For a couple months Kaia stayed with Venlyn on that anti-magic world, dodging the authorities at every turn and generally keeping out of trouble by remaining in fox form whenever possible, and before she knew it she'd slipped into the idea of complacency. She'd started to think maybe the dragonflies wouldn't come back, that maybe they'd stopped bothering her for good. She even thought with wistful abandon that someone might've beaten them at their own game. Then she got to thinking it wouldn't be so bad to stay here for the rest of her life. For the most part she had decent meals and good company, and the authorities weren't that difficult to evade if you knew which blocks had the least anti-magic built into the architecture. Besides, even if she had been itching to leave, Kaia wouldn't have been able to find interplanar transport here. The tech was stuck at a certain level because the locals refused to use magic to supplement their sciences.

But Venlyn seemed to be getting antsy about having her around all the time.

"It's your fur," he'd say. "It's so bright, brighter than the normal foxes here."

"Better than blue for blending in though." Kaia was tired of this discussion. She was doing everything within her power to keep a low profile, and wouldn't you know it, it was working. She had yet to be caught. That should've been enough testament to her skill at stealth but apparently concrete evidence wasn't enough for Venlyn. She was getting sick of having to prove herself over and over. "This is the best I can do. And it's good enough. Look who's not caught."

Venlyn's tail swayed nervously as he spooned gruel into his mouth. They were holed up in an abandoned alcove in an even more abandoned building at the center of the metropolis. Not one scrap of anti-magic in the whole place, not even on the walls. After that first run-in with the authorities, when he'd brought Kaia here and told her this was the best they were going to get as far as lodging was concerned, Venlyn explained this was one of the oldest buildings in the metropolis, might even be the first ever built on this spot of land. Story goes it used to be a church, and rumor had it there was a curse from some ritual gone wrong that lingered inside the old stone, which Kaia reasoned might be why this world embraced the anti-magic trend in the first place. Supposedly that was long enough ago that only occult enthusiasts like Venlyn and historians knew of it. Though the original meaning of anti-magic was now lost on the general populace, the tradition of wearing it had nonetheless trickled down into this world's modern fashion, which was why the stuff was everywhere.

Anyway, all that was beside the point. The point was it seemed like Venlyn didn't want Kaia around anymore, which ruined her fantasies of finally settling down on one singular world. She curled into her knees and sighed as her appetite abandoned her.

Venlyn twitched.

"I don't mean to be a bother," said Kaia. "If you really can't stand me being around I'll leave." Wouldn't be the first time.

"What? No." He crawled over to her side of the alcove and squeezed in next to her, which was pretty awkward given the small space, his height, and the fact he smooshed between her and the wall. Also, the ceiling of the alcove sloped upward. There wasn't much room for his head unless he craned his neck down and swept his ears back, which he did. He pulled in his knees, mimicking Kaia's posture, and wrapped his tail around his feet. "I don't want you to leave, Kaia. I just don't understand why you're hanging around here. When we first met you said you had friends, family. Don't you want to get back to them?"

"It's complicated."

"Is it?"

"Firstly, I can't. Y'know, physically can't, because there's no transport here."

"Fair."

"And secondly I'm not sure if I want to."

"But that soul sister of yours," said Venlyn. "Kits, right? That was her name?"

"Yes."

"You don't miss her? It sounds like you do when you talk about her being so far away."

"Maybe." Kaia couldn't believe she was opening up about this. She hadn't even told Kits because it was so embarrassing. "But what if she doesn't miss me?"

Venlyn burst into laughter. His proximity forced Kaia to feel it intimately, the way his whole body bobbed with chortles.

"What?"

"Kaia," he said through the laughs. "She misses you."

Kaia wasn't so sure about that.

"If you're wondering why I've been so off around you lately." He waved his hand to indicate the church with its walls that ensconced them. "It's because of this place. I've been thinking maybe the curse is real. Sure, might sound ridiculous, but then where do the nightmares come from?"

"Nightmares?"

"You don't remember waking up screaming? You've been doing it every night for the past week."

"Oh." The pause lasted an eternity and when she spoke again her voice came out small. "Sorry."

"I've figured out you're made of magic. It's in your scent, the way you carry yourself. I'm not all magic, but I can recognize it in others. I thought maybe… well, the curse had to do with a ritual and rituals have to do with magic, don't they?"

"Not always. Sometimes the magic is there naturally, a force ready to manipulate. Organic, y'know? Crystal explained it to me once but I can't remember the explanation word for word."

"My point is I don't want you staying anywhere that upsets your sleep cycle that much. It's unhealthy. I've been trying to come up with a better place for a while now but every time I try to think of somewhere without anti-magic all I can think of is here."

"I've always had nightmares. They're not new. So there's probably no curse."

A concerned expression flickered across his face and he hid it but his swaying tail betrayed him. His tone abruptly lightened. "Probably? Not definitely?"

"Well. Another thing Crystal told me is probably everything exists. Y'know, somewhere. Somehow. On some world. She has theories about it. Sorta makes sense if you think hard enough, but then again so does everything."

"Not for me it doesn't."

"Really?"

"Kaia." He puffed out a breath filled with fondness. "You have no idea how clever you are. That's why I'm saying your family and friends must miss you."

Kaia thought on this.

"And if you left," he continued. "I'd miss you too."

A pinch in Kaia's heart broke her concentration.

"But it's up to you to choose."

"I can't. I can't right now. I need time."