Page 20 of The Fantastic Fluke

Being manhandled by someone you didn’t trust wasn’t sexy; it was terrifying.

For a moment I concentrated on eating my dinner, and once again, foxy joined me. He seemed a little unsettled by our company, so after a moment I looked back at Gideon. “You’re bothering foxy. Come sit down or go away.”

He inclined his head to me, walked over, and looked at the remaining dining table chairs, both of which were pushed in. I lifted my foot and pushed one out a few feet so he could get into it, which he did, then gave both of us a nod.

Foxy started eating again, albeit slowly.

“If you can find a mage to send me over, I’d be happy to let him,” Gideon said after letting us eat in silence for a while. “One tried that, first time I came back. I told him there wasn’t a light to go into, so he offered, and I agreed. I just got raised and sent back again.”

I couldn’t help it, I flinched.

Gideon might be the first honest-to-gods ghost who needed help being sent over, and there I’d been, mocking the notion of unfinished business.

“You don’t know what’s bringing you back?”

He shrugged. “I expect it’s the convergence. I wouldn’t exactly call it alive, but it thinks. It’s got opinions. It wants to be linked to a person.”

“You’ve got to stop calling it that.” I set my fork down and looked at him seriously. “I’m not kidding; it sounds like a sex toy or a porno.”

One corner of his mouth quirked up in a smirk. “Getting you all hot and bothered, thinking about linking to the convergence?”

“I dunno, you gonna star in it?” It took me a moment to really process what I’d said, staring at him in shock and horror.

He gave one slow blink, like a cat, and his smile spread. “I might be able to see my way clear to that, if you need my help. I’d expect that would be a job for younger, prettier men, but I’m game to give it my best.”

I opened my mouth, once, then snapped it shut and turned back to my dinner, cheeks and the tips of my ears burning. “You’re wrong about me. I’m not some kind of super special secret mage. I’m just Sage, class-two social mage, and that’s fine.”

“The amazing thing is I think you believe that.”

I wasn’t sure why it was amazing, or what “that” even specifically was, so I didn’t look at him again, even as I got up to go wash my bowl and set it in the dishwasher. Foxy followed me over, his own empty bowl clutched between his teeth.

“I could have gotten that, buddy.”

“Not the way familiars work,” Gideon said. “He’s your partner now. You’re never going to be on your own to get things done again.” There was a wavering quality in his voice that caught my attention, and I turned to look at him. He was looking at foxy with unfocused, glassy eyes, and for the first time it occurred to me that if he were some kind of powerful mage like he was implying, he’d had a familiar when he was alive.

“Maybe foxy is supposed to be the familiar for whoever it is you’re looking for, and he just got diverted.” I knelt down to pet him, and he made the cutest happy-squeaky noises.

I looked back up at Gideon and he’d turned toward me, a few inches of his torso intersecting with the table because there wasn’t enough room for his chest. “Why are you so accepting of being less than you are?”

I slid down from kneeling to outright sitting on the kitchen floor, pressing my head against foxy’s. “If I’m not nothing, then I’ve lived my whole life wrong. Failed everyone I loved when they needed me. Not because I couldn’t help, just because I didn’t.”

He snorted and leaned back in his chair a little, his shoulders dropping a few inches. “That’s bullshit. You can’t use magic before you know you have it. Everyone else failed you, not the other way round. That father of yours is a real peach.”

I imagined Dad’s response to being called a peach and had to laugh, but quickly brought myself back to the subject a moment later. “I could have healed him if I were some kind of arcane mage.”

“You don’t know that. Maybe you’d be able to heal, maybe not. I was never partial to healing, myself. Too much fine work, too many complicated moving parts inside a person. I’m a little more ham-fisted. I pack a little extra punch in a fight, mostly. I can do other things if I need to, but usually a fist to the face ends things.” He lifted a hand into the air and then, flexing the fingers, he balled them into a fist one at a time.

“The idea of arcane magic, though... There are so many possibilities. It’s like having a blank slate. You could really do... anything with it. Anything at all?” I was being pathetic and whiny, I could hear it in my voice and my words both, so I shook my head and stood without waiting for an answer. Yeah, so I was jealous of the thought. Having so many options with magic sounded like a dream.

He stood to follow me as I went. “Yes. Well, no, but yes. It can be used for anything, but it tends to shape itself into forms that suit the mage using it. It’s not that different from any other kind of magic.”

“Then why doesn’t anyone know it exists?” I stopped in the living room. This was the part of the evening where I usually stripped down to my boxers and sat in bed, reading. I didn’t think that was the best plan with a houseguest, even if I hadn’t invited him.

I hadn’t exactly told him to leave, either.

Foxy took off down the hallway and into the bathroom, so I turned and followed him. That was odd behavior for a fox, right? Even if he was someone’s—not my—familiar. Did he know how to use a toilet?

When I got there, he was standing in the bathtub, looking at me expectantly. “Are you asking for a bath?”

---