Chapter 4: Chapter 4: The Watchful Eye of the Bureau

After that first night, there hadn’t been any more planar invasions. At least, not that Rory and Carina were able to find. Carina was trying to teach him how to sense the presence of other magical forces. It would be a while before they knew if it paid off or not.

Since they had some time, Rory was spending his evenings in the same back lot they’d fought the centipede in. He was determined to get stronger, with whatever stretches and exercise and practice that he needed to make that possible. Rory was going to be as strong as Amira. He was determined to be as strong as Amira.

“You’re getting better,” Carina said from her perch on the edge of a beaten up trash can.

“Not any stronger, though,” Rory lamented, yawning.

He was consistently getting better at using his attacks. Red lances pierced things, yellow swipes created a slashing arc, and orange blasts were concussive. With a bit of practice, he could reliably call on them. But Carina insisted that he should be strong enough to obliterate non-magical objects, and it was a struggle to do much damage at all.

“How am I supposed to figure out the limits of my power, exactly?” Rory asked, leaning his staff against the wall to stretch his arms. “I didn’t know I could turn on lights until I had to. Is that how all my powers are going to be?”

He was so tired. It was difficult getting to sleep with all the excitement of the past week. But then he’d finally fall asleep and have these weird dreams that kept waking him up.

Carina replied, “It’s all going to follow a common theme, but within that theme the limits are your own imagination. Although, we do have to keep practicing your ability to sense the presence of other magical users.”

She pointed up and Rory turned his attention to the roof, where a black girl in a white halter dress covered in musical notation was standing. Now that Rory had seen her, she leapt from the roof and landed gracefully on her heels right in front of him. A blue pixie was riding on top of her head, hanging onto her hair.

“I was so excited to learn that there was a new magical girl in town!” the girl exclaimed, holding out a hand for Rory to shake. “Little surprised to see that you’re a boy, but I guess it was about time. Maybe people will actually start calling us ‘magical defenders’ more often. I’m Jada. This is Thunder.”

“I’m Rory,” he replied, shaking her hand. “My pixie is Carina.”

“His partner,” Carina corrected, floating into view.

“So—” Jada circled Rory. “—from the outfit and the rainbow powers, I’m guessing you’re some flavor of queer.”

“I… I’m not!” Rory squeaked, shrinking down a little. “I don’t even like boys!”

“Oh? Hey, did Marisol try to get you to quit, too?”

Rory and Carina exchanged a glance before Carina admitted, “We haven’t told Marisol that he accepted the contract, yet.” She grimaced. “I can only imagine how mad she’s going to be that we broke the rules.”

“Oh, she’d be mad no matter what,” Jada assured them.

Her partner, Thunder, nodded and told Carina, “You’re really brave, defying the bureau like this. I wish I’d had that opportunity.”

Carina groaned and squirmed, insisting, “I didn’t want to. It just seemed like the only option at the time.”

“Still, imagine what kind of opportunities this is going to open up!”

“I can imagine the kind of demotion I’m going to get if the bureau convinces Rory to nullify the contract.”

“Oh, come on, it won’t be that bad.”

Rory, meanwhile, told Jada, “It’s so cool to finally be meeting one of the actual, real-life magical girls. You can’t imagine how excited I am!”

Jada chuckled, admitting, “I was like that too when I first joined. Don’t worry, you get used to it.”

“Actually, I was hoping… My powers aren’t very strong yet. I’d really like some help dealing with planar threats while I’m adjusting to being a magical girl—magical boy, I mean.”

Jada’s smile faltered and she released a long breath.

“About that,” she began.

Thunder explained, “Magical girls usually act alone. Once everyone’s territory has been redrawn, there’s not going to be any reason to interact with each other.”

“Yeah,” Jada agreed. “You shouldn’t expect to see much of us.”

Rory’s heart sank.

“I haven’t been able to take down anything on me own yet,” he mumbled. “How am I supposed to get used to this without help?”

Jada shrugged and replied, “You’ll figure it out. We all did. See you around, Rory.”

She turned, but Carina piped up, “Before you go: Do you know anything a magical girl in a black outfit? She uses some kind of shadow power and said that she hadn’t been here for long.”

“That’s news to me,” Jada said.

Thunder frowned and added, “I hadn’t heard of anyone being relocated here. That’s odd.”

“Odd indeed,” Carina agreed.

Rory needed to decompress and suggested that they head home early. He changed into his pajamas and laid out on the couch, attention darting between the TV and his game. It was so hard to find free time anymore and Rory was trying to squeeze as much fun out of it as he could. Sadly, he was tired enough to actually warrant going to bed pretty early. What had his life come to?

In his dream, Rory was standing in a flat, barren desert devoid of color. Dark clouds roiled above him, but there was no sound of thunder. There was no sound at all, though a stiff wind blew continuously. Rory kept turning around and around, looking for it. Whatever it was, it was watching him. Maybe it was far away. Maybe it was close. But it was never in the direction he looked. He grew more frantic, his breathing shallow and quick. If he couldn’t find it soon, it would pounce and he’d——

Rory woke up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. With a groan, he rolled onto his stomach and glanced at his phone. It was just a little after six, which meant it was almost time to get up for school. He sighed and struggled to rub the tiredness out of his eyes as he got up. Carina was still asleep, wrapped up in a small blanket atop a pillow on the desk.

When he emerged from the bathroom, fully dressed for school, Rory checked his phone again. There was a message from Marisol. It sent a chill down his spine. She’d heard back from the bureau and they wanted to speak to him directly.

Rory gulped and sat down on the bed, shaking a little. Carina, who was just stirring, watched him silently. She yawned and fluttered over, inspecting Rory’s phone.

“Well, no putting it off any longer, I guess,” she said quietly.

“How can you be so calm about this?”

“Whatever happens, happens, I guess,” Carina said, clenching and unclenching her fists.

It was hard to focus on school work, after that. There was a sense of dread in his gut that only grew as the day continued. Keaton could tell that something was wrong. He was sympathetic when Rory explained what was going on, and when they finally got off the bus for the day tried his best to console Rory before they separated in the elevator.

“Do you want me to come with you?” he asked.

“No, we’d probably just get into more trouble,” Rory said, “and I don’t want you do have to deal with that.”

With Carina in tow, Rory made his way to the bus and curled up in one of the seats. Worst-case scenarios ran through his head. A new one popped up every time he told himself to stop catastrophizing. By the time he was actually knocking on Marisol’s door, Rory had figured out every way that this meeting could ruin his life.

Marisol opened the door and glanced down at Rory.

She swore before groaning, “I told you not to accept the contract. You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into, kid. Get in your magical form.”

Rory stepped inside, mumbling, “Um… actually, the thing about that is—”

“Come on!” she snapped, causing him to jump.

Rory reached out his hand and said, “Magical girl power, activate!”

His uniform manifested, along with his staff. Marisol’s eyes went wide. For a moment, she just studied him while Rory fidgeted uncomfortably. His face was on fire.

“Anyway,” she said slowly, before turning to Carina, “I have the code you need to get into the bureau.”

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She showed Carina what looked like a business card with a string of symbols Rory didn’t recognize. Carina nodded. She raised a hand and a circle of runes appeared in the air in front of her as she began to chant.

“Wait! Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!”

Carina stopped chanting as Wolf darted into the room, panting. He took one look at Rory, then did a double take before turning to Marisol. Rory wished that he could melt into the floor.

“I’m coming, too,” Wolf announced. “I have some work I need to get done there.”

Carina nodded and began the chant again. Glowing runes appeared in the air, surrounding the group. When Carina finished, there was a bright flash of light and they were somewhere else.

It was all wooden walls and stone floors. The ceiling was low enough that Marisol had to stoop just a little bit. They seemed to be in some kind of waiting room, because there was a small reception desk where a pixie was working on paperwork.

“Thank you for coming,” he said without looking up. “The administrator will be here to see you in a few moments.”

Rory groaned. They all took a seat on one of the benches, which were too small for the humans but too large for the pixies. He couldn’t help but bounce his leg nervously as they waited.

After what must have been at least thirty minutes, a door opened and a forest green pixie floated into the room.

Pointing to Carina and Marisol, she went, “You and you, come with me.”

“What about the boy?” Marisol asked.

“As the liaison, you’re here on his behalf.”

Rory gulped. What did that mean? Why didn’t they want him to come?

“We’ll be right back,” Carina promised, floating up and following the other two out of the room.

Minutes stretched. Rory pulled his legs up and hugged his knees. What was going to happen? They were going to take away his power for sure! Carina had made it sound like they couldn’t do that without his permission, but he was sure that they would find a way.

As stressful as it had been so far to be a magical boy, he didn’t want it taken away from him. He couldn’t be famous for it if that happened. Not to mention he’d never be able to show Amira how strong he got. The shame of being a magical boy, but only for a moment before it was snatched away, would completely ruin his life.

The door opened and Rory jumped, but it was only Wolf returning with a small briefcase in his arms. He floated over and stood on the bench next to Rory. Wolf gave him a small smile, which Rory tried to return.

“How are you doing?” Wolf asked.

“Nervous.”

“I’m sure things will go alright.”

Rory grunted.

Wolf surprised him by admitting, “I’m really jealous of Carina, honestly. I want to be someone’s partner too, someday, and I kind of wish I’d gotten you for an assignment. I want my partner to be a magical boy so that I can relate to them better. Seeing you get to do this really gives me hope for the future.”

“That… Wow.” Rory felt himself blushing. “Thank you. That actually makes me feel a little better. I don’t know if I’m going to even be a magical boy after today, though.”

“You’ll be fine. They’re not quite that mean.” He sat his briefcase aside. “Hey, what do you do when you’re not a magical boy?”

“Not much,” Rory admitted. “School’s no fun, and outside of that it’s mostly just me and Keaton hanging out in my room or his. Practice and patrol with Carina is the most I’ve gotten out of the apartment for a long time.”

“You’re not going to have as much free time anymore. It probably wouldn’t hurt to pick up a specific hobby. That or try befriending the other magical girls and do things together.”

“That’s looking like it might not happen,” Rory said with a sigh. “I’ve met half the magical girls in this city already and neither of them wanted much to do with me.”

The door opened, getting their attention. Carina and Marisol entered and approached. Neither of them wanted to look directly at Rory. His heart sank.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Well, good news,” Carina said, floating down to his shoulder. “You were indeed the person I was supposed to be assigned to. So we’re not in trouble.”

“But?”

“But what?”

“What’s the catch?” he snapped.

Marisol replied, “There is no catch, Rory. Just… It’s an unusual situation, that’s all.”

“How am I even eligible? Wouldn’t there have been some announcement that boys were being let into the program? Everyone’s acting like this is unheard of. And why the dress!?”

“I told you,” Carina said, “the dress is a manifestation of your own subconscious desire. You can change it if you want to.”

He grumbled, “I hope you grabbed a manual. And you didn’t answer my other question.”

Marisol cleared her throat and suggested, “Let’s get home and everyone get some rest, for now. We can worry about this later.”

Rory stood up and Marisol placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Before we go, can I have a word with you?” She pulled Rory over to a corner, away from the pixies. “You’re something else, you know that, kid?” Rory blinked in confusion. “I know that you only accepted the contract because you want to be famous.”

“What!?”

Marisol continued, “It was one of the things that came up in the meeting. This is a dangerous line of work that’s going to make it impossible for you to live a normal life. The fact that your powers are so comparatively weak just makes the situation that much worse. Despite what Carina thinks, the best thing for you would be to quit for your own safety.”

She turned and walked back to the pixies without waiting for a response. Rory lowered his head and followed. He said nothing while Carina cast the spell again and returned them to Marisol’s house, where he immediately dispelled his outfit.

“Think about what I said,” Marisol told Rory on his way out.

They were about halfway to the bus stop before Carina asked, “Are you okay? You look a little shaken.”

“Why didn’t you just give her my credit card info, too!?” Rory snapped.

“Rory, I had to tell the truth! My job was on the line. Besides, it’s fine. You get to keep your position and so do I. We were never in any danger. Let’s just forget about today and start over, alright?”

“You still haven’t explained what makes me qualified to be a magical defender,” Rory reminded her.

Carina turned away, admitting, “I’m not actually allowed to tell you.”

“Well, that’s just great.”

He started walking away. After a moment, he felt Carina land on his shoulder. She sat down, but didn’t say anything until they reached the bus stop.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I know this feels like a betrayal of your trust. But everything is going to be okay. I promise.”

Rory sighed.