Lola gaped at her. “You-you’re lying. Caterina Salhi is missing?” Caterina- Ree, as most people called her- was Cato’s older sister, the heir to their clan. She was both unerringly kind and whip-smart, one of the most formidable mages among the new generation. Lola saw her every now and then when she was with Cato, and Ree was always kind to her, and fun to be around too.

Kezi nodded grimly. “She went missing sometime last night, no one knows when. Apparently there were signs of a struggle in her room, and the window was hanging open when they searched up there.”

Lola frowned at them. “How do you know all this? You’re not a Silksmith, are you?”

Kezi tipped back their head and laughed. “Not in the slightest. I’m just a freelance exorcist. I was hired the other day by their clan matriarch to help with a few malevolents they’ve been having a problem with.”

Danae piped up, “They know about spirits, too, and they said they could maybe help me.”

Kezi nodded. “The issues your friend’s been having sound pretty similar to what’s wrong with those malevolent ghosts.”

This piqued Lola’s interest, and she asked, “So… do you have a solution for what’s wrong with Danae?”

They shook their head slightly. “Not exactly.” Lola opened her mouth to interject, but Kezi held up a hand and continued, ‘“Since we’re not totally sure exactly what’s happening or why, there’s nothing I can do right now to help. But if we could figure out the root cause of Danae’s memory issues and-” They made air quotes with their fingers. “-the ‘unraveling attack’ she had last night, then maybe me or another exorcist with more spirit-related experience could help fix whatever’s wrong.”

“Do you think what happened last night is going to happen again?” Danae asked softly. She’d been standing there calmly stroking her crow’s back, listening to the conversation quietly. The dark feathers on her capelet fluttered in the wind, as did strands of her midnight-black hair, a single thin braid with a crow feather hanging from it framing the left side of her face.

Kezi made an ‘unsure’ wobbling gesture with their hand. “Maybe. Right now, she seems to be in the early stages of whatever’s making those ghosts at the Silkspinner’s place malevolent. After I got the job, I talked to some other exorcists and street magicians, and none of them had seen anything like it before. So, it’s possible Danae’s condition will say the same, but it’s also highly possible it’ll get worse. Without any kind of precedent, we just don’t know.”

Lola opened her mouth to speak again, but before she could the loud chimes of her ringtone echoed out. Immediately she fumbled for her phone, elation surging through her when she saw the caller ID. “It’s Cato!”

She put her phone up to her ear as Cato’s tinny voice said, “Hey, Lola.” He sounded exhausted.

“Cato! Are you okay? Is everything alright? We just heard that Ree went missing, is that true?”

She heard him sigh. “I’m… well, physically I’m alright, but it’s been a rough 24 hours. Ree… it’s true. I guess word’s probably gotten out by now. She- she vanished yesterday evening, and the clan’s been rallying all our allies in the Vers Ibrae to launch a search for her.”

“Oh, Cato, I’m so sorry. Is there anything we can do?”

“I… did you say we? Who are you with?”

Lola let out a breath. “It’s a bit of a long story, I was going to tell you at brunch tomorrow. Do you know- has your clan been working with someone called Kezi?”

“Keziah Ngwenya? The exorcist? Yeah, they’ve been helping out with our ghost problem. Is that who you’re with?”

“Mm-hm, and someone else I met called Danae.” Lola decided that explaining Danae’s whole… thing would take too much time right now. “Where are you right now, Cato? Do you need me to come over and help with the search?”

“Oh- that would be great, thank you. Right now we need as many people as we can get to help out, and the clan trusts you. I’m at the shop right now. It’s- pretty hectic. I’m sorry, but I can’t talk for too much longer.”

“Okay, no problem. Take care of yourself, I’ll be over in ten.”

“Alright, see you then.” The call ended with a click.

Lola looked over at Danae. “I’m going to go over to the shop and help Cato with the search.” She turned to Kezi. “Thank you for letting us know about Ree, and thanks for all the help. It was nice meeting you.”

They nodded. “Nice meeting the two of you too. I’ll be over at the shop this evening for the whole exorcism thing, maybe we’ll run into each other,” they said to Lola, before turning back to Danae.

“If this new mystery illness continues to spread, it could be a real problem, especially for someone in my line of work.” Kezi said to her. “I’m gonna contact some friends, ask around and try and figure out what it is and how to fix it. If you don’t mind, I’d like to keep in touch with you, monitor your symptoms, maybe ask your help for testing out some solutions. Would you be alright with that?”

Danae nodded.

“Do you have a phone?”

Danae shook her head. “I don’t, but I can ask my crows to keep tabs on you, so that if you have a message for me, you can pass it to them.”

“She’s been staying with me, I can also give you my number,” Lola added.

“Either works, I guess- I’d rather not be spied on by a bunch of crows, but these are unprecedented times.” Kezi pulled up a blank contact on their phone and passed it to Lola, who filled in her information, putting her name in as ‘Lola :)’.

Lola gave Kezi back their phone, and they slipped it into their pocket. “Alright, I’ve gotta run. See you around!”

As Kezi walked away, Danae turned to Lola and said, “If you don’t mind, I’d like to come with you to the shop, please. My crows and I would be able to help you search for Cato’s sister.”

Lola nodded, her head starting to spin with all that had just happened in the last ten minutes. “Alright. Let’s get back to my car, then.”

As they walked, Lola’s mind struggled to process it all, slightly in shock. Danae and her crows staying at her apartment, a strange new exorcist with a lot of answers, Ree vanishing like a ghost in the night…

Despite her interactions with Shrikeport’s magical side, Lola’s life had been, if not exactly boring, incredibly predictable and a bit lonely for the past few years.

She’d finished her studies at the local university, gotten the job at the coffee shop, moved into a new apartment, ran into her fair share of strange creatures, and had a decent amount of occult experiences, but nothing truly unexpected had ever happened. Every day, every week, every month had nearly the same routine. But she hadn’t really been bothered: an ordinary life was exciting enough for her, although it did get a little dull and lonely at times.

Lola had taken comfort in the predictability, the similarity of every week. Up until 24 hours ago, she’d thought she’d known exactly how everything was going to go for- well, the rest of her life, probably.

But it seemed like life had other plans for her. Danae had entered her life like a whirlwind, the tensions simmering beneath the surface of the Vers Ibrae had boiled over, and she was suddenly finding herself being drawn into the center of it all.

How strange, Lola reflected, that in less than a day everything had changed.