There's someone in the alley, leaning against the wall and looking focused. Wearing clubbing clothes and a big fancy witch hat, with some sort of hair dye and skin situation.

Neat, but she's halfway stopped noticing the clubbers are people, as you do when you're tired. 

She starts hauling trash into the dumpster. It's loud.

The stranger spins around sharply, snarling, and then opens her mouth in a little 'o' of realization.

She walks up to Lenora.

"Can I help you, ma'am?" She asks, frowning. Something's - off, wrong, here. That instinct shakes off some of the fatigue, makes you pay attention. "The alley's employees only honestly, do you need anything?"

"Oh, no, I'm good. Just taking a breather. You, however, seem exhausted. Poor thing. I have a wonderful opportunity for you."

She restrains a sigh. Fuck, she's going to get yelled at for taking too long outside. "Ma'am. I don't think that's necessary, I do have work to do..."

On closer inspection, one of her hands is bleeding slightly. And her eyes are - golden? Never mind that, they're so soulful and deep.

"Oh, no, trust me - it'll be worth it." Her eyes shimmer. "Just listen and think about my offer."

She should just ignore this person, it'll be some scam. She's too tired for this. But it's just a moment, it's just a quick break. "Fine, but please make it quick. And are you alright, there?"

"Nah, it's nothing." She gestures with the bleeding hand slightly. "I happen to be a witch. It's awesome, I'm immortal and magical and I can fly and fling fireballs and do wild, fun rituals and I'm pretty fucking rich. You, lucky girl, have the chance to be a witch too. You've got the spark, it just hasn't woken up - and probably never will, unless someone does it for you."

"So, what, you want me to go to some meetings and make a donation? Spare me the cult shit."

"Nah, this will be quick one way or another. I have places to be soon. The thing is, most of the time when one witch awakens another, they're bound by covenant magic to teach them all about magic, get them used to things. It takes forever, it's peoples' full time jobs, and it's a worthy job, but not everybody has that kind of time. I don't have time for that, but I don't want to just leave you in the dust either, not when I can help, you know? All you have to do is agree - just say out loud - that you want to be awakened and you don't want me to teach you everything about witchdom. Fast and easy."

"Magic isn't real, hon." She frowns. This person doesn't seem... Legit. She's not acting drunk, but maybe acting high - or in pain, or just incredibly anxious about something, there's a quiet unsettling strain to her.

She conjures a lick of sickly green flame at her fingertips, pushes it forward to hover, glinting, between them, directly between their eyes.

"Magic is real. Do you really want this kind of life forever? Bus tables for stupid tourists who don't tip and get hit on by fat guys? All you need to do is let me tap you on the forehead, and you'll be able to call up fire too, and other stuff besides. Go way beyond this pathetic life." Shimmer. "Think about it, think about a life of magic and power, don't you want that?"

Something ain't right here. 

But if magic is real. If she can be magic, something out of a doggamned fantasy story, she could burn her apron and never wash someone else's dishes again. An immortal witch. This is the part of the story where the hapless protagonist goes - yes, I want magic powers, and the mysterious benefactor awakens them... If she turns that down, she'll always wonder if it was a sleep-deprived hallucination or something.

She crosses her arms defensively.

"Fine, you can try to 'awaken' me. And you don't need to make me your apprentice or whatever."

"Cool. Cool cool." She glances at a bronze hand-mirror, squeezes a drop of blood from her bleeding thumb onto it. "Tch. Okay, so, quick rundown. Arcadia's a free college but not actually the best place to learn, so's Hawthorn if you test in and they're a lot better, the Watchers are a bunch of goody two-shoes cops, the Hespatian Covens are nice co-ops that will welcome most new witches - great people, very traditional - and the Faewild is open to anyone, even criminals. There's Lunabella but you'd be a slave there, aaand Alphazon is like magic Amazon on steroids but they'll hire witches. Avoid Abyssals anything with too many eyes or tentacles, you'll know it when you feel it, they are bad fucking news. You cannot reveal magic to another who is not a witch, or a good friend of yours - on pain of pain and sometimes curses, enforced by Covenant." She peers in the mirror again and nods. "'Kay, I can take that level of backlash... Aww shit, he's getting close. Well, this'll muddy the trail."

And with that, she forcefully pokes Lenora's forehead with one sharpened fingernail, doing - something -

"Bye now, best of luck!"

And she pulls out a full-sized broomstick from nowhere, and sits sidesaddle on it, and zooms away down the alley.

Lenora nearly doubles over in shock and surprise. It doesn't hurt, but-

-The road is awful. Horrible. This concrete alleyway is an unnatural thing, sticking in her psyche like a scab over the nice dirt beneath it-

-There's something inside her, a spark, a light. It's lonely, and cold. She should be near other people, but she's alone in an alley-

-Everything is now bigger, her shirt and apron loose over her frame. Her ears itch and she scrunches up her nose in sudden disgust at the sharp and varied scents of rotting trash-

-What. What. What? What?!?

There's a cop rushing into the alley now. He looks - normal, for a short instant, a stern white guy with a uniform and badge and gun.

The illusion shatters when she Looks reflexively. He's a grizzled-looking cop. But he's also a burning skeleton. She can see both things at once, sort of, with a polite mental note as to which one is real - the firey skeleton.

"Hey, you! O-R-C, hands in the air!"

What is even happening. There's a fire monster attacking her???

She screams and picks up a handful of gravel in a dilapidated planter and - throws - it?

The gravel flies with bone breaking force, right into the monster's head.

"Pfffagh!"

Okay! Hostile witch, unknown abilities including earthmoving! He acts on impulse, since hesitation kills. Time to secure the situation. He levels his gun and shoots.

She flinches and shuts her eyes and feels a sharp pain in her arm. She flails and lashes out in panic, reaching out to the dirt beneath the concrete and pulling but concrete is tough and she can't break it. Oh God oh God a cop shot her! Or a fire monster! Or- Or-

She's so sleepy. Oh no. She's....

Asleep.

She's having the weirdest dream. It was like - her boss tricked her into doing something, some stupidass thing, and then she got chased by monsters in the woods, and the woods were on fire and she was choking on the smoke and she tried to dig a hole but it wasn't working and-

-Where the fuck is she.

She is apparently... In a jail cell. Lying on the bed fully clothed. A nice jail cell? It's more like a hotel room, and not the cheapest crappiest motel room either. There's a bathroom. No windows, though, and the door has a big, visible lock.

Right. The fire cop.

That she threw a rock at.

She shifts to roll over or something, and then feels something slide along her leg and jumps and scrambles up in fright, thinking there's a snake in the bed with her, curled up.

"HYAIIIEEE!"

There's a woman sitting in the armchair by the cell entrance. "Woah, woah, hold on, you're safe, babe, nothing's hurtin' you here."

That gets Lenora to pause and blink and remember. She looks down. There's... A giant mouse tail... Sticking out of the top of her jeans and winding around her leg.

She buries her face in her hands blushing. "Ah- Aaaaaah. Uuuuuu. That was all real?"