The night was like a black dome sculpting the world in quietness.
A busy part of town was still awake in the early night, cars passing down roads between lit-up shops.
It was a calm scene, a quiet slice of everyday life.
A blue bus, two decks tall, rolled straight through the town, before abruptly stopping at a bench.
With a flick of a lever, a set of doors on the bus pulled apart, revealing a dark-haired boy.
He stepped out onto the street without a word, the moonlight brightening his white skin, illuminating the dark muddy amber colour of his eyes.
The streets were packed with buildings on either side of the road, lively but still quiet with the night.
Parked cars dotted the roads, sitting on the streets and narrowing the road.
Julius pocketed his hands into cream coloured pants, a black tie neatly hanging from his collar as he turned his head to watch the doors gently fold in.
The sound of suspension and rumbling engines grew distant as the bus rolled forward again.
Julius's eyes followed down the road, watching the bus trudge along past an open square on its left far down the street.
A group of people stood, rehearsing a marching band performance.
There was a large square made by concrete tiles all boxed in by a red outline.
Inside the square, all the people were dressed in dark red coats, with hats like mini barrels on top of their heads.
A spotlight stood on a building behind the square, aiming down a beam of light that accentuated the red of their uniforms.
The light abruptly shut off as the people began to pack up for the night, a handful of people watching from clean black bleachers all began to climb down.
The bleachers sat directly in front of one of many large concrete pillars supporting a nearby overpass.
Julius watched the scenery without a flicker of interest before he breathed a crisp breath of cold air.
In the cold of the night, Julius could still feel the lingering heat of the sun against his skin.
His gaze retracted, turning to the building across from him.
A building stood, taller than most, an apartment complex with a series of metal fireplace escapes winding down the side of the building.
Beside it, there was a small alley, dark and between two buildings.
The other building forming the alley was a bar, much shorter than the complex beside it.
A neon sign blinked lazily "Joe's."
Julius crossed the road, hands still pocketed, without checking for cars in the quiet night.
He reached the grey concrete on the other side, continuing forward past the alley.
He reached the entrance to Joe's and pulled the door open.
Immediately he saw a dirty bar with visible notches in the wood of the counter.
Green booth seats with torn leather at the edges and drunks slumping.
Being seen in the bar with this uniform spelt trouble, it would attract attention and potentially cause a concerned citizen to inform the academy.
Julius wasted enough time with detention, even though he gained something from it, he still didn't want to expend any more time and thus didn't change into new clothes.
However, that was completely okay, considering Julius had no intention of entering this bar.
The few surprised gazes that landed on him from the bar immediately blinked out of sight the moment Julius let the door swing shut.
Instead turning a corner around the building to walk into the alley.
The alley was dark, with a brick wall forming a dead end.
To his right was a green dumpster, facing the apartment complex.
Breaking through this wall meant being inside the complex building.
To his left was another plain brick wall.
Breaking through this wall would mean being inside Joe's.
Julius approached the brick wall in the centre of the alley, the dead end.
He scanned the row of bricks, before his eyes caught on one that had a slight dent.
The dent was suspiciously hand-sized, although almost imperceptibly so.
He placed his palm against this brick, chanting in a quiet but clear voice, letting the world hear him.
"Open to those with thirst, open to those who gather from different worlds, sharing a drink, a tale, or both."
Suddenly the bricks on the left wall began to pull apart one by one, unfolding like a book, before presenting a purple door to Julius.
The door was flat, with rigid lines running up and down, forming purposely designed valleys.
The surface was a shade of bubblegum violet, with a metal handle that hooked circularly and flopped down, like a handle to a hatch.
Julius was very familiar with this, this type of situation was something Julius had been in only the previous day when he and Thurid visited Lake Mynesonome.
Planes of existence were stacked upon each other, each one being accessed at any point in time with the correct methods.
Some places were set up with magic so passwords could be used to access them.
Julius approached the door to this space, yanking the round metal handle and pulling.
In front of Julius, what should've been a worn-down bar, was instead a dim classy bar.
The carpet was warm, with a pattern of overlapping green, brown, red and cream squares.
The booths were made of clean brown leather, with low-lit candles on the tables with customers.
However, these customers were extraordinarily peculiar, in the furthest corner sat a lizard-man with dark green skin and a brown long coat, whispering across from him to a saytr with fuzzy brown ears and long hair.
In another corner an old wooden thing sat by himself, his skin was a rough wooden brown, with thick branches extending from his head where trees grew.
He wore a respectable light brown coat, with an elegant red scar that surrounded his thick wooden neck.
He stared at a newspaper with moving letters and pictures.
On the cover was a black and grey moving image of a waving man.
In the image his beard was long and fell down to his stomach, the crisp whiteness of the image depicting an actual white beard.
He wore grand garments like something of royalty, a black winged hat at the tips, with a blank dome covering the rest of the head.
Along the top of the dome were patterns of two dragons running across the hat.
The man wore a deep robe with the same dragon patterns sprawled across grand garments.
The headline read above the image "Jade Emperor attending ball with beloved brother Caishen. Says wishing the best for each of their grandsons."
On the other page, there was another image, although the figure captured was blurry as if the figure was moving fast.
There was a dark thing, completely covered in black like it was made from shadows itself.
It wore armour and shoulder pads with faded symbols that, now black, looked as though they were once white.
It had a strange helmet, like a cap on its head, made from a sleek, writhing black, almost as if the helmet was a part of it.
The headline above this cover read "magical presence rumoured to be the cause of mysterious disappearances."
Beside the reading tree-man was a young boy sitting in silent boredom.
He looked to be no older than nine, he had a bowl cut of messy grey hairs that covered his wide head.
His face was pale, with curved cheekbones and a short nose.
His pupils were dark with boredom, like two deep rivers of black space.
The moment the boy spotted Julius his gaze fixed with interest, even as his face remained as unchanging as stone.
Julius stared back for just a second, before looking over at the tree-man beside the boy.
"That's Mr Elowen, the former headmaster of half-blood academy." Julius identified quickly with curiosity.
"What's he doing here? Don't tell me he didn't mention-"
Then as if right on cue, a voice caught Julius by the ear.
"Well, well, well…" overly joyful laughter caught Julius's attention.
Julius Sparrow's face immediately turned sour.
Turning over to his side, Julius saw a bar with polished wood, a collection of spirits and liquids stacked behind the bar on a polished wood rack.
The counter was smooth, a dark glossy brown with red cushioned stools standing invitingly.
Behind the bar, a masked man stood.
He wore a long-sleeved black buttoned shirt, rolled up at the sleeves, with the top two buttons popped open to reveal a bit of his skin where his collar dramatically flared out.
He wore a plain white mask attached to his face in the shape of an oval.
A red curve drove up the bottom of his face, like a smile, with black markings resembling eyes and brows, like a mask painted to be a clown.
"Finally made it did ya?" The man joked before raising a hand, dragging it down his long wavy black hair like a waterfall of spilt oil.
Then he clapped two hands together in excitement.
"Where's my souvenir?" He giggled with glee, the unmoving red curve on the mouth area of the mask like a wide, unhinged smile.
Julius sighed, closing his eyes for a breath as if contemplating leaving.
This man was no ordinary man.
In fact, he could be said to be the closest person to Julius.
He was called Falson.
End of chapter 35