The bar was packed that evening, with no indication of a reason behind it. It was simply busy, enough of the hotel's residents vying for the bartender's attention that Erik's only chance at getting his order in was to squeeze between two chairs with little care for their occupants.

That backfired as his foot tangled with something tucked neatly under the bar, a long cane which toppled toward the ground— but thankfully there was a metal core beneath the polymer, and he froze it midair, pulling it into his palm and setting it back where it belonged as its owner turned toward him.

"That was clumsy of me," he said, before the man could say it for him.