"I thought you said that wasn't gonna be fun," Alden asked as they came in for a landing.

"Wait for it," Hailey said grimly. As they swooped up to land upright on the grass just within the treeline, Alden felt a hard tug at his arm. He'd managed to ignore it for so long, but the pain had returned tenfold.

As Hailey landed and unstrapped him, his arm began to throb madly. His chest felt like hard wires had been cutting into him for hours. His bones were sprouting sores left and right. He was about to stumble and fall when Hailey caught him.

"It's okay, it's okay. I've got you. Don't worry, this is normal."

"Why— what—" Alden stammered, trying to catch his breath.

"You don't have your flying muscles," Hailey answered. "Took Jessica a couple tries to stand just short flights, and she still doesn't like it. You probably don't even have the headache yet."

On cue, Alden's head started pounding like a drum. He felt Hailey lift him up and carry him towards the doctor's office as gently as she could manage—which was surprisingly far less gentle than Rika, though without the added current of electricity surging through her grip.

"Why don't you get it as bad?" Alden asked, gritting his teeth.

"Well, I do this every day," Hailey answered. "Or most days, really. Also, I work out a lot more than you. Your body doesn't have any endurance. You need more cardio especially, but your muscles need work too."

"Oh," Alden said dumbly.

"Don't worry about it too much. A lot of guys don't realize how little effort they put into keeping themselves in shape. You've got plenty of time to improve."

"Right."

"Also, you're wounded in your arm, so that doesn't help either, especially with the headache. That's blood loss for you."

"...Thanks."

"You got it." Hailey walked straight up to the doctor's door and tapped the door with her foot, just loud enough for anyone inside to hear. She helped Alden back to his feet. He still leaned heavily on her for support, but at least he had some dignity before the doctor arrived.

"Yes, now, what is it?" came a booming voice from within. Alden looked up to find a red-haired, well-built man with a wide, thick moustache staring at him with an intense, friendly gaze.

"Hi, reverend," Hailey said. "My friend—"

"Good heavens, look at that arm!" the man cried. He swung the door open immediately and ushered her in. "To the bed in the first room. On the double, Miss Winscombe!"

In only a few moments Alden found himself swept into a bed, his arm laid out flat and the man dressed in an apron and sterile gloves pulling his sleeve away. The doctor (or reverend, or both; Alden couldn't determine which from the surroundings, as it seemed like a perfectly ordinary clinic room in every respect) was a whirlwind of activity, pulling out bandages and supplies from drawers behind him without so much as a glance. His eyes were focused entirely on Alden's wounded shoulder.

"I put the bandages on myself, but I don't know if I did it righ—" Hailey started, but once again the doctor interrupted her.

"You did well, Hailey dear. The bleeding was stemmed. Is the wound fresh?"

"In the last couple of hours."

"How did it occur?"

"I… well—"

The man smiled. "Let me ask differently: what actually cut him? I need not know anything more for now."

"The edge of a cupboard."

"Ah." He began to unwrap the bandage. "Hailey, please help me out here—do you see any foreign material in the cut?"

"No, I don't. I think Je… my friend cleaned it all out."

"Excellent." He leaned in close to Alden's shoulder. "Now, what's your name?"

"Zack," Alden answered. With the energy exuded by the doctor and the mounting headache from his wound, Alden was feeling very light-headed and overwhelmed. "Who are you?"

"The good Doctor, Henry Smith at your service," he answered, plucking up a bottle of something Alden didn't recognize. "Now, I'm terribly sorry, but this is going to sting a bit."

Before Alden could react, he poured it all over the wound. The sensation shot through his arm up to his skull. He flinched and tried to tear away, but Doctor Smith had him firmly held and refused to let Alden wriggle away, grinning triumphantly.

"There, wasn't so bad was it? Now, on a scale of one to ten, how is your current pain?"

"Eight," Alden choked out, his eyes blurry.

"Well, that calls for some medication," he declared. The doctor pulled open another drawer, retrieving more bandages and a bottle of something else. "Here, just a moment now."

"Reverend, are you sure about this?" Hailey asked in a panic, but the doctor was already doing something near Alden's arm. He strained his eyes to see, but his vision was still blurry from the last burst of pain.

A moment later, a sharp pain, and Alden's eyes began to go dark. He didn't even have time to panic before everything had faded out.

"Wait," Alden said, his eyes fluttering open.

The doctor was gone, and it was suddenly night-time. The room was mostly dark, though there was a faint artificial light shining through the edges of the door into the hallway.

"—hwat?" came a mumble to his side. Hailey was there, having nodded off in a chair he hadn't seen before, next to the window. She looked up bleary-eyed, noticing he was awake. "Hey."

"Hi." Alden looked around, but saw no sign of Doctor Smith or anyone else. "How long was I out?"

"Hours." Hailey stifled a yawn. "You feeling better?"

He moved his arm experimentally. It felt numb and stiff, but mostly okay. "Yeah, a bit… You stayed here this whole time?"

"Well you're new here and you don't really have anyone else. I wasn't going to leave you alone in a strange place," she said matter-of-factly.

"Thank you."

"You sound surprised," Hailey noted.

"Rika described this town so much worse than what I'm seeing."

She shrugged. "Rika's never been well-liked around here, before or after all this stuff with magic. I think her perspective's pretty skewed."

"She can't be totally wrong though. Plenty of people are lying and scheming."

Hailey laughed. "Lying and scheming? What are you two doing anyway?"

"Well, we were going to steal something, but I guess that's not a thing anymore."

"I'm sorry your elaborate heist didn't go as planned." She grinned.

Alden liked her already. Hailey was kind, and she'd stuck around with him when she hadn't needed to. "I just feel guilty about not helping her."

"What do you mean?"

"When we first showed up at your place, and Rika was fighting with Jessica."

"You're really lucky you didn't actually hurt her," Hailey said threateningly.

Alden raised a hand in apologetic surrender, then winced from the pain and let it drop again. Concern flashed in her eyes. "I'm okay. But what I meant wasn't that I wanted to hurt Jessica. I mean, Rika was in trouble and I didn't do a thing to help."

"Do you think you should have?"

"Well, Jessica did start throwing fireballs first," Alden said petulantly.

"You guys dove into our apartment uninvited, and it's not like she can call the police," Hailey protested.

"And Rika always looks like trouble, yeah, I know. But still, I could have done something. Even if I'd just helped get her out of the way, or helped distract Jessica or something. I just stood as far away as I could and watched."

Hailey frowned. "Not everyone's meant to fight, you know."

"You did pretty good, I think."

She shook her head. "No way, I just panicked and hit you guys with anything I could think of. I threw my phone at you, man. How is that a good weapon at all?"

"Well, it hurt."

She laughed. "Thanks. But seriously, I was just grasping at straws. I'm no fighter either."

"I think you're underestimating yourself."

"Well, maybe you're doing that too."

"How so?"

"You still stuck around Rika through a bunch of stuff, if I'm understanding it right. That includes being chased by the police and God knows what else. You guys only split up willingly because you got hurt, right? So I think you've shown you're willing to back her up."

"But in our first fight—"

"First fight? Are you expecting more of this?" Hailey asked, looking concerned.

"I mean, doesn't it kind of seem inevitable?" Alden said nervously. "When you've got magic spells like this and lots of people who want to use them, and only a limited supply—you guys gotta have a page, right? Since you don't know anyone else who awakened."

"...Yeah, we do."

"So if people can only awaken through those pages, and there's a limited number of them to go around, then people are gonna fight over them."

"You don't think people can learn to share?" Hailey asked, but she sounded doubtful even of her own words.

"If you'd seen the council meeting where they revealed a new one..."

"That bad?"

"That bad."

"My friends and I never fought over it. We argued about a lot of things, but that piece of paper was always fine where it was."

"You had all read from it though, right?"

"Everyone who wanted to, yeah," Hailey answered in a melancholy tone. "I wish I knew where they were right now."

"They left?"

"Term's over, and none of them are from Rallsburg. They didn't have much reason to stay. I wouldn't either, except that… well, Jessica can't leave."

Hailey stood and stared out the shaded window.

"Where are you from? Not around here, then."

"Nope. Emerald city girl, born and raised. I came out here for school because I wanted an adventure, something way out of the way but still with good prospects. Also 'cause I thought it'd annoy my mom." She sighed. "Didn't expect this."

"That's… why I came here too," Alden said. Hailey turned to him, looking interested. "I didn't have anything going on in my life, and I had a clue pointing me this way. So I hopped the train and ran straight into Rika when I got here."

"A clue?"

Alden pulled out the envelope and briefly recounted the whole tale, just as he had for Kendra and Rika.

"We never did anything like that with magic," Hailey said, looking pensive. "I don't think something like that should even be possible, since you can't directly affect other people." She shuddered. "That's so awful. I can't imagine being forced to forget someone like that, just completely vanishing off the map."

"I can't either, but apparently it happened. Now I feel like something's missing all the time, and I've got no clue how to find them."

"Are you scared?"

"No, not really. I don't know what it's like to have them around, so it's not like I miss them."

"I would be," she said. "If I just had someone disappear out of the blue like that, everything gone, as if they were nev…" She trailed off. Her eyes were screwed up, as if she were trying to remember something on the tip of her tongue but couldn't quite place it.

"What?"

"I don't know… wait, do you hear that?"

There was a thump, then the click of a door. It wasn't the front door, though—it came from the rear of the house. Hailey's hand jumped to her throat, where the tourmaline stone hung from a sturdy, tight chain. Alden felt a surge of relief knowing that such a potent force was on his side this time around.

"Coming, coming! Wait just a moment, please!" came the cry of Doctor Smith, hurrying down the stairs from the upper floor of the clinic, which apparently also served as his home. Hailey released her grip, but they both stayed quite silent, unsure who might be calling from the back door at such a late hour.

"I don't mind being roused at this hour, but tell me, why not the front door?" Smith's voice echoed down the hall easily, though they couldn't make out the replies. Hailey glanced at Alden, a finger to her lips. He nodded. Despite what he'd said, they both felt the town less trustworthy on average than most.

"Nevermind that. A bit of excitement in town today. My nose has seen worse. Well, come in then. I'll do my best to oblige."

Footsteps approached, one pair much heavier than the other. Alden assumed the heavy footfalls were that of the exuberant Smith. They crossed into the sitting room opposite his own.

"It's been a while. How have you been?"

"I'm feeling lost, Henry." The response was low, exhausted and world-weary. Just listening to it made Alden feel like he wanted to curl up and give in to despair. He had never heard such a forlorn inflection. He looked back at Hailey, who looked just as confused.

"Who is that?" he whispered.

"I don't know," she whispered back. "I'm terrible at voices though."

Even the doctor seemed affected. The exuberance in his voice had faded, replaced with a note of concern. "Well, I'm no Catholic, but I'll hear your confession if you'll have me."

"I'm not either. I've never been very good at my faith. I just…"

"You don't need to be, my friend. No matter what, anything you say will be held in absolute confidence. I'll try to give the best advice I can, and if you want me to toss all the religion out the window, so be it."

"No, that's fine. I need to tell someone before I explode. I've done something terrible."

"Should we be listening to this?" Hailey whispered. She sounded embarrassed. "It sounds private."

"I'm not going anywhere," Alden replied. "Can't, really," he added, indicating his shoulder.

Hailey looked uncomfortable, but she stuck around as the men across the hall continued talking.

"What's on your mind?"

"I met a man out in the woods. He—well, he showed me things. Impossible things. Horrible things."

"Ahh," Smith replied knowingly. "You've discovered our more… esoteric neighbors. Had you heard about the town hall?"

"No, I've been out of town."

"Well—and believe me, I know this sounds quite insane—it seems Rallsburg is ground zero for the discovery of the arcane."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Magic, my friend. There are people amongst us who can cast spells, perform seemingly miraculous feats."

"There was a meeting?"

"Indeed there was. Well, the meeting was originally about another topic. A few students of the college were… well, they were murdered, I'm sad to say."

"What happened at the meeting?" The man didn't sound surprised at all about the murders. Alden's suspicions were growing.

"The leader of the magical community revealed herself, so I understand, followed by a communal agreement to coexist and find the killers. I was not there myself, so I couldn't give you the specifics."

"A truce?"

"I suppose you could call it a truce. I think there were plans to integrate and collaborate more directly in the future, though."

"...with witches and monsters like these?" The man practically spat the words, so full of vitriol was his voice.

"Come now, my friend. Let us not be so hasty to judge. They have abilities beyond our comprehension, but they have not shown any malice towards the people of our town. Maybe this is a blessing, which we do not yet understand."

"Henry, you can't possibly believe that."

"I do indeed! In fact, I plan to meet with their leader and offer my support formally. I'm thinking I'll head out tonight, in fact. She's quite the compelling figure. Not at all what I expected."

There was a scraping, like someone had stood up suddenly from a chair. "They can't be trusted, man! Open your eyes! What kind of man of God are you?"

"My eyes are unclouded, Brian," Henry replied, not rising to the same volume. "I am my Lord's servant and shall serve all his people."

"You're making a mistake," said Brian, and the chill in his voice could have frozen an blazing furnace. Alden recoiled, though there were two thick walls between them. Hailey's hand clutched the gemstone around her neck so tight that her knuckles had gone pure white. Her other hand was on Alden's shoulder, as though she meant to fling him behind herself at any moment.

"I'm sorry you feel that way, but I urge you to reconsider. We could be great allies and friends, if only given the chance."

"Henry." The depression and doubt was completely gone, replaced by a sharp edge that could cut through bone. "Out of respect, I'm telling you. Do not mingle with them. Do not go near them. You will be burned. God will punish them."

"On the contrary, I look forward to seeing what their fire and spirit can produce."

Footsteps thumped into the hall. Hailey stepped in front of the bed, blocking Alden from the view of the doorway. She raised her arm and set her feet. Alden recognized a fighting stance when he saw one. She might not be inclined to fighting, but Hailey had clearly been trained to some degree in self-defense—and he was already well aware of her magical power. There was likely no one in the world more adept to defend them at that very instant, with the possible exception of Grey-eyes.

He might have felt safe, but Brian's voice had pierced them both. Hailey did not have a firm stance; she was shaking with fear. Alden was pressed up against the wall in bed, thinking desperately of anything he could do. He was still feeling weak and doubted he could make a run for it—and where would he run to? The only exit would take him straight into the voice he was so desperate to avoid. He had no real magical ability. Alden could barely summon a candle flame.

All they could do was pray the voice did not enter the room.

"Come back any time, my friend. You are always welcome in my home," Henry called as the footsteps began to recede. The back door clicked open, then shut. A few moments later, footsteps started back up the stairs.

Hailey and Alden let out simultaneous massive lungfuls of air. She sat down on the edge of the bed, her hand still clutching the gemstone tight.

"Who was that?" Alden gasped.

"I don't know," Hailey whispered. "I don't want to know. Do you think he'll come back?"

"Let's leave. As soon as we can."

"Yeah. You were treated, that should be good." Hailey picked up the harness from under the bed. "Do you think you're good to fly out of here?"