The next morning, Loren was in the middle of packing his lunch—he would be at the worksite today—when his phone started blaring its emergency alert tone. Sighing, he picked it up, even though the alerts almost never applied to him. Still, if a keres had managed to manifest and was being fought by the vigilants, he needed to know where so he knew how much traffic to expect. Hopefully it just meant he had to skip his bath and get going now.

The toy pinball machine was clicking away on the table, the metal bearing bouncing around as the flippers on the toy flapped to keep it in play, the smell of old-fashioned and possibly expired perfume filling the air. In the ghostlight of his Flame, Sara was hovering in the air like she was lying down on the ground, her feet kicking idly as she played. Fortunately for his sanity, Sara hadn't been inclined to play pinball all night, though she seemed to like it well enough, as it would click and clack sometimes when he was home. They'd done their morning handholding, and they'd even had an impromptu bout of thumb wrestling, which had ended inconclusively since neither of them had been able to hold the other down. Still, it had been fun change of pace from Sara basically fondling his forearm and the two of them doing weird handshakes.

Looking at the alert on the phone, Loren frowned as he realized it might actually be relevant to him this time. The alert warned that a Plague Keres had manifested several blocks away, although it was currently being contained by vigilants. It was far enough away that they weren't evacuating his building, but—

He let out a groan as he recognized the location where the keres was. It was on the intersection of the main road along which he commuted to work. Worse, it was near the street that Harmon's Aunt and Uncle lived along, although it was several blocks away. Well, fuck.

Sighing, food momentarily forgotten, he brought up his phone's browser to find out more about the fight in question, how he was supposed to get to work and—more importantly—whether Harmony had done anything stupid. The streets of Selurong were already a tangled mess of two-lane streets that had cars perpetually parked along them, and a grid system that cheerfully curved at the slightest provocation… and that was on a good day. Every time there was some kind of keres incident, the city became gridlocked for hours as areas were blocked off because of the fighting, and then for half the week afterwards as road repairs were being done.

"Sara, can you turn the radio to the news?" he said. "There's a keres out nearby, and I need to know how bad the traffic is. Please?"

Sara looked up, and the flippers stopped moving, the ball bearing falling to the bottom. Orienting herself into something more upright—and not seeming to notice how her body just stretched from one position to the other instead of actually taking the time to rotate—Sara moved over to the radio. There was a click as she turned the dial that made radio come on, the speakers crackling as she moved the tuning dial to find a news station.

"Thanks, Sara!"

She gave him a smile and a thumbs up, curling up in the air near the radio to listen to it. He'd noticed that she tended to do that, rarely going back to things she'd been previously doing if he interrupted her with a request. He supposed it was because nothing she did was really urgent. Really, she didn't even need to do what he asked. If she were alive, she'd be living the best lazy life.

He reminded himself not to envy her. She couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, couldn't smell, couldn't feel, couldn't taste, and without him would develop cabin fever and a host of isolation-based psychological stress maladies. Being able to do nothing was not a good trade.

Although he had to admit, her current resemblance to a cat sometimes made him want to see what would happen if he patted her on the head— no, bad idea! She was a person, not a cat! A dead person, but still a person!

"—ording to sources, vigilants are already fighting the keres. The vigilant team has been identified as Falling Sky—"

"Fuck!" Loren swore under his breath as he recognized that name, though not under enough as Sara glanced up and look towards him curiously. "Sorry, sorry." They were one of the groups of vigilants that Harmony fangirled over and followed. Oh, please don't let her have done something stupid. She wasn't 17 anymore, she was a responsible adult with a job! Surely she wouldn't…!

"—who revealed on Birdsong that they had been investigating an increase in the number of cases among the clinics in Balangay Santiago. They were able to track down the incidents to a local eatery, which at the time was closed due to the late hour, and found that it was next to a nest of Plague keres. Details are sketchy, but it's known that Falling Sky immediately began to organize an evacuation of the area, citing a clear and present danger to local residents."

He let out a breath that was between a sigh and a strangled scream. Oh yes, she would.

"In the middle of their evacuations, representatives of the local government ordered them to halt their operations, ordering the police to arrest them for disturbing the peace and telling people it was safe to return to their homes. Reportedly, this was when the keres physically manifested and began to rampage. At the moment, Falling Sky is keeping the keres contained, and other vigilants and members of the police have been arriving to deal with secondary cascading manifestations and to continue the evacuation—"

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

For a moment, he considered just ignoring all this, packing his lunch and backpack, and just going to work. Harmony was a grown-ass woman, she had… partial military training, and she was a Symbol who knew what she was doing. So what if she probably decided to go towards danger instead of away from it?

…

Goddesses damn it.

The phone in his hand vibrated, playing the short burst of catchy music that he'd assigned for Harmony's messages. Daring to hope, he opened the message.

Hey, Lor! Steve says we have the option of coming in later this afternoon on half-day pay because of the keres, or just taking the day off if the traffic is too bad, since its in our area.

Loren stared at the bland message. No suggesting they meet up so she could show him the best alternate commute route. No mention of whether she was going or not, or declaring they should both take the day off to hang out.

He called her phone.

It had gotten to six rings before Harmony finally picked up, a worrying sign. "Hey, Lor," she said cheerfully.

"Hari, you had better not be going to rubberneck at the keres," he said, putting as much big brother sternness from dealing with Lily in his voice as he could.

"I'm not going to rubberneck, I'm going to see if anyone needs help," she said, not even bothering to deny it. "It's not far, and they might need assistance."

"Which is what the vigilants, emergency responders and police will provide. Drown it, Hari, leave this to people who actually know what they're doing."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Harmony said, and for a moment Loren almost sighed in relief. "But people will still need help once the keres is taken down, and my first aid certification is up to date. Look, I need to get going, Lor." She hung up.

He glared at his phone. A part of him wanted to just throw up his hand and try to get to work. While Harmony said she made thirty thousand rings a month, Loren was a new employee and still on probation, so he made less than that. It was still a generous paycheck for an entry-level position, especially since he was basically an inexperienced construction worker who occasionally happened to do alchemy, but living alone cost money. There was paying for the lease and utilities, his alchemy supplies, the stuff he needed to keep Sara comfortable…

Loren sighed, and went back to putting together his lunch, moving more hurriedly than before. "Sara, I might not come home tonight," he said, and out of the corner of his eye saw the ghost raise her head suddenly, a concerned expression on her face. "It's nothing to worry about, but there's a chance I might be too tired to come home and have to spend the night at Harmony's." Or would be spending time in the hospital, that might happen too. That had not been a fun summer. "I'll try to come home tonight, but I can't promise it."

"…where are you going?"

He paused, looking up to see her clearly. Sara looked distressed, although he wasn't sure why. "I have to make sure Harmony doesn't do something stupid and get herself hurt. Don't worry, I'll be back."

Suddenly she was just there, and his left arm was surrounded by a cool wind as her hands tried to grip his forearm. He pulled up Flame from his soul and let it flow down to his arm, his body temperature rising as he felt the pressure of her fingers on his skin. Sara glanced down at where she was touching him, adjusting her grip to wrap her hands around him properly.

"Sara?" he prompted as he continued trying to pack his lunch one handed. He needed to hurry. "What's wrong?" Rice and stuff packed and sealed, now he just had to move the broth into the watertight container… ugh, that will take two hands.

"…please come back tonight. Please…" Her voice was small, but he heard it clearly as she manifested enough to speak. Her head was bowed, not looking at him, gaze focused on where she held his arm—

Loren sighed. "Fine. I can't promise I'll be able to come back at the usual time, but I'll come back tonight."

Sara sagged slightly, her lips parting as if she were letting out a breath. "…thank you…"

Carefully, he pulled back on his arm. For a moment, Sara maintained her grip, but then she let go, and he was able to finish packing his lunch together. He hurriedly threw them into his pack, followed by four bottles of oil, a pack of beeswax candies, a tin of analgesic balm, a jar of hydrogenated oil, a roll of duct tape, his multi-tool and his pocket knife, and his 'Harmony doing something stupid emergency kit'. The latter had originally been an emergency first aid kit, but over the years had come to include things like paracord, superglue, vials of powdered venecite that he technically shouldn't have because he wasn't a licensed alchemical-pharmacist yet but he'd known a classmate who'd been willing to make him some when he said it was for emergencies…

He was reasonably sure that everything in the kit was legal for him to have, even the venecite… individually. Altogether… it probably looked very suspicious. A Flame mage could turn that much oil and venecite into a powerful explosive, after all. But then, a Flame mage could turn any amount of oil into an explosive.

Quickly getting changed into his street clothes, he grabbed his backpack and ran, hoping to be able to intercept Harmony before she got herself hurt in this vigilant-chasing nonsense. There was a direct path between her aunt's house and where the keres was being fought and contained, so she was probably along that road…

At the elevator, he stopped and turned back around to load Sara's perfume for the day. He arrived in time to find her trying to lift up one of the battles and pour it into the diffuser.

"Sorry, sorry, let me take care of that," he said, hurried taking the bottle of stale perfume. Quickly, he poured the perfume on the bowl of the oil burner and stuck in his finger to imbue the oil with Flame so that when the perfume evaporated Sara would be able to smell it. He replaced the candle under the bowl and lit it, claiming the flame so her could Flamecraft it to be slower burning. "Uh, did I forget anything else?" Dishes, washed. Rice cooker, soaking so he could clean it later. Clothes, piled on his bed…

Sara shook her head, flapping her hands in a 'go, go' gesture.

"Right then. I'll see you tonight," he said. Raising one hand, he gave an awkward wave goodbye and ran out the door again,

Behind him, the door closed and locked as he pulled out his phone and began texting Steve he was taking the day off, already sighing over the loss of a day's—even if at best only half a day's—pay.

Stupid best friend and her stupid ideas to help stupid people even though she wasn't a stupid professional…