"Kieran Wolfe?" A voice speaks from behind me, and I tear my gaze away from the guards to look at the speaker.

He looks to be a few years older than me, with sandy-blond hair, brown eyes, and freckles across his nose and cheeks. Dressed in a fur-lined green coat and skinny jeans, with his hands stuffed into the pockets of the coat, he's pretty sexy. Is that fur real, though? If it is, that coat must have been extremely expensive.

I suppose it's natural that he'd have the money for that, though, being a Sivalshi Guardian. Isaac didn't tell me the guy he was sending was one, but it was pretty clear to me that he was. Something tells me that Isaac is hoping that I do hit it off with his bisexual friend, especially since he almost did accept, then made a small exclamation from a thought he had then said he'd send a friend.

Totally not obvious there, Isaac.

"And you are?" I raise an eyebrow, feigning ignorance.

"Chris," he smiles a killer smile, but it does nothing that the smile of someone like Zane or Lucas would do. "Isaac's friend. He said you'd wanted to leave the city to go for a walk, but didn't want to ask one of your friends to go in case you got attacked?"

I'd mostly asked Isaac because I know for certain he could handle things if we got attacked by some stray monster on that rare chance. That, and because I didn't want to bring both Lucas and Zane along, which I would have to do, and Lucas would probably end up late for work.

That's if they didn't strap me down or something for saying I wanted to leave the city for a bit today. People generally don't go for a stroll outside of the city for a reason, and with how protective they are of me, they'd probably do everything they could to stop me. I didn't want to deal with that and knew that Isaac would probably agree if he had time.

"Lucas didn't go to bed until shortly before everyone else woke up," I shrug. "And Zane is… well, he can turn to stone. They were really my only options among my friends; of the others, one makes mist to clean things and the other is a normie."

"Yeah," he snorts. "I supposed that makes sense. Nice to meet you. I'm glad Isaac finally gathered up the courage to reconnect with you, we've been pushing him to do so for a few years now. Actually, Sasha and I were planning on forcing a meeting soon."

"If it hadn't been for other things, he probably would have kept delaying it," I shrug again. "Thanks for meeting me. Since Isaac sent you, I'll trust you."

Even if Isaac and I hadn't seen each other in years, he is a Sivalshi Guardian – and so is Chris. That makes them trustworthy in my eyes.

"Thanks," he chuckles. "Ready to head out?"

"Yeah," I approach the pair of guards at the gate booth. "Hi, we were wondering if we could head out for a bit?"

"You'll need to fill out paperwork-" one of the guards begins to say.

"I have a pass," Chris steps up beside me, holding something out for the guards to examine. "No paperwork."

A few moments pass while the guards examine the, well, pass, then they nod and signal to someone inside of the booth. After a few seconds, the heavy, thick metal 'gate' begins rising. It's more of a solid sheet of metal, and there are three of them on the way through the tunnel out of the city.

Each one takes about a full minute to rise high enough for us to pass through, and once we're out of the city, I gaze out across the turtle's shell, out to the ocean. It's my first time really seeing the ocean, though straight ahead of us is Sivalshi's head.

The smell of the salt and ocean is stronger out here, much less diluted by the smells of the city. It smells so clean, too. I actually like it, though the vast openness before me does put me off a little. After having grown up surrounded by tall buildings and people all my life, this feels weird. It feels like I'm exposed, naked for all the world to see.

I actually want to go back right now because of it, but I have a mission to accomplish, and I know the only real problem would be if a monster attacked. If one did, though, I do have a bodyguard so I'll be fine.

"So," Chris says as I begin walking forward. "Mind if I ask why you wanted to go for a walk around the outer shell? It's not often people want to do that because of the risk of a sea monster boarding. That does happen, you know. I actually go fishing every now and then just to try and catch them."

Why does this not surprise me?

"Mind telling me which guardian you are?"

"What makes you think I'm a guardian?"

"Because I doubt Isaac would have asked anyone but a guardian to escort me," I answer, and he laughs.

"I'm Naximar," he informs me.

"Oh, neat," I say. "You use barriers as a defensive force, but you also compress them down into blades for attacks."

"Actually," he grins at me. "Those are two different abilities."

"They are?" I ask.

"Yup," he nods. "But we let people believe the one-ability thing since the general public and most power users don't know everyone who has powers has several. My root power is actually telekinesis, and that's the one my civilian persona uses, as well as my vigilante persona. You probably haven't heard of him, I mostly stick to the upper districts for vigilante work. Telzarus?"

"Name is familiar, but that's it," I shrug.

"Yeah," he says. "Thought as much. My powers are rooted in what's essentially force magics. The barriers are a form of compressed force, as are the blades. Telekinesis moves things through force. I'd actually become a vigilante when I was sixteen, and it was five years before I became a paid one, and another year before I became a guardian."

Naximar made his debut three years ago, so his timeline tells me his age.

"So you're twenty-five?" I ask.

"Yep," he nods. "My birthday's back in September. You know, you traveled quite a bit to get to this gate. Don't you live near Leftgate?"

"Not near it, but in a district in that general area, yeah," I confirm. "The walk here took more than two hours."

"Sheesh," he says. "At least I can use my power to fly around. Would never have gotten here that fast otherwise, don't like bothering with the cars."

"You flew here?" I ask. "You weren't worried about being seen?"

"Nah," he answers. "The Patron is more than generous in hiding our identities even for stuff like that. As long as we don't get stupid with it, anyway. So I can fly around a bit without a problem."

"That's pretty neat," I say. "And to answer your question, I want to try talking with Sivalshi."

The look he gives me at that statement says that I'm beyond strange and stupid. Coming from a guy who regularly tries to catch sea monsters, it has no effect other than making me amused.

"It's a personal thing," I tell him. "Once we get to his head would you mind stepping back a bit? Close enough to react if I'm attacked, far enough you can't hear what I'm saying?"

"Sure," he says. "You do know that Sivalshi can't talk, right? He's a giant turtle, I'm pretty sure only the Patron can talk with him. Or a telepath. You're a shadow-shaper, right?"

"Yeah," I shrug. "Like I said, it's something personal."

"Got it," he says.

We make small talk for the rest of the walk across the shell, and I learn a fair bit about Chris. He's lived in the upper districts his entire life, his mother working at an art gallery as a supervisor, his father a researcher.

There aren't many art galleries around, but they do exist here, a few floors of a building devoted to showing off art people made. A small bit of beauty in the hell that's our home. They charge a decent price for entry, because it does take a lot of money to run a place like that and to employ the people to keep order inside, to prevent thefts.

As for research, it seems his father works for Spelcor. In fact, Gabriel Aisal was one of the people I met when I went to Spelcor on Friday. I'm not going to mention that to Chris, though, because I can't talk about what the job was even if I can mention I was there for one. If I mention this, the conversation might steer toward the job.

"He actually made my vigilante spellsuit," Chris tells me. "Well, up until I became a guardian, anyway. Now I've got the Patron-made one."

"Only until then?" I ask. "If you're still a vigilante, where does he think your new suit came from?"

"He knows I'm a guardian," Chris explains. "Both of my parents were, so it was safe to mention to them. One of Dad's main researches is trying to figure out how to make spellsuits like the Patron's. Not exactly like them, but similar enough. Powers like yours tend to be tricky, because the entire suit would need to travel even without you bringing it with you."

"Yeah," I shrug. "You know, it's kind of weird that the Patron let me know your identity as a guardian and vigilante. I mean, I'm still in the probationary check period, we don't even know if I'm actually going to be accepted or not, even if he does have a mission in mind for me. Doesn't he usually prevent people from hearing or noticing that stuff? And wipe it from their memories if they do?"

"That's only proof that he's planning on accepting you," Chris says. "You are putting in effort, and your power is extremely useful. Isaac can do a lot of things, but he can't teleport. If he wants to get in somewhere, he'll have to go the same way as the rest of us unless he brute-forces it."

That's a fair point, I guess. If the Patron is letting me freely learn the identities of guardians and vigilantes he employees, then it means he has no intention on keeping it a secret from me. If that's the case, then it's a sure sign I'm to be made the offer in a week and a half, once the period is up.

"I feel like I'm meant as an assassin…"

"Probably," Chris shrugs. "It's one of the jobs we do end up doing and being able to teleport is perfect for that."

"Bet if my powers were light, it wouldn't be assassination," I mutter.

"They probably would be, actually," he says. "There was a guardian, oh… how long ago was it? Eighty or ninety years ago? His powers were rooted in light, and he was mostly an assassin. A light-shaper who could light-walk, he'd wrap himself into an illusion to hide himself from sight. That would have been a terrifying time to try to overthrow order."

That long ago was when Lucas's great-grandfather was a guardian.

"Do you have hesitations about killing?" Chris asks. "It's something we do end up doing from time to time in this job, especially on more major missions. If you don't want to do that, the Patron would probably be fine with making you just a vigilante. I think him letting you know and remember our identities as guardians is partly a bribe."

"I don't think it's a bribe," I roll my eyes. "I want to be a guardian, even if it means killing. I'd be doing so for the better of the city, to protect people. It might take me time to not freak out after, though."

"Yeah," he says. "Remember that there are people for you to lean on, whether as a boyfriend, girlfriend, friend, or whatever."

"Yeah," I nod. "Anyway, here we are."

We've reached the end of Sivalshi's shell now, and there's a significant drop down to his head. I didn't realize his shell was that thick, but it's got to be at least five or six dozen yards down.

"Are you going to talk to him from up here, or down there?" Chris asks.

"I'd rather down there," I answer. "But I don't think I could manage to get back up with my clothes on. Or down safely with my clothes on."

Which is definitely something I don't want to do in this cold.

"I can fly us down," he says. "If you don't mind me holding you."

"Go ahead," I say.

Chris wraps an arm around me, then pulls me forward with him as he steps off the shell. We sink down quickly, the feeling of falling terrifying even just from this short distance. When the school collapsed, I was near the top of it. I fell a very long way and I didn't think this through and oh goodness we're going to die!

Our descent suddenly ends, but there's no jerky movement, no sudden shift. We're falling, then we're not, our feet lightly touching down on the turtle's head.

"You okay?" Chris asks. "You look like you're going to be sick."

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," I clutch my chest. "Just need… holy fuck that was terrifying."

"Really?" He asks. "It wasn't that much."

"I fell over two hundred feet when I was little," I tell him. "It's associated with nearly dying and some other traumatic things."

"Oh," he puts a hand on my back, his face and voice full of concern. "Sorry. If you'd told me, I could have made the drop slower."

"It's fine," I shake my head. "Just… give me a few to collect myself."

Chris nods, and I take several deep breaths, basking in the feel of the shadows around me. Sivalshi is facing northwest and we're right up against the shell, so the shadow is deep, a fair portion of his head covered in it with the morning sun hidden from us as it rises.

Once I manage to collect myself, I let Chris know I'll head forward. The turtle's head is large enough that if he stays here, he won't hear anything I say to the turtle.

I walk forward, until I'm between Sivalshi's eyes. At least, I'm pretty sure those small hills are where his eyes are located. Taking a seat, I reach down and feel the turtle's head. It's smooth and firm, and extremely cold to the couch. Quickly, I stuff my hand back into my coat pocket, where it's warm. Warmer.

Sometime soon, I should buy gloves.

"Good morning, Sivalshi," I say, then sigh. "This is stupid, isn't it? Do you even have ears? Can you hear me? It's not like you can actually respond, though. You're a giant turtle, what are you going to do, raise your left foreleg for 'yes', right for 'no', left hindleg for 'maybe', and right for 'interesting'?"

I sigh again.

"Shade asked me if I'd talked to you," I say. "But I don't really know why. Were you a friend of Nox's, when you guys came over from wherever you're from? Shade says I'm a descendant of his. Now I feel stupid and awkward. What do I say to a giant turtle? How do you even hold a conversation with one? Maybe I should have waited for Shade to contact me again, find out why he wanted to know if I'd talked with you."

Sighing once more, I shake my head, then stand and stretch.

"Well, until next time, Sivalshi."

I return to Chris, who looks at me in curiosity.

"That was a short 'talk'," he says. "Everything alright?"

"Yeah."

"Can't imagine what you wanted to talk to a giant turtle about, though."

"It's a long story," I shrug. "Maybe one day, I'll figure it out."

"Alright," he chuckles. "Ready to head back up? I can fly us back into the city."

"Sure," I say.

"Where do you want to go?" He asks as he wraps an arm around me, lifting us up into the air.

"I was planning on buying a new phone if I had time in the next few days," I answer. "Mine's kind of old and cheap. Even if I won't get data for it, I could still use a better one."

If I buy a decent phone, I can connect to wifi while I'm out and about, which would make some things easier. The camera on it would be better, too, and I want to start taking pictures of me and my friends.

"Alright," he says. "Want me to take you to a store I know? Or got one in mind?"

"There's one in mind," I tell him. "Do you know where the Lusvaris Training Center is? It's not far from there."

"Sure," he says. "I'll go slow enough you don't feel sick. And don't worry about falling, as long as I have enough of us touching, you'll fly with me."

"Thanks," I say, then we begin flying forward. "And thanks for accompanying me out here, even if nothing happened."

"No worries," he says. "You're a friend of Isaac's, so I don't mind."

The rest of the flight is made in silence, mostly with me keeping my eyes closed as we go. Once we reach the general area of the training center, I direct Chris to the building, and he lands us at the entrance of it.

"Thanks," I say.

"No problem," he says. "I'm going to get going now, you take care of yourself. See you at the party?"

"See you there," I say.

He gives me a wave, then takes off into the air again. Once he's gone, I enter the store, thinking about our encounter. I'm pretty sure he's the bisexual friend that Isaac mentioned, especially with how he was wrapping his arm around my waist. I really doubt he needed that much contact between us to keep me in the air as he flew.

However, there was no spark between us, no attraction towards him like I feel toward Zane and Lucas. Unless some new guy shows up to steal the show, they're still safe.

My phone pings, and I check it, finding a text from Isaac.

That's the friend I mentioned. Did you like him?

Yup, my guess about Isaac's intentions with sending Chris as my guard was right. I shoot him back a response.

Think he'd make a nice friend, but no spark.

Isaac doesn't respond to that, and I know he's probably disappointed his attempt at hooking me up with someone failed.

Now I want to tell Zane and Lucas that I met the guy Isaac wanted me to hook up with, just to see their responses. Maybe I'll avoid telling them how things went, just to test them further?