Nausea. All of my senses swirling together, mingling, and separating in just the wrong way, all at once, over and over and-

Warm air. Smooth stone. Dark purples and grays. The faint yet familiar smell of me, my sister, and all of our stuff.

I was back in the foyer. Still dizzy and not entirely trusting of the gate apparatus, I spent several seconds looking around and reorienting myself; everything was exactly where I had left it, including said apparatus and one sleeping Annette.

I looked at my arms. They were both normal. I patted around and the rest of me was normal too. Swell. I floated over to Annette and collapsed next to her.

Man, I was exhausted. So much stress and… new experiences, I supposed. I felt good about it, though. Excited.

But mostly exhausted. The walking and everything had caught up to me, on top of the more recent stuff. The excitement could wait until after I got a few hours of-

Pressure on the back of my neck. I yelped and flailed my body away from it before turning to look.

Annette was staring at me, startled but still half asleep. She must have just poked me with her nose or something.

“Why’d you freak out like that?”

I had no idea. “Momentary possession?”

She flopped over and yawned, “Who’d possess stupid you when I’m right here?”

“Maybe you were taken. Ghost party.”

"That sounds fun. We should make effigies so no one gets left out next time."

I lied down. "Mhm."

Annette pushed herself up and said, "Hey, let's go look around.”

“I thought we were sleeping.”

“Just a cat nap. Come on, this giant castle won’t explore itself!”

I groaned and didn’t move. Annette grabbed my arm and started pulling it.

I let out a groan that lasted half a minute. "Anneeeeette."

"Endurance training for your mighty ambitions! Let's go."

I desperately clung to the blanket we were on. "Being well rested is more important."

She tugged my arm hard enough to drag me across the floor and sang, "I'm not stopping till you're up!"

My third groan came out more like an exasperated yell.

"Ooh! Lookie here!"

My eyes were still half closed. "That's nice."

"Lookie or I poke you in the eye."

I lookied. "There's nothing here."

Annette smiled, "Isn't it cool? This place is so old, all the furniture musta gotten bored and left."

"It got stolen, moron."

"And I bet it's having lots of fun with the bandits. Ooh!" Something caught her eye and she darted off.

I yawned. The room I was standing in front of was so empty, even the door was missing. That or it hadn't had one in the first place. I didn't see what was so interesting there.

"Claire! Lookie lookie!"

I made a noise of annoyance and bumbled down the hall after her.

It took a lot of bumbling; these halls were huge. A good fifteen feet wide, and too tall for me to even gauge how tall they were. It had taken five minutes to find that first empty room, although my meandering pace slowed things down a bit.

I was too tired to be impressed by the size of everything, though, so it was just annoying. We wandered around for a while and eventually found a room that Annette was convinced used to be some kind of cooking quarters. I didn't have the energy to argue.

Annette dropped her backpack on the ground. “Let’s break it in!”

I mustered up half an unamused stare. “What are you talking about?”

She started rummaging around. “Supper! This castle’s inaugural meal.”

I dropped my own pack; might as well take the opportunity. Lugging it around had made the exploration a lot less bearable. “I really don’t feel like cooking, though.”

“Don’t be such a freeloader. It’s mostly just waiting anyway.”

Mostly just waiting? “...Torená?”

Annette pulled the portable stove out of her bag. “Yeah? We agreed on it, remember? The first meal in our new place.”

I grabbed the wok off of my pack. “Where do we set up?”

Annette blinked. “You sure woke up quick.”

“Food time. Give burner.”

She got up and placed the stove on the stone countertop that ran against one of the walls. I plonked the wok next to it and we got everything else out and set up. Knife and cutting board, mixing spoon, and ingredients. Torená was made entirely of ingredients that kept forever, which made it a surprisingly convenient trail food, although tradition dictated that we save it for occasions anyway; that same longevity also made sure that we always had the stuff on hand in case there was sudden cause to celebrate, which was nice.

We silently got to work, as per our ritual. We almost never spoke when we cooked, preferring to just listen to the clinking of the cookware and sizzling of the food. Silence was like starlight, as they say.

It took a bit of chopping before anything went in the wok. Once the first, slowest cooking ingredients were in, I started preparing the topping. By the time everything had been added to the wok, I was ready to put the topping in and then cover the whole thing. Now we just had to wait for a bit.

Torená wasn't the hardest dish to make, but it had definitely taken a good amount of trial and error to get this natural at the process. I couldn't help but feel a bit proud, especially since we had pretty much had to teach ourselves.

Annette produced a deck of cards and waved it at me. We both sat on the floor, and she started shuffling the cards.

"What game?"

"Slapking."

"It's not gonna be different this time, yaknow."

Annette looked up at me, still shuffling. "Now whatever do you mean by that?"

"I mean you won't break my seven year win streak."

"I beat you last week, loser. And Maine was way better than us anyway."

"Maine always shuffled her jacks to the top of the deck, her wins don't count. And you did not."

She started dealing out. "Did too. And I'll do it again."

"I will obliterate you."

It was a short match. "That was the warm up. Didn't count," I said.

"Your win streak is swiss cheese. You sit upon a throne of lies." She handed me the deck to shuffle.

"I'll reclaim my streak with this match. Just you wait."

"That's not how streaks work. You have to start over."

"Maybe you would. Guess I'm just better at it." I dealt the cards out as Annette dumbly stared at me. The next round took a while; the advantage kept shifting between us and the game couldn't end until one of us controlled the entire deck. I managed to come out on top this time and made sure Annette knew it. “Seven years and counting.”

“Congrats. Win streak of one.”

"So salty."

"Give me the Devil-damned cards, Claire."

I obliged and she started shuffling. She was good at it, and so was I. We had played a lot of cards; both back in the day with our friends, and in more recent years, while waiting for this or that, or just to kill time when we were done walking for the day. A deck of playing cards was the theoretically perfect form of entertainment for a vagrant; compact and lightweight, yet only limited in its entertainment value by one's own creativity.

Annette had already dealt us out. We played in silence for a bit.

My last few cards were all trash. "Torená's done," I announced.

"It won't burn in thirty more seconds. Let's go."

I got up and tossed my cards onto the floor in a way that made it impossible to keep playing. "I'm hungry."

Annette called me something rude and scrambled to her feet.

I took the lid off. It really was done; excellent smelling steam wafted into my face. That should pacify her.

I glanced at Annette's playfully annoyed face, and asked, "Should I get the bowls, Salt Queen?"

"Ugh. They're right here." She briefly rummaged through her pack, sitting at the foot of the counter.

"Oh, sick."

"You're sick."

"You always get so salty. Maybe next time we can use you for the torená."

She stuck a stack of two bowls out and sassed, "Serve me."

"Huh? Why do you get to eat first?"

"’Cos I won. Best of three."

"It's a tie. I could have made the comeback."

"Could not. Plus I'm older."

"Don't you dare pull the age card."

Annette put her free hand on my shoulder and, in a deeply sincere voice, said, "We're the last of our kind, Clarís. It's our duty to keep our traditions alive."

"I will snap your horns off."

Annette made a truly pitiful face and put her hand on her chest. "I'm hurt."

"Yeah, right. Give me my damn bowl."

"Our traditions, Claire-" Her voice went from a smooth quip to a yelp as I lunged for the bowls. Annette tried to backpedal, but I threw all my weight forward and carried us to the floor.

"Claire-" She flailed her legs around. I captured them with my own.

"Give it!" I reached for the prize and Annette scooted backwards to keep it out of my reach. I lost my balance and fell on top of her.

"Stop it!" She grabbed one of my horns with her free hand.

Two could play at that game. I grabbed both of hers and blew air at her face. She giggled, "Clarís!"

"What's your favorite song?"

"Stop!" The giggle was starting to grow into a laugh.

"What is it?" I kept blowing air at her face.

Annette was now giggling too hard to resist. I let go of one horn and grabbed the bowls.

"Clarís!"

"Say it!"

"Uncle! Uncle!"

I kept blowing. "What's your favorite song?"

"Strawberry Girl!"

I let go of her horn and rolled us over. Annette was still giggling.

I hugged her and we stayed like that for a bit. Annette played with my hair.

"Claire."

"Strawberry girl."

"Shut up!"

“No.”

"It's not my favorite. It's just the first one I think of."

"Ha! And what, pray tell, is your favorite?"

"I dunno. Uh…"

"I haven't heard that one. How's it go?"

"Shut it. I like a lot of songs!"

I drummed my fingers on the bowls. "Sure you do, Strawberry Girl."

"Ugh!"

A little while passed. Annette tapped her fingers on my horns. I blew her hair around.

"Claire the food'll get cold."

"Didn't you turn the burner down?"

"Didn't you turn it off?"

Uh oh. I rolled us over again, ignored Annette's yelp, scrambled to my feet, and turned the burner off.

A quick check showed that we had, miraculously, not ruined the torená. "It's still edible! Want me to serve you?" I was already scooping some into my bowl.

"Go, servant."

"Strawberry Girl."

"Could you stop that!"

"Okay, elder sister."

Annette blew a raspberry at me. I sat down with the food; Annette sat up so I could hand her her bowl and spoon.

We recited, "Good food and company;" Annette's was tinged with mild peevance and sarcasm, mine with a degree of smugness.

Annette took her first bite and made a face. “Devils!”

I was midway through bringing my spoon to my mouth when she said it. I stopped and asked, “Something wrong?”

Her hand was over her mouth and her expression was full of shock. “I forgot how good it was.”

I laughed a little, took a bite, and cursed. I had forgotten how good it was.

We ate in silence for a bit. I finished my bowl first and got up to get more. When I sat back down, Annette was staring into her food.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Five years.”

I put my bowl to the side and crawled over next to her. “Not for another few months.”

She glanced up at me. “I know. But it’s been just about five years now since the last time we had torená with other people.”

“Oh.” I hadn’t kept track of that. “Maine could make a mean torená.”

Annette sighed, “Oh, Maine," and started eating again.

I grabbed my bowl; Torená was something you just had to eat piping hot. “Ours is better, I bet.”

“Claire, can you even remember the taste well enough to compare?”

Not even a bit. “I’m just saying we’ve gotten pretty good at cooking is all,” I said through a full mouth of food.

“Yeah.” She sighed out a curse word. “She was a great kisser.”

I snorted. “I bet. People lie about that all the time yaknow.”

Annette raised an eyebrow. “Uh huh? Big liar, that Maine. Nothing like Honest Claire.”

“I’m telling you she probably just wanted to look cool in front of you or something. Who’d she even have done it with?”

Annette gave me a truly incredulous expression. “You’re so terrible with projecting.”

“Huh? I’ve totally kissed people,” I lied. “And don’t change the subject.”

Annette rolled her eyes. "Sure you have. And Maine was good at a lot of things." She said it with a certain degree of smugness.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean? I feel like you’re messing with me.”

Annette stuck out her tongue. “It’s not the kind of thing you talk to your sister about.”

I stared at her as she stood up to get a second helping. “Annette, what the hell?”

“Devils, haven’t I told you before?”

“Okay so she bragged to you about a boyfriend or something. There wasn’t anyone else our age in the village, genius.”

She put her hand over her eyes. “Devils, Claire.”

“What’s that sup-" I cut myself off.

Realization crashed down on me like a bucket of water. Annette snickered.

“You-”

She leaned backwards against the counter and smirked.

“Buh-”

I scrambled to my feet.

“I didn’t know you were into chicks…”

“Not everyone has to have a crisis about it yaknow.” She stuck her tongue out again.

“I- …Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I did. Remember that night in the canyon?”

I had no clue what she was talking about. “I’d definitely remember something like this.”

“Uh huh. You say that all the time.”

“I do not! Devils, you and Maine?"

In the most smug voice I'd ever heard, "She was a great kisser."

I sat back down. Unbelievable. Almost five years and I was only finding out now. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Annette thought for a moment. "Iunno. Didn't wanna make things awkward or something. Kid shit."

"Seven circles. How long were you two going at it?"

"Don't say it like that! Makes it sound… carnal."

I stood up to get more food. "You were in the throes of puberty. It was definitely carnal."

"Claire!"

"How long!"

"It's, like, blurry. But we started dating on Solstice."

"Blurry?"

"You know, the, uh…" She hid behind her bowl.

"Carnal?"

"Clarís!"

I laughed. "So how long was that going on?"

"I don't need to answer that," she pouted.

"Way longer than since Solstice, then."

"I don't see why you're so fascinated by your sister's teenage sex life!"

"Wh- Don't spin this around! I'm the one making fun of you!"

"I'll spin it around if I damn well feel like it!"

We bickered and teased through the rest of the meal and cleanup.

Leftover torená was a sad thing. It was a meal that was meant to be shared with, more or less, as many people as you could fit in the room. The smallest recipe was designed to feed a family of five after a long day of labor; changing the recipe to serve two felt like an outright sin, so we always made too much, only to reckon with the resulting melancholy and loneliness.

Reckoning was pretty boring, though, so we decided to multitask by exploring our new home at the same time. (Plus we had done a lot of it, and gotten pretty quick and efficient about it as a result.) The castle’s size grew more amazing and unreal with every step we took through its behemoth corridors; it was certainly built to impress, if nothing else.

Several minutes of walking and a few dozen stairs took us to a hallway that seemed to lead outside. The starlight that shone in from the open doorway (not that it had a door) drew us in, and cold air blasted our faces as we stepped through it into an open area that overlooked the snowy valley.

There were actually plants growing on the terrace, in these large planter things that were tall enough to sit on, although there were also benches right next to them; I supposed variety was the spice of life. The benches were carved from the same block of stone as the floor, rendering them impossible to steal. The plants were not, obviously, which made it somewhat of a marvel that they were still here. I guessed no one wanted to lug a small tree around.

There was a somewhat magical atmosphere to the place, with the lush greenery cast against the white landscape below, black stone and sky in between. We spent a while hanging out and leaning on the railing before we headed back into the castle’s interior.

The next and last place we visited on our tour was...

"Okay, we have to sleep in the throne room." It was hugely spacious, with an unbelievably high ceiling; over a dozen steps led up to an elevated sort of viewing area with a large throne in the center that overlooked the whole place. The throne was unstolen for probably the same reason as the benches in the terrace; it was imposing, majestic, and part of the floor.

Annette took several moments to appreciate the, well, majesty of everything, before asking, "You don't wanna look for beds or something?"

I didn't even try to hide my excitement. "Aní, there's a throne!"

She didn't need much convincing, either. "It is pretty cool, huh."

Hell yeah it was. A throne. We lived in a castle,!

"Okay, throne room it is." Annette rummaged through her pack for her sleep gear.

"Oh, I left my pack back in the kitchen."

"Let's just share."

"Won't it be too warm?"

Annette pulled out her sleeping bag and blanket without looking up at me. "I mean, if you wanna go get it…"

Ah. She wanted to cuddle. "Nah, it'll be fine."

"Okay." She took her sleeping pad off the outside of the pack.

We set everything up. It only took a minute or two.

"You know, on second thought…"

"What's that?"

"I dunno, it's just like, I'm a little nervous."

Annette gave me an inquisitive look.

"I mean, now that I know how ravenous you are-"

Annette tackled me onto the blanket.

"But we're siblings!" My voice degraded into a cackle.

Annette made a noise in between an exasperated groan and an enraged yell.

"Aní, no!"

"You wanna sleep on the floor? Be my guest!"

"No means no! No means no!" I could barely get through a sentence, I was laughing so hard.

"Ugh!" She rolled off me. "Get off my stuff."

"I'm sorry I can't accept your feelings!"

She covered her face and groaned, "Claaaaaaire."

I was starting to recover. "I only love you as a sister, Aní!"

"I hate you."

I rolled over and hugged her. "Can't we stay as sisters?"

"I refuse to play along with this, Claire."

"Hey Aní."

"What." We made eye contact.

"I love you."

"Love you too."

"But not like that!" I cracked up all over again.

Annette hugged me and said a string of very rude words. I hugged her back and took a while to stop giggling.

“Hey Claire.”

“Mhm?”

“You set up the thing while I was asleep, huh?”

“The gate?”

“Yeah.” She rapped her fingers on my horns. “Didya test it out?”

“Mhm! It was super weird.”

“Weird?”

“I dunno how to describe it. It was super weird.”

“Oh. Did you go somewhere cool?”

“I saw a human village.”

A pause.

I glanced up at Annette’s face. She looked annoyed.

“I really did-”

“Get out!” She rolled us over and crushed me.

“Aní-”

She grabbed both of my horns and yanked my head around to punctuate each word as she said, “I! Am! Sick! Of! You! Telling! Lies!”

I helplessly clutched her until she stopped, and weakly sputtered out a pained “You bitch!”

Annette slammed my head into the floor. I yelped.

“I’m not lying-”

She slammed my head into the floor again.

“Aní!”, I pathetically wheezed.

She looked at me again. I was acutely aware of her hands still wrapped around my horns as she analyzed my face.

“Okay. I believe you.”

“Then why did you attack me!?”

“Payback for that stupid joke.”

Oh. Yeah, that was fair.

Annette let go of my horns and rolled off of me. I relished the sensation of not being smothered. “So now you have to tell me about it.”

“It honestly looked pretty normal.”

“Whaddya mean?”

“I dunno. It didn’t look humany at all. Just normal.”

“There were angel statues everywhere, though?”

“Didn’t see any.”

“Giant factories?”

“I only saw, like, a single street, dude.”

“Really? Why?”

“A dude tried to kill me.”

Another pause.

Annette gave me an annoyed look. I preemptively pounced on her and took control of her horns. “Honest.”

“You did not meet a real human.”

“There were a bunch. Most of ‘em just ran away though.”

Annette pensively analyzed me for a few seconds, and then excitedly asked, "What are they like?"

I smirked, put on my most dramatic storytelling voice, and storytold, “Their hair is the color of dirt, and they don’t have any horns. It’s their instinct to attack demons like us, but most of them are too cowardly to actually fight. The one that attacked me must have been some kind of pack leader; it could freeze the air itself with its mighty breath, and when I wounded it, it sprouted a ghastly pair of wings and attacked me from the sky. I barely escaped with my life!”

Annette was visibly both impressed and disturbed. “They’re like tiny angels…”

“Yeah, but they’re good at hiding it. They mostly look like painter imps if they didn’t wear masks and all had the same boring color.”

Annette shuddered. “That’s so weird.”

“It was pretty spooky.” That part was true, unlike around half of the rest of my grand tale. Well, she seemed to enjoy it.

Annette snuggled into the bedding and made a very comfortable face. I rolled off of her and said, “Oh, and you won’t believe this part…”

She was already asleep. I had no idea how she did it.

Well, I was pretty tired, too. All that walking was starting to catch up to me and stack on top of everything else that had been bogging me down before dinner in an effort to crush me into the sleeping bag. I got comfortable and let it squish me into sleep, and dreamed about food, conquest, and cozy firelight.