“What a wild ride,” Elisha said.

“Tell me about it.” Amelia spoke around a party blower, extending it out with her breath and making the toy wheeze.

They were sitting together in the park at a stone table with an umbrella. The umbrella extended up and outward, giving them shade from the summer sun and heat. Forsythe, Hunter, Raven, and Aidan were all standing in a mostly vacant field of flowers throwing a beach ball back and forth. They were all celebrating the summer, taking a much needed break. The war was over, finally.

“I wish I had spells in real life,” Elisha muttered.

“Same? I mean?” Amelia smiled, blowing the party blower back out again.

“I’m kind of hot. It’s beautiful out but I miss personal climate control. Why can’t real life be convenient like VR?” Elisha sighed.

“Dunno,” Amelia looked at Elisha, finally placing the party noisemaker down. There weren’t many opportunities to talk to Elisha one on one, so she should probably make the most of it. “Question…?”

“Permission to speak granted,” Elisha smiled.

“Thank you, my queen, uhmm, are you and Khiafin still friends?” Amelia grinned.

“We don’t let a little casual murder get in the way of our friendship,” Elisha said, smiling lopsidedly. “It’s great though. Now I can just play the scene where I toss him and Schulia whacks him over and over when he’s being unreasonable…” Elisha’s smile faded. “Schulia, however, is another story. She is very cautious around me now. It will take some time to smooth those feathers.”

Amelia snickered, distracted momentarily by Forsythe and Raven arguing over who had possession of the beach ball. It looked like it was about to be tug-of-war.

“Actually, after I threw him from the ship and he died, he logged out,” Elisha said with a grin. “He just watched the whole event while eating popcorn. Said he’s not even sorry. It was a great show according to him. Idolia and Abhy are going to start their own AAO talkshow after the great ratings and feedback they got.”

“Imagine sulking so bad you missed out on a world event,” Amelia grinned and Elisha laughed.

“Question,” Elisha asked. “Are you glad you’re not Empress anymore?”

“I don’t know if I get to stop being Empress,” Amelia winced, and then her expression gradually lightened, “but yeah, I’m glad.”

“What do you think we should do now?” Elisha asked, eyebrow quirking.

“Get a few drinks and wait til sunset. I think there’s going to be a starshower,” Amelia said after a moment of thought.

“I meant in the game,” Elisha smiled.

“Oh, I don’t know. I think I’m going to teach Aidan how to ride the lightning, but that’s going to be quite a trick. We’re swapping Classes. He has to pay attention to a bunch of spells he didn’t know before and, you know, do research, which he hates,” Elisha smiled at that, “and of course, I have to level up proficiencies with all the schools of magic in dungeons, being on the frontline, making little zappy noises,” Amelia muttered.

“Which you hate?” Elisha grinned.

“Yeah, pretty much. It’s probably easier to start new characters than it is to switch back and forth. I don’t know. We’ll discuss it.” Amelia turned her attention back to the curly-haired woman. “Yourself?”

“We’ve formed a larger second party with most of Mordred’s friends,” Elisha held up a hand when she saw Amelia’s face. “Now, now, it’s not like you can throw stones at Mordred.”

“What’s that mean?” Amelia studied Elisha.

“C’mon Amelia,” Elisha laughed. “Pressia Emmael?”

Amelia’s face changed. “Oh no.”

“It’s not very hard to figure out.”

“Who have you told?” Amelia asked.

“No one, let them figure it out on their own. Just deny it if it comes up. No one can prove anything,” Elisha waved a hand. “I only want to know how you did it.”

Amelia smiled crookedly for a moment, squinting at Elisha while she tried to think of what to do. Lie? Double down on the lie? Deny everything!

Finally, she shrugged, “well, Empress Elisha, long may she reign. When you feel you have reigned long enough you start thinking of ways to get out of it. When we beat the evil guy on the hegemony world, uhh, you know the one?”

Elisha frowned but nodded.

“It dropped a book with a sort of unique build your own adventure template. A quest book that lets you design the quest. So I got this idea, right?” Amelia leaned in eagerly. “I filled in part of it. The part where the basic premise would be that the stakes would be royalty and rulership of Elysium, and then I made a fake name to throw off the scent, mastermind that I am--”

“Freaking genius,” Elisha agreed, only slightly sarcastic.

“I put it in the library and let someone else find it.” Amelia clapped her hands and then smiled. “Tada!”

“You started a war, Amelia,” Elisha said after some thought. She closed one eye and looked at Amelia with a slow grin on her face. “Amelia,” she said in a playful tone. “People died, Amelia.”

“Pfft,” Amelia laughed awkwardly. “No, no, Mordred -- started a war. There was no war that I wrote in. It was gonna be fun! Like a dance off, or a poetry reading contest, or a sailing competition. We could have had a giant luau party. I could have been Empress of the Luau. That idiot had to pick freaking war.”

Elisha snorted and then looked away for a moment. “So I shouldn’t tell dad and Raven that you got them killed?”

“Elisha?” Amelia smiled carefully. “I feel like you’re not appropriately scared of me.”

Elisha smiled and then made a mock face of horror. “Oh no! I wouldn’t dare!”

“Better not,” Amelia said carefully, smile widening.

They sat in companionable silence for a long moment.

“Amelia?” Elisha asked suddenly.

“Yes?” Amelia looked over.

“Is this over? It feels like the end of an era.” Elisha looked uncertain.

“That’s the neat part,” Amelia drawled slowly. “As long as we all have each other, it’s not.”

“Amelia?” Elisha asked with a bit of cunning in her voice.

“Yes, Empress Elisha?” Amelia asked cautiously.

“Does this make you the bad guy?”

“What do you mean?” Amelia looked confused.

“Well, if you think about it, you’re the mastermind that schemed a coup and threw the entire kingdom in turmoil. While that was going on, since it wasn’t enough apparently, you went and found the biggest, meanest, gnarliest thing you could and hit it with a stick!” Elisha said carefully. “I am in awe of your prowess.”

Amelia straightened in sudden surprise as it came to her. “Holy crap, I’m the big bad evil guy!”

Everyone paused and looked at her from nearby, questioning looks on their faces.

George awoke from his nap to find that the people he had come to visit had wandered off. His tail flicked back and forth as he considered the apartment. Some of his favorite people lived here. There was the big dumb one, he was a good one because he left food out on the counter to sample and be stepped on. There was the very fast loud one, she was pretty good because she would constantly remember to scritch him on the head and chin. She was very good for getting rid of his extra winter coat. There was the shy small one. She was very still, and her lap was very good. There was a taller one that hung out with the big dumb one who left George alone, which George appreciated because leaving George alone wasn’t a skill many humans possessed. The one that talked to George a lot was pretty okay, but he could be exhausting. The ruler of the other humans managed the humans well enough, and George didn’t need to intervene very often.

Life was good.

George stretched and began walking across the couch. He stumbled slightly as one particular spot was squishier than another. He glanced at it disdainfully, choosing to circle around and jump up and down on it to get it ready for his butt later. Resuming his inspection of the realm, he came across a small space. It was circular, much the same shape as a ball that George had once had and quite liked before it had been killed by one of the street creatures.

It had a variety of disgustingly pink things stuck to it, and there was a blinky light. George stared at the blinky light over something called WAN. He put his paw on it several times and then lost interest.

The hat, George recognized it now as something the humans wore to cover their ugly heads, smelled like the fast one. He pushed the hat around on the chair for a moment, wondering why they put their heads in it. A lot of the time they put their heads in hats and just lay there for hours and hours. He himself liked a good lounge, so that wasn’t weird at all to him.

Was it just to disguise their ugly heads? It only covered half. Seemed kind of underkill.

George rolled onto his back and began worming his way into the hat to see what the fuss was about.

George’s body slowly relaxed, the tail barely flicking back and forth as a pleased chuff escaped him. A stupendously long purr sounded out in the room as the WAN light blinked several times and then solidified.

George lay motionless.

George’s front paw extended ever so slightly, claws appearing the tiniest bit and then retracting.

The purr got louder.