Mom was the one who had wanted to go to Baba's for dinner. Myra didn't really care; Baba's didn't have anything she could eat, but it was Mom's choice tonight. Tomorrow they'd go somewhere where they had a kitchen garden and she could order something where she could eat more than the garnish.

They were sitting at their table, Mom digging into her lasagna, while Myra picked the bean sprouts off her salad and fed the other greens, refrigerated for over a week she'd judge, to Ludin. The chimerical raven often ate the parts of her meals that Myra didn't want. He wasn't nearly as picky as her, though they shared a favorite food in earthworms.

Bright colors caught Myra's eye and she turned to look at the group at a nearby table. If her mother had looked, which she didn't, being too busy eating, she'd have seen a scruffy teenage boy dining with a couple in their s. The man had blue dress slacks and turtleneck; the woman had black jeans and a white shirt.

But what Myra saw in the Dreaming was a bit different. The woman had a puffy translucent top with a bolero jacket; below the waist fur covered her legs thickly. The man was still all in blue, but his shirt was sparkling and frilly, his legs encased in hose rather than pants. And the green-haired teenager wore a surreal suit of armor and space goggles.

Myra whispered to Ludin, "Look at that. Who are those people?" Ludin, mischieveously mistaking this curiosity for a command, flew directly over and landed on the table where the three sat.

The chimerical raven looked at each in turn. The woman said, "Hello, little one." She looked friendly.

"The boss wants to know who you critters are," Ludin told her. Myra could have died of embarassment. The sparkly one was probably a noble, even.

The satyr woman said her name was Sarabeth. She asked Ludin who he was. "I'm a raven. Listen to this: Nevermore," Ludin squawked at her. She laughed prettily. He liked her.

Myra had to get over there before Ludin caused even more trouble. She told Mom she thought she knew the teenager from school. Mom told her to go say hi, and was pleasantly surprised that Myra actually got up and went over to the other teen. Maybe her daughter was finally overcoming that shyness, she thought, and dug back into her lasagna.

After she introduced herself and apologized for Ludin's rudeness, the guy in blue invited her to join them. Myra thought she would. She still didn't know who they were, though she had heard the woman tell Ludin she was Sarabeth. As she sat down, the guy in blue said, "I am Conrad D'Carte, a Baron in the service of Count Dartmouth." Yep, she'd been right, a noble.

After introducing himself, Conrad turned to the teenage nocker. "Well, your noxious insect has shown up once more begging for help. This time to Sarabeth. He calls himself Shimmer." The sidhe then looked to Myra. "Your kin are famous for possessing secrets and information in general. Do you know anything of an inanimate court?" Then back to the green-haired nocker. "Are you interested in looking for the butterfly and the court?"

Wow, the sidhe sure talked a lot. Myra thought of the manikin she'd met in the mall. The butterfly he'd talked about had been named Shimmer. She nodded to the sidhe. Then she leaned over and whispered in his ear, "Effigy Dream." That was what Cyan had said the court had been called.

Ludin took an opportunity to pipe up with a complaint about Shimmer. "I flew my wings off, up and down that shopping mall, didn't see the flutterby once," he squawked irritably. Myra shushed the raven immediately. If he didn't watch out he'd give away secrets that weren't his to reveal. Ludin grumpily ruffed his feathers and subsided.

Sarabeth looked a bit distracted by a man who'd come in and sat down at the bar. The nocker told Conrad he was indeed interested in the search, then said he was having a case of deja-vu. Myra noted this with interest. She wondered what the nocker's name was. The nocker asked the satyr if she was an adventurer; the satyr replied that she was in fact an actress. Myra filed all the information away for later musings.

As the others conversed further, Myra learned a lot. The butterfly had come to the nocker and suggested he could help find the inanimae's court. Then it had gone to Sarabeth and asked her help as well. Conrad asked Ludin if he'd ever caught sight of the butterfly, but the raven had not, and said so briefly. Conrad concluded his summary with "The question is: Do we want to help Shimmer discover the court? As an adventurer, would you be willing to lead an expedition to do so?" The last question seemed directed at the nocker. So he was an adventurer, or fancied himself one anyway. Myra found this interesting. The nocker gave the sidhe an odd look and said he would, asking why the sidhe had suggested it.

Myra thought, though, that Cyan had told her that the court had been destroyed by the Dragon Host and was no more. These folks should know if they were going questing for it. She whispered to the others, "Isn't any more Effigy Dream court. Dragon Host got 'em."

Nearly simultaneously, the satyr and sidhe said, "The Dragon Host?"

Myra shook her head. She was not going to say another word about the Dragon Host.

"OK. I think this is worth going into, for fun if nothing else," the nocker said with a grin, flipping a green dreadlock out of his eyes. "But we need somewhere to start." He turned to Myra. "You know something it seems. Are you interested in finding these here puppets, or do you think they're all wasted?"

"Both," Myra whispered, looking at her hands folded on the table.

"Well, if they're undone then no point looking," the nocker said.

"And if they aren't...?" the satyr asked softly.

They all agreed she had a point; they should at least try. Myra knew Cyan had survived, maybe there were another one or two of them separated; they could tell them how to find each other and it would be some consolation for the loss of their court, she thought.

Conrad reached into his briefcase and pulled out some papers, sliding them over to the nocker. It was a transcript of his conversation with the chimeral butterfly. Myra moved around behind the green-haired teenager and read the transcript over his shoulder. Apparently the Effigy Dream had had a Countess in addition to its Lord Piphitias. She wondered if they had been a couple.

The transcript also held the location where the butterfly called home - the same store in which Myra had first seen Cyan. The sidhe seemed to think the store had recently gone out of business. At this point, Myra reluctantly had to go. Her mother had finished eating and was growing impatient for her return. She stood, taking her leave of the others and made her way back to Mom's table. Ludin stayed a few more minutes, listening to the fae plan their moves, before returning to Myra's table once more to finish off her salad.