It was like a celebration. Derek watched the CCNC characters have a brief reunion, talking with Ezekiel. They were comparing notes of the modern world, with Ezekiel and Clarissa gushing about phones.

“In an instant! My portrait is taken in an instant! It’s my favorite thing!”

“Of course it would,” Grizzizzik mumbled.

“Alejandra showed me how many books are on it! Not thousands, not tens of thousands, but millions! Millions of books, right at your fingertips! I could stay in this world for the rest of my life!” Ezekiel said.

Derek smiled, shaking his head. Despite the CCNC characters being unusually chatty, he and his friends had fallen silent. It was clear they needed to say something, but this felt more a reunion of friends who actually cared about each other. Derek didn’t want to spoil it.

Getting into Derek’s minivan was a different thing altogether. It was hard before, but now they had Rafael and Ezekiel to think of. At one point, Rafael offered to drive his car to Calawit’s tent, but they wouldn’t have it. Instead, Hraktar and Grizzizzik ended up in the back, and they squished Rafael, Ezekiel, Clarissa, and Milo into one bench, while Nick, Evelyn, and Alejandra were in the front. Tyler slid into the front seat, and Derek situated himself in the driver’s side. He adjusted the rearview mirror, trying to imagine simpler times with Rafael and Nick together, but the hatred they both tried to hide from everyone else was going to blow the top of his van off.

As he started the vehicle, he needed to start a conversation with his friends, and it needed to be safe. Thankfully, he had just the conversation.

He started the minivan and pulled out of the driveway. “I finally broke up with my girlfriend.”

Tyler paused mid scroll, then glanced over at him, frowning. “I thought you broke up with Missy over the summer.”

“Not Missy. Emma,” Derek said.

Rafael tore his gaze from the small space between Nick and Alejandra to shoot him a look. “Since when were you dating Emma?”

Nick’s glare turned into a glare-like eye roll. “Don’t you think it’s a stretch to call what you did dating?”

“Wait, is that the girl you said randomly started singing Disney songs in the hallway two years ago?” Evelyn asked, glancing at Nick.

A small, triumphant smile flickered across Derek’s face. There it was. The safe topic. He explained, as often as they needed him to, his thought process to his old friends. He’d rather they rail on his life choices instead of sitting in complete silence. Maybe he was a bit of a masochist.

Maybe he should’ve told them about his father looking into jobs in Phoenix. How he noticed his mom searching through houses in the same area. Somehow that topic, too, felt unsafe. A week later and he still struggled to process it.

After a long car ride of everyone giving their opinions about his life, he was happy to hear his friends almost acting like themselves again. Nick was rolling his eyes, telling Derek his thoughts about how ridiculous the whole thing was with his clear, no nonsense black and white mentality. Alejandra tried to sympathize with something she clearly didn’t want to sympathize with, but wanted to help Derek feel better. Evelyn spouted off some other gossip she dredged up about Emma and her squad, and even Rafael broke out of his shell to lecture Derek about how he needed to think about the future.

The entire thing made the corners of Derek’s mouth twitch.

Tyler raised an eyebrow. “What are you smiling about?”

Derek shrugged as he pulled off to the side of the road near Calawit’s tent. “Just catching glimpses of a life that might have been.”

Tyler glanced behind him before focusing again on Derek, a small shake of his head.

They got out, walking toward the tent. It was almost six o’clock, and there was a passing cloud as the sun sunk toward the horizon. It was still hot, but once they entered the tent, it was back to smelling like a flower garden. Then a pine forest. And an apple orchard.

“Why, hello you!” Calawit said once Ezekiel had entered the tent.

The cleric’s eyes brightened. “Calawit!”

The gnome sorcerer went down a couple of shelves to hug him. “Do you need any Flannigan Jones?”

Ezekiel ended the hug quickly to look at her face. “Do you have any?”

She motioned with her hand. “Come on, I’ll show you where they are.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

He followed Calawit with a skip to his step as they made their way to the book section of the store. Tyler followed, asking for any update on the demon rats.

Derek looked around as the other characters went to their usual spots in the shop. Milo and Clarissa went to the potions section. Hraktar stood in a corner, watching with his arms folded. Alejandra was between Rafael and Nick toward the front of the store, looking like she wanted to be near both, but those two were purposefully not looking at each other. Nick moved over next to Derek, shooting a glare at Rafael. Their old friend was near the wall, closer to Hraktar. Arms folded, body stiff, watching the interactions of the other characters.

“I’m glad you broke up with Emma,” Nick said.

“Yeah. Me too.”

There was another beat of silence. Derek considered telling his friend about moving to Pheonix. It was on the tip of his tongue when they heard a noise. The two of them saw Calawit staring at Nick like she discovered something dangerous in her store. Which was ridiculous, considering the item closest to them was a Hand of Choking.

Nick cleared his throat. “Um, hi.”

Calawit sniffed, causing her glasses to jostle. “What did you do?”

“Sorry… what?”

For being short, she took quite the menacing step forward. “I did not sense a thing until you stepped into my store today. What. Did. You. Do.” With every word, she leaned in closer and closer. Nick backed away at every word.

“I… I don’t understand.”

“The fae forest has a strange glow, don’t you think?” Calawit asked.

Nick’s eyes widened. “It’s not what you think.”

The entire thing confused Derek. Calawit snapped her fingers and the petals above the door zoomed toward Nick. He kept stumbling back; the petals turning an angry red.

“Tyler?” Derek asked, because he wasn’t sure what was happening.

“I’m not going to do anything,” Nick said.

Derek watched, wide eyed, as an army of petals slammed Nick’s wrists together. They circled around and up his arms, pressing them against his chest. The petals then made a cocoon around his torso, pinning him tight. Nick struggled, but his arms weren’t going anywhere.

Tyler approached the scene, alarmed. “Calawit?”

“He understands thieves’ cant. Only criminals know how to speak and understand it,” Calawit said.

Tyler looked at Nick, who still struggled with the flower petals. “Nick?”

“Wait, none of you heard what she said?” Nick asked.

Derek glanced at Calawit. “She talked about the fae forest.”

“No, I mean… about the…”

“They don’t speak thieves’ cant, human. So why do you?” Calawit asked.

Nick stopped struggling with the flower petals, though his glare deepened. “I assumed it’s an added benefit of being Grizzizzik’s creator. It doesn’t mean I’m a criminal.”

“Well…” Rafael started to say.

“Shut up, Rafael,” Nick said.

Alejandra stepped forward, placing a hand on Nick’s petaled shoulder. “He’s not like that anymore. I assure you he’ll never steal again.”

Calawit pulled out a crossbow, already loaded, pointed right at Nick. Derek’s heart hammered in his chest. They couldn’t add any more grey marks to themselves.

Tyler appeared between Calawit and Nick. “I assure you; he won’t do anything.”

Nick tried to back away from Calawit, but she kept her crossbow fixed on him. “No, he won’t. You know why? Because no one ever steals from Calawit, and no one ever will.”

“I swear, I have stolen nothing from you,” Nick said.

She kept the crossbow pointed at his flower petal covered chest. “Why do you know thieves’ cant?”

“I already told you. I created Grizzizzik, so the ability came that way.”

Ezekiel moved forward. “Anyone can learn thieves’ cant. For example, I’m not a thief. There isn’t a drop of criminal blood in my veins, but the monkey’s butt cheeks are always on its left side.” Derek raised an eyebrow at the unmatched confidence Ezekiel had when he said that last part. Nick frowned in Ezekiel’s direction and Grizzizzik rolled his eyes. Calawit kept her gaze on Nick, but there was a slight twitch in her mouth that could almost be described as a smile. Rafael covered his mouth, trying and failing to keep in a snicker. Ezekiel gave a firm nod. “I rest my case.”

Tyler placed a finger against the crossbow and forced Calawit to lower it. “Cal, I can vouch for my friend’s character. He made a mistake a couple years ago and has done more than enough to reform himself. Don’t… cling to his past mistakes. It only makes him moodier.”

The sorceress still glared at Nick, but she allowed Tyler to lower her crossbow. Considering Calawit had a full size crossbow in her gnome hands, the weapon looked so much bigger than it was. It still didn’t match the threat in her sneer. “I don’t like thieves in my shop.”

“We understand, and Nick is—” Tyler’s head bobbed a bit to the side, “—willing to do what he needs to in order to gain your trust.” There was a tick in Nick’s jaw as he stared at nothing. Tyler glanced at him, who sighed in defeat.

Calawit stood at her full height. “Every time you come into my tent, this is how you’re going to look.” She gestured with her fully loaded crossbow at his chest again. Nick glanced down at his pedal cocoon before meeting her gaze again. “Are we in agreement?”

Nick’s face was settling into the look Derek knew all too well. The slight glare in his almost bored expression when someone expected the worst of him. “Yes.”

“Perfect.” Calawit put away her crossbow like one of the other characters, placing it in the void in her lower back. She straightened, smiling at the others. “Does anyone have any other business they need to take care of?”

Tyler glanced at Nick. Derek rubbed his chin, feeling bad for his friend. So many people wouldn’t let his mistake go.

“Yes, actually.” Milo pulled out his void bag. “Do you want to look at these?” He pulled out two javelins that should not have fit in the reusable shopping bag. “There’s about twenty more weapons in here.”

“Oh.” Calawit glanced at the bag. “A void bag of your own make, I presume?”

“Sure is.”

“Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Milo tipped the void bag upside down, and the weapons tumbled out of it. Calawit wasn’t looking, so Nick attempted to break out of the petals again. Derek had a feeling his friend was trapped until Calawit deemed otherwise. Grizzizzik walked over to Nick, then folded his arms.

“Don’t say a word,” Nick said.

Grizzizzik shrugged. “Just commiserating.”

Derek smirked, then he noticed Alejandra eyeing the pile of weapons, hand over her mouth. It made little sense until she glanced at Hraktar. Derek then saw the look on the fighter’s face. It was as though nothing else was in the room except that pile of weapons. He was leaning against the tent wall, his knees trembling. His green skin somehow looked a touch lighter. He tore his gaze from the weapons and quietly slipped out of the tent into the growing darkness.