Odd Cases

I was bored: No customers in the shop, no investigative requests from spirits or cops, nothing I felt like researching or learning about.

Boredom can be dangerous for me. After a certain unparticular age, mages are only alive because they have the will to live. If they lose it for long enough, they’re gone, and I am well past that point.

Funnily enough, you don’t really want to stay alive when you’re bored.

Luckily I was saved from this life-endangering practice by a call.

“Precedent’s official magic shop,” I recited as I answered the phone, “Offering arcane diagnosis for all mystical maladies and the treatment to solve them. How can we help you?”

“Is this the right number?” a voice asked.

“Calico sent us on the right path,” another answered.

“I don’t think that’s her real name.”

“How can I help you?” I asked a bit more aggressively.

“Is Juliet Em-ur-ee there?” the second voice asked.

“Assuming you mean Juliet Emery,” I pronounced it closer to two syllables, “Yes, that’s me. What is your mystical malady?”

“It’s not ours, exactly,” the first voice said.

“We think someone’s controlling our friend.”

“I know the shop says psychic,” I explained, “But I’m not a telepath.”

“Neither is Penny,” the first voice said.

“Who’s Penny, and who are you?”

The first voice identified herself as Alyssa, and the second was Circe.

“Penny’s a bitch,” Alyssa explained.

“Harsh,” I said, “What did she do to get called that?”

“Grand Platonic Larceny,” Circe answered.

“You seem pretty sure your friend can’t be themself if they’re not spending their days with you.”

The girls snorted.

“I only see Berserker maybe an hour out of the day,” Circe said, “If that.”

“Berserker’s crazy,” Alyssa added, “But he’s consistent.”

“Except when he disappears,” Circe said.

“But this time he didn’t actually disappear. He’s constantly around Penny.”

“I even saw him around our school to be in vicinity. Normally he wouldn’t risk being found by anyone.”

“And he pushed me into traffic,” Alyssa added.

“Maybe lead with the murder attempt next time,” I stopped them, “That’s a better hint that something weird is going on. And Penny isn’t a telepath?”

“She’s made a point of mentioning how nice it is to be normal every time we’re in earshot,” Circe explained.

“She could be a liar.”

“She is a liar,” Alyssa insisted, “But not about that, I’ve been in her head.”

“So you’re a telepath?”

“I have been.”

I admit I was less intrigued by Penny than I was by Alyssa’s claim of being a former telepath. These two would hardly be the first set of spunky teenagers I’d helped, but they might be the most interesting, an impressive title considering how interesting all the other teenagers were.

“Okay,” I said, “I make no guarantees, but if you give me an address to meet you, I’ll see if I can detect anything.”

“We can’t pay you,” Circe warned, “At least not a lot.”

“I’ll figure out how you can pay me when I do something worthy of pay,” I told them, “I don’t really need cash for this sort of thing.”

Like I explained before, staving off boredom kept me alive, and this promised to be anything but boring.

The next day, I drove myself to a donut shop in another town, but luckily the same state. I hadn’t bothered to check their location before agreeing.

When I entered, starving, I got myself an alright sandwich, poor quality tea, and some some excellent pastries as I waited for my clients. I gave them a description of my unique appearance, so I doubted they would struggle to find me.

“Alyssa,” The owner called out after a few minutes, “You’re not working today, are you?”

“Nope,” Alyssa said, “We’re meeting someone to deal with a Berserker issue.”

“You brought them here?”

“Yeah.”

“Nice show of loyalty. I’ll make you and your friend sandwiches, on the house.”

“Can we get donuts instead?” Circe asked, “I’ll be joining the Dayburys for dinner and don’t want to ruin my appetite.”

“You are?” Alyssa asked.

“You’ll let me.”

“Fine then, you’re in charge of donuts, and I’ll join the investigator.”

A young, slightly tan, Japanese girl with blue eyes and black hair sat across from me a moment later.

“I’m meeting someone here,” I told her.

“Unless you’re someone else with white hair and freaky eyes, you’re meeting me. I’m Alyssa.”

“Juliet.” I extended a hand, she took it without too much hesitation.

“So, we didn’t talk much about how you got thrown into traffic before,” I began, “Enlighten me.”

“Well,” Alyssa began, “I work here, and there’s a coffee shop across from us.”

I looked over her shoulder to confirm.

“Penny goes there, and I saw Berserker with her, the first time I’d seen him all day, and we’re… I swear we’re not dating, but we’re really close.”

“How close?”

Alyssa grimaced, clearly unsure.

“We can be very mean to each other and still not care, but I wouldn’t say he’s like a brother to me. He’s Berserker to me.”

“Let’s go with weird,” I proposed.

“Yeah, that. Sharona gives me permission to confront him because it’s weird, and she cares a lot about loyalty—I actually got this job because she’s old friends with my foster-dad. I ask Berserker what’s going on, and he’s… he’s not himself.”

“How is he not himself?”

“What did I miss?” The other girl, dark skinned, strong nose, with deep brown eyes and hair, bumped Alyssa slightly to get more room on the seat.

It didn’t come to anything, but something was off about this girl. She had an energy I couldn’t parse beyond it being powerful. Otherwise she seemed normal enough.

“Circe, I take it.”

Circe nodded, putting a bag in between her and Alyssa as she pulled out three donuts, handing one off to me.

“I already—”

“Trust me, you’ll love it, plus it was free.” She waved to the owner.

Despite the weird energy, I liked this girl. She seemed a sunny contrast to the grounded Alyssa, which made both of them more entertaining company. After I took a bite of the offered donut, I realized she had great taste too.

“I was talking about Berserker throwing me into traffic,” Alyssa finally answered.

“You were talking about how he seemed off before that,” I specified.

“He seemed too normal?” she mused, “Like the personality got sucked out of him, and now all there was to him was being around Penny. Of course, when Penny told him to get me out of there, he responded by pushing me into traffic, so he wasn’t all normal.”

“Is that all?”

Alyssa nodded.

“And what’s Penny like, aside from being a bitch?”

“That’s pretty much all she is,” Circe answered.

“An anti-power, racist bitch,” Alyssa specified.

“So she hates you two twice over.”

“Not that she’d admit that’s why,” Circe said, “She just wishes ‘Everyone could be normal, then the world would be a better place.’” she quoted in a higher register.

I grimaced. I guess sentiments like those never stopped.

“She might have something against us being orphans too,” Alyssa offered, “But if that’s the case it makes less sense to want Berserker around.”

“Oh yeah,” Circe snapped her fingers, “She asked us about Berserker when she saw him spending time with us. We didn’t tell her anything, obviously, but that was the day before the traffic incident. She wouldn’t know anything about him actually.”

Alyssa made an agreeing hum.

“Is that all you got for me?” I asked.

Circe put her arms around Alyssa.

“Berserker would do anything for Alyssa,” she insisted, “We’ve been close forever, but he worries about her. Alyssa would have snapped him out of it if he was in his right mind.”

Alyssa snorted.

“Berserker’s never been in his right mind.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“He’s paranoid,” Alyssa explained, “He thinks he’s being watched any time he does something interesting.”

“Not any time,” Circe insisted, “But fine, if he was in his usual mental state, he wouldn’t be around Penny after he was mean to Alyssa.”

“And where do you factor in the Berserker/Alyssa situation?” I asked Circe.

“I’m a friend,” she said with a shrug, “Just not one who needs as much attention.”

“I don’t need attention,” Alyssa insisted, “I’ve got it under control.”

“Got what under control?”

“That’s not relevant,” she said.

“If it’s connected to Berserker, then it’s relevant.”

Alyssa sighed, staring at the wall for a moment.

“My powers aren’t exactly stable,” she explained, “I have a different power every day or so, and it’s not always easy to manage, but I’m fine.”

Circe nudged her.

“And I get hallucinations sometimes—I thought Berserker with Penny was one at first—but they’re not debilitating or anything.”

I nodded.

“Don’t spread that around,” Circe said, “The hallucination thing, not the powers thing. Powers are on the record, but it would cause problems if the state knew about a mental disability.”

I nodded. I was well into adulthood when superhumans became public knowledge, but I could imagine how hard it was as a ward of the state if you had powers or a disability, let alone both.

“Anything else you think is relevant?” I asked.

“We can’t pay you,” Alyssa said, “Aside from the donut.”

“It’s a good donut,” I said, “And you guys are doing me more of a favor than you know. As I said on the phone, We’ll figure out payment once I do something worth paying me for.”

Alyssa’s eyes widened.

“So you’ll do it?”

“I told you she would.” Circe said.

“She has unstable powers,” I noted, “And you talk like you know the future.”

“Guilty,” Circe said.

“What can Berserker do, if he has powers at all?”

“Imitation,” Alyssa said, “He copies the powers of anyone he touches.”

“Is that why he keeps your company?” I asked.

Alyssa shrugged.

“Maybe, probably, but it’s not like our friendship is fake.”

I admired the confidence if nothing else.

“Our first step is recon.”

Since Penny wouldn’t recognize me, I just walked into the café she was currently occupying and bought myself some coffee anyone else would consider too sweet. I then sat at a table not too close to Penny’s to “read a book”.

Penny didn’t look nefarious at first glance. She looked normal for this area: light hair that wasn’t quite blond, slightly tanned but definitely white skin-tone, lightweight clothes, and mostly plastic jewelry (I spotted one or three thin metal bangles).

I admit I should have thought about how a bigoted girl would react to someone obviously superhuman invading her space.

I was being watched, and giggled over. The quietest girl placed a coffee in front of my foot. They clearly assumed from my milky eyes that I couldn’t see. I had no reason to correct them in that moment.

I did catch a boy I could only assume to be Berserker—strong nose and black hair with odd streaks of silver—staring me down. If he realized I wasn’t the type of disabled the rest assumed, he wasn’t informing anyone.

I tried to detect any Magek, particularly on any items Penny might be holding, but nothing seemed that way. Then I, as subtly as I could muster, looked directly at Penny’s soul.

There’s a difference between spirits, who are only the soul, and the souls of people still living. Observing the latter takes effort, and sometimes costs a headache, while the former is impossible to ignore when they want attention. Moreover, the souls of the dead have decayed, not in the same way as a corpse, but they lose any bonds not held tightly, and most of the will they had while alive. A living soul will have a myriad of connections, some of them reciprocated, and their form will alter between the various wills at greatest prominence.

Penny’s soul was necrotizing, decaying while still in a living body. Her connections were frayed, and her soul didn’t change forms the whole time I watched. The tiara on the brow of Penny’s soul meant this girl had a one-track mind toward becoming queen bee. It wasn’t hard to tell the likely cause of this, as only one soul connection around her showed any strength, it was coming off of the bangle on her wrist, and going out the window.

Whoever that bangle connected to was destroying this girl’s soul.