Epilogue

The door needed a slight nudge to get it open, but it opened. Imara looked down at Mr. E, and she nodded. “This is it.”

He gave her a polite but attentive gaze from his new height. “It looks to be in good condition.”

She grinned. “This is just the exterior door, but I like your enthusiasm.”

Imara pushed the door open all the way, and the slightly dry odour of a closed building met her senses. It was mixed with the scent of newly sawn wood, and that scent confused her.

“Who the heck has been doing work here?” Imara let Mr. E in and closed the door behind her newly reshaped familiar.

Mr. E didn’t respond, but there was a swish to his tail that said he was up to something. The dark, polished wood of the hall led to the right and left. She wanted to make the left into her office and the right into a conference room. Her application for a building permit was with all of her belongings out in the car.

Her beloved kitty and favourite buddy was heading straight for the office space.

She moved carefully around the corner, and she paused in shock when she saw the sketch from her file in full detail in the space. Everything from the desk, filing cabinets, bookshelves, ritual area, and coffee machine in the corner, were all exactly as she had doodled them.

Mr. E hopped up onto his supervisory stand, and he watched her.

She felt the tears starting to run down her cheeks. Over a decade of planning and here was her office. She had her space, it was paid for, her license to engage in public magic had come through, and she was a Master Death Keeper and had full membership in the Mage Guild.

She sniffled and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Right. Well, now, I just need the signage and advertising, and we will literally be in business.”

He lifted and licked one of his paws. You might want to check outside.

Imara turned toward the door, and then, she heard a scrape. There was a whir, and she walked down the entry hallway to the front door, opening it slowly. A cluster of shadows was on the sidewalk, but it was a familiar cluster.

She closed the door, but a scent caught her again. She looked at the door, and it read, Spectral Consulting, I. Mirrin, Master Death Keeper, Commercial Master Mage.

When she turned back to the folks who were installing the hanging signboard nine feet over the sidewalk, she grinned at the very decorous but precise signage. The small spectral stone embedded in a corner of the sign gave it the touch that it needed to catch attention.

When the installation crew was done, she smiled as they pulled off their concealing head wraps. Argus smiled ruefully. “We wanted to get it done before you came back out.”

She walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him. “I was happy-crying inside, and it freaked Mr. E out, so he decided I needed a distraction. This is amazing. Thank you!”

He held her close, and he sighed happily, as he always did when she cuddled up to him.

Freddy snickered. “You two look so wrong.”

Imara looked around Argus, and she grinned. “I know. I am too mature for him, but his age makes up for it.”

Freddy chuckled. “I thought that he was energy and life, and you were death, but I suppose your description could be right. You are serious, and he... isn’t.”

Argus turned to look at Freddy over his shoulder. “I am very serious when it comes to Imara.”

The woman grinned, and she looked up. “Well, what do you think, Spectral Consultant?”

Imara leaned back and took in the display. Bara and Luken were standing near the back of the pack, Argus’s XIA team was grinning at her, and one of them was still wearing Freddy as an epaulet.

“I think that this is just the way I wanted to see my business start. In the dark with friends being weird and dressing like ninjas.”

They looked at her, themselves, and then giggles broke up their serious gathering.

“So, who wants to help me break in the coffeemaker?” Imara laughed.

Freddy winked. “I am more a fan of breaking into the mini bar.”

Imara stared. “I have one of those?”

“You have two. Now, you just have to find them.” Freddy linked her arm with Imara and hauled her toward the door. Imara looked back over her shoulder, and everyone was slowly trickling toward them.

It was time to get the party started.

Imara sat on her boardroom table and watched the XIA officers smash a piñata with stress balls. Mr. E was the scorekeeper. He chased the balls that rolled under the furniture.

Freddy produced a laptop, and she sat next to Imara. “This was my gift for you.”

To Imara’s shock, her business had a website, and there were already eighty-five hits and two messages waiting for her.

“When did you do this?”

“I pulled it together with a little help from Argus. It turns out that I am pretty good at web design when I choose to be. See, it even has a calendar so you can black out dates when you need to.”

“It doesn’t tell folks where I will be, does it?”

“No. It just says that you are unavailable for bookings or consultations.”

Imara followed her instructions and got into the messages. To her shock, both were genuine inquiries for her services. “Wow. They are asking about my fees.”

“So? The Death Keeper guild had its own fee structure. This is no different. In fact, you can charge more as you have all the credentials and a service that no one on this side of the continent can offer.”

Imara blinked slowly. “Right. I keep forgetting about that.”

Mr. E bounded up from under the couch with one of the projectiles in his jaws. She knew he was a man in a cat form, but he looked for all the world like a proud hunter.

You are definitely one of a kind, Imara Mirrin Deepford-Smythe Demiel. He set the stress ball down next to her hand. If the hellhound can help you manage your business efforts, enjoy the assistance. It will give me a break.

She smiled and stroked his head. “I am taking any help that is offered.”

Freddy looked at her and grinned, going into depth on how to manage the website.

When Imara glanced down at Mr. E, he batted the toy with his paw, and it struck the piñata, splitting the pixie wide open and scattering candy everywhere.

The men hooted and dove for it while Imara rubbed Mr. E’s head. “Nice shot.”

You should see me with opposable thumbs.

She chuckled. “I have. Did you have to hit on my mom?”

Chancellor Mirrin is an attractive woman and nowhere near her prime. We have a date next weekend.

Imara grinned. “Do you?”

Yes, as do you. If Argus gets out of hand, I am only a thought away, but I believe you two would benefit from a lack of my attention.

Argus was crouched over and picking candy carefully from the pile. He walked over to her, kissed her lightly and placed the candy in her hands. It was all her favourites.

“Happy business warming.”

She looked up at him in bemusement and whispered, “Thank you.”

Freddy looked at them both, and she eased away.

Argus took the spot that had been occupied by the hellhound, and he whispered, “Are you happy with how things have worked out?”

She smiled. “This is the start of something new, exciting and terrifying. I am delighted with how it turned out.”

He frowned. “Even the threats to your life?”

“They brought me into contact with people I never would have met. I would not have spoken to you if the teacher hadn’t been such a creep. Once I met you, I was able to help the XIA member possessed by a spectre—”

“Put yourself in the path of a serial killer.”

“I made every course with honours.”

“And only had to commit a few breaking and entering as well as magical ingress crimes.”

She leaned against him. “But those events led me to new friends and learning about what I was capable of. I am so much stronger now that I know who I am and what my family is actually like, which helps me know myself a little better.”

“Even if half of them are jerks?”

“Especially because of that. I know that it is in me now, and I can be on guard for it.”

He shook his head in astonishment.

“You have the most peculiarly upbeat attitude. It is one of the things that I treasure about you.”

She smiled. “I know. It is the hardest thing to maintain, but the most rewarding in the long run.”

He chuckled, and she settled against him, watching the rest of the party come up with a new game involving empty and not empty beverage cups on heads, targets for the spongy stress balls. Mr. E was curled up against her other hip, and she was warm and secure for this first night in her new business with her apartment just above it.

Tonight, was the first night of her business, and it marked the start of her actual courtship with Argus. A lot of firsts were taking place in the next few weeks, and Imara could hardly wait to get to them.

At this point, Imara officially joins the plotline of An Obscure Magic. She is going to play a part in the lives of the other characters, and perhaps Mr. E will continue his bizarre flirtation with her mother. I never suspected that Mirrin was a cat lady, but Mr. E knew it all along.