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SILVER: Tales from the Fringes of Reality. Episode 32 – Cowboy Wisdom.

SILVER: Morning, Whim! You know, you don’t have to get up with me to search for Minerva every day. You’ve more than earned your time to sleep in, and even if you hadn’t–

(footsteps)

XANDER: Pardon me for interruptin’. You’re Silver, right?

SILVER: I- Yes, yes I am. It’s good to see you again, Xander. Tia Mari–

XANDER: I just came from Mari’s room, was actually lookin’ for you. You’re the one who brought me back and I didn’t get a chance to say thank you yesterday.

SILVER: Oh. It’s fine, Xander, really. I’m just… I’m just glad that I was able to bring you back at all. My mom hinted that it might be possible for someone but I never would’ve dreamed that it would be you. Mari must be over the moon to see you after so long.

XANDER: It’s strange. Everyone talks about me bein’ gone like it’s been forever, but for me it felt like I was just asleep for a little while and then woke up to Mari in front of me, lookin’ as pretty as the last time I saw her. It feels like no time has passed at all, and yet I know that ain’t the case. It’s like the time just… slipped away without me knowin’.

SILVER: …I know what you mean, actually. When I was with Minerva… Sorry, you probably don’t want to hear this. I should get to work anyway.

XANDER: I’d be happy to listen if you’re lookin’ to share. Could be helpful to hear from someone who’s gone through something similar.

SILVER: My family says I was gone for about three and a half years before they found me. I was gone for… five years, maybe? At least from my perspective. It’s like time just… warped and was passing but I didn’t understand how it was passing or if it was passing at all. So kind of the opposite of what you went through, really. We both fell out of our proper time and it just… continued on without us, passing at rates we couldn’t understand.

(tapping) ‘You didn’t mention this before’ I’m sorry, Whim. I didn’t want to worry you.

XANDER: I’ve been awfully rude, haven’t I, didn’t even stop to get your name. Whim, was it? (tapping) ‘Yes. It’s nice to meet you, sir.’ Oh, don’t go fussin’ with all that ‘sir’ business. Call me Xander or Xan or anything other than ‘sir’. You’ll make me feel older than I am and the only thing I can hold over Mari’s head is that I’m younger than her. 

SILVER: (smiling despite themself) It is a little hard to be older than an immortal. 

XANDER: You’re damn right it is. But I shouldn’t wander too far from the point at hand: Whim… They’re kinda like your me, right? The two of you are tied like me and Mari?

SILVER: Yeah. Yeah we are.

XANDER: One thing I learned early on in my time with Marigold is that it’s hard to hide things from the people you love because they’ll always find out something is wrong and worry anyway. Your family, your Whim, they’re gonna worry either way, kid. At least if you’re honest with them, they know what they’re being worried about. (tapping) ‘It’s true’ See! They get it. And I know you would be worried about them too if they weren’t tellin’ you somethin’.

SILVER: …You’re right, you’re right. I guess I just… My time with Minerva is why we’re in this mess. She’s why we’re in this mess. And I don’t want it to become all that I am, all that my relationship with my family is. We’re all looking for her, but what happens to me when we find her?

XANDER: (gently) Listen here, kid: you’re more than the worst thing that has happened to you. If I know that, then your family certainly does too. Once y’all find Minerva and deal with her, things will go back to… Not exactly how they were before, but you’ll develop a new normal. A new way to exist together and the pieces will fit back into place without having to be forced. I’m not the same me than Mari lost, and she’s not the same her that was here when I left; that doesn’t mean that we’re always going to be stuck chasin’ after what we were before I faded. We’re going to forge ahead on a new path together, just like you and Whim and your family will. You’ll all move forward together stronger than you were before. I promise you, kid, it’s gonna be okay.

SILVER: I–

SPARROW: (distant) Silver?

SILVER: I should go. Thank you, Xander. For what you said. If you need anything, I’ll be around.

(quick footsteps)

XANDER: I don’t think he believed me, did he? (tapping) ‘Not yet, but hopefully in time’. Yeah, hopefully. You’ve got quite the bit of wisdom in you, don’t you, Whim? With all that wisdom, you ought to have a hat like mine. Actually, here– (gives Whim a cowboy hat) I can get another one with Mari later, but Silver needs some cowboy wisdom right now and you’re the best one to give it to them. Why don’t you run along after her? I’m sure you’ve got better things to do than sit here with me, and besides, I should get back to Mari before she wakes up. 

(footsteps)

ALASDAIR: We think we’ve found another bit of Minerva’s handiwork. Do you mind helping us out?

SILVER: What makes you think it’s Min’s?

SPARROW: The same person has been… Jumped around a bit in rather quick succession. 

ALASDAIR: It seems like Minerva has picked a target she can actually track. If we can remove whatever tracing she has on him, then maybe we can find out how she did it. Make sure that she can’t track anyone else.

SPARROW: You’ve always been better at putting people back into place than myself or Alasdair; truly you take after your father in that regard. But if you’re not up to it–

SILVER: No. No, I’m up for it, I promise. Let me just– Oh, Whim. Have you been here the whole time? Is that… Did Xander give you his cowboy hat? (tapping) ‘It’s for cowboy wisdom’ I’m not even going to ask. Are you up for sitting with me while I take a look for this person? (tapping) ‘Always am’. Thanks, Whim. 

I’m ready. Do we have a file? 

(clicking)

BRIAN: Goddamn, that never gets more comfortable, does it? I wonder if I’ll get to walk around at all this time before being sent somewhere else– fuck, that hurt. (pause) Well, I’m not being zapped somewhere else. Or, well. I assume it’s somewhere else.

WINONA: Do you always talk to yourself this much?

BRIAN: Jesus christ!

WINONA: Not sure who or what that is, but I’m assuming it’s not an answer to my question. So, seriously, do you always talk to yourself this much or…?

BRIAN: I… No, but it’s been an incredibly strange… day? Days? Time is passing and I don’t know how it’s passing.

WINONA: Hmm… Well, I suppose that’s fair enough. So, what’s your name, where’d you come from, and where are your wings?

BRIAN: My wings? (sound of wings flapping) Oh! Christ, how tired am I that I didn’t notice you had wings, I– My name is Brian, I’m from Dublin– well, I live in Dublin but I’m from the States and you probably don’t know what this means, huh? And my wings don’t exist because people don’t have wings where I’m from.

WINONA: Then how do you fly?

BRIAN: In an airplane usually. It’s like… One of the airlines calls it a big metal bird–

WINONA: And what, praytell, is a bird?

BRIAN: (brain short circuiting) You have wings but no birds? 

WINONA: Well, it sounds like you have birds but no wings–

BRIAN: I mean I don’t have wings but other things do. Like birds and planes and bugs… I guess if you don’t have birds or planes– well, what about bugs?

WINONA: Can you describe either a bird or a bug? With any words other than ‘bird’ or ‘bug’? 

BRIAN: Here, I have some bird pictures on my phone– (small zapping sound) Which doesn’t work. Cool cool cool. Um… A bird is kind of like you but– actually here. (sounds of drawing in the dirt) That’s a bird.

WINONA: Hmm… It almost looks like the werecreature equivalent of a fairy. What about bugs?

BRIAN: There are a lot of kinds of bugs and honestly I don’t think it’s worth describing them all. You don’t have birds or bugs and you do have wings and I do not and I don’t know where I am so do you happen to know where we are?

WINONA: Of course I know where I am–

BRIAN: Great, can you–

WINONA: (friendliness fading into mischief) But you are unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. What do I get for telling you where you are? Do you really think you can find your way home even if you know where you are? Don’t you just want to… Follow me?

BRIAN: What? I– No, I just… I just…

WINONA: Come on, Brian, that’s it. Just a little deeper under. You just want to come with and meet the queen, right? So she can figure out what to do with you?

BRIAN: (struggling against his own mind) No, I don’t, I want to go home, I– A game!

WINONA: What?

BRIAN: Let’s play a game! If I win, you set me free and tell me where we are. If you win–

WINONA: Then you get sent to the queen and she’ll get to decide what’s the best thing to do with you. Alright, Brian, I’ll play your game. And when I win, well… You might get lucky, she might want a new plaything. But more likely you’ll be more meat for the grinder. You called for a game, dear one, it seems only fair that I get to pick, doesn’t it?

BRIAN: N-no that– God, you’re messing with my head again, aren’t you? Fine, you pick the game but I get to set the ground rule of no magic.

WINONA: (pouting) You’re no fun. But it would never serve me to be a poor host, so fine. No magic. Just you, me, (finger snap) And a puzzle box. Inside yours is the name of this place, inside mine is a pair of manacles. May the best win.

(sounds of twisting wood)

BRIAN: You know, you never told me your name.

WINONA: That’s by design, dear Brian. You shouldn’t have told me yours; it’s like your mother never told you not to talk to fairies. 

BRIAN: It’s not really an issue I have where I live.

WINONA: But it is, isn’t it? Dublin, you said, right? Oh yes, I know quite a few portals to quite a few Dublins. I bet you stumbled into a fairy circle with your own stupidity. But it’s alright, Brian, I’m sure someone will be sent back in your place so it’s like you never left at all.

BRIAN: Yeah– (clicking sound) It will be me.

WINONA: What? No, that’s not possible–

BRIAN: The Realm of Twisted Briars. Feels right for a fey realm, I suppose. 

WINONA: If you think I’m going to let you go–

(click)

SILVER: Glad I found him before she could do… Whatever it was she was going to do. There’s a bit of magic entwined around his file, Alasdair. I’ve pulled it off and he seems to be staying in place.

ALASDAIR: A tracking spell. Like a proper one. How did she manage that? Before when she tried to cast we got… Well, what happened with your heartline. She shouldn’t be able to cast at all, and not with this much precision. 

SPARROW: Unless she wasn’t intending to cast a tracking spell. You said it before, Al, the magic done on the heartline was wrong; maybe this is a bastardization of something else.

ALASDAIR: I’m not sure that there is anything else this could have been. And why the Twisted Briars of all places? Why this person who, by all accounts, was just living a normal life? What was she targeting?

SILVER: …He’s from my aunts’ reality. This could be holdover from when she moved Tia Rosalina; maybe she was trying to track her and managed to cast things right on the wrong person. Stars above, this is all my fault–

SPARROW: Woah, woah, hey, kiddo. This is not your fault.

SILVER: If I had just stayed with Minerva– if I had just continued to forget and be there with her–

ALASDAIR: Then she still would’ve done something like this anyway, Silver. She was moving people all over the place to try to throw us off your trail. Even if you were still with her, it wouldn’t make her better. It would just make things worse for you.

SILVER: You don’t know that. 

SPARROW: Silver–

SILVER: None of you know that for sure. But I know that she’s been doing even worse things than before because I left. I left her there to die and now she’s taking her revenge on innocent people–

XANDER: Hold your horses there, partner. These are some pretty intense leaps you’re making.

ALASDAIR: (tapping) ‘I thought Xander might be able to help’ It was a good call, Whim. I think hearing things from a new person and perspective might help set things right in Silver’s mind.

SPARROW: Stars know he’s already heard it enough from us. Are you sure you’re up for this, Xander?

XANDER: I’m sure. Mari went to find Opal after Whim woke the two of us back up– don’t apologize, you did the right thing, cowboy. If y’all don’t mind giving us some privacy though, I’m sure the others would want to be filled in on what happened.

ALASDAIR: You’re right. Just… Make sure she’s okay, Xander. 

(footsteps)

XANDER: Now, you wanna tell me why you’re taking the weight of the world onto your shoulders?

SILVER: She’s doing all of this to find me. All of this. The moving people, the tracing spells, the pain and suffering of being dropped into places that you’re never supposed to see– She took my aunt. She took Sapphire. She’s going after people who are close to us in addition to the average person in reality so she can send a message. Who knows who else she would take, what else she would do, if it meant she could get me back? If I just went back– 

XANDER: People would still get hurt if you went back, kid. Even if Minerva stops moving people in reality, do you think your family could handle that? Do you think you could handle that?

SILVER: Better me suffering than everyone else in reality. If I had just listened to her to begin with I wouldn’t be in this mess. If I just tried harder to understand, to accommodate, to be there for her… (tapping) ‘You were there for her as much as you could be’ But she didn’t think so. She needed me more and I wasn’t there for her–

XANDER: You can’t put everyone else’s feelings above your own all the time, Silver. It’s not reasonable to expect and it’s not healthy to do. You were Minerva’s friend, but how often was she a friend to you? 

SILVER: …It’s different.

XANDER: But it shouldn’t be. A good friend wouldn’t do this to you, Silver.

SILVER: I’m all she’s ever had–

XANDER: And that’s her own damn fault. I know for a fact that Opal and Alasdair didn’t confine her to that room and would’ve jumped at the chance to make her portable so you could explore reality. She was meant to learn and grow with you, not to keep you here. Your family never wanted you to be trapped, but clearly she did and that’s not your fault. Nothin’ you did made what she’s doing okay. Not a damn thing.

SILVER: I’m scared, Xander.

XANDER: It’s gonna be okay, kid. I promise. We ain’t gonna let anythin’ happen to you and we’re gonna stop her from doin’ anythin’ to anyone else. 

SILVER: And if we can’t?

XANDER: We can.

SILVER: But–

XANDER: We can. Trust your local cowboy, alright? It’s gonna be okay.