Slick closed the door behind him, leaving the wide-eyed girl behind. The fragile thing had no idea how to deal with the real world. He headed off at a brisk pace back to Kito’s, thinking over how he’d apologize.

By the time he’d arrived, it’d been an hour. To his surprise, the shop was locked up. It gave him an uneasy feeling.

“Kito?” he called out.

“Bring Aera here!” Kito yelled back.

Slick was taken aback. That was nothing like the script he’d been working out in his head. He figured best to go along with his plan anyway.

“I, uh, I talked to Aera, and apparently it was all a misunderstanding,” Slick said.

“A misunderstanding, all right,” Kito said, scoffing. “She’s a fairy! And you’ll bring her back here!”

“A… what?”

He vaguely remembered stuff about fairies. Like the tooth fairy. But what did that have to do with Aera?

“After what happened, I went into her room,” Kito said. “The things in there… I know the truth about her, Slick! You won’t keep her from me.”

“Ah,” Slick said, frowning. “Okay, well, seems like we need to talk. Can I come in?”

“Yeah,” Kito said. “But watch yourself.”

Slick walked up to the door and opened it. His eyes locked onto the long, metallic barrel of a shotgun pointed at his face and immediately raised his hands in surrender.

“O-okay,” Slick said. “That’s not necessary, Kito.”

“Bullshit,” Kito said. “The stuff in that room… the kind of money I could make… I’m going to be a rich man, Slick. Filthy rich. And you’re not keeping that from me.

Slick couldn’t think properly with a gun in his face. Reality seemed to narrow down to the basics.

“I ain’t going to let you hurt Aera,” Slick said.

“I’m not going to hurt her,” Kito said. “She’s just going to do what she’s already been doing, up in her room. Just making those things that she’s been keeping from me.”

“How about I just talk to her about all this?” Slick said.

“You will bring her back to me,” Kito said. “You got that? I know her secret. If I can’t have her, then you can’t, either. I’ll tell everyone.”

“Got it,” Slick said. “I’ll, uh, I’ll go tell her. She’s a good walk away, so it’ll be a bit.”

“Move fast, then.”

He backed out of the building, and then started running. Not towards the hotel, but back to his house.

Moving quietly, he slipped past his father, who was drunkenly snoring on the couch. He’d always been a drunk, and it had only gotten worse since the economy crashed. Slick didn’t want to get his attention.

His mother was in bed. It was getting quite late, now about ten at night. Lou would still be awake - she was more of a night owl.

The door to Lou’s room didn’t close properly, but Slick knocked anyway, holding it steady so it didn’t open.

“Come in,” she said.

“We gotta go outside,” Slick said in a low voice, as soon as he stuck his head in.

Lou nodded and immediately hopped up, leaving a pile of radio parts at her feet.

Once outside, Slick told her what had happened.

“And then I went to go talk to him. He figured out she’s magic, looking at the stuff in her room. Said she’s a fairy, says she’ll make him stuff to sell, make him rich. He’s saying that if I don’t bring him Aera, he’s gonna tell everyone,” Slick said. “I dunno what to do.”

“He can’t have her,” Lou said, frowning and crossing her arms. “Just forcing her like that, for money? That’s disgusting.”

“I tried to tell him,” Slick said. “But he was pointing a gun at me…”

“Wait, wait,” Lou said, going cold. “He pointed a gun at you?”

“He’s crazy,” Slick said, shaking his head. “I’ve never seen him like this.”

“He’s always been a bit nutty over money,” Lou said. “This, though... “

She shook her head.

“Go back to Aera,” she said. “She stays in the hotel until this all blows over. I’ll talk to Kito. Aera gets it in her head that she can handle things, and she might try to get involved.”

Slick sighed. “Poor thing’s clueless.”

Lou nodded emphatically. “She’s even been raised like magic’s the only thing she needs to fix everything. She’s crazy sheltered.”

Slick nodded in agreement. “Don’t worry, Lou. I won’t tell her nothing that’ll shock her. I’ll just say that Kito’s freaking out and you’re going to fix it.”

“Right. We’ve got the plan. Let’s go.”

She watched her brother’s back as he ran back towards the city.

Slick could be clueless sometimes, but he was a good person. He’d been there for her since she was little, since before they met Dorothy. He dropped out of school to get a job, to support their family, like the useless lump of flesh, pathetic excuse for a father ought to have been doing.

He’d been there for her. Now it was her turn.

She made her way to the shop in a strange state. She should be angry… she was angry, but this wasn’t the hot anger she’d known before. This was cold, and settled into her bones. Kito had threatened her brother.

It was midnight by the time she’d arrived at Kito’s. Being late September, it was a bit chilly, in the high sixties. The little street was completely abandoned.

She walked up next to the window and cautiously looked inside. There she saw what must be Kito, barely visible in the dim light from the street. He was holding the shotgun. She quickly sidestepped, to stand between the window and the door.

Her hand reached into her jacket and grabbed the polished wood handle of the .38 special that Dorothy had given her. She'd never actually shot it at anyone, but the heavy thing was huge, especially in her small hands, and was enough to make anyone pause. It was older - made in the 20's - but packed one hell of a punch.

She wouldn't use it. Even though he pointed his gun at her brother. It was for self defense.

The ice in her heart didn't quite believe these words. The chill matched the heavy coolness of the trigger as she held it out of view beneath his window.

“Kito!” she yelled.

“Lou?” he called back. “He was supposed to bring me Aera!”

She’d not heard his voice like this. He sounded half mad.

“We ain’t bringing you Aera,” Lou said, almost growling. “She’s not your prize, Kito.”

“The fuck she isn’t,” Kito said. “She’s mine. I hired her, I housed her. I’ll keep her secret.”

Scratch that. He sounded completely mad.

“She’s a person,” Lou said, giving the window a death glare.

“No person I ever met could make things like that,” Kito said. “She’s some sort of fairy, something else. And who are you to argue? You’ve been getting money from her, too! It’s my turn!”

“For fuck’s sake, Kito,” Lou said. “Are you even listening to yourself?”

She carefully moved her head over to the window to peek inside. Kito was staring at the door, where her voice was loudest. He was holding the shotgun, but not pointing it at the door.

“You’re one to talk,” Kito said. “I thought we were friends, Lou! How could you use her to make money off me, and not even tell me?”

“Fuck this entire conversation,” Lou said. “Here’s the real question, Kito. Did you point a fucking shotgun at my brother?”

“So what if I did?” Kito said. “He turned on me first. You should have heard the things he accused me of!”

“And that makes it okay to point a damned shotgun at him?”

“He showed his true colors,” Kito said. “Turning on me like that, keeping my prize from me.”

“Right,” Lou said. “Here’s how this is gonna go, Kito. You will apologize to my brother, you will never say a word about Aera, and you never, ever see her again.”

“Just you try and make me,” Kito said, and Lou saw him swing his shotgun towards the door.

That bitter cold filled her heart again and she pulled out her gun, holding it just like Dorothy taught her. The weight of the gun seemed to magnify as she stepped aside to look through the window.

The shadow, who had threatened what was most dear to her, stepped back as he realized she wasn’t at the door. The long barrel of the gun raised and Lou’s heart thudded in her ears. Her small hands moved her gun into position.

The echo of a gunshot rang out through the night. The neighbors heard the sound of screaming, and got up from their beds to try to see what had happened. The dim streetlights showed little, but they did see a figure calmly walking down the street. The police were called.

Sirens filled the night air as an ambulance sped down the empty streets.

Slick saw the pale figure approaching his house and leapt to his feet, despite his fatigue.

“Lou!” he cried. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” she said, sitting down on the front steps next to him.

He swallowed uneasily. He’d never seen her like this.

“What happened?” he asked.

They listened to the wind knocking around debris for a few, long minutes before Lou spoke.

“Kito got himself a little case of lead poisoning,” she said at last.

Slick paled. He took a moment to speak.

“Is he dead?”

“No,” she said, and Slick sagged in relief. “But his knee ain’t in such good shape.”

“Did anyone see you?” Slick asked.

“I dunno,” Lou said with a shrug. The casual gesture was at odds with the hollow sound of her voice. “No one was outside, but that gun’s loud, you know?”

“Maybe you should get rid of it,” Slick said.

Lou shook her head.

“It’s mine,” she said. “It protected me. ‘Sides, he was pointing the shotgun at you, first.”

Slick sighed again, rubbing his eyes.

“Maybe we should get some sleep,” Slick said.

“I… I don’t think I can sleep.”

He put a hand on her shoulder.

“Then I’ll stay out here with you as long as you need.”

Saturday, September 21st. It was a lovely day. The sun was shining, the weather was in the 70’s - perfect for a stroll outside - and I could see birds flitting through the trees in the wind. I had been watching the birds for hours, from the hotel window, and the sun had begun to dip towards the horizon.

A dark cloud descended when I heard the knocks on the door. The ache of throbbing spirits chilled me from beyond it. I opened the door to see Lou and Slick attempting, badly, to smile at me.

“Lou, Slick,” I said, letting them in. “Please, tell me what happened.”

“You’re safe, Aera,” Lou said, though I knew something was wrong from her tone. “He won’t bother you anymore.”

“But what happened?” I asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” Slick said. He, too, looked shaken. “Just… just let it go, alright? Kito’s not a concern anymore.”

“This is not comforting,” I said, feeling a bubble of anger rising. “Protecting me from danger is one thing, but from knowledge? Tell me, please.”

“Does it matter?” Lou asked.

Her face alone told me it mattered. She looked like she’d forgotten what sleep even felt like, nevermind that she’d looked fine the day before. Her face was drawn and limp, somehow, as though she’d lost some measure of life.

“Yes, it does,” I said. “Kito has been good to me. If you won’t talk to me, I’ll talk to him myself.”

“He was trying to take advantage of you,” Slick said. “He found out about your magic, and was going to force you to make him money.”

I rolled my eyes. “And what of it? He could not have succeeded.”

“He’d have told everyone,” Lou said, sounding despondent.

“Really?” I said skeptically. “He’d have turned down a lesser, but still lucrative offer, simply to spite me - someone who has the ability to destroy him in any of a thousand ways? I hadn’t thought him stupid.”

“A lesser offer?” Lou asked.

“Enough goods to make him reasonably wealthy, combined with a threat of harm if he pushed the matter,” I said with a shrug. “With half a brain, he’d accept the deal. Worst case, if he refused entirely, I could just make him forget I even existed.”

Lou stared blankly at me. It was like what I’d just said was horrifying, or something, and she couldn’t quite deal with that right then.

“You can do that?” Slick asked, his jaw dropping again.

“It’s unethical to do so without extremely good reason,” I said, shrugging. “But it’s a necessary skill to have if you face the possibility of being coerced.”

They both looked a little overwhelmed. Lou looked like she just wanted to walk out the door.

My parents had a lot of ideas on what skills should be considered necessary, for such eventualities. Coercion was an endless, inevitable threat to those who hold power.

“Right,” Lou said, rubbing her eyes. “Look, none of that matters now. He’s going to be fine, he’s not going to push. He’s in the hospital, now.”

“The hospital?” I asked. “He’s injured?”

“His leg,” she said, looking down. “He, uh, he’s lost the leg.”

“When?” I asked. “I might still be able to reattach it…”

“Reattach…?” Slick said, but Lou cut him off.

“Last night, and we can’t do that,” Lou said. “It’s too late.”

Too late.

You must act decisively. My mother’s voice echoed painfully in my mind. Between your own strengths and your allies, there is only one affliction which cannot be cured, and that is of being late.

Caution is wise, my father would say. Take care not to make the wrong move. Imagine all outcomes, and take the course that provides the best balance between least regret and the most optimal outcome.

I was too late… and why? Because I had been too afraid to act at all. I hadn’t even considered my options, let alone balanced against the most optimal result. I had let mere mundanes handle the issue, and because of that…

I took a breath. Kito paid the price for my error. I had to do something.

“I will see him,” I said, my voice soft.

“Are you sure?” Slick asked.

“I am certain,” I said.

“I… I can’t go there,” Lou said.

“I understand,” I said. “Slick, would you take me?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I will. Lou, will you be alright?”

She nodded and sank down in a strange sort of way onto the bed.

“I’ll just stay here for a little while,” she said.

We made our awkward farewells, and Slick led me off to the heart of Boston. Once we were in sight of the building, he left to go back to Lou. He advised me to simply request Kito Bello when I entered in.

Massachusetts General Hospital. It had lovely architecture, all white brick and columns. Though the grime that tainted the bricks was an omen to the darkness within.

Normally, I left my magesense open, however faintly. I’d catch little glimpses of emotion here and there, but it caused me no issues.

Here, however...

I had never seen such a gathering of agony such as this. Physical pain throbbed from past a door labeled “Emergency Room.” Emotional pain permeated the walls - mostly empathetic, from people caring for wounded loved ones. The air was thrumming with pain of a thousand different flavors.

I didn’t have much experience shielding myself from emotion thick in the air, but I gave it my best shot. The world felt strangely cold, without the normal ebb and flow of life through me.

I went to someone who was either a secretary, or a healer. Or both, perhaps. I told her that I was a friend of Kito’s, and she told me to wait while she found out his situation. Some minutes later, she told me that he was going to be alright, but wasn’t ready for visitors yet. He was exhausted, still sleeping after his surgery.

I waited in the room there - aptly named a waiting room - for Kito to awaken. It was a few hours before I was directed to his location.

My dress felt too thin, and my bones felt cold as I walked down the stark white halls. It wasn’t the air, though, not really. Guilt is an oddly cold feeling.

When I arrived at the indicated door, I hesitated. I let my barriers down and felt within. Tears filled my eyes.

Kito was in such pain. He didn’t seem quite aware of it - his mind was twisted and disoriented - but his leg was sending plenty of pain signals. Just above the knee, his leg just stopped existing. Bound by some sort of cloth, it seemed, with a clean edge, like it had been chopped off with a sharp blade. Still, the nerves and tissues at the site of the cut were in wretched shape.

I couldn’t bear to see it. My flimsy barrier went up again, and the world went dark.

I stepped into the room.

Kito sat upright in his bed, looking out the window. His darker toned skin seemed oddly pale, and he looked exhausted. He was hooked up to some sort of metal pole, with a tube going into his arm. I shuddered to think what sort of barbaric healing these people practiced, for such a device to have been created.

But that wasn’t why I was here.

“Kito,” I said, my voice scarcely audible.

“What do you want?” he asked flatly, still not looking at me.

His voice sounded strange. The morphine affected his mind and speech, though it would be a very long time before I learned of its existence.

“I’m so sorry,” I said, looking down.

“You sent your friends after me, and now you’re sorry?” he asked, his tone dripping with condescension.

The look he gave me forced me to look away. Such… such anger.

“I didn’t,” I said, my eyes starting to brim with tears. “I truly… I never meant for any of this to happen.”

“Then why?” he demanded. “Why didn’t you say anything when Slick was accusing me?”

“Because I don’t know your language,” I said. “And when… when you asked me, I panicked, and lost my ability to speak it.”

He blinked for a long minute.

“That’s why you ran,” he said. His voice was flat.

I nodded and looked down again. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know what to do.”

“Well, that wasn’t the right answer,” he said.

The harshness in his accusation hit home and I swallowed.

“You’re right, it wasn’t,” I said. “I made many wrong moves. And because of that…”

He gestured at his leg. “This.”

“I am so sorry,” I said. “I wish I could fix your leg, but...”

I trailed off. I didn’t know how to tell him that I absolutely could fix his leg, given enough time and resources, but that I couldn’t risk revealing myself. All to protect myself from a danger that my friends wouldn’t explain.

“So I’ll pay the price for your mistake, and your ‘friends’ will continue to make money off of you,” he said.

That… was a bit much.

“With all due respect, I was not the only one who made mistakes,” I said. “Though I agree, the price you paid was far too high. I should have just gone to you, spoken to you… everything would have been fine.”

“Yeah,” he said curtly, not sounding like he agreed with me. “So why are you even here?”

“I’m… I just wanted to say sorry,” I said, looking away. Again.

“Good for you,” he said, his lips curling into a sneer. “You make yourself feel better with that, and I’ll just deal with my leg.”

I swallowed.

“And… also to say… everything I made, everything in that room. You may keep it all, with no animosity from me.”

I couldn’t quite understand the look he was giving me, but I did get a curt nod.

There was silence for a minute.

“I guess you want me to go,” I said.

“There’s no reason for you to be here,” he said, looking out the window again, still tight with anger and frustration.

“I… look, Kito, before I go…” I said.

“What?”

I shuddered at the wave of hostility I felt from him. But… there was also an undercurrent of fear.

He… he feared me? I supposed that made sense, but…

Tears slowly started to fall. He had been a friend, and now there was nothing but anger and fear. And all because of my own idiocy.

“I… I’m just trying to get home. If people find out what I can do, that will become more difficult. So…”

“You think I’m stupid enough to piss you off after what happened last night? I never want to even think about you and the other two ever again, let alone say anything.”

“I… well… um… that’s… that’s good, I guess,” I said awkwardly.

“You done, then?” he asked.

I turned to leave, but hesitated at the door.

“Um… look, I don’t know if my offer will make you angrier, but I feel I must make it.”

“And what’s that?” he asked bitterly.

“I cannot return to you your leg,” I said, wiping away the moisture from my cheeks. “But I can heal the damage. Not all, as the secret must be maintained, but some. The pain… the pain is terrible, and I can ease that.”

“Why would you bother?” he asked, still giving me a death glare.

“Because I care,” I said, my throat tightening. “I never wanted this. I want to do as much as I can to help.”

“Then help,” he said, gesturing to his leg. He crossed his arms defiantly… and also covering up a shiver.

Fear.

I walked carefully to the side of his bed, and sat down, reaching out to the blood soaked bandages. I couldn’t meet his gaze. I took a breath and focused.

The wound was appalling. Not the worst I’d ever seen, but terrible nonetheless.

Magic flowed through my hands, and I relaxed at the familiar task. He sighed in relief behind me, though I’d only just begun. Pulling back the nerves was always the first step in healing, and he promptly fell asleep as soon as the pain stopped.

The lack of hostility was nice, and freed me to focus on my work.

I couldn’t hold his anger against him. He was wounded and lashing out. I didn’t know how much he truly blamed me, if at all.

Though that hardly mattered. I blamed myself enough for the both of us.

Once my work was done, I slipped away, and told a nurse that he’d fallen back to sleep. From there, I went back to the hotel and told Lou and Slick about the visit.

They read more into his hostility than I had. Still, as long as he didn’t say anything, it didn’t really matter.

They both seemed like they wanted to forget everything and put it behind them.

“So, staying at Kito’s isn’t going to be a thing,” Lou said. “Where should Aera stay now?”

“Maybe Alice’s,” Slick said. “She knows about the magic now, so I bet she’d be happy with that.”

Lou nodded slowly.

“But what should Aera do for money?” she asked.

“I have some saved up from my time with Kito,” I said. “I will be fine for some time. There is no rush.”

With the amount of money I’d need for my purposes, the paltry amount I’d received was insignificant.

“Yeah,” Lou said, looking relieved. “Let’s just not worry about it for a little bit. That’s good.”

I hid a frown. That wasn’t like Lou. But then, I supposed, dealing with the situation with me when she seemed like she’d rather run away screaming was rather like Lou.

Slick seemed to notice the same thing.

“I’ll take Aera to Alice,” he said. “Maybe you want to head home, rest up some?”

“I don’t need to rest,” Lou said, with a bit of her usual defiance back in her tone. “I’ll just do some homework, is all.”

“That sounds good,” Slick said. “You ace it, Lou.”

She nodded, and got to her feet. Having something that she needed to do - even if it was a bit insignificant - seemed to revitalize her a little. She said a quick goodbye and then left.

Slick sighed as soon as she was gone.

“She is unwell,” I said.

“Lou is…” he hesitated. “She’s strong. She’ll be fine.”

We could only hope.