Valentine

Wally and I toyed with the idea of waiting an extra week before venturing out but ultimately decided against it.

We both would have liked more time to work on my stamina spell, but to hear Wally tell it, human cities did not maintain large stockpiles. Another week and they'd be out of food, if they weren't already. If there was anything to be done, it needed to be soon.

After dinner, the ever dutiful Amity went to collect supplies for our journey while Wally and I went back to the penthouse to finish his enchantments.

There was a lot of material to cover, so while he got started on one set, I spent some time practicing until I was confident I wouldn't make a mess of things.

His head start meant that he finished first, so while I was wrapping up the spells, he tried on the set he'd finished. The silk was off-white, and each set consisted of a shirt and trousers. Though the garments were not skintight, they were well-tailored and hung very close to Wally's body.

He was standing on the carpet, barefoot, and was busy with the left cuff. It had turned inside out while he was pulling on the shirt, and he was trying to get it straight, though the close fit was giving him some grief.

I brushed my hair back from my face and bit my lip.

Gods, if only it were a little thinner and soaking wet.

Wally looked up at me and quirked an eyebrow.

"What-" I began before realizing I'd been releasing pheromones without even realizing it. I covered my face with my hands, "Sorry, sorry, didn't mean to!"

Wally came over and ruffled my hair, "It's okay," he laughed, "How are you still so pent up?"

I gave him a playful shove which only served to push me back into the couch, "See? This is exactly why I prefer the girls at The Blushing Maiden. They don't make me sit around for an hour, waiting for another tumble."

Wally took my hand and leaned down, bringing his face close to mine, "You know what I'm going to do to you?" he whispered.

"Oh?" I grinned.

"I'm going to pick you up..."

"Mmm-hmm?"

"Tear off all your clothes..."

"Oh my."

"Carry you to the shower..."

"And then?"

"Lock you in there until the freezing water cools you off."

"Wally," I whined, "we're leaving at First Light. Who knows how long we'll be gone? Amity and Regina will be with us. We're not going to have an abundance of privacy. Not to mention that if we are going to explore, we should try to push your spell further, and I think that means we need another test."

"Alright," he agreed, nodding reluctantly, "you're right."

"I am?"

"About the spell," he clarified, smiling despite his serious tone, "I'll bump up the enhancement some more, but not too much. This is still a finicky bit of biology, and I don't want to screw it up. But we need to apply the paint every day or so anyway, so we can dial it up as we go."

"And the rest?"

He sat down on the couch and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, and I eagerly leaned into him.

Wally gave an exaggerated shrug, "Not sure what's in it for me. You know this is all I need. Just think, long hours driving with you leaning against me, it'll be great. Maybe Amity'll take the wheel for a while and you can sit in my lap while I read a book."

"I'll do whatever you want."

Wally was unimpressed, "You'll do that anyway. You're doing it now."

I pressed my cheek against his chest, "Okay," I said quietly, "But you have to take off your shirt."

"Fine," he laughed, "But go get your shifts. You're right. We should enchant them too."

I leapt to my feet and scampered across the living room and up the stairs to our dresser. I struggled out of my flight suit and left it in a heap on the carpet. I pulled open the drawer where I kept my shifts, along with a strappy leather outfit and a few trinkets I'd picked up back at The Maiden.

Maybe when we get back.

I gathered up the shifts and pulled the one I was wearing over my head. I considered walking right back to Wally just like that, wearing nothing but the scribble of body paint on my lower back, but Wally didn't seem to be in the mood, and I didn't want to be pushy.

But there was his hooded jumper hanging over the back of the chair. I picked it up in both hands, lifted it to my face, and nearly swooned when I inhaled.

I pulled it over my head and spread my arms. The hood was so large that not only did it cover my face, it fell all the way to my chest. The sleeves were about two feet too long, and the hem reached below my knees.

I giggled. This was perfect. Best of all, it smelled like Wally and was warm and cosy.

The sleeves flopped around as I struggled to gather up the shifts and I had to fight to keep the hood from falling back over my face, but I eventually ended up with an armful of silk.

"Val," Wally called in warning as I began down the stairs.

The hood had fallen forward again, and I didn't want to lift an arm to pull it back for fear of dropping everything.

"It's fine, Wally. Please, this is hardly the first time I've had to go around blindfolded."

Wally sighed, and I heard him settle back down into the couch. I followed the sound back over to where he rested and set the shifts beside him on the sofa before scrambling up into his lap.

I kissed his bare chest and let out a soft sigh, "You're right. This is good."

"Are you going to help, or are you going to sit here and feel me up?" he laughed.

"Please, I was a fey noble. Educated in etiquette, trained in grace, and taught to speak knowledgeably on anything that might become a topic of conversation at court," I replied haughtily, "I can do both."

Gods. And humans say they don't have pheromones.

I'd gone to bed wearing his jumper, and upon consideration, had decided that it was quite possibly the best bit of nightwear I'd ever worn. I couldn't see a thing with the hood over my head, and it even shut out what little light the stars cast. I could hear only Wally's breathing, and when my lips brushed his chest I could taste a bit of his sweat on my tongue.

But as always, it was the heat and the scent of his body that left me feeling pleasantly drunk, as if I'd just finished working my way through a bottle of wine.

I had no sense of time or how long I'd slept. I had vague sleep-addled memories of rising for a meal, but that might have been a dream. I had a great many dreams as I slipped in and out of consciousness, and they blurred together with occasional bouts of wakefulness, leaving me confused and disoriented.

Or at least, I thought most of them were dreams. Indeed, had they been real, I should have been much sorer.

A gentle shake roused me, and it continued despite my grumbled protests. I gave up and rolled onto my back, and a few slivers of sunlight slipped under the hood.

I shoved it back with a forearm and propped myself up on my elbows. Hadn't yesterday been Last Light? Surely that made this The Long Night, and yet...

"How long was I asleep?" I mumbled, rubbing my eyes.

"You slept right through The Long Night," Wally replied cheerfully.

I could feel his hand stroking my back, and I leaned into his touch.

"Come on," he insisted gently, "The other's will be waiting for us downstairs. Best if we get a big breakfast before we set out. Probably a shower as well. Don't know how long we're gonna be on the road."

"I'm keeping your jumper."

"That's fine," Wally replied warmly, "But you do need to take it off before you shower."

Despite the early hour, the whole team was there for breakfast to see us off.

Not wanting to get food on Wally's jumper, I'd loaned it back to him, though with the understanding that it was only so he could warm it up for me.

Cassius and Wally spent most of the meal discussing what they might bring back from the city, coming up with a list of priorities, along with some ideas as to where some choice pieces of equipment might be. I recognized a few of the words, though not their meaning. Lathes, milling machines, and the like were mentioned. And though both men seemed to agree that it was unlikely they'd come across such devices, both seemed to regard them as treasures, and I resolved to ask Wally to describe each to me so I could recognize them if we happened across an example.

Just as soon as I was done waking up.

Cassius and Phoebe had finished the ramp and drawbridge while we'd been away but had yet to 'surface' it. Or at least that's the word Cassius had used.

In any case, it seemed the boys were worried about the traction of iron wheel bands on the stone ramp, so we had to venture down to ground level to find the new truck.

I'd begun to wake up by the time we stepped out into the sun, but my limbs still felt heavy, and my head was a little fuzzy. Still low on the horizon, it felt as if the sun was shining directly into my eyes, and I shielded my eyes with my forearm while I held onto Wally's giant paw with my other hand.

It was all I could do to get my hand around three of his digits, and even then, my fingers didn't quite meet in the middle.

And yet, he could circle my waist with his hands. Just one was enough to span both my shoulders. Gods, there was just so much of him to enjoy. That I got all of it to myself was almost too much sometimes.

Amity hefted one of our packs into the cargo space and gave me a sidelong look, "Would you like me to drive the first leg?" she said to Wally, "The princess looks like she's not quite awake yet."

"Mmm not a princess," I yawned.

"That sounds fine," Wally agreed, "You go hop in the cab. I'll put our packs away."

"Fine, but I want my hoodie back. T'is chilly."

Amity opened the door for me, and I took a seat in the back corner where I could lean against the wall. She pulled herself up into the driver's seat while I heard Wally's muffled voice as he spoke with Regina.

"You going to be okay back here?" he asked.

"I will make do. If the weather changes, I might ask that you raise the cover. But the sky appears clear for the moment."

"Alright, I'll swap out with Amity in a bit, and she can come back to keep you company."

"Of course, though I suspect Val will not be so eager to let you go," Regina purred.

And she was right. Once Wally had come to sit next to me and returned my jumper, I wrapped my arms around him and went back to sleep. It was only once I had fallen asleep that he was able to extricate himself from my vice-like grip to take the wheel.

I did feel slightly cheated, but at least this time I was properly awake once I opened my eyes.

Amity had left the cab, though I could hear her in the back speaking softly with Regina. So when I hopped over the back of the seat to join Wally upfront, I was just in time to take in the view as we crossed the final few yards to the top of the ridge.

We ascended a bare rocky slope that I suspected was pushing the limit of what the truck could manage. I stole a peek out the back door and saw that it had been growing steeper the further up we went. Looking far enough behind- and it was far -I could see where grass rose to cover the slope, and then yet further where the rise melted into the gently rolling hills of the landscape below us.

I was leaning against Wally, so I couldn't see much to my left, but it seemed as if there was nothing but open sky to our right.

Wally sat up straighter in his seat to look over the nose of the vehicle as we crested the rise, and I found myself rising in anticipation as well. I was excited to finally see what the world Wally had come from was like, and surely we were high enough to catch a glimpse now.

The truck levelled out rather abruptly, and Wally sat down suddenly to stomp on the brake pedal. The truck screeched to a halt, and I went stumbling forwards into the windshield. I caught myself before my head bumped against it, and straightened. It was then I saw there was less than a vehicle length of solid ground in front of us, and then nothing but open sky.

"Jesus Christ," Wally breathed.

"Is everything okay up there?" Amity called.

"No."

Wally, very deliberately, set the parking brake. Then reached for the door handle and stepped down from the cab. I joined him a moment later, just in time to see Regina leap out of the cargo bed to land beside Amity.

Wally stiffened and drew back as the gynoid walked straight towards the edge.

"Whoa whoa whoa," Wally winced.

Amity turned back to us and spread her hands, "What?" she demanded.

"Could we maybe not get so close?"

"How else am I supposed to see what's down there?"

"Here's fine," Wally insisted, "I can see plenty from here. There's the city and everything."

I giggled as I realized that Wally was actually crouching slightly, even leaning away from the rim as if recoiling from a raging inferno.

Naturally, I ran to join Amity.

"Oh for fuck's sake, Val, Jesus-"

I skidded to a stop next to her, and my jaw dropped as I took in the view before us.

"Wally," I breathed, "You simply must see this."

"I'm good over here."

"We have found Lord Wallace's one weakness," Regina intoned, as she sauntered up next to Amity, "It is only fitting that the hero of a proper epic should have just the one."

"Oh yeah, just the one," I heard Wally mutter.

We stood upon the rim of an enormous crater. It was thirty, maybe forty miles across, and by the rim's jagged edges, relatively recent.

The interior slope was barren and strewn with broken rock, and I could count layers of sediment where the stone changed from one colour to another. It wasn't until you were deeper into the crater, where the terrain returned to level, that one could see vegetation.

There was little enough of it. Grass, to be sure, but there were few trees, just the odd copse here and there, and a small wood off in the distance.

The city was what occupied most of the basin. I was looking down upon it, but that did little to detract from the human settlement's sheer scale.

Buildings like shards of glass shone below, rising what must have been hundreds of yards into the sky. And surrounding the core of glass shards was a city that sprawled so far and so wide that it would take a man on foot all day to cross it.

No wonder there were so many human vehicles left at the hotel. How else was one meant to get around?

I only stopped my gawping when I realized that what I had taken for a low rain cloud hovering above the city was actually smoke. When the humans weren't constructing glass colossi, they built in a great many colours, so when my eyes had first passed over the section of city, I had taken the dark colouring for a human whim.

Instead, an entire neighbourhood of the city, so large that Parabuteo could have been lost within, had burned. Buildings, trees, the grass, everything had burned. Recently, too. The smoke still hung in the air, and here and there I could see the orange flicker of firelight still eating away at the remains.

At least it seemed contained by- no, those weren't rivers. They were human roads, made of the same black material as the street outside the hotel.

Great swaths of black asphalt and grey concrete crisscrossed the city. Two of these streets had served as fire breaks and kept the fire contained to one corner.

I heard a shuffling, scraping sound as Wally approached and turned back to look up at him. And then looked down at my feet, where he was slowly shuffling toward the rim on his belly.

"Wally," I chided.

"Don't you start with me. How about you get Amity to put you up on her shoulders, then you stand right here next to the edge. Bet you wouldn't feel quite so flippant."

"So?" Amity asked, "What do you think?"

"Think? It's a city. I don't know which one, but I'm more interested in that," Wally extended an arm, pointing north-west.

"I don't- Oh dear," Amity breathed.

I furrowed my brow and tried to follow the line of Wally's arm. He seemed to be pointing at a section of the crater rim where-

It ended. The crater just ended.

It was hardly the first time I'd seen a sharp break between two sections of the landscape. Wally and I had seen a good example on our first journey out from Parabuteo, where the forest had ended abruptly, and there'd been a drop of several feet down to scrubby grassland. It happened occasionally at the boundary between sections that had been cut from different worlds.

This was similar. The mists had brought only half, the eastern half, of the crater. The edges had come in sheer but had already begun to smooth out with the passage of the tides. Beyond the city, there was a rise I'd initially taken to be the land rising to meet the far rim of the crater, but it was little more than the accumulated silt and detritus left behind by the surging tides.

"City's fucked," Wally said flatly.

Regina settled down and nestled her massive head between her forepaws, "It appears to be so," she agreed.

The city had days, perhaps even weeks. But given time, the crater rim would erode further and further with the passage of each dawn. Given time, the tidal wave would come to sweep across the city. All that would remain would be a low ridge where we now stood.