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Elliot chose to meet The Nerd well after midnight, when she was sure Cassie’s would be packed. She told Cassie ahead of time, at least to make sure they had a table reserved. Cassie agreed, letting Elliot know she’d prep the place with anti-violence spells. That made Elliot feel a little better. Not by a lot, but it was something.
Meryl came with her. She wanted to make sure she could introduce the both of them properly. Elliot was happy to have the company on the way over. On the bus, Meryl talked about the first time she made a costume for a convention, and Elliot was so happy just to have nothing to do but listen.
Arie met Elliot at the door to Cassie’s. He gave her a hug.
“You look so scared,” he said, giving her a reassuring smile.
“No,” Elliot said. “I’m fine. Totally fine.”
“You’ll be okay here,” Arie said. “Cassie doesn’t let anyone hurt anyone else here.” He motioned for her to follow, and she did, hanging back just a little. Arie led them to a room, a tiny room just off the kitchen. It must have been a pantry, Elliot decided. It couldn’t have been much bigger than that, just enough for a table and two chairs, and two people at most.
The Nerd was there, waiting. He wrote in a journal, one that looked like it had seen better days, the edges of its paper stained and smudged with dirt and soot and whatever else must have collected in his bag. He looked up, and when he saw Elliot, his eyes grew wide, and he stood, almost knocking over his chair.
“Hey!” Meryl said, her ears perking when she saw The Nerd. “You made it!”
“Hi,” The Nerd said, not quite sure how he should be wearing his expression. Meryl radiated joy at him, and Elliot’s stare could have ruptured his spleen at 30 yards.
“Okay okay okay! So this is Elliot,” Meryl motioned to Elliot. Elliot didn’t move. “Elliot is a witch and a neat person. And this is Ilo,” she motioned to The Nerd. “Ilo is a wizard and he saved my life.” She looked back and forth between them. “Okay, you two have a lot to talk about. I’m going to wait out here.” And she flitted away before Elliot could grab her.
Ilo sat down, and for a moment, Elliot just stared at him. She sat cautiously, trying to think of what to say. Arie graciously brought them coffee, and closed the sliding door to their space as he left.
They were truly alone.
Ilo looked down at his coffee cup, his ears flicking in thought. “So, thanks for meeting me here-”
“WHAT THE FUCK, DUDE?” Elliot said.
“Ah!” Ilo said, sitting up. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to-”
“I was certain you were following me,” Elliot said sharply. “Every time I looked up, you were there.”
“I can explain!” Ilo said.
Elliot glared. “Then explain.”
“It’s a bit of a story, but-”
“I don’t have to be here,” Elliot said. “I’m here because Meryl asked me.”
Ilo bit his lower lip, trying to think of what to say next. “You’re a Lockesmith, right?”
Elliot froze in mid-sip of her coffee. “What?”
“That’s why you were in the tunnel, isn’t it? There’s not a lot of reason to go down there, unless you’re like looking for scrap copper or something. But I don’t think you were.”
“No,” Elliot said.
“So that leaves Lockesmith. You wanted to get close to where he disappeared.”
“My… my girlfriend surprised me,” Elliot said carefully. She looked away, scratching behind her ear. “Because she knew I wanted to see it.”
“Your girlfriend is the devil lady right?”
Elliot let out a laugh. “What were you doing in the tunnel?”
“Work,” Ilo said. “I work for Lumeria.”
“They had a hand in the tunnel? I didn’t think that was their project.”
“It’s not. Ask me what I do for Lumeria.”
“What?”
“Programmer,” Ilo said, and took a drink of his coffee for effect. “I couldn’t write a Hello World program to save my life.”
“Then why did they hire you?” Elliot asked.
“My actual title is Thaumic Engineer. I maintain magical barriers.”
“Wizard,” Elliot said. “Wait, but why were you following me? What does that have to do with magic walls?”
“I’m also sent out a lot to look for magic leaks. Sometimes, operations will get a report from our field agents that things feel wrong, and I go out and check out why.”
“Are those the sensitive sites that guy said the other day?” Elliot asked.
“Yeah, that’s them. Weird magical spots. The thing is, you’re probably drawn to them without realizing it. I think that’s a witch thing.”
“Sexist.” Elliot took a long drink of her coffee. “You’re saying it was coincidence.”
“I thought it was weird too. But you just kept showing up where I was sent. I didn’t know how to take that.”
Elliot said nothing. She took a drink of her coffee and stared down at it. “Well, it scared the shit out of me.”
“Sorry,” Ilo said. “I didn’t mean to. Really, I was just curious. Because no one thought witches existed, not my co-workers at least.”
“What, women can’t do magic?”
“There’s a few wizards that are women at work, but it’s a small percent. A lot of them got in when the scene started blowing up in California in the 80s.”
“I don’t know how to parse that,” Elliot said. “So what’s going on in the tunnel?”
“On paper, they’re pulling fiber, fixing conduits, stuff that’s vague enough that they can keep extending the permit without anyone noticing.”
“Smart.”
“Yeah, it’s clever.” Ilo cleared his throat. He seemed to collect his thoughts for a moment. “But what’s really there is what they call The Chamber.”
“What’s the Chamber?” Elliot asked, looking over the rim of her mug.
“Not sure,” Ilo said. “My job is purely containment. Keep the walls around The Chamber upright and intact. Some weeks are worse than others. There’s been… incidents… where wizards will be working on the site, and not report back. We sometimes find their badges, but nothing else.”
Elliot felt the fur on her neck stand up on end. “Yikes.”
“Yeah,” Ilo said.
“So I’ve seen a lot of horror movies. Don’t open The Chamber.”
Ilo laughed. “I wouldn’t want to. I’d love to never be down there again.”
Elliot looked down into her coffee. “So why are you telling me this?”
Ilo set his coffee down and dropped his eyes to the side. “Seeing you, knowing what you were right away, that was like this huge epiphany.” He looked up at her. “Do you remember when you started to become a witch?”
Elliot nodded. “Suddenly I had words to describe things I had always known but could never say.”
Ilo pointed at her. “Yes yes, that. But all of my life I didn’t realize I had the wrong words.”
Elliot looked down at her coffee, her ears twitching in thought.
“It’s stupid…”
“You want to be a witch,” Elliot said.
“Yeah…”
“You could have asked.”
“I don’t think I could,” Ilo said, looking up at her. “Not how like we kept meeting.”
Elliot considered this.
Ilo sighed. “Forget I asked…”
“What? No, I just…” Elliot’s ears twitched. “If I’ve learned anything in the last few… I dunno, weeks? Whatever. It’s that if you think you are a witch, a real witch that can do for real magic, you’re a witch. No one needs to give you that permission. Even if you can’t do magic…”
Ilo sat back in his chair, trying to hide a smile. “You think so?”
“That’s what they’d say. Part of the whole witch thing is not asking for permission, especially when you don’t need to.”
“That’s really nice…” Ilo said softly.
“I thought so.” Elliot started to take a drink of her coffee. “Wait. WAIT HANG ON. Lumeria is hiring WIZARDS?”
“Lots. Like from all over the world.”
“Why?” Elliot asked. “Wait, is this how they made a trillion dollars?”
“Turns out!” Ilo said. “That’s just old fashioned normie greed and underpaying their employees and government kickbacks. No, it has everything to do with what is in the tunnel.”
“What’s in The Chamber?”
“No idea.” Ilo stopped and thought for a long moment. “So there’s one more thing, and I’m trying to figure out how this all fits.” Ilo leaned forward. “Locke was my supervisor.”
“Locke… was a WIZARD?” Elliot sat back, suddenly looking in awe and exhausted at the same time. “What was he doing in the tunnel.”
“I think he wanted to get into The Chamber,” Ilo said.
“Why?” Elliot asked, just above a whisper.
“No idea,” Ilo said. “But I don’t think he should have been there. I think he might have been doing that on his own.”
Elliot suddenly felt the weight of the world on her shoulders. This was a lot to take in. Ilo didn’t say anything, his ears perked as he waited for Elliot to say something.
“How do I know I can trust you?” Elliot asked. “Last time we saw each other, your friends were trying to kill my friends.”
“Not my friends,” Ilo said. “I was not trying to kill you. I didn’t know that was part of the plan until it happened. Also, point of fact, I healed Meryl.”
“You got a point, Prime Minister Nerd.”
“Lumeria is a job,” Ilo said. “I could be out the second their stocks start dropping. Look what happened to Kingway.”
Elliot grunted.
“I want to help,” Ilo said. “I’m at your service.”
Elliot’s ears twitched again. “When do you want to start training?” she asked.
“What?”
“I just had an idea. You want to be a witch,” Elliot said. “I think we could teach each other.”
“You’d learn wizard magic? Ilo asked.
“And you’d learn how to be a witch.”
“I’d like that a lot,” Ilo said.
“Then we’re going to figure out a time.” Her stomach growled. “I’m going to order something, and we’ll talk about all of this, because it’s a lot.” She slid the door open, and Arie was there almost immediately. They ordered their cake, and talked until sunrise.
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