A call for help

Scene: A sprawling marketplace in Tangiers. The noise of hundreds of local merchants and thousands of tourists blends into a cacophonous relentless din. The smells of spices and street foods fill the air. It's warm in the shade, but feels like it would be a scorching inferno out in the sun. 

One of the tourists picks up a small copper lamp from a stall, he looks to his friend and goes to make a comment...probably something about Alladin like all the tourists do. 

Tourist: Dude, I got this deja vu. 

He turns to his friend, who is frozen still. 

*Record scratch sound effect as time slows down to a standstill*

In the middle of the frozen crowd, one of the vendors looks up from the table of spices in front of her. She's been working this stall for centuries; she's seen Nazis, the French, the vassal legions of the Ottomans. She'd sold to them all, the herbal concoctions that created subtle shifts in perception. Every couple of years, a mystic and occultist would come to her from some exotic part of the world to buy her wares. They'd tell of their insights and magic, sometimes showing parlour tricks or cantrips. Only rarely had she seen this. If it wasn't meant for her eyes, she'd be frozen like the rest. 

She looks around at he crowd, trying to spot a hint of movement amidst the stillness.

Through the crowd from the left, a masked figure dressed in flowing ancient robes. Raziel. She'd never spoken to him; but had seen him a few times, often ignored by those around him. His power so vast that the mundane reality of the world could barely contain him. An archangel, an immortal Aeon, able to bend the fabric of space-time with a single word or glance.

Through the crowd from the right, a young woman. With black leggings and a teal hooded sweatshirt, she looks like any other tourist. A stylised dragonfly in a circle adorns her chest. 

As powerful as Raziel is, he bows before her.

The Aeon Raziel: My Lady Watcher

The Eternal Watcher: Hey, you know that little book I let you borrow?

Raziel: Do you refer to The Diary of Lost Leaves? With the teal cover and holy dragonfly on its cover, My Lady?

Watcher: Yeah, that's the one. I've misplaced it again.

Raziel: Shall I ask to have a team find it for you?

Watcher: Thanks. I don't think it'll cause too much trouble. Not like that time with the Kallisti apple... besides, that was just a joke. The last time I saw it was in Munich, probably late April 1776. 

Raziel (shaking his head): The conspiracy theorists are going to have a field day with this one, My Lady.

Watcher: Just don't send the cats again. *The Watcher flickers, losing phase with reality*

Raziel: Same deal as last time, My Lady?

Watcher: Same deal as last time.

The Watcher retreats back into the crowd. A few of the tourists and locals start to glitch when she walks by them. Raziel looks at the spice vendor, and puts his index finger to his lips, before heading back into the crowd in the opposite direction. 

Slowly the crowd picks up speed again, time resumes its normal pace. 

Second tourist: Dude, did you say deja vu? 'Cos yeah, I got it too man.

I'm not sure what's happened here on the blog. Occasionally I get instantaneous spikes of traffic that last a minute and boost the traffic by a temporary 100-200 views. In the last 24 hours, I've had that kind of boost consistently, with 4-5 views every minute or so...leading to the highest day of traffic in years, possibly the highest day ever. 

I saw more traffic yesterday that there has been in entire months previously. 

It will be interesting to see if this holds up, but at this rate I'm on track to have the best month ever on the blog. We're already among the best months ever and the month isn't even half over...