Liora folded the menu closed and placed it on the table. “So, Pythorus, are you from the city or one of the settlements you spoke about?”
“The answer is complicated, but basically all over, actually,” he replied. “I was hatched in one of the farther caverns of theeastern corridor. Sadly, I was from the last clutch my mother had, and all the other eggs hadn’t survived so it was only me growing up. She didn’t really want to stay there, so she found a job that had her traveling all over Solkaris, and sometimes outside too. We even stayed in Alindale for two years when I was eight.”
His open and candid nature meant Zara could sense deep affection when he spoke of his mother. Curious, she prodded further. “What does she do? Your mother, I mean.”
“She’s a structural engineer, actually, but retired now,” he said, pride beaming from his face. “She worked on modernizing our tunnels, and after that, she took on consulting jobs around Vale Crossing. Unfortunately, I didn’t inherit her smarts. I’m just a normal working guy, you know?” Embarrassment emanated from him like heat off asphalt.
”Intelligence isn’t about crunching numbers and spouting facts,” Zara pointed out.
“Yeah,” Liora piped in. “Sounds like living all over sharpened your social skills. You got street smarts, as we say in the Upperworld.”
“Street…smarts.” He had his head tilted to the side as he said the words, like he was trying them out. “Thank you for saying that, that’s kind of you.” He nodded his thanks as their waitress came back with their drinks. “And how about the three of you? Where did you grow up in the Upperworld?”
“That’s also a complicated answer,” Liora chortled. After taking a sip of her drink, she continued. “Hmm that’s good. Anyway, our mother is from New Mexico—that’s in a country called America—while our father is from a different country, Bolivia. We were born in our mother’s country, but we would go back and forth a lot.”
“We spent our earlier years in Bolivia,” Zara added. “But when we were around twelve, we went back to America becausemy mother was taking over her family’s business. After we finished high school, we decided to move back to Bolivia.”
“Why?” he asked.
“We missed it,” Liora said, then nodded at Elian. “Him mostly.” Their brother remained silent, but he didn’t contradict them.
Zara didn’t need her powers to know her brother’s feelings on the matters. “Also, our powers began to grow. We wanted to be somewhere we could be ourselves and not have to worry about the wrong people finding out about us.”
“The Upperworld isn’t a place where they believe magic exists,” Elian said, speaking up.
“You mean, it’s a place where theyno longerbelieve it exists,” Pythorus said in a quiet voice. “Once, our ancestors all lived there,” he reminded them. “Until the humans stopped believing in gods and magic and forced those who didn’t conform to flee.”
A hush fell over the table, a sense of loss hanging in the air like heavy humidity.
Much to Zara’s surprise, Elian raised his glass in the air. “Well, fuck ’em. I like us the way we are.”
Pythorus’s golden eyes gleamed and he clinked his glass to Elian’s. “Hear, hear.”
Liora and Zara joined too. “Hear, hear.”
“Oh good!” Liora exclaimed as the waitress came back with a tray loaded with food. “I’m starving!”
The four of them dug into the feast. To their delight and amazement, basilisk cuisine was delicious and spicy. It was something they were used to, eating a lot of their father’s and abuela’s cooking. There was a different quality to the spiciness and flavors and as they learned from Pythorus that the heat didn’t come from peppers but mushroom-like fungi that grew in the walls along heat caverns.
The drinks, too, were as potent as the food was spicy. Soon, they were all a little too happy and a little too loud.
“Is that a dart board?” Liora pointed to a large, round wooden board on the wall across the room. It was about twice the size of a dart board, with colorful concentric circles painted in the center. “Like, a game where you throw small arrows at the target?”
“You meankamesszy? Yes, I suppose that’s how it’s played. Each circle corresponds to a certain number of points, but it’s not just about getting the highest number of points, but also, you need to hit all the circles first.”
“Ah, close enough to darts, I suppose, but I’m sure we can get the hang of it, right Elian?”
Elian shook his head. “Oh no, Liora. No freaking way.”
“Don’t be a party pooper,” Liora whined. “I bet we can find some guys to hustle.”
“Yeah, but those guys will be over seven feet tall and have tails that can squeeze us to death.”
Liora rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand. “C’mon, you know you can’t resist a challenge. We’ll just play by ourselves.” Despite Elian’s protests, Liora eventually managed to drag him across the room toward thekamesszyboards.
“Sorry about that,” Zara said, sheepish. “They can be annoying sometimes, but that’s how it is with siblings.”
“I wouldn’t know, I’m afraid.”
