First a little magic, then she explains you everything

You enter your apartment and Sarah follow you closely. It seems that most of your roommates are still not back. Channa is already at her work and Vladimir probably has basketball training like every Friday. Only George seems to be around. You can hear him talk to somebody in his room. And a moment later the door opens and a guy leaves with some papers in his hands.

George doesn’t have a work or sport scholarship. He gives tutoring to other students but also does the homework for some rich kids for money. Most of them are noting but rich pigs who are just lazy and treat other people like trash. Some others are at least grateful for the service and greet Georges roommates polite. And the guy here is obviously in the first group. His whole appearance is a silly cliché of rich kids. He wears an expensive beige shirt, dark blue business pants, a short violet scarf and his hairline is ridiculously high. He watches you disdainfully, but seems interested in Sarah.

“Hey sexy,” the guy greets Sarah and grins sleazy, “how much is this looser paying you? I double the price.”

“50 bucks,” Sarah lies immediately, “100 and I’m yours.”

“Deal,” the rich guy says grinning and throws a 100 dollar note on the table, “let’s go to my place. Have a nice day looser!”

Instead of an answer Sarah puts her three middle finger tips on the guys forehead and whispers something you can’t understand. The guy looks confused but probably considers this some kind of foreplay. Suddenly both Sarah’s eyes, fingertips and the eyes of the rich guy glow yellow for a second. Then the guy loses every tense and stands in the room with an emotionless face.

“Put the rest of your money on the table, then leave and do your homework again on your own!” Sarah commands.

The guy immediately pulls the rest of his money out and puts it on the table, then he grabs his books but not the already done homework and leaves without another word. There are now more than 400 dollars on the table.

“Never try mind spells without at least a year of training!” Sarah warns you, “I’m serious. One mistake and you could do permanent damage in the brain of somebody.”

“I'm not sure if you can get this hollow bulb even more broken,” you joke but Sarah stares at you serious and not pleased, “ok, I get it, sorry. Hey George, your client left some extra cash on the table. Would you mind buying some groceries? I have a visitor.”

“Oh, sure,” George calls from his room and comes to you, “my god, how much is this? Hello Miss. Nice to meet you.”

“The same, George,” Sarah says polite, “I’m sorry we have to disturb you, but we need some privacy now. I’m Sarah, by the way.”

“Oh, it’s nothing, Sarah,” George replies friendly but a little shy, “we need the food anyway. Have a nice day.”

George leaves and you lead Sarah to your room. You hesitate for a moment because you hadn’t cleaned up for some days and you haven’t expected your old childhood crush to visit you. But is too late to go back to the living room now. Sarah looks around in your room interested and seems not to mind the clothes on the floor and empty sweet bags on the desk and bedside table. Or she is too polite to mention them. Then she sits down on your bed while you take place on the chair in front of your desk.

“Well, how should I start?” Sarah asks and takes a deep breath, “you already know magic exists. The world Humans live in is only one of several ones. There are countless dimensions. Some are like this world, gigantic and full of life. Others are just as big as a single country or even as small as your living room. Some have own civilizations, in others is life not even possible. And in several dimensions, there are beings who can control a special energy. You can call it Mana, astral energy, magic or however you want. Important is only that these beings have a special gene that allows them to use this energy and bend it into spells, runes, potions and other ways to cast magic. And this gene is inheritable. Every human mage has at least one magic being in his ancestry.”

“Are you telling me that one of my parents is secretly an elf or a slime or something like this?” you ask socked, “that’s impossible, I would have noticed this. I’m totally human. And you too.”

“First, the gene can sleep in a human body for several generations,” Sarah explains and gives you strict look, “it only means one of your ancestors was a magic being. It can be one generation ago or one hundred. Second, no you wouldn’t have noticed. Humans once tried to purge every magic being and person with magic blood. Because of this we hide and humans believe all the stories about magic and monsters are just fables. Some are indeed. And third, most mages look human or almost entirely human. It is coincidence how much you get from your magic ancestor. Most mages look human but can cast magic, others have a few more characteristics. We can hide them with make up or clothes. And in very rare cases somebody is born with a quite grotesque appearance. There we use disguising spells.”

“Who was your ancestor?” you ask carefully.

“My grand-grandmother was a fairy,” Sarah explains calm and polite, “I … I got a pair of wings from her. I use a spell to hide them. My family is part of a magic house, so I knew about my potential since I was born. But I have no idea who your ancestor was.”

“Are there many mages?” you ask nervous, “and how powerful, are they?”

“Only ten or twenty thousand,” Sarah answers, “and they stay out of human business. Well, there are some businesses lead by mages but this is another story. They only are to earn money and help mages with daily life in our world. Of course, there are some idiots who try to go into politics or high economic, but the magic council makes sure none of them gets higher than local politics.”

“Ok, so much about the magic … world?” you say unsure what is the right word, “or society? Whatever. What does this mean for me? Am I in trouble? Or in danger?”

“You are not in trouble,” Sarah answers, “your magic was just not discovered earlier, that is nothing unusual for people who are born outside of a magic family. We just need to inform the magic council and get you a master to train you. But the danger is another topic. There are … creatures who feed on magic. They come from other worlds and sooner or later they will find out about you. You need to be able to protect yourself. But this is not as hard as it sounds. For most creatures, the basic lections should be enough.”

“And what about you?” you ask and sound angrier than you wanted, “why are you avoiding me, Jane and the rest of your friends? Are mages not allowed to have unmagical friends or are normal humans seen as inferior.”

“I know you are angry,” Sarah says sad, “and you are right to be mad. Jane too. I … I never wanted to hurt anyone of you. I just … well I guess I just wasn’t able to keep both my magic life and my normal life up. All the training, the work and the stress made it too hard for me. I know I should have been strong for you guys or at least tell you something instead of avoiding you. But I couldn’t. I’m sorry. It wasn’t easy for me too.”

“I assume you indeed had your reasons,” you admit and calm down a little, “sorry, I didn’t wanted to yell at you. But you really need to get in touch with us again. Even if it is difficult, we all understand that you have few time. At least speak with your best friends from time to time.”

“You are right,” Sarah mumbles, “I own you guys at least some sort of explanation. But why are we now talking about my disappearance. We are here because you are a fucking mage. Aren’t you about to burst from excitement?”

“Not really,” you admit, “I … I already used some of the spells in the book. The first one unintentionally. So I’m not too surprised anymore.”

“Did you hurt anybody?” Sarah asks immediately, “and did somebody see it? Please be honest. We have to keep the magic world a secret.”

“I used fortune telling to make Miss Pox angry,” you answer “and I shot a small pain spell in Melissa’s ass. Oh, and I made Daniel tell what he really thinks about some people.”

“I don’t know this Daniel, but I wish I would have seen this bitch Melissa,” Sarah says relieved, “pain spells are nasty. They are mostly used as pranks by very young mages. I doubt that any human would consider this to be magic. About Miss Pox, is this old hag really still a teacher? I know undead people who are not that old.”

“Maybe she is the ancestor of a daemon and doesn’t know it either,” you say and giggle, “but jokes aside, what will happen next. What do we have to do about my discovered magic powers.”

“Well, I will take the book and return it to my master’s library,” Sarah answers serious, “and at the weekend, we will both go to the magic registration office. Afterwards, you have to decide what way you want to go. But for now, I’m just glad I have you back. Would you … please tell me about all the not magic things that happened since out last contact.”