On the night that Liam's destiny changed forever, Sarah, the woman who abandoned him for a cheap date that promised a starlet career, sat on a curb outside of a club staring at Liam's number in her phone. For Sarah, things had been going well. Two days before, she had a meeting with a casting director that went better than she could have imagined resulting in the scheduling of a second meeting. His new beau, Kevin, had been incredibly affectionate over the past few days. Her roommates, Jessica and Marti, decided to take Sarah and Kevin out to celebrate with the promise of flowing booze and wild dancing. All leading to her sitting alone in the middle of a crowd of smokers, staring at Liam's name.
During this moment of reflection, a small blip of unhappiness rippled across the world as one Santa stopped and another Santa began. The blip did not affect many people, and most of those who were affected only had a small spat with the person closest to them at the time. But for Sarah, the blip started a chain of events that would ultimately put her on the road to Silverton to salvage a relationship with the last man she believed actually cared about her.
The first thing went wrong behind her in the club where Kevin enjoyed a platonic dance with Jessica. At least, platonic until that moment of unease and unhappiness hit him. With his contentment disturbed, he saw Jessica in a different light and wondered what her mouth tasted like. His own lack of moral fiber took hold of the moment from that point.
The second thing occurred on the other side of the city. The casting agent scheduled with a follow up meeting with Sarah had her own moment of spontaneous displeasure which did little more than make her pause walking up the stairs to her bedroom. During this pause, she shifted her weight, putting her foot at an odd angle for the next step. Resuming her ascent, her foot snagged on the next stair. She tumbled forward, landing hard on her right arm. The bone broke, and her schedule, as well as her good impression of Sarah, cleared as a result.
The third thing would not come to fruition until the reveal of Kevin's infidelity two days later, but like the others it rooted in that moment of discord. While Sarah sat on the curb, Marti stumbled through the crowd looking for a sympathetic ear. Marti's girlfriend had broken up with her the previous week, but, with a few drinks in her, Marti made a valiant effort to reconnect through drunk text messages. The effort failed abysmally, leaving Marti embarrassed, ashamed, and desperate for someone to console her. She spotted Sarah in that moment, but then the blip hit her. She did not see Sarah as a potential consoling friend, but as a self absorbed, ungrateful introvert who had eschewed their company to sit alone on a dirty sidewalk. The thought buried itself in her mind, such that, a few days later when Jessica and Sarah argued over the illicit activities with a cheating boyfriend, Marti sided with Jessica, knowing full well that Jessica had been in the wrong.
With no job prospects, a boyfriend that betrayed her, and roommates that cast her out, Sarah decided to take time to herself. She thought once more of Liam, threw her meager belongings in her car, and started driving toward Silverton. No pure love motivated her, but instead an intense desire to be validated. Sarah knew quite well that she intended to manipulate Liam, to use him up again until her confidence rebuilt itself. But that was her nature, and she did not believe she could deviate from it. She even convinced herself that returning to Liam was a gift to him. He never had it so good as when she deigned to love him. She would allow him the privilege of loving her again, rescue him from his mundane life for a while, and then leave him broken once more.
This cold and heartless intent would ultimately change the world.
***
Elfie led Liam down the ever winding corridors of the Workshop. After the third turn, they arrived at a door. This door did not look like any of the others. Large and made of ancient wood, iron bands bound together it timbers. A tarnished silver ring was bolted into the right side of the door. Elfie pointed at it, and Liam stepped up to pull, the door's hinges groaning as they moved.
Santa and his elf stepped through the door into a wide, open meadow of lush green. Bright starry sky hung overhead, showing constellations that Liam did not recognize. "So what's it called?"
"Doesn't have a special name. We always called this part the Amphitheater, I think," Elfie said. "It's part of Fae like the Workshop. Neutral ground for creatures like us to meet with others. It's used on festival days, but otherwise most things leave it alone. Had you found it before now, you wouldn't have been able to budge the door. Look, the stars are the ones from Fae. Magical pinpricks of light, not all that fancy physical world stuff of the mortal realm. Oberon wanted to show Titania how much he loved her, so he scooped up a hand full of diamonds and threw them into the sky. At the end of each age, the Queen reaches up to the sky and plucks one out to wear on her necklace. One day, she will glitter with all the light of the night sky, but the world of Fae will go dark."
Liam knelt down to feel the grass as he listened. "I guess that's a literal story," he mused. "One way or the other, I'll be there when that happens, right?"
"Yes, Master." Elfie turned away from him, pretending to admire the runes etched on a nearby stone. "But I won't."
Liam rose and went to her, wrapping his arms around her petite form. They settled down onto the grass, and she rested her head on his shoulder. "Tell me what happened to the last Santa. You remember, I know you do. It's come back to you over the past week, hasn't it."
"Yes, but I shouldn't. How would you like me gossiping about you once you've gone?"
"I'd hope that you only have good things to say about me." His hand caressed her face, drawing her into a kiss. "Go on."
"You remember the night it happened. Cold, snowy. I don't know why Santa, the old Santa that is, brought us to Silverton. That Santa was once called Nicholas Gerhardt, but he'd long forgotten that name. You have to understand that mortal minds aren't meant to live that long. Most of his predecessors became more Fae, letting go of the mortal world. Nicholas didn't. I'm not sure he liked being Santa very much. It took a long while for him to understand it, you see. Before he became Santa, he was a holy man of some kind. He wanted the idea of Santa to mold into something that aligned with those beliefs. Still, he tried to use his new magic to bring joy more directly. Nicholas brought in all the ideas of giving gifts every years and things like that.
"But not even Santa can stop the wickedness of men. Nicholas lived through three centuries of horrible human behavior. He blamed himself some, and blamed humans for the rest. That doesn't mean he stopped trying. He just...didn't try as hard. Over the years, he thought up different ways of getting humans to keep the spirit themselves. I think he succeeded in that. Humans call it commercialization, but mortals still make joy in it. Like all those lights on the front of the Workshop. Those make people happy, even if only a little. Anyway, he developed some bad habits. At some point, he used his magic to make candy work on him like alcohol would work on you. Said he didn't like the taste of liquor, but liked candy just fine."
