The weather in Oftenhides was fairly sunny, but Giovanna was feeling as if something was going to happen. She has just finished eating breakfast and was conducting a tarot reading. Three cards have landed on the table and Giovanna was flipping them over on their obverses. The first card was showing a handsome man embracing an attractive woman. The second had a circular calendar showing upside-down. The final one showed a blind woman with a scale using a sword as a walking stick. Giovanna was trying to understand what the cards were telling her.

“Jesus…” Giovanna thought. “The Lovers, the reverse Wheel of Fortune and the Justice?”

Giovanna’s intuition has been telling her that the cards were referring to her. But not just her. There was one other person. Maybe that would be a clue to what it all meant. Maybe the cards could tell her who the prophecy is about. And then it clicked. The Lovers. There was only one person in Giovanna’s life she could associate with this card.

“Angelo!” Giovanna shouted out of joy.

The first mystery was solved. Angelo Orwell, Giovanna’s boyfriend. He was the person suggested by her intuition.

“Maybe he’ll finally come back to the city!” she thought with high hopes.

But knowing that made Giovanna worry about the rest of the cards. She looked at them one more time. She has figured out what the Lovers meant. Now there were also the Wheel of Fortune and the Justice. What’s more, the middle card was in the reverse position. That never means anything good.

“I have a bad feeling about this…” thought Giovanna as she was putting her cards back in the box.

 

As Sarah was coming back from school she was feeling impatient. This was the day she was going to start her magical training supervised by aunt Caitlyn. Sarah couldn’t wait to learn her first spell. Maybe someday she will be able to create her own spells?

As soon as she stepped through the doorstep Sarah saw aunt Caitlyn holding a strange item. It was looking like a metal slingshot, but without the chord.

“Hello!” aunt Caitlyn greeted her. “I was waiting for you.”

“Hi! Are you getting ready for our lessons?” Sarah said with excitement.

“Yes. Wash your hands and we can start.”

Sarah went to the bathroom. She washed her hands with impatience. When she returned to the living room she noticed aunt Caitlyn sitting on a pillow and holding the strange slingshot by its one-twig end. In front of her there was another pillow.

“Sit down,” said aunt Caitlyn looking at the pillow.

Sarah followed Caitlyn’s request.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“A wand. Grab it. We have to see how well you handle sending out your energy.”

Sarah grabbed each twig in her hand. The wand felt very cold, but maybe it was because it was made out of metal.

“Now send your energy to me through the wand,” said aunt Caitlyn.

“How?” asked Sarah.

“Easy. Imagine streams of energy going from your hands. When they reach me I will feel them.”

“OK. Here I go.”

Sarah closed her eyes and imagined just what aunt had told her. She focused as much as she could. She was trying as hard as she could. However, aunt Caitlyn couldn’t feel anything.

“OK. You can stop now,” she said.

“How did I do?” asked Sarah.

“You did not send anything unfortunately.”

Sarah couldn’t believe what she just heard.

“How do you know?” she asked.

“You know when you feel the energy passing through the wand,” said aunt Caitlyn. “I can show you.”

Caitlyn turned the wand around and grabbed the double end. Sarah wrapped her palms around the single end.

“Are you ready?” Caitlyn said.

“Yes.”

In just a second Sarah felt something on her hands. Some invisible energy tickling her. With each second tickling was harder and harder. And when aunt Caitlyn let go of the wand the tickling stopped.

“How did you do it?” Sarah asked.

“This is how magical energy testing feels,” Caitlyn asked.

Sarah couldn’t believe what had happened. She was looking at the wand from each side trying to find any hidden mechanisms. But the more she looked the more she was realizing that the wand was just a single piece of metal.

“Don’t worry,” said aunt Caitlyn. “It comes with training.”

“How can I train it?” asked Sarah.

“I’ll write you a mantra,” said Caitlyn going to her bedroom to find something to write on.

 

Ursula was walking to a tram stop. She was happy since she managed to buy the newest volumes of Driller Man and Bearskin. In her backpack there were the previous volumes which she wanted to read in the tram just to refresh the story. She especially couldn’t wait for Driller Man since the new volume was the ending of an arc. She got to the stop and sat on the bench. She was just about to bring out a volume out of her backpack when she saw a man approaching that same tram stop. He was tall and had short brown hair. His backpack was larger than his back and he was wearing a bottle pocket on his belt. Ursula instantly recognized her friend, stood up and waved at him.

“Yo! Angelo!” she shouted with joy at the reunion.

“Ursula! Hi!” Angelo reciprocated the greeting.

“When did you come back?”

“Just now. I’m going home from the train station.”

Ursula was really happy that her friend was back in town. She couldn’t wait to hear him tell her more about his recent journey. And she knew Giovanna will be happy to know her boyfriend is back.

“Does Giovanna know that you are back?” she asked.

“She should. I texted her when I was on the train.”

Suddenly Angelo’s phone beeped. He looked at the screen and saw a notification about a text message. Seeing the username La Sciarpa Nera made him happy. Giovanna has responded to his message. He opened the Discuss app and started reading and replying.

 

La Sciarpa Nera: Wonderful to hear! I can’t wait to see you.

La Sciarpa Nera: Would you like to meet with us somewhere and eat dinner together?

Angel Lost: Sounds great. How does pizza sound?

La Sciarpa Nera: I’ll ask everybody.

Angel Lost: I’m with Ursula at a tram stop. I can ask her.

La Sciarpa Nera: OK. Tell me how it went.

 

Angelo hid the phone in his pocket and looked at Ursula.

“Would you like to eat pizza with us?” he asked her. “Giovanna finds it fancy.”

Ursula seemed confused by what Angelo said. There was something in this sentence that seemed strange. Twisted even. Ursula didn’t like twisted sentences. Angelo noticed this so he corrected himself.

“It means she likes this idea.”

“Aha. Now I understand,” said Ursula. “Yes, that is a good idea.”

“Wonderful. I’ll tell Giovanna.”

Angelo took his phone and opened Discuss back. He started texting Giovanna again.

 

Angel Lost: All’s good. Shall we go?

 

Giovanna replied by sending a sticker with a chibi witch in a black dress and hat saying “OK”. Angelo was about to put his phone back in his pocket, but he got one more message.

 

La Sciarpa Nera: Also, we have met someone new. I guess you would like to meet her.

Angel Lost: Sounds interesting. Invite her.

La Sciarpa Nera: Alright. I’ll call her.

Angel Lost: What’s her name?

La Sciarpa Nera: Sarah.

 

Sarah was sitting in the corner waiting for her pizza. She was touching her fingers on the tips and chanting the mantra she got from aunt Caitlyn.

“My potential is growing. My energy is flowing… My potential is growing. My energy is flowing… My potential is growing. My energy is flowing…” she kept saying.

Giovanna was looking at the door waiting for her boyfriend to arrive. Ursula was listening to Sarah’s mantra with interest and curiosity.

“Is that mantra supposed to help you with energetic growth?” she asked her.

Sarah stopped chanting and looked at Ursula.

“Yeah,” she answered. “Aunt Caitlyn wrote it for me.”

“It is nice,” said Ursula. “It reminds me of when I started training myself. Only I have found my mantra online.”

In just a moment the door opened and Angelo went inside. Giovanna raised her hand to invite him to the table.

“Ciao!” said Angelo as he sat beside Giovanna.

“Hi!” said Giovanna and Ursula.

Angelo looked at the girl practising a mantra and smiled.

“You must be Sarah,” he said.

“Yes. That’s me.”

“I’ve heard about you from Giovy. I’m Angelo. Nice to meet you.”

“Well… Nice to meet you too.”

Sarah and Angelo shook their hands. Just at this moment the waiter came with two hot pizzas. One pepperoni and one diavola. Angelo started cutting the pizza and tried starting a conversation.

“Has anything interesting happened in the city when I was on my trip?”

“Not much,” said Giovanna. “The greatest surprise of this week was meeting Sarah.”

“Although we did find a secret evil auction,” added Ursula. “You would not believe how much stuff we have found. I am still getting messages from the people wanting their artefacts back.”

“Also… Sarah…” Angelo looked at her. “Can you tell me something more about yourself?”

Sarah swallowed a bite of pizza and put a half-eaten piece on a plate.

“Well…” she started. “I just moved here. I helped them with the auction. I guess I wanna… learn magic?”

“Interesting. And why did you move here?”

Sarah sighed. She still wasn’t over what happened. But she decided that it would be better to not overthink it. Maybe even admitting it would help her process it.

“Dead parents,” she said. “I had to move in with my aunt.”

Angelo has looked at Sarah as if he unlocked some painful memory.

“I see…” he said after a while. “I’m sorry.”

“Nah, don’t mention it,” said Sarah. “You couldn’t have known.”

Angelo was silent and simply continued eating pizza.

“And how about you?” asked Giovanna. “Maybe you want to tell us about your mission, darling?”

“Ah! Good idea!” said Angelo.

“Right! You said you had to assassinate some kind of brute,” said Ursula.

Hearing the word assassinate almost made Sarah choke on the pizza she was eating. Did she hear that right? Was she eating pizza with an actual hitman? She listened to Angelo feeling terrified.

“I think you misunderstood,” said Angelo. “I simply had to do some negotiations with him.”

That calmed Sarah down. She listened to the story with curiosity.

“The guy was making some problems for the opposing clan who wanted me to silence him. I got there on Tuesday and we started talking on Friday. But nothing went like I wanted it to. So on Monday I decided it’s time for violence. I put him at gunpoint and told him to do whatever that clan wanted. Luckily he listened. I didn’t actually want to pull the trigger.”

This time it sounded really strange for Sarah. What was it that Angelo was actually doing? Sarah felt like she had to ask directly.

“Wait a damn sec!” she said as she rose from her seat. “What is your job actually?”

“I just do some dirty work for one goddamn genie,” Angelo replied.

“And you murder people for him?”

“Well… I haven’t gotten a gig like that. Yet. I mostly settle out gang stuff and help kidnapping victims.”

That sounded a lot better for Sarah. Fighting gangs and rescuing kidnapped people. That sounded like something similar to what Ursula and Giovanna were doing as a hobby. There was one more thing however that picked her interest.

“A genie?” she asked. “From what I’ve heard they’re supposed to make your wishes come true.”

“It’s never simple wish fulfilment unfortunately,” said Angelo. “It’s always an exchange. He made my three wishes come true, now I have to make his thirteen wishes come true.”

“Can you tell some more stories? I’d like to hear them.”

“With pleasure.”

But at this moment his phone rang. Angelo had a bad feeling. One glance at the screen was enough to confirm his suspicions. The caller was Mr. Ovid. Angelo knew it was his boss, whether it was his real name or just a nickname.

“I’m sorry. I have to pick this up,” he said to the girls.

When he pressed the green icon he immediately heard the creaky voice of his boss that he so despised.

“How is it, Angelo? What are you doing on this beautiful evening?”

“I’m trying to relax after a job well done and eat pizza with friends.”

“Hoho! That’s nice!”

“Is that all you have to say?”

“High hopes, huh? Well… I’m afraid I have a job for you.”

“I freaking knew it.”

“Hey! Always look at the bright side of life. That will be your ninth job for me.”

“Yeah. Yeah.”

“And when your thirteenth gig is done you’ll get your freedom back!”

“Alright! Alright! Jesus! Just tell me what you want me to do!”

Mr. Ovid made a few giggles. He seemed to be really enjoying this conversation.

“I like this attitude of yours. Good! Let me tell you the fine details.”