Chapter 8

                        Chapter 8: The Figure in the Dark

            It was Hazzlok.

            It was Hazzlok all along.

            He made the boxes fall over.  He made the lights go out.  He was responsible for all of the noises and objects being rearranged, not George’s ghost.

            He had been down there many times, it seemed.  But just how many times had he been watching them?  How much did he see?  How much did he even comprehend?  Why didn’t he tell the principal?  Better yet, how did he even know that they were down there practicing?

            There were so many questions that Aiden wanted to ask Hazzlok right now, but couldn’t.  His hatred for him had just reached a whole new level.  His anger was mingling with a great sense of urgency and fear as a new thought occurred to him.

            Hazzlok had discovered Aiden trying to make mortars.  Mortars.  It doesn’t matter that he wasn’t trying to destroy anything.  It doesn’t even matter that he didn’t want them to be any bigger than a cereal bowl.  To anyone on the outside looking in, it certainly appeared as if the boy who set the locker room on fire was looking further into pyromania and methods to terrorize and deface the school.  He would most certainly be taken to the principal’s office where he would promptly be expelled.

            Which meant that his parents would ground him for life.

            Which also meant that his days of practicing magic were about to come to a swift end.

            Aiden never felt worse in his life than he did right now.  He remained silent, waiting for Hazzlok to chew the three of them out and march them down to the office.  Aiden didn’t even dare to look at Myriah or Kirk.  He hung his head and did not let his eyes stray from the ground.

            “First thing’s first, you three,” said Hazzlok.  “Do you have any idea how many school rules you have broken today, alone?  I must tell you, what you have been doing is completely and utterly foolish.”

            Nobody said a word.  Aiden remained focused on the floor.

            “Believe me; I have every reason to expel all three of you.  I have been to nearly every one of your ‘meetings’ and have seen everything.”

            Everything.  Every meeting.  But how?

            “Though maybe your intentions have been good, and although you have tried to be secretive, you have also been quite careless.  Talking about meetings in class, suddenly becoming so friendly with one another, alienating your other classmates and friends… it was quite obvious that you were up to something.  Do you realize that you could have easily been overheard?  Or followed for that matter?

            “And suppose that someone did follow you.  Suppose that they saw you creating flames, water, and cyclones out of thin air.  Your history is against you, Aiden.  It would have seemed like malicious destruction on your part once again.”

            He really had seen everything.

            “I already covered for you once, Aiden.  It took a fair bit of convincing for me to portray that you had absolutely nothing to do with the locker room fire, were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time, and that you walked away unscathed because of a certain chemical leak that coated your skin with a layer of protection.  I can get away with such lies because I am a respected Chemist and nobody would dare question me.  This is why you were not called in for questioning by the Board of Education or the police department for that matter.  Had you been discovered down here, I am not sure what kind of lies I could feed the Board again.”

            Aiden was stunned.  “You… covered for me?”  His voice was meek and barely audible.  “But, how did you – er, why?”

            “I certainly could not afford to have you expelled, Aiden.  I knew that I had to keep a close eye on you, and now, the two of you as well,” he said, pointing at Myriah and Kirk.  “But I suppose you are still a bit confused.  Maybe you’d rather like to ask me how I know what I do?  How I knew what happened on that first day, how I knew where you were meeting, how I knew what you have been doing?”

            Aiden tried to respond, but could not find words.  He merely nodded his head once.

            Hazzlok straightened himself and pulled his pen-pointer from his breast pocket and extended it as he had done on the first day of class.  He raised it high into the air.

            A great wall of flame erupted from the dusty floor and immediately surrounded Aiden, Kirk, and Myriah.  They were closed off from Hazzlok, trapped within this circling inferno.  It was bright and the heat was intense.  The flames began to form shapes: people, swords, and the head of a mighty Chinese dragon that bolted around the room and left a blaze in its trail.

            Aiden could see Hazzlok through the fire in front of him.  His pen-pointer was moving gracefully, like an orchestra conductor’s wand, guiding the movements of the fire dragon.  His eyes remained focused and unblinking.  He then gave a swift, upward striking motion and the flames immediately died out.

            “Let us just say, Aiden, that I very well know fire magic when I see it,” said Hazzlok, grinning.

            Absolutely nothing could have prepared him for this.  Aiden’s jaw dropped to his chest.  He was blown away, as were Myriah and Kirk.

            “You have got… to be kidding me,” said Kirk.

            “Wow…” said Myriah in awe.

            “Yes, it is true.  I am a mage, just like you,” said Hazzlok.

            This was simply unbelievable.  Hazzlok, of all people.  The man who Aiden disliked so very much was now an insanely powerful fire mage.  In many respects, he was just like Aiden… or rather that Aiden was much like him.

            Maybe this was why Hazzlok was nicer to Aiden after that first day.  He must have known that Aiden was a mage all along.  He even admitted to covering up the locker room incident.  Yes, he definitely knew.

            “Does this mean you’re not going to expel us?” asked Aiden.

            Hazzlok laughed.  “No, not at all.  In fact, quite the opposite actually.  You see, we have much to discuss now and I rather think that we should be a little friendlier with one another, if you understand what I am getting at,” he said, leering at Aiden.

            Aiden sighed.  “Fair enough.”

            “Excellent,” said Hazzlok.  “As I said, we have much to discuss, so where shall we begin?  I suppose you have some questions for me, so I will humor you with answers.”

            Myriah spoke first.  “Mr. Hazzlok?”

            “Please, Myriah, just ‘Hazzlok’ is fine.  I think we should ditch the formalities, personally.  We are all on the same level and I do not want to be viewed as superior to you three.”

            “Well, alright then, Hazzlok.  How did you know where we were meeting?  We never talked about that in class, and I’ve been very careful to make sure the coast was clear before we came down here… how did you find out?” she asked.

            Hazzlok smiled and sat down on one of the piles of sandbags.  He gestured at the rest of them to do the same.  “It’s simple, really.  I read your minds.”

            “You did what?” said Aiden.

            “I read your minds; saw what you were thinking… that sort of thing.  Really, I would have guessed that you figured that out by now.  How else would I know?  As you may have seen, I make a terrible spy, judging by the copious amount of boxes and objects that I have knocked over down here in my time of watching you.”

            “You can really read minds?  That’s possible?” asked Myriah.

            “Of course! It is an advanced spell belonging to fire mages, and I must say, it comes in handy quite often.  Don’t worry, though… I have only used it when necessary.  Some of the thoughts that go through your heads I’d rather not see.”

            “Well that’s a load of crap,” said Kirk, throwing his hands in the air.  “How come you guys get to read minds and all I get is a little gust of wind?  I want something cool, too.  Is there anything like that for wind mages, Hazzlok?”

            “Yes, indeed, Kirk.  And you shall find out in due time, I must say.”

            Aiden suddenly became very interested in the floor again.  “Umm, Hazzlok?  If you can read minds, I just want to say that I never truly meant any malicious thought that ever crossed my mind that you might have happened to see…”

            Hazzlok laughed.  “It is alright, Aiden.  I must also apologize for the way I treated you on the first day of class.  I was rather… bent out of shape, you could say.  But the past is the past; we have a clean slate now.”

            Aiden smiled and nodded a “thank you.”

            “That spell you cast… that was pretty incredible,” said Kirk.  “How long have you been a mage?”

            “Oh, about seven years I would guess, now.  Yes, that spell is one of my favorites.  It’s flashy, but very dangerous.  It is called the Ring of the Firedrake.”

            “Spells have proper names?” asked Myriah.

            “Indeed.  Many do, as they have been around for centuries and have been passed down through generations.  However, new spells come about and don’t necessarily have names.  Some people like to keep their inventions secret, you know.  That particular spell I performed is relatively new.  I invented it, and named it promptly.”

            “Wow… that’s crazy,” said Aiden.  “So if you’re a fire mage… does that mean that there are spells you can teach me?”

            Hazzlok nodded.  “Yes, there are hundreds of spells to be learned, Aiden.  And judging by how well you three have progressed, I daresay you might be able to invent some of your own one day.”

            Myriah blushed.  Aiden and Kirk turned to each other and grinned widely.

            “I have a question, actually,” said Myriah.  “The three of us have noticed that we glow the color of our element sometimes… why is it that we never noticed you glowing?”

            “Usually, only fresh mages glow.  It is one of those unexplainable phenomena, you see.  For many mages, the glow goes away on its own, and for others, they learn how to suppress it.”

            “Yeah, I think we need to learn how to do that,” said Aiden.  “If my parents saw me glowing red they would take me straight to the emergency room.”

            “Actually, they wouldn’t be able to see it, Aiden.  Nor any magic you do for that matter, sort of.  Magic is only truly visible to other mages, being that the first step to becoming a mage is believing that magic itself is real.  To those who cannot do magic, or ‘Normals,’ as we like to call them, it merely appears as a trick of the light or a hallucination.

            “For example, if Kirk were to make a gust that snapped a tree branch, the four of us would see the purple and gray aura of the spell as it traveled and sliced through the branch.  To a Normal, they would only sense the wind pick up and see the branch crack, passing it off merely as nature taking its course.  This is most helpful as it keeps our secret relatively safe,” said Hazzlok.

            “Oh, that reminds me,” said Kirk.  “Why does magic have to be such a big secret if there are so many people who can do it?  Like, Aiden wouldn’t get made fun of so bad if everyone knew he could do magic.  They’d think he was awesome instead of some freak.  Why don’t we just tell people?”

            Hazzlok laughed again.  “Ah, yes, you still have much to learn.  You see, there are several reasons why we keep magic hidden from the rest of the world.  For one, we are actually few and far between.  The fact that this school has more than one mage in it is highly uncommon.  More than two is just absolutely unheard of.  The mages in the United States comprise of less than one percent of the population.

            “If people were to know of our abilities, there would surely be laws put in place to suppress us.  Our powers would be viewed as a threat.  We would be alienated, oppressed, angry… which would lead to an uprising, which would lead to war and destruction.  The last thing we need is another war.

            “On top of that, many mages are born because they enjoy the novelty and fascination of magic.  They do not use it for personal gain, but more for entertainment.  As you have demonstrated, Kirk, it takes only determination and belief to become a mage, for some.  Yes, some natural ability is required, but not much.  It is quite easy to teach magic, actually. 

“Now imagine a world where anybody could do magic if they wanted it badly enough.  We have enough dangerous and power-hungry people who use guns and weapons to get what they want… imagine if they could read minds, become invisible, heal themselves, and gain an extra layer of protective armor on their skin on top of that?  The world would fall to chaos.”

            Kirk looked as if he’d seen George’s ghost.  “Man… I never thought of that.”

            Aiden stopped to think for a moment.  “I noticed that you said less than one percent of the U.S. population is made up of mages… that’s still a lot of people.  How has the secret stayed, well… secret?” he asked.

            “A good question, Aiden.  Simply put, almost all mages work for or belong to a single company.  This helps us monitor all magic in the U.S.  We are based in New York and are known as CIMPLE.”

            “Wait, like, the Control of Imports and Monitored Production of Legal Exports kind of CIMPLE?  I used to live in New York,” said Myriah.

            “Precisely, Myriah.  Although, that is our code name.  A small portion of the company does the import and export thing, but the real reason we were created was to keep an eye on all magic.  Our real name is actually The Containment of International Magical Practice and Law Enforcement.  We are sort of the like a mage’s government, and there is one in every country.  This is how we keep order across the globe,” said Hazzlok matter-of-factly.

            “But how do you keep track of so many people?” asked Aiden.

            “With people like me, of course!  Tens of thousands of us work as Scouts across the country.  We are assigned to work in certain positions and we monitor any use of magic in our areas.  This is why I intervened at the principal’s office on the first day of school, to cover your tracks.  And then, as part of my job, I kept a close eye on you, to make sure you didn’t do anything stupid, destructive, or illegal.  If you wanted, I could probably get the three of you jobs as Scouts when you graduate.  It pays well and is quite fun.”

            The three exchanged looks of excitement.

            “That does sound pretty cool,” said Kirk.  “Sure beats doing accounting or something like that.  So what do you do when you find a mage… just stalk them and make sure they don’t ruin things?”

            “Well, normally, I would approach them immediately and have this same sort of conversation that we are having now.  Then I would take them to headquarters and we could discuss career options with the proper people.”

            “So you’re going to take us to New York!?” Myriah asked excitedly.

            “Yes, eventually.  I promise.”

            “What do you mean eventually?  What are we waiting for?” asked Aiden.

            “Yeah, why didn’t you just stop us at the second or third meeting and talk to us then?  Weren’t you afraid that we’d blow the school up or something?” asked Kirk.

            Hazzlok scratched the back of his head.  “Ah, er – yes, well, of course, you are still a bit too young to have a career with us since you have yet to graduate so I felt no particular rush in taking you to headquarters,” he stumbled.

            Aiden got the feeling that he wasn’t being entirely truthful.  “Okay, but that doesn’t answer Kirk’s question.  Why did you spy on us for so long?”

            Hazzlok sighed and dropped his hands, slapping his knees.  “Well… I suppose there was no avoiding this.  How should I put this?  You see, you three are… well… a special case.  Sort of like an exception to the rule.”

            They exchanged puzzled looks.

            “To be perfectly honest, if I had taken you to headquarters a few weeks ago, you’d be somewhat of celebrities.  I was not sure if that would be the best thing for you all right now, so I decided to wait.  I wanted to know more of what you could do.  I wanted to see how you handled magic.  I was fascinated by your camaraderie.  Maybe it sounds selfish, but I think I made the right decision,” said Hazzlok.

            “What do you mean?  Why would we be celebrities?” asked Myriah.

            Hazzlok paused and stood up.  He paced in circles for a moment.  “I suppose I will start with the easier of the two.”  He heaved a deep sigh.  “To put it simply, mages do not blossom until they reach adulthood.  And by adulthood, I mean eighteen years of age.  The three of you are sixteen, yes?”

            They nodded.

            “So you are performing magic two years younger than you should be.  Do you see what I mean?  The people at CIMPLE would flock to you like a mindless paparazzi,” he said.

            “So it’s kind of like those teenagers you see on American Idol and stuff, I get it,” said Kirk.

            “Yes, but there is much more to it, I am afraid,” said Hazzlok.  “It is sort of hard to explain.  Perhaps I will let Mr. Raine explain it to you when we get to headquarters.  He is better at this sort of thing.”

            “Alright, but just because we are young shouldn’t make us famous or anything,” said Aiden.  “There’s something else, isn’t there?  You said there was.”

            “Patience, Aiden, please.  Yes, there is something else.  Again, this is slightly hard to explain, so bare with me.  Myriah… do you ever feel different around Aiden?  Something that you don’t normally feel around others?”

            Myriah immediately turned pink.  “I – what?  I don’t know what you mean,” she stammered.

            “Forgive me, I should rephrase that.  Have you ever felt a little weak or light-headed around each other?”

            Aiden looked over at Myriah and nodded.

            “Yeah,” Aiden interjected.  “We’ve actually collapsed around each other a few times.  And you probably saw us during some of the meetings… she said she had trouble focusing when I was close by.”

            “Precisely.  You see, as it stands, mages typically only, er – get along well with those of the same element.  Even at headquarters, we are divided elementally.  For example, a fire mage might be able to cooperate with a wind mage, but eventually they will butt heads and argue.  The fact that you two – (he pointed at Aiden and Kirk) – are best friends is nothing short of marvelous.

            “On the other hand, opposing elements are a more severe case.  At CIMPLE, our fire mages are on the complete opposite end of the building to the water mages.  If we put the two together, they would tear each other apart.  To put it simply, think of it in terms of science… water douses a flame, fire melts ice… the same holds true for earth and wind.  They oppose as well.”

            “So, you’re saying that Myriah and I should have been at each other’s throats by now?” asked Aiden.

            “Yes.”

            “So that explains why it burns when our hands touch…” said Myriah.

            “Exactly.  The fact that you were even able to teach her how to cast some spells is a miracle in and of itself.  Opposing elements generally loathe each other, but for you two, that doesn’t seem to be the case.”

            Aiden felt slightly embarrassed.  “So let me get this straight… the three of us shouldn’t get along, but we do… and that makes us special?” he said.

            “Yes.  If I brought you to headquarters now, you three would glow, people would see you walking and talking together… add that on top of the fact that you still look, and are, very young… well, it would draw a lot of attention.  Yes, I think if we are to go to headquarters, it will have to be a sudden and secretive move.”

            Aiden thought about this for a moment in the lull of the conversation.  “Why not just go now then?  As in, right this second?”

            Hazzlok let out a deep, hearty laugh.  “I admire your eagerness, Aiden, but you are forgetting some things.  What would your family think if you told them you were leaving for New York tonight?  Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, you haven’t packed or anything… it would be highly suspicious and unorthodox.  Not to mention that I have to clear a meeting with my superior first, anyway.”

            Aiden felt his ears turn red.  It kind of was a dumb thing to say.

            “Don’t worry, I promise I will take you all to headquarters.  But first, there are two things that I would like you to do for me in exchange.”

            Aiden couldn’t figure out why, but he certainly believed everything Hazzlok had told them.  In a way, he kind of reminded him of Cafaran.  He made Aiden realize that there was so much more to magic than he thought.  And despite how much he disliked the guy over the last few months, he could not help but appreciate and respect him now.  He was being so helpful.  So understanding.  So… cool.

            “Sure, what’s up?” said Kirk.

            “One, I want the four of us to continue having these meetings.  I wish to monitor and observe your magical progression.  I will even teach you a few spells, Aiden.  I believe that there will be much to gain from consistently practicing together.”

            “Okay, easy enough,” said Myriah.

            “And secondly, I would like you to do your absolute best to recruit a fourth mage to include into this practice regiment.  He is a fresh mage like you three, so I don’t think he quite understands exactly what he is doing just yet.  Perhaps you could talk to him?”

            “Like Myriah said… easy enough,” said Kirk.

            “I wouldn’t be so confident, Kirk.  You see, there are a few things that I am weary about with this whole operation.  I should mention that he is most definitely an earth mage, so that is obstacle number one.  Just because the three of you work together so well right now doesn’t necessarily mean things will be just as fine with the four of you together.  Magic is like Chemistry… if you add one extra item to the concoction, sometimes it explodes.

            “I should also note that when I said he is a fresh mage, I mean fresh as in he performed his first bit of magic a few days ago.  I am not sure if he even believes what he did.  Some people cast their first spell on accident.  He might be scared, which could also mean that he will be very resilient.  You must be persistent with him, even if he refuses to believe anything you have to say.”

            “We get your point,” said Aiden.  “Just tell us who it is and we can give it a shot when we get back from break on Monday.  It will be a little awkward approaching a total stranger about magic, especially if he’s older than we are, but it’s worth a try.”

            “Actually, he, too, is an underage mage.  You all know him… he’s in our Chemistry class,” said Hazzlok.

            “Well… who is it?” asked Myriah.

            “Garret Spire.”