Danny felt his phone ring in his pocket and awkwardly removed himself from the study. “Uh hi, who’s this?”

“Mr Skala? You have an appointment for a body scan at the RMH today, are you still able to attend?”

Danny’s eyes widened. “Uh yeah, what time was it again?”

“4 PM.”

Danny looked at his phone, it was already 3:30. “Yeah I’m actually on my way in right now.”

“That’s good. See you shortly.”

Danny was thankful for the call, he had no clue when the appointment had been. Probably should have written that down somewhere. He returned to the study only to find Zoryana tinkering with the orbs.

“I’ve gotta bounce, is there anything else you need from me?”

Zoryana raised an eyebrow at his sudden use of casual language. “No, the measurement is done. Do you want to know about the special properties of your mana?”

Danny nodded, of course he did.

“Well, so do I,” the woman laughed. “I’m not sure right now, but I did find something interesting. Your mana is hot.”

“Hot?”

“Yep. Mana usually has no temperature, it’s more of a metaphysical construct that only becomes measurable when it is materialised in a magic spell or ritual. Your mana, on the other hand, both glows and has a measurable heat that radiates off it.”

“What’s that mean?”

Zoryana shrugged. “Honestly? I am not sure, like I said before, unique characteristics are rare in mana. For most of my career, I’ve only seen blue mana, occasionally a different colour, but I’ve only seen one other person whose mana has a unique characteristic. “

Damn, pretty rare then. “What was the unique characteristic?”

“Their mana sparkled, it was very cute.” Zoryana smiled at the memory.

“Cool… Uh, so I can just leave?”

“Of course, one last thing though. I’ll make sure you are enrolled for the introductory classes starting next week. The chancellor wants everyone capable to be taking the advanced classes as soon as possible.”

Danny waved his hands. “No need, I won the lottery and already have a place.”

“Well, isn’t that convenient?” The woman raised an eyebrow.

Danny said goodbye and left the academy. He caught a tram across the city and made it to the hospital. The scan was uneventful, nothing strange coming up at all. The doctors could only shrug, they really had no clue what had happened to him. Danny was beginning to have a hunch though, this whole business was giving off a distinctly magical vibe at this point. He decided to keep his observations to himself for now.

As he made his way home his mind connected another dot. His mana was hot. What had he noticed about the zombie? It was giving off significant heat. Along with the fact that the liquid was the same glowing orange as his mana, it was looking conclusive that he and the zombies were inextricably linked. The thought sat uneasily with him. Having seen the zombie, the thought of being related to it scared him. Am I going to turn into a zombie?

Danny was pulled from his thoughts by his phone going off again. Surely I haven’t forgotten another appointment. Thankfully it was his sister. “Yo, Belle, what’s cooking?”

“Danny! I just got my mana tested, they had to send me to Melbournes Academy, they said I have more than twice the normal person’s mana!” Belle's excitement tore through the phone. “They asked me where I was born, they seemed like they expected me to be born in Madley. That was weird.”

“Ayy that’s awesome sis, did they measure your elemental stuff?”

“Oh yeah! Apparently, I have a really high affinity for earth magic, that’s pretty cool. They’ve enrolled me in some special advanced classes or something. Have you gotten tested yet? Surely you have. Tell me, what happened?” Her excitement was infectious.

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“Yeah I got tested this morning, then again this afternoon.”

“OH! You were sent to an academy as well? For the better test?”

Danny grinned. “Yeah, something like that.”

“C’mon then! Tell me what happened!”

‘Well, they said I also have a pretty huge amount of mana. I have an affinity for all the elements, but they told me that Earth was where I should focus.”

“Wow, looks like it runs in the family then.” Belle’s excitement wasn’t curbed, it only grew.

“Skalas’ on top it seems.”

“Always have been Danny,” Belle said with an audible grin.

Danny scoffed. “How about Sam? Did he get tested?”

“Yeah… He’s pretty average, slight affinity for air magic, normal amount of mana. He’s pretty bummed out about it.”

How could he not be, you were probably running around the house yelling about your epic talent. “That’s a shame, not everyone can be a Skala. Fitting though, normal magic for a normal guy.”

“Hey, Sam’s a good guy.” Belle got defensive, as she always did on this topic.

“Didn’t say he wasn’t. You know what I mean. Sam’s just Sam. I’m not surprised he’s normal in magic as well.”

Danny could hear his sister rolling her eyes. “Whatever Danny. You still feeling alright?”

“Yep, right as rain, even better now that I know we're both looking pretty set up for this magic stuff.”

“Damn right, we’ll be on top of the game in no time.”

The two chatted some more about her work and social life, Danny was happy to hear that his sister was as successful in both domains as ever. Danny eventually made it home and found his roommates sitting in the living room, staring blankly at the coffee table. “Uh, Belle, it was good talking, love you.”

“Love you too Danny.”

Danny put his phone into his pocket and cautiously made his way over to his two roommates. He wasn’t sure if they were high out of their minds or feeling down. “Uh guys, you good?”

“Nah, man. Not good.” Talking was good, higher chance they weren’t high.

“What’s up, fellas?” As Danny got close to them he could see that they looked lucid, just depressed.

“We didn’t make it.”

“Make it?”

“Into the first magic class.” The young man looked like he was about to cry.

Danny’s shoulders relaxed. “Oh that sucks, sorry to hear fellas. But luck next lottery, yeah?”

“Jimmie made it in, that dickhead. He’s like, borderline retarded, and he gets in? Like c’mon, clearly, we should have his spot. What’s he going to even do with magic? Light cigs?”

Danny had to hold his tongue. Like you guys would do anything else. “Yeah, that sucks.” Danny left the two to mop in the living room and decided he didn’t want to stick around until they decided to ask if he made it in. Looks like I’m treating myself tonight.

Danny grabbed a jacket and went out. He walked his way through the city and down to Chinatown. Danny wasn’t sure he had a favourite food, but hot pot was easily in the top ten. It was something about being able to choose whatever he wanted, whatever his palette was feeling like at the moment, that really appealed to him. He always spent way too much money, piling on more food than was reasonable, but that’s why it was a treat.

As he dug into the deliciously warm mixture of meat and veggies Danny was dismayed by his body's reaction. He just had this body-wide feeling of discontent. The food tasted delicious, but it felt wrong. Danny didn’t feel stressed out, so he was pretty confident that whatever was going on wasn’t psychosomatic. You know, I bet it’s magic-related, everything seems to be these days.

Danny tried to ignore the feeling and continued eating, deciding to let his mind wander. He began to think about the consequences of everyone in the world learning magic. It started off optimistic, how different and cool everything was going to be, but his mind drifted toward guys like Anton. What were magical criminals going to be like? Were they already thing? What does magical crime look like?

Wait… Danny’s mind began to churn. Unsafe magic… Could that be a crime? What does unsafe even mean? Unsafe for the wizard, or unsafe for the people around the wizard? Danny couldn’t help but think of classical portrayals of demonic rituals and sacrifices. Are those real as well? If anything was going to be a magical crime, Danny had a feeling that sacrificing people to demons would be a good start.

Danny eventually finished his dinner and headed home, walking off the post-meal lethargy. His roommates were still mopping around the house but he managed to avoid any questioning. He got ready for bed and lay down for the night. His mind raced as it tried to process everything that had happened recently, which was almost impossible, it was all too much, far too quickly. Danny couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed. He tossed and turned, doing his best to not think about the massive amount of information he’d taken on board in the last few days.

Eventually, Danny managed to calm his thoughts for long enough that he began to fall asleep. As he did so, he faintly noticed a new feeling, a sense perhaps, something he couldn’t put his finger on. The sensation of something outside of himself, of something a great distance away from him. Before he could tap into it, he fell asleep.