Jana and Jeremy fell landed in another parking lot.
Jana stood up and looked around. There was a small crowed gathered around the consisting of about a dozen people.
“I’m getting deja-vu,” Jeremy noted, standing.
“Yeah,” Jana responded, walking forward with her phone out. “Let’s get going.” Jeremy followed her, while Jana waved off the crowd with an annoyed expression. “Shoo, get outta my way. Not taking interviews at this time, you get the idea.” People backed off, even though she’d spoken in English, and she didn’t bother stopping the pedestrians with their phones recording her.
“This town kinda seems in the middle of nowhere. I’m surprised she’d live here.”
“Madam Illuma’s monastery is apparently here, but I can’t predict whether my maps app is good or not. Sometimes it’s a complete idiot.”
Jeremy scrunched his face in skepticism. “I feel like this is a bit of a stretch. We don’t know for sure where this Illuma woman is, or if she’s busy, we don’t know where we even are, we can’t speak Italian, and we don’t even know if clairvoyance can see the invisibros in the first place.”
Jana glanced back at him with an amused smirk. “Invisibros? Sure, whatever works. But I’d put just a bit of faith in this plan. We’ll need all the help we can get if we’re searching for a whole bunch of invisible guys scattered across the globe, and…” She clicked her tongue. “All the luck we can get, too.”
They walked through the town, and it seemed like the crowd kept growing, following behind the two of them. Jana kept her phone floating in front of them as they walked, but she stashed it as they approached a large building.
Anyone could tell it was a bit of a landmark just by looking at it. It was three stories tall, with stained glass windows and heavily sloped roofs, which were slanted in four different directions, making a square atop the building’s brick walls. The front entrance was a set of pillars which led to an open courtyard in the center of the building.
“Looks like this is the place,” Jana said, walking through the pillars. “So you haven’t watched her before?” she asked.
“Not really,” Jeremy responded. “I’ve seen a clip or two though. I hear it’s got crazy good cinematography.”
“Somethin’ like that.”
Seven people dressed in blue garbs appeared to be meditating in the courtyard, ignoring their presence entirely as the two walked between the two columns, and toward the seventh person, who sat between the two on a bench in front of the yard’s fountain with a hood hiding their downcast face.
“Uhh, hey, you,” Jana said.
They looked up ever so slightly. “Yes?”
“Do you know where I can find…Madam Illuma?” she asked.
She heard the woman chuckle. “Ahh, yes. Do you seek something long lost, great psychic?” Not a heavy accent. Jana thought. They must have spoken the language frequently.
Jana’s face squished in concern for the woman’s…vocabulary, though. “In some weird manner of speaking, yeah.”
“Good, then it is as I predicted.”
Before Jana could respond, the six other people in meditation suddenly stood up, then spun in a circle, and when they spun back to face Jana and Jeremy, a camera was in each of their hands.
Jeremy sidled closer to the super-psychic, both of them taken aback as the cameramen swiftly moved to different positions across the yard, in an almost chaotic, yet rehearsed choreography.
“The hell’s going on?” Jana said, back to back with Jeremy as she looked about nervously.
“Hmhm,” the lady said, standing up once the others took their positions, then pulling back her hood to reveal an aged but warmly smirking face. “If you wish to know, great psychic, then I might expound the truth: I’ve been expecting you, Jana pontoon.”
“The fuck?” Jana said after an incidentally dramatic pause of confusion.
She put a hand to her lips. “Shh, this is a family-friendly show, Miss Pontoon. I do suggest you keep the profanity to a minimum. For the editor’s sake.”
“Uhh…” she glanced to Jeremy, and they exchanged a look before she turned back to Madam Illuma. “A-alright…”
“Now, let me invite you inside for tea.”
The tea was already prepared, set on a circular dining table atop small tea plates, and rightly beside small plates of salad, enough for two people. “Please, take a seat, both of you.” Illuma said, sitting down on a seat scooted open by a man with his eyes closed, who wore a butler’s outfit.
“S-sure…” Jana said, telekinetically sliding the one beside her out for Jeremy to sit on. She glanced around the room. It had a fireplace and nice tapestries, as well as multicolored carpets scattered about the ground. It was homely, decorated with warm colors. The camera crew had also taken their positions across the room, still dressed in monk’s robes.
Illuma sipped on her tea, before saying, “So, it would be imprudent of me to skip introductions. How about we each introduce ourselves. Who would like to start?”
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“E-erm…well, I’m Jana…” she began, still a bit rattled. “I’m the CEO of the Psychic League, and I’m also a super psychic,” she said, quickly finding her footing. “I live and base my operations in Canada, but you’ve probably heard of my company, unless you live under a rock,” she said. “Oh, and you’ve probably heard of me too.”
“What about hobbies?” Illuma asked.
“Hobbies?” Jana said questioningly. So we’re already in her reality TV show. I’m not sure how legal this all is, or how it works, but I’ll play. “Well,” she began, before punching a bag of concentrated air. “I like to practice boxing. I’ve always been a fan of the psychics who get in real close then kick the crap out of their enemy with psychical attacks. It takes grit. I also like to practice my psychic abilities.”
“So you’re a fighter, eh?”
“You sure as- heck can be sure I am. Kicking people’s butts is a bit of a hobby of mine.” But I guess that was obvious.
“Hmm. And to my understanding, you’re no ordinary psychic, but a greater psychic. How do you practice with such great power?” Illuma asked calmly, her expression reserved.
“Well, I usually just go to my training grounds, but I try to practice with other super psychics,” Jana explained. “Friendly sparring is the best way to improve.” She definitely knows what happened with Psychi, but will she comment on it to drag me down, or what?
“Hmm…” she hummed mysteriously before turning to Jeremy. “And what about you? Would you care to introduce yourself next?”
“O-oh, me?” he said, partially surprised he’d even been addressed at all. Jana took up all the attention, for sure. Not only did she have an imposing personality, she was larger than him in the ways that mattered, and was obviously the person people wanted to know about. Uhh… He glanced to Jana as he tried to figure at what to say, and she motioned her head for him to get on with his introduction. “Well, I’m Jeremy Purdue. I’m Psychi Purdue’s brother. Uhh…yeah.”
“Oh, is that so?” Illuma asked, tilting her head with a sharp gaze. Jeremy had a feeling she was genuinely surprised to learn who he was, and trusted his trained instinct. “And what about you? What do you do on your free time?”
“I…play video games. Watch anime…uhh, I hang out with my friends and stuff.”
“Hmm.” She nodded subtly. “So you and Miss Pontoon are acquainted. What a curious duo.” Jana raised an eyebrow at the word ‘duo’. “I believe it would be rude if I did not give you the liberty of an introduction, so,” Madam Illuma stood from her seat, a hand on her chest. “I am Psychic Master of Clairvoyance, Madam Illuma, but you may also call me by my first name, Macy. It would be my pleasure to serve you two to the best of my ability.”
…
She nodded to a cameraman after a brief pause then sat back down, before clapping, then rubbing her hands together excitedly. “Alright, you all know the drill, let’s get out those contracts for our precious clients!”
Her close-eyed butler walked to the other side of the table, then gently placed multiple-paged contracts and pens before Jana and Jeremy.
She smirked. “Please, read the contracts at your own paces. I won’t rush you.”
Jana telekinetically lifted it to her face, then leaned back as she read, while Jeremy reluctantly began reading. I can leave this to Jana, but I’ve got nothing better to do.
“Oh, but before you sign, I need to know,” Macy said, causing Jana to move aside the contract with a bored expression. “What is it you need my help finding?”
“A person,” Jana said simply. “Multiple people, actually.”
Macy’s eyes moved about silently for a moment. “Using my psychic abilities to search for people is…dubiously legal,” she explained. “Could you explain further?”
“They’re invisible people, basically,” Jana said without a hint of irony. “There’s supposed to be seven of them, and we’ve found two.”
“What.”
…
Psychic Master Illuma blinked rapidly for a good ten seconds as she tried to comprehend what she’d heard. She shook her head. “I…see. Invisible people. And how would a clairvoyant such as I find them?”
“It’s our working theory that they’re visible only to clairvoyance,” Jana explained. “If it helps, Jeremy can see them.”
Macy looked toward him with a curious expression. “So his psychic ability grants him enhanced vision?”
“He doesn’t have psychic powers, as far as I know.”
“But if that would be the case, how does he see the unseen?”
“I dunno. I’m pretty sure his sister can read his mind, and she can’t do that on psychics…” And he’s a Green psychic, so he shouldn’t have any abilities.
“Curious. But let’s not digress too far. May I question the details of your request? Invisible people aren’t exactly…my area of expertise.”
She desperately wants me on her show, Jana thought. I’m kinda a big deal, after all. That’s bargaining leverage, for later. “It’s a bit of a strange story,” Jana explained. “Could you give Jeremy and I a moment to speak?”
“Of course.”
Jana moved him into another room, where she whispered to him, “So what do you think? This is your schick we’re dealing with.”
“I don’t have a clue what that’s supposed to mean,” he responded, chewing his cheek.
“I mean, you’re the one who can see the invisibros, and this is your sister we’re worried about, so what do you wanna tell her?”
“To tell her…?” he said slowly to himself. “We can just tell her they need help or something?”
“That’s weird and you know it. Why would I bother to help with something that trivial? It isn’t a problem if we look suspicious, but Madam Illuma is definitely looking for a story, not a vague explanations.”
“Man, I dunno…” Jeremy said slowly. “But isn’t it kinda the truth?” he asked. “We don’t have that many reasons to help them in the first place.”
“Besides getting your sister back, you’re right. But I wouldn’t be helping you with this unless we had a reason…”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine, then how about something dumb like this.”
Macy rubbed her forehead as Jeremy explained why they needed to find the invisible people.
“So…” she began once he finished. “You’re telling me that a researcher Jana hired happened to teleport people across the globe and turn them invisible and ethereal in a freak accident, and you have personally come to me for help. Am I correct?”
Jana nodded. “Basically,” she said seriously, holding back laughter as she gave the best poker face she had -which was a rather good one.
Madam Illuma blinked a few times before saying, “Firstly, I honestly can’t remember the last time I was lied to so blatantly, but secondly…” he glanced to her coworkers about the room before clicking her tongue and nodding. “Hmhm…I can work with fiction.”