From the outside, the imposing structure resembled every evil wizard trope Snooze had ever seen. It was a tall, slender tower made of black stone that was positioned at the edge of a cliff face; pointed tines at the top that stabbed at the sky with a menacing glee; super brutal-looking architecture that definitely gave her a Heavy Metal vibe.

Inside, however, was something altogether different.

The space of the ground floor was circular and built--it seemed--to take up the vast majority of the inside of the tower itself. Rows of bookshelves lined the walls, and a roaring fireplace was alive to one side of the stretch. In front of the fire were an assortment of mismatched furniture that looked surprisingly inviting. Snooze eyed a particularly comfortable-seeming easy chair with an animal fur draped over the back of it.

There were alcoves spaced around the living quarters, each bearing their own function. What appeared to be a pantry was pressed into one wall, while nearby was something of a kitchen, with all manner of pots, pans and cutlery hanging from hooks. There were also quite a few rugs and furs dotting the walkable stone floor, while vast awnings and tapestries hung from poles or suspended ropes and chains. Numerous ladders and staircases granted access to the upper levels of catwalks and mezzanines, which were visible from the first floor as the actual ceiling loomed high above. There was not much other than the one massive space, climbing high and disappearing into the darkness where firelight did not touch. The walls themselves were rough stone, and made of what Snooze assumed was the same material as the bleak outside casing, but here had been painted a warm, russet color.

All in all, the whole spectacle filled Snooze with a warm sense of comfortable relaxation.

Rekvahn smiled excitedly as he saw the intrigued looks on each of their faces. Snooze had to admit that it was more than a hefty amount of surprise, and was sure that Hal and Viz were feeling similar emotions. However, despite their shock, it was clear the man had taken a lot of time and care in creating a space that was inviting to visitors--even if he claimed to never have any.

Rekvahn’s pride seemed to be in his presentation, and he’d gone above and beyond it seemed to produce what those in the marketing world would refer to as a “third place,” that is, an area other than one’s home or workplace that they felt they could go to and spend time in comfort. This was much different than that which is called the, “fourth place,” an area of purvey under the celestial bureaucracy that was reserved unallocated spirits as well as dorms for the cafeteria workers.

Truly, if Rekvahn had been a product of, say, Snooze’s old world, he'd have been a shoe-in for staging real estate properties or crafting those little vignette rooms at furniture stores. There he could have toiled away and faded into obscurity.

On second thought...

His current life was the better option for him, being Snooze’s world’s first necromancer, which had a remarkable amount of prestige on its own, though the hours were a bit curious.

Snooze was happy to see the man up and at ‘em and so strangely pleased. It hadn’t taken much effort to get him back on the mend. Between Snooze, Hal, and Mediator Viz, the three easily propped his body up and pressed his severed ends of neck meat together. The fissure healed instantly, and the necromancer seemed right as rain despite the god’s worry that he would be a bit more than concerned as to his untimely demise.

However, he seemed quite the opposite, rather.

He cheerily looked up, his menacing aura a distant memory as he jubilantly introduced himself to both Hal and Viz. Then, with a little prompting from newly arriving storm clouds, the group had made their way up the designated path toward the tower where they currently were.

“So,” Viz began, settling herself in the comfy armchair by the fire. “You are a user of Death Arts?”

Rekvahn didn’t respond at first, but moved to the cooking alcove instead, his robes swishing as he moved. After just a moment, he returned to the main room carrying an ornate tray laden with cups, saucers, and a burnished kettle. His eyes were fixated on the task at hand as if it required all of his concentration to perform successfully. He made a slow, shaky way to the tiny table in the center of the parlor and set the tray down, then he lifted the kettle and began to carefully pour steaming liquid into each of the four ceramic vessels.

“Well,” he finally said to Viz. “I am, as you might say, dabbling in elements of it. However, mine is more of a process of study, rather than an Art. There are many rules involved.”

Viz seemed to roll her eyes, and Snooze noticed no one had yet reached for his offering on the table. Rekvahn seemed to take note of this as well and smiled wider.

“Please,” Rekvahn said, motioning to the tray. “Enjoy. I’ve made extra tea for everyone, so drink your fill.”

Hal and Viz seemed to regard the gesture with suspicion, and they shared a look of scrutiny.

Those two are suddenly warming up to one another.

Certainly, it appears to be true that in many stratas of life and existence, that sentient beings can bond over shared criticism.

Snooze accepted her cup gratefully, enjoying the warmth that emanated from the steaming drink. She took a deep whiff of the contents and smiled.

“Rekky, it smells wonderful!”

Rekvahn beamed back and nodded in thanks.

“You’ll have to let me know how it tastes,” he said. “It’s a new recipe for the brew, quite experimental if you can believe it.”

“Experimental?” Snooze asked. “How so? You didn’t make it from Big No… er, T’kelk, did you?”

Rekvahn shook his head, chuckling.

“No,” he said simply. “It is but a simple blend of Wukia Root, Cho’ol, and Klee’tea leaves. I merely altered the measurements of each ingredient and adjusted the boiling temperature, starting high and then bringing it down to a simmer to better release the oils of the leaves.”

Both Hal and Viz gave him a look as though he’d just started casting a spell.

“What is boiling temperature?” they both asked at the same time.

Just great, Snooze thought. They’re already speaking in tandem. Soon they’ll be finishing each other's sentences and then I’ll have to pretend it’s not weird, even though it totally will be!

Rekvahn looked as though he was about to explain, but his eyes suddenly widened.

“Ah!” he exclaimed. “Our meal!”

The necromancer quickly turned on his heel and ran into the cooking alcove and disappeared from sight. Snooze could hear a lot of banging and clanging followed by strangely happy oaths of “hoo hoo!” and “splendid!” before the man finally returned, another tray in his hands.

“My dear acquaintances,” he said. “I present to you: dinner.”

The tray held several delectable items that made Snooze’s avatar’s stomach growl. There was a large slab of some kind of meat, shining with a hearty glaze that had been carefully drizzled across it with precise zigzags; several trenches of what--to Snooze’s eyes-- looked like baked bread, with dollop of golden butter melting over the crusts and dribbling down the sides; and small clay-colored bowls filled with a simmering green soup with red leaves sprinkled over the surface for garnish.

Rekvahn set this tray down on the table and returned to the cooking area and then reemerged with another tray. This one bore all manner of different kinds of fruit, some of which Snooze recognized, but others--not so much.

Lo and behold, Rekvahn returned a final time to the kitchen, exiting once again with a single plate with a delicious looking pastry on it. It had a crumbled crust that was baked to a pleasantly golden brown and coated in crystals of sugar. Intricate folds and twists were woven into the design of the dessert itself, detailing a rich tapestry of artistic flair. As Rekvahn set the plate down, he took the large knife that had been placed next to it and sliced through the pastry crust, allowing a beautiful ribbon of dark blue and purple syrup to seep out.

“It needs to be lanced and cooled, or it will explode,” Rekvahn said seriously.

Snooze eyed him with wonder, but then her eyes returned to the dessert as more liquid issued from its innards. It was a delightful image, and for a moment, Snooze didn’t even mind that she hadn’t created any of it.

After the first few moments of trepidation, Rekvahn hovering to see their reaction, the three women took their tentative bites. As Snooze tasted her first morsel of the meat, her eyes nearly bulged out of her head. It was almost as if she’d been overwhelmed with flavor. Delicious combinations of sweet, savory, acidic and a hint of spice danced on her taste buds and she let out a low groan of appreciation. She gulped down the food, and turned to her two companions. Their faces looked much like she had to assume hers did: pleased awe.

“Rekky!” she exclaimed, turning her attention to the patiently waiting man. “This is… so… amazing!”

Rekvahn, released from his prison of suspense clapped his hands together joyfully and let out a peal of laughter.

“Wonderful!” He declared happily.

“Yes, it is quite a marvelous profile of flavors,” Hal said slowly, taking another bite. “I have not partaken in anything quite its like before.”

“How… how did you do this?” Viz asked. “This is better than the Heyakul Special I had at the Wendeyria Summer Feast two years ago… and that was prepared by Orglet Klou.”

“You have treated and attended the Summer Feast?” Hal asked, almost as equally amazed as she’d been with Rekvahn’s culinary prowess. “...and sampled the famed Prince of the Cookfire’s talents?”

“Indeed,” Viz said, and Snooze could see a hint of smugness in her response. “It was stupendous, however…”

The mediator lifted up a piece of the meat in the sauce.

“This,” she said. “...is better.”

Rekvahn bowed in reverence to Viz’s statement, and Snooze imagined that if he could blush, he likely would have.

Gotta have blood to blush… I think.

“You are most kind,” Rekvahn said humbly. “To be compared to someone so esteemed…”

“It is just a compliment,” Viz said, shrugging. “I am not an expert critic of food preparation by any imagining, so take it for what you will.”

“Sounds like he’s taking it as a compliment,” Snooze mused. Viz shot her a look filled with daggers.

“I still do not want to talk to you, thief,” she said, and turned away from the god.

Snooze decided not to point out the obviousness of her statement, but instead turned her attention to Rekvahn.

“So, Rekky,” she began. “Could you tell me a little bit more about what it is you do, exactly?”

Then she quickly added, “without the mystery. Just good ole fashioned plain talk.”

Rekvahn nodded.

“It may be easier to show you, rather than tell you,” he said. “Would you like to see my workshop, after dinner? Then I can show you all so that you have a better understanding.”

Snooze looked at the others. Hal nodded happily, wolfing down another helping of her glazed meat, and Viz…

Viz shrugged.

Good enough, Snooze thought.

“Of course,” she said, then took another bite of her own food.

“Seriously, Rekky,” she said. “This is so good. Where did you learn to cook like this?”

“Well,” the necromancer explained, “I do not require sustenance. I haven’t needed to eat for a very long, though I still have full faculty of my ability to taste. I adore cooking, both for the relaxation it allows me, and for the flavor. I have made it my secondary, or perhaps my third-most prominent hobby to focus on designing wonderfully tasting food.”

“Well, it clearly shows,” Snooze said. “You are a marvelous chef, if I do say so myself. I can appreciate someone who crafts a recipe outside of the confines of hunger.”

Rekvahn gave her a curious look at that, studying her face and looked as though he was going to ask a follow up question, but fortunately, Viz interrupted the pause.

“So…” she said, turning to Hal. “Why did you decide to come all of this way to meet someone you’ve never met before?”

Hal shrugged, simply continuing her new favorite activity of devouring everything in sight.

“The discretion was Se Nu Sa’s,” she said with her mouth full.

“Se Nu Sa?” Viz asked, wheeling on Snooze with a furious look. “I thought it was Jin Ba La Sam?”

She scowled deeply and closed her eyes, massing her temples as if Snooze’s presence had given her a migraine.

“So, not only are you a thief, but you’re a liar too?”

Snooze shook her head.

“It isn’t like that,” she said. However, even within the realm of context and the urgency with which she felt her actions were warranted… it very much was like that.

“Whatever you say,” Viz breathed, waving her away. “Look, I’m only here until morning and then I’m leaving, so in all honesty--I don’t really care. I just think that it is fantastically inconvenient for myself that you have forced me to trek all this way to retrieve what is mine. But, knowing you weren’t even honest about your name… it really makes me despise you.”

Snooze felt gutted. She hadn’t intended to inconvenience anyone, and she certainly didn’t want anyone to hate her. She felt very foolish in that moment. Rekvahn suddenly spoke.

“I cannot lay claim to who she is, or what she is about,” he said to Viz, his tone shifting closer to his original, confident one. “But, I do know the value of shielding one’s true nature and manner from others. Not everyone is like to treat you with the merit you feel you deserve, or that which you desire. However…”

He sat down in one of the chairs near the group with a sigh, and began drumming his fingers on the arm of it.

“I do know that Se Nu Sa--if that is what she wishes to be called-- has been nothing but kind to me since arriving, something I have not experienced in a very long time. All creatures may have their reasons for what they do, but showing kindness when it is not needed or expected is surely a meritable quality. It is, at the very least, something that I admire.”

Viz kept her eyes closed, but didn’t respond, so Snooze was unsure if she’d even been paying attention. However, she noticed Hal nodding.

“Those are words of truth,” she said, but then her brow furrowed. “Though, I do wish to know more about this creature I have been traveling with.”

Snooze gulped.

Uh oh.

“You speak and act in a strange manner,” she began. “You do not seem to be aware of the customs of this land, nor do you provide detail as to your own origin, more satisfied to remain vague in your statements. You do not resemble any creature that I have ever seen and travel with more wealth than a Wulk--a fact that seems largely irrelevant to you.”

Viz’s eyes snapped open at this, and she gave Snooze a very hard look.

“Furthermore, you seek out someone who you know little of, save for an inkling that they may be able to help you,” Hal continued. “However, to what purpose a man of Rekvahn’s… talents can do for you, I do not know. I am grateful that we escaped from Twick, though I fear now it may have been unwise, for I will surely be hanged or quartered for desertion, and so, I ask that you reveal a bit more to your nature, as I have sacrificed a great many things to help deposit you here at this odd doorstep.”

Snooze sat back.

I suppose, perhaps I should tell them.

She felt a gnawing at the back of her mind, much like she had in her interaction with Xolt back in the Guildhall, as if her internal monologue was speaking of its own will, though this time, it was not a message of guile.

Reveal yourself. To move forward, you must first open the door.

“Well,” Snooze said, rather reluctantly. “To put it simply, I’m not from around these parts.”

“That much is obvious! Enough of the cloak and dagger,” Viz demanded, leaning forward. “Speak the truth, thief.”

“Let her speak at her own beckoning,” Hal said, suddenly very seriously, and Snooze did not doubt she could have cut diamonds on the edge in her voice. Viz paused and then leaned back again, rubbing her temples.

“Very well,” she said.

“I am…” she started, and looked at Rekvahn. The heavily-robed man smiled back at her as if encouraging her to continue.

“...I am a god.”

Viz snorted.

“Okay, clearly this isn’t working,” she said, and stood up. “You’re either playing us for fools, or you’re trying to insult me.”

Snooze raised a hand.

“Please,” she said. “I’m telling the truth. I am a god. In fact, I’m the god of this world.”

Rage boiled over Viz and she threw her book on the floor. The tome struck hard, and cartwheeled along the stones, flapping open wildly as it did. A thin slip of paper coasted out from between the leaves of the tome and fluttered through the air, resting on the ground.

“Please, Viz I--”

“No!” Viz suddenly bellowed, pointing a dangerous finger right at Snooze. “Listen up. I’ll not have you cavorting around making a mockery of my faith, claiming to be a god--MY god. You were completely ignorant of who I was and what the tenets of the truth say. If you were the god of this world, prove it!”

Snooze didn’t say anything for a moment, she just sighed.

“I can’t do anything--at the moment,” she said quickly. Viz growled in her direction.

“I have been sleeping for a long time, and I have been weakened by an experience. I lost my followers.”

“Followers!?” Viz exclaimed. “See? This is how I know you’re full of it. The divine father has thousands of believers throughout the world, myself included. If you were he--which it is clear you are not--you’d have no problem performing your deeds.”

“It would appear you aren’t directing your worship to the right sources then,” Snooze said seriously. “I AM the god of this world, and I created all of it. I don’t know anything about your religion because it has nothing to do with me.”

Viz snarled, looking as though she was about to attack Snooze. The god didn’t blame her though. She knew that being met with the accusation that your whole belief system was fabricated would be quite hard to bear or accept, and she didn’t believe she’d come around. However, she was unable to continue the charade, for it had been such a great burden on her.

Hal stood then, her hand on her sword.

“Her words may sour the flavor of your mouth,” she warned Viz, “and though I too, find them hard to stomach, do not imagine you will lay abuse upon her, heathen.”

Viz looked as though she wanted to vomit. She turned to face Hal then, her face as red as a fruit that everyone thought was a vegetable from Snooze’s old world.

“You know what--”

“Um, everyone…” Rekvahn suddenly interrupted.

Everyone turned at once to him, Hal and Viz glaring with unsealed contempt.

The man simply pointed to where the book had landed on his floor.

“Something odd is transpiring.”

Everyone’s attention turned to the book, and Snooze’s heart leapt. Something odd was happening. The piece of paper that had been loosed from the tome was suddenly floating in the air, a bright light emanating from it.

“What is that?” Snooze asked.

“My spell!” Viz exclaimed, and rushed toward the piece of hovering parchment.

However, at that moment, the glowing slice shot straight up in the air at a tremendous speed and then dropped back down, soaring directly at Snooze. The god tried to move out of the way, but it froze, mid-flight, right in front of her face. With a soft hiss, and a chirp, it suddenly began crumbling before their very eyes.

“No!” Viz yelled in agony. “That was a gift from the--”

She stopped. Everyone stopped.

Floating right in front of Snooze, almost cheerily, was a little bauble of greenish light, it slowly seemed to unfurl itself from its own magnitude and began to take a new shape. Almost as quickly, it had become a flickering, lilting little leaf.

Snooze stared wide-eyed at the object, unable to breathe.

“Book… of Leaf…?” she whispered.