The back door was set into a wall plastered with posters, only dimly lit by the overhead lamps. Teeth flashed in every direction from the dark shapes of the other patrons around her, but they were all in smiles. On her way out the door, she passed between a table seating a thickset toothy monster with beady eyes and a small cluster that included a spirit, a tall gargoyle, and some kind of bipedal animal smoking a cigarette.

The courtyard was completely deserted and very, very dark. A stream of pink light fell forth from the door around Liya and eventually petered out on a small fountain in the center of the courtyard which featured a dog-like creature seated up to its haunches in the pool, water streaming from its long jaws. Liya closed the door was was left only with the cold glow of a cluster of dancing lights that hovered at one end of the courtyard, on cables that hung over a patch of grass and a couple of small, unmarked buildings with small, unmarked doors.

It was cold; her breath clouded as she leaned back against the wall beside the door. Yoshi's construct sat quite unperturbed in her jacket pocket.

"This was a bad idea," she said out loud, to no one. She looked at the weird, cold courtyard for a moment, and then pressed the heels of her palms over her eyes, letting the courtyard replace itself with something more familiar.

Hawk and Emry were pulling sheets of plywood from the windows of their little house in Violetta. The grass was dry and up to their thighs and splattered with sunlight that was filtered by the thick trees overhead. The shadows were heavy and cool. The radio, sat on a barrel between Hawk and Emry, sang in a distant, off-tune way. Hawk and Emry were talking, but Liya could not understand what they were saying.

She sat beneath an orange tree that hung heavy with fruit. She did not take her hands from her eyes.

"This was a bad idea," she whispered.