Chương 209: Act 3, Chapter 59: Four men and one date / the third man

Day in the story: 23rd January (Friday) Elle Erikson"You look stressed today, Bastien." He didn't, but I needed to steer our polite but pointless morning conversation toward a more interesting route. So far we talked about our interests and personal lives, and by "we" I really meant mostly myself. He was eerily silent for most of it.

"I am not. I just have a lot on my plate today," he replied, turning to me and smiling. I munched on my croissant, while Ella dangled on my forearm. I brought her to me a few hours earlier, when the rain seemed like it would not end. It did.

"Can you share some?" I asked, looking for his reaction. From what I overheard at his mansion, they were heavily preparing to venture out into Ideworld, and very soon, but he was supposed to meet with a certain someone to gain permission.

"It's not something I can share. Not yet. It's very personal."

"More than the death of the father that you loved so much, and your time spent in England?" I had to try before I would be forced to use more decisive forms of persuasion. He was sharing pretty significant personal information last night after we kissed.

"Unfortunately. I don't want to be dishonest, so I prefer not to speak about it." Magic had to be a reason for this masquerade he was conducting, and his refusal to share that part of his life probably came from the fact that he considered me a Sleeper. It was time for Plan A—A for Alex.

"I understand. We've known each other for just a few hours, really. A meeting of chance here and there, and a kiss under the moonlight." I had to be a little dramatic, which I was not a big fan of, but channeling my inner Jess Hare really helped. Destiny unfolding and all that jazz…

"I wish the timing was different, but…" he did not finish the sentence, and yet it conveyed the message properly. I grabbed him under the arm and came closer to let him know, without speaking, that I accepted his decision. And we walked like that for a few minutes. Just a pair of people looking for a connection between each other in usual circumstances, underlined with extraordinary currents of magic.

I steered us toward one of the less crowded and narrower streets, where under the clouded sky of the Parisian day, it was shadowy enough to be away from most prying eyes. A few dumpster containers, service doors to some apartments or shops, half-opened bags of trash lying by the walls smeared with old graffiti, and a turn at the end that obscured the whole scene from view, at least from one side.

"Ehm." He swallowed.

"Why are we going through this?"

"It's a shortcut. I love them," I replied.

"They are not very safe in here," he mentioned in return.

"Oh come on, what's the worst—" I started, when a man with his face hidden beneath a cap and a hoodie stood up from behind a dumpster container, right in front of us. He wore old, tattered jeans and combat boots, and his posture told the tale of his intentions in the same language an outstretched hand with a knife did.

"Englishmen?" he spoke with a French accent.

"Give the money." He instructed, pointing the knife at me.

"Woman first." I reached for my purse, opened it, and gave him a wallet.

"Rings, too," he added, and I took off the two golden rings I had on my fingers and handed them over to his open hand that he kept toward me, the knife now steadily pointed at Laurent.

"Now, you." He turned to Bastien with a wicked smile and a sneer. The moment he did and lost sight of me for a second, I grabbed Ella and infused her with my Authority. Shadowlight was already spilling all over her form, settling in like an old friend, readying for a shared fight, when I hit the man in front of me to his side. He groaned when the blow sent him flying toward the container he had crawled from behind before.

Laurent's face was full of surprise when I reached into my purse, produced one of the paper spiders, infused it with Authority too, and dropped it onto the unconscious man, taking back both my rings and my wallet from his hands. The spider crawled over his hoodie, leaving behind its silken webbing—weaving a cocoon already.

"Come!" I shouted, dragging my date partner out of the alley the same way we came in.

"You might have been right about those shortcuts after all." Behind us a teal, red and silver shadowlight shone.

"What…" he started in confusion, but I wasn't done yet.

"It was still a bit fun, though. Right?" I interrupted him, and he looked at me as we joined the crowd on the main street, constantly glancing back to check whether the other man would emerge.

"Don't worry about this." I spoke to him and then came closer for a whisper.

"You are probably wondering what I just did, but don't—you will probably soon forget all of it."

"What…?" he said, then realization hit his face.

"No, that is not what—" He stopped me from dragging him further away, placing both hands on my forearms and looking right at me.

"May we stop for a second?" Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

"Sure. What you've seen me do is," I replied, taking back the initiative once more, "magic," I finished in a hushed tone, faking concern by looking around at the passing people.

"Yes. I am a kind of witch—a mage, really."

"That's—""Strange?" Another interruption.

"I know, but that is the truth. If you want, I can tell you all about it, but you will probably forget anyway, just like I said. Would you want that?" He nodded once. Slowly. You didn't have to hit me this hard, Elle, Alex's thoughts reached me when he removed the Authority from the spider I left on him, brushed off the webs, and stood up. Seriously. I had to sell it. Sorry! We moved away from the scene, and I glued myself to Bastien's arm once again, speaking in a hushed voice.

"There is magic in this world, and it is passed from one generation to the next—at least in my family it is. Some people can control things. In my case, it's paper. With a little will and preparation from my side, I can make those little origami figures I create become the things they represent and—""Okay, that's a pretty good Domain," he responded.

"And it explains a few things."

"What? You are a mage too?" I faked. I did not expect him to drop the veil of secrecy so quickly.

"Yes. Me and all the friends you saw and I told you about. Well, all but one. Patricia is a Seer. She was actually the one who noticed some magical things crawling on the walls of the hotel. We thought they were spying on us, but they were really there because of you, right?"

"Yes. I can make them see for me. Look for danger and warn me."

"That's an amazing power Elle. They can warn you and scout for you?"

"Sure."

"But I've also seen you use an umbrella that's obviously not made of paper. What's up with that?"

"It's an artifact. I found it in Ideworld once, back in the US. I liked going there whenever I found an opening. No luck in Paris so far."

"It's more difficult here to find one," he started.

"Have you heard about Bohema?"

"No. What's that?"

"A group of mages, warlocks, and vampires that have controlled the city for centuries. They have a device installed that blocks natural openings from occurring. You can get to the Shadow World only through permanent gates."

"I see. USG has something like that in my country too."

"I've heard about them," he said, and pointed at an empty bench in a park we were passing. We moved there.

"It's incredible that we stumbled onto each other like that. Might really be destiny." He mused to himself, then smiled at me. I leaned closer to him, and he took the hint, leaning in as well and kissing me on the lips. Once, then pulling back for a breath as his hand rested on the back of my neck. Then he went for another, longer one, after looking into my eyes for a moment or two. When we parted, I smiled back and dragged us faster to the bench in front of us.

"You are a mage. Some digital manipulation? Observation? Photography?"

"You are perceptive," he noted and nodded.

"Photography indeed. You deduced it because of my father's life story?"

"Yes, and the fact you love to talk about it and always have a camera with you." He laughed.

"I just didn't know something so… modern could be a Domain of magic."

"Have you heard about Sourcerers?"

"I have. But I've never met any. Are you one?"

"No. My father. I took over—that's why we have a brand of magic that could not have existed two hundred years ago, right?"

"I get it. What can you do?"

"The most powerful thing is trapping the subjects of my photos in the picture. Literally dragging them out of the world and onto the printed thing or into a digital image. But it is very demanding on my soul, so I rarely use it. I can also edit stuff."

"Edit how?"

"My father had it much more difficult. He printed photos and changed them by hand, and those changes appeared in real life. Like touching upon someone's appearance and making them look younger."

"Wow!" I shouted and then covered my mouth.

"Sorry." I returned to whispering.

"That's amazing."

"Yes. And like I said, I have it much easier, since digital photography and editing are a thing. Look." He took his phone out of his pocket and snapped a photo of a trash bin right in front of us. He opened the edit feature as soon as the image appeared, launching some custom photo app. He selected the bin quickly and, with a few swipes of his fingers, made it slightly bigger. Even though my eyes were on the screen, my sp-eye-der tattoos noticed shadowlight around the real bin.

It settled like a shimmering mist, and the metallic thing had grown about ten centimeters in height.

"Look at the bin or you'll miss it", he prompted me, and I turned just for him. He undid the edit, returning the thing to its original size.

"That's much cooler than folding paper," I replied.

"Depends on what you actually need." He looked into the distance, getting lost in his own thoughts. I let him, doing the same on my side of the bench. After a while, though, I placed my hand over his, resting next to me. He turned to me then.

"I apologize. I was wondering about all of this."

"What exactly?"

"Us meeting like that. I like you, Elle, but I don't have to lie anymore, so I need to come clean about something. Me and my friends are going into the Shadow World soon for a treasure hunt of sorts. If Bohema allows it, that is."

"That's what you couldn't talk about before? Personal stuff?"

"Yes. I need to meet with them to get passes for my group before we go in."

"Oh wait." I faked sudden sadness.

"That means you would have ghosted me soon?"

"Oh no!" He turned red.

"I'd have told you I have to go on business or something. It's a new thing, what's between us, but I'd want to keep it going after I'm done with magical stuff. I apologize again for planning on lying to you."

"I get it. It's a mage's life. I lied to my friends back home too when I was looking for soul marks and artifacts on the other side." I had to plant an image of me being capable for that kind of task as well.

"That's right." He nodded.

"So, you're not angry at me?"

"No, of course not. Just a bit sad to part with you so soon after we started dating. That's what we're doing, right?" A bit more of tying the knots.

"Yes. Look, I don't want to force you into anything, but maybe you'd like to join me for that Bohema ball tonight. See what's what. You'd meet other mages of the city's arcane circles, and maybe your presence could score me a few points in persuading those people to let us go."

"Sure, I'd love to help."

"And on that subject—you don't know them yet, and you don't know me that well either, even though I feel like I've known you forever for some reason," he smiled, "would you like to meet my friends too?"

"Are they going to be at the ball? Ball? Is that the word you used to describe it?"

"Yes." He laughed.

"They like things pompous. And no, they won't be there. Only you and me. We could meet, all of us tomorrow."

"I'd like that," I answered, already thinking about trying to weasel my way into that group. I also hoped he would straight up invite me to the hunt, but all in due time. I'd arrange that as well.