Clairvoyant

17. Alliance

"If you fail, I'll finish it for you. In the meantime, do your best to earn Tevin's trust, respect, and favor."

The next few years passed with that line of Sacha's as the central guideline of Viivi's actions. "Sir" assigned Glen Emerson as her partner with the official reason being that he was then without one and that he lived very close by. The truth was, of course, that Glen had been included in Sacha's calculations, although the man himself was not notified of the detailed plan the way Viivi had been.

"Do you wear cologne often?" Sacha asked him once in the pantry, almost too casually for his style.

"Sometimes," Glen answered, "Why?"

"Wear it tomorrow."

Right outside, Viivi was just passing by. She and Sacha exchanged a glance that explained everything: I know what you will do tomorrow. Divert Tevin's attention from me to Glen.

Yet, on the outside, as soon as Glen turned around, Sacha pointedly turned away without acknowledging her existence and Viivi rolled her eyes.

"Hey, Vii," Glen greeted, oblivious to the interaction that had just taken place, "What time do you get off tomorrow?"

"Free all day," she answered, replacing her eye roll with a cheerful smile.

"Great. I get off at three, so..."

"Yep, I'll pick you up."

☆☆☆

"It's finished, isn't it?" Viivi challenged, glaring at Sacha. "Then you don't need it."

Sacha took in a deep breath and held it there, his eyes widening at the sight of his calculations being shredded into flakes. "All because I said one thing, is it?" he hissed.

Viivi slipped the rest of the sheets into the shredder, pretending not to see Tevin's shock. Sure, Sacha also looked shocked, but he was the king of pretending to be alarmed—after all, all of it was his plan. Now was not the time to let Tevin know her invincibility against spirits.

Soon afterwards, as Viivi and Glen were chatting, Tevin stepped out of Sacha's room, sighing. He'd looked for other papers, hadn't he? Too bad they were all gotten rid of.

☆☆☆

Tevin sighed. He stood and opened a drawer to fetch a box. The box contained a variety of tea bags, and he gave them to Sacha.

"At the very least, please allow yourself to unwind a little time and again. It will not do you or anyone good if you are too stressed, Sacha."

Sacha accepted the box, glancing at it once before shifting his gaze back to Tevin. "I'm fine, but thanks."

He kept the box in his workshop, occasionally taking a tea bag out only to throw it away, hidden among other trash. Tevin, after all, could not be too careful. He did not want anyone to know his true identity. Given that "Sir" expressively told him that Sacha was important, he could not get rid of him...but he could perhaps get rid of his ability—the only thing that made him important.

And Sacha would not allow it.

☆☆☆

Glen entered Sacha's workshop, making sure the door closed properly behind him. Shedding his usual lighthearted demeanor, he let the smile that he had just shown Viivi fade. As he entered, Sacha turned around in his chair. Leaning back and crossing one leg over the other, he gestured toward the seat next to his own.

"I'm glad you came," said Sacha, "Things would turn out very differently if you didn't."

Thoughtful still, Glen walked toward the seat Sacha assigned him. "So..."

"Tell me what's on your mind," Sacha encouraged.

"So..." Glen began again, "I was telling people to shut their windows earlier. But before I went very far, I saw that the spirit who barged in was actually...quite weak in existence."

Sacha nodded.

"In all my years of experience, I've never seen a spirit that weak linger in broad daylight and bypass our security system."

Once again, Sacha nodded.

"Then, Tevin had his fan open the entire time. It's just that he only brought it to view when he started negotiating with it. And as soon as he snapped it shut, the spirit was gone."

There, a smile almost formed on Sacha's lips—almost, but he held it back. Of that Glen was sure. He said, "Get to the point."

"I suspect it was Tevin who let it in in the first place," Glen answered.

"No, I mean the point," Sacha stressed.

"...I suspect that Tevin is Dominus."

Sacha nodded. "You're precious, you know that?" he mused.

Hearing the usually cold clairvoyant say those words was unexpected and seemed to have frozen Glen's brain entirely, at least for a split second.

"...uh?" His expression must have ruined his face, but thank god Vii wasn't there to tease him about it.

"I'll tell you the condensed version of the full story. Listen closely." Back to his normal demanding self, Sacha ignored Glen's reaction altogether and cast his previous patience aside, immediately launching into an explanation: beginning with Tevin's schemes, through Sacha's alliance with Viivi and "Sir", and ending—albeit hesitantly—with Sacha and Viivi's history. "And I have a request of you," he said then.

"A request?" Glen repeated, simply because Sacha rarely spoke of tasks he issued as "requests". Whatever he said was always done.

"Yes, a request. I know what you want," Sacha noted, "And if both Tevin and I are gone, you will be the only one left. And it's your life, I'm in no place to command you to risk it."

Despite the heaviness in his words, Sacha had no difficulty delivering them—telling Glen his story with Viivi seemed harder than this talk about life and death. He reached over to the table behind him and grabbed a sketch, which was complete with a calculation and description of all the steps necessary for the completion of his plan.

"Regardless," Sacha concluded, "The choice is yours."

A few minutes later, Glen made his exit. Viivi's words from only very recently rang in his mind: sympathizing with your enemy will only kill you. He realized now that it was never Sacha that she was referring to.

☆☆☆

And to the options Sacha presented before him, Glen's decision was unwaveringly made as soon as he saw Viivi.

We can talk about this more when it's all over—I don't want to affect you now," he said, reaching out with his arms open. "I love you, Vii."

Viivi smiled and leaned in to hug him. "I love you too."