#;7

The Shadowmists were safe.

They had gotten things done quickly, far quicker than they had gotten done in the novels. Sandra’s information hadn’t always been accurate, but it had been close, and with her telling everything to Lily they had usually been able to make some pretty educated guesses. The demons had been vanquished, the bad guys defeated, and now the Shadowmists and all the realms that lived in its shadow lived in peace.

What happened after “the end?” The question didn’t bother Sandra as much as it used to. After living in the Shadowmists long enough, she found that she didn’t think of it as a fictional place, needing narrative roundness and a clean plot progression. It was just a place. But it wasn’t home. She could never think of it as home. But neither was the world she came from.

It was Lily. Lily was home.

She had tried to deny it. She knew that she could never replace what Lily had lost, was afraid to even try. But that didn’t mean that there was nothing between the two of them. Their relationship -- their friendship -- had ... progressed. Things weren’t so awkward around them, now. Sometimes, Sandra was able to forget completely about her worries that Lily was just tolerating her, didn’t really want her around.

She tried to do that now, as Lily walked into the palace bedroom they had been sharing for the past few days. There was a grand ceremony being thrown in their honor, thanking them for everything they had done, and this was their accommodations. They were still celebrating in the streets, actually -- Sandra could hear them, the sound carried on the cool night air from the open window -- but she hadn’t wanted to partake in it alone, and Lily had been caught up in official business that didn’t involve her. Not everyone was as receptive to her, as an interloper in their world.

“Welcome back,” she said softly, smiling. “How was the meeting? Did you still want to go down to the celebration, or are you too tired?” She flushed, realizing she had asked too many questions at once. “Sorry. Uh, let’s start with -- how are you?” She still wasn’t used to this -- having someone who was willing to listen to her for an extended period of time. Back in her original world, she had to ask all she needed to know, as quickly as she could, before whoever she was talking to lost interest.