Y Saturday, April 25, 2009
12:24 am
It was raining.The overcast sky seemed to have voided the world of colour. Everything seemed to have been splashed with a monotone grey. I pulled my worn grey hoodie over my head and looked downwards in hopes of shielding my eyes from getting stung by the rain.
A simple shielding spell would have worked. But it's funny how much you can tell so much about a person the way he walks. The heavy sauntering of a drunk hobo, the relaxed grace of an amateur model to the large confident strides of a tall, athletic student.
Wait. Something was wrong.
I mentally reviewed the auras of the three people I saw, and froze as I perused the student's. There was a purple swirling vortex above his head, but that was not the anomaly.
Vortexes were commonplace - a result of human anguish, selfishness and above all, foolishness. It can form simply by hurling a curse at a person, be it wishing for said person to slip on a banana peel and fall face first into a pile of dog feces or the most violent death imaginable.
Either way, in most cases, humans were too weak to be able to cast a curse of sufficient power. The worst that usually happened was perhaps a sneeze or an unexpected shift to a gloomy mood in the person.
Yet the vortex above the student was... unnatural.
I still recall the countless of times the trainer at the academy told me gut feeling was the number one thing that got Watch agents killed.
I'd have believed him, if it wasn't for the fact that he was killed one day on patrol, for reasons and means unknown, made or not.
It's kept me alive so far, so I'm not one to complain. The student in blue easily navigated through the thick mass of middle class workers knocking off and heading towards their respective trains. Of all places to be in, why did he choose a train interchange?
It wasn't nearly as easy for me though. I got jostled around the mad rush of people as a butterfly would get violently manhandled by gale winds. Frustration levels mounting, I cursed quietly under my breath and cast a quick concealing spell.
Just like magic, the people suddenly stopped acknowledging the existence of the area I occupied. Actually, it was magic.
His aura flickered weakly. No good, I was losing him. Seems like there was only one way to go about this. Max wouldn't approve, but that's a problem for the future that hasn't arrived. Better a regret prevented than a mistake borne of paranoia.
I took a deep breath and stepped through the shadows into the Twilight. I've always loved that feeling. It was like dipping yourself in freezing water - you are instantly awakened. As with most things, the Twilight has a double edged sword. People who freeze to death always feel sleepy near their end for a reason.
The world instantly desaturated into grey and sepia tones, and everything around me slowed to a crawl. I broke into a light jog and pushed past the cattle in my way. I glanced in amusement as a cup of coffee was freed of his master's grip and tumbled towards the ground, the addictive brownish liquid fanning out with the help of gravity, all many times slower than it should have been.
Nearly there... I should be able to see him soon.
"Stop! Day Watch! Leave the Twilight!"
A strong, authoritative male voice emanated from behind me. Day watch? Shouldn't they be off by now? I gritted my teeth and dropped out of the Twilight, turning around to face the irritants behind me.
"Identify yourself."
Standard Day Watch patrol. Two magicians, maybe sixth level and a vampire. I didn't have time for them.
"Alexander Himmel. Night Watch agent. If there's nothing important, I'll be leaving, say, right now." I replied lazily.
The vampire smirked and replied cooly "Leave? I'll have you know that's a violation.."
"Of the treaty right? Maybe if you can tell me of any transgressions I've committed, I'd stop. But for now, get the hell out of my way."
Violating the treaty was a straight, one way ticket to hell, but I called their bluff and walked off, diving into the Twilight and breaking into a sprint.
That annoyed them, but it turns out I was right afterall. One of the magicians attempted to conjure a fireball but was stopped short by the other. The idiots wouldn't risk doing anything.
The crowd had gotten significantly thicker and I strained to trace the aura of the student. Spying a flicker of the faint dominating presence of his, I turned to his general direction.
It was gone.