"The demons had a beachhead," Jack spoke solemnly. "That makes sense, I remember the maps. And Nico said that 'someone' was neglecting their post, not mentioning who because he wanted you to feel bad. We all assumed he meant Ammadrine, because everybody was talking about her emotions being a problem. We didn't think about who she was with. It was an open secret among the Council, we all knew but nobody wanted to be the one to admit that they'd known and not disciplined you."

"And then Madir showed up in my room one night. He didn't say it straight out either. He... he thought that once I made one mistake, he had to punish me. He said he was going to kill anyone coming into my chambers when they shouldn't be. Didn't say who. That's why she started sneaking around the grounds with a knife. I think Roudi caught her once, and gave her a warning? And Nico did too? But they wouldn't actually hurt her. I'm scared to think what Madir might have done if he'd caught her. He was... I think he was crazy even back then. He always talked about how he was her favourite but she's scared to admit it. I didn't think that was worth telling you."

"Are you really sure you can trust her so far?" Amber's mom felt like she still had to ask. "From what you've told me, that janitor thought he was protecting you from her. Or is he the bad guy again?"

"He doesn't get it," Jack chuckled, understanding dawning. "Ammadrine has her body somehow, sealed in that totem?"

"I... oh! Yes, I think... she wants to experience love, but she can't do that without losing her powers. After the demons invaded, we didn't trust her any more, so she started acting crazy. Like a loose cannon, she does whatever she wants. That got Nico scared, so Nico and Madir went behind our backs and tried to seal her in the totem anyway. And when they got found out, it almost split the Council. The Empire fell apart. The war split the continents and sank Atlantis. All that stuff that we've only heard about second hand. That's why Ammadrine was so pissed with Nico when she came back, just once, to say she was going to drive those demons out of the mortal world or die trying."

"And when she finished, she allowed them to seal her," Jack added, "I don't have any memories of it, but I just know it. Like when I recovered John Daley's memories, my predecessor, not like all these ancient dreams. She let them seal her, so that her powers could keep the demons sealed. And Madir sealed himself too, sacrificing his life in the process, so that while they were gone the rest of us could access a limited form of their powers. After all he'd done, we sent him off as a hero."

"But he's back, after he sacrificed his life?" Mom asked through gritted teeth, as the car jolted over speed bumps and somehow kept on the road.

"I guess he tricked us."

"I... think I can see how he would have done that," Amber bit her lip as she thought how to explain, "I understand a little bit of ancient technology, it's like a natural talent, and it gets stronger close to Ammadrine. We share our powers."

"How?"

"He locked himself inside the crystal computer. The off-site backup on Saturn, I made it for him and he sent it out there. He stored his own body in the walls of the crystal throne room, like Amma's was stored in the totem. So all that time, he was trying to control where and when we reincarnate. And he was controlling what things we can remember from one life to the next. As soon as all seven of us are alive at the same time, when the three dead ones were all riding in our bodies, that was the key to release him too. He thought that because I'm too young to stop him, he could kidnap Amma and do whatever he wanted to her. And then he'd be the only one left. The only way his plan fails is if I can jog her memory, and get her to remember those feelings."

"But she can't..."

"Right. She can't love, because she'd lose her powers. She's never been kissed, and that's kind of scary. But that's how Madir convinced her to let herself get sealed.

"The veil isn't perfect. Occasionally a demon slips into the world. A small one, that can slip through the cracks. And we think Madir's probably been helping them, reaching out from his exile. But every time one slips through, Ammadrine gets the chance to make a contract with a human. They can possess her body, and use all her powers to fight the demon. Maybe a dozen times, in secret, she's stopped one. And it stays an urban legend in some small town, never hits the world news because nobody would believe it until everyone had cameras on their phones. Some random mortal can fight the demons, and in exchange, Ammadrine uses the mortal's body to search for her boyfriend. If it's a human body, that can't use her powers anyway, she can consummate her relationship without tainting herself and losing her powers. A deal with a devil."

"So she found a way to escape this taint?" Mom asked, doing her best to keep up.

"Belmadir figured it out," Jack wasn't hesitating at all now. He could put Amber's theories together with conversations from Irvetrani's memories, and it all made so much sense. "He offered it to Ammadrine, but he tried to stack everyone against her so that she'd have to turn to him if she wanted to feel love. But she wasn't interested, so he started telling everyone that she was putting everyone at risk, doing things with Orsertro that I won't speak of in a child's body. Half of it wasn't even true, but we believed him. And it was always him telling us about some new transgression. He drove us apart in the hope of getting Ammadrine for himself. And now I can see why the current host was so eager to protect us from her."

"I don't get it," Amber's mom still didn't understand.

"He knows that Ammadrine wants to use his body to meet up with Orsertro," Amber answered, "She had to have told him that to make this contract. That's the price of him using her body to fight monsters, and that's why he hasn't been fighting them. Because he doesn't want Ammadrine using his body to look for me. I bet to start with, he didn't know who she was looking for. But if he did, she could only have showed him what Orsertro looked like in the second or third incarnation, when the Empire was still around. I don't know what I looked like, but maybe this janitor guy–"

"Biden," Mom added, glad she at least had something useful to say, "If we're going the right way, his name's R. C. Biden." Then she turned her attention back to the road, and to holding on tight as the car sailed over speed bumps.

"Yeah, him. If she showed him what Orsertro looked like, maybe he was scared?"

"Oh, I can imagine his reaction," Jack snorted with laughter, "He agrees to trade bodies with an ancient spirit, for an hour at a time. And then finds that the spirit is planning to use his body to consummate her relationship with a six-foot guy who looks more like a pro wrestler than a man in the street. With the waxed moustaches, and tattoos half way down his back that I'm sure Ammadrine could quote from memory. Think about how this Biden guy might have felt when he learned that."

"They didn't recognise me right away," Amber took over again, "They were confused. Maybe Ammadrine was expecting me to look like I did back then, or maybe Madir messed with her memories too much, so she didn't know what I was going to look like. But they must have worked it out, because he said he was trying to protect me. He was desperate to stop her even seeing me, so maybe he didn't know what she'd do if she saw I was so little. Like, she might want to do the thing Madir's machine did, make me grow up in a week or two. I don't think she would, but she might, and for somebody that's grown up in this world that's gonna be pretty scary."

"I'm not sure which would put him off more," Jack muttered, "The bodybuilder knight or the little girl, but I can see he wouldn't want Ammadrine getting intimate with them either way."

Mom didn't say anything, and Amber didn't really understand. She had so many of Orsertro's memories, but she still knew there was something very important missing. That was why Jack was here, who knew how to be a man.

"So..." Mom muttered as she slowed down, turning into a cul-de-sac with trees studding the verge on both sides and a range of well tended flowers in front of the houses. She could have said they were here, but Amber already knew. She'd been able to feel Ammadrine's presence for the last three minutes. "So you're going to talk to Ammadrine, and see if she's okay with waiting for you to grow up, and then maybe you can work together to fight the demons?"

"Something like that," Amber nodded, "But if I understand it, the totem doll is built out of all our feelings, all the human bits. It might be technically human, like it's got a kind of crystal soul of its own. So it responds to emotion. For Ammadrine to use her full powers, and maybe me too, I think this love might be the key. The connection between Orsertro and Ammadrine. Maybe a kiss? It seems gross, and I think Mr Biden won't like it, but to save the world. Maybe?"

"A kiss," Mom grunted as the car pulled to a stop. "You've never kissed a boy before. Are you sure you have to do this?"

"It's always a kiss in the fairytales," Amber shrugged, "And the movies. But... I don't know everything Orsertro did. I don't know how to kiss a girl, so that's why I thought Jack can help. If I'm too scared, I mean, I bet Jack's kissed loads of girls, 'cause he was like eighty when he died or something. He can do it, and I can close my eyes."

"Just a kiss?" Mom's knuckles went white as she gripped the steering wheel even tighter, "Jack?"

"This is the first time Amber mentioned that plan," Jack shaped the words carefully, dreading being misunderstood. And after all his talk of war, of doing the right thing no matter what, and of killing the Enemy, this was the first time Amber had heard him sound scared. "I... I can't be sure, but if she's right, it might be a way to get a little more power. Certainly, trusting each other strengthens our powers, and being closer together. If that's a symbolic recreation of the bonds of friendship from when we were all knights and councillors, then something to symbolise love might be even more powerful. I don't know if a kiss would be enough, or if they'd need to actually feel the same emotions as their past selves. But I'd say if a kiss doesn't work, the power we'd gain wouldn't be enough to fight that demon. Six of us or seven, even boosting the power of two of us, it would be a close call fighting that thing. With only four alive, and three ghosts along for the ride... I don't know if it's enough."

"It will be," Amber said certainly, "It has to be. And Ammadrine was always stronger than us." She didn't give Mom a chance to complain, because the movies had already taught her that a girl's first kiss was something that might make her mom angry.

"How can you be sure?" Jack asked, "Before we were all at each other's throats, when we could work together, Belmadir was talking about the balance inherent in our reincarnation. One losing their power would weaken all of us, right? Because the Knights reincarnate together, so their powers are all equal. Maybe hers is more useful in battle, but not actually stronger, and I don't think a tactical difference will help us here."

While he was speaking in Amber's head, they had rushed straight past piles of sand and bricks scattered around a garden. Even without their sense for ancestral spirits, they would have been able to identify the house with vinyl sheeting and wooden planks roughly nailed across some damage to the front wall. Another clue they were in the right place.

Mom stopped to wonder though, not sure if she should be more scared on finding out there'd been some kind of fight here in recent weeks. By the time she'd finished wondering, Amber was hammering on the door and Robin Biden was swinging it angrily open. She was vaguely aware of a scooter engine behind her as well, but that was little comfort.