Ugh. Of course the bird won't or can't answer that question. It can't speak, it doesn't like him, and the cards are not exactly people anyway; it might not understand.

"Am I gonna be safe enough with Windy here while I meditate or should I dismiss Fly first?" he asks of Cerberus.

"Fly won't attack you even if you dismiss Windy."

"Okay then."

He sits down on the ground, staff in his lap, then closes his eyes and focuses on his magic.

The cards look different, when not in card form. If there was a hint of power before, now they are awesome in the old sense of the word, extending to connect to the world and ancient magic. Their connection to Theo is much stronger and clearer, too.

And there's another card active, somewhere.

He jerks out of the trance at that.

"There's another card active!" he exclaims to Cerberus. "Can you work out where it is or do I need to try something?"

"Another card?" Cerberus stops, takes a deep breath, crosses his legs, and floats, glowing. Then he opens his eyes and says, "This way!"

Theo runs after him, tapping Fly with his staff and grabbing the card, then shouting, "Windy! Follow me!"

She does.

Eventually it gets crowded enough that Cerberus has to hide inside Theo's bag. He continues giving directions to a bus stop, where a few people are waiting for the bus, amongst whom is a girl listening to music with her eyes closed, an elderly lady reading a magazine, and a young man in a suit carrying a suitcase.

Theo stops a short distance away, trying to see if there are any signs of an active card.

"I can't tell where it is! What does it do? Is it still active?"

"It's somewhere here, but I can't be any more precise than that."

The girl opens her eyes and looks around a bit. Her eyes pause on Windy, and she stares at the card.

Windy smiles at the girl.

"I'm guessing it was her then, using the card yesterday."

He walks up to the girl. "So... Hi."

The girl looks rather concerned when the big smiling ghost follows this boy around and no one else seems to notice it.

"...hi," she says tentatively, since the boy apparently isn't exactly reacting to the ghost.

There's an adorable stuffed toy in the boy's bag, completely undermining any notions that he might be super macho.

Well, Theo - being so macho and all - obviously takes no notice of the stuffed toy that might or might not be ruining his macho image.

He says to the girl, somewhat softly, "So. You can see Windy?" He gestures in the direction of the ghost.

"...see what?" she whispers back. The old lady looks at the gesturing boy with puzzlement and annoyance.

"The golden woman. You were looking right at her."

A bus arrives. The old lady and the young man board it. The girl doesn't.

"What—who? Is she? Who're you?"

"She's Windy. I'm Theo. Who are you?"

"...I'm Sadde."

"And I'm Cerberus!" he says, hopping off the bag.

Sadde stares.

Then: "Ohmigosh you are the cutest thing!"

Theo just watches them. It's just typical that this random stranger would get along better with Cerberus than he does.