Andrea made her way down the large main hall. She took the long way because she wanted to linger at one of her favorite spots; it was her good luck charm—the last she had. The main hall led to a dead end that branched left and right. Once she was in the center, she looked up.

Two workers stood high up on ladders. The younger one smiled as he stared at the portrait.

"Wow. That's one handsome bastard. I'll give him that."

The other worker on the right folded his arms with a chuckle. "You sound surprised by the simplest things." While the young man stared on, his colleague went to work, rummaging through the various silver gadgets attached to his belt. "Other Topsiders who come down here don't seem as easily impressed."

When the young man didn't answer, the older man asked, "Ian, did you hear me?"

A curtain of long black hair whipped around as the man nodded. "Yeah. Sorry." Ian started to mimic the other worker's actions, searching through his own belt. "I'm not from Topside, really."

"Not from the surface, eh?" Ian grunted a response, and the man retrieved a thin twelve-inch rod and held it up. "Not from below, and not from above. Did you spontaneously come into being then? What else is there?"

In the back of Andrea's mind she knew she should find an interface to check the time, but she was curious as to where the man might be from. She inched closer to the wall and hid behind a pillar.

"Ireland."

"Off the island?"

Ian nodded.

"That's a new one. Usually it's Lowlanders and Topsiders trying to get off. Never heard of people coming in. Not lately, anyway."

"It's a long story."

"Ireland, you said? Is that in Asia, then?" the older man asked. "I know about Asia. When I was young, they used to show broadcasts here and there. But then people started wanting to go there and the whole thing got messy." After he made the proper adjustments by twisting the object, he tapped it twice with the back of his middle finger. "People hunting down E's, trying to get a wish or some nonsense like that."

"Nonsense?" Ian muttered. "They...so they ain't magic? 'Cause I wanna leave, too, you know? I wanna go back home."

"Oh? You do, huh?" The man reached up to touch the painting, but he hesitated with a shudder. "Well, maybe you might. But E's have limitations. This school must be doing better than I thought if they can afford one let alone two E's. But I'm thinking it's because of this guy why they've come."

Andrea's heart swelled with pride as she looked up at them. She was sure they were admiring the strength in the figure, framed in what appeared to be wood. It wasn't real wood, and Andrea thought if she had the money, she really would go the extra mile to get something imported from Topside. Her grandfather deserved that much.

"Who's this handsome devil, anyhow?"

"Devil is right."

Though aware that her presence was unknown, Andrea was shocked by the harsh words.

"I think the Devil himself would be afraid of this one," the older man continued.

"What? Why? He seems like a nice kid—"

"You're joking. This kid was well into his nineties when he kicked it. And not soon enough, if you ask me."

Ian glanced to the man beside him, wonder in his voice. "But this date says last year. Look, the artist even wrote it in: the fifty-fifth year of the third passing. There's no way in hell this bastard was ninety."

The man lowered his voice, and said, "Spooky things go on in this place. So keep on your toes."

Ian didn't seem quite as worried. "Anything going bump in the night? I've heard about imps and such, too, but I ain't ever seen one." He hurried to add, "Thought I saw an E once, but I was wrong."

The older man reached up to touch the frame, careful in his grip. "Why you say that?"

"Well, E's can't touch nobody. And they can't have sex. That's what I keep hearing. And back there they just said it again. Right? But this guy I saw, hair blue as hell, he's there just basically trying to dry hump this woman into the wall while kissing. Walked in on 'em when I went to the medical section for a checkup. Back in one'a them closet panels."

"Oh." The older man let go of the frame and selected a different rod. "That might'a been an E then."

"Huh? You reckon?"

"Sure. If the other one was his Assist."

"Assist?"

"Their mates. A body that can sync with theirs. Assists they can touch—and not just touch, if you know what I mean." Andrea leaned away and furrowed her brow as the worker continued. "They say that loneliness is a beacon, and every E connects to a soul that matches their own. They can make one soul match them, too, I think. How do you like that, though, your soul mate on a silver platter?"

Ian made a face that suggested he didn't like the sound of it at all. He tried a different rod though he didn't appear to know what was wrong with the first.

"I dunno. No guarantee they'd be nearby," Ian said.

"The E's here can call their Assists. They say if there's an E without a soul mate, he can make one."

"He? They all lads then?"

"No, not all. But the females were slaughtered long ago. They're still rare now, but nobody knows why."

"Funny." That time when they reached up for the picture, they were able to move it. It must have been heavier than they anticipated because they paused again and studied the thing. "You make fun of me for not knowing about 'em, but you lot don't know shit. And you live down here."

"Yeah, well, knowledge is dangerous. Take this SOB for example."

Ian paused in what he was doing. Andrea was curious that the young man seemed amused.

"Okay. What about this handsome 'SOD,' as it were?"

"No. Not sod, SOB. As in son of a bitch imp." The older man nodded. "Meet the late master of the house. His grandchild had an E. That Elemental was a cute kid, real polite. The poor thing just walked right in here like a lost imp-puppy. But he'd come looking for the granddaughter; everyone said as much." He paused, and Ian waited. Andrea waited, too, eager to hear more, because this was news to her.

"His granddaughter, the poor dummy, she loved that E like hell. It was probably the only friend she ever had." For a moment the man was silent, and when he spoke again, his voice was rougher. "But you know, nothing good ever lasts in this house."

Ian looked genuinely concerned. "Yeah? What happened to it?"

"You wanna know why nobody knows about E's, friend?" The old man nodded at the painting. "Because the stuff you know can cause others pain. E's were researched a lot back in the day. The more people knew about 'em, the more they'd cut 'em open. The rich were the worst. They'd use E's as wishing stones. A blind lord, if he knew how, if he knew how to do it, he could touch an E's skin long enough the E could give him back his sight, but it'd come at a price—and the E'd have to pay it."

Ian laughed at the story. Andrea did know that much about E's, so she waited for any other bit of information that might have been interesting. The day might not be a bust after all.

"Yeah. So what's so bad about that?"

"E's ain't magic."

"Sounds like magic to me."

"Nah. When we say magic down here, we sorta mean you get something for nothing." The man didn't look away from the portrait. "They don't 'give' wishes; people 'take' from 'em. Too many people taking too much, they lose their abilities in strange ways." He glanced to Ian and nodded back behind them. "Did you see that big bald guy?"

"That one that looked like he was cut outta stone? Yeah. How can you miss him? Besides that, he's...he's just memorable."

"Yeah. He's an E, too. Poor bastard can't even talk in the Common language. He speaks everything else. Probably got caught as a youngster by someone like this bastard here." He indicated the portrait again and growled. "This family looks so damn young, and you gotta ask yourself why that is. This one here, the grandfather, he took his youth from an E. I know stuff like that leaves some E's mute, but...there's always damage in their heads." He shrugged. "But if they can find an Assist, sync with a soul, they can start to heal and get reborn. That much I remember."

Ian smiled wide. "You know a lot. You should write an article." The look the man gave him stole his enthusiasm. "What'd I say, mate? I was just making small talk."

"Don't ever say that." The man lowered his voice again. "They have a protector now, the E's. A Yule like us, and if you even breathe the words 'E info' to the wrong person, he does have a tendency—"

"—to lop off heads. His name's Met. Yeah. Him I know about." Ian returned the rods to his belt and looked at the picture. "So E's can touch people, huh? And we can get something from them if we catch one?" He lowered his voice for the first time. "You reckon the ones here might be easy to catch?"

"You're outta your mind." The older man laughed. "A full-grown E is nothing to trifle with. You've seen 'em. Those muscles ain't no illusion. You'd do best to keep on your job and keep your nose clean. You're only here for the days, anyway. If you know what's good for you." The man tugged at the portrait, and Andrea let out a soft gasp when the painting fell. The frame cracked on impact.

"Shit!" Ian called out.

"Leave it. She said to get rid of it, anyway."

Andrea was too stunned to even speak. Her lips gaping wide, she just looked at the broken picture frame. She focused on the workers once more, expecting to see them scrambling to clean up the mess, to cover their tracks, to hide their folly, something. Nothing. They didn't so much as break a sweat. The older man had done it on purpose; he'd intentionally broken the picture. It was all Andrea could do not to bark out a protest.

"Stay away from E's." The older man's voice softened as he replaced his tools and started down the ladder. "Nothing in this life is free. If you want something for nothing, somebody else has to give it to you. And it's not valuable anyway."

Teeth clenched, Andrea waited for the man to approach, ready to voice her fury. A rod from the worker's belt fell. By fate or misfortune, a sharp wail traveled down the adjacent hall. A small boy, bawling with all his might, raced past. Startled, the worker took one step back and slipped on the tool. He would have landed face-first on the floor, but Andrea caught him. Though pained by the destruction of the painting, she swallowed her rage and pushed the man up again. It had been a while since Andrea had heard a child cry like that in this house. No doubt it was one of the younger students throwing a tantrum or refusing to be tutored privately. Her grandfather would have marched after the wayward lad and brought him back kicking and screaming.

Grandfather. The very thought of the man left Andrea's chest feeling heavy. She hated herself for having caught the jerk, because she should have done the honorable thing and let him fall.

The worker had the grace to blush at the sight of her. "Th-thank you, Ma—"

There it was. Andrea saw it and recognized it right away, the way everyone hesitated when saying "'ma'am'" to her.

Marian's shouts carried down the hall. "Dom! He's a student. I won't have any of that in this house again. Do you hear? Do not walk away from me."

Her voice sent a chill through Andrea.

Dom had been the one chasing the student, and Andrea wished she could muster up enough courage to defend her younger brother, just this once. Marian had never liked seeing a student dragged into the study against his will. In the end, though, those not willing to study would turn out the best thanks to Grandfather's careful guidance.

It hurt that Dom had thought to take up the task—Andrea herself should have thought of it. She hadn't, however, and she had even saved the one who had destroyed her grandfather's beloved paintings.

The two workers watched her, sheepish. Andrea cast one more glance at the portrait, the picture hanging lopsided, and she thought that it looked the way she felt. She saw her own eyes reflected back in the picture.

As she hurried down the large hall, determined to go a different route, she heard a gasp. Marian must have seen the picture. Andrea was annoyed with the workers, but her mother's anger wasn't something she would wish on anyone.

"It's rubbish anyway," Marian said. "We don't need it. Make sure and put it in the furnace. I'd say leave the wood to replicate something else, but even having that much around is more than I can stand."

The two men chorused, "Yes, ma'am."

"And if you see my useless daughter, tell her to take care of her younger brother. We almost lost a student today thanks to her negligence. Dominic is not to be left alone with any of our clients. Is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Their voices haunted Andrea all the way back to the courtyard.