Chapter 40 New Witch on the Block
forty
New Witch on the Block
“What? What did I do?” I whine.
Jamie looks at me incredulously, her pupils narrowing to slits. “You weaponized Skreet and almost killed three men, nearly set northern Maine on fire, and could’ve destroyed your world.”
I grimace. “Oh, right.”
“Plus, you need to schedule a few resources before we send you home,” she says as we make our way outside—or rather, out of the building. There is no “outside” here. Just those weird-ass plants.
She reaches out for me, and I take her arm. Light pours down around us and the voice lists off a new location. We zip away and appear in front of a dark building cast in long shadows. The egalitarian design is basic, but somehow still imposing. It’s those shadows.
“Why does it have to look so creepy?” I ask.
“It’s your imagination, because you know you’re getting a scolding,” Jamie says as she walks toward the building.
“It’s definitely creepy,” I mutter, following her.
The wall recognizes our magic on approach and a doorway materializes for us.
The inside is just as minimalist and utilitarian as the outside. A row of kiosks sits beyond the doorway and we approach the closest. Jamie has me place my hand down and state my name again, and then a three-dimensional projection appears in my magic that shows directions to where we need to be.
The projection collapses into the floor, and light beams me into the ceiling.
I stagger as I appear on a different level, though I’m not sure where I am.
Jamie isn’t with me, and a momentary panic swells in my stomach.
There’s a gently pulsing line that runs from my feet to the hall ahead, and it’s my only real option since I don’t know how the light beam thing works to get out of here.
I follow the string of my magic light through empty, doorless halls.
It feels like I’ve fallen into the backrooms, or something…
so creepy. Finally, the light stops at a wall and creates a rectangular highlight.
I press against it and pass through the wall into a smaller space that resembles an office.
A creature I could only describe as a rock golem stands at a series of kiosks that display various texts I can’t read, but images I recognize: me, sitting over Lei’s body.
It appears to be from Jamie’s perspective as she approached me.
Maybe she’s got the equivalent of a body cam on her? Magical body cam?
“Ms. Feng, please come in,” the golem says in a grating voice.
I take a few steps forward. My magic swirls beneath my feet and runs into one of the kiosks. The golem turns its attention that way and then looks at me.
“I’m Deputy Chief Earth Officer Rgald Onkgro, but you can call me Regie, if you like,” he says, smiling with rocky teeth.
“Nice to meet you, Rgald Onkgro,” I say, trying to replicate his name with a tongue that doesn’t feel suited to say it.
He smiles brighter. “Thanks for attempting it.”
Embarrassment burns in my cheeks and I look down. I’m reminded of every time I’ve ever shamed someone else for messing up my name, specifically Amherst, who really was trying her best. I think I’ll stick to Regie, though, since I don’t think my mouth will ever be able to make the right noises.
“Officer Ott tells me you had a run-in with Skreet,” Regie says.
“I did, yeah, a couple of run-ins,” I say.
He hums in a gravel-grinding way. “It seems you may have orchestrated the last one. Is that true?”
I bob my head. “Yeah, I was being harassed by another mage, and I…covered him in sugar and used a reversed projection ward to weaken the boundary to their plane.”
Regie suppresses a smile. “Gshao Lei, correct?”
I think he’s trying to say Zhao, so I just nod.
“Did you know that Skreet has annihilated two worlds?”
My stomach drops and my mouth goes dry.
“I didn’t know,” I murmur.
“It’s one of the reasons we’ve designed protections specifically against passing between their plane and others, but you are a young witch, inexperienced with the rules.”
They designed the protections? I thought Nai Nai had…
“You will not be punished this time, but you will be required to take two cycles of education in the mystic arts and regulations so that your future blunders will be fewer.”
Blunders. I summoned those skreet for a purpose, and they fulfilled it almost perfectly. But mouthing off seems ill advised.
“If I understand correctly, I’m going to witch school?” I ask.
He taps his stony fingers though the magical display. “Yes, though there are none available to take new students on Earth…I’ll find a plane with a timescale similar enough or in the positive, so you don’t lose hours.”
I have no idea what that means, but I thank him anyway.
After a few minutes of air-typing commands, he grunts and nods. “All set up. I’ll have your human interface relay the information.”
“But Officer Ott—couldn’t I work with her?” I ask.
“She’s a correctional officer. It wouldn’t be appropriate,” he says.
“I guess that makes sense,” I say as I rub the back of my neck.
“Amherst is a fine human, very diligent—except in the matter of expediting your registration, for which we’ll have words about. I’m sure she had her reasons…” He trails off, then snaps back to me. “You’re free to go. Officer Ott will escort you back.”
What a brief reprimand. I suppose they’re a busy organization, what with four hundred and whatever planes to monitor.
“Okay, well, sorry, and thanks,” I murmur as I wave and then turn around, the burn of my own idiocy flaring in my face.
“Oh, and Ms. Feng,” he calls.
I look over my shoulder, and he taps one of his kiosks with a resounding gong.
“We’ll be watching you.”
I smile and make a strange noise before power-walking through the wall.
“That’s not ominous or anything,” I mutter when the doorway seals shut behind me.
I follow the light path back to a platform where I’m enveloped in the teleportation magic again, then beamed to the lobby. Jamie is looking at a display of green sparks lying on her lap like a tablet. She manipulates the data for a moment before noticing me and dismissing it.
“Finished?” she asks.
“All properly scolded and such,” I say. “It was actually the most lenient scolding I think I’ve ever had.”
She stands in a fluid movement that reminds me of a snake. “Deputy Chief has a soft heart.”
“I guess he has to compensate for his stony exterior,” I say, snorting a laugh.
Jamie rolls her eyes, the third lid blinking in exaggerated slowness. “How original.”
She motions for me to follow, and we head back out into the strange government cave.
Another beam of light takes us back to maybe where we came in—it’s hard to tell with everything looking so similar.
With one last glance around, we step onto a platform operated by the glowing jellyfish creature, and then my nose starts to itch.
I sneeze, and when I open my eyes, we’re in the café.
“Jiejie!” Ace’s voice tightens around my heart like a vice.
I open my arms and squeeze him in tight. He holds me back just as hard.
“I was so worried you were going to magic prison,” he mumbles over my shoulder.
“Nah, let me off with a slap on the wrist,” I say.
“And about four years of mandatory education,” the familiar voice of the Boston detective says.
I pull back to see Amherst sitting at one of the tables with Nai Nai and a pot of tea. I put my hands on my hips.
“When were you going to tell me you knew about all this?” I ask, gesturing around.
Amherst uncrosses her legs, changing sides. “When it was time to register you.”
“Oh, yeah, and Regie has some words for you about that,” I say, feeling justified in my indignance.
“I’m sure he does. It was a well-orchestrated plan to capture the last of the Zhao offenders, and I would have if you’d just waited like I’d asked,” she says, then takes another sip of tea as if unbothered.
“You used me and my family like bait?” I ask, fury taking the place of indignance.
She sets the cup down with a resounding clatter. “You used yourself like bait. I was hunting him and the others down.”
“Why did you take so long?” I demand.
“Jiahui, you’re speaking in a tone too shrill to address an elder,” Nai Nai says in Chinese.
I clench my teeth and push my anger down. “We’ve been here for two months, and Lei’s been here almost a month.”
“He wasn’t,” she says shaking her head. “The vehicle we recovered at the site of the incident yesterday was for moving between planes. They were hiding off Earth-realm, and I was in communication with the IBMA for weeks trying to figure out where. It was an undocumented transport.”
I scowl as the information goes in and bubbles around with everything else I’ve learned in the past few hours.
“Yesterday?” I ask, looking out the window to the twilight sky.
“Time moves differently at the IBMA HQ,” Jamie says.
Right, the timescale thing Regie mentioned…
My head is getting woozy again.
Ace grabs my elbow and guides me to a chair. Nai Nai pours me a cup of tea. My mouth is pretty dry now that I realize I went over a day without drinking or eating.
“I would’ve taken you sooner, but registering a witch was a lower priority than catching dangerous criminals. It had to wait,” Amherst finally says. “I wasn’t using you. Your registration wouldn’t have deterred him from getting to you.”
I look at Jamie, seeking confirmation.
She nods. “There would’ve been no way for him to know anyway. He was also unregistered—dodged it for years. In any case, I’m off for a few days, but call if you need anything.”
“Wait, doesn’t Nai Nai need to get registered too?” I ask. “She’s definitely a witch.”
Grandma and Amherst share a knowing smirk.
“I’ve been registered since 1976.”
“You were registered at age…” I pause for the math. “Fifteen?”
“Sixteen, but yes. Got myself in a lot of trouble,” she says with a secretive smile.
“I’m going to need that story,” Ace says as he sits beside me.
“A story I’m well versed in,” Jamie says as she moves toward the door. “I’m sure I’ll see you later.”
“Bye, Jamie,” Ace calls. “Thanks for saving my sister’s butt.”
She waves and I smile at her. When the door jingles shut, I look back at Nai Nai.
“All right, Grandma, spill the tea.”
Her hand hovers over the pot, her expression aghast. “Never.”
Ace laughs. “It’s just an expression. Tell the story.”
“Not much to tell,” Nai Nai says, and Amherst scoffs.
Is she really some kind of witchy celebrity?
“I was a demon hunter in my younger years, and I was making such a good profit but putting myself out of business. So, I made a deal with an oni: I wouldn’t kill him if he caused trouble for me to chase.”
“We’re just a family of con artists…” I murmur in disbelief.
Nai Nai winks at me.
“That doesn’t sound that legendary,” Ace comments.
“I wasn’t quite done,” Nai Nai says. “So, one day, the oni decided he’d had enough of my leash, and opened a portal for a few extra demons—”
“Three hundred and fifty thousand demons,” Amherst corrects.
“How was I supposed to know he’d been growing stronger from our battles?” she asks innocently.
“You couldn’t have, but it certainly caught the attention of the IBMA. It was a year’s-long fiasco of getting everything put back to how it should’ve been, memories wiped, evidence erased.”
I look at her curiously. “Why not just let everyone know? Why the secrecy?”
The detective sets her empty teacup down. “Prevalence of magic sensitivity in humans is only five percent. Magic wielders is even lower. It would cause too great of an imbalance for ninety-five percent of the population to be left handicapped in a world evolving without them.
“Earth witches and wizards have their outlets, and communities. The rest of the non-magical population needs theirs. And Earth isn’t the only world in the only plane to be this way. Nearly half of the worlds inhabited by sapient beings are devoid of even magic sensitivity.”
“Crazy,” Ace murmurs. “What is it? Magic, I mean?”
Amherst shrugs. “Still up for debate—something you’ll be doing in school,” she says to me.
A smile creeps onto my lips, but then a hard realization hits me. “How much does it cost?”
Her brow ticks. “It’s a public safety concern. There is no cost. Your education is mandatory.”
“So, no ditching for beach days,” I say.
“Don’t fool around with this, Jiahui,” Nai Nai says in Chinese. “They’re a very serious organization.”
I dip my head. “Sorry, Elder Feng. I was making light.”
Amherst sighs. “I need to take some Mandarin, I guess.”
She gains her feet and smooths down her pants. “I need to report in, but I’ll be back to get everything squared away with you.”
“What about the Zhao trial?” I ask, standing with her.
“The IBMA have found significant evidence of magical malpractice. The Zhao family and its associates involved will spend time in their jail system while they await trial, which will be held at the IBMA headquarters. The Earth trial will never take place—not really. Pictures will be taken, transcripts will be recorded, and the Earth justice system will be satisfied that it has done its job.”
“So, do you guys need my testimony, or…”
She shakes her head. “We shouldn’t, but your parents will be present for the hearing.”
“Our parents?” Ace’s voice breaks as he jumps to his feet.
Amherst grins. “I found them, and about two hundred magic-sensitive individuals that the Zhao family were experimenting on.”
“Experimenting?” I say, disgust souring my tongue.
She grabs her bag and slings it over her shoulder. “I can’t say much more on the topic as it’s confidential, but they were controlling people with magic somehow.”
Flashes of dark wisps of energy making my fingers go numb come back to me.
“Lei chanted something, and then I couldn’t feel my hand, but it was still moving. I think he was going to use that magic to make me sign the contract,” I say with a scowl. “But why didn’t he just abduct me? What even was in that contract?”
“All things we’ll have to work to find out over the next year before trial,” she says. “I’m staying nearby, so I’ll be in touch.”
I walk with her to the door. “Hey, I’m sorry for getting upset before I knew what was going on.”
“I could’ve been more forthcoming if you’d been registered. The lack of communication was my own doing, but I thought I was doing what was right by chasing the bad guys first…”
I shrug. “It all worked out.”
“This case has been a lesson for me,” she says with grave seriousness. “I need to balance my priorities better and not let things drag out too long. I could’ve found the time to register you. I could’ve requisitioned a portal pass or had someone else take you. Really, it was my fault, in the end.”
“Now you’re just beating yourself up for the sympathy,” I say.
She chuffs. “You’re a wild one, Jiahui.”
“Can’t be tamed,” I say with a grin.
“But you can be punished,” rumbles a deep voice behind me.