‘Knew it. It’s a scam.’

Amy looked very pleased. Most things felt like a scam to her and it was very afriming when one of them turned out to be so.

‘No it’s not a scam, it’s just different to how my brothers and sisters make it out to be,’ said Gregor. ‘The order is real. It goes back thousands of years, before christianity, before they took on the habits of a monastery. They were never real monks but at some point they ended up in Northern Europe and started calling themselves The Order of Saint Enos. They operated openly for years and as far as I know they have the longest unbroken lineage of magic development ever recorded. They are very powerful.’

‘They?’ asked Janik, ‘Not we?’

‘It’s complicated,’ responded Gregor, ‘The order finds children of extreme magical potential and inducts them. For most of them this is all they have ever known. But they found me when I was older, I lived the first fourteen years of my life in the outside world. My feelings about them are … complicated.’

Amy. Thomas, and Baron exchanged a worried three way look.

‘Inducts them?’ asked Thomas.

‘You arern’t the only place with a ministry. If governments find someone with that level of power, even children, they are … threatened. If the monastery didn’t take them they probably wouldn’t even be here.’

‘Shit.’ said Amy, ‘That is murky from every angle. That is messed up. But I don’t know, It doesn’t feel like you are the good guys in this situation.’

Gregor looked at his hands. ‘I know. They can’t see it. They think they are saving us.’ He worried at the beads around his wrist. ‘The longer I’m here the more I think they are more interested in the children because they need them to maintain their power. They forget that they are the cause of the situation they are saving us from’

‘What are you talking about?’ said Amy.

‘The order has collected and developed high magically potential people for thousands of years. We have built on magical developments for thousands of years. Our power is real. It’s immense. And to those who encountered us, it seemed limitless. Can you imagine if all you have known is shamans and priests laying out bones and jewels, only doing magic by themselves, in the dark, what it feels like to see someone do magic, immense powerful magic, with no conditions, right in front of your eyes?’

‘I very much can,’ said Thomas, ‘Because that happened this morning.’

Gregor continued, ‘The order hides from the public, but they let those in power see their magic, see that they can do whatever magic they want, whenever they want, with no restrictions. They want them afraid, it gives them their own power. In the past kingdoms and governments tried to align with them, but the order has always thought they were above mundane authorities. They never let themselves be used by others seeking their power. And without exception every authority has decided that if they couldn’t be controlled, then they needed to be put down.’

‘What could anyone even do? If your power is that complete, then how could anyone even touch you?’ asked Baron.

‘Because it’s not quite true is it,’ said Janik.

‘Our power is real,’ said Gregor. ‘The ministry isn’t wrong about that.’

‘But your power isn’t as limitless as you let them believe is it?’ Janik persisted.

‘Ah ha. It’s a scam,’ said Amy.

‘It isn’t a scam,’ Gregor said.

‘But it is a scam, isn't it!’ Janik was getting agitated. ‘You let everyone believe you don’t need conditions and that you don’t need to be unobserved to do magic. Which is terrifying. But it’s not true is it? Because otherwise you wouldn't need so much goat shit.’

‘I am so confused.’ said Baron.

‘We saw it, Janik! The old monk did magic right in front of us. We literally watched her do it, we saw Gregor do it when he smashed into our cell at the ministry! Everyone is doing magic in front of usl all the time here!’ said Thomas

‘Think about the van Thomas,’ said Janik.

‘The magic invisible flying van? Doesn’t that sort of prove Gregor’s point?’

‘The van,’ continued Janik, ‘is not the result of limitless magic. That van had a tank on the top that was packed with conditions, goat manure specifically. It’s a condition for flying. And it’s in a tank to hide it from view, because Gregor couldn’t generate lighter than air Aeron inside it if anyone is looking at it. If Gregor here has unlimited power why did we drift at a snail’s pace suspended under a tank full of ghoat shit?’

‘Dun dun duuuun!’ shouted Amy triumphantly.

Gergor let out a deep sigh. ‘You’re half right. As I said, not everything is as it seems. We have power, real power. And to outsiders it looks like we use that power on a whim, in full view of anyone who cares to look. But that’s not what’s happening. We can’t ignore the physical laws of magic. We still need conditions, we still need to be unobserved when igniting an effect.’

Stolen novel; please report.

‘I knew it!’ said Amy, ‘It’s a scam!’

‘But we saw it!’ said Thomas, ‘We saw monks doing magic with no conditions, directly in front of us!’

‘Yes, because although we can’t ignore the physical laws of magic, we can sometimes, sort of … ignore them.’

‘This is so frustrating,’ said Thomas.

Amy screamed and stamped her foot, ‘Arrrgghh! What? Which is it? Are you powerful mega wizards or basic little scam artists?’

‘Both,’ said Gregor.

Looks were exchanged. It was the worst possible answer.

‘I hate you,’ said Amy.

‘It’s both. What they have figured out, what we have been able to do, for over a thousand years, is to indefinitely delay a magical effect. We set the conditions. We create unobserved spaces for magical effects. We then stall the effect, freeze it, just before it takes place. We can store it, in a prepared artifact, then release it whenever we want. Effectively it’s as if we can do magic with no conditions and in plain sight.’

Janik looked thoughtful. ‘Your beads. You all wear those large beads around your neck and wrists. I thought it was weird because they look like buddhist beads but you were supposed to be a christian monastery.’

Gregor nodded, ‘We’ve never been a real religious organisation. It was a disguise, sometime in the last century the monastery went underground, completely, but we kept the habits and structures when we went into hiding. The structure of a monastery is perfect for nurturing magic.’

Gregor looked out the window at the glimmering sea dotted with wooden towers. ‘They built this city, shielded it. The order had let everybody believe they had unlimited power, that they could do whatever they wanted without restriction, that the normal rules of magic that kept magic users manageable didn’t apply to them. They let everyone think they were a threat to the point where their existence became intolerable to every nation they knew about them.’

‘But if they are so powerful what could anyone even do?’ asked Baron.

‘The order were not the only magic users. We weren’t even the only powerful magic users. Nations in Europe stopped fighting each other to fight us. Whole armies, augmented with the most feared magic users in Europe. The Abbots at the time knew that eventually they would lose, that the scale of destruction that would ensue while they were being defeated would be terrible. So the fight never happened. They went into hiding. And over time they erased knowledge of their existence from history. But they could never get it all. For every memory wiped, every text altered, there were other memories and texts kept secretly. They disappeared from public history but those in power knew they existed and thought they had to erase them, and anyone who had levels of power like them. In almost every country in the world those born with power are taken. All because those in authority think they are capable of a power that never existed, the power to do magic with no limits. All because the order never revealed their secret, that their magic is the same magic as everyone else's.’

‘Man,’ said Baron, ‘That’s one hell of a lore dump.’

‘Great,’ said Amy, ‘So we’re nowhere. You might as well be as powerful as everyone thinks you are.’

‘Actually, I don’t know if that’s right,’ said Baron, ‘Before it looked like they could do any magic they wanted, whenever they wanted. But actually they need to have that magic prepared. If they don’t have the magic pre-rolled they are no more powerful than Janik.’

‘That feels rude,’ said Janik ‘And also not true. Even now we know the scam now, they are still more powerful than any conventional magician. The power they must have access to in order to maintain this city, to hide it continuously, it’s terrifying.’

‘But what I mean is, if we do something they aren’t expecting, if they don’t have magic pre-prepared, then they have no magic, or no more than anyone else. We can fight them. They are powerful, but not all powerful. We just need to figure out what they aren’t expecting.’

‘Doing things people aren’t expecting is one of our strengths!’ said Thomas.

‘Sort of, but generally they aren’t expecting them because no one thinks anyone would do anything that stupid,’ said Baron. ‘We are going to need to plan something clever and unexpected, not just a one step plan where the step is to shout at or tackle someone.’

Amy made a face.

Janik looked thoughtfully at Gregor. ‘You’re done here now, aren’t you.’

‘What do you mean?’ said Amy.

‘He’s told us their secret. When they find out his time here is done. What will happen to you?’

Gregor was still looking at his hands, fingering his beads. ‘I don’t know. They won’t kill me, for all their faults they aren’t the ministry.’

‘No, they are just happy go lucky child kidnappers’ said Amy.

‘But they won’t let me leave. And I will be punished. Some kind of permanent maiming probably. Maybe a hand.’

‘Dear lord,’ said Amy. ‘This place is awful.’

‘Nothing will happen to your hand Gregor,’ said Thomas, ‘Because you’re coming with us.’

Baron placed his hand on Gregor’s. ‘You’re one of us now Gregor. We’re all getting out of here.’

‘Guys!’ exclaimed Amy, ‘We can’t just keep picking up strays!’

‘We are all strays!’ said Thomas, ‘You collected us! We were working at a supermarket! And now we are collecting Greogr and Janik. We need everyone we can get.’

‘I actually don’t want to be part of your gang,’ said Janik.

‘Oh,’ said Thomas, looking surprised and a little hurt. ‘That’s a bummer. But you’ll have to be. You both will, just for a little bit.’

‘We can’t trust Gregor,’ protested Amy, ‘We know nothing about him, it’s weird how he’s suddenly turning on his own people. And he’s just too big! There’s no room for a gym in the office, let alone whatever weird implements he needs to maintain his beard!’

‘I don’t think we’re ever going back to that office Amy,’ said Thomas.

This stopped Amy cold. He was right. Soon they would be running from the ministry and the monks. She had been avoiding the consequences of their narrowing options. They weren’t safe here. But they weren’t safe back home either.

‘Where will we go?’ she said. Her voice was unsettling in its uncharacteristic smallness.

‘There are places we can go,’ said Gregor, ‘Amy, this is not sudden for me, it has been coming for a while. It was inevitable. I’m sorry you got mixed up in it though. Thomas and Baron, thank you.’

‘Fine,’ said Amy, ‘You’re in.’ She scanned her new crew. ‘Too many boys.’

Barbara appeared at the door with the Abbot, who looked unimpressed.

The old monk took in everyone crowding around Gregor’s bed and said ‘I don’t like this at all’.

‘They are just concerned for my welfare Abbot,’ offered Gregor.

‘They are refusing to sleep Abbot! Look at them! They look awful! And the smell!’ said Barbara.

‘Man Barbara, settle down. No need to be rude,’ said Amy.

‘You all need to sleep, now.’ said the Abbot authoritatively. It seemed obvious to Amy that she was used to people doing her bidding without question and was finding their lack of general compliance baffling and irritating. The Abbot raised one arm, and started using her other hand to rub her bracelet of large wooden beads. Amy couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed it before, but looking back she could remember subtle touches to her beads whenever the monk had performed magic.

‘You had better not be about to put us to sleep with some skanky magic trick,’ said Amy.

There were four thumps as the Abbot’s skanky magic trick dropped Amy, Baron, Thomas, and Janik to the floor in a deep sleep.