by Mel Todd
I thought back to the scene in the parking lot, and yeah people were scared of Shay. It had never occurred to me. That struck me as odd. Why had I never feared someone being a mage? Probably because most people including Jo were bigger than me anyhow. And well, too much death in my life. I didn't fear it.
"Makes sense. Sucks, but makes sense."
Kadia laughed. "You take what you can get. This is a lever I'll use to make my life better. No one needs to know that if I tried to do that, I'd have to go bald!" We both giggled at that and went back to finishing up. I'd missed the place. But my days there were more numbered than most.
I decided to walk home. I needed the fresh air, and a chance to clear my mind. The February weather was cold but clear, a nice walking temperature, and I enjoyed it. Thinking about the ethics segment, what Kadia had said, and wondering exactly what you could do as a mage. In high school they just mentioned the basics. Three classes with four branches of magic and each type had specific spells. Your ranking determined what you could do with it and familiars made you more powerful. That was it. They always said it wasn't worth worrying about. You could recognize the mage markings and know what they were, and if we emerged, college would teach us the rest. If we didn't, well it didn't really matter.
The ideas and thoughts looped through my mind until a yell pulled me out of my daze. I looked around. I was about a mile from my place. A familiar truck pulled up, with Jo in the passenger seat.
"Yo, Cori. I thought I'd have to ask Stinky to hit you with his truck to get your attention. Zoning that hard is a bit dangerous, ya know?" She grinned as she talked and I headed over to the truck.
"Yeah, school, work, and thoughts in my head. What's up?"
"Get in. You're coming with us. Mom wants to go over plans for this summer. The government has been shipping paperwork like crazy and they want me to decide on a degree path and what I want to do. They have so many suggestions for a Transformation mage. It's a bit overwhelming and I want to go over ideas with you. Besides, I need to show you Sophia."
Stinky groaned at that. "I can't believe you named the damn bike that. Who names their bike something dumb like Sophia? Sounds like a broken-down nag's name."
"Your bike?" That brought back a vague memory of the discussion Marisol and Henri had after she emerged. "Oh, your present from your parents."
"Yesssss," she hissed out the word, but glared at Stinky. "That is because some people don't know why I named her Sophia."
I knew, I didn't even have to think about it. "Oh, let me tell him. It makes sense and Sophia would totally approve. You going to paint her?"
"Yep. White with silver and red details. She'll be perfect." Jo was almost bouncing in her seat, the excitement level was so high.
"Fine, tell me oh wise one. Why did my ridiculous sister give it an old woman name? No one is named Sophia anymore."
"Exactly. An awesome old one. Sophia from the Golden Girls. Perfect name for a motorcycle," I told him as Jo poked him in the ribs with her elbow.
His mouth opened, closed, opened again, then he sighed. "Point. Sophia is perfect. I'm just glad there are only two of you. Not four. If there were four, I'm not sure the world would survive."
"Oh, but it would be fun," Jo and I said in tandem then burst into giggles at his grin. By this point we were almost to their house. I glanced at Stinky. He was an Earth hedgemage, I thought, but I'd never seen him wear jewelry. Remembering the conversation with Kadia, I decided to ask.
"Sanchez, you're a hedgemage, right? Why don't you wear any markings? Mage markings, jewelry, something like that."
Jo fell quiet and I glanced over at her, worried I'd said something wrong, but she looked at Stinky with a curious look. "Huh, I never thought about it. You don't. Why? You emerged last year but decided not to go the college route. That must have upset Mami."
The truck slowed as he turned down their street. "Mostly I never think about it. I have the necklace Mami and Papi gave me. But, I'm not strong enough to do much without a good-sized offering." He ran his hand over his short hair, his hairline creeping back already. Henri had given up and shaved his head a few years ago. Baldness was the bane of male mages. "And I'm strong in Earth, while Paolo is strong in Water. We've talked about it. We could probably create a really good landscaping business, but mostly the personal cost is too high. They hand you all the calculations and offer to teach you how to learn what to offer, but without a familiar or lots of offering material you really only want to use it where the situation is really bad. For hedgies that don't want to do college they offer what is an 'In Case of Emergency' class that you take in the evening for a semester." He grinned. "Besides, it gives me a secret skill most people don't know about."
"Have you taken that?" Jo blurted out, looking at him, eyes wide. She hadn't known either. That did, in a weird way, make me feel better.
"Yep. Last fall. That was what I was doing most Wednesdays. It was interesting and I tell you, learning what I did makes mages really scary. What Mami and Papi could do if they wanted to."
"Ronin," both Jo and I whispered. The Ronin were mages who refused to abide by the laws of the OMO, which had a global impact on most rules. There were some merlins who spent their entire draft decade hunting them. Most lower-ranked mages didn't bother. When it would take a quarter of an inch of your fingernail to light a campfire, using a lighter was easier. Oh, they could still kill. There was that one serial killer.
I pulled my mind away from that.
"Good to know. Maybe, Jo, you'll tell me what you're learning at college."
Jo snorted. "Please, I'm going to make you help me with my homework. You were always a better student than I was."
"If you cook, so we don't have to eat out all the time, I'll clean and help."
"Double deal. If you ate out all the time, even you would start to put on weight. I have no desire to prove the truth of the freshmen fifteen, no bueno."
The three of us laughed and traipsed into the house. Marisol had a stew going on the stove that filled the house with smells of spices. For a moment I just stood there and marveled at my own stupidity. Why was I so willing to walk away from the best things in my life? Thank the Merlins Jo would fight for me, because this just proved I wouldn't fight for myself. I needed to get better at that.
Even so, I walked in, absorbing every bit, as always scared I'd lose it in a heartbeat. Just like I lost Stevie.
Chapter 22
Nikola Tesla - An Air merlin. Known for his electricity experiments, what people didn't realize was that he was calling his own electricity via magic to test it and make sure it worked. Upon his death in 1937, a suspected attack by creditors, his notes were sealed and willed to the next Air merlin from Serbia. Unfortunately, this would not occur for another thirty years, and by that time his notes were no longer relevant. ~ Famous Mages
I hope this class is more interesting than it sounds. And I swear, I'd better have gotten an A on this paper.
After getting home from Jo's last night, where I had eaten too much and Marisol sent me home with yet more food, I'd finished the paper, adding in aspects of ethics and magic that we hadn't discussed in class. If you weren't under HIPPA, were you required to keep your mouth shut and what if keeping your mouth shut meant the patient died. It would get hairy with some of the odd situations. And I'd been in more than one of them. The guy who fell from the sky kept coming back to me. That one could still give me nightmares.
I settled into an open chair—it wasn't a big classroom and the best ones were the ones near the heater. Only thing we could figure was the school tried to save money by keeping the experimental courses in the parts of the building where the heating didn't work.
I pulled out my notebook, focused, and cleared my mind. I'd already overcome the worst. This was the last week of MA and I couldn't wait. While I'd be glad to get the certification, I really didn't like dealing with the crap they had to put up with, and urgent care was nowhere near as bad as a clinic. There was nothin
g that made me want to become a nurse or a doctor.
Not that it would happen. I didn't have the magic to pay for the schooling or the brilliance to get the scholarship otherwise.
Monique glared at me as she walked in, a sneer on her face.
"That is my seat."
I looked at the seat then at her. "Obviously not, as I'm sitting in it. Next time, get your name put on it."
She flushed and stalked by me, knocking my stuff off the desk. I sighed and bent over, picking it back up.
Bruce walked in, handing out papers from last week. He nodded at me. "Interesting. The effect of experience to be able to make the right snap decisions. That experience with serious situations as a child/teen can provide a better balance at making them as an adult and using kids growing up in war zones as examples was excellent. Good job."
I flipped it over as he continued his routine and I grinned at the A in big red pencil on it. At least this was something I could be proud of.
"Okay peeps. I'm sure you've all been loving all this free time and having plenty of energy to get papers done." A groan of protest met him. The hours were as bad as working full time, but without pay. "See? Lots of free time. That should make the papers due next week interesting." He paused and looked around. "How many of you have high rank magic users in your family or close friends who have gone through the full training course?"
Only two people raised their hands and Monique was one of them. Most of us came from families with little to no magic. And while Jo qualified, she still had years of schooling to go through, so I kept my hand down.
"Hmm, about what I expected actually. For those of you who pay attention to the syllabus, you'll know this a section of the course devoted to responsibilities of magic users. While I am sure you all know about the Mage Draft, and the general rules, most non-magic users don't know the details. This is all stuff the government goes over with you in the first week of college. I can see you now all shrugging. Why should you care about requirements of mages? Well, here is one of the things that isn't spoken about much. Any tattooed mage, so any mage magician or higher, is required to render service to any first responder upon request." Half the class sat up straighter at that and I leaned forward, both worried and fascinated. "If you are a merlin, even after you finish your mandatory service you must keep current contact info on file with FEMA. In the case of any national disaster or emergency, they can be recalled to assist." At this point the entire room was paying attention and I couldn't blame them.
Is this what Shay faces? If Chief Amosen needs him, he has to help?
I wasn't sure about that. Merlins were powerful, but there were always costs to doing any magic, even for merlins. A few hands went up. I resisted raising mine, I wanted to see what others asked first.
"Give me a bit before you start asking questions." Bruce nodded at the people who put down their hands. "If I don't answer your questions as I cover this material, I'll leave about an hour from three to four just for the question aspect. If you need clarification on something I'm saying, let me know."
The people who'd raised their hands nodded their heads, and we waited for the next bombshell.
I'd always known about the mandatory service. I hated that Jo would be required to serve. Most people could turn it into an advantage, but there were always news stories about people who made it be the worst thing ever. Though if I thought about it, I'd never heard of a merlin saying that.
"Now, most of you know that to do magic of any type it requires an offering of your genetic material. For mages with familiars they can use material not attached to them anymore. How many people have ever seen a familiar?"
I raised my hand, and two other people did also.
"What about a familiar's hope chest?"
Only one person kept their hand up.
"Okay, then I'll cover that too. In response to an emergency, a magic user can be asked to use up half their available non-living organic material to assist first responders. They cannot be asked to offer up any living cells, though all mages can make the choice to do that. Any mage with a familiar can use material that is no longer attached to them. This is why most mages let their hair grow as long as possible. It is the best way to offer. Nails are next, then it follows to the outer layer of skin. Living cells have double the power of dead cells - so you will see many mages using blood as their offering, especially those who are very active. Blood is replenished easily and is very dense."
He took a drink of his water and looked at us. "Remember that the higher rank you are, the less the cost is. If you are a mage, you'll be trained in the costs and be able to calculate without thought. For some reason access to magic also gives you an exact knowledge of what your offering will be to pull something off. " Bruce shrugged. "None of that matters, but I want to make sure you understand it. A mage walks by and you ask them to stabilize someone you are trying to save, and their personal cost will be much higher than for an archmage with the same skills and strengths. People have been known to offer up body parts to save lives, but most people aren't willing to do that for a stranger - and you can NOT ask that of them." His voice stressed those last words.
"I need to make sure you are clear on this. While any mage is bound to assist you, if they say these words, "The cost is detrimental," you're done. You don't ask, you nod, and you do your best."
"But what if they're lying?" I was glad someone else blurted that out and not me, but I wanted to know the answer to that question.
"Not your problem."
Huh?
Most of the class had that reaction. And we all stared at him in confusion. He must have been prepared for this because he clicked his computer and the projector woke up with the words Good Samaritan and Wandering Mage laws written on it.
"The way the Good Samaritan Act works is if you - as a non or basically trained - civilian stop to assist someone and they die or get hurt worse because of your actions, you can't be held liable as long as there is no doubt as to your intent. Remember as soon as you graduate or get certified, you are no longer considered a civilian."
I flinched at that. I'd known it, but kinda forgotten. Up until now that law had protected me, though in most of the cases I couldn't have done anything to save them anyhow. But now if I failed, I could be held liable. It was a sobering thought.
"The Wandering Mage is a bit different." He clicked and another screen popped up. "The legalese of this law is a bit archaic and confusing. It was drafted and passed at the end of the 1800's, so it reads oddly. The gist of it is this - as long as the mage does not lose something that they are unable to regain, they are expected to assist to the full extent of their abilities. Now those are my words on this, but remember this phrase." The screen changed and a paragraph was highlighted there. "This sentence has been both a boon and a curse to many a mage who has run afoul of it."
I focused on the screen, reading the sentence slowly.
In as so much that the lack of what would be offered by the mage does not affect either their health, appearance, or reputation; the request of any official from either the federal, state, county, or city government for assistance to prevent either the serious injury or death of any person or persons, whether known or unknown to the mage, must be granted until the offering boundary is crossed. At such time the mage may demure with the words, '"The cost is 'detrimental”.
The whole class was silent for a while. Then someone spoke up. "Then why don't mages just avoid crime scenes or accidents?"
Bruce smiled a dry humorless smile. "They do. Think, how often have you ever heard anyone praising a mage's actions if they weren't directly involved in what happened? They don't want to get pulled into drama any more than most civilians do. Hence the law. But again, you can't ask a mage to sacrifice anything that might damage them. Back in the early 1900's, about 1929 I think, there was a case. A young woman refused to help a carriage of immigrants from Ireland that had overturned. The injuries were horrific, it was documented extensively even by th
e reporters of that time. If you get a chance, look up the Irish Coach Riots in Detroit. But back to the point. She refused. Later she was brought up on charges of not being willing to sacrifice non-vital organic material to prevent over fifteen people from dying a very painful death."
He must have seen the questions in people's eyes, because he shook his head. "Nope, not explaining the case or the situation, go look it up if you want the details."
There was a flurry of people pulling up their phones. I just watched him. This was all fascinating and a much darker side of magic than what they talked about at school. But then, could you imagine a school full of kids with magic? It made my skin crawl. Kids sucked.
"Back to the point at hand. After the victims died, she was tried for refusing to adhere to the Wandering Mage law. Note, this is a federal law and the US, in fact most UN countries, have reciprocal agreements to abide by their countries' versions of this law." He took a drink of water, walking back and forth as he talked. "She, and I want to stress this, successfully argued that offering up her hair would have made her too bald to save that many and that would be detrimental not only to her social standing, but her ability to gain a husband, and violate the contract she had with her employer to not 'recklessly expend resources.'" Bruce smirked. "Think about that. She won because it might have made her less attractive to men."
The class sat there in silence, looking at each other. I kept my hair short, barely past my chin. Mages almost always had long braids or hair, most of the time with beads or strings woven in them. They never got their hair cut unless they had a familiar.
"Okay, so this is sinking in. What this means is you can request assistance from a mage. The odds are that in eighty-five percent of the cases it will be a minor offering from them, but that last fifteen percent accept the fact that they can refuse. You cannot force them." He gave us all a hard look. "Let me repeat that. You can NOT force them. Even the attempt is justification for them to kill you in self-defense. If they refuse, note it and move on. Let the legal arm of the federal government deal with the charges. It isn't your problem."
