Sebastian

hot bed—
    which, for an incubus, was a sad state of affairs.
    Finding Lynnea turned out to be easy. Getting to her was a different matter. As he pushed his way through the crowd gathered around the table, he heard Mr. Finch say, "They fit, and they're both blue, but not the same blue. This one is sky, I think, and this one… water? Philo, can't we have more light?"
    He heard Lynnea say, "Teaser! You're doing it wrong."
    And Teaser replying, "The pieces fit."
    Lynnea, sounding exasperated, "But they aren't the right colors. They're just a jumble."
    That was when he nudged himself into the space between Teaser's chair and Mr. Finch's and got a look at the table—and felt a jolt go through his body.
    Then Teaser said, "All right, then. I'll do it proper," and reached out to break apart the puzzle pieces that fit but didn't belong together.
    Without thought, simply reacting to churning emotions, Sebastian reached out and clamped a hand around Teaser's wrist. Ignoring the other incubus's startled yelp, he stared at the table. Even Lynnea's delighted greeting couldn't pull his focus away from the scattered pieces of painted wood—especially the pieces that had been put together again.
    "It's Ephemera," he said quietly. Everyone around him became silent, waiting. "It's like Ephemera, in the old stories." In that moment he was a child again, sitting at the kitchen table with Glorianna and Lee, listening to Aunt Nadia tell the story of why Ephemera was the way it was.
    "The world was whole once." Releasing Teaser's wrist, he moved his hand above the table to indicate all the pieces of wood. "Different lands, different people, but all of it connected. Then the Eater of the World came along. It had the ability to reshape pieces of the world, making them more attuned to the dark feelings in the human heart. It could take a person's deepest, darkest fears and use those feelings to change creatures that were part of the natural world into something terrible. Something that would then prey on humans."
    Sebastian picked up Teaser's glass and drained the last inch of ale to ease the dryness in his throat.
    Setting the glass down on the table, he continued the story. "It roamed the world, and as people drowned in despair, the world changed to become a reflection of their hearts. Fertile land turned into deserts, and the people suffered even more.
    "In a desperate act of love for Ephemera and its people, the Guides of the Heart shattered the world, then shattered those pieces into more pieces." Sebastian separated the pieces of the puzzle Mr. Finch had put together, spreading them out just enough so they no longer touched. "Finally, those who stood for the Light contained the Eater of the World in one small piece. There they fought, Light against Dark, driving the Eater to the place they'd chosen for a trap. Furious, It drew all the landscapes It had created to that place so that the creatures It had created would help It fight.
    "And that's when the Guides sprang the trap. They poured their power into stone and created a cage that locked the Eater of the World inside Its own landscapes.
    "Ephemera was saved, but it remained a world of shattered landscapes."
    "Why didn't they put Ephemera back together?" Teaser asked.
    Sebastian stared at the puzzle. He'd lived with the nature of Ephemera all his life, had felt the frustration, like everyone else, of finding a different landscape once and never being able to find it again, even when he walked the same path, crossed over the same bridge. Sometimes a person could be certain only of where he was—and sometimes there wasn't even that much certainty.
    "The Guardians of the Light closed themselves away from the human world and the Guides disappeared, no longer able to walk in this world," he said. "The Landscapers and Bridges who came after them were able to stabilize Ephemera enough to stop it from manifesting every emotion, but they couldn't put the world back together."
    He nudged the puzzle pieces he'd separated until they were close together but still not fully connected.
    "Different landscapes resonated for each of them, so those were the ones each Landscaper took under her control and care, while the Bridges found a way to provide a link between the landscapes so that people weren't trapped in one small piece of the world."
    Philo rubbed his chin. "It's true that the landscapes held by a Landscaper have the same feel, for good or bad. If you get stuck in a place where your heart