“You know.” I shrug. “Offerings and shit?”
“For you to… what? Kill?”
“No.” I make a face at her and guffaw. “To fuck. What the hell, Pie?”
She laughs again, and this time I’m certain that we’re visible to the drunk Viking wedding party. Our laughter is too loud, our presence here palpable. “OK,” she says, once she’s calmed down. “So I am supposed to… what? Watch?”
My eyes narrow down. “Do you want to watch?”
“Not especially. But”—she smirks at me—“you put me in a costume and there’s no telling what I’ll be up for. Halloween night, exhibit A.”
I picture her in that outfit she showed up in, then grab her and pull her towards the new door. “I think we’re gonna be fine. And let’s get out of here before that big guy with the ax decides he wants to fight me.”
Even after two thousand years, there is always a sense of apprehension and excitement when I approach a door. It never gets old. The wonder of what you might find on the other side of that door never disappears. Even when I’ve come up here raging drunk and out of my mind with anger, my heart pauses mid-beat when I step through.
But this time, it’s more than that. It’s a held breath. It’s a weird feeling in my stomach. And when Pie and I come out on the other side, we’re in a gloomy, empty room dressed in plain clothes.
“It’s an attic,” Pie says. And she’s right. The windows are small and circular. Only two of them, one on each endcap of a pitched roof. Outside gray clouds are rolling and when I walk over to the window, I know when we are.
“World War I,” I mutter. Then I grab her hand again. “We’re not gonna to stop here. There’s no point.” She doesn’t argue, but it takes a moment for the magic to catch up and produce a new door.
This time when we walk though, we come out into a stifling heat and when I look down and find myself in the long, white toga of a Roman citizen, I can’t stop the smile.
Pie is looking down at her clothes as well. She is wearing a stola, but a short one that barely comes to her knees. No shoes. This means she is not a citizen, not a wife in this room, but some kind of slave. The stola has a fine embroidered edge though, which means she belongs to someone wealthy.
Me.
“Well.” She huffs. “That’s fucking special. I’m no expert in ancient fashion, but it’s pretty clear who I am in this scenario.” She leans up on her tiptoes and whispers, “I’m not even wearing underwear!”
I wink at her. “Neither am I.”
She blushes, then turns away so I can’t see it. “So where are we?”
I look around. I would not call this place familiar in the sense that I’ve ever been here, but this long room flanked on both sides with traditional Doric columns and marble floors is something I recognize. “Party room in a palace, from the looks of it.”
“It’s a pretty boring party, since we’re the only ones here.”
A new door appears on the other end of the room and I nod my head in that direction. “Do you want to move on? There are endless places to discover. We don’t have to stay.”
“There’s food over there. Do you think it’s good?”
“It’s not real food, so it doesn’t matter. You can eat all you want in here. It even tastes good. But it’s magic. It’s not food. So you will be very hungry when we get back.”
She lets go of my hand and walks over to the spread of meats, and cheeses, and fruit. “I don’t recognize anything.”
I join her at the table, grab a flask, and pour us both cups of wine. “Might as well start with the alcohol.”
She smiles again and I find that I’m looking for it now. I’m trying to make her smile. I would not call Pie a stunning girl. Cute is actually a very good word for her. She’s got very pretty long, blonde hair. And it’s a true blonde, not a light brown. And her eyes are blue and wide, and this looks good on her. But her face… her face is just a young face. Symmetrical, unblemished, with a perky nose and somewhat round cheeks. No harsh edges to this girl. It’s all very soft. All very cute.
And I like it. I don’t mind looking at her. In fact, she almost seems like a… reward. After all these centuries being stuck with men, some not very attractive at all—and Tomas, of course, who is attractive, but his good looks are more than just deceiving, they are lies—Pie is a present wrapped up in a bow, because she’s more than just her beauty. Her personality is quite fun.