FATE\Deus Decipit

Chapter 20: Face in a Crowd

2:00 pm, The streets of Athens

She walked down the streets of the city. These streets in particular were made for foot traffic, and there wasn't a car in sight. Stalls lined the sides, people calling out to others, offering food or drinks or trinkets of various kinds...

-But none called to her. No one looked at her. No one spoke to her. People came and went, faceless and nondescript. Men and women of various sizes and features. Some spoke into their hands. Others spoke into the air. Some spoke to those they walked with, others talked to strangers. Some played music, others listened. And yet still there were those who were alone. They spoke to no one. They looked at no one. They simply walked. Some looked ahead, others looked at the ground.

-But none called to her.

But that was okay. She wasn't alone. Not anymore. She did worry; she worried when the call took her away once again. The call took her from her family, it offered her belonging. It had yet to deliver, but she could sense that she was approaching the end of her journey. The call came from the sea, and now, so much later, it had returned her to land. A land far and unfamiliar from what she knew, but land nonetheless. The call was absent now, but she felt it with her still, deep within her core. She was exactly where she was supposed to be.

-But what was she supposed to be doing?

Whatever the call was, she had hoped the friend it gave her would have answers, but no such luck. The friend couldn't speak, but she knew she was a friend despite it. A connection like no other, someone who understood her. Now, her friend was with her. Her friend followed her wherever she went. She couldn't know why, but it was nice. She had gone so long without anyone, and now she had made two friends in short succession. First was the man who saved her that day, and now she had this new person, though she didn't know her name. She wished they could talk. That they could communicate like the people in the streets.

The people who didn't look at her.

She wished that they could talk like the friends they were; that they could express their emotions through words like everybody else. But that wasn't possible. Not now.

Maybe...

Maybe once they arrived at "home" they could; once the call finally took her where it was always calling her to. For now, this was life. Walking through streets without aim, where nobody took notice of her.

What was she supposed to be doing?

The faceless people walked by; indistinguishable. Her friend stood nearby, though she was invisible, but her silent voice had no wisdom to give.

-And then there were two.

Two. A girl with bright and blue hair, and a man with pink hair. They walked together with purpose, talking excitedly with words she didn't understand. The man- or was he a boy?- had a strange appearance beyond just his hair. Around him, water flowed. Familiar currents that moved with force but without weight. They walked by, taking no notice of her, but she noticed them. In a stream of faceless men, they stood out. And on her wrist she saw a band of red.

She looked down at her own hand, the strange symbol. Three overlapping circles.

Perhaps she could learn more if she followed them.

...

High above the Earth, a commercial airplane headed towards Athens.

Xander Haq sat with his team in first class. He, as with the other members of his team, were far more accustomed to flying private rather than commercial, but the job was too rushed to allow for such discretion. Though wards had already been placed to nullify sound and prevent others from walking through their section, the feeling of vulnerability could be felt in the stiff quiet.