“How exactly does one find a psychotic serial killer?” I ask, only half joking. Literally, how do you go about finding a serial killer?

  “Are we sure you’re up to this?” Dardania asks Avis, her voice filled with concern.

  “I’m fine.” He groans. “Since yesterday you have babied me Dee, and I promise, I’m fine.”

  “Is he fine?” Dardania whips around to Tate who immediately throws up their arms.

  “Don’t shoot. I say let the man speak for himself.”

  “He will say he’s fine even if he isn’t.” Dardania nudges Avis, he groans slightly. “See!”

  “I’m sore, not broken. Besides, look at that guy over there with a broken arm.” Avis deflects turning the attention towards me. Rude.

  “Um, it’s fractured not broken. Thank you very much.”

  “Semantics.” Dardania spits at me.

  “Okay girl, pick a person to worry over, it can’t be both.”

  “She’ll worry about me and I’ll worry about you. Deal?” Avis says, smiling. I can’t help but smile back.

  “Hey, don’t distract me with your smile. Serial killer, how do we find him?”

  The room falls silent. Everyone slowly just looks around the room, waiting for someone to say something.

  “Not just me then?” I finally ask.

  “I think it’s safe to say nope.” Prisha says before hanging her head in shame.

  “It’s not like the dude carries around a sign that says ‘Hey Arcana Killer here, come and get me’.” Madison adds as she plays with her staff. She’s been doing that a lot lately.

  “Last time we came in contact with him it was by happenstance. I think the chances of that happening again are slim.” Dardania slumps against the edge of the chair.

  The frustration hangs heavy in the room. There wasn’t even a debate to be had because there are no ideas. Not a single person has a single thing to say. In this group? That’s practically a miracle. Just when I was about to let out a very dramatic sigh, a savior enters the room.

  “May I offer a suggestion?” Nabu says as he walks into the room.

  “Of course.” Dardania responds.

  “Apologies for eavesdropping on your conversation but I couldn’t help but overhear it from the room down the hall. But if you are to go fishing, perhaps try using some bait.”

  We all just stare at him blinking. Did I miss something? Clearly it’s a metaphor of some sort, but I totally don’t get it. Am I dumb?

  “I’m not exactly a super genius so…. what?” I say, daring to look like an idiot.

  Nabu looks to me with a soft smile, it was pity. I don’t need to be a genius to be able to figure that one out. But this guy is ancient and super smart, way smarter than me so it’s no surprise I can’t keep up with him.

  “Hang something he wants on a hook.” Prisha responds, answering my question. Oh. Yeah, I’m dumb.

  “I agree, but how do we do that? It’s not like we have all the Arcana just on speed dial?” Madison questions. Good point. I look back to Prisha or Nabu waiting for their counter argument.

  “There are three in this room alone.” Nabu points out. That is true, something else I didn’t think about before.

  “And if we perhaps call the Minor Arcana into a meeting, it will draw him out.” Prisha adds. This is all very good, we are getting somewhere here!

  “Oh I have an idea!” My hand shoots up, this all gave me an idea. See, I’m not that dumb. Everyone turns towards me. Oh, now I’m on the spot. This is scary.

  “What if we use the Minor Arcana network and see if they know of any other Major Arcana!” I think it’s a great idea.

  Prisha contemplates on it for a few seconds before Tate interjects.

  “We don’t know where most of those suckers are at. They’re hard to find.”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Perhaps though…” Prisha stops and thinks on it for a second before finishing. “Even if it’s not true, but if he believes that several of them would be in attendance he would show himself. We can use the network to see if any others have appeared while also spreading the rumor that many of them will be in attendance at this meeting.”

  “That would be like a buffet for a killer.” Avis responds. “Though ironically I’m the one who was almost killed by him.”

  “Um hello.” I raise my arm and bring attention towards it. “I got hurt too ya know.”

  Avis and Dardania both just stare at me blinking. That’s it. They just continue to stare at me blankly, not saying a word. I sigh.

  “Okay, I concede, he didn’t almost kill me. Fucked up arm isn’t as bad as knife in the chest.”

  “Anyway, shall we concoct a plan?” Prisha interrupts the tension, well the comedic tension.

  * * * * *

  “Gravity is one of, if not the most, fundamental aspect of our universe. It has the ability to warp time and space, and bend the universe to your will. When you view the universe on a much smaller scale, it becomes less prevalent, but that is a conversation for another day.” I read aloud from the magic book about Gravity. I raise my head and look out at the building opposite of me.

  I’m currently sitting on a balcony that overlooks the main street that runs through this area of the city. It grants me a great view of the people as they bustle about, but also the peace and quiet needed to read a book like this. I decided this was a better use of my time since I had no way to lend my support to the efforts in rounding up the Minor Arcana.

  “Sounds complicated.” Avis says as she sits down on the bench next of me. “You become an expert while I was away?”

  “Not quite. As you can see, I ended up hurting myself more than I hurt Trevor.” I hold up my fractured arm as if to display it. I wince at the pain as I lower it back down to my side. “I read through most of the book on the way to Sirius, I’m just flipping back through it.

  “What does it mean when it mentions the universe on a smaller scale?” Avis looks over my shoulder at the book in my lap.

  “If I had to guess quantum physics type stuff. Don’t ask me about it cause it makes no sense to me.”

  “I’ve heard of quantum magic before.” Avis says raising his gaze to look at me.

  “Oh? Didn’t know that was a thing.”

  “No clue what it is, but it’s a thing.” Avis smiles. Seeing him smile causes my heart to feel like it skips a beat. What’s that cliche phrase about absence makes the heart grow fonder? Can we rewrite it to, ‘Near death makes the heart grow fonder’?

  “What?” Avis just stares at me, my face feels flushed. I’m guessing that gave it away.

  “Just thinking about you and being stabbed and the whole almost dying thing.”

  “What about it?”

  “What was it like?” I ask, but that’s not what I wanted to say, I chickened out. Come on James you big dummy. He kissed you, we’ve move passed this whole stupid stage.

  “Painful for starters.” Avis holds his hand over his chest. “But, I don’t really remember much. I dreamt, mostly of the past. I kept thinking about the horrible stuff that I didn’t want to think about. All the memories I would rather forget. But, maybe those are the things that propel me forward. The things that forced me to wake up. I know no matter what, I don’t want to see anyone suffer because of me. Not again.”

  “You’re not going to push to do it all yourself are you?” I ask.

  “No.” Avis lowers his gaze, staring down at his own lap. “Dardania broke herself helping me escape that camp. I don’t ever want to see her like that again. Nor do I want to see you get anywhere close to that. This whole thing with Trevor— it has the chance to make that happen.”

  Avis catches my gaze with his, tears in his eyes.

  “Justice. Not revenge. We have to stop him, but not execute him. I can’t see Dee like that again.”

  How do I respond to that? I broke my hand because of what Trevor did to him. Now he wants me to change how we go about this? How? I want to end that man with every fiber of my being. I want to make him suffer the way he made us all suffer. I want to make sure we take that strength he’s been given and destroy it.

  “I—”

  “I know what you’re going to say. We have to be better than him.”

  I close my mouth slowly. He’s right.

  He attacked us unprompted, the exact same way he did that cleric. We can’t avoid violence, but we can control how we go about it. We can make sure that however we confront him, it’s not the same way he would confront us.

  “We’re supposed to be the good guys. Vengeance and deciding his fate won’t make us the good guys.”

  “You’re just answering all my moral questions I guess.” I smile softly, though it wasn’t exactly a smiling matter.

  “If I have to be the arbiter, then so be it.” Avis chuckles slightly before his face falls again. “I don’t want to end up like my parents. They chose hate, I won’t do that.”

  Intention doesn’t always matter when speaking, more often than not, how it’s received matters more. More time should be spent on crafting your words to ensure that exactly what you intend is how it’s received. When it comes to actions though, intentions matter much more.

  The intention dictates how we go about doing this. It dictates how we decide to fight him. If peace is the intention, we will do whatever it takes to ensure that violence is minimal and that all can walk away peacefully. If revenge is the intention, destruction becomes the end result. Because at that point, all we would want is his death.

  “You’re right. The Saint forced his justice upon the world, we won’t do that. We can’t do that. Even if it means being the fool and choosing the path of the naive.” I mutter in return and was promptly greeted by a kiss.

  Avis’s tears slip into my mouth, the taste of sweat and salt lingers on my tongue. He slides his arms around me and pulls me into him. He’s warm, strong, and I feel safe. I feel loved. I feel… I feel alive. After a few short blissful moments, he pulls away from me.

  “I’ve been waiting to do that for a while.” He smiles.

  “Then why’d you wait!?” I slam my book shut, not really angry.

  “Other things were on my mind.” He smirks, pulls away, and looks out at the street below.

  “The bit about the Saint though, that’s when I was like, ‘Yeah I need to do this now.’”

  “I’m glad I inspire such passion.” I chuckle and nudge him gently.

  “Seriously though. We have to be better than him. I don’t know what exactly it means or how we do it, I just know we do.”

  “We will be. I promise.”

  I stand up, tuck the book under my arm, hold out my hand on my non broken arm,

  “Shall we go catch a serial killer?”