“Liam, this smells so good!” The visiting elf walked alongside Liam, sniffing all the while.

“It does!” Lilith walked on the other side.

“Both of you, have a seat and give me a minute.”

They complied, sitting at opposite ends of the kitchen table.

Liam placed the two bags on the counter and began removing the contents. He distributed bowls and small plates for the soup and appetizers. “Sylara, go ahead and have as much of this course as you want. The second course will be more meat-centric. Lilith, you should save some room, but try adding some of these noodles to your soup.”

“Kay!” Lilith served herself moderate helpings whereas Sylara took double-portions of everything save for the spare ribs. Liam actually took the least food of the three.

“Regarding dogs…” Liam decided it was time to address the issue which originally brought Sylara here today. “In this world, you don’t actually go out searching for animals to tame. The only wild animals you’ll even find around here are squirrels, deer, raccoons, foxes, and the occasional skunk. You’re not even allowed to hunt them unless you get permission from the local government, I think.”

Sylara’s eyes went wide. “You can’t hunt without permission?”

“Yeah. I’m not sure why. I think they’re worried about people hurting each other if they aren’t properly trained or sharing the hunting grounds correctly. Also, I think the populations of certain animals are carefully controlled.”

“Who cares?” said Lilith. “You’re not a hunter, right? It’s obvious to anyone you’re a rogue. Oh, this is good!”

“But still…”

“In this part of the world you won’t find any wild dogs. If you want a dog, you either go to a merchant’s store or directly to a breeder. My friend Vince had a family member whose dog had a litter, I think, so he ended up with one of the dogs—Nathan.”

“Lucky…”

“Hey Liam, can’t you just go to one of those stores or breeders and get a dog for the elf? Then she can leave!”

Sylara looked conflicted, like she didn’t want the demoness trying to get rid of her, but she also really wanted the dog.

“I’ve never gotten a dog before, so I don’t know what you need to do. Also, if I adopted a dog but then didn’t have it in my house soon after, it could be suspicious.”

“I see…” Sylara put her fork down and contemplated what Liam had just said.

“Well, whatever. Hey, Liam, I’m ready for more!”

Liam took the bowls away and gathered plates and main dishes. He placed them at the center of the table and dug in himself. He noticed Lilith was gathering meat and sauce while avoiding most of the vegetables in the entrees. “Lilith, you should take some vegetables too.”

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“Don’t wanna.”

“Do demons not eat vegetables?”

“They do, but…”

“If you want to be a good assassin, don’t you need to eat your vegetables?” Liam could hardly believe what he was asking.

“When I’m home they make me eat them.”

“Then you need to eat them here in my home, too. Look at Sylara.”

Sylara had actually taken more vegetables than anything else from the dishes, although she was still sampling the meat and trying the fried rice.

“Fine, I’ll take some.” Lilith carefully gathered a few vegetables and placed them on her plate.

Liam was not the food police and decided not to complain further. He finished his meal in peace.

“That was really good,” said Lilith. “The flavor is very different from that pizza you had me try, but I enjoyed it immensely. I could eat this stuff for every meal.”

“I’m sure you’d get sick of it. Sylara, what did you think?”

Sylara wasn’t as quick to compliment the food, but she couldn’t hide her feelings on the matter. “It was tasty.”

“Good. I’m glad you both liked it. Now, let’s discuss what happens next. I really need you both to leave so I can take my examination in the morning.”

“There’s still time. Can’t you show us another game like you said you would? Something more challenging than the game with the eight worlds?”

“Challenging, huh?” Liam thought back to the real time strategy game that had kinda gotten him in this whole pickle to begin with. “The last game I played was challenging. You could try that.”

“Oh! Lemme see!”

“What about me?” asked Sylara.

“Hm. I know.” Liam went into another room and retrieved his laptop. “One of you can use my computer over there and the other can use the laptop here.” Liam demonstrated how to play for both of them and explained the various shortcut keys and strategies. Neither Lilith nor Solara could read the words on the screen, so they needed to remember the icons and other graphical indicators.

“Why don’t you both give the single-player campaign a try? Once that’s done, you can see what multiplayer is like.”

And so, the demoness assassin and the elf rogue started playing a futuristic scifi game. It was obvious at a glance they were intrigued.

Liam cleaned up the kitchen and reviewed his notes yet another time. When he went to check in on the others, they were both deep into the campaign. They were even sharing insights with each other, which surprised Liam. Up until now, they’d made no attempts to help each other.

“Okay, it’s getting late…” Liam really wanted to know they were safely back in their world before going to sleep.

“You should probably hurry to bed,” Sylara said.

“Yeah, don’t you need to be well rested before your examination?” Lilith added.

“I do, but…”

“We promise not to fight,” said Lilith.

“Yeah, we do,” Sylara agreed. “At least, for now.”

Liam was kind of frustrated. He only had one more exam, after which he would be free to go along with whatever shenanigans Lilith or Sylara or anyone else tried to put him through. He was relying on the friction between his two visitors as a way to get the two of them out of his house, but now the pair were strangely aligned. So long as they were playing games and not fighting, them sticking around wasn’t a huge deal, at least. Liam decided he didn’t have the energy to argue. He’d go to bed, and if they wanted to stay up all night playing games, so beat it. So long as they didn’t fight.

He finished getting ready for bed and then climbed in. Liam figured the others would get tired eventually and would settle into the guest bed in the other room. That proved to be a naive assumption.

When his alarm went off in the morning, he found Sylara and Lilith clinging to either side of him as they slept. They had some explaining to do, but Liam didn’t have time to waste.