Those Devious Little Numbers

Those devious little numbers play tricks on you because they made friends with me.

[pleinsdemuses]

The tiger's growl echoed in her ears, and the danger seemed to pulse in the very ground beneath her feet. It was real, too real, and every instinct screamed at her to move, to act. But the cold fear rooting her to the spot was just as powerful.

When Alfie spoke, telling her it was only as real as she believed, his words barely registered. She wanted to believe him, but the sight of the massive beast, its eyes locked on her, made it impossible to dismiss. Her body reacted on instinct, but what could she do against something like this?

When Alfie summoned the flaming bow, its searing light illuminated the night, casting sharp shadows that danced across the pavement. Zara's eyes widened at the sight of the weapon, at the raw power Alfie wielded so effortlessly.

When the tiger fell, Zara flinched, but she didn’t look away. Her gaze remained locked on Alfie, watching as he prepared another arrow, his stance unwavering. He was ready to kill for her. The realization sent a shiver down her spine... But why? He only knew her name..

Finally, she found her voice, though it was quieter than she intended, almost a whisper. "Alfie…" She stepped closer to him, hiding behind him..

Her eyes flickered to the bookkeeper, her mind racing with questions. Why was this happening? Why her?

[deviousnumbers]

Zara flinched but didn't look away, Alfie noted. This intrigued him. She was cleary petrified and yet... her eyes were wide open and she was alert. He supposed he admire that if he had the time to.

"It will be okay," he told her. "I won't let him harm you."

"You killed Agira." The bookkeeper said, in shock. Rage slowly came to a boil as his hands danced, his fingers quite still and splayed. "You bastard."

The stop sign just in view at the end of the street, began to bend and warp, curling in on itself and finally wrenching away from the bolts which fastened it to its post.

As the bookkeeper waved his arms in one final, fluid motion, swinging them up around the shoulders and pushing full force into the air before him, the stop sign, now contorted with jagged edges, came hurtling towards them.

His flaming bow and arrow dissipated in an instant causing darkness to befall them once more. Alfie grabbed Zara by one shoulder, "Duck." he said, as he forced her body to the ground and bent himself down low with her.

The stop sign clashed along the pavement behind them.

"You should flee." He said to Zara, "I'll find you."

He turned to face the bookkeeper, who was making moves to cast another spell. Alfie knew he was disciplined in natural magic now, but didn't have time to communicate this to Zara. But that didn't matter, the knowledge he possessed would be enough to end this battle.

[pleinsdemuses]

Zara moved through the hospital like she always did, her mind focused on the next patient. She never questioned the need to help, never stopped to weigh the consequences. If someone was in pain, she healed them. It didn’t matter how big or small the injury was—she could take it on. She had to. But lately, she had started to feel a strange unease, like a shadow trailing behind her that she couldn't quite see.

As she stepped outside, the cold night air hit her, a stark contrast to the warmth of the hospital. She wrapped her coat tighter around herself, but the chill wasn’t what unsettled her. There was something else.

street was quiet, almost eerily so, as she walked. Her thoughts were still on the patients she had left behind when she suddenly felt it—a presence, too close, too threatening. Her heart skipped a beat. She turned, but it was too late.

The figure was behind her before she even registered the sound of footsteps. A dark shape, looming. Her instincts screamed at her to move, to defend herself, but she froze, caught between the realization of danger and the split second it would take to react.

And then she heard his voice—cold and sharp, cutting through the night.

"Touch her, and I kill you."

Her breath caught as she turned to face the speaker, her wide eyes locking onto his. Alfie. She recognized him immediately, though his presence here made no sense.

Before she could process what was happening, she felt it—a growl, low and menacing, vibrating through the air. Slowly, Zara turned her head, and there it was—a massive tiger, crouched low, its eyes locked on her.

"Oh God..."

[deviousnumbers]

Alfie could sense her fear, Zara's body reacting silently to the presence of the tiger.

"It's only as real as you believe it to be." Which was to say, the tiger was very real. To Alfie, this meant one true reality lay before them: this was a beast to be slain.

"Step back, Zara." His fingers twitched, his mind counting as he spoke, "It'll all be okay." He manifested a flaming bow and a red hot arrow to be set free by it. The light from his created weapon was blinding. He squinted with a ferocity, steadying his gaze on that point right between the tiger's eyes. A killshot if neither he nor the beast flinched.

"You familiar's death is not worth this." He said evenly, attempting to talk down the bookkeeper who in truth had come for Zara. But why?

And would Alfie's presence cause the bookkeeper to shift to a new motive... was Alfie still a prize considered to be greater than Zara's? If they knew about her powers, nothing would sway the enemy from taking her...

The other spoke, still shrouded in darkness, shadows cast by the hood of his cloak concealed his face. "My familiar is not trained on you, Oakland O'Malley. Disarm and you'll be left unharmed."

Alfie tsk'd at this. "If you truly knew me you'd be pissing while you fled."

He released his first arrow. The tiger leapt but fell limp mid-flight and clobbered the ground at Alfie's feet. He stepped forwards and pulled back the string of his bow, another fiery red arrow materializing there.

"Do you wish for more bloodshed?" He demanded from the bookkeeper, his weaponed now trained on him.

[deviousnumbers]

002 | Gladiators These Days

@pleinsdemuses

She couldn't know nothing. She simply couldn't. So the watching and waiting had begun. She worked a lot in a hospital and so she was easy enough to find. Always walking into work bright and early and always walking out late at night.

Finally, she was at the end of her shift and walking out of the building, away, into the darkness. From the safety of his own home, Alfie created a window which replicated one of the larger windows that flanked the hospital.

For someone with such formidable powers, she tended to use them indiscriminately. It was perplexing to see her heal someone with a compound fracture in one room, watch her walk to the next room to heal someone with undiagnosed abdominal pain right after. She didn't seem to care how great or how small the pain was, she would simply take it on. This didn't make sense to Alfie.

Zara walked past, oblivious to the amount of eyes on her, when from behind another approached, lapping her in speed. The other wore a heavy cloak which covered his body and confused his true size.

Alfie knew he was watching one of the bookkeepers shamelessly attempting an assault from behind. He also knew Zara hadn't stolen any spellbooks since he'd begun surveying her. Which begged the question: Was this attack now a result of her interfering and healing him? He'd been left for dead because somebody wanted him dead. And Zara had stood in the way of this.

"I suppose a favor is a favor." He whispered to himself. His digits danced as he recalled a string of numbers in his head. Seemingly arbitrary numbers, yet strung together in just the right order. His small window of view grew in size, widening and lengthening until it resembled that of a door.

He stepped through into the world outside that hospital, onto the street where Zara was, and the bookkeeper was uttering a spell, no doubt, under his lips. Attempting to conjure something? Alfie thought not.

"Touch her and I kill you." Alfie decreed. Though he was speaking directly to the man behind her, his harsh, cold eyes were locked with hers.

Finishing his utterance, a bright light shone behind Zara's back and the unmistakable growling or a predatory beast filled the air. A familiar, of sorts. An animal companion, a bengal tiger, loyal to this bookkeeper was now crouched low to the ground, its eyes trained on Zara's neck.

Alfie's eyes shifted from the beast to it's commander. "Your pet, too." He promised the bookkeeper.

[pleinsdemuses]

“I… I appreciate the offer, but I don’t think I need protection. I’ve managed to keep this secret for years, and I’m just a nurse... no one else knows about what I can do.”

She hesitated, seeing the determination in his eyes. “I don’t want to get involved in something I don’t fully understand. My... This… it’s not something I want to use for power or control. It’s just something I use when it’s needed.”

Her voice softened, her tone kind but firm. “I’m grateful for what you’ve told me tonight, and I’m glad I could help you, but I can’t accept your offer."

[deviousnumbers]

Alfie tilted his head back, clicking his tongue as he did so, and heaved out a sigh. Feeling deflated, he made another quick decision.

"Fine, then." He said evenly. "But I have one final question for you..."

His eyes lowered to find hers, his brows furrowing, he asked, "If you should ever find yourself within an inch of your life... could you heal yourself?"

He was confident the answer was no. Or perhaps, she didn't know but didn't want to find out. He turned away from her now, and began his descent down the street.

"There is strength in numbers, you know, Zara." He called over his shoulder.

With a few flicks of the wrists and a few digits extended, an average looking bedroom door appeared before him. Metal letters nailed to the front of it: A2. He opened the door, a bright light shining through, he stepped across the threshold and slipped inside, mindful to close the door behind him.

[pleinsdemuses]

Zara blinked, taken aback by Alfie’s sudden change in tone. His apology was unexpected, and for a moment, she saw a glimmer of something softer beneath his stern exterior. But then, his words shifted again, and the intensity returned, making her tense.

“I’m no miracle,” she replied softly, shaking her head. “I’ve never thought of it that way. It’s just… something I have to live with. Something that scares me as much as it helps others.”

His next question, though gentle, sent a shiver down her spine. She hesitated, realizing how much was at stake in her answer. "No one really knows," she admitted, her voice cautious. "My mom, she suspected something when she found me that day with the puppy, but I never told her the full truth. I’ve kept it hidden… afraid of what people might think, or worse, what they might do if they found out."

She took a small step back, putting a bit of distance between them. "So, no. No one else knows. I’ve been careful." Her eyes locked onto his, searching for any sign of what he was thinking, what he might do with this knowledge.

Maybe she had said too much.

[deviousnumbers]

He thought deeply about her words, noting her fear and telling himself this was not out of the ordinary, for others who found themselves in his presence.

"That's good." He said with finality. "You should tell no one. Keep this secret hidden. For now."

Her eyes had found his and he held her gaze fearlessly.

He was weighing out the consequences... what might one do if they found out she could heal injuries, even the ones caused by magic? She was special whether she believed it or not. He knew her value was immense. He could not afford to lose her, she could make him invincible.

He cleared his throat, suddenly sounding professional as well as serious. "I'd like to propose an alliance of sorts:

"I will protect you, and teach you, if you can heal me when I'm hurt and... if you can teach me what you can do."

[pleinsdemuses]

"I… I don’t know how," she began, her voice quiet but steady. "It just happened one day.." She took a deep breath, her mind flashing back to that day. "I was just a kid," she began softly, her gaze distant as if she were reliving the moment. "I found a puppy… it had been hit by a car. I didn’t know what to do, but I couldn’t leave it there. I…I just held it in my arms and wished with everything in me that it would be okay."

Her voice trembled as she continued, "And then… it was. The puppy was fine, like nothing had happened. I didn’t understand it then, and I still don’t." Her hands instinctively clenched as she spoke, as if trying to shake off the memory. "I remember feeling like I was being drained, like something inside me was slipping away. And then everything went black."

She swallowed hard, her voice shaky. "My mom found me passed out in the street, the puppy curled up next to me, completely healed..."

Zara's voice grew even quieter, as if sharing a secret she had kept buried for too long. "When I take away someone’s pain, I feel it. It becomes mine...When I healed you… I felt your pain. All of it"

[deviousnumbers]

Something foreign and new arose inside Alfie and he did something out of character- he swallowed his pride. "I'm sorry you had to feel my pain."

The air around them grew cold. He jutted out his chin, "You have no idea what a miracle you are." He scrutinized her, staring down his sharp nose with nostrils flared. "Or do you?" He challenged, insinuating her power was so great she could not deny it if she knew of it.

"Who else knows what you can do?" He asked this question rather gently, for strategic purposes. He wanted the truth very much. If others knew what value she had, how she could serve well as an ally.

[pleinsdemuses]

Zara's heart raced as the lights flickered out, her breath catching in her throat. The dark street and the eerie glow of the ring filled her with a sense of unease she couldn't shake. When the lights returned, she found herself instinctively stepping back, her eyes wide with shock.

She shouldn’t have been surprised, not after everything she’d done—everything she could do—but seeing someone else manipulate the world around them like that, especially with such ease, left her unnerved. She stared at Alfie, trying to process his words, trying to understand the gravity of what he was suggesting.

She looked at Alfie, her eyes wide with a mix of awe and fear. "I... I don't understand," she stammered, her voice barely above a whisper. "What you just did… that shouldn’t be possible." yet should was about to heal anyone with the palm of her hand... She shouldn't be surprised.

[deviousnumbers]

"I..." he considered his words carefully, "apologize if this is frightening or if I am intimidating. I'm told that's how I always am." He spoke wanly.

"But I grew up training in my discipline... and you... you just... discovered you could heal people? How?" Suddenly all those questions rose to the surface, he rattled them off like ammunition:

"Can you do it to animals or plants?"

"No one ever taught you? You just could?"

"When you healed me, did it hurt?"

A lump lodged in his throat. He found himself speechless at his own words. The final question was surprisingly laced with compassion. A rare quality he saw in himself, one he noticed and displayed so little he sometimes forget it existed within him.

[pleinsdemuses]

Zara hesitated, her eyes narrowing as she tried to make sense of his question. "Something I always carry with me?" she repeated slowly, as if testing the words on her tongue. She glanced down at her hands, then back up at Alfie, her confusion evident. "I... I don't think so."

She shifted her weight uncomfortably, her voice uncertain. "Why does it matter? I don't understand... You keep asking about magic, and I just... I don't know what you mean. I’ve never needed anything special. It's just... me."

Zara felt the weight of the conversation pressing down on her, the growing tension making her uneasy. The sky was dark and she realized how late it was getting. She shifted her feet awkwardly, forcing a small smile.

"Um... I should probably get going," she said softly, her voice carrying a hint of shyness.

[deviousnumbers]

"Yes..." Alfie confirmed. He decided to take a chance, since she seemed to be telling the truth and not simply pretending to be ignorant. "Something like this..." he unfurled his fingers and revealed the brass ring, which sat innocently in the palm of his hand.

Without another word, he took the ring and slipped it onto his thumb.

"Magic is in us but... until I met you... I've always understood we need something through which we can channel it. Something to anchor it to us so it doesn't..." he looked her over, assessing how she breathed, how she was backing away, "tear us apart."

He quirked a brow at her. He had to know how she'd done it. How she'd called on the magic without any help. No spell book. No magic item. Just her.

"Don't go too far..." his fingers danced, jutting out two and three fingers on either hand at a time. First, the forefinger, the pinky, and the thumb on his left hand, then the ring and middle finger on his right.

The lights all around them flickered and then grew dark in an instant.

The only source of light now was the brass ringing glowing as if it were red hot. "I need this ring. And you need nothing. Still," the street lights slowly glowed back to life, illuminating the street once more. "I could never do what you have done for me tonight."

He stepped closer, hoping he wasn't coming across as intimidating- which he often did. "You and I... our powers combined... we could do great things."

[pleinsdemuses]

Zara blinked in surprise at his sudden shift in tone, her eyes narrowing slightly as she studied him. She could see the urgency in his expression, the way he tried to hide it but failed miserably. Her initial instinct was to deflect, to brush off his questions and let him believe whatever he wanted. But something about the way he demanded answers stirred something inside her, a mixture of frustration and vulnerability.

“Magic?” she repeated, her voice edged with sarcasm. “I don’t know if I’d call it that. It’s just… something I can do. Something I’ve always been able to do.” She hesitated, searching for the right words.

"I don’t know how I did it," she admitted, the raw honesty in her voice clear. "It just happens. I see someone hurting, and something inside me pushes to fix it. But it’s not like I can just snap my fingers and decide how it works... Half the time, I don’t even know if it’s going to work..."

[deviousnumbers]

The way she said the word 'magic' with such disbelief caught him off guard. It didn't make sense that she could possess and not know what it meant. Still, he'd never encountered anyone with this particular ability. And she didn't use a special item either... she just did it. It was like the magic flowed from somewhere deep inside her.

"I believe you." He said, his expression softening.

"Tell me this. Do you have something you always carry with you? Something like a prized possession, or maybe something of sentimental value..." his eyebrows raised with curiosity.

He knew his own item, the brass ring he was still concealing, was meant to channel his magic through. If she needed no use for a magic item such as his... he estimated how much stronger she must be... and suddenly felt fearful. His only solace in the moment was her obvious confusion at their entire conversation.

[pleinsdemuses]

Zara’s smirk faded as she watched Alfie, her curiosity piqued by his cryptic words. “Alfie,” she repeated softly, testing the name on her tongue. There was something about the way he carried himself that intrigued her, even as he kept his guard up. When he mentioned the bounty hunter, she tilted her head slightly, confusion flickering across her features.

“Bounty hunter?” she echoed, trying to make sense of it.

[deviousnumbers]

Alfie's eyes rolled back for a moment, as if he were overwhelmed mentally by her lack of general knowledge. "Bounty hunter, book keeper, whatever you want to call them." He said dismissively.

He turned on his heel and headed down the road, only to come to a quick halt.

"Oh," he said with realization. He turned back to face the strange woman who possessed healing powers, the likes of which he'd never seen before. "You're confused but... you healed me with magic."

His eyes narrowed now that his brain was stirring up questions only Zara had the answers to. She couldn't be a typical mage with magic like that. Magic he'd never heard of before. She had to know more than she was letting on. He wondered what all she knew. "How did you do it? How did you heal me? Tell me." He tried and failed to disguise his urgency.

[pleinsdemuses]

Zara watched as Alfie adjusted himself, her body still trembling from the effort it took to heal him. His casual remark about her abilities made her smirk, though it didn’t reach her eyes. She wiped the last trace of blood from her nose with a tired sigh.

When he asked who she was, Zara hesitated for a moment, studying him. His question hung in the air, and she considered giving him a deflective answer, something vague. But after what they’d just been through, maybe he deserved a bit more honesty.

"I'm Zara," she finally said, her eyes locking onto his, a faint smile playing on her lips. "And you? Besides the guy with a knack for finding trouble?"

[deviousnumbers]

Alfie studied her small smirk, something about the way her eyes still held pain in them made him think that smirk was feigned. Finally she answered him and he snorted once, quick and petty.

"Worse name." He paused, considering whether he should disclose his own name. He decided if she was a healer of some sorts, like he had witnessed, she must not have any power that might cause him harm.

He was willing to bet that she probably had no ill will towards him considering what she'd done. Still, he wouldn't trust her.

"Alfie." He said quietly. "It wasn't trouble that I found. It was a bounty hunter." He turned to the side and pushed himself up onto his feet, dusting at his pants now. "Thank you, I suppose." He said dryly.

He waited a beat for the other to speak. If she failed to do so, or if she did speak yet had nothing of substance to add, he was prepared to walk away from her and promptly forget the name 'Zara'.

[pleinsdemuses]

Zara’s breath hitched as she felt his pain surge through her, but she didn’t pull back. Her hands remained steady, though her heart pounded in her chest. She glanced up at Alfie, her voice soft but resolute. “you'll feel better soon...” The blood from her nose dripped down, but she ignored it, focusing all her energy on mending the damage. She could feel the strain, the agony threatening to overwhelm her, but she pushed through, her fingers glowing softly as the healing power flowed from her into him.

Once Zara felt the healing was complete and she no longer needed to channel her power, she pulled her hands away, gasping for air as if she'd been underwater too long. The energy drain hit her like a punch, and she leaned back, clutching her side as she struggled to catch her breath. Her chest heaved, and for a moment, she just focused on the simple act of breathing.

[deviousnumbers]

Pleasantness settled in, taking the place of all that anguish from moments before. The pain drained out of him like hot water from a busted pipe. He sucked in a breath and sat himself up, quickly moving his hands to adjust his clothing around him, tugging at his shirt and coat.

He looked now to the stranger who had done nothing short of performing a miracle before his eyes.

"Neat trick. Very useful." He admired quietly. "Though it's not without its limitations, I see." A part of him thought to ask if she were alright. But then considered she had chosen to help him. She could have easily walked on past him without a glance. She could have simply left him to suffer.

"Who are you?" He asked instead.

[deviousnumbers]

[pleinsdemuses]

"I'm going to help you..." shz tried to reassure him. As Zara pressed her hands against his wounds, she braced herself for the familiar sensation that always accompanied her healing touch... the transfer of pain. It was the price she paid for her gift, taking on the suffering of those she healed so that they could be spared. But tonight, after a grueling shift and the exhaustion weighing her down, the pain hit her harder than she expected.

The moment her healing energy connected with his battered body, she felt it: a sharp, searing pain that radiated up her arm and lodged itself deep in her chest. Zara gasped, the sound escaping her lips before she could stop it. The agony of his injuries became hers.

She bit down on her lip, hard enough to taste blood, as she fought to keep the pain from showing on her face. He didn’t need to see that. He was barely holding on as it was.

[deviousnumbers]

Alfie gasped, his eyes wide as saucers, red lines of agony etched into the whites of his eyes contrasting his icy blue irises. The blood stains shaded his teeth red, his pale skin paler than usual, almost a pasty white.

"Can you..." Alfie could see the pain she tried to conceal thought he could only ask her to endure more. "Fix it?" He pointed, his arm shaking poly rhythmically, to his leg which appear swollen and misshapen against the fabric of his pants leg. Still clutched in his fingers was that brass ring.

[pleinsdemuses]

Zara had been on her feet for hours, her shift at the hospital stretching longer than usual. The exhaustion weighed heavily on her shoulders as she made her way home, the quiet of the night offering a brief reprieve from the chaos of the day. Her mind was already drifting, thinking of the comfort of her small apartment, the soft bed that awaited her, and maybe even a cup of tea before she collapsed into sleep.

But all those thoughts vanished the moment she spotted the figure lying on the cracked pavement. At first, she thought it was just debris or a trick of the dim streetlights, but as she drew closer, the sight of blood glistening under the orange glow sent a surge of adrenaline through her system.

Her nurse's instincts kicked in immediately, overriding the fatigue that had settled in her bones. She rushed to his side, dropping her bag without a second thought. Kneeling on the rough asphalt, she took in the extent of his injuries.

"Hey, hey," she said, her voice soft but urgent, trying to catch his gaze. "Can you hear me? What happened?" She knew it was a long shot. He was barely conscious, slipping in and out of awareness, but she needed him to stay with her.

[deviousnumbers]

A dark shadow blotted out the harsh orange glow of the street lights, leaving only a few wisps twinkling in the clouded corners of his vision. A feminine voice, soft yet urgent, called to him from a seemingly great distance... the dark figure became two, then three, then two, and one again.

"Who-" the blood pooled in the back of his throat and he sputtered, hacking up blood which shot up and then cascaded down his chin and cheeks.

"Help me." He forced out despite the immense pain. If he hadn't been so weak, it would have been a demand rather than a plea.

[deviousnumbers]

001 | Late At Night Or Early In The Morning

@pleinsdemuses

Street lights twinkled up above, the asphalt below was cracked and jagged rocks jutted out into Alfie's back. Fading in and out of consciousness, each blink to darkness growing slower and longer, Alfie's thoughts were swimming lazily through his mind.

Thief. The other had called him- his assailant. And the other had been right. They had dueled with magics but Alfie, to his surprise, had been bested... perhaps he was outmatched.

And now he suffered the consequences of the assault, the taste of copper in his mouth. A long gash across his left forearm, still bleeding, panged and throbbed with pain, keeping him from falling into unconsciousness. This paired with the coughing, the sputtering, from the blood which filled his mouth, leaking from his split lips.

He was badly hurt and immobilized, worried his leg might be broken as he was unable to move it. Alfie could do no more but clutch in his right hand his token: a brass ring bequeathed to him by his father. This was the item through which he could channel his magics, yet it was useless to him now.

He could neither move nor speak, but the assailant had made one fatal mistake: he'd left Alfie half-alive. That would be enough. He vowed that if he lived to see daylight... he would get his revenge along with those spellbooks the assailant had recovered from him.

The clicking of heels on pavement echoed in the distance from somewhere. Hope. Alfie thought as the world around him swirled into a mess of white streaking starlight and the orange hues of street lights.