I clopped around the house for what felt like the hundredth time. Surveying the room again, I decided I didn’t like the way I’d placed the furniture, so I began again. Picking up the couch, I took a few steps and placed it on the other side. I hummed a playful tune, one I often did whenever I was stacking objects.
“So this is what’s going on? I was worried someone broke in, with all the clatter.”
An ear had already turned to Ben’s direction when he came down the hall, but when he spoke, I stopped what I was doing. Standing up, I looked at the room again. Maybe the couch would work better back where it was earlier, after all. “Sorry, I’m feeling restless. It’s been two days since I arrived in this city, and I’ve not much to show for it. I just need something to DO, you know?”
“Cabin Fever, yeah.” He sighed softly. I didn’t feel sick. “Well, I’ve got the day off work, so we could go out. Do some sight-seeing. Wanna get changed so we can head out?”
“That sounds nice.” With a paw to my collar, I activated the spell within. Once I was in human form again, I picked up my phone from the table and slipped it into a pocket. Last time we went shopping, I bought a new skirt that had them, as well as a new top. Ben called it a “Tee shirt”, and it had a painted scene of a cute rabbit on it, even if it didn’t match my colors. Such intricate dyeing was unheard of back home, but here it was treated as one of the simplest articles of clothing.
“I figure we can go for lunch, hit up the mall. Make a day out of it. Lots of things to see there.” He picked up his keys, tiny jagged metal bits that didn’t look much like the sorts of keys I was used to seeing.
Another car ride was the next hurdle. It was a little less bothersome, but I still didn’t care for them. If I didn’t have Ben with me, and I knew where I was going, I’d probably prefer to just walk. Even if this city was incredibly enormous.
We came upon a colossal, palatial estate, bigger than the biggest castle I’d ever seen. Granted, the keep at Strongholt was more of a defensive structure, made to block armies from passing through the valley in which it sat. I was in awe of it as we stepped out of the car, watching people wander in and out of the doors.
Ben nudged me with an elbow lightly. “It’s better inside.”
I nodded, swallowing hard. It was hard to not feel a little bit of apprehension at such a structure, but I approached, with Ben at my side. “Sorry, it’s just… so big. How do you build such a thing like this, without magic?”
“One block at a time, I suppose. A construction crew, concrete, other materials… I’m not an expert on construction, but maybe we’ll get to see a building being made. If not, we can look it up online.”
When I approached a door, it moved on its own, sliding to the side to reveal an opening. I nearly jumped out of my skin when it did that, and I gestured at the door, giving Ben an accusing look.
“It’s not magic.” He rolled his eyes, as he was growing used to this kind of exchange. “Look, above the door is a sensor. It can “see” the same way an eye can, it detects light. When it detects that there’s someone in front of it, machinery moves the door out of the way automatically. It’s just technology.”
“Hmph. It’s still… weird. This whole city is weird, I want to be back home where things make sense.”
“I get that, but you’re gonna have to stop calling things magic. If people hear you, they’re going to think you’re crazy. As far as everyone else knows, magic simply doesn’t exist.”
“What about animals that have innate magic? Basilisks, dragons, gryphons, platypuses?”
“They aren’t r– …Platypus?”
“Scary, unnatural monsters. I’ve never fought one myself, I’ve only heard about them. Master says he saw an account of one in a book once. Said it looked like a collection of parts of different animals. I think that might have given him the idea to create me.”
“Okay, that’s… I’m gonna have to deal with that later. I don’t even know how to get into that right now.”
My hooves clopped loudly on the smooth tile. Bubbling voices from everywhere filled the space, the interior so large and empty as I looked around. Tables and chairs were arranged all over, with areas between them for walking, and booths seemed to line the walls. I was reminded of the large market squares of the bigger cities back home, and the air was filled with scents of all kinds of foods. “What is this place…?”
“This is the mall. Specifically, this is the food court. A variety of fast food restaurants to choose from, and then we can check out the stores. It’s a place where there are a variety of shops of all kinds, all in one building. What would you want to eat?”
I walked from booth to booth, looking at the different options. I didn’t recognize most of them, but there was one that smelled nice. Stopping at it, I watched as a worker behind the counter laid out slices of meat onto a hot metal plate the size of a table, and then attacked it with flat tools. Having shredded it, he mixed in cheese and some other ingredients, and then scooped the cooked mixture into a small loaf of bread. “I think I’ll try this?”
“Cheesesteak, good choice.” Ben stepped up to the counter and placed an order for two of the oversized sandwiches, and soon they were prepared. It was so interesting, watching him work behind the glass counter, every movement so ritualized through what must’ve been countless hours of practice.
“Order up.” The sandwiches were wrapped in paper and handed to a second person, who set them down in an area that wasn’t blocked by the glass, and Ben presented some sort of small slip of material. The person did something with it and handed it back, apparently satisfied, and slid the sandwiches over for Ben to collect.
“Thank you.” I gave a polite bow before leaving. The workers seemed to give no real indication they heard me, but I didn’t want to press the issue. We sat at a table, and I looked down at the paper-wrapped food. “That was weird.”
Ben was already unwrapping his sandwich and taking a bite. “What was?”
“All of it. The people there barely reacted to us beyond making the food. You paid by showing some kind of chit that they gave back to you. And it’s a giant novelty sandwich.” I picked at the paper, peeling it aside, but I didn’t take a bite yet.
“They’re working, they see probably hundreds of customers a day. They’ve got lines to move, people to serve, they can’t spend time talking to everyone. Honestly, thanking them probably is the highlight of their day, so many customers just treat them like robots or yell at them for stuff that isn’t even their fault.”
“Robots? …I know I’ve heard… No, I haven’t heard that word, I just feel like I have. Must be more Weird Knowledge. But they’re… like constructs, but I wanna say metal?”
“Weird Knowledge? You said that’s what you call stuff you know but never learned, from the knowledge spell that went wrong, yeah?”
“Yeah. Stuff that somehow came from people of this city.” I took a bite. It was surprising, the bread was so sweet I could barely eat it.
“You know it’s more than just this city, right?” He took another bite of his sandwich.
“You mean, the ‘state’? Colorado? How big is this kingdom, then?” I hesitated, but I took a second bite as well. The meat and cheese was good, at least. The grilled onions only brought more of the bread’s sweetness out, though.
Ben chuckled, sighing. “I swear, you really haven’t… Somehow, you’re on a different world, I’m pretty sure.”
I coughed, nearly choking on my bite. Forcing myself to swallow, I looked at him with wide eyes. I had to restrain my voice to keep from shouting. “What? N-no, that’s not… How would that be… possible? That another world could even exist? No, I’ve just been… been teleported, that’s all. Some incredible distance, from beyond the borders of Colorado. It has to be!”
“It’s not just Colorado. We’re only one state out of fifty in the United States of America, which is a country on the continent of North America, which is one of seven on the world of Earth. And nowhere on Earth are there people that can use magic and create hoofbuns.” Instead of taking another bite, he watched me, waiting for his words to sink in.
Meanwhile, I tried to process that. But I simply couldn’t. The scale of what he was talking about, it was too much. Finally, I shook my head. “You’re wrong. You have to be. There’s only the one world, even if you call it Earth here. Nobody can know the entire world, there’s far more than can be covered in a single lifetime.”
Maybe he expected that, as he gave a sigh and nodded. “All right, forget about it for now. We can talk more later, today we should be trying to have fun.”
I ate more of the sandwich in silence. The thought of what he was saying was horrifying. About halfway through, the bread became too much, and I ate the fillings out of it instead. I was mostly full anyway.
“Sorry to dump that on you so… fast, I guess. Why is it such a big deal, anyway?”
I looked up, taking a big breath and sighing. I’d been asking myself the same question. “Two reasons, really. One, if it’s true, then how the hell am I going to get home? It’s not just a distance thing anymore, it’s doing the impossible. And two, if it’s not just distance, how the hell do I have Weird Knowledge of this world? Things like cars and robots?”
“Well, I don’t know about the second, but as for the first, it’s not that impossible. You did it once, after all. If there was a way to get here, there’s a way to get back.” He was done with his food, I’d slowed down a lot near the end of eating mine.
I thought about it. His words rang true, after all. “I suppose. But there’s a major problem. I got here with magic. If there’s no magic here, how do I get back?”
“I don’t know, your collar works. You’re still alive. Maybe we’ll be able to find some sort of magic after all. Besides, I don’t think it’s the first time someone’s crossed between worlds.”
That snapped me out of my thoughts. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, for one thing, you speak English. Or do you have some kind of magic that translates your native language into English?”
“Translates? Like, from something other than English? Like what?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Spanish, French, German, Japanese, something not even from Earth at all? If there’s translation magic at work, then maybe you’ll understand any language?”
“More than one language…? I don’t think there’s any magic like that. How would we test it?”
Ben was already poking at his phone. Turning it sideways, he flipped it around towards me, and a video was playing. Brightly-colored drawings flashed quickly, making them look like they came to life on the screen. I had seen these things show scenes of people and objects, but this was new to me. However, when their mouths moved, the things they spoke made no sense at all. The text along the bottom was fine, but the speech itself was not. Ben was watching my reaction, and I shook my head in bewilderment. “N-no, I don’t… Do you understand this?”
“No, I don’t speak Japanese. I need anime to be subtitled or dubbed to be able to watch it, if I want to know what’s going on.”
Silently, I nodded. This was a lot to take in. “And your phone can just… find stuff from other kingdoms in other languages?”
“Sure. The whole world is connected by the internet. Japan is on the other side of the world, and information takes less than a second to get here.”
That word, “internet”, struck something deep inside. An image of a world-spanning web of lines that was simultaneously another layer of reality. I felt like I knew it. All this Weird Knowledge was making me feel increasingly unsettled.
“Secondly, platypuses.”
“Huh?” The words came out of nowhere, so unconnected that for a moment I thought maybe he was speaking that Japanese language.
“The second reason I think people have crossed worlds. They’re a real animal here on Earth, and the other ones you mentioned are in our legends. We have stories and paintings of all of them. I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but it can’t be a coincidence. There has to be a way to travel from one world to the other.”
I stared silently at the half-eaten bread, stained with meat juice. Could it really be possible…? An entire world… “I… think I want to go shopping.” I stood up, looking down at the mess. “What do we do with this?”
“Heh, I’m glad you’re not the kind of person to just leave it. Gather it up, there are trash cans right there.”
“I’m not a person, though.” I smiled a little as I chided him, picking up my wrapper and discarded bread, depositing them where he indicated. All this talk about Weird Knowledge things made my mind wander, to when I first woke up…
My eyes fluttered open, and I stared at a stone ceiling. I was awake. How long had I been asleep? I couldn’t remember going to sleep. Where was I? I couldn’t remember what room I was in. Had I been moved? Maybe. I didn’t recognize this room, but I drew a blank when I tried to think of what room I should expect. Turning my head, I saw cabinets with strange bottles. Some sort of chalkboard with diagrams on it I didn’t understand.
I sat up. My head felt strange. Really, all of me felt strange. Or did it? I didn’t remember what it normally felt like. Reaching up, I found that my ears were at the top of my head, and they were long. My hand felt strange, too. I looked down at my other hand, which was covered in black fur. Bringing my right hand down, I saw that it was covered in white. That was strange, but I couldn’t… remember what my hands normally looked like? Did they always look like this, perhaps? But then why would I think that was strange?
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Further down my body, my legs ended in large hooves. They gave me that same “Strange, but is it?” thought that my hands did. Paws? It didn’t feel like I was dressed up, and I felt the touch on my ears… Looking myself over showed fur everywhere, and I was aware of a shape at the bottom of my field of view that my paws confirmed to be a short muzzle.
A man was standing over at a table, flipping through pages of a book and muttering to himself. Who was he? My mind, unsurprisingly at this point, drew a total blank. Was he responsible for my memory being gone? Was he holding me here against my will? Was he in a similar situation, looking for a clue that could help him remember too? I wasn’t held down, so if he was my captor, he wasn’t very good at it. Well, only one way to find out anything.
“Excuse me, who… am I? I seem to have amnesia?”
The figure jumped in surprise, spinning around, his face registering shock and then elation as he saw me sitting up. “You’re… You’re awake! You’re actually awake! Look at you, sitting up and talking and everything! This is incredible!” He rushed over, inspecting me more closely and grinning wildly.
“Um, yes, but I can’t… remember how I got here. I can’t even remember what I was doing yesterday.” This was not a reaction I had been expecting. Did he think I was dead?
“Yesterday…?” The question had caught him completely off guard, and he took a moment to look at me quizzically. “You… Hah, that’s because you didn’t exist yesterday! This is the first time you’ve ever been awake! This is amazing, I thought for sure it had failed again… How are you feeling?” He seemed to be resisting the urge to poke at me.
“Um, a little concerned, to be honest. What do you mean, I didn’t exist?”
“I meant, are you in pain anywhere, or excessive heat or cold, or any other physical sensation? But I see what you mean. I created you, today is your first day alive! I’ve been calling your design ‘Hoofbun’, because, well, it should be fairly obvious. But you feel well, physically? No sense of weakness, your heart is beating properly, your lungs draw breath?”
Created? This man just… casually dropped something like that like it was no big deal? As for the other questions, was that something I need to worry about? I reached a paw to my neck, feeling for a pulse, but it was a little difficult with the fur. Finding one, I let it press against my fingers, feeling the beat of it for a moment. I didn’t have a watch to try to count my heart rate, but it seemed… Well, I guess “normal” wouldn’t be established if I only just now existed? But I didn’t feel like it was too fast or too slow. “Y-yeah, I think it’s fine? I’m not a doctor, though. Or a vet, I guess.”
“A… vet? Like a warrior?”
“No, a veterinarian. You know, animal doctor?” I narrowed an eye in confusion. Why would I be talking about a veteran?
“No, I… don’t know that word. Fascinating! I wonder why you do, though? I can’t imagine it to be that common of knowledge.” He went back over to his book, flipping through pages again, as if he forgot I was still here.
“Um, I hate to intrude, but… Who are you? And… why did you create me, then?” I swung my legs off the table I was on, sitting up, feeling the weight of the hooves hanging over the edge.
“Oh, yes! My name is Adraykon, I’m a pretty successful mage, but you are the culmination of my experiments for a year and a half! I theorized that it would be possible to create artificial life, if one could construct a body and imbue it with enough energy, it could become a self-sustaining flame within! And I was correct!”
I let him brag, though I had a nagging thought. What did he mean by mage?
“Such a complex feat, but I finally have a success to show for it! Did you know you’re actually my third attempt? I was worried I was going to run out of funding, it costs over a thousand Sovereigns to create your body, and I can’t recover much from the failed attempts.”
“Your third…? What happened to the other two?”
“Oh, they simply never woke up. They breathed for a few minutes, and then their bodies just shut down. I drew in so much energy this time that I thought your body might explode! But it worked!” This time, he couldn’t restrain himself, grabbing my paw in his hands and pumping it excitedly.
“Adraykon… And you… do magic? Like, actual magic? Can you prove that?”
The question made him laugh. “Prove? You ARE the proof! How can you… Okay, well, how about this?” He held up one hand, palm upward, and a flame sprang to life in the air above it. Holding it like one would a ball, he moved it from side to side, before dismissing it and letting it snuff out.
“That’s… Huh. Magic really exists?” I stared thoughtfully at the strange man.
“How is ‘veterinarian’ common knowledge and magic isn’t? I’ll have to have a word with that Creihar. His part of the process was supposed to draw in a general baseline of knowledge. That way, you’d awaken knowing how to talk, how to eat, how to… live, basically. Instead of being a newborn babe in a fully-grown body.”
“Oh. …So, what do I… do now?” I raised a paw and rubbed at the back of my neck.
“Well, I don’t have a task for you right now. Oh! I almost forgot!” He rushed to one of the tables that stood against the walls of the room, retrieving a pink leather band, and brought it over. “I had this collar made, what do you think? I thought the carrot was cute.”
The pink band had a carrot-shaped charm dangling from the front, as well as a buckle on one end and holes punched into the band on the other. “That’s… for me? To wear?”
“Well, yes. You are my construct, after all. Oh, I can’t wait to have the villagers meet you, I’m so excited! The world’s first ‘Living Construct’, better than a golem! A creature that’s alive without requiring a soul! Ready for me to put this on?”
I was hesitant, but… he didn’t seem to have any ill intentions. And if he was telling the truth, there was no real reason not to wear it. Nodding, I leaned forward, reaching back to lift my hair out of the way. The feel of the band wrapping around my neck made me blush a little, but once it was buckled and settled into place, it was easy to forget it was there. The way he smiled as he took in the sight made me smile as well.
“You’re Adraykon, but… what’s my name?”
“Oh! Well, I… Heh, you might think this is silly, but I was thinking of the name Flopsy. I can come up with something else, if you’d prefer. I just wanted something cute, something that let others know you weren’t threatening.”
“Threatening?” I blinked, looking around. What did I look like, that would be threatening? Was there a mirror?
“Well, you’re a creature nobody’s ever seen before, and that’s without counting for your abilities. But between the collar, the name, and my assurances, everyone should be able to understand right away that there’s nothing to be afraid of.” Adraykon smiled warmly at me.
“My… abilities? What abilities?”
“You don’t know? Hah, I guess it’s not ‘general knowledge’. But since you’re my first creation, I created your body to the best of my abilities. You should be exceptionally strong, to be able to perform nearly any task I require, as well as being very durable and sturdy. And if you are injured, you should be able to heal thanks to the magic woven into your form. Your body should repair itself as long as you have the strength for it.” He beamed with pride as he listed off his accomplishments.
“That’s… impressive. I think. I don’t really know how to feel about it. What kind of tasks will you have me do?”
“Oh, well, to be honest, I don’t really know yet. I’m still getting over the fact that I succeeded! I thought for sure you would be another failure, but this is wonderful! For now, I’d like to just get to know you, and maybe introduce you to the people of Freymoor. This is so exciting, I can hardly wait!”
“Get to know me? But you created me.”
“Your body, yes, but your mind was a blank slate, I had no idea what form that would take. I imagine this will be an adventure for both of us, learning who you are, Flopsy!” He grinned widely, clearly still overjoyed by my existence.
“I… suppose that is true, yeah. I’m… Flopsy, but who am I? I wonder…”
We walked through the corridor of the mall, as busy as the biggest market square I’d ever seen. Brightly-colored displays and signs were everywhere, though most of the stores seemed to be about clothing. I didn’t need any currently. The “pants” style would be difficult to pull on over my hooves. One of the larger stores seemed to be devoted to books, which put a smile on my face. I’d have to see what sort of things they had in their library. Other stores seemed to cater to specialty selections, but I didn’t recognize them.
What caught my attention, making me stop and grab Ben’s arm in an unintentionally strong grip, was a shop with different kinds of gemstones and crystals.
“Oh, you want to go in there? Heh, I’m actually friends with the owner, you know.” Ben smiled awkwardly as he tried to tug his arm out of my hand.
I sheepishly let go, clearing my throat. “Sorry about that. But yeah, finally, something I recognize! I gotta check it out!” I couldn’t contain my excitement, my hooves clopping loudly as I tippytapped them, a motion that looked a lot like running in place. It earned me a few strange looks from people walking by as they glanced down at my hooves, but I didn’t really pay it any mind.
“Fine, fine, let’s go in. It’s just rocks, anyway.”
The shelves that first caught my interest had small trays showing off the goods, arranged by color and size. Some shelves had little figurines made of glass or crystal or stone carved into shapes. On the walls, displays showed small jewelry locked in cases. Earrings, necklaces, rings, and the like. A small section in one corner had books featuring gemstones on the covers, which seemed to be about identifying them or giving more information, but I already knew much about gemstones. Master had taught me much in the years I served him, after all.
When I got closer, though, the organization of the stones was a mess. Ones with cracks or impurities were mixed in with ones of better clarity. Everything “blue” was in one area, everything “red” in another, everything “purple”…
The woman at the counter seemed cheerful as she greeted Ben, while I was picking up pieces of gemstone and holding them up to the light. “Hey, Ben! You brought a friend with you?”
This must be the friend he had mentioned. I set down the piece I was looking at and smiled, giving a courteous bow. “Hello, my name is Flopsy. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
She stopped in her tracks, looking me over with a skeptical eye. “Uh, ‘Flopsy’? Really? What kind of name is that?”
“It’s… my name…?” I didn’t really know how else to answer that.
Ben tried to step in. “Yeah, she’s from… out of town. She just got here a couple of days ago. She’s, uh… She was bored, so I figured we’d come to the mall, and apparently she likes rocks. So here we are.”
She eyed me again. “Likes rocks, huh? Really?”
I smiled. “Oh yes! Master taught me all about them, how to appraise them, how to determine which ones can be useful, how to spot ones that won’t hold energies. All about their properties and resonances and affinities.”
“Ah, I should’ve known you’d be one of those kinds. ‘Master’, huh?” The woman rolled her eyes and gave a weary sigh.
Ben, meanwhile, was giving a grimace of pain. I didn’t understand why.
“Yes, my Master created me to be an assistant. He… was… a powerful mage.” The past tense was a reminder of that painful night, and I saw once again the image of the light leaving his eyes, playing out again in my mind. I couldn’t help but lower my head.
“Uh, she’s… she’s from one of those… isolated cult compounds, up in the mountains. You know, the kind that cut themselves off from everything? So don’t worry if she says some weird stuff. She just recently got away and into town, so she’s still learning a lot.” Ben smiled nervously. What was he talking about?
“Oh, shit, really? What was that like?” Her expression softened greatly, which was nice, but I wasn’t sure I liked the look of pity that replaced the glare.
“Huh? I… I was happy. I lived with Master and helped the villagers. But he was killed, and… and that’s how I wound up in this strange city. But Ben has been so nice and helpful. He even got me one of those mirrors that shows you things!” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and showed it off, smiling. “There’s so much to learn about this city, it’s so different from back home. I just hope the villagers will be okay without me, if I can’t make it back in time for the planting season…”
“Yeah, that’s… that’s pretty wild, yeah.” She gave a curious look over to Ben, who shrugged. “So you never saw a phone before?”
“No, we don’t have anything like this back home. I’ve heard about mirrors enchanted with scrying magic, but Master didn’t have one.”
Ben cleared his throat, cutting in. “I’m helping her get settled in, she doesn’t even have an ID or anything yet. Since she was born on that compound, her birth was never reported to the government.”
“But I wasn’t born, I was created by Master.”
Ben grimaced again. “She was told a lot of strange things growing up. I’m still trying to get her to understand that things aren’t magic, it’s just technology.” That last bit was rather pointedly said at me, a reminder of his comment earlier to not talk about magic.
“Ah, right, yes. Sorry, it’s just… still a lot to adjust to.” I cast my gaze down to the floor.
The woman nodded. “I bet. Is that why you wear those boots, and the collar? And have your hair like that?”
“What’s wrong with my hair?” I tilted my head questioningly.
“Nothing, the half-and-half look is pretty cool, you did an amazing job getting it so white and black.” The tone of her voice made it sound like she was worried I was upset.
Ben spoke up again. “That, uh, that’s actually her natural hair. I think it’s a sort of genetic condition, like partial albinism? And yeah, she was wearing the boots when I met her, she doesn’t own any other shoes. But they make her happy, so there’s no real harm, right?”
“Yeah, the punk look is pretty sweet. My name’s Lydia, sorry for not saying so earlier.” She offered a hand, and I shook it, since that’s what I’d seen others do.
“Thanks? I don’t know about ‘punk’, this is just me, that’s all.” It sounded like a compliment, I thought. “I just feel bad about staying with Ben, without a way to help. I need to try to find a way I can work.”
Ben shook his head. “Really, don’t worry about it. You aren’t living with a Master anymore, you don’t have to always be working.”
“But I want to help! I need to be helpful, I need to be useful! Just sitting around, doing nothing, I… I can’t do that!” I shifted my weight at the awkward feeling I got from the thought of spending every day in his home. “Please, I need some kind of job…! I’m going crazy without any commands!”
Lydia chuckled softly. “You know, I could use someone that can talk to the crystal vibration magic hippies. They can tell I don’t buy into that stuff, and they get so upset with me when I won’t feed their delusions. If you can tell them all about which ones to buy to align their auras or whatever…?”
My eyes went wide as I gave a hopeful grin. “Really? I can help you?”
Ben shook his head. “I don’t know, this is… I mean, a job, it’s… Are you sure? Flopsy, this is… I don’t know if it’s a good idea, what with your… condition?”
“But it’s perfect! I can help your friend, I can help you, I won’t be sitting around bored… What’s the downside?”
He looked like he was scared, maybe of saying something he shouldn’t. Or that I would say something I shouldn’t. “What about when you find a way… home?”
Lydia raised an eyebrow. “What, back to the compound? Why would you want to go back to a place like that?”
The reminder hit hard, both that this would have to be a temporary thing, and what I had lost… “Well, I… I mean, it’d… I don’t know how long it’s going to be, and… and I have to go back. This city is too strange, and… I have to… to tend to Master. Even if it’s just to dig a grave. Or visit a grave, if he’s already in one. He’s my Master, even if he’s… dead.” My voice was breaking, it was hard to fight back the tears.
I guess Lydia could tell this wasn’t something I was ready to be fought on yet. “Hey, hey, I’m sorry… It’s all right. Okay, well, if you want to help out here until you can get home, I’m cool with that. If it’s all right with Ben? I can pay you in cash until you can get your paperwork sorted out, under the table. I mean, it’s technically illegal, but it’s just to help out a friend of a friend, in extreme circumstances, right?”
Ben pinched the bridge of his nose with one hand and sighed. “Okay, fine, geez. Just… Be careful with it, all right, Flopsy?” I nodded, a slight sniffle as I regained my composure. “Okay. Lydia, is it all right if she starts tomorrow, or another day? What day’s good for you?”
“How about Tuesday? That’s one of the slowest days of the week, it’ll be a good day to show her the ropes.”
I tilted my head again. “There are ropes? I thought this was a crystal store?”
The two looked at me for a moment, before they both broke out laughing. I wasn’t sure why, so I just smiled awkwardly.