“… a warlock”

Flo said it in a surprised but relative low voice; however, just in the break between two songs.

Joe did not understand:

“I beg your pardon?”

He was as confused as I was and stepped back to look around.

Being forced to look where she looked, I saw a tall young boy, about as big as Joe, with dark hair, a hooked nose, and menacing black eyes.

He hesitated, with his eyes locked into mine and just as Joe started to ask:

“Do you know...”

I felt that tingle that you feel in the game when somebody is probing your magic.

The answer to his 'identify' spell did not seem to please him but was neither fear-inducing as he took an empty wine bottle suddenly by the neck and smashed it against the table, saying:

“Now, what do we have here bitch?”

Creepy. I wonder what level Flo was? Unfortunately, I haven't checked that in-game.

Joe finished his sentence:

“... him?”

remaining there even more confused now.

A girl screamed loud, people stopped dancing, looking around surprised, whilst the warlock came towards us, undisturbed by their agitation, looking fix at White Flower, err... at me.

Joe made an attempt to stop him:

“Hey? What do you do?”

The moment the warlock turned his attention to him, he made two steps to the side, getting away from me. He yelled:

“Run!”

The warlock made a step towards him, and to my surprise, Joe simply fled, hiding behind other people.

Flo tried to follow him, but the warlock blocked her way.

“No, no, you stay!”

He said then a cursing spell that I recognized from Mephisto. I was baffled. I understood only now what Flo had previously said: a warlock! Damn, a Mephi warlock was here!?

“A player? A crazy guy playing Mephi for real?”

But how could that be possible? In a fraction of a second, Flo uncursed herself.

She can lift curses! She did not lie when we talked with the queen!

She tried to say a spell on him, but at the moment when she raised her hand, he hit her (me!) with the cutting bottle over her hand. Flo retired her hand with a yelp, missing the spell, retreating a step backwards.

He repeatedly attacked, spreading fire with his spells, and Flo stepped backwards and stumbled on the stairs. She was losing blood from her hands, panic invading me.

I guess she was also in a panic.

His spells sounded like firecrackers; blasts shocked the windows. She healed and uncursed, and he cursed and hit. His fireblasts shattered the walls. He was much more powerful and faster than me.

“Run, run the stairs up!”

He forced Flo to stumble again, kicking my feet from under me, and Flo screamed, pained after hitting the stairs hard with the knees. She tried to get up whilst he got me by the hair with his left hand throwing me backwards.

Fuck, I flew like a crash dummy.

I am too weak! He could throw me like a carpet with one hand. It felt like a nightmare where I could not move; I could not do anything but watch my destruction.

His right knee hit me in the liver, making me fall to the side, and I saw green stars from pain, but the expected hit with the bottle did not come.

Flo turned, and I saw Matthew holding the warlock’s right hand with both hands, fighting with him, dragging him away from me.

Flo used the short reprieve and hit the warlock in the stomach with her right hand, saying an ice lance spell.

The spell was strong enough to throw the warlock back several steps. He watched me with a surprised look as his stomach became a frozen block.

Unfortunately, the violence of the spell missed him, block-freezing the fish aquarium on the left, the glass exploding into thousand pieces, the image of a frozen fish with an open mouth remaining imprinted in my brain.

As the warlock lost his grip on me, Flo grabbed Matthew's hand and pulled him away:

“Come!”

She ran the stairs up, dragging him behind. He jumped the steps two by two, and up there, he was the one pulling me.

I heard the warlock screaming, covering all other screams and noises, and something like a fire explosion blasted through the room. The ice-block aquarium exploded into thousands of pieces.

“He melted the ice with a fire spell. I was too shaky, and my spell mostly missed; I should have frozen the hell out of him.”

“Does he not die from a frozen belly?”

I was confused and afraid.

“No, it did hurt him, but he'll survive.”

She ran through the corridor, opened a door but ran towards the dead end.

“No, no!” - Matthew protested, pulling towards the room - “Let's better barricade us inside the room!”

At this moment, I heard heavy steps on the stairs. A couple came out of one room looking confused at us. Smoke was coming from below.

A guy came from below, I think it was Nick, one of my colleagues, and Flo almost blasted him. She turned and entered the room, and Matthew followed.

Whilst inside, Matthew closed the door.

“We barricade us here until the police come!”

Flo was already at the window, opening it. She shook her head:

“No way!”

Matthew came and tried to stop her, holding me by the hand.

“Where do you go? Dolores, you are wounded! We should better wait for the police and an ambulance! Let me first try to put a bandage over your hand! You are losing blood! Where can I find...”

He looked at my bloody hand and then wanted to check if I had other wounds. Flo grinned and shook her head:

“Matthew, this is nothing! I don't want to stay here near that guy.”

The next second I was completely healed. He was stunned.

“Your, your...”

He was pointing at my face. I did not realize at the time why. As he had let my hand free, Flo sat on the window's perch and moved my feet swiftly to the other side. He held my shoulder as she moved on the flower ladder, trying to secure me.

The ladder was there to support some roses that climbed the wall almost to this heigh. It squealed almost like a living being as she stepped on it but held. The next moment she was already climbing down on it. He mumbled something but then followed. Flo jumped down from about three meters high. I screamed inwardly. I don't know if she broke something, I had for sure some bruises and scratches from the thorns, but she healed immediately. Unfortunately not my blouse which I can book as a loss. I sighed inwardly: this remembers me of Cala; I guess Flo must have something against blouses. A couple of seconds later, he was down here too, with a bloody finger. She healed him instantly, not even asking.

He froze, looking at his finger and then back at me.

Less than a minute later, we were jumping small hedges further and further away from the house. I heard some sirens and saw a blue flashing light, but we were already far away.

“Should we not go back?”

Flo looked at him and smiled. She pulled him closer and gave him a real kiss. It was so surprising that I was baffled. I think he too. I felt the adrenalin flowing through my veins, my heart drumming in my chest. The panic moment gone; she was feeling alive and happy.

“No. I feel better far away from there. Thank you for saving me!”

He was looking intently at me. Flo raised a brow.

“What?”

“Your… your burning is gone? Your face is completely healed?”

She chuckled.

“Oh, that!” - she shrugged - “Unintended consequences...”

“Whaaaat? What did you do? Nobody can heal here magically!!”

She sighed, then laughed softly.

“I'll have to make it appear again. I heard that nobody does heal here magically.”

She mostly ignored my rumble. He nodded, confirming it:

“That is about so. How did you do that? You healed my finger too? I… I… extraordinary!”

She sighed.

“Can you keep a secret?”

I think she said something, a spell of a kind. She added.

“Will you keep my healing secret? Everything about me a secret?”

“I… of course, if you want that! Of course, I will keep it a secret. Are you some kind of… a superhero?”

She laughed again.

“No, certainly not.”

“What was that guy? What did he want from you?”

She took his hand in mine.

“I don't know. Look," - she turned her head towards him, watching him in the eyes. Oh, gosh, I do not like his face, but she seems to find it... pleasant? Yeah, I can feel her feelings. Uh, did I lose something from what she said? - "until half an hour ago, I wondered if other people in this world could spell. He was one such guy. He was a warlock.”

Strange how I can talk with him and think about something else at the same time!

"A warlock?"

She sighed.

“I was too surprised to feel him, too surprised, and I spoke too loud. He heard me, and that started the whole thing. It was my error. It should not have come to that.”

"Wait, wait, wait!"- he repeated hurriedly - "What do you mean by feeling him? How could you feel him?"

"Oh." - she sighed - "I felt his magic aura, not him. To cast a spell, you need something that people call mana. I call it magic; it is the same. Almost all casters do produce mana. Their body can contain a certain amount, but that is limited. Most of the mana produced is in the air around the caster, forming his magic aura. This aura is also magic and could be controlled, but it is not easy. Some aura users can do amazing things through it, but it is just a body odour, like sweat, for most casters. Our warlock did have some rudimentary control of his aura, but I smelled him. Do you understand what I mean?"

"Oh, you can smell them exactly as Cala does?"

"Yes!"

“I think I do. What did he want?”

“That's a good question. First, he probed to see if I had magic. He felt a little, and he thought that I was weak. That was again my and his error. I should have either completely hidden from him or scared him. After I hit him with a harder spell, I think that he decided it was too risky."

“I don't understand?”

We walked hand in hand and approached the park behind my house. She sighed and pulled him towards a bank facing the lake.

“I'll explain, just give me a moment." - she looked around - "I like this place. Look how marvellous the stars reflect in the lake! No moons today?”

“Flo, there is only one moon here!”

“The moon will come out later. Why?”

She shrugged.

“Just for seeing it reflected in the lake.”

“So you are kind of a …? Mage? Witch?”

She balanced her feet under the bench and watched him:

“Does it matter?”

Fuck! My alter ego likes the neanderthal! I am truly fucked. What can I do?

I need to think about this. I need to digest this whole situation. Does the warlock know who I am? I did not know who he was. Probably the friend of a colleague. Will he come and look for me at my place? Why did he attack me? Are there more like him? Like us?

*

Cala stopped, resting with a hand against a wall.

“If I do some crazy shit, just kill me!”

She was barely standing. Alice had trouble carrying Tina whilst Spartacius fell again on his knees. Alice was carrying Tina because she had not sought about it. Alice could not help both Tina and Spartacius. As she realized this, Cala gripped her katars even angrier. This is what she could do.

Spartacius grumbled:

“Just let me die.”

The Lynx rolled his eyes tiredly.

“Sure!”

His answer was for both of them. Since Dolores had left, White Flower was gone too.

After some conversations, Cala complained that half of her brain was gone. She did not remember things that she knew she should remember. About Tina, Alice, and the Lynx, but mainly about Spartacius.

She did not remember anything about the other world, even if the others had talked about it.

Worse thing, she did not want to do anything. She could fight, she was strong, but she had no initiative. One had to tell her what to do, and then she did it. Mostly OK.

At first, they talked a lot, but she had few words to add even here. They waited in the grotto, hoping that that damn wolshi would leave. But then other orcs came, and they had to run. The caverns were vast. A massive network of tunnels and caverns, all orc infested.

They haven't slept for ages. They had no longer time for anything. Not even to properly sit and eat. You never knew when an orc arrow would fly. Not only one time has she jumped to take the damn hit instead of Tina or Spartacius. This was something that she could do. But for the rest? Her reasoning was too rudimentary, too narrow.

The spell power and the healing were gone to make matters even worse. What did it mean? What was the meaning of all this?

Alice glanced worriedly at Cala.

“Come, we must go further! Please help Spartacius! Take care with those katars!”

Cala obeyed. An arrow was sticking out of her shoulder bone. She had forgotten to ask Alice to remove it.

“Alice! Arrow!”

Alice turned, saw the arrow and sighed.

“Oh, sure! Don't let it stay so long; please speak sooner!”

Cala sighed, a lost look on her face. Why did Spartacius remember and she did not? Why was he sane and she not? Why is everything so unfair?