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I'm here.

Zalis was standing, the bus coming soon enough that sitting could have made them late for its arrival, but the man sat down without a thought. He had a terrible limp, his hip jutting out with each step, so it was possible that he had to sit. He didn’t have a cane of any kind, but he looked like it was painful to walk without one.

He said nothing and neither did Zalis. When the bus came they both got on it and sat where they could, but Zalis could feel that the man was watching them, anxiety radiating off of them like the waves of puddles coming out from the busses tires, soaking everything around them. They had brought a book, was planning on reading it, but couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched.

They got off of the bus a few stops early. Not a huge amount got off with them but enough did that they couldn’t see if the business man was with them. They didn’t care, they just had to get away from there. They went a few blocks, went into a convenience store, not to buy but to hide, and the feeling of being watched did fade. It wasn’t gone, but it was weak enough now that they wondered if they were just being paranoid.

They continued their walk to the campus, looking around as they left the convenience store to see that there was no red faced businessman nearby. The rain had come to a stop and the sun was starting to peer out from the clouds, making the puddles too bright and the air look crisp and clean. The paranoia faded further.

They had only been to the campus a few times, but their phone still had data on it and they were able to find it easily enough. The feeling was growing though, getting worse the closer they got. Another look around revealed that there were a lot of people around, students mostly, with some teachers meandering about. The business man wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

Instead, there was someone else, in a similar suit, with a similar build, leaning against the wall of the cafeteria, where Zalis was supposed to meet with the blogger. His skin was tan and he had a goatee and long hair, silver streaks in both, kept clean and short. He was handsome, even if Zalis couldn’t see his eyes under the dark sunglasses, also familiar, that he wore. He wasn’t looking at the students. He was looking directly at Zalis and they felt ice and paranoia pump through them.

They kept their head down and hurried inside.

There were a lot of people in the cafeteria, milling about, talking with friends. Zalis had a description of the blogger, but not a face and definitely not a name. They didn’t know how they were going to find them. They wandered through the space, from the first to the second floor, scanning for them. They weren’t early, having lost a bit of time from having to walk the last few busstops but they weren’t terribly late either.

They saw a flash of red and then the blogger was on them, a hand on their elbow, leading them away from the main eating area.

“Did anyone follow you?” the stranger asked, leading them not just from the eatery but to a study room, without windows or any kind of distractions, just a lockable door and a table with two chairs. It looked like an interrogation room.

Zalis nodded, sitting in on of the chairs, keeping their eyes down on the desk. “I’m sorry.”

The blogger shook her head, sitting across from them. “There’s nothing you could have done, I suppose. And this may shake them, if we’re lucky.” She was a tall woman, with rich skin, deep and pourous and textured, dark olive in color. Her lips were full and her eyelashes were curled.

“I’m sorry,” Zalis repeated, a little bit louder this time.

“My name is Sevati,” she shoved out on hand, covered in golden rings, out for Zalis to shake. They took it, feeling a need to apologize again, “I wouldn’t worry about if someone was following you, these rooms are soundproof, mostly. As long as we aren’t screaming no one should be able to overhear us.”

“I couldn’t even tell if they were actually following me or if it were my imagination,” Zalis admitted, “I don’t even know how many people there were.”

“Well, you can stay here as long as you need to,” Sevati offered, “On campus, not in this study room, I mean. So, you lost the Sphrenosphere?”

“It was stolen, remember?” Sevati was joking, they could tell, but they couldn’t calm down enough to match with her. She was trying to take their mind off of what had just happened. They were sure though, that they were still being followed that, wherever those people were, they could hear them.

“Do you have any idea who would want it?” she became more serious, folding her hands and leaning her head on them, ignoring how they crumpled her hijab.

Zalis shook their head. “I was hoping you would know.”

“If it was someone who knew mw, they would have taken the Ormhammer first. It’s still safe though, that I know for sure.”

“You have the hammer?” Zalis looked at her incredulously. She couldn’t have been older than 24, she shouldn’t have had possession of such things. Zalis had never heard of a magi so young, either, so they didn’t know why she would even want it.

“Well, the school has it for now,” she admitted, biting her lip, “I thought that would be safer than me keeping it in my dorm room.”

“What does the hammer do, exactly?”

She leaned back in her chair, her folded hamds becoming crossed arms as she looked Zalis over. “It’s a wand, mostly. It can channel spells and store them. It’s more then that, of course, bonded to a bunch of different magical artifacts, like the Sphrenosphere. This bond allows it to not only store the energy produced by the artifacts, but allows it to control them. Remember how I said the Sphrenosphere is like a battery? The Ormhammer is like a remote control.”

“But batteries can be used in anything, not just remotes,” Zalis pushed, hoping to get as much information as they could. They didn’t want to think that whoever had taken the Sphrenosphere could use it with anything. Thinking that the Ormhammer was the only thing that it could be used for helped squash that fear.

“Okay, it’s a specialized battery, that can only be used by a few different things. The Ormhammer is the closest and most likely contender here.”

“And if they already had a different remote control?”

Sevati shrugged, “We wouldn’t have the question of who took the Sphrenosphere then. We’d probably all be dead already, or fighting off whatever magic they’ve called forth.”

Zalis sighed, putting their face in their hand. “I guess that’s true. I just, I don’t know what to do about this. Whoever took it must be a magi, right?” Sevati nodded. “I don’t know what to do about that. I can’t do magic. I can’t even stop a robber with one eye and a limp.”

“Hey, I’ll keep my ear to the ground, ask around, do what I can. I want to help. I want to get the Sphrenosphere back home, where we know no one is going to try to use it.”

“Why do you care about that?” Zalis tried not to sound rude, “You’re a collector, right? I’d think you’d want it.”

She didn’t seem to find it insulting and gave a dazzling smile instead, “Oh trust me, I would love to add the Sphrenosphere to my collection. I can’t though, not when I’m at school and not if I have the Ormhammer. I want to keep them as far away from each other as I can.”

They spoke for a while after that, about the artifacts, about the magi, about themselves. It was calming, nice, after a while. Zalis needed to calm down. It felt like they talked for hours and by the end of it, they felt like they’d made a friend, an ally at the very least.

Sevati left first, their phone number saved. Zalis waited a little bit longer, just to make sure they weren’t seen together.

Zalis was halfway off of campus before they felt like they were being watched again. This time it was a young guy, not even 20, who seemed to be following them. His hair was long and pulled back in a ponytail and he was trying to grow a mustache but failing miserably. He looked like he was about to bolt.

He was watching Zalis from a cement railing, sitting there in his suit and sungless, the same suit and sunglasses as all the others. He waited until Zalis was just about out of sight before he got up and started to limp after him, looking around him as if he were just as hunted as Zalis was.

They considered running, trying to lose them, but that would be too obvious. They considered sneaking back into a building, trying to lose them that way, it had worked for a while before. They had walked a few blocks, past a few bus stops. They would have to stop eventually, stay at one of the stops until a bus arrived and they didn’t know what they would do if this stalker approached them.

There was a chance it was just a misunderstanding. There was no way that they were all the same person, they all had different faces, but Zalis couldn’t imagine there being a large population of people in the same area with the same limp on the same side. They were probably being insensitive.

There was another stop coming up. They were going to stop. They were going to turn around and find a few students there, ready to get on the bus, to go home. There wouldn’t be that same suit. There wouldn’t be that same limp. Everything was going to be fine. They were just being paranoid.

They didn’t get much further towards the bus when a car pulled up to the curb, just a few feet away from them. A man stepped out, also in a suit with glasses, but his suit was a beautiful cream color with a bright yellow shirt underneath, and the sunglasses were angled to look good with the man’s cheekbones, not just nondescript.

This man also had a cane, a long white one, that he used to find his way onto the curb and towards Zalis. He walked over and Zalis’ desire to run just extrapolated. He smiled though, soft and warm, and leaned over to whisper. “Someone’s following you. Get in the car.”

Zalis froze. They hadn’t been imagining it then. They didn’t know this man though, didn’t know why they should trust him. The man just patted them on the back though and started to walk towards the other stranger, the stalker, who was standing in the shadows back the way Zalis had come. Zalis had hoped that they had been wrong.

The car door was still open, the driver sitting there, watching. Zalis didn’t move.

The man was close enough that when Zalis’ rescuer put a hand on his shoulder, they could see him jump. The man in the cream suit spoke to him and, while most of it was too quiet for Zalis to catch,  they were able to catch “don’t worry. It will be over soon.” No names, no reasons. The stalker calmed down a bit at those words, becoming softer, more human. Zalis had caught on to his anxiety before, but now, it seemed to slough off.

The blind man returned to Zalis, not exactly looking them over but glancing. He must not have been completely blind then. “I thought I told you to get in the car.”

“Who are you?” Zalis grit out. “And what did you just tell that guy?”

The man chuckled at that, the sound warm and coming from his chest. “Oh yes, that does seem a bit suspicious, doesn’t it? My name is Karrigan, I’m a friend of Alcul’s. I’ll give you a ride to the bookstore, if you wish. We can talk on the way there.”          

Zalis finally climbed into the back seat, letting Karrigan sit up front with the driver. Karrigan gave the order and they were off, leaving the stranger behind.

“He was wearing a Goufor, a glamour or magical disguise,” Karrigan explained once the bus stop was far behind them. “It wasn’t even one of his choosing, but one that had been placed on him.”

“I don’t think it was just one,” Zalis added, “I’m pretty sure I saw him a few times, coming and going, just with a different face.”

Karrigan shook his head, “Disgusting. No one should be forced to wear a different face, especially not so many. It can make you forget your own, if you do it too much.”

They sat in silence for a while, Zalis’ mind racign through questions, things they wanted to say. This was Karrigan, the man who made Alcul smile more than Zalis had ever seen him, and now they could ask whatever they wanted without Alcul to tell them ‘no’.

“I’ve narrowed it down to three people.” Karrigan passed back a note, with three names written in beautifully flowing cursive. “One of them should have that orb. I was going to tell Alcul himself, but you can tell him for me.”

“I think he’d prefer to hear it from you.” Zalis admitted, folding the paper and sliding it into their pocket. “How did you find me out here?”

“Honestly? We were just driving to the grocery store. There’s a little co-op near here that has the best baguettes. I’m a little bit addicted, myself. But then I saw a large spike in magical energy and then I saw you, just a little bit ahead of it.”

Zalis squinted. They’d never heard of seeing magic before. They’d just assumed that Karrigan wasn’t completely blind and this meant that he wasn’t, but in a different way than they’d assumed. “What do you mean? You can see magic?”