Page 80 of Inkpot Gods

“This is … The way you people talk about dying, it’s…”

“It’s what the alchemists have been working toward this whole time. And the light shall guide us home,” says Erin. “Isn’t this what you wanted? Isn’t this why you came to Berkeley? Because you wanted to hold the reins of creation in your hands and see where the ride would take you?”

“You make alchemy sound like magic.”

“I guess I do.” Erin looks at her levelly. “There have been a lot of words for the sort of things alchemy can do, across the centuries. Some places called it magic. But you know what other places called it?”

“No, what?”

“Miracles.”

The kitchen seems to be where these people conduct most of their important business, maybe because the living room has been so conclusively claimed by video-gaming teens, or maybe just because half this household doesn’t seem capable of surviving more than a few minutes without a cup of coffee in their hands. Kelpie and Artemis are there already when Erin and Lilianne arrive, both at the table, although it’s clear that they’ve moved since the last time Lilianne saw them; for one thing, they’re not as crammed together. For another, they both have drinks now, and Artemis has her bow resting on the table next to her coffee.

It shouldn’t exist. Even the bright orange woman beside her is not as much of an offense to the laws of nature. The bow is translucent where the light hits it, sparkling silver-white, like moonlight that’s been forced into a material form and turned solid. The sunlight should be enough to dispel a weapon made of moonlight, and Lilianne can’t stop herself from staring.

Artemis sees where her attention is focused and smirks. “I’m the first Artemis in more than a century who’s had her hind by her side,” she says. “She runs the skies ahead of me, she gives me something to chase and be restored by, and her presence makes me stronger. I can pull my bow in the daylight when I need to.”

“Or when you’re trying to show off for some random alchemist,” says Kelpie. “She wasn’t part of the team that made me. Stop working so hard to scare her.”

“I don’t want to scare her. I just want her to understand that I could kill her without breaking a sweat if I needed to, and be respectful.”

“Oh, is that what you’re trying to achieve?” Kelpie sighs heavily and waves to Lilianne. “Hi. They tell me you’re coming down with us to finish checking out the lab. I appreciate it.”

“I didn’t think I really had a choice in the matter,” says Lilianne.

“Not if you ever want to see Smita again,” says Erin.

Roger and Judy step back into the kitchen from the hall. Judy’s hair is rumpled, and Roger’s glasses are smudged, something he ignores as he makes a beeline for the coffee machine. “I wouldn’t order you to stay away if you decided not to come with us,” he says. “But I would strongly discourage you from coming around without a really good reason. We don’t trust alchemists quickly here.”

“I get that,” says Lilianne. “I guess … I never thought all that much about what happens to cuckoos after their researchers move on.”

“We set up communal housing situations in Berkeley,” says Roger.

“Speak for yourself,” says Artemis. “Some of us refuse to move in with the rest of the circus.”

“Still your monkeys,” says Judy.

“Only because you’re hanging around here all the time, and I don’t care enough about doing my job to help train up another senior Lunar I can actually tolerate,” says Artemis. “You’re the best available by default.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Hey, no point in best behavior if the alchemist is thinking about sticking around,” says Artemis. “May as well let her see us as we really are right from the jump, right?”

“Right,” says Erin.

Smita, coming in the back door, asks, “Who’s right about what?”

“It’s nothing important,” says Erin.

“I’ll decide what is and isn’t important, thank you,” says Smita. She flashes a smile at Lilianne, and two things are immediately clear.

First, that she’s still the most beautiful woman Lilianne has ever seen. All the chaos and complications have done absolutely nothing to change that. If anything, the fact that she can stand up in the face of all this alchemical nonsense has only made her lovelier.

Second, that this is the only place Lilianne wants to be. It’s not just that Smita is beautiful, a fact so obvious and glaring that it feels almost strange to keep circling back to it, like dwelling on the self-evident is somehow a failing. It’s also that Smita is stubborn enough to push past incarnates and embodied forces that were never meant to exist. She’s fearless and determined, and it’s impossible not to be drawn to that, like Smita has become the true magnetic north to which Lilianne must answer.

There are worse things in this world.

“David’s nearly here,” says Judy. “He’s down to babysit as long as there’s pizza and we bring him back a burger or something when we finish exploring the creepy-ass underground laboratory. I told him he was getting paid and that should be enough for him, and he asked if I wanted to trade and stay here while he wandered into unknowable dangers. Honestly, I’d take that trade if my stupid boyfriend weren’t going with you lot.”