“Mi Casa is French for Front Door”

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“Ladies first.” John made an only slightly exaggerated gesture of opening his front door for Qhila and standing aside so she could enter. It took a bit of focus to speak to her in English, rather than Low Draconic as he had swiftly gotten used to doing with her.

The alchemically disguised kobold rolled her eyes at him and made a small bow towards Brenda. “Hello Mrs. Newman. Thank you for invitation.”

The older woman looked mildly surprised, causing John to realize that he hadn’t told her that “Kira’s” first language wasn’t English. “No problem, and please, call me Brenda. Come on in.”

The youths entered and put away their shoes while Brenda continued, “I’ve made pork chops in champignon sauce with mashed potatoes, hope you like it.”

“Sound good Brenda.” Qhila shot him a glance that he didn’t quite know what it meant. After a few steps towards the kitchen she added, “Smell good too.”

They went to the kitchen and sat down, but before anyone reached for the food, Brenda gave Qhila a serious look. “I know this isn’t the most delicate way to approach it, but I want to make sure you know. John told me that you aren’t always comfortable with strangers, so if you need to take a break and withdraw to the guest room upstairs, or even call it an early evening, I won’t be offended and you don’t need to apologize or explain anything.”

“...” Whether Qhila’s silence was from uncertainty of how to respond or just taking longer than usual finding the right words in English, John was unsure.

Brenda clearly drew a conclusion from the combination of silence and mild surprise. Hastily, she added, “John didn’t tell me any details about why. He was very clear that they weren’t his to share.”

“Oh. Is not big secret, but not most cheerful topic. I was victim of… what was the word?” As Qhila fell silent for a moment, John started worrying that she was trying to pass the coming up of a cover story to him.

Fortunately, it turned out to be a genuine case of trying to recall the right term when she continued shortly after, “Sex trafficking. But. I am escaped, and now coming to America is the best thing ever.” She accompanied the statement with a reassuring thumbs up, during which John caught her glancing in his direction. The feeling of swelling warmth in his chest made him feel, for a moment, like he could’ve taken on a whole chapter of space marines and come out on top.

Meanwhile, Brenda was very clearly feeling a bit of tonal whiplash going directly from that revelation to a celebratory statement. “Well, I’m sorry that you had to go through that, and happy that it ended up working out after all.”

They ate for a bit, with Qhila complimenting the food and Brenda unsuccessfully trying to get her to talk about the food from her homeland. Good thing, that, judging by what little she had told him of kobold culinary traditions.

“I have to say though, I’m impressed.” Brenda had clearly concluded that the food angle was a dead end and decided to change tracks. “It’s fairly obvious from John that you two are close, despite the language barrier.”

“Uh…” ‘Kira’ looked a bit sheepish at that.

Fortunately, John had anticipated that this could come up and thought of a cover story that wasn’t too far from the truth. “Actually… remember you showed me that Facebook post about a trekkie couple reading their wedding vows in Klingon because that was the only language they had in common when they met?”

“...” Brenda affixed him with an ‘are you serious’ look. “So you’re saying that-”

“[Yes.]” Qhila had been quick enough on the uptake, despite the language barrier, to answer in Low Draconic in unison with him.

The older woman sighed and shook her head, though she couldn’t help but smile at the same time. “I’m not sure if I should be proud that you’re bilingual, sad that you didn’t tell me, or exasperated that the second language is from a video game.”

Qhila giggled softly while he fired back with, “And the third of those would be the reason for the second.”

“I guess you’ve got me there.” Brenda joined the giggles.

WHAM.

A slamming door a minute after Qhila had excused herself to go to the bathroom was a bit worrying. It went from a bit to moderately worrying and also confusing when it was followed up by a message in the party chat.

[Qhila]: WHY DO YOU HAVE AN UNWARDED MIRROR?!??

[John]: I’ll be there in a moment.

“I’ll go see what’s up.” John got up from the table, deciding that since this was clearly Abyss related, putting on the calming pheromones for a bit to convince his mom that he had it covered was the way to go.

He made a point of walking calmly up the stairs, where Qhila was standing outside the bathroom door looking like she deeply regretted not having a pocket big enough for her crossbow.

“[This is clearly something about the Abyss that I missed…]”

“[I thought even mundanes knew about Bloody Mary!]” she almost hissed, though she did take care not to do so loudly enough for Brenda to catch her tone from downstairs.

Still, John thought it wiser to take it definitively out of earshot and made a smaller version of the barrier entry gesture, as an unspoken question to which she nodded.

As soon as they were inside the barrier, John asked the obvious question, “[Are you talking about ‘say her name three times in a row in front of a mirror and she shows up and kills you’ Bloody Mary? Is that actually real and not just, like, a ghost story party game?]”

“[Party game?!?]” Qhila rubbed her forehead with her palm. “[Bloody Mary Bathory was a Late Bloomer Demigod-]” For a moment, John was confused how those two could go together, then he recalled that ‘Demigod’ in Abyssal terminology was someone who was powerful enough to challenge gods, not necessarily someone who descended from a god. “[-who tried to pin hundreds of ritual blood magic killings on her mundane mother and somehow turned hundreds of prison spaces into a Kingdom connected to mirrors across the Abyss. From which she would spy on people to abduct and use as fuel for her rituals. The Ordo Malleus Maleficarum was made specifically to hunt her down. Allegedly, they cornered and killed her in Salem, but Malleus still exists, and they’re still hunting. And even if that isn’t what it looks like, the Mirror Kingdom is still full of millenia’s worth of demons and monstrosities that used to be sealed away. So, only the most reckless of Abyssals keep un-warded mirrors around.]”

“[... I take it that isn’t something the security system we bought through Karason’s the other day could deal with?]”

She shook her head. “[Blocking or at least hampering entry via barrier is comparatively easy. Blocking a Kingdom connection is one of the most difficult, mana-intensive, and expensive things to ward against, period. But for some reason, the Mirror Kingdom connection is reliant on lines of sight, even for listening. The way to ward against it specifically is one that makes it impossible to see out from inside the mirror. That needs the ward to be placed directly on or next to the mirror though, and since pre-warded ones are Abyss standard, security systems generally don’t waste money including mirror wards.]”

John sighed. “[Okay. Guess I’ve gotta buy warded mirrors then. I take it you didn’t realize that this was something I needed to know?]”

She nodded sheepishly. “[I thought mundanes had just stopped using mirrors…]”

“[I… guess that makes sense when you don’t really interact with mundane society.]” John thought for a moment. “[Anyway. For now, we should get back to things before Mom gets too worried. Since the spying and stuff is vision based, we can cover the mirror with a towel as a bandaid fix while you’re using the bathroom.]”

“[Right. Good idea.]”

They returned to mundane reality, put up the towel, and John went back downstairs to Brenda. “The mirror spooked her. I, uh, hadn’t really thought about the fact that her place doesn’t have any reflective surfaces… Anyway, I covered it with a towel.”

“Oh. Poor girl…” From the compassionate sadness in Brenda’s expression, she was clearly assuming it to be related to some form of trauma. Which, really, was the only good explanation John had managed to come up with anyway.

After a moment, John could tell that she was mentally pushing that aspect of the situation aside, so as to not ruin the mood. It was a way of putting on a brave face he had seen from her a lot, in the time after his dad died. He felt terrible about making Brenda retread that path, even if it was over a sadness that should be much more fleeting, but he had no idea how else to manage this.

With a half **** smile, she remarked, “She can’t even see how cute she is.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to fluster her by telling her regularly.” John leaned into the mood lightening with a half-jest, drawing a fully genuine giggle from his mother.

When Qhila returned, they resumed eating as though nothing unusual had happened.

“I did prepare a fruit salad for dessert but-” Brenda glanced at the hint of scraps of sauce and mashed potatoes left, “-perhaps we should give the main course time to settle a bit first?”

In principle not a bad idea, but the dinner conversation had been a bit stilted and awkward. Between the language barrier, the fact that Qhila and Brenda didn’t have much in common in terms of cultural experiences, and the fact that they couldn’t talk much about what he and Qhila had actually spent their time doing without revealing the Abyss, it wasn’t too surprising. But it did call for something to focus their conversation in the meanwhile, now that chewing wasn’t an excuse for falling quiet.

“How about a board game then?”

“Okay.” Qhila shrugged. Social leisure activities weren't something she had the most experience with, making the indifferent reaction expected.

“As long as it isn’t one of the horrendously complicated ones from the Treasure Cove. I would like to have some sort of idea of what I’m doing by the end of it.” Brenda characterizing them as “horrendous” was somewhat undercut by her amused tone.

John had a few board games from there that had been used exactly once, after which it was clear that it had too many moving parts and rules for his family. Absent anyone else to play them with… “Ah, but you see I have a secret weapon. I asked Mariana about a normie friendly one. And trial ran it with grandma and grandpa during the last week of summer break, to great success.”

“Normie?” Qhila looked at him quizzically.

“[People who aren’t nerds, essentially.]”

“Ah.”

Brenda cheerily commented, “Now that you mention it, Dad did tell me about that. Something about French castles?”

John chuckled. “The game is called Carcassonne, which is also the name of a French castle, but you don’t need to know anything about France or castles to play.”

“Ha! No take thiss castle!” Qhila put down a tile that completed a sizable city, while at the same time likely locking down one of John’s pieces for the rest of the game. He, in turn, bit back jokes about his princess being in another castle and/or the warcraft kobold catchphrase of “you no take candle”.

In perfect accordance with John’s suspicions, Qhila had taken to the board game like a fish to water, and gotten excited enough about it to slightly **** her English grammar and pronunciation. He had narrowly beat her the first time, which had led to her demanding a rematch after dessert. Said rematch was moving towards completion now, and while John might be able to pull a last minute win by connecting two large fields, the impish smugness she was radiating was very much warranted at the moment.

Brenda, on the other hand, was enroute to be two for two on crushing defeats. But she also seemed to be enjoying watching John and Qhila interact more than the game itself. Plus, as she had said after losing the first one, she didn’t mind coming up last as long as she could figure out what was going on. And judging by the glimmer of mischief in her eyes as she put down a tile that didn’t do much for her but did kill John’s agricultural last hope, she definitely knew what she was doing.

“I smell conspiracy. And here I was thinking women were supposed to be the fairer sex.”

Brenda retorted with a smirk, “Haven’t you heard, all is fair in love and board games.”

John chuckled and, after a moment to turn it over in her head, Qhila joined in with a short laugh. After a glance at the tile he drew, he concluded that there was no miracle save from there. “Well, since I can no longer corner the French grain market, all that’s left to me now is vengeance.” He put it down to render a road Brenda was sitting on impossible to complete.

They continued for another half dozen tiles before the game came to the expected close of Qhila winning handily, John taking second place and, helped along by him playing the last bit to get in the way, Brenda scoring lower this game than the first one.

Once the points were tallied, the older woman threw a glance at the clock. “Kira, it’s been a pleasure to have you over, and you’re welcome to visit again any time. But I have work in the morning and John has school, so unfortunately I think we need to call it a night.”

“Thank you for invitation. It was fun and tasty.”

John glanced at the buff icon for her dose of humanis elixir to check the remaining time. “I’ll walk you home, once we’ve packed up the game.”

Brenda giggled. “My, my, John, where have you been hiding all this chivalry?”

He just shrugged in response and they fell silent for a bit while they returned game pieces to the box. Then Qhila asked, “After you walk me home, have you time to play a little before going?”

“Sorry, I’m pretty sure we already used up my ‘stay out late on a school night’ quota for the time being.”

“Did you get her home all right?” Brenda asked him just as he had gotten back.

“Yep, smooth sailing. As the fact that I’m back without sending a text about any trouble kind of implies.”

“Did she enjoy herself?”

John couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. “Yeah, as she said, ‘it was fun and tasty’. She’s usually not exactly the ‘glass half full’ type, so that’s fairly high praise. No need to fret.”

Brenda smiled and started walking towards the stairs. “She seems like a very sweet girl.”

“She is.” John followed. “Though she tries to act tough and callous at times.”

“She can’t really be blamed for that, considering…” His mom fell quiet for a bit, then ventured, “I think she’s wrong about one thing though.”

“Oh?”

“I don’t think she’s too damaged for romance. To me, she very much looked like a girl in love…”