The woman across the table looked to be in her late twenties. An attractive late twenties. Her long black hair was tied in a low ponytail accenting her narrow face and large brown eyes. Black skinny slacks, an oversized white button down, and black stiletto heels completed her look. A look that both impressed Maeri for its polish and intimidated her for its apparent status in 2017. While Maeeri had received lustful looks from some of the patrons in the cafe, this woman received awed looks. It didn’t help that Maeri could tell the woman was old Fey.

“My name is Hana and you are going to be working on a project for me.”

Maeri’s only response was a slow blink waiting for the woman to continue.

“Well, “ Hana picked up on Maeri’s disinterest in responding, “you are obviously new here if you do not know to not use your gifts in town and do not know who I am.”

“You have no idea how new,” Maeri couldn’t help but scoff under her breath.

Hana shot her a glare for a second for interrupting. “I work as a talent scout for one of the big entertainment companies in Seoul. The girl I had scouted for a role was called back home to her family suddenly and now I need a fresh face to do a bit of acting for me. I don’t know your background and if you can actually act, but the role really just needs a pretty girl since it is not speaking based anyway.”

“And why would I do this job for you?” Maeri couldn’t help but retort. She had just arrived in town and needed to figure out not only how to blend in with the time, but also to find Baekhyun. There was little hope of finding a random vampire in the age she grew up in even with its advanced registration systems, so she theorized it would be nearly impossible in 2017.

“Would you like to me report you to the Conclave, little Miss Mage, or better yet to the Service?”

The look of confusion was clear on Maeri’s face at that question making the Fey woman sigh, “Gosh, have you been living under a rock or something?”

“Uhm...or something…” Maeri shyly slipped out. “Could you explain?” She didn’t want to get help from this strange Fey woman, but she figured she would need it. There was no apparent dishonesty in anything that Hana had said thus far, but Maeri knew better than to blindly trust anyone.

“Listen up because this may just save your life and everyone’s that you come in contact with. The Conclave is the magic government. They represent each of the magical beings: weres, vampires, Fey, and you mages. They are hidden from the human government but they set the rules each of us need to follow to live in public. The first of which is to stay hidden. No powers in public means no fearful humans and no burning stakes. Get it?” Hana didn’t wait for Maeri to respond, but it was not really necessary. “The Service are a group of magical beings who believe in the absolute superiority of magical beings over humans. They will eliminate any threat to the continuity and superiority of the magical beings. While they are not completely in line with the Conclave, the two came to an agreement in the late 1800s to remain hidden in plain sight from humans. This peace ended the Inquisition.”

The arrival of Maeri’s coffee and food at the table caused Hana to stop talking briefly to avoid unwanted, human ears listening in. But this gave Maeri a chance to actually process what the older woman had said. Now Maeri was starting to recognize the names of the organizations. They did show up in her history books, but they were a footnote before the great blank period where no records managed to survive from the late 1960s to the mid 2050s. Nearly one hundred years of unknowns and Maeri had been thrown into the middle of it.

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