I held the fairly large book in my hands as I admired its weight and appearance. It looked to me like a hybrid between a modern textbook and a classic leather-bound tome. On the cover of the hefty grey book, embossed in gold lettering, were the words ‘Basics of Magic’.

“It's so beautiful, how old is it? It looks like a recent publication, but the styling of the cover and pages seem at least partially traditional.” I asked with genuine curiosity. It was my very own book of magic. It was any little girl or boy’s dream.

“You’re correct, that is a recent publication. If you look at who the publisher is on the inside cover of the book, you’ll see that it says IDPA Scholastic Publishing.” Knowles explained while pointing with his hand at the book I was holding.

“We, the IDPA that is, publish a lot of different books and papers on a whole range of topics. An introductory book like that is something every IDPA office is sure to have.” Gunderson told me also pointing at my spiffy new book. “I knew Knowles would have a stash of those with him, and after you told me about your class, well I knew that we needed to get you a copy.”

“Thank you, really.” I told them both with heartfelt warmth.

Knowles looked away, a bit uncomfortable at seeing my expression of emotion. “It’s nothing. It is our job to advise and assist supernaturals like yourself, and providing a basic introductory text like this is hardly worthy of praise. I have a whole filing cabinet full of textbooks just like that one.”

“Oh, don’t mind Zach here, he’s terrible with compliments. But be sure to read over that book when you have the time, it could save your life one day.” Gunderson advised. There was something in the look he gave me while he had said that. Those weren’t just empty words that he was speaking to me just now. What he was saying had the weight of experience to it.

“I’ll be sure to study and learn it by heart, as fast as I possibly can.” I told them enthusiastically.

“A very good idea, knowledge is power after all, and the IDPA takes great care to make such knowledge available to you.” A new voice told me.

Spinning around I could see standing just behind me was a tall woman dressed in an expertly tailored outfit. A light charcoal grey blazer was paired with a dark black pencil skirt, this completed the effect of making this person look both professional and competent.

“Um…” I replied, unsure of what to say to this new stranger. I also protectively grasped my new book of magic tightly to my chest.

“Ah Matilda, you are an absolute vision of beauty, how are you today?” Gunderson asked in his friendly over-the-top manner.

Matilda scoffed at Gunderson’s words. “Keep it in your pants, Special Agent Gunderson. I’m not here to socialize, so cease any further attempts at pointless flirtation.”

The tall woman named Matilda, with her long dark black hair and well-maintained bangs, seemed accustomed to coldly cutting Gunderson down with just a few pointed words.

Clearing his throat to draw attention, Knowles spoke up. “What can we do for you today Ms. Lawrence?”

“I’ve come to see Ms. Morrow here actually. I’d heard that she was visiting our office, and was instructed to bring her up for a meeting with Mr. Irmingir.” She told us.

Knowles and Gunderson mentioned this Irmingir before, the way they had been talking about him, made it sound like he was in some kind of leadership position. With Matilda here fetching me to meet him, this further solidified my theory that Mr. Irmingir must be someone important.

“Who is Mr. Irmingir?” I asked the others, my sense of curiosity no longer willing to wait.

“Mr. Simon Irmingir is the person in charge of this office and oversees all IDPA activities in Northern California.” Matilda told me proudly.

“Just the region between the Oregon state border and the boundary of the Sacramento metro.” Knowles clarified dispassionately.

“Yes, while it is true that the region may lack any of the larger cities, that doesn’t diminish the dangers we face and the responsibility we all must bear.” Matilda told him sternly.

“I’ve never claimed otherwise. I was only trying to clarify your description and educate Ms. Morrow here.” Knowles stated while indicating with his hand in my direction.

Matilda closed her eyes in a gesture of irritated surrender, before looking back in my direction. “Ms. Morrow, we are all very happy to make your acquaintance, if you still have the time today, would you consider meeting with Mr. Irmingir?”

“Um…” I replied confidently once again. Turning around, I looked back toward Gunderson for guidance.

Noticing my uncertainty, Gunderson spoke up. “You’ll need to meet with him eventually, meeting and making introductions with someone important like Mr. Irmingir will only help you in the long run.”

“Wise words.” Matilda said, giving Gunderson a slight nod of approval. I couldn’t be sure exactly, but I think I also caught Gunderson giving Matilda a small wink.

“Well, if you think it’s a good idea, I guess we can go meet with this Mr. Irmingir.” I replied slowly, making up my mind.

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“Excellent, I’ll lead you up to his office then. Agent Gunderson, you’re welcome to join us of course, Agent Knowles please be sure those post-incident reports are finalized and sent back to me.” Matilda instructed.

“Of course, they’ll be on your desk by the end of the day. You know I don’t need you micromanaging me with something I've done literally hundreds of times already.” Knowles grumpily complained before turning back around to his desk and the paperwork on it.

Not replying, Matilda turned around and led us back down the corridor of cubicles and eventually to a single metallic grey elevator door. She pressed the call button for the elevator, and while we waited I felt the need to ask more questions.

“So, where are we exactly? I mean, one moment I was in that coffee shop’s bathroom, and the next I’m here in this large office space.” I asked in polite curiosity.

“We’re in a dormant and benign extra-dimensional space that is adjacent to our Earth and is connected to the bathroom you entered from.” Matilda replied matter of factly.

“Oh.” I responded intelligently.

“We’re basically in a dead pocket dimension that used to be a dungeon, and we eventually repurposed it into the office you see today.” Gunderson added.

The elevator door opened and all three of us stepped inside. Pressing the button for the top floor, the fifth floor, we went back to waiting in an awkward silence that Gunderson was quick to break.

“The ritual you had to do to enter here is a remnant of back when this place used to be a dungeon.” Gunderson said.

“Most of the time when a dungeon is destroyed, the extra-dimensional space it existed in is also destroyed, but occasionally that space persists afterwards. The IDPA was lucky to find and salvage this location before other parties tried to claim it for themselves or damage it irrevocably.” Matilda said.

“That’s interesting.” I concluded.

After a few more moments, the elevator came to a halt, and the metal doors opened for us. Stepping out, Matilda led us down a short carpeted hallway to a pair of large wooden doors that had a large wooden desk situated next to it.

“This is Mr. Irmingir’s office, and this is the area where you're likely to find me at work.” Matilda said, indicating the adjacent wooden desk.

Knocking loudly on the door, Matilda waited for the reply. The response that came back was both immediate and quite loud.

“Come in.” A commanding deep voice told us.

Eager to do so, Matilda opened both of the wooden doors and led us inside the spacious and opulent office. The room we entered was exquisitely decorated with the furniture and decorations all seeming to be of a high quality. The floor was all finely carpeted, and the numerous bookshelves and desks all seemed to be made from the same type of expensive hardwood.

Aside from the high-quality furniture and decor, there were also a large number of skulls and other trophies taken from the bodies of who knows what. Some looked like regular animal skulls, while others like misshapen lumps of metal, or glowing pieces of crystal.

Sitting at the large adorned desk across from us was a large man sitting and looking across at us. I say a man, but the person looking back at me was both green and possessed what looked like large tusks sticking out of his mouth.

“Uh…Gunderson?” I asked him with some concern in my voice.

“Ah right, forget to mention Mr. Irmingir here is a descendent of Orcs.” Gunderson said quietly into my ear.

“Half-Orc actually, my mother was full-blooded.” The large man told us, apparently having overheard Gunderson’s quiet words.

“Ah yes, that’s right.” Gunderson responded awkwardly.

The man named Simon Irmingir stood up and walked around to stand in front of his desk, Matilda walked forward then to stand beside the large green man.

“Welcome Jennifer, to my office and the IDPA’s headquarters for the Northern California Region.” He told me grandly. “It’s a pleasure and an honor to have another supernatural like yourself around to assist us in our mission.”

“Um, t-thank you, sir. It’s a great honor to be here, even if this is all still fairly overwhelming.” I tried to respond politely. There was something about this man that was a little bit intimidating, aside from him being very large, green, and having a mouth filled with tusks.

“So, I heard you had a fight with a monster after you were inducted, but I haven’t heard the particulars. Would you mind recounting the events to us, as you experienced them?” Irmingir asked, his voice naturally seeming to be both loud and notably deep.

“Um, uh, sure, yeah I can do that.” I told him while I become more and more nervous. “I went to this p-party with some friends, and we eventually heard a scream. Not knowing where one of our friends was, we ran through the house before eventually running into the monster, it was something called a Ghoul Hound.”

“Hmm, they can be challenging if you let them build up their strength, though judging by the casualty reports I read, it didn’t have much time to do so.” Irmingir assessed.

“R-right, it attacked one of my friends when he was trying to rescue one of the injured people there, and after that, I kind of just lost control of myself and started shooting magic shadows at it.” I told him.

“A mage huh, shadow or darkness essence I assume. Interesting, but go on.” Irmingir said.

“Well, after a few attacks the monster died, and my quest to stop it was completed. But before I had the chance to relax or celebrate I got two more quests, a side quest to stop two of the injured from bleeding out, and a main quest to dispose of the corpse. It had something to do with stopping the veil from being sundered.”

“That makes sense, and given that you are still standing here, I can safely assume that you stopped the veil from being torn asunder. Otherwise, the backlash would certainly have killed a newly created supernatural like yourself.” Irmingir told me bluntly.

“Um yeah, I managed to complete both quests, but it was a close thing.” I said a bit nervously, remembering how close I came to nearly failing that quest. If what Gunderson told me was true about what happened when my experience points went into the negatives, I almost died from that protect the veil quest.

What was the veil, and why was it so important? Since we were already talking about it, I may as well ask all the people here who know tons more about this stuff than I do.

“So what exactly is so important about this veil? What is it, and why did I get a quest to protect it that very nearly killed me?” I asked the three others in the room.

The large orcish man named Irmingir just stared at me for a while squinting his eyes in uncertain suspicion.

“What do you mean, what is the veil?” Irmingir asked me. “Hasn’t Gunderson already been over this with you?”

“Um, no, not exactly.” I confessed. Turning to look at Gunderson he seemed to look a bit nervous standing here in Mr. Irmingir’s presence.

“Gunderson…” Irmingir almost growled.