Disaster

When it rains, it pours.

Disaster

The city was filled with crows. When I looked out of the bus window, the squares, the streets, and the lampposts were filled with ominous black crows. I have never seen so many of them in my life. And the presence of crows is never a good sign.

Some say they are harbingers of disaster, others say they are the devil's servants. And hunters believe they are close to the transcendent, some even claiming them to be able to smell death and follow it. In any case, one thing was certain for me: the crows were waiting for something.

I walked through the door of my workplace. Hajnal was surprised by my early arrival.

"What happened?" she asked.

I shrugged. "I have a bad feeling."

She nodded. "We're closing earlier today."

As Cecil dear had left early, we had to run the pub alone, although that was no problem. Perhaps everyone could smell the change in the air, the silence before the storm, for patrons hardly ever came, and even when they did, they didn't stay long. Hajnal sighed deeply, and, surprisingly, hardly cursed, instead sinking into deep silence.

Around eight o'clock, my boss awkwardly looked up and announced that we were closing. For the second hour, no one had been in the otherwise bustling pub. I packed up while Hajnal took care of the paperwork, I piled the chairs on top of the tables and swept up at lightning speed.

"Then I'll be leaving," I announced when I'd finished my work, and was on my way out the door.

Hajnal grabbed me by the elbow. I looked back at her. The only time I'd ever seen her face so troubled was when she had to care for the dying Alice. I'd known before that seers were sensitive to changes in their environment, but I'd never imagined it could be so acute.

"Do you want me to walk you home?" I offered.

She nodded half-heartedly. I had come to know Hajnal as a strong woman, a human with very little to frighten her. I recalled the day I first met her.

It wasn't long after that Alex was stuck with me, and now I had to get food for both of us. Although Alex wasn't keen on the idea of me stealing food to survive, he had no better idea. Although he tried to get a job, we were children, and as such we were sent away from every place.

One night, Hajnal became one of my victims. She was in her late twenties at the time, and her chestnut hair was cut shorter. She had a slender, frail figure, which I could see perfectly despite her red coat. She looked like easy prey.

My footsteps were silent, my movements lightning-fast — a human would not have been able to spot me. Yet the deep brown eyes saw through me and found me. She was a little surprised, but a superior grin appeared almost immediately on her lips.

"What kind of a monster are you, shitty brat?"

Her voice was hostile, and she didn't seem the least bit scared. At the time I thought she might have been a hunter. My head was racing with thoughts, calculating the chances of fighting or fleeing.

Finally, I decided to attack. I figured if she alerted the other hunters, I was done for. And I had to live. In an instant, my claws burst out from under my skin and I pressed my razor-sharp weapon against the throbbing artery of the short woman's neck. And then we waited. I hesitated.

"What's up, kid?" she sneered, "Are you scared?"

She wasn't afraid at all, and that surprised me. She felt the claws on her skin, yet she wasn't afraid of me or of death. She laughed and I didn't know what to do. She slapped my hand away and then confronted me. Her movements were terribly slow, or maybe it was just my eyes, used to speed, that saw them that way.

"What kind of monster are you?" she raised one of her pretty eyebrows.

I jumped back, startled, when she reached for me.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you..." she said, stepping closer.

I bared my fangs, but it didn't seem to startle her. I have no idea why I didn't run away, yet I felt my feet rooted to the ground and unable to move. Perhaps it was because the woman, though rude, looked at me with a tenderness that confused me. It was unusual that I did not feel any bloodlust, disgust, or fear from her. She was a strange human, the like of whom I had never met before, and it confused me. She put her tiny hand on my head and crouched down to my level.

"You're quite a coward," she grinned.

"Shut up, old hag," I slapped her hand away, "I could kill you in an instant."

She hit the top of my head, though the slap didn't hurt at all, the next moment I covered the top of my head with my hands.

"Who's the old hag?" she demanded clearly offended, "I am twenty-seven, shitty brat!"

When she tried to touch me again, she pulled her hand back as if she had touched fire. A long, though not too deep, gash ran across the back of her worn glove.

"Now look what you've done," she said plaintively, "This is my favourite glove."

She didn't even bother to look at the red droplets that were leaking from under her skin.

"You're not afraid..." I stated incredulously.

At that point, she stopped whining about her gloves and looked at me again. I felt as if that look could see into my soul.

Then she smiled. "Of course not. I'm not going to die today."

At the time I had no idea how she could be so sure of that, and she shocked me again.

"Are you hungry?" she asked and my stomach growled in response.

She took a sandwich out of her bag and threw it into my hand. "Don't worry, it's not poisoned."

I sniffed it, and I really didn't smell any poison on the food. I was so hungry, I hadn't eaten for almost three days. I hadn't managed to save up that much food or money. Of course, I told Alex when I gave him his share that I had eaten mine before.

As much as I tried to restrain myself from doing so, I took a tentative bite of the sandwich and then it was gone in just three bites.

"Follow me," she said, "I've got some leftovers in my pub, I'll give them to you."

And I, not understanding why, followed. After that, Hajnal always gave me the leftovers from the kitchen, though not for free. She hired me to work in her pub.

I smiled. "I'm here, don't worry."

She nodded slowly. I grabbed her bag from the counter and we were on our way. Hajnal lived not far from the pub, just three blocks away, in a tiny two-room house. Although she was in her late thirties, she had no one living with her except her three cats.

She opened the door and entered, but I had not yet left, following her inside. The cats meowed contentedly to greet their owner, and Dawn immediately began to pamper them. This calmed her down a bit.

I threw my coat down on the rack in the doorway and headed for the green-painted kitchen.

"Take a bath," I said, "I'll make something to eat."

For someone who had no financial problems, Hajnal had a poorly equipped kitchen. Only the coffee machine showed signs of regular use. The kitchen furniture was made of wood and looked quite old, a few years and rot would completely eat it, and the oven was probably only held together by the Holy Spirit.

Her fridge was almost empty, if offered only milk, a few eggs and some wrinkled junk that might once have been peppers. It shouldn't have surprised me, since she always ate the kitchen of the pub.

A few minutes later I could hear her turning on the water in the shower. I made scrambled eggs then poured a glass of water and searched for her sleeping pills in the cupboard. She didn't have to tell me what she had or where she kept it, I found everything easily with the help of my nose.

By the time I was done with everything, she was shuffling into the kitchen in her pink little slippers, dressed in her nightgown and bathrobe.

It was strange to see her without make-up. When she was in the pub, she had put on lipstick, highlighted her eyes with pale purple eyeliner, and smeared her face and nose with soft powder. Now I could clearly see the wrinkles around the edges of her eyes and the few furrows on her forehead that she was always trying to hide.

She sat down at the table and I sat down opposite her. She looked much better, she didn't look so pale, and her face had some colour again, although she still seemed to be very worried about something.

"Sorry to have troubled you," she sighed.

I shrugged. "What matters is that you feel better."

She picked up the fork and set about devouring the master chef's handiwork. She had barely swallowed a bite before she looked up at me with a piercing glance. Fuck, did I put in too much salt?

"Oh, yes, I almost forgot," she said, "don't expect a raise for this!"

I looked at her doubtfully for a moment, then laughed. I thought if she could think about money again, he'd be all right.

"Don't worry, it never crossed my mind," I replied with a grin.

She nodded in satisfaction and continued eating. When she finished, she popped a pill into her mouth and downed the glass of water. After that, she showed me out and thanked me for walking her home before closing the door.

"Lock the door properly," I said as a farewell and left.

I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I immediately turned towards the dark shadow, but it was only a crow. It scowled with its black button eyes, then laughed mockingly and flew away.

I did not go home. I was becoming more and more certain that something terrible was about to happen.

"Can you tell me about the regalia?" I said to Luna, who was pouring tea into mugs.

She slid the blue one in front of me on the smoothly polished tabletop and only then looked up at me.

"What makes you think I know anything about them?"

"Your mother was a mage," I noted, "Mages are fond of getting involved in transcendental affairs."

She sighed deeply and sat down. She took the cup between her thin, pale fingers and for a while just watched the liquid sway — her hand trembled, barely perceptibly.

"Transcendent forces are not to be trifled with," she said quietly, 'I'm not saying that all transcendent forces are evil, but there are some among them. It is simply something that we mortals cannot control."

"What happened?" I asked her.

Like me to Luna, she was an open book to me. She never, not even once, tried to hide her emotions from me — though I didn't know if it was because she knew it didn't make sense, or because she didn't want to.

"My father died shortly after I was born. My mother became obsessed with bringing him back, she also researched the power of necromancers but soon rejected the idea," she told me so quietly, as if even mentioning it was a sin. "There is another way to bring back the dead."

My mouth went dry, and my throat constricted. I was unable to ask the question, but I didn't need to: Luna went on immediately.

"Regalia are also known as crown jewels, created by the First King. The very first," she looked up at me, but when she saw that I had no idea who she was talking about, she began to explain, "The first king was not just the king of a territory, as is common today. Even if the borders of their territories are not always linked to the borders of humans' countries, nowadays every country has so-called kings, but back then... There was only one in the whole world: the strongest and wisest sorcerer, whose power was acknowledged by all."

For a long moment, a deep silence fell around us. I could not believe it. Could such power even exist?

"This king had made many relics in his lifetime, the most famous of which were the twin swords and crown jewels. The regalia are simple amulets, but my mother suspected that..." Here she bit her lip and paused for a moment, "these amulets were actually pieces of a key that could break down the barriers between worlds."

"What?" I was shocked.

"I didn't understand exactly either," she shrugged uncertainly, "At the time, my mother was dancing on the edge of madness if she hadn't gone completely mad already. But I know one thing for sure: the gates must remain closed forever. If they could really be opened, no one knows what would be unleashed on us."

(...)

I blinked sleepily at my cocoa. I slept like shit. Maybe I should have stolen a handful of sleeping pills from Hajnal yesterday, or at least asked Luna for some voodoo elixir...

"I shouldn't have gotten up today," I sighed. "Hey, Alex! Do you think it was stupid to get up today?"

The wolf was making my breakfast.

"If it was up to you, you'd never get out of bed," he replied.

I grumbled something under my nose in annoyance. Rolo went on solving his puzzles, occasionally taking a sip of his cocoa.

In less than half an hour we were off to school. As soon as we stepped out, almost all of us froze. The garden was swarming with crows.

"What the hell is this?" moaned Alex.

Rolo turned a little pale, and I tried to scare off the idiotic birds with a hostile glare, but they only cawed mockingly. Suddenly, I decided that the cat would scare them away. Alex, of course, then had the nerve to call out my brilliant idea and snatched the cat out of my hand.

While I was proving to him that the cat would eat the crows, he was proving to me that the cursed birds would scratch his darling's eyes out. Meanwhile, the damn cat was sneaking back to the safety of the house. What a cowardly nuisance!

We tried in vain to scare the wretched birds away, they were only willing to fly a few meters away, and they wouldn't even fly over the fence. Finally, we gave up and headed for the bus stop.

Although we caught the bus, we missed our first two lessons. Seriously, I have never seen so many accidents! After every five kilometers, we reached the end of a queue of cars. By the time we reached the school, I had seen three serious crashes when we had to take a detour. I finally reached the school building by the third lesson.

You'd think there couldn't be any more disasters that day. Well, Moses greeted us outside the classroom. No, that wasn't the disaster, it was what he told us. Yesterday, the bunk next to his house burned down.

The bell rang, and Moses, bidding us farewell, sprinted across the hall to the other end where he had his class.