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The Mayor of Congruence and the Baroness of the Opera House

"Ms. Crem? Your 2 o'clock is here," Meredith said over the intercom.

The gray fox rubbed the bridge of her snout. She hadn't had a 2 o'clock appointment at 1:58. She'd checked. Tally pushed the button on the brown speaker box. "Send him in." She knew what name had been added to the calendar within the last two minutes.

At the far end of the room the large oak doors opened. A snow leopard in a fine blue robe walked in carrying armfuls of large rolls of blue paper. Tally sighed. The cat trodded down the long red carpet of the mayor's office; past the fountains decorating the sides and past the little practice golf green. Tally wondered how he could see past the papers he carried, if he even needed to. He made his way up the dais upon which her desk resided.

He dropped the pile of papers on her desk, most of which ended up on the floor. "Hello, Tally!" he chimed.

"Good afternoon, Lapis." At least it had been three minutes ago. "What are you bringing me this time?"

He unfurled one of the sheets across the desk. "Ideas for the opera house!"

Tally sat back in her chair and tented her fingers. "I'm sure they're lovely. We still don't have a place to put an opera house."

"Well, I figured if we settled on a design to come forward with, we could build public support."

Since when did he need public support to do anything? Tally clicked the switch beneath her desk. The building shook. The floor in front of the dais split open; shifting down and sliding apart. A model of the full city rose from beneath.

She picked up a croupier stick from the side of the model. She played along. "Maybe. But support will most come if people can imagine how the building would look in the place it's going." She pointed about. "The most obvious places, as we've covered before, would be Trifecta Park." She pointed to the large central park of the city. "But that's a bit crowded with the zoo, the art museum the botanical gardens, the croquet fields, and the ampitheatre.

"The next best option is in the theatre district. It'd certainly fit thematically. But of course, the theatre district is already full of theatres. And you're not willing to bulldoze any of them, nor Astera Market on its perimeter."

"I am not." Lapis remarked.

"Yes."

"The final option would be in the outer boroughs somewhere. Lots of unclaimed real-estate out there. But you don't want it out there, either."

"It seems to be more of a central feature type monument," he noted.

Tally waved the stick over the model haphazardly over the model. "We have a handful of other parks in near center of the city, but you've seemed pretty keen on keeping them in their place."

"Yes," the snow leopard finally admitted to the issue. He looked over the model. He was thinking.

Tally started thinking as well, and started worrying. Lapis often had the look of an overambitious goofball, but that made it easy to forget what he really was. He was the eccentric demigod who built this city. He wanted the city to fit his vision of perfection, even if he didn't exactly know what that was. He could decide, if it wasn't working as is, to just scrap the entire city and start over in a couple of generations. While she doubted he would directly harm anyone, he could send them back to where they all came from. Tally would have to go back to her old life. She couldn't do that.

"I mean," she picked up one of the blueprint rolls. "I can look through these and see if they spark any ideas."

Lapis eyed her for a moment. "Perhaps you are right that we may need to sacrifice one of the smaller parks."

Tally thought quick. "Think of it more as re purposing it."

"Yes. Any thoughts on which would be best?"

Tally looked over the model. "Like I said, I can look over these and see if they might fit anywhere." She clumsily tried to unfurl the oversized paper.

Lapis nodded. "Very well, I shall leave you to it. Please inform me of your thoughts in a timely manner."

"I shall," the fox replied.

He headed down the long red carpet out of the room. Tally sighed. She headed back to her desk while dragging the blue paper behind her. She fell back into her seat, sighed, and glanced down at the paper. She dropped it. It rerolled itself and rolled off. How the hell had her life come to this?

Oh, yeah. She had been living with her parents on the east side of Lyra after dropping out of college. She worked three jobs part time to keep those parents from calling her lazy as often. Though it was more to have an excuse not to be home around them. Every time her alarm clock buzzed in the morning it was a reminder that another day of her life had ticked away.

One night, on graveyard shift at the diner, an ad came on for Congruence. The brand new city in the Heristandin Empire. She was pretty sure that wasn't how cities typically got their start, but that's what this one was going with. Within the week she quit her jobs and used what little savings she had to buy a plane ticket there.

Her parents laughed at her. They said that she would fail at this the same way she failed at everything else. That she was putting her faith in a mad lunatic in the mountains. That she was falling for some elaborate ruse. Perhaps she was, but even if Congruence wasn't one millionth what she hoped she'd still be far better off there.

And so she traveled, with just a single carry-on's worth of belongings as she couldn't afford a suitcase to check let alone the airline's fee for doing so.

Her hopes bolstered on arriving in the city. Many of the other arrivals were misfits like her who saw this as a massive blessing. This wasn't even a once in a lifetime opportunity. How few people ever truly got the chance at a clean slate? They were there to capitalize on that. To start fresh. To have no one question what went awry in your past, with the tacit agreement you wouldn't ask what went wrong with theirs.

Tally found a couple of jobs working at new fast food locations. She got an apartment in the borough of Fava dirt cheap. She felt for the first time since she was six that she'd actually be able to make something of her life.

Tally lived in peaceful happiness for a few months. Then came the election night. The rules of which were weird. Two weeks before the election paperwork was sent out to every resident of the city. It was a basic form to fill out for official citizenship of the city. The process was no more complicated than that, likely as the city was trying to build a population quickly.

The paper emphasized one would need to complete it before the election night if they were to be eligible to hold office. Tally didn't care about that, but she it was the most eager she'd ever been to fill out a form. The city felt more like home than anywhere. She wanted to truly and officially belong to Congruence.

The night of the election, everyone learned that Congruence's voting laws required a minimum of three weeks citizenship before voting status could be claimed. An oddly specific number, but one clearly set to drive the point home. Citizenships had only been official for two weeks maximum. Which meant no one could vote in the election. Save the only person who at that time could qualify for citizenship because he wrote the rules to say so; Lapis himself.

She'd never met Lapis. Never interacted with him in any way. She was just one of many faces in the city. She was at Trifecta Park that night, along with thousands of others, waiting to hear the results of the election they had no say in. It had been a sham election, of a sort, but it still had been their sham election. Plus there were carnival rides and games because Lapis didn't know what exactly was suppose to be at this sort of thing so that's what he went with.

Tally had a large lemonade and giant cotton candy as a snow leopard woman announced winners of the various position. Lapis himself was nowhere to be seen. From coroner to comptroller to department of sanitation head; each accepted their victory with by climbing up on the stage, shaking the snep lady's hand, and giving an extremely confused 'thank you' into the microphone.

Mayor was the final position to be announced, as was thematically fitting. Even the snow leopard lady seemed confused as she announced, "Tally Crem? Is there a Tally Crem here tonight? Tally Crem."

Murmurs went through the crowd. Tally said nothing. It couldn't be her. It was a strange name, sure, but certainly someone else must have had it. People in the crowd began asking one another their names. Someone asked Tally, and she had to admit she had the same first name. The crowd gathered around her as they began to note her reluctance to admit her last name. "It can't be me. I didn't run!"

"No one did," someone pointed out.

She was ushered to the stage, led up on there, and in front of the microphone. She still held her giant lemonade and cotton candy. She became acutely aware she was also wearing a stained t-shirt that had been her 'slop around at home' get-up for the past couple of weeks. The crowd went silent. "I, uh, guess I'll be the best mayor I can be?"

The crowd cheered. It had not been a grand acceptance speech, but the crowd was thrilled to have one at all. At times like this, when she was musing on her past, she would think that it was probably the most honest acceptance speech ever made for such an office.

The next day she was in this giant office. Four large fountains lined the walls. The desk held a computer and a brown intercom speaker from thirty years ago. A practice putting green sat to one side of the room. And of course there was the cartoonish model of the city that rose from the floor because Lapis had seen that in a movie or something. It was all stuff Lapis thought should be in the office of the mayor of a major world city.

She'd once had the courage to ask Lapis why he chose her. He said she shouldn't ask questions of someone's private ballot.

The intercom buzzed. Startled, Tally almost fell over backwards. "Your 2:15 is here." She had not had a 2:15 on her schedule earlier. She hadn't had any appointments all day. She kept it that way as generally the only folk that would wish to speak her would be those with the understandable but mistaken impression that she actually had power to change anything.

"Send them in," she said.

The large door opened. A clouded leopard lady in rather fine garb stuck her head in. She entered, trotting down the room while being an obvious mix of excited and nervous.

Tally relaxed. Baroness Teagan Boson I. Or Tea, as she preferred. It made sense she'd be the one.

The world of Saffron generally expected two categories of its governing officials. There were elected officials, of course. And then there was the nobility. For the vast majority of the world it was the former who held the bulk of the power. The nobility primarily existed for entertainment purposes. The world expected them.

And Lapis had his own way of meeting those expectations. In pretty much the same manner as he'd chosen his elected officials but without nearly as much ceremony, Lapis appointed random folks Counts or Dukes or Earls of this or that or the other. Mostly they were given symbolic land titles named after the features of the city. There was a Duke of the Library, Count of the Fountain In Southwest Lamia Park, and Earl of the Department of Motor Vehicles Building on Sixth Avenue. Tea was appointed Baroness of the Opera House.

Apparently Lapis figured the place didn't need to actually exist to get nobility attached to it. Presumably her appointment was to be a prod in Tally's side. Something like, see, 'it won't be official until you actually approve the opera house plans' or 'she'll get a higher rank when the building actually exists.' Not something that particularly stirred the fox into motion as Lapis likely thought it might.

The cat glanced at the giant model as she circumnavigated it. She climbed up onto the dais in front of Tea, knocking some of the blueprints aside. "I, uh," Tea began, "Lapis made an appointment for me to speak with you. He said he brought you some plans."

"He dropped them off a few minutes ago." Tally gestured at the rolls of paper strewn about her desk. "Pretty much literally, as you can see."

"Ah, heh, yeah," Tea picked up one and tried to look it over. She fumbled with the oversized paper. "This one looks, uh, OK.," she said with a hint of disingenuousness.

"Well there's a dozen more if you're not overly fond of that one. Besides, look isn't really the problem. We've still got the song and dance of where are we going to build the damned thing."

"Do, you, uh, have any ideas on where it might go?"

Tally barked a laugh. "I think I've got him talked into bulldozing one of the smaller parks near the city center. I'll probably eenie-meenie-minie-moe it to pick one. Of course for Lapis it doesn't matter losing the park. It matters what's in the park. Every garden, fountain, or lawn bowling course is precious to him."

"It, uh, wouldn't work in Trifecta park?"

"I just went over this with Lapis. The park's a bit full as is, don't you think?"

Tea turned her attention to the model. She squinted to look at the features in the distant middle of the thing. "I don't know. We could get creative. Like, the gardens. We could put the botanical gardens on the roof of the opera house."

"That's actually not a terrible idea," Tally said. She rubbed her chin.

"You don't like it, though."

"I mean, I'm fine with whatever works. I'm just not sure how happy Lapis would be. Plus no matter how well we dampen things we'll get snobs complaining the footsteps are ruining the experience."

Tea soured and nodded. She looked over the model. "Where would you like it to go?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Seriously, where do you think would be best? And don't worry about practicality or what's already there. Just where would you like it?" Tea asked.

"Honestly? I'd like it to be a center piece in the theatre district," Tally admitted. "But that would mean razing several blocks of theatres."

"We could move the theatres outward."

"First of all, the only place they could go would be to the market, which is its own massive thing. And second of all, that would be horribly impractical."

"Well he is," Tea began. She looked down, "Nevermind."

Tally sat back in her chair. Tea fumbled about with the designs. "They're kind of hard to get in my mind from just the technical drawings."

Tally ignored her.

Tea continued to fumble with the plans. She kept glancing at Tally. Tally did her best to not show any sign of enjoying this.

Finally the cat spoke, "Uh, there was one other thing."

Of course there was. "What was that?"

"He said about maybe going and visiting another city's opera house? For inspiration."

Tally sighed. Well, this was something she had to do now.

"I mean, I think he had this on his mind for a while. He sort of mentioned it when he picked me for this job. I ran into him at the train station, and we started talking about opera. I don't think he just happened to run into me, though."

"Probably not. He does that sort of thing."

"Yeah, anyway. He was saying how he didn't really care about an opera house at first. He thought they were symbols of old stuffiness he was trying to do away with. But he heard Lyra had one, and that changed his mind on it. And he regretted not making space for one earlier, but he'd work something out. Anyway, he said then I could be the baroness even though it didn't exist yet."

"Wait, wait, wait," Tally said. "Back up, this is just a giant case of keeping up with Lyra?"

"Yeah, he told me not to tell you about all this. But I kind of felt it was relevant, don't tell him I told you."

"I won't. I won't, but," the fox started laughing. She fell back in her chair cackling. The clouded leopard watched her with unease. "But he wants one because Lyra has one." That made sense. Lapis had a huge crush on Lyra and had to copy as much as he could from them. Her hometown had been the reason for the great zoo debacle a few months back. "So he just wants an opera house to match Lyra's?" she laughed harder.

"Yeah, I guess," the clouded leopard looked toward the door.

"Well, that makes this whole thing much, much simpler. Yeah, fuck it, let's go to the opera in Lyra."

#

Tally left the travel plans to Tea. Something she regretted the next morning as the leopard booked the red eye flight. Tally was not a morning person. At least being V.I.P.'s they were able to get straight on the plane, and be provided with copious amounts of coffee.

Tally had no idea why Tea had booked such an early flight. Lyra was only a couple of hours away by air. As the plane began to land Tally had a guess, as the clouded leopard's excitement grew the nearer the city they got. The hunch was fully confirmed as they rode the train the downtown. Tea eagerly pointed out every landmark and monument she saw. Even the other tourists thought it was a bit much.

"I didn't realize you were such a Lyra fangirl," Tally commented.

"Does it show that much?" Tea asked.

"A bit," Tally snarked.

Tea giggled. "Well, I've never been to a big city like this. Other than Congruence, I mean."

"Where are you from originally?"

"Congruence, born and raised," she said with pride.

Tally's brain broke. She stopped herself from spitting her coffee out, but swallowed it hard. She coughed as Tea patted her back asking if she was alright.

"I've seen your documents," Tally said as she caught her breath. "You're two years older than me!"

"Yeah, so?"

"So I moved to Congruence a week after it opened. No one lived there before that. How, why? Ugh." she knew the answer of course. Eccentric demigod.

"Uh, Lapis?" Tea guessed and confirmed.

Tally rubbed her head. "Yeah. I knew he messed about with timelines a bit. I've just never caught him doing something on this scale." He was typically discrete about it. She'd asked him once about it when she caught some dates not adding up. He said he hadn't done anything to annoy Elljie yet. But just in case Elljie hadn't found out not to bring the subject up around the clergy. "It's head hurting."

"Yeah, try not to think about it."

"Easier said than done."

"Maybe riding a tour bus would be a distraction?" Tea asked hopefully.

Eons ago Tally swore to herself that she'd never have anything to do with those things. But it would keep the cat happy, and maybe she could catch up on the sleep she lost that morning. "Fine. But we get a proper breakfast first."

"Yaaay!" Tea bounced with joy.

#

Tally had to admit the tour bus had exceeded her expectations. Though the bar she had set for it was sunk to the bottom of the river. Tea, of course, loved every second.

"I'm going to have to come back and do everything!"

"You would have to give up doing anything else with your life."

"Yeah, probably!" Tea chuckled.

Tally had meant it to be a snide remark. But she realized that 'more than you could do in a lifetime' was probably more of a selling point. She'd save that one for her next meeting with the Congruence Tourism Commission.

At five the tour buses closed up shop. Tally thought that was a bit early but Tea assured her that was the norm everywhere. Tally knew she should have felt grateful to be done with the experience, but part of her felt she should have been able to ride later if for some reason she actually wanted to. Regardless, it was another thing to bring up to the tourism board. Thinking competitively, she felt that would be easy to outdo.

"They have a night tour we could go on!"

"We have an opera to attend."

"Oh, right. I forgot," Tea chuckled. "Where was the opera house again. I don't remember passing it on the tour."

"We didn't. The Lyra City Opera House is way on the east side," Tally chuckled.

"Isn't the East Side, um," Tea tried to choose her words.

Tally cut to the chase, "The run-down, shifty part of town? Yep."

"Oh," Tea's ears lowered.

"Not worried about experiencing a little local color, are you?" Tally cackled.

"No, no, it's just, uh, not what I imagined."

#

Climbing out of the dingy subway, the distorted nostalgia settled on Tally. The cracked brickwork and barred up windows of businesses she used to frequent felt of home. Or more felt of a place she once called home. Even the smell of the place was the same.

There were a few changes. Hear and there a bright new sign of someone trying to open a brew pub or book shop. Probably ambitious young entrepreneurs hoping to turn this place around. They'd be better not wasting their talents on this dump. Just let the place die.

Tea kept close to the fox. Tally could tell Tea was self conscious about her actions. Nervousness and uncertainty kept her from being polite and excited. Her cognitive dissonance with this was the one good bit of coming back here.

"I grew up not far from here," Tally said as she led them down the street. "Not a far walk to my folks' place."

That was the magic phrase to snap the cat from her mood. "We could have visited!" Whatever uncertainties she had had no chance against that natural bubbliness.

Tally laughed, "No way in hell. There's a reason I up and left this place for a strange new city with barely any money and less of a plan."

"Oh," Tea thought, "well, you're the mayor of that big new city now. That'd be bound to impress them. Or you can at least rub it in their faces!"

Oh, she'd love to do just that. Of course she knew such a meeting would never go how she wished. "No, they'd turn it back on me some how." She could hear them, "They'd say that I got lucky. Lapis just picked me at random, not because I had any real merit." She thought through all the time she'd spent as mayor, and if she'd really ever done anything of note. She slowed to a stop. "They'd be right, too."

Tea looked at her for a bit. "Now, that's not true."

"Really? Name one thing I've done. All I do is argue with Lapis about his plans before just approving those plans anyway."

"Well, that's not true. You got him to change the zoo thing."

"He hated me changing his zoo plan."

"If he hated you he wouldn't have you as mayor."

"Exactly! How long before he just gets rid of me? What would I do then?" She gestured around her. "I don't want to come back here. I can't." Tears dripped from her muzzle to the dirty bricks below.

Tea said nothing for a while. She had to think about it. Tally was grateful for the time to compose herself.

Tea did speak after a few minutes, "Well, Lapis is a doofy exuberant demi-god. But he knows he's a doofy exuberant demi-god. He probably knows that if he was left to his own devices Congruence would just be roller coasters and rivers of chocolate everywhere. Which sounds awesome but probably wouldn't actually be that great in practice. So he probably wants you to argue with him on things. And maybe why he picked you. How many people would tell a god 'no' to his face?"

Tally cringed. She didn't need platitudes right now.

"Sorry if you don't really want the feel better speech," Tea seemed to read her mind.

No, she was just probably visibly irritated. "It's fine, I know you mean well," Tally admitted. She gathered herself. She chuckled, "Though even if Lapis has some weird deep godly reason for giving me this damned job it's still not something I could impress my folks with."

Tea nodded. "Yeah, I know. People like that would die rather than admit you've done well for yourself."

"Yeah. They would." Tally agreed. She took the time to compose herself. "Okay. Let's get to this opera."

#

"Well, this is uh, surprising? Unexpected? I don't know," Tea tried to describe the scene before the opera house.

"Good old Lyra," Tally noted.

The opera building itself was not much different than any regular theatre downtown, except for the grungier exterior. Incandescent lightbulbs flashed, most surprisingly functioning, about the large sign that said "Lyra Opera House." More lights flashed about the marquee board that advertised tonight's show, sans several letters. She couldn't have pronounced the title even with the full spelling as it was by necessity in another language. Having looked it up before, she knew it translated to "Seventh King of the Lake."

In front of the theatre the crowd of attendees to the show gathered. They were the most stereotypical opera goers one could imagine. They decked themselves out in their best finery and jewelry. Red and blue lights flashed against the building walls. Private security mixed with actual police stood guard about, keeping the local roughians away. The posh jerks ignored their surroundings and the protection they employed from it.

She'd watched this scene play out many a time through her life. She and her friends would sometimes come down with a carton of eggs hoping for a gap in the defenses. It nauseated her that she'd be on the other side of that line tonight.

"Whatever we do with the opera house," Tea said, "it's not this."

"Agreed." Tally sighed. "Let's go."

Security gave them odd looks as they marched toward the theatre, but didn't stop them. The aristocrats in front of the building gave them worse glares. With Tea in her sundress and Tally in her polo shirt and khakis they weren't exactly dressed to the nines but were at least a seven, Tally thought. She did her best to ignore them as they reached the building.

They reached the will-call desk. Tally addressed the ferret clerk, "Hello, we're picking up tickets under, uh,"

"Boson." Tea added.

"Boson," Tally echoed.

"Oh, uh, okay," the ferret acted as though she'd never heard such a request. She thumbed through her stack of envelopes and pulled one out. She didn't hand it over just yet. "Uh," she muttered.

"What?" Tally said through clenched teeth.

"I'm sorry but I'm not sure you meet our dress code," the ferret admitted.

The gray fox snarled. Tea tried to interrupt, "Uh, sorry, I should have checked,"

"No, Tea, this isn't on you." Tally snapped. "Look, lady, I know you're just trying to do your job. And I hate having to pull the don't-you-know-who-i-am card but don't you know who I am? I am the mayor of congruence. And she's a baroness. So just hand us those tickets. It'll be much easier for you."

The ferret sat back in her chair unsure what to do. She called for her manager on her radio. Tally tried to compose herself.

"We could just, uh, try again another time?" Tea said.

"Tea, I don't want them to win."

"I know, but maybe we can find a less asshole-y opera house somewhere."

Tally wasn't about to budge.

A tigress entered the box office. One Tally knew her whole life. "Tally? Tally is that you? What the hell are you doing here?"

"Maleta? You actually work here?" the old friend cheered her up. This would set things right.

"Yeah, can you believe it. Damn, I remember tagging this building and breaking in with you."

"Those were the days. Anyway, to answer your question we're trying to see the opera. This young lady, though I'm certain is doing her best to do her job properly, is withholding our tickets."

Maleta cringed. She looked over Tally and Tea, and cringed again. "Well, uh, she's kind of right."

Tally soured. "Maleta. Don't you do this to me."

Maleta rubbed the bridge of her snout. "Look, you know how these rich fucks are. And management has been riding my ass to be strict on the codes. I wouldn't admit the Lava God himself if he didn't match the dress code. Look, I'll refund your money. I'm not even suppose to do that but since you're a friend."

Tally took a breath. She needed to stop being angry and think. "Can't you do the phantom thing?"

"What?"

"A box. Like, a curtained box where these folks can't see us."

"Maybe. They're really expensive, though."

"That's not a problem. This is sort of a business trip."

"Wow, look at you all climbing the social ladder. Yeah, I think we could make that work."

**

They had to be led in through the back employee entrance to the opera house to keep from bothering the rich fucks. They navigated through grungy back hallways and service elevators. Soon, though, they were up in the box which was a bit of a jarring change of scenery.

"This is nice and posh," Tally said. She glanced out over the ornate décor of the opera house. "They've spruced the place up since I was last here."

"You've actually been in here before?" Tea was surprised.

"Yeah. There use to be a hole in the roof over attic storage. It was easy to sneak in. Me and friends would sometimes sneak in to mock the performance. Of course we quickly got found out and chased out. I'm sure with Maleta running the show now she's patched the thing."

"It is kind of nice," Tea couldn't hide the tinge of disappointment in her voice.

Tally chuckled. "Yeah. Still not on par with Congruence's theatres. I've cut the ribbon at all of the big ones. And gotten a free show in a box for opening night. And those idiots down there think I'm some nobody. Hah!"

"Yeah," Tea agreed.

"I wonder if they have concessions at this thing? Probably not, don't want to get their nice floor messed up."

"We did just eat," Tea noted.

"Yeah, but I still like to snack during shows. They've got to at least have booze."

"I just. I mean Lapis is paying for this," Tea commented, worry in her voice.

"So? He's a demigod with a literal mountain full of gold and jewels."

"I mean, that's what legends say."

"Legends about him tend to understate things," Tally replied.

"Still but I don't want to take advantage of him."

"Pfft. Lapis gets insulted if you don't take advantage. Seriously, he can get pretty fussy about that sort of thing."

A red fox popped his head into the booth. "Hello, I'm checking to see if you would like any concessions?"

"Hey, we were just wondering about that. You do bottles of wine here?"

"Yes."

"Bottle of red then. Nothing too high end, I'm not super picky. And whatever people eat at these things."

"Uh, sure, I'll be right back," the fox left fast.

"See? I'm cognizant," Tally told Tea. "I'm sure if I got a high end bottle then whatever markup they charge on it might actually bankrupt Lapis."

Tea snorted a laugh.

The fox returned in short order with the wine as well as tiny popcorn bags and little tins of fruit and nuts. "Don't give you much in these, do they?" Tally commented after he'd left.

The lights dimmed. The overture started.

#

So opera is just a musical in a language you don't understand, Tally thought. There was no way all those fancy rich folk could understand it. There were probably only five people in this building that actually cared about the story. Of course one of those five was sitting right next to her.

Tea sat on the edge of her seat. She laughed, she cried, she cheered at the moments in the play. At intermission she rambled excitedly about everything so far. Tally just smiled and nodded.

"I, uh, didn't know you spoke, uh, whatever language this is," Tally noted when Tea stopped to take a drink of wine.

"I don't, heh. Just picking it up from the context clues and acting. You?"

"Uh, same. You just seemed to get a lot more than me," extremely true as she hadn't paid attention. "Like the bit with the, uh, boulders."

"Oh, yeah, that was a pretty insightful bit I thought. The lead lady...," and Tally's brain shut off as Tea explained the whole scene to her. Tally was mercifully saved from the giddy leopard by the second act beginning. Though the mercy was short lived because it involved having to sit through the second act.

#

After the show they made their way out the same way they came in. Outside Tally led the way. She took long way around to avoid the crowd of rich folk exiting.

Tea bounced the whole way. She raved about every plot point, song, and character. Tally nodded along adding in blank agreements. "Yes." "Uh-huh." "Yeah."

Tea stopped walking at a point. Tally turned to see what the hold up was. The cat just had an accusing scowl. "You know, if you didn't like it you can just say so."

"No, I did like it."

"I made up the last three things completely."

Tally tried to remember what had been said the last few words the cat had said were. She realized 'cyborg' had been among them. Yeah, that should have been a give away.

"Sorry, I, uh, I'm just focused on getting us through these, uh, dangerous neighborhoods." Tea wasn't buying it. Tally gave her too little credit. She sighed, "Okay, I really didn't pay any attention to the show. It's really not my thing. But still, you were enjoying it and I didn't want to rain on your parade." Tea eased up. Tally mentally patted her own back. Diplomacy: she could do it. She'd make a politician of herself yet.

She continued, "Maybe in our opera house we could figure out how to subtitle things? I guess that would consist of someone standing with lots of signs and flipping through them." She giggled.

Tea snrked. She added seriously, "I've heard lots of opera houses have projectors set up for that sort of thing."

"Oh, I wonder why they didn't have them there?"

"Because the opera house here is overcompensating on pretentiousness because of it's perceived bad location, so it tries extra hard to remove accessibility for anyone not of the appropriate class."

Tally really didn't give Tea enough credit. The fox doubled over laughing. "Yeah, that's it. That's definitely it." She recovered still giggling. "Ugh, they all suck so much."

"Yeah," Tea agreed.

They started walking again.

Tally spoke. "I still liked the fight scenes and such. There was some cool choreography. And the sets were neat. Like the giant smoking dragon."

"Oh, yeah, that was awesome!" Tea resumed bouncing. "I had no idea opera had stuff like that!"

Tally stopped walking. "Wait, you've never seen an opera?"

"Of course not," Tea said. "Like I said I've never left Congruence and we don't have an opera house."

"Well, I mean they could still have it in a regular theatre. I mean the opera house is just an overglorified theatre anyway."

"Well, you know Lapis. Opera lives in the opera house."

"Of course," Tally would be setting him straight on that idea later. "So out of curiosity, how did you end up as Baroness of the Opera House? If you don't mind me asking."

"Well, Lapis just asked me out of the blue if I wanted it. I'd never interacted with him before. I was just, uh, hanging out around town at the time. I wasn't about to pass up on the opportunity. Besides, I figured the position give me a chance to, uh, nevermind about that. I've read some books on opera since, of course. But still I was hoping to get the chance to go see one in person."

Tally minded the thing Tea had said nevermind about. What ulterior thing could she have wanted?

All the job contained beyond the opera itself and the nobility title was sitting around boring meetings with Tally and, oh. That explained a lot, actually. Tally felt she should have picked up on that sooner.

"Tea, uh, do you have a crush on me?"

Tea's fur stood out to where she could have passed for a porcupine. "I, uh, I," That pretty well answered Tally's question to the affirmative. "I mean, I've admired you since I was in..."

"Skip the rest of that sentence," Tally interrupted.

"Right. Brain melting demigod time manipulation. Uh, I like you, yeah."

"So, uh, is this trip sort of a date?"

Tea went stiff. "No! I mean, I figure you don't really see me the same way. Still I hoped I could hang out with you and stuff. I didn't want to make things awkward."

"No, no, sorry. I didn't mean that to be accusatory. I really mean," Tally looked to the ground and rubbed her arm. "I mean, do you want it to be a date?"

Tea stared. "Are, are you serious? I, uh, didn't think you liked me that much?"

Tally sighed. "I know I've been cold. I, uh," she thought. She wanted to make excuses for herself, but she had none. Ever since Lapis gave her this job she'd barely thought of anyone outside herself. If she had, she would have noticed Tea's feelings easily. She did nothing all day every day at her job. That would change now. A god had literally handed her this position, and she was squandering it. She needed to turn herself around before she lost it. Same with Tea. She had a chance with this cute, fun-loving cat and she'd almost blown it because she had her head up her ass.

"I have no excuse. I was cold and callous because I was full of myself. I really do like you. You're so full of life and fun. I wish I had some of that for myself." Tea shrunk in bashfulness. "I guess I'm saying I'd love to give being with you a chance. If you would do the same with me."

"EEEEEEEE!" Tea through her arms about Tally and kissed her cheek.

Tears dripped from the fox's eyes. She kissed the side of Tea's face. She'd made the right call.

"Can we get ice cream?" Tea asked.

"Of course," Tally said through actual tears. "I know a good place around here."

Tally took Tea to the Old Whiel Iced Creams, one of the few places she had fond memories of in this city. The proprietor, an old muskrat named Condelia, had looked the same as Tally had been a child. While there had always seemed to be such people about, Tally didn't want to think too hard on it in light of the earlier talk with Tea.

She had her favorite old flavor, a pomegranate-raisin ice cream that Tally had never found anywhere else. She earnestly hoped to never see it anywhere else that it would stay a special part of this memory. They chatted with Condelia as they ate. Things were great until Condelia made some homophobic remarks. Tally bristled, Tea stared into her sundae.

Tally excused them from the restaurant, tossing their leftovers in an overfull trashcan on the way out. Tally vowed pomegranate-raisin would be a prominent feature of every ice cream shop in Congruence by the end of the week.

Tea had booked them a double room for the night in a downtown hotel. They settled down in the beds to wind down for the night. They weren't going to push their hour old relationship further than that.

They found a documentary on opera to watch, an appropriate ending for the trip.

"You know," Tally mentioned halfway through. "I'm not really that interested in the opera."

"I gathered," Tea chuckled.

Tally laughed as well. "I mean, I'd bet there were five people in that whole theatre who actually cared about the show, including you. And I'm not saying that to insult the show. I mean, those rich fucks who didn't want us in there in the first place are themselves only there because it's the thing rich fucks do. Not because they actually give a crap about the show."

"Yeah, I know what you mean."

"This has been a good trip," Tally said.

"Agreed. Get ideas for the opera house?"

"Tons."

#

"So I'm thinking we could use the domed design from this combined with the boxier bottom from this." Tally pointed at bits of the designs on Lapis' blueprints.

"Very nice. Have you thought on the location issue?" the snow leopard asked.

"I have," she pointed her croupier stick at the model. "It'll go in the midst of the theatre district. A great centerpiece to that region."

"We had the issue of the theatre district already being full of theatres."

"We'll move some of them outward, to the market."

"And the market?"

"That goes down the street to where these botanical gardens are."

"And the gardens?"

"That's the beauty of it. Those go on the roof of the opera house, on the flat bits over the ticket booths and restaurants."

"A good idea," Lapis commented. "However. I notice one problem."

"And that is?"

"You think it a simple matter to move several large buildings over significant distance."

"I'm now dating a woman who was born after I took this job, and is somehow older than me."

"I was hoping you wouldn't look into that," Lapis said.

"It came up."

"I'll work out something," Lapis conceded. "And you hooked up with Ms. Boson? How lovely."

"I suppose you were playing matchmaker in your mysterious way?" she asked.

"On the contrary. My wager was on you getting involved with Carlie Shannah."

"The Countess of the East Side Library? Seriously?"

"I surmised you'd bond over your mutual enjoyment of quiet locales. Still, I believe Ferus had Tea chosen in the pool."

"Have you gods tried dice as an alternate game?" Tally rolled her eyes. "Anyway, back to the opera house. I want to take great pains to not have it be a big wealth status thing. For one thing we are having very not stringent dress codes."

"I am fine with it being clothing optional."

"Maybe on special days."

"Fair enough," Lapis agreed.

"And it's having a damned decent concession stand."

"Wouldn't have anything less. I'm glad you are taking charge on this project."

"Thanks. And on that note, I'd like to talk about ideas for smaller theatres and opera houses for the outer boroughs. Also I have some thoughts on the planned amusement park expansion. Also if we could discuss the public transit network, I have ideas on improving efficiency."

"I shall pull up a chair."