Page 45 of Fool Me Twice

Roma snorts with surprise. “Really?”

“Oh, one hundred percent,” Ez confirms. “They never leave their ivory tower in their inner realm, and they just watch all of us like we’re lab rats put there for their amusement. Plus, whenever the realm starts to get too peaceful, they’ll throw trials and challenges at us, like they’re trying to remind us that we only exist becausetheysay so. They’re assholes.”

Roma looks like she’s fighting back a smile. Ez feels strangely vindicated. “But Nostringvadha?”

For the first time in a long time, a pang of nostalgia twinges through Ez. “Back in Tamaros, Nostringvadha was among us. He was always…presentin a way that’s hard to describe. Spacetime is a very different concept in Tamaros than it is on Earth‍—you could almost say that every demon exists in every space in Tamaros at every given moment‍—so Nostringvadha was always there. He’d help us with the trials from the other gods, much to their displeasure, and he’d encourage us with memories of the past and the future. He was…” The twinge deepens. “He was special. To all of us.”

Roma nods slowly. “You mentioned memories. And that was one of the names you called Nostringvadha with the neophyte from midtown‍—‘Memory-Keeper,’ right?”

Ez is impressed that Roma remembered that. “Yeah. Nostringvadha holds all the memories of the realm within himself,” she says, and she scowls. “Or he did, at least. I don’t know how his powers work here on Earth. But he wasn’t like Obie, who has to actively pull memories from the environment around him‍—they all justexistedin Nostringvadha, like they were always there and always would be.”

“And those other names you called him? ‘Wanderer,’ ‘Avenger’…”

“‘Wanderer’ is because he was always with us and almost never in the gods’ inner realm,” Ez says, “although it’s taken on a whole new meaning now that he’s wandering around this dimension, too. ‘Avenger’ is because he helped us with the challenges from the other gods, and also‍—‍” She eyes Roma critically. “Do you know why the gods banished him here?”

“No,” Roma says, “but I presume it’s because he pissed them off.”

“Oh, big time,” Ez says. “He finally got fed up with them tormenting their own people for funsies and stole the Fount of Blessings from their inner realm. It wasn’t the source of the gods’ power, but it contained the essence of it‍—basically, the part that separates a regular demon from a deity. The Fount couldn’t turn any of us into gods ourselves, but itcouldmake our lives infinitely easier‍—and Nostringvadha installed it directly in the center of Tamaros, where anyone could access it.”

“And his fellow gods didn’t like that.”

“Well, not only did they banish him from the entire dimension,” Ez says, “but they also put both a curse on himanda curse on Earth to make sure he could never return, so no. No, I’m assuming they didn’t like that. And time works differently in Tamaros, so‍—so sometimes, it felt like we were in a constant state of losing Nostringvadha. The power from the Fount of Blessings meant that we didn’t really need his help anymore, but we still missed hispresence,you know? Missed having him around.” She lets out a slow breath. “In light of all that, you can probably figure out why we call him ‘Beloved.’”

“Yeah.” Roma presses her lips together. “The other gods really do sound like dicks.”

Ez is shocked into laughing. “They totally are. I mean, they’re technicallynecessary‍—their very existence holds Tamarostogether at the seams, making sure it doesn’t collide with other dimensions‍—but they didn’t care about us. Not like Nostringvadha did.”

“So that’s why you mainly use magic bases that involve him?”

“Eh…” Ez holds up a flat palm and tips it from side to side in a “not really” motion. “Nostalgia alone isn’t a valid reason for spellcasting decisions. Some spells are more succinct if you include the other gods‍—or even The Fourteen as a unit‍—but practically speaking, it doesn’t change all that much. At this point, I’m just used to only invoking Nostringvadha’s name, so magic bases including him make intrinsic sense to me in a way that others don’t.”

Roma looks fascinated. “Really? I have a few magic bases that I prefer, but I’ve never found one that makes more sense than the others.”

Ez pauses with a bite of tortilla halfway to her mouth. “Well, I‍—I didn’t really start making those connections until I’d been on Earth for a solid century and a half. It takes a lot of repeated spellcasting. I don’t, um. I don’t know if any human spellcasters have ever gotten to that point.”

Roma’s eyes flicker. “Ah.”

Ez’s chest hurts. Much as she knows that she and Roma aren’t quite friends, much as she knows that they’re just allies in this mega-rift epidemic, much as she knows that “trust” is a sensitive word with them‍?—

Part of her aches for the fact that Roma, who has more passion about spellcasting than Ez has ever seen in a human, probably won’t ever understand it on the level Ez has achieved. Not for lack of trying or skill or dedication, but‍?—

But she just won’t have enough time. No human does.

Taking a deep breath, Ez shoves the thought from her mind. “In any case, the mega-rifts probably aren’t being caused by a duplication or replication spell, and the magic bases of ourcounterspells are probably irrelevant. You mentioned how the mega-rifts keep changing locations, so let’s talk about leash and geolocation spells. How do the human variations of those work?”

Roma sits up straight, that gleam coming back into her eyes. Ez forces down the warm buzzing in her veins at the sight. “Well, a leash spell would be unlikely, because it generally can’t traverse distances of greater than a hundred feet‍—and it would need a central spellcaster to maintain it. But with geolocation spells…”

Roma continues talking, going into detail about the intricacies of human-magic geolocation spells. They seem similar to their demon-magic counterparts, mainly differing in magic bases and a few other nuances, but Ez listens intently anyway.

She doesn’t quite think any of this will help end the mega-rift epidemic, but there’s part of her that really just likes being able to discuss spellcasting with an equal.

Part of her, maybe, that really just likes seeing how Roma views their shared craft.

21

Generally speaking, Roma and Ez talk a lot during their rift-closing shifts.

What else are they going to do? Shutter mega-rift after mega-rift in stony silence? Besides being unrealistic‍—and boring‍—it’s also impractical for what Roma considers to be their greatest asset: utilizing their combined knowledge of magic to better understand the epidemic‍—and how to stop it.

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