CHAPTER 119

This was who she was. Like the old man had said, dance was never about the body, but the soul inside. And right now, her soul felt fine.

It wasn't a long song, but when it was done, she was breathing hard. The world was somehow cast in a finer light, and she approached the phonograph and opened the drawer beneath it. There were dozens of records inside, and more than a couple were unlabeled. She chose one of the unlabeled ones and set it on the phonograph.

"Fucking goblin," she swore with a smile on her face. It would bug her a little knowing that she owed Tink anything, and part of her was willing to bet that Tink knew it. Still, she couldn't help but grin as the next song started and she closed her eyes, ready for it to carry her away.

"What do you think?" Mike asked. He sat in the front room with two key fragments sitting on the table. Tink and Ratu sat across from him, and Jenny watched from the arm of a nearby recliner.

After Kisa had left the backyard, an epiphany had struck him. He found Cerulea throwing rocks at some squirrels and had her go tell Ratu to bring him the key she had been making for Emily, then went to his room to get a piece of a key he had found.

It had been taken from inside of Yuki's tower. It had been kept in a hidden room that he had stumbled across when he met the shadow. The other fragment looked different from the last time he had seen it. Emily had given it to Ratu in order to create a magical key to open a portal to speak to an elder god, but Ratu had caught on to her insidious plan and stalled long enough that Emily had finally died of old age.

Next to each other, both fragments looked like they were made of the same material as each other, and also similar to the invincible padlock that had been installed on his back gate. Tink had eventually come along to inspect the lock and had revealed it was a divine object, much like her goggles.

And much like her goggles, it was nearly impossible to destroy.

"Can it be repaired?" he added.

"I suppose it's possible." Ratu held up the two pieces. When she pushed them together, they didn't seem to line up. "It's hard to tell if there's a third piece or not. If so, it's just the stem we are missing."

"Tink think maybe three pieces." The goblin yawned. She had been up all night trying to string new electrical wire through the house. Even now, except for Kisa's room at the top of the stairs, the second floor was completely without power. "Need figure out third piece, key no fit all the way."

"Hmm." Mike tapped his fingers on the table and looked at the two key pieces. "Do you suppose the third piece is hidden away somewhere else? And for that matter, do we even need it? We have the head of the key and the teeth, why not just make a middle piece?"

"Why not? It's just a magic key to the Underworld, why not just put something together and hope for the best?" Ratu crossed her arms. "If you insist on pursuing such a task, count me out."

There were footsteps on the stairs and seconds later, Yuki appeared. Her hair was combed out and still wet from a shower. She had been covered in paint, but was now clean.

"What did you find?" she asked.

Mike showed her the key pieces and explained where they had come from.

"I remember this one," she told them, turning it over in her hands. "Well, kind of. It was in Emily's Jewelry box, she found it in the basement. Well, not the basement that's down there now. It was part of some vision she had long before I moved in, but she told me about it all the same." Yuki fingered the broken end of the key. "However, it used to be longer, that much I know for certain. The only part missing was, well, that part right there."

"So Emily broke a piece of the key off before giving it to Ratu? Why?" Mike picked up his part of the key, the teeth. If the key was supposed to be so important, why had Emily broken it up?

"Why did she give it to Ratu? I haven't heard this story." Yuki sat down at the table, her face all business.

"She needed me to create a special key that would allow her to open a doorway to somewhere else." The naga scrunched up her face. "Hold on...nobody talk for a second."

Everyone went quiet. Mike looked around, wondering if the naga heard something.

"Aha!" She stood up and held out her hands. "The key, let me see it!"

Yuki handed it over and Ratu inspected it for the hundredth time.

"It's the magic, don't you see? Emily gave me this key because it had the potential to open a door into another world. Without the other half, she had no idea what it was meant to be used for, but she did know what it's purpose was." Ratu's voice was climbing with excitement.

"And?" Mike looked at the others to see if they had followed Ratu's logic. Yuki wore a mask of uncertainty, and Tink, her goggles still over her eyes, had nodded off.

"Why break a piece off before giving it to me? Because she needed it for something else! Yuki, where is the wardrobe key?"

Yuki's ear twitched, and she pulled the key off of a silver chain around her neck. Mike had given it to her when she moved in as a reminder that he would never lock her away in her tower again. She handed it over to Ratu, who held the keys next to each other.

"It's the same material," Ratu explained. "Emily knew what the key could do and used a part of it to make the locking mechanism of the wardrobe. We have all three pieces right here already."