Jim patted himself down and walked through the quiet streets. Some could say the silence was deafening, but in actuality, he found the calm silence provided comforting. It was like the dark. For five minutes, he could just breathe and pretend there were no issues in the world. He knew eventually life would find a way to smack him in the face like a ton of bricks as it always did. He chained up his bike and took to meandering down the road at a casual pace. Maybe he'd cut class today, he was feeling slightly rebellious. He rounded the corner towards Benoit's, deciding to pick up breakfast. This decision was reached shortly before he collided head on with somebody.
"Shit, sorry." He spluttered apologetically.
"Ugh, do you mind dorkface?! You totes ruined my selfie!"
A girl just shy of Claire's height stood to his side with a pissed off expression etched into her features. Her face was perfectly made up, framed by long curtains of straight black hair that draped over her shoulders.
"Are you gonna say anything?! Uhh HELLO?!" Her tone was still annoyed.
Jim offered her an apologetic grin. The girl he'd run into was none other than on of the popular girls, Mary Wang. They'd never particularly gotten on with each other.
"Mary? Why the fuck are you here so early? Don't you have a literature class with Miss Janeth in about an hour?" He suddenly asked.
She rolled her brown eyes in response and lowered herself into her seat, "Same as you I guess. Ditching. Or at least I'm gonna ditch. There's a test today and there's no way you'd catch me in that classroom for that test. Also are you just gonna stand there like a loser or sit your ass down?"
Mary pointed at the seat opposite. Jim laughed awkwardly and seated himself across from the wannabe influencer. She seemed to pick up on his shifty demeanour, but didn't say anything.
"How'd you know I was gonna ditch class today?" He asked.
She lowered her phone and shot him a death stare, "Omg, as if you aren't. You clearly are Jimmy boy, I'm not blind, I know a fellow truant when I see one."
"Ah yes, because you are such a reliable source of information like that, aren't you Mary?" Jim retaliated rhetorically.
"Don't try and sass me Lake, you know I could destroy your social standing with one post." She tried to sound threatening, but Jim really wasn't affected.
"Yeah, I'm sure your 400 Twitter followers and 500 TikTok followers give a shit about someone like me." His voice dripped with sarcasm.
As he pushed the chair back in annoyance to walk away, Mary called after him, "Actually I have 557 Twitter followers, over 10k TikTok followers and 75k Instagram followers."
"Well done." Jim responded sarcastically once more.
He walked inside the café, the air conditioning blew down his neck. There were a few people dotted about the place. People he knew. He noted the likes of Stuart, Logan, the two old guys that Toby's nan played chess with, a few other people from the school and Darci's dad. It felt weird seeing everyone just living normal lives without any trace of trolls, extraterrestrials or magic to be found. Part of him wished things could stay this way. Just...normal. But he definitely missed seeing the trolls wandering around the town.
Upon approaching the counter, Jim came face-to-face with someone he knew all to well. Someone he'd once been insanely jealous of and still was to a degree - had anyone seen the guy play guitar? He was awesome!
This morning however, the familiar face of Douxie looked bored out of his mind. He was staring blankly into space, his hazel eyes glazed over as if he were deeply invested in a daydream.
Jim cleared his throat which startled the young warlock back to reality.
"Oh fuzzbuckets! Morning, welcome to Benoit's, what can I get for you?" Douxie asked in his customer service voice.
Lake almost burst out laughing at hearing it but restrained himself and leant against the counter.
"Hmm...could you possibly get me a latte machiatto please with caramel syrup?" Jim asked politely, sliding $2.75 across the till.
"Of course mate, I'll have that ready for you in no time. I'm guessing that's a regular?"
"Yep." Jim answered, keeping his gaze locked on Doux.
He cast his mind back to when the amulet had called to Douxie. That had been fun. Whilst unfortunately Arcadia had been taken out by Morando that time round, watching Douxie wield Daylight, charged by innate magic and use it to absolutely wreck Gunmar had been nothing short of entertaining. He definitely needed an ally soon, he couldn't keep going by himself. Merlin's words came back to him. If the old twat had told Jim to speak to Douxie, then he probably should.
"Hey Doux!" He piped up.
This caught the barista off guard, nearly making him drop the jug of foam he'd just made. He spun round to face his customer.
"I hadn't realised you knew my name?" He responded quizzically.
"Meh, I know stuff," Jim shrugged, "Could I talk to you in private for a moment? It's...important..."
"I am in the middle of the breakfast shift mate, can it wait until I get on my lunch?" The wizard asked.
"Not really..." Jim sensed Douxie wouldn't sense the seriousness of the situation unless he dropped a subtle hint, so lowering his voice to a whisper he muttered, "Ad lucem Gloria mea."
"Wait-" Casperan nearly tripped over from the surprise of hearing those words.
His mouth tightened. He watched as Jim backed away from the counter and walked outside. This was serious. Doux yelled over to his co-worker to watch the till and he ran outside, whistling for Archie to follow him upon his exit. The cat came dashing over and leapt atop his shoulders. Together they ran round the corner to the alleyway behind the café, where Jim now stood. Douxie transformed his watch into the bracer that covered his forearm and prepared some spells defensively.
"You don't need to attack me Douxie, we're friends, or at least we will be in the future." Jim said, with a calm tone.
Douxie looked apprehensive but lowered his arm a little bit. Archie meanwhile, watched intently.
"What do you want? There's something...weird about you..."
Jim reached into the pocket of his new jacket and pulled out the amulet. The wizard's eyes widened in shock. He took a few steps closer to the boy, intrigued yet wary of him.
"I spoke to Merlin earlier," Jim swallowed the mound of guilt that pushed its way up his throat, "He told me to come find you, says you should be able to help with my...situation."
"I haven't heard from Merlin in 900 years! I sealed him in the sanctum. Unless he reached you through the amulet...but...why has it passed to a human?" Douxie looked baffled.
"It hasn't yet. It hasn't called to anyone yet. But it has called me in the past and other people I care about, but that isn't exactly why I'm here," Lake stepped away from the wall, his voice desperate, "I'm having some issues trynna block a presence out of my head. I think I've ended up becoming the new Kronisfere and I could really use your help in working out what the fuck I'm doing...please."
Douxie furrowed his brow for a moment and moved back a little to put some distance between both of them. This seemed too good to be true, it could be a trick but at the same time he could definitely detect hints of time magic lingering in Jim's aura.
"Alright," The mage nodded, "I can't do anything now, but if what you're saying is true then I may be able to help you. Meet me at GDT Arcane Books tonight around 6:30. Please don't be late."
"You can count on me to be there." Jim smiled and waved as the young man and his cat walked away.
"Are you sure this is a good idea old friend" Archie whispered into Douxie's ear as they headed back towards his workplace.
"Not entirely, but I can check...he has the amulet and for better or worse, he's tied to time magic. I have to get to bottom of this."
"Fair enough." The cat purred and hopped off his familiar's shoulder so he could go back to making coffee.
Jim on the other hand, had only just realised he'd forgotten to pick up his drink as he too had walked off. But hey, Douxie deserved the $2.75 and the drink.