06/26/2026: Owed Answers

"Titania, do you have any answers? Where exactly have you been? You've been gone for days. I do think I'm owed answers." The Votress stands in the doorway of the Hex, glaring at a gawping Titania. They regard one another for a moment. Then the Votress's attention finds Squid.

"Ayan, come say hello to your other mother!" She gestures the child toward her.

Squid, wide-eyed, shakes their head.

"Ayan! Come here and say hello!"

As Squid stands, eyes brimming, a small child slips from beneath the gaming table, munching on a red checker.

The Votress blinks once, twice. She wheels to Titania. "Can anyone tell me why there are doubles of nearly everyone in this room? Only myself, Diro, KFC — what is going on? And KFC, where's your hat? Don't you always wear a hat?" The exasperation in her voice is unmistakable. "WHAT is going on?"

She crosses to KFC and asks, with something close to plaintiveness, "Can you tell me what's going on? You're an intelligent person, someone I can trust to be honest with me." The missing hat does not seem to register with her that this is not the KFC she knows.

The Original KFC, gulping, sputters, "Would you believe me if I told you we are all actually twins?"

The Votress stares. Says nothing.

The dorm goes quiet in the way that suggests something profound might just be happening. Ayan, the Votress's child, has no idea how complicated their existence has just become. They bounce across the room and offer Squid a checker.

Squid takes it without looking at it. They nibble at one edge, staring at the other, identical child with enormous eyes, and begin to back slowly toward Hester. Then, reconsidering, they slip their hand into Alistir's instead.

Alistir takes it. Their hand is shaking. They lean down and say something quiet and reassuring. Squid is crying.

"Squid," Alistir says, "would you like to go into a different room? We can play a game."

"Can we play 'Let's Go Home?'"

"I'd like that," Alistir says. And then, to the room at large: "Can we all go home?"

The answer is no. "Not yet," says KFC quietly. "There are things to fix first."

Alistir knows this. They take Squid to their room — this timeline's version of their room, which is close enough — and close the door. The sounds that come through it are mostly tears.

⚔️

Out in the main room, the Votress has watched all of this with her arms crossed.

"Um, are you cross with me, my love?" says Alternate Titania, tentatively.

"I am, my dear." The Votress's large, dark eyes meet Alternate Titania's upturned elvish ones.

"Well, then. It's all very simple, my love. I was just in prison."

Something behind the Votress's eyes shifts. "Clearly you don't wish to tell me where you have been. What you do with your time is your own business. But I do feel I am taking on more than my share of responsibilities around our home. And Ayan has been asking for you — their other mother."

Alternate Titania considers the situation. "What can I do to make this right? Do you want me to pay for something?"

The Votress stares at them, aghast.

"Well, yes," Titania offers.

The Votress takes Ayan by the hand and addresses Alternate Titania with the clipped precision of someone who has been managing more than their share for a while.

"We're going home. If you care to join us, that's where you'll find us."

Alternate Titania follows, wet and gesticulating wildly. Through the window, the party watches them go: the Votress under an umbrella, Ayan in hand, walking with the composure of someone extremely used to this — and behind her, a drenched alternate Titania running to keep up, talking and waving, talking and waving.

⚔️

Squid emerges from the room a short while later and asks the room at large, "Are they gone?"

They are.

"Okay." A pause. "Hey, Hester?"

"Hmm?"

"Was that my mom?"

Hester gives this the honesty it deserves. "I don't know much about your whole family business," she sighs. "It might be a question for Titania."

Squid considers this. "I've only got Alistir," they say.

"Wonderful toys," says Alistir, from somewhere nearby. "You can play with them!"

Squid produces a checker from somewhere on their person. "Hey, Diro — want my cookie? I only ate a little."

Diro nods, "Sure. Red or black?"

"Red. 'Course." Squid recommends the red ones on the basis of experience, tosses the painted wooden checker to the monk, and then climbs under the table and becomes invisible.

The Hexmates with keener hearing detect sniffling.

⚔️

Alistir clears their throat and addresses whoever is within earshot. "Who wants to liberate the monster back to the woods?"

There is a pause, during which everyone remembers: there is a shambling mound in the corner. It has been there the whole time. It is currently warming itself by the fire, working its way through a bag of marshmallows, popping them one by one into whatever it has that functions as a mouths. It is having an excellent time.

It is wet outside. It is dry inside. The mound has assessed this situation and made its decision.

"You can live with us forever,"Alistir murmurs.

Hester points out that this really isn't their dorm to make this decision for, but the alternates in various parts of the Hex register no objection. Alternate KFC, muffled through the wall: "I think it'd be interesting. So boring around here anyway."

Shortly after, Rampart — this timeline's Rampart, the loxodon monk, solid and calm — knocks on the door and asks for KFC. His KFC. He has no problem locating her. He goes in. The door closes. Voices, but not the words.

⚔️

In their bedroom, Alistir sits with Squid.

They try to assess the child's physical health first, hard by just looking at them from a distance. Squid seems sound of body — a little wan, but hale.

They then try to assess Squid's emotional state. This is even less clear to Alistir, who is not good at such things. But even Alistir can sense the child is at least somewhat jarred by the evening's events.

"I know I do not share Titania's disposition," Alistir begins, "but you can always tell me anything."

Squid looks at them. "You know, Alistir, I don't like you very much."

"I know."

"But you are, like, the only one I've got now."

Alistir wipes a tear. "She's going to come back. Titania, I mean. She's just — she has her own issues."

"I don't think she's coming back. And if she comes back, she's going to go off with my mom, isn't she?"

"No, she's not."

"She will. She's going to fight with the other lady that looks just like her. The one that's not her."

"Oh," says Alistir, suddenly. "Yes. Actually, that is a good point."

"It's gonna be weird."

"It's so weird," Alistir agrees.

"I don't like this. I think I want to go home."

"I want to make things right," Alistir says. Then, through the door to the group: "Should we all leave?"

Not yet. They're working on it. Squid accepts this without enthusiasm.

⚔️

Diro takes Squid out riding on the Stand — fifteen feet up, which Squid briefly finds impressive — and then down into the town of Strixhaven. The trip is to find Beckaylee's burger stand. It does not exist in this timeline.

They come back half an hour later. It is raining. It is impossible to tell if Squid is wet from the rain or from crying. Probably both. They climb off the Stand, pat it on the knee, thank Diro, go to their room and close the door.

⚔️

It is late now, and KFC has solved the sleeping situation by rolling herself up in the nicest rug in the room and lying sideways facing the fire.

The mound shuffles over and curls up next to her. It begins to purr.

Alistir offers the room in their suite. KFC says she's comfortable where she is.

"That's one excellent mound," Debbie observes.

"His name's Humphrey." KFC is pleased that the mound seems pleased with the name she has chosen for it.

No one argues with this. Humphrey the shambling mound continues to purr.

⚔️

Dead of night. A knock at the door.

KFC unrolls from Humphrey and goes to answer it. Aurora is in the hall, only mildly hysterical, and she has things to say about Quentillius.

Trying not to yawn, KFC listens. When Aurora winds down to the inevitable question — what do you think I should do? — KFC gives her the honest answer: his family has made him who he is, but that doesn't mean he gets to drag her down with him. From everything they've seen, he's blown her off, hasn't taken time to appreciate her. That's not a good sign in a partner.

"He'll change," Aurora sobs. "I know he will. I can change him. He loves me."

"Trying to get people to become something they're not is a fruitless venture." KFC glances longingly at her carpet and Humphrey.

"Are you saying it's hopeless?" She is shredding a tissue, daubing tears that are tinted pink.

"I'm saying that if someone doesn't want to change, they're not going to. And it doesn't seem to me like Quentillius wants to change right now."

A fresh flood of tears. Aurora eventually cries herself to sleep in the chair. At some point before morning, she lets herself out.

⚔️

The sun comes up.

Squid hops out of bed, becomes visible, and shakes Titania's knee. It is Titania. They have returned, displacing Alistir sometime in the night.

"Okay. I'm ready. I want to meet her," Squid states.

"All right. Let's go, Squid."

Then Titania begins to drink an entire pot of coffee.

⚔️

At nine o'clock sharp, a brisk knock at the Hex door.

"Hester? Are you ready? Pinky is downstairs — let's not keep her waiting!" The alternate version of Hester's father, Corvin, stands on the landing, bow-tied and derby-hatted.

It is Alternate Hester who goes. The Original Hester has convinced her she has to at least do this. She opens the door with her feathers already starting to puff.

Pinky, the flamingo aarakocra, is wearing heels so architectural they appear to be stilts. In flat feet she is already five and a half feet tall. The heels make her well over six. Corvin is roughly half that height. Pinky has dressed formally for the occasion of waffles and coffee. Corvin is desperately pretending everything is normal.

Pinky moves toward Alternate Hester — air-kissing either side of her beak, then almost hugging her. The hug resolves into a flutter of wings, then into nothing.

"Hi," she says. "You look so — yeah. You do. Really."

Over breakfast, Pinky mentions a jewelry gift. "It will bring out the red in your eyes, Hester," she gushes. She seems briefly thrown when she registers that Hester's coloring doesn't match what she's describing. She mentions, lightly, "If you ever get tired of that heavy bauble, I would be happy to give it a good home."

Alternate Hester's feathers are standing on end. Corvin pretends not to notice.

Instead, Corvin tells Alternate Hester that has bought some time on her grades with a large donation to the University. He expects a fresh start from her. There are only a few weeks left before summer. Will she be coming home, or staying on campus?

"There is, of course, room at the estate. Although," Corvin murmurs just loud enough for his daughter to hear, "Pinky and I are still in the negotiation stage of our marriage. Any visit by Hester would need to be brief."

"Negotiation stage?" Hester repeats, brows rising.

"Yes. She requires quite a lot of — space — and I don't know how ready she is to be a stepmother."

"Well, I don't think I'd be ready to be a stepmother," Hester says. "She's only a few years older than me."

Pinky, into her coffee: "Not that many years older than you."

A moment.

She stands to powder her bill. Her purse is the size of a small continent. She totters off. Corvin watches her go.

"I don't wish to alarm you," he says, the moment she is out of earshot, "but I may have misjudged Pinky."

Hester waits.

"I took her to be someone who was well and truly in love with me. Like your mother." He pauses. "I understand now that that is a mistake. I suppose you have every right to tell me I told you so."

Hester says nothing.

"But I am determined to make it work. She can grow to love me." He pivots, abruptly, to another topic entirely. "Please know that although my Will has been changed, I do intend to change it back."

Pinky emerges from the bathroom. Corvin turns to Alternate Hester and begins fussing about her grades — loudly, with finger-wagging. Pinky settles back into her coffee. Black. No sugar.

Alternate Hester tunes him out. Something is extraordinarily wrong between these two. More than wrong. Corvin, she realizes, might actually be frightened of the flamingo aarakocra.

Corvin pays the bill. He moves to hug Alternate Hester goodbye — hesitant, awkward — and in the embrace presses a small leather pouch into her hand, angling it carefully away from Pinky's line of sight. He does this very badly. Pinky doesn't notice, muttering, "Let's go. I things to do."

"You got the message about the grades?" Corvin whispers, and winks at Alternate Hester.

"I'll see you at the estate in a few weeks. For a few days."

"Good luck with finals," he says, and to Pinky: "Shall we?"

Off they go.

Alternate Hester waits until they're out of sight. She opens the pouch. Inside: her mother's engagement ring, her wedding ring, a locket with a picture of a younger Corvin and Hester as a very young owlet, and a lock of her own chick-down.

⚔️

Back in the dorm, Squid is sitting on the table, kicking their legs, waiting. They have been waiting long enough to have had a conversation with Diro.

"Hey, Squid. Are you doing all right?"

"I'm going to see my mom, Diro. My real mom. Not my Titania-mom."

"Are you scared?"

"Yeah. But it'll be okay. She's my mom, right? She's gotta love me. It's like the law, right?"

Diro says he's sure she will, and wishes the child good luck.

"Do you have a mom, Diro?"

There is a pause. Diro explains, with some embellishment, that he was an angry spirit who crawled out of hell purely on the strength of being furious about being dead. No parents involved. Squid should tell their friends that Diro is very cool.

"That is so awesome," Squid says, wide-eyed. They hop down from the table. "So do you think when I get back to my own time, my mom can come back from the dead? You came back because you were mad, but what if she came back because she loved me? She remembered how much she loved me. She'd come back, right?"

Diro sits down on the table.

"I was joking," he says. "I didn't reincarnate myself out of sheer will. I'm really sorry about your mom, Squid. But I don't think that it's possible for your mom to come back from the dead."

Squid absorbs this. "Oh."

They think about it. "Well. It's still a really cool place, Diro, where I came from. And KFC's a really great fighter there, and Reyna's a really great chef. Hester is an amazing artist. And Debbie's a rock star."

"I don't know if I can go to that timeline, Squid."

The child faces him, dark eyes glittering. "Sure you can. Someone will need to go in my place. I'll be staying here. With my real mom and the other Titania-mom and the other kid — Ayan — we can be like twins. And you can go in my place."

They hop off the table, ready now. "I'll miss that place, but I'll have the best of both worlds when I stay here, 'cause I'll have my mom and I'll have Titania."

They knock on the door. Titania opens it — eyes wiped, more than once.

"Come on, Squid," they say. "We're going to see your mom."

"All right. Let's go." The child scampers toward the door of the Hex.