Cassie\'s POV

We were about to follow Maland into the room, but with a gesture he asked us to stay back. "Hey big guy" He mumbled as he stood in front of Mike. Mike refused to look at Maland, so he continued. "Your mother wants to know if you are okay with us coming here or not… but-"

"I don\'t need a babysitter. I am not a baby"! He shouted before Maland could finish.

"What about your sister?" That got his attention when he finally gazed at Maland, however he still avoided eye contact. After a moment of pause, he mumbled. "She is a baby" He nodded. "She needs one".

"You know, she liked Cassie" Mumbled Maland, "But she is sad that Cassie won\'t get to stay" He explained to her.

"Why can\'t she stay"? Slowly, Mike asked.

"Because you don\'t want us around. Your mother loves you, and she doesn\'t want to be uncomfortable with us" Maland sighed.

"That will make Meg sad," Mumbled Mike.

"I know," Maland nodded. "So… Can you tolerate us? For her sake. I promise we won\'t bother you very much. You are Meg\'s big brother right, you can do this for her"?

"I am her big brother," Mike mumbled. "I need to look out for her," he added.

"So…? Can we stay"? Maland asked. Before Mike could answer, he added. "You see, Cassie is my sister, so I\'ll tag along with her. I can\'t leave my sister here alone". It was weird to hear him call me his sister, then again I never had a sibling so it was given.

"She needs you," Mike mumbled. "Just like my sister needs me" mumbled.

"So we can stay"? Asked Maland.

I could ruffle breathing noises and on peeking I could see Mike getting restless and he looked around himself frantically. "Hey, hey… you don\'t have to decide right now," Maland added. "Just think about it. Okay"?

Mike\'s fidgeting stopped and he nodded. Maland knowing that their conversation had run out he exited the room. "That was impressive" Whispered Mrs Waltham once she closed the room. She led us back to the living room as she spoke, "I must say Mr… Maland? You are the first person who got Mike to change his opinion. I actually think he will come around" She smiled.

"It\'s okay. I understand he gets anxious around strangers. At times so do I, so I can relate" Maland bowed to her gently. Meanwhile I stood there wide eyed witnessing their interaction. Who knew Maland was this great with this. And to think he was against this when I proposed we do this. I sighed.

"It\'s more than that. He is not just uncomfortable with strangers… he… he struggled with social interaction a lot. You see, he is autistic so it\'s hard for him to be around too many people. Nevertheless, you guys really impressed me today. I\'ll talk to him and get back to you by tomorrow" She told us and left. The maid showed us the way out and we headed for our place as well.

When we were on our way, Maland asked, "What\'s autistic"?

At that point I realised he wasn\'t much familiar with human livelihood, including stuff like these. "It\'s a… developmental disorder, I guess," I tried to explain. It\'s not like I had done a phd or something related to this. Even my knowledge in this scope was limited. I guess Mike, my Mike, could explain things better since he was planning to be a doctor.

"Which means"? Maland frowned, as he failed to understand.

"It\'s a kind of disorder, where people struggle with daily social interactions. It\'s a spectrum so individual variations are there. The thing is, they won\'t appear to be very friendly and hip… but they are quite okay. They have a different take on friendship, I think" I tried to explain. "I am not that well versed with this. If we see more of Mike, you will see what I was talking about. Like, you know how he never made eye contact"? I asked. Maland nodded, recalling the same. "It\'s one of the features"?

"I see," He nodded. "He seemed pretty okay to me," he shrugged.

"I guess that\'s a good thing then. But you can imagine why he has trouble interacting" I shrugged. Maland nodded and we went back to our apartment. That night I received an email from Mrs Waltham that she managed to Convince her son to hire them. According to her, apparently Mike was \'fond\' of Maland.

It was a good thing then. Their pay was pretty good too, a hundred dollars an hour. I am glad I dragged Maland with me. He can take care of Mike, while I can bond with Megan. In her Mrs Waltham, we were supposed to go next evening and look after them for a few hours since she had to be out for urgent business.

The next day, like my daily stalking routine I tried to look for Mike, but apparently he was nowhere to be seen. It\'s not like I can ask anyone about him, considering he doesn\'t have many friends. He talks to the librarian from time to time though, maybe she would know something. When I asked her about Mike she seemed a bit indifferent.

Seeing no option, I decided to enchant her and get her to talk, "tell me, where is Michal Dumas?" I asked once more, this time even more assertive.

"He is taking a sick leave" Is all I got from her, who blurted this out in a very robotic manner. As much as I wanted to check up on Mike, I knew I can\'t since that would be way over the line. Maybe I could use some kind of magic? I didn\'t know what was wrong with Mike, but when I spotted Jake.

I decided to tag his bag with a tiny bottle of milkshake with Mike\'s name on it. I used my charm to infuse it with my healing powers, which if Mike takes, he might heal quickly from whatever he was going through. Once Jake was out of my view I froze. How much am I willing to go for Mike? I wondered. The way I was concerned about him was starting to drive me crazy.

That evening me and Maland headed out for our job, and it turned out to be quite the evening. I spent time with Megan with her coloring books and did some origami with her. I even watched this show with her which is about child detectives. It was fun, and spending time with Megan did take my mind off of my Mike.

As for Maland, since he promised he won\'t bother Mike, he just sat there reading an article. He didn\'t bother talking to Mike, but made sure to keep an eye on Mike. I could tell Mike was satisfied when Mike himself approached Maland to get him a book from the top shelf. Their parallel play worked out quite well for them.

Mrs Waltham arrived at the mansion at around 7:30 pm and that is when we took our leave. On our way back we were talking about the kids when suddenly I heard a swish noise and there was an arrow on the ground which had missed me by an inch. "We are under attack, princess let me guard you".

"Maland, I am an excellent warrior, I can fight whoever is attacking us" I huffed. Using my magic I scanned the entire area and determined the location of our attackers. Both of us ran towards the direction dogging those arrows which I am almost certain that they were laid with poison.

As soon as I reached the rooftop, (their location) I froze. I recognised the half covered face and the ridiculous costume this woman was wearing. She was none other than Linda\'s killer, and today… I\'ll avenge her death. I let out a growl and attacked her. She seemed to be evading all my attacks while she managed to hit me twice. Knowing that my anger was deflecting me, I tried to regain my focus and attack her more cautiously.

I almost got her when I managed to throw her off the roof, but somehow she managed to avoid impact using her magic. "Ughh"! It was so frustrating. Now I knew she was someone of higher ranks, to harness magic like that. But who? Her familiarity reached beyond the night of Linda\'s death.

In our fight she was gone, but I noticed Magnus getting overpowered. I aided him in the battle but soon we weren\'t just fighting against some soldiers. Two wild Sabre Hounds appeared and tried to attack us. To take on a beast like that, we needed more than just some muscle so I tried to use my magic to fend him off, distract him by casting illusions, but thanks to their sense of smell nothing worked.

Those two hounds came right at us, and my mind went completely blank as I accepted my untimely death. Except, I didn\'t die. A huge swarm of fire overtook the entire area sans us and soon every hound, every soldier turned into ashes. That fire literally fried them. Tracing the source, I looked at the direction of the origin of fire, and I froze.