Page 51 of Sequel to the Easter Bunny

She nods and then glances to the tiles. “I would suggest you don’t go to the ninth floor, then.”

Tugging me to the lift, she presses the button for the top floor and leans back against the wall, hands in her pockets. “There a ton of little things popping up, things he’d have been able to do that another wouldn’t.”

“But he doesn’t have the Power.”

“Not the way you do, but it’s still there, a tiny sliver through his mortal soul. Even with his limited power, he’s able to do some things a normal man wouldn’t. At this point, I think it’s mostly protective magics. But if you can stop a bullet, you’re more likely to do things that could get you shot.”

She makes me eat as she goes over the things she was able to handle while I was gone.

The list is long enough, and her descriptions detailed enough, she doesn’t finish until we’ve made it down to the garage.

“Do you ever sleep?” I ask as we get in her car.

She offers me a smile as she presses the ignition. “No.”

It feels like half the day has withered away by the time we reach the facility set near the centre of the Valley.

It’s an oddly ornate building, sculptures of a familiar god in place of columns, holding the roof aloft.

“Why is this building covered in Diyo?”

Ari raises one shoulder in a shrug. “The original structure was built long before I was born. And I’ve never bothered to ask. Knowing Diyo they probably demanded it as part of a bargain. It seems like the sort of thing they’d find funny.”

She glances at me over her shoulder. “You spent too much time up in that tower before you kicked Jamus out of it. Once this is all over, we’ll explore the Valley together and we’ll come up with wild theories for why there’s a beautifully carved, but completely inaccurate image of your Easter Bunny in the depths of the public library.”

She snickers as she pulls the door open and ushers me inside—cutting off any hope of asking how she knows what Jack looks like.

The inside of the building is a drastic shift from the exterior. Everything is lined with pipes and people hurry about their tasks without giving us a second glance.

But more than that, it’s loud.

A woman hurries forward, irritation in the crease of her brows and shoves pairs of heavy headphones at us.

Ari doesn’t hesitate to put them on, with a smile, and I follow suit, because there’s not much else I can do.

It doesn’t cut out the sound immediately, but it does help. And the woman waves for us to follow her.

I can’t hear her, but I can definitely see her muttering imprecations as she hauls open a door to an office area and finally pulls off the headphones when she goes through a door marked “Processing Director”.

“Next time,” She throws her ear protection at the wall and it catches on a hook. “Use the visitor entrance. You don’t work here. You don’t have the right PPE.

“Now,” She flops into the chair behind her desk. “Who the hell are you, and what do you want?”

I look at Ari, because I don’t know how to answer that question….

Ari, however, doesn’t shy away from telling her exactly who I am.

The woman goes green.

“I’m so sorry, I had no idea.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’re doing your job, no one can get mad at you for being irritated by people showing up in the wrong place.” I glance back through the doors we’ve come through. “If there’s a next time, we’ll avoid that entrance.”

She clears her throat, nodding. “Yes, well. Thank you.”

There’s still a little terror in her eyes. “Let’s start with your name, and what the actual problem is.”

I’d like to stop thinking of her as “the woman”.

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