Keylynn submitted their reports on Akzer just in time to find a seat at the morning meeting. She, Zukyov, and Demetra claimed seats in the back for the team, while the rest went to go get coffee. She may not have planned to work through the night with her team, but she can’t complain about the results.

  The rest of her team squeezed through the sea of coworkers with their arms laden with ceramic to-go cups from the Cup Stop and paper bags of baked goods.

  “When I told Tiv everything, she hooked us up. She refused to accept payment, so I slid it in her tip jar,” Tsunami explained, handing a cup to Keylynn.

  She brought the cup to her lips and smelled the warm earthy aroma of her mushroom tea. Tiv worked fast, bringing it to her coffee cart. She drank deeply with a small smile on her lips. The contents of her cup will ensure she survives her day.

  “Tiv told me I had to give it to you, and if I didn’t, she’d break my kneecaps.” Inferno handed her a giant swirled cinnamon pastry.

  Keylynn smiled and took a bite out of her pastry. She was wrong; her mushroom tea and cinnamon swirl will ensure she survives her day. She spent most of the meeting focusing on her coffee and cinnamon swirl.

  “Typical, we should have seen that coming,” Ragna muttered under his breath.

  Keylynn looked up confused. She turned her attention to the whiteboard behind Akzer. They always bring it in when they update the statuses of the various weekly assignments. Team Mushroom was assigned even more digitizing work.

  “We can’t make a scene. It will only make things worse. I will update my report accordingly,” she whispered back.

  Ragna yawned. “I’m too tired to make a scene. Maybe tomorrow.”

  Finishing her pastry, she hated the feeling of powerlessness that she felt. It seemed like nothing she did would change how Akzer sees her team. She hates the idea of waiting for Lark’s investigation to bring any real change to floor seven. There wasn’t an amount of assessments that she or her team could do that would change their manager’s mind about them.

  After the meeting they walked back to their desk cluster, stifling yawns.

  “So we just play stupid and wait for your reports to do something?” Demetra asked with frustration painted on her face.

  “We don’t play anything. We do our jobs. Demetra, you can help Riv or work on your training with math wizardry.” She waved her off. She didn’t expect much from her team today and planned to do just enough digitizing work that Akzer wouldn’t notice her team’s less than efficient performance.

  “Maybe he will send me home for a nap.” Demetra trudged over to Riv’s desk.

  Riv will be doing no such thing. He will give her one of his tonics that allow him to work tirelessly without rest. His pursuit of his arcane mathematical research was ruthless. He will take the gift of having Demetra at his disposal and work her relentlessly. He would stop at nothing to conduct his time travel research.

  “Zukyov, would you join me for lunch today?” She asked, focusing on him sitting at his desk.

  He looked away from his computer screen, and to his credit, it wasn’t blank. “Uhh, sure.”

  “Thank you, I look forward to it.” She said with a smile. That was something that she can do: get Zukyov a new job. She may be powerless in getting their floor manager to respect her team and in getting them work worth doing, but she wasn’t powerless in this one small thing. She knew that he could cook something that would impress Tiv, and once she offered him the job, she had little doubt that he would take it.

  She spent her morning focused on training slime Eugene, because she didn’t need to spend all day digitizing for her team. She felt guilty for not expanding the source of caffeine sooner. She assumed that the caffeine addiction label meant coffee, because the only experience that she had with caffeine addiction was Dauven.

  She reached out and connected her hyphae to slime Eugene. She was overwhelmed with the jumble of emotions that they experienced. She felt flashes of an irritable caged animal longing for freedom and hot coils of rage threatening to take over that were calmed by the chilling waters of sadness. Flashes of joy failed to burn away the other emotions. The sticky feeling of mystery and the heaviness of fatigue threatened to stifle her. Feeling everything all at once made it impossible to feel anything at all.

  She broke her connection almost immediately after forming it. It was just too much for her. “Is that what you feel every day?”

  They formed a small pseudopod and slowly nodded.

  She couldn’t help but feel sympathy for them. Emotions were hard enough for people to handle. She knew countless people who didn’t have a firm understanding or control over their emotions. How could anyone expect a fungus that lacks any understanding of emotions to handle them any better?

  “Are those the emotions of those around you?” She asked gently. Those were either the feelings that her slime mould was always feeling or emotions of others. If her slime mould were feeling what everyone around them was feeling, it would make them much stronger than she thought possible.

  It didn't respond. It may not know where the emotions come from. She was lucky that it wasn’t projecting all of those feelings on everyone around them constantly.

  “That’s okay. Let’s try focusing on one emotion; how about the feeling of calm content?” She asked gently.

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  Slowly the pseudopod nodded. She smiled at her slime mould.

  She connected to her slime mould, prepared for the onslaught of emotions. She watched as her slime mould sifted through the emotions that filled them. Slowly the waves of all the other emotions were pushed aside to make room for the calm feeling of contentment. After a minute a bubble of calm overtook all the other emotions, filling her with contentment.

  She felt the cacophony of emotions that were pushed aside threatening to overwhelm them from the periphery. Slime Eugene was able to focus on the feeling of calm contentment for an entire minute before the other emotions broke through and flooded them.

  Their pseudopod looked up at her with an expectant look.

  “That was a valiant attempt, slime Eugene. Keep practicing. In time you may be able to make others around you feel it.” She explained softly. She opened a desk drawer and pulled out a Lonster.

  Their pseudopod focused on the can and slime Eugene started to undulate in excitement. She opened the can, and they shuddered hearing the hiss of released gases. Every drop that she poured on them was absorbed, filling them with a light, airy glee. She enjoyed a small sip of the energy drink, delighting in the airy, bubbly flavour.

  She continued to work with slime Eugene, using the Lonster as motivation until the midday bell. When she finished, they were able to maintain concentration on the feeling of contentment for three complete minutes. She had no doubt that over time they will have much stronger control over their feelings.

  Zukyov gave her a cautious look as they walked past several popular restaurants in Glimmerhold. “So, uhh, where are we going?”

  “A small cafe. It’s a bit of a walk but completely worth it.” His cooking would make the walk worth it.

  Zukyov paused outside of the Cup Stop. “The cafe that sells coffee outside of the office?”

  “Yes,” she paused, biting her lip. Well, it’s now or never. “You will be preparing a few lunch menu items for Tiv to sample. If she likes it, you have a job.” She opened the door for him. She felt terrible that he spent most of the night working at his desk. She wished she sent him home, but she feared the others would think he was getting special treatment.

  “Couldn’t you have told me sooner?” He asked, frustrated and scared.

  She gave him a stern look. “Would you have come if I had?” Yes, it was wrong that she hid the truth from him, but she had a good reason.

  After a long pause, he let out a deep sigh. “Probably not.” He ran his hand through his hair. “So what does she need me to cook?” He walked through the door.

  “Lunch food that will pair well with her existing menu.” She walked him to the service counter confidently.

  He nodded and wiped his hands over his pants anxiously.

  Before she had the chance to give him words of encouragement, Tiv stepped out from the back, drying her hands off on a towel. When her eyes landed on Keylynn, she gave them both a wide smile, flashing her tusks. “Keylynn! This must be your chef.” She turned her attention to Zukyov. “Come with me to the back and let me know if you need anything else.”

  Zukyov nodded before stepping around the counter, joining Tiv. He wiped his hands several times on his pants as he walked.

  By the time Keylynn took a seat at the counter and started to contemplate reaching for a pastry, Tiv returned and started to make coffee.

  “That was cruel. He's terrified.”

  “I know. But I think he would have been terrified whether he knew or not.” If he wasn’t scared, then he would have already left the job that made him miserable.

  “You still should have told him.” The machine in front of Tiv hissed, releasing hot steam.

  “He said the same.” She looked down. “You're right, it wasn’t kind, especially after he worked all night. I should have rescheduled.”

  “Yeah, you should have. You can’t put the blood back after you stab someone.” Tiv walked around the counter and sat beside her, setting two mugs down on the counter. “Your mushrooms are looking limp and pale today, and so are you,” she said with a hint of concern.

  Keylynn sucked in a deep breath of her coffee's comforting aroma. “I am eagerly waiting for the moment that I am excused from the office for the day. I miss my colonies and my soft loamy floor. I need a long dirt nap.” She closed her eyes, wishing she could walk home. There she could walk barefoot on soft loamy soil filled with bustling life. She could then burrow herself into a cozy compost pile, feeling her fungal colonies and insect friends hard at work.

  Tiv sucked in a breath. “Keylynn, a dirt nap means death.”

  She let out an irritated sigh. Why was everyone telling her that? “I don’t mean I plan to die; I simply mean to sleep in the dirt. How else would one say that?”

  “You know what? I have no idea. I think the saying came about from burying the dead,” Tiv said thoughtfully. “What are your dirt naps like?”

  No one has ever asked about her dirt naps before. “They are soothing. I’m naked, covered completely in soft loamy soil filled with decomposers. Both insects and fungi surrounded me. When it’s chilly, I summon a compost pile over top. The heat can be sweltering, but it’s soothing to feel the action of fungi and insects scurrying above me.” She struggled to find the words for how comforting a dirt nap was.

  “It helps you connect to nature. If you ever need a dirt nap, friend, I’ll give it a try.” Tiv said with a smile.

  “You are willing to be fully encased in soft loamy soil, insects, and fungi?” She hasn't met many who weren't disgusted by the thought of being covered in soil.

  “Why not? Can’t get wet socks if I’m not wearing any. I used to live in a swamp. Wet socks are foul.”

  “Wet socks are foul. The potential fungal growths aren’t worth discomfort,” Keylynn agreed.

  Zukyvo returned with his arms filled with dishes while they were deep in their discussion of different types of swamps. He had several plates with sandwiches and bowls of soup. He set everything out in front of the two of them with shaky hands.

  “I made the one meal that has always brought me comfort because it seemed fitting for this—” he gestured to the cafe around them. “I prepared a turkey sandwich with slow-roasted turkey breast paired with a nutty creamy pesto sauce on a fresh-baked buttery bun and two soups to choose from.” He gestured to the bowls of soup. There was a red soup and an orange one. “A creamy tomato bisque and a creamy butternut squash soup.”

  Anxiously he watched as Tiv sampled the sandwich and both of the soups that he made.

  The temptation of lunch was too much for her to resist anymore; Keylynn took a bite out of her sandwich and moaned. The turkey was tender and moist and wasn't overpowered by the nuttier flavour of the pesto. The soft, buttery sweet bread added a hint of savoury sweetness that tied it all together. She tried both types of soup and couldn't decide which one she liked more. They were both creamy, comforting, flavorful soups. The tomato soup had more of an acidic bite to it, while the other one had a creamy sweetness to it.

  “Did you make enough for yourself?” Tiv asked him curiously.

  He wiped his hands on the apron that he was wearing. “I—yes.”

  “Good, I never trust a chef who won’t eat their cooking,” Tiv explained, sounding like the business owner.

  Zukyov nodded and stepped away and returned with a big bowl of the tomato soup and two sandwiches. He sat down at the service counter beside Tiv and dipped one of his sandwiches into his tomato soup before taking a bite.

  Tiv nodded in approval. “So, can you make a soup of the day?”

  “I—yes, and I can do sandwiches too.”

  “Good, when can you start?” Tiv asked him with a grin.

  “I—”

  “Will next week work for you?” Keylynn asked Tiv.

  Zukyov stared at Keylynn.

  “Works for me. Now you had best tell him about your next plot.”

  Keylynn nodded and explained to Zukyov her entire plan.