As he asks, I feel the lightest touch of his magic, and my own cup of ginger ale on the seat tray begins to slide.
Ha. Now he’s testingmyability to multitask.
Or maybe he sensed me having an emotion and is trying to distract me.
I am happy—nay, delighted—to operate as if it’s only the former, which is a safer assumption anyway.
I gently levitate my ginger ale just an inch before picking it up and taking a sip, looking at him in amusement over the rim.
Nariel’s lips quirk. “You were saying about your administrative wizard?”
My cellphone begins to slide out of my other hand, and I almost laugh.
He wants to play? I can play.
Can Iever.
I answer him while making my phone suddenly gain weight and drop back into my hand. “When I came back, I needed a lot more than the usual. Like, fake transcripts going back a decade and a fake school website that looked legit, but especially basic computer literacy. I couldn’t even type, right?”
Nariel whistles quietly. “When I first visited Low Earth after my exile, I had no basis for understanding this world. As fast as technology and social expressions move now, and how little grounding you’d have had it in before you left...”
Impossibly bizarre, for the person who can best imagine what that was like to be a centuries-old demon.
I’d say my life has become strange, but that has been true for a long-ass time.
“You can imagine then that transitioning back to high school for one final year was a nightmare for all kinds of reasons,” I say wryly, and Nariel ironically doffs his hat. I snort. “Anyway, she loaned me money to take some courses in programming and business management, to get me some skills applicable to Low Earth. To pay her back, I revamped her systems and then built my own fake records to falsify a high school diploma. So I know next to nothing about the English literature canon or how chemistry works even compared to an average American student, but it turns out programming shares a lot of the same skills as mage—wizardry. I still do pro bono work for her from time to time as thanks, so we’re on good terms.”
In the time it took me to get that explanation out, we have gently fought over the positions of the bags in the overhead compartment, swiveled his cap all the way around, and switched beverages twice. I’m trying not to laugh, but I feel almost giddy.
I haven’t been able to use magic for so long, that to use it forfun, socasually—I feel almost drunk.
“Ah,” Nariel says, “so programming is why you have the resources to pay for two last-minute international business class tickets?”
The smile erupts out of me. “No, actually. Most of my money now is from my travel blog.”
Nariel blinks. “How does that work?”
I’d wondered if he was going to ask what a travel blog was. “Ad revenue, basically. At first I took remote programming contracts periodically to fund my travel, but then I was going to all these places I couldn’t find much information about.”
He looks at me sharply. “You were looking for magic.”
Once again, he sees me instantly. Even most wizards I met up with didn’t understand what I was doing with all my travel around the world, or why.
I take a breath.Be chill, Sierra.
“Yes. I haven’t been to all the power spots in the world by a longshot, but at this point I know the biggest ones. I doubt any human in this world or another knows as many.”
“Another advantage over High Earth, then.” Nariel smiles, and it has an edge to it. “Well-played, Sierra Walker.”
The way he says my name makes it feel almost like a title, and one I can be proud of. Not like how High Earthers wielded it to remind me that my name was unlike theirs, that I had no place there.
“Thank you,” I murmur, and I meant that to come out playfully but it’s soft enough that his gaze turns oddly intent as he glances at me under his cap.
I’m so used to no one understanding why I even bother that this demon can get under my skin without even trying.
I magically lift up his tray in retaliation, as if to tip his glass over, trying to lighten the mood again.
I think it works when he asks me another question, but then it’s, “Where do you live, then?”
