The Greater The Shadow
Watching Kairo ahead of me take his phone out and approach the turnstiles to be scanned, the turnstile responds, giving him the green light to go as he passes the threshold though he vanishes from sight. I hurry to the entrance to the platform to find it devoid of anyone else. I even approached the turnstiles to wave my hand through the space after and found it was just regular air. As I pull back, Kairo's head pops out of nowhere.
"What are you doen?" Kario asked incredulously.
"You're the one that did the disappearing act!" I screamed, frustrated with his attitude towards the newest person to magic ever.
"You just let it scan your magic ID, and the gate will let you pass through..." I sat expressionlessly, gawking at him for a moment.
"You don't have a magic ID, right follow me." Kairo jumps the turnstile and heads towards a nearby wall in the station and takes a stance in front of it as if examining a map. He taps four seemingly random ceramic tiles that trigger the wall to split and open into a doorway that leads to a dark set of stairs. I followed Kairo into the cramped stairwell. A couple of steps down, the wall behind us slides closed, draining the last bit of illumination. I grip the walls as my eyes slowly try to adjust to the darkness.
Kairo, on the other hand, keeps his pace as he continues down the steps making his way to a bottom that essentially was a concrete corridor lined with cables that hummed with a fluorescent light every so often, giving us a glimpse of the length of the hallway at the end where the wires fed into was a door that glowed with a soft blue light.
Making it to the door slightly ahead of me, Kairo casually turns the knob, opens it, and walks through the threshold. As I catch up, I find that the soft glow is computer screens, hundreds and hundreds of screens showing different parts of the city at different angles. Sat in front of all those screens was a chair that had all the wires connected to it and the screens.
"Sup, Sol, I need a favor." Kairo stood next to the chair, watching all the screens. I caught up to see who him to see who sat in the chair. A woman in her twenties sat in the chair, legs crossed, watching every screen intently. Long strands of reddish-gold hair flowed from her head to the floor. She quickly glances in my direction and then back to the screens.
"You know how I feel about strangers, K." Her voice was surprisingly soft but indignant enough that Kairo seemed to soften his posture for a moment.
"Sorry, this is Willow, and she just joined the Devils Advocates... Well, the magical community in general, actually." Sol sighed hard, moving her hands in front of her. Underneath her fingers appeared a ghostly keyboard that she used to interact with one of the screens in front of her.
"Name, date of birth, and breed?" Sol asked in my general direction.
"Oh, um... Rose Willow Reinhart, December fifteenth ninety-six and breed?" I asked, looking at Kairo, who seemed unphased by the question.
"What are your parents?" Sol asked, growing impatient.
"I know my mother is a summoner, but I don't know what my father is..." This made Sol roll her eyes and type out a line of information.
"I'll just put hybrid, and I have your other information already, so I'm done." She finishes typing, and my phone receives a notification. I pull my phone out to see the Pulse application is asking for confirmation of the account update. I open the app to a text wall with a photo of my face. Underneath it was my name, birthday, and other information ending with agree or decline.
"Once you agree, you'll have your magical ID and will be allowed in any district that hasn't already band you." Sol said, leaning back into position. The screen returned to the part of the city it was showing earlier. I pressed agree, and a gust of wind enveloped me for a moment before ceasing as quickly as it started. The other two stared at me in awe for a moment before I couldn't take it any longer.
"What?!" I demanded Sol looked to Kairo, who regained his composure and shook his head in disagreement.
"You were just given access to the leprechauns district and high district. That's really rare..." Sol said eyeing me over.
"It's probably your connection to your grandmother for the lucky ones but the high district... You might be trouble." Kario mumbled before rummaging through his pockets and pulling a small leather bag from one.
"Your payment Sol and also imma send you a set of programs and runes for Pulse later." Sol brightens, snatching the bag from his hand, opening it over her mouth, and allowing a cloud of sparkling dust to fall into it. Her eyes lit up with ecstasy. The lights from the screen seem to grow brighter for a moment before it appears to wear off.
"Fine... I'll look at them, just make sure it's not too many. It drains me, trying to link too many of them."
"You could do more if you would just join the Black district and pledge yourself as its watcher." Sol sighed hard at this.
"You trust Clown, but I trust him as much as I trust Joker, you know this..." Kairo softened again and then turned to leave.
"It was nice to meet you, Sol." I say before trying to catch up to Kairo. Making our way out of the tunnel, we enter the subway and head to the platform. I hold my phone up to the scanner, and the Pulse app responds. This time as I take the turnstile, I get a feeling that can only be described as stepping off a moving sidewalk or escalator, and the usual platform I cross over, which was devoid of people, was now bustling with people who weren't there before. Kairo weaved his way through the crowd toward a booth in the middle of the platform. I tried to do the same, ensuring not to bump into any people waiting for their trains.
"Hey, ouch, watch it!" I felt a tug from under my foot that quickly made me lift it. I had stepped on someone's dress for sure, I thought.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to step on your dre-" my words caught in my throat. The woman I turned to apologize to wasn't holding a piece of her dress but a fluffy fox-like tail. Ouch? I thought to myself, slightly amazed by what I was seeing.