From the floor to the ceiling, large glass windows stretched out along the gates. Those observing by the windows could see workers in bright orange vests walk around waving their bright orange wands. The planes either roll to the runway or their respective gates with the domed noses drawn to the waving orange lights. Outside of the windows, a soft rumble of jets is heard while airport announcements ramble on inside. Harmonizing below the speakers, the staccato of business men and women talking on their phones along with the shrieks of glucose-fuelled children become imperceptible.
At gate 51, an array of carry ons, neck pillows, floaties and pet kennels clutter around the many travelling coveys. All aligned in their seats with sunglasses atop their hats and eyes glazed over cellphones and laptops. Some of the parents were attempting to calm their giggling offspring, and others were battling the little zombies away from those gameboys. An airline agent stood at the checkpoint with his eyes piercing into the lines of the large digital clock above, as if he could pressure the led lights to move. In the midst of the cacophony, an elderly lady hums by herself knitting at the seat nearest to gate and further down from her are Liyah and Julien ready for Miami.
Liyah and Julien swapped looks overnight. From worn-out blonde optician to a hazel-brunette college student. Her outfit completed the look with the combination of a pink skort with a skimpy, tight tank and white tennis shoes. Julien's blue hair and tinsel extensions was replaced with a black low-fade and brown contact lenses. Her look finished off with a large plain shirt and cutoff shorts. Even with the sunglasses and hats on, one wouldn't be able to recognize the two of them from their driver's licenses.
Especially Julien, for she's a bubbly girl usually in those sexy, cute club dresses and coated in glitter.
Although she's sitting with her knees furthest away from each other, her arms crossed across her chest. Julien was trying to slink away and hide under her baseball cap. Hidden by the cap, a visible vein pulsed on both sides of her jaw with a stuck out pout.
She side eyes Liyah, "I know that this is our cover." Julien gets closer to her friend before hissing, "but why the heck should I cross dress and shave my beautiful blue locks off? This is Miami, we could totally get away with pretending to be girlfriends. Like Pride is the standard flavour in every margarita- ow!"
Liyah pulls back from pinching Julien then explains, "hey. This was our safest bet and you agreed on it. Don't tell me you're experiencing buyer's remorse?"
She takes a good look at Julien, "besides, you make a very handsome man and no one is going to notice a difference. Some of the moms and others were checking you out… I also know you've probably hidden a potion to grow back your hair after this trip."
Julien gave her an eye roll, and stuck out her tongue in defiance.
Liyah links her hand with Julien's and gets close Julien's ear, "Jules, we both know you're a beautiful woman regardless of what you have to hide right now. You are taking the brunt of this, and I truly appreciate you for doing this. Thank you."
Liyah kisses Julien's cheek, "now look at who's the femme in this relationship," Liyah giggles as her sullen "boyfriend" turns a shade red.
Julien looks away annoyed. "I'm not blushing, my beautiful Moroccan skin never changes colour."
A thunderous laughter erupted from Liyah. A few people glanced at them as Julien shushes her only to get more giggles.
A death glare shot out from Julien, "Chloe, please calm down. You're embarrassing me."
Liyah is wiping tears from her eyes, "Julien, I know time passes differently for you. If you haven't noticed that the airport is packed because of the long weekend. There's going to be lots of people around us, and they're more involved in their own affairs than ours. All of them are going to try to jet off for a quick breather from Raincouver. Chloe says you should lighten up a little," Liyah playfully nudges Jules' leg, "you're not normally this uptight."
Julien subtlety shoots Liyah a look. She responded in a hushed voice, "okay, sure. It seems like it'll be easy to avoid or escape our assassin who could be following us."
She sighs and pulls Liyah in with her long arm. "Girl, a millenia of experiences in all of the realms and different faebles trumps what you think you know in less than 3 decades with a couple of trips away from your hometown. They look for the slightest inconsistency that could be deemed as odd. This includes people having experiencing bursts of laughter before latching on to our trail like a leech."
Julien rubs Liyah's arm before adding, "sorry Liyah. Even though we don't know, but if gorfs is as dangerous as I suspect it to be. We'll have to keep up each act that we use to fly under the radar because we don't know if the granny further down from us is keeping a close eye or there's someone watching the video feed in this airport." She tucks a loose strand behind Liyah's ear, "now you get it?"
"Uh huh," Liyah flushes a little as she burrows her face into her "boyfriend's" shoulder.
☆○〜〜〜☆○☆〜〜〜○☆
Humid air clung to the passengers as they stepped out from Gate 12 in Miami International Airport. They're greeted by bright samba beats and loud neon lights as they walked through the airport. The passengers sluggishly separated to the next gate, or to finally arrive at their last checkpoint where they can stumble into air-conditioned rooms then into cozy comforters.
Back on the plane, Liyah couldn't cast a spell at all, since her magic will leave behind her mana signature. Yet at that moment she was desperate. The kids were louder than the movie Liyah had plugged in with her own earphones, trying to tune out their voices. One of the flight attendants was her angel. The attendant gave Liyah and a few others a few extra rounds of drinks. She made sure to thank the flight attendant before leaving the plane and almost offering her some glasses from her clinic.
Luckily, Julien cut Liyah off from she shared that her name wasn't Chloe Lewinsky. Luckily, Julien was there to guide Liyah as they walked through the airport. Luckily, Julien is strong enough to carry Liyah from the cab with a carry on in each hand. Luckily, Julien had charmed the hotel staff, making it fairly quick for them to check in. Luckily, Julien is an expert at playing the part of a caring paramour, even though she was ready to make Liyah pay for the trouble she endured.
They laid down in their own beds, Julien's eyes staring at the ceiling and Liyah curling up to sleep. Julien pulled out a pale blue box, pressed her lips to it then started blowing up the box. The box became a paper balloon about the size of one of the pillows on the bed. A pin was pulled out and it popped the balloon, spreading shimmery blue-sky dust all over the hotel room.
"Hey Liyah."
"Nooooo," she groaned into a pillow.
"I've got something that'll make you feel better…"
Liyah lifted herself up and put her arms out with her hands squeezing the air, "gimme gimme gimme gimme."
Julien chuckled and handed her a potion, "this'll sober you up. So now you can tell me what it is that you know about this gorfs before they catch up to us."
"Whoa, what is this stuff? Jules, if you sold this stuff to me back in university I would have handed over my wallet."
Julien looks at Liyah pointedly.
"Okay, alright. Right after graduation Fleur and I went on a trip to Tel Aviv, and we come across an underground club called Absinthe. The club is run by clairsights, although faebles like us are the main clientele. It was first for me to experience something this classy outside of the parties that I attended with Fleur and her circle.
This place was packed with faebles from different realms mingling with each other, and some were involved in some of the heavy activities happening in the private rooms. People who knew Fleur stopped by and invited her to join them a few times. Fleur said no to them because she didn't want to leave me alone. Even though I would have been totally fine if she joined.
When Fleur got another invite from this cute Lycan. I said that she'll go if I joined before she could turn it down. Fleur didn't expect that to happen. She kept checking in with me to let me know we could walk away from this until we walked into the room… I regret not taking her up on her offer."
Liyah rubs her hands over face, combing her fingers through her hair and rubs her arms. She takes a deep breath and steadies herself, "at first it seemed chill since it looked like a classy cocktail party, and most of the people who were already there were relaxed… And the lycan girl who invited us gave us a spot next to the other girls who were sharing a peace pipe. And they were friendly and cool. And Fleur and I stayed later than we planned to, played games and... somehow I lost track of what happened after that, and that's when my memories blur…" Liyah pauses, breathing deeply.
Julien was next to Liyah, and rubbing her back in soothing circles. Julien tries to get a look at Liyah's face, and Liyah turns away in tears.
After the moment passed for Liyah, Julien speaks up, "you don't have to tell me everything right now. The sound and spell proofing hex lasts for 3 days, and I don't need all the details. Just enough to go off of."
"Well some of things I remember and I am certain that I know. Like Fleur knew these people way before we went to that club. The Des Corbeaux group seems to have ties in a lot of places.
Fleur instantly recognized this man who walked in. When she said hi to him, she called him something like Obi or Oudi? Something that sounds like that. Some of the people there had the same tattoo on their faces, arms or chest-" Liyah starts to regurgitate. She puts a hand over her mouth and struggles to get up. "Jules, help me."
The two women rushed over to the toilet, with Julien holding back her hair to shield it from vomit.
When Liyah finished spitting up her airplane food, Julien hands over a towel to her.
"Liyah, I think that's enough. Lets get to bed," Julien starts to help Liyah up.
Liyah shakes off Julien, slams the toilet lid shut and flushes. She wipes her fair face again to make sure there was nothing left. Then she wriggles her left hand in the air and her wand zipped over.
Liyah grips her wand, "no, I need to put this behind me and be ready for whatever comes. Emesis is nothing compared to a full state of panic. I'm glad you spell-proofed this place," she points her wand to her head as she scrunches her face to focus. Then whips out a floating image in front of them.
"This is the tattoo that I saw… This is gorfs, well Fleur and I thought it would take the edge off by calling frog spelt backwards," Liyah smiled to herself.
Julien was quiet. Her eyes took in the details of the black swirls around the green emerald. The black swirls seemed to crawl all over the gem, just like scorpions.
Julien's face froze even more when she recognized. 'Looks like my party days are on hold again. I should have handled that problem myself,' she groaned in her head.
Julien composed herself before turning to her friend, "Liyah, we're not dealing with a syndicate and I don't know what it is that they want from you. This is Emerald, this is a shadow knighthood who works for the Terrible Forrest Emperor of the dryad realm. We'll have to be extra careful about seeing your great aunt. They're most likely already here waiting for you to show up."