I pulled into the parking garage beneath my apartment building feeling quite a bit more relaxed even after the stress from helping that guy out. There was nothing like going out to eat when you didn’t have to be somewhere… sure, it ate the rest of my money up, but at this point that didn’t matter too much to me. I was at the point where I would have to klep some pockets anyway if I wanted something. I was much better off just lasering in on my current gig.

That relaxed feeling abruptly ended as I arrived in front of my apartment. The door cracked open, and I heard someone moving inside. Did they find me? Were the hunters already locked onto me?! I need to-

To calm down… it might not be Edgerunners hunting down the twenty mil bounty. Maybe it was the landlord? Or- or somebody else? Should I just delta? No. I bought this place, it was only right I defended it. Or at least tried to... but what if it was a real Edgerunner? I'd be offering myself on a silver platter... maybe I could come to a deal at the very least? It's not a hundred percent that I would be killed if Sentinel found me.

I shrugged off my bag and reached inside for the Rhymer- was it worth killing somebody over? I hesitated, my hand frozen in my bag for a long moment. I don’t know who it could be or what their intentions are so no. I don’t think it is. It could very well be my landlord. Maybe I really should delta for now… but my deck and equipment are in there! Without that stuff, I’ll have to drop the gig entirely. I'd be broke and potentially homeless...

Gah! Screw it. Shoot first and ask questions- Just as I was about to make a foolish mistake, my hand caught on the bunched-up glove from Granny Smith. My hesitation mostly vanished as I pulled it and the electro-bola out. I put the glove on and grabbed the gadget as I nudged open the cracked door. I moved in, quieter than a mouse thanks to Fox’s Paw, and closed the door.

“The hell?” A voice came from the kitchenette, though it was barely more than a whisper. I swung wide to give myself space to throw the weapon, catching sight of a guy leaning over my scattered tools and parts.

I didn’t hesitate before whipping my hand over my head, the thing caused a slight disturbance in the air as the silver balls followed my hand. I released as if pointing towards the guy, and the bola sped to him. Now, I wasn’t trained in the proper throwing of a bola much more than some View2 videos. At this range though? It would be harder to miss.

He must’ve heard something because he turned around towards me right as the bola reached him. Right before it wrapped around his arms and chest, his hands clasped something on his chest and an ethereal glow encompassed him. That glow immediately vanished as I clamped my fist closed, sending a signal to the bola as he tripped toward the ground. Electricity arced all along the silver balls and wire.

“Gah!” He collapsed as he jolted around, slamming his face into the counter with a wet thunk. I continued to hold my fist closed, but he was silent as he lay on the floor.

Was he… was he dead? I hesitantly moved closer, watching out for signs of trickery as I reopened my hand. The electricity stopped and I leaned over him to check his pulse. Not dead, but definitely unconscious. This electra-bola was damn good! Thank you, Granny Smith!

I stared down at the guy’s back. Should I call the Crusade? They could take care of him and lock him up… no. I need information. Why was he here? If he had caught the trail of the bounty, then I need to start running now. It was only a matter of time before the others caught me. But if he wasn’t…

My hesitation only lasted a minute before I slowly dragged him to the living room area and propped him up against the wall. He was affiliated with the aether, so I needed to be smart about this. I looked him over, but he didn’t appear to have a wand. Probably a Magus then.

One way to confirm. I searched his pockets, finding a wallet and phone. I pocketed them, ‘course, but they weren’t what I was looking for. I checked everywhere else, which was quite easy since he only wore a suit. Eventually, I found what I was looking for after remembering he clutched at his chest. A small silver amulet of a fox hung from his neck by a silver chain. It glowed faintly thanks to Aetherial Perception.

The thing was a Focus. Adepts had wands and Magus had their Focuses. Magus used magic through a contract with an eidolon- rather, through said eidolon’s sprites. In the same way that Adepts used wands to speed up magic, Magus used a Focus to speedily summon a sprite to do their bidding. ‘Course, they could summon one without a Focus, but it was supposedly a long and tedious process worse than an Adept trying to cast magic without a wand.

Then, when a sprite was summoned, a Magus could do a couple of things. The main one was to use the sprite to cast magic, and the other was to have said sprite materialize into a physical form.

Once I took his Focus, I took a step back and checked his ID. Feras Schlauer, barely a month into his seventeenth year. I looked at the photo and matched it to his face. And what a face he had. This Feras guy was incredibly handsome. He was also muscular, yet not over the top unattractive steroid muscle. He was quite tall too, standing at just over six feet according to his ID.

His looks made sense when I thought about him being Magus contracted to Fox. It had shown up in my research over eidolons; Magus gained certain benefits when contracted to an eidolon alongside the ability to summon a sprite. In Fox's case, it's beauty and agility. Every eidolon had its own benefit, for instance, Wolf granted its contractors increased stamina and endurance.

He wore a suit that seemed as if it had been nice at one point. It was creased in several places, and the buttons were all undone like he was a drunk who just stumbled out of a bar. Soft lights twinkled under the surface of the suit, though they blinked so fast I couldn't focus on one before it went out again.

His face was the main selling point though. He had the kind of face I could see on a movie star and could probably blend in with high society. A strong chin and perfectly symmetrical face were his predominant features helped along by flawlessly tanned skin. In a couple more years, I could see him being a real heartbreaker.

Pure black hair clung to his head in a mess as if he hadn’t taken care of it in the past week or so. Same thing for the scruff barely poking from his chin.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I checked out the rest of his face, but I didn’t see any signs of it being sculpted. Sculpting techniques were incredibly refined these days, yet they still left trace marks of the procedure if you knew what to look for. As far as I could tell, Feras was a hundred percent natural. I would expect nothing less of a Magus. Magic tended to go wrong when chrome came into play.

The only major demerit in terms of looks came from the gash across his forehead from where he hit the counter. Unlucky scrub. Did I feel a bit weird checking out an unconscious guy? When it was put that way, yes. I like to think I was just informing myself about the intruder though.

Why was he here though? Everything I’d found only added to the mystery. Was a hunter tracking down the bounty? Had they already found me? I’d just learned about this, there was no way they’ve already found me- unless- no. And this guy was alone. No way would a solo come after me with twenty million on the line… hmm…

Before doing anything else, I grabbed the blueprints and stuffed them in my in the safest place I could think of: down my shoe. It was a bit uncomfortable, but not unmanageable. That, and they were by far the most expensive item I’d ever stolen, so if I needed to run I’d have them on me. Who knows? If I was desperate I could try giving them over to Polar Moon or Sentinel. Assuming they don’t kill me outright as a ‘reward’, that is.

I pulled my SB-17 from the kitchenette and headed back to the guy. There was one way I could get answers, at least. I dumped the thing over the guy’s head before sending it back to the shadows. “Wake up!”

He shuddered to consciousness as he looked around like a feral animal. An intense look of concentration came across his face before it twisted into a grimace. His grimace morphed into a frown as he looked down at himself.

“Looking for this?” I asked as I held out the fox amulet.

He looked up at my rifle in fear. “W-what do you want? I-is this about the b-bounty? I already paid it off! Fuck! This is just my luck…”

“What? No- you invaded my apartment.” I took a threatening step towards him… or I tried to. I couldn’t quite stomp my foot down as hard as I wanted ‘thanks’ to Fox’s Paw. I was getting better at controlling it, but I wasn’t quite to that point yet.

“Please! Not the face!” His gray eyes screamed confusion as he shivered in the bola’s cord. “W-wait… your apartment? This is my apartment t-though?" He raised his hands placatingly, or at least attempted to. The wire of the bola made that difficult. “L-look, this is obviously some kind of innocent misunderstanding. Can’t we just calmly talk this out?”

“Fine.” I sighed as I backed away from him and lowered my gun, though I still kept my guard up just in case. And I didn’t lower it far, just towards his foot. It wouldn’t hurt me to give him the benefit of the doubt. Well, it could, but well… there was a chance it was a misunderstanding. Hopefully, this was all just am innocent misunderstanding… My hand tightened on the gin’s grip. maybe should’ve burned those documents after all?

“Great… um- p-peaceful introductions? My name is Feras, but my f-friends call me Face.” He tried to smile a bright, flashy smile full of boyish charm. I could see a corpo gal swooning over it, but if anything it made me slightly disgusted? Like I wanted to knock out several teeth?

“Feras, then. Why are you in my apartment?” I asked, ignoring his terrified shivering.

“Um- I calmly came back home?” He shook his head, his eyes trying to portray his innocence. Even as his shaking body tried to evoke pity. “This is my apartment.”

Was I the bad guy here? I dropped the rifle back onto its sling and headed to my bedroom. It was a chaotic mess with my sparse collection of clothes dumped into a pile. After hunting around, I found the contract and walked back out. “I have the contract right here. My place.”

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on here.” He shook in the bolas, and I was starting to think his shivering was actually an attempt to break free rather than fear. It was just a bit too consistent. “All I know is-”

I slammed my hand into a fist, sending the signal to the bola. It immediately sent a shock of electric compliance through the guy’s body as he locked up for a moment. “Stop that.”

“S-sorry. I’m sorry. I’ll comply. J-just don’t shock me again.” He completely stilled, not shaking the slightest bit. As I thought, an act… a damn good one at that. One of the people I played cards against, assuming they were people and not AI or sprites or something, pulled a similar trick to cheat while I was learning Cue. It took me a long time to figure that one out.

“Am I really supposed to believe that my apartment just happened to already be owned, and that the owner broke back into it after I moved in?”

“I didn’t break in! My key still fits the lock! L-look, you can check. It’s in my wallet.” He shifted to give me better access to his pocket. “And, um- maybe the landlord probably sold you the place since I hadn’t been back in a while? Let’s be calm about this. L-look, I even had gear stashed here! In the vents.”

I pulled his wallet out of my pocket and ran through it again. Folded underneath the flaps sat a small key. I didn’t have my key out at the moment, but it looked like a match. The lazy landlord had probably just put the lock back on the door without bothering to get one. What he was saying would also make sense. People die in Aythryn City all the time, so the landlord might’ve wanted to start earning some extra Rayn. It would also explain that bag I found in the vent.

“Then it is no longer yours since you didn’t renew your contract. Simple. It’s time for you to go.” I slid the key into my pocket. “And I’m keeping this.”

“W-wait! You can’t just kick me out!” He struggled in the binding of the bola for a moment and I was tempted to reactivate the electric bits again.

“Oh?” I started walking back towards him. I would have to change the locks after this, but that would cost money. Money I don’t have. Gahh… how annoying. Maybe I could convince the landlord to change it?

“Yeah! I-I don’t have any money! You’ll be forcing me out onto the streets!”

I stared down at him like he was an idiot. “And that’s my problem, why?”

“L-look- You’re some kinda techie, right? I saw your stuff in the kitchen. We’re in the same field! I’m a grifter! J-just give me a couple days and I’ll pay you back for the apartment! You know how easy it is for us to get money if the work is good.” He was getting quite frantic now.

“Grifter, huh?” It fit… his acting skills would fit a grifter, and it would explain why the contents of the bag had been costume stuff and makeup. Hmm... knowing that, I can't help but second-guess everything I've heard from the guy.

It was oddly convenient… and weird. I could recognize that fact. It was just too convenient. Things were never this easy… I had just about accepted the fact that eidolons were responsible for the interface. That being said, the guy was a Magus of Fox and I had Fox’s Grace, so did the eidolon pull something behind the scenes? Or was it really just a coincidence?