Amelia had just made it to the street. Aidan had parked nearby since all the street parking was generally taken in and around their complex. He had a small scooter, of all things, that never ceased to make her smirk. All powerful Devil in the White and he rode a moped. At least he would have rode a motorcycle with flames going down the side. A sign of older days when the vehicles weren’t run on hydrogen bats and instead ran on fossil fuels and toxic emissions. Amelia had the hat in her hand and was making her way toward the silhouette of his coat when she realized he had company. A beautiful black-haired girl with short hair and two arms was gesticulating wildly at him. Amelia didn’t need to know what the topic was. As she grew closer to them her suspicions were confirmed.

“Half an hour ago!” Raven actually hopped from foot to foot, fuming. “I took an uber! It was far less cool than your scooter! Not that your scooter is cool! You need a flaming steed. A flying gryphon. Oh, oh, a sort of flying schooner that you toss anchor off when you land that just floats until you-.”

“Stop. I’m sorry. I really am and I was just coming to get you.” Aidan smiled and looked past her, watching the street traffic. Amelia was just close enough to clearly make out, with no mistake, his next words. “It’s all Amelia’s fault.”

“My fault.” Amelia scowled, and for the barest of moments Aidan seemed to slump in place with regret. He would get a piece of her mind in a minute. Until then it was time to work her way up to getting ready for hurricane Raven.

“My Empress! Ruler of the North. Savior of the Half. Tamer of the Devil.” Raven had taken a running leap that had started several meters away when she first heard Amelia’s voice. “It’s your biggest fan, your humblest subject, your most loving comrade who would die for you!”

“No dying please.” Amelia chuckled, bracing herself despite the fact that the girl who leapt at her weighed less than a large sack of rice, or so it always felt like. Amelia spun Raven around expertly and leaned down. “Give me some sugar.”

“Ooh baby.” Raven purred. “Do you think he’s jealous? Shall we tell him about us?”

Amelia smirked and leaned down, kissing Raven on the cheek. Raven allowed the kiss before returning one. Her original arm turned from frantic energy to gentle as it encircled Amelia’s waist. “Love you, Patrick.”

“Love you too.” Amelia smiled, not being able to help the brilliance of her smile. “..and now I don’t think he’s jealous. In fact he’s not there.” Amelia trailed off, surprised that Aidan had indeed disappeared. “By the way, the prosthetic looks fantastic!”

“Thanks! I was, uh, you know…” Raven smiled shyly and held out her other arm for inspection. There was still a small pink handkerchief tied to the top of the shoulder. Now her flesh melded seamlessly into a black steel arm. Raven wore no sleeve on this arm, fearlessly showing off her prosthesis. As Amelia stepped in to admire it she held it up. There were faint traces of gold that made it look like brilliant veins comprised of lightning traveled up and down her arm in places. It was very metal.

“It is very metal.” Amelia couldn’t help it and repeated her thought aloud.

“Thank you my lovely.” Raven looked like she was torn between wanting to squeal in delight at Amelia’s obvious look of appreciation. “What do you think Aidan thinks, hmm?”

“Well he would have to be here, wouldn’t he?” Amelia scowled and began searching for him.

“Well that’s rude. We should go make out.” Raven suggested after a quick look revealed that Aidan had really bailed. “That’d teach him.”

“You really are a lecherous old man.” Amelia muttered. She held the hat in her free hand and looked out toward the street. Aidan did not disappear. Aidan did not wander off. Aidan did not make her worry. Aidan did everything in a predictable manner whenever possible as if he were purposefully reassuring Amelia of his existence. It was times like these that she wished he didn’t do that. She wished he disappeared without a word more often. That way the terror that she felt crawling up her spine right now could be laughed off. Instead, she felt her breathing becoming rapid.

Aidan was gone, but not far at all. What Amelia saw made her blood freeze in her veins and terror swell up in her heart. It would have been better if he had been out of sight.

The sound of squealing tires and groaning metal began to fill the air. All around Amelia, as if in slow motion, other people on the street became aware of the spectacle.

“Don’t move.” Raven said.

Gone was the joviality and love in her voice. Replaced instead by something that Amelia had never heard in the real world. Despite everything, Amelia spared a glance at her friend and found that the organic hand and arm around her waist was now like a iron girder. Raven’s eyes did not leave the street, and they were cold and filled with steel. Amelia imagined that this was the Raven who had lived in the death game.

This was Raven, who had once died for Aidan.

⇼

There was a child.

Marion Clarke, now six years old, a prodigy by any standard. Loved and adored and afforded the finest of every possible situation. It was almost despicable how well off she was. Her parents had known she was special before the standardized tests had been taken and a keen mind observed. Special because she was theirs. Even if the universe was finite, an existence such as Marion Clarke might not go unnoticed. A rare melding of brilliance and innocence, fine situation and happenstance. Yet, even with so many wonderful variables and computations, combinations and wondrous occasion, that doesn’t mean that the universe deals certain people only the good cards from fate’s deck.

Marion was with her mother. Her mother held her hand while she ordered her morning coffee. They were going to the zoo because Marion had done exceptionally well in the first grade. Her mother needed her go juice, as she called it, if they were going to go this early so they could see the last few zebras. There were many things Marion did not understand yet. Zebras had been helped along in their natural habituation through virtual and genetic therapy. Most of the zebras being introduced back into the wilds would never know they were artificially conceived. The zebras that Marion was going to see were special because they were the predecessors to such a cruel fate and would be the last generation to know true freedom. They had been born in the wild.

Mostly Marion was just tickled pink that she was going to get to see the striped horses. Marion loved horses. It was probably her love of horses that caused that fractional shift in the universe that called for a heavy hand. A horse painted on an ice cream truck happened to move past the stand near the street corner. Marion’s eyes followed that horse, but she did not move. She wasn’t supposed to go anywhere without mommy when they were near the street. Still, there was a thing on the ground that caught her eye as the truck departed. Curious inspection revealed that it was a stuffed bear. She wasn’t sure what it was doing there, but it was nearby.

Marion looked back at her mother, at the hand that held hers, and after a moment pulled herself free. Her mother looked down and smiled at her and she smiled back. A moment later her mother returned her attention to the attendant who was coming with her go juice. The stuffed bear was right there. It would take only a moment.

Marion stepped away from her mother and turned, reaching down with clumsy small hands and picking it up. It almost looked new. Still, it wasn’t hers and she wasn’t sure she should pick it up, even though her heart told her that this should be her bear. Reluctantly, with kindness and grace, Marion started to put the bear back down on the ground so that the little girl who had lost it could find it with their mommy and daddy when they came looking for it. Undoubtedly, this was a loved bear and she didn’t have the right.

As she was bending down to replace it on the street, a man with boxes came around from outside the shop. She straightened just in time to catch a corner of the boxes with her small chin. She stumbled back into the street and sat down hard on her butt, confusion lacing her expression. She wasn’t hurt and he didn’t seem like he had even noticed. The boxes were stacked high and he was peering out on the opposite side from Marion in order to make his way down the sidewalk. She was just deciding whether she would cry or not when she heard the loud noise of a man driving a large conveyor truck that was laying on the horn.

Small, brilliant, and beautiful eyes which had no knowledge about the universe and how it had almost made her cry looked up as the lights from the truck swept her vision. The noise from the truck froze her. The truck was sliding toward her now, actually having turned when the man had panicked and swept the wheel to the side. Marion was so small. She didn’t know what to make of this and simply sat there.

That was when the wizard came. For the barest of moments she looked up at the man in the long coat and all she could see was his kind smile. She decided she would not cry just this second.

“Let go of me Raven.” Amelia started to pull forward but found to her shock that she couldn’t move. The hand around her waist was a vise.

“Don’t move.” Raven said dangerously again. There was nothing else to say. Everything was happening too fast and Amelia couldn’t even begin to figure out what to do.

Aidan had a little girl in his arms. He had picked her up in the street and she hung to him now with her small hands around his neck. Her face was buried in his shoulder. Quickly he stepped forward as if it were the most natural thing in the world as the upended truck slipped past him. For a moment, time seemed to stretch. The truck had actually slid so close that Amelia could see that his coat flaps had been struck.

Before any relief could be given a car had come around the corner from the opposite lane. It swerved dangerously around the truck that was in its lane and jumped into the lane that Aidan was in. There was no more time. The car was coming down on him.

Effortlessly, as if it had been the plan all along Aidan took his free hand, the one not supporting the little girl, and held it out. It was the time honored pose of a wizard who was casting great magic. His gaze fell on the car and slowly his hand drew to the side of the street away from him. Panicked the driver seemed to understand his direction, or his car seemed to move from some unseen force. Amelia knew that Aidan couldn’t really cast magic but for the briefest of moments his movement made her believe he had totally controlled the motion of the vehicle as it slid dangerously close and out of the way.

Two more cars came around the corner near the intersection, the first sweeping passed him again when he made the motion with his hand. The second came to a safe stop in front of him.

Just like that, it was over. Aidan stepped calmly to the side of the street and placed the little girl on her feet. From where she was standing Amelia couldn’t see his face but imagined it beaming brilliantly. She could see that he seemed to be brushing fake dust and dirt from her shoulders. He reached down and picked up a small bear on the side of the road, gave it to her, and then patted her head. Without a word or backward glance he turned around, spotted Amelia and Raven, and threaded his way through the cars and overturned truck as if they were no longer his concern.

“Sorry. What were you saying about me being jealous?” Aidan peered quizzically at Raven.

Raven didn’t say anything, and only then did her hand relax around Amelia’s waist.

“What?” Aidan looked between the two of them.

The hat in her hand seemed heavy, and without another thought Amelia hit Aidan with it as hard as she could several times in a row before dropping it and running back toward the apartment complex she shared with Aidan.

“Welcome home.” Raven said quietly. “You’re kind of a moron.”

“What?” Aidan looked baffled, and defensive. He had actually jerked back and been surprised when the hat had struck him.

Raven sighed. “Pretend to be afraid and happy when we go back.”

“Why?” Aidan frowned.

Raven sighed again. “We’re not in the game anymore Aidan.”

“I know that.” Aidan said after a moment of quiet thought.

“You’re like, so stupid.” Raven turned around and began walking heavily toward the complex. “...and I’m angry at you too.”

Aidan leaned down and picked up the hat. After a moment he put it on his head and cocked it at a jaunty angle. “Does this make me look dashing?”

“A moron is a moron no matter what hat he wears.” Raven called back. The fury in her voice made him freeze in place. It was so hostile that he did not immediately follow her.

Aidan frowned, confusion lacing his features. For the briefest moment he looked back to see that George was threading his body around the small girl. Even as she was crying and sobbing loudly having finally realized the peril she had been in, with her mother holding her, George seemed to take a moment from his helpful threading to cast a meaningful glance at him. His cat eyes were filled with reproach.

“What?” Aidan finally demanded, his voice shrill. “I know!”