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There were eyes on him. It was a large crowded space, Grand Central Station, so there were bound to be people looking about. But there was something different about the way these eyes felt on him. They were judging him, unhappy about his presence. John had no idea who it was or how he had managed to piss them off. Only that no matter where he went in the station the eyes followed him. Yet he could not spot who they belonged to.
So he decided to draw them out and headed for a part of the building where there was no one else. He had to use a bit of his magic trickery to do it. But the feeling of those eyes never waned. In fact it got stronger and angrier.
Once he was alone he turned to face behind him.
"Show yourself!" he said forcefully.
There was a sensation of the world shifting slightly to the side and a small black cat appeared in front of him.
"You need to stop," the cat said.
Well said wasn't quite the right word. He didn't actually hear the words coming from her mouth. Instead there was a meow and her normal movements that somehow his brain comprehended as her talking. He had no idea how it was happening. It was incredibly unnerving. He didn't like not knowing what was happening to him magically.
"I need to stop what?"
"All your messy so-called magic. I am not dealing with the traffic jams your continued use of it here will cause."
"What?"
Why was there a cat in charge of the traffic in Grand Central Station? And why was what he was doing going to cause problems? It made no sense. But what ever did in his life? A cat yelling at him wasn't even the weirdest thing that had happened to him that week.
"The Worldgates. You using that undignified stuff will disrupt it. Then I will have to fix it. Which will cause traffic to be disrupted and a whole big mess. So if you must continue whatever it is you are doing I ask that you leave the premises."
"Okay then," he said slowly, trying to process. "Who are you?"
He got the distinct impression she was sighing at him.
"I am Rhiow and I am on the team for Grand Central Station. And it is hard enough keeping everything together without the likes of you messing things up."
He could tell this was not an argument he was going to even have a chance at understanding. Since he didn't really have a need to be there anymore he decided to give in.
"I'll just be leaving then. Sorry for any trouble I caused."
"You're not. But I appreciate the gesture."
He left shaking his head. Cats controlling Worldgates? What kind of magical underground had he stumbled into and was going to have to learn about?