Shift

TWELVE.1

Blaze watched as Kayden quickly excused herself and ran after her cousin. His stomach throbbed as she moved farther away, but he didn't do anything to stop her from leaving.

Helio stared at the door in shock. Blaze was surprised to see that he actually looked upset. But after a moment, Helio muttered, "Screw her," and stalked out of the building.

As the door swung shut, Walter Voyle whistled through his yellowed teeth. "Well... that was exciting."

Blaze had almost forgotten about the author. "I'm so sorry about him," he apologized. "He can be a bit of a jerk."

"Don't worry about it." Walter peered at Blaze through his thick glasses; Blaze felt as if a giant bug were examining him. Finally, the man smiled. "Unless you need to chase after him right now, why don't we speak in my office?"

Blaze nodded mutely and let the man lead him across the large printing area and through a propped open door on the right side of the room.

Blaze did his best not to comment on the state of the office. Blaze was not the neatest person in the world, but Walter's office looked like a trashed break room run by drunken college students. The room was cluttered with an odd assortment of furniture that looked like it had been collected over the years from garage sales, along with several potted plants, dozens of strange metal contraptions, at least five partially filled coffee mugs, a messy stack of pocket-sized editions of A Progressive Book of Magic, and plenty more miscellaneous trash.

Walter moved a battered laptop onto the floor, plopped himself down on a bright red futon, and gestured for Blaze to sit. Blaze settled into a beanbag chair, crushing stale crackers and a small toy bouncy ball beneath his butt.

Walter leaned over and dug around in a cabinet, pulling out a hot plate, a small collection of teabags, and a kettle already half filled with water. "Want some tea?"

"Er, sure," Blaze said half-heartedly, not wanting to be rude.

Walter plugged the hotplate into a wall outlet and turned the switch to high. "I haven't worked out a revised spell for boiling water yet, but the non-er way works fine in the meantime. Though..." He looked thoughtful. "I could possibly invent something better, a metal boiler infused with some heat runes." He smiled at Blaze. "I'm not only a writer, you know. I do have a penchant for inventing as well!" He gestured to the wall of strange metal contraptions Blaze had seen upon entering. "Stunning, aren't they?"

"Er..." Blaze mumbled. "Very."

Walter chuckled and laced his fingers. "So you never told me exactly why you're here. You and your friends asked a lot more questions than my usual customers."

Blaze sighed, thankful that they were finally getting to the point of their visit. He held out his wrist and showed him the mark. "That girl who was with me, the brunette... we got into a bit of a situation."

Walter tilted his wrist, examining the symbol through his thick glasses. "Altered spell results because of the shift. Common enough. Continue."

"Well, when I realized that my... er, your spell book hadn't been wiped clean by the Congregation, I thought that maybe the spells you had written were safe."

"Of course they're safe!" he exclaimed. "Otherwise they wouldn't be in print! The Congregation wouldn't allow it."

"But before the shift, they weren't safe," Blaze pointed out, a tad irritated.

Walter held up a finger. "There was a warning in the first one, in the foreword my wife and I wrote. We specifically said the spells were meant for after the shift." He looked pensive for a moment. "Looking back on it, that probably didn't help with the sales."