Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

May 12th, 1890

"It!"

Magni groaned. "Elizabeth!" 

Elizabeth turned and laughed cheerfully. "C'mon, Maggie, can't you catch me?"

Magni's teeth made an audible grinding noise. "Fine! Here I come!" 

Magni charged, but Elizabeth ducked out of the way at the last second and Magni fell to the ground. 

"Really, Magnolia, you can't catch me?" Elizabeth laughed.

Magni glared. "I told you to quit calling me that."

Elizabeth tilted her head, a confused smile on her face. "Why, but it's your name."

Magni stood up. "I told you, I'm not a girl anymore. That's in the past. Now I'm a boy."

Elizabeth laughed. "But that's make-believe! You can't just stop being a girl." She said teasingly. But she stopped at the expression of anger on Magni's face.

"I am a boy! I am, I am, I am!" Magni shouted, stomping his feet.

Elizabeth was startled, her brown waves bouncing as she stepped back in alarm. "Mag, I was only teasing! I'm sorry, honest! Here, let's not have a row over this."

Magni glared at her. "You always do this to me, Eliza! Always, always, always!" 

Elizabeth laughed nervously. "Really, Magpie, I don't mind if you want to dress up in a tunic and breeches and pretend to be a boy. It's alright with me."

"Damn you, Eliza! Stop calling me that! My name is Magni! It's not Magnolia or Maggie or Mag or Magpie or Meg or anything else! It's Magni!" He shouted. "And I'm not pretending!"

Elizabeth stared at him. "Okay, okay. Your name is Magni, and you're a boy, and you're ten and you're my best friend in the whole wide world, alright? I'm sorry, honest."

Magni looked at her, blue eyes burning with tears. "Really and truly?" He said.

Elizabeth nodded. "Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye."

Magni sniveled, then sighed. "Alright, I'm sorry for shouting at you. It is unbecoming of a young gentleman such as myself to shout at a young lady." 

Elizabeth laughed. "Oh, come off it. Come on, let's finish our game before my mum calls us back for tea." She said. 

Magni tagged her. "It!"

Elizabeth gasped and roared with laughter. "You little scoundrel!" 

Magni darted off, his long orange-gold curls bouncing as he did so. He was like a bird, or perhaps a bat, as he ran, fast as the wind itself. The sunshine warmed his face and the birds chirped cheerily. He ran over a green hill, skipped across a stream, dashed through a wood, flashed through a meadow. He ran like a hare, and could hear Elizabeth puffing to keep up with him. 

"Magni? Magni, wait! Magni, you aren't supposed to go out this far! Magni, we're going to get in trouble!" Elizabeth yelled.

Magni laughed, looking back over his shoulder as he crested a hill. "C'mon, Elizabeth, stop being a scaredy-cat! What's the worst that could happ-"

He was cut off as he suddenly realized his foot was no longer touching solid ground, or any kind of ground, for that matter. Alarmed, he wheeled around, tried to correct himself, spinned his arms, but it was no use. He was overbalanced. 

"Magni!"

He let out a cry as he tumbled. Elizabeth grabbed his arm, and for a heartstopping moment, he hung suspended in midair. The sun illuminated Elizabeth's pale face and wide eyes. Magni thought she was the most beautiful girl on the Earth. 

And then his momentum proved too great, and Elizabeth screamed, holding tight to him, and they both fell.

Pain.

That was the first thing Magni was aware of. There was a splitting pain in his back and his right arm. 

He looked up and saw a pinprick of blue so far above him it might as well have been a star.

Fear.

That was what came next, hitting him so hard he almost cried.

His head hurt. His back was bleeding. And he couldn't move his arm.

Slowly, Magni's eyes adjusted to the darkness. The sky above him was no sky, but steep, unforgiving walls of rock. Below him was wood. Splintered. He felt around with his left arm- it seemed like a piece was stuck in his back.

That was what hit him next. He had a huge piece of wood lodged in his back. He registered the pain as he awkwardly shuffled into a half-sitting position. 

There was so much blood. His forehead. His back. 

And- 

Magni's brain registered it before his eyes did, the pale hand sticking out from beneath a wreckage of splintered wood and pieces of sharp rock. 

The nausea hit him as he clumsily knocked aside the mess.

Her spine had been broken, that was for sure. He touched a hand to her cheek. It was cold and waxy. All around her was a puddle of dark blood.

"Elizabeth?" He whispered in a trembling voice.

No response. He put a hand on her chest. There was no motion.

"Elizabeth-"

His eyes fixed up on her blood in horror. In the lighting, the red blood was... Something more than red. Something that shook him. 

Boy. Boy. Boy.

His pulse pounded in his ears.

A boy. That's what you are. A boy in a girl's body. A boy trapped in skin that is not his own.

He became uncomfortably aware of the weight and presence of his own chest. 

Trapped forever, trapped forever, trapped forever-

He was dizzy and struggling to breathe and...

And Elizabeth was dead.

Dead and broken. 

Dead, dead, dead.

Magni's scream seemed to echo into eternity, and then he fainted. 

Chapter Text

He'd been having that dream again. 

Magni scratched his face as he rolled out of bed, cursing slightly as he stabbed his toe on his wardrobe. 

Glancing at himself in the ornate mirror, he smiled. He looked good today.

Magni sighed and pulled open his wardrobe. The pair of silk scarves hung limply from the bar. He really needed to get new ones.

Magni pulled on silk socks, drawers, and an undershirt. Then he took one of the silk scarves, pulled it tightly over his left breast, wrapped it around his body, and tied it off. He repeated this on the right side with the other one, then looked at himself.

"Not bad. Not bad at all."

He tugged on trousers, a shirt and cravat, a vest, and finally a flat cap. He grinned cheekily at his reflection.

"Well, aren't we a proper sort now, Magpie? Silk undergarments and cravats and a townhouse! Imagine! If only the urchins could see you now!"

He laughed, then sighed. 

"I miss you, Eliza." He whispered. 

Glancing back at the Midnighter's robe hanging in the back of his closet, Magni's thoughts turned to his strange dream. 

He'd been on a ship, zailing across the Unterzee. His ship, the Princess Elizabeth, a yacht he'd won in a game of tiles. 

He had been alone, not a captain or a crewman there with him. Just him, the yacht, and a light glimmering in the distance. 

Magni had stood on the deck of the ship, looking into the dark water, as a warm voice whispered words he couldn't remember, sounding as if it were right in his ear.

Magni shook his head, clearing the dream from his mind. He looked at the Midnighter's robe again, and smiled, thinking of all the moves he'd made in the Great Game and the power he held in the Neath and on the Surface. And all in a few months! Imagine, he'd been in prison just this spring! 

But he'd been short-sighted over the past few months. Yes, he was a powerful Midnighter- they were calling him the Irrepressible Midnighter, in fact- but that just wasn't enough. He'd been so focused on the Great Game that he'd almost completely missed the rumor. 

The rumor that every nine years, a game was played. A game where you could bet your soul and win your Heart's Desire. A game called the Marvellous.

That sounded like tremendous fun... And would open up all kinds of new opportunities. 

If, of course, the rumor was true. But Magni was sure it was. And the bit about gambling his soul... Well, that had to be an exaggeration. 

Magni hesitated a moment, then pulled on an overcoat. Winter was strong. It would be cold. 

And of course, layering clothes would conceal the things he couldn't remove.

Humming a happy tune, Magni began his walk.

Veilgarden wasn't far from the townhouse where Magni lived. 

Smiling, he pushed open the doors of the Singing Mandrake. And there, at a back table, was the last living being Magni expected to see.

"Why, I know you! Didn't I beat you in a game of tiles and win your boat?" Magni said brightly.

The hooded figure looked up, startled. "Oh. It's you."

Magni grinned and sat down backward on a chair. "However are you, Mr. Apples?"

Apples sighed. "I'm well. I suppose." The hooded figure seemed to shift nervously. 

Magni put his chin in his hands. "Are you waiting for someone?" 

Apples chuckled nervously. "I sincerely hope not."

"Whatever do you mean?" Magni asked.

Apples sighed. "I'm hiding from the neddy men. Sure, having bodyguards is all well and good, but lately they won't leave me alone. I am a Master of the Bazaar! I can handle myself perfectly well without them!"

Magni tilted his head. "Why in the world would you be hiding from your bodyguards?"

Apples glanced to the sides, then leaned closer. Magni caught a glimpse of it's face for a moment- brown fur, beady black eyes, and the worst teeth he'd ever seen.

"Something isn't right. There have been whispers. Rumors. Something is stirring, and it's making us all restless. And by all of us, I mean it's making Veils restless and he's making us restless."

"What rumors? What's stirring?" Magni asked.

Apples laughed squeakily. "Come now, dear, I can't very well tell you all my secrets! You're but a little human."

Magni glared. "Alright then, keep your secrets. I was on my way out, anyway. I doubt anyone here's going to talk to me about the Marvellous with you here."

Apples sat up straight and put the tips of it's fingers together. "The Marvellous, you say? Oh, you're trying to start a game of chance and souls? How wonderful!" 

Magni paused. He put on a sly smile. "Oh, you know of it? Do tell."

At that moment, a carriage pulled up outside. Mr. Apples jumped up from it's seat. "Oh, I really must be going! There's no time-" It hesitated. "Go to Spite, there's a bookseller there who'll tell you what you need." 

Apples slipped behind the bar and out of the back door. 

Magni slammed open his front door. He'd had a most awful month. He'd been running all over London, trying to gather the players for the Marvellous.

He'd been bullied by a monkey, bribed a Bishop, been kicked out of the Empress' court and sent to the Tomb-Colonies for a mad king, gone to Polythreme to talk with a giant Clay Man and get back his heart, been scolded by a furious deviless, and now he'd had to dig his way through a lacredrift to get to his own front door.

And guess who the last person Magni had to convince to play was? Bloody Mr. Pages.

How the hell was he going to convince a Master of the Bazaar to play cards with him? He and Pages had met all of once! They were practically complete strangers! 

Grumbling, Magni slammed the door shut behind him and sighed, raking his hands through his curls.

No matter. It was Yuletide at last, and he was going to take a break from plotting and scheming. 

He picked up the mail off of his mat. Bills, flyers...

And a letter.

Magni pulled open the envelope and scanned the letter. He frowned, brow creasing.

"What...?"

It made no sense. Deranged scribbles. Incomprehensible drawings. Unhinged. What utter nonsense.

Shrugging it off, Magni stuck the letter in the wastebin. A prank, no doubt? Sighing, he went up to his room.

His stomach rumbled.