Bruce walked alone along the damp sidewalk. It was getting dark. He tried to think but he couldn't. His thoughts kept returning to Harri's letter, the brief portion of it he had allowed Alfred to read to him. He had parked a few block away from his destination so that he could have time to think as he walked. Gotham was muggy and warm, like a suffocating sweater he wanted to remove.

He heard a giggle and looked ahead. Aymara, and a man Bruce assumed was her boyfriend, were embracing on the front porch. She looked very happy, relaxed, and smiled as he whispered into her ear.

Bruce felt like he was intruding and decided maybe now was not the best time to visit. He turned around and began to walk away.

"Hey!" he heard Aymara call out.

He turned around and saw her confused boyfriend looking down at him.

"Hi Aymara," Bruce said, raising his voice so she could hear him. He was twenty feet away from the porch.

"You know him?" Bruce heard Aymara's boyfriend say to her under his breath. Clearly the man recognized him as Bruce Wayne and Aymara never mentioned that she knew this man, who was seen as essentially a celebrity.

"Yeah," Aymara said and rolled her eyes at her boyfriend.

"I uh..was just looking for your mother," Bruce said, wanting to give them space. "I will call her tomorrow."

Aymara and her boyfriend looked at him quietly until he turned around again.

"Wait!" Aymara said and Bruce once again turned around. "Come on in!"

Aymara's boyfriend looked at her as she began to speak to him.

"I'll come by tomorrow afternoon," Aymara promised him and gave him a kiss.

"Okay," he said to her and looked at Bruce before walking to his car.

Bruce walked up the steps and watched Aymara's boyfriend drive off.

"Sorry about that," Bruce apologized.

"No problem, Bruce," she said and laughed. "We been together like all damn day."

They went into the house and Bruce immediately sat on the couch.

"Is your mother here?" Bruce asked.

"No," Aymara said. "She went to a show."

"Oh," Bruce sighed as Aymara left him alone in the living room and surprised him by coming back with a plate of cheese and strawberry danishes.

"Here," she said and held the plate out in front of him.

"Oh uh.." he said and looked at the pastries. "I'm not hungry."

"Please?" she asked, and he wasn't sure why she was so insistent but picked up one of the cheese danishes.

"Thanks," he said, despite not wanting one. To be polite he took a bite. Within a few seconds he had eaten the entire thing. It was as though his hunger had been awakened.

"Here," she said and held up the tray again.

"I couldn't," he said, though he was tempted.

"Please," she said again and he took another cheese danish, polishing it off just as quickly.

"Are you thirsty?" she asked.

"Yea-" he said but she was already leaving again. "Water would be fine," he told her but she was gone.

She came back with an enormous glass of milk. He blinked looking at it as she handed it to him.

"Aymara," he said and held the heavy glass. "What are you doing?"

"It's called hospitality," she said. "Now drink up."

He sighed before beginning to drink and after taking a few swallows she began to offer more food.

"We have leftover brisket and a lemon meringue pie-" she said.

He raised his eyebrows and sat the glass down on the coffee table.

"I'm alright," he said. "Thank you though-"

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Aymara," he said calmly. "Why are you trying to feed me?"

"Okay," she said. "You're skinny. And Adriana would not be happy if I saw you this skinny and didn't feed you something."

"Oh.." Bruce said. "I'm alright Aymara-"

"Nah.." she said. "But you need to eat more."

"I'll make an effort," he said and burped. "Pardon me."

"Okay," Aymara said, satisfied with his response. "So you came to talk to mother?"

"Yes," Bruce said. "I need her...services."

"Why?" Aymara asked. "Maybe I can help?"

"Oh uh.." Bruce said and tried to tell her delicately. "I don't think you can."

"Try me!" she said. "C'mon. I mean I can't see the future and all like as clearly as her but I have skills too you know?"

"Oh..." Bruce said and sighed. "Well...I'm trying to find someone. Maybe if she sees my future I can find out where this person is when I eventually find him so that I can just..speed up the process...get things over with."

Aymara was quiet.

"My mama doesn't really do tracking..especially if..." Aymara said.

"If what?" Bruce asked.

"If there's some bad intent," Aymara said.

"What makes you think I have bad intentions?" he asked.

"I can't see the future but I'm intuitive," she said. "Mother would be able to pick up on it immediately. She makes no exceptions. She doesn't wanna feel responsible...for whatever might go down."

"No exceptions!" Bruce said. "What if it's justice? That is a good reason-"

"Not to mother," Aymara said.

"This person is a criminal. A murderer," Bruce said. "And he needs to pay."

Aymara looked down at her hands and then back at Bruce.

"Mother still wouldn't," Aymara confessed. "No matter what."

"Maybe I don't have bad intentions," Bruce said. "Maybe I just want to talk to him-"

"Now you're just lying," Aymara sighed. "Mother would see right through that too."

"Well, what the hell am I going to do now?" Bruce said, feeling like he was now speaking to himself. "How the hell am I going to go on if I can't do something about this? He hurt Adriana, Aymara."

Aymara raised her eyebrows and then looked away.

"Mother still wouldn't budge," she said.

"There has to be another way," Bruce said. "A curse or hex would suffice for now..maybe that could do something to expose him ..can you do that?"

"We don't do that Bruce," Aymara said, sounding a little offended. "Sorry.."

"Aymara," Bruce said. "I'm begging. I need help."

Although he was not giving her much detail, Aymara could sense his extreme desperation.

"Okay...well maybe there's a way," Aymara said as though she was afraid. "But you can never tell mother-"

"I never will, I swear it!" Bruce said.

"Okay..so..I sent Adriana to this woman," Aymara said. "She's very powerful and she will do anything for anyone given the right price. She can be real expensive..but I guess that shouldn't be an issue for you.."

"Who?" Bruce asked.

"Madame Twyla."

.

.

.

Aymara was cleaning the dishes when her mother came home. Sidi walked into the kitchen and watched Aymara cleaning a glass.

"Did Bruce come by?" Sidi asked.

"Yes.." Aymara said, not knowing how her mother knew. "Why?"

Sidi didn't answer and left the kitchen.

.

.

.

It was almost 9 in the evening but Bruce couldn't wait until morning. He went online and saw that Madame Twyla's shop closed two hours ago but it was worth a shot. Her shop had been relocated to the suburbs of Gotham.

He could see that there were lights on inside of her shop, very dim but there were definitely lights turned on. He knocked on the front door a few times and then stuck his hands in his pocket as he waited.

As soon as she opened the door the smell of incense and lavender hit him. She didn't say anything, she stepped aside and held the door open.

There were crystals and various liquids in colored bottles everywhere. An enormous painting of a wolf on the wall Bruce's attention immediately.

"My name is-" Bruce began to introduce himself but she cut him off.

"No, no," she said, very seriously, the long scarf over her head seeming to flow in the wind even though there was no breeze or fan that Bruce could feel. "No small talk."

Bruce couldn't understand how giving his name was small talk. He had never met this woman before.

"Your wife," Twyla said. "She's the reason I relocated. So much nicer in the suburbs. People don't tear up your shop. She was a valued customer though, very valuable. Essentially financed this building with her purchases. Sorry to hear of her passing."

"Oh..thanks," Bruce said, but this woman did not sound sorry at all. Something about her was cold..dark. He couldn't place his finger on it but he needed her help.

"What do you want?" she asked directly.

"I was told that you could help me locate someone," Bruce said.

"Hmhm," Twyla laughed softly. "I did not ask what you were told about me. I asked what you wanted."

"I want to find someone," he declared.

"Very well," she said. "That should be easy enough."

Bruce heard himself release a sigh a relief.

"Okay," Bruce said. She didn't seem to care who he was looking for or for what reason. Intents didn't matter.

"So," she said. "I need a belonging."

"A belonging?" he asked.

"Something that belongs to this individual you seek. Something near and dear," she said. "A prized object representative of that person alone."

"Oh.." Bruce said. "I...I don't have anything. What about clothing?" Bruce thought he could break into police storage and possible find a confiscated item they had gotten from the Joker at one time or another.

"Is it something loved to the point of being near sacred?" she asked.

"Well.."Bruce thought. "I doubt it."

She shrugged.

"There had to be something else we can do!" Bruce said, rising sounds of his voice filled the room, as did his frustration.

"Blood," she said. "The only other option."

"I need his blood?" he asked.

"A quarter teaspoon," she said. "At least."

"I don't have that either," he said. He was growing disappointed. All hope was seeiming to be lost so quickly.

"Blood of a direct relative would work as well," she said. "At least a full teaspoon."

"A direct relative?" Bruce asked.

"Must be either mother, father, sibling, or child," she told him.

"Oh.." Bruce thought of Arsenio.

"Have anything like that?" she asked.

Bruce looked at her critically. There was no way, even if it helped him find the Joker, that Bruce could take even a drop of Arsenio's blood. There was also no way he would give his child's blood to this woman

"You do," she said. "But you are unwilling to take it."

Bruce said nothing.

"I guess there's nothing you can do for me," Bruce said, ready to leave empty handed.

"When you came in," she said to his back. " I asked you what you wanted."

"Yes," he said and turned back to her. "And it can't be done. Because I can't deliver the blood."

"You told me you wanted to find someone," she remarked. "Is that true? Is that really what Bruce Wayne wants?"

"Yes.." Bruce said, standing in place as she circled him slowly. She was behind him when she spoke again.

"Truly?" she said. "That is what you want? More than anything in the world? If you had one wish, it would be to find this person?"

She was standing in front of him again, having completed her circle.

"Tell me the truth," she said. "The honest truth. Expose your soul's greatest desires. What is it that Bruce Wayne desired the most? His one wish?"

He looked at her. His soul's greatest desire didn't matter because it was impossible.

"I want my wife back," he said and took a few deep breaths.

"See," she said and smiled. He squinted, not knowing what he was supposed to be seeing. "See how easy that was?"