The Dresden Files/Codex Alera is copyright Jim Butcher. This story is licensed under the Creative Commons as derivative, noncommercial fiction.

Fix and Sarissa waited for me at Mac's pub.

McAnally's, or Mac's was Accorded Neutral Territory. Meaning, magical beings from all sides could sit, imbibe and eat, and not bring any outside conflicts into the pub. Mac stood at his grill, shining glasses with his apron.

He saw me enter, and immediately threw a steak on the grill. I smiled. A man who knows what I want.

"Hi, Harry!" Sarissa said, holding out her arms for an embrace. She still looked too young to drink legally, with high cheekbones, olive skin, and exotic green-gold almond-shaped eyes.

"Hey, you two," I said.

Fix held out his hand. I shook it. "Been awhile," he said.

"Yeah." He looked quite a bit different from the 17-year old I first met so many years ago. The Mantle suited him well.

Harry brought over a steak sandwich and some ale in a brown bottle. "Thank you, Master Beeromancer!" I said, snatching up the bottle and taking a long pull.

Mac grunted and walked away.

"So how've you been, Harry?" Sarissa said. "Staying healthy, I hope."

"COVID got nothin' on me," I said. "Quiet; lately, everyone has been behaving for the most part. Murphy and I got a little place over in Lakeside."

"Oooh, nice!" Fix said. "You're getting all fancy, Dresden."

"Yeah, well…" I took a bite of my sandwich. "My last gig paid pretty well."

"So, what can we do you for?" Sarissa said, smiling.

I finished chewing and wiped my mouth with a napkin. "Molly."

Sarissa's face fell. "Ah, I was afraid of this."

"So you do know where she is?"

She nodded. Fix had a grim face.

"And?"

"And, Harry…she's fine."

"I need to see her."

"No can do, Amigo," Fix said. "She doesn't want to see anyone right now."

"Why has she left the Winter Court?"

Sarissa sighed. "Look, Harry, no offense, but this is above your paygrade."

That made me angry. "Really? Look, no offense, but the freakin' Queen of Air and Darkness sent me to find her. I'm the official Knight of the Winter Court. The Summer Lady and the Summer Knight are telling the Winter Knight that they are harboring a person of interest, and you think it's above my paygrade? I don't want to throw down with you two, but if I need to…"

"Look, Harry." Fix said, holding up his hands. "We'll go back and talk to her, okay? Maybe, if it's you, and maybe if you can…I don't know, promise to actually listen to her before acting, she might agree. She knows you, though, and knows what kind of pressure you are under with the Mantle. She's afraid you're going to haul her back, kicking and screaming, and she doesn't want that."

"All I told her was that I'd talk to her. I didn't promise to bring her back. If you can convey that to her, I'd appreciate it."

"Okay," They visibly relaxed.

I finished up my sandwich. "So, can we go see her now?"

They both blinked. "Umm.."

"Look, like I said, I won't take any action regardless of the outcome. Mab just wants me to talk to her, that's all. I'm not going to take her; I won't throw down. If you want, I'll even keep this nifty collar on that keeps my magic in check."

"I wondered what that was." Fix touched it.

"We wanted to be able to watch Netflix without me scrambling the digital brains of everything I touched."

Sarissa giggled. "And you came to a meeting with us, Harry? That's quite a risk, even for you."

"Eh, I figured if you wanted me dead, you wouldn't use Mac's place to do it."

Fix nodded. "True."

"So can you please take me to the Grasshopper? This is bothering me, and I kind of have a lot of balls up in the air lately."

Fix looked at Sarissa, who nodded. "Alright. But—"

"But?"

Fix sighed. "You, ah, might want to prepare yourself, Harry."

"For what?"

Sarissa's eyes watered suddenly. "She's changed."

For me to go through the Ways takes my staff, a ton of knowledge, and a lot of power. I can't just open it up without some magical device assisting me and focusing and amplifying my power.

Sarissa snapped her fingers. The way opened up behind Mac's pub.

We stepped into a green, lush garden full of sunflowers. VInes hung from immense trees that created a canopy overhead. It was warm but not too warm. Sunny, but not too bright. Verdant acres of grass stretched for miles around.

A two-seater vehicle sat next to the archway we had just entered. It looked like an overgrown motorcycle with as ski in the front and rugged, knobby tires in the back.

"Um," Fix said. "How's Harry going to—"

Sarissa pulled something out of the back, and it snapped into a scooter-like device with a large rear wheel and a front ski. "Harry, you'll need to take this. Can you ride a scooter?"

"When I was eleven," I said, staring at the contraption.

Sarissa giggled. "You'll get the hang of it. Hop on, and follow us. I won't go too fast…at first."

I tentatively for onto the scooter and pressed the red button. Fairy dust plumed behind me, and I found if I twisted the right handlebar, it would go faster, and the small break on the left handle made me slow down. With a few minutes of practice, we were speeding along the grass, the front ski laying the stalks down gently as the rear wheels provided locomotion.

We picked up speed as the grass stretched out into what looked like an ocean of greenery. I don't know how they were able to make any sense of direction. They went straight for about a half an hour, then made a hard right in the middle of the grass, and we sped off in the new direction. Far in the distance, I could see a few individual hills with archways on top. Something about all that green made me happy, and I felt the exhilaration as we picked up speed.

After a few more changes in direction, we came to another arch seemingly random. Sarissa and fix stopped, and I pulled up alongside.

"That was fun!" I said, grinning widely.

"I know, right?" Sarissa said. "It took me a while to figure out the coordinates. They call this the Sargrasso Sea.

"Hah." I said.

We stepped through the portal into a much different environment. Wind tore through the open front of my Duster, and I quickly did up the buttons and hiked up the collar. Without the Winter Mantle, it was cold.

"Jesus, a little warning, would have been nice," I said, my teeth already chattering.

"Ugh, I forgot your Mantle is restricted," Sarissa said. She enveloped me in a cocoon of warmth that also kept the worst of the wind from my body. The archway behind me led to a stair that descended far down below.

We walked down the stairway and out onto a frozen plain. Huge boulders of ice dotted the landscape as we trudged through the drifting snow. Fix looked like he was feeling it a bit more, as something came into view.

A castle stood in the distance with spindly bridges, spans, and walls. Even from this distance and without my magic, I could tell they were made of ice. Lovely, blue, stark, the castle sprang up from the frozen plain.

We approached a drawbridge and walked across. It closed behind us, with an immense whump that made my ears plug up. I yawned, trying to get them to open again.

Several servants greeted us; all were elves with white hair, stark blue eyes, and long pointed ears. Smaller than humans, none of them appeared more than five feet tall. They greeted us, and one of them led us through the castle filled with tapestries showing fae folk of all kinds battling demons, or another fae, or humans. One even showed them facing off against Dinosaurs.

We were led to an antechamber, where the servant told us we could take off our jackets. A warm fire flickered in a white fireplace, and what looked like polar bear pelts were scattered around the floor.

"Welcome to Arctis Meridi," the servant said. "The Queen will attend you shortly."

"Thank you, Ivan," Sarissa said.

"Is there anything you require? Food? A beverage?"

"We just had lunch, but thank you."

I took the opportunity to walk around the room and marvelled at the tapestries and decorations. Fire flickered from intricate wall sconces carefully scattered around the room, creating crystalline illumination from the walls of ice surrounding us.

"This place rivals Artctis Tor," I said, as another person entered the room.

She wore a flowing robe of ermine that trailed behind and rose around her swanlike neck in a stiff collar. She had the same overall appearance as the other elves of the castle, with stark alabaster skin, and sky-blue eyes. Tall and rail-thin her spindly fingers were tipped in long cerulean nails. Her ears stood out long and pointed, rising above the level of her head.

Her hair was the same white as the other sidhe, but had been coiled into a confection of curls and whorls above her head where an intricate white crown perched precariously.

She regarded me with ice blue eyes drawn up into severe slits. Her azure lips smiled softly, setting off the angular cheekbones elves all shared.

"Greetings, Sir Knight," she said, in a softly melodious voice.

I don't know if it was something about her eyes or the way she held her head, but the reality of who I was facing, suddenly crashed through me.

"Molly?" I choked out.

She briefly closed extended alabaster lashes set off by white pencil-thin brows, and bowed her head slightly.

"Thank you, Lady Summer, and Summer Knight," she said in that same, soft, melodious voice. "I can take it from here. Thou may depart."

"You'll be okay, Harry?" Sarissa said.

My eyes were still staring at 'Molly.' "Uh, yah."

"I shall return our Knight to whence he originated. Fare thee well, my friends."

"Bye-bye, my Lady," Sarissa said, and they both walked out.

Molly took my hand in her far more petite one. "Come, Sir Knight. We have much to discuss."

"I'll say," I said, and allowed her to lead me away.