Apparently dumplings are also a universal commodity, because about ten minutes later Caius and his new roommate sat at their kitchen island sharing a mountain of dumplings filled with meat from a sort of bird that tasted almost like turkey.

  “Okay, so let me get this straight. You aren't from this planet, have no idea who you really are besides your first name, and the mage that brought you here attacked BPER agents and erased his own mind.” Milo summarized after swallowing another dumpling.

  “That is actually a really good summary. Apparently they are going to be watching me for the next six months to make sure I’m not any trouble. I honestly assume that if they see something they don’t like, they are just going to take me out back and shoot me.” Caius shoveled another dumpling into his face, his first hot meal delighting his stomach. Milo stared at the counter and chewed slowly, digesting all of the information.

  “You…” He said slowly, “ Have so many pop culture references to learn.” This made Caius laugh. “I mean, how am I supposed to reference a show or something culturally iconic if you aren’t in the know? All of my humor just got thrown out the window. You are trouble my friend.” Caius was now shaking with laughter, and it felt good. He had been on edge for so many hours now, and the facade he had up had been getting a little thin.

  “And music!” Milo was still going, “How are you supposed to understand a thousand years of musical growth? I am going to have to make you so many playlists! That’s going to take up so much of my valuable time. And we have to watch so many things if I want you to be a half-decent conversationalist.” Caius waved him off, the laughing actually starting to ache.

  “You,” Caius took a deep breath, “Have to stop dude. Thank you for that though. It's been one thing after another, and my only alone time was being strapped down in an interrogation room. You are a breath of fresh air”

  “Oooh, that sounds kinky. People pay good money for that sort of treatment.”

  “Well, at least there are perverts in every universe.”

  “Hey, don’t kink shame, human. I bet we get a lot freakier here than on your planet.” Milo snatched the last dumpling with his fork. Their forks only had two prongs, but were more or less the same shape. “Here, let me show you your room.” Milo grabbed his bag and beckoned Caius deeper into the apartment. They passed a few pictures hung on the wall in the hallway, a young Milo was present in most of them surrounded by at least a dozen people that shared familial features. There was one of him with two older people, and a younger woman. They surrounded him, and it was obvious this was some sort of important event like a graduation. They had taken enough of his attention that he had slowed to a near halt to look at them. When he looked back at Milo, the man had a melancholy half-smile.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to stare.” Caius rubbed a hand on the back of his head. Milo shook his head in response.

  “No need to apologize man, they are out in the public view. I just have a…complicated relationship.”

  “You look so close.” Caius said quietly, a sense of his untethered self returning. Was anyone missing him back on Earth? Did he have a family, a partner? Did he leave anything behind?

  “We used to be. That's a longer conversation though. Come on.” They walked the last few feet down the hallway, and opened the door to Caius’ new room. A window with metal shades lit the room, empty besides a desk and a full sized bed. The carpet was soft, and the walls were a nice wood. It continued the comfy feeling the whole complex had given him so far. Milo tapped a yellow panel next to the doorway and a strip of light around the top and bottom of the room lit up, a soft light now filling the space. An empty closet sat open, but the room had potential to be a very homey space.

  “This is nice.” Caius said, some of the earlier depression still hung heavy on his mood. Milo set his bag down on the bed.

  ”Do you want some time and space alone to settle?” He asked “Or…” Caius immediately jumped on the offer.

  “Or? I will do anything to not be alone with my thoughts right now.”

  Milo laughed and beckoned him out of the room, “I have to go out and grab a couple things. And it looks like you could use some clothes and toiletries. A tee from No Perch Like Home and cargo pants cannot be allowed to be the entirety of your wardrobe.” Caius looked down at his shirt with the tengu on it, and smiled.

  “I like it,” He said, “I am kinda just wingin’ it.”

  Elias Beck pulled up to his last appointment for the day. A wrap was clutched tightly in one hand and was quickly disappearing down his gullet. The day had gotten away from him and he had missed lunch, yet again. The sun was slowly dipping on the horizon, only an hour or two left before sunset.

  His destination was a two story structure of wood and brick. with architecture tending toward conjured stone and metal nowadays, this was an obvious sign of age. A worn down bar took up the bottom floor, and Elias pushed his way inside.

  “Beck!” The bartender called to him. “Work or pleasure?” Elias waved at him as he walked toward a staircase at the side of the large room.

  ”I have to go see Isolde, but I could be talked into a drink or two. I might need one after this.” The bartender laughed. He had fair complexion, with golden hair pulled back behind two pointed ears. If not for those and his eyes with golden irises, he could have passed for human.

  Elias walked up the stairs, a black door sat alone at the top. In silver writing, Blackthorn Pursuit was inscribed on the door. The door was just as old and worn as the rest of the building, but the inscription was as shiny and polished as the day it had been made.

  ”Come in.” A muffled voice said through the door right as he raised his hand to knock. Taking a deep breath and centering himself, he pushed his way into the office space. It was a decently sized space, two sat across from each other framing the room. One was dusty, and pushed up against the wall. The other was absolutely covered in paperwork, a comfy leather chair holding the office’s only occupant.

  Isolde Blackwood was a beautiful woman, soft brown skin that sat atop a tightly muscled and lean frame. Her hair sat in box braids, and were held back behind her head. A sharp jaw, tense as she clenched her teeth framed her expression, soft lips pressed into a scowl and two bright red eyes stared at Elias as he entered. She looked thirty, but vampires could be truly any age. Isolde was actually fifty-nine, but the fact that she was a vampire led many to assume she was much older than she was. The ones more gifted with blood magic could look like young adults for many centuries.

  “Hey Izzy.” Elias said, taking a seat in one of the chairs across from her desk. The scowl on her face didn't even twitch. They held each other’s gazes for a while, trying not to be the first one to speak.

  “You have sauce on your shirt.” She said a few minutes later.

  “Shit.” Elias cursed, dabbing at the splotch of white and green on his chest. Grumbling, he muttered a quick cantrip and the spot disappeared. Glancing back up, her scowl had been replaced by a small smile.

  “You know why I’m here Izzy. I’ve been giving you plenty of time, almost a decade, to do this. My boss is cracking down on licenses, and he noticed you were working alone.”

  “So you are coming to take my life’s work away from me.” She said slowly, the small smile tightening back into the scowl.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “You have gotten by with small contracts and doing local work for a while, but I have more than put my neck out for you. I could lose my job for letting a solo PA work for so long. The bill is coming due sadly, and you have a few months to either find a partner, or your license will be struck.” Elias frowned, saddened by his good friend's predicament. She hadn’t trusted anyone in a long time, and it was going to kill one of her only joy’s. “Couldn’t you just go join one of the other Agencies? I know Sunset would love to have you. All of the older vamps respect your work ethic.”

  “You know I hate those agencies El.” Isolde replied, “They drain all the soul out of this job. We-“ she choked off her sentence briefly, “I started this agency with the old values in mind. I want to genuinely help people, not beat on accidental shifters and Bliss junkies.” Behind her tough vampire facade, Isolde truly cared about people. The world just hadn’t been kind to her.

  “I know that Izzy,” Elias started, “But let's be honest. Your soul has been out of this for a while. Doing this on your own has been wearing you down and you never really took the time to…recover.” An idea started to bloom in the back of his head. There were two problems he might be able to solve with one well placed stone.

  “What if I could find someone for you? Just to get my boss off your back. They could benefit from working alongside you, and I think you could use their…unique perspective.” Isolde frowned, her eyebrows furrowed.

  “Who?”

  ”Give me a week or two to lock them down. If you haven’t found someone by then, I will be assigning them to you.” Elias said, some excitement coming into his voice. She started to object to this proposition.

  ”NO ARGUING!” He said loudly, shocking her into silence. This might actually work! Her situation had been weighing on him for some time, and he might just have the solution to solve his two biggest problems.

  Milo and Caius carried a few bags, their haul getting heavier with every store they went to. They had spent most of the day out on the town, giving Caius the real ‘Noctwyn Experience’ as Milo said. They had checked out so many stores in a little closed off area of the city, with no vehicle streets crossing through this large multi-block shopping district. Clothes and groceries, snacks and a delicious lunch at a stall that served some form of soup that reminded Caius of pho, but none of the vegetables or meat looked familiar at all. They even stopped in a weapon store, small batons, knives, weird guns, and medieval looking weapons all sat next to each other on display. Milo insisted on Caius getting a collapsible baton with a few sigils glowing along its black metal length. Apparently with all of the licensing here, they freely sold weapons to the populace. Milo explained that magic was honestly infinitely dangerous, so little things like his baton were sort of nothing compared to what a trained mage could do.

  The day had been fun though, with Milo bantering with him the whole time and introducing him to the local shop owners. With how large the city was, Caius had assumed that it was like large Earth cities, where most people didn’t know one another from Jack. Well, he didn’t know anyone, but with his weird cultural base knowledge intact, that was the vibe he had about Earth.

  “We have one more stop.” Milo said, interrupting Caius’ train of thought. He had already gotten used to Caius dropping off into his head every once and a while, and didn’t seem to mind it at all.

  “Please no more food.” Caius groaned. He was practically bursting at the seams with all the snacks that Milo had been pushing all day. Milo laughed and slapped him on the back, drawing another groan as the food shifted inside Caius.

  “No no, I just have someone I want you to meet. I am overdue to check on her anyways, and she should meet you if you are going to be around for a while.” Caius raised an eyebrow and began to pester him for more information. Was this a girlfriend? But Milo refused to answer any of his questions, practically skipping ahead of him.

  They came to the very edge of the district, to a small alley that was much less populated than the rest of the streets had been. Only a few doors lined the alley, and many of the lights were out or very dim.

  “Okay, last try, is it a sugar daddy that pays for all of your nice jewelry and likes it when you lick his-” Milo cut him off before he finished that thought.

  ”NO, by my mana man, you have some weird ideas. Sugar daddy is a great term though, I might use that. This is my sister’s shop. Get your dirty ass in there.” He pulled open the door and shoved Caius inside. Laughing as he stumbled across the threshold, his revelry catching in his throat as he saw the proprietor of the shop.

  Milo’s sister barely resembled the young thing he had seen in the picture with his family back at the apartment. She must have been nearly a decade older than she had been then, late twenties and drop dead gorgeous. She had been cute as a kid, but the woman before him had gone through the fantastic aging that your early twenties put you through. Her hair was nearly as dark as Milo’s, a little bit more brown than black. It was curly and set in a messy bun at the back of her head. A few delicate curls hung down around her face, a sharp pointed chin sitting below delicate lips and a thin nose. Her eyes were green, and held a look that told him she knew exactly how beautiful she was and thought it incredibly funny that Caius was standing in her store shell shocked.

  A hand smacked the back of his head, as Milo came around his side and interrupted his ogling.

  “I need you to not stare at my sister like that at least while I'm here.” He said with some humor in his voice. “Sorry sis, he hasn’t met many women before.” One of her eyebrows rose up her forehead at that.

  “Misogynist or shut in?” She asked, her voice sending a small shiver down Caius’ spine.

  “Amnesiac from another world!” Milo said cheerfully, enjoying her reaction. It started as puzzlement, then disbelief, and then wonder as Milo just smiled at her.

  “Seriously?!” She asked loudly, mouth hanging open in shock.

  ”Zara, meet Caius, a newly summoned human from another planet and my roommate.” Mirth dripped from every word as he introduced them. “Caius, this is my younger sister Zara, the master Inscriber.” Caius cleared his throat, all his moisture having dried up and leaving his esophagus bone dry in his embarrassment.

  ”Nice to meet you Zara.” He managed to croak out before coughing into his elbow and swallowing to return his throat to its normal environment. She came out from around the counter she had been standing behind, looking him up and down and shaking her head.

  ”Fascinating to meet you, Caius.” She responded, a weird smile on her face. She looked like she was studying a scientific specimen rather than a new person. Milo chuckled from the side.

  ”I’m not sure he appreciates your gaze, brat. Don’t make my new friend uncomfortable.” Zara looked straight into his eyes and smiled slightly at the discomfort that was building there.

  “Just returning the stare.” she replied. Finally she turned to speak to her brother.

  “What brings you by, asshole?” she ducked as Milo swung out at her, and shoulder checked him in the sternum. The air left his lungs as they backed away from each other.

  “You.” He managed to gasp as his oxygen started to return. “Absolute. Bitch.” He laughed. “You’re caring older brother comes by to check on you and you abuse his Collared body. How cruel.” A pout formed on his lips and she bumped him again with her shoulder, softer this time.

  ”You can’t use that against me Lolo. Your own damn fault.” She turned back to go behind her counter and waved her hand at them to follow her into the rear of the shop. “Besides, you haven’t been by in like a month! It’s the least you deserve.”

  The three of them passed through a curtain into the back of the shop, a large room divided down the middle. One half was clean and decorated like a studio apartment. A rumpled bed sat against one wall, a kitchenette and a small sitting area took up the rest of the space.

  The other half was a mess of boxes and shelves, small items glowing with runes and dark mundane items packed tightly on each shelf. A workbench was absolutely decked with tools and implements that Caius could not put a purpose to.

  “Sit guys, I’ll grab a couple drinks.” Zara said as she approached the kitchenette. She opened a metal door to show a packed fridge that was illuminated by a set of glowing runes and a strip of light that ran along its perimeter. Caius sat in the lone chair in the sitting area as Milo stretched out long on the couch.

  “Does the Collar make you weaker physically?” He asked as Zara pulled out a few drinks. Milo yawned wide like a dog and cracked his back.

  “It cuts off most of the benefits of my shifter bloodline. I can’t shift, obviously, and some of my strength is blocked. I am about half as strong as I used to be.”

  “Sadly, the loss of physicality did not bring out any latent brain cells that he had hiding.” Zara quipped as she flopped onto the couch, shoving aside Milo’s feet as she did. She handed one of three blue cans to Caius and tossed another at her brother. He was obviously expecting it and caught it, but it got way too close to his face.

  “Is this alcohol?” Caius asked, “I’m not opposed, but I have no idea how being drunk feels.”

  The siblings were stunned for a moment, and Milo shook his head sadly with a mournful look.

  “You poor, poor boy. Drink my son, and revel in the glory of fermented beverages.” He slid a black tab across the can, releasing a satisfying fizz. Zara smacked his foot.

  “He doesn’t have to drink if he doesn’t want to, ass.” She turned to Caius. “Yes, it is alcoholic, but I can get you something else if you want.”

  ”No, no, like I said I don’t mind. Just wanted to be sure before I end up getting sloshed in someone else’s space.” He copied Milo’s movement and thumbed the flat black tab across the top of the can. Zara smiled softly at him and did the same, taking a long drink from hers.

  “Okay, you have to explain to me how on Orris you got here.” Caius took a long drink, enjoying the slightly sweet beverage. It was just soft enough to be easy to drink, but was harsh enough to keep him from downing it too quickly.

  “This is definitely going to help me go over this again.” He said with a smile.