She is the One

Thatwas Natalie’s response. I hadn’t been able to talk with her about it for acouple of days and now here we were, having met up early before D&D, and Ifinally had the chance to lay it out before her. She didn’t look angry orshocked or anything. More…bemused.

“Ihaven’t heard anyone say anything,” I was quick to point out, “Honestly, ifAnton hadn’t said anything, I wouldn’t have noticed.”

“Youthink maybe he’s the one who started it?”

Herquestion was asked mostly sarcastically, but there was enough of a lookin her eye that I actually gave it some thought. “I don’t think so,” I repliedafter a moment, “Don’t think he would have said anything if he was the one whostarted it. Even if it got…He’s not a rumor guy. You know how much he hatesthat shit.”

“Yeah,I do.” She blew out her cheeks slowly, drumming her fingers on the tabletop. Wewere meeting up early at a coffee shop just to get some hot chocolate beforeheading to the game. “Have you told Kayla about it?”

“Noand I don’t think I’m going to. I get this feeling that if we start looking atthis harder than we need to, it’s gonna get worse. Even if we’re trying toactively avoid it. If I tell her, it’s not gonna ‘help’ anything. No one fromwork knows anything about her…I mean, I guess you and Anton do, but nobody whomight be chattering about this.”

“Mmmm.Cool.” She sipped at her tea and looked out the window. It was dark already andthe air had the metallic bite of potential snow, but nothing was coming down.All good by me; they were still trying to clear out areas from the massive dumpwe’d gotten over the weekend. “Thanks for letting me know.”

“Well,yeah, of course.” A thought popped into my head and I quickly added, “I thinkAnton should have told both of us. Don’t know why he didn’t tell youbut…there you go.”

“Probablybecause he’s not a big fan of me,” she mused, then held up her hand before Icould say anything, “He’s nice enough to chat with but I get the sense thathe’s not really…He doesn’t like me all that much. I don’t know if I’m hisleast-favorite person on the shift but he definitely likes you more sothat’s why he told you instead of me.”

“I’lltake your word for it,” I replied, not wanting to argue but bemused all thesame. Based on our conversations, I thought that Natalie and Anton got on likegangbusters. Then again, it’s possible I was completely missing something. Iknew I could have rose-tinted glasses when it came to peoples’ relationships; Iwanted to believe that everything worked out well for the people I liked.

MaybeI needed to watch more closely from now on. Maybe I’d pick up on something.

“Forthe record,” Natalie said after the silence stretched on for far too long, “Idon’t think of you that way.”

“Idon’t think of you that way either,” I replied quickly. Perhaps tooquickly; when you barked something like that back immediately, it tended tosound more insulting than anything. I winced and said, “Sorry.”

“Sorryfor what? That you don’t think about me that way? No offense but if you weresingle and asked me out…” She gave me a good-natured frown. “Sorry, I don’tthink I’d agree.”

“I…”It was an odd statement. She didn’t mean it to be cruel or sarcastic or nastyor…anything of the sort, really. She was just being honest. It was the sort ofstatement that I felt like I should be offended by, just on principle,but it actually lifted a weight from my shoulders. I’m not even sure what theweight actually was. “That’s all right. Honestly haven’t even thought aboutit.”

“Well,you’d be one of the few,” she said nonchalantly, “I’ve known plenty of guyswilling to consider dating other girls just for comparison’s sake. See ifthere’s a better option out there.”

“Soundslike they’re trying to audition to see if they can get an upgrade orsomething,” I commented with a snort.

“Exactly,”she said with a stout nod, “And I’ve seen it happen a lot and I hate everysecond of it. So, yeah, I was kinda really pissed off when you firsttold me about everything but then I thought, ya know, it’s you. And I trust youand know you wouldn’t do anything like that.”

“Well,if you were pissed off, you were good at hiding it,” I said with a grin, “Mustbe all that theater you’ve done before.”

“Thatand I generally don’t like getting pissed off if I can help it,” she repliedevenly, “Whenever I do I just end up with a big headache and it ruins the wholeday and I kinda want to just enjoy the game, you know?”

“Yeah,I got that.” I looked out towards the street for a moment before saying, “Youever get the feeling like…I don’t know, like you want the whole world to onlybe the people you actually give a shit about?”

“Whatdo you mean?”

“Like…Idon’t know, think of all the people you care about. The people you’d actuallywanna see more than a few times a year. How many would that be? Maybe fifty orso?”

“Maybehalf of that,” Natalie replied with a laugh, cocking her head at me, “But,sure, let’s go ahead and say fifty for now.”

“So,like, what if the world was only those fifty people? Wouldn’t that makelife a hell of a lot easier?”

“Maybeon some personal levels, sure, but I don’t know anyone who can make computersor video games or stuff like that. So if the world somehow keeps providing allthe stuff I need to live, then yeah, let’s whittle it down to only a fewpeople. But there’s more people in the world that…Like, you and me and our job?It helps a lot of people that will never know anything about us other thanthere’s someone somewhere who’s doing a job that’s needed. I don’t know anyonefrom Japan but I’m sure there’s someone there working on all the processingchips that we need to keep our computers running so, yeah, I get what you’resaying but I don’t think I’ll ever think it’s practical.”

Ilistened silently, taking everything in with a bittersweet acceptance. Icouldn’t deny any of what she was saying. It made sense. It didn’t mean I likedhearing it, but I couldn’t force her to put the ideas back into her head ortake back her words. “Guess the world is better for having people in it,” Isuggested lightly, “Even if people are the worst thing that’s wrong with theworld.”

“You’renot wrong,” she chuckled, then reached out to squeeze my hand, “Although I willtell you, if you need to here, that I don’t know anyone else I could spend twodays with and not get sick of. Or…well, with anyone else, I’d have run out ofthings to talk about long ago.”

“Thanks,but I’m good,” I said, squeezing her hand back before pulling it away, “Butsame to you. You and Kayla, those are the only two people I know who I can havethat happen with. Everyone else…” Maybe I was laying it on a little thick, but evenwhen I thought about it, I meant it. Like…maybe Tara could be includedin there as well, but there was no way she’d ever be in a job like that withme.

MaybeI was thinking too much about it and I should just let things be.

Isent Kayla a message before we left, letting her know I was headed to the game.She was at another studying ‘party’ and let me know that she wouldn’t bemessaging much, though she was fully expecting me to show her a good time thenext day on Valentine’s Day. I already had my plans laid out so I was good togo, however tired I was. Yeah, Natalie and I were still recovering from our marathonwork session. We’d slept nearly clean through the last couple of days but wereon the same wavelength about sleeping the day away. There was simply too muchgoing on in our lives to just ignore it all.

“Therethey are!” Jarod said boisterously as we entered. Franklin and Anton werealready there, getting their character sheets set up and availing themselves ofthe deli platter that Jarod had in his kitchen. He gave us firm pats on theshoulders and said, “You survived the storm! That’s a hell of an endurance rushthere.”

“Itwould be if the work was especially hard,” Natalie laughed as she dropped herbackpack by her usual chair, “But yeah, we got through it. Talked a lot ofD&D of course.”

“Youguys do any out-of-game character stuff?” Jarod asked, sounding legitimatelycurious. If we had, I knew he’d find a way to fold it into the canon, though Iwould have felt shitty dropping that on him now.

“Nah,we didn’t bring our dice,” Natalie said with a grin, going into the kitchen.

“Youcould probably have pulled up some dice-rolling stuff on the computer,” Antoncommented. I paid close attention to the way he said it. It was as flat andnonchalant as everything else he said and…yeah, just look at that statement.There are ways of making it snarky and condescending depending on the tone. Butit didn’t sound condescending in any way.

Thenagain, if I was to try and ping him every time he maybe said somethingto indicate his dislike of Natalie, I was in for a long fucking night. With howmuch we talked, I’d have to dissect every comment and I didn’t have the mentalcapacity for that.

Thetent was musky, dank, and thrummed with the writhing discordant tentacles of evil.At least, that’s how Spyro felt it; his paladin senses were attuned to suchthings and his holy symbol were thrumming like mad. This was only supposed tobe a circus and yet, from the moment they had laid eyes on it, they knew therewas something wrong with it.

Itwasn’t part of the Order. The Order had not managed to gain much of a footholdin the eastern continent, though that only meant that the regular thieves andbandits and gangsters that made their homes in back alleys and in whateverhomes they took from normal people. The group had fought as much as they couldbut without a centralized organization like The Order to go after, they wereonly treating symptoms. Many, many symptoms.

Thecircus had cropped up outside of one of the innocent towns, remaining longafter it should have moved on were its aim commerce and commercialism. Morethan one person had vanished from the town and thought the mayor had hissuspicions, he couldn’t properly accuse the circus and, besides, did not haveit in his to order the circus away with show of force. A wandering group ofadventurers, however…

Darrackscoffed at the décor, shaking his head. “No wonder they can’t get customers,”he mused.

Tamaranoted the lack of anything shiny and pouted, nudging Brad and saying, “If Idon’t see anything worth nicking in the next minute, I’m out of here.”

“Spyrosays there’s something here we need to investigate,” Brad replied in a lowvoice, “I trust him.”

“Notall of us do,” Tamara sniggered, jerking her thumb at Ser Chris.

SerChris, for her part, had continued to be cool and civil to Spyro, even if hiscomments were usually met with an eyeroll of something passive aggressive. Shehad only agreed to investigate this circus tent because Spyro had assured herthat there was something evil there. As much as she still had distaste for hispaladin ways that had stalled her revenge, she had to give some grudging trustto his instincts for good and evil. It wasn’t simply that he had a ‘badfeeling’ or tingles on his neck; this was evil.

Soshe had her sword out, looking around at the lines of cages. Some held animals,others held bones that were decidedly not of the animal kingdom. Thatalone was enough to put her on edge but as they wandered further down betweenthe lines of cages, she felt a growing darkness in her chest. This was nonormal dread; this was something without, something brought on by a presence ormagic or something created by a being they could not yet see. She looked atSpyro, whose face was more drawn and troubled than ever.

“Whatdo you think it is?” she asked him, willing herself to sound civil.

“Idon’t know,” he replied, too preoccupied to be happy that she was speaking tohim, “I’ve not felt anything like this before. Not even back in the wizard’stower.” Unlike her, he had not drawn his sword, but he had his hand resting onit, just in case.

Tamarasnorted slightly and said, “We could just burn the whole place to the ground.These tents are highly flammable.”

Kayaturned and frowned like thunder at the Tiefling. “We are in the woods! Set fireand the whole forest will go up in flame!” Tamara rolled her eyes but knewbetter than to press the argument, especially where nature was concerned. Kayararely got riled up about anything but when it came to threatening a force or ariver or the wildlife, she was there to stamp that out.

Spyroled the group further in, the heavy dread settling in his chest like boulders. Therehad been so little time to rest and recuperate on their journey; even his timewith Gwyn back in New Arkosia was far too short. There was much to do, yes, buthe was tired, ragged, burnt-out. And yet he kept pushing forward because thatwas what was expected of him. He was a paladin, he was a soldier, and he had aworld that he cared for and that required his protection. The Order had notbeen stopped; indeed, it was nearly impossible to judge just what sort ofprogress they had made towards dismantling it. Cut off one head, take down onegeneral, and they did not slow down. And if New Arkosia was to be their nexttarget, they needed something that would leave a dent.

Theypushed their way past another curtain and found themselves in a wider space.There were fewer cages here, most of which were broken and bent and tossedaround like so much refuse. In the center of the tent was a single massive cageof wrought iron and steel, its bar as thick as bricks and nearly as tall as thetent itself.

Spyro’samulet throbbed with what felt like shock and horror as he beheld what laybehind the bars. It had the appearance of a dragon, desiccated and rotting andmelted. It was half-skeleton and half-old flesh, as though its design had beeninterrupted halfway through conception and had been left out to rot. To look atit was to be reviled, offended, terrified. Bad enough that it had theappearance of a dragon but it carried with it the stink of something far worse.

“Dracolich,”Spyro murmured under his breath.

“Oh,shit,” Ser Christiana spat, readying her blade, “Let’s just back out now.Everyone, get out of here.”

Brad,Tamara, and Darrack were more than happy to back away at the sight of theabomination in the cage; its eyes were dark and hollow so they could not besure if it was looking at them or not. They saw only emptiness and the chillwas enough to make them want to flee on principle. Kaya, however, wastransfixed. Not out of appreciation but a perverse awe; what she was seeing wassuch an abomination that she could not help but stare. Dragons, howeverpowerful and terrifying they were, were part of nature. They were born, ate,grew, mated, and then died. To see this was like seeing a tree turned insideout of a mother rabbit eating her young. It made her sick but, at the sametime, she could not look away.

Thedracolich turned its head and regarded Spyro. “Half-spawn,” it said in a voiceof rot and decay and cruelty that was as much an offense to the ears as it wasto manners, “What do ye seek here?”

Thevoice was so disgusting and chilling that Spyro could not mark any tone ortenor behind it. Was the question curious? Mocking? He was uncertain. Hegripped his holy amulet and showed it to the dracolich. “We’re here to purgeyour evil from this world,” Spyro declared.

“Orwe could leave,” Ser Chris said behind him, though without much conviction. Thedracolich was rising to its full height staring down at them with a coldcalculation that told her that even if they were to leave, this…thing would notstop searching for them. Whatever intelligence and drive it had was aimed atthem now. Gods only knew how the circus had managed to keep it locked up forthis long.

Thedracolich laughed with the sound of iron over stone and pressed its snoutagainst the bars of the cage. “Do ye think this cage shall hold me back fromrending thy flesh, paladin? Thy gods are not here. Thou art alone. With me.” Ithissed deep within its ravaged throat and slammed its head against the bars ofthe cage.

Thegroup jumped back and Tamara yelped, “Fuck this!” She turned and boltedout of the tent, running as fast as her legs could carry her. Even if therewere gems there, she wasn’t about to face that thing for them. She didhave priorities.

Spyrotrembled as the dracolich stared directly at him, the chill running straight tohis soul. He had heard of liches before, of course, but had never faced one.Now not only was he facing one, it was in draconic form. To fight a lich, evenas an experienced soldier or paladin, was considered insane unless you foughtas a team. He had never heard of anyone having fought and successfullydefeated a dracolich. They were rare, yes, but always calamitous when theyappeared.

Heheld his holy symbol higher, drawing his sword and aiming it at the monster.“In the name of my god, I shall—”

“Thygod?” the dracolich sneered, slamming its massive head against the barsof the cage once more. Dust and flecks of rust flew from the joints, scatteringthe group with debris. Brad was taking several steps back now, thinking thatTamara had had the right idea. “Then name thy god, paladin. Who ist that thouserve? A purple dragon god? Of what name?”

“Noneof your concern, devil,” Spyro spat in response, hoping he sounded more defiantthan he felt. As powerful as his faith was and as assured as he was in hisskill with the blade, this was a dragon that had separated its soul from itsbody. Normal nightmares fled before it.

“ThenI shalt make it my concern!” it roared, slamming once more into thecage. The bars were beginning to bend under the weight of its assault,stretching and yawning as it fought to free itself. “I defy thy gods! Standagainst me and thou shalt serve as a fine addition to my army!”

“Spyro…”Ser Chris said with a tremor in her voice she didn’t even bother to hide,“Let’s get out of here. We can’t fight that. I think your god wouldunderstand.”

Itwas true, of course, but Spyro’s zeal had removed his ability to run away. He hadto stop this thing. To run away would only doom more to suffer and die and beenslaved at its claws. Whether or not the circus knew what it had wasirrelevant; this thing needed to be removed, one way or another. They could tryto fight it, of course, but defeat and death and worse was almost a certainty. Butto run, even if it was assured that they could get away…

Athought came to his mind: in the wizard’s tower, he had been able to use histeardrop talisman in conjunction with his holy symbol to convert the wizard togood. Could the same thing work with a dracolich so long as his faith wasstrong and true? His god, nameless still, was more powerful than any dragon orlich. And though Spyro was only a lowly vassal for the eternal being, he wasstrong and true and brave and loyal. And his cause was just.

Itwas a reckless thought but they had only moments before the monster was goingto burst free from its cage and he had no idea what its opening attack wouldbe. Something that would immediately kill all of them, no doubt.

“Spyro!”Ser Chris hissed, gripping his shoulder and tugging, “We need to go!”

“Ithink I can stop it,” Spyro replied, feeling brave and foolish in equal measureand knowing that, even if they were to survive this, that she was likely todislike him even more than before. He could accept that. Perhaps it would havebeen better if they had never come to the circus at all, but there was noturning back now.

“Stopme?” the dracolich bellowed in a voice of crackling hatred and disgustinglaughter. To hear it laugh was to hear the cries of a hundred fearful children.“Try thy hand, paladin, and then I shall grant thee a most torturous death!” Itslammed forward once more, its snout now poking through the bars. One more hitand it was likely to break through.

Spyropulled his teardrop talisman from around his neck and clasped it against hisholy symbol, his lips murmuring every prayer he could imagine for help andguidance. Should this fail, he would fight, and he knew he would die fighting.He did not know if Ser Christiana, Kaya, Brad, and Darrack were still behindhim—he had heard Tamara flee—but he prayed for their safety, whatever wouldhappen.

SerChris watched helplessly as Spyro stepped forward, his amulets held high. Sheknew what he wanted to do and hoped with all of her might that it would work sothat she could smack him around later for being such a fool. She had not beenblind to his efforts to get back into her good graces; her anger had not abatedbut the reasonable part of her respected that he wished to make up for hisdo-gooder foolishness for a man who did not deserve it. But if this was how farhe was willing to go to make amends, he was crazier than she’d originallythought.

“It’llhave to be a nat 20,” Jarod told me somberly, looking like he was hiding agrin. As much as DMs always want to help tell the story, there are times when aplayer does something so reckless or stupid that they can’t help but grin atjust how fucked a player is.

Ihadn’t intended for this to happen; I had been seized with the notion that,perhaps, we could transform this evil creature into something…well, not quiteso evil. But, of course, Jarod wasn’t about to tell me what roll I needed tosucceed before I rolled it. You had to dive head-first into shitsometimes.

“Ohfuck,” Franklin groaned, looking at me sympathetically.

Nataliegave me a sour look. “You just had to go poking the evil sorcererdragon, didn’t you?” she asked tartly, resting her hands behind her head,“Well, it was nice knowing ya, Spyro.”

“Guys,guys,” Jarod said calmly, “He still has the chance to roll. It’s not a completelyzero chance.”

Easyfor him to say, of course; I didn’t want to try and get into the logistics ofrolling one exact number on a twenty-sided die. The odds were…not in myfavor. Still, I couldn’t exactly back away now, not with the dracolich about toburst through the cage. Everyone except Mike looked like they were ready tofight and, based on their faces, they weren’t expecting it to go well.

Hell,I wasn’t expecting it to go well, but if it did…

Everyonehas a different way of rolling their dice. Franklin liked to roll his down hisarm like Salt Bae and I won’t insult him by comparing those two anymore. Antonliked to use both hands and sort of toss it on the table. I just rollednormally, not trusting in the superstition of how one rolls dice. It eitherworked or it didn’t. I never had the time for much in the way of superstitionand I haven’t since. I engaged in some of the theater superstitions because itwas fun, but what will be will be.

SoI rolled, I mumbled a little prayer to whatever might have wanted a prayer inthat moment, and tossed the die onto the table. Some people had mats, Anton hada small dice tower; I just preferred to use the table. I let the die go andresigned myself to my fate.

“Holyshit!”

Itmight have been one person or it might have been all of us, but the die hadbounced across the table, ricocheted off of Anton’s dice tower, and then slidto a stop in front of me, proudly displaying that ‘20’. It had actuallyhappened!

Ittook a second for it to sink in, but I quickly looked up at Jarod with a grin.“Nat 20! It worked!”

“Yesit did,” Jarod said with an impressed smile, nodding, “So…You reach out withyour amulets and press them against the dracolich’s head. You feel repulsionand vileness and evil under your touch but then you start to feel your faithfilling you up. The dracolich freezes, like, completely in place, it’s formshimmering and starting to fall apart but also…come back together at the sametime. All the corruption and hideousness begins to fade away as it starts toreconstitute itself. As you keep your amulets pressed against it—your arm istrembling like crazy and it’s starting to hurt…”

“I’llkeep my hand on it,” I declared.

“Allright, good. I won’t make you roll for it again since, ya know, nat 20. So asyou keep your amulets pressed against it, it starts to regain the form that ithad before it became what it is. Golden scales immediately begin to sproutalong its—”

“Golden?”More than one of us had said it in shock. As a quick rundown: dragons that havea specific color, like red or green or stuff like that, are evil; dragons thatare chromatic, like silver or gold and so on, are good. So to have a goldendragon become a lich…

“Yes,it’s golden,” Jarod replied patiently, “Golden and glorious and now with a fullhead that is looking down at you, Spyro, with gratitude. ‘Thank you,’ it saysas it finally fully forms back into the golden dragon, ‘Thank you for freeingme’.”

“I…what?”I was completely confused. I was still riding the happy high of having tossed aroll where literally everything was against me in terms of odds, but…Look, wewere all nerds and we were going to question even the best stuff that happenedto us. It was just the way things were.

“Itcontinues: ‘I was cursed a long time ago by enemies of this planet. Enemies ofthis land. I came from Dragon Rock, lured away with promises of protection andglory and then I was cursed to become what you saw before.’”

“Isit still in the cage?” Anton asked.

“Itis, though it looks like it is wanting to get out still.”

“DoI sense if it’s trying to trick me or something?” I asked, not wanting to leaveanything to chance. You want to become paranoid? Try playing Dungeons &Dragons and you’ll learn to doubt everything. Even opening the door in the gamebecomes a weird dance of caution.

Hepaused for a moment, thought, and then said, “You know that golden dragons areparagons of truth and virtue. You don’t sense anything off about this,especially after what you had to go through. I’ll call that nat 20 good enoughto give you the sense that everything is on the up and up with this creature.”

“Whatis your name?” Spyro asked cautiously, still clutching his amulets. The gloryof the golden dragon was wonderous to behold, marred only by the knowledge thatit had been something so hideous only moments before.

“Eledar,”the dragon declared, lifting its mighty head to gaze down at Spyro, “And youare Spyro the Purple, unless I am mistaken.”

“Idon’t know that I’ve ever been called that,” Spyro replied, blushing andcoughing slightly, “How did you…how did you become…” It felt suddenly rude toinquire about such things, but what else was he to ask? He couldn’t imagine anyscenario where a golden dragon would become a dracolich, not unless there wassomething stronger. And the idea of something stronger than a dragon wasterrifying in its own right.

“Asecret, profane rite,” Eledar replied, his voice tinged with regret and rage, “Iwas tricked by one I thought I could trust and given over to a cult. Theyrestrained me and used dark magic to transform me into what you saw. If not foryour faith, purple one, I would have remained in that state forever. Now…”Eledar reared up as best he could and then slammed his massive claws againstthe bars of the cage. The metal held for only a moment before popping off likestraw, flying to the far corner of the tent. “Now I must return to DragonMountain and warn the others.”

“DragonMountain?” Ser Chris asked, hoping her amusement did not register as derision.

EitherEledar did not recognize the amusement or he chose to ignore it. “Yes. Far tothe east of here. I have heard whisperings of what is happening in the world.The Order. They are a symptom of something far greater happening behind thescenes. There is more to this cult than you know.”

“Doesit involve the one who tricked you?” Darrack asked, “Who could trick a dragon?”

“Adragon god,” Eledar replied gravely, “Long ago, Kalasterix came close toconquering the world until he was turned to good. But he was not the onlydragon with such designs. He was one of three: the second has been lost tohistory while the third…the third is more powerful and cruel than Kalasterix.It was he who tricked me, claiming that he wanted to protect the dragons.”

“Whatis his name?” Spyro asked.

“Bound,”Eledar said as he pushed himself through the bars, flexing his wings, “Bound bya spell to not be spoken by those who know. I can see his name in my mind butcannot voice it. Such is the power that he wields.”

“Idon’t suppose you can direct us to find him,” Ser Chris said, stillgripping her sword because a dragon, however friendly, would always be athreat.

“Notunless you perform rites that are likely to destroy you.” Eledar turned hisgreat head towards Spyro and said, “You might have the ability to findthe answer but only if you know how. I am unsure how to give you thisknowledge. Perhaps if you were to make a journey to Dragon Mountain, you mayfind the knowledge.”

“Whatif they have been turned to dracoliches as well?” Spyro asked in trepidation.

“ThenI shall fly first to investigate. Now that I am my old self once more, I shallfend off any attackers. Should they be transformed as I was, they shall be nomatch for me. I thank you for your assistance, Spyro the Purple, Paladinof…forgive me if I do not know your patron.”

“Ido not know their name either. They appear only as this holy symbol…” He heldup his holy amulet. “…and they will not give me their name.”

“Interesting,”Eledar mused, lowering his great head to examine the symbol, “I almost feel asthough I recognize it…A long distant memory in another life, perhaps. Orsomething further than that.”

“Therewas a third dragon god you mentioned,” Brad said thoughtfully, “Could that beit? Was it a purple dragon?”

“Ido not know,” Eledar said regretfully, continuing to look at the amulet, “Wisethough dragons are, our gods are as mysteries to us. Perhaps, to them, we areas simple as ants are to us. I do not know. But whoever your god is, they shallreveal themselves in due time. You have done a great service for dragon kind.”

“Itwas my pleasure,” Spyro replied, reflecting on how terrified he had been only afew minutes before. It was sheer luck and chance that it had worked. Howevermuch he trusted in his faith, and he trusted it with his whole being, what hehad done was a miracle that could be explained only with the action itself.Further analysis would fail.

“Andnow I must leave you. I am somewhat aware of the evil that these people haveused me for, not knowing just how deadly I was in the other form, and thereshall be penance that I must pay for eons to come. I do not know how I shallbegin to make up for the evil I have committed but know that I shall be thereto aid you should you need me.” He looked to Spyro and said, “Simply call myname in our common tongue and I shall hear you.”

“How?”

“Thereis magic in a dragon’s name and should you find the magic in yourself as well,I will feel it wherever I am and I shall fly to your aid with as many dragonsas I can muster. Farewell, friends.” With that, his great golden wings spreadand beat down hard. Dirt and debris flew up and around, forcing the party toshield their faces, and the tall fabric walls of the tent flapped and shudderedunder the power of the wings. Another mighty beat and the tent tore away,revealing the night sky and the shocked carnies surrounding them. Eledar roaredto the sky and the onlookers fled into the dark, shrieking their terror as theycovered their heads and dashed away as fast as their legs could carry them.

Spyrocould have sworn he saw a small smirk of satisfaction on Eledar’s face as thedragon took off into the night, soaring on massive wings against the moon andbanking off towards the northeast, his shining golden form soon lost againstthe darkness.

“Youknow I need to hit you for what you did,” Spyro heard Ser Chris say gravelybehind him.

Spyrosighed and turned, drawing himself up and saying, “I suppose that’s fair.There’s no way I could have known that would work. Sheer dumb luck.”

“AndI’ve gotten out of my fair share of scrapes through sheer dumb luck. None ofthem involved getting all of our lives threatened.” She closed a mailed fistand hauled it back, looking at Spyro with flaming eyes. He did not budge. “Canyou at least flinch or something?”

“You’vegot a right to strike,” Spyro replied stoically, “I’m not looking forward tohow much it’s going to hurt but you have a right to do it.”

SerChris stared at him for a moment before lowering her arm with a huff. “Ifyou’re not going to truly hate it, then there’s no point,” she growled, sheathingher sword and looking around. The tent, having blown away, now left them in themidst of the carnival, now without any occupants. “I suppose we should pickthis clean while we can and then head back to the village.”

“Atleast we can give them good news,” Kaya said cheerfully, far more cheerfullythan she normally spoke, “And we got to see a dragon!”

“Adragon that didn’t try to burn us,” Brad commented, then looked around,“Where’s Tamara?”

“Somewherein the woods, probably distracted by something shiny,” Ser Chris commentedtartly, “We’ll need to gather her up first before we go anywhere else.” Shelooked at Spyro levelly and said, “You need to think things through better.”

“HadI known what we were walking into, I would have chosen a different route,”Spyro replied, then looked up to where Eledar had flown away, “Though now wehave a new ally, so I can’t be too harsh on myself.”

Myplans for Valentine’s Day started early, though it involved me using an alarmand there was no way I couldn’t wake up Kayla at the same time. I shushed herand urged her to go back to sleep, which didn’t require a lot of coaxing,thankfully. She just looked up at me through half-closed eyes, nodded, thenturned over. Athena and Ember were snoozing at her feet and only woke up longenough to yawn, stretch, and then lay their heads back down.

Iwas going to make her breakfast in bed. I wasn’t, of course, an amazing cookbut I’d planned the ‘menu’ ahead of time and, besides, she wasn’t superdemanding with her requests. I mean, I wasn’t making a full English breakfastor anything like that. Just bacon, toast, and some fruit. That was all. I’dbeen subtly poking her for the last week about what she might like for herideal breakfast and as subtle as the asking was, I think she was able to pickup on it.

Becausewhen you’ve been with someone for long enough, ‘subtle’ is not something you’recapable of anymore. They know you inside and out, sometimes before you evenknow what you’re planning on doing.

Buthey, even if you’re somewhat expecting a surprise, the effort and thought stillgo into it. And while I was not making her a gourmet version of anything by anymeans, I knew it would still be edible. There was a version of candied baconthat I wanted to try at some point; I wasn’t going to use Valentine’s Day as mytraining time.

Wedidn’t have any trays—an oversight on my part, but there were also not likelyto be many situations where we needed a tray—but we did have a servingplate that was longer than any other and I chose that. I carefully loaded upthe plate, poured a tall class of orange juice, and carried it carefully backinto the bedroom. The side of the plate knocked against the door just loudenough for her to grunt and stir.

“Thefuck…?” she mumbled softly, sitting up and knuckling at her eyes. Athenasleepily hopped off the bed and gave me a discontent meow while Embercontinued attempting to curl around Kayla’s foot through the blankets.

“HappyValentine’s Day!” I said happily as I set the plate carefully down next to heron my side of the bed. I put the glass of orange juice on the side table; noway a mattress was meant to hold that.

“Mmmmm…thanks.”She was still trying to wake up and the presence of a cat on her foot, even onestill as small as Ember (though they were growing so quickly), made sitting updifficult. But she managed it without tipping the plate over and smiled at me. “HappyValentine’s Day to you too, baby. Did you get some breakfast?”

“Nah,I’m good.” She gave me a light glare. “Baby, you know I’m not big on breakfast.There’s some leftover bacon and I can always make toast quickly. But I want youto eat.”

Shetwisted her mouth at that but still carefully lifted the plate onto her lap.“May as well sit down next to me,” she commented, then held out her hand forher juice. Ember had suddenly woken up, his nose twitching as he extended hishead towards the plate. “No, silly cat,” Kayla chided lightly, “This isn’t forkitties.” Ember glared up at her and stayed where he was, though his eyes neverleft the food.

“Anydreams?” I asked as she began to dig in.

“Notthat I can remember,” she replied between bites of toast, “Something about aspaceship but that’s about all. Don’t remember if it was ours or we were goinginto space or coming back or what. Just a spaceship.”

“Iguess there’s worse things to dream about. If you want any more of anything,let me know.”

“Thiswill be more than enough, baby, thank you. You need to make sure thatyou eat something!” She reached over and poked my stomach. “If that startsgrowing, I’m gonna be making fun of you for it.”

“Fairenough.” I didn’t speak much more as she continued to eat, wanting her to havethe time to just enjoy her breakfast, however simple it was. I’d actuallylooked up a few more complicated breakfast recipes and none of them were in mywheelhouse. Though Kayla was more likely to eat breakfast than I was, she neverliked anything too complicated. If you’re able to wake up and be in themood for something complex and multi-layered, your stomach works waydifferently than mine.

Asshe finished up, she belched loudly, grinned, and said, “Thanks, baby. Sowhat’s next? Do I have to get in a special dress or something?”

“Nah,I’m not that cruel. Just get up whenever you want and—”

“WheneverI want?” she asked skeptically.

“Okay,maybe be up before lunchtime? We gotta head down towards Des Moines. We have anescape room to do.”

“Anescape room?” She stared at me and it looked like she was trying tofigure out if I was demanding she be more excited about this or if her realexcitement was justified. After a moment, she grinned and said, “Awesome!Always wanted to go to one of those!”

“Andnow you will. There’s going to be a few other people there but it’s a room thatneeds you to have around five or so people. So it’ll be a good bondingexercise as well.”

“Great!What happens after that?”

“Jeez,can’t even enjoy the first thing that I suggest before you’re already movingonto the next thing?” I teased, “Maybe we can just skip to the end of tonight.I mean, we’re already in bed, so…” I grinned at her and reached out to gentlysqueeze her breast.

Sheswatted my hand away and said, “I’m reserving that part of the day forme. You’ll have to prove that you’ve earned it by the end of the day becauseI’m perfectly content with double-clicking my own mouse, even with you besideme.”

“That’s…insanelyevil, I hope you know that.”

“Thankyou,” she said sweetly, handing me the now-empty plate, “I was just wonderingwhat you had planned for the rest of the day but if you want to make it asurprise, I don’t mind. Just don’t, you know, tease me too much withpossibilities.” She stretched, purposefully angling her upper body towards meso I could do nothing other than stare at her breasts, before she said, “I’mgonna go hop in the shower and wake up. Anything I can do to help with thisspecial Valentine’s Day before that.”

“Well,you already ate, so you’re most of the way there,” I said with a grin, slidingout of bed and heading towards the kitchen, “Oh, and dress however you wanttoday. I was thinking about going extra fancy for dinner tonight but thenI didn’t want you wearing a super fancy dress for the escape room.”

“Idon’t know, I think it would have made a good impression,” she said with ashrug as she disappeared into the bathroom. I heard the water turn on and thenshe called out, “But if you don’t want me getting all dressy, that’s fine withme! What are you thinking, then? Something nicer but not too nice?”

“Soundsgood to me,” I called back, starting to wash the dishes, “We’ve got plenty oftime so no need to rush. The game is gonna start a little after noon.” And withit taking around an hour to get there and probably find parking, I didn’t wantto take chances.

“Awesome!”She didn’t speak afterwards and I assumed she had stepped into the shower towake up. We actually didn’t take showers together as often as you might think,mostly because of scheduling but also because the shower itself just wasn’t bigenough. One of the big stipulations for whatever house we ended up getting washaving a shower that could fit both of us.

Thecats came out a minute later, whining for food, so I made sure they were toppedoff in their food bowl before I set about getting dressed myself. It was stillungodly cold outside, though the streets were more or less clear by this point.Dusty and salty and still streaked with white from all the snow over theprevious weekend, but I no longer feared slipping right off the road.

Kaylacame in a few minutes later, glowing from the shower and eyeing my outfit witha smirk. “Classy,” she snorted as she took in the tan slacks, the button-upcheckered shirt, and the dark belt.

“I’mnot putting on a suit and tie,” I replied churlishly.

“Idon’t know, that might actually go well with the game. You’d look like somesuper-spy guy if we could get you some sunglasses. Make you look supersophisticated and cool.” She opened the closet and pulled out a couple of herless-flashy dresses. “Dress or should I go with pants?”

“Ilike you without pants—” She scowled at me over her shoulder, “—but maybe gowith them just in case we need to be more mobile? They didn’t explain anythingabout the escape room online so maybe we’ll need to jump over something orclimb on something, I don’t know.”

“Fine,”she sighed dramatically, hanging her dresses back up and pulling down one ofher nicer shirts, “Just so you know…I would have just been fine with breakfastin bed today. I’ll totally appreciate and love everything you do today, but…Iguess this is just a weird, roundabout way of telling you that I feel extraspecial now.”

“Well,thanks for letting me know now,” I chuckled, “I could have saved us abunch of cash.”

“Notakebacks now! And Valentine’s Day just doesn’t feel as interesting now as itdid back in school. I guess because everyone was just trying to date and be allromantic but now…well, I get to see you all the time. And we get to be loveyall the time. My parents said the same thing is gonna happen with Christmaseventually.”

“Yeah,I think my dad said something similar before. I’ll always make sure you get atleast one present,” I promised, poking her side playfully and making hersqueak indignantly, “I’ll check next year to see if we wanna skip it.Valentine’s Day. Not Christmas.”

“Hmmm…NowI wanna see what you come up with, just because of that.” She gesturedat her side before pulling out a bra and slipping it on. “Oh, so how was thegame last night?” I’d gotten home late enough that she was already in bed andthough she had ‘woken up’ enough for me to give her a kiss and for her tomumble a welcome, there wasn’t much in the way of actual conversation.

“Fun,but I don’t wanna talk about that right now.” As she finished getting dressed,I slipped into my dresser drawer and pulled out a large card, handing it overto her with a smile. “Happy Valentine’s Day…again. I promise I won’t say thatwith everything today.”

Shelooked at the card and then up at me, smiling as she took it and opened theenvelope. It was the most romantic card I could find at the store but I wasn’tcontent with the pre-written sentiment inside; I’d filled it out to the marginswith my own writing, which admittedly made it somewhat difficult to read (I’dhad to go small and curve my letters around corners and what was alreadywritten there. I could see Kayla squinting slight and having to turn the letterthis way and that to read it properly, but her smile was warm and happy andtouched.

“Thankyou, baby,” she said happily, putting it down and leaning in to give me a deepkiss, “Your hand must have been cramped after writing all of that!”

Iflexed my right hand and said, “Yeah, well, that took me most of a shift towrite. I kept finding more and more things to add to it and at some point I hadto tell myself to stop or else I’d end up writing all over the back.”

“Ifyou actually get your book published, can’t wait to see how much moreyou end up putting on cards,” she chuckled as she stepped into her pants, “Ormaybe, at that point, you just skip the card and say all of that to mein a nice big monologue.”

“Idon’t think you want that. It would be super long and super rambling and I’llprobably end up repeating myself a half-dozen times at least. It would be aheadache.”

“Maybe,but it would be coming from you, so I think I’d be able to deal with it.”

Oncewe were dressed there wasn’t much else to do around the apartment but wait forit to be time to leave. She considered going back to studying but I made thereasoned argument that it was a holiday and she should be taking the day off. Idon’t know that it was a particularly intelligent argument, but she didn’t endup cracking open any of her books or opening her laptop for anything.

Thesun was out and so we got that nice, awful shine you get through the windowwhenever the light reflects off of the snow. The cats loved it; it gave themplenty of warm spots to curl up on and take a snooze. But for us two-leggers,it was a constant headache as it somehow perfectly hit our eyes no matter wherewe were in the apartment.

Itwas even worse as we headed out of the apartment, Kayla going so far as tothrow a hand over her eyes and groan, “Gee, summer came early.”

“Well,you can get just as bad of sunburn during the winter as during the summer, I’veread,” I replied, regretting that I still didn’t have sunglasses. I’d justnever felt the need for them; it’s one more thing you have to keep track of andthe couple of pairs I’d had over the years always seemed to shatter withdisturbing ease. There was nothing about their construction that led me tobelieve purchasing a more expensive pair wouldn’t end up being a massive wasteof money.

Seriously,why are sunglasses so damn expensive? I mean, if they’re prescriptionones, maybe I can see it, but why do we charge so damn much so people can seewhere they’re going.

Philosophicaland social questions that don’t necessarily need to be answered here. I don’tknow when any of you are reading this so it’s entirely possible that I’m deadand gone by the time you get to it. That’s a rather eerie thought; a writeralways imagines that their work is being accepted and loved in their own time.

Kaylacuddled up to my arm as I pulled us into the street, earning a surprised lookfrom me. “It’s Valentine’s Day and I wanted to cuddle up in the spirit of theday,” she replied cheerfully.

“Well,I like to think you’d wanna do this no matter what,” I chuckled, making no moveto draw my arm away from her.

“Iwould but it’s extra special today.” She pressed a kiss to my shoulder andsighed. “Can you imagine? This time next year, we should be in our own houseand if you’re taking me somewhere in Des Moines, it’ll be a lot closer.”

“Mhm.Gotta get the house first.” It was still too early to really look, though thedates we were seeing online were getting closer and closer to our idealtimeframe. We were still looking to rent, though we’d moved into discussions ofrent-to-own, however that ended up working for houses. Just something for us tothink about.

Shefell silent as she usually did whenever I brought up that fact. I know shehated the fact that we had to wait, that all of our future plans were set tosome distant date that never seemed to get any closer. The plus side of thatwas, of course, that it would eventually get here and we’d be pleasantlysurprised that we were suddenly getting what we wanted, but it’s hard to sellthat as a positive when it still ends with the assurance that, yes, you stillneed to wait.

Ireached over and took her hand. “You can start looking at artwork to put in thehouse?” I suggested. It wasn’t the first time but it was also something I couldsay that usually put her in a better mood.

“Yeah,I know. You’ve said that before. Just…can you make time go by faster? You’rewriting fantasy and everything; you’ve gotta know how to make time workand…Damn it, Jack, can you be magic? Please?”

“Iwish! I’d magic you up whatever you wanted. A castle, a finished degree,whatever you want.” Of course, it depended on what type of magic systemwe were using. Tip to those who want to get into fantasy writing: figure outhow you want magic to work in your world early. Seriously, it’s going to bothsimply things and give them depth in the best way possible. I’d explain furtherbut I’m not really an ‘authority’ on the whole thing. I can just give opinions.That’s it.

Shegroaned playfully and kissed my shoulder. “Well, I love you as you are, evenwithout the magic. But if you ever get some, just let me know.”

“Honestly,between the two of us, I think you’d be the one who got magic.”

“Why’sthat?”

“Idon’t know, I just always…You’ve always…” Now that I was actually talking, Ihad no idea how to phrase what I wanted to say. “I’ve always thought I was tooboring and grounded for everything. I think that you’re the one who—”

“Hangon, hang on, you’re the boring, grounded one?” she asked, looking likeshe was shaking with suppressed laughter, “You were a theater major, you’rewriting a fantasy book based off your fantasy nerd game, and you’ve alwayswanted to be a knight. Yeah, you’re the ‘realistic’ one.”

“Iwas trying to pay you a compliment!”

“Considerme complimented but, no, you’re not the one who gets to say that you’re‘boring’ or ‘ordinary’. Not saying I am either, but between the two of us? Yeah,I am, and I can live with that, okay?” She let go of my arm and looked at melevelly. “That’s actually…Honestly, that might be one of the worst insultsyou’ve ever gotten. And you gave it to yourself!”

“Who better to take it from? At least I have tokeep waking up with myself each morning so I have to get better.”

We arrived with a good ten minutes to spare,walking into a store that was decorated…Boy, how do I put this? It was like oneof those places you see in films where, because they want you to know theperson living there is eccentric, they cover their home with randomknick-knacks that all seem…randomly specific, if that makes any sense. Likethose people who keep random hourglasses around. Why? No idea! We all havephones and stopwatches now! But whenever you see someone with an hourglass onthe shelf, you just kind of accept it because, well, that’s what people havesometimes.

Anyway, this place was like that: it looked likethey raided every old-time and steampunk store they could think of in order tofestoon this place in the most ‘fun’ way possible. Don’t get me wrong, I likedit; honestly, if we had a spot in the basement of our future home we weren’tusing, I’d love to decorate it the same way. I had no idea what we’d call itother than The Corner or something like that.

Kayla had been designated our ‘artist’ for thehouse. She’d decide how things were meant to be set up, what pictures andposters went where, and how the furniture was to be arranged. I was glad tocede it to her; I would have been happy with just about anything. So long as Ihad at least one room for me and my ‘stuff’, I’d be content. I didn’t even knowwhat ‘stuff’ there would be, considering my possessions, that were entirelymine, still didn’t number many, but if Kayla was going to have her office forher studying and, eventually, her work, then I deserved to have a space of myown.

From the back area came a man dressed exactly likehow I imagined someone who worked here would dress: a long festooned overcoat,a monocle, a top hat, and a waxed moustache that I wasn’t entirely sure wasfake. If it was, it was one of the best I’d ever seen. He wore boots with morebuckles than they needed and had on a pair of gloves that left the tips of hisfingers bare.

“Welcome!” he said in the sort of boisterous,slightly-nasally accent I would have chosen for anycharacter required to wear such an ensemble, “Just waiting on the rest of yourgroup and then we can get the story started!”

“Right, right,” I said, wishing I dared to playalong. I knew that Kayla certainly wouldn’t mind and, Lord knows, I hadn’t hadan opportunity to flex my acting skills recently, but with other people showingup and with me just feeling…Well, I would have felt a little silly. Maybe if wecame again and I knew what to expect.

Three others arrived, a group of friends by thelooks of it, and we were led to the back area, adored with multiple mirrors,hats, and bits of costuming that looked fun but that I knew, based on thewarning out at the front desk, we were not allowed to touch. Which was a shame;I feel like an escape room would have been a lot more fun if we were allowed todress as goofily as we wanted. We’d just have to come in our own costumes nexttime.

The host of the games, whose name was James, waiteduntil we had all gathered before saying, “Welcome, everyone, to the Adventureof Jasmin’s Bayou. If you don’t know the legend, allow me to elucidate: ahundred years ago, Jasmin Johansson lived deep in the bayou in a house that wasas much a part of the marsh as everything around it. People came from all overfor her herbs and remedies. She lived a quiet, solitary life, though there werewhispers that, late at night, she communed with secret voices without bodies.

“One night, the locals heard the voices louder thanusual, saw odd lights in the air above the bayou and when they went toinvestigate in the morning, they found no sign of Madame Jasmin Johansson. Notof her body, in any event, but there were notes and clues all around the homethat suggest something otherworldly may have happened; the smartest noticedthat the signs and her notes tied together, but were unable to solve thepuzzle. Perhaps one of you will beable to solve it today? Let us find out!”

The voice then fell away as James then explainedthat we were allowed three ‘hints’; if we found ourselves completely stuck, wewere to press a button on the wall and he would enter and help us out as besthe could without giving us the answer. Kayla was shivering in excitement nextto me, looking far more excited about it than I would have originally thought.I’ll admit to being excited as well; I’d never done something like this but myparents took me to plenty of interactive places when I was younger to nurturemy growing desire for theatricality. This was stroking that particularnostalgia.

I won’t describe the whole game, if only because itwould take pages and I don’t remember every clueand, well, if you ever go to an escape room (highly recommended), it’s honestlybest if you go in somewhat blind. You’ll feel clever for figuring it out as yougo along, though I won’t deny that it got a little frustrating at times.

The other group was comprised of three friends, allabout ten years older than us, who appeared to be doing this just as a lark.None of them were in a relationship which, I guess, led them to figure that thiswould be the best day for an escape room, one of the least ‘Valentine’s Day’things there was. “But we don’t mind with you guys!” the eldest, a woman namedMargaret who looked to be in her early thirties, said placatingly, “You guysare cute!”

“Yeah, we know,” Kayla replied primly, holding up acouple of jars, “Now which one of these smells like honey?” It was part of thegame, I promise.

We had to use all three hints at various points—theroom was actually comprised of three smaller rooms that fit together through aseries of surprisingly complex puzzles—and we were down to our last minute butfinally we made it through the final door and back out to the hallway where ithad all started. I can admit that my heart was racing at the end of it,watching the clock get closer and closer to the end and my brain going intoovertime to solve the last few clues. I didn’t contribute as much as I wouldhave liked but I was just happy to be a part of it.

“That was amazing!” Kayla gushed as we walked out,almost skipping with happiness, “That was…wow! Okay, we gotta do that again! Wegotta go to more!”

“Well, they’ve got a couple other rooms in therethat we can try sometime,” I commented. I did feel a little bad that theexperience was sort of a one-off thing. I mean, maybe in a year or so we couldgo back, but kind of like a Where’s Waldo? book or any video game basedaround detective work, once you figured it out it cut most of the fun away.

“Definitely,” she said with a hard nod, “You caninvite Natalie if you want if she ends up getting a boyfriend or, you know,just has a couple of friends she wants to bring along.”

Or a girlfriend, Ithought in my head, though I kept that to myself. Not the time to be delvinginto semantics on it. “I’m glad you had a great time,” I said amusedly, holdingthe car door open for her as she all but danced in, “Jack did good?”

“Jack did great!” shesaid happily, leaning in to kiss me as she slid in the car, “I actually didn’tthink I’d like that as much as I did!”

It was everything I wanted to hear, of course; whenyou can please your significant other such that they’re talking about what you justdid without having to prompt them, you know you’re doing something right. So,yes, I was more than a little pleased with myself. I did good. What?Am I not allowed to wear such comments as a badge of pride? Am I supposed toget tired of themat some point? Fuck that noise.

Kayla continued to chatter as we drove towards therestaurant, a place called Cooper’s Hawk that I’d heard good things about andwas not particularly expensive nor particularly cheap. I mean, if you’re ableto have filet mignon on your menu, you’re working in the upper leagues. Or, atleast, you’re reaching for it. Kayla was so engrossed in talking about theescape room that she didn’t even ask where we were going; it was all about thepuzzles and which one she liked the most and how particularly clever she feltnow.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it too, but watchingher gush about it was…well, were I more of a jerk, I might imply that it wasn’tall thatamazing. There was no mileage to be gained from saying something like that. Andit had been my idea inthe first place, so I’d be doing no one any favors.

She finally looked up as we parked outside therestaurant. “Oh,” she said, blinking, “That’s right, we’re supposed to be goingto dinner too.”

“Yes, well, it seemed like you were all about excitementfirst so I wanted to give you the opportunity to talk about it,” I teased as Igot out and walked around to open her door for her.

“Hey, you did great, so I’m just giving you the praiseyou so clearly want.” She let me escort her to the front doors of the restaurant,allowed me to hold the doors open for her, and then name our reservation. She wasletting me continue to impress her. She’s amazing.

I’m not even being an asshole about it; I was happyto do things for her. Truth be told, even if I was the one with a job makingmore money than she had in her whole working career, I still felt inadequatenext to her. That’s not a slight on her or a commentary about who she was orhow she treated me; it’s just the way I felt. I was in awe of her and hergoodness and I could only hope, one day, to be anywhere near as amazing as shewas. Still, it gave me something to always strive towards, no matter where Iwas in life.

Kayla looked around as we were seated, letting outa low whistle. “Nice place,” she commented, then looked back at me quickly, “Actually,all of this is making me extra happy right now.”

“Because it’s a good Valentine’s Day restaurant?” Iguessed.

“No, because we should be moving down here in a fewmonths. Then we get to have all of this stuff close by! Remember that summerinternship thing I was doing a couple of summers ago?” We paused for a moment,reflecting on the other ways that summer had been difficult. “Well…” She clearedher throat and pressed on. “I’ve still got their contact information andthought that I could see about getting back to that over the summer. That way I’mhelping out with payments too.”

I was about to tell her that we would be fine, thatmy salary alone should be enough to take care of things, especially with themoney I’d be saving by being closer to work…but I didn’t. I just nodded andsaid, “That would be great! Same people still work there?”

“I think so but I’d have to reach out. Still alittle early but they’d have me in the system and, well, they should still belooking for people over the summer. Especially since I’ll have a year of actual vet schooldone.” She paused, looking at the menu for a moment before saying, “Not that I’llreally be able to work on anyof the animals, but I’ll still have my name out there.”

“Awesome! Although I don’t mind if you take alittle time off,” I said gently, smiling and reaching for her hand, “Just so wecan have some days together without me coming home and then you immediatelyhaving to go to work.”

“Yeah, I thought about that too,” she sighed, “ButI wouldn’t be working too far from home, hopefully, and I’d still get home tospend some time with you before you go to work. And we’d still have yourweekends.”

It was a little odd that they were called my weekends,but that’s what they were. I was so used to having Friday and Saturday be my ‘weekend’that to go back to ‘normal’ would have been…Well, since I was only working lateon Sunday, I guess it wouldn’t be too awful.But that’s one of the many things that I was mentally tossing down the road. Iknew I wouldn’t remain at Terraton Industries forever and that all of the nightshift were likely to move on at some point. I was comfortable there, on myschedule, with my team. But if Kayla needed to move or Anton got promoted to adifferent office or Natalie’s career as a streamer took off, those parts of thejob that I enjoyed would be chipped away.

Would I still enjoy this position even without allof that stuff? Probably, but it would be a shell of its former self. I’d be doingthe work without the perks that made it worthwhile.

Again, I go back to my dream of having an apartmentbuilding with all my friends and family where we all got to see each otherconstantly. Or, well, however much we wanted anyway. A fantasy, yes, but onethat I thought would make everyone happy. I’d betrying to make everyone happy.

“Any ideas what you want?” Kayla asked, glancing upat me.

“A good wine to start?” I suggested, turning themenu around to show her, “Got a good selection here.”

“Yeah? You gonna start becoming a wine snob?” She grinnedat me and I could only shake my head. It was true that I did want tobecome the sort of guy who knew when you needed a zinfandel and a merlot andhow to expect everything to taste, but I wasn’t at that point yet. As it was, Icould tell you the taste difference between a red and a white wine, but thatwas about it.

“Someday,” I replied humbly, “If we want, we canjust wait until the server shows up and see what they recommend.”

“Or we can get adventurous and just choosesomething for ourselves.” She giggled a little and continued: “Wine used to besomething my parents wouldchoose from. Now we get to do it! I could even order a cocktail if I wanted!”

“Do you want acocktail?” I asked pointedly. Mom and dad had let me try some of theirs overthe years and nothing about it had ever really appealed to me. I preferred myalcohol straight up, not mixed all together in some confusing combination of…God,it’s hard to describe. It never made my taste buds or my stomach happy.

“Nah, not now. Well…” I had to laugh as she flippedher mind again and watched as the gears turned in her head as she considered. “Youknow what? I think I’m gonna do it! I’ll try a cocktail tonight!”

“If that’s what you wish,” I say sweetly, “Goodthing I’m driving, huh?”

“Yes, exactly. Only one glassof wine for you, mister.” She scowled playfully at me before looking back downat her menu. “Thanks for making today special.”

“I know it wasn’t super, like, Valentine’sDay heavy or anything. I just thought you might enjoy something more out-of-the-ordinaryfor a date. I didn’t wanna take you someplace where they had a ton of pink orcupids or something like that.”

“God, thank you! I hate cupids!”She made a face and shuddered. “I’m good with this, Jack. We don’t always getto go out like this and I’m okay with that. But when we do, it feels extraspecial. So thank you for that.”

“You’re welcome,” I said cheerfully, “That’s two winsfor me today!”

She was going to reply but then our server cameover and asked for our drink order. I decided to get a glass of pinot (becauseit was the first thing my eyes lit on) while Kayla perused for a while beforedeciding on something called a lemon drop martini. “Excellent suggestion,” thewaiter replied, as though he was going to tell her she made the wrong choice.Still, if lemon was the base flavor, I could get behind it.

As the waiter walked away, Kayla preened slightly. “Ifeel so grown-up now,” she said chipperly.

“I can go ahead and describe a few things we’vedone in the bedroom that are more ‘grown-up’ than buying a cocktail,” Isnorted.

“Keep being a smartass and you won’t find anytonight,” she replied with a sweet smile, “Let me have this. I don’t care if it’slame; I just ordered a cocktail. Ithink that’s pretty cool.”

I was going to let her have this one; I couldn’tpretend to have a better example of anything. “As you say,” I replied with anod, smiling at her, “Anything else you wanna do today before we head backhome?”

“Eager to get me in the sack, huh?” she laughed,shaking her head, “Not that I’m complaining, but…No, I don’t think there’sanything else that I need.”

The way she said it had me frowning. That was areally odd emphasis. “Something on your mind there, baby?” I asked pointedly.

She bit her lip and rolled her eyes upwardimpishly. She reached into her purse—yeah, she was carrying a purse, somethingshe honestly didn’t do a whole lot—and pulled out a card. “You didn’t think Iforgot about a Valentine’s Day card for you, didyou?” she asked as she handed it over.

“Oh…Honestly, I didn’t even think about it,” I saidas I took it from her.

She pouted. “Really? You didn’t think I’d get you one?”

“No, no, it’s just that I didn’t think about yougetting me one. I was more just focused on you having a good time today, that’sall.”

“Then you really need to think about yourself alittle more, Jack,” she chided me, “Because if you get me a card and take meout for a nice day, then it’s not ‘equal’ when I blow your mind in the bedroom.It’s a nice perk, but that’s not all that I’m good for.” She poked at the edgeof the card. “Open it and read it.”

I did as she said, carefully slitting open theenvelope and pulling out…well, it wasn’t a card like you bought at the store.It was lined paper that she had filled a good amount on in her handwriting, allof it small enough to cram into the lines in such a way that I had to almostsquint to read it.

Dear Jack,

I’ve probably givenyou this at a different time just because I didn’t want to miss your reactionto this as you read it. I don’t like Valentine’s Day normally (you know that!)but having you willing to try and make it extra special for me makes it better.Because you make everything better, all the time!

I wish that I couldhave contributed more to today but I know how you get when you plan things so I’mgoing to let you go with whatever you want with the understanding that I getthe next holiday. Whatever it is. I don’t know which one yet, but I want toplan it out for us, okay? Please? You can tell me when you’re done reading ifyou’re okay with it but I hope you are.

Thank you for makingeverything with us so special. I know it’s not easy coming up with stuff to do butyou always try your best. I hope the escape room and dinner is good and if youhave something else up your sleeve for after, I hope that’s great as well! Honestly,it makes me the happiest woman in the world to know that my fiancé (still can’tbelieve I get to call you that) works so hard to make sure that I’m happy. Sometimesyou work too hard and I know you know that but I can’t complain too much.

You’ve given me somany great years already and I can’t wait for so many more to come. It’s weirdthat it feels like so much time has passed and somehow nowhere near as much asI think. You once said that I was just a ‘fact’ of your life and I think thatabout sums it up. You’re a fact of my life too and the best fact there is. Ihope that you always know that and I’m sorry if it ever seems like I don’t letyou know that.

So this is a lot ofwords to tell you that I love you more than anything in the world and I alwayswill. I can’t wait to marry you and move into a house and start a family andeverything else! Happy Valentine’s Day my sweet Jack.

I love you with allof my heart.

Kayla

I looked up from the note, swallowing hard aroundthe lump in my throat. Kayla had a very pleased expression on her face, thoughher eyes were soft and tender. I reached out and squeezed her hand, not knowingwhat to say but after a letter like that, I think words were allowed to take ashort break.