A million thoughts were rushing through Tove's mind as she stepped out into the crisp evening air. It was snowing lightly and the Yuletide lights and decorations had just been hung up on the streets earlier that day, giving the whole city a beautiful glow. Tove couldn't quite appreciate it as much as she usually did at that moment though.
It had been dumb to storm out like that. But she was too proud to go back now.
Her apartment was only a few blocks away, but instead she turned towards the waterfront. She might not have been able to go back to Alaia's, but she sure wasn't ready to go back home yet. Not right after that. She needed time to think.
She turned to walk along the coastline, hands shoved deep in her pockets, going over the final words of the conversation again and again. She hadn't necessarily meant to imply that Marqués specifically had been the one to attack Alaia, just that them talking to him had been the cause of it. He'd more likely just said something about them visiting to someone else, the person responsible, and they had been the one to go after her.
Honestly, for all Tove knew, the tram might have easily been an actual accident. It certainly didn't fit the MO of the other incidents. A fully grown tree appearing in the middle of a park path. A cargo ship disappearing overnight, just to reappear two days later. An assortment of trinkets and small shiny things appearing in piles in the homes of people living in a specific apartment building. Weird things, but ultimately not dangerous.
So trying to get someone to be hit by a tram... it was a bit of an escalation.
But still. It couldn't be a coincidence, it just couldn't. Marqués had been too shifty about his retirement, it was literally just a few days later and the magic was the same! Tove would recognise it anywhere, there was no doubt about that. It added up to something, but what?
The eyewitnesses she had interviewed had all had more or less the same story; Alaia had seemed normal until she'd suddenly stopped and stepped onto the tracks even though the oncoming tram had rung its bell like crazy. Two things in particular Tove had taken a note of were that she stepped on the street of her on volition and that she tried to cross the road.
So that brought up a question. Why did Alaia want to cross the road. Tove let out a huff of laughter. It sounded like the setup to a really shitty joke. It wasn't very funny though.
Another question it brought up was why hadn't Alaia mentioned trying to cross the road? From what Tove had understood, she had had no intention of stepping on the street and actually had no idea how it had happened. Tove made a mental note to ask her about it when she went back and apoligized for storming off. Because she had to do that, she'd cooled off enough by now to realise that. She drew in a deep breath and then blew it out slowly, watching it condense in front of her mouth. She turned to go back.
She became painfully aware that she was not alone.
She froze on the spot, but not because of the cold. Because she could feel eyes boring into her from somewhere near, could sense the crinkling of magical energy in the air. It was strong, stronger than she'd felt before, and she had felt it before. Her heartbeat was in her ears, what was happening, who on earth was it, had they come for her next?
Something fast darted across her peripheral vision and she spun around to see a figure disappear down a street. It was... smaller than she had expected, smaller than a human, like the size of a dog and not a very big one. She was stunned for a fraction of a second.
"Hey, wait!" she shouted and she was already running.
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Eyoooooooooooooo!!!
I kinda wanted to write a bit more but it's late and I wanna go to bed. So that's that for now~ next topic is "Pastel", bye!!
Pie out.
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