I’d recently introduced Ruka to card games. For some reason this world didn’t have playing cards so I’d had to create a deck myself. I turned it over to the elves and they started mass producing them for sale in their shop in the city too, along with waffle irons, Go boards, and a few other Earthly games and conveniences I’d taught them about.

  I’d run out of card games I knew that could be played by only two people so Ruka and I were playing her favorite of the ones I’d taught her, Cribbage. She was being quieter than usual, as though her mind was elsewhere.

  “You know, we’d be able to play a lot more games if we had more players,” I ventured.

  I’d been toying for a while with the idea of introducing the topic of inviting more people to our game night. Yes, I was feeling guilty about still keeping all this from Sigrid and thought this might be a way to fix that.

  “No,” Ruka said bluntly.

  “They wouldn’t need to know who you really are.”

  “Still no.”

  “Can I ask why the vehement rejection of the idea?”

  She put down her cards and took a sip of tea. “I was going to wait until the end of this visit but I suppose I ought to tell you now.”

  “That sounds ominous. Should I be worried?”

  She’d stopped making eye contact, which wasn’t like her, and that alone worried me.

  “Would it bother you if I wasn’t able to visit you for a while?” she said.

  “Of course it would.”

  “Then yes, you should be worried. And before you ask, I can’t say why.” Her gaze suddenly snapped up and she locked eyes with me. “But starting tomorrow,” she began, then looked away again, “I won’t be able to.”

  What was with the weird eye movements and heavy emphasis on tomorrow? I put my cards down and leaned back. “Well that is worrisome and upsetting. But you can’t say why, huh?”

  “No shop talk, remember?” she said.

  So the reason she wouldn’t be able to see me had to do with her being a demon.

  “I see.”

  “It’s a shame it always has to be me who comes to you,” she afeed out of the blue, still looking away.

  She was just full of surprises today.

  “I didn’t think me coming to you was an option,” I said.

  “Well it could happen,” she said, then looked me in the eyes again, “as long as you don’t mind teleporting into the middle of your enemies.”

  “I think I’d rather avoid that,” I said.

  We sat in silence, looking at each other, then out of nowhere she sighed and rolled her eyes.

  She picked up her cards again and looked at them, reorganizing them in her hand. “It’s moot anyway. After all, you don’t know where to find me.”

  “You mean the guess I made that first time you showed up here was wrong?”

  She looked up at me with a big smile, the first real smile she’d given me since she arrived, and winked. “That would be telling.”

  I boiled down her enigmatic behaviour to there probably being some sort of rule against telling me too much, but today’s coyness was still strange, even for the succubus.

  Things were a little awkward between us for the next little while, but knowing it might be our last time for who knew how long neither of us suggested calling a night. We soon found our groove again and stayed up later than usual, making the most of each other’s company for as long as possible, but all good things must come to an end.

  We’d just finished a nostalgic game of Go when she sighed.

  “I think it’s time for you to kick me out, Daniel. It’s almost tomorrow.”

  We took our time cleaning up — after that first visit she’d started helping me with the dishes — but eventually we found ourselves at my door. We didn’t usually linger over our goodbyes, but this time felt different. It almost felt like a farewell.

  A few visits ago, I’d been thinking about games to teach her. I had contemplated then rejected the idea of introducing her to Twister because I wasn’t sure I would survive the inevitable tangle of bodies with my chastity intact. I realized at that time that Ruka and I barely had any physical contact. We always greeted each other with words and said goodbye with a wave. We always sat across from each other at that table, except when doing dishes or playing a game that required movement. The only times we ever touched was when our hands would brush while both reaching toward a game piece at the same time or when one of us handed the other a freshly washed tea cup to dry.

  That’s why I was so surprised when she grabbed me and clenched me in a tight embrace before leaving. Ordinarily, a person who looked like me would be happy to have a person who looked like Ruka give him a hug. Unfortunately, the pleasure was overshadowed by a powerful sense of foreboding that wasn’t helped at all by her final words to me.

  As she held me close I felt her lips tickle my ear as she whispered, “I’ll be counting on you,” before letting go then ducking outside and disappearing in a twinkle of light.

  After she was gone I sank into the comfort of my own bed for the first time in a while. I’d spent who knows how long grabbing occasional catnaps in my Fortress of Solitude while crafting like a beast.

  Alas, the pleasure was short-lived because I found myself tossing and turning for hours, and my comfort descended into frustration. This was new to me. I’d never had a problem falling asleep in the past. If anything I slept too much as I often sought escape from the black dog of depression in the blissful oblivion of sleep.

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  I ended up getting hardly any sleep at all that endless night. It’s not that I wasn’t tired, I very much was, and it wasn’t that my brain was spinning with thoughts that kept me up. I just couldn’t sleep.

  I did eventually doze off, I know that because the next morning I awoke to the comforting feeling of Sigrid’s arm and leg splayed over me as she lay beside me, her head resting on my shoulder, snoring lightly.

  Her long blonde hair was tied up in the usual ponytail she wore when exercising, but something was different. It took me a few seconds to figure out what it was: she smelled different. She smelled kind of like vanilla, and it was coming from her hair. I pressed my cheek against the top of her head and took a deep sniff.

  “Mmm.”

  Sigrid wiggled against me. “Hmmm?”

  “You smell good,” I said, breathing in deeply through my nose again.

  “I know, right?” She rolled off me onto her back and stretched languidly. “A few of us visited Lianna’s friend yesterday after we were done in the labyrinth. You know, the one with the salon? Morgan had whipped up some scented shampoo and soaps and we had a spa night.”

  “A spa, huh? That’s a good idea. Remind me to tell Lianna we should build a proper spa in the Cathedral.”

  “That’s a great idea!”

  Almost like she knew we were talking about her, Lianna called me on the Dick Tracy Communicator. Her annoyed face appeared when I answered.

  “Where are you?” she said. “Are you still in bed?”

  “Uh, no.”

  ”Are you lying to me right now?”

  ”Yes.”

  “Did you forget you’re making me join your morning fitness sessions with Sigrid? I’ve been waiting forever.” Her annoyance flipped to suspicion in an instant. “Wait, is that person still there?”

  “I’m here,” Sigrid said. “Sorry, my bad. I was supposed to wake him up and ended up falling asleep myself.”

  “Oh,” Lianna said. “It’s only you, Sigrid.”

  Sigrid chuckled. “Who else would it be?”

  “I thought maybe Daniel’s late night visitor was still there.”

  Uh oh.

  “Late night what now?” Sigrid said, then thumped me on the chest. “Are you keeping more secrets from me, dummy?”

  “I, uh...” I fumbled.

  Sigrid grabbed my wrist and brought the communicator closer to herself. “Tell me everything,” she demanded of Lianna.

  “It’s none of my business,” Lianna said, “but not long after I left his place last night I caught a glimpse of someone going into his tree.”

  “Oh, it was probably just Petal or something,” Sigrid said.

  “Maybe, but why would she be wearing a long black wig?”

  “Oh?” Sigrid said.

  “Who do we know with long black hair?”

  Sigrid paused to think. “Chika?” She thumped me again, much harder. “You wouldn’t.”

  “No,” I said. “I would not.”

  “Yeah, that didn’t seem plausible.”

  “I thought it might be Jane in a wig,” Lianna said.

  “Now that would be plausible. Why’d you think it was her?”

  “Whoever it was, they were very, let’s say, well-proportioned.”

  “Oh really?” Sigrid said. “Sadly it wasn’t Jane. She was with me until late. Anything you want to tell us, Daniel?”

  “Can I plead the fifth?” I said.

  Sigrid made a buzzer sound. “Aannh! Sorry pal, we’re Canadian. No such thing.”

  I started getting out of bed. “In that case, yes. I am keeping secrets. But I’m allowed. You don’t tell me everything you do, either.”

  “Actually,” Sigrid said, grabbing me and pulling me back down onto my back, ”I do.”

  “Maybe we ought to let it go,” Lianna said.

  “I second that emotion,” I said.

  Sigrid propped herself up on an elbow and looked down at me. “There’s nothing that says you have to tell me everything,” she said. “I’m your friend, not your wife. But I thought we were at least close enough that you’d tell me if you’d hooked up.”

  “Actually,” I said, looking up at her, “you are my best friend. And if I had met someone, you know I would tell you. But it’s not like that.”

  Sigrid reached out and took my chin in her hand, forcing me to look her in the eyes. “So it wasn’t a lover’s tryst?”

  “Ew,” Lianna said. “Don’t use that word. It’s gross.”

  My eyes didn’t waver from Sigrid’s. “It was not a romantic thing, no,” I said. “We are not lovers,” I added, emphasizing the last word for Lianna’s benefit and being rewarded with an audible cringe from her holographic projection.

  Sigrid chuckled and released me. “I believe you. With all the opportunities you’ve had, if you haven’t made a move on anyone yet I doubt you ever will.”

  “I hate keeping secrets from you, Sigrid, and you too, Lianna, but I hope you will both understand when I say that I can’t tell you about it. Not right now.”

  “Is it anything we should be worried about?” Lianna said.

  I probably paused a bit too long to think about it because both of their faces frowned. “I don’t think so,” I said. “And besides, I was told last night would be the last time I got a visit like that, so it doesn’t matter.”

  “Long black hair and a killer bod, huh?” Sigrid said. “You do realize I’ll be looking for anyone who fits that description.”

  “Look all you want, I’m pretty sure you’ll never see her,” I said, and I must have said it wistfully because her frown softened to a concerned look.

  “Are you okay?” Sigrid said, resting her hand on my chest.

  “Yeah. It’s fine.” I put my hand over hers. “Thanks.”

  “For what?”

  “For caring about me,” I said.

  “Of course,” Sigrid said. “But you know, you really don’t have to keep secrets from me. You should know by now I am not the judgy kind, you can talk to me about anything.”

  “I know.”

  “I’ll probably regret this at some point,” Lianna said, “but you can talk to me too. We’re partners now, right?”

  “Even about all his lovers?” Sigrid said.

  “Oh god,” Lianna said, “please stop.”

  “Seriously,” I said, “thank you both. I promise I’ll tell all, just not right now.”

  “I’m sure you have your reasons,” Sigrid said.

  “I do.”

  Sigrid started crawling over me to get off the bed. “Well alright then, let’s go running.”

  “I’ll be right over,” Lianna said, and her projection fluttered away when she closed the communicator link.

  I don’t know if it was accidental or on purpose, but Sigrid’s breasts dragged across my pelvis as she clambered over me. Luckily she didn’t linger, lest she felt the accidental reaction I had down there. I’m only human.

  After she was done, I changed into exercise clothes as I followed her out.

  I’ve said it before, but if you ever get the chance to get a personal pocket dimension in which to store all your stuff I highly recommend picking one up. I couldn’t remember the last time I actually made an effort to change my clothing. I just thought about what I wanted to wear and poof, it appeared on my body. The absolute height of laziness, and it was wonderful.

  We were about ten minutes into our run and the two of them were trying to think of anyone who fit Ruka’s description when a notification screen popped up. All three of us got the same one, as did all Players who were on teams.

  System: Global notification – All teams must gather in the arena.

  Time remaining: 04:00:00

  Show time.