Ring, ring

[Emily Littleton] It is a little bit later, after Emily has finished explaining to the authorities on the telephone that the strange man did not actually do anything, just that she was worried that he might. And that he was unwell. And that she was sorry, truly, verily, from the depths of her foreign-born soul for not knowing the Non-Emergency Chicago Police Department Telephone Number off the top of her wee brain as readily as Nine-One-One.

She was also sorry that someone would have to get hurt, possibly irreparably so, before they would step in and do more than file a piece of paperwork.

In all this while, Emily did not stop walking. She walked wherever her feet took her, as long as they continued to take her away from Dylan. Away from the Mile. Away from the place were two too odd people had found her in the space of forty-eight hours.

It is a little bit later, when Emily calls Kage: fire-locked Angel, singer, Courtier. She called, because it was a little to urgent for leaving messages in the heart of fallen kings, and because the Orphans did not have the budget for a bat signal. Yet.

[fate] And Emily doesn't have to wait very long at all before Kage answers the phone. The other woman (courtier, Orphan; not one of them, I stand on my own) has a cool voice, composed, clear, and kept low. "Hello? Emily?" There is minimal background noise, if any. Wherever K. R. Jakes is when Emily Littleton calls, it's somewhere quiet. There's also no sense that Emily's interrupting anything else (a conversation, a book, a movie or a bath).

[Emily Littleton] "Kage?" she asks, even thought it is clearly the other Orphan on the end of the line. "Yes, it's Emily." A confirmation. These things, these simple things like phone calls have patterns. Patterns that ought be observed.

"I hope I'm not disturbing you," she says, and her voice is a little tight. Her words are not quite evenly spaced. "Ah... Happy New Year," she adds, as if she's somehow forgotten that the Blue Moon and the New Year were merely days ago.

Something is amiss. Something is afoot.

"Do you... have a moment?"

[fate] "I do. I'm at my sister's house, avoiding doing the dishes in the attic. A phonecall will lend this endeavour respectability." Wry, maybe a little.

Her tone evens out, however. Becomes more serious. "Are you all right?"

[Emily Littleton] Emily let her breath escape through her teeth, quietly. Kage was not home. This was... this was good. Her footsteps began to slow, and she looked over her shoulder for the strange man. Looked around to get her bearings.

"I... well, no," she said, deciding the better of dancing around this with Kage tonight. Dancing was for another Awakened and his damnably unreadable expressions. "Not quite."

A little pause. A swallow.

"I ran into someone... strange... on the Mile. I think he's looking for you." She said it plainly, and it was plainly not good that this man was searching her out. (I think he's looking for you. [I hope you're safe.]) "I told him I didn't know you, and I think he believed me."

[fate] The woman on the other line is listening to Emily, and Emily has seen enough of Kage, and how she listens to Emily when she is talking, to be able to imagine pretty clearly just what color her eyes are, just what way she cants her head, if she cants her head at all. She may even be able to imagine Kage's expression, although it will remain just that: an imagining, not the true thing; who knows what Kage's expression is just now?

There is a moment of silence when Emily is done, and then a quiet exhale: "Are you hurt?" Followed by: "This man; what did he look like?" Another pause: "Was the air around him burning?"

[fate] "I mean, did it feel like it was burning," Kage corrects herself, and Emily can hear motion wherever Kage is, like the other woman was moving, walking.

[Emily Littleton] "No," she said. "No, I'm fine." Repeated for emphasis. Emily did not sound fine, but she was fine. She was fine, all things considered and all things considered, that was fine.

Emily did her best to describe him, but found herself at a loss for some key details. She described how he was hurt, though, and the blood on his clothes and his face and his hands. She could place him around six feet, strong hands. Army jacket. But the color of his eyes, his hair -- no, she hadn't looked carefully enough. Hadn't taken these things down in her memory.

"It didn't snow where he was standing," she said. Even as she mentioned it, Emily turned her face up to meet the falling snow. It was comforting to feel the cold settle on her cheeks for a moment. "It's snowing tonight, but not where he is. Where he is it's warm."

[fate] Emily says that she wasn't hurt, and Kage chooses to believe that Emily wouldn't lie to her (wouldn't be calling her, if she was). "Good," is all she said, and that very quietly. Quiet enough that the main focus is on what Emily's telling her, about this man covered in blood, the Army jacket, the physical strength. Snow not falling where he stands. Only a few more questions, then, each one deliberate: "Where was this? What happened?" A pause, and then -- a hesitant afterthought: "Why did you think he was looking for me?" Another pause, and then Emily can almost hear the smile, although it is rather humorless. "I think you met my houseguest, actually."

[Emily Littleton] "Because he asked if I knew a Kay Are. He said she didn't believe him; that he didn't know where she was." Emily repeated the words flatly, without much intonation. She was tired, now that the adrenaline was wearing away. Tired and shaken and uncertain of what to do next.

There was a pause... a little too long to be simple coincidental. "That's one hell of a houseguest, Kage," Emily said drolly. It was perhaps the understatement of the very young year.

[fate] "Listen," she says. "Do you want to come over -- to meet up somewhere, and talk about whatever? I actually recommend you go home and take a good long soak, maybe have some tea, find your center." A beat, and, a little more softly than anything she's said previously, "Thank you for calling, anyway. And for ... Playing it safe."

[Emily Littleton] "I think... I think I'm just going to go home, but thank you." She seemed a little more certain about this. Though unsettled enough to call her rented room and passel of roommates home. "It's been a long night."

Heh.

"Stay safe, will you?" she added. With a little worry coming through her tone. "And we should go back to the woods some day, when it's quieter."

[fate] "We should," Kage says. "Perhaps [insert date here] or [insert date here]?" And after some date wrangling, however minor, has been completed, she says, "I suppose the dishes call. I'm glad you're well, Emily; happy new year." And click.