After a bit of a conversation, Slick emerged from the back of house with a grin bright enough to light the whole city.
“So? What’d they say?” Alice said, as soon as she dragged him over to our table.
“They want to purchase the song!” Slick said. “They want to make it a single, sell it, and put it on the radio.”
“How much are you going to get for it?” I asked.
“They didn’t do an official proposal,” Slick said. “But the gist of it is, they’ll pay me a bit up front, and I’ll get a cut of all the record and radio sales.”
“How big of a cut?” Lou asked.
“Ten percent,” Slick said. “And they want me to make an album, too.”
Lou nodded. “Same cut on the album?”
“Probably?”
“Tell ‘em you’ll take twenty percent of the album,” Lou said.
“Lou, I ain’t a negotiator,” Slick said, raising his hands with a laugh. “Maybe you ought to do that sort of thing. But I don’t want ‘em to turn me away, y’know?”
“They wouldn’t be offering you jack all if they didn’t think they would make money off of you,” Lou said. “It’s not personal. It’s business. If they refuse to play ball, you can accept that deal, and they’ll still do it, since they’re expecting to make bank.”
“Look, Lou, they’re already just going to be sending me a paper in the mail for me to sign and stuff,” Slick said. “It’ll have all the details.”
Lou pointed her finger at him aggressively. “No signing anything till I look at it.”
Slick laughed again.
“You got it, Lou,” he said.
The mood was cheerful, and the rest of the night was spent in celeration.
It was only about a week before the proposal came in the mail. Lou spent that entire week studying intensely at the library. When she evaluated the proposal, she decided it was reasonably fair, and let Slick sign it. Some weeks afterwards, he had to go record the song in the studio, which proved to be exhausting for the band.
It was a few weeks after the recording, while I was simply cleaning up in Alice’s house, when it happened. A voice came over the radio.
“And now, a new song from a local band, The Boston Boys, playing, ‘Swing Boogie!’” the cheerful voice said.
It lacked a little from the real performance - the radio quality wasn’t perfect. But still, I found myself dancing around the room, laughing as I moved. He’d succeeded! And it was beautiful, even just over the radio.
Unsurprisingly, Slick found me not too long after, to collect me, Alice, and Lou to celebrate again with the band.
The song became intensely popular on the radio. It took months to start really slowing down its frequency.
“Alice!” Slick called out one day, as he pretty much barged into the house. He looked half insane.
“Yes, Slick?” she said, looking uncertain.
“This,” he said, handing her a piece of paper. “Look at this.”
She took it uncertainly. When she saw what was written on it, her jaw dropped and the paper started fluttering out of her hands, until she snatched it up again.
“Oh my god, Slick,” she said.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Look,” she said simply, handing me the paper.
It was a little rectangular piece of paper. Part of it was printed, and part of it looked handwritten. One of the handwritten lines said, “Oscar Williams.” Another line said, “Three hundred fourteen thousand, five hundred eighty six dollars and thirty two cents.”
“What is this?” I asked.
“It’s a check, Aera,” Slick said. “Three hundred grand, for the song!”
“It’s to be split between everyone, right?” Alice said.
“Yeah, between the band,” Slick said. “Lou says it’s a good idea to have it split five ways - one for each of the band members, and one for the band as a whole, for expenses like doing tours, instrument upkeep, stuff like that.”
“But why is it made out to Oscar?” I asked.
“Because that’s my real name,” Slick said. “I go by Slick ‘cause it sounds nicer for a stage. And, well, ‘cause I’m not real attached to the name Oscar.”
“I see,” I said. “And this is a lot of money?”
“It’s a crazy amount of money,” Alice said. “We’re rich, Aera.”
“You both seem quite excited for something that’s just food, housing, and clothes,” I said. “Or am I missing something?”
Alice laughed.
“You can do anything with a lot of money, Aera,” she said, sounding dreamy. “Travel the world, get anything you want, buy land, anything.”
“This, then… economics…” I said, my eyes widening. “That is the true power of this world?”
They both laughed.
“You could say that,” Slick said. “They say money makes the world go round.”
“So how much power is this?” I asked. “Enough to own a country?”
“No,” Slick said, raising an eyebrow. “Nothing like that.”
“It’s enough to live comfortably for the rest of our lives, if we’re careful, even on just Slick’s cut,” Alice said, and Slick nodded.
That didn’t sound particularly impressive to me. A single, trivial pair of individuals, without significant material ambitions?
But I smiled anyway, not wanting to diminish their joy.
“Though,” Slick added, “That’s not all of it! The song’s still playing on the radio, and singles are still selling. I’ll be getting checks regular, though most of ‘em will be a lot smaller than this, until the next album comes out.”
Alice hugged him, looking incredibly joyful. It was strange to see what the acquisition of power for mundanes looked like. I did my best to congratulate them as earnestly and cheerfully as possible.
The pair excitedly chattered back and forth about all sorts of plans for what they’d do with the money. Lou had found out right away, since she was home when Slick got the letter.
For my part, I was just glad that this transitory phase of life was over. Alice was nice and all, but she was happy with the little things in life. Content. Complacent. Slick, at least, was ambitious, and Lou was sharp and intense. They felt a little more like my family.
And now, some measure of this power would go into acquiring a place for me to begin constructing a lab. I’d made a few little enchantments over the months, and read a number of books.
At least, I had once I’d added Lou’s language to the enchantment - Slick was very nearly illiterate. Relaxing as it had been, I was very eager to move on.
Our first order of business was purchasing a house. Lou and Slick’s parents were less than entirely supportive, and the pair was quite eager to move away. I needed my lab. And of course, we needed a better place for the band to practice.
When I told them that I was confident that it was simply not possible for a house to be damaged beyond my ability to repair, Lou became especially excited. Slick was often busy charming people around the city, playing Swing Boogie at various locations, and Lou took over the job of looking for a house. Technically, he was adult - eighteen, and barely at that - but she was unquestionably the more mature of the two. Her body language and intense gaze made up for short stature, and she wasn’t generally questioned on her age.
She found a treasure.
“Here it is,” she said, as we drove through the upper class neighborhood.
Lou was driving. She’d gotten a pickup truck as a way to make the process of finding a house faster. Also, she liked its sheer practicality.
It was a bit tight for the three of us, though. Alice had decided to avoid the close confines. Besides, she wouldn’t be moving in.
We passed a lot of nice looking homes, and I was questioning Lou’s judgement at first.
Then we saw it.
The once white walls were crumbling from disrepair. The lawn had been completely abandoned and was overgrown, still yellow from the last grips of the passing winter. Virtually all of the windows were broken. Lou parked, and we walked up the stone path. The smell of mold filled the air as we approached.
We weren’t really supposed to go inside, but none of us cared about that. Still, I had to use magic to track the supports beneath the floor. The wood was so badly damaged by moisture that it wouldn’t support our weight everywhere. There was a set of stairs to a second floor, but I had absolutely no faith in the stairs to support us.
The architecture was well designed, and it had once been lovely, but the damage done was extreme.
The backyard was a perfectly ordinary mess of overgrown plants, with a tall hedge blocking the view of the neighbors. I sighed wistfully at the idea of making my own garden back there.
We found an entrance into the basement, and that is when we got the first hint as to what had happened in this place. There was a bathtub openly out in the basement, and a remarkable amount of piping. There was no sign of rooms. It was simply a wide expanse of concrete.
The roof of the basement had some unusual, and quite familiar, damage patterns.
“There was an explosion here,” I said, noticing the damage pattern was also on the wooden supports.
“An explosion?” Lou said, looking around. “Nothing looks burned.”
“Not of fire,” I said. “Water, or something like it. Maybe a little fire, but mostly hot liquid and pressure.”
“Hmm,” Lou mused. “Maybe bootleggers from Prohibition.”
Slick nodded.
“Bootleggers?” I asked.
“Fifteen years back, Prohibition was a thing,” Slick said, his voice a little muffled due to the fact that he was lifting and holding his shirt against his mouth. “Alcohol was illegal everywhere. But lots of folks made it anyway, in secret.”
“Ah,” I said. “But the damage is not that old.”
“It’s not illegal anymore,” Lou said. “Two years ago, it was legal again. Maybe around then is when this happened?”
“Two years,” I said, looking it over. “Yes, that might be. But why an explosion?”
We were quiet for a minute. Lou was thinking, and Slick just shrugged.
“I think I’ve got it,” Lou said, grinning. “Let’s say, they had a bunch of kegs and things, making the bootleg liquor, right?”
“Yeah?” Slick said.
“And then,” Lou went on, “They get arrested, and go to jail. And nobody checks on their stuff.”
“Then things went wrong,” I said, and Lou nodded.
“A bunch of barrels could have exploded,” Lou said, “And when they did, it sprayed the stuff everywhere.”
“And that wrecked the house,” Slick said.
It was an excellent hypothesis for the type of damage seen. I nodded.
“But why is it only being sold now?” I asked.
“I dunno,” Lou said. “The realtor guy said he’d acquired it about a year ago.”
“If the guys in jail couldn’t keep it anymore…” Slick said, then shrugged.
“Between the damage and the ill reputation, that bodes well for our purposes,” I said. “How much is this place?”
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
“He’s asking for three thousand dollars,” Lou said with a grin. “The land’s worth that much. But I bet I can negotiate him down even more.”
“That’s a good deal,” Slick said.
“Aera, you can really handle all of this?” Lou asked.
“It might take some time,” I said. “A day to make it safe to live here, a week to make it acceptable. A month to make it beautiful.”
Slick shook his head.
“Just crazy what you can do,” he said. “Wish I could do something like that.”
“Well, you could,” I said with a shrug.
They both looked at me sharply.
“What do you mean, I could?” Slick asked.
“I could teach you,” I said. “Obviously magic works here, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to learn it.”
“Just… teach me,” he said, sounded flabbergasted. “Just like that.”
“It’s not easy,” I said, raising an eyebrow at his reaction. “And it takes time. And your ability will depend on your talent, among other things. But why shouldn’t I be able to teach it?”
“Because no one can do that stuff,” Lou said, looking bothered - perhaps even upset, for some reason. “If it was as easy as learning, someone would’ve figured it out by now.”
“Perhaps,” I said with another shrug. “I suppose the only way to know is to try.”
“I’d rather not experiment with that,” Lou said, giving me an uneasy look.
Slick’s look, on the other hand, was eager.
“Is there anything I could do with that magic stuff, for music?” he asked.
“Certainly,” I said. “I don’t know much of those magics, but I know the basics. We could see if magic can be taught, and get you a new tool for your music, at the same time.”
“That sounds swell,” he said with a grin.
“Yeah, well, let’s maybe move this conversation out of the moldy basement,” Lou said, still looking uncomfortable.
“Good idea,” I said with a laugh.
We carefully made our way back outside, with only a few pieces of wood breaking off in the process.
“That place smells something awful,” Slick said, wrinkling his nose.
“Yeah,” Lou said. “But it’s got a garage!”
I smiled as we visited the last notable location on the property. The garage, being detached from the basement, was actually in perfectly good shape.
“We’ll practice in here,” Slick said, looking around at the walls. “It’s just the right size.”
“It seems perfect for our needs,” I said, breathing a sigh of relief. “Enough rooms for us all, a secluded basement for my lab, a place for a garden. It’s lovely.”
“How should we hide the way you’re fixing it?” Lou asked, looking contemplative.
“I dunno,” Slick said with a shrug. “We could just throw a tarp on it?”
Lou blinked at him, and then started laughing.
“Actually, yeah,” she said. “A giant tarp over the whole thing for a few months should do the trick. Anyone asks any questions, we’ll tell them it’s a private job, from family and friends.”
“Excellent,” I said. “So when do we move in?”
“Let’s swing by the realtor,” Lou said with a smile. “I imagine we’ll have to wait for the check to clear, but that should be all. And it’ll have to be Slick buying it, of course.”
We immediately headed out to the realtor. The conversation that resulted was one of the most boring ones I’d ever been privy to. Apparently there were a lot of issues with owning a home - legal limitations, property taxes, and seemingly endless paperwork.
Honestly, it didn’t seem like “ownership” at all. When my family wanted to move, they simply found a spot they liked, then transported our tower to the location. If the local city or country objected, they’d just be sent some sort of enchanted trinket, which almost never failed to get them to leave us be.
The idea of someone telling us what we could or couldn’t do on our own property was unthinkable. Worse, the idea of property tax! Having to give the government money just for “owning” part of the land?
It was renting the land, clearly. Just with a little more liberty than their perception of renting, which simply involved someone else between them and the government.
Still, it was close enough for our purposes.
Lou and Slick negotiated the realtor down to $2,500, but he refused to go lower, saying that the land itself was too valuable for that. Eventually, they came to terms, and Slick wrote out a check, as well as signing a number of documents.
As it happened, since the realtor knew Slick - and who didn’t, anymore? - he went ahead and gave him the title and a key. After all, he knew Slick had the money. Slick even signed an extra slip of paper as a favor to the realtor - an “autograph,” he called it.
Afterwards, we had a bit of an impasse. Lou and Slick wanted to head out to celebrate, and I wanted to get started on the house. We came to an agreement - I’d work on the house for a few hours, and then they’d pick me up to celebrate.
The rumbling engine faded into the distance as they left me at the house. I smiled warmly, possessively, at the dirty walls and stepped inside.
The door creaked in protest as it closed behind me. Suddenly I realized I was alone.
A strange feeling started to overtake me as I slid to the ground, sitting and leaning against the door.
This house was mine. Yes, on paper, it was Slick’s, but that wasn’t the truth of it. The house had been purchased for me to rebuild as I pleased. It would be fashioned of my power, and thus, the only truth that mattered was that it was mine.
That strange, almost numbing feeling in my heart grew and I found myself laughing. Laughing, like I’d lost my mind.
Mine. Not some bit of furniture in Alice’s house, or as part of some labor arrangement in Kito’s store. Not in a room within a tower that was unquestionably my parents’.
Tears started flowing, in strange contrast to the giddy laughter.
I’d never had a place where I belonged to any degree. My parents wanted a brilliant researcher to assist in their ambitions, and had explicitly procreated with that goal in mind. I had… not exactly fulfilled that hope. Really, only my brother Nordrid had any likelihood of fulfilling it. But I was the oldest, and thus, the disappointment.
Here, the expectations were almost nonexistent. There was no pressure. There were no monsters. I would be able to tend my garden to my heart’s content.
And yet, there was not a single soul in all the world like me. I was unique, and as such, I was alone.
Except for these strange mundanes. Lou, with the sharpness of her intellect. Slick, with his ambition, and now, his economic power. Benjamin, with the fire of his passion.
There were steps I could take. Things I could do. And a future I still could not bear to examine.
Still, what could I do but try?
I looked around at the broken shambles that were mine to rework as I pleased. My heart settled into a comfortable state of simple action. There was a plan, I would act on it, and not think about anything else.
I considered my priorities. Stability, then air quality. I’d have a hard time cleaning out the mold if I had to watch my step for collapsing floorboards.
Pulling myself to my feet, I carefully walked across the floor, letting my will seep into it. Unlike Alice’s house, this was in truly bad shape, and it required a solid measure of magic. Quite a lot, for the little fledgling spellcaster that I was.
Magic flowed through me. It felt good - surprisingly so. I’d spent so long stubbornly resisting my family’s training that I’d not thought about how I’d feel being cooped up, unable to do any real magic for months.
The familiar ache of a soul’s fatigue filled me as the magic imbued my strength into the wood. The floors, the supports. I resisted the temptation to strengthen the walls - I needed to prioritize!
There was a surprising amount of floor to cover. Tiring as it was, it was beautiful in a way. The wood was once the living flesh of a tree, and the familiar structure was soothing. The weakness felt like rot, like death, and banishing it made me feel more alive.
Aquas - my favored element, of balance, of transformation. It infused every inch of that house, transforming the mold into additional material for the wood and water vapor in the air. Aquas could not create nor destroy any form of matter - it simply allowed it to exist in alternate states.
All of the material that the wood needed was present. All that was needed was to rearrange the material appropriately.
Unfortunately, I severely overestimated myself. Not my skill, not my speed, but rather, my endurance.
By the time Lou and Slick had returned to get me, I’d managed to get all of the wooden supports, for both floors, stable enough to hold our weight. It was still creaky, dusty, and thoroughly unpleasant, but it would hold.
Unfortunately, Slick had to practically carry me out. I wasn’t in a truly terrible state, not really. I was just fatigued. It was possible to burn through magic in such a way that it harmed the wielder, but I’d never do that willingly, of course.
We took a taxi, leaving the truck at the house. We were dropped off in downtown Boston, and we saw the rest of the band there, along with Alice. Slick greeted them with overwhelming enthusiasm.
He ushered us into the restaurant, the Marliave. The little entrance in the back alley wasn’t too impressive, but the wood and beige decor within was quite welcoming. A number of people were drinking at the bar.
“Hey, everyone!” Slick said ebulliently. “A round of drinks on me!”
Alice sighed, but it was scarcely audible over the cheer in the room. Several people clapped him on the shoulder as he guided us past to some stairs leading up. He greeted each one, making the journey take longer than it ought to have.
Upstairs, a more conventional restaurant was laid out before us. A waitress guided us to a large table and we all sat down. Slick didn’t even slow down in his happy chatter, talking up the waitress so much she had a hard time taking our drink orders.
Still, I eventually got my drink - a Bay Breeze, a lovely juice cocktail. Slick had himself some whiskey, going straight for the fire, but Lou simply ordered some juice. Benjamin seemed a little uncertain about the process of celebration, but he enjoyed his Old Fashioned nonetheless.
Slick dominated the conversation, though Rick and Alice gave him a run for the title. Pretty much the only time they stopped talking was to take a bite of the absolutely marvelous food.
As the night progressed, I quietly listened in as Slick described the house and garage in exaggerated detail, growing wilder as the alcohol seared his mind. I couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm. It was much the same as when he’d gotten the money in the first place - excitedly gathering everyone, drinking massive amounts of alcohol, smoking a fistful of cigarettes, and trying to charm every face he spotted.
As the drink increasingly slurred my thoughts, I chastised myself for my timidity. I’d decided that I needed to be friends with this lot, hadn’t I?
During a brief lull in the conversation, due to Slick’s mouth being full of cheese, I sat forward and made my move.
“I have made a decision,” I said, startling the others, as I’d not said anything till that point.
“What’s that, hon?” Alice asked.
“I declare that we are to be friends,” I said, nodding.
“But we’re already friends,” Lou said.
“Really friends,” I said, immediately feeling a bit frustrated that I wasn’t completely understood.
“We’re not really friends?” Alice said, frowning a little.
“More friends,” I said, taking another sip of my drink, since it was helping me to be honest with them. “The friendship thing. That. But more… more of that.”
“Aera, Aera, Aera,” Slick said, as he finally swallowed the oversized bite. “We’re drinking together, and living together… but not in that way, Alice, ‘cause you know I l.. lo... uh, I’m not like that, and…”
Alice shot him a half bemused, half annoyed look as he rambled.
“And anyway,” Slick continued, waving his drink in the air and splashing a little on Lou’s plate, “Living, and drinking, and working, and laughing together, what’s more friends than that? That’s friends. That’s… that’s it. It’s good.”
“It is good,” I said. “But the heart is important, too.”
“Your heart is good,” Slick said, pointing at me as if revealing a great truth. “Your heart beats like anybody’s, cause you’re like other people, and you’re not a fairy.”
“Ha! ‘Cause she looks like she’s from a storybook!” Rick crowed, as the rest of the band laughed along with the joke. Lou, however, glared at him.
“No, what I meant was -” Slick began, but Lou’s glare upgraded into a jab with her fork.
“You,” she said. “You’re drunk. You need to sober up.”
“I don’t have to be sober,” Slick said. “Never have to be sober! Unless I’m singing. Then I have to be kinda sober.”
“Maybe it’s a good time to call it a night,” Lou said. “You’re soused.”
“But I ain’t finished my drink, Lou!” Slick cried out, as though mortally offended.
“Uh huh,” Lou said. “And how many have you had?”
“I don’t need to count ‘em, either,” Slick said, taking an aggressive bite out of his dessert. “I can have as many as I want, ‘cause I’m rich.”
“You’ve had seven drinks, Slick,” Lou said. “Seven. Most of them were mixed, but still.”
“I should go for ten,” he said with a too wide grin.
“Slick, you don’t want to pass out again,” Alice said. “We can come back another time.”
“More drinks for everyone,” Slick said stubbornly. “Then, then, when everyone says they’re Aera’s friend, then we can go.”
“Oh, I don’t need a declaration,” I said. “I already said my piece.”
“No,” Slick said. “No, you want more friendship, and I’m gonna make sure you have your friendship. Everybody, everybody, let’s sing! Let’s sing a friendship song!”
“By the gods,” I said, “No, that’s really… no, Slick.”
“Friendship, friendship!” he sang, and I sank my face into my hands.
And he continued singing. His drunken self couldn’t apparently think of any lyrics other than “friendship.” So, he sang that word over and over again, till Lou convinced him that finishing his drink was what he’d agreed to.
When the waitress came to accept payment, Slick loudly declared that he was covering all of us. After the group failed to talk him out of it, he then handed over an additional fifty dollars as a tip, leaving the waitress slack jawed.
“Slick! What are you doing?” Alice hissed, loudly enough for everyone to hear.
“Just think of how happy you’d be if you got a tip like that,” Slick said with a crooked grin. “I want everyone to be happy.”
Alice softened and just sighed as we walked or stumbled out of the building. The cool evening air felt nice on my heated face.
“So, we’ll need how many taxis?” Lou asked, looking around the group, thinking. “Let’s see. Slick and I’ll head back to our house. Aera and Alice will go to her place, so us four could be one taxi, and…”
“Oh, no,” I said. “I will go to the house.”
“It’s not livable yet, though,” Alice said.
“Aren’t the floors a broken wreck?” Rick asked.
“I don’t care,” I said. “I’m going there.”
“Hon, I know you’re excited, but it’d be dangerous,” Alice said.
“Not for me,” I said, and Lou’s expression tightened warily. “I will be fine.”
“There’s no furniture,” Benjamin said. “So there won’t be a bed. I’m sure you can hold off until it’s furnished.”
“There’s grass outside,” I said with a shrug. “I’ll be fine.”
“On the ground?” Slick said. “No, no, if you want to be in your own place, I’ll get you a hotel for a bit, how’s that?”
“Slick,” Alice said, then immediately gave up with a sigh.
“I will be happy there,” I said.
“Aera, you may not be as bad as Slick, but you’re still drunk,” Lou said. “I think your judgement is off.”
I crossed my arms and glared at her, which was challenging when the world was tilting.
“I am going,” I said. “What is it you fear so much, anyway?”
Lou sighed.
“Well, there’s bugs,” Alice said. “And it’ll be cold.”
“It’s a summer night,” I countered. “I will not be cold. And I do not fear bugs.”
“But…” Alice said.
“All right, all right,” Lou said, holding up her hands. “Aera can go sleep in the backyard if she really wants. It’s settled.”
Benjamin looked very concerned, Rick seemed bewildered, and Johnny simply shrugged. The rest, of course, had better reason to understand how I might manage.
It was after midnight when the taxi dropped me off. I staggered a little on my way up the stone path.
It was chilly, and I could scarcely see the stars through the clouds, especially with the strange glow in the sky from the city lights. Still, I could make out the tangled mess of grass and bushes in the back. I walked behind the house and simply lay down in the little spot of wilderness.
With the tall hedges at each side, I couldn’t see the neighboring houses. Above was a single moon. I could imagine, with my eyes half closed, that it was a little bigger, and that her sister was just below the horizon. The haze against the sky, I could pretend was the result of some strange experiments my parents were working on. The ever present stench of the city was masked by the entirely ordinary scent of grass and leaves.
I could almost feel like I was back at home, here.
A gentle wave of Aquas left my groggy self, softening the plant matter beneath me and weaving it into a little cocoon. It was warm, and soft, and smelled like home. It had been nearly three quarters of a year since I’d arrived, though. I couldn’t really convince myself that I was back home, not even in my sleepy state. It had been too long.
Still, it felt so nice. Like all those times I’d fallen asleep in my old garden. A smile tugged at my lips as I thought about my father chastising me for falling asleep outside again.
Gentle dreams of green filled my night.