35 What Men Talk Abou (1/2)

”Are you sure about this?” I asked Aura.

She, Ty, Arah, and I were standing just outside the door to Azuma's room in the Psych Ward of St. Lucy's Medical Center.

The LED lights above us flickered as if responding to our inner agitations.

”Yes,” Aura answered. ”I'd like to speak to him.”

She grabbed the handle to his door and pulled it open.

”Don't you?” Aura asked as she glanced back at me. Then she walked into the darkened room.

I sighed while wondering how I'd gotten myself into this.

The only reason I agreed to Aura's request was that I knew visitation hours were over at St. Lucy's and I counted on security keeping us out. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that Aura once posed as a doctor so she could see my mother.

The beautiful doctor quickly made an appearance as soon as we were confronted by anyone of authority, and we were let through without issue all the way up to the Psych ward's fourth floor.

Ty and Arah were surprised by Aura's sudden change, but I reminded them that fairy glamour was one of a fairy's powers. It allowed them to befuddle the minds of humans and make them see whatever the fairy wanted to see. In Aura's case, a drop-dead gorgeous blue-eyed blonde doctor who looked older than the real her.

”Um, Dean... what should we do?” Ty asked, breaking my inner monologue.

”You guys mind waiting out here?” I scratched at the bridge of my nose. ”Trust me... you don't want to meet this psycho...”

The look of fear on my face was enough to convince Arah and Ty to stay behind.

”How about we head over to your mom's room and wait for you there?” Arah grabbed Ty's hand and began dragging him away. ”Take as much time as you want.”

”Thanks,” I called after her, but in my head I was screaming for them to stay. Strength in numbers and all that. ”Call the cops if we're not back in fifteen minutes.”

Ty's face crunched up in worry but Arah simply waved her hand at me.

”You'll be fine,” she called back. ”You've got Aura with you.”

”Yeah... she might not be enough...” I sighed one last time and then I followed Aura into the dark room.

I found Aura opening the curtains so that moonlight could filter in through the window. She had dropped her glamour and was her usual pretty self again.

It was a beautiful night. The sky was clear and the stars were out in full. But it was the halfmoon that shined down on us with an otherworldly brilliance that caught my attention.

I wondered why it was that the moon seemed to be brighter than normal whenever one of the fair folk was around.

In the time while I glanced up at the starry night sky, Aura had moved on to the stand beside the empty bed.

I joined her with my body tense and ready to spring into action in case something monstrous suddenly appeared and attacked us, but the bed was empty as I hoped it would be.

”Nobody's home,” I said while hiding my delight at this lucky break.

Aura gave me a wan smile. ”Look again.”

I looked down and saw that the mattress was sagging, and in its center, there was an imprint of someone lying on it. But the bed was still empty.

Goosebumps rose over the back of my arms.

”When did this turn into a horror show...” I whispered before turning my head to Aura. ”What's going on?”

”This bed is Azuma's anchor on Mudgard... and we can summon him back here to it,” Aura explained.

I gulped. ”You can... summon him back?”

Aura nodded. ”But only temporarily. Eventually, the pull of the Fayne and Azuma's contractor will take hold of him again and he'll be sent back. Only dawn can really make the transfer permanent.”

My eyes glanced over to the other side of the bed where several medical machines beeped in a steady pattern as if they could still read the life signs of a man who wasn't there.

I hesitated for another moment before finally deciding that this was no time to be a wuss. It was a time for action.

Seeing the determination in my face, Aura began to chant an incantation in Elvish that I wouldn't be able to write down because it was completely incomprehensible to me.

Eventually, though, a ghostly form slowly descended from the ceiling and crashed onto the bed in a loud groan. And suddenly, I found myself face to face with the Mudgardian version of my rival.

Azuma was the same tan-skinned middle-aged man from the Fayne. Only, his cheeks were more hollow and his eyes, although closed, seemed more sunken than before. His hair was its usual length but someone, possibly a nurse, had bothered to comb it. His arms were the emaciated limbs of a man who was wasting away.

I couldn't understand why someone who could not die looked like he was half dead already. Well, this was my chance to ask him as the slanted black eyes suddenly opened.

Both Aura and I took an involuntary step back.

Azuma took another few seconds to reorient himself to his surroundings much like I did whenever I woke up in my room after a night in the Fayne. Then he sat up and looked between me and Aura.

”I don't usually have guests,” he said in his rough voice. ”Have you come to kill me, Dean Dapper?”

”W-what... no, of course not,” I protested. ”We, um... we just...”

I glanced over at Aura. ”Why are we here again?”

”We wanted to have a chat with you, Azuma,” Aura answered, and her face showed no fear despite me knowing that she was, in fact, nervous.

I could tell this from how tight she coiled her fist.

This made me inwardly ashamed of how scared I looked.

”If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles,” I whispered the words of Sun Tzu to calm my nerves.

”If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat,” Azuma continued the next line like he'd memorized it too.

There was a smirk on his face when I looked at him.

”So... you read the Art of War, huh?” he asked.

I shrugged while hoping I exuded calm instead of what I was really feeling. ”I read a lot.”

”You look like you do,” Azuma laughed hoarsely before giving into a fit of coughing. It was awhile before he finished, but when he was ready, he asked, ”So... what did you want to talk about?”

I answered before Aura could. ”Why do you look like you're dying?”

Azuma wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. ”How old do you think I am, Dean?”

”Somewhere in your forties... I'd guess,” I said.

He laughed and then began another fit of coughing.

”I'm thirty-two,” Azuma answered.

Both Aura and I glanced at each other. The man in front of us looked like he was on the latter side of forty and not just past his twenties.

”H-how is that—”

Azuma stopped me with a hand. Then he gestured to his machines. ”Cancer's a bitch like that... Kills you slow and takes it all away before you're ready to go...”

My brow creased. ”You're really dying... but?”

”Doctors said I had six months... but I've been terminally ill for two years,” Azuma said. ”They call me a medical miracle... cancer's still there but it just can't seem to press the off switch on my life...”

”The Magesong clan is keeping you alive,” Aura guessed.

Azuma nodded. ”They needed a warrior... and in my prime... I was one of the best there was...”