With a flash, the crimson drawing on the ground appeared once again before the sphere of twisted lights manifested above it. This time Galileo was not leaving the room, instead he was arriving with a headfirst dive. As soon as his body passed through the ellipsoid the crimson markings rose into the air, turning into a net that enveloped the spherical shape before it was suddenly swallowed, resulting in the disappearance of both.

As Galileo stepped out of the kitchen, annoyed and dirty, he wanted to yell from frustration. He had learned basically nothing despite coming so close to the epicentre of the explosion. With a wave of his hand, all the dust from along his body, his regalia, and the bits that had fallen to the ground gathered in front of his palm. With a light beckon, another object appeared from within his robe's inner socket: It was a small slab of grey metal sheathed within a thin layer of water.

From both of them he could feel energy radiating in bursts of unfamiliar power. Although he had not learned much about the cause of the explosion he had at the very least noticed the strange energy permeating from this piece of metal as well as the dust. With a wave of his hand, the dust was also sealed in a thin layer of a water-like liquid, stopping the leak of energy completely. He would definitely look far deeper into its source as his deep curiosity dictated, but at the moment he had something even more important than the source of that God-like power. As he looked at the brink of dawn through one of his windows, Galileo once again squeezed the robe into the tattoos carved into his chest and did the same with the metal and dust, leaving his experimentation for later.

After a few moments of hesitation, he decided to actually take a shower despite the fact he had just perfectly cleaned himself, once that was over he made use of some toiletries he came to like recently, setting himself up to look and smell the best he could manage without magic. Next, he walked into his living room, choosing his best clothes including a fine brand new black suit. Looking into the mirror, Galileo had to admit that he looked particularly handsome at that moment. The dawn already broke and considering the time of the year it was probably around 6 in the morning, the perfect time for breakfast and a quick swipe through the news before he set off. With a wave of his hand a yoghurt left the fridge and landed on the table in front of him together with a spoon as he picked up his phone, ready to delve into the news.

Instead, he was welcomed by an overwhelming number of missed calls. Most of them came throughout the afternoon hours of the previous day while there were also quite a few from the previous evening and even night. All of them came from the single number Galileo had saved in his phone, not because he didn’t remember, but mostly out of respect for the woman which had bested him time and time again. Considering how many there were Galileo did not wait to call back. The phone rang for a few seconds before the woman picked up.

“Are you alright!?” Quinn asked frantically as soon as the call connected.

“Yes, what happened?” Galileo did not allow his surprise show in his tone. Quinn was usually reserved and steady, this was perhaps the first time Galileo had heard her so flustered.

“Have you read the news?” she asked, much calmer now.

“Not yet, I just woke up,” Galileo decided that telling her what he had really been up to was not a good idea.

“Something huge happened. There had been a nuclear misfire yesterday, just a few hundred kilometres away from here,” Quinn explained.

“Nuclear misfire, huh,” Galileo repeated the words as he quickly moved over to his computer and searched for the term.

“Where were you yesterday during the time?” she suddenly asked, worry in her tone.

“Locked inside my flat as always,” Galileo chuckled at the gesture. The term Quinn had provided earlier had quickly led him to a string of searches as a smile slowly began to emerge. Surprisingly, the godlike power he had witnessed yesterday was not only not a secret, but the basics were also nearly common knowledge.

“The city council had issued a warning, telling people to avoid leaving their homes when possible until the area was cleared of any suspicion of radioactive hazard,” Quinn said over the phone. That only lead Galileo down another spree of seeking even more information over the internet.

“Does that include our meeting today?” Galileo momentarily stopped his frantic research when he realised what Quinn had implied.

“No, of course not,” Quinn said after a few moments of silence.

“I am glad to hear that,” Galileo sighed and continued his search, “See you in about two hours then. At the usual place, I assume.”

“Yes,” Quinn’s voice was a bit quieter all of a sudden, “See you then,” she said before terminating the call. Galileo still had a smile on his face as he no longer cared to go over the news. Instead, he glanced at the time on the bottom of his computer screen and committed himself to the search, finding out as much as he could about the nuclear weapons he had apparently witnessed yesterday. Over an hour later he had decided it was time to go, satisfied with the little bit he had managed to learn. Adorned in his fine fitting black suit he picked up a wrapped present he had prepared a few days beforehand and left his flat.

“Oi,” Galileo made it about halfway to the ground floor, always opting to walk rather than using the elevator, when he was called out to by a neighbour from a door behind him, “Lad, you shouldn’t be walkin’ out there righ’ now. Can be risky I hear,” the older man said, peeking from behind his flat's half-open door.

“I have an appointment I can’t miss,” Galileo just waved at him in dismissal. As he left the building nothing felt out of the ordinary, even when he tried to look for what Galileo now knew were gamma rays nothing was worng. The fallout hadn’t reached the city, at least not at the time. Despite that all public transport was out of order, so Galileo was left to walk the mostly abandoned streets on his own. It was strange to see those ever-bustling pavements basically barren of people with the few exceptions of citizens returning from emergency shopping trips. Apparently retail workers didn’t get a day off even during a possible nuclear catastrophe.

Galileo had arrived at their meeting place just on time. It had been a relatively small establishment of a cafeteria with private rooms they could rent. The reason why they had always come to this place was that the owners allowed them to stay in the room overnight, allowing them to finish matches in one sitting. When he was about to enter he noticed an expensive black car travel along the mostly empty nearby road. The model was the exact same as the one that had picked up Quinn the night of their first meeting as well as her choice of transit whenever they met up since. Just as expected, Quinn in casual dress stepped out of the back seat and immediately waved at Galileo with a wide smile on her face.

That smile on her face disappeared when she took a step forward and the driver’s door began to open revealing a rather short and average looking man stepped out of the vehicle. He was wearing black glasses that went with his just as ebony suit with a proper tie and white undershirt.

“You can go now,” Quinn gave the man an annoyed look immediately as she tried to hush him away.

“I think we have not met face to face before. Galileo was it?” the man appeared slightly seething with anger as he ignored Quinn. His hand was outstretched, offering Galileo an introductory handshake. Opting against rudeness, Galileo took the man’s hand nonchalantly. The grip felt slightly stronger than what most mortals whose hands Galileo had shaken were, but that was probably because of the man’s firm muscles.

“Yes, that is my name. What should I call you?” Galileo smiled at the man who suddenly seemed slightly puzzled.

“Call me Igor,” the man managed to scoff, not hiding his hostile attitude. Since his relation with Quinn appeared decent enough to warrant driving her so often, Galileo decided to not immediately antagonise the man despite his unfriendly manners, “So, what exactly have the two of you been up to, staying in this kind of place overnight so often?” the man tried to look intimidating as he stared Galileo directly in the eyes. Needless to say, Galileo had met hamsters which possessed a greater threat to him than the mortal, rendering those attempts futile.

“Playing chess,” Galileobluntly shrugged. What else would they be doing.

“Am I supposed to believe that?!” the man burst out almost shouting.

“I don’t particularly care,” Galileo was slowly becoming annoyed. He was already itching for a good chess match and decided to not humour the man any longer. Galileo stared back at the shorter Igor, ever so minutely stimulating the emotion of fear within him using a gentle magical nudge. Apparently he had overdone it as the man took a step back and slightly trembled, “I will go in first,” Galileo decided to end the conversation and entered the cafeteria. Quinn gave Igor a death glare and followed behind Galileo, leaving the startled man to cope for himself.

“Who was that?” Galileo asked when they finally got seated and took their first order of coffee. The place was mostly desolate, and the only serving person was the old woman who owned the establishment and lived in the building.

“My fiance,” Quinn scoffed, gritting her teeth.

“That is… unexpected,” Galileo found himself unable to find the right word for a moment, “You didn’t seem exactly harmonious.”

“I didn’t get to chose,” besides the gritting teeth Quinn now also clutched her shaking fists as her eyes grew wild.

“I get it. Don’t ask about your family,” Galileo nodded, hoping it would calm her down.

“Yes, please don’t,” Quinn tried to awkwardly chuckle as she hid her trembling hands beneath the table, “What about you. Do you have a family,” her emotions shifted slightly in the direction of sadness from what Galileo could read from her facial muscles.

“Not really. My parents are long dead and I never had a wife,” Galileo shook his head and spoke truthfully. That only made the sadness in Quinn’s eyes deepen for whatever reason. They both sat there silently for a bit longer, sipping from the cup of coffee that had just been delivered to them.

“I almost forgot, I brought you a present,” Galileo eventually reached into his suit’s inner pocket and took out the colourfully wrapped rectangle. He himself was surprised at how long it took him to recall the item.

“For what occasion?” Quinn appeared startled as she took the present from Galileo. At least the sorrow in her eyes vanished.

“It had been exactly a month since we had met,” Galileo answered, “And this period of time had truly been eye-opening for me. It’s just a small token of my appreciation.”

“May I?” she pointed at the wrappings.

“Go right ahead. It’s yours,” Galileo just smiled at the meaningless question. It did not take long for Quinn to tear through the paper, revealing a hand-carved wooden chessboard. When she opened it the pieces were neatly lined up in their slots within. Their design was rather exotic when compared to regular pieces.

“You made this?” Quinn was even more surprised than before.

“Of course. Do you like it?” Galileo asked. Not only had he designed and carved everything from scratch, he had done much more. The number of enchantments he had managed to squeeze into the individual pieces without causing any leak would have likely baffled most ancient grandmasters.

“You have no idea how much this means to me,” Quinn smiled very widely, “Although I haven’t prepared anything, let me at least show you something in exchange,” she said as she reached into her pocket, taking out a small jewellery box. Upon opening it a curious metallic pendant in the shape of a crow was revealed, “This is something left behind by my late father. I have always been carrying it on me like a charm of good luck.”

“Have you ever had its origin identified?” Galileo’s eyes were mostly captivated by the material. It was a rather rare alloy known for its rarely low inductivity for magic. Since the forging process itself required a not-insignificant amount of mana Galileo considered unlikely that was made in the near past.

“No,” Quinn shook her head, “I rarely show it to anyone since its very personal. Not even the asshole I am supposed to marry knows. But enough about that,” she petted the brand new chest board, returning the boxed pendant into her porcket “Let’s go upstairs, I can’t wait to try these out.”