by Logan Byrne
I did the same, looking around, a small smile gracing my usually stony face. It had only been almost two months, but I was going to miss it as well. This felt like more of a home than any orphanage or shoddy motel room I’d lived in.
I packed a few of my things, since Mirian had told us earlier that personal belongings that had no trace to the camp would be delivered to us once we were placed and settled in.
I pulled out my prized possession, a picture of myself as a baby with my parents. It was weathered, the edges slightly tattered, but I kept it no matter how crappy it became. I looked at them, their smiles. When I looked at the picture a little smile always came onto my face no matter how bad of a mood I was in. I kissed the picture, placed it safely inside my pack, and turned off my lamp. The sound of crickets outside serenaded me to sleep like it had many nights before. I just hoped my parents were out there somewhere, looking down on me and proud of the woman I was becoming.
If only they were here.
11
“The trials will not be easy, nor will they be fun,” Chancellor Pote said as all five of us stood around her. “They will test the very limits of your skills and powers, and are designed to weed out those who aren’t strong enough or can’t handle what it takes to become a M.A.G.I.C. officer. I wish you all the best, and I very much hope I won’t see you returning here. Good luck.”
“Okay, we’ll be teleporting into town in a second. I will be dropping you all off away from the precinct. I can’t be seen with you, and you all can’t be seen with one another,” Mirian said.
“What? Why not?” I asked.
“We need to make sure none of you are marked or tagged as being together or for having known each other before meeting inside the precinct. It only helps the odds of everybody getting in. Just go to the precinct and you’ll be fine. Let’s get started,” he said, walking over to Faus.
He came in and out of the camp, taking them one at a time. I was left for last, forced to bide my time until Mirian came back after taking Charlie out and motioned for me to walk towards him.
“Going back home. Excited?” he asked, wrapping his arm around me.
“No, because I’m leaving it,” I said, and I took a deep breath. We warped to the location, an alleyway. He left me and I was soon alone with nothing, not even a wand.
I knew where I was. It was a nicer part of town, the kind of area I wouldn’t have been allowed in before. It wasn’t that I would’ve been forced out, but it just wasn’t a place where a girl like me, at least the old me, would’ve been comfortable . There was old money, so much of it, and an upper class that frowned upon poverty and those who weren’t as important as they were. We were a plague as far as they were concerned.
I could see the precinct in the distance, the towering building dominating the city and landscape. With my hands in my pockets I walked down the street, keeping to myself on the edge, my eyes constantly scanning for anybody that I knew. Being spotted would be the absolute worst, like a death sentence, but luckily nobody I knew from my past would’ve been caught dead here.
I quickly arrived at the precinct. There were officers walking in and out as I walked up the stairs and inside. It was grandiose, telephones ringing everywhere, pixies flying through the air with letters and notes, bird shifters flying from level to level, like something out of a dream. White marble floors with streaks of gray and golden lights were met with the clanking of heels and soles against the hard floor as officers from all departments ran around. The ceiling was high, a skylight above raining through light that gleamed off in every direction. “Hello, I’m here to participate in the trials program,” I said to a woman behind the front counter.
“Name?” she asked.
“Lexa Blackmoon,” I said nervously, thinking my name had been marked and I’d be caught. She scrolled through her notes before coming upon my file and nodding.
“Have you right here. You can take this to floor three, room J, and they’ll sort you out,” she said with a smile, handing me the paper. I thanked her, my racing heart calming slightly, before walking up the marble stairs towards the third floor.
I smiled as I walked. The craziness and hectic nature of the creatures zooming around me would make any sane person laugh because of their theatrics. Shifters jumped around, some of them shifting in and out of their forms as they ran from room to room. The pixies were like planes in the sky, as little trails of sparkles shimmered in the air behind them before dissipating.
When I found the room I was supposed to be in I saw Britta and Charlie already inside, sitting apart from one another. I did the same and sat next to a man who snorted and wiped his nose. He looked half-ogre; the warts gave it away. He didn’t fit the typical mold of a police officer. He also wasn’t too different from the man in the pub a couple months ago. Maybe he was here for a different kind of position.
Blake and Faus came in one after the other, their papers in their hands, all of us sitting as far apart as we could. There was something frightening about it, being so far away from the people I was conspiring with. It felt like the others here would just know what was going on. As more people came in, though, about twenty-one in all, nobody said a word. We were safe, for now.
“Good morning, recruits. My name is Sergeant Nigel Paul, and I’ll be your instructor and grader for your first trial. Please have your papers ready and Charlene here will be around to pick them up.”
Sergeant Paul was tall, maybe six-foot-three, with gray stubble and a shaved head. He was muscular, and his skin looked weathered and almost leather-like. Charlene, a younger woman, smiled and took the papers the front desk had given us before handing them to the Sergeant. He looked through them, nodding, before barking orders.
“Mages, get on the right side of the room, shifters on the left, and everybody else towards the back,” he said, pointing in each direction as he yelled.
My lovely ogre friend stayed put as I got up and walked towards Britta. A man sat down in the spot I was heading for right before I could get to it. The only spot left was next to her. Panicked, I sat down, not even looking at her, though I noticed her glancing at me out of the corner of my eye. Don’t give us up, Britta, I thought. Don’t even look at me.
While our papers were being looked over, I gazed across the room, seeing Faus stuck between my ogre pal and another portly fellow, squished with his shoulders tucked in towards his chest. I tried not to smile. Blake was on the other side of the room, his gaze fixed on me. Neither of us moved a facial muscle, blinking slowly, like we were connected and in perfect sync. I felt calm looking at him. That was, until the Sergeant spoke again.
“This trial is an apprehension simulator unlike anything you’ve ever done before,” he said, and I tried not to smirk. “You will face an arrest situation where you must hunt, locate, and apprehend your subject without fail. You will have one attempt, and failure will result in your dismissal from this round of hiring.”
This wasn’t going to be as forgiving as my training, with only the one attempt, but I was confident. I stood up as the other mages went inside other rooms next to mine. The room was similar to my training room, dark. There was no headset but there was a wand sitting in the room. “This is simple,” the operator said. “The walls will turn into a simulation around you. The floors will move as you move, so you can run, jump, walk, and anything else you can physically do in the real world and have it input into the simulation. This wand is your controller and will work just like a real wand would, so you can use any spell you want without fail. You’ll have thirty minutes. Do you have any questions?” she asked.
“No, I think I’ve got it,” I said with a small smile. She walked out of the room and a few seconds later, it turned on.
My eyes grew big. Every wall turned into an image, like I was standing outside and this was all real. It was way more real than the headset I used, and the wand wasn’t connected to anything. This was amazing. It felt even more real than reality itself. The prompt came up and I tried not
to laugh. It was the same one as before, hunting the goblin. Pote and the others really set us up for success, that was for sure. I wondered if Mirian had any hand in making sure we got this simulation.
I kept on the same route I’d used before, knowing exactly where to find the goblin and the tricks he’d used. I blazed through it, completing it ten minutes faster than I did during my training. The simulation ended, the screens shutting off, and the operator swiftly came inside. “That was amazing. It’s rare that we have students do so well on their first go around,” she said in shock.
“I just have a knack for detective work,” I said with a smile.
We were afforded a small snack and drink as we waited for the second trial to start. We sat in a cafeteria, the main one for the precinct, with cops and detectives walking about, chatting, laughing, and completely at ease. It seemed…nice. Everybody seemed to get along. They looked like they were having fun, and there didn’t seem to be an ounce of regret or annoyance at being here. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad here. I was pretty happy to be out of the mud and away from a cold tent, that was for sure.
“Have you been studying much?” a guy next to me asked.
I turned. He was of average height and build and he wore glasses, though they were the kind of hipster black-rimmed kind, and he had parted brown hair and a clean-shaven face. “I’ve been trying my hardest, but I had no idea what I should study, exactly. How about you?” I asked, trying to be polite.
“Yeah, my parents have been on my case about getting into the program. It’s highly coveted, and it pays well, at least with time,” he said, nodding. “Are you a mage, or?”
“Yeah, I’m a mage. How about you?” I asked.
“Same. It seems like I’ve been practicing and learning forever, just for this moment,” he said.
I looked over, seeing Blake noticing me talking to the guy. He looked away. Was he jealous? We did have a good moment at the camp, but this was just harmless talking. Guys could get pretty stupid when they liked a girl, though.
“I didn’t catch your name. I’m Lexa,” I said, extending my hand.
“Asher,” he said, smiling and shaking my hand.
“Okay, your break time is now over. If you’ll all follow me, I’ll escort you to the next trial,” Charlene said, and my conversation with Asher quickly ended. We walked together, single-file. Blake glanced back at me, an annoyed look on his face, like I was betraying his trust. I wasn’t leaving our group, and obviously I wasn’t bringing this guy along, but it was nice to talk to somebody who wasn’t a part of the resistance and who was just normal. I hadn’t really been around normal for months, and even then it was shaky at best. Deep down all I’d ever wanted was to be a normal girl, with a family, friends, an education, and a life, but I wasn’t afforded that privilege. Talking to Asher, somebody who didn’t know me, or my past, or what I was hoping for my future, was a taste of that normalcy I’d craved over the years.
We walked into another room where desks were arranged in perfect order and the shiny white floors reflected the white ceilings above. It was sterile, the only color coming from Mirian, who was standing behind a white desk at the front of the room. “Find a seat, any seat you’d like,” he said, his hands behind his back. He didn’t look at any of us, his face like stone, not giving us any attention at all.
Blake sat next to me, a little distance still between us. I guess he felt like Mirian was a buffer he could use to be near me again. “Don’t get too friendly,” he whispered.
“I’m just making friends,” I said, the chatter of the room drowning out our conversation.
“You never know who he is, he could be a spy,” he said.
“Like you?” I asked before looking away, annoyed.
“My name is Mirian and I will be the proctor for your examination. This examination will be the second of your three trials, and must be completed at a satisfactory grade if you are to pass on to your third and final trial before attempting to join the M.A.G.I.C. police force. You may start your examination once I say begin,” he said.
Mirian took out his wand, waving it at his desk, and the drawer opened and dozens of paper exams floated out, each one finding a desk and gently setting in front of the student. Our names were already on them. As I read the first question near the top of the page, the bubble next to the third answer glowed. My eyes opened wide. I looked casually around the room and didn’t see it happening for anybody else, but for me it was as clear as day. I looked up at Mirian. He was looking back at me and he winked, as if telling me he knew and it was supposed to do that.
This was how they were going to guarantee that we passed the examination. Hell, if I’d known this, I wouldn’t have tried so hard to study! “You may begin,” Mirian said, and I picked up my pencil and started to scribble in my answers. There was a fine line, a dance, between just filling in the blanks quickly and taking my time. I read each question, both to make it look like I was actually taking the test and to give myself some extra knowledge about this whole magic thing. After all, I did have the cheat sheet in front of me.
The five of us finished fairly quickly in comparison to the others, closing our exams before taking them up to the front of the room. I nodded with a little smile, as did the others, even those not in our group. When I returned to my seat, my leg was restless, tapping up and down, nervous I would be caught or get in trouble. I knew I wouldn’t, since Mirian was a master mage and he wouldn’t do it if he had a chance of getting caught, but I still felt the thrill of it. It took me back to my thieving days.
“Time,” Mirian said after exactly sixty minutes had elapsed. Three people hadn’t finished. There was a look of pure defeat on their faces. “If you would, wait here and the examinations will be graded and you will be given your results. Your desk will light up either green or red, pass or fail. Those who fail will be escorted out of the building and will have the chance to test again after one full month has passed.”
Mirian left the room, the stack floating behind him, before the chatter picked back up and I was left waiting. I wondered what the third trial would be and how we would react to it. We hadn’t done a mock trial for that one, but the surveillance mission instead, so I wasn’t sure I was going to pass that one. For all I knew it was going to be a live mission or duel or something.
After a short five or six minutes, Mirian came back inside. The room went silent. “Your examinations have been graded. Your desk will now glow with either a green or red hue to indicate if you’ve passed or failed,” he said.
The desks turned on, glowing. Mine was green, as were Faus’s, Britta’s, Blake’s, and Charlie’s, just like they should have been. Asher’s turned green, as well as many of the other students’ desks, but there were some that glowed red. They all looked annoyed, sad, or defeated, but all accepted the fate and were escorted out of the room. They’d get to try again soon, at least. It wasn’t completely over for them.
“If you’ll all follow me, we will start our journey towards the third and final trial. A guest would like to speak to you once we arrive,” Mirian said with a smile.
We all walked into a stone room, maybe cement. The walls were a tired gray, much like me right now. The day hadn’t been terribly long, it was just past lunch, but the whole waking up early thing combined with the trials, even if I’d been prepared, was a bit draining. I wanted a nap more than anything.
There was a man standing at the front of the room by a podium, watching us as we filed inside the chamber. “Good afternoon, and welcome. My name is Commissioner Miln, and I want to welcome you all to the third and final trial. I hear you’re all the best of the best this month, having completed both the first and second trials. As the leader some of you will come to work for, I want to show my gratitude that you’ve chosen to try out for a spot on our force. We’re an ever-growing group that aims to bring peace and justice to the magical realm. With those of you who pass today, we know we will bring the best future officers to a family who needs you. With t
hat said, it is time to begin the third and final trial,” he said.
The walls next to us began to open as dust fell from above, our faces illuminated by the glow of a punishing heat. “This is the third trial, the obstacle course. This is the shifter course. Mages will be taken to the one further down, and other non-shifter, non-mage folk will find a different one yet. It is a state-of-the-art course, designed to test your physical ability as well as your mental fortitude and critical thinking skills. Everybody must do it, so be prepared, be smart, and most of all, remember that not everything is what it seems,” the commissioner said before leaving the room as we gawked in amazement.
I wouldn’t have believed this existed if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. We were at least twenty feet up in the air. The red-orange glow of molten lava flowing below us lit up and heated the entire room, which must’ve been extended by magic. There was no other explanation. Thick planks extended between the platforms on the course, high walls prevented you from going forward, and swinging axes, just to name a few things, were aplenty. How was I going to get through this?
“You will be examined on your cleverness today to get across the course. Once on the other side, you will have completed the obstacles and you will be able to move along to become an official, full-fledged member of the M.A.G.I.C. police force and family. Shifters may use their full forms and powers, mages will be provided a wand and allowed to use any spells they wish. The others will be able to rely upon any skills they have at their disposal. Remember, theirs will be quite a bit easier than the other two. You will not be able to witness another person going across, to preserve the secrets of the course and how to beat it, and you will go one at a time. If those who are mages and other types will follow me, I will escort you to your respective rooms,” Charlene said.
