And now our story continues…
Day 37: He smiled and began to follow where it led.
He smiled and began to follow where it led. Anna was both relieved and intrigued that it led off in a different direction. She knew that any magical signatures she was trailing at that point would be from tracers that Chrispher managed to slip on to her. The magic of her document folder would leave no trail as its magic turned inward so Marcus would have no trace of whatever was on the page.
The possibility of picking up a tracker was what sent her to the safe house. ‘But it seems I didn’t have a noticeable tracker on me,’ Anna thought.
Still, she was pleased with her precautions. The longer it took for them to find any of her safe houses the less they would have to use to find her. She had to admit she was curious. As she had plenty of savings when she came to the city and had in truth not been there all that long, her network of locations barely set up, Anna had not needed to make connections with anyone dealing in arcana in the city.
‘And given the scarcity in the archives I doubted I would be staying long.’ She set up the safe houses as a matter of course and then became comfortable. She drew out her stay in the city. Anna had to admit, if only now when she was far from the city, the lack of contact with the magical community was one of the things that made her comfortable. With no contact, she feared no form of betrayal. They could not suspect she was someone hunted and think to turn her in for the reward.
Not having to deal with them, while settling in raised the comfort level and dropped the fear. As Anna thought about it, the spell began to fade. Anna tidied up from her lunch, which mostly included putting her scrying bowl and tools away. She stood and after dusting herself off, continued on her way. This time, thoughts of wrapping herself from the night’s chill were not uppermost in her mind. It was the thought of comfort due to the lack of fear that she thought about.
Did she really like her life in the city, or was it the first place where she didn’t fear discovery and betrayal that made it feel like a comfortable place to live? It was a strange question and as she walked Anna turned over the positives and negatives of the city. It was a surprisingly short list for each. Anna quickly realized that she didn’t care one way or another for the city itself. It was knowable and navigable. She knew what she wanted, where it was and multiple routes to get to where she needed to be.
‘I like my apartment,’ she told herself as she walked.
She tried to think of the positives of her apartment as opposed to the negatives. Her positives seemed to hover in the same general area. It was safe and because it was safe she was able to stay there longer. The heat was dicey in the winter and the air in the summer was nonexistent. It had little natural light as her main window looked out on the brick side of the building next door. The waterpipes moaned and groaned for large portions of the night as many of her neighbors had differing schedules. It was small but as she had few possessions that tended to matter less.
‘I wasn’t looking for a palace,’ she reminded herself. Anna chewed her lips as she thought about it.
Ten til Midnight 