Master Adara arrived in Thuma four days after leaving Mammatus. She speculates Luscin is at least two days from arriving. That’s being generous, anyone else would take at least 10 days to learn to fly on their own. Terius is self-taught and he worked on it for months, but he didn’t have a self-imposed deadline like Luscin put on herself.
Having never been to the Finger Lakes region Vania finds it quaint and gloomy. The overall mood of the city is dark. Nobody smiles, eyes are all downcast, there is a reluctance to engage in any contact. Vania is used to people being intimidated by her appearance as a Defender, this is worse, she feels invisible, because nobody is looking at anyone.
Besides the unfriendly nature of the place, it’s busy. Thuma and the neighboring towns and cities have thriving fishing economies. The fish pulled out of the Finger Lakes supply food, feed, and fertilizers to thousands of settlements in the Missacon region to the north.
Vania wanders the streets until she crosses the invisible line where the wind shifts, and the smell of fish hits her. Having found Downwind she decides she should look for somewhere more to her tastes. She’d previously decided to establish a base of operations at the Thuma Study from the high praise given by Luscin on occasion. She’s picked up the mood of Thuma, it’s time to begin her work and find Thuma Study.
The creation of academic projects such as building a study fall into one of two categories, they are either vanity projects and will be found near the affluent side of town or they grow naturally on the cheapest land available and become enveloped by a slum. Vania has no idea which category Thuma Study fell under.
The street corner she found herself on was rundown, an out of business grocery store, called Sir Jenkin’s Mart stood empty with broken boarded-over windows. Vania decides this city would put Thuma Study as far from Downwind as possible. She turns with the wind in her face and walks up the street.
The foot traffic thins out, replaced by draft inu pulled carts as the buildings get taller. This area is a mix of businesses and townhomes. Tiny yards with small trees are more prevalent here than back by the lake shore. Vanaia is about to give up and ask for directions when she’s approached by a child of no more than six years old. He’s dressed in rough jeans that are a little big on him. His light blue T-shirt fits better but has old stains that will never come out. He’s otherwise clean and healthy looking, not a street kid, he must live nearby.
“Excuse me miss, are you lost,” shyly asks the little boy?
Master Adara takes a moment to make sure she doesn’t use her normal slow drawl when answering. Replying in her clearest teaching voice, complete with correct diction and proper pronunciation. “Thank you for asking. I am not lost, but I do suffer a problem that good directions can remedy. Can you tell me where I can find Thuma Study?”
The boy beams, eyes as big as his smile at receiving exactly the type of response he was told to get. Reaching to take hold of her right hand, “I can show you, come with me.”
The boy grabs her hand without waiting for a response and starts to pull her towards an alley running between two townhomes. Vania isn’t naïve, she was suspicious when approached by a child, in a city where people walk with downcast eyes. When he grabbed her hand, she was sure she just walked into some street scam, possibly a mugging. Now she’s smiling too.
“Is this way faster than using the street,” Master Adara asks?
“Yup, much faster. I’ll get you to Thuma Study so fast this way.”
Slowing her pace and holding the boy’s hand tightly so as to slow him too, “My name is Master Vania Adara, I’m visiting Thuma, all the way from Mammatus Study. What is your name, young man?”
“Oh, you’re a teacher. Will you be teaching in Thuma?”
“Perhaps.” Slowing her pace further, “You did not answer my question. What is your name?”
“I’m Alfie,” answers the boy uncertainly.
Vania knows he just lied, his skin temperature in his face is increasing and he’s no longer holding her hand, she’s holding his.
“So, Alfie is it much further?”
“No, one more alley, straight ahead and you’ll be there.”
“That’s excellent. I think I can do that on my own. Would you like to continue as my escort, or do you need to be somewhere else?”
“Um, I need to take you there,” the boy calling himself Alfi knows this is not going right but doesn’t know how to fix it. He refixes his grip on her hand as if to take back control and starts walking faster.
Vania is scanning ahead and can tell there are four youngsters waiting on the other side of the next alley. She confidently follows her little guide to her first mugging in Thuma.
The two reach the end of the alley and walk into a deserted street. The homes on either side all face the other way. The road is no more than a wagon path with grass growing down the center. Four youths, three boys and one girl, each equipped with batons, stand in a semi-circle.
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The girl speaks, “Sammy, where’s the mark?” as the six-year-old boy emerges alone from the alley.
Confused he looks to the woman whose hand he is holding and doesn’t see her. Now he isn’t even holding her hand.
“I don’t understand, I was just holding her hand.”
“You’re not going soft on us, are you Sammy? Are you afraid to see a girl get hurt?”
From behind the group, Vania appears and in her old voice responds, “Oh darling, he’s going to see a girl get hurt today, but not the one you want.”
The four would be attackers spin around and reform in a semi-circle.
The girl speaks again, “Hand over your valuables and we won’t hurt you.”
Smiling crookedly, Vania replies, “no.” She hadn’t decided how she was going to play this until she viewed and assessed her assailants. They seem mostly harmless; their opening move was a show of force and threat of violence. Had they come at her swinging right away, they’d be face down in the dirt writhing in pain with multiple broken bones. Since they don’t seem all that bad, she’ll just scare them off.
“You dare to threaten me” She shouts! Throwing her arms up because she thinks it will be more dramatic. Master Adara wraps herself in an illusion similar to the way she made herself invisible a moment ago.
She begins to grow taller and her face changes, her eyes bulge from their sockets, her previously perfect nose is now bulbous and red. Her mouth stretches from ear to ear and gaps open exposing double rows of needle-sharp teeth. Her hair is gone, replaced by curled horns protruding from the sides of her head.
There was a dozen more elements she could add to the illusion but didn’t bother to complete. The four would-be thugs ran off before she grew her horns. She discontinued the display and was about to resume looking for the study when she noticed her guide stood rooted in the spot, she had left him.
He didn’t look like he was doing well. His face was drained of all color. Urine was still trickling down his legs. His body temperature was down a few degrees. He was in shock.
She wanted to scare them, not scare them to death. She reverts back to her teaching voice, “So your name is Sammy.”
She knows he’s in no condition to respond and her continued presence might make things worse until she can snap him out of his terror.
He’s average height for a six-year-old boy putting him around 48-inches tall. Vania is also average sized for a grown woman at 54-inches. She ducks her head a little to put their eyes at the same level.
“Sammy, you need to lay down.”
He doesn’t respond. Master Adara puts a hand on the boy’s lower back and pushes on his chest until he falls over. She guides him down and protects his head. She constructs a small machine of kinetic energy under his legs that lifts them five inches off the ground and holds them there. She next creates a thermal machine that pulls heat from the road and moves it over Sammy’s shivering body.
Legs elevated and warm air blowing across his body brings his metabolic state under control. His body temperature is self-regulating again and the increased blood flow to his head is beginning to improve his mental state.
Kneeling at his side, “Sammy, would you like to talk to me about your friends?”
Sammy, startled by her voice, only shook his head.
“I didn’t want to hurt any of you, I meant you all to runaway scared and maybe reconsider your career choices.”
Sammy now has tears in his eyes and begins to look angry. Quietly he asks, “What are you waiting for? Just do it already.”
Vania doesn’t know where this is going, simply responds, “What is it you’d like me to do?”
That wasn’t what Sammy expected to hear her say. Feeling like he has nothing to lose he decides to be defiant to the end. “I want you to die! I want you dead! Dead. Dead. Dead!”
She’s a little shocked by this outpouring of hate. Master Vania Adara decides to use a skill she does not like using, it’s deceptive and highly manipulative of everyone who observes her indiscriminately. She creates an affect mask. She draws out the part of herself that is nice, kind, and welcoming. She then binds it on top of herself. Now when anyone sees her, they will see those things first and only those things unless they look deeper into her nature.
Hoping that this change will calm the child, “Sammy. Look at me. Who do you think I am?”
His facial expression flashes from angry to confused and settles on uncomfortable. “You’re her! The hag. You are the hag, aren’t you? You are going to eat me.”
“Oh, I see. My little trick back there reminded you of her.” Vania takes a deep breath before deciding what to say next. “Sammy, can you keep a secret?”
He only nods.
“I’m here to kill the hag. I just arrived and I did not know her presence was so well known. I would have asked the first person I met for her address if I did.”
Sammy is beginning to warm up to this teacher lady. His memory isn’t too clear on what happened. He was leading her to a get jumped. Then the hag appeared, and the teacher lady was helping him. Did she save him from the hag? His mind is all confused now. He sits up and feels dizzy for a moment.
“Take your time Sammy. Go slow.”
He stands up, “We need to get out of here before she returns.”
“Didn’t you hear me, I’m here to kill her. I wish she would show up. I could be home in a week and back to teaching.”
“Nobody can kill her. We tried once and now she’s mad at us.”
“When you tried to kill her, was that when Luscin fought her? Did you know Luscin?
“Yeah, she fought her and left her for dead. But she wasn’t, or maybe the man healed her up.”
“Sammy, do you really know the way to Thuma Study?”
“Of course I do, I go there three days a week.”
“Why don’t you take me there and tell me everything you can about the hag and this man. That way when Luscin arrives the two of us can take care of the both of them together.”
“Luscin is coming back!”
“Yes, and I’m going to need you and your friends to help me. I need to talk to her before she goes off hag hunting on her own again.”
“Her mom is going to be so excited!”
No longer surprised at the pile up of coincidences, “You know Luscin’s mother?”
“Do I know her? She’s the boss; she’s been running our crews ever since Luscin got rid of Alfie and Felix.”
In typical six-year-old fashion, Sammy forgets his earlier terrifying encounter and ignores the dried urine staining his jeans as he tells Master Adara everything he knows about the hag and the man, as he leads her to Thuma Study.