by J E Mueller
Several of the staff looked our way and plenty of guards started to head over.
“Wait!” Cat called. “I sense a few more. We need someone to find and dispel whatever’s going on.”
A few guards stepped forward and started scanning the room for more magic while others searched for anyone still lingering around. That should have been set off if it was created before the end of the dance. Someone in the crowd would have walked over it. This had to have been new.
Cat took a step back and I saw a rune light up behind her. I launched myself and a ward around us just in time. Thankfully, it wasn’t needed. Cat, instead of her normal stone flesh had scales covering her. For a moment, she swayed with the use of extra magic and I helped to steady her.
“Are you okay?” I asked softly.
“Yeah, totally wasn’t expecting that.” She shook her head tiredly before the scales receded.
I could hear several guards saying not to move and I held tight, leaving my ward up. It didn’t consume much energy to hold. The only time it got tiring was when it was actively absorbing magical hits.
“Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting my desire to dance with you tonight to be this much of an electrifying experience.”
Cat gave a light laugh and shook her head before leaning against me. “Yeah, me neither. These stupid scales have wiped me. Normal stone flesh isn’t too bad to use but master level scales ugh... I never practice it. It’s never needed!”
“It’s okay. It’s not something most people would have to practice. I probably should rework on some of my magic too.” I hadn’t actually practiced healing in ages and wards were a laughing matter.
We stood there for a few minutes until the all-clear was given and then rejoined my family in the living room. Of course, word had already reached them. No surprises there.
Cat and I sat tiredly on the sofa across from them.
“I apologize this event has turned out so terribly for you.” Mother said to Cat.
Cat just shook her head. “It’s not your fault at all, but thank you. It was fun right up until the end there. Thankfully, this should be an end of the excitement.”
My parents exchanged a look before my mother spoke again. “To be on the safe side, we’re having a thorough search of the grounds and any area guests might have slipped in to. If it’s fine by you, we’d feel safer if you stayed the night. I’d feel responsible and terrible if something happened to you on the way out.
Cat yawned and nodded. “I won’t argue against that invitation. It’ll be much more comforting to know everything is set right. Thank you.”
“We’ve a guest room that’s being set up for you. I’m sure I can find a spare change of pajamas and some clothes for tomorrow,” Mother said, getting up.
“I have a normal change of clothes, so that isn’t a worry. Thank you.”
“Wonderful. I will see what I can find, then.” Mother nodded at me. “Will you show her the guest room?”
With a yawn I got up as well. “Of course.” I offered Cat a hand up and we headed upstairs.
There was rarely a moment when it felt like morning did not come too soon. A knock on the door woke me up. Tiredly, I tried to sit up when Olmi came to hop on the bed and cuddle with me. I gave her a pet before looking to the doorway to see who had let her in. Lilly stood there, waiting for me to acknowledge her.
“Morning?” I wasn’t sure if I had slept too long or what.
“Morning. Your parents have information from last night. You might want to get cleaned up and head downstairs.” She gave a nod and headed back out of the room.
Information? The image of a lightning rune on the floor came to mind and I pulled myself out of bed. I wondered if they caught the person. It wouldn’t be impossible, but it seemed too soon. Of course, I wouldn’t get any answers sitting in here, so I dragged myself to the shower.
After I finished getting ready, I hurried downstairs. My parents were already sitting at the table with toast and coffee. Both looked tired and I suspected that they had been up for a while.
“I heard there’s some news from last night?” I prompted as I took my normal seat.
Father nodded. “Yes, after pulling all the security feeds there seemed to be a few individuals who did this.”
“Of course, they are all claiming it was just a minor prank, not meant for you or to terribly hurt anyone,” Mother continued, her tone more annoyed and grumpy than not. “They thought by combining their talent they could create a rune that would be more of an annoying static shock than one that would cause damage.”
“The fact that they were well versed enough to combine talent tells me they knew it would be worse than that,” Father added. “They knew what they were doing. They likely planned on hurting anyone who had special attention from you if it wasn’t one of them.”
“My favorite kind of people,” I grumbled. “Well, what are you going to do with them?”
“It’s undecided.” Father shook his head. “Since it was aimed for your friend we thought we would see how she wanted to handle this. There could be several additional charges she could pursue.”
“No, thank you.” Cat’s voice from the doorway caused us all to turn. “I’m sure whatever you charge them with will be more than enough. I’d rather stay as uninvolved as possible.”
I motioned for her to have a seat next to me. “I don’t blame you. This is an annoying little mess.”
“Very. The intent is clearly there to cause annoying trouble.” Cat shrugged as she sat down and yawned. “At least no one was actually hurt.”
I wish there was more comfort in that statement. Somehow, there wasn’t. I didn’t like that all this trouble was meant to hurt her.
Still, I didn’t want to press.
Cat and I hung out for a little bit before I finally took her home. There were some things she needed to get done, and we both probably could use a nap before the work week started. I just hoped things would quickly settle down.
***
Cat was getting the silent treatment from her family. That didn’t bother her at all, though. She had passed the initial application process for the internship she wanted. I still hadn’t bothered to mention that I made sure her file was reviewed. It didn’t matter. She would have to own the rest of it. I knew she wouldn’t be the type to want an easy ride, she liked to work for her own things.
Sadly, one problem was above her head. The sudden spotlight was making it impossible for her to do anything in public. A few good pictures of her from the dance and people wanted to bother her everywhere. Cat had zero issues ignoring questions, but the constant stream of noise and people were getting to her. After Monday and Tuesday of constantly being bothered, I offered to pick her up from work instead. With some enchanted disguises, it would be easy for us both to escape for a while.
At first, it was just fun escaping the crowd. That was something I already knew how to do, but Cat was new to the game. After a few days the thrill wore out and I had a lot of things to catch up on. Since Cat’s family was still playing the bitter card or the silent treatment at best, I invited her to join me. While she couldn’t really help me with my work, she had enchantments and other things to work on.
It went on for just over two weeks before Cat revealed she had a final interview for her internship.
I was excited to hear that. “We should celebrate!” I declared.
I saw her frown. “It’s just the final processes, nothing to celebrate yet. I can still get cut.”
“True, but you’ve gotten this far, and you know they had a ton of applicants. You should totally celebrate making it this far.”
Cat shook her head but seemed to humor me. “Fine, what’s your suggestion?”
“Maybe we could go somewhere. I’m sure you’ve loved hanging around here, but it’d be fun to mix things up.”
She frowned once more. “I don’t know.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked curiously.
“I don’t know how to
put it.” She got up and stretched out her arms and started to stroll around the room.
“Well, as bluntly as possible is usually the best way. Just get it all out there.”
“Because that always works exactly how you want it to right?” Cat paused her walking, shook her head, and continued.
“Well, maybe just with the guild. Everything else seems to be a more delicate matter,” I amended.
“There ya go. Often times it’s better to actually have well-established thoughts instead of a blob of feelings and jumbles of nonsense.”
I watched her pace and considered her words. “True, but I think we’re friends enough that it would be fine.”
“So, as ‘friends enough’... what are we even?” I could see her shake her head as she paused in front of the window.
“That is a good question.” I carefully collected the papers on my desk and put them into a neat stack before setting them aside. “Honestly, I don’t know. Since we haven’t talked about it I just have my own thoughts. We’re obviously friends, but I think we could be something more. Though this media mess does make it a bit more stressful.”
“You’ve no idea.” She grumbled.
I had my mouth open ready to argue that of course I knew how terrible the media could be, but I stopped. “Maybe I don’t.”
She turned and looked at me for a moment before turning to look back at the window.
“I’m not sure what you’re going for there. I mean of course we both know I’ve seen trash tabloids of myself, terrible online stories, and hilarious want-to-be articles. So, can you explain a bit?”
“You’ve got ways out of it. You expect every event to end with your face on something – good or bad. I didn’t realize this would turn into constant drama. People stalking me just for a chance at a shitty photo. Everyone knows where I live, what my schedule is. Heck, they know my favorite outfits, what coffee I drink, and apparently more about my parents’ divorce than even I knew. I wasn’t ready for one stupid event to turn into having no privacy ever again.”
Ah, yes. That did make things different. While I didn’t choose to be born into this life, I was actively choosing to continue to have this life. Of course, Cat could have guessed at a few things, but she didn’t have a way of knowing exactly how much the media could do to a single person in a very small span of time.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” I couldn’t change the media, but maybe there was something.
“I don’t know. Probably not. I’m just stressed, and tired, and tired of being stressed.”
I pushed my chair back and stood up causing Cat to glance back. “Well, sadly it’s a bit too late to do anything about that night and what the media has already done. I’m not sure what the best suggestion would be, but eventually the media will run out of things and leave you alone. So if you just want to be friends that’s fine. I can completely get that you’d rather not deal with this insane group of people.”
Cat shrugged, turning back to the window. “In some ways it’s not their fault. It is a huge story. In other ways, there are things they should just leave alone. I don’t know what I want right now.”
I walked over to her and saw the puppies were running around outside. They were happily frolicking around chasing toys and each other as if nothing in the world could ever be wrong. “That’s fine. There doesn’t need to be an immediate answer.”
“That’s hardly fair to you,” Cat commented, not taking her eyes away from the puppies.
“It’s completely fair. Needing time to think things over is always fair,” I wholeheartedly insisted.
“Are you sure?” Her voice sounded skeptical.
“Of course. There are a lot of things I regularly need to think through and take time away from, to process. Heck, gaming is probably one of the few things I don’t often have to do that. So, take your time.”
“You’re being too understanding.” She grumbled.
That surprised me. “Would you rather I forced a decision out of you? ‘Cuz that’s not happening.”
“No. I don’t even know.”
“Maybe some Crash Carts to take your anger out on things?” I suggested.
Cat turned and nodded. “Now that is something I can readily agree to.”
“Awesome.” I smiled. “Let’s not worry about anything else then.” I happily led the way out of the study and away from the stress.
10
“Get over here now,” James said tiredly and desperately over the phone.
“What’s wrong?” I couldn’t even imagine what could be going on and was already grabbing my keys to head out.
“I can’t even right now. Just get here.” With that, he hung up on me.
I stared at the phone for a moment before picking up the pace. This was not like James at all. In all the years I had known him, he had never once hung up on me. He might avoid mentioning the full problem, or saying what exactly was on his mind, but we had talked many things out. I just prayed he was okay and if it wasn’t about him, that his family was well.
The drive seemed to be taking too long. Every stop sign or red light caused an ache in my side. Still, according to the clock, I made it in no time at all. With long strides I was quickly at the door and gave it two sharp knocks. I could hear footsteps and then James was at the door. He looked tired and he had a bloodied rag in one hand.
“What happened?” I wasn’t sure if my voice was demanding or surprised but I tried to rein in my emotions.
James motioned for me to step inside. “It’s been a night. So stay still until the end of this fucked tale.” James walked a bit down the hall to where a bucket was and went back to scrubbing blood drops from the carpet. It wasn’t much now, but I had no idea how long he had been doing this.
“Just tell me already.” I sighed.
“My Aunt Sasha got into a huge fight with my cousin.” James scrubbed as he tried to put the story together. “You know Cat’s been trying to get out and improve things for herself. Well, my aunt lost it when Cat said she was quitting the family business and moving. Lots of screaming, and I’ve no idea how, but my aunt pulled a knife on her.”
I knew my eyes went wide. “Is she okay? Where is she?”
“Cat is more or less okay.” James held up his hand to continue. “My aunt is already in jail. Cat’s dad, I’ve no idea what he decided to do on this. Either way, Cat refused to go to the hospital and came here instead. She’ll be fine, but I do think she actually needs medical attention, and if I can’t convince her to get help, maybe she’ll let you help.”
Okay, so she was at least safe. “Where is she?”
“My room,” James replied and went back to scrubbing the floor.
I set off down the hall then took the stairs two at a time as I made my way to his room. Not bothering to knock, I pushed open the door to the dimly lit room and saw Cat lying on the bed, her left arm wrapped in a towel. Blood had soaked through part of it. Her face was covered by a pillow and I wasn’t sure if she was awake or not.
“Are you okay?” I asked from the doorway, not wanting to startle her.
Cat sat up, startled anyway. “What are you doing here?”
I walked over and saw her face was covered in tears. A few cuts stood out, but they were minor enough that I wasn’t worried. “James said to come. I’ve only vaguely heard what’s going on.”
Cat groaned and went back to laying down with her face covered.
I sat down next to her on the bed. “Clearly now isn’t the time to talk about it, so, I’m going to just take a look at your arm.”
She jerked it away. “It’s not your problem.” I could barely make out her muffled sentence.
“Well, I’d like for it to be, and I care too much about you to let you be hurting like this, so I am going to use my magic,” I replied back stubbornly.
“Will it hurt more?” I could barely hear her.
“The healing won’t, no. Getting this towel off might.”
I tried to unr
avel it carefully, but some of the blood had already dried. I could hear Cat inhale sharply as I finally got it off. Not sure what else to do with it, I let the towel drop to the floor and focused again on the main cut. It looked terrible, and probably needed stitches. Too many smaller ones were on her arm for me to count. There was no way this should have been left unattended and I was glad that James had called me.
I could heal it completely, but it would tire me, possibly to the point of passing out. “I need to make a quick call.” I informed Cat as I pulled out my phone and dialed home, rather my Mom’s cell.
“Hello?” She asked, confused, most likely because I would usually rather text or speak in person rather than call.
“Hey, I’m not sure when I’ll be home so I thought I’d check in really quick,” I stated, not sure exactly how much I should say.
“Oh, I didn’t hear you leave. It’s pretty late, is something wrong?” Well, she wasn’t wrong.
“Actually yes, a friend is hurt, but everything is under control. They didn’t want to go to the hospital, but James thought it was bad enough that he called me. It’s been a while since I’ve done some healing, especially major healing, so I probably won’t be able to drive back right away.”
There was a pause. “Is Cat all right?”
How in the hell did she guess? I supposed it made sense. Mother knew James was Cat’s cousin. “Yeah, it’s a long story, but things are okay for the moment.”
“Do what you need to.” I could hear the full volume of support in her voice.
“Thanks, Mom. I’ll try and keep you updated.” We said our goodbyes and hung up.
“Is she mad?” Cat muttered.
I shoved the pillow aside. “It’s too hard to hear you, and no she’s not mad.”
With a grumble, Cat covered her eyes with her good arm. “Sorry to ruin your night.”