“She’s going to help us?” asked Misa.

“I will support you,” answered Yand-Una. “And I’m going to supervise Avarez.”

“Like I told you,” I said. “I am on probation. She’s my probation officer, making sure I don’t do anything stupid. But we’re still going to talk to Isadal, and having a Senior with us might help us tip the scale in our favor.”

“Using the Cabal to tip the scales in our favor,” said Yand-Una. “The Fey are not strangers to conflict or violence, but having the Cabal as your enemy won’t bode well for their plans.”

“We think we can stop them from choosing conflict if the Cabal is behind the curtains using force to stop them.”

“There’s only one problem…”

“That, maybe, conflict is what they want.”

“The vampires?” asked Misa.

I thought of saying something about how smart she was. But when Yand-Una remain silent, I thought that maybe this wasn’t a conversation we should have with Misa. Despite her already knowing about the possibility of war, in general, the Cabal doesn’t like normal mortals to know about supernatural conflicts.

Yand-Una was a Senior now, and her word and place in the Cabal were more significant. Her responsibilities encircled me and my actions, as well as the greater relationship between the Cabal, the supernatural, magic, and mortals. If I said something she didn’t like, she could talk about how loose-lipped I am, and how much I could put everyone, including mortals and wizards, at risk. Once my use is over, I could be disposed of.

This trial time I’m currently experiencing is fortunate. It was never specified, but if I handle myself right, I will be given a second chance; Yand-Una could vouch that I do my best to be responsible, trustworthy, and I would put the lives of mortals before mine. If I meet the qualities of an ordained Wizard, then I should be able to keep my head on my shoulders, or at the very least my magic.

Having your magic removed would strip me from everything I am, and maybe even my soul. It would also leave me defenseless against vampires. They would not be explicitly killing me, but they could by accident or by leaving me for dead. In any case, losing my magic would be a death sentence.

“I thought you owned a car,” explained herself Yand-Una.

“I don’t earn enough money for that,” I explained.

Yand-Una looked uncomfortable seating in the half-destroyed seat I had offered her, while I sat next to Misa, both of us in the seats before her. Misa was seating in a mostly intact seat while my seat was completely gone. I could feel the cold metal bar where the seat should’ve been.

“Your friend owns a car, doesn’t he?”

I turned to see her and gave her a quizzical look.

“How do you know about him?”

“I had to look into you. Besides, after the news about your involvement with the vampires, everyone has heard about him too. A radera alchemist with too little care for those around him.”

“You don’t know him,” I claimed, feeling insulted in Tedet’s stead. I turned around to look at the front of the bus and decided to ignore her.

“Why not call him to help us, huh?”

I would not call Tedet, now more than before. The Cabal is involved with my case now and having an alchemist would definitely tick them the wrong way. Even if my warden ended up liking him, there’s no way she could defend herself or him from their prodding.

I had no reason to answer Yand-Una. She knew why I would not call him, but she still wanted to push the topic of my best friend, one way or another.

“I heard he suffered injuries when you involved him in your mess. Any regrets?”

I grunted. She was making it really hard for me to stay quiet, but I had no reason to answer. And even if I did, she did not care about Tedet, she only cared about what she could find out from me.

“These are the longest fifteen minutes of my life,” I complained.

“I’m sorry,” apologized Misa.

I could not fathom why she would feel responsible for my suffering. At this point, Misa must have felt like she was the cause of everyone’s problems. If the market crashed, I bet she would feel like she had hand in it and try to apologize to everyone she meets. She keeps showing that stark difference from the very courageous woman she is within.

I looked at Misa and then turned to see my warden, looking at me straight in the eyes. I locked eyes with her to test her and she did not waver, even when she felt the pull from the soul gaze. I was the one that broke it off, and she scoffed at my reaction. She must have felt like she won an encounter.

Yand-Una might not be afraid of me or vampires, not even the Fay, but she was just a Senior Wizard. Misa, on the other hand, was a below-average-strength mortal woman.

You wish you had one-tenth the courage Misa has, I directed my thoughts towards my warden.

“Where was this river again?” she asked.

“The north of the city,” I explained. “Given how the river’s water level is closely related to the rain, and that we’re not yet in autumn, a way to the spiritual realm should bring us close to the Rain.”

“I can’t believe I’m tagging along with you.”

“Orders are orders.”

“Disposing of you are also my orders.”

“What’s taking you, then?”

“Waiting for a sign or a signal,” she said looking straight at me. “I don’t trust you but I don’t think you’re a traitor. I just think you’re a threat to humanity and the Cabal.”

“Others think I am?”

“You expect them to think otherwise? The only reason you’re not killed for treason is that you saved mortals from the vampires and because you’re too useful for the war. One alone doesn’t make a strong case, but the two together were enough to convince the Council.”

“And how do you know all of this?”

She did not answer, and when I turned to look at her, she was staring at me if one eyebrow raised. Her expression dared me to keep asking more questions, she wanted to be entertained by my ignorance, but I did not give her the pleasure. This however made me question my earlier comments about how she didn’t know what the Council was going to do with me.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she mocked.

I lowered and turned to fix myself in my seat that was digging into my buttocks.

There were only a few minutes left before arriving at our destination and I had no reason to engage in any more conversations with her. I directed my next words to Misa.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“She may be a pain in my ass but she’s your ticket to safety. If anything happens stay close to her, you have a better chance of staying alive with her than with me. You can trust her with your life, she would not and cannot do anything to you or leave you for dead. She’s made an oath and she’s the kind of person that takes oaths very seriously, as you can tell.”

She nodded only slightly, bending her head forward once, reluctantly accepting my truth. There was very little she could do about her situation, other than to trust those around her, and although she trusted me to some extent, her natural and instinctual self-reliance made her dislike her situation.

I couldn’t fault anyone for that slight distrust; that’s who we are.

A few more minutes came by until we finally arrived at our stop. It took just as much to walk towards the edge of the old river. A little creek ran through it, only barely glistening in the dry canal, adorned with several piles of trash that had flown over, had been thrown into, or had washed down to here from up the river when the current grows in autumn.

The perfect place to travel to near the Rain. All that’s left is to set the ritual and open the Way.

Unlike with the Cabal, in which the set-up was the entire journey up to the initial spot, this time, we’re required to set the ritual physically into our world to connect it to the spirit’s.

I drew the circle as perfectly as I could with a stick and used the wet silty and loamy bed near the creek as my medium – the current washes sediment from upstream as well. I leave the circle open, and make sure to gather up objects to place inside the circle. Yand-Una was a step ahead of me and had already gathered some round pebbles and washed up wood.

“Great,” I said. “Can you set it up?”

“I’m not new to this.”

I shrugged it off.

There was very little I could say to this woman before we begin arguing. She barely meant anything with that comment, but I’m the kind of guy that likes taking jabs at people for the fun of it. Besides Tedet – and sometimes I feel like he should be excluded – Hayier, and Marty, other people don’t understand my kind of sense of humor. I decided I should take it easy and not provoke her.

The ritualistic circle was completed in a matter of seconds, my warden took no time in doing it, clearly showcasing her vast knowledge only comparable to mine.

“Not bad,” I said, and closed the circle.

My magic flowed into the circle the ritual activated perfectly well, like a computer program simply running on a code we had created. All we did was execute the software and let it do its magic.

Similar to our last hole, this one appeared like a sphere was being molded in front of us out of thin air. Once the ritual was over the circle lost its magic properties and it broke off. Nothing was holding on to the Way and after a few moments, it will lose enough magic – like how cooked food loses its heat – and simply collapse and close off the connection between the worlds.

“You should be used to it by now,” I addressed Misa.

“Why couldn’t we walk there from the spirit world?” She asked.

“Would you walk to the nearest city or would you rather take a plane?”

“The plane?” she answered, unsure.

“We’re taking the plane.”

She seemed unconvinced by my answer. After using these holes four times, she decided that they were the worst experience she has had in her life.

I agreed.

“In we go,” I encouraged.

“I don’t like this,” she said.

“We’ll be right behind you. You don’t have to worry about what’s on the other side.”

I very obviously ignored her complaint and she turned to give me a displeased glare before jumping in.

That made me somewhat proud.

The other side was a sight to behold. We were standing on top of a running river and the drop soaked me up to my chest, despite the river being only knee-deep.

To one side, we could see grey and soft clouds that looked like they were being smeared down towards the ground. On the other side, the same kinds of clouds were darker, less fluffy, and more electric.

Choosing where to go was a matter of spotting the calmest rainfall conditions and simply walking towards it. Nothing was complicated about going to the Rain jurisdiction.

However, the moment I and Yand-Una fell in, we became extremely alert to something.

“Wow,” said Misa. “I suddenly felt shivers.”

Us wizards turned to see her, then looked at each other. The alarming surprise on our faces had made it clear we were both on the same page. We spotted some rocks that cleared their topside above the running water’s surface, and climbed on top of them. Outside the river’s current, we could use magic.

“Misa,” I told her. “Stay close to Yand-Una.”

She expressed her confusion loudly but without the use of words.

“Do exactly as she tells you and never stay too far behind her unless she tells you otherwise.”

It only took a few seconds before a hint of fear appeared on her face. In the span of milliseconds, Misa’s stand changed to a tensed one, all the clear signs of a human that was hyper-aware of her surrounding, listening for danger or predators. The poor Misa must have felt it as well, her small body hair was standing straight up, and was dotted with goosebumps.

“What’s happening?” she asked. “What is this?”

“The spirit realm atmosphere functions as a medium for magic, as well. You are not normally aware of magic, but over here you are.”

“There’s something close. I feel it.”

“I feel it too,” interrupted my warden. “A demon. Stay close.”

Why was a demon this close to the Rain, inside the Faery territories? And to that, why was it hunting us? Demons don’t just hunt humans out of nowhere, they need a reason, otherwise, they prefer to take our souls. This one was clearly aiming for us, Yand-Una and I were very aware of its intentions. The magical signals coming from it were powerful, so much so that Misa was highly aware of it. There is no reason for a demon to act like this unless it aimed to use very dangerous magic.

I prepared myself and felt Yand-Una doing the same. Her control of the Power was vastly more refined than mine. In her case, it felt like being caressed by thin and sharp tendrils.

She turned to look at me in surprise, and even Misa began looking in my direction until she locked her sight on me. Misa look confused, and Yand-Una looked suspiciously.

There was an instant of a spark, I turned in its direction, and before I could react, a veil came down before me.

“Wall!” Yand-Una shouted behind me.

A ball of flames struck an invisible barrier just two meters before me – a wind-based barrier. The heat that leeched through the barrier warmed my dumbfounded face. Next thing I knew, I was erecting a wall of rock in front of an oncoming locomotive of a beast.

“Scutum!” I screamed.

The slim but big figure disappeared behind the erected grey wall. Water splashed as the figure ran a beeline towards us. A second later a crash was followed by the crumbling of my rock shield. Water splashing and dunking sounds suffocated the normal sound of the running river.

Sweet Mary. “Run!” I shouted. “Quickly!”

“Where?” asked Yand-Una, pulling Misa from her hand.

“Towards the Rain!”

“You want us to take a demon to the fey?!”

“Any better ideas?!”

“Damn you to hell, Avarez! Why are you involved with demons?!”

And why am I to blame for this? I thought.

I ran alongside them, the river below us made me jump as we tried clearing ourselves towards the edge. Clearing the river, we directed ourselves towards the trees and pushed through a dense forest.

The demon could be heard clearly behind us. Its long strides would let it catch up to us in no time. There was no way we can outrun it, and there was no way we can kill it given its agility. At least not in a straight fight.

Thinking on the go was not one of my best attributes. In fact, it was one of my worst. The last time, I ran from something, my only plan was to throw myself off a window, hoping my luck would let me live the fall. This time, it was just the same but without a window. My brilliant plan was simple, turn around, fight the thing, and hope it gets distracted with me so that they, Misa and Yand-Una, can clear a good chunk of their way to the Rain and live.

As for me? My state-of-the-art monkey brain calculated my chances of survival and came up with the result that I was going to die regardless. Putting one and one, my analysis was that I’d rather fight and die, with a chance of fighting and living. Otherwise, I’d be running and dying, with a chance of slipping and embarrassing myself in front of the demon, and then dying.

I knew I was crap at maths, and I knew there was no reason why I would have a chance at living if I turned to fight. But something in my brain told me that it could be true. My animal instinct told me to fight, that there was hope in that futile struggle, to stand my ground and hurt the son-of-a-bitch that wanted to eat me.

I chuckled and found resolve. Stupid resolve, but resolve, nonetheless. That was good enough for me.

“Keep moving!” I told them. “Don’t stop! I’ll hold it off!”

“Are you stupid?! You’ll die!” Yand-Una retorted loudly, stopping to turn around and scold me.

This is when you’ll hear something like, ‘I will be right behind you,’ triggering a death flag. I had no need of raising it or even wanted to, so there was no reason to say any of these clichéd phrases.

“KEEP MOVING!” I ordered.

Something in her ground hurtfully, her face showing repulse and regret, but her feet were already moving. The last thing I saw from her was her body turned around and pulling Misa with her. I turned myself to face the demon stomping its way towards us, leaving small trees crashed to the ground in its wake.

“You and me, buddy,” I talked to it in a whisper. “Can’t believe I’m doing something so stupid to save my warden.”

The demon responded to my dumb monologue with a roar.

I interpreted his answer and answered it back: “Yeah, I know. How stupid.”

It took some time to get to the action. It was only a matter of time before it happened. I wish this had been postponed for later.

I readied my magic for the last battle of my life and soaked myself in the magic of the spirit realm. I took as much as I could until it hurt.

“Luckily,” I taunted, “I was never known for my wit.”