Mirai

-----

I sat at Elijah's kitchen table eating porridge. I had never really liked porridge, but it tasted good now. If it was because of his cooking skills or my starved stomach, I didn't know.

I had yet to tell him what really happened. He had asked, but I hadn't answered. So far, he seemed genuinely concerned and had given me no reason to not trust him. I didn't have enough reasons to trust him either. There was only the weird feeling in my body that I could. But I didn't trust that feeling or myself, and that was what stopped me.

The idea, though, of telling him, just telling someone, was inviting. My situation was overwhelming, and I was used to talking to Richmond and Redmond when that was the case.

"What is this place?" I asked when I was halfway through the porridge. The best way to know better if I could trust him was to get to know him better after all.

"My apartment," he laughed, and I rolled my eyes.

"I mean, what is this area? Is it your pack area? It's magically protected."

"How do you know it's protected?" he frowned.

I shrugged and moved my hair so it all hung over my left shoulder.

He eyed me for a bit and I kept eating. I wondered if he would find me too odd, that he would start questioning my motives and trustworthiness. In the long run, that wouldn't matter. It wasn't like I planned on staying longer than absolutely necessary, and I couldn't imagine a reason for me to return. But it really would be nice to be able to stay until I had a proper plan for what to do next.

"It's a community of sorts," he answered when I only had a few mouthfuls of porridge left. "For any magical being that has nowhere else to turn. We're mainly shifters living here who need a safe place to live for various reasons. But there are a few that aren't shifters. Among those two witches, a mated couple. They've cast some protection spells and stuff over the area."

"Witches?" I echoed and for a moment I felt like standing up and leaving. If there were witches close by, that was potentially dangerous. But no sooner had that impulse come, and it was gone. It was replaced by a certainty so strong it refused to be questioned that whoever those two witches were, they would never mean me any harm.

"Yeah, they are away at the moment though," Elijah went on. "But they should be back in two days if you want to hang around and meet them."

I felt tempted to nod in agreement, but I shook my head again.

"I have to get going as soon as possible."

"Will you tell me what's going on now? If you do, I might be able to help more." He took my almost empty plate and refilled it with porridge.

"Why do you even want to help me? I'm a stranger," I pointed out and took another mouthful of porridge as the plate was placed before me again.

"What does it matter that you're a stranger? You honestly seem to be way in over your head, and I wouldn't feel good if I didn't try to help you." He was seated again and his eyes roamed over my face, as if looking for clues about what trouble I was in.

"So the selfish reason of not wanting to be plagued by guilt," I laughed lightly.

"As far as selfish reasons go, I'd say that's one of the better ones." He crossed his arms over his chest and I filled my mouth with porridge to not have to answer straight away.

"It's a bit complicated," I said when I had swallowed. He didn't say anything but waited. "I turned eighteen yesterday."

"Congrats," he said, but his frown deepened. "Did you find your mate so you're running..."

"No!" I shook my head vigorously. "The number on my neck appeared yesterday. It was thirty then."

"A countdown?" The frown was still intact, but understanding gleamed in his eyes.

"Yeah. And... My grandma was gifted in sight. I've never been any good myself. Until yesterday. It's like overnight I got a hundred times better. So I don't know who put the mark there, or what purpose there is to it. But I know what I have to do."

"Which is?" he probed when I didn't continue.

I took a deep breath. So far, I hadn't said it out loud. Not the full fact of it all. It felt like saying it would make it all the more real, all the more true. But that was silly really. I already knew without a doubt that it was the unavoidable truth.

"There's this woman I've had the same vision of since I was ten," I told him. "And if I don't find her before the countdown reaches zero, both she and I will die."

There was a long silence. Elijah's frown disappeared for his eyebrows to raise instead. But quickly, the frown returned. He looked at me. Studied my face. Then off to the side. He stood up and took out a plastic box. He poured the remaining porridge in it before putting the box into his fridge. Then he started cleaning up the pot. Scrubbed it. His movements seemed harder and faster than needed and I got the distinct feeling he tried to suppress worry and concern, maybe even fear.

Why though? He didn't know me at all, so why did what happened to me matter?

"It looked like you'd been running from someone," he said when he finally turned back to me.

"Yeah. My coven. They... They want to use me for my gift and they don't want me to find the woman. That's how I know this place is protected. I was teleporting around, but they kept scrying for me and finding me. Since they haven't come here, I know this place is protected from scrying."

He nodded. "Well, that's good to know. We've never been sure if the spells actually worked. Morana will be pleased to know they are."

Morana... The name sounded familiar, almost as if it belonged to a friend I had forgotten. But that was ridiculous. I knew I had never come across a person named Morana. And it wasn't like I'd ever had any friends apart from Richmond and Redmond.

"What do you know about this woman? Do you know where to find her?" Elijah went on in a very business-like sort of way and it all felt very strange to me. It didn't feel like his desire to help me was purely because he would feel guilty if he didn't. His reactions seemed too extreme for that.

"Why are you so willing to help me?" I asked instead of answering.

"Didn't we already cover this?" he laughed, but the laugh was forced. It cracked and displayed the concern he felt.

"I think there's more to it."

He looked away for a moment before answering. "I lost a lot of people before moving here. Friends and family. All because of stupid fights and magic being used to cause harm. I've had times when I wished I had died with them instead of being left alone. Call me naïve if you want, but the fact that I at random found you doesn't feel like a coincidence. It feels more like destiny and that I'm still here, still alive, to help you. I know that's probably not true, but thinking like that makes it easier to accept that I survived when so many didn't."

I didn't think him naïve, far from it. But he did seem lost, and in a desperate need to know that things would become better for him. That life was more than what he had seen so far.

A knowledge came to me, or more a message. I knew it was caused by my sight. That the gift within me knew something I myself didn't really know. Almost as if I was a vessel for the power to use and deliver whatever message it found important.

"He's only three full moons away. You'll have to be patient with him though. He's been through a lot."

Well, well, well, Morana has been mentioned 👀