A young man stepped through the doorway of the convenience store, twisting one of his intricate silver rings. His professional demeanor contrasted with the run down store, where the paint was peeling off of the walls and the air smelled heavily of gasoline and cigarettes. He wrinkled his nose at the scent and smoothed his perfectly ironed suit. A woman at the counter had been staring at him for some time, brow scrunched as if she was concentrating.

"Need something?" she asked. She was surrounded by pots of wilting plants and flowers. The woman used one hand to fiddle with the shriveled and stiff petals of a rose, the other to tap her nails slowly on the wooden counter. The man's gaze shifted to her face. A thick, pink scar ran from the arch of her eyebrow to the corner of her mouth. It was sort of like a break in the face of a perfect porcelain doll. She raised an eyebrow, expecting a response.

"Ah, I'm okay," he said, giving her a polite smile. She stared at him suspiciously for a few more moments before turning away from him.

"Alright, well I'll be in the back room. If you need me, just yell." The man nodded, stepping forward. He scanned the small store, searching for what he needed. A lot of the shelves were mostly empty, candy bars scattered here and there. The woman began to hum an old song from the back room. The only thing that seemed to be fully stocked was the front counter. It was littered with personal items, cigarette ashes, and dead plants. The man frowned at the mess, about to turn away when something caught his eye.

On the shelf behind the counter was a compact mirror. It sat open, framed with gold and the glass reflecting the light. He stepped toward it quickly. That was exactly what he was looking for.

He leaned to the side, peering into the back room. The woman sitting cross legged on a table, shuffling through some papers. He took a deep breath, creeping toward the counter. His gaze flicked between the woman and the mirror as he slipped behind the counter, reaching up to grab the object.

Finally, he managed to quietly swipe it off the shelf. It was cold and a bit heavy in his hands. The man snapped it shut, slipping it into the front pocket of his jacket and turning to leave, smiling to himself. He had finally succeeded in getting his hands on a dimensional mirror.

Suddenly, he felt a harsh tug on his hair. He yelped, feeling himself get pulled back away from the door. He heard a voice behind him.

"Where do you think you're going with that?" she said. The grip on his hair was released, and he spun around to face the woman that had been behind the counter before. He tensed, moving away from her, but she stepped toward him, backing him against an empty shelf.

"What, with this?" He said, pulling the mirror out from his pocket and holding it up for her to see, his hand trembling a bit. She immediately lunged forward and tried to snatch it from him, but he held it up out of her reach. She jumped up, waving her arms desperately, but still couldn't touch it. He smirked down at her. "Having a bit of trouble, shorty?"

"Shut it, blondie," she growled. He chuckled, waving the compact around above her. The woman glared up at him, tying her strawberry blonde hair back in a messy bun. Her grey-green eyes glittered with anger and mischief, and the smallest of smiles tugged at the corners of her lips. The man blinked, confused.

She then grabbed his tie with one hand and quickly pulled herself up. She used the other to fully push herself up so that she was head level with the man, and could reach the mirror. The woman grabbed it from him, then let herself drop back down the wooden floor, which creaked loudly at the impact.

The man was speechless. It had happened so fast. He just stood there, mouth hanging slightly open with wide owl eyes. She smiled at him, putting the mirror in her pocket and placing a hand on her hip.

"Don't you know it's rude to steal personal things from people you've just met?" She asked, tilting her head to the side, holding her hand out. "I'm Amber Lumic, by the way. I own this store."

"Nice to meet you," the man replied hesitantly, shaking her hand. Amber smiled at him.

Amber blinked. "Are you going to tell me your name?" she asked. He scrunched his brow and looked down at his shoes, leaning back against the shelf, which wobbled a bit.

"No, probably not."

"Fair enough. Can I ask why you were trying to steal a personal item of mine?" She said, holding up the compact mirror. He looked over at it, feeling the urge to reach out and grab it.

"Do you know what it is?" he asked, gaze not straying from the mirror. Amber chuckled.

"Of course I know what it is. It's mine, after all," she said. "It lets a sentient being travel to parallel dimensions. I just can't figure out why you need to do that."

The man glared at her, stepping back. "Of course you wouldn't know, we've only just met," he said. His body began to emit transparent gold flames. They were soft and barely visible, but Amber had noticed them. She tilted her head curiously, squinting at the elegant fire for a moment before looking back up at the man's face.

"Can't you at least humor me? You tried to steal my mirror, so you owe me something," she pointed out, turning away from him. She walked around the back of the counter, entering the back room. "Get back here and answer some questions for me, and I might consider forgiving you!" she called to him. He cautiously made his way to the back of the store to meet her, arms crossed tightly over his chest as he looked around.

"You do realize I just tried to steal from you, right?" he asked, dumbfounded and curious. Amber laughed, turning a bit to talk over her shoulder.

"Don't worry about it, I make friends with all of the thieves that swing by my store." Asura frowned in confusion. Friends? With people who take items from her without permission? Either this woman was strange, or humanity was even more confusing than he thought.

As he walked, he noticed that there were more dead plants and flowers in the back room than he could count. Some of them still held on to a bit of vitality, while others looked as if they were about to crumble to ashes. He felt a chill looking at it.

"Don't worry about that," Amber said, putting a hand on the man's shoulder. He jumped a bit, looking at her. "It's just Dark Magic. We drain the life force of plants and convert their energy to perform spells and whatnot."

"Dark magic... " he repeated, voice low. "I believe I've heard of that before, but I've never really seen it." Amber's eyebrows raised.

"Really? It's everywhere in this city." Amber pointed up at the lights. "We use it for things as basic as electricity," she paused, picking up a wilted flower from a table, "to raising the dead." She pressed her thumb and forefinger to the bottom of the stem. Green flames wrapped around the flower, licking at the petals. Slowly, it gained its vitality. The stiff, greyish flower bloomed into a vibrant red, the stem a luscious green. The man leaned forward, his eyes twinkling with wonder as he observed the process.

"However, the effects are only temporary," she said, dropping the rose back onto the table to demonstrate. It shriveled up within a split second. One of the petals crumbled upon touching the wooden surface of the table.

"Huh," the man said softly, staring at the rose for a long moment. Amber beamed at him.

"There you go, your beginner's guide to dark magic!" She said enthusiastically. Just then, a small bell chimed from the main area of the store. They both heard footsteps, and a young man poked his head through the doorway of the back room. His dark, fluffy hair fell in front of his eyes, and his light ebony skin that was scattered with faint freckles. The man's gaze was quickly drawn to the eyes of the guy in the doorway. They were small and upturned, the irises a striking green peridot color. It seemed like they were swirling with melted jewels.

"Who are we teaching dark magic?" He asked, bringing himself into the room and plopping down casually next to Amber.

"Oh, uh, dude in the suit, this is Milo. Milo, this is... a dude in a suit," she said, trying her best to introduce them without knowing the man's name. He politely waved at Milo, who shot him a glare.

"What does he want?" His eyes flicked over the man as if he was a wolf sizing up its prey. Amber reached over, ruffling Milo's hair. He let out a short yell in protest.

"Be nice, kiddo. This guy doesn't seem that dangerous," she assured him with a smile. He batted her hand away, giving her a dirty look.

"Stop that, I'm a grown man," he grumbled. Amber smacked him in the back of the head in response.

"Then start acting like one and be nice to the guy in the cheap suit. He's not going to hurt us."

"We don't know that for sure," he pointed out. She shrugged, pulling her hand back and letting it drop back down to her side. Her nails clicked loudly on the table.

"We'll be fine. Besides, I wanted to get to know him," she explained. Milo rolled his eyes, sliding himself off of the table and strolling over to a bookcase at the far end of the room. He ran his slender hands along the spines of a few books before selecting one and pulling it off of the shelf.

"I'm going to go read, then," he said over his shoulder, already walking away with the book held tightly to his chest. Amber snickered.

"Nerd," she said to him.

"Geek," he responded, exiting the room. The bell at the front door chimed a few seconds later, signaling that he was gone.

Amber turned to the man again and folded her hands on her lap. "Sorry about that. He can be a bit snappy, but he means well." She gave him a wide, friendly smile. The man crossed his arms over his chest.

"Is there anything else you'd like to talk about?" He asked, keeping his face and tone of voice as neutral as possible. He stared at a shelf full of plants, some of which were alive. Amber gave him a sly smile.

"Yeah. Who exactly are you?" she questioned, leaning forward slightly. The man stepped back and looked at her. "What's your name?"

"That's... confidential." Amber's smile fell and she rolled her eyes at him.

"No it's not. You're running away from something, I can tell," she said confidently. The man didn't react, but Amber kept going. "That's why you needed the dimensional mirror, so you could escape. It would've been much easier to leave our realm by just asking our Keeper to escort you out, but you didn't. Which means you don't want anybody to know that you're here. That's why you won't tell me who you are, because you're afraid that whoever you're running from will find you."

The room went silent for a moment. Amber began to tap her nails on the table again, filling the area with a rhythmic clicking noise. Her stormy gray-green eyes met his, and he finally spoke.

"You seem intelligent. I'm impressed," he admitted, leaning back and putting his hands in his pockets. She gave him a satisfied smile. Her hands stilled, making the clicking sound stop, and the room fell silent for a moment.

"Does my intelligence and analysis get me a name?" She asked hopefully. The man gave her a small smile.

"Asura," he said. "It actually means demon in Hindu. It's not the ideal name, but I'm satisfied with it."

"Well, Asura," Amber started, pulling the mirror from earlier out from her pocket, "since you've been so cooperative, you can have this back. I can always get another one if I ever feel like I need it, but I don't think I ever will. I quite enjoy this dimension. It's a lot better than it might seem."

"Really?" Asura asked, thinking. He leaned back and rubbed the stubble on his chin.

"Really. It might be a little messy and complicated, but in the end, it's worth it. That's why rarely anybody leaves this dimension. We love it here." A warm smile had spread across Amber's face. Asura leaned forward a bit, interested.

"I've never actually been here before," he admitted. "Maybe I'll stay for a little while longer, if it's really as nice as you say it is."

"I don't know what Amber is talking about, this place is absolutely terrible," a man said from behind Asura, putting a hand on his shoulder. He jumped, yelling in surprise and terror. He relaxed slightly when he saw that it was just Milo.

"Son of a fuck, you scared me!" Asura snapped, backing up toward the wall. Milo chuckled. He looked down at the ground to hide his smile.

"Sorry, I thought you heard me come in."

"I didn't hear you either," Amber said, frowning. "Guess we just weren't paying attention."

"Or the bell isn't ringing," Milo suggested with a shrug. "Anyway, it's past six o'clock. Time to for us to close up shop, and for that guy to leave." He gestured toward Asura, who straightened his tie.

"I have a name, you know," he said, glaring.

"Do I look like I care?" Milo asked. Asura said nothing, trying to suppress a growl. "Exactly. Now get out," he said, already shoving the tall man out of the room and toward the door. Asura stumbled a bit.

"See you around!" Amber said, flashing him a smile.