Chapter 4: Their decision

Nick walked towards Howard's office, the three children still following him, looking around with wide eyes. The building itself was no different from the most ordinary police station, so the wizards around attracted more attention. Workers followed by stacks of levitating documents, people with luminous circles in their hands and holograms above them. To curious children, this place looked like an amusement park.

Bill squinted to get a better look at the strange circles. Each of them consisted of several layers, where the outer one was almost always a circle. Sometimes it was a square, a triangle, or some other geometric shape, "Why is it always these shapes…?" he muttered, furrowing his brows.

Nick looked at him over his shoulder and chuckled. He remembered the first days when he learned about the existence of magic, they were always unforgettable for him. Even if for the wrong reasons. He was even a little jealous of Bill and his interest in an unknown force that had no place in the real world.

He slowed down and began speaking loudly enough for all three of them to hear, "What you're seeing now is commonly referred to as a Magic Circle." A small sparkling purple circle with a triangle inside appeared on his open palm. The upper part of the triangle was crossed out with a thin line, but that was it. No complicated letters or shapes. "Each one is built to perform a different spell, and each one has a color that represents a person's mana." He stopped for a second. "Well, mine represent my mana. Other people's circles glow with the energy of a dimension that they use to cast their spells. But that's too early for you to know."

Clenching his hand into a fist, Nick let the circle disappear. Bill and Jane looked at him with interest, but Tess was still wary of him, which was completely understandable, if anything, Bill's complete calmness and Jane's trust were strange.

Bill's frown deepened. "But why geometric shapes?"

It wasn't a frequently asked question because it was usually the first thing that was explained to every wizard. "It's very simple, magic circles are created using mathematics, so their shape is usually basic." Nick answered with a straight face and tried to hide his chuckles when he heard the groans behind him. Who wants to know that mythical power is based on something as boring as math?

Finally reaching Howard's office, Nick pushed the door inward and entered without even knocking. In front of Howard's desk sat two people in modified police uniforms, a woman and a man. The only difference from the normal uniform was the deep blood-red color of the clothes. Howard himself was dressed in a brown business suit, he was not part of the active operatives, he didn't need a uniform.

"I thought the kids would be here by the time we got called. It's a little awkward to sit here in complete silence." Nick heard the man say.

Howard sighed heavily and gestured with the stack of paper at the newcomers. "Meet Nicholas Fyre, he's the wizard who told us about the situation." Nick nodded in agreement; he didn't want to show up as S10-8 right now.

Howard, was a man in his forties, gray at the temples, tired eyes, and a small beer belly under a tight suit.

The officers rose from their seats and shook hands with him one by one. The woman had short sea-colored mana hair, dark skin, and wide brown eyes. "Alexis Jefferson, nice to meet you."

The man with shaved temples and black hair introduced himself as James Benson. His gray eyes were filled with humor, but at the same time with extraordinary seriousness.

"Welp, you already know my name," Nick gestured at the children hiding behind his legs. "This is Bill, Tess and Jane. They've just learned about the magical world and I think they're holding back the sea of ​​questions with sheer force of will."

Nick stopped reading children's minds a long time ago, because he had a migraine from being in Bill's head, but he could guess that they had questions. Many questions.

"Alright guys, let's get the legal side over with quickly then." Howard clapped his hands and the questioning began.

---

When the officers ran out of questions, it was time for the children to ask their own. Jane and Tess looked uncomfortable after so many questions about their relatives and about everyday life, but Bill looked indifferent, as if he had already come to terms with what was happening. The responsibility of answering their questions fell on Nick's shoulders, because he was the only one who didn't have a job to do right now.

Howard filled out the necessary paperwork and reports that were required to terminate the parental rights of the older Ciphers. Alexis and James also went to talk with the Texas police department to expedite their arrest.

"So… do we really have magic?" Tess asked uncertainly. "Where did we get it from in the first place?"

Nick scratched his chin and thought about how to explain magic to six-year-olds. "Yes, you do. Magic appears in people from birth. Usually, if we don't find Wizards and Witches and teach them how to use magic, then they are no different from normal people. There is too little natural magic in the human body to use for spells."

The children looked at each other in confusion and looked at Howard, who was levitating several sheets of paper in front of his face. "But he's using a spell…" Jane remarked.

Nick raised his hand and pointed his finger towards the pen lying on the table, it rose into the air and zipped to his hand. "This is minor levitation, a technique that doesn't require spells, just a little imagination." He smiled, "But you're right, we can use spells. Why?"

Jane frowned and stared at her knees as if they had personally insulted her honor. "You're taking mana from somewhere else…" Tess guessed and Bill nodded, while Jane raised her head faster than Nick could blink.

Putting the pen back in place, a familiar magic circle appeared in Nick's hand, this time it was electric yellow. Sparks fell from his hand to the ground, but left no traces behind. "That's right. Each wizard uses the energy and mana of dimensions that are close enough to ours." Nick brought his hands together and the circle began to let out small lightning bolts that bounced off his fingers. "But it's too early to tell you about that. You are not even connected to any dimension, so my words will be useless to you." Moreover, the terminology that he'll have to use will be too heavy for young minds.

"Then how do you find new wizards? You don't always run into people like us by accident." Bill said crossing his arms over his chest.

Nick looked around and this time called to him the map that hung on the wall. It was a detailed colored map of America, with several clusters of blue, red, green and yellow dots glowing on it. "This map is projecting signals from magic sensors that you've seen before. Every time these sensors detect a magic user, they appear on this map." He pointed to a large cluster of dots in New York, but here, in addition to the blue colors, there were also yellow ones. "See? These dots represent you and me - well, and other wizards in the building. People with familiar mana for sensors, glow blue, unknown and new wizards glow yellow, everyone else glows green or red."

The children bent over the map and looked with interest at the moving lights. "What do the red dots represent?" Tess and Jane asked at the same time, not even surprised that they asked the same question.

"... They represent any non-human, unregistered magical beings." Nick replied as he recovered from his surprise, "If they don't pose a danger to others, we leave them alone. Here," he pointed to North Dakota, which was almost all a mixture of blue, green and red, "is one of the largest werewolves' packs."

"So, the green ones are re-gistered magical beings?" Bill asked, not even surprised that werewolves were real. His pronunciation was a little choppy, but the boy was only six years old.

"Right again. We made the maps quite simple to make them easier to understand. Of course, we have maps that are more detailed, even photorealistic ones, but we use them very rarely." This time, Nick did not get a new map, his copies were all at home and teleporting them to him would be a waste of time.

The kids continued to ask questions, Jane and Tess were more interested in what magic was capable of, and Bill wanted to know how it worked. But Nick could only answer their questions superficially, because a detailed answer to the question "where did magic come from?" will take three day-long lectures.

Finally, Alexis and James returned to Howard's office with frowns on their faces, and Nick felt his day already getting worse.

"Righty-o, Jessica and Smith Cipher will be in jail pretty soon, Margaret Cipher will spend the rest of her days in a psych hospital wing and won't be able to scream about the devil in the streets anymore." Magic was indeed a useful thing in normal investigations.

The younger Ciphers frowned and clung to each other, seeking comfort in their union. Although their family hurt them, there was still hope in their souls that their parents would love them again. Nick, seeing this, frowned. He didn't look deep into their memories to find out all that their family had done to them, but it was something worse than a simple beating for disobedience. But it wasn't his place to know.

Alexis sighed heavily and crouched next to the children. It was hard for her to even look at them, knowing exactly what their parents had done to them. She didn't have the opportunity to choose to know less, absolutely everything was important for the investigation. "Well, guys, now you have a choice." The children squeezed each other even harder, but listened attentively to the woman who helped them. "You can disappear from Texas for a while, until you are comfortable with going back. Here you will be taught everything you need to learn at school. And we will lead you along the path of learning magic."

Bill's eyes lit up at this opportunity, but Tess and Jane were not sure that this was the best option.

Alexis continued when she thought that the children had had enough time to digest her words, "Or you can go back to your life, talk to your friends. A personal teacher will come to you every weekend to teach you magic." She reached out to pat Tess on the head, but the girl winced at her action, so Alexis lowered her hand back. "The main question is whether you want to go back to your previous life, but now with a huge secret that you can't tell anyone, even to your closest friends. Or stay here, but with minimal contact with the outside world."

The Ciphers looked at each other and started whispering again, it was already the second huge choice in their lives today. The adults moved away from the kids and sat a little further away, giving them space. Nick sighed heavily, rubbing his temples, a migraine slowly crawled in his head and he didn't think that it would leave him anytime soon.

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Yes, even immortals can get migraines.

"So… How did you find these kids?" James asked, twirling an unlit cigarette in his hands. "Not that it's too important to me, any child saved is good, but reports require accuracy."

"Let me show you." Nick took the sensor map out of the bag and unfolded it in the air in front of everyone and pointed to a working sensor in Texas. "I was asked to fix these old lads a couple of days ago, but I only started today. Some required replacement, so I made them from scratch."

James whistled. "So young, and already an Artificer? Damn, if I had a talent…" the man sadly shook his head, and Nick continued.

"These kids went through the Wards surrounding our sensor and decided to poke it with a stick. Literally." He chuckled. "I came to check the strange signal and found three children sitting in front of the sensor like little cultists. Burned all the internal circuits to hell though."

Alexis hid a smile behind her hand. "Maybe they're just bad cultists."

"Maybe." He allowed. "Normal people wouldn't even be able to find the house that was hiding the sensor, let alone get through them. Of course, some wards could fall and let the kids through, so I checked to see if they were mages. You can see the result for yourself." Nick nodded towards the whispering Ciphers.

"Well, whatever they choose, I hope they do well…" James said and Nick couldn't help but agree. No child deserved such torture.

There was an awkward silence between the four, broken only by the ticking of the wall clock.

…

"Any of you play blackjack?"

---

As a result, Ciphers decided to stay in the magical community and everyone went home happy. Somewhat happy.

Of course, the process itself was much longer, but for Nick, the time spent filling out reports and going through re-interrogations flew by too quickly to remember anything.

The children didn't know what would be waiting for them now, they were facing an abyss of uncertainty. Although they seemed calm and collected, they were actually overwhelmed with fear. In just one day, they learned so much about the world, so many new mysteries and riddles opened up to them at the same time.

Howard decided to help them get used to the new world, so he took them in. His wife was a completely ordinary person and could explain to children who had never known about the existence of magic, some of the more obscure parts of their "new" world. Nick thought the woman was a saint, considering how quickly she agreed to take three troubled children under her wing, who would start learning magic pretty soon.

Alexis and James continued their investigation to make sure that none of the Ciphers Seniors wouldn't be released from prison anytime soon.

Now Nick was lying on the couch in front of the window in the living room, head down, completely exhausted and praying to be struck by lightning, even the light of the setting sun did not ease his fatigue. Not that it could harm him in any way, but it was his frequent practice. Nick was trying to confirm the existence of a god – any god – that could influence magic. Every time he had a headache, he prayed to the new god to strike him down with lightning.

So far, his prayers had come to nothing, but he wasn't going to stop soon.

He heard a knock on the door and put his hand to the floor, sending a wave of mana through the old tree, the lock clicked and opened, and Nick shouted "Come in!" towards the entrance. The door opened and his guest went inside, he wasn't even surprised when he felt Bloom's floral perfume.

"Nick? Are you all right?" She asked in consern and bent over to face him. "You look like you've been run over by a car."

Nick grunted in response and rolled onto his back and lowered his feet to the floor, freeing up enough space for Bloom to sit at his feet. Bloom was wearing the same clothes she went out in yesterday, but this time she didn't have those terribly high heels on her feet.

"Tough day," he replied. "I found a new client on the outskirts of Gardenia, and she ordered several ready-made heavy fucking things along with the installation. Sometimes I think I should hire an assistant to carry stuff for me."

Bloom didn't sit on the sofa and just looked at him with sympathy. "Then you're lucky, Mom is inviting you to have dinner with us. I don't think you're in a position to cook anything right now."

Nick raised his head to look at Bloom with a raised eyebrow. 'Why did she come to say something that she could easily text me on the phone…?' He blinked, noticing a new passenger on Bloom's shoulder.

It was a gray rabbit with white fur on the front of his body, he had big brown eyes, but his most interesting parts were his thumbs. Thumbs. Sure, he looked cute, but it definitely wasn't a normal rabbit. Normal rabbits don't walk on their hind legs and has thumbs on front paws.

"And who is this little guy?" he asked cautiously.

Bloom took the rabbit in her arms with a smile and brought it closer to Nick. "This is Kiko, the best rabbit in the whole universe."

Kiko and Nick looked at each other for a couple of seconds and came to the same conclusion: 'This dude isn't normal.' But a pact of silence was formed between them, so they sealed it with an imperceptible nod of agreement to each other.

"Nice to meet you, Kiko." Nick nodded again and returned his gaze to Bloom. "I don't want to sound rude, but why are you here? If you just want to hang out, then at least let me put the kettle on, I recently found a good batch of Oolong."

Bloom shook her head and Kiko returned to her shoulder. "Mom invited you to have dinner with us and I decided that since we live so close, then why not invite you myself."

Getting up from the sofa without much difficulty, Nick cracked his neck. Bloom didn't miss the chance to take a closer look at him. She couldn't call Nick a bodybuilder, but she wouldn't deny that he is very athletic. How he was able to find a balance between strength and normal muscle size, Bloom had no idea, but would like to know.

"Then let's go, I don't think it's a good idea to keep Vanessa waiting." Nick grinned and together they went to Bloom's house.

Vanessa greeted them with a smile, and as a result, Nick had the most fun dinner in a long time. Everything went pretty well, except for one little thing.

His stalker was back.

He knew where Nick lived.

He knew where the Price family lived.

'Well now. I'll have to get rid of you.'

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