Year 2 – Shift 4 – One-Year Anniversary – Sara

Sara stood on the same spot where she had stood one year ago, sobbing.

The patio where everything had started had been cleared for a week. Reset and as good as new.

Except for the view.

Behind her stood the razed remains of Etokuso, a city she had bled everything to make possible for the Shafted, Earthers, drow, minotaurs, elves, Thri-kreen, and everyone else who had needed somewhere to belong. Straight, bi, gay, trans, cis, nonbinary, werekin, gelatinosexual, scaly, furry, Aasexual—Aas for short, meaning attracted to Aasimar—mono, poly, saturated, and unsaturated.

In front of her, the sun filtering through the newly formed canopy shone across what Sara had renamed the Forest of Nihilism on her clipboard. The field was filled with five times as many customers as their grand opening.

“They came.” The words escaped Sara’s lips as she stood there, both numb and completely exhilarated.

“We’ve combed through the crowd,” Chadwick said. “The general consensus is that they want to support you any way they can.”

Everything Sara had hoped to find in Tennoji was standing all around her.

Community.

The kind that rallied when one of its members was down.

But she had one correction to make.

“Us. Not me. Most of them don’t know my name. They know Muffin, they know the Shafted, and they know the incubus-loving minotaur.”

“The point is that they’re here for us,” Simone said.

“And we’re here because of you,” Mark added. “Not the idiot who made the place.”

“No.” Sara chuckled. “You’re here because of the idiot who ran it.”

“The best idiot.” Raven bumped her shoulder against Sara’s and smiled.

Sara took a moment to look at the woman who had given everything to rip herself away from hell just to step into this life with her.

“Your idiot.” Sara blushed, still completely unable to handle a compliment like that.

“As much as I love seeing you get squishy-pantsed”—Cody paused his latest attempt to lick his own leg—“what are we going to do when we run out of product?”

“Lacuna?” Sara looked over at her newly appointed inventory lead.

“We’ll sell out today.” Lacuna pulled out her clipboard and looked it over. “Inventory is low because our flavorizer was destroyed. We’re waiting for Motoh Grayter to get back with the replacement, but he’s three days late.”

Sara checked her notes and considered everything that still needed to be done. “Simone, you and Kaori track him down. Bring our people home. Get the part if you can, but bringing Motoh back is the priority.”

“We got it!” Kaori geeked out at the chance to spend time with Simone. They had been growing closer ever since Kaori began embracing her life in Etokuso.

“Cody and the Wangs crew uncovered something big that I need to check out.” Sara looked over the rest of her assignments. “So…I need another infiltration.”

“Ooh!” Mark raised his hand beneath his signature trucker hat, which currently read Spread Cheeks Not Hate. “Dick Shooter is just dying to take another vacation!”

Sara stared at the hat for a long moment. She tried to remember when his obsession with that persona had started, but her mind mercifully blanked. “Go with Muffin, but not as Dick Shooter.”

“Aww.” Mark slumped. “What’s the target?”

“I don’t know if you all noticed,” Sara began, “but Craig pretty much left us alone last year until we stepped on his toes.”

“They needed stepping on!” one of the Shafted roared from the crowd, followed by a chorus of agreement.

“They did,” Sara agreed. “But it got me wondering. Why did Craig just keep to himself? What was his endgame?”

“It doesn’t matter now.” Mark shook his head. “He’s gone.”

A long silence stretched before Sara responded.

“Actually…I shut the portals down. All of them.”

“What?” Mark asked. “Why? That’s our supply line, and that’s a way home!”

“Do you…” Sara stared at him. “Want to go home, Mark?”

“No! Of course not.” Mark hesitated. “But what about Kaori? What about all the other Earthers out there who might want to?”

“I am not sending magic into that world.” Sara’s tone brooked no compromise. “Not with modern military technology and tech-bro billionaires. You could send an epic-level party back there, and it wouldn’t take a week for them to be dissected or coerced. Until we find a way back to Earth without our game bodies, Shardi and Glandalf have the portals completely locked down.”

“But…” Mark was reaching.

“Can you imagine what the government could do with metamagic alone?” Sara asked. “Bastard cops using Hold Person and Darkness to plant shit on people?”

“Precrime would become real. Minority Report style,” Cody added. “Surveillance like a motherfucker. Detect Thoughts, scrying, Zone of Truth, Discern Location…privacy would be erased.”

“Geas. Suggestion. Modify Memory…” Simone shuddered. “Identity erasure. I’m with her.”

“Why in the hell would someone want to know everything you’re doing?” Raven asked. “That sounds like they have way too little free time.”

Sara raised an eyebrow at her. “You were an Arachne, babe. I don’t think I need to explain the mechanics of a web.”

Raven paused, then slowly shook her head. “Yeah. I get that. What I don’t understand is why.”

“Money. Power,” Lacuna said. “Bitches. Who knows? It’s a game of control.”

“And I’m going to stop it here.” Sara straightened. “We already have two key pieces of the puzzle. Mark, Muffin, you’re going to the castle. Your only job is to find any information about Craig that you can.”

“Got it!” Muffin skipped over to Mark’s side.

“Lacuna, Raven, Cody, and I are leaving in the morning, and we’re going to be gone for a while.” Sara turned to Chadwick. “Sell everything. If someone wants a piece of the rubble, give it to them. Let the world carry pieces of what the Shafted built so people can still find them generations from now.”

“Actually,” Lacuna said, “I need to work on inventory.”

Sara nodded. “Yeah. Okay. Keep me updated on the new flavor lines. I want them ready for the reopening.”

“Aye.” Lacuna nodded.

“You good, Chadwick?” Sara asked.

“You got it, boss bro.” Chadwick wrote on his clipboard. “We’re almost done with cleanup and demolition. We’ll get back to it after we sell out.”

Sara took a breath and looked over the team, all of them ready to move.

“Get out there and win.”

She clapped her hands, breaking the meeting, and Raven immediately grabbed her by the arm.

Raven tugged playfully, and Sara let herself be pulled along. They returned to the hatch and descended into the tunnels leading toward the void, but Raven detoured them deeper into the system.

“You know you’re coming with me tomorrow, right?” Sara asked, already knowing exactly where Raven was taking her.

“Yeah.” Raven didn’t stop walking. “That doesn’t stop me from wanting this right now.”

Sara’s lip curled upward as they arrived at the place where they had been sneaking away together for months.

The water of their tiny grotto was warm and relaxing on one side of the dividing rocks and cool and refreshing on the other. Half-spent candles, books, clothes, and snacks lay scattered around the space, filling it with evidence of them.

Sara threw her clipboard near the entrance and stripped off her grimy clothes, tossing them aside. Raven pulled her Pizza Hut shirt over her head, but before she could even see again, Sara rushed her.

Sara’s bare chest struck Raven’s as she pressed her mouth against the drow’s barely uncovered lips. She tore the shirt the rest of the way off, pressed Raven against the wall, and kissed her with a need fierce enough to make her scream.

Raven bucked her hips forward playfully, breaking the kiss just long enough to lead them toward the water. “I’m so glad we have this place all to ourselves.”

“I’m so glad I have you all to myself.” Sara smiled as she sank into the water and settled onto Raven’s lap, facing her, her entire body humming with energy.

Raven leaned back slightly and grinned. She reached toward the rocks and tapped the play button on her phone.

The familiar scratching guitar began.

Then the cough.

Sara remembered.

Her heart melted. “Beartooth?”

“I believe you have four albums of fucking to do.” Raven chuckled.

Then it happened.

Caleb Shomo kicked off the album.

“Yeah!”

Sara leaned forward, her lips hovering dangerously close to Raven’s ear.

“Until my arms fall off.”