“Oh my god! This Is Awesome!” Anna screams at the top of her lungs before I rush over and shove my hand over her mouth. The guy working the counter gives us a funny look but otherwise ignores us.

“Shhhhh, did you just do what I think you did?”

Anna excitedly nods her head in reply. She cast a fucking spell! Well, OK, the crystal probably did most of the work, but still. Anna doesn't have system access, wait….

“You don't have magic right?” I ask.

Anna vigorously shakes her head no, seemingly getting more excited every second.

“Alright, just don't explode yet. Do you know if anything like this has happened before? Things that let non magic people cast spells?” I ask, slowly taking my hand off Anna's mouth.

“No! The closest thing I can think of are artificer gizmos! But those cast the spell for the person. That was me, actually me casting! Oh my god this is so cool!”

“Yea, real cool.” I say, lost in thought.

So, another boon for me. I can probably literally sell spells now. Of course, that also makes me high value. Which is going to invite waaaay more dickheads like the Healers Inc guy. Unless no one knows about it. Well, just another secret to be kept I guess. This one not as life threatening as my last one though, so that's a plus.

“Lucy! Earth to Lucy! What's up?” Anna asks while poking me in the cheek.

“Anna, look, I know you're excited, but I need you to keep this quiet.”

“Huh?”

“Think about it for a second. That last dude was an asswipe, and I'm not even that powerful or whatever. Now imagine how aggressive he would get if he knew I could make portable, cast anytime spells. Even if the number of spells was limited.”

“You'd be super popular…. Oh.”

“Yea, being that popular draws the bad kind of attention sometimes.”

“Alright, I won't tell anyone, promise!” She says, while side eyeing me expectantly. Of course Anna wants a bribe. Normally she wouldn't, but she and magic are like a druggy and crack, and now that she knows she can indulge, she wants her fix.

“Alright Anna, no need to side eye me like that. I’ll give you more crystals to play with on occasion.”

“Yes!”

“Buuuut! You can't use them on anyone but me and Charles, at least until its public knowledge I can do this.”

“Deal!” She says, before shoving the final spoonful of ice cream into her mouth.

“Good, now let's get you home. I’d invite you back to my place but your mom would have a fit.”

Anna just huffed as I took her trash and threw it away. I picked her back up and off we went, Anna asking me a million questions on the way home. What am I going to do with the spell crystals, how many can I make at once, how many am I willing to bribe, ahem, I mean give to her. After like five minutes I just zoned out, absentmindedly answering her questions as I weaved back through the streets. Finally we got to her house, the rundown craptastical apartment complex seemingly back to a normal non cop infested shithole after the early morning fiasco got resolved. Anna’s mom answered the door puffy eyed and red faced, but I didn't pry. I simply handed Anna off and headed home myself.

Everything was fine until I got halfway home. That's when I was settled with the feeling that something wasn't right. At first I just brushed it off, thinking it was the winter chill or something. But it just wouldn't go away, instead it kept getting stronger. Maybe I was paranoid, but I decided to keep track of my surroundings anyway. It takes a few minutes, but I notice a red sedan with completely blacked out windows showing up an awful lot. Sometimes it’s driving slowly behind me before making a turn, other times it seems to be circling the block. I decide to change my route, taking a slightly longer way home to see if it keeps following me. Of course it does, and after a few more blocks I notice something even more disturbing. The car doesn't have any plates either. Yea, might as well hold up a sign and scream hey we are kidnappers.

I act like I’m going to change paths again, ducking down an alley between two buildings and watching over my shoulder for the car to pass. Once it does I stop and backtrack out of the alley, but instead of continuing to backtrack I continue on my route home. Sure enough after a few more minutes it showed up again. But this time was different, this time it was just sitting there. Parked on a spot at the end of the block with its engine still running, facing my direction no less. I stop in place and stare at the car, waiting to see if they want to move.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The stand off is short lived however, as the light hum of an engine slowly rolling up behind me gets my attention. Black van, blacked out windows, no license plates. Yea, how about a whole lot of nope! I turn and bolt into the alley between the buildings, the engines of both pieces roaring as they try to accelerate to give chase. Halfway down the alley I see a fence and jump it. Ending up in an enclosed private alley, I'm fenced in on both sides. Which means they are fenced out. Sure enough, by the time I'm almost at the other end some goons come running up behind me. They start yelling up a storm when they run head first into the fence. I continue on my way until I get to the other end, before jumping that fence too.

Once back out on a main street, I cross and duck down another alley just as one of the vehicles comes flying around the corner. I didn't see which one it was, but it was going fast enough I heard it. I keep running to the end of that alley before exiting it and crossing the next street. I follow that street for a block before entering a parking lot and ducking between some of the cars. Sure enough a moment later I hear one of the cars again, and the red sedan goes flying by. I stay down for a few minutes, carefully watching the road. The goons from before finally catch up, but they don't pay the parking lot any heed as they run past further along the route I would have taken if I had kept running straight. I wait a few more minutes, and after no more cars roll by I decide it's safe enough to come out.

Once I'm back on the street I check my phone to find out where I am, then plot a course home and carefully make my way through the remainder of the city to the suburbs. I'd call the cops but it's not like they'd be able to do anything. Yea hi, I got chased by some dudes in black clothing with face masks and unmarked non descript vehicles. Though the paper trail might be nice, I don't have the mana to play fifty thousand questions with them today. I'm already running low.

Mana: 704/7068

Yea lets not tempt fate oh having my wings, tail, eyes, and horns pop out in front of everyone. Thankfully I managed to make it home without any more incidents. Those kidnappers were totally incompetent. Then again I also do run way faster than a normal person or even a new defender. I'm not going to tell mom either, she'd have a fit and wouldn't actually contribute to the situation in any meaningful way. I'll tell dad when he gets home. I highly suspect we won't be able to do anything about it though, and that this won't be the last attempt.

I have a sneaking suspicion about who hired them, fucking Healers Inc prick. Shit, maybe I do need to join a guild then. If anything it might make any others give up trying to do stupid shit like kidnap me. Then again, if they're dumb enough to think kidnapping is a valid recruitment strategy then just being in a different guild might not do anything. I'll need protection, which will be costly, meaning I'd have to be worth it. Though, I'm apparently valuable enough to kidnap so that may not be an issue. God what a pain in the ass, I thought magic was supposed to make you cooler, not paint a target on your back. But some people, or groups, just have to be exploitative assholes I guess.

I get up to my room and lock the door, then loosen up and let my wings n stuff out. I sigh as I go over to the computer and sit down. I open up Google search in a new tab and get to work. First I look up the healers union and go through the process of creating an account. Total pain in the ass, but I get it mostly done. They want verification that you are in fact a healer, so I need to create an appointment with someone they approve of to verify and sign off. The good news is the appointment system they had in place will let me know when someone is available at the times I specified.

After that was done I did some research on the Free Birds guild. They do in fact focus on any kind of competition, this includes some of the demon hunting ones. But they seem a little too competitive for my liking. At least they are upfront about it on their website, requirements like participating in x number of events a year, ect. So I'm probably going to give them a no. I don't even know how a healer would participate competitively. Though they sent the letter out before my class selection so they didn't know.

I close out the tab I was using for research and reach over to my phone. I go to text Charles but stop when I notice the message from that Marcy lady earlier today. The previews for conversation shows two words that the notification didn't, a recruiter. That piques my interest, so I open the conversation to read her message.

‘Hello, my name is Marcy Brown. I am a recruiter for the guild Renders. If you have time to talk I'd like to extend a recruitment offer to you. You can reach me at this number or at [email protected].'

Huh, so she wasn't a scammer. Wait, how did she get my phone number? I certainly haven't given it out, and the registration process supposedly only used it for contacting purposes. Yea, probably bullshit, it got sold like everything else these days. But in a way that works for me, more offers will get tossed my way. I text Marcy back, stating that I'm interested but can only meet on weekends due to school. I didn't even have time to put my phone down before I got a response.

‘Wonderful to hear from you, I can meet later today at a location of your choice if you are available.’

Later today, which means she's already local. Not a surprise, I'm sure a lot of recruiters flew in after the disaster due to how many people became defenders. I still remember the absolute zoo outside the gym when they all jumped at the newly registered defenders. Well, convenient enough for me. I just need to let my mana recharge.

I text her back saying I'm available to meet at a cafe about two miles from my house at five pm. That should give me three and a half ish hours to recharge my mana and another hour or so to walk that way. So I text Charles before putting my phone down and going back to researching possible guilds to join. Just because I've agreed to one meeting doesn't mean I'm going to limit my options after all.