A few minutes later, and Dara found herself sitting by Millie as they left Mike’s house.

“Why did he throw us out?”

“Because he’s going to be working on some computer magic to make our lives easier,” Millie said. “But he doesn’t work well with people looking over his shoulder, and doesn’t want to tell us what it is, until it’s ready.”

Dara frowned. “Why wouldn’t he tell us?”

“Ah, yeah, Mike sort of… hates it when he can’t deliver. And the best way to make certain you can deliver is not to make too many promises in advance.” Millie shook her head. “Given that this involves spooky magic, I don’t think Mike is certain he can do everything he’s hoping to do.”

“And what would that be?”

“Knowing Mike? Some kind of app, probably something designed to flag any spooky events.”

“Magic is not spooky,” Dara said. She huffed and folded her arms as she looked out the window. At least right now the traffic wasn’t bad, and they weren’t moving fast.

“You had a giant monster try to murder us.”

“That’s… you have cars that look like they’re about to murder anyone on the same street with them! Are they spooky?”

Millie fell silent, then nodded. “Fair cop. I guess it’s because when we’re used to our particular poison it doesn’t bother us. I mean, my problem is airliners.”

Dara frowned. “Ships of the air?”

“No, airplanes. Some of em can carry hundreds of people, ten times as fast as this old car could ever do. They go all over the world.”

Ten times as fast… Dara swallowed. “Why is it a problem?”

“Cause well… Okay, the thing is, they don’t crash often, but when they do, it’s sort of like zip-boom! A big smoking hole in the ground and everyone is dead.”

“Wait.” Dara stared at Millie. “So people fly in the sky, even though they could all end up dead?”

“Yeah, but it’s really unlikely!” Millie said.

“That is not helping!”

Millie sighed. “Look, Dara, I’m just saying that something unusual makes us more nervous. I have more chance of getting killed here on the freeway than I do on an airplane, but because I’m not use—Oh, come on!”

Dara’s hands were back, clutching the dashboard for dear life, and she didn’t care if Millie was glaring at her.

Getting the ceramic bricks and the ladle, in addition to everything else, didn’t take very long and Dara seemed confident that they’d work.

I guess melting stuff is the same no matter where you live. Millie shook her head as she paid for it, this time in the cash they’d gotten from the drug gang. The owner could stick the money in his cash drawer, and then drop it off at the bank, and she doubted anyone was looking for drug money at a store that catered to metal workers.

But on the other hand… I really hope you’re wrong, Dara. She spared a quick glance over at Dara. The teen was no longer clinging to the dashboard for dear life. Now, she was staring out of the window at the endless Orange County sprawl, a pensive look on her face.

Maybe Dara was thinking the same thing. There were a lot of people out there, and the only reason that the golem hadn’t slaughtered its way through LA was that Dara and Millie had been there.

But what if we weren’t? Sure, Dara had evidently triggered the golem, but it sounded like other stuff might be happening.

And even if Mike came up with some of his technological magic, it wouldn’t help them if some kind of beastie was rampaging through San Francisco while they were up here.

Should I tell Sis? But that would mean telling her about Dara. And Dara could do shit nobody else could do right now, and Millie didn’t trust the government.

Oh, they’re not evil or anything, but something important, and magic sure as hell counts, would see them making Dara an offer she couldn’t refuse.

And Dara doesn’t have any ID. Easy to make her just… vanish.

Millie shook her head. She couldn’t tell anyone about Dara, well, anyone official. Especially since she bet that Dara might tell them herself if the wrong person talked to her. Nice kid, but naïve as anything.

And they—

“Millie?” Dara asked.

“Yeah?”

“I need some silver and gold. Not a lot, but I need it now.”

“For what?”

“Magic.”

Millie frowned, and then nodded. “Sure, they have weekday swap meets and we can buy some jewelery. Does it have to be pure?”

“No, I can refine it.”

“Okay. So, um, care to explain what kind of magic?”

“We almost got killed by that golem. I want to create some expendable foci and modify my staff.” Dara paused. “I wasn’t expecting a fight before I came here, after all.”

“And we need gold and silver for…”

“The ink. Foci work best with the proper ink.”

“Wow, you must spend a lot of money on ink back home.”

“Um… yeah, but it’s worth it,” Dara replied.

“Right, well, time for your first experience of a swap meet.”

“Are they like a merchant’s fair?” Dara asked. “Every few weeks, all the merchants come in and set up on the green.”

“Sort of,” Millie replied. “But some of them run all the time. People can come in and pay for the right to set up a booth. So… yeah?” A quick lane change had them heading for the freeway offramp. “You never know what you’re going to get. I once got an antique lamp that was worth five hundred, and the next week I bought something that turned out to be a complete fake. You just never know.”

“So be careful?”

“Yeah.” Millie glanced at her. “I brought some of our liberated cash, but keep an eye out for anyone paying too much attention to us.” Because cash is a lot easier to steal than a credit card account.

“Right.” Dara smiled. “If you want, I could make an enchanted purse for you? It’d warn you if someone tried to steal anything.”

“Yeah, remember, we’re trying to keep that on the down low.” Millie paused at the light, before she made a left turn, Dara wincing as a car zipped through where they’d just been. Another turn and they started passing through an industrial park, the patched road causing the car to bounce and rattle as they drove down the street. “There it is,” Millie told Dara. “Our swap meet.”

Dara frowned. “What’s the big wall at the far end?”

“That? That’s a projection screen.” Millie shook her head. “You poor girl. Never even been to a drive in. Tell you what, they show movies here after sunset when they pull down the swap meet. We’ll drop by sometime so you can get yourself all cultured.”

“Really.” Dara stared at her. “Between trying to find the rest of the gem fragments and keep terrible things from happening, we’re going to come here and see a…”

“Movie. And all work and no play causes the magical heroine to go nuts.”

“I—fine.” Dara shook her head. “Let’s just get what we need.”

“We will,” Millie said. She pulled into the parking lot and found a space, a drooping tree giving the car some shade. “Remember where we parked, Kid, and let’s go.”

Dara didn’t say anything, just stared at the entry to the swap meet, crowds of people moving back and forth. She took a deep breath, and Millie walked over to her.

“Don’t worry, Dara,” Millie said. “We’ll get this fixed, and then you’ll head on home, okay?”

“Right.” Dara shook her head and nodded. “You’re right. Let’s go.”

Dara followed after Millie, glancing around. It was like the fair back home, and yet unlike it. For one thing, there was a fee to enter the fair, something that Millie had never seen before.

Why would you make someone pay to come and buy your things?

And then there was the pavement, hard asphalt that radiated the heat from the sun back up into her face. Back home, the fair was held on a grassy field, sometimes enchanted to keep the grass from being harmed by all the people walking back and forth. But here it was just…

Well, not welcoming.

On the other hand, the stalls were full of things, some of them familiar, such as the bins full of stuffed toys that reminded Dara of her room back home, while others were full of strange devices. Millie reached down and grabbed a little glass figurine that had some kind of glowing object embedded in its chest.

“Hey Dara, can you do this?” she asked as she handed the cash to the stall’s owner.

Dara held the figurine in her hand, staring at it for a moment, then nodded. “Yes, but it would only last for a few months.” She shrugged. “A full, permanent enchantment would take a lot more time and honestly, it’s nothing I ever really focused on.”

“Hmmm… might have to put a disclaimer on it. I—and well, speak of the devil. See that?”

Dara turned to look at what Millie had seen.

SECOND HAND JEWELRY! BARGAINS!

Dara smiled. “That’s exactly what I need.”

“Right. Let me do the bargaining.” With that, the two walked on over, and Millie started chatting with the woman standing behind the table.

Dara stared at the boxes full of jewelry, most of them dented and scuffed, or just looking old.

Right, can I… She looked around. Millie was distracting the woman, and nobody else was really paying any attention. She didn’t know any of the high level rituals for analyzing metals, but there was a common working that could let you detect precious metals, mainly used to detect counterfeit coins.

Dara just stood there murmuring the words to the working, partially turned away from Millie and the other woman, her body shielding her hand as she made the gestures.

An archmage could do this with a thought. Dara tried not to grump about the inconsiderate thief who had taken her before she had become an archmage.

Finally, Dara finished the working, the sense of strain settling at the back of her mind as she maintained the spell. She wasn’t uncomfortable. It was more of a mental itch reminding her that workings took energy and she was fueling that working directly from her mind.

But now… Dara picked up the jewelry, holding it up to the light, before putting some of it down. There was a fair amount of silver, but most of the jewelry had barely any gold at all.

I guess she sold that material off to someone else.

But there were some that had decent amounts of gold in them. From the way they were scattered through the rest, Dara wondered if the woman knew they were more valuable, or if they’d just been put into the collection by accident.

It didn’t matter. Dara started rooting around and handed her finds to Millie, as Millie was pulling out other items, ignoring the way Dara was glancing at them. Half of those are worthless…

But eventually they finished and Dara and Millie left the booth, a few hundred dollars poorer.

“Millie, I was trying to tell you that half of the things you bought were worthless.”

“Figured they were,” Millie said. “Better than someone wondering how you always picked out the good pieces, even though you were barely looking at them.”

“I was using—oh.”

“Right. Oh. Remember, weird sticks in people’s heads.”

But I wasn’t doing anything weird… The answer came back almost before she finished the thought. She hadn’t been doing anything weird for back home. Not here. “We should go back. I need to get these things ready.”

“No.” Millie shook her head. “Look, you’ve been running pretty much all out. So tell me this. Do you think terrible things are going to happen tonight?”

“I…”Dara shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“Okay, second question. If the stuff you’re planning on doing something that needs concentration?”

“Yes.”

“Then you can wait until you’ve had a good night’s sleep.” Millie looked around. The sun was descending, the shadows growing long. “Let’s get something to eat, something good.”

“But the money—“

“Dara, we’ve got time to make more. I want you to have some time to relax.”

“I… okay.”

“Good.” Millie lifted the bag of jewelry. “Let’s get back to the car and I’ll introduce you to some good food.”

“Not hamburgers?”

“Not hamburgers. Ribs.” Millie grinned. “And then, you get a rest and tomorrow you can do your magical stuff. Unless it, ah, has to be done during the full of the moon?”

Dara shook her head. “You know, you have weird ideas about magic.”

“I probably do. You have weird ideas about cars.”

“Not weird,” Dara said. “Man was not meant to go so fast.”

“Says the wizard. C’mon, let’s go.”

It didn’t take long to get back to the car and head out. By the time Millie got to their destination, the sun was sinking below the horizon, tinging the few clouds in the sky scarlet. The restaurant sat halfway up a low hill, letting Dara look out over the shining buildings below them, the streets already gleaming as more and more cars turned their headlights on. Millie gestured for her to sit down at a table set up on the outdoor patio, strings of gleaming lights lending the space an otherworldly feel.

They’re like fairy lights at home, Dara thought, remembering how she and the other apprentices would sometimes conjure them for fun during a meal.

Millie ordered the meal, this time getting Dara a blessedly unsweetened glass of cold tea, the still warm air blowing over the glass and leaving it wet with condensation.

Dara looked around, then nodded. Nobody could hear them. “Do you think Mike will be able to come up with something to help us?”

“Sort of,” Millie said. “I just hope everything landed close to where you were.” She shook her head. “Knowing about something isn’t going to help us if it’s happening in Berlin.”

“Berlin?”

“City on another continent. Even flying, it’d take hours and hours to get there, as well as a lot of money.” Millie shook her head. “To say nothing of needing passports.”

“I think most things came out near here.” Dara took a sip of her tea. “At least I hope so.”

“Yeah, me as well.” Millie paused as the waitress came up and put the two plates in front of them.

Dara stared at the rack of ribs and mashed potatoes.

“Well?”

“It looks just like something we would eat at home!” Dara said, trying not to squeal.

“Good. No talking. Eating now.” Millie gestured and then started on her meal.

After everything they eat, at least this is normal. The sauce was a little sweet, but not incredibly so, and at least the taste was like honey, rather than the sugar-sweet taste that had been in the drink she’d tried. It was like…

Dara bit her lip as she put the ribs down and tried to keep from stitching. It was like home.

And she wasn’t anywhere near home.

“You okay?” Millie asked.

“Y-yes!” Dara said. She swallowed. “Why shouldn’t I be! I’m… I’m just eating here…” She swallowed again, and damn it, was she starting to cry?

No. Something had just gotten into her eye. She rubbed it with her free hand.

“Hey,” Millie said. “Look, things are gonna be okay.”

“How do you know?”

“Things… have a way of working out. Maybe not like we thought they would, but usually for the best, if we don’t end up losing hope.”

“And right now?”

“It’s a nice restaurant, with a nice view, and here we are eating some good food. Does there need to be anything more?” Millie shrugged. “You know what difference between the guy who is terrified of tomorrow and the guy who just does his best to get ready for it is?”

“What?”

“The second guy sleeps a lot easier. But tomorrow came for ‘em both.”

“I… right.” Dara shook her head. “You’re right.”

“Damn right I’m right. Now we can’t afford to eat like this every night, to enjoy your ribs and your criminally unsweetened tea. Because we’ve got a lot of work to do tomorrow.”

She’s right, Dara thought. They did have a lot of work to do, and for now… Now she could just live. There’d be time enough for worry tomorrow.