Lidija has returned with a bag of phones.

P: I guess this means that we are delaying our departure. You can find me in the hot lake.

Natalija and Stjepan are joining me.

--

M: Zoro, do I have a future?

Z: You are not the career type anyway.

M: You know what I mean.

Z: The exotic can sell very well.

Maria pours herself a glas of orange juice.

M: I could cash the cheque and live on the coast.

Z: If you want me to talk you out of it, you’ll make it easier if you give me some ammunition.

M: You have broken something precious.

Z: It was holding you back.

M: I want to be held back.

Z: Why?

M: Isn’t it your job to tell me?

Z: No. It is my job to make you admit it.

Maria hesitates.

Z: We can talk about you living in a hut on the beach with many cats, if you prefer that.

M: Alright. I need control over my life.

Z: Why do you need it?

M: Because little else is left.

Z: What do you want from life?

M: Art and freedom.

Z: Hence?

M: I will always be the singing freak and freedom was always an illusion for all of us.

Z: What is left?

M: Seeing the world. Like it really is.

Z: Yes.

M: I don’t like their conditions.

Z: Do you have other offers?

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M: Where is the wine?

--

Lidija is gliding into the lake. Her unfortunately successful attempt to not lose her bikini leading to a giant splash as she stalls at the landing negates the gracious, floating aspect of sweeping down from a tree to seemingly endlessly glide in the ground effect.

P: It is true. People can fly. They just suck at landing.

L: Very funny.

She wades up to me, again not very gracefully, to flop down next to me.

I telekinetically float her a can from my storage space.

L: Show-off

P: On occasion

She pulls the tab.

L: What will the world look like?

P: You want a prediction? I love doing predictions. Though I fear I may not be very good at them.

L: What makes you say that?

P: Nobody is. So many unlikely possibilities that is unlikely that none of them happen, but each of them is vanishingly unlikely. Could you have predicted where you are now a month ago?

She takes a deep swig.

L: Though you seem to think that you can get away with murder.

P: Ouch. But, yes, I do.

L: Why?

P: First, nobody will ever find the corpses. Second, the people I have met are already above the law.

L: How do you know?

P: They have known about magic for centuries. Governments have been knowing about it for less than a decade.

L: How certain are you?

P: 100%. They literally told me so.

She takes another deep swig and wiggles the empty can.

P: Let me demonstrate something.

I throw the empty can a few meters away and annihilate it with [Wrath of the Magister].

P: Do you think people who can do such things will take orders from the people who cannot?

I float her another can and take one for myself.

P: You have recovered remarkably well.

L: You seem disappointed.

P: I am worried that it hides an invisible worsening and you’ll collapse on us.

L: Possible. It seems unreal to me.

P: You do not think that you’ll ever return, do you?

L: My mother has sold the house. My childhood is gone.

P: That reminds me. How old are you?

L: I turned eighteen two weeks ago.

My turn to take a deep swig.

L: That started it. At my birthday party I had a few too many and kissed Zora. She kind of freaked out.

P: Did you surprise her?

L: No. She knew. She found my feelings flattering.

I burst out laughing.

L: What is funny about that?

P: Straight men face the dilemma of the gay bar. You do not want gay attention, but you also don’t want to be so unattractive that they all ignore you.

L: I think you fell off a table as a child when they were changing your diapers.

Only running out of air stops me laughing.

L: Why does anybody ever take you seriously?

P: These days? Because of what I did to that can.

She hesitates.

L: Why do think they are trying to hire us?

P: I think they want plausible deniability. They need somebody to do something dirty who cannot be traced back to them.

L: But we could rat out on them.

P: Whom? Do you have any idea whom you are contemplating working for?

L: You are right.

P: No. I am consistent. Other explanations are also possible.

L: You are infuriating.

P: Yes.

That gets me splashed. That in turn does not bother me at all. My new body’s eyes have no problem with water.

P: You are thinking about taking the offer. Is it that good?

L: No. I would not take it, if it were too good to be true.

P: Why are you willing to take it?

L: Let’s be honest. I do not want to be alone. The same reason you are so happy to travel with us.

P: What makes you think so?

L: I saw you looking at her coming out of this lake.

My turn to finish my beverage in one go, get another one out of storage and subject it to the same fate.