“Good you came back from the 1/2 world by getting together with Sarah,” Thomasina reviewed. We were back in her old office, the hovel in the Waste, new one in Jasper Falls being redecorated perhaps. “How is Sarah?”
“She’s dead,” Al put it bluntly.
“Good, good,” said Thomasina to this. “Good that the manufactured ones are killed off when their job is done. Metaverse would soon get migh-ty cluttered if we had doppelgangers piling up all over the place.
“We could bring her back,” points out Al. “We have the seed.”
“Indeed we do. But your focus now must remain on Shelley, our Jennifer Lane, author of 38 romance novels to date and still pilling up all over the place. What was the name of her new publisher?”
“Shady Lane,” replied Al. “Just minted.”
“Hmm, we’ll see how it goes.”
Then Al shared some pictures of it.
“This is the beginning of it. Or end,” explained Al to Thomasina, holding this photo. “Notice ‘Lane’ had been cut off of the sign (leaving only ‘Shady’).”
“In-teresting.”
“And… this one indicates that TILE is strong on this road, this lane, this forgotten byway that even the town of Boulder seems to have trouble locating for trash pickup and so on, at least according to that woman I met. And it’s about a block from downtown!”
“No need to shout,” requests Thomasina. “I know this is weird, trust me.”
“And, then this one… a rock. Thought I’d include that– about 1/2 way up the lane. Do you think it has a wielding spell inside? Like that other one we found in that other 1/2 way spot?”
“Swordstone?” offered Thomasina. She nodded while still staring, still contemplating. “Could be.”
“Sorry about the darkness of the picture. Shady in there, you know.”
“Of course.”
“And then this one just looking up the lane from about the location of the TILE symbol on the side of that house. Obviously a TILE enclave–”
“Obviously,” quickly agreed Thomasina. She paused. “Will you go back today?”
“I guess so.”
“Remember to take your walking stick. The one with the eyes.”
“Always.”
Sunklands 