the escalator to go back to my car\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Her voice broke.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI <i>fell\u2026\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Audrey felt her heart twist again. That, she realized, had been why the dreams had suddenly stopped. \u201cAnd you lost him. Oh Mom, I\u2019m so sorry\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cMe too\u2026 and\u2026 it was just too late for your father and me. We\u2019d said too many horrible things to each other, and now we\u2019d lost another baby. I know you felt like you were somehow to blame, sweetheart, but you never were. I never told you about Spencer because you were already grieving about your dad moving out, and I didn\u2019t want to make it even worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Audrey nodded. She had a feeling that her father had never stopped loving her mother\u2026 but\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Sometimes love isn\u2019t enough,<\/i> she reflected. <i>Sometimes\u2026 nothing is enough to keep two people together.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cSo then, back when you and Alvin broke up for a while\u2026\u201d she prompted, knowing what was coming with absolute certainty.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI was pregnant with Elodie and didn\u2019t know it yet, yeah. We fought, we broke up\u2026 and I went and cried on your father\u2019s shoulder about it. We almost\u2014God, it\u2019s a good thing we didn\u2019t, but\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Whoa.<\/i> No <i>wonder<\/i> her father had wanted to leave the planet when he\u2019d found out.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAnd then you discovered you and Alvin were having a baby,\u201d she finished for her mother, her voice soft and as gentle as possible. No judgment. She had no right to judge.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Her mother nodded, staring down at her hands. \u201cI should have told you when I told your father\u2026 so you\u2019d understand what was happening. I didn\u2019t realize how devastating all of it would be for you. I didn\u2019t realize so much change would drive you out of the house and into harm\u2019s way. We\u2019d planned to tell <i>everybody<\/i> at the wedding, during the toasts\u2026 but we should have told you even before we told you that we were getting married, so you\u2019d know <i>why<\/i> it was all happening so fast. I\u2019m so sorry, Audrey.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The last words were barely intelligible, buried in a sob. Audrey sat down next to her mother and pulled her close, trying not to be jarred all over again by the fact that she was now the taller of the two of them. The familiar scent of Shalimar, her mother\u2019s favorite perfume, wrapped itself around her, and for the first time, she felt like she might really have made it home.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cIt\u2019s okay, Mom. It\u2019s okay\u2026 I\u2019m back\u2026 I\u2019m home, and I\u2019m safe, and Elodie is the most beautiful baby ever and I love her\u2026 I love you so much\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>I wish I\u2019d never left\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI want you to know,\u201d her mother said several long moments later, \u201cthat you can tell me anything. Anything at all\u2026 it doesn\u2019t matter what it is\u2026 I\u2019ll always be here for you and I\u2019ll always love you\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Oh, Mommy\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI wish\u2026\u201d she heard herself saying, and closed her mouth tight on the words.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>I wish I could tell you where I went and what I did. I saw so many amazing and terrible things, Mommy\u2026 I wish I could tell you all about them.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>I visited three planets. One of them had three suns, one of them had three moons, and one of them had three jailors\u2026 and I nearly died on each of them. But they were all beautiful. And it was summer on each of them. Summer followed me everywhere.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Three ships met disaster with me on board. The <\/i>Hunter-Gratzner,<i> the <\/i>Kublai Khan,<i> and the <\/i>Scarlet Matador<i>, and if anybody knew I\u2019d been on <b>any<\/b> of them, so much havoc would rain down all over us\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>I fell in love with three men. Three amazing, beautiful men, and I lost them all. One abandoned me. One was murdered. And one promised that he would come to me whenever I call for him, but I never, ever can\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>And I got three sisters. One\u2019s Kyra Wittier-Collins, the Black Fox of Canaan Mountain, and I worry so much about her\u2026 one\u2019s Sebby of the Ree, and she\u2019s going to be a mighty huntress. And one\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She couldn\u2019t <i>remember<\/i> the third sister she\u2019d found out there\u2026 but she knew\u2026 she <i>knew<\/i>\u2026\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">There was a third sister. She <i>knew<\/i> it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">And then, of course, there was Elodie. Whom she would protect forever. Whom she would never leave.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>I killed three people, too, Mommy. I\u2019m sorry. I didn\u2019t want to hurt anybody\u2026 I don\u2019t want to be that person anymore\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>So many threes\u2026 my life seems to come in threes\u2026 and I can\u2019t tell you about the three families that adopted me, the al-Walids, the Mezianes, the Ree\u2026 or about the worlds I can visit, the thresholds between \u2019verses I can cross. I can touch twenty-seven universes\u2026 three to the third power\u2026 and the <\/i>Apeiros<i> seem to think that I\u2019m the first human to ever do that. I wish I could show you their starfield\u2026 but I can\u2019t ever tell you about the <\/i>Apeiros<i> or my AI handlers, who I love\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>I want to share all of it with you so much, but I can never tell you any of it. The only way to keep a secret safe is to never, ever tell it\u2026 but I wish I could tell you. I wish I could tell you everything.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI wish I could tell you,\u201d she whispered. \u201cBut people would die.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Hundreds. Maybe millions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Maybe even us.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Title: The Changeling Game (Formerly Identity Theft) Author: Ardath Rekha Chapter: 67\/? Fandom: Pitch Black (2000); The Chronicles of Riddick (2004); The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury (2004) Rat","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"\u201cThe Changeling Game\u201d 67: \u201cSuspended in the Tangled Web\u201d","bgseo_description":"Even as the official story of where Audrey has been for almost two years begins to spread, she must confront the real reasons behind her disappearance.","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fan-fiction","category-the-changeling-game"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=756"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1154,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756\/revisions\/1154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}