Pancove was a coastal town, it was farther north, and it didn't get as much traffic as the warmer towns down south. Population wise, they were in the lower thousands. A software development company recently built its headquarters forty minutes away, which resulted in an uptake in traffic. It caused pointless conflict, as those who visited Pancove rarely stuck around.

Pancove happened to be part of the cluster of smaller towns Devi rotated through the last hundred years. She stuck to the northern ones because they were rather isolated and no one would make a big deal if a person or two went missing every couple of months. That and she wasn't allowed anywhere near the bigger cities thanks to the sort of numbers she had been pulling.

She thought about this as she strolled through the central streets of the town. Internally, she was screaming, alarmed by the number of people on the street.

I thought this was supposed to be a "small town", why are there so many people here?

She could just ask. Chances were that everyone knew everyone, right? Someone would have to know who the boy at the beach had been. Devi had never done this before, getting to know the person she was about to murder had never been a priority, she didn't know how to approach people. Especially casually and sans magic.

She could pretend she was lost. She had used that trick on men in the past, so in order to play it safe, she approached a woman. 

I can do this, she told herself.

“Excuse me, I’m looking for my cousin. He's about this tall, on the thin side, with blond curly hair. Have you seen anyone matching that description?” That description sounded less vague and generic in her head.

“Oh? No, sorry, does he live around here? Maybe I know him, what’s his name?” the local asked.

Devi’s eyes widened at the question that she would have obviously had to answer at some point. The thought hadn't occurred to her, as Devi was a professional at making herself look like an idiot.

“Shoot, I didn’t think about that, never mind," she muttered out loud, confusing the young woman. She walked off mid-conversation.

A number of meters away, a poster on a lamppost caught her eye. She didn't bother reading it, as that would risk her losing sight of the helpful stranger. 

“Wait!” she called back to her, “This person! Have you seen this person?” she pointed with excitement.

The stranger now looked at her with skepticism, and frankly at this point Devi would have too. 

“Your cousin is Mars from By The Coast?”

Devi juggled with the answer to the peculiar question briefly, ultimately deciding that she didn’t care. “Sure.”

“Mars and the boys play at Benji’s every Friday night.”

Devi blinked and tilted her head, “and today is?”

“Friday.”

Her expression brightened, that had been awfully convenient.

“Where is Benji’s again?”

The unconvinced stranger pointed at a bar in the distance.

"Thank you mam!"

The woman walked off and Devi took a second to study the poster on the pole. The advert was for a band's performance at the bar, and it only killed Devi slightly to learn that she could have avoided talking to people completely, had she simply bothered to read the sign in the first place.

Bands were common in her own dimension, this didn’t make her any less curious. Mortal music was shared and marveled at among her peers, but it had never caught Devi's interest. From what she had heard, she found it very bubbly, and it hurt her to think that people actually enjoyed singing.

Suddenly, it occurred to her that she had a number of hours to kill. She could wander around, perhaps study mortal interactions and learn how to talk to people without coming off as a heathen. Yeah no, that sounded inappropriate even if they were only mortals. ‘Only mortals’ was unfair to say… considering that she too was now mortal-ish. 

She hadn't figured out a living situation, but for the time being she had limited access to her mother's magic. She intended to use that to perhaps find a birdhouse to hide in. Best she did that before it got too late. She made for a dark corner and without checking if the coast was clear, she took off into the sky.