Rollie, 42

It came out that Texas troopers were ordered to push babies and toddlers back into the Rio Grande.

The news came up, and I told my dad that nothing in the world justifies drowning innocent children.

What did he say?

It’s all part of war. Children die in war all the time. He even referenced child bombers as an example.

Then, he took it a step further and said that if a civil war breaks out, and a kid comes into our “camp” he won’t hesitate to “fight”.

Take that for what you will.

It absolutely angers me and saddens me that he thinks this way.

And his justification for it…it’s insane.

The room was just large enough to be intimidating without being impractical. The walls were perfectly smooth despite being the natural stone of the cavern, and apart from the door we’d entered through, the only other exits were several doors along the back wall, all guarded. The floor was tiled in an elaborate mosaic of swirling black and white patterns that looked kind of like runes, but not quite. The room was mostly empty, barring a long table almost cutting off the back quarter of the room. Said back quarter was raised significantly higher than the rest of the room, so that anyone sitting behind it would look down on the people in the middle of the room.

Behind the table were nine chairs, seven of them already occupied. Alania and the strange man left us to take up the remaining positions. There was no furniture for Kylie or myself, so we just stood kind of awkwardly in the middle of the room.

The man sitting in the very centre of the table stood up. He had long, greying hair, wore pitch dark robes, and his eyes were completely cold. “Kylie,” he said. “The High Council wishes to inform you – ”

Behind us, the door opened. The man looked up, startled.

“Sorry I’m late!” panted Fiore, pushing his hair back with one hand and trying not to drop Socks with the other. “Wow, this meeting really was sudden, wasn’t it? It’s almost as if someone didn’t want people to make it here.”

The man who had come to get us narrowed his eyes. “Lord Fiore of Madja – ”

“That’s the Fiore to you, Lord Solus; Lord Madja was my father. Apologies for the interruption, Grand Master.”

The man in black (the Grand Master, I assumed), cleared his throat, but before he could speak, Lord Solus cut in. “The Fiore was not summoned to this meeting.”

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“And yet my student is here. As Mr James’ surveyanto – ”

“Mr James was also not summoned,” Lord Solus snapped. “We can’t bar a familiar access to his mage, but he is not the subject of this meeting, and you have no claim to be here.”

“He’s my witness,” Alania said quickly. “Under article 7 of the supervisory agreement, any Council member is entitled up to two civillian witnesses to any gathering. The Fiore is mine.”

“You’ve never brought one before.”

“I have today.”

“Miratova has that right,” the Grand Master said. “Now, if we may begin? Kylie, you have been summoned to this meeting to inform you of a decision reached by this Council, over the matter of an ownership dispute over the spell known as the Faith of Fionnrath. The Council has elected to honour the town of Fionnrath’s claim over their ancestral spell, and comply with demands that you be released from your contract with Skolala Refujeyo. You will be held by your contract until the end of next semester, after which you will be free from your obligations to us.”

Seven months. Seven months before we had to leave the school.

Kylie gripped my arm hard enough to leave bruises.

“Hang on,” I said. “What? Why?”

“Refujeyo respects our sister nations and their traditions. Fionnrath has long – ”

“Don’t give me that bullshit. A mage’s spell doesn’t belong to any organisation. If a spell’s inside someone, it belongs to that person – that’s your law!”

“Yes. It is. However, Fionnrath have successfully argued that the Faith was not acquired at Refujeyo. Australia has no standing on spell ownership; Fionnrath’s claim is as valid as ours.”

“Yeah, well, if yours isn’t valid then neither is theirs! Kylie didn’t obtain her spell in Fionnrath either!”

“And if she wishes to dispute their claim, then she is free to do so. But we are withdrawing from the affair. There has been enough conflict over this already, including a death.”

“That woman tried to kill Kylie! And now you’re throwing her to – ”

“To clarify,” Fiore cut in before I could say something I’d probably regret, “this school is caving to foreign demands to release one of our students, under our protection, in the face of all precedent?”

“As opposed to asking Fionnrath to release their ancestral spell in the face of their precedents? Yes.”

“You’re granting them an extradition treaty.”

“Yes.”

“And what facile excuse are you using to expel my student without cause? You can hide getting rid of the girl under the guise of political expedience, but no foreign claims have been made for Kayden’s spell.”

“Kayden James is under contract with us.”

“He’s her familiar! He has to go with her!”

“That is his choice. If Mr James chooses to follow his mage to Fionnrath, the school will make accommodations for him to do so. But it is his choice to leave. We aren’t forcing him.”

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“Choice?! He’s her familiar! If he has a place in this school, then by ancient right, so does she.”

“Incorrect,” Lord Solus said, a touch smugly. “Mr James has every right to go where Ms Kylie does. Ms Kylie does not have equal access to Mr James. There’s no precedent for such a thing.”

“Because there is no legal precedent for both parties being human. But in this case – ”

“In this case, the school is willing to work with Mr James’ unique circumstances and provide him with transport and off-campus support, should he choose to accompany his mage to Fionnrath,” the Grand Master said firmly.

“This is expulsion with extra steps,” Fiore grumbled.

But I had an idea. “I’ve been offered an apprenticeship by Malas,” I said. “I’m going to take it. And he can’t leave campus, meaning I have to stay, meaning Kylie has to stay.”

“I am sure that your master will be happy to provide you with the transport between Refujeyo and Fionnrath that would be necessary for you to complete your duties,” the Grand Master said.

Dammit. It was worth a try.

“I won’t go,” Kylie said. My arm was starting to go numb under her grip, and her magic skittered along my spine. “You can’t make me.”

“In fact, we can.”

“What’s all this even about?” I asked. “Kylie has a powerful spell! Isn’t that supposed to be really important to you guys?”

“Not when there are political implications,” Fiore cut in drily. “And perhaps a politically contentious spell isn’t as important as safeguarding the future of someone’s favoured protege, hmm? I thought better of you, Alania. The prophet is your responsibility, too.”

Alania’s voice was tight. “If you think for one moment that I support any part of this decision, Fiore, you have woefully misunderstood the situation.”

“Wait,” I said, “is this about Max?”

The Council Masters hesitated.

A woman at the end spoke up. “The Nonus Acanthos’ future is his own affair, although his decision to kill a Fionnrath woman – ”

“She was trying to murder one of your students!”

“ – is unhelpful. But the issue here is Fionnrath’s claim on their ancestral spell. Legally, only Kylie’s status here is under ques – ”

“Oh, bullshit!” I went to stride forward, but I didn’t have much of a range of motion with Kylie gripping my arm like a limpet. “If this is some stupid, misguided attempt to stop Max from doing dangerous shit, then I can guarantee that suddenly taking away his best friends absolutely isn’t going to help! I’m sorry if you think us poor outsider witch kids are a bad influence on your precious baby legacy mage, but I guarantee this isn’t going to make him settle down and focus on becoming a good little politician.”

“Maximillian Acanthos’ schooling is not the issue here,” the Grand Master said sharply. “Neither his contract with the school nor yours is affected. The only legal issue in question is Kylie Nic Fionnrath’s contract, and that issue has been decided.”

The magic was starting to itch my teeth. At this rate, Kylie could start casting at any moment out of sheer distress. “Well, undecide it!” I snapped. “You were supposed to teach and protect us. We went through the Initiation, we have the right to be here. I’m happy to play ball while you hold up your end of the bargain, but throwing us out like this with some flimsy justification that has nothing to do with us? No. If you won’t protect us, we have no reason to protect you.”

Silence, for several seconds.

“Please,” Lord Solus said, “Elaborate.”

“How would you like the whole world to know about how curses and spells are the same thing? About how the only difference between one of your oh-so-sophisticated mages, and some kid’s curse melting their family’s faces, is money? PR is important right now, right? I’d imagine that the new legislation in Australia is something you’re trying to spread to other countries, too. How hard do you want that job to be?”

One of the Masters cleared their throat. “A minor PR problem – ”

“How would you like the world to know that you’re so embarrassed about this little detail that you’re mind controlling the entire student body to keep it a secret?”

The silence stretched longer this time.

Eventually, the Grand Master said, “One of the things a student agrees to upon accepting their education is to keep their master’s secrets. We will forgive this outburst based on the assumption that you didn’t know, but you agreed not to announce these things when you entered the Initiation. You are threatening to break an ancient and solemn contract, Mr James.”

“You’re threatening to break your contract with Kylie.”

“In fact we are not. We intend to legally annul Kylie’s contract. You’re suggesting treason.”

“Oh, semantic – ”

“How would you even get anybody to believe you?” Lord Solus cut in. “You think you can just announce this to the world’s media and that they’ll take it remotely seriously?”

“We have proof,” I said. “Testimonies. Evidence. I’ve had some friends collect it and put it aside, just in case. It’s all ready to go. I don’t want it to, but if you’re going to force our hand, we’ll do it. We’ll make sure the world knows. I’m sure you’ll recover from such a PR slip up, but ask yourselves – is that more or less convenient than simply honouring Kylie’s contract?”

“The rules and laws that you threaten to violate – ”

“You think some stupid spooky ancient law is going to stop me? I don’t give a shit!”

This silence stretched longer than any of the previous ones. And for a moment, just a moment, I thought I’d won.

Then I saw that Alania had slumped forward, her head in her hands. “Oh, Kayden. You really, really shouldn’t have said that.”

Lord Solus rubbed his hands together, triumphant. “Well, then. Is anybody going to argue that that was a clear confession of treason, under the Law of Intent?”

Fiore stepped forward. He looked afraid. I don’t think I’d ever seen him look afraid. “No damages have taken place,” he said, “and an emotional outburst hardly counts as a declaration of intentional lawbreaking. A teenager made a statement in the heat of the moment. You have no evidence of intent.”

“The heat of the moment?” one of the other Masters asked. “He did just declare that he’s had friends gather what they need to violate the secrecy clause and set it all up for a reveal. That sounds pretty premeditated to me.”

“You have no evidence that he was telling the truth,” Fiore said. “That was just an empty threat.”

“Quite correct,” Lord Solus said. “Given a confession and no evidence, the responsible step is to use that confession to go and find some, wouldn’t you agree? We’d have to verify that such activities really did take place. Have a proper trial, perhaps. We’d have to thoroughly investigate Li Hua, and Talbot Ericson, and Cheryl Castor, and put them on trial for any evidence of treason we found. That would be the responsible thing to do, if Mr James and Ms Kylie were to insist on more evidence, would it not?”

Fiore nodded. “It absolutely would – ”

“No,” I cut in. “They don’t have anything to do with this.”

“Well then,” Lord Solus said, leaning back.

“Any objection to summary conviction?” the Grand Master asked.

I glanced at Alania. She sat still, glaring into the middle distance, jaw clenched. It was hard to be certain at that distance, but were ice crystals forming in her hair? Her spell certainly looked a little more visible than usual, with some kind of light vapour or something coalescing around its form on her shoulder.

But she didn’t object.

Fiore stepped further forward. “If you lay one finger on him – ”

“Oh, stop being so dramatic, Madja,” growled the Grand Master, glaring down from his higher-than-necessary judgement table, swathed in pitch black robes. “Both of these students are, as of yet, still under our protection. The usual sentencing for things like this is to protect a student from the consequences of their own decisions.”

“What do you – ?”

“Guards, have somebody track down the Voice.”

For a moment, it looked like Fiore was going to step protectively in front of us. He seemed to think better of it, and put a hand on my shoulder. “There’s nothing to worry about,” he murmured, sounding extremely worried.

“He’s waiting in the other room,” Lord Solus said.

“He’s waiting?” Alania rounded on him. “You summoned him in advance? You set them up!”

“I came prepared for a likely scenario. I didn’t set anybody up. Mr James made his own decisions.”

“Of all the stupid, dirty tricks, you cursed, mudsucking – ”

“This is a Council meeting!” the Grand Master bellowed, and everyone sat up straight and put their solemn faces on. “Now. The Voice?”

One of the doors behind the table opened. I tried my best to look calm and composed, as I prepared to meet the Voice.

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