Matt broke a lot of traffic rules on the way to the Saitous'street. Meredith leaned on the console between the two front seats so that she could see the digital clock ticking down to midnight, and so that she could watch the transformation of Mrs. Flowers. At last her recently sane, sensible mind forced words out of her mouth. "Mrs. Flowers - you're changing."
"Yes, Meredith, dear. Some of it is due to the little present that Sage left for me. Some of it is my own wil - to return to the days when I was in my prime. I believe that this wil be my last fight, so I don't mind using al my energy in it. Fel 's Church must be saved."
"But - Mrs. Flowers - the people here - Well, they haven't always been - exactly nice - "Matt stammered his way to a stop.
"The people here are like people everywhere,"Mrs. Flowers said calmly. "Treat them as you'd like to be treated, and things wil be fine. It was only when I'd let myself become a bitter, lonely old woman, always resentful of the fact that I had had to turn my home into a boardinghouse just to make ends meet, that people began to treat me - Well, at best as a loony old hag."
"Oh, Mrs. Flowers - and we've been such a bother to you!"Meredith found the words coming without her volition.
"You've been the saving of me, child. Dear Stefan was the start, but as you can imagine, he didn't want to explain al his little differences to me, and I was suspicious of him. But he was always cordial and respectful and Elena was like sunlight, and Bonnie like laughter. Eventual y, when I dropped my hidebound barriers, so did you young ones. I won't say more about those who are present so as not to embarrass you, but you've done me a world of good."
Matt ran another stop sign and cleared his throat. Then, the steering wheel wavering slightly, he cleared his throat again.
Meredith took over. "I think what Matt and I both want to say is...Well, it's that you've become very special to us, and we don't want to see you get hurt. This battle - "
"Is a battle for al I hold dear. For al my memories. Back when I was a child and the boardinghouse was built - it was just a home, then, and I was very happy. As a young woman, I was very happy. And now that I have lived long enough to be an old woman - Well, besides you children, I Stillhave friends like Sophia Alpert and Orime Saitou. They are both healing women, and very good at it. We Stilltalk about different uses for my herbs."
Matt snapped his fingers. "That's another reason I was confused,"he said. "Because Dr. Alpert said that you and Mrs. Saitou were such good people. I thought she meant the old Mrs. Saitou - "
"Who is not a 'Mrs. Saitou'at all,"Mrs. Flowers said, almost sharply. "I have no idea what her name real y is - perhaps she is real y Inari, a deity gone bad. Ten years ago, I didn't know what made Orime Saitou suddenly so diffident and quiet. Now I realize that it began just around the time her
'mother'moved in with her. I was quite fond of young Isobel, but she suddenly became - aloof - in an unchildlike way.
Now I understand. And I am determined to fight for her - and for you - and for a town that is worth saving. Human lives are very, very precious. And now - here we are."
Matt had just turned onto the Saitous'block. Meredith took a moment to openly stare at the figure in the front passenger seat. "Mrs. Flowers!"she exclaimed.
This made Matt turn to stare in his turn and what he saw made him clip a Volkswagen Jetta parked by the sidewalk.
"Mrs.... Flowers?"
"Please park now, Matt. You needn't cal me Mrs. Flowers if you don't want to. I have returned to the time when I was Theophilia - when my friends cal ed me Theo."
"But - how - why - ?"Matt stuttered.
"I told you. I felt that it was time. Sage left me a gift that helped me change. An enemy beyond your powers to fight has arisen. I felt this back at the boardinghouse. This is the time that I have been waiting for. The last battle with the true enemy of Fel 's Church."
Meredith's heart actual y seemed ready to fly out of her chest. She had to be calm - calm and logical. She had seen magic many times. She knew the look of it, the feel of it. But frequently she had been too busy comforting Bonnie, or too worried about aiding Bonnie to take in what she was facing.
Now, it was just her and Matt - and Matt had a stricken, stupefied look, as if he hadn't seen enough magic before. As if he might crack.
"Matt,"she said loudly, and then even louder, "Matt!" He turned, then, to look at her, with his blue eyes wild and dark.
"They'l kill her, Meredith!"he said. "Shinichi and Misao - you don't know what it feels like..."
"Come on,"Meredith said. "We have to make sure that it doesn't kil her."
The dazed look passed from Matt's eyes. "We have to do this,"he agreed simply.
"Right,"said Meredith, final y releasing him. Together they got out of the car to stand by Mrs. Flowers - no, by Theo.
Theo had hair that hung almost to her waist; so fair that it looked silver in the moonlight. Her face was - electrifying. It was young; young and proud, with classic features and a look of quiet determination.
Somehow during the drive, her clothes had changed too.
Instead of a coat covered with bits of paper, she was wearing a sleeveless white gown that ended in a slight train.
In style, it reminded Meredith a little of the "mermaid"dress she herself had worn when going to a bal in the Dark Dimension. But Meredith's dress had only made her look sultry. Theo looked...magnificent.
As for the Post-it Note amulets...somehow the paper had disappeared and the writing had grown enormously, changing into very large scrawls that wrapped around the white gown. Theo was literal y swathed in haute couture arcane protection.
And although she was reed slender, she was tal . Tal er than Meredith, tal er than Matt, tal er than Stefan, wherever he was in the Dark Dimensions. She was this tal not only because she had grown so much, but because the train of her dress was just brushing the ground. She had entirely overcome gravity. The whip, Sage's present to her, was coiled into a circle attached to her waist, shining as silver as her hair.
Matt and Meredith simultaneously closed the SUV's doors.
Matt left the engine running for a quick getaway.
They walked around the garage so that they could see the front of the house. Meredith, not caring what she looked like or whether she seemed cool or in control, wiped her hands, one and then the other, on her jeans. This was the stave's first - and possibly only - true battle. What counted was not appearance, but performance.
Both she and Matt stopped dead when they saw the figure standing at the bottom of the steps in front of the porch. It was no one they could identify from the house. But then the crimson lips opened, the delicate hands flew up to cover them, and wind-chime laughter came from somewhere behind the hands.
For a moment they could only stare, fascinated, at this woman who was dressed al in black. She was ful y as tal as Theo, ful y as slender and graceful, and she was floating equal y high off the ground. But what Meredith and Matt were staring at was the fact that her hair was like Misao's or Shinichi's - but reversed. Whereas they had black hair with a crimson fringe on the bottom, this woman had crimson hair -
yards and yards of it, with a black fringe al around it. Not only that, but she had delicate black fox ears emerging from the crimson hair, and a long sleek crimson tail, tipped with black.
"Obaasan?"Matt gasped in disbelief.
"Inari!"Meredith snapped.
The lovely creature didn't even look at them. She was staring at Theo in contempt. "Tiny witch of a tiny town,"she said.
"You've used nearly al your Power just to stand up to my level. What good are you?"
"I have very smal Powers,"Theo agreed. "But if the town is worthless, why has it taken you so long to destroy it? Why have you watched others try - or were they all your pawns, Inari? Katherine, Klaus, poor young Tyler - were they your pawns, Kitsune Goddess?"
Inari laughed - Stillthat chiming, girlish giggling, behind her fingers. "I don't need pawns! Shinichi and Misao are my bond-servants, as al kitsune are! If I have left them some freedom, it has been so they can get experience. We'l go on to larger cities now, and ravage them."
"You have to take Fel 's Church first,"Theo said steadily. "And I won't let you do that."
"You Stilldon't understand, do you? You are a human, with almost no Power left! Mine is the largest star bal in the worlds! I am a Goddess!"
Theo lowered her head, then lifted it to look Inari in the eyes.
"Do you want to know what I think the truth is, Inari?"she said.
"I think that you have come to the end of a long, long, but not immortal life. I think you have dwindled so that at last you need to use a great deal of Power from your star bal -
wherever it is - to appear this way. You are a very, very ancient woman and you have been setting children against their own parents, and parents against children across the world because you envy the children's youth. You have even come to envy Shinichi and Misao, and let them be hurt, as revenge."
Matt and Meredith looked at each other with wide eyes. Inari was breathing rapidly, but it seemed she couldn't think of anything to say.
"You've even pretended to have entered a 'second childhood'to behave girlishly. But none of it satisfies you, because the plain, sad truth is that you have come to the end of your long, long lifetime - no matter how great your Power.