Chapter 150: Epilogue

If weddings were vastly different in the Demon World, wedding receptions were surprisingly the same. There was music, courtesy of multiple bands that rotated in and out. With that came dancing, ranging from the heavy-footed normal-capability dancing of non-dexterity classes to the airy, super-human movements of people like Corbin.

And some people, Arthur was glad to see, just couldn’t dance, no matter how high their stats were. Karbo was chief among these, clapping off-rhythm and moving awkwardly to a beat only he could hear despite his demigod capabilities. If you had the music gene, you had it. If you were Karbo, you just didn’t, and you made do with enthusiasm.

Nobody cared about any of this, or even appeared to notice. It was a happy night. Alcohol flowed for the first time in the town thanks to Itela and Ella. Eito was the responsible one, who watched the crowd and limited people to a reasonable level of buzzed. He probably single-handedly saved at least a dozen people from falling off the cliff on either side.

The food flowed like a mighty river too. It wasn’t buffet style, but rather a smattering of different stands run by various cooks churning out endless pots of soup, pans of stir-fried grain and vegetables, bread, desserts, and literally dozens of other dishes for the choosing. Skal had fish on sticks over a fire, sprinkled with spices and perfect in their simplicity. Arthur had tea, almost entirely un-majicka’ed but still tasty enough that he could barely keep up with the demand.

People loved joinings, it seemed, and their enthusiasm kept the energy levels at a solid ten out of ten without any pep whatsoever.

The party eventually faded into a sort of pink, beautiful haze for Arthur. He was having the best time he’d ever had, outside of some particularly good private moments with Mizu. It was perfect.

“Speech!” Milo yelled, hugging Rhodia. Both of them were fully and clearly at their enforced alcohol limits, and had been dancing for the better part of an hour. “Arthur! We want a speech. You said yourself you have to give one.”

“Yeah! Get up there!” Rhodia said. “Do something Arthur-y!”

Arthur grinned. He was, for once, ready for this. He nodded at Lily, who began lugging a few pieces of equipment under the main marital arch, setting them on a small table they had stolen for just this purpose.

“Sorry to disappoint, but I’m ready for this.” Arthur smiled at the two. “Both of you, come up here.”

They both came up as the crowd quieted slightly, their attention turned to the new fun happening at the front. Arthur took a kettle, set it on a heating element, and yelled loud enough for everyone to hear.

“A long time ago, Mizu gave me a present, something she and everyone from our old city’s weller team had worked on together.” Arthur held up the flask of ultra-magical water, something he had carted from place to place and saved for just such an occasion. “I asked her if I could use it for this, and… Mizu, what were your exact words?”

“I said I’d hit you if you didn’t!” Mizu yelled back.

“She’s very violent lately. It’s fun,” Arthur said to a few chuckles and a slightly mortified look on Maar’s face. “I know both of your favorite drinks, Milo, Rhodia. And I’m ignoring them to do something completely different here, with this water, at this moment. Something that’s completely about this new place, and your new relationship. Milo, who made this kettle?”

“I did,” Milo answered.

“Rhodia, who made this teapot, and these excellent cups?” Arthur asked.

“Me!” Rhodia yelled.

“Good. Now settle down and watch. And Karra, could you stand behind me in case I pass out? Thanks.”

Arthur started putting together his new drink. He had grown the tea here, with help from laborers and farmers, and then processed it using the machines and grinders Milo had made. He had stored it in Rhodia’s urns. For milk, he had cream from the tamed Hings from the surrounding wilderness, milked by him and various farmers who had joined on later. He had fruits from the forest, and a bunch of non-tea additives that found by the scavengers and identified by the librarians. The entire town had some hand in creating the tea. And it was added to the best water that the old world could create.

Arthur did what he could on top of that. He focused first on a vision of marriage. He pictured a relationship that lasted forever and was always rich and worthwhile, even when it was hard. But then, suddenly, he realized that wasn’t what this drink was about, or at least not entirely. It wasn’t just about marriage. It was about what those two people were in a greater context. Milo and Rhodia were now a unit, but that unit was part of a greater community, one they were both worked to improve. They had friends and family, and sometimes the lines between those two things were blurred.

They’d spend a significant portion of their lives in Coldbrook, maybe forever. And as long as they were here, they’d be part of the community. They’d make other people’s lives better, and have their own lives be improved in turn.

Arthur couldn’t have put it in exactly those words. It was a big, flowing mass of feelings, something indistinct in its thousands of moving parts. And as he focused on that swirling mass of good-feels, he dropped in the boba, then the ice, then the cream, and stirred. The drink was done.

It was good thing he asked Karra to stand behind him. He almost knocked himself flat with the majicka-drain before Lily added some supplemental power from her own stores to keep him on his feet.

“Dammit, Arthur.” Milo breathed. “I can feel that drink from here.”

“Dammit indeed. You got another one, didn’t you?” Ella said from the sidelines. “Inspect it, Arthur.”

Unity

Groups of people working in concert are often compared to musical groups, or clocks, or anything else that requires precision and harmony to operate. Others will compare them to things like a stew or a stir-fry, where each flavor melds into the next to make something new.

Neither is wrong. Both are right. Working in concert has its place. Mixing together has its time. Sometimes, a group rises to accomplish a goal, while other times they might rest, play, or simply live alongside each other.

The tea you’ve made captures the muddled and distinct complexity of people. It plays a song of flavors that brings to mind all the feelings of being part of a community that works, takes care, and looks out for the needs of each other. Like boba, it is both defined by its individual pieces and what they become together.

Your previous named drink took a broader view on your own experiences, telling a story that was yours. Unity, in contrast, hones in on one specific concept, doing its best to impart several senses of the word closeness. It’s a drink of friendship, of relationships, and of building new instances of both things in an ever-growing web of people.

Production of Unity is limited to one serving (of whatever size) per month, completely drains the creator’s majicka pool, and creates a drink with a shelf-life of exactly one hour. In the willing, it promotes the growth of relationships.

Arthur poured the entire drink into one gigantic cup, which he now handed off to Milo. “Enjoy.”

Milo took a drink. His face screwed up into an undecipherable expression. He passed it to Rhodia, who took her own drink and assumed her own unreadable face.

“We can’t keep this for ourselves, can we?” Milo grimaced.

“No, I guess not. We have to share,” Rhodia said.

They first passed it back to Arthur, who decided to take a sip as a courtesy. Amazingly, this was a drink he could taste. As stupid as it might have sounded to say it out loud, it tasted like home. He passed the cup to Lily.

The cup was went from person to person. Every demon in attendance got a small sip, going quiet one after another until Arthur found himself at the head of an entire crowd, being stared at by dozens of demons at once.

“This is really uncomfortable, everyone,” Arthur said. “You can stop any time.”

“It’s that way, with named food. It won’t be as bad next time,” Ella said. “You won’t get any pity from me, young man. You brought this on yourself. Two named drinks in, what, a week? You are making me look like an embarrassment.”

“Oh, honey.” Minos put his chin on Ella’s shoulder from behind. “You have to stop saying things like that. You’re driving the other cooks to despair. If you’re an embarrassment, who has hope?”

“Fine. But still. I fully expect you to wait at least a month before your next named product, Arthur, or else,” Ella warned.

The banter seemed to be just enough to break the crowd out of their stupor. Milo, to his credit, was ready for it.

“Hey, everyone? I know it wasn’t a normal speech, but I can’t think of a better way to put a pin in what this whole night has felt like. Thank you all for being here. And let’s thank Arthur too.”

The crowd roared, and then mercifully went back to their own business. Arthur had to deal with a few handshakes and one nearly-fatal hug from a very tipsy Karbo, but otherwise got away unharmed.

The party continued in an endless sequence of food, dancing, and general merriment. At some point, Arthur looked around for Milo, only to find he wasn’t there anymore. Neither, for that matter, was Rhodia. Itela saw him looking, then cocked an eyebrow at him.

“It’s considered polite not to notice. The parties tend to go a little longer than happy couples have patience.” Itela laughed. “I envy them a little bit. They get to be stealthy. When Karbo snuck me out of our joining party, he left a crater in the ground that took them a whole day to fix. I didn’t hear the end of it for years.”

Arthur nodded uncomfortably as Itela laughed, patted his shoulder, and spun off to force her husband to dance with her. Whatever Milo and Rhodia wanted to do was their business. He was just glad they were happy.

I’m going to give him crap about this later. Arthur thought. He’d do the same for me.

The party continued until dawn. In all his dreams about the new sky top pavilion, he had somehow never imagined what it would be like during a sunrise. As the ocean lit up and the light level slowly revealed Coldbrook below them, Arthur’s breath caught in his throat. It was perfect. He could imagine himself getting up even earlier to walk up here and see it more often.

“It’s nice, isn’t it?” Mizu said. “I’m glad you did this.”

“I didn’t do this,” Arthur said. “I couldn’t have even begun to dig this space out, let alone make it look the way it does.”

“Oh, Arthur. You haven’t seen the plaque, have you?”

“Huh?”

“Well, you can’t get up to see it now. But you’re sitting on the Arthur Teamaster Lookout Pavilion. Of Earth.”

“Does it really say Earth?”

“It does. Milo thought it would be funny.” Mizu snuggled in a little closer. They weren’t the only people sitting on the very edge of things watching the sunrise, but they might as well have been. “And it is. It will confuse generations of demons long after we are gone. They’ll all think Earth is some kind of dungeon.”

The sun peeked a little further over the water, bringing Mizu’s perfect face into sharper relief. Arthur kissed her forehead.

“Well, I guess I can’t rip it out. I’m not strong enough,” Arthur said.

“No.” Mizu sighed. “They really liked it, you know. The entire ceremony. I’ve never seen them so happy.”

“Well, they were getting joined. I could only do so much to mess that up.”

“True. But I’ve been to joining ceremonies before, Arthur. Lots of them. You added something to this one. Like you do to everything. The town. Friends. Everything.”

“I don’t ever know what to say to that.” Arthur shifted a little closer. “I’m not a better person than Milo. I’m not more hard-working than you are. I’m just another person in our group. Everyone treats me like… I don’t know. Like I’m different.”

“It’s not in a bad thing,” Mizu said.

“I know. It just seems wrong. I’m not a better friend to Milo and Rhodia than they are to me. They’ve done at least as much for me as I have for them. It feels weird to single me out,” Arthur replied.

“Oh. I see.” Mizu thought for a bit. “It’s… hard to explain. You do work hard for your friends. And you care. But there’s something extra in there. Like you dragged something from your old world to here. Like when you make your tea better with your skills. There’s something that only you can add.”

Mizu stood and grabbed his hand, pulling him up to his feet and taking him over to the town-side of the platform. She motioned out over the general everything, indicating all the buildings, roads, and tired people staggering home to their beds.

“This town would have been built whether you were here or not, Arthur. We would have found Slapstone. Someone would have made bricks. There would be roads, and water. And it would be a town. Probably a good one,” Mizu said as she pointed out each of the town’s accomplishments. “But it wouldn’t be Coldbrook. And it wouldn’t be the same. You did that, by being you. I don’t think anyone here could explain it, but I guarantee you that nobody would disagree.” She looked at him, then at the town again, before nodding. “It’s that thing that you do. The Arthur thing. It just makes things better.”

“But if I’m not doing it intentionally, does it really count?” Arthur said. “For that matter, what is the Arthur thing?”

“It’s being nice.” Mizu nodded. “And that’s enough.”

--- 

In reply to a previous comment, yes, there will be a Book 4. It's all written in the Author's Note below.

Read the Book 3 Author's Note at SnowingPine.com!

https://snowingpine.com/fictions/demon-world-boba-shop/chapter/150.1