Mr. Jay Whatever-His-Surname-Might-Be.

A one hundred and one percent genuine bonafide living breathing Ancient Magus. In the flesh.

Why, I have heard a great many illustrious tales and wondrous anecdotes that told of the fabled Magi like not even an hour ago I believe. Revered to the point of legendary, least that's what Asteria tells us anyway - Kronocia's account on them was what I was really itching to know now.

Asteria claimed them powerful, magical prowess unparalleled, wielding extraordinary abilities that far lesser men would never comprehend, and the unmatched wisdom and wit to use them as a Magus sees fit.

All in all, you really do not want to find yourself on the brunt end of somebody that could effortlessly magic away your heart in a literal heartbeat.

By right, I had every reason to be downright intimidated under the overwhelming presence of such a powerful adversary. After all, that whirring and buzzing had been him all along - that presence akin to Terestra's as Amelia claimed was standing directly across from me.

But I just wasn't.

Maybe if he was enraged, maybe if Jay actually looked a little upset over the fact that a master of deception he was not, I'd be backing far, far away… but as things stand, as he continued to dawdle in place looking as if he had just simply spilled his ice-cream on the floor - I wasn't going to be turning tail anywhere.

"Was I at least - uh - convincing at any point, though?" He asked, his brows slanting upwards. "I actually thought I had a pretty good thing going."

He did, didn't he? At arrival, during first greetings, I thought nothing more of him as the jolly scrawny acquaintance of one Amanda Collins - and I seriously thought it was going to stay that way forever and ever… how the tables have turned.

"You were convincing before, yes," Irene continued to be our voice, saying what we all felt in the bluntest way possible. "Not as convincing now…"

Jay frowned, looking mildly disheartened. "What gave me away?"

"Yourself," She said. "Knocking into me out of nowhere… convenient. You knowing what exactly we're looking for… even more convenient. It's as if you were begging for us to put two and two together. You being a bad actor is just the cherry on top."

This was genuinely far from what I was expecting from an almighty magic guy - it's like every expectation I try to set for anything just keeps getting shattered in the most subversive ways possible.

Literal everything - date with Ash ended with a cloudy sky with a chance rot and decay. Fetching Irene nearly had me crossing a boundary that had no turning back from. Confronting Howard? Don't even need to mention how that turned out.

Now after a string of happenstance and chance, here we were face to face with the prime suspect number one and he here was asking us casually how good were his acting chops.

Should really just stop expecting things. Take everything as they come, it'd probably save me the headache.

"So what was your play here, Jay?" Irene lifted her head, her hazel eyes brimming with disdain. "Conjure up a magic book out of nowhere filled with runes and hope we just go on our merry way?"

Jay showed a sheepish smile, and burrowed a hand downwards into the scraps and dregs. A sliver of white light glimmered from his outstretched arm, then suddenly he was pulling out and up a leather, battered, grimy old book barely fitting into his palm. He tossed the book at us, landing atop a sellotaped box in a reverberating thud.

"Somewhere along those lines," He admitted dejectedly. "Gain your trust and have you leave. Two birds, one stone. Didn't realize I was throwing a boomerang instead."

"And if that didn't work?" I asked, surprised to hear a sternness leaving from my lips resounding as harsh as Irene's. "What's your plan now?"

Jay just shrugged. "Don't usually have plan Bs."

Then suddenly, a harsher tone, beating out any others, sounded aloud. Ash wore a scowl far surpassing Irene's in terms of the terror-factor.

"You've descended the Blight, harmed innocents unknowing, terrorized countless more, afflicted my Master - your doing!"

Ash swiftly raised her arm, and in that same flash of bright light, in her hand appeared the hilt of a silver sword, like an extension of her body, she directed the sharpened gleaming edge forward, the tip as piercing as the emerald eyes before it.

"You will answer for this injustice, and you shall do so now. In the name of my Master, I shall see to your comeuppance. But first… you will undo your cruelty, you will revert everything to how they once were. Am I clear?"

The Magus nearly stumbled trying to retread a step backward, a leg entangled in loose wires sent him fumbling with arms flailing. Soon as he regained his balance, those arms were raised high in submission. Jay stared at Ash, and that was all he kept on doing… his eyes on hers for long enough for it get a little unsettling.

"What is it?" Ash's voice grew sharper, the grip on her sword tightening. "Have you need telling twice?!"

"Oh no, no… I heard you," Jay responded, his tone soft and meek. "Loud and clear."

"And?"

"It's just…" He shook his head at her. "You really do sound just like her. But of course, you do. You're you, aren't you? Eshwlyn. Eshwlyn The Elf-Knight."

Did not like that. Really did not like that. I really, really, am at odds with how he spoke her name right then. Like he was entranced… captivated with the sound of it. His voice, tender… gentle…

Suddenly his longing stare was making sense.

I felt my lips spread apart. "Do not - "

"Do not speak my name!" Ash hissed, pursing her lips. "Another utterance, and I will not hesitate."

"Okay, sorry, sorry," Jay said, genuinely apologetic. "My mistake, won't do it again."

There was a moment of absolute silence. A moment where I found myself scrutinizing his every move, the fidgeting of his legs, the squirming of his fingers, the brief fleeting glances towards Ash's direction.

Don't think he could have made it any clearer if he tried. I remembered he said something before, back when I was still falling for his game of charades, what I thought was just a reaction of an over-enthusiastic fan might have been much more than meets the eye.

That stare… those eyes…

>

Hmm…

Couldn't pry any deeper, sadly. I lost that moment in that moment itself - Irene jumped first, snaring him with her own questions.

"You admit to summoning the Blight?"

"Uh… you got a sword pointing at me already," He responding, darting quick glances at Ash's silver. "If it wasn't me… I don't know what to tell you."

I have a feeling this was going to be a long back and forth - whenever Irene started doing her own back and forth, you'd know that'd be usually the case and indeed there she was… left foot over the right going from left to right.

"You know, I never took the Ancient Magi to be headaches responsible for causing cataclysmic events. I always thought them snobbish, and very narcissistic… but never inherently evil. What changed, Jay?"

"Will it make a difference if you have a motive?" Jay frowned. "I already did it, Blight's already fallen, so what does it matter if you know why?"

"Is that you refusing to cooperate?"

"I don't know, detective," He shrugged again. "Does it sound like anything else?"

Irene wasn't about to take that tone of defiance lying down, she actually stopped dead in her tracks, taking in a deep, heavy breath but before the words even reach past her lips, Ash had already beaten to her punch.

"Comply!" She shouted, her voice ringing deafeningly in the sullen quiet. "You will comply."

With her, and only her, that little front of smartassery he had on for show fell to abandonment. Just her, and only her… his eyes would turn steady and sincere.

Only with Ash.

"Things could have been so much different, you know?" He said, looking past the glimmer of her blade. "Had I only been just a little smarter, If only I had just a little more know-how back then… you wouldn't be pointing that sword at me, you won't even be giving me that look like you are now."

Ash furrowed her brow. "What is it you're saying?"

I think I knew what he was saying… and I also knew I wouldn't like what he was going to say next. His eyes next turned towards me, gone with the sincerity…

"You're the Master, then?"

Those words were empty, but it was the forced kind of empty… the one that tries to stamp away any sort of emotion. I knew just how it sounded.

"You could say that," I replied slowly.

"Then it was you" His lips started to tremble. "You took her. You took her from me."