Ms. Whittaker was driving five miles over the speed limit.

They weren't going to be late, which would have explained her behavior, but for some reason or another she was still gunning it. She pulled into the parking lot at 5:30 for a 6 PM reservation. Fifteen minutes would have been appropriate for socializing, but thirty minutes seemed like an excessive amount of time to wait in the lobby of a restaurant, especially a fancy restaurant, which was like a normal restaurant except there was to be no touching anything or even any eating of the mints. They had nice mints, too. Nice, inedible, always-out-of-reach mints, taunting Penny.

Fortunately it appeared Ms. Whittaker had no plans to get out of the car either. She put her head against the headrest and looked up at the tan ceiling of the car. "You know we're not going to talk about your job, right?"

"I know," Penny said.

"We're not going to talk about Gramma, either. If anyone asks how she's doing, she's doing fine. You don't let anyone pressure you into saying anything."

"She is fine," Penny said, defensively.

"You're going to ask them about themselves."

"I know."

"You'll be respectful to Alric when he comes on over FaceTime."

"I know."

"You'll behave," Ms. Whittaker exaggerated this one. "In the restaurant."

"I'm not going to do anything stupid," Penny said.

"The ketchup incident says otherwise," Ms. Whittaker warned.

Penny rolled her eyes. The two of them finally popped out of the car. There was a stretch limo rolling around front, which meant Dolly was there, and sure enough, she stepped out with her girlfriend, Melody, both of them squinting into the overhead lights of the restaurant. Dolly was wearing a black dress that complimented her hair, and her deep brown skin was occasionally accented by silver jewelry, like how stars lit up a night sky. She rolled her sunglasses off of her eyes, revealing deep brown eyes that glimmered with starlight, and called, "Pendragon! Get over here!"

Penny looked to her mom, begging for her to let her go, and her mom gave her a quick nod. Penny ran clear across the parking lot, to where Dolly and Melody were. The former gave her a tight hug, and the latter just snapped her fingers. Melody, in contrast to Dolly, was wearing a dress suit. At least Penny thought it was a dress suit. It might just have been a suit. It clashed with her piercings, of which Melody had six at least, which were deep black, but classy deep black. "Your jewelry goes well with your eye bags," Penny said to Melody.

Melody smirked. She gave Penny a knuckle sandwich. "This is why you're my favorite muse, Peas."

Penny had almost choked to death on a whole plate of vegetables at their first dinner as a Muse family. Melody would never let it go. Penny wore the nickname as a badge of honor.

"Wow," Dolly said. "You could at least have waited for me to go--"

"Offstage?" Feste appeared from behind the group. They were still wearing their half-mask, which fit well with their outfit, which made them look like they should have been in someone's high fantasy book. Since they weren't in someone's book, they were in a restaurant, they might have been excessive on the frills. Very excessive. Penny thought Feste might be eaten by their outfit before the night let out. They were tall enough that their head was visible over Dolly and Melody's when they hugged them both, squeezing them against them and each other.

Dolly pushed them off. "Thanks, Feste, I was going to say 'into the restaurant', but all the world's a stage, all the people are actors, et cetera."

"Dolly, dear, the two of us are two sides of the same coin--" Feste began.

"No, see, the thing is, we really aren't--" interceded Dolly.

"You should at least appreciate the classics," Feste finished. "We're your forebears. Speaking of forebears, where are your parents?"

"Dad's on tour," Melody said. "Dolly's parents are coming later."

"They've got a contract to work on," Dolly said. "Later means not at all."

"Hey, at least you're working on something," Melody said. "I've got an EP and two studio albums I'm inspiring, and they were furious when I said I was going to grab dinner."

"You two and your modern production schedules," Feste laughed.

"Oh, please. This is coming from the person who literally complains about tight turn arounds for Broadway productions every time we talk," Dolly complained.

"I can feel their stress! I'm in their heads. Surely, you can sympathize," Feste said, miming 'coin' very slowly.

Ms. Whittaker strode across the parking lot, finished with her birdwatching. She opened the doors for the group and walked through. "Are you kids hungry?"

Penny smiled. Only her mom could call three muses in the prime of their career 'kids' and get not a slap in the face but a muttered "Yes ma'am". The four of them found their way to a table in the back. They were still fifteen minutes early, but people tended to get out of the way when they entered a building.

"Gods among mortals," Wolfe had said once, and he had been sarcastic, but he hadn't been wrong, either, which still pissed Penny off.

The four of them situated and Ms. Whittaker walked off, hands folded. It was unclear where she was going, even though the privacy was nice. Penny was tempted to join her, given that the older kids were already talking to each other about who knows what, even, but there was already bread on the table, and for some reason when you got older you stopped taking table bread. Penny shoveled table bread in her mouth.

"Slow down," Dolly warned. "You're being indecent."

Penny bit down on her bread. "Shoulfda butteref it," she admited. "Youf were righf. Comflefely indefenf."

Dolly moved her hand to her face and sighed. Melody grabbed table bread and broke it open, buttering it, salting it, peppering it, and then pouring a solid packet of Splenda right down the middle. She scooted the candle on the table towards her and Dolly slapped her hand. "Alright. I'll tolerate bad table manners from Penny, who grew up in the walls of her house, but you don't get to toast your sugared bread on a candle in public. You're an adult."

"I'm sixteen," Melody said. "We're only adults because they want us to speak their language. It scares them when we admit that we're young, or fallible, or when we act like children, because we're better on them, and civility is a restraint. So is being obsequious to them. If I want sugar on my bread, I will sugar my bread, Dolly. I'm an artist. We do whatever the heck we want, and the rest of the world gets the pleasure of watching."

"First of all, you're wrong, second, you changed your argument halfway through, but whatever, I guess," Dolly said. She still had her hand on Melody's dominant hand, but Melody was smirking as if she couldn't have minded less. She threaded her fingers through Dolly's, and both of them ended up smiling again.

Penny shuffled her feet under the table. "So it's just us here tonight? No one's parents are coming?"

"This is about us anyways. Arguably they shouldn't even be there to heckle us," Feste said. "Then again, we're all modern teenagers. We could have just communicated over text, and it strikes me as old-fashioned that we're doing this to begin with. Not that I don't enjoy seeing you all in person, but you two, especially, are unreasonably busy. We should have just met up at someone's house and slept for two hours. It would have generated considerably more goodwill."

"Can you imagine the tabloids? The Next Generation of muses-- Sleeping Together? Magical aristic--" Melody cut herself off before Dolly could. "Yeah, maybe not at the kid's table."

At this point, the waitress came around and took orders. No one had looked at the menu yet, but all three of them whipped it open and ordered within seconds. Penny squinted at the menu and ordered caviar.

"Do you know what caviar is?" asked Melody.

"Yes, it's fish eggs," Penny said. "I'm the writing muse. I've read five dictionaries."

"Have you read the Urban Dictionary?" asked Melody, with a smirk. "That's my favorite dictionary. I fully recommend you read it."

"No," Penny said. "Can I buy it?"

"Do they have a physical edition of the Urban Dictionary...?" Melody asked Dolly.

"It doesn't matter. Penny, you're not reading the Urban Dictionary. Don't listen to Melody. She's being deliberately stupid," Dolly said.

"As opposed to accidentally stupid, which I can also pull off, if I'm sleep deprived enough," Melody shot back. "But usually I'm fully conscious, but unable to fight back against the stupid. It's a long war I fight, and often I lose, Penelope. You'll understand when you're older. It's a puberty thing."

"Are we personifying stupidity as some sort of eldritch abomination?" asked Penny. "I can get behind that. Some people fight their inner demons-- vice, greed, the urge to hit your cousin with your grandmother's manuscripts until the irony knocks him dead-- but some other people fight their inner stupidity, and like the abyss, it stares back. This is their story."

Feste clapped. "She's only twelve, folks."

More table bread arrived, to assist its fallen countrymen. Penny figured this was like water at restaurants, where you're allowed to have as much water as you want, but if you actually have as much water as you want everyone gets upset. As a way of fighting back against societal convention, which Melody would have approved of, Penny took extra bread.

This was around the time that Alric called. Melody got the call first, as evidenced by her shuffling her phone out of her back, and she pretended to fumble the phone. "Whoops. Hey, Dolly, can you..."

Dolly rolled her eyes as Alric's caller ID immediately came up on her phone. She accepted the FaceTime and set up his face at an empty seat, and Melody helpfully propped him up with the bread bowl. "I apologize I'm not able to be with you all tonight," Alric said, his voice harshly staticky from the poor reception in the restaurant. His picture was equally pixelated, which meant that it was hard to make out his whole face, although his obnoxiously spiked blonde hair and missing chunk of eyebrow still shone through, which was enough to give the general impression if his stuffy suit wasn't. Still, the lack of connection was irritating. Apparently no one had thought to put Wi-Fi in the fancy restaurant.

Maybe people actually have to look at each other's faces here, Penny thought.

The waiter came around, ignoring the phone, and put the meals out in front of each of the young muses. Penny's face scrunched up as her caviar arrived. She had known what the word meant, but she had failed to mention to her fellow muses that she'd never actually tasted caviar. There was a first time for everything, she supposed, as she gently lifted the spoon full of fish eggs.

"So you're at a restaurant," Alric noted, as if this were a legitimate conversation starter.

"Yeah, you'd think that adults thought that eating was the only thing you could socialize over," Penny said. "Personally, I can think of ten cooler places to meet, and I want to personally vouch for laser tag, bowling, or both simultaneously."

"I love you, Peas," Melody said.

Penny beamed back.

"That would be my jurisdiction," Alric said, snidely.
"I'm not your jurisdiction," Penny yelled, loud enough for the other table to take note. Ms. Whittaker made the infamous 'calm down' gesture, indicated by her lowering her hands and staring into Penny's soul.

"Damn right, she's not your jurisdiction. Stop being a creep, Alric," Melody said to the phone.

Alric looked distressed, although it was hard to make out when his face had a resolution of thirty-five pixels, maximum. "I didn't mean to imply anything of the sort. Penny, I apologize, um-- I should probably go. My client will be waiting on my second round of inspiration, now that I'm fully rested, and the sooner I finish this, the sooner I get to go home."

He abruptly turned off the screen on his side. Penny leered after it after it went dark, and with a sucking breath, Dolly drew the phone away.

"Sorry," Dolly said. "He's not exactly a charmer."

"No shit," Feste said.

Penny took another sickening bite of caviar, although the facial expression she pulled had just as much to do with her situation at present. "It's not your fault. It is what it is, and if that's what my family needs me to do, I'm going to do it. I mean, it's just another one of... I like hanging out with you guys, but this is also just... just an obligation," Penny tried to explain. "You know."

"We know," Feste said. "I have work to be doing. You wouldn't understand how lonely it gets not to be around your actors halfway through a production." Feste shuddered slightly.

"We all have work," Melody agreed. "I think it's more frustrating that we can't help each other. We're just training to fill our parent's roles, so we can keep doing what they do, indefinitely, even though we're all completely aware--"

Penny narrowed her eyes.

"Ow! Okay, fine, not table conversation, again. Dolly, geez. What do you think I'm going to say?" Melody snapped.

Feste crossed his utensils on the plate. "And it's seven exactly. My parents will be outside now, and that would be my hour. It's been nice to talk to you all, even if it was entirely out of obligation. Wishing you the best, and exit." They bowed out, and Melody stifled a snort.

Dolly was halfway through her salad, and she proceeded to continue her meal, hardly looking up at their departure.

"I think their parents might have hated them a little. Who names their kid Feste?" mused Melody.

"Stop that," Dolly said.

"You're my girlfriend, not my mom. Hey. Peas. I have to go to the bathroom," Melody said.

"Oh, me too," Penny said.

Dolly sighed. "You know, if you're going to do something fun, you don't have to leave me out of it."

"We were just going to raid the candy bowl up front. It's easier with a smaller party. I lull the guy at the front into a fugue with my powers, meanwhile, Penny grabs all the candy and dashes for it. They won't come after us, since it's not illegal, it's just bad manners. Penny won't be in the tabloids or anything. They don't even know she's a muse. Rumor is she's someone's younger sibling. No one ever heard about Percival's..."

Dolly shot Melody another look.

"You can talk about my dad," Penny said. "It's not like I don't know that he exists."
Melody nodded, getting to her feet. "Yeah, Dolly, lighten up a little." She drew Dolly's face up with a few fingers, then leaned in for a quick kiss. Dolly's face burned brightly, and she grabbed her back. Penny watched. Somewhere in the future, a hundred such embraces were waiting for her, but her stomach twisted as she realized that she might never be able to pull off anything with such raw, natural affection behind it.

"Let's just go," Penny said.

Melody strode right up, humming to herself, and sure enough, the man at the front began to relax. The muse of music wreathed a quick song around him, and as his shoulders slackened, Penny grabbed as much candy as she could, and the three of them dashed towards the bathrooms, where they lay with their kill, popping lemon candies in their mouth in front of the women's room. Dolly couldn't quite master the 'up to no good' wall lean, but Penny thought she had it. The lemon candy in her mouth helped, sweet as freedom and just as short-lasting.

Melody popped open her phone. There were eight missed calls. "Lover boy wants you," she said, her voice a teasing coo.

Penny's face tensed up as if she'd had a much sourer candy. "Ew. Don't call him that, ever."

"I've got this," Melody assured Penny, sliding her phone open. "Just be ready to tell him exactly what you mean, okay?" Melody was humming something. Penny could feel it invigorating her, and the two of them grabbed the phone together. Penny rocked up onto her tiptoes so that she was tall enough to get in the picture with Melody.

Alric picked up right away.

"Hey Alric," yelled Melody into the phone. "You wanted us to call you back?"

"Thank you for acquiescing to my request," Alric said. "I understand it's difficult to accommodate everyone's schedules, the least of which is my own, but--"

"Everyone's schedule is tough! Sorry you couldn't make time for us. Oh wait! Not sorry. Guess you're going to have to get back to your jurisdiction later, aren't you, buddy? Are you his property, Penny?"

"I'm my own person, you prick! Tell your mother to stop trying to buy me off!" yelled Penny, and then she shut the phone off.

Melody laughed. Dolly managed a little chuckle herself.

"I want to see you use your powers someday. I think you're going to be something really special when you grow up," Melody said.

"I have," Penny said, still juiced up on the thrill of the moment.

Melody stopped smiling. "Wait, what?"

Penny corrected herself, "I mean, I've done training. With Gwen." Her heart was beating viciously. Could Melody tell? Could Dolly?

"Not the same. You'll understand when you had a project." Dolly promised.

"I guess so," Penny said. She leaned back into the wall and looked up to the ceiling, letting the fluorescent light burn her eyes. The beating of her heart refused to abate.

Her mother stormed around the corner and grabbed her arm. "We'll be going now, Penny. You two," Ms. Whittaker faked her best smile, and Penny could see it twitching around the edges, but it held strong, "have a nice night. We'll see you next month."

The walk back to the car was short, but Penny had had her mother's talons in her arms for an eternity. Like Prometheus, she thought. She had brought fire to the mortals, and by fire to the mortals, she meant 'some sick roasts to Alric', but now the eagles had set upon her, and she feared for her liver. Ms. Whittaker released her as they both entered the car, and she leaned against the horn, which proceeded to blare with maternal anger.

"Are you okay?"

"Ms. Acedia has been trying to call me for the last five minutes."
"Oh," Penny said. "He's very sensitive. He might want to work on that."

"You could have just talked about the book," Ms. Whittaker said. Penny was about to come back with a snide remark, but the statement was followed by the kind of all encompassing sigh that could only mean that Penny's mom was well and truly defeated already.

Penny asked, "You don't actually want me to be betrothed to him either, do you?"

"There are some things in this world that aren't about what we do or don't want, Penny. It's about what we need."

Penny leaned against the windowpane. "You mean what the family needs."

Ms. Whittaker put the ignition in the car. "Most of its for you, Penny. The Acedias have been a pillar of financial and legal support for us ever since your father's disappearance, and though their terms were extenuating, they were our best option at the time. They twisted our arm."
"I know," Penny said. "I'm going to do it, because I have to do it. I just don't have to be happy about it. Start the car."

Ms. Whittaker started the car, and the pair of them were moving back through the darkness at the speed of night, the car launching over and under the hills, its golden eyes leering out and razing everything with its beams of light.

"Mom? You loved Dad, right? That wasn't a betrothal or anything?" asked Penny.

"Most people in this day and age don't get betrothed, Penny," Ms. Whittaker said. "And your father would never have stood for something like that. He was twice as free a spirit as you were."

The windowpane was cold. "But you loved him?"

"Of course," Ms. Whittaker said. "But I love you more, and with what he did to you by leaving, Penny, that makes it difficult."

But he didn't, Penny thought to herself as the car pulled up.

He was waiting in the library, and his daughter was coming for him.