by Tao Wong
As I walked, I tried to remember all the hints about safely traversing a bad neighborhood I had ever read. Walk with purpose and keep looking around, but don’t make eye contact for too long. Avoid touching, but don’t act scared. You’d think that wielding magic would have made this walk easier, but now that I could see the scales, furs, and tusks of the denizens of this city, it really didn’t. It didn’t help that I probably shone like a beacon to everyone else too.
I was two-thirds of the way to my destination before I encountered my first problem. A group of orcs, hanging out on the corner in hoodies, torn jeans, and leather gloves, stared at me as I neared them. The stares intensified even as I stepped to the side in an attempt to go around the group, an attempt that was foiled by a large, blocky body.
“What you doing here, Wizard?” The blocker stood in front of me, glaring down at my form.
“Uh…” I blinked and gulped, stepping back. That was a mistake as the orc stepped forward immediately, continuing to crowd me.
“Well? This ain’t your neighborhood.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but my throat closed with fear. While a part of me knew I was probably—probably—fine due to Lily’s wish, all my lizard brain knew was that there were a half dozen large, green, and very muscular figures looking at me aggressively. A pair of hands came up and shoved me backward, sending me stumbling back into a figure I hadn’t even realized was behind me.
“You going to say something, boy?”
“Delivery,” I croaked out and then cleared my throat, trying again as I pulled myself straight. “Delivery for El. From El. For Grandma… ummmm…” Shit. My mind blanked on her name, the rush of adrenaline making my hands clammy. The looming figures and the casual bump against my shoulder as they crowded me made my breath tighten.
“Grandma…?” One of the orcs snorted before another smacked him on the arm with the back of his hand.
“You delivering the medicine for Grandma Gail?” the smackee asked, and I nodded in dumb relief. “Should have said so.” A quick set of hand waves had the orcs stepping back, giving me breathing room. Without even waiting for me to recover, the speaker had already started walking. “Sorry about that. El never told us she was using a wizard for delivery.”
“It’s fine. I’m new,” I muttered, relief washing through my body as we walked toward our destination.
“Oh, shit,” the orc muttered just before the loud blare of a siren went off behind us.
Cruising to a stop, a police car stopped us half a block from the apartment building I was to make the delivery at. Inwardly, I cursed, getting nervous once more. It was strange how I could get nervous even if I was doing nothing wrong in the presence of police.
From out of the police car came an elf, a damn elf with pointed ears, long hair, gleaming teeth, and a smirk. A human, who glowed just like me, came to stand beside me. I frowned, staring at the pair, and after a moment, their information finally populated.
Police Elf (Level 28)
Police Mage (Level 32)
“What do we have here?” the elf said, smirking at us as he walked toward us. The orc was standing beside me, hands held to the side and away from his body, his face fixed. “A wizard and an orc walking down the street.”
“Uhhh…” I said and then decided to clamp my mouth shut. Surprising fact about having conversations about the supernatural in public—no one cared. Between fantasy movies, LARPers and just normal human self-conceit, the occasional overheard conversation was easily dismissed. Still, most supernaturals weren’t this blatant. Then again, this wasn’t exactly your normal suburban neighborhood either.
“Witch got your tongue, Wizard?” the elf said, staring at me, baton suddenly in his hand. He moved so smoothly and quickly I didn’t see it again until it was under my chin and pushing my head up. A hot flash of anger went through me, but I forced it down.
“Just doing a delivery,” I said hoarsely, fighting the roiling emotions of anger, shame, and fear running through me. Damn it.
A hand went to my bag, and I automatically moved to push it aside. A second later, I found myself on the ground, a knee ground into the small of my back, one hand outstretched and the other curled around my body, pain radiating from my knee and chin where I had been slammed into the ground when the human had tossed me down.
“Trying to stop us from doing our job, are you?” A crank on my arm made me grunt in pain. The strap of my bag was pulled aside, and I felt the tension suddenly release, the bag pulled out from underneath me not too gently.
“I wasn’t—”
“Lying to a police officer. Tsk…” the mage said, shaking his head. “I hate your kind. Thinking you’re all something because you learned a little magic.”
“I—”
“Shut up,” the orc growled at me and then released a sudden exhalation of breath shortly after a meaty thunk.
I couldn’t turn my head, and any attempt at moving resulted in another shooting pain from my arm.
“Andy, Andy, Andy, I thought you knew better,” the elf said mockingly. I heard the clasp of my bag open and then the noise of the contents of my bag hitting the ground. The muffled thunk of the package, my notebook, and the rest of the random crap that I kept in my bag reached my ears. A short while later, I heard the tearing of paper before a dull thunk of glass on concrete. I found myself exhaling in thanks that all of El’s packages were in ultra-tough, enchanted containers. “What is this? Hmmm…?”
A sharp jab in my back made me arch slightly.
“We’re talking to you, Wizard,” the mage said.
“Arthritis remedy,” I said through stolen breaths.
“Really?” Indistinct noises and a loud sniff later, an open bottle landed on the ground next to me along with its lid and the remaining bottles. “Smells like shit. You peddling shit, Wizard?”
“I’m just bringing it for El,” I said.
“El, El, El… that little troublesome pixie,” the elf muttered. “I thought she knew better than to deal with scum like this. Well, I guess we’ll just have to do something about that.”
“What?” I asked as I twisted my head around. The mage let me do so briefly before he reapplied pressure, forcing me to look on futilely as the elf raised his booted foot and came down on the bottle. It shattered under his boot, his foot rising again. Anger flashed through me, at the mage and the elf and the damn orc who just stood there…
The elf raised his foot again to smash another bottle. “Now, be sure to tell El—”
“That’s enough, Quinn,” a low, husky, and dangerous voice said from the opposite side of my head. “You’ve had your fun.”
“Marc,” the elf said, sudden wariness in his voice. I could feel the mage above me shift his weight, turning toward the newcomer.
“Let him go,” the same voice growled, and my arm was released. Footsteps shifted, and as I sat up slowly, rubbing my shoulder, I noted the policemen had backed off, staring at the newcomer. I turned my head to look as well and had to agree—the newcomer was definitely worth staring at. Where Andy, my erstwhile guide, had been big, the newcomer could have fronted for an NFL team at nearly seven feet tall and nearly half again as broad. Behind the newcomer was another trio of orcs, none as large as he was but only by a hairbreadth.
“Just making sure the wizard knows what’s what,” the elf said, smirking still. However, I noticed the pair had their hands near their guns now and were, in fact, moving back to their car easily. “No harm done.”
Under the watchful eyes of the orcs, the pair of policeman left. I pulled together my bag, stuffed everything together, and held the broken straps in hand while my emotions raged. I could Mend them, but unlike some, I preferred to keep my magic to quieter and less public locations.
“Well, boy? You going to make your delivery?” the orc snapped at me, and I blinked, nodding quickly. I moved forward, hesitating for a second when he held a hand up to Andy to stop him from c
oming with me. A quick look told me his signal wasn’t for me, and so I headed up the stairs.
You’d think after all that, that Grandma Gail was some mythical, powerful shaman or the power behind the throne. Instead, Grandma Gail was exactly what you’d have expected of a grandmother—old, bent, wrinkled, and in this case, green. She was more than grateful for the delivery and completely forgiving about the single broken bottle. Two hours later, filled with tea and cookies, I tottered out of the grateful orc’s neat apartment, surprised to see Andy waiting for me.
“Andy?”
“I’ll walk you back,” Andy said and then held his hand out.
Taking the dollar bills from him automatically, I frowned as I stared at them.
“For El. For the broken bottle.”
“Uhh…” I paused, unsure.
“Just take it. I should have seen them coming,” Andy said, and I nodded dumbly as I fell into step with him.
“They do that often?” I asked.
“Every chance they get. Fucking pigs like to hassle us,” Andy said, shaking his head. “They pick on us in particular because, well, you know.”
Because they were orcs. “Sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” Andy growled at me, and I winced, ducking my head. After a moment, Andy shook his head. “Never mind. It’s not your fault.”
“Yeah. Assholes,” I grumbled, running my finger over the mended strap. Even now, I could feel the slight raises and bumpiness from the Mend spell. At least I was getting better with the spell. Still, a part of me twisted at how easily I’d rolled over. But what was I supposed to do? They were cops. And higher levels than me. In sullen silence, the pair of us made our way back to the bus stop where we stood, brooding over our respective failures. The bus, when it arrived, found us still standing in silence.
“Take care, Wizard. Try not to get beaten up by cops again, eh?” Andy said, waving goodbye as I got on.
I had to chuckle slightly, nodding back to Andy. Well, that had been enlightening and humbling, if somewhat less than useful for my leveling. Then again, perhaps not all experience needed to come with levels.
***
Hours later, I was back home. Lily, surprisingly, was not on the computer but standing over the oven. I eyed the dark-haired genie as she stirred a pot of instant noodles and then walked to my computers without a word. On them, blue screens showed the software had updated. That was one mystery easily solved.
“Lily,” I said, walking over to lean against a cupboard. “Wanted to ask you about something.”
“Sure,” Lily said, eyes raking over me.
I quickly explained my encounter with the orcs and the cops, finishing with: “How come the cops were able to touch me? I mean, they were obviously out of level.”
“Thought it might be that,” Lily said, tapping her spoon against the pot before she carefully poured the contents into a waiting bowl. “The answer is that the encounter was a social challenge, not a physical one.”
“Felt pretty physical to me,” I grumbled, rubbing my still-sore shoulder.
“Only because you failed your social check,” Lily said, looking up at me.
“I don’t really get that you know,” I said. “I mean, what makes it a social encounter rather than a physical one? Aren’t most encounters social till, well, they’re not?”
“Mmmm… yes.” Lily paused and then waved a hand to the computers before she returned to stirring the bowl. “But we’re talking about your wish and the way I set it up. And I did it by watching the games. If you run into a city and start ganking the guards, you don’t expect to get away with it, do you? Same thing here. The police, most legal authorities, are going to be exempt.”
“But those guys were assholes,” I said, grumbling. “It’d have been nice if they couldn’t have grabbed me.”
“And then what?” Lily said, raising an eyebrow. “Do you think the fact that they couldn’t touch you would deescalate the situation? Make them decide to pack it up and go away?”
“It did for the mage,” I said.
“Uh huh. And we both know he’ll be back—or someone like him.” Lily shook her head. “You don’t want the authorities getting wind of you. Especially the mundane ones.”
“I guess,” I said. I looked at Lily, eyes narrowed as I voiced my other suspicion. “Still, rather convenient that the wish failed then. It must have been pretty elaborate programming for you to have set that up.”
“Wasn’t set up. I made the call once I saw it happening,” Lily said, confirming my suspicion.
“You can do that?”
“Of course.” Lily pointed to my hand and her ring that sat on it. “I’m still linked to the ring. So long as you wear it, I’ll always have some awareness of you and your surroundings, ensuring encounters happen logically and according to your wish is part of my job after all.”
“Huh,” I said, nodding slowly. Well, that made sense, and it was what I’d signed up for. Still, knowing Lily was spying on me was just a little creepy. Then again, after a while I’d gotten used to the great god Google tracking my searches and where I traveled every day. How was this any different really? “Hey, why didn’t they do something about my ring? I mean, those guys seemed like the kind who’d steal them.”
“The ring has an obscuration enchantment on it. You’d have to be significantly more powerful before you could pierce it,” Lily answered promptly.
“Like the mage,” I said and got a confirming nod. “Then, El?”
“We walked through her wards into her place of power,” Lily said, and I nodded. It still didn’t explain why Lily never showed El’s level to me, but I left that for now. I’d asked before and never gotten a satisfactory answer.
“We done? Because my food’s getting cold.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I waved her back to her life as I wandered to the pile of quest notes. Might as well check out what else she had found.
Chapter 10
Life continued in this rather sedate and mundane fashion for weeks. I picked up a couple levels as I expanded my understanding of magic, learning more complex ward spells and a pair of new spells, Glamour and Illusion. It might have seemed they were the same, but glamours affected living creatures while illusions, inanimate objects. Due to a living being’s natural aura, illusions were not a viable form of concealment, often breaking down before long upon interaction. Glamours, which interacted directly with the aura of a living being, were much more effective and actually altered the perception of viewers. Of course, both of those statements only held true for someone at my level; Lily had been quick to stress that powerful and skilled mages were able to cast illusions on living beings and glamours on inanimate objects as needed.
Still, I had fun playing with both spells. I often added an illusion to my messenger bag and a glamour to myself before I left for the day. Something small but noticeable—a new logo, a tiny tattoo, or highlights in my hair. Just small changes that allowed me to practice the spells without costing me too much in terms of concentration or energy, which was another major thing. These spells had to be continually channeled, like my Heal spell.
Nearly a month after I’d acquired them, nearly four months after I had acquired the ring, a new incident occurred. I should have expected it really. After all, the secret of the ring could not be kept forever. It was as I was walking out of the hospice building, after a grueling day of healing, that she confronted me. Six feet, two inches tall—towering over my diminutive five-eight—blond hair, and green eyes, the Amazon-escapee leveled a spear at my chest which I nearly walked into.
“Mr. Henry Tsien, hand over the ring or face the judgement of God!” the blonde said, spear held unwavering in front of my chest. Clad in a weird mix of armor and a nun’s habit, blond peeking out from the edges, she couldn’t have been older than her late teens at best. She might have held the spear competently, but her high voice and slightly breathy tones did little assure me she was serious.
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br /> “Oh, hell…” I muttered, staring at the woman. I raised my hand slightly, pushed against the blade, and frowned when it refused to budge. Well, this looked like another social encounter. Surely I wasn’t expected to fight a crazy, spear-wielding nun in the middle of the streets, right? While the hospice building was somewhat out of town and in a quiet neighborhood, it still wasn’t exactly inconspicuous.
“Do not blaspheme!”
“Seriously? You’re holding a spear and telling me not to swear?” I goggled at the woman, shaking my head at the insanity of it all. “And don’t you people have something about not attracting attention?”
“Innocent bystanders have been dealt with,” the woman said.
I frowned and looked around, noticing for the first time the way the area around us was filled with a golden yellow light. I stared at the light, some of the ways it interacted with the surroundings tickling at my memory.
“Now, hand over the ring.”
“No,” I said as I stared at the light. On closer inspection, it wasn’t diffuse in a solid format but had shades to it, and within those shades, there were gradations of that golden power. I frowned, for the harder I focused on the light, the harder it was to see it. On a hunch, I unfocused my gaze and watched as the image snapped into place. “It’s a—owww. Why’d you hit me for?”
“You are ignoring me!” the blonde said, almost stamping her feet, pulling back the haft of the spear that she’d smacked my shoulder with.
“Imagine that. I’m ignoring the crazed person holding a spear at me who seems to think hitting me is going to make me do what she wants.” I shook my head. Looked like my hunch was right; she wasn’t actually going to hurt me. “Did your parents never teach you manners? You could at least introduce yourself before demanding things from me. Or hitting me.”
“You… I am Alexa Dumough, Initiate of the Knights Templar, tasked with the retrieval of the ring you wear on your finger,” Alexa said, her spear returning to point at me.