It has turned out that Fatma is the muscle in their operation, magically speaking; Lisa is the ritualist and her cousin, Amir, whom I had the pleasure to meet with his conjured firearm not directly aimed at me but quite obviously pointed in my direction, is the head of their field operations. I am a bit sad about that. I wanted my students to use what I taught them, not necessarily as leaders, but for sure as ritualists.
A: I am pleased to meet me cousin’s teacher.
P: I always hoped to see knowledge spread and be used.
F: I have used it. It has gotten me my racial ability. I did the ritual myself.
P: Had you looted it conventionally.
F: No, the government actually delivered essences for the better pupils of the class.
P: Impressive. Are you working for more essences?
A: Eventually
F: They know I have gotten one. I cannot risk questions.
A: For now we need allies
P: Against whom?
A: Whoever will come out on top. It isn’t going to be us.
Is this guy a realist?
P: That won’t be me either.
F: But you are a full essence magician.
P: But I am alone. And my face has been on TV. I would be a liability here. I need to rebase.
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The looks I got from that were somehow more measured.
A: I see. What would that entail?
P: I need to make allies in a certain sense.
A: You want essences.
P: And stones. You seem resourceful.
F: He can tell, cousin. Full essence magicians have a sixth sense.
P: But you still need potions.
F: We have contacts who are not in perfect health or, better from our perspective, whose family members are sick.
They have been hard negotiators. We have resolved all but one question.
A: We have one customer who insists on personal service. The disease is congenital.
He probably knows that I can teleport away. And if he does not, I will not tell him.
P: Yes?
A: There is an essence for you in the deal.
I need allies.
F: We know that you have all your essences. But you have a family, don’t you.
P: I am going to do it.
L: And I am going to join you.
Returning to the car I at least find out that Lisa is a cat person.
L: Those two are adorable. Are you getting lonely?
P: Yes, that is one of the reasons.
L: Let me enter our meeting point into the navigation system … Did you have to get a car so old that it doesn’t have built-in navigation?
P: Is that general annoyance or do you not dare let anybody know our meeting point?
L: Both
P: I get a discrete navigation system.
She is happier with that.
L: You are pretty spry for an older fellow
P: I am young enough to still go to the movies.
L: I saw that one on TV
P: Genuine TV, not a streaming service?
L: Yes, old man. Do you think we are going to survive this?
P: This mission? Probably. Or do you mean in the long run?
L: The long run.
P: I don’t know. I got enemies and you are not good at hiding quietly.
L: Right. I still feel … We are not going to make it. Everybody will fight for essences now. Hell, we are very close to doing so. I am cold.
She is leaning closer. I put a hand around her shoulders.
The seats in this car recline far.