Stepping through the portal, Mark and Horan immediately felt the change in temperature Horan had been excited about. They found themselves in a large, warm, well-lit wooden entrance hall. Decorations were strewn over the rafters and tables covered in various snacks and aperitifs were lined up on either side of the hall. A couple dozen Primoi, seemingly all Aztecs, walked through the massive portal where the main door would be. Many were carrying band equipment and looked to be in a hurry. A sign directly in front of the new arrivals read ‘WELCOME TO SCANDINAVIA! THE REAL PARTY IS STILL UP AHEAD’.
Above the giant portal, a large stone embedded into the wall pulsed with red light, several glowing sigils peppering its surface. Roughly twenty seconds after Mark and Horan arrived, the stone dimmed and the portal closed, leaving a blank wooden wall.
Mark hurried over to the nearest snack table and began filling his pockets with sliders. “Okay, this was a good idea. Plus, I don’t even need to wear a dumb suit like last time.”
Horan slowly followed Mark, keeping his eye on the entrance. For a party that had supposedly invited every Primus left, there were certainly very few guests. “Yeah, that’s a real shame. But don’t think we’re gonna grab some snacks and go. It’s time to see if you still remember all of my training from the last time we went to an event like this.”
Mark stuffed three hors d’oeuvres into his mouth at once while Horan was talking, only remembering to remove the sticks at the last second. “La’ fime, yoo wef me a’one in a roud an ol me oo alk oo ee-ul.”
“Dude, that’s genuinely disgusting. I can wait for you to swallow, you’re just embarrassing us in front of everyone.”
Mark looked around at everyone, who seemingly hadn’t noticed him, and swallowed. “You just told me to talk to strangers and ditched me. There was zero training involved.”
Horan watched Mark immediately grab for a plate of charcuterie. “Maybe there should’ve been, yikes.”
“Hey, don’t judge! I haven’t had a full meal in weeks! I’m not in the wrong here, it’s the hosts’ fault for catering. Nobody they invited even needs to eat.”
“Your pockets are full, Mark. At least save some space for the actual food in the actual party.” He pulled Mark away from the table and dragged him further into the hall.
-
Hurat leaned on top of the guitar amp and looked down at Quet fiddling with the interior. “How’s it going in there?”
Quet pulled a pebble from a bag on the stool next to her. “Almost done. You know, I could set these up way faster if people just started using electricity to power things instead of magic. I have to gut every-”
Hurat plucked at a string on his guitar and heard the note come out of the amp. “Sweet, it works. I hope these Norse folks haven’t gotten too bored. You excited for our first big gig, sis?”
Quet got up, covering both her ears and wincing. “Uh, kinda. Hey, if you don’t need me for anything else, is it okay if I go do some other stuff?” She tapped a stone on top of the amp. The stone instantly unfolded into a plate of fries. “I heard they were doing a cook-off a few rooms down, and I wanted to-”
Hurat noticed the food. “Ah, thought you could keep your stash from us?” He dug in to the fries and gestured for the other nearby Aztecs to come and have some.
Quet watched her family eat for a few seconds, drumming her fingers against her thigh. Eventually, Hurat took a step back from the food and turned to look at Quet, still chewing the last of the fries. “Tell you what…” He took a moment to swallow. “I’m sure you’ve got some more stuff ready. Since your cooking’s been getting so much better lately, how about you start handing out some of your snacks to some folks around here and trying to advertise us to a few more Primoi? You’ve been saying you wanted more people to try out your food.”
“Um… Yeah, sure. Thanks, man.” Quet grabbed a bandolier of small bags on top of a keyboard and slung it over her shoulder.
“Hey, I just wanna make sure you do what you wanna do.” Hurat patted Quet on the unadorned shoulder. “Now go make sure our fans don’t go hungry.”
Quet looked at the two or three Primoi who were watching the Aztecs set up. “...You got it.”
“Awesome.” Hurat turned to the other Primoi on the small stage. “Alright, everyone start tuning. I want us jamming in five.”
-
Horan pulled Mark through the party by the hood of his hoodie like a parent reigning in their child. Mark wasn’t putting up much of a fight, he could unzip his hoodie and slip out whenever he wanted. He just didn’t really care about what was going on at this point. “This is stupid.”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“You mean me having to pull you along because you don’t feel like taking another step more than necessary? Yes. Very.”
“I already took all the food I can carry, I’m not gonna pick through another table if you let me go.”
“I know you won’t. You won’t move at all, in fact. I’ll let you go once we find whatever the nexus of the party is. Then we can do our own things.”
“And how do you know this isn’t the nexus?” Mark looked at the art gallery the two were in, which was almost empty save for them. “It’s about as lively as the rest of this place.”
“This is a Norse party. We’ll know it when we see it.”
Mark and Horan immediately stepped into the nexus. A massive digital clock was implanted into the ceiling of the basketball court-sized hall, fifty feet up. In the center of the room, a cylindrical platform was raised halfway to the roof by a concerningly thin pillar. The floor under the pillar was sunken compared to the surrounding floor and had been converted into a dance floor. Strobe lights lit up the crowded dance floor, and several vending machines were arrayed around the floor like standing stones. Near the far end of the hall, a massive buffet table hid behind a sea of small, round tables. As if to apologize for the relatively few partygoers in the previous few rooms, the dance floor and buffet area were absolutely packed with Primoi.
“...And I guess that was its cue. We’re here.” Horan let go of Mark’s hoodie. “Don’t even know why there were snack tables before, that buffet could feed Memphis for a week.”
Mark looked up at the clock in the ceiling. It appeared to be counting down to something, and had roughly twenty minutes left to go before it reached zero. “What’s that about?”
Horan followed Mark’s gaze upward. “Don’t ask me. That platform looks like it’s meant for a speech, I guess it’s got something to do with that.” He clapped. “Well, we’ve got something to wait for now. We can leave once the clock’s hit zero and whatever it’s counting down to has passed. In the meanwhile, I’m gonna go mingle. Go nuts, dude. Or the closest you can get to ‘nuts’. I know it’s a little too much-”
“I get it. Now go do extrovert things. I’m gonna load up at the buffet.”
“Initiative. Nice.” Horan floated over to the dance floor, rotating mid-flight and giving Mark a thumbs-up.
-
Plate of ribs in hand, Mark sat down by an empty table. He sat down so that he was facing the dance floor and tried to pick out Horan in the crowd. After a few minutes, he gave up. Had Horan had a chance to dress for the occasion, spotting him would be easy.
Mark’s eyes drifted to a new arrival among the tables. A green-eyed Aztec was shuffling through the people sitting down, asking them something before moving on in a hurry. Mark looked down at his food, but she still ended up approaching.
“Hey, uh, you looking for something to eat?”
Mark looked back down at his plate of food before looking back up. “Um…”
“Yeah, sorry, I just- I wanted to… Forget I asked, sorry, coming here was stupid.”
She started to hurry off, but then Mark remembered something. “Hey, don’t I know you from somewhere?”
The Primus turned, scanning Mark’s face. She lit up with recognition. “Right, you’re that guy who dealt with that business with the Greeks!”
“And you’re that lady who gave me salad!”
“Oh, right, that.” The Primus blushed. “Sorry if that was weird, I can’t really help overhearing people.”
“Meh, I’ve seen weirder.” Mark looked back at the dance floor. “Hey, it doesn’t look like you’re getting anywhere with your food. You wanna sit down? When my friend comes back, he’ll ask me if I socialized properly, and if I say no, he’ll probably make me find someone and-” He paused to gasp for air. “Wow, Horan’s right, I really need to find a way to reel myself in.”
The Primus giggled and sat down next to Mark. “Yeah, you could suffocate like that.” She looked around nervously for a few seconds, slowly tapping the table. “So, uh, I’m Quet. Sorry, heh, I’m used to the other person starting the conversation for me.”
“Yeah, I feel that. Name’s Mark.”
“Well then, nice to meet you.” Quet pulled her hands under the table. “I’m probably gonna forget that in a few minutes. Sorry, I’m not good with names.”
“Hey, it’s not just you. I’ve pretty much forgotten my own last name.”
“Hah, no way! Honestly, that’s not that hard to believe. I can barely remember my full name, there’s no way I could handle a second one.”
Mark chuckled. “So, uh, what… brings you here? Sorry if that’s meant to be obvious, my friend says that’s a good icebreaker to use.”
“Oh, no, that’s fine. I guess the same reason as you. Glowy portal appeared in front of me, I got invited to this place. I normally would’ve just stayed home with the Greeks, but I knew my family would have my head if I skipped this big of a party these days. But you should’ve seen my family! They were going nuts trying to get their band equipment through before the portal closed, it was great.”
“I can imagine. Yeah, I’m not thrilled to come here either, but my friend made me. At least I got to load up on snacks here, it’s getting super hard to find enough food to get by out there. There are only so many cans of peas, nobody can keep a plant alive, and what few animals were left got turned into demons when Thel rolled through a few months ago. World doesn’t look like it’ll last more than a few months out there.”
“Yikes, that sounds awful. I hope someone can… I heard about why Hurat left you out there, you know. I could ask him if he’s over it by now, see if we’ve got room to fit you in with the Greeks..?”
“Wh-Really? Yeah, uh, that’d be great! I know Horan would be happy to get permanent access to hot water again, he’d be down for it.”
“Yeah, it’d be nice hanging out with someone as awkward as me, heh.”
Mark nodded and looked at the clock in the ceiling. Only twelve minutes were left now. “But we gotta wait for that to hit zero before Horan will let me do anything. I assume you don’t know what’s up with that?”
“Not a clue. In the meantime, I’m gonna go get something for myself to eat.” Quet got back up. “Looking at your food’s making me hungry.”