“Maybe he should have hired a classier and more professional secretary,” Shay mumbled under her breath.
Madge shot forward, and Shay resisted her natural impulse to go for a gun or knife. She refused to believe she’d suffer serious injury from a pixie, whether from arrogance or pure aesthetic desire, she couldn’t say.
I’m not afraid of an overgrown dragonfly with an attitude.
The pixie stopped just a few inches in front of the tomb raider, her arms crossed again. “Whatever. He told me all about you. He must really like you because he even told me to let you know where he is if you came in here asking for him.” She looked Shay up and down. “You just seem like another human to me, but the gnome’s pretty good about exploiting useful resources.” She smirked.
Shay shook her head. She wasn’t going to let the pixie bait her into a further war of words.
“Like I said, I’d like to think we have a mutually beneficial relationship. A little of that makes both worlds go around. Is he even here? If not, I’ll leave a message and get out of your hair and wings.”
Madge’s lips pursed for a few seconds. “The Great Treaty.”
“What about it?”
“That’s where he’s at.”
“How is he at a treaty?”
Madge rolled her eyes and sighed. “It’s a bar. A magical bar. It teleports to a new location every few decades. Been on Earth for a few hundred years, and it’s been in West Hollywood since the ‘40s. Non-magical folks can’t see it normally, but they’ve been lightening up a little bit lately.” She rattled off an address. “It’s not glamoured the same way this place is, so it’s not about just concentrating. You’re going to have to go to that address and walk straight through the center of the big mural of Cesar Chavez on the brick wall.”
“Won’t somebody notice that?”
“Nope. If you’re honestly trying to get into the place, people’s attention will shift away from you. Just because it’s not glamoured the same way as this place doesn’t mean it’s not glamoured at all.”
Shay nodded. “And how do I know you’re not just screwing with me and trying to get me to walk into a wall for some sort of Pixie Greatest Pranks thing that you’ll put up on the net later?”
The pixie grinned. “That would be funny, but the gnome would get angry with me for upsetting a customer unnecessarily.”
And he doesn’t care about your attitude? I don’t think I’ll ever understand Oricerans.
“Okay. I go to that address and walk through the brick wall. Understood.”
Madge nodded. “Yes. You won’t see it till you’re in it. Trust me.”
“Thanks. See you around, Madge.”
“See you, Shay.”
Shay headed toward the exit.
Why do I have a feeling I’m about to break my nose?
Chapter Thirteen
Forty-five minutes later Shay stood in front of a mural of Cesar Chavez, shaking her head and questioning her life choices.
I swear if that pixie was fucking with me she’s gonna pay, Tubal-Cain’s secretary or not.
Shay took several deep breaths and stepped forward, expecting a painful encounter with a brick wall and Cesar Chavez.
Instead, the wall rippled like liquid, and a couple more steps brought her into a darkened room.
Okay, that wasn’t so bad.
Floating orbs provided light, with a pulsating sphere illuminating a dance floor. Techno thumped from somewhere unseen or perhaps invisible speakers. Small black tables littered the area around the brightly lit all-white bar.
If anything, it reminded Shay of an edgy gay bar, except the clientele weren’t beautiful men looking for their personal Adonis. The bulk of the bar was filled with the more common humanoid Oricerans one expected on Earth, including elves, dwarves, and a few gnomes, but not Tubal-Cain, from what she could see. There were more than a few obvious wizards and witches.
In addition, many less common beings and races populated the bar. Some were humanoid species that Shay couldn’t immediately identify. Many of those had skin of unnatural shades, by human standards at least, from shocking blue to red. Scales. Multiple eyes. Some had pointed tails, pointed ears, or fur. One dark-green woman was covered in vines and flowers that twitched whenever she moved.
Is that a dryad, or do they look different than that?
Shay shook her head. She knew much more about Oriceran that the average person, but every direct encounter with Oriceran culture reminded her that she was still far more ignorant than she would have liked.
Two Oricerans resembling upright elk sat at one table chatting with a roughly humanoid rock being with four legs and two arms. The Oriceran’s face seemed to consist of several pulsing gems arranged in no particular order.
So many races. It’s hard to imagine growing up on a world where that was the standard for thousands of years.
Shay resisted the urge to twitch at the sight of an Oriceran resembling a giant praying mantis. He rested on a large bench instead of a chair. The mantis chittered away in a language Shay couldn’t hope to understand with his seatmate, who looked like an upright rat in a shiny gold coat, huge gold chain, and a large purple hat with a feather, like a little rat pimp.
Huh. So I’ve finally seen a Willen in person, and apparently they share Peyton’s sense of fashion. Maybe he’s got a Willen ancestor?
The mantis man, or woman—Shay didn’t know which—was downright boring compared to some of the other Oricerans in the place, including a walking toadstool and a pulsing cloud of vapor. She wouldn’t have even recognized the latter was alive if it weren’t for an elf calling to it.
Wait, how do I even know these are Oricerans? For all I know, some of these
