Heather After: Oh, you know. There had to be some benefits to being the grandkid of a narcissistic wizard with delusions of grandeur.
Queen Nuala: See! You're not so tough after all! You creepy, nasty, awful, lying, sneaky, dishonest, power-hungry, untrustworthy, lurking, lying liars-- I could have been what I wanted to be. I could have been a good queen. But I trusted the wrong people.
Titania: It...it was all my fault. This civil war. I had grown so used to being obeyed, it made me cruel, I crushed those around me whom I should have uplifted.
Auberon: This isn't the end of Faerie. We can rebuild, my love.
Titania: Can we? Even in Faerie, such destruction cannot be fixed overnight. It takes time.
Queen Nuala: If you think you can just put things back the way they were, think again. I wasn't the only one who hated you. People may think I was a bad queen, but they thought you were terrible.
Heather After: Has it occurred to anybody that maybe monarchy itself is the problem? Like maybe this is a chance to organize yourselves differently?
Auberon: The sorceress would have us give the gnomes and harpies a vote!
Titania: How very droll!
Jophiel: You'll find no converts to anarchy here.
Heather After: I'm just trying to help!
Jophiel: Have you seen these people? They're beyond help. I'm worried about Ruin. Something's wrong.
Heather After: If the counsellors don't have him, who does?
Jophiel: No idea. I have a feeling he's not in Faerie anymore.
Heather After: You mean we lost him?!
Jophiel: You lost him. I'm the one who tried to keep you both from getting killed.
Heather After: We have to get out of here--
Auberon: What about your promise?
Heather After: I just trapped your mortal enemy in an unbreakable circle! I've more than fulfilled my promise! Anything else is stuff you need to work out amongst your damn selves!
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New Jersey, Not Long After
Ruin: Todd!
Todd: Huh?! Ruin? Where did you come from?
Ruin: The Dreaming, where else?
Todd: Weren't you guys supposed to be fighting elves or something? Where's Heather?
Ruin: That's the thing. You've got to use that Faerie seed Heather gave you--bring them back now. She and Jophiel are in danger.
Todd: Danger? How? Why? What happened over there?
Ruin: We messed up. We were completely unprepared for how bad it had gotten in Faerie. And then I-- I--
Todd: What's wrong with you?
Ruin: I...hurt somebody. They were a bad person, but I hurt them, and I was so angry that I didn't care. And now I wonder if they were right. Brute and Glob. Matthew. All of them. Maybe I am evil. Maybe I can't be anything but evil, no matter how hard I try. What if this is all I have to give? What if all I have to offer the boy I saw is bad dreams?
Todd: I think you seem like a nice guy if it's any consolation.
Ruin: It's not enough. I can't be what I want. I can only be what I am. It's hopeless.
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Ben: Useless. Why do I keep trying? Huh? ... Azar! What are you doing here at this hour?
Azar: I need a favour, Ben. I left my work locker keys at a patient's house.
Ben: You went to a patient's house? Why?
Azar: It was complicated okay? Can you come with me? A lot of weird shit happened last time I was there. I'd feel better with some support.
Ben: Sure, sure. Just let me grab my coat.
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Jophiel: How do you know Todd will know when to get us out of here?
Heather After: I know because I cast synchronicity on him before we left!
Jophiel: You what?!
Heather After: I know, I know, you're not supposed to mess with cause and effect too much, or else you'll screw up the timeline. I--I did something else too.
Jophiel: Oh God, what now?
Heather After: You're gonna kill me, but if you can't put your finger on the scales in the name of love, what is the point --- I cast the same thing on Ruin. I just couldn't bear the idea of him never finding the man he loved. Sometimes you have to give destiny a little push, you know?
Jophiel: Can I tell you something?
Heather After: What?
Jophiel: So did I.
Heather After: What?!
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Todd: Did I do this right?
Ruin: Dream knew.
Todd: I don't think I did this right.
Ruin: He knew I can't really love. He was trying to spare my feelings.
Todd: I just sort of threw the acorn thingy at the floor... Could you get that? I need to concentrate.
Ruin: I don't think I've ever seen you concentrate. And you don't have to do all that stuff with your hands! The seed does all the work for you! They're probably tumbling between worlds right---now...
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Meanwhile
Heather After: I thought you said you hated Ruin! That he was the thing standing in the way of you getting back into heaven!
Jophiel: He was! But love is something sacred! So many people are never happy. I'm supposed to even the odds just a little in favour of happiness. That's my job. And if doing my job means I'll never get back home, then so be it.
Heather After: Huh?!
Jophiel: The choir. I can hear it. My siblings... calling me... I passed the test. I thought Ruin destroyed my chance of ever returning home. But he was the test itself.
Heather After: Wait! Stop! Will I ever see you again?!
Jophiel: I'm always there, Heather. Even when you can't see me. That's how it works. Farewell Heather After. Keep an eye on Ruin. You must have the courage to defend what you have brought forth. And watch your head.
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Azar: And you guys just let the nightmare thing hang out in your house?
Todd: Sure. He's a good guy once you get past the snakes and the goo. I--
Heather After: Todd?
Todd: Heather! Oh my God! We were so worried! Did you fix the Faerie stuff?
Heather After: Sort of yeah. Have you seen Ruin? Has he been through here recently?
Todd: Well, it's weird you should ask...
Azar: I had to swing by to pick up my keys. I brought a friend with me. Ruin opened the door, and then it was like---
Todd: Like--
Azar: --- Like they knew each other somehow. Like love at first sight.
Heather After: You mean I missed it?! Where are they now?
Todd: Ruin took him to the Dreaming. To be alone.
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Ben: It can't be. I'm making you up.
Ruin: Then don't stop. ...What am I saying. I shouldn't have brought you here. This is a mistake. A selfish one. You don't want anything to do with me. I'm something vile and evil. I've been trying to fight it, but--I see now what I really am.
Ben: I don't believe you. You're not evil. Not even close.
Ruin: You can't possibly know that. Look what happened when I was in your dream--I terrified you. I can remember your face. I turned you from the path you were meant to take.
Ben: I don't remember that part. I remember how frightened you were. I remember wanting to call out to you, to try to help, but then you were gone. It wasn't fear that made me leave the seminary. It was realizing. I wanted you more than I wanted that life. Don't leave again. Please.
Ruin: I'll try.
Dream: Ruin. I must speak with you.
Ruin: What do you want?
Dream: Don't make me say it in front of the boy.
Ruin: I haven't done anything wrong. We had an agreement.
Dream: Which has had unforeseen consequences. Allowing you to search for this boy has altered the fate of my own realm, and of Faerie, and of many mortal lives as well. I do not blame you for what has occurred, Ruin. For a creature without a heart, you have managed to follow yours most admirably. But that does not change the facts.
Ruin: I won't give him up.
Dream: I'm afraid you must. He must return to his own world, and you to yours.
Ben: Ruin? What's happening? What--
Ruin: No! Stop! Hnnggh!
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Heather After: And then, they made me their queen.
Azar: Wait, really?
Heather After: No, not really. I tried to convince them to give up monarchy altogether. But-- huh?! --- Ruin?! Where are we going?
Todd: ... I hate it when he does that.
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Heather After: Are you gonna tell me what's going on? Where are you taking me?
Ruin: Anywhere. Away.
Heather After: Okay, but why am I being kidnapped?
Ruin: Because you're the best wizard I've ever met. You have to help us. There must be a way to hide from him.
Heather After: Who?
Ruin: Dream, of course.
Heather After: So, the big guy has reneged on your deal. Interesting. I see the plot has thickened. And you're him, huh? The one so beautiful that a dream traded a chance to be with you for his own death? What's your name?
Ben: Benedict. Ben. Ruin's told me all about you.
Heather After: Nothing good, I hope. Okay, friends and neighbours. Stand back. This is liable to get messy.
Dream: You dare run from me? I who have been so patient, so merciful...
Heather After: That's close enough, Dream King. You made Ruin a promise.
Dream: Your loyalty to your friends is admirable, but this is absurd. You cannot possibly hope to best me.
Heather After: You have no idea what I--
Ben: Wait. Stop. I don't understand all of this, but I do know Ruin deserves another chance. He's convinced he's something dangerous and evil, that he's turned me from my path. But I made my own choices. I decided to leave that path before I even knew he was real. That's on me, not him.
Dream: You're very brave. And you're right. Ruin is not evil. He never was.
Ruin: I'm not?
Dream: No. You are a dream. You are terrifying, but in your terror lies a lesson--one from which the dreamer learns when they awake. They wake from you glad to be alive. You are not evil. You are necessary.
Heather After: Then why separate them? If Ruin hasn't really hurt anybody, why keep them apart?
Dream: Because there is no realm in which they can coexist without causing chaos. I will not go to war with the Unseelie or the Heavenly Host on Ruin's behalf.
Heather After: I just saw Jophiel get raptured or something for taking Ruin's side. You know what big-G God is like... They adore paradoxes. Heaven is going to be fine.
Dream: Nevertheless, the risk is too great. I know better than anyone what follows when a dream falls in love with a mortal being. Now get out of the way, or I will remove you myself.
Heather After: Sorry. Can’t.
Dream: What?
Heather After: I give you a coin I made from a stone. I give you a song I stole from the dirt. I give you a knife from under the hills.
Dream: What is this? How did you–
Heather After: And a feather I plucked from an angel’s wing. That last bit’s not an idle threat, either. I picked up this baby that last time Jophiel did his terrifying biblical thing.
Dream: How did you get that spell?
Heather After: My great-grandmother was more than just Burgess’s side piece. She was listening, and I listened to her. So here’s how it’s going to go: You’re going to let Ruin and Ben stay together, and I’ll never say the final stanzas of that spell.
Dream: You are making a mistake for which there is no forgiveness. Ruin will still be mortal. And your family and mine will once again be at war. It didn’t end well for you the last time.
Heather After: I’ll take that chance.
Dream: True love is rarely the happy ending of any story, Heather After. It’s tempting to believe, but the evidence of the centuries suggests otherwise.
Heather After: True. But that doesn’t mean we have permission to give up. In the end, this is all we have. Hope that this time, we’ve found something real. Something lasting. We have to protect it, come what may. Because this is what dreams are made of.
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