David stared at Selva. Okay, how do I put this… He shook his head. No, he’d talk about that later.

“So, you came out by the school and saved Mari.”

“She was being grabbed by the elemental, so yes.” Selva nibbled at the pizza. “But you were there with others. You knew something about it.”

“Yeah,” Mari said. “We’ve got issues with breaches here, but we didn’t know anything about animas or elementals. We just call ‘em aetheric entities.” She paused. “Why didn’t you go back home?”

“I would have died,” Selva said. “The… passage, or whatever it was, collapsed. I’ve never seen anything like it at school or at work… I don’t think anyone ever has. It was like a hole punched into the aether, from one material world to another.” She looked around. “And this world—it’s strange.”

“How?” David asked. “I mean, this is Earth—what’s your world like?”

“Our lands aren’t curved like this—they aren’t globes. They’re flat for the most part,” Selva said. “And we don’t have a sun in the sky—the diamond of the well rises and falls according to the Maker’s pattern.” She looked around. “And… there are many of them, but they’re small—the largest one is… by your measurement, about 100 miles in diameter.”

“Okay…” Mari frowned. “So, you live on a bunch of flat earths.”

“And I have to find out why this happened,” Selva said. “We cannot risk another catastrophe.”

“We can…” David stared at Selva for a moment. “The people we work with, maybe they would help you?”

“No.” Selva shook her head. “What if they don’t help me? What if they imprison me.”

“You trusted us!” Mari said.

“I didn’t have a choice,” Selva muttered. “But can you tell me that I can trust your companions?”

David opened his mouth, closed it. Wilma and Antonio? Sure.

But Wilma and Antonio weren’t in charge anymore. Most everyone else saw them as just a problem, so they sure wouldn’t listen to them when they introduced them to Selva.

“What if they just think she’s a realized AE?” Mari said.

“They might think I’m a spirit?” Selva asked.

“I, no, they probably wouldn’t…”

“You don’t even sound certain yourself,” the short girl said. “No. I’m staying on my own—”

“And then you get caught,” Mari said. “What happens if a cop finds you? They won’t just leave you alone. If you run into a tunnel, they’ll follow you, and you don’t want to shoot them.”

“I did well until you found me,” Selva muttered.

“And how long was that?” David asked. “A few days?”

“Then, where should I stay?” Selva asked.

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“Simple. David’s house.” Mari took a drink from her coke.

“Wait, what?” David stared at Mari. “My house?”

“Can’t be mine. Mom would blow up, and the sibs would tell everyone in a minute.”

“Mari, Mom isn’t exactly going to be on board with me bringing a strange girl home and telling her that she’s staying!”

“Why would she be—oh, right, she wouldn’t agree.” Selva stared at David, her violet eyes bright. “Why would I agree to live at your house? What would you claim I was, your consort?”

“What—no!” David said. Yeah, hi Mom, meet Selva, she’s a girl from another world, who is also going to be my consort… His mind drew a merciful curtain over how that conversation would go.

“You’ve got that little workshop in the back, and your mom never goes there,” Mari said. “Remember, we used it as a club house when we were in juniorhigh?”

“Mari… What if Mom comes home and sees the lights?”

“Like she hasn’t done in the last six months?”

“I—” David fell silent, staring at Mari.

“You give Selva a key, she can take showers and get herself something to eat. She can also work with us, especially since school’s probably going to be delayed.”

“Ahem.” Selva stared at Mari. “Presuming I agree to this offer, what are we going to be doing?”

“Finding more breaches,” Mari said. “Figuring out how to close them, and finding a way for you to get back home, since you sort of saved my life.” She took a piece of garlic bread and munched on it, staring at David and Selva. “What else would we be doing?”

“I…” Selva paused. “I mapped out several locations of unusual power, but they were too far away for me to get to, at least without not exposing myself.”

“And David has a car…” Mari said.

“I know that. I just had to travel in his car…”

I’m not that bad of a driver. David wondered how Selva would react to some of their friends.

“So it’s decided,” Mari said. “You can stay at David’s, and then when we’re out if anyone asks, you’re someone we met who is here on, um…”

“Vacation?” Selva said.

“Yeah, that!”

“And if they ask to see her ID?” David asked.

“Since when has anyone asked you for your ID?” Mari retorted. “We won’t be doing anything illegal. We’ll just be… looking for stuff.”

Okay, Mari just volunteered for me to let someone live with me who was shooting at me a few hours ago… He looked over at Selva. From her expression, she wasn’t too thrilled with the idea either.

“Why should I trust you?” Selva finally said.

“We took you out to eat, right?” Mari replied. “Ultimate trust, right there.”

Selva turned to look at David.

“Yeah…” David shook his head. “Mari can be… like this.”

Selva sighed.

“Where else do you want to stay?” Mari finally asked. “In that building? Sooner or later, someone would find you. In a hotel? You don’t have any money. Go to the welfare people and say, ‘I’m a lost girl from a different world?’ Yeah, that’d go real well.”

“Mari’s…” David glanced over at Mari. “Well, she might be right. I mean, it’s on the property, but there’s an alley right behind it, so you can get out if you think I’m double-crossing you. I’ll have to give you some way to talk to me, so you don’t walk in when Mom’s at home.”

Selva paused, then smiled, her prominent incisors gleaming in the light. “Oh, I don’t think I have the clothes for that…”

“What?” David blinked. “No! It’s just to make certain that we’re alone if—wait, that didn’t come out right…”

Selva’s smile grew, then she giggled, the sound oddly normal coming from her. “I know, but I wanted to play the joke.”

Great, she’s already taking lessons from Mari… David stared at the girl for a moment. “So, are you up for this?”

“I don’t seem to have much of a choice,” Selva said.

“Okay, Mom will be on shift for a while, so we can get home and get everything ready.” David looked over at Mari. “If this blows up in our faces, it’s your fault, Mari.”

“No, It cannot be. After all, my plans don’t fail,” Mari said with an airy gesture.

“Sixth-grade play.”

“That doesn’t count. The teacher had it in for me.”

“Sure she did, and the fire had nothing to do with it.”

Selva shook her head. “Fine. If you are finished discussing how this can go poorly, maybe you could show me my new home?”

“Sure,” David said. “And we will help you get home. I promise.”

“Which would sound better if we had any idea how you got here,” Mari muttered.

“I was trying to be comforting,” David hissed.

“You failed,” Selva said. She took another bite of her pizza. “However, let me finish this first. You are right, it is better than what I’ve been eating…”