<span style="font-family: 'Georgia'">I watched her take in the scents I’d summoned for her, and watched them transport her to a flurry of different places and different times. Not that I could actually see them with her, I wasn’t prying, I just knew the look of someone reliving memories through an unexpected sensation. Her breathing didn’t speed up, and her eyes stayed steady, but it looked like home was exhilarating to her, full of wild, happy memories and a fierce passion for the corner of the world she called her own. It wasn’t what I expected, that rush of recollection, but I saw it when she realized I had done it. I saw the way she didn’t quite lift her hand, her mind quickly puzzling out the strange occurrence, and the snap decision-making of a leader.<br/>
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Her words were blunt and to the point, and I detected something akin to annoyance at my roundabout language, but at the same time, she was inviting me home. It was my turn to make a decision, and in that moment I remembered what Crazy John had said: “Not alone.” Realization gripped my heart, and I knew. Unlikely as it was, this person was the only way I was going to survive picking up the bounty on Salvarion. I felt my suddenly pounding heartbeat pulsing up my throat, but I kept quiet and watched her pen her phone number on the front of a business card under her name. She looked as relaxed as ever, and felt to my extended senses like a great, searing ball of flame and passion, but there was a slight tension in her lips, a pinching tug that was a blend of willful stubbornness and deep caring. This was a woman who would not appreciate my being careful on her account.<br/>
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I lifted my hand to take the card, and met her eyes. “Thank you, Ash,” I said, then I worked a spell to drop an orb of silence over the two of us, cutting off my next words from the rest of world around us, and let some of the energy slip through my irises as I laced power through my voice, which resonated through the orb as I spoke my true name. “My Name is Devon Bartholomew Chase. I am a bounty hunter for the Enclave, and before today I worked alone. If you take me home, you will be taking in my trouble with me. Speak my Name as I have just given it to you, and I will hear it no matter where I am. If you are in trouble, I will be there. If I survive the summoning I must do tonight, I will be back here as you are closing, and you may ask me whatever you like. It is not often someone opens their home to me, and I do not take it lightly. I would like you to know who I am before you actually do it.” I let the silence spell disperse through the crowd, weaving the silence over their memory of the two of us while it was active. As the bustling sound of the shop bled back into our world, I smiled like a man who had just been propositioned. “I look forward to sharing a bottle with you. I’m Devon.” I flicked a plastic card out from nowhere between my fingers and held it out to the store owner for the wine. “Do you think this red would pair well with pasta and salad, or should it be enjoyed all on its own?”<br/>
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The words were innocuous enough, and I did actually want the answer, but I knew what I had just done was strange, and the words were intended to be comfortable, normal, and easy to step into. The customers showed no sign of having noticed what I’d done, but I’d avoided throwing spells on her people. No matter what kind, that could be seen as aggressive, and such acts could be recorded. Still, a Name given is given only to the person to whom it is given, so I wasn’t worried about that, but the other woman working behind the bar had been watching us before and she could have been listening and wondering why she suddenly couldn’t hear us at all. I watched Ash with calm eyes that wore no veils and waited to see if she wanted dinner with the wine.</span>