We entered the building and stopped when Lily refused to allow us further in the dark building. I tried to create light and failed several times. Lily told me to stop and try again once we were safe. I agreed with her.

“You two stay here and I’ll see if there is a switch on the wall near the door.”

“Ok,” I replied. Lily zipped off. She returned a few minutes later.

“The switch doesn’t work. I also don’t hear air flowing,” my familiar said. “Maybe the main power system was switched off in the maintenance area.”

“Can you find this area?”

“Yes. Wait here and I’ll be back as quick as I can.”

“Lily?” I questioned before she left.

“Yeah?”

“Don’t take any stupid chances and come back to me safe and sound,” I told her. Lily flew back and kissed my check.

“I will. I promise!” the pixie exclaimed before flying away.

“Why don’t we wait behind this table or desk?” I asked Sara pointing to the object near the door. She went over to it and sniffed. She came back to me and then went to the desk/table again. Sara looked over her shoulder at me as if asking what I was waiting for. I joined her and sat on the floor. Sara laid beside me as I started practicing the light magic again.

*

Lily flew through the building and headed down the stairs several flights. Thankfully nothing dangerous was in the building. Or at least she hadn’t run across anything dangerous. After a few minutes, Lily found the maintenance area and generator.

“Ah ha! Now I just have to turn it on,” Lily said to herself. “Wait, I have to check and see if it can still power on.”

The pixie used her hidden knowledge to check the generator and found that it should still be operable.

“Boy, the old ones sure knew how to build things,” Lily muttered as she pressed the power button on the generator. The machine sputtered and came to life. Lily checked the gauges and saw it was full of oil and the solar power batteries were at capacity too. “Excellent!”

Lily watched as the lights came up and listened as the air started circulating. She nodded to herself and coughed. “Ugh. The air stinks!” A two-foot round spider was on the ceiling over her head. Its web had been disturbed by the air and was currently creeping into position to pounce on the flying pixie. Lily glanced up as the spider started to ready itself to shoot a web at her. “Nuh-uh,” Lily said wagging a finger at the spider. “That’s not nice.”

The spider shot its web at her. Lily dodged easily and shot an electric bolt at the spider. “Your hunger has made you strong, but not strong enough.”

The spider fell to the floor and got up. Lily thought it looked angry. “So be it young spider. Now you will feel the power of the pixies!” Lily said before blasting the spider with more electricity. “Foolish spider, only now do you begin to understand,” Lily cackled. A moment later and the spider was dead. Lily blew on her two index fingers like they were guns and pretended to holster them.

“Still the faster draw in the east!” Lily told the dead spider. She rubbed her cheek. “Perhaps I should learn to tell a spider’s age. It might not have been young. Oh well, back to my Jase and Sara.”

Lily started to fly away and noticed a monitor. She landed on the desk and moved the mouse. The computer came to life. Thankfully it wasn’t screen locked. Lily saw an icon that said map. She clicked it and watched the screen change. Lily followed along. “Aha! There is a lounge and even residential quarters on the third floor. Hopefully there are no more spiders!”

*

“My Jase!” Lily yelled as she flew back to us. She barreled into me and hugged my neck as best she could. I gently patted her back with my index finger.

“Are you ok?”

“Of course! I found the generator and turned it on,” Lily proudly said. She turned to Sara. “Well, yeah, of course you can see that the lights are on. So is the air!”

“I imagine she can smell the difference. I can,” I said.

“Duh!”

“You did good my Lily,” I praised the pixie.

“Thank you! I also found there is a residential area on the third floor.”

“How did you find that?”

“A computer in the basement had a map.”

“Was there anything else down there?”

“Yeah. A huge spider that wanted to eat me!”

“What? Are you sure you’re ok?”

“Pfft. I’m fine. I killed the horrible beast with my force…I mean pixie lightening! I even got to use lines from an old movie on it!”

“Movie?”

“Oh, I did say that out loud, didn’t I?”

“Yeah.”

“You should forget I said anything about movies. Just know that that which shall not be named was a story told long ago and people could watch it.”

“Alright,” I replied and laughed. “Lead us to this housing you’ve found my fearless pixie.”

“Aye aye captain!” Lily exclaimed and flew toward the stairs. I shook my head and followed her. Sara brought up the rear.

*

“So, this is the residential area?” I asked as I looked around the large room. There were no walls separating the kitchen from the dining and sitting areas. “Why are there no walls?”

“This is called open concept. It was popular a long time ago.”

“Why?”

“Eh, I guess because people back then liked the idea of being able to talk to whoever was cooking, watching TV, or whatever,” Lily answered with a shrug.

“Why isn’t there any dust?” I asked.

“Good question,” Lily replied. Sara growled at something. Lily and I turned to see her facing a moving oval thing with arms.

“What the heck is that?”

“Don’t attack it, Sara! That is a cleaning robot. I’m surprised it’s working. Robots like it keep places like this clean. That’s why there isn’t any dust.”

“Robot?”

“Yeah. Robots are machines that can do tasks for humans and familiars.

“Could we take it with us? Having something to clean wherever we settle would be nice.”

“We would have to take its charging station and some kind of power source.”

“In other words, no.”

“Sadly, yeah. Come on, let’s check out the bath and bedrooms!”

“Alright. Coming Sara?” I asked. The cougar glanced at me and laid on the rug in the middle of the sitting area’s floor. “Guess not.”

The bathroom had a large tub and sink, with working water, and an actual working toilet with the original seat! I had never heard of such a thing.

“I guess I would need some leaves or paper to wipe with if I use that,” I said.

“No silly. It’s a bidet,” Lily replied. She pointed to a button. “Press that and water will wash your backside. Press it again to stop the water. Then press the second button make air dry you.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really,” Lily answered. “I know you’ll try it later. Come on and let’s check the bedroom.”

“Alright,” I agreed and followed Lily into another room. “Hey, there’s another one of those robot things.”

“Yep, Lily replied. The robot was cleaning the bed. I had no idea how it got up there either. We watched until the robot finished and then moved off the bed and floated down. It then started cleaning the floor. “Neat!”

“That it is,” I said. Lily landed on the bed and laid down.

“Jase, you have to try this! Even without sheets, it’s so soft.”

I sat down on the edge of the bed and bounced on it. “It sure is.”

“Don’t bounce!”

“You like it.”

“Maybe just a little,” Lily conceded. “We need to see if there are any sheets in storage.

“How will we do that? Just check every cabinet and door?”

“No. We’ll use the computer in the living room,” Lily answered. She saw the expression on my face. “Don’t ask, just follow me and I’ll explain when we see if it’s working.

“Alright,” I agreed and stood up. Honestly, I was too amazed with the place to argue.