Lily sat in her captain’s seat, with Bay perched precariously on the dashboard to keep her company. An episode of Friends was playing half watched on the personal blu-ray player set on the seat to her left. It felt silly, but seeing and hearing other humans really made Lily feel like she was a little more grounded. The captain’s room, as Lily had started to think of it, was smaller than every other room on the boat except the bathroom. It had only two chairs, and was perched up a bit higher than the rest of the cabin to get a better view. The front of the room was a nearly 180 degree view through windows, and on the dashboard there were live feeds to cameras around the rest to get a full 360. The seats were nice, but the captain’s seat was obviously better. Lily thought whoever had made that choice must be a little full of themselves. Why not just have two nice chairs?
The room itself was warm and carpeted. Lily thought that was a strange choice for a boat, but no water had gotten in so maybe it was fine. The wood paneled walls were present here, but a nice finish had been applied to them rather than paint. It would have made the room feel a little cramped if not for the view out the windows, which Lily supposed must be the main point.
She’d been piloting the boat for about fifteen minutes now and was getting close to the northern edge of the bay. She hadn’t spotted exactly what she was looking for yet, but she also wasn’t too concerned about it. There were a shocking number of houses with private docks, and she’d made note of a few that might be worth checking out if she didn’t see one with visible satellite dishes and signs of electricity before she got too far north. She didn’t know why, but she felt like she wanted to stick around the Santa Del Mar area, even if not directly in the city. It was familiar, and while she could explore and branch out later, setting up a home base ought to be somewhere familiar, right?
To pass the time she’d been trying to figure out what all the tools on the boat console actually did. She was pretty sure she’d figured out the mysterious second screen. It seemed to be a depth meter, showing the topology (was that the right word?) of the seafloor around her. She didn’t know, but assumed it must use some kind of sonar to get a map of things. The number that she’d seen going down yesterday as she approached shore probably said how far away the seafloor was, and so it wasn’t directly a measure of how close she was to land, it was related.
Her speedometer also seemed to read in Knots. Which sounded right even if she didn’t quite understand. Google said it measured nautical miles per hour. She was unclear why that wasn’t the same as just miles per hour, but it wasn’t terribly important right now. Maybe it was because waves might change the distance to your destination, so it’s how fast you moved through the water specifically? In either case, now that she knew, Knots was a really cute term. Her perception of sailors as hardened salty men with no sense of humor was wavering. Knots, short for nautical right? It’s cute! She explained it to Bay, but Bay didn’t seem to care.
She had turned on the other screen as well for the compass. She wished she could break into it, but she really had no idea even where to begin looking for a password for a device she didn’t own. She had checked all the drawers and cabinets on the boat, and while there had been a surprisingly robust set of tools and items available, no notebook full of passwords or anything like that. She did have a full set of cooking tools though, as well as general tools. Hammer, screwdrivers, allen wrenches, all sorts of things. Whoever owned this boat before her had been well prepared.
…If anyone had owned this boat before her. That was still really bothering her. Beloved Lily. It was as if this boat existed just for her. How was that possible? She was learning more about the anomalies now, but there seemed to be two very distinct varieties, right? The business with her cell phone, and the boat showing up were one thing. The green fire and her neverburning flame were something else. The latter seemed to be natural phenomena that just existed now. They worked on rules, even if she didn’t understand them. She was pretty sure that with time and patience she could figure out that ‘magic’.
But, the rest didn’t make sense at all. Her phone leaving her life saving messages at just the right moments was not just something naturally happening. Neither was a boat appearing out of nowhere. Even if she assumed that she tapped into this natural ‘magic’ unconsciously, it didn’t seem to add up. She wouldn’t have known about events before they happened. Not to mention, the messages seemed to go against her direct wishes in the moment sometimes. When she couldn’t get a boat, she hated herself so much she wanted to die. But, the phone had saved her. The boat had saved her. It wasn’t some kind of subconscious self interest, she was pretty sure.
Plus… Beloved Lily. Why did that bother her so much? It really stuck out. It was like an itch in her brain she couldn’t quite get rid of.
“I think it’s because it’s the first thing I’ve found that I just can’t square away as something that came from me. I would never think of myself like that. Not in a million years.” It was kind of sad when she said it like that. It’s not like she hated everything about herself. But, she dealt with self hatred as a chronic issue. There was no layer of her mind that would have thought like that. She was very sure. So, it was the first magical occurrence that she felt very clearly came from something that wasn’t natural, but also wasn’t her.
The other obvious thing was right in front of her. She stared at the password screen. If she had conjured this boat, she should know the password. But she’d already tried all her regular passwords, and none of them worked. Hell, the little device had locked her out for five minutes. She had been watching the lock out timer tick down for a while now, and it was about to finish. Having gone through this train of thought, Lily was pretty sure she knew what it was now too. She just wasn’t happy about it.
As the display cleared, she reached over and typed the password. BelovedLily. Because of course it was. The display opened right up.
Lily let out a sigh. “Of course.” That didn’t make her feel any better about this. The point of a password would normally be to keep intruders out right? So why would it be the name of the boat? No, this was a checkpoint.
She felt like someone was asking her. ‘Did you see my message? Did you get my gift? Did you see how I protected you?’
It was an uncomfortable feeling. But, at least now she had access to the last bit of the boat she didn’t have before. She clicked through the device using the touch screen. It seemed to be running an OS like a phone, but not one she was directly familiar with. It had a number of apps though that seemed to give information about the on board devices.
Clicking on the one labeled ‘Water Services’ with an icon of a drop of water, she saw that it was basically what she expected. It said the on board tanks were 83.2% full. There was also a little bit that read that it was generating water somehow? She wasn’t sure what that was about, but sure enough she saw as it ticked over to 83.3% full. So, she wouldn’t need to worry about refilling it? She might have to watch some kind of filters or something. She made a mental note to check into that later.
‘Power Services’ showed a very similar layout. She was generating power, and there was a battery capacity. It also showed the boat’s fuel, which seemed a little odd to her because there was a fuel gauge on the dashboard. Maybe she could access this app remotely with a little effort?
There were a lot of other apps here too. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Overwhelming. It was so overwhelming! What was she supposed to do? She spoke out loud, sure that she was just speaking to herself but needing to say it anyway.
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“Whoever you are, thank you for your help. But, I wish you’d just identify yourself. I scare easy, you know?”
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The sun was getting lower in the sky, but ultimately that worked to her advantage. Lily was sure she would have missed it in the full brightness of daytime. She found a house that looked exactly like what she wanted. There was a large enough private dock she thought she could stop her boat there, and it was lit. A lot of docks had been though, and she was starting to think that the lights had individual little solar panels on them a lot of the time. This one included. But, more than that, up the dock and some stairs, nestled up in the thick tree cover was a house. The lights were on, otherwise she was sure she would have missed it. And there, on top, barely peeking into view was a large satellite dish.
Lily decided that it was time to check it out, and if this wasn’t good she would still stop here for the night. No sense driving her boat around at night when she wasn’t really sure what made that safe or unsafe, or what precautions to take. She was dreading docking her boat, but it was actually a little easier the second time. The dock not being partially burned out helped too. She made sure to open her phone and follow the on screen knot directions again rather than trying to remember. She was trying very hard to not take any stupid pointless risks.
The house was locked, because of course it was. It was also a lot bigger than Lily could see from shore. But, big wasn’t a bad thing. She would need a lot of room for all the things she wanted to do. Heck, over time she might even expand into the houses next door. For now though, she had to get into this place ideally without breaking anything. So, her next step was to go around and check the windows.
Finding an unlocked window was easy! So was popping the screen off of it. The problem was… what then? The window was off the ground, and she was pathetically exhausted. She tried to hop up and pull herself onto the windowsill, and it wasn’t even close. She couldn’t lift her bodyweight with just her arms right now. So then… what?
Lily looked around the area for something she might be able to pull over and stand on. But nothing obvious jumped out to her. She might be able to get something from her boat? But, even if the furniture weren’t nailed down, could she really carry something like that up stairs right now? No, she didn’t think she could.
“This is so pathetic. It’s right there!” Lily whined to herself. She decided to walk around the house until she could find something she might be able to stand on. Getting around to the front of the house she spotted some lawn chairs. Grabbing them, she brought them back to her open window. She had to awkwardly stack them on top of one another, but with that boost she pulled herself through the open window!
She promptly fell onto her face from window height. Scrambling, she toppled forward and landed on her back, looking up to the ceiling. “Owww. Can I please stop getting hurt, huh world?” Lily lay there breathing hard for a few more moments. Then she gingerly sat up. Her back hurt, but she didn’t think she’d left any permanent damage. She was in a bedroom. It seemed to be a guest room of some kind. She was sitting on a light blue carpet in a white room. There was a queen sized bed in one corner on an ornate looking bed frame. It had light blue blankets and white pillows that complimented the style of the room and evoked a mental image of the sky on a clear day. Apart from that, there was a lamp, and a small end table near the bed. Otherwise the room seemed empty.
“This some kind of bed and breakfast…?” Lily carefully got to her feet, and made her way to the door. She opened it and found herself in a short hallway. To her left was an open area with a door that led outside, and directly across from her was a small bathroom. No shower or bath, but a toilet and a sink with a counter. Given the things on the counter, it seemed like it was mostly used for applying makeup. Lily knew almost nothing about makeup.
Lily went into the next little room and unlocked the door. Then she headed into the house proper. This was apparently a very small little area because taking a step into the main foyer was shocking. It was at least thirty feet from wall to wall, with a huge staircase leading up to a second floor. The door into the front yard was there, so Lily unlocked it and moved on. She was thankful the lights were all left on, otherwise she’d be getting a little scared right now.
Behind the foyer was a massive room that had an open view into the kitchen, as well as a huge TV on the far side with a couch in front of it. Lily immediately got a little excited. It was like her own little personal theater! “Geez, rich people are something else. But I can’t complain now!”
Across that room was a sliding glass door that opened into the back yard, and she could see the path down to her boat from there. So, Lily approached it, and unlocked it. Then she went down to her boat and grabbed a few things. A laptop, one of the external hard drives, a few flash drives, and her phone. She headed back up into the main living room. She wasn’t totally sure that’s what this room was called, heck it included a kitchen, but she decided that’s what she would call it. Setting down on the couch she popped open the laptop and searched for a wifi signal. There was quite a strong one! … Password protected.
“Ugh, of course.” She would have to track down the wifi router and do a factory reset or something to get in. Unless these people had a sticky note with the password or something. Fortunately, it should be in one of the central areas of the house, so she went looking.
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During the next hour Lily found the router and set it up so she could use it. The house did indeed have a satellite internet connection. Even better, she could assume it would last longer than most of the physical lines around, even if it had some drawbacks. She also explored the house a bit. But, not entirely. From what she could tell, this place was beyond massive. On the ground floor there were two guest rooms, a master bedroom, a master bathroom with two showers and a giant tub, two huge walk-in closets, access to a patio with an outdoor kitchen, the main kitchen and pantry area, three half bathrooms, and a gigantic dining room. Also, an elevator. She briefly went inside to check it out, but decided not to go anywhere. Stairs were better. If something went wrong, no one would come to help.
There was one thing that bothered her a bit. The elevator had a basement button, but she couldn’t find a door that led down there. That creeped her out big time, so she decided she’d explore it some other time. Along with the second floor.
“Honestly, I can afford to explore my big spooky mansion during the day can’t I?”
With that, she set her laptop up to be downloading things. She had a lot queued up. Media ripping software, a couple of her favorite shows and albums, tons of books from audible, microsoft visual studio in case she needed to do some simple coding, and a bunch more! When she was satisfied that she had at least 12 hours of download time ready to go though, she went back to her boat.
She didn’t know why, but her boat felt a lot more safe and secure than the big mansion. So, when it came time to relax and retire for the night, she went right back to it. She chanced a glance up at the sky, and swallowed the dread that filled her upon seeing there were still no stars. She really, really didn’t want to think about what that meant. Was the rest of the universe gone, or could she not see it? Why? She didn’t want to think about something that could affect an entire universe. It was too scary. She focused on getting down to the boat in the dark, and closed herself in her little cabin so she wouldn’t have to think about it.
She set up her little blu-ray player on her bed, gathered Bay up and found a good spot near her pillows despite the ash still coating him, and retrieved her switch. She also took a moment to grab some food. It had been a long day. But, she had bowls, cans of soup, and a microwave so she opted for that and some fruit. Not exactly a dinner fit for a queen, but it would keep her nourished for now. For desert, she even snacked on a few of the hostess treats she’d snagged from her first home invasion.
So, there she lay in her comfy little bed, watching silly television and playing on her console. It was a stark contrast to how she’d ended her first day, asleep on the little couch and then outside on the deck of the boat. She was still a mess, and there were a lot of questions to answer. She wasn’t out of danger completely yet. But, she had worked hard today and things had gotten marginally better. That counted for something, right?
Tomorrow she would wake up early and go looking for farm animals. She wasn’t sure where she would put them in regards to this mansion, but she would figure it out. Then… who knows. Maybe work on figuring out this magic stuff.
She was starting to get sleepy. But, she enjoyed the sound of her little show playing. So, she left it on.
“Mmm, good night Bay.” Bay returned her look gently.
Lily drifted off to sleep.