Every so often, Half & Half will admit someone who belongs there, part of the magic of the Twilight Grove that enables the cafe to work the way Charlotte wishes. She has grown used to such visitors. She no longer sees them as intrusions in her carefully-laid plans, but rather opportunities to expand her vision for what the cafe might do.
She is still rather surprised to see Charles Palmer come through the door.
Charles was a male version of Charlotte herself. He hailed from the universe the team referred to as the “Pidgeverse”, after a character from a cartoon called “Voltron” who despite being a girl passed as a boy for a time. Members of the Menagerie in that world, and several significant people connected with them, had similarly inverted genders from the team Charlotte knew.
She’d asked Leo to explain the effect once. He’d shrugged and smiled. “It’s just a quirk of the cosmos. They’re ‘close’ to us, dimensionally speaking, because so little else is different.”
She had seen Charles and his friends during a sleepover, organized to stabilize a global magical phenomenon. Menagerie members across four parallel realities had participated. Their paths had crossed a few times since, though dimensional travel was by no means a casual thing.
Despite the fun atmosphere of a sleepover, they had been somewhat serious because of the underlying ritual going on. Now, Charlotte can see concern on her cognate’s face.
“Welcome to Half & Half,” she announces with a smile. “How may we serve you?”
Charles glances around. “My teammates Medea Quill and Leah Snow abruptly disappeared. My mystic investigations led me here. Do you know anything of this?”
Charlotte blinks. “No? But I can help you search…”
They are interrupted by a mumbling acknowledgement from the back. Leah Snow, Leo’s female equivalent from the same universe, is blearily staggering out of Half & Half’s back room.
“Why am I in a fucking coffee shop?” she demands, looking around.
Charlotte purses her lips. “I’m afraid I don’t know. But there are still many mysteries to be solved, even in my own establishment. Perhaps the two of you would like to stay and try some coffee, and we can discuss this?”
They find a version of Harry in the back. He’s asleep, and mumbles in annoyance when prompted to wake. But wake he finally does.
Medea is also sacked out in the back. She’s hardest to rouse, but rouse she does.
None of the three have any idea how they got into the back of Charlotte’s coffee shop. Ultimately it’s not magical investigation that yields a clue, but simple observation. Bodark spots three sets of faint footprints made out of fine dirt, leading to the back door. Beyond is the Twilight Grove.
“You must have come through the Grove into the back. But from where?” Charlotte asks. Still, this additional clue unlocks no new memories.
Further rooting around the cafe yields what everyone considers a satisfactory explanation: a version of Resister’s memory-shielding suit, broken beyond repair. Someone or something must have been meddling with it - probably Leah, Charlotte thinks to herself - and neither the trio nor anyone else involved can remember because of the suit’s unique properties.
The matter of the suit has prompted Charlotte to consult its creator, crown prince Gunnhvatr Azurblárson. He knows nothing of the matter, although since everyone involved in the incident was from another universe, he considers it likely that some other Resister may have been involved.
"How strange,” muses the prince. “I can only think of one place a copy of the suit could have been taken from, and that is the very place I wish to ask your help in investigating. You see, there’s a remote weapons research station - a trio of islands, high pillars rising out of treacherous waves - called Thridrangaviti. The original technology and research notes are maintained there.”
“Unfortunately it is now under assault. The Hidden Family accumulated great magical might in their time. The lingering levels of arcane power now spill over and awaken pockets of darkness. One such is assaulting the personnel at the research station.”
He gestures about him. “We know something of magic. But it is not our area of expertise. You - and hopefully any allies you’ve accumulated - should be much better equipped. Will you help us?”
Charlotte inclines her head. “It would be an honor and a pleasure to help you, Prince.”
These events originally occurred in “411 - Curse of the Draugr” – Ed.
Charlotte finds that Half & Half has moved itself to the Icelandic island of Heimaey, in the small village there. She will not need to make a return trip to the capital, where her coffee shop had unexpectedly parked itself during her discussions with the crown prince.
Likewise, her friends - Bodark and Vermillion, who work with her, Daphne Palin aka Equity, Manny the Skull, and Maury Jones the journalist, were at the capital. They followed her to the weapons research lab, and were instrumental in uncovering the mystery there. Now they are back in the coffee shop, relaxing and recuperating from the stresses of that solution.
With a mug of coffee before her, and a sly look on her face, Maury asks Charlotte a question. “Say, what’s up with you and that crown prince? Gunnhvatr?”
“What do you mean, Ms. Jones?” Charlotte asks, rather more sharply than intended.
The journalist shrugs. “Just seemed, y’know, like there’s something there.”
Charlotte lets out another, longer sigh. “I think of him as a friend. We have been colleagues on other matters, and we have an excellent rapport and working relationship.”
There is something, but it’s not what Maury thinks. Charlotte hesitates, but decides that giving it voice is perhaps for the best. She has no reason to hide this.
“He is… something I need in this new century. My upbringing taught me the value of manners, decorum, and protocol. He was raised with these values as well. He is someone with whom I can be, well, the girl I was raised to be. His mere existence does not pressure me to assimilate. In that regard, he is… a comfort.”
Maury smiles, and through her expression Charlotte reads that she does understand. She asks a more serious question. “So you’re no closer to figuring out what happened to those three who showed up in your back room. What’s your next move?"
Charlotte considers the question. “Perhaps nothing. It’s a mystery, but the nature of the explanation may be unreachable if the memories of the participants were altered. I suppose I will keep looking. But what do you think?”
Maury grins. “A good journalist never lets go of a good story. But sometimes, leads dry up, and you work on something else. So I get where you’re coming from. I suggest you feel proud of what you’ve accomplished.”
Charlotte thinks back. “It feels…”
She turns to Maury, with a look of concern on her face. “It feels like I haven’t really accomplished anything. Or enough. It’s just a feeling, but… It’s as though there’s something missing. Something I’ve overlooked.”
Maury’s smile is warm and caring. “Lady, you’ve done so much. Take a break, and let the rest of us catch up.”
Charlotte is really on the verge of losing her patience once a Fedex delivery driver walks in the doors of Half & Half.
She composes herself. “How may we help you?”
The driver looks at his tablet in one hand, and extends a package in the other. “Delivery for Charlotte Palmer. Can you sign for it?”
Charlotte wields the stylus sharply and quickly, with a mixture of curiosity and frustration vying for control. With the driver gone, she tears open the package.
Inside she finds a thick, leather-bound book. On the cover is a mysterious symbol. Charlotte recognizes it immediately. It’s the same one as was on the card Vermillion presented, when he and Bodark first entered Half & Half.
She opens the book in curiosity. It’s well-bound, solidly constructed, and empty except for a single sentence on the first page.
“The voyage is the treasure - Captain Finn Quill”.
Her first instinct was to summon Vermillion, based on the symbol. But the name is close enough to Manny’s stories that she thinks of calling him instead.
She ends up calling them both.
Vermillion has said all he’s going to say, which as usual is less than Charlotte wishes he would. Manny has talked more than he’s really communicated. Bodark, who has come along, is merely handling a cigarette. Charlotte’s strict orders keep him from actually lighting up, but he’s satisfying a desire to fidget by rolling the thing between his fingers. Daph Palin and Maury Jones, who have been sitting a few tables away, have rolled over to find out what’s so interesting.
Charlotte recaps what she’s heard. “You both have seen this symbol under mysterious circumstances. Manny, you think it might have been on the voyage you made. So why is it on this book that was just delivered to my front door?”
The skull floats about in uncertain contemplation, and the vampire shrugs elegantly.
Bodark speaks up. “Why not repeat voyage and find out? Should be fast, yes? You have airplanes and rockets and things like that. Sailing ship very slow compared to all that.”
For all of Charlotte’s feelings of displacement in the modern era, Manny has centuries on her. He seems to have adapted well enough. But what was life really like for him?
The idea awakens Charlotte’s curiosity. Manny has been a friend. So what was his life really like? Perhaps revisiting the places he saw on his fateful voyage would help her understand.
She turns to her ghostly friend. “What do you say, Manny?”
The skull bobs and bounces excitedly. “We’ve got a logbook. I’ve got me memories of the navigation. All we need is a way to travel.”
Suspiciously, there’s a knock on the front door of Half & Half.
Charlotte rises and answers it.
The cafe is currently attached to a wide boulevard in Halcyon City. Standing at the door is an unassuming man dressed in a truly archaic style, compared to the people walking by on the sidewalk. A moment’s inspection reveals his true nature to her. He is indeed a ghost.
“How may I help you?” she asks.
The man smiles. “My name is Haam. I’ve been asked to provide you transportation.”
Charlotte blinks. “Did you send us the book?”
Haam shakes his head. “No. But I know who did.”
Charlotte turns back to her friends. “This feels uncomfortably like manipulation. I’m growing increasingly suspicious of this business.”
“It’s fate!” Maury says brightly. “You like fate, right?”
Bodark sighs. “Fate just is manipulation by God. Or the Devil. Or both.”
Equity tilts her head. “I get the feeling that justice will be served by doing this. You should go, and I should come along.”
Vermillion gestures wordlessly at the symbol on the book, and shrugs.
Charlotte turns back to Haam. “On your word of honor that you’ll answer my questions about this business to the best of your ability, I think we will accept your offer of passage.”
The man places a hand across his chest and inclines his head. “On my honor, madam.”
Charlotte finds herself smiling again. “Very well. Then by what means will we be taking this journey?”
Haam gestures behind him. Out of the pavement of the boulevard, a ghostly sailing ship unexpectedly bursts forth, like a submarine surfacing out of the earth. It rights itself, as though the land were the ocean on which it sailed. None of the people on the sidewalk take notice of it, and the cars driving on the busy boulevard pass right through it.
Charlotte raises her eyebrows. “Points for style, my dear sir.”
She turns back to Manny. “I should say that this is your lucky day.”
Manny bobs and floats about in excitement, unable to give voice to his feelings for a few moments. “Then let us revisit the voyage of the Argo! All aboard, ye swabs!”