John groaned, rolling over.

’I keep having such weird dreams…’ He sank into the plush cushions around him as he lamented the latest wild fantasies in his mind. ’A sheep girl? Really, John?’

He could hear soft murmurs around him and he reached out for the remote. ’Must’ve fallen asleep with the tv on again… where is the damn thing?’ His groping hand went all across the portion of coffee table he could reach, but came across nothing but smooth, glossy wood.

A soft click of a door latch reached his ears and the sound stopped. The gamer opened his eyes, blinking blearily against a bright light before he looked around the room. The blood-red walls and black wainscotting made the room look much darker than the early-afternoon sunlight that was streaming in through the windows would suggest.

“Oh, you’re awake.” Emily peered over the back of the red couch, smiling down at him as she half-chuckled. “I was starting to wonder if she knocked you out a bit too hard.”

John sat up carefully and she stepped back and out of his way. No longer wearing her hooded dress, the witch looked much more normal in a black long-sleeved shirt and grey plaid skirt.

She smiled at him, and he couldn’t help but notice that from black hair, to black leggings, her green eyes and red lipstick were the only actual color on her. “You okay? Groggy?”

He nodded lamely before clearing his throat to speak. “Where am I?” he croaked.

“Mm? Oh!” Emily surveyed the room as she continued, “My apartment, of sorts. It’s another one of the barriers I told you about.” She waved her hand at the room around them. A majority of her things were made of a glossy black wood, decorated with blood-red leather in the case of the couch, and purple throw pillows with matching lace trim. The purple and red were enough to keep the room from being a black hole, but it was still very, very dark.

The gamer spotted a skull-shaped candle on the kitchen table and snorted, making her look at him again. “Really into the witch aesthetic, huh?”

A soft flush colored her pale cheeks and she nodded before waving her hand as if she was wafting away a smell. “Nevermind that. We should talk. You fully shifted into a wolf while you were chasing Mary, so we finally know something that’ll trigger your transformation!”

His whole body tensed and a shiver ran down his spine. It felt as if those words had dumped a bucket of ice water onto his head and John stared, unseeing, at the woman standing behind the couch.

’So that part did actually happen…’ He could remember jogging lightly after the poor vet, and a scent clouding his mind, but nothing after that. A quick flash of blue, then he was waking up here. Shuddering again, the lycan looked down at his hands.

“Did…” He gulped, struggling to **** himself to think about it. “Did I hurt her?”

“No, she’s fine.” She smiled when he looked up at her hopefully before continuing, “She just left with her samples before you woke up. You launched yourself at her and knocked her down, but a scraped knee’s not gonna kill her.” Emily winked, talking casually as if John turning into a massive wolf was as normal as discussing the weather. “She knocked you out pretty good. You’ve been asleep for about an hour.”

Still moving rather slow, the gamer stood and stretched out his joints, a few of them popping loudly in the process. Looking past her, he could see the clock on the oven flashing 13:07 and he groaned. “I should get going.”

She looked back at the clock and nodded. “Marissa mentioned something that gave me an idea. I think if you wear something made of silver, it might help keep you from shifting when you don’t want to. You’d have to take it off, I’m sure, if you wanted to shift, though.” Emily bit her lip deep in thought.

John smiled, glad to be a step ahead of her. “I was actually planning on getting a silver ring while I was out today. After I got my tea from you.”

“Oh!” The herbalist blushed and scurried towards the door, throwing it open to the shop beyond. “I guess I should make you that blend, then.” She overtook the gap to her counter in one large step and uncorked the bottle he’d fetched down for her this morning. Using tweezers, she pinched out a few dried petals and buds, added them to the mortar and pestle with the ground twigs, and continued grinding gently. “Did you already have some mixed up?”

“Yeah.” John pulled the jar from his inventory and held it up for her to see.

A slow smile spread across her lips and Emily chuckled. “Even one of my jars, too.” She shook her head, taking the jar to add the additional mixture to it. “Big, burly guy?”

’That’s not exactly descriptive.’ The gamer rolled his eyes internally, thinking both Dakota and Bly would fit that description and he hadn’t even seen most of the pack yet. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Called it. I knew that guy was a lycan, asking for this blend…” Finishing her work as they talked, she lidded the bottles again and waved her hand over her table. John gaped at the green mist that enveloped her marble tools which dissipated a moment later, leaving them sparkling clean as if the powder had never been on them.

“H-how did you…” he stammered, unable to look away from them as Emily shoved his bottle back into his hand.

“Never you mind.” She shrugged, but was smiling in a relaxed way with an air of pride. “Magic is a handy tool that takes ages to master.”

The lycan blinked, her casual use of something so fantastical outside of the Abyss was still a slight shock. “Y-yeah, I guess it would be.”

“Now,” she pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked up at him expectantly, “I don’t want today to be a one-time-thing. I want to keep helping you and learning from you. To do thaaaat…” she stretched out the word and waved her phone between them, “I’ll need your number.”

John tucked the bottle back into his inventory using his pocket and reached for his phone, spotting the red outline on the slot it was occupying, he remembered how fucked it was. He pulled it out anyway, casting a glance at the mimic still sitting quietly in there, and closed the UI window with a blink. “I’d give it to you, but this thing’s on the fritz. I need to get a new one sometime today.”

The green light flashed behind Emily’s eyes again and she frowned. “Someone cast magic on your phone? Why?”

“You can tell?” He stared at the useless brick of technology until she snatched it out of his hand, looking it over with her glowing eyes.

“Yeah. This is a powerful hex, but I can’t see what they were after or what they did.” She turned it over in her hands and opened the outer case, pulling out the battery. “SIM card’s dead. You’ve only been part of the Abyss for a couple days?”

John watched, looking at the little card as she pulled it out. “Monday, yeah.” He jumped when she tossed it aside and typed a couple things into her phone. “Hey, can’t a repair store fix it?”

“Doubtful,” came her flat answer. “Besides, it’s likely that whoever did this will just do it again.” A small drone flew in through the magical door at the back of the shop and dropped a small package on the counter before flying back out.

“But I still need a phone,” he complained as she set down the devices in her hands to open the matchbox-sized delivery. ’Is she just ignoring me now?’ Stepping around the counter to **** himself back into her line of sight, he opened his mouth to speak again before he spotted what she was holding.

It looked like a brand new SIM card, almost identical to the singed one she’d pulled out of his phone, but it was silver instead of matte black. Emily slipped it into the fitting slot, replaced the battery, and closed the casing before powering it back up.

“There, that should do it.” He could hear the smile in her voice, but his attention was too focused on his phone as it turned on as if nothing had ever happened to it. He unlocked the screen and saw that his background and everything was exactly the way he’d had it before. “The number should be the same, too, so...what is it?”

A new app caught his eye, but he **** his attention onto the short witch in front of him as he mumbled off his phone number, barely seeing her type it in before his attention was drawn back down at the sound of his ringtone. It played for just a moment before the caller hung up.

“There, and now you have mine.” Emily visibly preened, as he just stared openly at her, muttering an insignificant thanks.

’I have so many questions, but I’ve got to get that ring and beat Mom home.’ “I’ll, uh, text you, I guess.” He shoved his phone back into his inventory, noting the slot was no longer red, and looked at Chester again before he closed the window.

“Please do. I can’t wait to hear how the ring helps.” Her smile was bright as she leaned over the counter, putting her chin in her hand to look up at him.

Deciding to throw caution to the wind, John cleared his throat. “Mind if I come back tomorrow to use that training room?”

The herbalist blinked and squealed, launching herself across the glossy wood surface to hug him tight around the neck. “Of course not! Did you want to try more stuff?!” She let go, mostly, leaving her hands on his shoulders to look at his face, now kneeling on the counter so they were at eye level.

“Er, not exactly.” He blushed, taking a step back, and her face fell as she let go. “This is going to sound odd, but I want to let something loose in a safe place.”

This time it was Emily’s turn to blush, but he forged on.