An Unexpected Meeting

Sometime in the night, someone barges into my room, waking me up. My mom comes to stop in front of my bed, glaring at me with bloodshot eyes. "So," she says with a voice that sounds close to tears, "you weren't alright with almost dying a few months ago. You just had to jump into a burning building so you could taste death again, right? You… you… God!"

She turns around and leaves me alone, wide awake and feeling more than a little bit scared.

The next morning, it feels like I am walking on eggshells, trying not to do anything that will make my mom blow up. She is angry with what I did, very, very angry. But, she isn't doing anything. That scares me. I am only finally able to relax when she finally leaves.

Yesterday night, after she woke me up by barging straight into my room, I had spent quite a bit of time wondering how she found out about what I did. I had thought someone told her, that is until I went online and saw that I was trending. Turns out, someone had taken a video of me running back into the arena, and also when I came back out carrying both the young boy and Cassandra on my shoulders. Add in the people I had rescued, who had no problem appearing on TV to praise their rescuer, and it would have been a miracle for her not to find out. Though I have to admit, I did look quite a bit heroic when I came out.

Still, quite a lot of people condemned my actions. Calling me stupid, dumb, a death-seeker, and so on. There was even one guy who managed to come up with so many creative insults that I, the person being insulted, couldn't help but feel impressed. At the end, tired of hearing so many people say how stupid I am, I decided to leave social media alone for the day.

Emily finally leaves her room, just as I am about to go to the Metorium. "Look. It's our neighborhood hero, Ian."

"Good morning to you too," I say.

"Good morning. So how's mom?"

"Pissed."

"No kidding," Emily replies, "Why do you think I've been in my room all morning? There's no way in hell I am going to face that. That reminds me, how did you manage to rescue those people?"

"There was a path through the flames."

"Uh-huh. If there was a path, then they wouldn't have been trapped in the first place. What are you hiding from me, big brother?"

I sigh. "Look, Emily. Right now, my mind's too occupied with what mom's eventually going to do to me than with… anything else. If you think I'm hiding something from you, you should probably understand that I won't tell you what. If I wanted you to know, I wouldn't be hiding it from you."

She taps her cheek. "Good point. But so that you know, I will find out what it is."

Why do I get the feeling that we're talking more than how I rescued those people from the fire? "Good luck," I say before leaving the house.

On my way to the Metorium, more than a few people recognize me from the videos online. Unaware of how to deal with my newfound fame, I just smile at anyone who happens to recognize me. Hopefully, people will forget about me soon.

"Ian!" someone shouts from somewhere off to my side. I turn in that direction, smiling and giving a small nod before continuing on my way. "Ian!" The shout comes again, more forcefully.

This time when I turn around I try to find who it is that wants to see me so bad. I quickly notice a pair -a boy and a girl around my age- who is walking toward me. They look vaguely familiar. As they come to a stop in front of me, I am finally able to place where I had seen them. The day before my fight with Keldin, when I had been trying to practice my newly learned binding noer, I had seen them in the nearby woods. They had then become unwitting test subjects.

"Hey", "Hi", they greet.

"Hey," I greet back, feeling a bit confused as I stare at the two Erhaz. Back then, they had given me the feeling that they didn't particularly like Laen. That combined with what I later did should have ensured that they didn't like me. And now they are here? It doesn't make sense.

"Thanks for saving our friend," the girl says.

"Err, sure, no problem," I reply, trying to figure out which among the people I had helped was their friend. Was it the unconscious child?

As if noticing my confused expression, the boy quickly clarifies. "Wick? Brian's friend? He was with you when you went to the concert with Brian and the others."

"Oh, I remember him," I say, realizing who they were talking about. "Wait, since he's your friend, is he an…"

The girl nods. "He's an Erhaz. He noticed you using magic when you came to save them. Thanks, again."

"Alright." An awkward silence fall as the duo share looks with each other, in what looks like a silent argument. I am about to ask them to say what they want when the girl lets out a sigh and finally speaks.

"Okay, we… we wanted to ask for a favor… your help. You know the accident at the concert was caused by a Fasuru, right?" I nod and she nods back. "Okay, well, we've been kind of tracking it for weeks now."

"Why?" I ask, genuinely curious.

"It hurt a friend of ours. Not Wick, another friend. And we want it to pay," the boy answers this time.

My mouth slightly open, I stare at them incredulously. They want it to pay? I think back to my encounter with the Fasuru. Judging by its aura, it could probably crush me like an ant; but I can easily beat the two in front of me, so if they were to face the Fasuru… Are they trying to die in the most creative way possible? Noticing my expression, the girl interjects, shooting the boy an irritated look. "We're not trying to fight it, of course. We have something else in mind, and that's why we need your help. You're a Laen so you should have a way to contact the local guardian, right?"

Local guardian? Are they talking about Hugo? I nod, and the girl continues, looking a bit relieved. "Good. We've been getting closer and closer to finally tracking it down and when we do, we'll need something… someone powerful to take it down. That's where you come in. We are hoping we could pass whatever we find to you so you can pass it on to the guardian. If that's alright by you?"

I think it through. There's no doubt that Fasuru needs to be taken down. If the Laen haven't caught the thing yet, and these two find a way to lock onto it, telling Hugo shouldn't be too much of a problem. It'll help get rid of it, and throughout the process, I wouldn't be in any danger.

"Alright," I agree.

"Great," the girl says before pulling out her phone from her pocket. "What is your phone number? So we can tell you when we find it."

I give it to them and finally, they leave.