Hi Amity,

Your last report was awesome! Moon rocks? Planes that fly thousands of miles? Earth history? My head is spinning from the coolness! Keep up the good work! Speaking of Earth history, you mind bringing back some history books so we can donate them to the library? Thanks! You're amazing!

Your friend,

Gus

That's a good idea, actually. I'll stop by a bookstore and pick some up tomorrow. If you liked my last report, you're definitely going to find yourself intrigued by this one, although I'm afraid it's going to leave you with more questions than answers. You see, with Luz busy with her friends, I decided to get some answers to the question of precisely how connected the Human and Demon Realms are.

The fact that there is some connection is unquestionable. There are too many cultural similarities. And, yes, fair enough, the number of differences is just incalculably large, but there are way too many similarities to have occurred by coincidence. Luz was supposedly the first person to have ever stumbled upon the Demon Realm in over a millennia, but what if she wasn't?

I didn't know if I could find answers to these questions, but I knew that if I was going to find them, there was only one place where I could do that. So first thing in the morning, I got on a bus heading up to Ballard, a neighborhood on the northern edge of Seattle.

Ballard has a much more laid back atmosphere from the downtown areas. It is also apparently "filled with hipsters," according to Luz. My attempts to figure out what that meant were all in vain, but she did not make it sound like a good thing. In case the hipsters were poisonous, I brought a healing potion along with me. I didn't see any sort of creatures that looked poisonous when walking on the streets of Ballard, though. Maybe they can only be sensed by humans. Either way, I thankfully had no encounters with hipsters at any time today.

Humans largely do not believe in the existence of magic, but there are exceptions, derided by most humans. One of these exceptions was Luz's best friend Avery. Avery's father runs a small private library dedicated to magic and other related topics called the Seattle Parapsychological Library. I figured that if anyone could tell me what was known in the Human Realm about the Demon Realm, it would be him or Avery.

The library was located in the basement of what looked like a perfectly normal building. It more resembled a bookshop than the neatly organized libraries I was used to on Earth. The books didn't appear to be organized in any particular order. And frankly, they didn't inspire confidence very much, with titles like "Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About" and "True Hallucinations." Still, from Luz's stories, I knew that Avery had a good head on their shoulders, so I decided to give the place a chance.

When I walked in, I spotted Avery behind a desk, not even bothering to hide the fact that they were busy playing games on their phone. Their ash-brown hair was in a ponytail. Their outfit was eclectic even by the standards of ones that I've seen in the human realm – jeans that looked like they'd taken a real beating, a hat with a brim in the back of their head, glasses with thick black frames, and a t-shirt with the words "normal people scare me" printed on it.

"Hi, Avery," I said. They looked up at me and blinked. "I wasn't expecting to find you here."

They looked skeptical. "Oh, really? I'm supposed to believe you just coincidentally ended up at this place and didn't come looking for me specifically?"

"I did come here deliberately," I explained, "but I was expecting to talk to your father, actually. Luz is hanging out with her other friends, and I assumed that you'd be here."

They looked guilty. "Oh. Yeah, that makes sense, I guess. Sorry for snapping at you. Yeah, I'd have loved to spend time with them, but Dad says that working here will teach me responsibility and look good on a college application. Because the universities will just line up to let me in when they hear about how I work in a library that specializes in magic!"

After looking around to see that no one was watching, I cast a spell to create an illusory copy of myself. I certainly am not as sophisticated at illusions as you are [That means a lot coming from you, Amity! Thanks!] but I can make a pretty decent one of myself. A few seconds later, I dispelled it. "I don't know, Avery. I think magic is pretty interesting."

There was a glint in their eyes that was…well, I think greedy sounds too judgmental. But they wanted to be able to do magic. "You're jealous of me, aren't you?" I realized.

"Um, yeah, why wouldn't I be?" they said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Let's see here. You're dating Luz, you had the guts to stand up to Erik Hellinger, and, oh, yeah, you can do magic. Do you know how much I yearned for magic? I grew up in this place, I've read every book in here at least twice. I believed in magic. I knew it was real." A pained look appeared in their eyes. "The world taught me otherwise. Painfully."

I conjured an illusory butterfly. "It would appear that they taught you the wrong lessons."

Avery smiled. "I guess they did. So what are you here for?"

I'm honestly not sure what possessed me to do what I did next. I blame the twins. Their prankster spirit must have finally rubbed off on me. "Well, you have questions about the Demon Realm, and I have questions about the Human Realm. What say we go somewhere and answer each other's questions?"

Avery looked shocked. "I can't just walk away. Dad's expecting me to look after things here for him. Not that there are any visitors at this time of day. But still…"

I turned around and started walking over to the exit. It was a classic Emira move: pretend that you're walking away to force a hasty decision. I can't tell you the number of times that I fell for it, even after I was old enough to know better. I was sure that Avery would do the same.

I was right. "No, wait!" they said, sounding frantic enough that I felt guilty for manipulating them a bit. But only a bit. Okay, so I was feeling the tiniest bit jealous that they had a crush on Luz. That's not a crime, is it?! "Okay, I'll go with you. I really hope this is going to be worth it…"

As we walked over to the bus stop, Avery started to look increasingly uncomfortable with the idea. "Okay, so where are you taking me?" they asked. "I mean…I just realized that no one knows where I am, and I'm going to an unknown location with someone who might regard me as a romantic rival."

"You really think I'm going to take you somewhere and then kill you?" I asked them, making my voice sound hurt.

"Well, no," they admitted. "That'd be silly."

I smiled reassuringly at them. "That's right, Avery. Very silly indeed. After all, if I wanted to kill you, I would just shove you into the path of a passing car and teleport to another location to give myself a completely unimpeachable alibi. I wouldn't have to take you anywhere." Their eyes widened in shock. "That was a joke," I added.

They breathed a sigh of relief and then tried to play it cool. "Uh, yeah, of course. I knew that."

"Tell you what, you choose today's itinerary," I offered. Maybe I had taken things a little too far. [If that's a little too far, Amity, I really do not want to know what you think would be way too far.] "Anywhere you want to go, we can go there. Don't worry about money, either; Eda gave me way more than I needed." I put up a finger. "But the teleportation part was just a joke too; I don't know how to do that spell."

Avery thought about it for a while, and then their face lit up with a smile. Avery may have talked tough and had a façade of cool indifference, but when they got enthusiastic, they lit up the surrounding area (metaphorically, Gus). I could see now why Luz was such good friends with them. "I got an idea. How do you feel about going on a fairy ride?"

I tried to keep the trepidation off my face. I was dismayed to learn that humans think that fairies are cute, harmless, mischievous creatures. In reality, nothing is further from the truth. They are cunning tricksters. They cannot directly lie, but they are masters at using half-truths and tricks of language to deceive. They have a tendency to make deals with witches that almost invariably end badly for the witches in questions. One crosses a fairy at one's peril. They hold grudges across generations, and will go to any lengths to avenge a slight.

[Amity, I know all this. Everyone in the Boiling Isles knows this! Little kids know this stuff! Why are you telling me this?]

But I trusted that Avery knew what they were doing, so we took the bus actually almost right back to where my hotel is, and then walked a few blocks to the demesne of the Seattle fairies.

Only to find a large space filled with cars (this is called a parking lot; many buildings have them). Behind the parking lot was a very, very large boat. But no fairies in sight. This should not have surprised me as much as it did, I suppose. Everyone knows that fairies exist in the shadows.

"Avery, I know you probably know what you're doing," I told them, "but I feel obliged to warn you nevertheless that trusting a fairy is a recipe for disaster. Even the nice ones don't think the way we do. They may think that they're doing you a favor, only to ruin your life."

They just stared at me, looking absolutely befuddled. Then they burst out laughing. I scowled at them. "You may think that I'm joking, but I'm not. My great-uncle once bargained for a fresh start – they turned him back into a baby!"

Avery was laughing so hard that tears were flowing down their face, which I honestly thought was a little uncalled for. Surely an individual initiated in magic would know not to underestimate the Hidden Folk. "I'm sorry," they said eventually. "But we're talking about two different things. You're talking about fairies and I'm talking about ferries." They spelled out both words.

They pointed at the boat docked in the harbor. "That's a ferry. It's a boat that can carry many passengers and vehicles across water. It has nothing to do with the creatures you're thinking of."

I hadn't been so embarrassed since that time I called Camila Mom when I went to the human realm for Thanksgiving. "Oh. Well. My warning still stands. Where are we going, then?"

"Well, I figured we'd go to Bremerton," they said.

"What's there?"

They shrugged. "Not much. It's not the destination that matters so much here; it's the journey. We have a rare sunny day, and we should totally take advantage of it. You in?"

I certainly felt much better now that I knew that I didn't have to bargain with a fae. I was never very good at that sort of thing. The cash fee that I had to pay seemed like a relief in comparison. Before I knew it, Avery and I had boarded the ferry.

Humans have been known to build some big ships. The ferry that I was on was only fairly large by human standards, but it would have been the size of some of our biggest warships. Avery must have noticed the awed look in my eyes, because they said, "I'm guessing the Boiling Isles hasn't matched us in technology yet?"

Oh, they didn't know it, but that was a serious tactical error. As you know well, I have a competitive streak a mile wide. "We make up for it in other ways. At least we're not pumping all those toxic gases into the air." Oh, that reminds me, when I get back, I'll tell you about global warming. It's not something I'm interested in talking about right now. [Sounds fun!] Anyway, by the look on Avery's face, I could tell that I scored a point.

The two of us claimed a table. From the window, I could see Puget Sound and the forested areas in the distance. It would be an excellent journey, I just knew it. At that point, I would have bet you a hundred snails that I was having much more fun than Luz was.

"So how about to make this as simple as possible, we'll take turns asking our questions," Avery suggested. "I'll go first. How do you feel about nonbinary people there?"

"You're going to have to tell me what that means," I told them. "I'm pretty sure I have a good idea, but I want to be absolutely certain."

"Fair enough," they said. They tried to keep a casual air about them, but I could tell that they were a bit nervous at the thought of discussing this. They'd probably had it go wrong on several occasions. "I've always thought that the concept of gender is [REDACTED]. You know? I'm not a boy, I'm not a girl, I'm just me. I'm Avery. What does it matter what I wear or what colors I like or if I liked to play with dollhouses or dinosaurs as a kid? What does it matter what equipment I have? Why is it anyone's business?"

I nodded. This was what I thought it meant, but after that fairy/ferry misunderstanding, I needed to be completely certain. This was an important part of Avery's personal identity, and if I made a mistake, it would cause major problems. "Well, I'm not sure we have a specific concept of nonbinary, but when you've got at least seventeen major sentient species with no less than nine different types of genitals, gender…isn't really as much of a high priority."

Avery looked profoundly jealous. I bet they had wished every day of their life to have lived in a world that shared their perspective on gender. "We can use magic to change our anatomy," I went on. "If one feels they should have different equipment, then they can change it."

"And there's no stigma behind it?"

"Well, I wouldn't say no stigma, but certainly not as much as there appears to be in your world. And there's little stigma on same sex relationships either." Even among the upper class, my parents had always been considered to be strange and out of touch for their homophobia.

I was about to say something else, but I was interrupted by a horn blasting. It startled me so much that I jumped probably much higher than a human should be able to do. Thank the Titan that no one was watching us. "It's okay," Avery assured me. "It just means that we're about to embark on our voyage. We should be on the boat for around an hour. Then we'll get off, walk around a little, maybe get some ice cream, and head back. Sound good to you?"

I gave them a thumbs up. "Okay, well, I've answered your question. My turn. What do you know about any contact between the Human Realm and the Demon Realm?"

Avery considered the question for a long time. "I have never heard the term Boiling Isles before I met Luz. Demon Realm usually refers to a place of great evil, a place where devils congregate. But there's no reason to suspect that it has anything to do with your realm specifically."

I was disappointed. Avery was the closest thing to an occult expert that I knew of in the human realm. If they didn't know anything about cross-realm travel, it was likely that no such records existed.

"But," Avery continued, "you're almost certainly right in assuming that there is a connection. Tell me, how are you able to understand me?"

I blinked. "Um, you speak and my ears process the sound and convert them to words in my brain. Is…it different for humans?"

"Yes, yes, but I mean, you don't use some form of translation magic, right?" Alas, such a thing does not appear to exist, and I told them as much. What I wouldn't give for it, though. I've been trying to learn Spanish for Luz's sake, but it's been difficult. There are so many different verb tenses and I still have difficulty figuring out which one applies to which situation.

"So we have to be speaking the same language," they concluded.

It was a logical conclusion, and I'm surprised that I never realized it. English and Newspeak were the same. I told them as much, and their eyes widened in shock when I uttered the word "Newspeak." "Did I say something wrong?" I wondered.

"Tell me about this Newspeak," they responded, instead of giving me a straight answer.

"It was brought into the Isles by Emperor Belos in…I suppose it would have been your year 1968?" I recited. "He cast a spell that completely took away our knowledge of Oldspeak and permanently bound knowledge of Newspeak into our minds."

Avery whistled in astonishment. I couldn't blame them. It was that kind of power that led people to believe that Belos was completely invincible, right up until we proved them wrong. "Do you think it's possible that Belos was a human?" they asked.

That had never occurred to me, and since Lilith had killed him with a disintegration spell, there wasn't any of his body left to confirm the hypothesis one way or the other. "I mean, maybe? I don't think there's any way to know. He always wore that mask…maybe to cover up his round ears?"

"The word Newspeak comes from a novel called 1984," Avery told me. "A totalitarian regime created a new language to isolate the populace from concepts that could cause them to rebel. It could be a coincidence…but maybe not. The concept is similar. If Belos removed your old language from you, that would have been done to keep you from passing on your history, to rewrite the past completely. That, again, was a prominent theme in that novel."

I shrugged. How would I ever find out if Belos was human? What's more, what did it matter if he was? He was dead and while his linguistic legacy would continue, his political and social legacy would not. Besides, I didn't think that Luz would be quite so welcomed in the Isles if people thought their long time tyrannical overlord was the same species as her.

I looked out the window, and grinned at what I saw. The sky was blue and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Puget Sound is truly beautiful when it's sunny. There's nothing like it on the Boiling Isles. Ah, the human realm is great, Gus. You've really got to come here one day.

"I think we have time for one more set of questions before we dock," Avery said. "My turn again. What's been your favorite thing about humanity? And saying Luz is cheating."

"Darn it," I said, utterly deadpan. "Hmm. Favorite thing. That's a difficult one. I think I love your stubbornness most of all. When you want to tackle a problem, you don't let anything stand in your way of completing it. It's just getting you to want to tackle the problem that's difficult. Okay, my question. What are your intentions towards Luz?"

I probably couldn't have gotten a more shocked reaction if I had started punching them. "Um, what?"

I smirked. Oh, I was definitely channeling my inner Emira. She'd have been so proud of me. "It was a perfectly simple question, Avery. Do I need to be jealous of you and Luz?"

"NO!" Avery shouted. Everyone briefly gave us disapproving looks, but we were not interesting enough to hold their attention for very long. "Sorry. No. Definitely not. I'm not a jerk, Amity. Luz isn't interested and I've respected her wishes." A wistful smile came on their face. "Besides, I think that you can surely understand how easy it is to get a crush on Luz."

Oh, I most definitely could. Luz is [Yeah, I'm just going to cut this whole segment out – for the Titan's sake, Amity, five whole pages?!] and I was so proud to call her my girlfriend.

I wasn't actually jealous of Avery. I was just teasing them. Still, a part of me did know that, had Luz never went to the Boiling Isles, she would likely have ended up at the same club and encountered Avery in the same way and maybe they would have gone out together. In a parallel universe, Avery could have been Luz's romantic partner instead of me.

But we weren't in that universe. We were in this one, and I knew that our relationship was secure. Avery was just a friend, both of Luz, and now of me. And I was really starting to value their friendship.

My musings were interrupted by the boat horn blowing. We had arrived in Bremerton. Time flies fast when you're exchanging info about your universes, it would seem. True to Avery's words, there really isn't much to talk about regarding our time in Bremerton. We walked around a little. The place wasn't much different than Ballard. We had lunch – sandwiches. Then we had ice cream, which is like our ice scream, but it's made from frozen milk and doesn't yell at you when you eat it. Avery was disturbed to learn of our version. I'm not sure why.

Soon enough, we were back on the ferry heading back to Seattle. This time, I stood on the bow, savoring the fresh sea air. Unlike our seas, the seas of Earth are not boiling. Their temperature depends on the climate of the region, but in Seattle, they were brisk and cool. I could feel droplets landing on my face and they felt refreshing, which was a nice change of pace from agonizingly painful, which they'd be in our world.

"Do you do this often?" I wondered. "With your parents?"

"I did this a couple times with my dad," Avery said. They made a face. "I don't want to talk about my mom." Not wanting to talk about mothers was a sentiment I could definitely get behind. "I've always loved the water. One time, my dad and I went on a whale watching tour," they went on. "I must have been around six at the time."

"What is a whale watching tour?" I asked them.

"Oh, you go in a boat and sail into Puget Sound where there are orcas." On their phone, they showed me a photograph of a surprisingly adorable looking whale with a mostly black body with a white underside and white patches. "They're also called killer whales, but that's a misnomer – they've never been known to attack humans in the wild. They're kind of hard to find. We'd be really lucky if we saw one here."

An idea occurred to me. "What if we weren't?" I asked. "I know a bard spell that might be able to summon the creatures."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Avery worried. "What if people see you casting the spell?"

"Oh, it wouldn't look like a conventional spell," I explained. "It'd manifest as a song." I really didn't think that people would hear me singing and think "oh, that girl must have summoned the orcas magically."

Avery gave me a charming smile. Oh, yeah, I was really lucky that I had gotten to Luz first. No way would she have been able to resist that smile. I closed my eyes and reached to the magic that was inside of me. I couldn't tell you what I sang, but it was in Oldspeak, as all bard songs were. We knew their meanings, but now we don't.

And it worked. It worked a little too well, I'm embarrassed to say. It summoned just about every orca whale in a five mile radius. They crowded around our boat, doing backflips like they were putting on a show for us. For me. I learned that it would later be reported on the news. Some people even called it a miracle.

But no one ended up connecting it to the girl who was singing under her breath, so all's well that ends well, am I right?

Avery and I didn't talk much on the way back. We just watched the orcas in awe. I could see why humans paid money to go on boats specifically to find them. They were truly majestic creatures, apex predators who were completely unburdened of the things that seemed to dominate mankind.

I brought Avery back to Ballard. (I later learned that they had been grounded for a week, but Avery, through a text message they sent to Luz, assured me that it worth it.) By the time I got back to Luz's house in [REDACTED BY ORDER OF THE PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE] [Amity, come on. You've got to know this by now. Are you just doing this to taunt me?], it was late afternoon. I felt exhausted, even though I hadn't really done that much today, physically. Then again, the spell probably had something to do with it. I don't like to brag [That is a bald-faced lie, and we both know it.], but that was some pretty advanced bard magic I did.

I didn't mean to fall asleep on Luz's couch. I just laid down, and the next thing I knew, the most beautiful girl in the world was shaking me awake. "Hey, Amity. You know, if you're really tired, you can take a nap in my bed. I won't mind."

I sat bolt upright and flushed bright red at the very thought of even being in close proximity to Luz's actual bedroom, much less bed. "Nope! I'm totally refreshed and doing well! Couldn't be better!" I coughed. "So how was your day?"

"Oh, you know, not much to talk about. We watched movies, played video games. Normal stuff." She looked shocked to hear those words coming out of her mouth. "Yeah. I guess that is normal stuff. Huh. So what did you do, and did it have anything to do with this?" She showed me a newspaper article of the orca incident on her phone.

I filled her in on the day's events. I was worried she'd be unhappy that I had spent the day with Avery and had left her out, but instead she appeared overjoyed that her best human friend and her girlfriend were getting along so well. "I told you you'd like them!" she said, somewhat teasingly. It was true; she had. "Aw, I'm so relieved that you had a fun time today. I was worried you'd mope around in your hotel room all day."

"I have never moped in my life," I lied haughtily. I could see by the look on her face that Luz was not convinced at all. "I liked spending time with Avery, but I like spending time with you more. Please tell me we're doing that tomorrow."

She nodded enthusiastically, but I could sense that she was nervous about something behind that veneer of enthusiasm. "What is it?" I asked her.

"There's someplace that I'd like to take you to now," she said slowly. "Mom will drive us. It's…time I introduced you to Dad." I blinked. Maybe I had misunderstood, but Luz had given me the impression that her father was dead. But there was no point in asking for clarification now. She'd tell me when she wanted to.

"Okay," I said simply.

Camila drove us to a cemetery not too far from Luz's house. Luz looked…nervous? No, that wasn't it. I wasn't good at judging emotions, but was it possible that some part of her was afraid? But afraid of what?

"I'll wait here, mija," Camila said, once she had parked the car. "This is a moment you need to face without me." Well, that just made things even more confusing.

As we walked across the grassland of the cemetery, Luz grabbed my hand and squeezed it so hard that I had to tell her to tone it down. She looked apologetic and let go. She hadn't realized she was doing it.

Then we reached our destination. It was a plain gravestone. I knew instinctively, it wasn't a question of the Noceda family not being able to afford a better one. It was just that Señor Noceda was not the kind of man who would want much fuss made over him in death. The only decoration on the stone was a six pointed star, the symbol of his faith. The tombstone read: "Eduardo Noceda, beloved husband and father," and then listed the years of his life. He had been so young, comparative to the human lifespan, when he died.

Luz was just six years old when it happened.

"Hi, Dad," Luz said to the gravestone quietly. I squeezed her hand again. "I'm back. So remember when I told you about Amity? Well, here she is!"

I waved awkwardly. "Can…can he hear us?" I asked Luz.

Luz shrugged. "I like to think he can. Some days, I believe it more than others."

From what I've read, the Jewish faith doesn't have much to say about the afterlife. This isn't necessarily because it teaches that there isn't one – though certainly there are Jews who believe that – but because it emphasizes that what awaits one after death is just not relevant to how one lives one's life on Earth. To many people of the Jewish faith, being a good person is more than just a prerequisite for receiving a divine reward.

I kneeled down in front of the tombstone. "Señor Noceda, it's an honor to meet you. I hope you don't mind that your daughter is dating me. I mean, I'm a witch. And not human." I laughed nervously. I was totally messing this up. "But I care so much about her. I…I love her. I wish you were here to give your approval of me. It would mean a lot. I don't know anything about you, but I know your daughter, and you must have been one hell of a good father."

"He was," Luz said, sounding like she was ready to burst into tears. Scratch that, now I saw that this was precisely what she was doing. "He was the best father ever." I stood up and I held her.

Luz took a deep breath, and then she asked me the question that she had been waiting to ask me, the question that she'd been dreading I would say no to, and even more so, the question she was dreading that I would say yes to.

"Can you bring him back?" she asked. "Can magic bring him back?"

"No," I said. It was true. Magic could do many things. Resurrection was not one of them.

She shuddered at the weight of that word. "I shouldn't have asked you."

"It's okay," I told her. "Magic can't bring him back. But it can keep his memory alive. You can keep his memory alive. When we get back to the Isles, we'll take photos of your memories of him." Her eyes widened in shock. She must not have even thought about that before. "Would you like that?"

"More than anything," Luz said. "If you can't bring him back…then can you talk to him? There are ghosts at Hexside, right?"

I shook my head. "No one is sure how ghosts form, but we do know that it requires ambient magic." I put my hand on her shoulder. "But you don't need to talk to him. I already know what he'd say. He'd say he loves you and he's proud of you. I bet your mom would back me up on that."

Luz cracked a slight smile. "Yeah. She would." She touched the top of the tombstone affectionately. "It was so unfair. He got run over while crossing the street. Hit and run driver. Never got caught. It was so [REDACTED] random, Amity. One day, he was here, the next, he was gone. I never…I never got a chance to say goodbye. Not to his face."

"Do you think he would have liked the Isles?" I asked her.

"Oh, yeah. He would have loved the Isles. He loved fantasy books, read them to me every night. He just…yearned for something more. Something beyond all this. I just wish he could have lived to see it."

I kissed her on the forehead. "He is seeing it, through your eyes. I appreciate you bringing me here. I know it means a lot to you."

Luz kissed me on the lips, took a small stone out of her pocket, put it on top of a pile of other stones in front of the grave, and then she walked away.