Most high schools are more or less the same once you get beyond things like which mascot is on the wall and how strict they are with their rules.
Gossip is one of those near-constants. The current rumor spreading around is that there is a real ghost that wanders along a certain stretch of bike path in a state park, some evenings.
"My dad actually hired her once," one girl claims, "She used to be Terrana Hastings, that healer person. How creepy is that?"
"Oh dear... Where did you meet her?"
...he didn't mention her gender. Hm. "A park near my house. And I wanna save her."
Little sigh. "Terrana Hastings, correct? We've already tried infusions. We advised her to move away, start over, but she refused. There's very little we can do in cases like this. Especially after so long."
He frowns. "There must be something else that can be tried." Pause. "A friend of mine mentioned genies."
"We tried. Or rather, they tried, I heard about it but wasn't really directly involved. Genies? A genie could save her, sure. If you can get one's attention somehow."
"We make a point of keeping track of them, but it's actually for law enforcement purposes. I can't just tell anyone - it'd be against policy."
"Genies... Get into trouble sometimes. We have to monitor them when they go near populated areas. Escort them, fight them off sometimes."
"Because then people will try to ask them to do things, irritate them, and make that job harder, presumably."
"...fair enough. Can they do very useful things? I'd been under the impression they were somewhat limited."
"They're hard to predict, hard to motivate. They can do lots of stuff."
"Has there ever been an effort to make them do more useful things like eradicate death?"
She snorts. "Not that powerful. They start complaining at making more than a handful of people young again."
"Sorry you basically came out here for nothing. Have some coffee before you go if you like."
"...I'll keep Terrana in the list for consideration if a genie's debt comes up. But that's far, far from a guarantee. Best I can do from here."
"You're welcome. I'm not sure if it's worse when Spirit Bearers - go - but it's still bad. Take care. Wait, I never actually got your name?"
"I'm Tanya Clemson. Phone number, email address? We keep mailing lists attached to every genie request."
He gives her an email address—" But a phone number might be a bad idea, my father's not a fan of—magic in general."
"Email it is. Have a nice day."
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
