It has turned out that Fatma is the muscle in their operation, magically speaking; Lisa is the ritualist and her cousin, Amir, whom I had the pleasure to meet with his conjured firearm not directly aimed at me but quite obviously pointed in my direction, is the head of their field operations. I am a bit sad about that. I wanted my students to use what I taught them, not necessarily as leaders, but for sure as ritualists.

  A: I am pleased to meet me cousin’s teacher.

  P: I always hoped to see knowledge spread and be used.

  F: I have used it. It has gotten me my racial ability. I did the ritual myself.

  P: Had you looted it conventionally.

  F: No, the government actually delivered essences for the better pupils of the class.

  P: Impressive. Are you working for more essences?

  A: Eventually

  F: They know I have gotten one. I cannot risk questions.

  A: For now we need allies

  P: Against whom?

  A: Whoever will come out on top. It isn’t going to be us.

  Is this guy a realist?

  P: That won’t be me either.

  F: But you are a full essence magician.

  P: But I am alone. And my face has been on TV. I would be a liability here. I need to rebase.

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  The looks I got from that were somehow more measured.

  A: I see. What would that entail?

  P: I need to make allies in a certain sense.

  A: You want essences.

  P: And stones. You seem resourceful.

  F: He can tell, cousin. Full essence magicians have a sixth sense.

  P: But you still need potions.

  F: We have contacts who are not in perfect health or, better from our perspective, whose family members are sick.

  They have been hard negotiators. We have resolved all but one question.

  A: We have one customer who insists on personal service. The disease is congenital.

  He probably knows that I can teleport away. And if he does not, I will not tell him.

  P: Yes?

  A: There is an essence for you in the deal.

  I need allies.

  F: We know that you have all your essences. But you have a family, don’t you.

  P: I am going to do it.

  L: And I am going to join you.

  Returning to the car I at least find out that Lisa is a cat person.

  L: Those two are adorable. Are you getting lonely?

  P: Yes, that is one of the reasons.

  L: Let me enter our meeting point into the navigation system … Did you have to get a car so old that it doesn’t have built-in navigation?

  P: Is that general annoyance or do you not dare let anybody know our meeting point?

  L: Both

  P: I get a discrete navigation system.

  She is happier with that.

  L: You are pretty spry for an older fellow

  P: I am young enough to still go to the movies.

  L: I saw that one on TV

  P: Genuine TV, not a streaming service?

  L: Yes, old man. Do you think we are going to survive this?

  P: This mission? Probably. Or do you mean in the long run?

  L: The long run.

  P: I don’t know. I got enemies and you are not good at hiding quietly.

  L: Right. I still feel … We are not going to make it. Everybody will fight for essences now. Hell, we are very close to doing so. I am cold.

  She is leaning closer. I put a hand around her shoulders.

  The seats in this car recline far.