After a quick face wash in the bathroom she shared with several other student interns and after returning her stuff to her tiny room, Anwyn headed to the cafeteria - where she got herself a `nice' bowl of blue goo. Looking at it distastefully, she stirred it to a liquid consistency.
Then, with an impish look on her face, she hummed a few bars from `Love Potion Number Nine' before closing her eyes, holding her nose, and chugging down her portion - blinking at the soft laughter and scattered applause that occurred when she set her empty bowl down. Giggling shyly, she stood and bowed before taking her bowl to the recycling chute and tossing it inside.
Giving everyone in the cafeteria a cheery wave, Anwyn headed towards Kay's apartment for her work assignments. Once there, she knocked firmly.
The door was almost instantly opened. A man faced her. His hair was tangled and he had dark circles under his eyes. "Kay!", he said, than looked disappointed. "I'm sorry...Are you looking for Kay?
Anwyn blinked several times as the disheveled man looked at her. "Um? aye. I was to report to her early this morning for my work assignments. I? I'm Anwyn McCarron. has something happened to her?"
Louis sighed. * I wish I knew...Damn it, Kay, where are you?*
Anwyn blinked once more as that old `seeing' suddenly came back -- where Kay was in an alley dressed in that same boy-disguise from her previous vision. There seemed to be four sets of eyes as well (overlaid on her form like a drawing on a piece of transparent plastic): kitten eyes, hawk eyes, owl eyes, human eyes. Another blink and it was gone.
"I'm Louis", he continued, "I honestly don't know where she is...". Then he realized she wasn't paying attention to him. There was something odd about this girl. A certain suspicion formed in his mind, so he called. "Excuse me...miss? I think you're the one who's going to help me ... Did you talk to Kay about that?". He left his words deliberately ambiguous; just in case he was mistaken about her being fey. Afterall, Kay had warned him that some folks preferred to keep their gifts either secret or known only to a select few.
"Nice to meet you, Louis," Anwyn replied absently, trying to `find her way back to now'. Shaking her head in confusion, she looked up at him "Help you? Help you how ? I don't ...? I'm not sure I understand". There seemed to be a double meaning to his words, but she wasn't yet sure enough about him to come right out and ask.
"Well, I'm not very...organized...I need someone to take care of my paperwork and my schedule...A secretary, actually...But please, come in and sit down...Can I...er...offer you anything?", Louis answered. Since Kay had told him to make himself at home whole he was waiting, surely she wouldn't mind.
"Um? well," said Anwyn, absently rubbing the back of her neck as she entered Kay's quarters, "I don't know how good I would be. I mean, I used to do some of that stuff for my parents, but it's not like I'm a trained secretary or anything. Still, I'd be more than glad to help you out where I can until you can? um? requisition a proper secretary."
"Thank you...that would be good", he said. "It's so much bureaucracy that I'll be drowned in paper when I finally find one!"
"Sure, Louis. No problem. It will give me a chance to get some work experience as well as earn a credit or three." She chuckled softly, grinning impishly as Louis' comment about bureaucracy and paperwork brought an image of an old photograph to mind. The photograph showed a toddler sitting on something called a `thundermug' holding a roll of some kind of paper with the caption `The job's not finished until the paperwork is done.' "I can imagine, Louis. My father is with the Marines and there is always form after form after from to fill out -- in triplicate!"
Anwyn looked around curiously and then sat down."Some? Some tea would be nice. What? what happened Louis? She was so wired about making it back on time to? um? to have dinner and stuff.".
Anwyn looked around again, her eyes lighting on one of the paintings that Master Tomas painted for Kay. It was the one that Kay had gone into such ecstasy over. #You're her Gram,# she thought, #or as near to it as makes never no mind. Where is she? Is she all right? Is she safe?#
"She...was? I did not know...". He sighed. "I don't know what happened...We were having dinner, then...Well...we had some problems and...She said she had a solution to those problems, than dressed up as a boy and left. Well, I could have told it was a woman, but I guess in the dark with those clothes she could easily have passed for a boy..."
Louis handed her the tea and sat in a chair. He sighed heavily and rested his head on his hands, helpless. "It was my fault...I-I should have gone with her...or not let her go at all! If only..."
Anwyn accepted the tea without actually having to touch his hand. She didn't particularly want a repeat of what happened with Kay earlier. If it was true that touching fey folks would give her visions of them, then it would be wiser to be catious in who she touched. Instead she gave Louis a searching look. "Kay didn't strike me as the kind of person you could dissuade from doing something once she had her mind set on it, Louis", she told him very firmly.
He chuckled, despite of himself. That described Kay quite well. Before he could answer, a loud ring interrupted whatever he'd been about to say. Anwyn sipped her tea appreciatively as the com rang -- absently playing with the moon pendant Kay had given her.
Louis quickly reached for his comm, exclaiming anxiously "Kay?". At such an early hour, it could only be either Kay, or about some sort of medical emergency that couldn't wait until the clinic opened.