I gazed beyond the sea, feeling the waves caress my feet. The feeling made me smile. It’s not every day I can get out of my head and appreciate my surroundings. Making this moment even more precious.

I relished the calm when I opened my eyes to see two red suns peeking back.

I reluctantly turned away and walked across the sand. Sooner or later, people will come, and my contentment will be disrupted. So, it’s best to leave now.

Besides, it was time to go to work. Sighing, it was going to be a long day. As I departed, a smile still lingered on my lips, allowing the rising sun to chase me away.

***

I entered my office to see my partner, a silver-haired golden-eyed woman, just sitting there playing with her phone, and I sighed again. A headache began to form.

“Renee,” I called out, but I was ignored. She was skimming through the social media sites again. It wasn’t a big deal generally, but Renee still had these moments when she had gotten all depressed. The way she was chewing on her nails makes me feel that now was one of those times.

Let’s nip this in the bud.  I stumped up to Renee and abruptly took her phone away.

Startled, Renee’s hand reached out. “Ha, I need that,” she said, still distracted. Then her gold eyes looked up, focusing on my face. Renee smiled in embarrassment. “Ah-ha, Kera. didn’t hear you come in.”

“Obviously,” I scoffed out, flopping into one of the chairs. Resisting the urge to take off my shoes. “Do we have any new cases?”

“Except for wisp infestation cleanup, then no.”

 I waved my hand in frustration. “Next.” I wasn’t going to drive the poor wisp out of their home just because some rich human big wig wanted to make a new office building that wasn’t needed. Besides, wisp fight dirty. I grimaced, remembering the last time I was foolhardy enough to deal with the little buggers. I still couldn’t get the stain out.

“As I said, there is no next; no one really wants to deal with a magic fixer, especially an exiled one.”

“Well, that’s not my problem. More time for my research.” I wanted to get back to my office. I had a lot of work to do. “I have some books I needed to go through. Their interpretation of glyphs is quite impressive. Especially on protection circles, I can twig it a little to make the power consumption more tolerable. Then I can…”

Fingers snapped in front of my face. “It’s your problem if you’re broke. We can’t live on my commissions alone.” Renee’s wings popped out. It does that if she gets overly emotional. She was a Fairy who works as a comic book artist and helps me in the office. She does pretty well for herself, but still, the bills keep piling up. “Now, give me back my phone.”

Feeling guilty, I tossed her back her phone and pouted. She grabbed it with glee. This time I heard a familiar game that Renee liked to play instead.

I couldn’t help but sigh in relief.

Though it didn’t solve my current problem. Money.

It wasn’t my fault that the only thing I was good at was magic. That was one of the main reasons why I was exiled from my Elven homeworld, Risine, in the first place. It wouldn’t be good to have a child whose magic had more potential than the heir… especially an illegitimate child.

Besides, not even a burger place will hire me. An ‘exiled’ anything certainly doesn’t help my hiring creditability. That’s why I started being a magic fixer in the first place. On Nexus, a multi-dimensional hub, there was a lot of out-of-control magic to deal with. Renee and I weren’t the only magical creatures that settled here.

“Maybe I could call Raven…” I said in a hesitating way. Silently begging Renee to say no. Raven was a Weather Witch from the Coven, and we had a well…history. A history that I didn’t want to get into. Plus, dealing with the Coven was never fun. There was a reason I don’t work with them anymore. 

Almost dying would do that to a person, I thought darkly.

“Good idea,” Renee said, distracted, still playing her game. Ignoring my shocked look. “You need to talk to her anyway.”

I groaned as I reached for my phone. Then I stopped. “Can I bring Nee?” I begged.

“No.”

“Why.”

“Not for meeting with Raven.” Renee’s face reddened. “It’s too embarrassing.”

All Fairies could make a tiny duplicate of themselves. It was a defence mechanism used for scouting purposes. Now, I could use little Renee, or Nee for short, as an emotional support fairy to help with my anxiety, especially in crowded areas.

Ah, I know what the problem was. “Are you still hung up about what happened last time?”

Renee crawled up into a ball, burying her head into her lap. Her wings folded around her body. “Who wouldn’t be? I felt like a peeping-tom.” Her voice muffled.

I tilted my head to the side in confusion. “It was just sex.” Usually touching, in general, was a big no-no. But Raven was complicated. Besides, sex as a whole was a natural process—nothing to be embarrassed about.

Renee glared up at me. “Just sex! Don’t you have any shame? Nee was still there; you haven’t dismissed her; you know I still get feedback from her. It was so…ich.”

Oops, I forgot to break the connection. Nee could only travel so far from Renee, so Nee had to be connected to me instead. Still, the drawback was that Renee couldn’t summon Nee unless something drastic would happen. “To be honest, that won’t happen again. Our relationship is rather strained.”

Strained was an understatement. Barely speaking was more accurate.

“You still can’t use Nee. That’s final.”

“Fine,” I huffed out, storming to my office.

But before I could slam my door, Renee called out. “Don’t forget to call Raven.”

“Damn,” I cursed.

***

Come on, come on, come on. Where is Raven? Where is she? Where is she? I watched the door anxiously. Trying to ignore the stares. It was like they haven’t seen an elf before. Well, maybe they haven’t, at least not my kind of elf. I am a Royal Elven. Royal Elvenn weld all flavours of elemental magic, and it shows with our rainbowed coloured hair and eyes.

I brushed my fingers through my very short rainbowed coloured hair in nervousness. I was an introvert; I can’t take the attention.

There was the reason why Renee dealt with the clients. And it wasn’t the first time that I wish that I had illusion magic like Renee. Sighing for the fourth time today. Too bad illusion spells slid off me like butter.

Why did Raven want to meet at a café house anyways? But I already knew the answer. She always likes seeing me flustered. And right now, all I wanted to do was hide.

I was two seconds away from bolting when she came in raven hair. The chocolate-skinned woman entered the café with her familiar, a Dobermen who was black with reddish highlights on her heels.  She was beautiful.

Then I realize that I was supposed to be mad at her. Plus, she was going to bring even more attention to me. Oh, the horror.

I can’t deal with all this stress.

She sat across from me while the Doberman sat in the other seat. “Hello Kera, it’s been a while.”

I tried to focus on her instead of everyone around me. I straightened in my seat. “Hello, Raven, Scarlett.” I acknowledged the dog.

“Kera,” the dog growled back, the small scar over his left eye glowed red.

He still doesn’t like me, huh.

“Do you want some tea? I believe they have a good selection of herbal teas.” Raven asked.

I tilted my head in interest, herbal sounded really good, but I didn’t think breathing in alter bliss was a good idea. Especially when I could the cold and steel of downtown. I rather smell the trees of the Edge, where the Fae reside. “Why are we here?”

Raven smiled, and I almost melted. I mentally shook my head, ‘No, No, come on hormones, get under control.’

“What do you mean? You’re the one who contacted me, remember?” Raven slowly answered.

“Yes, but it usually takes at least a week for you to contact me back,” I abruptly stated. “This time, you answered right away and even scheduled a meeting the next day. You must want something.”

She leaned back and sighed. “I really hate how blunt you are, sometimes.”

“And I really hate that you still with the Coven after what they did to me?” When I first arrived in Nexus giving how magically gifted I was, the Coven took me in. After letting my guard down, they strapped me into a contraction to drain my Mana, using me like a battery.

I shuddered at the experience. Even the thought of it brought back my memories of how trapped and scared I felt. A Fae’s Mana was our lifeblood, draining my life away and the pain…There was no way I was the only one.

Right now, Raven was playing with her hair; it was a nervous habit of hers. Usually, I found it endearing but not now. Now it was just frustrating. “I told you, a small fraction was responsible for your ordeal. They are gone now, so there is nothing to worry about.”

I eyed Raven incredulously. “I thought you were smarter than that.”

Scarlett snapped back at me. “Watch it, brat. You should know your place.”

I felt my Mana racing, responding to my emotions. “Try me, dog breath.”

“Both of you, stop it!” Raven intervened. When I didn’t look away, I felt fingers brushed against my skin. I flinched and met Raven’s worried ones. “Kera, please!” Her eyes moved to the side, and I followed to find how scared everyone was. They were scared of me.

              I swallowed and closed my eyes. No, not afraid of me, at least not yet. They don’t know where it was coming from, at least not yet.

 I need to get control; I breathed in and breathed out, feeling Mana finally draining away. Opening my eyes to find Raven’s worried expression. “Good?” I questioned.

Raven sighed, shaking her head. “Maybe this was a mistake.”

Kera eyed her; the way she was acting was a little off like she was reluctant to be here. “I’m tired, just tell me, so we can both go home.”

“Okey, fine!” Raven sighed. “You’re right. I was about to call you,” she admitted. “The Coven had a task for you, and I thought it would be best to meet in neutral ground .”

Let’s stop this bullshit, shall we?

“Instead of what? Dragging me down to one of your interrogation room?” I wouldn’t say I liked where this conversation was going. “So the alternative was to bring me to a public place on the pretext of having work. Where I would be uncomfortable enough to spill what?”

“It’s like I can meet you at your office. I can’t find the place even if I tried,” Raven argued back.

I just glared at her.

She sighed. “Fine.” Placing a photograph on the table. A picture had six men with rainbow-coloured hair, similar to my own. Except their’s were long. They stood in front of the Nexus transport gate. “Is there any reason why a group of Royal Elven decided to enter Nexus illegally?”