Tola pulled a chair out from the nearby table. “Could I have a glass of water? It seems I’m about to be doing a lot of talking. Ah, and perhaps a bowl of water for Princess.”

The darker-haired girl nodded, heading into the kitchen, while the lighter-haired girl sat at the table. “Okay, so, what is it?”

Tola took a sip of the offered glass when the other girl returned, taking a deep breath. “It’s magic.” Setting the glass down, he took the bowl and also set it on the table in front of him.

“…That’s it? Like, yeah, but… I kinda expected you to say more? Is that why you’re wearing it? What does it do, why can I do this, what’s going on? Anything?”

“Hang on, it’s a lot of questions, and I have to figure out how to even begin to explain. First, Princess likes her water chilled. So, let me demonstrate some magic, and give some explanation that way.” He set one hand on either side of the bowl and nodded towards it. “All magic begins with a Start Rune. That’s the rune you are able to cast. It’s the first step in every spell. It serves as the ‘point of entry’ for magic energy into the spell. Energy flows from you, into the Start Rune, through that into the other runes, through them into the End Rune, and back into you. It cycles, in a flow. Without that flow, the energy just stops and nothing happens. You’re able to push energy into the Start Rune, but then it has nowhere else to go, and just evaporates.”

The girl listened intently, looking like she wanted to ask something, but she wasn’t sure what. Tola was still in Lecture Mode, and hadn’t really taken enough of a break to open himself for questions.

“To cast a spell, you focus on and visualize the runes. There’s some flexibility on where you visualize them, but the positions of runes relative to each other can be important for spells, and if you want to rearrange them without changing the spell, you have to put in extra work to make sure things connect properly and the energy flows the way it should. Many mages choose to visualize a Start Rune in one hand and the End Rune in another, making their body half of the loop. It’s easier to do it that way, but with more skill you can do it with a single hand or even just in the air without using your hands at all. In this example, I will use my hands.”

Next to his left hand, a glowing Start Rune formed in the air, just outside the bowl. Next to his right, a glowing End Rune formed. “You can go either direction, I personally like to read ‘left to right’, so I tend to go this direction. Some people find it more natural to send energy out through their right hand, so they put the Start Rune on their right. It’s all personal preference.” In the water, between the two runes, a glowing blue rune formed, making the water surface ripple slightly. It didn’t have physical presence, but the energy was disturbing the water as it started to flow. An actual in-progress spell was a lot stronger of a feeling than only a rune, to my senses. “This is an Ice Rune. There are runes for different elements, different kinds of energy, different tasks, or even just utility runes that make spells easier and do different things. This is a very simple spell, it’s just making cold happen at the rune. If you swap it out for a Fire Rune, you get a small flame between your hands. If you use a Wind Rune, you’d get a gust of air. And so on.”

“Wait, so like, you could actually throw fireballs and stuff?” She was watching in amazement at the glowing runes, though cooling water was less visually impressive than she was probably hoping for.

“You could, though doing it with only a Fire Rune is going to be much more difficult and use much more energy than it would if you added other runes, to help give it direction and propel the energy and keep it shaped and such.” I thought about Hoodie Guy, and how he had thrown all the energy he could into the single rune to make his column of flame when he attacked me. Meanwhile, clear ice was starting to form on the edges of the bowl, the surface just starting to crystalize, when Tola stopped sending energy through the spell. The three runes faded and winked out, and he took the bowl of cold water and set it down on the floor for me. Happily, I lapped up the ice-cold water, letting it slide down my throat. The contrast between my own warmth and the water felt nice.

“You can, like, use actual magic… and you use it to skip having to put ice in drinks.” She seemed distinctly unimpressed with someone who just casually violated the laws of thermodynamics by thinking about it hard enough.

“I can do a lot of things. The first spell I learned beyond a simple one-rune fire spell was a spell to repair furniture.” Tola leaned back in the chair and took another sip of water.

“Okay, um, like, how did you learn all this?” She took the moment to ask another question.

“Hm. That’s… a long story. I’m more curious how you were able to learn a rune just from seeing it a couple of times.”

“Hey, you said you’d answer my questions! But, like, I dunno. I’ve always had a really good memory for details, and something about it just kinda… resonated, I guess? Like, some of the other… runes, I guess, were kinda sketchy, but that one was always drawn really neat and precise, so it kinda stood out. But whenever I thought about it, I just sorta felt this, like, kinda tug at something inside? And then when I made it glow the first time, the first thing I did was find Mandy and ask if she could see it too. I thought I was going insane!”

“Mandy?” Tola raised an eyebrow. Following a slight gesture, he looked at the darker-haired girl who raised a hand. “Ah, yes, I probably should have asked about names sooner than this. I apologize, I was a touch distracted. I did introduce myself already, didn’t I? Just in case, I am Tola, though I also go by James. This is Princess, you’ve met. And this is my friend, Cheryl. She’s from here in town.”

The lighter-haired girl pointed to herself and her friend as she made introductions. “I’m Rochelle, but like, call me Ro. That’s Mandy, do not call her Amanda. And also, don’t call me Roach.”

“I wouldn’t have dreamed of it. Pleased to meet you.”

Cheryl gave an exaggerated huff. “I got introduced last.” Before she could protest more, though, her phone rang. “Oops, gotta take this.” Hitting the accept button, she stepped out of the room.

“So, like, where are you from, then?” Ro’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Tola took another long sip of water, before sighing again. “There’s… a lot going on with me. Technically, I’m from Earth.” That got quite a reaction, but with Ro and Mandy not knowing exactly what to say, they just stared blankly. “There is… another world. Sort of a parallel world, or maybe sideways, or… Well, I really have no idea exactly how they are related, but they are related. I’m getting sidetracked. What’s important is that there are two worlds. One is Earth, where we are now. The other is called Terra by the people who live there, and it’s… Well, it’s pretty solidly your standard fantasy fare. Magic, dragons, castles–I mean real ones, not the ones here. All of it.”

Ro and Mandy exchanged a credulous look. “Are you kidding? Like, that… I mean, how… what?”

“It’s true. I’ve spent the last year living on Terra, learning magic and living in a small tower outside a small village named Hammerfell. The badge you asked what ‘the deal with it’ was is a sign of my rank in the Mages’ Guild on Terra, specifically the branch just outside the city of Winselton, which is a few hours’ ride north of Hammerfell. Those strange storms, I think Cheryl said they’re called ‘Unmaker Storms’? They’re… I’m not sure what they are, but being caught in one of them was how I arrived in Terra. Apparently, there’s a small chance that you’ll end up in the other world if you’re caught in one. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were items or even people from Terra showing up after some of them.”

Mandy crossed her arms. “You have to be making all this up. You really expect us to believe that?”

Ro was a little less skeptical, possibly because she’d actually cast a rune herself. “She does have a point, can you prove that?”

Tola thought for a moment. “Hm, well… I could show you some of the things I brought with me, like gold Sovereigns. They’re the currency used on Terra, at least the kingdom I’m in. Huh, I should actually ask about the name of it, everyone always just calls it ‘the Kingdom’ or ‘the Crown’. But I suppose you could just claim I had them made here on Earth.” He glanced down at me and I looked back up at him.

I stayed silent. I didn’t want to speak up and reveal myself just yet. I was worried the girls would spook and it would cause major problems.

Tola took my silence as a sign to not say anything more. “Well, I suppose it doesn’t really matter how true it is. But that book you found actually comes from Terra. You might have figured it out, but Roffil is… not exactly a friend of mine. In fact, I’m the ‘demon’ he talks about in the book. I don’t know how, but he figured out I wasn’t from Terra, and figured out there was a world beyond the storms, but he didn’t know the whole story. So, he thought Earth was some kind of ‘World of Chaos’ and that we were sending the storms as some form of attack. He’s so self-important that he appointed himself the hero of reality, I guess, and devised a spell to ‘banish’ me back to Earth. I’ve been trying to track down that book, because it’s my best chance of getting back home.”

“I thought you said you’re from Earth.” Mandy’s arms were still crossed.

“I am, which is why he was able to send me here at all. However, after the last year, I’ve come to consider Terra my home, and I want to be back. I want to continue my studies, I want to stay where I have friends, and I want to be able to keep Princess safe.” I put a paw on his foot, he was getting close to spilling my secret. Well, one of them, anyway.

The two seemed to settle down a little, still looking between themselves. Ro finally spoke up. “Okay, I’ll help, but… you gotta teach me some magic, right? Like, I can’t just… only know one rune that can’t do anything, it’s gonna make my head explode, y’know?”

Tola chuckled. “Trust me, I know the feeling. I’m not the best of teachers, and I don’t have the books I learned from with me, but I’ll do my best to teach you at least something.”

Cheryl’s phone call turned out to be about a house for rent, so she left to handle that. “You sure you’re okay here by yourself?”

“I have Princess with me if they try anything, but I doubt they will. Isn’t that right?” Tola smiled at Mandy and Ro.

“You know we’re worried you’re gonna try something, right?” Mandy eyed the cast-iron pan, but made no move to pick it up yet.

After that, Tola pulled out his own spellbook, so he could show the two some spells and runes. Several, he copied down onto pages of paper, adding some text to describe them. That way, Ro could have ones to study on her own. When he covered the Ice Lance spell, though, the conversation took a bit of a turn.

“So, like, that sounds pretty dangerous. You ever fight someone with magic?”

“Do you mean, fight someone that has magic, or use magic to fight someone? Either way, the answer is yes.”

Mandy looked upset, but Ro was all for it. “Oh my gawd, like, what was it like?”

Tola’s voice was low, staring deeply at his glass of water. “Not pleasant, in any case. My first fight was a mad wizard named Elimaio. Yes, that really was his name. I know how it sounds. But that was before I learned magic at all. He had captured me and planned to do horrible things, but I managed to get free and fight him. It was a desperate struggle, and I only survived at all because the fight gave Princess an opening to take him down. Using magic, I’ve had to fight people like bandits. Not all survived. I was nearly killed myself once by a simple arrow, but I was saved by others who were fighting. I did pretty well against the gryphon, but only because I wasn’t exactly a front-line fighter. Captain Aesis nearly lost her arm to his beak, Princess took some nasty hits, and we probably all would’ve been killed if I hadn’t thought quickly and used an earth-moving spell in creative ways. Or if the others had fought any less hard to give me the time to do that.”

Ro spoke up first. “I’m, like, so sorry you had to go through all that…”

Mandy was less sympathetic. “So you’ve killed people?”

Tola shot her a glare. “When I’ve had to. Never have I taken pleasure in it, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“I guess not. But you said Princess was there? The dog? On Terra?” Mandy was taking her role seriously, being the one to keep Ro’s excitement and optimism in check.

“Yes. Roffil sent us both here to Earth, she was my pet back on Terra. Maybe it’s time we took a break from studies and explanations, I’m thinking we could order food of some kind?”

Ro nodded. “Sure, I’ll even pay for it!” When Mandy glared at her, she gestured to the table covered in papers. “Hey, he’s teaching us actual magic, I think it’s worth it to pay for a pizza or something, isn’t it?”

After some discussion, they settled on Chinese food delivery, partially because that let Tola order a side of meat for me since I wouldn’t be able to eat pizza very well. The time spent waiting for it to arrive was spent telling stories, though Mandy and Ro kept asking for more about Terra rather than say much about themselves. After the meal arrived and was quickly eaten, it was time to move to a more practical section of study. Having Ro learn and cast her first spell.

Tola looked over the papers. Ro had been practicing drawing them onto scratch paper, and true to her word, she memorized the shapes quickly. One by one, she successfully was able to summon a rune in midair, visualizing it and extending her energy into it enough to make it appear. “Do you have something specific in mind to learn?”

“You said, like, one of these is for moving dirt and stuff, right? That sounds pretty awesome, and there’s like, always dirt somewhere, pretty much. And I can do a lot more with it than just fight, like that ice spear thing.” Ro seemed to think she said something rude, as she hastily followed it up with “Not that there’s, like, anything wrong with fighting, if you gotta! Like, maybe I’ll have to fight stuff too, y’know? But it’s like, if I only learn one, better to learn one with a lot of uses, yeah?”

Tola smirked at the attempt to placate his feelings, even if it was unnecessary. “It’s fine, and perhaps over time, I can teach you a few spells. Normally I’d think it’s a little advanced for a first spell, but I don’t have the best frame of reference, and you’re… surprisingly good at runes, so I guess we’ll try it. If it doesn’t work, we can switch to something simpler anyway.”

While Tola went to look for something to use for practice, settling on a potted plant in the corner and hefting it to bring it towards the table, Mandy elbowed Ro lightly in the ribs. “What was that about? You want to be some kind of… person who attacks people with magic?”

Ro hissed back in an attempt to keep her voice quiet. “No! Just… Like, look at this! It’s like the first episode of the show, you know? Two ordinary girls, stumbling on the secret, the wise old mentor, gaining ability… We’re like superheroes or something! I’m Buffy and he’s Giles! And you’re… Willow? Except I guess I’m the witch? Look, I dunno, but this is a huge chance, for both of us! You don’t want to learn magic too?”

Tola patiently let them have their argument, as they seemed to be unaware he was standing right there.

“I do, but you’re so into this… What do you think we’re going to even fight here in Iowa?”

“I dunno, like, weird stuff’s been happening a lot, hasn’t it? What if we run into that Hellhound people have been talking about? That could be like our first fight, or maybe it’s the boss of the first season or something?”

Tola pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing. “First of all, no. Second, this is real life. It’s not a TV show, or a movie, or a video game, or anything else. Third of all, I’m not old, and probably not that wise, considering the fact I’m telling you all of this in the first place. Fourth of all, there is no Hellhound. Fifth of all, no. You are far too inexperienced to be trying to use magic in a fight like that. I am far more powerful than you, so if there is danger, your best option is to stay away where it’s safe and let me know.”

Ro bristled a bit at the admonishment. “You don’t know that! Maybe there is a Hellhound! I heard it nearly killed some guy from my church and he went insane!”

Tola sighed heavily. “You mean Chad? Cheryl told me about that. Did you know she was there when he was wielding a shotgun, pointing it at her because he was going to either ‘save’ her, or ‘do God’s work sending her to Hell’ for ‘being in league with the demon’? He was a sad, fragile man that saw something slightly strange and jumped to conclusions, and nearly took innocent lives because of it.”

Mandy and Ro blanched, seeming chastised by the outburst. “Cheryl is that girl that was here earlier, right? But like, what could Chad have seen that made him think that? What if there really is a Hellhound out there, and he just, like, went nuts because that’s what a Hellhound does? Are… are Hellhounds and demons a thing, like magic?”

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“As far as I know, they are not. As for what he saw… I…” He hesitated, and I figured there just was no getting around it anymore.

Finally, I spoke up. “He saw me. I’m the ‘Hellhound’ in the rumors.”

That definitely got a reaction, the two girls nearly shrieking as they backed away. “D-Did the dog just talk? Like…? What?”

Tola chuckled a little. “You’re surprised the magician has a talking dog?”

“Okay, that’s kind of on us, but like, what did he see that made him jump to Hellhound, then? Does she, like, cast spells too?”

“Just one, sorta. My collar lets me use an illusion spell.”

Ro turned to look at me, realizing she had been speaking about me instead of to me, out of habit. “Wait, so you, like, made yourself look like a Hellhound?”

“No, I make myself look like a dog.” I sat in a regal pose, staring up at the two.

I think this was when they finally noticed my eyes, as they were now frozen in place, looking at me and glancing at Tola, as if not sure if he’d save them or doom them.

Tola, however, merely smiled and gave a soft sigh. “Princess, you shouldn’t tease them so much. Well, they wanted proof of Terra. Go on, show them.”

I raised a paw to my collar. I didn’t have to, but it made it easier to focus on the spell imbued into the band. Cutting the flow of energy, I let the illusion dissipate, motes of light lifting up and winking out, showing off my blue-scaled self. “I’m a dragon, and I got a little carried away threatening Chad for being abusive and attacking my friend Cheryl. The illusion slipped a little, and he saw horns, wings, and breathing fire, and jumped to Hellhound. It was… not a pleasant encounter, next time we saw him. I admit I kind of leaned into it a little and gave him a scare, hoping it’d make him change his ways. I guess we’ll see if he does. It was that or kill him, and I don’t like killing people.” My gaze fell to the floor at that last part, the memories were still unpleasant. I suspected they always would be, no matter how much time passed.

Mandy raised her phone and Tola cleared his throat. “It might be better to not take pictures. If proof gets out, it could be… extremely bad for everyone involved. If we manage to evade capture, you’ll be their best lead on finding us, after all. And I don’t think they’ll be satisfied with ‘I don’t know’. Let alone your own knowledge of magic.” Mandy wordlessly put her phone back into her pocket. “Speaking of which, why don’t we start practicing earth-moving?”

It took a while to get things back on track. I should’ve expected I’d be so distracting. Mandy was actually the first to ask to pet me, I had figured it would’ve been Ro. It was hesitant and awkward at first, but since I could speak up if they started petting places I didn’t want, it got better quickly. Perhaps being able to give a belly rub to an actual dragon helped Mandy be less skeptical and guarded.

Cheryl returned, texting to say she was done and making sure it was okay to come back to Ro and Mandy’s house. Mandy, who opened the door, was too excited to think about her words. “Did you know the dog is a dragon?”

Cheryl, taken aback for the moment, stepped into the house. “Uh, yeah, I knew. Is everything all right?”

“Oh, yeah, everything’s fine, it’s just… Holy crap, an actual dragon!”

Cheryl nodded. “Yeah, that was about my reaction, too. Anyway, Tola, we’ve got a place! Isn’t that exciting? We won’t have to worry about Sierra walking in on us or getting mad about magic stuff! And it’ll be tight, but I can still afford it when you leave.” She was grinning widely, holding a thick envelope of papers.

Tola nodded, smiling back. “That’s excellent news. It’ll be nice to be able to work on bigger projects again.”

Meanwhile, Ro was frowning at the planter. “Is this, like, really going to work…?”

Tola frowned as well, looking at the large plant in the center of it. “Well, there should be enough free dirt that isn’t being held by the roots. We could go into the back yard and try, but if someone sees us, it could cause problems…”

“No, we’ll do this, I guess. I just… like… It seems like such a huge thing, y’know?”

“Hey, I get it, I was amazed when I did my first magic too. Just focus on the runes and visualizing them, on your energy flowing through them, and holding the pieces together.” Tola gave a reassuring smile.

“Okay, like, here it goes…” Ro looked over at Mandy for support before taking a deep breath. Closing her eyes, she held her hands together and slowly spread them apart, runes winking into being one by one. Her mind summoned each one, focused on the exact lines that made it up, then set it aside as part of the tableau. When the last rune was put into place, they glowed brighter, her breathing heavier as the strain increased. With a slight rumble, portions of dirt rose from the pot, lifting into the air, before Ro gasped and all the runes faded. The spell shattered as Ro faltered, the dirt falling as gravity reasserted itself, creating a big mess as she slumped and panted.

“Hey, is she all right?” Mandy’s protectiveness caused her to look at Tola for reassurance.

“She should be, yes. Magic is a drain on energy, it looks like she’s used what strength she has for now. It’s like any workout, you can only do so much when starting out.”

Ro nodded, straightening herself, though her hands were on the rim of the heavy planter to support herself. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just, like… really tired.”

“The more you practice, the more energy you’ll be able to channel, and the more you’ll produce. It’s like training a muscle. You’ll gain strength and endurance as you keep exercising. You did great, especially for someone who’s never used magic before. You can always use something like fire or ice for training, as well as returning to this one. Though, maybe we should get a planter that doesn’t have a plant in it for next time.” Tola slipped into distracted musing.

Mandy’s eyes went back to the scattered dirt. “So, can anyone do magic?”

Tola shrugged. “As far as I know? Maybe? I don’t actually know, I sort of skipped the usual training. I’m almost entirely self-taught.”

Ro had just about caught her breath, though she arched her back and stretched. It wasn’t a physical ache, though, but she didn’t have a way to describe it. “Don’t worry, Mandy, I’m happy to help you learn too. I just have that photographic memory thing going on, that’s how I learned these runes so fast.”

Tola nodded. “It’s true. From my understanding, it often takes weeks for a new Initiate to be able to start using their first runes.”

Mandy seemed to be reassured by that, but I think she still felt a little disappointed to not be able to do fancy stuff too. “So, you two do magic, that’s a dragon, what about her?” She pointed at Cheryl.

Cheryl raised a hand. “I’m just a vet tech, a lot of this stuff is still new to me too.”

“How’s a vet tech going to fight monsters? I mean, I guess you know anatomy?”

Tola cleared his throat again. “There shouldn’t be any monsters. In fact, once I get Roffil’s book and find a way home, you probably won’t have to worry about any strange magic stuff. Especially if you stay away from the Storms. Speaking of the book, though, can we talk about where it went, please? I think I’ve upheld my end of the favor, giving about two years’ worth of training in a single day.”

“Oh right, like, yeah, all this is so huge. I totally forgot, y’know?” Ro chuckled sheepishly. “Anyway, I sold it to this guy who’s part of a group, like Dungeons and Dragons and stuff? My ex-boyfriend is in it, so I went to him to see if he knew what was up with it, and that’s when that creepy Jared guy went nuts for it. Gave us a lot of money for it. At the time, I thought it was just, like, rare or something, but I never guessed it was going to be real, y’know?”

“Your ex-boyfriend?” Tola gave an expression that showed the hesitation at stepping into what sounded like a lot of drama.

“Yeah, we broke up on good terms, y’know? Anyway, I can give him a call and we can see if we can buy it back from Jared?”

Tola breathed a sigh of relief. “That sounds excellent. Please do.”

“Hey, Ro, what’s up?” The voice came from the phone on speaker, as we sat around it on the table.

“Hey, Will. So like, remember that weird book I found?” Ro’s voice hesitated, like someone who was worried about getting into too much.

“I remember it, what about it?”

“Yeah, um… So, like, the guy who owns it is looking for it? So we kinda need it back?”

“Oh, crap, really? But dude, Jared paid you a lot.” This Will person also started to sound worried about what was going to happen.

Tola cut in. “I’m not angry or anything, and I’m willing to pay to get it back. I’ll even pay more than what Jared paid.”

“Well, I can ask him when he gets back, I guess?” That was a voice that was far from being at ease.

“Okay, do you know when he’ll be back?” Tola was doing his best to keep impatience out of his voice, but a little was leaking through.

“Oh, dude, it’s gonna be a while… He took a wicked spill down some stairs, broke his arm in a bunch of places. They had to ship him to a big hospital in Des Moines, so they can get surgeons to come in and put it back together.”

A cold chill ran down my spine, and it looked like Tola’s as well. “A spill?”

“Yeah, man, I always told him to stop messing around in those abandoned houses, you know? But he wanted to be an ‘urban explorer’ or whatever. Shyeah, like there’s anything ‘urban’ about Ida Grove, right? I saw him before he was transferred, looked like the whole arm was just pulped or something. He’s probably gonna be gone for, like, a couple months, dude.”

A smack of Tola’s palm hitting his face cracked through the air, and he dragged the hand down like he could wipe away the bad news. “Figures… Of course. Well, thank you for the… information.”

Mandy stepped into the conversation. “Hey, he’s still got his phone, right? Can you give us his number so we can call him? Maybe we can arrange something.”

“Yeah, I guess. Of course you’re there, Mandy. You and Ro, hah. Maybe being laid up will get him to stop his whole creepy schtick. Then again, at least now we can have a session without him complaining about how ‘magic doesn’t work like that’. Like, dude, you wanna play a wizard, play a wizard. You don’t like magic, play a fighter or something, yeah?”

The rest of the call devolved into Will ranting about Jared in particular, and rambling about the game in general. We politely did our best to sound interested in the exploits of his latest campaign, but Tola was distracted by other thoughts. When it finally ended, with us having a new phone number, the others could tell something was wrong.

Cheryl was first to break the silence. “You don’t think that’s… the guy, do you?”

Tola nodded. “I can’t imagine a town this size has too many other people who just happened to break their arm that badly in an abandoned house and also have an interest in magic books.”

Ro sounded like she didn’t want to interrupt, but did anyway. “‘The guy’? You know him?”

Tola grimaced. “Sort of. I broke his arm.” Noticing the shock on the girls’ faces, he hastily continued. “He jumped me and Cheryl, abducted me and tried to interrogate me for knowledge on magic, and Cheryl and Princess came to my rescue. In the resulting fight, I nearly gave in to anger and killed him, but crushed his arm instead. With the same spell you just used to make a mess of dirt on your carpet.” As if to demonstrate, he held out his hand, a ring of runes forming around his forearm, and the dirt from the floor lifted up and carefully settled back into the planter.

I huffed softly. “This Jared also tried to burn me to a crisp, when he thought I was a dog. He knows enough to use fire magic, if nothing else. Which means he knows enough to be dangerous.”

Mandy and Ro looked at each other again, swallowing hard as the thought that they were getting in over their heads once again came to their minds. “Yeah, um, I don’t think he’s going to be happy to hear from you, then.”

Tola sighed deeply. “Yes, it’s probably best if I’m not mentioned in our initial attempts to get the book back. Then again, maybe seeing me might loosen his tongue. I could threaten him with worse if he refuses to cooperate… But I’d rather not go that route if I can avoid it.”

Ro shook her head. “Yeah, that’s like… villain stuff, y’know?”

“Precisely why I don’t want to do it.”

Once again, we were around a ringing phone on speaker.

“Uh, hi? Who’s calling?” It wasn’t much, but it was enough to be sure it was the same voice as Hoodie Guy.

“Hey, this is Jared, right? My name’s Rochelle, Mandy and I sold you a weird book a little bit ago, yeah?”

“You got any more?” He jumped at that very quickly.

“No, um, kinda like, the opposite? Yeah, we uh, we were hoping to buy it back from you? Maybe we could like, make you a copy or something?” Ro’s strained voice showed she didn’t have much hope in this working.

The silence from the other end hung in the air. “No. You sold it. It’s ours now. …Why do you want it back, anyway?”

“Oh, like, no reason! I was wanting to show it to Mandy, ‘cause it’s so weird and crazy? She only saw, like, a little bit of it, y’know?” Nervous laughter. She was losing him.

“You’re lying. You… know, don’t you?” Flat refusal to suspicion, with a hint of anger.

“Okay, like, maybe I’m lying a little, but… It’s ‘cause the guy that owns it is… is looking for it, and he’s super mad I sold it? So, please? Help me out?”

“Crap! You didn’t tell him about me, did you? Oh crap, oh crap…!” Jared sounded like he was about to cut the call out of panic.

“No! No, not… not yet? Like, maybe if you help me out, he never hears about you at all? He’s really scary, just has this feel to him, like he’s super dangerous? Like he’s got some kind of real power?” Ro looked over at Tola, who gave something of a pout at the characterization.

The silence was very heavy. “Did he… have a dog with him?”

Tola nodded. Ro turned back to the phone. “Oh yeah, totally, with these weird eyes, like a snake or something? You suuuure you don’t wanna help out? I’d hate to have to tell him you had the book and lost it or something…”

“Oh no… Not him… Look, I, uh… I’ll give you back all the money, I’ll give you more, just don’t tell him anything, please? Oh man, he’s gonna kill me… Like, literally kill me, guys! I… I can’t… Oh man! Please, anything, I’ll do anything!”

Tola cleared his throat and sighed. “Look, Ro, I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but… I don’t want to get what I need through threats. Jared, I’m not… I’m not going to hurt you. Well, more than I did already. Sorry. Threatening you is not the way to go. I want to get ahead by using my abilities to help people. So, Jared, how can I help you, so you’ll give me the book?”

“I-I don’t… I don’t have it. Please, just… just leave me alone, I swear I don’t have it…” The voice on the other end quaked in fear. I guess if he somehow didn’t recognize Tola’s voice, the admission of previous harm jogged his memory.

“Really? You paid a ton of money for a book, a book with runes you know are real magic, and you just… what, lost it? That doesn’t seem like you, Jared. What aren’t you telling me? Is it something you’d rather say in person? I can come to Des Moines…”

The shriek from the other end was delicious, followed by the clattering of a phone that had been picked up to end the call but dropped and fell to the floor, bouncing around for a moment. “Crap crap crap, no, oh God, oh no…!” Grunts and groans followed, before the phone was picked up. “No! No, please! I… I… I can’t say, he’ll… he’d kill me!”

“He? Who is ‘he’? Who are you afraid of more than me?” Tola added, “I mean, not that I want you to be afraid of me. I just don’t want you attacking me or Princess either. Or anyone else. Oh, I’m getting sidetracked. Look, just tell me what’s going on, okay?”

“No…! He’ll kill me if I say anything, you’ll kill me if I don’t… Please…!” He was actually starting to cry.

Tola sighed heavily again. “No, Jared, I’m not going to kill you. I swear. Might doesn’t make right, we talked about this. What CAN you tell me? I won’t be upset with you if you don’t want to tell me things. Well, maybe a little upset, but I won’t DO anything to you because of it, okay? You help me, I’ll help you, we both benefit, okay?”

Sniffling came through from the phone, and Jared seemed to calm down a little. “Y-you’re not… like him at all. Maybe… I don’t know. I-I didn’t tell him about you. He’d kill me if he knew I had you and lost you before he could get anything from you… I didn’t tell anyone, I t-told them all I… fell down stairs.”

“Yes, I heard. Well, I appreciate you… not telling this person, I suppose?”

“He’s… He’s got power, I don’t know how much. He taught me how to use Fire, he’s going to teach me more. He calls me an Apprentice, and makes me call him Master, but he treats me more like a pet.” Jared said that last part with a bit of bitterness.

“I take offense to that!” I huffed.

“You… take offense to someone being treated like a pet?” Master smirked down at me.

“Well! I mean… I… I dunno, just… It’s… You can’t MAKE someone call you that, you get that by… being nice! Being… A Master is someone who takes care of you, treats you well, wants you there… They don’t abuse you, they don’t be mean to you! That’s not a Master, that’s… that’s a Jerk! I’m… I dunno, it’s hard to put into words, but it just… rankles me when I hear a Jerk using the term Master, that’s for someone like you!”

Master continued to smirk, before reaching down to scritch behind my horn. “Interesting… I think that’s another thing in the pile of things we really should have a talk about at some point. Why you chose to be my pet.”

I huffed, blushing deeply, but I wasn’t about to pull away from scritches.

Jared spoke up again after a brief silence settled in. “Look, I… I don’t… I don’t know, okay? I’m… I thought I was something, but I’m really way in over my head and didn’t know it. You showed me that. I think maybe I just want to forget I know anything, try to go back to a normal life. I don’t think he’s gonna let me, though…”

“Look, Jared… Tell you what. Think about what you want, and… maybe I’ll call again. Maybe you’ll have an idea of how I can help. Whether it’s standing up to this guy, or giving you something to defend yourself, or something. I don’t know, it’s your life and your situation, all I can do is make guesses.”

“O-Okay… I guess…” And then the call ended by Jared’s hand.

Cheryl sighed. “Well, that got us nowhere.”

Tola rubbed his temple and sighed. “Not quite. We found out that there’s someone Jared reports to, someone who probably taught him the magic he knows. Someone who has a strong interest in magic, and we don’t know how much they know or how powerful they are. And there’s a good chance Jared will tell them about me, if he hasn’t already, which means life might get much worse very soon.”

“Oh, joy. So that got us worse than nowhere.”

“Not necessarily.” I interjected. “Now that we know, we can start trying to prepare, and also maybe find them. Someone that powerful is bound to leave some sort of tracks. Better than being caught unaware, right?”

“Barely. But yes, thank you, Princess.” Tola sighed heavily, not looking forward to the way things were shaping up.