Sneaking into the hospital a second time was going to be considerably more difficult than it had been the first. The police patrols around the building's perimeter told him as much. Looking back, he should have thought about what the hospital's staff reaction to one patient, who was also a minor who had been delivered to their door alongside a guy with no skin on his back, would be.

  He hadn't though, because he had had other, more urgent things going on at the time. Now that getting back in the building and getting access to Conrad was at the top of that list, he realized he had no plan for that.

  "God damnit." He muttered, one hand scratching the back of his head. "This fucking night just doesn't end."

  To his side, Mila sighed tiredly.

  "Yeah, right?" She agreed, eyeing the policemen on the street below. After they had retrieved the amber, Kurt had carried Mila on his back and blasted all the way from the clearing to the town. Once he had reached the hospital area, where the buildings had been both tall and close enough to one another, he had simply climbed the first one he saw and made his way running through and jumping between the rooftops.

  He had simply done it as means of taking a shortcut, and to avoid having to navigate the streets of the unkown town, which would risk them getting lost. And that's what had gotten them where they now were: Crouched on the edge of an apartment building across the street from the hospital, and pondering how they were supposed to get into the building now.

  "You should stay here." said Kurt, still looking down at the street. "They have to be looking for you, and your appearance is far to distinctive for them not to notice you."

  "...Yeah, you're right." She conceded dejectedly. "Though its not like you won't stand out either."

  She gestured vagely at his torso, and when Kurt's gaze lowered, he realized she was right. His attire was a mess: His shirt was stained with dirt and grass, there was a slightly bloody cut on its side where one of Ruth's wooden scales had grazed him, and his sleeves, once reaching his wrists, now ended in two chaotic, ragged stumps at the elbow. His pants weren't much of a sight either, covered in dry blood and ash as they were.

  "Good call." he said, letting out a tired sigh. "Conrad's probably still going to be on the table, so we also have to account for that." He groaned, and pressed the heel of his palm against his temple, rubbing it. "Why didn't I practice some illusionism on the train? It would have come so freaking handy right now."

  "That...would have been nice." she said. "Your sister sure makes good use of them, like with those glamour amulet's she gave you for your swords. But those... aren't really strong enough to cover an entire person, right?"

  "Right." Confirmed Kurt, grabbing his sheathed sword and raising it at eye level to see the amulet in question: A thin, rectangular sheet of brass glued to one side of his scabbard, with symbols and runes engraved on it. Experimentally, Kurt tried to pry it off, and found himself succeding. The amulet fell on his palm, and a screen appeared above it.

  Glamour Amulet

  Quality: Uncommon

  A thin sheet of brass enchanted by the sorcceress Blair Anderson, giving it two properties: First, one of its sides is enchanted to stick to any surface it's pressed against with moderate strength. And second, the ability to cover any object its attached to in a very thin layer of glamour, just thick enough to fool those without any supernatural sensitivity.

  Both of these are fueled by an internal reserve of aether that must be recharged through external means.

  Current Charge: 78%

  "It has to be charged?" Murmured Kurt, more to himself than anything.

  "What's that?" Asked Mila, looking curiously at him.

  "Oh! Uhm... It's the amulet. Apparently it needs for someone to supply it with aether for its enchantments to work." He explained, dividing his attention between the girl besides him and the artifact on his hand. "It doesn't output anything, it just... transforms the energy it's given."

  "Into glamour." she said, sounding very interested. "So long as it's fed aether, right?"

  She was smiling a bit now, and Kurt felt the sides of his mouth twist in sympathy. "The energy that sorcerers manipulate, yeah." he said, the possibility crystalizing on his mind with almost fearsome clarity. The same process must have ocurred in Mila's own, because her smile was downright giddy now.

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Kurt's eyes darted to his AP bar, and found it almost empty. Almost, not completely. It had been about half an hour since he had cast the second Inferno of his life and his AP had been completely depleted, which seemed to be enough time for his soul or spirit or whatever took care of these things-He'd have to study up on that when he had the time- to recover a little more than 15% of its full AP capacity.

  He wouldn't be throwing much fireballs with that, but it didn't matter.

  Illusions didn't take much energy either way.

  Conjuring his foci and pressing it against the amulet, Kurt focussed his will and spirit into it, and the charge on the amulet, displayed on the screen above it grew...

  Current Charge: 86%

  ...and grew...

  Current Charge: 95%

  And grew, until it reached its full capacity. Kurt kept pouring power into it, and the runes on it began glowing a pale, ethereal white. The glow kept growing brighter until something within the amulet gave in, and aa thick white mist began escaping from the artifact in fat plumes.

  Kurt then directed his focus to those plumes, and the began flowing towards the tip of his foci, orbiting it and feeding off the power it emmited, until whatever metaphysical barrier that existed between them collapsed, and that energy came under his control.

  Glamour (Rank D spell)

  This spell allows the caster to transform his own AP into the magic known as glamour, a hybrid between Psionic energy and pure Aether, which he can then manipulate to his will.

  Breadth and potency of the illusions generated increase with AP spent, Aetheric Attunement mastery, and SPT stat.

  "Got it?" She asked, her tone all but tense at this point.

  "Got it." he said, turning to look at her and smiling from ear to ear.

  Mila's smile grew even wider and before Kurt knew it, she was hugging him, her arms looping around his neck and their faces pressed together. "You are a frigging genius!" She exclaimed, delighted, and her embrace grew even tighter.

  This kind of physical affection was... quite common between them, to say the least: They hugged, held hands, and even cuddled together pretty much without shame because, what was there to be ashamed about? They had known each other, been each other's best friends, for most of their lives, and this level of comfort around each other was simply a consequence of such a close relationship. Kurt trusted Mila with his all, and she was the only person on the planet who could get this close to him without warning and not only not be rebuffed, but not caue him any discomfort.

  So why the hell did his face feel so warm now? And why were his arms so stiff and unwilling to reciprocate the hug?

  The answer came to him pretty much instantly. He felt weird because this was no longer his best friend hugging him anymore, at least not just that. This was the girl he was deeply in love with hugging, getting close to him, and now that he had nothing but that to think about now that they had a plan to bring the amber to Conrad, he had no option but to think about it.

  And of course, he wasn't the only one to notice something weird in this hug.

  "Kurt?" She called, letting go of him so she could look at his face. "Are you okay?"

  "Yeah!" He answered, a bit too quickly. And a bit too loudly. "Just... wanna get in there as soon as possible. I don't really have much energy after the fight. Glamour is rather cheap energy-wise, but not enough that I can afford to just burn through it willy nily. Not right now."

  "Oh! Shoot, sorry." she said, her palms pressed together in a pleading gesture. "Uhm, one thing though. Since we've got glamour now, could I go with you? People wont be able to see us either way and... I really want be there when Conrad gets healed. Though if covering both of us is too much, I can just...!"

  "Yes." he said, interrupting the girl. "You most definitely can come with me."

  With all awkwardness he had felt a minute before gone on the face of her pleading, Kurt extended a hand towards her, and she took it eagerly. Kurt's foci began spewing copious amounts of glamour, and the cloud-white plumes of magic began enveloping both their frames.

  With the illusiory substance covering them like a cloak, the two of them rose to their feet, and Kurt brought an arm around Mila's waist, pressing her close to him and lifting her until her feet were dangling a few inches above ground. A weak wave of nervousness came over him, but the sense of duty and his desire to finally heal his friend snuffed it out. And so, Kurt jumped off the edge of the building and onto the street below.

  They landed with surprising softness, courtesy of Kurt's Od boosted legs absorbing most of the impact, and Kurt let go of Mila, her feet hitting the pavement. Kurt spotted a teenager walking towards them, his eyes fixed on his smartphone's screen, and decided to test if the glamour was working.

  Walking up to the stranger with Mila in tow, Kurt stood besides him, and placed his hand between the phone's screen and the teen's face, waving it. The teen made a face, murmured something, and quickly brought his free hand to his face, rubbing his closed eyes with two fingers.

  "It works." Kurt said, pulling his arm back. The teen's expression softened, his eyes went back to the screen, and he began marching anew, away from them.

  "It sure does." Agreed Mila, looking at the stranger walk away. Her eyes went then to the hospital, and to the various policemen surrounding its perimeter. "Time for the real test."

  Kurt nodded wordlessly, and they began marching towards the building. They crossed the street, made their way between two police cars and onto the pavement, and then walked into the building proper, the automatic doors opening for them, unaffected by the glamour coating the pair. Throughout this process, nobody even looked at them.

  Once inside, Kurt quickly spotted the nurse manning the reception-a middle-aged black woman, with her hair tied in a tight bun- and decided to test his glamour with her. Waving his foci, Kurt formed a mass of glamour in front of them, and quickly charged an image within it: Middle aged man, around five foot ten, dressed like a doctor, and carrying a clipboard.

  With a thought, Kurt made the 'doctor' walk up to the nurse, and then made it 'talk' to her. The illusory man told the woman that they had finally found the identity of the young man found outside the building a couple hours ago, and with it his medical records. And of course, he needed to now where he was being operated so that he could relay this information to the surgeons.

  If Kurt's lack of medical knowledge, or the fact that the illusion he had just creted wasn't based off any doctor working in the hospital, roused any suspition, then the psychic properties of the glamour were more than making up for it, because the woman's face showed no signs of disbelief. No, instead, the woman quickly checked something on her computer, rose to her feet and, telling the 'doctor' to follow her, made her way towards a lateral aisle.

  Wordlessly, the illusion followed. And with it, Kurt and Mila.