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She brushed right passed him, like dandelion fluff caught in a summer wind.
Alcor wasn’t planning on spending the day in New Portland, but when his summoning that morning came to an unexpected halt (well, there were no more summoners left after what he had done), he figured going for a walk might help him clear his head of what had just happened. It was a nice day, the kind that made him think of a particular summer almost 5,000 years ago. A day with piercing blue skies, the soft hum of bird songs and car engines drifting through the open air. The New Portland sidewalks were a stream of bodies, some walking and some passing by on hover-bikes or disappearing down stair cases to wait in the bullet train station. No one paid much mind to him standing in the center of the sidewalk, probably because no one could see him.
But then she walked around him. Usually, when in the Mindscape people would walk right through him, unaware of his presence. Except she walked around him, acknowledging his presence to some degree, but too preoccupied by her MagiOrb to realize that she just passed Alcor the Dreambender in the middle of the street.
For a moment he was dumbfounded. That couldn’t have just happened.
He looked up, watching the teenage girl walk down the busy streets, not paying much mind to anything she passed. She chewed on a piece of gum, blowing a large bubble every two minutes on average. Her hair looked like an oil slick in the sun, dark at first but then tossing back rainbows and pulled into two stumpy pigtails. Even her clothes were dark, making her stand out in the crowd.
But then he felt it. Something like a string run wild through a labyrinth, trying to guide him out. Guide him towards something.
It couldn’t be her. How could it possibly be her? It had been hundreds years since the last time they met, and he had begun to think maybe she wasn't coming back. That she had grown tired of him or that something terrible had happened to her soul. But there she was.
“Mizar?”
She had blown right passed him. So he chased after her.
He felt bad for spying, but what else was he supposed to do? It’s not like he could knock on the front door and say “Hello, I’m here to see Mizar. Also, I’m Alcor the Dreambender. Nice to meet you.” Not to mention that he had to tear down some of the house’s wards just to get inside, so walking in wasn’t really an option. Instead he hid off in a corner, trying not to startle the newfound Mizar.
She tapped the panel on the wall beside her bed, setting off a loud crash of metal music. Her bedroom was a mess, discarded clothes strewn about the floor so that she had to step over the piles. Her walls were lined with electric holographic band posters, runes for sleep, and a large, beaded dreamcatcher. The room smelled like burnt herbs from spells, wet leather, and hairspray.
It was strange watching a Mizar he had never met before. Unaware of her habits and preferences. Usually Mizar felt like an extension of himself, a familar friend, but this particular girl felt foreign. Another bright pink bubble popped from her mouth right before she spit the gum into the trash. Well, at least that was something familiar. Most Mizars had a soft spot for candy. She turned to the mirror, brushing out the blunt line of her bangs and admiring the thick smear of black eyeliner under her eye socket.
He peeled into reality, careful not to scare her but also trying to make himself noticeable. He took a breath to emotionally steady himself and then moved to her side. “Uhm. Hi?"
She caught his reflection in the mirror, eyes wide with panic. “Motherfu--” she didn’t finish her swear. Instead she reached over, grabbing a dream catcher off the wall and tossed it at him. The dreamcatcher knotted around his arm, twisting and bending his physiology and the beads digging into his skin. He dropped to his knees, struggling to knock the dreamcatcher away by bashing it against the floor. Mizar turned to the drawer of her desk, sending its contents flying. She pulled out a glass vial and popped the top off.
Her hands shook as she held it out, knuckles white, but her gaze tore violently at him. “Okay, demon. I’m gonna give you one chance to tell me what you want or else I will douse you with anointed water. Got it?”
He pulled at the dreamcatcher, other hand getting tangled inside. “Get this off of me first!”
Taking the vial, she splashed a few drops of the water against his face, making him reel back in pain as the water hissed. “Answer me!” she shouted.
Alcor stopped and took in a deep breath. The smoke from where the water met his skin billowed into the air. Okay. Maybe that wasn’t the best approach.
“It’s alright,” he said. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
“Demon scum,” she snarled, and then dumped the vial directly over him, letting the water spill and burn across his neck and back. He fought back a scream, sinking rows of his sharp teeth into his bottom lip. “If you think I was gonna be an easy target, you were wrong. Tell me why you’re here.”
“Alright! I’ll tell you, just cut it out.” Though a suspicious glare was caught in her brown eyes, she stepped away, her back pressed up against the wall. His dark gaze settled on her, “You are Mizar.”
“That… that’s...” A laugh bubbled up from her, “That’s a disgusting trick. So I’m gonna ask you one more time, what do you want? Why did you follow me?”
“That's the truth, I swear!" he replied. "I wouldn't have followed you if it wasn't true!"
She thought for a moment, scowled and then reached behind the desk, tossing away some of her clothes from the floor. She pulled out a tennis racquet, and grabbed a marker from the top of her desk, scribbling something along the sides of the racquet. It flashed a bright gold for a moment, and then faded out. “I’ve enchanted this,” she paused realizing how silly she looked, “tennis racquet to be able to hurt you. Mention, my parents are Exorcists. If you don’t tell me the truth I will start screaming for them.” She held it up to him, “Start talking.”
“I'm serious. You are Mizar.” He tried to reach out at her, but the dream catcher only moved further up his arms, making him wince and pull back. “I know it’s strange, but I need you to trust me. If you trust me, I can better explain this to you.”
Lowering the tennis racquet, she pulled back, step after step, into the soft pulse of yellow light from the corner of the room. This was the first time he truly got a good look at her face, and probably her first good look at him. She was a small Chinese girl, barely 5 feet tall. The black feathers of her short hair stood up in sharp pigtails from her skull like horns. Metal piercings inscribed with runes lined her ears. She looked nothing like he had ever expected a Mizar to look: no glitter, black clothing lined with spikes. But then there were her eyes, a dark brown that sucked you in like a blackhole. Something familiar tugged at his gut. And from the way her eyes widened and lips slowly parted, he could tell she was feeling it too.
She lowered her arms from the defensive position. “You’re not lying. Are you?”
His dark eyes matched hers. “No.”
The racquet slipped from her fingers and clattered against the floor.
A voice called out from the hallway, probably her mother. “Is everything okay? I keep hearing something move around.”
Her mouth moved, but no sound came out.
Alcor looked from Mizar to the door, and then spoke with the sound of her voice, like a ventriloquist. “Everything is fine! I just… fell over?”
“Alright. Just be cautious. Something knocked our ward down. Your father and I can’t figure out what it is. Follow basic procedures,” her mother called.
She still stood paralyzed, “You’re… I…”
“Okay, so I may have dropped too much on you at once.” He pressed his elbow to her back and eased her onto the bed, trying to maneuver around the the dreamcatcher that bound his hands. “You should probably sit down. Uhm what do you give someone who's gone catatonic? Do you want water? A blanket? A stress ball with a corporate logo?”
“Would you shut up for a moment. I’m trying to think,” she snapped, the breath heavy in her lungs. Then she buried her face into her hands. “Alcor the Dreambender is in my bedroom trying to convince me that I am the next Mizar incarnate.” With a groan, she flopped back against the bed, her gray blankets like a halo around her head. “I mean, I study Mizar in my occult history classes and in Exorcist training. We’re talking about one of the most dangerous humans on Earth who has reincarnated over the past 5,000 years. Shouldn’t I have known this? I can’t be her… them… I don’t know!”
He shook his head. “I’ve always had to tell Mizar the truth, but I usually meet Mizar at a younger age. It makes all of this,” he gestured at her, “less awkward.”
“I said shut up,” she said, holding out one hand in front of his face. “Oh stars. I can’t be Mizar. That… that’s a bad idea. I mean, it changes everything. How am I supposed to do this? I don’t want anything to do with you, or cults, or any of that.” Taking in a few deep breaths, she seemed to calm herself. Then she reached down with one hand, grabbed the tennis racquet off the floor, and hit Alcor over the head with it. “How could you do this to me!” It was a good thing her music was still blaring, or else she would have been heard throughout the house.
"Ow!" He rubbed at the side of his head, fingers catching on his dark brown curls. “If I had known you were gonna beat me up, I wouldn’t have done anything.” He shifted his position on the bed, far enough away that she couldn’t hit him again, but close enough that he could still look at her. “Look, I’m sorry. I definitely didn’t go about this the right way. I had no idea you had reincarnated, and then I saw you on the street, or actually you saw me . I just... I had to see you! I couldn't wait!”
“What do you mean I saw you? I can see you right now. What’s the big deal?”
“I was in the mindscape but instead of walking through me, you passed around me. Like I was physically there." He illustrated by using his fingers to show one passing by the other. "Mention, you also weren’t paying a lot of attention because you clearly didn’t notice the literal demon on the sidewalk. But you still saw me.”
She opened her mouth to speak, and then changed her mind about what to say. “Wait. I thought you were some weird, goth guy. Lots of weirdos live in New Portland.”
“Nope. Weird demon guy.”
Setting down the tennis racquet, Mizar looked at him thoughtfully. She glanced down at the dreamcatcher, his hands and arms twisted around inside like knotted yarn. “If I take that off, you have to swear not to hurt me.”
“I definitely do not want to hurt you. But if it makes you feel better, then we have a deal."
Nodding, she moved over to him, gripped the dreamcatcher, and gave it a hard yank. Alcor rolled his hands around, now free from their bind. “Ouch. That definitely stings.”
She didn't pay much mind to him or how he was feeling. Instead, she jumped into her next question. “How did you not know I was Mizar? Why did it take you so long to find me?”
“Well, you said parents are...”
“Exorcists. Yup ,” she popped the end of the p.
“Well that’s...deeply unlucky. Not that I’m the easiest being to exorcise; but it would explain why your house was so heavily warded, and why I’m so itchy.” He grimaced and scratched at his arm. Then he looked at Mizar, her expression still afraid and distant. “It’s also likely that’s why I didn’t find you right away. They’ve got some strong wards, I was able to bypass their physical guards, but my omniscience is all messed up. It probably prevented me from finding you sooner. I'm sorry, this isn't how I would have done things if given the choice."
He watched her lay on her back, the constant roll of breath from her chest and out her nose. “It was probably for the best,” she muttered. “If my parents found out about you, they would have captured both of us and turned us into the Grand Exorcist. And believe me, you don’t wanna meet him.”
“Really, you think your parents would have turned you in?”
She huffed out a sigh. “They care more about their jobs than they do about me. It would be their pleasure to have Alcor and Mizar captured or even killed. Besides, you just heard my mom. Any other parent would have come barging in the moment they heard all the noise up here, but my mom just took my… your word for it that I was fine. And now there is a literal murderous demon in my bedroom.”
“Seriously? You're jumping right into the accusations,” he said sarcastically.
"I don’t really know anything about you, other than the bad stuff. You do a lot of terrible things.”
"I understand. I don't really know anything about you either." For a moment, the only sound in the room was metal music. He chewed on this inside of his lip. “I uhm, never asked for your name."
She gave him a cautious, dark-eyed glance, “It’s Fang Wu.”
“Well, Fang. I can say you’d make a pretty good Mizar, considering I’ve known you for 7 minutes and you’ve already immobilized me and hit me with a tennis racquet.” He did his best to smile, although the rows of shark teeth didn't help his case.
“Mhm,” she said.
“Unless you don’t want to be," he said in a rush, trying to undo his previous statement. "I mean, I can’t un-Mizar you, but you don’t have to do Mizar things if you don’t want to.”
“What exactly is your relationship to Mizar? I mean, I’ve read the textbooks and all of that but it’s always so unclear.”
“Oh uhm,” he rubbed at the back of his neck nervously, claws scratching at his shirt collar. “Usually, she’s my sister. I mean, there have been special cases but it’s always platonic.” He sighed, realizing he was getting away from himself. “What I'm trying to say is that Mizar is my sister. I've waited a long time to see her again and now... now you're back.”
Fang nodded, closing her eyes and taking several heavy breaths. She balled her hands into fists, gripping to the sheets of her bed as she did.
Alcor leaned over her, “Are you okay?”
“Obviously not,” she replied.
“I understand,” he whispered. He slowly rose from the bed, careful not to jostle or disrupt Fang. “I should probably leave. I can come back tomorrow and we can talk this over, if you want? Or I you can tell me to leave you alone and I will.” She didn’t say anything. She didn’t even move. “I’ll just come back. Okay? I’m so sorry, Fang.”
The moment he blipped away was the moment Fang started to cry.