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As soon as ain No s thrashed for a moment until I remembered how to use them I treaded water and looked around

"Over here, child," Mab’s voice called She sat on the shore, no more than thirty yards away I swam toward her in a slow breaststroke Too slow But when I dove beneath the water,as aNoas reduced to cluot my feet under me and waded to my aunt She sat on the sand, her knees drawn up and her arms wrapped around her shins Water dripped from her hair and ran down her face in rivulets Her scowl remained in place She looked funny, but her expression killed any urge to giggle

"Are you on so?" she asked, her voice cross

"It’s just a sleeping pill, the kind I give clients" I conjured a towel and handed it to Mab so she could dry her hair "Bedtime isn’t for hours, and I needed to talk to you"

"I’ to communicate while under the influence, so I’ll spare you the lecture Here’s your towel" She handed ain, and this ti you didn’t rub your hair with this" The idea of Mab, her hair coated with tos of cheese, was just toothe pizza It sprouted four legs and a head and grew a hard green shell, then luhter subsided to hiccups, and I felt a little ry, and that pizza had looked good A whiff of oregano and garlic hung in the air

"Enough nonsense," Mab snapped Kind of like a turtle, actually I covered hter inside She was still dripping, and the phrase ht about what it meant before; now I had a very vivid picture to last ed atuse--in which case I’ll be on my way"

"No, Mab, don’t go I’m sorry There was a reason, an important one" I couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was My mind was croithturtles and towels that turned into pizzas I stalled while I tried to find the thread that brought me here "Why are you all wet?" Her scowl deepened "No, wait What Ifor words in a bowl of alphabet soup "How come you’re here, inside my drearound, a kind of borderland between the participants’ psyches In a typical dreas (day or night--Mab was the only person I kneho could place and receive calls while awake) In the saht’s situation was entirely new tothe pill you took It ood when you enter a client’s dreaood for this fornal of your call came as usual--your colors rose up in a mist--but when I answered I foundbeside a ht have been a sed at her mouth "Most unexpected, I assure you It took ather atherto reet to ten, I promised gy went to led y stayed ho of their own accord I watched, fascinated This little piggy had--My toes turned into pigs Miniature ones They remained attached to

Cool

"Mab, do you see that?" I pointed at ht toes"

"Child" The sharpness of Mab’s voice silenced the pigs and turned them back into toes "Look at me"

I did She wasn’t wet anymore, but she still looked mad I lowered my eyes, ashamed of my spaciness

Mab held my face in her hands "Look at ht I could do that Mab’s eyes are blue, not amber like mine In her irises, I could see both the blue and the silver that make up her colors Pretty My aunt had been a beautiful woman once upon a tiht-stretched rubber band breaking My gaze locked onto hers She reeled me into a world of blue and silver For aline, but then all ireat blue-and-silver flash

I blinked, and the colors cleared I felt ain, and her face came into focus

"How do you feel, child?" She watchedwellspring of giggles My head felt clearer, too

"Better Good, actually What did you do?"

"I drew out sohts"

"You did? Are you okay?"