"You're actually here," Tanner approaches me as he exits the school, drawing a few looks from our classmates.

He's wearing almost the same outfit as he did on Monday, only with an orange t-shirt underneath instead of a blue one. Still just as hot as before, though I hate the color orange.

"I said I would be," I state.

"Yeah," he says. "But you weren't here any day except Monday, not even today."

"I normally skip school," I state. "Monday was out of curiosity as to your reason here, which you declined to answer."

"Yeah," he looks past the overhang, where it's pouring pretty hard, then at me, who is dry as can be. "The rain started an hour ago. Have you been waiting here the entire time?"

"Yes."

"You could have come in late."

"Nah," I say. "Let's go."

Umbrellas won't help today, either, so we just head out into the rain. We probably could have worn ponchos, but who cares?

I lead Tanner into the ruins, and he stays pretty close to me. The rain is even heavier today than it was on Monday and visibility is almost nonexistent. What normally takes an hour to traverse takes us nearly two hours, and by the time we reach the parking garage, Tanner's out of breath.

A Sigil-Bearer might have increased stamina and endurance, but if they're not used to rough terrain, they'll still be worn down by it, especially in heavy rain like this.

"You're not even winded," he says as we both shake a little, throwing water off of us. "Jeez."

"I'm used to this stuff," I state. "Come on, Ali's higher up."

I lead Tanner through the pseudo-maze of the parking garage and its remains until we reach Ali's lair. She has a fire going in the fire ring in the center of it, three chairs seated around it in a triangle, with her sitting on one of them.

There's a cascading waterfall flowing down from the edge of the structure at the opening leading outside. The rain's flowing from the roof down, hitting the slight ledge jutting out here before continuing down until it hits the pond below. Fortunately, the concrete here is actually angled slightly, so Ali doesn't have to worry about the water flowing into her lair and ruining things.

It does create some extra noise, especially with how heavy the rain is today. We'll be able to hear each other just fine, though.

"Welcome," Ali tells us, pouring us some cocoa that she's prepared. "I figured you two would be here shortly and fixed this up for you."

"Thanks," I take the mug and sit to her right, and Tanner accepts it and sits to her left, staring at her cheek. "This is him."

The fire feels nice, and will probably dry us off a little before we leave. We'll end up soaked on the way back, though, since the storm will probably go through the night without letting up at all.

"Nice to meet you, Tanner," she says. "I'm Alison Smol, though I prefer to go by Ali, now."

"Nice to meet you," Tanner tells her, then sips his cocoa.

It's evident by his expression he doesn't like cocoa that's just water and cocoa mix. I use heated milk for my cocoa, which makes it creamier and tastier.

"I don't have any milk," Ali tells him. "Sorry 'bout that, I forgot to request that Nick bring me some, and it seems he didn't think about it, either. I'm sure you'll be drinking some made with it after you leave here."

"Request that Nick bring you some?" Tanner asks.

"I do the shopping for her," I explain. "While she has a garden and hunts the game out here, I still bring her supplies at least once a week."

"Oh," Tanner says, then he looks back to Ali. "So, um, I take it you're going to tell me how you lost your Sigil? How I can get rid of mine?"

"Nick didn't tell me what your ability is," she says. "Just that you want to get rid of it, Tanner. Unfortunately, it's not that simple."

"What do you mean?" Tanner asks.

Ali lifts her chair up into the air with her power, demonstrating her ability to make things float, even while she's sitting on it. His eyes grow wide as he sees this, obviously shocked by the show.

"I might not have my Sigil," she tells him. "But I still have my power. All of it. I might not have my Sigil anymore, but I'm still a Sigil-Bearer in all other ways."

"It's part of why the Klen hasn't managed to find and kill her," I tell Tanner as Ali sets herself back down. "She helps me take them out while using her power, strength, speed, and all that."

Tanner takes a few minutes to process things, then looks between us.

"So," he says. "How long have you two worked together? I'd just assumed you were someone who knew where she was, but you buy her stuff? Everyone said you two had never interacted before she ran away. How close are you?"

"We're decent friends," Ali tells him as I finish off my hot cocoa. "And we actually first started hanging out when we were fourteen."

"That's a full two years before you lost your Sigil," Tanner says in confusion.

"Yeah," Ali says. "We kept it a secret. With all the attention on me for being such a blessed being, I found it hard to have time to myself. So when we were fourteen, I secretly approached Nick on one of the rare days he attended school-"

"You were already skipping that much back then?" Tanner asks.

"Hush and listen to the story," I tell him, and Ali snorts.

"I asked him," Ali tells Tanner. "If there was a way he could help me out. I wanted to hide in the ruins a little, so that I could relax and maybe train without others watching me, judging me. He agreed, as long as I agreed to help him out as well."

"With what?" Tanner asks.

"If you listened instead of interrupting, you'd find out faster," I tell him.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Be nice, Nick," Ali chuckles. "Nick's been training in martial arts and with a gun and knives for awhile. He started with the gun when he was twelve, I guess his boyfriend supplied it to him, I can't think of how else he got it, since he hadn't been dealing with Klen members yet. They started coming after my Sigil disappeared and rumors spread that I was here."

"Boyfriend?" Tanner looks at me.

"Interruptions?" I look at him.

"Sorry," he responds, and we both return our attention to Ali.

"There's only so much he could do by himself," Ali tells Tanner. "He wanted my help with target practice. At the time, I could only make things float, but with his help, I managed to also start to learn to move things around. He helped me sneak out here once every three weeks, and we worked together. After I moved out her permanently, my training went up, and so did my power."

"But it was all in secret," I tell him. "Ali always had to sneak out to meet me, and she could tell if someone was around by whether or not I was at the meeting point."

"Oh," Tanner says, then looks at Ali. "So you're still a Sigil-Bearer, just without a Sigil. How did your Sigil disappear?"

"I was returning home from a training session out here a couple of years ago," Ali tells him. "And when I got home and took a shower, I saw in the mirror that it was gone. I'd longed for the disappearance of my powers, but knew even with it gone that I still had them. Then I started getting a lot of negative attention, so I came out here. Honestly? Nick's the only person who didn't treat me differently. I'm sure you've read or heard some of the things said about me after I lost my Sigil. It was pretty awful, and it's part of why I decided to run away. Nick found me that evening and showed me this place, and I've been here ever since."

"Yeah," Tanner says. "I'd seen some of the things said. I'm prepared to deal with it. Or, well, I was. I guess I won't have to, since losing my Sigil won't get rid of this power."

"You'd also have to deal with the Klen attempting to kill you for being a heretic," I add. "Once they catch word that you lost your Sigil as well."

"It would also probably," Ali says. "Start causing people to worry that Sigil-Bearers will all lose their power."

"I can see that," Tanner says. "Even if it's shown they still have them, there are those who'd doubt. So yours just disappeared? While you were walking home? You didn't, like, pass out or anything? It just vanished without you being aware of it?"

"No," Ali takes a deep breath, then lets it out. "It was removed."

"Removed?" Tanner asks. "Wait, someone removed your Sigil?"

He's probably trying to figure out how she managed to fool his lie-detection ability, since she said that it was gone when she got home. The wording is what mattered. She said that she saw that it was gone. That was how she had the proof it was. She already knew it was gone, as well as how it disappeared.

"Someone with the power to erase things," Ali confirms. "When I found out about this, I asked them if they could erase my Sigil. They warned me of the trouble it would cause me, and I asked them again. They gave me a week to think it over, then when I told them I still wanted it gone, they erased it. In that week, I'd come up with a plan."

"What plan?" Tanner asks.

"Only Nick knows," Ali tells him. "And I don't intend on telling anyone else. However, I will say that that the one who erased my Sigil said he could restore the Sigil at any time, too. It'd still be like a normal Sigil, his power is to erase things and restore things he's erased."

"That sounds powerful," Tanner looks at me.

"You've seen me naked," I hold up my hands. "I don't have a Sigil."

"Yeah, but if you could erase it-"

"I still can't believe you didn't tell him to let you ogle him, since he was ogling you," Ali chuckles.

"That's his price for me arranging this meeting," I state. "When we return to the apartments, he's coming in with me and letting me ogle him."

"I didn't agree to that," Tanner says. "But I am not opposed to it. What about your boyfriend?"

"He doesn't care," I say.

"Right," Tanner frowns, and I can tell he knows I'm serious, which confuses him. "But you're right, you don't have a Sigil. But someone who can erase Sigils-"

"I'm not a Sigil-Bearer," I tell him. "I was never born with a Sigil. That's also a pretty high-level ability. If I'd had it as a child, I'd have been erasing things during tantrums, and everyone would know about that. And a child wouldn't have been able to precisely remove a Sigil, either. The finesse required to do so without affecting anything else would be too great for them."

It's well-known that infants and small children who are Sigil-Bearers tend to use their abilities subconsciously during tantrums. In fact, that's the main way of discovering a Sigil-Bearer's ability.

An ability like the power to erase things and restore them back to existence would have definitely hit the news. A child using it subconsciously during a tantrum would have drawn a lot of attention over the things they erased.

Especially if they lived around other people.

I'm not a Sigil-Bearer, and as I said, I was never born with a Sigil, so Tanner's able to tell my honesty here. His expression of defeat confirms that to me.

"Right," Tanner sighs. "That makes sense. Plus, it sounds like something from someone extremely powerful. I doubt anyone but a Sigil God could do it."

His eyes widen, then he looks at Ali.

"You've met the Sigil God of Destruction?"

That was a quick leap in assumptions, though I can see why he'd think that. To erase something that's so obviously magical without leaving any trace of its remain, and to possess the ability to restore it, is definitely something that would be beyond a normal Sigil-Bearer. Even if he doubted the Sigil God's existence before, it's natural one might start to believe in his existence after hearing of this power.

Especially as only the Sigil Gods were high-tier Sigil-Bearers whose abilities didn't reach the news. They always instinctively knew how to control their abilities, and they never threw any tantrums as children or babies, anyway.

"I assumed the same thing!" Ali laughs. "But no, I didn't."

"But wouldn't-"

"It's an ability that's pretty high-level," I say. "But there is no Sigil God of Destruction."

"I know there's no sign of him, but-"

"No," I say. "There isn't one. He doesn't exist, Tanner. The Sigil Gods can sense the other Sigil Gods. They've confirmed that there is no Sigil God of Destruction."

"They can sense each other?" He asks.

"Yeah," I answer. "They know the others' directions and approximate distances from them at all times. They've been able to sense each other since even before they hit the news. If there was a Sigil God of Destruction, they'd have already sought them out."

"Yet they've publicly announced there isn't one," Ali says. "Which means that we should trust them."

Tanner assesses us, and I know he's reading our emotions. Ali knows this because I told her, and I know this because of my contacts.

"Okay," Tanner looks at me. "How do you know this? Through this whole thing, you've come off as if you know more about everything than Ali."

"His boyfriend's everyone's favorite technokinetic," Ali tells him. "He's pretty high up in the Federation and is one of the handful of people who've managed to rebuild society's technology. He's also been in charge of monitoring the Klen for the last six years."

"Your boyfriend what?" Tanner asks.

"Is in charge of monitoring the Klen," I answer. "Though he's not the person I contacted when Ali and I saw Mr. Sonic, my contact in the Federation is actually someone else."

That said, Ian does have higher security clearance than my contact. He single-handedly built their entire security network in two months, and no technokinetic except himself has managed to break through it. That's why Ali calls him everyone's favorite technokinetic. So really, if I wanted something Frank couldn't get done, I could just ask Ian. I've never taken advantage of that, though.

In regards to official things. Getting me weapons and other things? I definitely go to Ian for that.

"He also supplies us with the weaponry we use to hunt food and Klen," I tell Tanner. "Though that's not necessarily legal. The paintball stuff is, though, even if it's fairly advanced."

"So," he hesitates for a moment. "Are you sure your boyfriend would let you be naked with another guy? I mean-"

"It's not a problem, and we can discuss it when we get back to the dorms," I say. "Look at Ali, she's practically drooling at the thought."

Which is part of why I haven't told her that Ian and I have had sex. She's going to want all of the details.

"Anyway," Ali decides to change direction. "That's why we know that there's no God of Destruction. The other Sigil Gods would have known about him, since they can sense each other no matter how far apart they are, and Ian definitely would've told Nick about it if there was one. I'm going to keep the identity of the erasure Sigil-Bearer a secret, to protect him. You wouldn't gain a benefit from knowing, anyway."

"Yeah," Tanner sighs. "Thanks for the help, I guess. I just wish I could turn this off. I've tried, but it seems there's a limit."

"Maybe eventually," I smile. "Sorry we couldn't have been of more help."