Daemons in the Mist

Chapter 26 - Reflections

26

Reflections

Thursday, February 9th

PATRICK

                        

“Your big surprise was taking me to an alley?” I asked as I stared at a dingy unremarkable space between two old buildings.

“Put the glasses on, Patrick,” Nualla said as she rolled her eyes.

I pulled them out of my bag, took a deep breath and slid them on. The alley was no longer an alley. The space now expanded outward to reveal a large galleria. Three floors of shops lined either side and walkways crossed the space at intervals. At the far end there was a set of escalators and a massive clock.

I looked back at her and tried not to get sucked into the unbelievable beauty of her eyes. I had a hard enough time resisting them when she had her human illusion up, but in her true form it was nearly impossible.

“What is this place?”

“The Kalo Galleria, basically a Kalodaemon mall,” Nualla answered with a pleased smile.

I looked back inside. “Really?”

Nualla took my hand and led me forward through the Kalo Galleria. I looked up in awe at the domed glass ceiling, which revealed an amazing view of the tall surrounding buildings. This place was incredible, but the fact that it was just hiding in the middle of the city was even more amazing. It made you wonder what else was hidden here in the city in the places that humans wouldn’t even think to look—or be able to see in the first place.

The daemons in the galleria didn’t even look twice at me as we passed which I found a bit odd. Was it normal for humans to just go wandering through here? I seriously doubted it. Then I caught sight of my reflection in the glass of a shop window and stopped. Two glowing horns flickered just above my ears.

“What on earth?” I leaned in closer to the window to get a better look at the horns.

“Oh right, you wouldn’t have been able to see that before,” Nualla said, leaning toward me. “Your Blue Card makes a hologram around you so no one gets ideas about killing you.”

“Really? That’s awesome!” I said, excitedly looking back at my reflection. “So this is more or less what I would look like with horns?” I had to admit, like this I looked pretty damn awesome.

“Well not at first; it takes about six months for the horns to grow in completely.”

“They grow?” I asked in disbelief as I turned back toward her.

“Of course, they’re not magic, you know. They’re as real as anything; like hair or fingernails.”

“Yeah really awesome fingernails,” I said with a huge grin.

We continued walking through the galleria passing the strangest collection of items. Formal clothing like the ones I had seen in The Embassy. Books written in what was probably Daemotic. Electronics that did God knows what. The more I was with Nualla, the more amazing her world seemed, but I couldn’t ignore the things in my normal human world like school, graduation, my future. I knew about our immediate future together, but what would our lives be like come the end of the school year; the fall; five years from now? I was almost afraid to ask, but like an idiot, I always did.

“So what school are you going to in the fall?” I asked as casually as I could.

“I’m not.”