Lu Shen smiled at the sorcerer he was talking to, nodding as the other continued speaking.
It was one of those evenings organized by the guild, which he didn't like attending, but which he forced himself to go to in order to maintain relations with his own kind.
That night, however, he was in no mood either to talk or to listen. He stood up, apologized to the colleagues seated at the table with him, and left.
In the silence of his car he let out a breath and started the engine to head home. Next time he would be more sociable.
When he arrived in front of the gate, he found it half open. He stopped the car and got out, heading briskly toward the house.
The door was open and the lights were on. Anger rose in him as he wondered who had invaded his private space and why.
He entered quietly and heard noises coming from the adjacent room.
When he reached the living room, he saw a man rummaging through the furniture. "Who are you?" he asked, raising the hand in which he had already summoned his magic.
The man turned around in surprise and threw the small casket he was holding at him.
Lu Shen hurled a magical dart while, with his other hand, he pushed the object away from himself before it could hit him.
"Let's go!" the man shouted, running toward the study.
Two other men joined him as Lu Shen cast a spell at the first one, making him fall to the ground, bound.
One of the three rotated his hand and all the objects in the room began to whirl in the air as if driven by a violent hurricane.
Lu Shen was struck by some of them, but he dispelled the magic and set off in pursuit of the three.
As soon as they were outside, he had the gate close to block them and pushed them back.
One of them fired at him; he deflected the bullet, but another forced the gate back open and the sorcerer hurled a wave of energy that Lu Shen repelled.
The three, however, were already in the car. He chased them and saw the vehicle merge onto the road.
He would have liked to stop them, but other vehicles were passing by and he was afraid of injuring some innocent person by mistake.
He clenched his fists and went back inside. After a few minutes he picked up the phone and started a call.
---
Zeyang had just closed the door behind him when the phone rang. "There's been an attempted burglary at the sorcerer's house."
"Lu Shen?" he asked, alarmed.
"Yes. Do you want to go, or should I send Layla?"
"I'll go," he replied, returning to the landing.
"Okay. I'll have the others meet you there."
---
Zeyang reached the house together with his colleagues. They parked outside and knocked.
The sorcerer himself came to open the door and let them in.
Zeyang looked at him. He had a cut on his right cheekbone, but his face was impassive.
The house, on the other hand, was a disaster. It looked as though everything had been dumped out of the furniture.
He remembered how orderly everything had been and felt what the sorcerer had suffered as an affront.
"Can you tell us what happened?" he asked him.
Lu Shen explained what had occurred. "They must have known that tonight I would be at the guild dinner and probably didn't expect me to come back so soon," he concluded.
"Do you have any idea what they were looking for?"
The sorcerer shook his head.
"There are valuable objects and artifacts they ignored. I don't know what else they could have been looking for in my house."
"Boss, we're done," said one of the officers.
Zeyang dismissed them, saying that the sorcerer would go to headquarters the next day to work on identikits of the thieves.
After they left, he approached Lu Shen, who was picking books up from the floor. "Why didn't you call me? You went in while they were still in the house! What were you thinking?" he said, trying to restrain himself.
The sorcerer stood up, putting the volumes back on the bookshelf. "I'm not a defenseless human."
"They were armed! They could have hurt you!" the detective insisted.
"It didn't happen."
Zeyang looked at him, frustrated by that wall of impassivity. He took a breath to regain his calm. "Where do you keep the disinfectant?"
"In the bathroom," he replied, pointing. "Why?"
Zeyang didn't answer. He went to get disinfectant and gauze and came back. "Sit down," he ordered, guiding him toward the sofa with a hand, then sitting beside him. Lu Shen leaned back when he saw the gauze approaching his face.
"You're not afraid it'll sting, are you?" Zeyang teased with a smile, starting to clean the cut.
"You were reckless," he repeated, looking him in the eyes. "No matter how powerful you are, you're not bulletproof."
Surprise crossed Lu Shen's eyes and he leaned back again.
"Hey!" Zeyang scolded him, finishing disinfecting the wound.
"Have you recovered the dagger?" the sorcerer asked, changing the subject.
"Did you read the news?"
"Yes. Why didn't you tell me about it?"
Zeyang set the gauze aside and looked at him. "You're the one who said you didn't want to act as a consultant for the Police."
"That didn't stop you from asking me for information on previous cases."
Zeyang grew serious. "I shouldn't have. I won't involve you anymore," he said, standing up.
Seeing him stiffen, Lu Shen followed him. "What's changed, Detective?"
The other didn't answer right away, then turned to face him. "Lu Shen, I don't want you to have any more debts to repay because of me. If I had even imagined it… I wouldn't have asked you to come with me to free Andrea, and I wouldn't have told you about her application to the Academy."
"What are you talking about?"
"About your departure for Yanghoun."
"What does that have to do with this now?"
Zeyang looked him in the eyes. "Lu Shen, you came back from that place barely glowing: you had almost exhausted all your magic and energy."
"It was my choice, it has nothing to do with you," he replied stiffly.
"What happened in Yanghoun?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Why don't you want to tell me?"
The sorcerer looked at him for a long time, then finally answered. "I went to create a shield for a humanitarian camp."
"You created it in just four days?" Zeyang's voice showed all his surprise.
"It's strong, it won't fail," he replied defensively.
"I have no doubt about that. But now I understand why you came back in those conditions. Once you warned me about excessive use of my power and the need to take proper breaks. Why were you so reckless? You could have damaged your qi!"
"It was… an emergency situation," he defended himself, not understanding why the detective's attention made him so uncomfortable.
Zeyang observed him for a long time. "Who did you have to repay the favor to?" he asked softly.
"It's not important."
Zeyang didn't press the issue further.
Lu Shen took a step toward the exit. "I'll come by headquarters later. Good night, Detective."
"Good night, Sorcerer. Try to get some sleep."
The other nodded as he watched him leave.