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T andri was not wrong.

The following day, Legends & Lattes opened to receive customers for the first time.

Viv propped the big livery doors wide, hung a sign that read OPEN from a peg on the wall next to the window, and waited nervously behind the counter.

Not one customer appeared.

Viv could admit that it really wasn’t surprising. After all her thoughtful planning, research, and preparation, she hadn’t taken into account the most important thing. Who showed up to buy something they didn’t know they needed?

Tandri had seen the problem immediately.

Why hadn’t she?

Tandri arrived with a leather folio tucked under one arm, but she made no mention of it and stowed it beneath the counter. The succubus took up a station behind the machine and made a pair of drinks.

“A bit of quiet makes a good opportunity to practice.” She’d clearly paid attention to Viv’s demonstration. Her first attempt was a little bitter, and the second came out a touch watery. Still, they were eminently drinkable, and Viv found the aroma calming.

The air breezing in the door was moist and cool, and enticing curls of steam rose from their mugs. Everything was in place, closer to plan than she could have hoped.

Except there was nothing whatsoever to do.

Viv spent the first hours pacing like a penned predator.

Cal made a brief appearance, drinking a coffee while loudly commending its flavor, as though there was anyone to overhear him, until he eventually excused himself with a pained smile.

They did, however, receive one unexpected visitor.

Midmorning, Laney tottered across the street.

“Mornin’, dears,” she said brightly. “Reckon I should see what all the fuss is about.” Although fuss was clearly thin on the ground. “Let me have one of those. How much?” She waved a hand at the coffee machine.

Viv thought about the slate menu at the pub she’d visited and cursed herself for failing to think of something similar.

“Uh, half-copper for coffee. That’s… that’s plain. A copper for a latte, that’s, uh… for one with milk. I thought, with your stomach…?” Viv rubbed her own.

Laney fussed in a pocket of her voluminous dress and slid a copper onto the counter. Tandri dutifully deposited it in the cashbox and set to work.

The old woman chuckled and twittered over the machine as it hissed and ground and gurgled, and she received her milk-frothed mug with a nod.

“Very nice. Very nice,” she said. “Thank ya both, dears. Oh! And while I’m here, I’d love to have that plate back, mmm?”

Viv handed it over with thanks.

“Thank ya kindly!” she exclaimed. “Well, got to be gettin’ back to m’ chores. Don’t be strangers, now.”

Then she waddled back across the street, plate in hand, leaving the cooling latte on the counter top without taking so much as a sip.

Viv sighed heavily.

Tandri drank the latte.

* * *

“So,” said Tandri, clutching the leather folio in front of her. Up ’til now, Viv would have said the succubus couldn’t look nervous. “I mentioned some ideas last night, and back in my room, I did a little thinking.”

“Oh?”

Tandri opened the folio on the counter and slid out a sheaf of pages, covered in sketches and text.

She shuffled them anxiously. “Yes. Well, I hope you’re not too discouraged.

If we—if you —can let people know what they’re missing, I think things could be fine.

” Her gaze met Viv’s. “Because it is good. This idea.”

“I’d hoped so,” Viv murmured, surprised. Tandri had been very sure of herself last night, but now she was talking fast, as though afraid Viv would cut her short. She glanced down at Tandri’s notes.

“Anyway, these are just some ideas. I thought if you—we—could find a way to get a core clientele, then there’d be some spread from word of mouth. Plus, having customers in the shop will attract others. So. I propose a sort of event.”

She turned a sheet around to face Viv. Tandri’s sketch was actually quite attractive, and Viv could see the ghosts of drafting lines behind the design she’d made, a combination of block and script.

GRAND OPENING

Legends & Lattes

Try the EXOTIC Gnomish Sensation

FREE Samples

Limited Supply!

“You drew this?” asked Viv, impressed.

Tandri tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, and her tail lashed behind her. “I did. Anyway. We commission some posters from the Inkmonger. We post them at the jobs board and get signboards for the street. Like this.”

She produced another sketch, similar, with a big, scripted arrow pointing in the presumed direction of the shop.

“This is amazing, Tandri,” Viv said, and she thought the succubus colored a little. “I’m… I don’t know what to say. I’m… overwhelmed.”

“Well, if you’re not in business, I don’t get paid, either.” Tandri flashed a smile.

“Very true.”

“The key is making it an opportunity that’s limited.

We want a lot of people at once, but not too many, or we can’t serve them fast enough.

So we start with just the street signs. And yes, you’ll lose some coin on the free samples, but we’re hoping for repeat customers.

” Viv noticed that Tandri had settled on we , and smiled.

“How do you propose we start, then?”

Viv could see Tandri seize the idea fully. “I’ll need some funds, and I’ll get these materials together. Tomorrow we start with the signs. I can paint them this afternoon, put them out on the street tonight after the doors are closed. Then, we see what’s what.”

Viv filled her purse from the strongbox and slid it across the counter to Tandri. “You’ve got my blessing.”

Tandri beamed—a first—then snatched the purse and gathered the folio. As she hurried out the door, she called over her shoulder. “I’ll be back!”

* * *

Viv’s optimism had dwindled rapidly during the morning, transmuting into growing despair, but now, her mood lifted.

Still, success remained far from a sure thing.

With glances along the street to make certain no customers were approaching, she snorted ruefully and shook her head, temporarily closing and barring the big doors.

She slid aside the table, carefully pried up the flagstone, and stroked the Scalvert’s Stone where it lay nestled in the earth.

“Come on, little lady,” she whispered. “Don’t make me a fool.”

* * *

When Tandri returned, she labored under the weight of two waist-high folding signs, her folio awkwardly pinched under one arm and a cloth bag over one shoulder.

“I clearly didn’t think this part through,” she panted.

Viv hurried to relieve her of the signs, and Tandri unburdened herself of the rest.

The woman didn’t ask if business had improved. It clearly hadn’t. She unpacked the cloth bag, which contained stoppered inkwells, brushes, and a few curious curved pieces of wood.

Tandri handed over the purse and then set to work.

She sat cross-legged on the floor, rolled up her sleeves, lay her sketches beside her, and began inking.

Her hand was steady as she executed clean strokes with her brush, but there was no tension in her mouth.

The bits of wood turned out to be stencils that she used to guide some of the longer and more elaborate curves.

Tandri glanced occasionally at her sketches for reference, although to Viv’s eye she barely needed them.

Less than an hour had passed when she swept a final snaking line across the bottom. She cleaned her brush on a rag and capped the inkwell, then stretched, and kneaded her back as she surveyed her handiwork.

Viv thought it looked quite professional. “Were you a sign-maker or something?”

“No. Just always had an… artistic bent.” Tandri turned to face her. “I’d say we close up now and set them out while it’s still daylight.”

“You’re the expert,” said Viv, quirking a smile. “I’ll put ’em where you want ’em.”

Tandri stepped into the street. “The first in front, here.” She pointed to a spot a few feet from the door. Viv carried out both signs, leaned one against the wall, and obliged with its mate, angling it so that the arrow pointed toward the entryway.

“And this one?” asked Viv, lifting the other with one hand.

“I was thinking the intersection where you can see the High Street. This way.” She led her along Redstone to the corner. After Viv set the sign down, Tandri checked the sightline in a few directions and fussed with the orientation until she was satisfied.

They returned to the shop just as the lamplighter began setting his taper to the street lanterns.

“So, you think this’ll really work?” Viv leaned against the doorframe as Tandri gathered her things.

“Couldn’t get worse,” said Tandri, emerging with folio in hand.

Viv’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know about that,” she murmured darkly. Over Tandri’s shoulder, she spied someone coming up the street. She’d recognize that hat anywhere.

“What’s that?” Tandri turned to follow her gaze as Lack strolled past, alongside a thick man with a lantern on his belt and a badge over his heart.

Lack rested one hand companionably on the Gatewarden’s shoulder. He smiled and muttered something, and the badged man barked a good-natured laugh in response.

“Nothing,” said Viv.

Lack stopped a few paces away and glanced at Viv in mild surprise, then past her to the shop. The Gatewarden looked puzzled by the interruption.

The stone-fey took a step closer, peering through the window. “Quite the blade, Viv. I do hope you’re not showing your teeth.” He pointed inside.

The Gatewarden squinted through the glass, as well. “Mmm, indeed,” he agreed, patting the hilt of his own short-sword.

“It’s sentimental,” said Viv, snarling more than she intended.

Tandri looked back and forth between them, gripping her folio tighter. “Should I be worried?” she asked quietly.

Viv wasn’t sure how to answer that, for it had dawned on her that there was more to be lost than the shop itself.

Lack nodded, his ruffles bouncing on his chest. “Two weeks,” he said. “Just a friendly reminder. Wouldn’t want you to forget to set aside a portion.”

The Gatewarden didn’t so much as blink at that, and any notion of tapping the local authorities for help evaporated.

Viv clenched her fists, then forced them to relax. “Guess we’d better hope things pick up by then,” she said. “Can’t squeeze blood from a stone.”

“Yes, I’m sure you’d know about squeezing blood from things. Or extracting it in… other ways. I imagine you can be quite resourceful. Rest assured, we are similarly talented.” His gaze flicked to Tandri, and he bowed, not mocking. In fact, his expression was confusingly apologetic.

“Shall we carry on?” prompted the Gatewarden.

Viv and Tandri watched them go.

“What was that all about?” asked Tandri, once they’d disappeared.

“Nothing I can’t handle. Don’t worry about it.”

Tandri’s expression was dubious, but she didn’t argue.

“You should get home,” said Viv, forcing a smile. “The signs are incredible, and I’ve already kept you too late.”

“You’re sure?”

“Positive.”

Tandri nodded reluctantly and left, folio tucked under her arm.

As the succubus rounded the corner, Viv stalked over, removed the OPEN sign from its peg, and went inside.

When she closed the door, she tried her best to be gentle about it, but it still rattled on the hinges.

* * *

As Viv lay on her bedroll, she withdrew the Blink Stone that Roon had given her. She turned it over and over in her hands, thinking about how clear the division between success and failure had once been. That clarity had never been more elusive.

She put away the stone and did not go to sleep for a long time.