• “Knock, Knock…” she sang in a soft tone opening the door an inch. Erohs hadn’t recognized the voice until it was too late and Yufloria had already entered. He had a moment of scrambled thoughts before recovering himself to bark out a very demanding question.

    tab “What are you doing here??” Erohs shot out of his seat to meet her in the middle of the room, “I thought we understood the need to end things, yet here you come strutting in like you own the place.”

    tab “James … you look so hostile. Why not calm yourself and let me explain hmm?”

    tab Yufloria gestured to the large leather chair behind his desk but Erohs made no move towards it. He instead crossed his arms, frowning hard into her emerald eyes, waiting.

    tab “Believe me. I wouldn’t give myself any liberties visiting you without good reason. I respect your wishes well enough that I would never think of it otherwise.”

    tab They both stood in the middle of the office, the bustle of mid-afternoon traffic playing out to their right and the sounds of tapping keys from the secretary outside. Yufloria held his gaze with soft eyes before sighing quietly and stepping around Erohs, helping herself to a pot of coffee in another corner of the office. She was already in one of the stouter chairs before the bureau sitting comfortably when he turned around to watch.

    tab “I believe we’ve come across a mutual acquaintance of the most peculiar kind. Not to mention the most interesting subject in such a long while,” From where she sat facing away from his stare, she turned back to him. Her face was at once reverent and wistful. “Not since you, James”

    tab Erohs twitched into a scowl for a second. “I don’t have time for your finesse, Yufloria, I’d like to know the short version if you do mind.”

    tab He paced back to his seat wanting to lean forward and force her visit to end quickly but he only avoided her eyes, staring out at the city beyond his windows. She watched him as he did these things in quick succession, looking quite anxious and impatient. Yufloria knew why he had become so irritable in such a short time; before her voice had eased in through the quiet he was lounging in the very chair he sat in now perfectly at ease. His loathing had come when he looked upon her face and recognized the girl in the dark-haired woman stepping in.

    tab “Though you don’t know her as I have, perhaps you’ll recognize the name.” Yufloria took a sip of the hot coffee and Erohs glanced back at her just as a few clouds of steam rose around her delicate features. He didn’t have to ask, only to wait, knowing that once she introduced a subject she didn’t leave out any details. “The last name Arllaine?”

    tab Erohs turned full around to scrutinize her smiling face knowing she knew much more than he did. Apparently she did too.

    tab “Ah, you see? I didn’t visit for just anything, I came on a special case, and you should know how special she is, James.” As unwilling to speak to Yufloria as he was, Erohs couldn’t help but catch her subtle hint.

    tab “You said ‘she’.” Her face took on the secretive smile of Mona Lisa but she only answered with a question.

    tab “Is there something wrong? James you look confused.” An eyebrow arched up as she asked this, to others a look of slight concern, but Erohs knew she was smug. That’s her alright, always concerned with creating a mystery.

    tab “The Arllain I’m referring to is an 18 year old boy about to go to college. Maybe you’ve got the wrong person.”

    tab "Hardly, James. I’ve never seen a name of that kind spelled like this.” Yufloria slipped a scrap of paper across Erohs’s desk with one word written on it: Kebä. Erohs stared at the paper before him knowing there was no other possibility now. 20 years in the practice had him looking at hundreds, maybe thousands of names, and only once had he seen a name of its exact counterpart. His eyes narrowed as he glanced back up at Yufloria’ who still had the same knowing expression on her face. “Now that I have your attention, do you want to hear more? Or should I leave… like I know what you want?”

    tab “Tell me what you know, but-” He stopped her before she could begin –“there’s no guarantee that I’ll believe you. Stick to the facts and maybe I’ll consider it…”

    tab Yufloria revised her brief report into an even shorter summery and this time it was devoid of all tact.

    tab “Recently I held a reading session in a city nearby and came across a girl attending that had a surprising aura about her. I sifted through my other clients until the suspense was all I could take and finally was drawn to her without my own permission. When she was read I sensed a terrible catastrophe had happened in her dream state but was blocked from trying to make amends. We both came to and I realized she had done the unthinkable and the impossible. Trying to fix the problem on outside the dream state was even more dangerous than how it is done inside of it and so I purposefully fabricated a ceremony in order to make it seem as though there was no hope for it.”

    tab “Wait, what was unthinkable? What happened?” Erohs urged to question overcame his need to be passive and he felt anxious when something was left out. He didn’t want to miss anything even if it was just something imagined by Yufloria’s mind.

    tab “Well, in all factuality the Arllaine I refer to is indeed female. But due to certain events, the Arllaine that came to you happened to be male. Do you follow me?” She waited as his unwilling scrutiny turned into concentrated thought. Yufloria recognized the way he turned away from her slow and reflective to look out the window. He was mulling it over.

    tab Erohs sighed. “Let me get this straight,” he said as he finally turned back to her, “You believe this Kebä Arllaine was originally female but somehow something you didn’t do made her male? And after the stress that would most likely cause, you lied to said person about fixing the problem?”

    tab “Lying is a rather strong word for what I did, I would call it-”

    tab “What?” Erohs was standing and towering over Yufloria at the end of his well trained patience. “What would you call it?? Protection? Closure? Control? No matter what you call it, it is still lying and it doesn’t make anything better!”

    tab “I couldn’t allow it!” she was on her feet too fiercely staring back at Erohs. Yufloria’s words caught in her throat and she couldn’t say more. The pain in her face was none Erohs had ever seen and he was taken aback by her as if it were too sudden slump back into her chair, head resting in her hand heavy to support itself.

    tab His rage had all been extinguished and now he could only look at her with blank confusion feelings of helpfulness holding him in place. Erohs went over the whole conversation in his head and realized that he had been treating Yufloria’s visit like any other case and he’d studied her demeanor for signs of insanity. There were none. Only that brief moment of passionate anger had led her current state and his criticism never had induced that effect before. All that could be done was to find the motive behind her visit.

    tab “So, what was it you needed of me?”

    tab Yufloria looked up from her cradled hands forlorn and didn’t answer. She seemed to not understand the question but didn’t answer. She seemed to not understand the question but a moment later she answered.

    tab “What I need…I…I need is your help, James.” Yufloria sat waiting for the answer in his eyes as she searched them for the slightest give. Erohs hadn’t even started to consider her question. He was concerned with the stipulations behind each act and couldn’t understand why his question had produced her strange answer.

    tab “My help? How can I possibly be of help to you? How is science credible to mystics?” Erohs’s eyes had hardened and the set of his lips were a firm line.

    tab “James…” Yufloria said with quiet emotion, “We might not understand fully what the other does and how they can enjoy such work, but I never thought of you as useless.”

    tab She walked around his desk with a slow measured step to face him closer than before. Erohs eyed the slim space between them, wanting to correct its distance with another step back, but his attention was again on her words as Yufloria spoke again. “To gain your help would mean a great deal to me, you how have been so far away until now. I have stayed away as you desired but now I have no other choice left open to me.”

    tab Erohs’s scowl seemed more reluctant now but he didn’t speak. He wondered how long she would take to get to the point, how long she would stand so close and ho long she would beg. As he thought this, she stepped closer to him still searching his eyes relentlessly.

    tab “Please…James,” Yufloria coaxed softer than before, “Help me make amends for the mess I’ve caused and set things right. That girl needs my help but I can’t do it alone. I need you.”

    tab She was so close now that she could hear his quickened breaths, a faint fluttering heartbeat. Erohs cringed from the warmth radiating from her body in the chilled air of the office, leaning away from her close proximity. He tried to keep his thoughts organized but couldn’t seem to form a coherent sentence and Erohs only stood silently looking torn now.

    tab “You still haven’t gotten to the point yet,” he finally said, “What do you want me to do?” Erohs’s words were weak against his dark 3-piece suit, their faces almost touching.

    tab “Do you not yet understand?” Yufloria tilted her head in a playful gesture as she looked him over. The emotions flitting across Erohs’s face were becoming more obvious than before and she laughed once at the childish frown he wore. “Please allow me to elaborate then.”

    tab Whether she had used his offer as an opening or had decided to take advantage of what little compassion he had shown, Erohs knew she was in her endgame now. Yufloria’s next move proved his theory for as she stepped forward he took the same step back into a wall. Erohs suddenly felt highly aware of her advances knowing she wanted so much more than she was letting on and that he would give it all regardless.

    tab “What I want from you is simple and doesn’t require much from you at all.” Yufloria touched her lips to his but still spoke as her arms slinked across his built form and wound tight like a vice. Erohs’s rigid body shook and their heated breaths mixed into a cocktail of intoxication as he waited. Her words caressed his face like silky whispers and he shuddered when she closed any space there was left between them.

    “Lend me your body…and we’ll take care of our dear girl Kebä.”