My name was called by an unfamiliar voice. I spun around, my eyes landing on two very different masked individuals gawking at me. Yin and Yang, I thought instinctively, looking at them. The man, whose name was listed simply as Black Cat, had his face covered by a cat mask, with crimson red eyes peeking through. Disturbingly, the whites of his eyes weren’t white at all, but black. The color coated him, from the hair on his head to the sandals on his feet. The only white part of him, it seemed, was his skin. The man’s compatriot, meanwhile, was almost his complete opposite. Named White Owl, her brown hair was pulled back behind her head in a ponytail that struck her lower back. Her green eyes were the sole features visible beneath the mask of an owl, and her white robes were topped with a feathery cloak that hung from her shoulders. I got the sense she was smiling underneath the mask.

Their presence weighed on the air like lead weights, and chills ran up my spine.

“It is you! Woah, I never expected to meet you here,” Black Cat said, the dark jewels on his earrings jingled as he took a couple of steps in toward me. Ani slid between us, pressing his arched back against my shins.

Sinbad nudged me in the side and whispered, “Is this the friend you were looking for?”

I shook my head.

Black Cat received a swift elbow in the side, courtesy of White Owl. She leaned to whisper in his ear. “Look at his face.”

His almost glowing red eyes snapped to my face. He snapped his finger and slammed his fist against his palm. “You haven’t met me yet.”

White Owl sighed the long, suffering sigh one uses when their companion is acting disappointedly and expectedly foolish.

Their odd actions pointed to one exciting possibility. “Have you met me?”

White Owl and Black Cat exchanged a communicative look, passing an extensive conversation in milliseconds. Black Cat’s head tilted to the side, and he tossed his hand dismissively. White Owl’s head drooped.

“Depends on your definition of ‘met.’”

Sinbad stood tall next to me in silent support, and I was grateful as I gripped my arm, still uneasy. “In this case, ‘met’ would be defined as to ‘having previously come into the presence or company of someone by chance or arrangement.’”

“Did you actually memorize parts of the dictionary?” Black Cat asked, shaking his head. “Wait, don’t answer that. You totally have.”

“A-” White Owl started to say, cutting herself off at the last second with a polite cough. “Black Cat, be mindful,” she warned.

Black Cat dismissed her concerns. “If Hayden asks me a question, I’m obliged to answer it. I owe him one.” I filed that information away for later as he turned to me, not blinking as his eerie red eyes stared straight through me. He moved like a cat that was taunting his prey. The mask lifted slightly on his face, and I got the impression he was grinning like the Cheshire cat.

“By that definition, yes. I’ve ‘come into the presence’ of you before.”

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The word before weighed heavy in my mind, worming its tendrils into my thoughts.

“I think I liked you better then.” He added. “You were much more fun.”

My feet twitched as instinct begged me to run away, escape from his locked-on sights. He caught the movement and tsked. Black Cat glanced back at White Owl, and another silent conversation passed between them.

White Owl nodded and turned her attention to me. “We won’t hurt you,” White Owl said, addressing me directly for the first time. Her voice was soothing, like an evening lullaby. “Black Cat and I just want to thank you.”

“For what?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

Black Cat placed his hands on his hips. “Look. ‘White Owl,’” he said her name mockingly, “and I both owe you a favor. And I hate being in debt. So, here’s what’s going to happen. When you need my help, just think of me, and I’ll come.” his thumb jerked in the direction of White Owl. “When you need her help, just think of her, and she’ll appear.”

“What do you mean by favors?” I wondered, wary of the response.

Black Cat scoffed. “Between the two of us? Anything. Like the cat, I bring chaos with me. If you need anything else, go to White Owl.”

Neither of them was helpful, and I tried to level him with my best-unimpressed face. Black Cat sniggered but elaborated as I’d hoped, his arms opening wide. “Go ahead, take a look.”

Cautiously, I did as he’d invited, reaching out with mental magic. Black Cat’s presence was a void, a black hole that shed no light and devoured endlessly. White Owl’s presence nearby was as bright and powerful as a supernova. I yanked myself away, and stared back at them with wide, wild eyes.

I swallowed thicky past the fear clogging my throat. These two were the most powerful beings I’d ever encountered or even heard of. Cove’s magic was a grain of sand compared to the depts of theirs. When Black Cat had said ‘anything,’ I wasn’t sure he was exaggerating.

Pain registered in my brain, and I pried my fingers from my arm. That would bruise later.

Black Cat mistook my fear as something else and said, “And make sure it’s something big. Nothing boring. I don’t want to have to keep doing tiny favors until we’re even.”

“How did you meet me?”

“Through a soon-to-be mutual acquaintance.” Black Cat said, yawning. “C’mon, I know you’re smarter than this.”

“This won’t be a monkey’s paw situation, will it?” I asked, wary my ‘favors’ would be turned against me. If that was the case, then I didn’t want them.

“Not for you.”

“We don’t trick people that way,” White Owl said, horrified. Her eyes darted at Black Cat, and she restated her sentence. “Or, I don’t. If there are any negative consequences, we will help you solve them, I swear.”

I chewed on my lips, thoughtful.

“You don’t have to give us an answer right away.” White Owl said. “Use it wisely.”

Black Cat tossed me a loose, two-fingered salute. “You’re…doing whatever it is that you do, and we’re on vacation, so we’ll get out of your hair. I’ll see you later, Hayden. Remember, make sure it’s something interesting.”

My mouth moved of its own accord. I thought of the scattered fragments, like Elm, and wondered what their powers' limits were. “Wait!”

They paused, focusing their full attention on me. “Do either of you know how to reconstruct a world?”

Black Cat turned to me in interest, his hands going wide and the mask lifting slightly on his cheeks once again. Beneath the mask, his eyes narrowed as he grinned. “Now we’re talking.”