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Chapter 200: How Far We’ve Come
🕑 Added 2025-02-24 12:00:15 +0000 UTCWhether divination was invention or not didn’t change the fact that [Head in the Clouds] woke Theora up the next morning saying, “Maybe you should ask her out on another date.”
Theora grumbled. The bed was cold; Dema was out and about again, doing detective work. And it’s not like Theora necessarily minded — after all, she wanted Montaparte to produce results quickly, in hopes that it would help move this entire debacle behind them.
“What’s got you so upset?”
Only upon hearing Treeka’s voice did Theora realise she was hugging her pot. “Ah,” Theora let out. “You slept here tonight. Sorry for grumbling, my Skill was teasing me.”
Treeka climbed up the ledge of the planter, letting her legs dangle down. “What did it say?”
Theora was tempted to poke one of Treeka’s little feet, but narrowly resisted. “It wants me to ask Dema out. She and I haven’t had a lot of time to talk lately.”
Treeka let out a hum. Theora had gotten the chance to tell her everything about reality splitting the evening before, while Dema herself still had no clue. “Well, I agree with your Skill, then,” Treeka said. “The Lavish is open again, you could go there together if she finds the time.”
“Ah… true. I was curious to take a look at it again.”
Treeka shuffled around. “I mean, you and I could go together now, if you want. Bell will still be asleep, right? I’m sure she stayed up late reading again.”
“She might have.” Theora slowly pushed herself up from bed. “Sure, let’s take a look.”
The train had indeed started moving again now that the Lavish was open, albeit slower than before. Theora carried Treeka out of their room and through the empty corridor, to arrive and find the Lavish unoccupied in these early morning hours. The train was probably full of late sleepers. Gentle thrumming resounded from the engine room up ahead — Theora was tempted to check it out, for it likely held quite a few secrets. She’d wait for Bell to wake back up instead.
Theora raised the pot a little to let Treeka place her small hand inside the indenture. The door clicked, letting them inside a large forest Theora immediately recognised. “It’s your home,” she murmured as Treeka shuffled beneath her.
“Oh… yeah.”
Large columns of limestone broke upward between the canopies. Theora jumped up one of them close to the entry, and placed the pot in a little crevice at the top, then sat down beside Treeka.
“Oh!” Treeka let out, staring at the horizon. Her old body — a gigantic, wide flame tree — stood dead, rotting in the distance, leafless and pale. She’d been regrown from one of her seeds since.
“Can’t believe it still stands after all this time,” Treeka said with a hint of pride in her voice.
“Well, you were quite large. And magical.” Theora let out a sigh. “Takes me back… It’s been so long.”
“Sure has. I was stuck here, then I was stuck at the house… well, we ended up moving once or twice, when I had to be replanted. You weren’t around for that.”
“I was stuck in space.”
Treeka giggled. “I suppose we both have spent quite some time in isolation.” She looked down the limestone pillar. “Although my environment sported a little more enrichment. Do you miss it?”
Theora pulled a grimace. “Truth be told, I barely remember any of it. I sort of ceased to be a person for a while, I think? I managed to retain a lot of myself. I’m glad I was found.”
“I’m also glad I was found,” Treeka mumbled, almost inaudibly.
“Dema found both of us, actually,” Theora supplied. “She felt a lonely presence in these woods. At the time I was too sad to do anything myself.”
Treeka let out a hum. “I remember, yeah. You were sad because you were banned from the Observatory or something.”
“Yeah…” Theora didn’t want to think about that, she might start crying again. Not that her friends were still in the Observatory anyway; it was the memory alone that almost made her choke up. But then she blinked, properly realising what Treeka had just said. “You… you remember?”
“Hm?” Treeka tilted her head, looking up at Theora. “Of course? I remember every second of these two weeks. They were… well. I didn’t get many visitors back then, I suppose. I thought I never would. And you thought you’d never see your friends again, and now they’re waiting for you. I guess we all believe things that are wrong sometimes…”
Theora took a deep breath. “Back then I still thought I’d have to end Dema one day.”
“But you don’t anymore.”
Theora nodded, but cleared her throat when she realised Treeka couldn’t see it. “I don’t. I’m glad I’m not like Fentanyle. It would be quite sad if everything I believed turned out to be true.”
“I’m surprised you were able to reconsider at all, after such a long time,” Treeka said. “In my experience, old thoughts like that are difficult to shed.”
“The time in Reality was like an autumn for me, I suppose. I lost many leaves, found space to grow new ones. And now it’s spring.” Theora looked around. “You asked me if I miss space. Does that mean you miss this place?”
“I do,” Treeka admitted. “I mean, I don’t miss being alone, obviously. But it was all I knew for a long time, and… when I get upset and my heart is boiling, I find myself wanting to return, to feel less.”
They sat there in silence for a while.
“Do you have your travelling attire with you?” Treeka asked eventually, and Theora nodded, pulling out a scrap of cloth. Treeka’s dresses were just too good to pass up on, although she did feel a little bad for the old magical item that had accompanied her for so long.
“Once we’re back home I’ll give the attire a dedicated space in the house,” Theora murmured more to herself than to Treeka. “Did you need something from it?”
“Yes. I’m working on a dress for Bell. But I haven’t been able to finish it before being turned into a Bonsai. But we’re outside now, so…” Treeka activated some kind of Skill, the feeling soon familiar to Theora as the surroundings reshaped. It was some form of illusion magic — they now sat in the same forest, except Treeka’s spirit body was now at her old size compared to her surroundings. “There we go. I was in the Lavish with Omi and noticed I could do this, but didn’t have my stuff with me…”
Theora tore her travel attire apart to reveal more folds, and one by one proceeded to extricate around half a dozen unneeded items. “Hold on, I’ll find it soon.”
“You’re really bad at this,” Treeka observed.
“… Look, it’s not my fault. Dema and Bell have been managing our luggage.”
“Half these things look like they haven’t seen the light of day in a century.” She poked a seedling of a darkness daffodil Theora had produced — the one item this couldn’t be true for, because it would have sprouted in the dark, eventually. “What’s this?” She picked up a jar filled with… a galaxy? Maybe? It looked like an iridescent nebula.
“I have no idea,” Theora admitted. What was it? She stared for a while, until it finally clicked. “No, I remember. It’s magic mould.”
“It’s magic what?”
“Magic mould. I fetched some for Dema back when I was in space. Has it been in here all this time? I completely forgot.”
“Well, to be fair, you were up there for almost two-hundred years…”
Theora turned the glass in her hand, watching the glittering dots dance in the sunlight. “I never saw it before,” she murmured. “Not in light like this, I mean. That is beautiful.”
“You were going to ask Dema out, right?” Treeka shrugged. “Could give it to her then.”
That was an amazing idea. She really should. Carefully, she pushed the jar back into the travelling attire. What else might be hiding in there that she’d forgotten? Theora would need to empty it out again soon.
“Ah, that reminds me,” Theora let out before she could think. “I wanted to ask you something.” She pushed her arm back into the scrap, fumbling around until she pulled out her magic deck of cards. “I wanted to know if… ah. Sorry. Actually, nevermind.”
“Hey, now!” Treeka protested. “No doing that. If you start, you have to say it!”
Theora squirmed, and showed the cards. Places she’d never seen, people she didn’t know. “I was just wondering… since you’re old, I was hoping you might have seen some of those places and could help me figure out what they are, but…”
“But I never left this forest before I met you,” Treeka finished the thought. “Yeah…” She still accepted the deck to look through.
“Sorry,” Theora murmured. “Didn’t think it through.”
Treeka got to the last card. “No luck, sadly. And don’t worry.” She gave a small smile. “I’m glad you thought of asking me.”
“Ah!” a raspy voice suddenly echoed from behind. Theora turned to see Dema’s smile flash between the trees as she peeked up through the open door from outside. “My girl, there’s my girl!”
In the blink of an eye, Dema was already propelling herself upward with blood fountains on a floating rock, splashing Montaparte’s dress in crimson as she left. She produced little limestone steps as she ascended at the side of the pillar and came to a stop right in front of Theora. Then Dema bent down for a kiss.
“Missed you,” Theora said. Was now a good opportunity…? She cleared her throat. “Do you think you will have time this evening?” she ventured. “We could go to the Lavish together, if you’d like.”
“Dang! I mean… Em and I were right on a cusp of a breakthrough…”
At that, Treeka clicked her tongue in annoyance. “You can be so clueless, Dema…”
“Wha— I’m not clueless, I swear! I’ve got so many clues. I just don’t know how to put them all together… But Montaparte says I gotta make sure I find all the items with a magical aura so we can rule out magical devices as a means to commit the—”
Theora raised her eyebrows at Dema, which made her stop in her tracks. She looked surprised for a moment, then smiled. “Why, what’s got you looking at me all pouty?”
Instead of giving an answer outright, Theora rose to her feet. “Can I kiss you?”
“I mean, yeah! Of course you c—mngph!”
The kiss tasted salty and colourful. Dema just gave up on finishing her sentence and reciprocated instead. Afterwards, Theora leaned back, staring expectantly.
Dema was confused for a moment, but then said, “I was just gonna ask if—mngph!”
This second kiss Theora gave was gentler, but still sealed Dema’s lips completely. Then Theora pulled back and tilted her head, as if daring Dema to try again.
“Why, Bun Bun, are you upset? Am I being punish—ahh!” A kiss landed on Dema’s neck and she let out a little moan. “Hey now, I’m at work! Oh — my — gosh!” Dema giggled under the flurry. “Help! I’m being bullied, help!” Her actions were betraying her words — she was leaning into every single one of Theora’s advances, making things as easy as possible.
Finally, Theora left Dema’s skin for good, although Dema didn’t seem to trust the peace. She kept glancing toward Theora’s lips, fidgeting. “I, uhm — I guess I’m gonna finish up? And we see each other tonight…?”
“Yes,” Treeka said. She’d shrunk things back into place without Theora even noticing, to leave enough space on the top of the pillar for Theora’s kiss shenanigans. “I’ll sleep in your room again tonight, if that’s okay?”
“Yeah!” Dema cheered and knelt down with her index finger extended. Treeka seemed to know the gesture because she leaned over the ledge to have her little head patted by it. When Dema was done she got back up and blew Theora a kiss. “See ya!”
Blood splattered out from her hands as she was about to take off again, but Theora gently pinched Dema’s suit. Not strong enough to actually keep her there, but still enough to make Dema hesitate.
“Bun Bun?”
“I miss you.” Theora’s words came out even and calm.
Dema had the gall to look surprised. “Wait, then I’m gonna ditch Em! Gonna ditch her, she can go on without me.” She turned around to Montaparte and shouted, “Right?”
Theora didn’t hear a response and didn’t care to look. “How far are you from finishing the investigation?” she asked Dema instead.
“Dunno… gonna take a while, I think… depends on if we get our breakthrough today. Cause we were gonna—”
Theora gave Dema another kiss on her cheek. “Go finish the case.”
“But Bun Bun, you said you missed me?”
Theora shrugged with a smile. “Better make it quick, then.”
