“There. Done. Any questions?”

“I’m an appraiser of sorts, too, as it goes.” The rabbit woman gave a weak half smile. “Can I get a closer look at that? If you don’t mind.”

Arthur nodded, and the woman moved forward. For reasons unexplained, both Eito and Itela looked a bit wary of her as she did, not in a this-person-is-dangerous way so much as a I-wish-I-could-have-planned-for-this way. He’d ask them about it later if he could.

The woman ran her hands over the finished product and raised her eyebrows.

“Hmm. That really is interesting.” The woman reached for the pile of tea, then stopped her hand suddenly before looking at Arthur. “May I brew some? I’ll be able to write it up better if I do.”

“Are you a cook class as well?”

“No, but you said a layman could use the product.”

“Fair enough. Would that be useful for everyone?” Arthur asked. A good three quarters of the audience nodded in unison. Whoever this woman was, she was well respected. “Then please do. I’m eager to read your notes.”

The audience shifted their focus to the rabbit woman as she brewed some of the tea, which gave Arthur a moment to sit down on a stool and gather himself. He was tired. Whatever low level of adrenaline his brain thought his body needed to get through this speech had worn him down fast. The sooner he could get this done, the better.

After a few minutes, the tea was done. The rabbit woman sipped it, then flexed her hand in the air thoughtfully a few times. “I have pain in my joints. But a little less now. Fine stuff.”

“Thank you.”

“No, thank you. And, for what it’s worth, I apologize for your next few days in advance.” Before Arthur could ask what that was about, the woman turned to the audience. “I’m going to write about both of these products, as well as a summary of the talk in general. I’m going to assume that will be enough for most of you. So I’ll ask that you leave this young man alone now. He’s beginning to look a bit ragged.”

Arthur nodded in agreement at that. He felt ragged too. The woman looked at him, smiled, and waved as she joined the throng of people milling out of his presentation. It was finally over.

“That was amazing, Arthur. It might be the most important speech of the expo so far,” Philbin said. “Of course, I won’t know that until the achievements for helping you do it start rolling in, but…”

“You fool,” Eito said. “Bless you, but that was stupid. You knew you’d get that reaction, didn’t you?”

“I…” Arthur said. “I might have. Some of the other teamasters said it was a possibility.”

“And you didn’t tell me,” Eito huffed. “You’ve made a lot of trouble for yourself, Arthur. Of course, it’s my fault too. I should have realized the implications of those skills. I just didn’t take the time to understand them.”

“It wouldn’t have been that bad if she wasn’t there,” Itela said, gesturing in the direction of the now-missing crowd. “I wonder how she got wind of everything.”

“The rabbit woman?” Arthur asked. “She did seem to carry a lot of weight. Who was she?”

“Jaiko,” Eito said, as if that should mean something to Arthur. Lily, at least, jolted at the name. To his credit, Eito immediately sensed that Arthur was lost and clarified. “The Demon World doesn’t have an emperor. Even The Bear didn’t try for that, although he might have been able to get it. We have a counsel instead, which is much better. But if we had elections for a ruler tomorrow…”

“She’d win. Hands down. No question.” Itela nodded. “And we’d be better for it, compared to anyone else.”

“Her? But she’s… some sort of librarian?” Arthur asked.

“We can talk about that later. Hell, I’ll find a book for you about her. There’s plenty.” Eito shook his head. “For now, just know that there are only a few people in this world that understand what you do better than her. Which means, sadly, that your plans are about to change pretty drastically.”

At the door, someone cleared their voice. Arthur turned around to see a courier-looking bear demon standing shyly, holding an envelope in his giant hands. “For Arthur? Arthur Teamaster?”

“I’m here,” Arthur said.

The bear handed over the envelope, nodded respectfully, and left.

“Yup. I expected that. She’s quick,” Itela said. “Just give it to Philbin. It will save time.”

“What’s going on?” Arthur said. He was very badly out of the loop in a way that usually boded poorly for him. That premonition got a bit worse as Philbin opened the envelope, gasped, and then started rubbing his temples with his off-hand as he read. “Philbin? Can you fill me in on what’s going on?”

“You have been removed from your remaining talks,” Philbin said.

“Canceled? Just like that?”

“Not canceled. Mizu will still give hers. I’ll handle the rest, and bring in experts as needed to make sure your town gets representation and credit for its accomplishments.” Philbin gave a weak smile. “But you’re going to be busy in the coming days. You’ve been summoned.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“I’m assuming we aren’t talking about how I got here in general, in the offworlder way.”

“No,” Eito said. “You should be so lucky. Every talk at this expo is important, in a way, but some more than others. Mizu’s talk will have broad interest from wellers, but it’s still a niche topic. Yours is… more generally important. To the extent that Jaiko took it upon herself to skip a couple council votes that traditionally happen and call you up directly.”

“To where, though?” Arthur rubbed his eyes. “To do what?”

“In front of the demon council. To talk about your future.” Itela sighed. “I really do wish you had talked to us, Arthur. Things are going to be a lot more complicated from now on.”

—

“Look at you.” Mizu found Arthur slumped over a bowl of noodle soup, valiantly trying to get enough calories into his body to counteract his day. “Arthur is a mess. You know you’re no good to me like this, right?”

“Yeah.” Arthur forced a bite of frankly unbelievable flavor into his mouth, chewed the delicious food mechanically, and swallowed. “Sorry. It’s been kind of a big day. You heard what happened?”

“I heard. I wish I was surprised.” Mizu sat by Arthur, brought one of her hands up, and started working on rubbing out some of the tension in his neck. “I’m sorry I didn’t realize the implications of all your inventions earlier. I might have been able to help.”

“It’s fine. I didn’t even realize, and I made them.” Arthur twirled the noodles left in the bowl into one big lump with his fork, then forced them down. “Did you ever see a high council meeting? With your mom, or anything?”

“No. She went, of course. But you are only allowed one second when you go in front of the council. It keeps things simpler.” Mizu turned in her chair and added her second hand to work out the stress-knots around Arthur’s spine. “There was always a reason for her to bring someone more helpful than her child. Which meant I got to just eat cookies at the hotel. It was a good outcome, for both of us.”

“I tried to get Eito to let me know what it means for me,” Arthur said. “I know it’s not all good. He didn’t give me a straight answer.”

“He couldn’t, probably. It’s a big range. I think the least you should expect is what usually happened to my Mom. They’d ask some questions to understand what you do a little better, and then maybe give you some advice or guidance on how to proceed from here. It wouldn’t be mandatory. But you’d probably want to take the advice. Council members tend to be there for a reason.”

“What’s the most I should expect?” Arthur asked. “If things go wrong.”

“Hmm.” Mizu stopped rubbing Arthur’s neck and shifted in her chair, leaning her chin on his shoulder. “Do you remember when you made all that boba for the monster wave? The first time. You told me you got a visit from the metal elemental assistants.”

“Yeah. They were cool,” Arthur said. “I still wish I could have hired them.”

“The reason you couldn’t is because they were a special kind of worker,” Mizu said. “There’s a title for it, but usually people just call them a strategic resource. The city has them on its payroll. They live there and the city assigns them work as it sees fit. They try to get the most use out of them.”

“Do they have to do it?” Arthur asked. “Could they say no?”

“Of course, they could say no. It’s just that nobody does.” Mizu patted Arthur’s back. “This is going to be one of those cultural misunderstanding things. I can tell.”

“I’ll try to understand as soon as possible.”

“Okay. Thanks.” Mizu gathered her words for a minute or so, then started talking again. “Imagine someone came to Coldbrook and told us that someone in their town had been poisoned. Just like I had. And that they needed your help to cure them, just like you did for me. Maybe it’s a child, or an old person. Would you help?”

“Of course. I’m not a monster,” Arthur said.

“And say it was a few days away, and it was raining very hard. Would that stop you?”

“No. I mean, it’s a life.”

“It’s a life. Now say you were in that town, and just as you got the sick person there cured, you got news of another sick person in another town. And then another after that, and so on. When would you draw the line and say the next person didn’t matter and you were going home?”

“Oh.” Arthur grimaced. “I get it. I think.”

“When the council asks people to do something, there’s a good reason. Always. They are the council for a reason. People know that. They grew up knowing it. I did, at least.” Mizu breathed out a little frustration-breath on Arthur’s neck. “And now they know you are useful. This summons is to see just how useful.”

“And after that?” Arthur asked, suddenly a lot more apprehensive about the meeting than before.

“It’s hard to say. Your skills are pretty weird. And the council members are smarter than me.”

“Impossible.”

“Well, they’ve seen more things, at least. Once they ask their questions, they’ll talk about what to do. Nobody could know what they’ll decide.”

Arthur let his head drop onto Mizu’s. He was glad she was here. “I don’t suppose I could convince you to be my second in all of this. You could see the council finally, at least.”

“I’d be a bad choice. I’m too quiet.”

“So who should I ask? Eito, or Itela?”

“Neither. Eito’s your trainer. They’ll interview him separately. He’ll be able to help you then. Itela is your cleric on record still, and she’s worked with you using your medicinal tea on her patients before. They’d interview her even if they didn’t know her already, and they do.”

“So they are already going to help. Who should I ask, then? Milo’s pretty loud.”

“He’s loud, but he’s also not… dignified, I guess. He wouldn’t know how to help. If you want my honest opinion, I think you should ask Lily.”

“Lily?” Arthur tired to imagine the little owl acting as an attorney of sorts. “She’s so little.”

“Don’t let that fool you. She’s not afraid to raise her voice, and she’s smart. And nobody on this entire planet wants you to be safe and happy more than her. Maybe not even me.”

“Well, then,” Arthur said. “I’ll ask her. And now I think it’s time for our date.”

“Oh, no. Absolutely not, Arthur. Not today,” Mizu said.

“Why not? This acid bath is going to wear off eventually, you know.”

“Then you’ll get another one. I haven’t seen you look this frazzled since you had majicka sensitivity, and I will not have my boyfriend passing out in front of the demon high council. It would be bad for my reputation.”

“So what, then?”

“First, we are going to shove another bowl of soup into your stomach. You need the nourishment. And then, you’re going home to sleep until just before that meeting.”

Arthur thought Mizu was joking, at least a little. If he went to bed now, he’d be asleep for almost fifteen hours before it was time to head to the center of the city to answer the summons. Even he couldn’t sleep that much. But Mizu wasn’t joking, and protesting to Ella and Itela when he passed them in the lobby didn’t help him at all. They not only didn’t set her straight, they agreed.

“If you can’t sleep, just lay there with your eyes closed,” Itela said. “That’s a type of rest in and of itself. Have you decided who to take with you?”

“Mizu said to take Lily.”

“Good. Smart girl.” Itela nodded her respect to Mizu. “She’s right about everything this time, Teamaster. Go upstairs and lay down. We’ll be with you in the morning.”

Arthur still didn’t think he could pack two nights of sleep into one ultra-long nap, but it turned out he was wrong about that. He closed his eyes, and opened them a moment later to see the clock reporting he had just a few hours before the meeting that might change his whole life.