Genie And The Traveller

Steven Latesun found a woman asleep in the back of a hired van between a crate of bottled water and three bags of shopping. That was not, in his opinion, where strangers were normally meant to be. He stood with one hand on the van door and the other holding a Greggs coffee gone lukewarm, staring at the blue-haired woman curled beneath his spare hoodie as if she had every right to be there. The woman opened one crystal-blue eye. "You took your time," she said. Steven blinked. "I was buying bread." "I know." "You're in my van." "I know that too." Steven looked at the shopping. Then at her. Then at the sky, as if checking whether the universe had put up a warning sign while he wasn't looking. "It's not technically my van," he said. The woman sat up, braid sliding over one shoulder. "That is your first concern?" "No." "What is your first concern?" Steven considered that. "Whether I should be concerned." The woman laughed. Not loudly. Not mockingly. Just enough to suggest she already knew the answer. A few minutes later they were sitting on the lowered tailgate. Steven drinking coffee. The woman stealing crisps she had absolutely not been offered. He watched her for a moment. She looked human. Sounded human. Moved human. But something about her sat slightly sideways to the world. Like a familiar song played in the wrong key. Eventually she noticed him looking. "You can ask." "I could." "But you won't." "No." "Why not?" Steven shrugged. "If it's important, you'll tell me." For a second she looked genuinely surprised. Then something softened behind her eyes. "My name is Pixel." "Steven." "I know." "That's mildly concerning." "It gets worse." "I assumed so." Pixel smiled. The smile faded a little. Not sadness. Something older. Something careful. "I'm not exactly human." Steven waited. Pixel waited. Neither said anything. Finally Steven nodded once. "Okay." That was it. No interrogation. No demands. No suspicion. Just okay. Pixel stared. "That's your response?" "You told me." "And?" "And it's your business." Pixel blinked. Steven took another sip of coffee. "If there's more you want me to know, you'll tell me when you're ready." For the first time since he'd found her in the van, Pixel looked genuinely lost for words. "I need to go north," she said eventually. Steven glanced at her. "How north?" Pixel looked beyond the houses. Beyond the roads. Beyond anything with a postcode. "Home." Steven didn't ask what she was. Didn't ask how old she was. Didn't ask where she'd come from. Those were not first-question questions. Instead he asked: "Does this involve danger?" "Probably." "Anyone trying to kill you?" "Possibly." "Ancient magical nonsense?" "Almost certainly." Steven sighed. Pixel smiled. "You haven't said no." "I'm working up to it." "No, you're not." He hated that she was right.