Relics (21 page)

I didn't answer, except with a sigh. I just leaned into the circle of his arms, comfortable and loved, as I always was, wondering what the new day would bring to our new world.

I didn't get to sleep in late the next morning. I woke to Parker shouting for me and Thulu. I stumbled downstairs to the kitchen where Thulu sat reading the paper and sipping his coffee. Jenna sat at the table almost on the booth, and Sophie was in the air next to her.

“You have to go to your office right now!”

Thulu looked at me. Parker had spoken too fast for him to read his lips.

“Parker says we need to go to our office right away.” I was already moving back up the stairs, two at a time. I took the fastest shower I could to wake up and jammed myself into jeans and a T shirt, slipping into sandals.

Thulu had already gathered my purse and tablet. We locked up, calling for Jenna and Parker to go with us.

Reo drove up as we were getting into the car. He parked and quickly joined us in our SUV. Thulu drove fast, but carefully. Traffic was very light. I guessed people were doing as told and staying home.

We pulled into the small lot behind our building. Thulu unlocked the door, and we let ourselves into the small back hallway. The alarm hadn't been tripped, so I wasn't sure what we would face. Thulu unlocked the next door, and it opened into chaos.

We stood in the doorway, humans and ghosts alike stunned, watching creatures milling about. Sophie started barking.

Our office was in shambles. The felt on the pool table had been shredded. A pixie swung from the Tiffany lamp that hung above it. The sofa and chairs had been ripped open and overturned and stuffing had been thrown around the room. The refrigerator was open, with its contents strewn across the floor. The microwave was also on the floor, door hanging askew.

One entity, a poltergeist, had Thulu's computer monitor in his hands. He was about to throw it onto the pile of smashed electronics I recognized as my own monitor and keyboard, lying on the floor.

“You put that back right now!” I yelled. The rest of the room froze. The poltergeist looked up, a cunning expression on his pointed little face. He stood about three feet tall. I'd dealt with poltergeists before and didn't much care for them.

“I mean it!  You throw that, you little bastard, and I will banish you to the farthest dimension I can find!”

“I think I would listen to the lady, if I were you.” The voice sounded from behind us and seemed vaguely familiar. I turned to see Belus and one of the elf women who had come through the portal with him.

He was about seven feet tall, and she was a maybe half a head shorter. The TV had not conveyed the sheer power emanating from them. Their skin glowed and their hair shone gold in the sunlight coming through the door. His voice was even more hypnotic in person.

The poltergeist got a look of fear on his face and gently lowered the large flat screen monitor back to the desk. I was amazed he could have picked it up since it was almost bigger than he was. He backed slowly away, small hands held out. He turned and fled through the front wall.

Belus motioned to the pixie, who immediately flew off the lamp and onto the pool table. Belus continued to look at her, and she flew down to the floor. She stood about eighteen inches tall, with dark wings that shifted color. She seemed to be trying to make herself even smaller under Belus's mild gaze. She slunk off to hide behind a genie as her wings kept changing colors.

I felt my eyes fill with tears as I looked at what the creatures had done to our office.

“Out!” I demanded. “Out, right now!”

“But we need your help!” protested a goblin.

“You should have thought of that before you trashed our office.”

“We didn't do this,” said a fairy, perching on my desk. Any charm I might have felt at seeing her was dead before it began. I felt sick at the destruction.

“You didn't stop it, either, now did you?” I glared at her. About nine or ten inches tall, her iridescent wings drooped as she hung her head. I wasn't sure what she could have done, but some of the others certainly had been capable of stopping the poltergeist.

“He was here before we came in. We told him to stop when we got here,” said the goblin who had spoken earlier. His surprisingly deep voice held a defensive note.

“I can see that was very effective,” I said as I looked around. Thulu and Reo had moved into the room. We looked at the mess around us.

I felt a warm hand on my shoulder. I looked at the hand, which was beautiful and slender with long fingers. I looked up into the elf girl's face.

“I'm Aurelia. If you will permit us, we can fix most of this. However, the electronics are beyond what we can do.” I nodded, not trusting my voice any more.

As we watched, she and Belus moved into the office. Touching nothing, they stood serenely in the center, while the pieces of furniture were magically turned upright and returned to their usual places. Stuffing returned to the chairs and sofa. Rips came together and sealed without a mark. The felt on the pool table knitted flawlessly together before our eyes.

Thulu and Reo moved back to stand on either side of me, near the door, to avoid flying objects.

Jenna thought this was all fantastic fun. She darted around the room trying to catch bits of fluff. The two elves looked at her with indulgent smiles. One of them, Aurelia, I thought, kept a ball of fluff just tantalizingly out of Jenna's reach. She and Sophie chased after it, swooping around the room for a minute or so after everything else had been put to rights.  The ball of fluff zipped into a cushion, which promptly sealed and settled back on the sofa. Jenna giggled all the while.

The fairy and pixie watched her with wistful expressions, as if they wished they were playing with her. They kept stealing glances at me, Thulu and Reo as they and the others cleared food containers from the floor.

Since most of the containers were plastic, there wasn't a lot of food actually on the floor. One juice container had broken open, but the liquid disappeared before I could get to it with paper towels.

The pixie was struggling with another juice container. I sighed and took it from her and returned it to the fridge. The sodas I set aside. There would be no opening those for quite a while. Frozen items were still solid, and they went back in the freezer.

Within minutes, the entire room was back to normal, with the exception of the computers and microwave. A close inspection showed that only my monitor and the two keyboards had been destroyed. It could have been worse. He hadn't gotten to the towers or printer.

The genie cleared away the electronic jumble. Both of the mice were intact. I wasn't sure how, though.

“Thank you,” I said.

“Yes, thank you very much. That would have taken us a lot longer to clean up, and there's no way we could have fixed things the way you did,” Thulu added.

I looked at the people in the office a bit closer. The two elves still stood in the center of the room. Both were dressed much as they had been when they came through the portal last night. Aurelia was dressed in a white tunic and light gray, loose trousers and soft boots.

I looked around. “Please, sit down.” I doubt I succeeded in keeping the grudging tone completely from my voice, but I did try.

A sigh of relief made its way around the room as everyone found places to sit. The elves sat side by side on the sofa.

The fairy chose my desk and was joined by the pixie and Jenna, who kept trying to touch them. Parker called her and Sophie to him as he went to his usual spot in the corner. Jenna seemed reluctant, but Parker turned, went to her and whispered something. He held out his hand and she took it. They went back to his corner, floating in mid-air, where he could watch everything without his view being blocked.

The goblin sat in a chair, swinging his feet back and forth. He was joined by another goblin, who I assumed was female. They were both definitely green, although he had a slightly yellowish cast to his skin, while she had more of a blue tint to hers. They were about two and a half feet tall. She had short and spiky blue hair, and his was longer and bright green. They both had very long and pointed ears that stood up from the sides of their heads.

She looked at him as she climbed up into the chair. He gazed at her fondly and pulled her up to him. I could tell they were a couple. They had that feeling about them.

Another chair was taken by the genie, who seemed very solid and carried an engraved brass bottle with him. He set that on the table next to him. He looked very human in his linen slacks and colorful Hawaiian shirt. Whether this was his natural form or he'd adopted it for this visit, I had no idea.

I sat at my desk out of habit and stared at the empty place where my monitor had been. The desk looked and felt naked, even with a fairy and pixie on it. Thulu rolled his chair next to mine and sat nearby. Reo had moved a third chair over and sat on my other side.

“You said you need our help?” Thulu asked. “May I suggest introductions first?  I'm Thulu. I find things,” he said. He put his hand on my arm. “This is my wife, La Fi, who's a supernatural translator.” He gestured to Reo. “And this is our friend and colleague, Reo. He's a psychic, telepath and empath, both sending and receiving, among other things.”

The beings from the other realms nodded politely, some smiled tentatively. The elves took the lead.

“I'm Aurelia and this is Belus. We are elves and our realm is quite close to yours. Goblins –” she indicated them, “are also from our realm.”

“What is your realm called?” Reo asked.

Belus smiled. “Your name for it is 'Avalon.' In our language, it's a bit more complicated.”

Reo smiled back. “Avalon it is.”

Belus stood. “I need to get back to the others, so I’ll leave you in Aurelia’s hands. We left abruptly. It was a pleasure to meet all of you. I'm sure we will meet again soon.” He nodded his head, the air around him shimmered and he was gone.

The male goblin spoke next. “My name is unpronounceable for you. I think you should call me Legolas.” He had an accent I couldn't identify. He had enormous eyes, a very long nose and a wide mouth.

His wife elbowed him lightly and rolled her eyes in exasperation. “You can't be called Legolas.” Her voice also had an accent, but considerably less than his. She also had big eyes, but her long nose was upturned and mouth was smaller. She seemed thin and her cheekbones were very sharp, as if she hadn't eaten well.

“Why not?  I have to have a name.”

“Yes, dear, but people will associate it with the elf from that man's book.” The rest of us watched this exchange with interest. Frankly, I thought Legolas, the goblin, had a nice ring to it. “Pick something else,” she directed with a light pat on his arm.

“Fine, I'll be Bilbo.”

“Stop, right now.” She looked around at the others. “And anyone else who plans to pick names that are strongly associated with Earth's literature. It won't do. It simply won't do.”

I hid my smile. The male frowned, but his face cleared as he got a sly look on his little green face. “Fine, I'll be Romeo, and you can be my Juliet, since I adore you so much. And you can't say no because those are perfectly good names.” He had her. No way could she argue with that. She rolled her eyes at him again, but I could see she was secretly pleased at being adored publicly.

Juliet smiled at me. “We're also from Avalon.” She nodded to Aurelia. “But we're from another kingdom than the elves. They're of the Shining Trees, and we're from the tropical zone. The name would translate to Sunset Islands.”

Aurelia added, “The Gryffins are also from Avalon, and their land would be called 'Dream Sky' in your language.”

The genie spoke next, “I'm Kareem. My realm's name would translate to 'Cobalt' in your language, for the blue of our seas. I also represent the harpies and leprechauns today.”

Romeo sneered at the mention of leprechauns.

“Be nice,” his wife quietly chided him.