Chapter 7
It didn’t take long for the Global Guild to respond in waves, properly detain Winston Cobalt, and remove him from the area. Their first responders tended to citizens, cleaned up the area, and dealt with the bulk of the incident before most reporters arrived.
I followed Yaritza, Jamius, and Melanie to the hospital, where they were seen alongside their enchanter mentor, Santos Ortiz. Thankfully, most of their injuries were superficial.
After telepathically eavesdropping on their well-being, I responded to Milo’s text and made my way to the Global Guild detainment facility.
They didn’t have an official location of operation, so this prison-like building remained cloaked from unwanted eyes and hidden from all forms of magic.
Since the location constantly shifted, I had to follow a specialized GPS coordinate that’d undoubtedly expire within twenty-four hours as they continued moving throughout the city.
Much to my surprise, Gladiatrix was there with her interns. That much I expected. However, I didn’t think she’d be so brazen as to hold a press conference a mere hundred feet from the cloaked facility.
Still, with a name as renowned as hers, she couldn’t simply drop back into Chicago without some official statement. The press demanded answers, and as the fourth-highest-ranked witch in the world, it was her job to steer them to an appropriate response that didn’t compromise the case.
“Does your return indicate a return of the Celestial Coven to Chicago?”
“Why weren’t you at the incident today?”
“Did King Liberty reveal his identity to you?”
“Is this strike the first of many to come?”
“Are the rumors true about your involvement with King Liberty?”
“Will other high-ranking Global Guild members be arriving in Chicago?”
“How does the Global Guild intend to secure the situation?”
“What inspired you to become an enchanter mentor?”
“Will you be publicly introducing your interns?”
“Can they handle the expectations required of a Global Guild witch?”
Carter maintained a soft smile and positive demeanor.
According to his surface thoughts, Gladiatrix had prepared all her interns for the bombardment of questions she usually received during press conferences.
Carter sat between Gladiatrix’s other two interns.
Vik’s face remained red the entire time, despite the calming affirmations they continued repeating in their head over and over.
It didn’t matter. A crowd this big made them anxious.
Name: Vik Smythe
Branch: Arcane (Copycat)
Personally, I hoped working with someone like Gladiatrix would help Vik with their anxiety.
Sitting on Carter’s other side was a young woman with a dark olive complexion. I’d never had her in any of my classes. Honestly, I didn’t know much about Zoya other than the glimmer of details that sat on Carter’s surface thoughts. She was apparently an active member of the Gemini Pride Club.
Name: Zoya Khan
Branch: Alteration (Speed)
She probably possessed the closest branch to Gladiatrix, even if her physical power was limited to speed and reflex.
“Do you think it’s a valuable use of Global Guild time and resources to take on interns?” asked Clint Johnson, a reporter from everyone’s favorite conservative station who only believed in the value of magic when certain witches carried the torch.
Gladiatrix wasn’t one of the witches this reporter approved of, and keeping his heinous surface thoughts out of my head was no easy task.
“Global Guild witches take on acolytes all the time,” Gladiatrix responded. “It’s important to train the next generation of enchanters. And as someone who was never afforded an internship during my time at an academy, I take the privilege of mentoring quite seriously.”
Geez. I didn’t realize there were academies out there that flagrantly disregarded their obligations and sent students into the industry without proper training. It was even more impressive to see how far Gladiatrix had risen independently.
“A follow-up, if you’ll indulge me,” Johnson said, diving right into his next question without missing a beat. “Did you choose your interns specifically because they’re trans?”
My chest warmed, and my muscles tensed. The anxiety Vik held latched onto me, occupied by Carter and Zoya’s, too. None of them hid their identities and wore their queerness with pride, but it stung to see this reporter immediately spin their placement as nothing more than a stunt by Gladiatrix.
“And if I did?” She didn’t even dignify his absurd question with a full response.
“I understand you might feel it’s important to diversify, but if you’re picking a team of all trans interns, is that really diverse?”
“I assure you it is,” Gladiatrix replied with a smile. “I find it sad that I have to dignify this type of questioning, especially when only twelve percent of trans witches are licensed in America.”
“They’re a small community.” Johnson shrugged. “One that continues to grow based on certain influences but—”
“No, twelve percent of trans witches have a license to practice their magic,” Gladiatrix corrected. “For such a small community, it is quite disheartening to see such a discrepancy in licensing.”
“Of course, of course. You want to give back to your community, naturally,” Johnson said, his thoughts twisting to the in-depth research he’d done for this press conference. “But is this the best use of Global Guild resources?”
“Are you calling me a resource?”
“I merely mean to state that as one of the top ten witches in the world, it’s imperative that you—”
“In America,” Gladiatrix corrected. “The Global Guild doesn’t currently accept applications from witches who were born outside the United States.”
“Of course,” Johnson said through gritted teeth. “I only wish to examine if these students—and this has nothing to do with them being trans, that’s you making it an issue, not me—but I worry they may not be qualified for this internship. Surely, there are other students with better credentials.”
“I chose them specifically for their branches,” Gladiatrix answered. “They are the most adaptable to my skillset and will benefit the most from my tutelage. And yes, I am making this a trans issue. As the first trans woman to rank in the Global Guild, I don’t wish to be the last.”
“Fine, sure, okay. But none of these students even made the top fifty at their academy.” Johnson gestured to Carter, Vik, and Zoya, then kept his finger pointed at her the longest. “And this young lady was last ranked 558 at her academy. Surely, there were better candidates for someone of your caliber.”
Gladiatrix kept her smile despite every desire to lunge forward and smack this reporter with enough force it’d quite literally send him to the moon.
“Gemini is one of the most elite academies in the country. It constantly ranks in the top one thousand and has even graced the top hundred in the nation on more than one occasion,” Gladiatrix explained.
“To be ranked 558 is to be one of 600 highly qualified students at the most competitive academy in the state. I assure you, every single student at Gemini is more than qualified to work as an intern or acolyte for any Global Guild member.”
There was more to the story, to Zoya’s story, but that wasn’t Gladiatrix’s to share.
Zoya might’ve only barely passed her courses at Gemini, struggling to keep up with the others, but she faced more obstacles than many of her peers.
Unlike Carter, whose parents accepted him immediately, or Vik, whose family remained mostly indifferent to their identity, Zoya faced extreme challenges.
When she came out to her parents, they disowned her, and in order to maintain her placement at Gemini, Zoya had to legally emancipate herself, house herself, clothe herself, and feed herself.
She worked full-time and attended classes.
She trained nonstop. So while her record reflected she’d barely scraped by, her mind buzzed with a thousand obstacles only a handful of other students experienced as well.
“I was once ranked pretty low in the Global Guild,” Gladiatrix said. “I sat at 427 for two years.”
The crowd quieted.
“Some called my placement a stunt. Some speculated the Global Guild only wished to diversify their rankings.” Gladiatrix glared at Johnson, recalling several articles he’d written about her, and bashing the Global Guild for pandering.
“I proved them all wrong and moved up to the top ten. Some still believe it’s merely a gimmick.
I don’t concern myself with their doubt.
I prove them wrong every day by protecting this world from unspeakable threats. ”
“One more—”
PORN. Gay fucking porn.
It was certainly a vile abuse of my telepathy, but I absolutely sent Johnson images of naked men.
It was surprisingly not that difficult to hijack his thought process with a bombardment of abs, ass, and cock.
After an awkward thirty seconds of stunned silence, the reporter eased off and did everything to fixate on barely legal girls to reaffirm his masculinity.
Fines be damned. I sent a psychic pulse to give him the worst migraine of his life.
Definitely against the law, but it’d be worth a suspended license to shut that prick up.
The rest of the press conference went well for the most part. Few reporters wanted to pile on after the shit show demonstration Johnson had made.
“Hell of a press conference,” I said when Gladiatrix and her interns made their way inside.
“Not even close to Hell,” she replied with a half-smile. “That was kid gloves compared to some of the outlandish things I’ve had to shrug off with a perky little attitude and thank you to boot.”
“Should they be in here?” I pointed to the interns.
“Wow, Mr. Frost. You don’t think we’re qualified either?” Carter asked with an aloof attitude, even if he resented some of the comments from before. He played it off well enough. Grabbing his chest, he feigned offense. “You wound me.”