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The Magic Box, Monday

The party had been a grand success! Unfortunately, as was always true after a grand party, real life came creeping back in much too fast afterwards. And now Eliot was back to working. Both retail and looking for an answer on how to get back to Fillory.

He'd been staring at a book about fairy portals for the last 20 minutes without managing to process literally anything in it.

"This is going to be like time travel, isn't it," he said to no one at all with a sigh. "It'll only really make any sense when I'm on peyote."

[open! save Eliot from the dreadful fate of research]

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Jon probably looked as if he hadn't slept in a few days, mostly because he hadn't. But he knew Eliot worked here, and he probably owed him a bit of an explanation, so he was peeking in and knocking at the door frame as he looked around.

"I'm curious if any of the things here are actually supernatural," he remarked skeptically, looking at some of the crystals.

"Yes," Eliot said simply, looking up from his book with a look of relief. "But most of it doesn't have any intrinsic power by itself."

"Ah." Jon stuffed his hands in his pockets, just in case. "It's difficult sometimes to know. With all the different systems and worlds, few of which seem to be consistent with each other."

"I'm noticing that," Eliot admitted, looking down at his book with a sigh and flipping it closed. "God forbid anything operate with some degree of consistency."

Jon grimaced in sympathy. "Still not finding anything useful, I take it."

"You take it correctly." Eliot shook his head. "Fillory has been locked away. Quentin and our other friends on our Earth likewise. So Margo and I are left twiddling our thumbs, which she is extremely bad at."

Jon smiled. "Somehow that doesn't surprise me." He gestured at the book. "Would you, um. That is, I was a researcher for years, so if you think it'd be a help, I could go through some things, too."

Eliot looked him over.

“Of course you were.” He slid the book towards Jon. “By all means, give it a go.”

Jon shrugged as he picked up the book. "It would be nice to be helpful with my own skills for once. I hope you can explain what we're looking for."

“A portal,” Eliot said. “Or a wormhole or a goddamn magical bridge maybe. Or someone who can make one. Someone we can bribe with money or magic or sexual favors. . . .”

It was possible part of Eliot’s problem was that his scale was too big.

"Have you spoken to...that is, there's a place in town that uses portals to go everywhere. Though for all I know, they could claim 'trade secrets' or something."

He assumed that if Portalocity could get Eliot and Margo there, the gnomes would already have done so or been wrung into pretzels by Margo.

"What, that place with the gnomes? Yeah, they weren't any more helpful than the rabbits have been."

Jon made a face and started thumbing through the book. "Well, I'm happy to help with whatever I can, even if it's only weeding out the useless books."

He checked a few pages, then glanced up at Eliot. "Erm...speaking of magic, about Friday."

"Hm?" Eliot looked up at him with a frown. "What about it?"

"Well, I, uh - for one thing, the suit did look much better!" Jon said, trying a smile. "I'm not exactly sure what you did, but it really did help, so thank you for that."

“I made it actually fit you,” Eliot said, waving a hand. “And tweaked the fashion a smidge.”

"...If you say so." Jon was totally willing to take your word for that, Eliot. He'd thought it had been fine before all that, so what did he know?

"But, um." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I, uh, wanted to apologise for after, for going a bit..." He waved his hand vaguely, not really sure what it had looked like from the other end. "...whatever."

“Did you have fun?” Eliot asked.

Jon thought about it. "Erm...yes, I think so. A bit disconcerted, but yes." He winced. "Well, until Saturday."

"Hangover?" Eliot guessed.

"A little," Jon acknowledged. "But more...ah. It turns out that when a combination of magic and alcohol partially blocks my connection to the Eye, the, erm, blowback is less than pleasant." He winced.

Eliot’s eyes went wide. “The evil eye actually worked?”

"Not entirely, which is..." Jon sighed. "Probably a good thing, unfortunately. Only it made things harder to...to reach? It's difficult to explain. A bit like being really drunk, but not physically."

He winced. "And then I spent most of the next day with a hangover and having knowledge of the entire world shoved into my head nonstop."

Eliot frowned.

“. . . Ouch.”

Jon huffed in laughter. "Yes, so maybe let's move that one to 'good to know if you need help against me' and out of 'things to do for fun'. Even if it was nice to be able to ask questions."

He gestured with the book. "This seems mostly to involve finding existing portals rather than creating one, unless you could find a fairy. I don't know if there are any of this sort of fairy on the island, although I wouldn't rule anything out."

"I honestly didn't expect it to do anything. Other than the little luck spell. Which apparently didn't do much at all."

Eliot sighed. "Yes. Well, it was a fairy who sent me here, so it seemed like it'd be worth a shot."

"It was probably the combination of that and the drink itself that caused it," Jon said. He shrugged. "Call it a lucky combination, then. For a little while, anyway."

He turned a few more pages thoughtfully. "I don't suppose your fairy has a cell phone."

“No one in Fillory has a cell phone. Except maybe Josh. And don’t think we haven’t tried calling.”

"Pity, but I suppose that would be too easy."

He frowned. "I wonder how the bunnies get from one dimension to another."

“Same way certain animals in Fillory talk,” Eliot said with a sigh. “Ember thought it would be funny.”

Jon rolled his eyes. "Charming. And undoubtedly unteachable. Hm. Wait, couldn't you...I would think the bunnies could take a message to coordinate with your fairies to open something. They must have had a way they expected you to return."

Eliot sighed. “You’d think so, wouldn’t you. Thus far, however, attempting to send bunnies back has been less than useful.”

Yeah, they’d covered the obvious answers already, Jon.

Well, Jon did figure that, but...hm. Maybe if he just said that.

"I'm curious the reason for that," he said. "Knowing precisely what's going wrong might help find answers."

“I’d say you could try asking the bunnies, but they’ve been less than forthcoming. Even when I offered my best cigarettes.”

"Perhaps," Jon said, "but I do have a bit of an advantage at questioning the recalcitrant. As long as they're not likely to maim me for it," he added.

"Your spirit, perhaps," Eliot said. "But probably not worse than that."

"I imagine it's been dealt worse blows," Jon said. "So, if you'd like, let me know. And I can see if the school's library has anything useful, too."

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The Magic Box, Monday

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