by Dan Wingreen
He reached, slowly, into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. The kid's gaze never left his as Aidan opened it and took out his Wizard's License.
Every wizard had to register as non-practicing each year in order to receive a license. A wizard wasn't allowed to legally do anything—leave his house, spend money, ride public transportation—without showing an up-to-date license first. If they didn’t, or if it was expired, they were arrested and turned over to the DMS. Being an unlicensed wizard carried only one penalty: death; or revocation as it was known in official government terms. A Wizard’s License was the one thing every wizard guarded fanatically, and since it was an official piece of DMS identification, it was impossible to forge without access to a magic processing facility. It also held the date when the original license was issued, along with the wizard's date of birth.
He held his license out to Dallin and waited patiently.
Dallin looked at it with suspicion, like he was expecting it to turn into a snake and bite him. Aidan just held it out and waited. As far as he was concerned, they could stay like this forever, since a Dallin who was staring at a slip of laminated paper wasn't a Dallin who was siphoning magic or, potentially worse, trying to cast with wild magic.
Slowly, Dallin reached out and took the license out of Aidan's hand. He looked at it, and for almost a full minute he didn't say anything. Aidan held his breath. Wizards got their licenses the day after they first manifested, so seeing the date should prove to Dallin Aidan was telling the truth. The only problem was teenagers, especially angry ones, didn't always respond well to logic; especially when it proved them wrong. Showing him the license could either defuse the situation or set him off even more.
After a small eternity, Dallin looked up into Aidan's eyes. The boy opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Skyler snatched the license out of his hand.
"See?" Skyler said smugly, waving it around. "I told you he wasn't lying!"
Aidan almost had a heart attack. Don't snatch things out of the possible murderer's hands! Unless you're the possible murderer. Or both… You know, this whole thing is giving me a headache. I wish wizards were allowed to drink.
Instead of killing everyone in the room or growing horns and wings and turning into some kind of horrible Arthurian myth monster—because Aidan wasn't going to put anything past the universe in its apparent quest to make this the most stressful hour of his life—Dallin just…flushed. Like a normal teenage boy.
"Give it back," he yelled grabbing it from her. "And what do you know anyway? The DMS could have given him a fake one so we'd all believe his stupid story."
He didn't sound like he believed what he was saying though, more like he wanted to keep from admitting his sister was right.
Skyler rolled her eyes. "Now you sound like Crazy Joe. Are you gonna say he's an alien next?"
"Shut up," Dallin grumbled, turning even redder and pointedly looking away.
Aidan let out a breath. He didn't have much experience with siphons, but he did have a lot of experience with sulky teenagers, and sulky teenagers generally liked to keep sulking. Especially when they were embarrassed. He was going to be optimistic and assume the potential crisis was over. And now that it was, he couldn't stop nervously eying his license.
"Can I have my license back, please?" he asked.
With one last glare at his sister, Dallin wordlessly handed it to Aidan before going back to his seat. Aidan checked for any scratches or creases and tried to hide how much someone else touching his license bothered him. He let out a small, relieved breath; the card was pristine. The barely noticeable shimmer of processed magic embedded in the lettering flickered as he ran his fingers over the laminated surface. He let the visible magic soothe him for a moment longer, then quickly put his license back in his wallet. He looked up to see Skyler smirking at Dallin. She caught Aidan looking, blushed to the roots of her hair, then shyly smiled up at him.
Aidan fought to keep from groaning. Why were the only people who ever flirted with him teenage and female? Or possible siphons? Or all three?
"So," the jealous boy from earlier, suddenly spoke up, sounding pained, "you really manifested when you were ten?"
Aidan sighed. Suddenly, he just wanted to go home and go to bed. "Yes. I did."
"Oh." The boy frowned and slumped in his seat.
"Any more questions?" Aidan asked. Maybe we can get this back on track now.
A skinny boy, wearing way too much black, timidly raised his hand.
Aidan pointed at him and smiled reassuringly. "Yes?"
"Um," the boy said with a much deeper voice than someone his size had any right to have. "Is that light ever gonna get fixed?"
Aidan closed his eyes.
Sometimes he really couldn't stand teenagers.
◆◆◆
The rest of the meeting was blissfully uneventful and broke up just under an hour later. Most of the kids didn't waste any time leaving—some with a last, lingering glare at the broken light—but a few stuck around. There was a table in one corner of the meeting room with juice and crackers. They gathered around it, eating and talking softly and generally pretending they weren't terrified of the life they had in front of them. Aidan had to stifle an amused smile. He wanted to go over there and tell them again and again until they believed him that being a wizard wasn't something they needed to be scared of—but he knew from experience it would take time. He hoped at least some of them would come around before their mandatory three months in WA were up and the government rotated them out and assigned them one of the few jobs wizards could perform. He always took it as a personal failure when they left still scared or angry, even though Carl and several other directors told him not to.
So, instead of walking over and making an idiot of himself trying to socialize with teenagers on their own level, he followed the rest of his end-of-meeting routine. He always made a point to talk to the few parents who showed to pick up their children. So many parents abandoned any child who manifested as a wizard; Aidan always made sure the rare few who didn't knew how much they were helping and how appreciated they were. He reassured them they were doing the right thing; it wasn't their fault.
It was a part of the meetings he always enjoyed. Well, usually anyway. That night he couldn't help but be distracted by the two children he knew he'd never see again.
"How are you feeling?" Carl asked after the last teenager shuffled out the door into a late evening, which was quickly darkening into night.
Carl's voice was as soothing as the rest of him was unassuming. He was barely taller than Aidan, his dark hair slowly going gray, and he had one of those ageless, slightly weathered faces that could have been anywhere between forty and seventy. His entire demeanor practically screamed 'kindly grandfather', but he had a strength behind his clear, blue eyes even the angriest teenager was reluctant to test when they were the subject of one of Carl's sharp glares.
Aidan liked Carl, and not just because he let Aidan help out with the counseling when, technically, he was there as a member just like the kids, albeit voluntarily. Carl was a friend. One of the few Aidan ever had, even inside the wizard community. Which was why, when Carl asked him a question, he always answered honestly.
"I…" Aidan shrugged. "I dunno. Tired. I guess. Sad, mostly."
"About the kids?" Carl asked.
Aidan nodded. "Yeah. Did…did you already report them?"
Carl nodded grimly. Aidan felt like there was a weight on his chest. He didn't know why he thought Carl might not have; it was the law after all, but he couldn't help feeling like there was something else they could have done.
"You know why I had to, right?" Carl asked gently.
"I know," Aidan answered. And he did. He really did. Siphons were dangerous, and it was illegal not to report one. "I just…I feel bad for them, you know? They've already had their entire lives turned inside out; they lost their parents, all their dreams for the future, and now this? Did you see the way she lit up when s
he was talking about magic? For Merlin's sake, she actually studied magical history! And now, not only can she never use magic, not only did she lose her parents, she might lose her brother, too. Or he might lose her. It's…" Aidan sighed. "It's not fair."
Carl reached out and squeezed Aidan's shoulder. "I know. Not a lot about being a wizard seems fair from our end. But you have to remember we're not objective. We're only seeing the kids we know. If one of them turns out to be a siphon and we didn't report it, how is that fair for the families of their victims? Reporting them, sending them back to get tested, maybe even getting their registration revoked, is for the gre—"
"The greater good. I know," Aidan said, cutting him off. "I know. And I get it. I'm not questioning it. I just…I've never met anyone who might be revoked before. I never thought a siphon could be an angry boy who misses his mother or a girl who blushes and smiles at me."
"But they are," Carl said. He said it gently, but Aidan still flinched. "Siphons are people, just like we were before we manifested our magic. They have families and plans, and none of it matters because once they get their ability, it's all gone. The only thing we can do is stop them before they kill people and erase their hopes, their futures. And sometimes it means a little girl who likes history and blushes needs to die."
Aidan flinched again at Carl's bluntness. He hated the images that came to mind, images of Skyler on the floor in a dark room with no light shining behind her eyes, of Dallin lying next to her, his face frozen in a terror that wouldn't be hidden behind sullen anger anymore. He wondered how many of the little kids he passed on the streets every day would wind up in dark rooms of their own, waiting for a government official to cremate their remains. He shut his eyes and tried to force the images away.
He didn't even want to guess at the nightmares he was going to have that night.
"Hey," Carl said, giving his shoulder another gentle squeeze. "I'm sorry. Maybe I shouldn't have said it like that."
Oh really. You think?
Aidan didn't say it though. He knew Carl was only doing his job, as a WA director and as Aidan's friend. Some of what he'd said could be interpreted as slightly treasonous, especially coming from a wizard, and Carl would be well within his rights to report Aidan too. They wouldn't revoke his registration for it, but it would be a black mark on his record, and it was hard to tell when it could come back to bite him on the ass. But he knew his friend wouldn't report him. Carl knew anything Aidan said was only because he worried about the kids.
"It's okay," Aidan said. "Thanks, though. I mean, I know you're just trying to help."
"Exactly," Carl said, smiling. He gave Aidan's shoulder a pat this time before lowering his hand. "And you never know. Just because they're twins doesn't mean either one of them will be a siphon for sure. There's always a chance they could have just manifested at the same time naturally and not because one of them fed off the other’s magic in the womb."
Yeah, about a two percent chance. At least, that was what the official literature on the subject said. Pre-natal magical biology wasn’t something Aidan had studied in depth, but as part of his unofficial training as Carl’s “assistant” he’d looked over most of the government material the other man had as part of his job. Every problem someone could encounter, and then some, were detailed in those books, and the section on siphons was very specific. Carl knew it, and he knew Aidan knew it as well. Aidan merely nodded, accepting the offered comfort for what it was. "Maybe."
"And, for what it's worth, it's not likely you'll encounter this situation again. I've been a director here for thirty-five years this August, and this is the first time I've ever seen the DMS miss a potential siphon."
That…actually did make Aidan feel a bit better. He didn't know if he could handle feeling like this on a regular basis. But it raised the obvious question. "How did they miss it?" he asked. "They should have been tested when they were born and tested even more when they both turned out to be wizards."
"I don't know," Carl said darkly, narrowing his eyes slightly. "But I'm going to do my damnedest to find out."
Personally, Aidan doubted he'd get far with any inquiries. He might be a WA director, and technically a mid-level local DMS employee, but he was still a wizard. Aidan didn't imagine the local DMS office would take his questions seriously, if they even bothered to listen in the first place. But having a probable siphon show up in the group had to have shaken Carl up too, especially if this was the first time it had ever happened to him. He cared too much about his kids for it not to. If demanding a few answers made Carl feel better, then Aidan wasn't going to try and talk him out of it.
"Well," Aidan said. "Good luck with that."
Carl blinked as though he'd forgotten he wasn't alone, then smiled. "Want me to let you know what I find out?"
Aidan nodded. "Sure."
Carl nodded back. "Okay, then."
They looked at each other for a few seconds, both seeming to realize at the same time neither one of them had anything else to say.
"Well I should—" Aidan started.
"I need to lock up, so—"
They stopped and blinked at each other, then chuckled softly.
"So, I'm just gonna go home," Aidan said.
"All right," Carl said, an amused twinkle slowly fading from his eyes. "See you next week?"
It was a question Carl asked every week, but for the first time it sounded to Aidan like he wasn't sure of the answer.
"Definitely," Aidan said, giving Carl a small smile.
"Good!" Carl said happily. "I don't want to even think about facing the hordes without you there to do all the real work for me."
It was an old joke, if six-month friendships can even have old jokes, but Aidan still laughed. After the night he'd had, he'd take any excuse. "See you next week, then."
"Good night," Carl said.
Aidan waved and then turned to leave.
"Hey, wait a second!"
Aidan stopped mid turn. "Yeah?"
"Doesn't your registration expire this month?" Carl asked.
Aidan winced. "Yeah." With everything else that had happened, he completely forgot about it.
"Get it renewed," Carl said sternly. "And don't wait till the last minute next time. You know what happens if you aren't registered."
He knew Carl meant it as a friendly reminder, but all it did was make the thoughts Aidan was trying to block out come back full force. Very little difference between having your registration revoked and having it run out. It just takes them a little bit longer to find you. Aidan swallowed heavily.
"Yeah," he choked out through the lump in his throat. "Got it."
Carl waved again, and this time when Aidan turned to leave, nothing stopped him. He walked quickly to the door, pushed it open, and escaped into the cool night air.
Chapter 2
The streets were mostly empty as Aidan made his way home through the Wizards' Quarter of downtown Pendragon Bay. The low blue light of processed magical energy glowing from the buzzing power lines running alongside the road cast ominous shadows on the squat stone and brick buildings as he quickly walked by.
Aidan hated walking home at night. Block after block of government housing and shops, all of which sold goods and services only people who couldn't use magic would need, weren't exactly marvels of modern architecture in the light of day, but at least they didn’t cast such deep shadows. Every time he walked by a darkened alley, he felt like something was going to reach out and grab him.
He knew it was stupid, but he'd felt that way ever since he was assigned his first apartment when he was ten years old, after going through two months of training at the Department of Magic and Sorcery on how not to accidentally use magic. He'd trained a month longer than most because of how young he was when he manifested, but at the time he would have gladly stayed there, listening to lectures about how much of a danger he was to normal people. Anything would have been better than walking home in the dark, only to spend the night shivering in a
cold, lonely, too large apartment.
Even back then, it took forever to get someone out to fix things like broken lights and heaters. He still had nightmares of waking up in the dark and not being able to find his way out, of screaming until his voice was nothing but a strangled rasp and no one ever coming to save him…
So, yeah, Aidan didn't exactly have the best relationship with darkness.
The wind picked up, blowing strands of hair into his eyes as he passed another wizard crossing the street. He kept his hair angled and longer in the front, letting it fall just above his jawline, rather than cutting it to the shorter styles which were fashionable these days. Most people tended to avoid him or shoot him nervous looks when they figured out he was a wizard anyway; a trendy haircut wasn't going to change how anybody saw him, so Aidan figured he might as well just keep it the way he liked it.
The wizard nodded at Aidan as they passed, and Aidan brushed his hair to the side and nodded back awkwardly. He thought the man looked familiar, maybe one of the people who lived in the building next to him, but they'd never spoken before. Most wizards tended to keep to themselves.
As he rounded the corner to get to the street where his apartment building was, a piece of trash blew by. Aidan's fingers twitched. It was illegal to litter, a law that was usually easy to follow since all it normally took to get rid of garbage was a bit of concentration and a tiny fire spell. Yet another thing wizards couldn't do without causing massive death and destruction. Aidan thought about chasing down the piece of paper, but by then it was blown into one of the alleys and there was no way he was going in there after garbage, law or no law.
He sighed. It would be so much easier to keep Wizards' Quarters clean if there was some place to put the garbage until it could be disposed of. The last district he'd lived in had gone to the DMS with a request for barrels on every corner where garbage could be stored until a sanitation sorcerer could come around to burn it, but they hadn't gotten very far with it when he'd been moved. There were three different departments a request like that needed to go through, and none of them were very eager to add something to their workload which only affected wizards.