The past week had been... productive. Mostly.

  Arabel was all too eager to help Eclipse with fox training, having apparently missed her true calling as a magical transformation coach, implementing a strict routine. Mornings began with grounding rituals (which involved a surprising amount of scented candles and yoga), followed by transformation drills that usually ended with Eclipse yelling, “I’M NOT A HOUSE PET,” and Arabel calmly offering her a snack.

  To Eclipse’s eternal horror, it kind of helped.

  By midweek, she could hold her human form all morning without twitching ears or surprise tail-whips. The bow incidents were reduced to two (Arabel swore she was “training reaction time”), and the emergency “Fluff Zone” was upgraded with ambient forest noises and a heated bnket. Eclipse refused to admit she liked the bnket. Arabel knew. She said nothing. She just added a second one.

  Despite the progress, there were setbacks.

  Wednesday: An old neon light popped outside causing a full blown floofening.

  Thursday: Eclipse sneezed during a grocery run and instantly floofed out beside the oranges. A small child screamed with joy and tried to put her in their backpack.

  Friday: She got startled by a toaster. No further questions.

  Saturday: Success. No transformations. But her tail did accidentally flick a coffee mug off a café table. Arabel decred it a win.

  But Sunday? Sunday she nailed it. Entire day. Human form only. Calm. No floof.

  The ice powers or sensitivity seemed to be gone. Eclipse felt normal and there were no ‘Elsa’ incidents to speak of. It was a weird feeling though. As Eclipse put it, ‘it felt like something was missing.’ By Monday, though, Eclipse was back at work. The cafe had been very understanding in the ‘emergency’ vacation. The morning had been fairly slow, so there weren't a whole lot of stressful moments. The only close call had been when the speaker beeped resetting the signal. Eclipse started, but maintained breathing and managed to avoid floofing out in front of customers.

  It was the end of her shift and Eclipse was walking out with an Iced Caramel Mocha in her hands, smiling like she had won a prize. Her ear cuff buzzed and Arabel’s name popped up on the visual ID. With a chuckle, Eclipse answered.

  “No floofing or tail whips.” she started before Arabel could even talk.

  “See I told you boot camp would work!” excimed Arabel. “Are you spending the night again or heading to your apartment?”

  Eclipse smiled. To be honest, she enjoyed the company, however chaotic it was.

  “I wanna work on some music, but yeah I might head over to your pce ter. Say around nine?” Eclipse sat on a bench, people watching while she talked.

  They talked for a bit more and Eclipse sucked on her coffee. The weather was perfect and Eclipse felt the calmest she had been all week. She hung up the call and took another sip of her drink. It was then that she heard the unmistakable coo of a pigeon. Animals and birds still poputed Ageis-5, but they stuck to the under developed area. Confused, Eclipse looked around, finally spotting the little bck speck flying high in the sky. With a smile she watched as it circled before gliding down. The pigeon nded on the railing beside her, puffed up, glowing slightly around the edges. Its feathers shimmered with iridescent gray-blue, a faint sigil glowing on its chest like moonlight etched in shadows.

  ‘Odd,’ thought Eclipse, but not the weirdest thing she had seen all week.

  “Hello, Eclipse,” said the bird in a ckadaisy voice.

  Eclipse spit out her coffee. ‘The bird spoke. Am I Snow Fucking White Now? Yep certifiable now for sure.’ Eclipse’s mind raced as she stared at the pigeon.

  “Nope nope nope,I have had enough weird stuff this week,” she groaned.

  "Awww, What's wrong? Talking pigeons are not conversation worthy?Like come on I'm talking here. Too busy to take a moment? Smell the roses as it were." His voice was calm and zy, the sound resonating from nowhere and everywhere. “I was in the area. Thought I’d drop by.”

  “Sorin?” gasped, wiping coffee off her shirt. That voice was too familiar.

  The pigeon gave a zy blink, shifting on its tiny cws, then tilted its head. “In the metaphorical and literal feathered flesh,” Sorin replied, fluffing up just enough to shake a shimmer of stardust off his wings. “Nice drink, by the way. Caramel mocha? A little sweet for my taste. You should try cold brew with a hint of lemon zest sometime, very eccentric.”

  Eclipse narrowed her eyes, still trying to process if she was hallucinating, enchanted, or just deeply cursed. Probably all three. “You're a pigeon right now. Why are you a pigeon?”

  Sorin stretched one wing and shrugged, or at least approximated a shrug, which was unsettlingly convincing. “Eh. Pigeons are overlooked. You blend in, you nap in public without judgment, and if you stare at people long enough they give you snacks. It’s the zen of city life. Plus,” he leaned in conspiratorially, “I look good in gray-blue.”

  Eclipse snorted despite herself, setting her now mostly-forgotten coffee on the bench. “You scared the crap outta me. I almost floofed out again. In public. You know Arabel would never let me live that down. Wait…do you know about the floofing?” she asked, forgetting she hadn't seen Sorin in a couple weeks.

  “Mayyybe,” he said cheerfully. “Arabel may or may not have posted clips of you chasing a ser pointer.”

  Eclipse growled. “That video is fake news.”

  “Of course,” Sorin said solemnly. “Just like the one where you did three somersaults after getting spooked by a wind chime.”

  She stared at him. “Oh so you wanted to see the floof?” she growled. “You pnned that?!”

  “I pnned... nothing,” he said, clearly lying, “I nudged a few probabilities. Slight fp here, subtle ripple in causality there. You’re welcome.”

  Eclipse groaned, but a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. Sorin's brand of chaotic serenity was annoying, but familiar. Comforting, even. She leaned back on the bench, the st rays of sunlight catching her hair.

  “So why really show up?” she asked. “Not that I’m compining, but it’s rare for you to drop in unless something’s... off or your trying to hack the cafe music.”

  Sorin went quiet for a moment. For a pigeon, his expression managed to grow serious.

  “There’s something stirring beneath Aegis-5,” he murmured, voice no longer zy, but yered with quiet gravity. “Old magic waking. The kind that doesn't send you emails. I felt it ripple through the edges of time. I figured... you should know.”

  Eclipse sat up straighter. “Stirring? Like what…machinery? Shadows? Ghosts?”

  “Maybe all three,” Sorin replied. “Maybe none. But the bance is shifting, like gravity leaning the wrong way. It’s small now, like the tickle before a sneeze. But you’ll feel it soon.”

  Her hands tightened on the bench’s edge. It had already been a hell of a couple weeks. The Ice Lady, the floofening, the weird calm, the magic… now this.

  “Arabel’s gonna love this,” Eclipse muttered.

  “Oh she already knows,” Sorin said lightly. “She started smudging her apartment an hour ago and reorganized her crystals alphabetically. That’s never a good sign. She’s got a weird sense for these things.”

  Eclipse groaned again, already imagining the energetic emergency drills.

  Sorin fluttered up, perching now on the top of the bench’s backrest. “I’ll keep an eye out, but don’t expect warnings. Chaos doesn’t RSVP.”

  She looked up at him, squinting at the pigeon. “…So do I get a cryptic prophecy, or is this just ominous feathered loitering?”

  “Oh fine,” Sorin sighed. “Here’s your prophecy: Look for the shadow with a pulse. The silence that echoes. And the pce where time forgets to tick.”

  He paused. “Also, maybe bring an umbrel on Thursday.”

  With that, he fpped once and took off into the darkening sky, glowing faintly like a falling star that forgot to burn out.

  “We are talking about this pigeon thing ter!” Eclipse yelled out to Sorin. He ughed in response, vanishing among the clouds.

  Eclipse sat there, eyes on the sky long after he vanished.

  “...I’m never going to have a normal week again, am I?”

  She reached for her coffee, took a long sip, and this time, she didn’t spill a drop.