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Lemuria started to sprout in the South Lake Union area about five years before, spreading down from its castle on a hill into the forgotten industrial playground that had once been eyed for a public space to rival Central Park. Lemuria grew like mushrooms, thriving on the decay on a once-industrial city. Soon, it began to consume its surroundings, until the land between I-5 and Highway 99 was solidly part of its urban continent.
You know Lemuria. You got all your Christmas presents from Lemuria last year. Half of all websites you read are hosted on Lemuria servers. Lemuria created the digital assistant that sits on your counter top. You last asked her to play Abba. You said, Lem, play “Mamma Mia,” and she said, Okay, playing “Mamma Mia,” here we go again. She’s so funny.
You probably bought this book from Lemuria. You know Lemuria.
Right Determination watched the rise of Lemuria, at first with curiosity, then with slow, building dread. She knew a tyrant when she saw one. Once, she was happy to indulge in the novelty of ordering books from the Internet — the Internet itself was a novelty she never would have dreamed of when she and her group first set foot on the land of the People of the Inside. Now, she saw Lemuria for what it was: a dangerous kingdom lead by a smiling thief, a nightmare that sought to keep its victims asleep forever, where it could thrive.
The sky over the Olympics turned a nice bright gray, the sun in the east finally peeking over the Cascades. If gray could be warm, it would be that kind of gray. Right Determination watched out the window of her apartment for a moment, watching a ferry dock at its terminal. She prepared coffee in the coffee maker, one she rarely ever used for more than a cup or two. She filled the pot this time, having a hunch that Elliot would be able to take whatever else she didn’t. And for a moment, she was at peace with the world, the towers of Lemuria to the north aside.
Elliot had fallen asleep a few hours before. She slumped over on the couch, and Right Determination covered her in a blanket, letting her have her sleep. And while Right Determination was enjoying the company immensely, she also enjoyed the solitary still hours of the early morning.
This was not how Right Determination had intended to end their date. Her apartment hadn’t entered into it at all, unless they had been too tired to stay out, and even then, returning to Cassie’s charming coffee shop would their first option. Right Determination had a feeling that Cassie wouldn’t care if the two of them had fallen asleep on one of her couches. But her own apartment, that was something else entirely. The last thing she wanted was to scare her new companion away.
Elliot stirred on the couch. She sat up, looking around wearily, squinting in the low light.
“Good morning,” Right Determination said.
“Hi,” Elliot said. Her headfur fell in front of her eyes, and she brushed it away, kind of. “What time is it?”
“A little after six,” the demon said. She hadn’t bothered to put her disguise back on, and after a moment she realized Elliot was staring.
“In the morning?”
“In the morning,” Right Determination said, amused.
Elliot struggled to stand, sleepily finding her footing. “Sorry. I should go.”
“Why are you sorry?” The demon said. “Stay, I made coffee.”
Elliot stumbled to the kitchen. Right Determination handed her a mug. Elliot inhaled the scent of the coffee deeply, and let out a long sigh. “Thank you.”
“I thought you’d want some.”
Elliot nodded and began to drink. She watched Right Determination move to a window, sipping her coffee and watching the world outside. Elliot’s ears twitched.
“I fell asleep, huh?” She asked.
The demon smiled. “You did. It was cute.”
Elliot looked away, letting her eyes wander the open loft. She started at he sloped walls, and noticed they kept going up, rising a few floors up to a flat ceiling. She looked out the window, looking at downtown Seattle, the Columbia Tower to her right. Right Determination watched, quietly sipping her coffee. Elliot turned back to the demon.
“I always wondered who lived up here,” she said.
“Surprise,” the demon said.
Elliot looked down to her coffee. “Are you mad at me? Should I go?”
“Oh! No! I am not mad, I was just…” Right Determination hesitated.
Elliot approached carefully, watching the demon closely. “This was too early.”
“It was. That portal trick is programed to go back to one place…”
The raccoon got closer, but kept her distance. “It’s nice. Honestly? I expected something like this.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, like… you’re sophisticated and smart and you’ve seen a lot of history. And like, your shop is really fancy too. You like charcuterie. I bet you could spell charcuterie.”
Right Determination laughed a little. “Well, I suppose I’m glad I set expectations well.”
Elliot got closer, trying to look out the window the demon stood by. It was a straight shot down Second, looking at the International District, and directly at King Street Station. Elliot followed Ardy’s gaze, watching a commuter train come in from the south.
“You like trains, huh?” Elliot asked.
“I like that trains go somewhere,” Ardy said. “I like the journey, and at the end of the line there’s somewhere else completely different.”
“That’s really nice,” Elliot said. They stood next to each other now. “I came here on the train. Just from Spokane, but…”
“Did you do your trick and hide from them?”
“They never knew I was there,” Elliot said.
“It’s very impressive.” Ardy thought for a moment. She very slowly reached out and put her hand on the small of Elliot’s back. Elliot’s ears perked, but she leaned ever so slightly into Ardy.
“Uhm…” Elliot said. She didn’t dare look at the demon. “I had a really good time.”
“I glad. I did too.”
They stood together for a moment, just watching the world go by, the people below unaware of the people watching them from Smith Tower.
“So…” Elliot started. “What… happened in the tunnel last night?”
Ardy considered this quietly. “I do believe that was your friend.”
“He’s…” Elliot stopped, her ears flattening on her head. She narrowed her eyes. “That was The Nerd. What was he doing there?”
“And who was with him?”
Ardy felt Elliot tense.
“Are you okay?”
Elliot stumbled over her words before saying, “Wizards. There’s more wizards. I didn’t know there were witches two weeks ago and now we know there’s at least three or four wizards and they were doing SOMETHING in the tunnel, and one of them is the jerk that keeps following me.”
“Don’t forget about demons,” Ardy said.
Elliot swayed a little, and Ardy steadied her. “I’m… scared? I think? Like, I feel like this means something, but I don’t know what it is. I know so much less than I did two weeks ago.”
“Your world got bigger,” Ardy said.
“It did.” She watched out the window, and sighed heavily. She scrubbed her face with her free hand. “I’m so tired of being afraid.”
Ardy slipped her hand up to Elliot’s shoulder and pulled her into a side hug. “That’s a good place to start,” she said. “We can figure out a way to make you not afraid.”
Elliot leaned into the hug, her eyes closed. She didn’t say anything, and they let the silence hold the conversation for a moment.
“Well,” Ardy started, suddenly cheerful. “I think it’s time we found some breakfast.”
“Aren’t you tired?” Elliot asked. Ardy understood the question.
“You will have to try much harder to wear out your welcome.” She turned and strode to the kitchen to set down her coffee. Elliot watched, approaching carefully. Ardy too her cup too. “The coffee shop downstairs has a wonderful breakfast.”
Elliot smiled a little. She didn’t know what to say, except, “That sounds nice.”
“Good,” Ardy said. She put a jacket on, somehow looking more put together than she did the night before. She straightened her hair in a mirror, and in an instant she looked like a human again. She smiled at Elliot. “I have so much more to learn about you.”
“I can’t even imagine what part of me would be interesting to you.”
“Nonsense.”
“Like, the most exciting thing in my life is that I found a working Nintendo 64 at Goodwill for twenty bucks.”
“With Mario Kart?”
“No, but I got that later,” she said. “Did… do you play video games?”
“I never gave my attention to this Nin-ten-do 64,” Ardy said. “In this house we honor Sega, thank you.”
“What?” Elliot laughed and joined her at the top of the steps. “You’re so much more of a nerd than I thought.”
“You will never know the joy of seeing an arcade-perfect conversion of Space Harrier on a home console,” Ardy said.
“You’re so old!” Elliot blurted. She slapped her hands over her mouth. “Sorry sorry sorry.”
Ardy only beamed at her.
“I desperately want to know about 1980s Ardy.”
“Do you want to see pictures of my perm?”
“YES.”
“I’ll show you after breakfast.” She held her hand out for Elliot. Giggling, Elliot took it, and Ardy pulled her closer. She put her arm around Elliot’s back, holding her hand as if they were dancing. Elliot gasped, blushing. Ardy leaned in and carefully kissed Elliot on the cheek.
She felt Elliot tense again, freezing in her arms.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t think-”
“N-no, it’s fine.” Elliot pulled away. “It’s okay. I should go, though.”
“Do you not want breakfast?”
“I’m okay!” Elliot said. She stepped back. “I’ll be okay. Thank you, though.” She retreated down the steps, and Ardy heard her fumble with her door lock, and speedily exited. The door closed with a clack.
Ardy sighed, dropping her arms to her side. She went back to the coffee she had left on the counter, which was slowly getting cold. Still, it was coffee. She knew she shouldn’t feel bad. How many dates had she been on that ended badly? This wasn’t even that bad, all things considered. And she knew that she had had so many promising relationships end after date two. This was nothing new.
Still, she sighed. She liked that witch.
She moved back to the window, slowly sipping her coffee, watching the trains come in.
Ardy’s phone vibrated on her kitchen counter. She picked it up and opened her texts.
“I don’t know how to get out”
Ardy laughed. She took a second to compose herself and went to go rescue Elliot.
[g]