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Diana reached across the table and grabbed hold of both of Saskia’s hands. Saskia would have yanked them away if Evie had not reached over instinctively as if she was going to do the very same thing. Storm gave Evie a single glance that clearly told her that she had better control herself. Evie looked mutinous. Her hands slid beneath the table, where storm was sure that they were clenched into fists. Looking smug, Saskia let Diana keep hold of her hands.
Diana closed her eyes and hummed to herself mystically as if she was trying to read Saskia’s future. “You are going to decide that finishing your education is a bunch of nonsense, and you would be better off without it. You’re going to run aw
ay to Las Vegas to drown your sorrows in alcohol and gambling and magical narcotics. You’re going to meet a dark and handsome man who will carry you away in a tide of wonderful romance. You will fall madly in love, and think that you’ve found the reason for life itself. And then one day you’ll find out that this dark and handsome man is a mage who has bewitched you, like he has bewitched numerous other young woman, and now he’s done with you because actually you’re really boring and you have no idea what you want from life, and he’s tired of you being a leech.”
Diana pulled her hands away from the Saskia. “Sorry buddy. It’s not looking good for you. But I guess it could have been worse. He could have been a bloodthirsty vampire instead of a lecherous mage. You might be in your mid-thirties by then, but I’m sure you’ll manage to pick yourself up and try to make something decent of your life.”
Saskia was looking horrified. “That’s not going to happen to me!”
Diana laughed. “Maybe it will. Maybe it won’t. How do you know?”
Saskia looked towards Storm accusingly. “Storm told you he wants me to go back to university and finish my last year, hasn’t he? Well I won’t let you fool me into doing what he wants. It’s my life and I’m going to do what I want!”
Diana considered Saskia for a few moments and then she said, “Do you know Princess Caroline?”
“How am I supposed to know a princess?” said Saskia.
“Unfortunately I do know her,” said Diana. “A couple of months ago I was on a case at the Otherworld Embassy here in London, and Princess Caroline and Xander Daxx were there with the ambassador, and in front of everyone Princess Caroline decided to be a git and embarrass me about not having any education at all, because she knew that I’d never been to university. I hated her for it. And I knew that she was wrong because I didn't need to go to university to get by in life.”
“No way!” said Jenny. “You know Princess Caroline and Xander Daxx? That is so cool.”
Even Saskia looked impressed. Diana looked slightly confused. She had opened her mouth as if she had been about to tell Saskia that Storm knew Princess Caroline and Xander Daxx too. She gave him the briefest of glances. And then she shut her mouth again. Clearly she had realized that telling Saskia another thing that she didn’t know about her supposedly secretive older brother was not going to make Saskia happy. Storm was relieved.
“Anyway,” said Diana, “I didn’t give a crap about what Princess Caroline thought about me just because I hadn’t been lucky enough in life to have the kind of family that had encouraged me to have a higher education. But then afterwards I thought about it, and you know what I realized? Sometimes the most frustrating thing in my life is that I don’t even know what I don’t know. And I didn’t even know that I didn’t know about it, until I read on the internet about this thing called unconscious incompetence. And I realized that I am incompetent at a lot of things, and I’m totally unconscious about my incompetence. I haven’t got a clue!”
“Yeah, whatever,” said Sakia, not looking impressed.
Diana returned Saskia’s unimpressed look. “It’s not like it’s the worst thing in my life. Most the time I don’t even think about it. Then sometimes something happens and it makes me realize that nearly everyone else has a framework for life by which they can measure their experiences and make their decisions and get through the hard times, and I have a big fat nothing. If I make a decision, there’s a bigger risk that I’m going to make a totally stupid choice. And it’s because nobody ever taught me how to do things. I don’t have a wealth of other people’s experience and support and knowledge to draw upon. And here you are just throwing it away. Is that really what you want for yourself? Do you want to stumble through life not knowing how to do anything or how to make the right decisions and not understanding the context in which other people live? It’s not like you’re a psychic like me and you can just wing it.”
Storm felt a bit stunned. Diana had never said anything like this to him, and it surprised him that she thought about this kind of stuff. It was like she was admitting to an insecurity without actually admitting to an insecurity. And something in what she had said had clearly struck a nerve with Saskia.
“Yeah, I kind of see what you mean,” Saskia mumbled, looking like she was still trying to wrap her head around the entirety of what Diana had been trying to communicate.
“Awesome,” said Diana cheerily. “While you’re thinking sense, you can promise to me that you’re going to finish your last year of university. I’m not going to take no for an answer. Don’t even hesitate. Just make the promise and follow-through, and then you can have a whole bunch of fun doing it.”
Saskia rolled her eyes. “Yeah, fine, whatever. I’ll do it.”
“Whaaaat?” said Diana in mock astonishment. She cupped her hand against her ear and angled it towards Saskia. “Say that again! Was that a promise I heard?”
Saskia made a face, and mumbled, “Maybe.”
Diana high-fived Jenny. “Problem sorted!” she cried in glee. “That wasn’t so hard. You grown-up types are always making mountains out of mole hills. Psssht. I don’t know why we young folk bother with you.”
Saksia and Jenny giggled. Diana proceeded to chat with them, leaving Evaine and Storm to each other’s company. Which was not ideal. But neither of them cared, because both of them were still gob-smacked at what Diana had managed to achieve. Storm could not wrap his head around how she had just made his little sister promise to do something that stubborn Saskia had insisted that she was not going to do. And now, to hear Saskia speak, it seemed like her previous stance was already an ancient memory.
Evie and Storm resorted to making small talk. Storm knew that both of them had other things on their mind that they wanted to say to each other, but now that the Saskia problem was resolved, neither of them wanted to start another argument in the present company. And boy was Storm glad of the present company. He was more than ready to get out of here.
Fortunately at 8:00 pm on the dot, just as Saskia was ordering a spherical chocolate cake confection for dessert, Diana grab Storm’s hand and hauled him up from his seat as eagerly as if she was a puppy.
“We must leave,” she announced. “Duty calls!”
“Already?” said Saskia, looking disappointed.
Diana blew Saskia and Jenny as kiss. “Toodle pip!” she said, as she dragged Storm away.
Once outside the restaurant, Storm reclaimed his hand for himself. He knew Diana had manhandled him so insistently to annoy Evie and it amused him to let her do it, but it would just have been supremely awkward to keep holding her hand outside of the restaurant.
“So are you going to tell me what this plan is to catch the killer or not?” he said.
