Thorn came down and, after getting her own coffee, joined her at the table. “Morning, fire cloud.”
At first the chanziian term of endearment sounded weird, but now it tickled her. “Morning, my lovely sunshine.”
Thorn sat and took her first sip. “Waking up with you is much nicer when you’re there to wake up with.”
Viera's smile faltered. “Yeah, my parents called. Mother wanted to start setting me up on dates again now that school is out. I told her to stop.” Once she’d sipped her coffee, she put the mug down. “I told my parents I didn’t need them to set me up with any more men …” A small growl escaped Thorn, before she could respond, Viera continued. “I told them I could find women to date on my own. I even said I had someone in my life. They said they wanted us to visit.”
A satisfied smile stretched across Thorn’s face. “Well, maybe we can make that happen. Not this weekend—we’re pretty busy with the trip coming up—but maybe once we’re back. Ha! Meeting the parents.” Thorn shook her head. “So, what are your plans for today?”
Leaning back, Viera sighed. “I’m going to drive over to Betsy’s office and figure out what I’ve gotten myself into. I know my new job won’t officially start until July, but I’d like to check in and see some of what she does—bridging the Earth governments and alien,” Viera waved her hands around, “insanity.”
With a chuckle, Thorn leaned over to gently kiss Viera. “I think you handle us aliens rather well.”
***
Betsy worked downtown. Madison wasn’t a huge city, but this area had been built on an isthmus between two lakes. The streets were a maze of one-way and two-way streets that often confused visitors. There were bikers and buses with their own lanes on some streets and sharing lanes with cars on others.
The heart of the city shared most of downtown with the flagship university of the state, the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Though the regular school year was out, there were still students out and about year-round.
Viera loved the general chaos of the city, though part of her missed living in a warmer climate. Madison suited her, but she wondered, once the chanzii were gone, with Betsy living in the area, if she’d have to relocate. I really don’t want to … but I could. I didn’t grow up here.
Most of the street parking was metered, so, when confronted with the speedsters, and darting college students, Viera decided to navigate to a parking ramp.
The capital of the city sat in the center of the isthmus with roads leaving it in eight directions. There were two concentric circles of one-way streets that circumnavigated the capital that went in opposite directions. If Viera didn’t know better, she’d think it was set up by the wizards as a focal point for some magical rites. One of the diagonal streets, State Street, angled from the capital towards campus. Traffic laws forbade cars to drive on it; only bikes, buses, and cabs were allowed. Betsy’s office was above one of the shops on State Street.
After she’d parked, Viera walked the few blocks to the shop, then used the new code Betsy had given her for access to the second floor. There was a card she needed to use to get through a second security door and enter the offices.
Viera took a deep breath and wiped her hands on her pants. Nerves played within her like kids on a playground. Am I really ready for this? Am I qualified? Is suddenly having magic enough to do this new job? She thought back on the commute and what it took to get to the office. God above, why didn’t I just teleport? It would’ve been faster and easier than all this!
There was a bright hallway with two doors on the street side and another door set into the interior wall of the building. Windows around the door looked into a conference room. The end of the hallway turned to the right. Viera assumed there were more doors, but she’d get the tour later, or she’d poke around on her own. She recalled Betsy’s directions.
‘Once you get to the office, knock on the second door on the left. You could just come in, but if I’m really busy, I may accidentally blast you.’ Betsy laughed at her own joke, and they quickly ended their call.
Smirking at the memory, Viera knocked. She loved Betsy’s sense of humor … at least she thought her friend had been joking.
“Come in, Viera. You’re late.” Betsy’s voice was curt, but she ruined any harshness by chuckling at the end.
Okay, this is it. I can do it. Betsy has confidence in me … I should, too.
She plastered a smile on and opened the door. “How can I be late? We didn’t set a time.”
“You’re a teacher. I thought you’d be here by seven-fifteen, or some crazy time like that.”
The office was large, but you couldn’t tell with all the filing cabinets Viera could almost hear groaning under the weight of everything they held. The windows that faced the street were blocked by bins filled with papers in disarray. Her friend’s desk had more stacks surrounding her laptop and large monitor. There were two chairs on the door side of the desk, but only one was cleared off. The avocado green seat and metal arms reminded Viera of images of offices from the fifties.
“You and Mother both. I’m no longer a teacher, and eight-thirty is early enough.” She sat in the chair and was pleasantly surprised at how sturdy it was.
“You spoke with your mother this morning?” One of her brows rose, asking for more details.
“And Father. They know I’m dating a woman and hopefully will stop trying to set me up.”
Betsy whooped. “About time.”
“Okay, can we focus?” Viera felt her face warm. “What have I gotten myself into?”
“One sec.” Betsy started typing on her computer. Then she adjusted the monitor so Viera could see it. There was a small camera sitting on the top of the screen. She saw five boxes appear. She recognized the other Pillars of Earth—the magic wielders, the wizards.
Marco took up the upper left corner, his boyish face all smiles. Behind him, he’d set a scene of a tropical beach. Or is he on a tropical beach? Anything is possible with these people. Next to his image, Ania’s older face beamed at her. Knowing how the Pillars aged, Viera couldn’t fathom what it took to cause one of them to get laugh lines around their eyes and to start to gray. She finally met the Australian woman a couple of weeks ago. Her fiery red curls bounced near her shoulders and her pale green eyes shone.
On the bottom row, Zuza sat in his office in London amongst his books. His crystal blue eyes, a contrast from all the wood and leather tomes. Finally, Kafi sat back in the last box. Like Marco, his younger face belying his aged wisdom.
“Okay, everyone,” Betsy said, her mouth twitching to hold back a smile. “Viera is finally here to learn about what we do.”
Yep, totally ready. That’s me. Do I need to take notes? She looked at the piles of paper and decided any notes would be lost in the crazy that was this office. She could always ask Betsy if need be.
Ania’s smile widened. “You do know it’s the middle of the night here, don’t you? I should be in bed right now, like a good old lady.”
Marco snorted. “As if, Ania. You’re probably just starting your day right now, midnight or not!”
The older woman laughed. “Okay, fine. Well, think of poor Kafi, he’s probably only just woke!”
Zuza shook his head. “Enough. Poor girl needs to learn what we do.”
Leaning forward, Kafi’s warm voice flowed over the computer, his African accent filling the room. “Most of our job is ensuring the general population doesn’t freak out. Our people don’t know about magic, but I’m sure they will one day. So, in a nutshell, our current job is to find anything that will give up the secret and hide it, and one day, when the secret comes out, help with the freak out.”
Viera bit her lip. “That second half sounds awful.” God above, please don’t let that happen on my watch!
Zuza snorted. “You are correct. We can just hope that we can keep aliens from letting our people know about themselves or from magic from becoming known to the public.”
