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Almere knew that she owed Mechelen a trip up to see her Wonder, and also that they’d already planned to meet up tonight, talking about it at school, but there was no reason that she couldn’t make it even more official. She knew how to make paper look old, like the scrolls they used in fairy tales. It was a trick that she’d learned from one of the DMs of her DnD games. You just had to soak it in tea, and then tear the edges.

She might have premade some of those papers, so she could send off beautiful princess scrolls with her beautiful princess-knight ring.

You are cordially invited to Almere on this night, February 7, 2024. Please RSVP at North End Park at 8:00.

Sincerely, Page Almere.

All she could find to write with was a ballpoint pen, so the script wasn’t very old fashioned looking, but she sent it off to Mechelen anyway.

Then all there was to do was to go to the park, and to wait.

Almere understood what Mechelen’s note meant, although looking it over, she did think about how the title might get confusing in certain situations. Hi, I’m Almere, and this is Almere. Although, she knew that was how it worked for historical nobles and royals, too. Northumberland lived at Northumberland castle and all that.

She was part of that club now!

When Mechelen (the person) showed up, Almere ran towards her, hugging her back just as hard.

“I’m so happy to see you!” She backed up a little, but didn’t let go of Mechelen’s hand.
Um, welcome? Now presenting? I don’t know exactly what I’m supposed to say for this part, but.” She paused, then the lightbulb went off. “Oh, right! I swear my life and loyalty to Almere, and to Lysithea. I humbly request your aid, so that in turn, I can give you mine.”

As the world around them shifted, they found themselves in a very dusty room that was still very clearly a kitchen, lit by a large window. There was counter spaces and places for at least three fires, and broken plates and scattered silverware everywhere.

“I mean, I couldn’t steal the broom tonight without my mom getting all suspicious, but I do have this!” She reached into her subspace pocket and pulled out a foldable Swiffer duster, which she unfolded with a satisfying click and held with a grin. It was an old one that she’d found in her basement and stashed away after their last cleaning party. Nobody had noticed yet.

“I do think I want to explore some more, though. Last time I was up here, Halle had me all freaked out about, uh, structural integrity?” She shook her head slightly. “You know how he gets.” He did have a point, but that couldn’t stop her from looking around forever. She just had to be careful. “We can probably figure out if a floor is about to fall out, right? Do you have any ideas on how to do that?”

That way, she could actually look upstairs.

“Yeah, he’s not a bad person,” said Almere.

If she noticed her friend’s cheeks going pink, she didn’t say anything. She’d think things. She might spend the whole night wondering if it was gonna be weird when her cousin and her best friend got married, and bought a fancy house, and had a bunch of cute kids, but she knew better than to mention that out loud.

Instead, she stepped through the door.

This room one had tables, and chairs, and notably chandeliers in various states of disrepair. One of them had crashed down into the floor. “I actually did peek out into here last time. It’s, like, a dining room, I think?”

At the other end of the room was a large arch that led into what seemed to be a more open space, although it was hard to tell from here.

“I haven’t gone any farther than this though.”

“I want to see more,” Almere said, already pushing past the chandelier that certain others might call dangerous. A kitchen and a dining room almost always went hand in hand, but there had to be more to the picture than just that. Everyone else had perfect castles or cute lodges, and, okay, maybe this was what there was and Almere was just some kind of restaurant, but if that was the case, she hoped it was a caste restaurant.

She wanted it to have a secret passageway, and maybe a tower.

The next room was more open. There were more chandeliers. None of these ones had fallen, but one of them looked like it was about to. On the floor, there were a few dusty couches and some decorative bookshelves, and near one of the walls there were some counters.

And then the dust was gone. Candles flickered in the chandeliers. The sound of low conversation filled the room. “Your room is right upstairs,” Almere told the couple in front of her. “Will you be dining as well?”

Then she was back to standing in the broken-down version, blinking at her friends.

“I saw something,” she gasped. “A vision.”

She talked like she knew what she was talking about. She read lots of books about visions.

“Everything was fixed up. There was, I think, a customer?”

"Two customers, technically," said Almere, with a nod like none of this was surprising at all. "A couple. They were here for dinner and a room, which makes sense. You can tell this place is set up like a business."

Who needed three fireplaces and a whole big hall of tables just for personal use? Almere liked that, though. This was like one of those taverns from DnD, but bigger, more grand, more princess-y and magical.

She kind of wanted to look upstairs. That would be where those rooms were, wouldn't it?

Mechelen had a question, though, so she looked over.

"Obviously," she said. "You can ask me anything!"

"It's not dumb!" said Almere, with a passion that she usually reserved for talking about her favorite magical things.

She did have to wonder if there was more to the story, though. Had there been some kind of dramatic betrayal? That happened in high school sometimes. There was always drama. She knew. She'd been on the sidelines of some of it. Or, maybe it was just one of those situations where you stopped talking and then after a while it didn't feel like your best friend anymore?

Either way, the best ways for those stories to have a happy ending was if everyone reconciled, and if anyone deserved a happy ending, it was Mechelen.

"Of course you should reach out! Just because you haven't talked for a little bit doesn't mean you should never talk again. And then I can meet this person too, and maybe you can learn to dance, and we can have a grand ball with all the Lysithea knights-"

Her eyes went distant, although this time there was no vision but her imagination.

"And maybe we can ride around on unicorns? Oh, or dragons. Do you think there are dragons here?"

Almere nodded again as Mechelen hugged her. Of course she wanted everyone to get along, especially Lysithea knights.

“I was thinking that if there was a dragon on my Wonder, then it would be my friend,” she said, already caught up in a fully formed daydream. “Her name would be Lavender, and I would ride around on her back, and she would live in a little nest outside the door, or maybe by the big fireplace, and I would give her snacks.”

It was a cute thought, but even with so many of her dreams coming true, there still weren’t any dragons in the kitchen.

Maybe Mechelen was right and she shouldn’t wish for dragons anyway.

“I guess in the stories the dragons are usually scary, though. Maybe i should be careful.” She peeked up the staircase to the upper floors like she was expecting a gout of dragon fire. Nothing happened, though.

“Your bugs are cute, though. I like your spider,” she said. “I didn’t see anything like that in here yet.”