Princess Elspeth Annarose Cullen

Here is Aurum. Harley is home again.

"I minted you," Elspeth murmurs to him, sending a notice to the Joker that he's got a new alt he could choose to entertain because she's busy and teleporting herself and her ward to their living room in Québec. "And stuck it on."

It's something of a truism that "it's not like the Empress is going to make a speech or anything" when the Masquerade folds up. Regardless, there comes a time when the incessant requests to be allowed to make a documentary about the Golden Coven are met not with "absolutely not", but instead, "let's talk".

Elspeth does a fair amount of the negotiating for this - she does run PR. Harley, presently thirteen, is allowed to sit in on a few of the storyboarding discussions - the documentary will not be fictionalized, but they still have concern for narrative flow. It's going to be very long, after all.

Significant portions of the documentary will be conjured recordings of events, from outside or even first-person perspectives, but an entire segment is devoted to personally profiling members and peripheral associates of the Golden Coven, one by one. Harley's not on the list - it's mostly a history documentary, with younger generations present almost entirely for 'where are they now' color, and he's not, technically, her son - but Elspeth and most of her family is. And Harley is permitted to lurk around the studio setup while various people prep with their interviewers, or eavesdrop, or - if they are sufficiently non-vampiric to allow makeup to stick - get that applied. It's a big production; the supernatural community would have found it just as convenient to spread it out, but the film people want everything taken down, edited for a consistent look-and-feel, and released according to schedule within a certain time frame.

So there are a lot of people around. Mostly vampires, but plenty of hybrids - there are most of Emmett and Rosalie's kids, over there, with the proud parents themselves - and wolves; Jacob is over with Elspeth - and even a few humans, ranging from imprints to Lizzie who's with Carlisle, Esme, and Lily, and also Alice and Jasper and their son Brandon. People not normally seen around the Golden Capitols have been hauled in. There's Marcus, no longer as craquelure thanks to magic, and Didyme at his elbow, literally radiating happiness. (Bella rendered her power opt-in along with several other mind-affecting abilities that can't be turned off, but it's very inviting, so people usually do so opt.)

And of course Bella and Edward themselves are present, flitting around, mingling. Their interviews aren't until later.

Kerron waves to Harley when he shows up.

It is after the very first Bellparty.

"Dad never comes to these," Elspeth tells her grandma. "Too many strange Bells. If there were strange Edwards, Mama might have trouble with them too, but there aren't so far. But I can reintroduce you now, if you'd like."

The Golden Coven stays in Québec for one year.

When Harley is eight and a half, they start packing.

Zeus is inconsolable.

Harley turns five. That means that it is time for the much-anticipated trip to the world's largest amusement park. They can stay an extra day if he doesn't see everything he wants to see the first day, but as he doesn't really go in for naps Elspeth thinks he'll probably get to try all the rides on his birthday proper. (Well, not the date of his birthday - Aurum was not synced to his universe of origin even before Jane went down again; he is really five years old now but it is, in Aurum, late April).

Right near the entrance to the amusement park is a very, very big roller coaster, with a loop that swings all its dangling passengers around at sixty miles an hour right over the entering guests. They scream. (The riders, not the entering guests. Yet.)

Elspeth is carrying Harley on her shoulders, and buys them tickets.

Aedyt, I've decided to take Harley to Paris for a few days, and you want to come with me, Elspeth sends one morning.

Elspeth is glad that Milliways likes her, because she likes it. Jacob at her side and a glass of this nice golden stuff in her hand (she's tried the other synthetics; they're nice for an occasional change, but only humans care about dietary variety that much and this one is her favorite) and hubbub from a hundred worlds around her: lovely. A lovely break from work that keeps no one waiting, that doesn't even throw off her sleep cycle because her sleep cycle cares about the sun. (It throws off Jake's, a little, but his is more flexible than hers.)

It lurks. Oh how it lurks.