You Must Fall In Love

Chapter Thirty-One

"You want to go to the airport," said Rob.

Christine leaned back on her new, fresh, non-ruined bed, stretching her hands out behind her back. She had come back to her room to find everything replaced, even the canopy. She didn't even know how Kang had managed it, but she decided that she would leave a very nice note on the bed that night just to thank him, and maybe ask for his arcane secrets.

"Yeah," she said. "I wanna find the thing that stole all my stuff. By the way, do you think that it's good sense to thank the housekeeper, or does that come off as condescending?"

"Why do you even have to ask?"

"Look, fancy-pants, I don't know where you grew up, but I've never had any sort of manservant or maid around."

"This isn't about having maids," said Rob. "It's about being a functioning human being. Not to add wine to the pity party, but I grew up in straitened circumstances."

"It's not like being poor is a curse or anything," said Christine. "I mean, you have an actual curse."

"Only you could ever say something so heartwarming and yet so tone-deaf."

"At least I'm rude in the open," said Christine.

"Which is different from being rude in general how?"

"I only dish it out if I think I can handle the return fire," said Christine. "It's like when you ask the lunch auntie to give you extra chili sauce in the school canteen at recess, but secretly you know how much chili she always puts in, so you prepare yourself beforehand, and then none of your friends actually see your stunt because Jen shows up with sweets that day."

"I can't imagine how you survived."

"Don't you start," said Christine. "Anyway, airport. Yes or no?"

Rob sat down on his chair. It was definitely his chair now, because he had used it more than she had at this point, and she didn't want to come into prolonged contact with anything he had touched. That was like, indirect touching. Ew.

"It's not like I have much of a choice," he said. "I'm not about to leave you alone with Yusuke. He has a sword, you know."

"Well," smirked Christine, "he's not going to leave me alone with you, either. I can't believe people still use swords in this day and age. Why not just shoot the evil spirits if that's the way you want to go?"

"If I were a demon hunter," said Rob, "I'd be more concerned about a bullet passing through my target."

"Yeah," said Christine, "but if I were a demon hunter, I wouldn't want to get anywhere near the demon. That's what seals are for, to restrain the spirit's movement. Going up against it with a sword is just asking for trouble."

Rob gave a non-committal half-shrug.

"You're asking the wrong person," he said. "We should probably get Jen, too."

"Jen? Why?"

"I don't know. Are you a registered mage in the state of Virginia?"

Christine frowned. Unlike most things these days, the magician's license varied from Conclave to Conclave and continent to continent. Any one exam was usually completely different from all the others. Singapore's was a mixed bag, in that it combined the magic systems of four or five different cultures, resulting in a strangely esoteric official blend that very few exorcists used in practice.

But at least they had actual exorcism training. Not every Conclave could say that.

"Alright, I get it. Jen, Yusuke, me, you. The whole gang, almost. How do we stop August from coming along?"

"He's not going to," said Rob immediately.

"Well, that's really comforting, but I don't see why he wouldn't. Are you..."

"Christine, stop contradicting me for a moment and listen. August Jordan would rather die than be seen in public with any of us. Okay?"

Rob looked like he meant this, or at least more than he meant most things.

"Alright," she said. "As long as he doesn't sneak along for the ride."

"I think that would be very difficult," said Jen, sticking her head in the door. "What's this ride you're talking about?"

"Oh, there you are," said Rob. "We're going to go find Christine's bag thief."

"Hooray!" said Jen. "Wait, who's we?"

"You," said Rob. "Me. Christine. Yusuke."

"Yusuke?" frowned Jen.

"Yusuke," said Rob.

"Huh," said Jen. "I thought you didn't like Yusuke."

"I want Yusuke to help me work out if its an evil spirit," said Christine. "Rob doesn't trust Yusuke, so he wants to tag along to protect me, for some weird reason. And we need you to be our rubber stamp or something."

"Neat," said Jen, rubbing her chin. "That'd be an investigation, though. We need approval from the state Conclave to run an investigation."

Christine thought hard. She wasn't very good at things that had anything to do with magic, but she was in fact an old hand at getting past regulations.

"We can keep it on the down-low," she said. "It's not an investigation if you're just going to see the planes."

"And she's just trying to find something she's lost," said Rob, "and I work there. Yusuke's there for the ice-cream."

"Genius!" said Christine, grinning at Rob, before realizing just what she had done and stretching the grin out into a pained one.

"Compared to you, yes," said Rob flatly. "At least you admit it."

Jen looked worried. She had her calculating face on, which meant that there were several things that needed solving, none of them simple.

"Your mom recommended caution for a reason, C. What's going to happen if we meet something we can't handle?"

"Are you kidding?" laughed Christine. "We have Wile E. Coyote and Samurai Jack in the house. Besides, when's the last time you had an incident in Stagport? This place is mage paradise."

"Point," said Jen. "Still, I'd like some insurance."

"Lawrence is sending over some amulets for me to copy," said Christine. "I can use those."

Jen's eyes lit up. Rob looked like he didn't get it at all.

"Only if I get to see them first," she said.

"Deal," said Christine. "Let's go do some detective work. By the way, Rob?"

"What?"

"Do you have an Android charger?"