It wasn't exactly the nicest set of apartments, but it was clean and well maintained at least. Plain, white two-story structures lined up in a solid row, but with space between each. They had more of a sense of privacy than Alden would have expected, for being packed so tightly into such a small lot near the RSU campus.
Rika returned from the office with a strange look on her face. "My landlord's missing," she said, handing a key to Alden.
"What?"
"Probably should have realized it sooner. Natalie Hendricks. Hendricks Apartments. Her dad owns this place."
"Oh." Alden frowned. "If you live up in Vancouver and don't attend school, why do you have an apartment here?"
"Convenience."
"Isn't that kind of expensive?"
"Well, I'm kind of rich," Rika retorted.
Alden decided to stop asking questions. Rika didn't seem in the mood. They walked in silence to the last apartment on the row. Rika put her hand on the gate to open it, then stopped.
"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. You can keep asking questions if you want," she said quietly.
"No, it's okay—" Alden started.
"You're new in town, so you don't know enough to avoid me yet," Rika continued. "I'm turning over a new leaf, not pissing so many people off. You're the only new person in town. No one's gonna come here til the new term in like three months. Which means you're the only person in town with even the possibility of trusting me. The new me, anyway. It's a work in progress." Rika looked at him with an embarrassed smile. "Be my friend?"
Alden burst out laughing.
"What the fuck?" She looked simultaneously horrified and livid.
"I'm sorry," Alden was choking back laughter. Between the sincerity of her tone, how completely out of character it seemed, and his own mounting exhaustion, Alden had completely lost it.
"Well fuck you too," Rika growled.
"No, seriously," Alden said, his mirth quickly dissipating. "You're the best person I've met here so far. I'd rather have you as a friend than anyone else."
"You sure?" Rika asked sarcastically. "Don't want to just keep giggling like a moron?"
"Yes," Alden said firmly.
"Well then, come inside. You hungry?"
Rika's apartment was sparsely decorated, but since it wasn't her real home Alden wasn't too surprised. Everything down to the layer of dust and the musty smell spoke to a mostly unoccupied building. There was a staircase leading up to two main rooms and a bathroom upstairs, and on the bottom floor was a living room, with couches laid out around a fair-sized television set and a chair in the corner with a laptop hanging dangerously off the edge, and a kitchen stocked with dry food. It was compact and forlorn, like a dusty old forgotten corner.
"Shoes," Rika snapped, as Alden was about to step onto the main floor. He reached down and carefully took off his muddy shoes, placing them next to her own in the entryway, and hung his jacket to dry on the rack just inside.
As Rika crossed to the kitchen, Alden hurried to the laptop and secured it from imminent descent. He took a seat and pulled out the envelope again. There wasn't any change, of course. He knew every inch of it by now.
"What are you hoping to find?"
Alden looked up. Rika had shed her shirt as well, leaving only a black tank top underneath. She was in remarkably good shape. Alden noticed two more tattoos to accompany the intricate flowers on her wrist. Her right shoulder carried a few Japanese letters, in a rough and messy style that looked like she might have done it herself, while her left arm held a stunningly depicted bluebird. It was a similar electric-blue shade to her hair and eyes, with its wings spread wide in mid-flight. She learned up against the wall, watching him casually.
"I don't know," he answered halfheartedly.
"You could have had an older brother or sister out there, right?"
"I guess." Alden took a seat on one of the couches. "Do you have siblings?"
"Nope. Only child of the great Nishimura clan," Rika answered with rancor. Her tone bothered Alden.
"If you don't like your family, why are you looking for your father?"
"Just need to find him." Her tone made it perfectly clear she didn't want to discuss it further. He faltered, desperately seeking a new topic, when her face relaxed. "Look, I'm sorry. I don't really talk about this much," Rika continued in a softer voice. "What about you? Shouldn't you be in school?" Rika asked with a smirk.
"Seniors already graduated. I'm free for the summer," Alden countered with a touch of pride.
"Congrats, big shot," Rika said dryly. She paused, her face shifting to a thoughtful gaze. Alden was beginning to recognize this particular tic; whenever Rika was actually considering her next words, she tended to fidget a bit. Her hands in particular tapped away at her side, or flicked between various gestures. Normally Alden would never have taken notice, but after seeing what Rika could conjure up with such a gesture, he wasn't letting those fingers out of his sight.
"Shoot me down if it's none of my business, but why the fake name?"
"Wasn't yours fake too?" Alden asked.
"'Course not, why would I need a fake name?"
"But, at the bar—"
"They just threw me out because my American ID's a fake. Which means I got ripped off, I paid top dollar for this crap." Rika pulled out the ID and tossed it on the table between the couches. "But you actually belong here, so what are you hiding from?"
"Wouldn't you want to be called something else if your name's Alden Bensen the third?"
"The third?" Rika raised her eyebrows. "Ouch."
"Yeah."
"Still," Rika added, as a timer went off in the kitchen. "I'm thinking that's not the whole story. You tell me when you're ready. Now let's eat."
As Alden sat down at her small kitchen table just around the wall, a sharp rapping sound echoed from the front door. They both looked up, surprised.
"Who the hell... this late?" Rika glanced at the clock on the microwave. Sure enough, it was well past eleven. "Can you be quiet?" she asked abruptly.
"Huh?" Alden asked between confused mouthfuls of rice.
"Look, just... stay quiet. Pretend you're not here. It'll be less complicated."
Alden nodded slowly. Rika got up and headed to the door, while he continued to eat as quietly as he dared. He was too hungry to resist. After a brief exchange he couldn't make out, there was the distinct sound of shoes on the hardwood entry as Rika's guest barged in. Luckily for Alden, or perhaps moreso for Rika, the guest didn't come far enough to see Alden around the wall. He strained his ears and caught the voice of the councilor from earlier, Rachel DuValle.
"—and it's just a mess, okay? I know you didn't mean it, and I know that stuff out at the RV wasn't you either, but you're causing a serious imbalance," Rachel was saying in an exhausted tone.
"I live here too, Rachel. Tell them to fuck off."
"Look, just because we were friends doesn't mean I can take your side on every single little issue!" Rachel's volume was rising. "Kendra thinks you're unstable, Ryan obviously hates you, so does Josh—nice job ruining that relationship, by the way—and no one else is exactly happy you're here, but they're too nervous to do anything openly and risk their standing in the Market, or just getting burned by a random bolt of lightning. After what Jackie just showed me, people are going to be a thousand times more afraid! I appreciate you trying to back me up, but if you really wanted to help you'd stay away. So why'd you come back?"
"...'Were' friends?" Rika asked quietly. Alden winced.
"...I didn't mean it like that," Rachel started.
"Nah, it's cool," Rika replied, surprisingly calm. Alden had expected more fireworks. "You're being honest, I'll be honest too. I've got business with Kendra, then I'm out of here. You guys can keep on playing the leaders of the brave new world without me in the way. Don't worry, I clean up my own shit."
"Not even," Rachel muttered, just barely audible to Alden. "Do I have your word, then? You'll stay out of future meetings?"
"If you let me know about any Scraps you discover, and let me read up on the ones the Council shares, then I'll stay out of your hair."
"Fine," Rachel said bitterly. "I owe you that."
"Damn right you do," Rika said coldly. "After I saved your sorry asses—"
"Let's not go there again," Rachel snapped. Alden's curiosity grew with every passing word, but he knew Rika well enough at this point to keep silent. Which only made it harder as the topic turned to him. "Who's the guy you were with today?"
"Zack? What about him?"
"He's not awakened."
"Didn't we already cover that?" Rika said impatiently.
"Were you planning on sponsoring him?" Rachel asked suspiciously.
Rika barked out a short laugh. "Go through your little vetting process? Fuck that."
"It's there for a reason," Rachel said patiently, with the air of launching into a speech she'd given a dozen times. "We've got the ability to more selectively choose people who can really handle the responsibilities—"
"Save it, I was there all night while you wrote that crap. It's impossible to stay up late with you, you know, when you don't get tired like the rest of us."
"Don't awaken him yet. You know we're one wannabe superhero away from the world finding us out, and I want to be ready when the moment comes," Rachel continued more plainly. "We're going to need more trustworthy allies if we're going to make it."
"We'll be fine," Rika said dismissively. "You're all still American citizens, right? What are they going to do, arrest you en masse?"
"That's exactly what I'm afraid of," Rachel replied grimly. "With how few of us are united, it'd be nothing to sweep us away. Even if we can somehow get the help of the Gods—"
"Good fucking luck."
"We can't take on the entire United States, much less the world. We probably can't even take on the Tacoma P.D."
"And you know those guys are pushovers."
"I'm trying to be serious here, Rika," Rachel said, exasperated.
"I'm not interested in your revolution. I've got my own shit to deal with."
"Fine. Just. Be ready, okay?"
"Yup." Rika's tone was too dismissive for Rachel to argue further.
Alden heard a chair shift, followed by the tap of shoes against the wood once more. As the door opened, Rachel's voice drifted through once more. "We're still friends, Rika. If you want us to be. Anywhere, anytime, you call me, okay?"
"Okay," Rika replied, though her tone was much less sincere. Another pause, then the door clicked shut and the curtain stopped fluttering. "I assume you heard all that?"
Alden gulped nervously. "Yeah," he called.
Rika's head appeared around the corner of the wall. "So. Wanna learn magic?" Her tone was cheerful, but her expression deadly serious.
Alden didn't bother to ask why she was ignoring Rachel's instructions. "Why me?"
"Huh?"
"You've been so generous already, and now you're offering to teach me magic like it's no big deal, when you barely know me. Shouldn't this be harder?"
Rika shrugged. "Like I said before. Fate."
"That's all?"
"No," Rika sighed. "You're new in town. Probably the only new person in town this time of year. So I actually trust you more than everyone here."
"I lied to you the practically the moment I met you," Alden pointed out.
"Yeah, but you told me the truth later. Willingly and without a fight, unlike the rest of this shithole. Most people who live here, they're either college kids passing through quickly, or they're here for life. Rachel's already a lifer, even if she's still in school. Josh'll be out of here before you know it. I don't have too many friends here, but you get the idea. The rest of this place is a bag of dicks."
"So you've picked me," Alden finished.
"Fate picked, Alzack," Rika corrected. "I'm just doing what's meant to be done."
Alden hesitated. He was tempted. He was sorely tempted. It was magic. Real magic, from what he'd seen. Who wouldn't be interested, at least to some degree? Besides the crazies or ultra-religious, everyone wanted something like magic in their lives. Something unreal, something exciting and new and unique. Magic could make him special, could make him into anything he wanted to be.
The warnings were weak by comparison. He felt there had to be some sort of catch, and yet no one seemed overly concerned by this power that had dropped into their laps out of the blue. Would he damn himself by joining their ranks blindly?
Did he even care? He'd come to this town out of a blind desperation to find something meaningful to do, a promise of adventure in that blank envelope and the missing family he thought he must have. He'd already run into a dead end. Whomever his sibling was, Alden had to find them. This was just the next step in that path.
It was magic.
Then Alden remembered the dangers. The shaking of the Marketplace, the balls of fire at Dan's that threatened to punch through his skull. The burned library, the Gods with their secret war.
The man with the black eyes.
Perhaps Rika sensed his fear, or maybe she was just impatient, as she spoke up before he could answer. "Let's go out. I want you to see something."