I explained. I elaborated. I expounded, I expanded, I laid out my idea bare in a drawled out fervent-spoken tangent that left absolutely no room nor chance for any of the details in my rant to be made unclear.

Pacing up and down, the persistent twinging in my calf being subdued by the fiery passion of an idea taking hold.

Admittedly, I could have gone on the route of the swift and concise and save us from all my pointless ramblings, but when a stroke of eureka strikes you sudden… it was even more pointless to try and keep yourself from flapping your gums at the sheer brilliance of it.

Not that my idea was a masterclass display of high-level ingenuity, that is… I clearly can't be the judge of that. I'd simply be the most biased judge-man you've ever seen. If it were up to me, I'd strike my mallet onto wood in a heartbeat and basically crown myself King of Geniuses.

That's why she was here, acting as both judge and jury, eyes and ears closely paying heed, a hand caressing lightly a recently bandaged arm that laid limp on her lap.

From start to finish, Irene remained an enigmatic enigma in terms of reception. Getting a read on her was like trying to punch through concrete with your bare hands. It's simply impossible. Unless you're an Elf, in which case… yeah, you'd still be shit outta luck trying to decipher such a blank face.

It took quite a bit catching her up to speed on a fictional world's lore. I had to explain one by one who Sera Nas was, why she was so relevant to the conundrum at hand, and how this woman could resolve said conundrum.

We can try and summon her here ourselves. We can try and have her get rid of the Blight for us… only if all else fails. A last resort in the case that Jay continued to play Mr. Nobody.

And considering the alarming rate of unsearched folders being whittled down to the single digits - it was becoming a last resort that we were steadily drifting towards.

"So what do you think?" I added in last minute as a footnote, briefly forgetting my proposal hasn't been set in stone yet.

Again, those contemplative eyes of hers kept sealed lock and key of her judgment. But if I ever wanted myself a second opinion, all I needed to do was turn myself backwards, and looked towards Howard.

Unlike Irene, he wasn't sd reserved about wearing his emotions on his sleeve - and boy if he wasn't ever brazen about it.

He gaped at me as if I'd be rightfully at home bounded securely in a straight jacket. Then again, I supposed that's what I get for spouting the impossible in a place where eavesdropping was as easy as having ears and not shutting them close.

Thank God, it wasn't his opinion I was counting on. Though, I'm sure Irene would garner a more favorable reaction, yes?

"You're insane."

I stand woefully corrected.

"Why's that?' I inquired, standing firm undeterred. "You don't think it's possible?"

'I know it's not possible."

"Ah well, guess that settles it then," I said with a shrug, turning to the Elf sitting at the sidelines. "I'm sorry Ash, I'm afraid you don't actually exist after all."

To my delight, Ash followed along - reciprocating with a shrug of her own. "Apparently so."

Irene scoffed. "Don't be thick. You know that's not what I meant."

"If you're worried about how difficult it's gonna be, then - "

"It goes way beyond just being a little difficult," She interjected, leaning forward with a somber tone. "Summoning a being of that great of a caliber is already strenuous enough. But you're also talking about giving life to fiction. You've any idea how unheard of that is? How impossible of a feat - yes, even in my world - summoning someone is with conditions like that?"

I knew going into my proposal that it was never going to be a general consensus right off the bat - undoubtedly she'd be raising a few red flags that flutter strongly in opposition, and that it'd be up to me to try and lower them from their masts up high.

"Tell me if this rings any bells, alright?" I said. "A great hero from the past summoned into the far future in order to fight a great evil that no one else could contend with."

I got met with the shake of her head. "You forget to mention the rallying of the ten Ancient Magus from ten different kingdoms just to be able to summon this one being."

Wasn't done yet. Still had many armament-arguments left at my disposal.

"Jay was only one Magus," I pointed out. "And unless I'm going psycho, the results clearly speak for themselves."

And they did in fact, did. Ash stood up, facing to Irene's opposition beside me, speaking for herself.

"It is not as outlandish as you claim to be, Detective," Ash said, her tone placative and polite. "Here I am now, standing before your very eyes - the unreal… the fiction brought to life. Is that not affirmation enough to inspire confidence in my Master's proposition?"

From the look in her eyes, the narrowing of her lips… evidently, it wasn't.

"Jay is simply an exception," Irene said wearily to the both of us. "You felt it yourself, Elf. His abilities are exceptional even among his long-extinct peers. We don't even know the full extent of his powers yet. He's a special case."

"And how about me?" I asked, meeting her eyes with a challenge. "Given what we know about me… am I not also a special case?"

She couldn't deny that. As much as I'm sure she wanted to, she just couldn't. Feeble, pathetic, incapable as I was - potential was still potential, and I was undoubtedly brimming with it.

Alas, Irene was nothing if not stubborn… still very much resisting, though noticeable with much less of a tenacious drive as before.

"You're not properly trained."

"That's fine," I said. "I remembered a certain Succubus promising me some private tutoring a while back.

"We have five days, maybe four," She heaved an audible sigh. "Time is not a luxury that we have anymore."

I shrugged again. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind working some overtime."

"It's too much of a risk."

"It always is."

"This is a terrible plan."

"It's the only plan."

She looked back up at me, her eyes wrought with uncertainty. "If you fail..."

"I won't."

Yeah… I won't. I was done failing, done lamenting. This was my chance, the one and only, to prove that I was so much more than I was. That I can be more than what I was.

They say the best way to really learn was under pressure. Well then, with a five-day time limit to master a summoning ritual that took an entire congregation of master spellcasters to pull off, I guess I'm all good to go, aren't I?

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous myself, that my heart wasn't pounding against my chest with trepidation. But the only way to learn how to land was to fall.

And I had fallen already many times over, and it's about high time that I finally stick that landing.

"You won't," Irene softly repeated to herself.

I thought maybe I'd get another dubious glance, another bout of uncertainty flooding the shimmer in her hazel eyes - and she had every right to doubt me.

But she didn't. Just like it was back during my attempt at subjugating the weather, she looked back at me with complete faith - reluctantly, sure - nevertheless, she was putting her trust in me once more, now I just gotta make sure her faith wasn't misplaced.

"Fine," Meek compliance, with her lips forming into a thin line. "Let's do it."

I let the urge to smile take control of my lips, could have hugged her right there and then, but an injured arm kept me mostly at bay among other things.

If it had ended there, had we just packed up and leave with nothing else occurring, we would have ended this little venture of ours on a relatively good note.

If only.

A buzzing. A trembling in my leg instantly wiped away that smile on my face. I know that buzz, that tremor - it was the same sensation back when my magic was running on empty, I knew for sure because it was the very last thing I felt before I went blacking out onto the restroom floor.

And I was feeling it again.

I froze in place, breath bated, bracing for a tumble. Ten seconds, then twenty seconds… all eyes looked on me with confusion in their glances… confusion that was completely justified, because even as my eyes stared rigidly away in horror… nothing was happening to me.

No blacking out, no falling downwards.

Why wasn't I falling downwards?

I felt it again, that tremor, that buzz, nearly lurching my heart out my throat from the sensation of it. This time though, I scrounged for its source. My hand reached down to my leg - buzzed again - the feeling dispersing against the skin of my palms.

Slowly, I delve that hand into my pocket…

My phone continued to buzz in my grasp, raised out in front of my eyes. Mystery solved, putting your phone on silent mode can nearly give you a heart attack - could laugh out loud in relief now right?

No. My phone kept buzzing for a reason. Someone was trying to reach me.

I swiped up, only to then be greeted by a chat log all too familiar. Amanda, as usual, was a frantic sender.

Coming my way, not too long ago were multiple missed voice calls… that whirring and buzzing in the restroom… guess it wasn't a symptom of magical deprivation after all.

Just a very desperate caller.

>

Sent thirty minutes ago.

>

A minute after the first.

>

I'm starting to wish I did.

Panic and worry were swelling a lump in my throat. There was a thirty-minute gap of dead silence after the last message.

A silence that was broken just a minute ago. Her latest missed call. Her latest message.

Short and simple.

It was a message that surged within me the impulse to right there and then limp this aching leg of mine out the front door, pain be damned. Because if there was anything that could hurt more than the physical, it was the emotional.

There's a reason why the cold shoulder is unbearable. Being ignored really gets the heart aching.

And lately, I've been finding myself being ignored quite a bit, actually.

That all ends now, that all ends here.

With that one single text message.

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