Fiona managed to get through the second day of renovation work by trying not to focus on the morning–she still needed to process just what had happened. At least with the renovation work, the place was shaping up nicely. But they needed one more day of work to put the polishing touches on the building.

  Bonnie kept looking up from the work, as if she had something to ask. She knows something is up. I am so out of sorts right now.

  She cursed her silliness. She’d been here for six months and not thought of questioning the whole ‘class’ thing as more than just a quirk of culture for jobs or careers. It was literally wearing your passions on your sleeve!

  Her soul on her sleeve!

  Almost in response, her wrist tingled. She rolled back her sleeve as a few raindrops came down. If anything, the jeweled heart was even more visible, and the wings…fluttered on her skin. She flicked her wrist gently, and it remained still. Uh, are you alive or something?

  It almost reminded her of living tattoos she'd seen in movies. If her mark had anything to say, she didn’t hear it.

  I have no idea what this means, but Bonnie and Greg are going to be pissed off that I didn’t tell them about this. I’m gonna tell them soon, I have to. She didn’t want to bring it up yet. The store was the priority, and if Clarke was keen on keeping his job, this was a slow-burn crisis, rather than an immediate one. Okay winged heart, what do I do?

  The answer didn’t come in words, but she felt a flutter in her own heart, for a second. “Hey, Bonnie, let’s go head to Darla’s café on the way home, and grab a drink. Sound good?”

  “Yeah, sure thing!”

  Rain-laden clouds had been drifting southward across the lake all day—by the time they wrapped up, droplets were coming down in a steady, soaking drizzle. Bonnie kept giving her wayward glances as they walked back. “Fiona, you’ve been super quiet today. What’s going on?”

  “Oh, I dunno. It’s just…the class thing, I guess. I mean, everyone changes careers, right?” Her vulpine friend was now holding her wand aloft, a faint shimmering barrier dripping the rain away from them both—though, a few wind-swept drops did spatter them, on occasion. “

  “Is this related to—” Bonnie glanced her way, ears canted at an angle. “Well, you know, our esteemed royal extortionist?”

  “Yes—no—it’s hard to explain.” She brushed her damp hair out of her face. Unprecedented days with a lot of bad stuff needed to end on a positive note. If coffee–or Darla–weren’t the fixes for that malady, she didn’t know what was. “You know something? I could go for something nice and mellow. Darla’s coffee is the best around.”

  Bonnie nodded, but, she could see the way she looked at her, she was worried for her. Fiona pushed the door to the café open and heard a jingle of a familiar and welcoming little silver bell. She was immediately comforted by the scent of roasted beans, and better yet, grill-roasted sandwiches filling the quaint place. “Darla, seating for two! Or, three, if you’re not busy,” she added with a sly smile.

  “You two look like you’ve been busy. Bon-Bon, I presume you guys have been industrious the past few days?” she asked, her tail slinking back and forth as she handed a wax paper-wrapped meal to an eager feline couple, practically purring as they headed out into the rain. The black and yellow spotted teen holding an umbrella for his shorter female friend, and she leaned against him affectionately as they walked down the walkway.

  “Very. The repairs and renovations are still underway,” Bonnie replied and shook the water off where her fur was damp. “I’ll take a Valtirian Classic, please! And a hot coffee, cream, and sugar!”

  “Ooh, one of my favorites,” Darla purred, golden eyes glancing at Fiona. “What’ll you have darling?”

  “You know what? I could go for the same!” Bonnie always seemed to sniff out the best meals in every restaurant, though she always liked meals with poultry and fish.

  Darla wasted no time and got their hot drinks ready. It felt like welcome relief after the unexpectedly chilly rains had struck the city, and Fiona sipped deeply of those rich coffee notes. She let out a sigh of delight. “Oh, this is much better. Thanks for coming, Bonnie.”

  “Ah, I love hanging with my favorite rosy-colored sister from another mother,” she jested, having taken her witch hat off and shrunk it down to fit in her purse. “What a way to break the warm streak. Usually, the rain holds off till later in the fall, when the winds change. Must be early this year.”

  “Wouldn’t know. It’s my first year here.” Fiona took another sip, looking at the rain-streaked window. A few people were walking around in umbrellas, but the streets had mostly cleared out. They chatted for a few minutes about the city, and how Fiefdala was a little bit cooler than the surrounding area, leading to delightful summers, and frosty winters. Usually there was a large amount of snow, partially driven by the sheer size of the lake. It reminded her of the lake effect snow from New York state, by the Great Lakes—though Galahein Lake wasn’t quite as big.

  Darla brought their meals out—and a small one for her. The café was empty except for the three of them, for the moment. Fiona dug into her sandwich—of roasted ham, a salty cheese she didn’t quite have an analog for, and the tomatillos that were like tomatoes back on earth, but slightly spicy, and just a tiny hint of salt to them.

  Ultimately, she finished her meal, and Bonnie glanced at her, leaning in. Darla had also taken up a seat, since it was quiet in the cafe. “Fiona, how did your trip to the office to get your merchant class go today? You didn’t say much about it.”

  “It went…uh…okay.” She silently cursed on the inside, it went anything but okay, and her smooth talk was faltering for the first time in forever. Bonnie raised one ear for emphasis.

  “You know, people usually show more enthusiasm when they get a class. I mean it’s a big deal!”

  “Yeah. Yeah, I guess it is. So, in another day or two, the renovations will be done, and then we’ll have our grand opening!” Fiona declared, trying to sound cheerier. “I guess, the class thing, I…I wasn’t prepared for it.” She glanced down at her drink, thinking of how to bring this up. But, maybe she could ask a few casual questions. “Darla, I’ve been around for a few months, I don’t think I’ve met another, um, well…”

  “Darkling?” she finished. Fiona nodded quietly. “You can ask, it’s alright. I remember earlier in the week, that you said you were summoned. I was, too. Though, not across the entire cosmos. I was summoned from the underworld by some upstart mage who had a grandiose plan to bring home a girlfriend.”

  Fiona tried not to laugh at that and bit her lip hard. “Guessing it didn’t go his way?” Fiona dared to ask. Darla shook her head, those golden orbs lit up a bit more brightly.

  “Nah. I’m not that kind of girl. We darklings are quite open about who we care about, regardless of gender, and he wasn’t my type. He changed his tune after I beat him with the broadside of his summoning spell book. I also might have threatened him in an endearing way that his manhood would become a purse ornament.”

  “Creative, and disturbing,” Bonnie laughed.

  Fiona snerked at this. “Darling, that would have probably been a tad too much. So, when you got summoned, were you…well, still the same?”

  “I mean, yeah? I was still me; I had what I was wearing and holding at the time. Why? Was yours different?” she inquired as she drummed her finger on the table. Fiona noted that as sharp as her claws were, they were well-maintained. She’d even given them a splash of purple nail polish, too—with little painted hearts! The purple matched her skin color nicely.

  “Well, I got brought here, and I didn’t have long ears, let’s just say.” She rubbed at one conscientiously. “Darla, dumb question. All the summonses have a class, right? Even you?”

  “Yeah, everyone does. However I hear some funny stuff happens with people brought from faraway worlds and they get some random class if they’re of age. Funny, my Destined Class was supposed to be ‘artist’, but I chose to become a chef. Though, as you might have figured out, those classes can be quite broadly termed,” she explained. “My dad loved to cook. I mean, everyone has to eat, right? People need to be part of that service.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I love food,” Fiona declared with a passionate voice. “Food is awesome! And snacks.”

  “I can’t keep any hidden away from you, snack thief,” Bonnie teased, jabbing her softly with an elbow. “This one time at the guild? Fiona managed to stow away all the snacks at some little get-together, and I don’t even know how she did it! Especially the buttered crawdads from the lake. They are a delicacy!”

  “Oh, they are,” she offered with an impish grin. “A-anyway, you were saying?” she motioned for Darla to continue, whose tail was wagging back and forth gently. She wondered if she could read Darla’s mood, based on that.

  Darla continued without missing a beat. “Well, my dad was a chef, he used to work for some big-wig demon lord. Which is just a title down there for a mayor or a governor of a province of Underlune, and not, say, a title for a guy with mad visions of power,” she added with a smirk. “My dad worked for this chill demon lord who ran his chunk of the underworld like a normal city, so people could pursue their dreams.”

  Darla hunkered down, fingers interlaced between her hands, looking dreamy. “I love my dad to pieces. He is so good at what he does, he makes food an art, and I can’t think of a time when people didn’t leave his little kitchen without a smile on their faces. So, I followed him in his footsteps. The blood had barely dried on the contract when it was taken, and the Administrator guy was shocked. Then, I saw that little message about my destined class on the scroll about being an artist. Lost forever,” she sighed with an eye roll. “But I am an artist of a different sort–with coffee delights,” she added with a soft laugh.

  “Now, there’s a positive attitude! Maybe it was meant to be, but just not in the way you thought!” Fiona proposed with a gentle pat on her forearm. Darla blushed, with a hint of purple on her face, but she also didn’t shy away. “But you were also pulled away from home. Could you get back?”

  “To the underworld? Ah, that’s easy, I could go find a big enough cave, and I could meander my way down, no problem. Most of the demon kingdoms don’t have issues with the surface, and some have teleports back and forth to the surface. I have headed home a few times to see Mom and Dad, but after I got to the surface…I took a liking to it,” she added with a content sound of delight. "They're still afraid the sky will eat me. Superstition, indeed."

  “I might eat you,” Bonnie added with a lick of her lips, followed by a burst of laughter from all of them. “I can’t believe I never asked you this! I’ve been coming here…oh I dunno, two years?”

  “I remember you were wrapping up with your mage classes when you first showed up, always came here with your notebook at the beginning, working on making your hat doing magical tricks,” Darla purred. She pointed out the window, where the drizzle had set in. “So, as you can imagine, it doesn’t rain a lot in Underlune. I know a lot of people hate the rain, on the surface. Me? I like to fall asleep to the sound of the rain, running down the window in my apartment.

  “Man, that’s me, too,” Fiona confessed. “A good steady rain, late at night, I could fall asleep to the sound in a wink.”

  “That’s the only thing, though.” Darla tapped the glass gently. “The usual crowd trickles in for a warm drink when the autumn rains come in. They get all cozy, quiet, calm, and it’s this most therapeutic thing. It’s different than down there. Not bad, not good, because heaven knows, the surface has its slew of problems. Greedy dragons included,” she laughed with a tousle of Fiona’s hair, and she protested playfully at this breach of space.

  “Oh, you sassy barista, you!” she accused playfully, and felt a little better, now. “At least you can go home, I mean, it’s an option. Dunno about getting back to Earth, though.”

  “It’s a little tougher to sling people back to faraway worlds,” Bonnie replied, furrowing her brow. “The teleportation would need all the setup on the other side, it’s kind of one way. It’s like that game with leather gloves, a white ball, and that club you swing. You need to ‘catch’ someone on the receiving side. Failure to do so could be, um, messy.” She scrunched her face at this mention. “I’m glad you came out here in one piece, though!”

  “Yeah, me too. I honestly believe that even if I could go back…it would be a struggle to go back, when I’ve started building something here.”

  Why am I avoiding this? Just tell them, Fiona. Just tell them what happened back there. She wanted to, and she trusted Bonnie at a minimum, and Darla was a ray of sunshine. But, telling them this…she didn’t want to relive those moments. The last ones on Earth.

  She’d been burying them away for six months, successfully. Then everything got turned on its head, in the span of a few days. Bonnie gave her a quizzical look—had she intuited something? She changed the topic quickly. “Look, sorry if I sound dumb, but, what's your class magic like? Or skills?”

  Darla twirled her hair for a second with one finger. “Hmm. No two people wear their class the same. For me, it enhances my senses of taste, smell, and touch. I can put together recipes like no tomorrow, not just coffee or sandwiches, and I cook like a demon–ah, what a pun,” she added with a deep laugh. “I also have a few other tricks I can pull. My ‘pocket kitchen’ I call it.”

  “Demon sounds like…a not cool word, now that I think about it,” Fiona sighed. “Darkling sounds romanticized. I like it! So, you never had any plans to be in any other class?”

  Darla shook her head but still maintained a proud smile. “I like what I can do, it’s all I ever wanted. I have all the skills I need from my dad. I didn’t need a class for those, but it enhanced what I already did. I don’t need to be an artist in title to make something people give great thought toward. You know?” she added with a shy smile. “So, if you don’t mind me asking? Is this related to today?”

  “Maybe. I don't know, it’s just one of those days, where you give a lot of thought to something you gave almost no thought to, before. And you just sit there and give it a good, long thinking. I used to have days like that. In the shop, I ran. Sometimes, if customers were lacking, I’d grab a book and read. It would help me clear my thoughts.” Fiona took another sip, and Darla nodded thoughtfully.

  “What kind of books?” Bonnie asked, ears perked in curiosity. “I’ve seen you grab a book a time or two, but…”

  “Fantasy novels. We had darklings–but they called them different things, and they looked different. We had dragons, too. But the dragons were still mean on Earth. Or at least they were in the books. We didn’t have real ones. Funny how the universe works, huh?” she commented with a sly nudge. “It has been a bit of an adjustment. Anyway, I’ve been talking off your guys' ears–”

  “Nah, you’re fine,” Darla replied warmly, and pointed to the rain. “I know some people hate rainy days, but days like this bring me peace. It's strange to say that, but that…what’s the word? That white noise, ambiance, that dimmer color palette? Sometimes, you need a little dimming, to appreciate the rest of the bright, bold colors of life. Or, fiery-haired elves and kitsunes that saunter into my shop, looking like they’re woefully lacking on a companion for the evening,” She teased, and a few sharp teeth edged out.

  “We do match, don’t we?” Bonnie chuckled. “Me, I wish I could appreciate the rain. I mean, I get wet, it’s not fun.”

  “Heh. I saw Bonnie take a swim one time, then when she got out, she did her witchy thing, and poof. She looked like a bottlebrush!” Fiona giggled. Bonnie growled playfully beside her.

  “You threw me in the lake!”

  “Because you have never experienced the joy of competitive swimming with me if I hadn’t,” Fiona responded, pointing a thumb at her chest. Bonnie canted her head, a gleam in her eye.

  “I’m still faster. Bet ya didn’t count on that one.”

  “You have a tail! How am I supposed to beat that?”

  “Get good?” Bonnie retorted with a toothy smile.

  “Sheesh, you two are an iconic duo, you know that?” Darla commented before she leaned back, and watched the rain coming down. Fiona followed her gaze, she could see down the end of the road, a hint of the lake beyond the buildings, where they were on a low hill.

  “Hey, guys, quick question. What happens if someone writes in their destined class? Without knowing it, beforehand?” It was a question that Fiona had no idea how to answer.

  Darla straightened up and looked surprised. “You know something? I have no idea. I know that people have talked of destiny and being chosen by the walking gods of the world, but, you know, I didn’t see too many of them below!” she laughed. “Maybe they didn't like the sharp rocks, or that their feet were getting burnt if they didn't watch their step! One trick I love is putting my hand on the grill–scares the rookies every time,” she chuckled with an evil grin and flexed her fingers lightly.

  “So, you have no idea, either,” Fiona concluded. “Bonnie?”

  But Bonnie was peering at Fiona, with a look of concern, before shaking her head. “From all my learnings? I don’t know. The odds of writing your destined class at random, seem pretty slim. Wish I could say I had more than speculation on this one, sorry.”

  “If you’d known you’d be an artist, would you have stuck with it?” Fiona asked Darla.

  “I think you had it right. I didn’t pick the class, but I live the class. I like doing what I do, what my dad is so good at, making sure customers leave with a smile. Well, most of them. Even Jarl can be tested to have a slight smile,” she purred. “Putting a smile on that guy’s face is tough work, Fi. You make it look easy. Being an artist is this ability to express, to make people feel something.”

  “Making Jarl feel all sappy? Yeah, he’s a big softie. You just need to have the right kind of smile. I mean yours are shark teeth, but in that deadly cute way."

  “Hah! No one’s ever called me shark tooth! You know what, don’t let that one spread, people will start calling me that. The nickname will never go away,” she said while trying to get her composure back, and Fiona lost hers for a few seconds, too. “Sheesh, Fiona, I need more gals like you in my life.”

  But, it was Bonnie who changed the tempo, looking concerned. She’d been giving her a look of puzzlement the entire time, now and then. As if she’d been trying to figure something out. And now, she had her theory. “Fiona, maybe this isn’t the right time to bring it up, but…something has you worried. Like, worried, worried. Something shook you up today. In the six months I’ve known you? This may be the most reserved I’ve seen you. You’ve been asking strange questions, too.”

  Darla perked up, too. “Fiona, look, I get that it might be weird to be summoned, but, it’s not unprecedented. It just might not always be convenient.”

  She let out a quiet breath. “Look, um…I know this sounds weird, but…can you guys meet me at my apartment tonight? After you close Darla?”

  She nodded solemnly. “One of those kinds of days, huh?”

  “Yeah. Bonnie, at eight tonight?”

  “I’ll be there, Fi.” Her friend nodded and put a hand on hers gently. “I don’t know what has you shaken up beyond Barry, but—you don’t have to hesitate to tell us, alright?”

  “Alright. I’ll see you guys then.”

  (Magius acquires the Merchant Class to make the sale...)

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