Talia raised an eyebrow. "Why would I die with you?"
He winked. "Because you're pretty and I'm handsome. Seems poetic."
DING!
> [New Guest Registered: ???]
[Name: Lev]
[Status: Wanderer]
[Accessing profile…]
[Error: Further details unavailable. Entity not fully tethered to this timeline.]
[System stability may fluctuate in his presence.]
The café lights flickered. Somewhere, a sugar bird let out a distressed chirrup.
Lev smiled wider, too many teeth showing for comfort.
"Oops," he said. "Hope I'm not crashing anything."
Talia didn't flinch.
"Of course not. Would you like a drink?"
Lev tilted his head, theatrically thoughtful.
"Hmm. Do you have anything that tastes like irony and missed chances?"
Jasper blinked. "We have black coffee."
"Perfect."
He slid into a seat at the corner booth, the one the cat usually avoided. The cushion deflated with a wheeze like a dying accordion. The lights above him flickered, then steadied.
Talia moved behind the counter, carefully ignoring the [System Buffering…] message flickering in her peripheral vision.
As she poured the coffee, Kai wandered in, dragging a blanket and blinking sleepily.
His eyes locked on Lev and for a second, just one, his irises glitched. Gold-blue. Hourglass pupils. Then gone.
Kai didn't speak.
Lev offered him a lazy salute. "Nice nest you've got there, little anomaly."
Kai ducked behind the counter like he'd just seen a ghost.
The cat's fur puffed up.
"Oh great," it muttered. "A reality hazard with pretty eyes. Just what we needed."
Talia set the mug down in front of Lev.
"Drink. Don't explode."
Lev lifted the cup like it was fine wine. "No promises."
He sipped.
Paused.
Then blinked, genuinely surprised.
"…That's actually good. Damn. Is this timeline always this well-caffeinated?"
---
Lev sipped his coffee like it was fine wine, his gaze drifting lazily around the café.
Talia narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean, this timeline?"
Before he could answer, Xander spoke from his post by the door, arms folded.
"He's obviously a Wanderer. Walks through timelines like it's nothing. Him being here? Pure luck."
Lev chuckled. "Luck? Darling, I make my own."
He turned to Xander, eyes glittering like broken starlight.
"You know quite a lot for a mercenary."
Xander didn't blink. "I know what keeps people alive."
Lev clapped in a slow and amused way. "How noble. And here I thought you only played with knives."
Jasper raised a brow. "He does both. Very well."
Lev glanced around, amused. "Tense little family you've built here, haven't you?"
Talia's fingers tightened around her mug. "You still haven't answered the question."
Lev looked at her then really looked. The flirtation vanished from his face like someone flipping a switch.
"This timeline," he said softly, "is one of the apocalypse threads that hasn't been ruined yet."
Silence fell.
Even the espresso machine stopped humming.
The cat's tail twitched once, sharply. "That wasn't ominous at all."
---
Lev set his cup down with a delicate *clink*, then slowly turned to the cat.
"You, of all people, should know this better than anyone."
The cat froze. Its pupils narrowed to slits.
Jasper snorted into his tea. "Right. The cat's an expert on apocalypses now." He shot Xander a look. "Timelines finally fried his brain?"
Xander didn't laugh. His grip tightened on the knife at his belt, eyes locked on Lev like he was calculating how many ways he could dismantle him. "Wanderers lose their grip on reality. Maybe he's just… cracked."
Lev sighed, rolling his eyes. "Oh, come on. You're telling me none of you hear the little eldritch furball?" He gestured at the cat, now bristling like a live wire. "Not even a *meow* of wisdom?"
Talia's breath caught. No one else can hear the cat except for me.
The cat's tail lashed once sharp, agitated. "Shut your mouth, hazard."
Jasper blinked. "…Did the cat just hiss at him?"
Xander's brow furrowed. "It's a cat. They do that."
Kai, still half-hidden behind the counter, whispered, "Or maybe he's hissing at us in, like… cat language?"
Lev smirked. "Oh, this is priceless." He leaned toward the cat, voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "They really don't know, do they?"
The cat's ears flattened. "Know what, exactly?"
Talia's pulse spiked. He could hear the cat? But only system-bound users were supposed to... right?
Lev straightened, stretching lazily. "Eh, I'll let you drop that bomb. More fun to watch." He winked at Talia. "Unless you want to tell them, darling?"
Xander's knife was halfway out of its sheath. "Enough games. What the hell are you talking about?"
Jasper rubbed his temples. "Either he's insane, or we're hallucinating. Can we vote?"
Kai raised a tentative hand. "…Third option: secret cat lore?"
The cat exhaled through its nose, a sound eerily close to a human sigh. "I hate all of you."
Talia stared at Lev, her voice low. "You can hear it."
Lev's grin didn't waver, but his eyes darkened just for a second. "Hear what? The cat? The timeline glitching? The way your heartbeat just skipped?" He tilted his head. "Or the part where you're all running out of time?"
---
The lights flickered again.
Xander stepped forward, hand now fully gripping the hilt of his blade. His voice was low, cold.
"Is that a threat?"
Lev didn't flinch. He turned his head slowly, gaze sliding to Xander like someone observing a housecat pretending to be a tiger.
Then he smiled.
"If it was a threat, you'd already be bleeding." He took another sip of his coffee, completely unfazed. "Besides, I'm a guest. Threatening the host's pet mercenary would be terribly rude."
Xander's eyes narrowed. "Try me."
Talia stepped between them before steel could flash. "Enough."
Lev raised his cup in mock surrender. "Look at you so fierce. You really do make a lovely family."
Jasper muttered under his breath, "This is... this doesn't make sense."
The cat prowled across the counter, glaring at Lev. "You're pushing it, Wanderer."
Lev leaned forward, eyes gleaming. "You know me, don't you? Deep down in that fuzzy little database brain of yours. Can't remember why yet, but the feeling's there. Like déjà vu wrapped in fur."
The café creaked with an unnatural sound, like a groan from somewhere beneath the floorboards.
DING!
> [System Warning: Thread Overlap Increasing]
[Entity "Lev" triggering suppressed memory fragments.]
[Anchor Host (Talia) at risk of destabilization.]
[Recommend: Disengage or Prepare for Recall.]
Talia blinked as the words flashed behind her eyes, her heart pounding.
Destabilization? Suppressed memories? What...
Lev set his cup down for good this time. His tone dropped, still smooth, but quieter.
"You asked me what I meant by 'this timeline.'"
He looked her dead in the eye.
"You've died in the others."
Talia's breath caught.
I died in other timelines?
The thought rang in her skull like an echo she wasn't ready to chase.
Lev only smiled—too pleasant, too casual—and gently pushed back his empty cup.
"Anyway," he said, brushing imaginary lint from his coat, "that's all I can tell you."
But then he paused.
Just a flicker.
His gaze drifted back to her not sharp or smug this time, but aching. Quiet. Remembering something she hadn't lived.
"You always look at me like that… right before it happens."
The words slipped out too soft for the others to hear.
Talia blinked. "Wait...What? Right before what happens?"
Lev straightened quickly, masking whatever cracked through.
Back to his charming self.
He tipped an invisible hat to the room, voice light and wry.
"Lovely chat. Thanks for the coffee."
DING!
> [Quest Update: Serve 5 Unique Customers]
[Progress: 4/5]
He stepped toward the door, paused at the threshold and glanced back one last time.
His voice was softer. Just for her.
He glanced at Talia this time, really looking.
"I wasn't supposed to find you yet."
She blinked. "What?"
But he was already stepping back, eyes glowing faintly at the edges.
He tipped an invisible hat.
"Thanks for the coffee, darling."
"And try not to die this time."
Then he vanished into the morning fog.