Barcelona was beautiful this time of year, mused Artemis absentmindedly. It really would be a shame if it were plunged into some alternate dimension.

He frowned into his tea. "Were plunged". Passive voice. Annoying, but unavoidable, really, as he wasn't sure as to whether or not there was a subject that he could use to reconfigure his sentence. He didn't know exactly what force would be doing the plunging of this Spanish city into the unknown should his plan go massively awry, just that it was currently on the table as part of the events that might transpire within the next hour. He had mentally placed it next to a trip to the Casa Milà and a phone call home to his mother. He supposed that the latter two were subject to change depending on the former.

Tourists milled around the cobblestone street, and Artemis was shaken from his reverie. Oh, right, he remembered. The plan.

Turning towards Butler, he set his cup gently down upon the table. Butler glanced at him, and had Artemis not known the older man for the majority of his life, he would have thought Domovoi to be calm and collected as always. However, the slight furrow of Butler's brow and the performatively casual glances out into the crowd implied otherwise. He was a broad man, taking up space both in size and in presence, but his emotional tells were unassuming. This didn't hinder their friendship, rather, Artemis personally held the belief that less was more when it came to communicating on a personal level. Repression keeps life exciting, if you really think about it.

"Artemis," Butler began carefully, a slight lilt in his voice. "Perhaps we should go over todays business before our friend arrives."

Artemis grasped the handle of his cup, using it to gently shift its position on the table. "Right. What exactly is it that you wish to go over?"

The sun shone high in the sky, casting beautiful reds, purples, and blues as it pierced the stained glass of the cathedral across the road. The air stirred slightly, a warm breeze languidly drifting towards the odd pair seated off to the side by the outdoor patio for the café.

Butler sighed. "I don't know. Everything, maybe." He leaned backwards in his chair. "This doesn't feel—" he paused, eyes narrowing slightly in thought.

"We can call today's plans off," Artemis said suddenly, breaking the silence. "If you truly believe that something is off today, I will trust your intuition."

Butler studied Artemis for a moment, lips pursed. "I appreciate the sentiment, but I doubt you plan to cancel the project over a feeling."

Artemis laughed slightly, the noise coming out as more of an exhale than a chortle. "I'm not saying anything so grand," he remarked. "I'm just clarifying that today is in no way the only chance that my project has of achieving fruition."

They sat there wordlessly.

It had only been a few months since the incident.

Things were, understandably, awkward in the aftermath of one of Artemis' many schemes resulting in Butler nearly dying. "Nearly dying" in and of itself was a generous description of the incident, as Artemis had a sneaking suspicion that Butler had spent the better portion of that night being legally braindead before Captain Short had arrived.

Even if the problematic elements of the endeavor had been cleaned up quite beautifully thanks to some supernatural intervention, Artemis still felt guilty. Unlike with Mother and Father, Artemis couldn't point the People towards Butler and make the memories of his trespass disappear. Hence, Artemis was back at point one, searching blindly for where exactly the line in the sand lay for their adventures. It was almost worse that it didn't seem as though it were Artemis himself that Butler didn't trust as much anymore, Artemis thought glumly, it was that Butler didn't trust his judgement. It made Artemis feel unsure. Small. They were meant to be infallible together, the Butlers and the Fowls. Spiro had ruined things, Artemis settled, slightly petulantly.

The waiter sidled up to the table, taking opportunity of the silence. He faced Butler, holding his notepad close to his chest.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you two are all set for the meal. I can quickly run your check, as I assume you have plenty on your plate for the day," He offered, his teeth a brilliant white. Today was busy, and there needed to be a turnover soon. People were becoming cross with the sign outside that listed the waiting time as being 45 minutes. As Hugo milled around the restaurant, looking for customers that seemed to be near the end of their meal, the hostess would try to nonchalantly make eye contact. She was beginning to give Hugo looks that resembled a deer in the headlights, her eyes pleading for assistance in mitigating the crowd of overzealous tourists.

He widened his smile by a few more molars, reaching for his pen. "It will only take a moment. Feel free to, uh, just get my attention when you feel ready."

Butler gave a small smile in return. "Thank you, but I think we might need a tad longer, sorry." Butler watched the man's face crumple.

"Alright. Enjoy your uh, meal," Hugo's eyes flickered to the very empty table at which Artemis and Butler sat. Butler guilty looked at their drinks, both of which were conspicuously empty. He nodded at Hugo, and the man shuffled off back into the fray of moving people.

"I trust that our friend is coming soon," Butler said quietly. "I don't see the benefit in calling things off now. I would like it, however," he added, "if you'd be more specific on what exactly it is that will happen once they get here."

Artemis straightened in his seat subconsciously. "They'll be here within the next few minutes, or they won't be coming here at all today."

Butler nodded, waiting for Artemis to continue. Artemis was a fairly reserved person, but he was quite animated when it came to describing his schemes. He could already see Artemis rearranging the few things that they had on the table, creating makeshift diagrams and outlines.

Artemis grasped the sugar bowl, transferring a cube from it into his empty cup. The bottom of the sugar dissolved slightly, giving the mixture of water and tea leaves at the bottom of his cup a slight sheen. He paused momentarily, eyes flitting across the space in front of him before he landed on the perspiring glass of ice water. Artemis picked up his spoon and gently maneuvered an ice cube into the tea cup, making sure to leave a bit of space between the ice and the sugar. He was ready.

"'That is supernatural, whatever it be, that is either not in the chain of natural cause and effect, or which acts on the chain of cause and effect, in nature, from without the chain.' Horace Bushnell, 1858," He quoted, keeping the volume of his voice low.

"The roots of the word 'supernatural' also bely this state of impacting the chain of cause and effect whilst existing in a state of being distinctly separate from this chain. I've been mulling over this theory over for a while, and although I originally was worried that I was approaching magic in a way that is humanity-centric, I now believe that I was right to classify it as being supernatural in the aforementioned sense," Artemis continued, his gaze thoughtful.

Butler nodded encouragingly. Artemis proceeded with his train of thought, and Butler shot another server an apologetic glance.

"Biologically speaking, there's not much that differentiates the People from aboveground lifeforms. They live longer, yes, but I don't think that's inherent to their biology. After all, the People aren't comparable to humanity in the sense that they're not a coherent, singular species. It would be more apt to describe them as an ecological community — they're most definitely interdependent, but they're a group of organisms that has distinct species sprinkled throughout the population. I don't think their evolutionary history is that of one magical species undergoing speciation until you have groups like goblins and pixies existing in the same environment, rather, I think that they were separate species that evolutionarily converged through the introduction of magic into their habitat," Artemis chattered on, twirling his teaspoon between his index and pointer finger.

Butler snorted slightly. "How very clinical," he said, his voice taking on a slightly chiding tone.

Artemis hesitated for a moment, frowning. "I suppose," he remarked slowly. Butler waved a hand, dismissing the matter.

"Sorry. Continue, please," Butler exhaled.

Artemis studied the other man briefly. "Alright," he shrugged.

"I ended up settling on the theory of evolutionary convergence because of how we react to magic," Artemis explained. He paused to shift his demonstration teacup so that it was in front of him.

"When we were rescuing Father, I remember Captain Short healing me when we boarded the train," he furrowed his brow at the memory.

"It felt… strange. She was in a state of shock, so her magic had no real intent behind it. It almost felt as though someone had transplanted a missing piece of the nervous system into my being. I could feel that the magic wanted direction, wanted some kind of command. I don't think I actively told it to heal me, rather, it felt like choosing to move a limb. You just decide to do it, and the process that goes into having your brain communicate this desire into reality is so wholly indescribable that it is secondary to both the desire itself and the eventual realization of the desire."

Butler quirked an eyebrow upward, ignoring the awkwardness of the motion. His run-in with Spiro had resulted in the hair follicles on his head being impacted for God knows what reason. His eyebrows had somewhat, the keyword being somewhat, grown back. He had looked in the mirror at his hotel bathroom that morning, experimentally trying a raise or lowering of his brow here and there. It was not a pretty sight.

Artemis thankfully picked up on the motion, verbally backpedaling. "I digress. What I'm trying to highlight with this memory is that I was able to control the magic that Holly gave me when she was out of sorts. Magic is theoretically what makes the People so different from us, yet if we're able to use it, then there is no difference," he exclaimed, punctuating his statement by jabbing his spoon in emphasis.

Butler's eyes widened. "That sounds… actually, I remember something from when Holly healed me," he said thoughtfully, graciously ignoring the way Artemis winced slightly at the memory. "I may be physically older now, but she pumped so much magic into my system that I'll live a good decade more than I would have before my injury."

Artemis forced a smile. "Exactly. That example accounts for their increased longevity as well. Magic impacts our natural world, yet it is distinctly different from this world as well. After all, we never would have met Holly had she been born with an infinite supply of magic within her. She had to renew her magic."

Butler gestured towards the cup sitting on the table. "What's this got to do with our future visitor?"

Artemis glanced down at the cup, ignoring the way that the ice cube was melting. "Now, the Book implies that during the clash between the People and humans, a group of the People simply decided to abscond from this dimension via warlock. Now, to my knowledge, warlocks do not need to complete the Ritual. This would in theory negate my aforementioned hypothesis, save for the fact that I do not think that they are generating magic from within themselves, only harnessing that which is naturally floating around them. Anyways, they created a pocket dimension and have been living there for the past millennia."

"That sounds like quite a bit of work," Butler pointed out.

"Not work, energy," Artemis clarified, the excitement in his voice palpable. "Energy that is approaching entropy as the spell runs out of magic to fuel their world's separation from ours."

Artemis grinned, pushing the cup forward. "This is when the cup factors into my explanation."

"Oh, good. I was getting worried about it."

Artemis brushed off the good-natured teasing, pointing at the sugar cube. "That's us. The way that we use magic naturally contributes to the process of entropy as well, as you can see by the slight dissolution of the sugar at the bottom of the cube, but the process is so slow and natural that you could live a thousand lives and still not witness the magical heat death of our world."

Butler grimaced. "Morbid."

Artemis then gestured to the ice cube, which was at this point quite pathetic in its advanced stage of melting. "That's the world of the lost colony of the People. The way they've broken off from our world is decidedly not natural, and they're about to pay quite dearly for it. Their world needs magic to function, and it's dying as a result. Their spell is weakening, I'm positive of that, but I'm not quite sure as to what the result will be. This cup models both potential outcomes, though," he tapped his chin thoughtfully.

"Either we can interpret the melting ice as the process of them returning ash to ash, dust to dust. From magic they were born, and magic they will return. At some point, the spell will become untenable, and their world will violently convert itself into magic, returning to the Earthen source."

"Or," Butler prompted, dread creeping into his voice.

"Or," Artemis leaned back into his seat, shrugging. "Their world will attempt to violently recombine with ours to heal itself, undoubtedly impacting our own balance of magic usage. To be quite frank, its collision with our world could trigger the magical heat death that I described in the first possibility within Earth itself."

Butler stared at Artemis. "Does… does Foaly know about this?" he started, forcing himself to not look back down at the horrifying cup-of-death model.

Artemis hummed, pursing his lips. "Definitely. I know that he knows about this, in fact, he's probably known about the problem for longer than we've been acquainted with one another. It's rather rude that he hasn't thought to include us in the discussion, actually," he decided with a frown. "After all, I think we've matured enough to move beyond unlikely allies to friendly colleagues."

"Sir, I am really quite sorry for the intrusion," Butler and Artemis flinched, startled by the new voice.

It was Hugo again.

"I am going to have to ask you to collect your bill soon," Hugo tried, attempting to sound cheery in spite of the lunch rush that was currently wrecking havoc upon the understaffed restaurant.

Butler opened his mouth to wheedle for a few more moments in front of the "meeting" spot when he found himself staring eye-to-eye with something.

He boggled.

Standing right in front of him was a bipedal creature with grey skin, wide eyes, and a reptilian build.

The thing stared back at him, nervous energy emanating from him in waves.

Butler stared at the thing.

Hugo stared at the thing.

Artemis leaned forward, hands clasped together on the table. "Hello," he stated politely.

The creature suddenly reached out towards Artemis, clasping the teenager's hands in his own in what appeared to be a clumsy approximation of a hand shake.

Butler had dealt with magic before.

He knew how to deal with situations that were wholly unlike anything he had been prepared for in his Blue Diamond training. He did not, however, know what to make of this. There was something so banal about this that it was all he could do to watch stupefied as the creature before him interacted with his charge. Madam Ko would have been rolling in her grave were she dead, as opposed to merely enjoying her retirement in Southern Italy.

The creature opened his mouth and what he was about to say was as good as anyone's guess, as he blinked out of existence just as quickly as he had popped in only moments earlier.

The waiter coughed. Butler turned to him, about to weave a tale of unparalleled proportions until Artemis could phone Holly and —

Artemis.

Butler closed his eyes, rubbing the bridge of his nose and exhaling roughly.

If I open my eyes, he thought, he's going to be sitting right in front of me. Yeah, he continued, grinding his teeth slightly. Artemis has merely decided to try out staying silent during very opportune moments. He's really matured, you know, to be able to do that after years of doing quite the opposite.

Butler opened his eyes. Artemis was not sitting across from him. The only person near him in the little alcove by the café where their table lay was the waiter from earlier.

"Where did…"

"Oh, I came here alone," Butler blurted out, trying to nonchalantly move Artemis' tea cup towards his half of the table.

"Oh, okay," the waiter nodded as if that made perfect sense. He looked enormously stressed.

Butler cleared his throat awkwardly. "Er, could I see a menu…?" He pressed, folding his hands on the table.

"Sure," Hugo said numbly, making no motion to move.

Butler blinked as pointedly as he was able to. Hugo shuddered, snapping back to look at the bodyguard as though he were doused with water. He finally meandered off, and Butler was left alone.

Butler took a deep breath, rearranging his utensils so that they were in their proper places on the table.

He took another breath.

Goddamnit, he thought helplessly, letting his face fall into his hands. Goddamnit.

Thanks for reading! I'm not sure what the update schedule will look like yet, but I'll try to post a chapter once or twice a month. Feel free to leave a comment/question if you have any.