Izai watched the MegaFolk dance underneath the purple and blue strobe lights. Their motions, smooth and gentle, like a breeze gently swaying a plant. He leaned against a cold railing on a second floor. Remi had insisted that they meet at a nightclub.

He noticed a Rosea girl smiling at him. He leaned into Olav, “Megas are quite friendlier here than the other place huh.”

Olav leaned in and tried to speak but all Izai could concentrate on was his ashy breath.

They left the club and stood in the parking lot, where the purple and blue lights blurred and hazed into each other. Gale-Carts hovered around, whisking away MegaFolk who had to twist and contort their limbs to fit into vehicles made for Folk.

The sweet liquor had gone to his head and churned his stomach. His mouth filled with saliva as his stomach grumbled. After waiting bent over for a few minutes he decided nothing was going to happen.

They now sat leaning against the building wall. Across the street stood a Rosea woman, towering at about 7 foot 10. Her long pink legs glistened under the streetlights. Her eyes seemed to reach out for Izai, and her hair gently blew in the wind as if a masterful GaleStone were lightly Pushing Air in her direction.

Izai sat up and focused for a moment, swirling around the Essence in his mind. The Pull Essence. The Essence responsible for the Art of the Mind. He gently pacified himself. As he eased his body’s tension, the MegaFolk woman’s charms began to fade. Her pink skin dulled, and her eyes were bloodshot and tired.

“She try to pacify you too?” Olav smiled, gently swaying his head to the muffled music. “She probably knows we’re getting a payday.” His smile widened.

“Walk me through that again,” replied Izai who still couldn’t wrap his mind around the events that had occurred with Tai and the Akila.

“When you jumped off after the Folkling, I jumped after you,” Olav began.

“You jumped after me?” Izai raised an eyebrow.

“I took a heroic jog down the fire escape,” he corrected himself taking a swig out of a liquor bottle. “Just as I got there that girl grabbed you and threw you across the alley. So, I decided to jump on the man instead and try to hold him in…”

Olav had a habit of mumbling and barely opening his mouth when he spoke, so Izai had to concentrate hard to understand him. From what he heard, while he and the girl were fighting, Olav tried to keep Tai pinned downed under the Frost-Sap blanket. However, he eventually wriggled himself free.

“That’s when he stood,” Olav took a swig out of the liquor bottle followed by a puff of his cigarette, “and looked back impressed saying you were a decent fighter. Then he asked, ‘is he a PeakBorn’ and I was like no you’re a PureBorn.”

That’s when Tai Gale Pushed the Frost-Sap blanket between Izai’s chest and the girl’s talons. Every time he touched his chest, he felt a faint tingle, a lingering memory of the numbing cold that had overtaken him that night.

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“He says that might have saved you from going into Cell-Lock,” said Olav.

“What happened after?”

“You passed out. We took you inside. It was one of those underground KY places. They did some healing bullshit on you. Afterwards the Folkling gave me the money he owes Remi.”

“It was that easy huh?”

“Not really. I had to take a drunk you whacked out of your mind home,” grumbled Olav.

“And the money?”

“After I took you home, I went over to the Caverna Hideout to see Remi, and then I was told to come over here.”

A black Gale-Cart hovered by, twice the length of a regular one. It was a deep, dark shade of black, a hue Izai had only seen on Frost-Sap material. The heavily tinted window rolled down to reveal a smiling Remi, who signalled for them to get in.

Inside, Remi’s lengthy legs stretched the length of the rear seat compartment. He asked where they lived and instructed the driver to head there. It was the smoothest ride that Izai had ever experienced. Olav handed an envelope full of money to Remi.

Remi opened the envelope and sniffed the money. “Smells like it’s all there.”

“I counted. It’s all there,” Olav slurred.

Remi counted the money again, split it in half, and handed it to the Folk boys. Izai felt overwhelmed with gratitude. Remi stuck out his large hand, a ring on his pinkie finger shining with an odd, mesmerizing gleam. They both kissed the pinkie ring.

“You’ll pay it back to me in due time,” said Remi.

They were now crossing the Loi de Shui Bridge and entering the South. The bright lights of the Northern Polassa skyscrapers gave way to the more modest, older buildings of the South.

“Starting next month, I need you to report to Netai Stadium. You’ll be working security there. You’ll get a chance to be around other Talentborn too in the meanwhile. Then if I need you for a specific task, I’ll call you. Understood?”

Izai nodded. By now, Olav had bowed his head, sleeping.

“I’ll pass the message on to him,” Izai replied.

Izai snuck a drunk Olav into his apartment. Old takeout boxes, empty beer bottles, and half-drunk water bottles were scattered around, raising an unpleasant smell. The room was dark, save for the light that periodically glowed from the television, illuminating Olav’s father, who slept in his boxers on the couch. The only sounds were the faint hum of the television being drowned out by Olav’s father’s snoring.

First, he put the envelope of money underneath the mattress as Olav always did. Then he left Olav to rest and quietly exited the apartment. Upon returning home, he found the front of his apartment building filled Folk making too much noise for that time of night. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, they blocked his way, still blasting their music.

Among the dozen or so Folk, he recognized one as a PrimeBorn like Olav, but with Pushing instead of Pulling. That kid alone wouldn’t be a problem. Even two of them, Izai thought he could handle. However, there was Li. In his late 20s, Li was a PrimeBorn Pulser who had already reached the Divine Phase, while Izai was still in the Mythic Phase. Any fight with would leave Izai in Cell-Lock after a punch or two.

After pretending not to hear or recognize him for a minute or so, they finally let him through. As he entered the door, he heard Li’s voice from behind, “Not all KinFolk is Kin. You know that, right?”

He unlocked the door to his apartment on the second floor. It was just as he had left it. The rug was carefully placed in the centre under a coffee table, and the small television sat directly across from the lone couch. He entered his room. His tiny room, which was about his wingspan in width and the length of the entire bed.

He dragged out a safe from underneath the bed. After entering the combination, he heard the heavy clink of the safe opening. He moved aside some legal papers of his, followed by some that belonged to his parents. Then he came across the one photograph he kept in the safe. He put the money in the safe and stared at the photograph. It was of his father and mother, both still young, taken somewhere in Kinayi on a Hanu ancestral trip. He remembered how his mother always told him she’d take him on a trip when he turned 18.