“Who…wha…whe…” I barely sputtered, they just softly folded their hands in front of them as they folded their legs as they sat, but their body never changed elevation, instead of their body lowering to meet their legs, their legs rose to meet their torso.

“I am Vein” they said, motioning towards their chest with another soft nod, “I am…a guide of sort.”

“A guide?”

“A person like yourself” they said motioning towards me, “Often enjoys the help of someone like myself…I am about as close to a guardian angel as someone could get except for the fact that they are real” they added, pausing for a soft laugh, their voice still had that echoing softness, but less of the cave-mouth level, but still not clear. “I am…a very, very old soul…I don’t remember anything about who I could possibly have been before I passed, I have been between the realms for as long as I can recall…so I chose to stay and become a guide for the next medium to be chosen by the weave”

“So…you’re my magic?” I asked, they softly shrugged

“Not exactly, but not-not exactly” they explained, “I am not your magic made manifest, more of…your magic and I are a package deal. I can help you with helping the other lost ones out of their purgatory to find rest or solace in the not-flesh existence of being a ghost…I can teach you how to navigate the spectral world among many other things too.”

“You…you could teach me magic?” I asked, they nodded

“Of course” they assured, “I answered the call to be your guide a long…long time ago”

“You don’t know how long?”

“No” Vein said with a shake of their head, “I cannot recall ever being flesh and blood, the farthest back I can recall was as I am now.”

“Guide us…to…salvation” another voice whispered

“Why…why did you have me take your hand?”

“I said I am part of a package deal with your magic, but I needed to connect my existence to your magic so that I can show you myself, the misty state you saw me in was only as much as I could show without that connection being made.”

“I…I see.”

“I’m…sorry it’s taken this long for me to show myself…You just…never seemed to take in the signs that all of us were giving you.”

“I didn’t know magic was real till a few days ago.”

“Alas is the issue with a nonmagical human…or, formally nonmagical human to be a medium.”

“Why…why was I chosen?”

“Even I do not know, the weave does not discriminate, but it will scour the populace for the best fitted soul…because Rook specifically needed a medium, it searched the souls of the city and Seattle and it chose you, but in any of the other magical cities…there are people who at least a bit similar to you.”

“There’s…others?”

“There is usually one medium in each magical city, some have more depending on the nature of the magical city, but…you are the only one for here” they said with a soft nod, “Please…take my hands again, let me help you connect yourself.”

As I took Vein’s hands next, my vision flashes as all sorts of shapes rapidly passed by at such a speed that I couldn’t pick out any details of them, just smears of various colors, the imagery that passed by showed all sorts of shapes that I forced my mind to be able to pick up some of the elements; some were these shredded, spectral figures that had a thick orange slime dripping along their limbs and hanging on their claws, there were figures, tall and distended, lower jaws dislocated till they were against the figure’s chest as the air seemed to ripple with charged energy around their gaping maws, there were figures that looked almost entirely skeletal, but heads encased in flames and heavily armed and armored, there were figures that were tall, hulking figures carrying heavy barbed clubs with a greenish hue to the dark metal, there were figures who were pale grays and white who floated about with training wisps of clouds around them, figures moving in rapid, but lumbering bursts of energy despite being nothing more than rattling skeletons, some were entirely featureless darkness, the same as anyone else’s shadow on the ground, just…not person casting it…then there were figures, flesh grayed or other colored with various wounds and open areas showing no blood dripped and bugs moved through the flesh, then were smaller figures in shades of grays that seemed to crackle with electricity as they vanished past in a flash, then were figures with a greenish blue tone to the smoke they made as they flitted about before the last figures that showed were made of a soft, but pure white light and they floated in a more purposeful manner as they shot past the edges of my vision.

I gasped as my vision sharply returned back to my apartment, my hands white knuckle holding Vein’s wrists, but…despite how both solid, yet clear they looked…my grip on their arms was akin to trying to hold onto very dense fog or like mesh underwater, there was very…very little solidity to Vein’s body that was…a little concerning, but their grip was not anything that made me uncomfortable or feel bad, it was weirdly comforting how they were holding back, but there was a strangeness to how Vein was holding onto my arms.