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Once she was sure there were no injuries or major damage from her little 'distraction', she checked in on the traveler. She and her friend were already going to work, so she decided to contact them afterward. In the meantime, she went to see how her watcher was handling the news of the fire elemental.

To her surprise, he was quickly distracted from that by a kidnapping incident. It involved a psychic, whom the police assumed was an accomplice of the kidnapper because she led them right to the kidnapped boy and described the kidnapper. She was quite impressed with the agent sent to investigate, as he put his own disbelief in psychic abilities aside and ascertained the truth of the situation.

By then the traveler was getting off of work, so she went to her home to wait for all of them to gather together. Once they had, she changed her outfit again and knocked on the door. Belatedly, she remembered to drop the wards hiding her presence from them as the traveler opened the door. That turned out to be a mistake, though, as she and the others, with the expected exception of the Null, were overwhelmed by her presence.

Once some of her wards were back up she was able to tell them a little about what was happening, and answer a few questions. She sensed that they were getting overwhelmed with all the new information, some of which went against what they thought they knew, so she got up to leave. Something Jill, one of the traveler's friends, said brought back part of her reason for visiting and she made her apologies for her mistake with the fire elemental.

After that she went back to see what the watcher was up to. He had joined his agent and helped him clear up the mess with the psychic. His agent found the real kidnapper and they proved the psychic had nothing to do with the crime. The watcher also talked to the psychic afterward and gave her his card. He's beginning to believe. she thought, Now he's starting to see the advantages of developing contacts with people who have magical abilities. No doubt he'll approach Sarah and her friends before long.

Her attention was brought back to the watcher when his agent told him that the other agent had been injured. She followed them to find that this other agent had shot the Null, and been blasted by Sarah for his trouble. She was glad the Null had the chrysalis to heal her, since her own powers would not work on a Null. She could probably use the Weave to assist her healing, but it would be difficult.

The watcher dealt with the situation well and was indeed looking to approach Sarah and her friends for their help, but wisely held back and only left his card with Michael. Mana decided the situation was under control, so she went flying to relax. Afterward she settled in on the roof over the watcher's apartment and slept until morning.

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The watcher made for a very boring study the next day as he spent most of the time doing paperwork. As soon as Sarah left work she headed over to her apartment. After changing her outfit again she waited for her and Tiffany to arrive. She was glad to see that Erica had recovered fully.

Mana was amused by how distracting her cooking methods were, and enjoyed the conversation with Sarah and her friends. She tried to answer all of their questions. She also made some changes, at his request, to Vash, the mutated imp who had imprinted on Jill, to give him back some of the defensive abilities he'd lost when he came to this world.

She was somewhat surprised to find herself volunteering to help take photographs for their eBay store the next day. She wanted to get going to see what other connections she could make in the world before moving on to the next one. But she figured it wouldn't take that long, and she did enjoy their company. Deciding to check on the watcher one last time in the morning, she went back to her rooftop roost to rest.

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Agent Garner was still busy with paperwork in the morning, so Mana put a magical tracer on him and went over to join Sarah and her friends for lunch. She was amused, and flattered, to see that Sarah was jealous because Erica was attracted to her! It's been a long time since I've had any kind of romantic relationship. I wonder if I'll ever be able to find anyone like these four have? she thought enviously.

After another interesting conversation over lunch they went to the empty world Sarah had found to store the items they collected on other worlds. They had setup an entire photography studio in the front half of the storefront where they stored everything. The items they wanted to photograph were there, as well. It was a larger collection than she'd realized.

With her help the work was done very quickly. While she was working she checked in on Marvin and saw that he was making contact with more of the magical community. It didn't look like he would cause any more problems, so she erased the tracer and concentrated on what she was doing.

Afterward they returned to Sarah's apartment to talk again. Eventually, all the questions were answered and she felt that it was time to go. Sarah seemed sad to see her go, which got her a little teary-eyed, as well. Who would have thought I would grow so attached to them in such a short time! Perhaps I'll come back someday, after my work is done. she thought.

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To Be Continued…

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