The drop wasn't pleasant, to say the least. Lai didn’t do well with heights, and as he felt the winds whip by him and the solid concrete sidewalk below getting closer and closer, he did feel that prickly, impending death twinge of fear despite being trained against it. Thankfully, he had jumped at just the right angle so as to avoid the nine rows of balconies below his flat.
Haley, however, kept her eyes wide and trained on the ground, her body stiff. Shock was also an acceptable response to this situation, but it wouldn’t do for Lai to have her leave this date frightened out of her mind and possibly dead.
Wouldn’t do well for his reputation in the dating game, and he was already at an all time low.
So he channeled the only magic he knew, or rather, could use. As a Dud, he couldn’t project his mana outside his body and form it into the many elements in the world, the building blocks of creation that let sorcerers conjure up wondrous firestorms or light shows. But he could channel it within him, strengthening the only 'element' he had an affinity with – his own body. He pulled Haley closer to him, bracing her, and then pumped mana into his other arm until the skin became like tensile steel. He jammed the arm into the brick wall of his apartment building and dug in. Sparks slid off his fingers as his fingers slid down the wall, making him squint and focus instead on the ground.
The drop became less of a terrifying experience when Lai guessed they were on the fifth floor. A trail of bright sparks followed them as they kept sliding down, their descent slowing to the point that Lai could jump off at the second floor and land with Haley in his arm safely, his legs boosted with just enough mana to take that fall without damage.
Far above, his flat exploded in a blinding white nova. For a second, it was almost like someone had flicked on the switch for the sun – that was how bright it got. There was no sound, no deafening crack of power. All Lai had done was expand the scorching temperatures of the grenade, letting it grow and swallow a wider area, as if a miniature sun had been unleashed right there. Then the light died just like that, the chaotic union of man-made chemicals and magical herbs creating an unholy blast that collapsed upon itself just as intensely as it had expanded, reducing the fat, slobbering demon into nothingness.
Unfortunately, it’d also reduced Lai’s flat to nothingness. It was a damn good thing that the tenth floor was the highest, or else all the floors above might have collapsed down like a broken tower of jenga.
Lai looked up one last time at the smoking crater that used to be his home of five years. He nodded, giving it a good send off.
“I hope the Court’s gonna foot the bill for repairs,” he whispered under his breath.
Haley tore herself off from Lai’s grip and breathed in deep, regaining her composure. The dress she’d worn this night, expensive silk, a dark, cherry red, was covered in splotches of dirty white dust.
“That was, that was-“ She took in another breath, feeling the relief of escaping death wash over her. “That was seriously cool. It was my first time seeing a demon in the flesh, you know, I studied them, of course, it’s part of introductory Arcanology, but wow, seeing it like, right there, physical, that was so scary and so interesting.”
“Wow,” said Lai. “You slip right through death and the first thing you think is ‘that was cool?’ I’m not ragging on you, I’m actually impressed. You sorcerers really do embody the ‘curiosity killed the cat’ thing.”
Haley shrugged. “Oh please, sorcerers nowadays just sit on their wealth and power. Nobody wants to innovate anymore. No exploration. More importantly, though-“
She motioned around her, towards the commotion kicking in. People on the sidewalk were staring at them. A few were on their phones, dialing the police, emergency services, yadda-yadda. People were starting to stream out from Lai’s apartment, deathly terrified of what had happened.
Lai gave a slow nod. He’d gotten rusty. It was standard protocol to leave as quickly as possible if you’d used magic visible to the public. Maintaining the secrecy of it and all.
“Good point.” Lai pointed across the street where quite a few cars had stopped to gawk at the fire burning atop the apartment. “Next block, we turn a left and keep going. We should reach a blind spot then, but before then, let’s run. Cover your face, too, if you can. I have ways of dealing with the police, but it’s a hassle.”
“You really are a dud.” Haley shook her head and drew a rune on her arm. It lighted a coal-black that stood out on her pale skin. “Give me your arm. Why bother running through the streets like a pair of crazies? All we need is a basic concealment spell for this.”
Lai held out his arm and slumped his shoulders. “Don’t give me too much crap. I never went to school, you know.”
“Don’t put yourself down.” Haley put her attention on his arm, focusing as she inscribed the rune. Lai felt it burn a little on his skin, not hot enough to hurt, but not exactly a pleasant temperature either. “We’re all talented in our own way, and you’re right: you really are good at killing things.”
Lai gave her a sarcastic wink. “It’s what I do.”
Haley rolled her eyes and tapped Lai’s arm. “I’m not sure that’s something to be proud of, but you do you. Let’s go. We’re going to the Center, right?”
“You catch on quick,” said Lai as he broke into a leisurely walking pace, grateful that everyone around them stopped staring at them, wondering where they’d gone. Soon enough, even their memories of the two would flee them.
“Doesn’t take a genius to figure out we’re going to the only safe-haven for sorcerers in the city,” said Haley. She was lagging behind Lai a bit due to wearing heels, but she quickened her pace. By the time they crossed the street, she was even with him and gave him a sideways glance. “I get the impression that you think I’m, well, how to put it, slow?”
“Dumb, yeah,” said Lai. He noticed Haley’s glare. “Oh, I mean, not you in particular, sorcerers in general.”
“Oh, so we’re all dumb?”
“No, not that either. Sorry, a little clumsy with the words here.” Lai put on an ingratiating smile. “My parents didn’t speak the best English, you see, first generation immigrants and all. Anyways, I meant that you sorcerers don’t seem street smart. You’re all – let me rephrase this – most of you know how to sit down and memorize magical formulae, but because of that, you don’t know what to do when your on your feet.”
“You’d be surprised.” Haley looked forwards, disappointment wreathed on her face. “Sorcery nowadays is all politics. Magic’s all been figured out, for the most part, primal mysteries aside -and most of us think it’s impossible to solve those. Everyone just sits on the knowledge and power they have, and they’ll fight tooth and nail to keep themselves on top. It's all magic is these days, lots of fighting over the past. We’ve lost sight of what magic’s meant to be.”
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“And what is magic meant to be?” asked Lai, genuinely curious. It was nice hearing the perspective of a sorcerer so different from her kind and yet at the same time so talented and involved in the world of magic.
Haley raised her arm and waved at the world around her. “Discovery. Magic’s so special – we’re literally wielding the fundamental energy that created this whole universe. We can do anything with it if we try, but we’ve bound up all our creations in books, labeled them all neatly as spells, regulated the creation of new spells, and settled into admiring what we have right now. It’s all such a waste.”
Lai raised a brow. He might not have known how to do most magic, but he did know the rules that sorcerers had to follow. It was one of his job requirements. Needed to know the rules to punish the rule breakers. And one of those rules was that creating new spells was heavily regulated, and for good reason. Creating something new was unstable, unpredictable. A new spell meant to regenerate cells just as easily might cause an overgrowth into cancer. To the Court, Haley’s views would be close to heresy.
“You sure you want to share that with me?” said Lai. “I am a Sentry, you know.”
“You saved my life. The least I can do is be honest.” Haley’s eyes flitted to the ground. “I guess I can also apologize for being so shallow during the date.”
“Yeah, you did seem a little distant during the whole thing in the way that sorcerers are. Just interested in what I study, what my family studied, how much influence my family has, what connections I have, you know, the whole package.” Lai smiled. “Why put up that act? You’re surprisingly likable as you are now.”
“Surprisingly?” Haley let out a short laugh. “Well, glad I could meet your expectations, I guess? And believe me, I’m still a sorcerer at heart. Just someone who hasn’t lost sight of our natural curiosity. By the by, you’re still going to set up a meeting with Roshana, right?”
Lai sighed. Playfully, this time, not in defeat. “I guess. Honestly, I think she’d take a liking to you. The two of you are a little alike.”
Haley clapped her hands together, and a light skip came into her steps. Lai shook his head, but he smiled nonetheless.
When they reached the end of the block, the atmosphere shifted. There was mana in the air, faint, but there. Lai felt the hair on his arm tingle. Mana was spiritual in nature, but it did have physical influence. If he had to compare it to something, it would have been like feeling invisible vibrations in the air.
To the left here would lead progressively closer to the Center. As the name stated, it was the center of the city. In all magical constructs, the center had a particular significance. Hence why golems and certain beasts had cores that kept them whole.
Long ago, back in the 1800s, when the city was young, sorcerers had carved out their influence at the city’s center. A big collection of rituals and bases that had permanently changed the flow of mana in the land, sort of like poking in a depression on a cloth. From then on, mana had always tended to gather there. Not a lot, mind you, what with buildings and man-made objects sprawling over anything sacred and ancient. But what little was left still gathered at that center to this day.
“A real piece of the past,” said Lai, peering to the left of the block, where urban development seemed to go back forty years, where older apartments and buildings, colorful and much shorter than the towering highrises, stood proudly. “Mana here feels nice. Low-key and peaceful.”
“You should try and go to real sorcerer territory,” said Haley. “The mana’s so thick in the air that your tongue gets numb if you stick it out.”
Lai rolled his tongue in his mouth. “Doesn’t exactly sound pleasant.”
“Because you haven’t tried it,” sighed Haley. She patted away some dust from her dress and stretched, the tumultuous night already behind her. “What’re you planning on doing now? It’s obvious someone wants you gone. Any idea who it is?”
“Not a clue. Everyone here is laid back because there’s nothing worth fighting over. I figure an outsider’s come in and wants to break a few Court rules, and this mystery mage wants me, the rule-keeper, dead.”
“Seems reasonable,” Haley nodded.
“Yeah, but finding this mystery mage is the real issue.” Lai clenched his fist. “Son of a bitch toasted my flat. The Court’s stingier than the grinch: they aren’t going to foot the whole bill for repairs, and they don’t even give me enough money to comfortably pay rent. If they ever get wind that I made such a big scene killing a demon, then I figure they’re finally going to send an investigation into my competency. On top of that, if I don’t catch this mystery mage, then I might as well count myself jobless and homeless, so you bet I’m going to spend every waking minute I got hunting this bastard down.”
“Good to see you motivated.” Haley turned right, away from the Center. “I don’t think it’s going to be safe for me with you and a mad sorcerer rampaging about, so I’m going to head back to my family. If you want, you can send that bill to me. Then we can consider ourselves even. You save my life, I save you from making history and being the first homeless Sentry.”
Lai blinked. Her family could pay to repair an entire floor of an apartment? In the city? That was a multi-million-dollar expense, and most sorcerer families, though wealthy, weren’t THAT stacked.
“What was your family name again?” asked Lai.
“Collins Per Olyndicus El Lugh”
“Oh.”
Lai was dealing with a bigshot here. Collins was her regular surname. ‘Per Olyndicus ‘meant one of her ancestors had been someone called Olyndicus, and sorcerers did not pay homage to an ancestor unless that individual had some extreme accomplishments for magic. Then there was ‘El Lugh’, meaning she could trace her bloodline all the way back to a god. In this case, the god of light Lugh, famous for being good at literally everything.
“Oh,” repeated Lai.
Haley smiled, obviously enjoying how much of a reaction her surname brought up.
Lai could not let Haley tell anything to her family. Any family that could trace their roots back to a god were Tribunes, highly influential bloodlines that managed much of the internal workings of the Court. If she told her family about how Lai had put her in danger and how sloppy he was tonight, he was absolutely toast.
Even if Haley herself seemed to like him, he had zero guarantees about the rest of her family, and his limited knowledge of these Tribune bloodlines told him that they were absolutely merciless, petty, and vengeful.
He hated to do this, but-
“Haley, I’ve thought long and hard about this, and I’ve come to a decision.” Lai slipped a hand into his pocket and withdrew a key-shaped pin from his inner world. It shone gold even in the dark of night, and magical energy surged from it as he thrust it towards Haley. “By the authority the Court of Keys has vested in me as Sentry, I hereby declare you under protective custody. You may not leave the premise of this city without my explicit permission for your own good and safety. You are to remain at a safe haven at all times, and you are to be vowed to silence so as to not compromise the integrity of this investigation.”
Haley stared at Lai with open mouth.
“You cannot be serious,” she said. “You just don’t want me to babble to my family. Are you that selfish? Do you have that little trust in me?”
Busted. But Lai couldn’t back down now. He hated to admit it, but saving his own hide came pretty high on his priority list.
“I can’t risk you getting hurt.” Lai pursed his lips. “I just need you safe until this is all over.”
Haley looked at Lai with disbelief, obviously seeing past his faked concern. She exhaled in defeat. “Alright, alright. I can’t go against an official seal, I guess, but you should know that even if you solve this case and get the Court to uphold your tenure, I can still get back at you through…other means.”
“Such as?”
“You might find it hard finding a landlord willing to let you rent a room.” Haley crossed her arms. “Money talks – that’s what the common folk here say, right? And we’ve got plenty of business connections all around this city. Might be hard to find a job. The banks might start not liking you for some reason, too.”
“This is illegal and an abuse of power,” protested Lai. “You can’t threaten a Sentry like this, come on.”
Haley rolled her eyes. “Oh please, look who’s talking about abuse of power. Look, I’m not that mean either. I just want you to make a compromise. I’ll stay here as long as you give me a few favors.”
She wore a triumphant smile that Lai couldn’t help feel annoyed at, and some semblance of self-respect told him that if he wanted to be an selfish asshole, he should go all the way and keep fighting back, but –
He really didn’t want to be homeless.