Ophelia woke up to a noise coming from the hall, her mind instantly flew to worst-case scenarios but she did not allow herself to panic. She kept a wooden bat nearby and Tepi was in the next room, if she could get to him then they could check on the rest together. Her legs were shaking but she got herself out of bed and cracked the door, peering down the hallway. Tepi’s door was open, dark miasma surrounded the area, it seemed to form a trail leading down the stairs. She held her bat tightly and walked out, listening close for anything that would give away an intruder. She checked the rooms of Rind and Daisy, they both seemed fine.

She continued down the hallway, eventually coming into contact with the dark energy. Tepi was not in his room. She felt a chill in her spine, the dark energy was making her feel a sense of dread she had never experienced before. It was all consuming, and as she waded through it, down the stairs it only got stronger. Eventually, she found Tepi, lying on the floor of the sitting room, his shirt was burned off and his hands were scorched.

Despite the dark miasma driving her further into an abyss of anxiety, she ran over to Tepi, making sure to grab a jug of water to douse the flame. He was unresponsive, his breath was ragged and his hands were black as if he’d dived his hands into the centre of the now smoldering fire. She wetted a rag and began cleaning his face and body, moving onto his hands last, making sure to be careful in case he had burnt his hands. To her amazement, as she wiped his hand, the soot came off revealing a perfectly undamaged hand. She found the same to be the case for the rest of his body as well.

She breathed a sigh of relief, allowing herself a second to calm herself down before finishing the job. She found her strength inadequate to lift his body weight up the stairs but was capable of dragging him to the sofa. She fetched his blanket from his room and covered him. Her worry manifested and she sat on the sofa, maneuvering his head to rest upon her thighs, slowly stroking his hair behind his ear.

Tepi woke up with an oddly shaped pillow. He sat up, or at least he tried to but found instead a head resting on his chest, a small strand of dribble escaping the corner of a perfectly shaped mouth. For a moment he forgot the night terrors and stroked the girls face, freeing her hair from the lips it had been trapped in. He tried to get up without waking her up, he carried her head while he got off the sofa and placed her lying straight on the sofa the opposite way he had been.

The smell of eggs woke her up, she blinked herself awake and looked up at the seemingly healthy boy working the frying pan, the table already fully laid.

“Good Morning Tepi.” She smiled.

He turned, slightly startled by the sudden sound. He had been alone with his mind, something about the nightmares last night made him feel odd.

“Morning Fila, feeling alright?” She nodded, smiling. Suddenly she remembered how she had found him.

“More importantly, are you alright?” She got up from the sofa, approaching him.

“Physically I’m fine, I Just had the weirdest feeling when I woke up. Why were we downstairs? Did… Did something happen?” He fought back the blush. She strutted towards him and hit him on the arm.

“Nothing you are thinking of, you idiot. It was much weirder.”

She explained how she found him, conveniently leaving out the part where she was so scared she was shaking.

“Freaky, I wonder if it’s to do with that black mana I absorbed. My nightmare explains my actions though, for some reason my hands were freezing. They were blue and hard as ice, like a frozen piece of meat. So I guess I plunged them in the fire.”

Fila shuddered. “That’s much too terrifying to think about.”

“Can you not tell anyone for now, especially not Watson or Beau, they have enough on their plate as it is.”

Fila pursed her lips. “Please.” He held her hands in his.

“Fine, but if it gets worse I’m going to tell them. And I’m going to be sleeping with you from now on.”

This crossed the line, Tepi blushed bright red, Fila hid her face after a moment when she realised what she had said. “It’s for your own good, Tepi.” He nodded. “Right, let's get cooking, quickly move the eggs, they’ll burn!”

“Beau, we need to talk about this.” She stated, setting the kettle on the mat, the two brewing tea cups steaming in front of her.

“Watson, you can’t bring him with you, he’s not stable.”

“You’re not giving him enough credit, he’s healthy.”

“You don’t know that.”

“But he is also valuable. The drugs he found, there’s no way we would have ever found that supply without him.”

“Why, are the police not good enough?”

“No, they’re not, and the criminals are getting better, Tepi is a bonafide sniffer dog. Imagine what we could accomplish.”

“It’s unethical, he's too young, he’s had no training, he’s fragile and he’s still at school. Not to mention the freakiness with Pandora’s Box.”

“He will have a team, he will not be put in harm's way. His mental state will be monitored, we will work around his University schedule and Pandora’s Box is locked away, you saw to that.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“I know it’s safe now, but what about whatever I’ve already let out.” He rested his head in his hands. His breakfast still untouched. “It’s too dangerous Ella-Mae.”

“It’ll be more dangerous if we allow whatever you let out to stay out there.” She placed the tea on the table and embraced the weary man from behind. “We’ll take care of him.”

“You shouldn’t have to.”

“I’ll take him out today and see what he thinks, he’s old enough to make these decisions himself.”

“And I have no say in it?” He whimpered.

“You can say all you want and I will listen, but this is too good of an opportunity for the MCR to pass up.”

She put her foot down, his little apprentice was being scouted. She happily dug into her breakfast, Beau begrudgingly began eating his.

Tepi packed his bag, quickly this time. Making sure to leave with Marianne and her friends to avoid any potential conflict. He found that yet again he did not have time to spend with them as he found Watson waiting just outside the gate.

“Good morning, Tepi.”

“Good morning, Ella. What are you doing here?” She frowned. “Not that I don’t appreciate you making the effort.” He recovered.

“I am here to make a proposition, one that may be quite exciting.”

“I’m listening…”

“Come.” She gestured to walk alongside her, he slipped into place. “Your ability to track this mana may be beneficial to the police. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the rogue mana you described lead us to a criminal.”

“Neither do I.” She nodded in agreement.

“I want you to work with some of my officers to find more of this mana and track its source.”

“Was this Beau’s idea?”

“No, mine.”

“Really?”

“I admit it’s out of character, but I have full confidence in my officers, at no points will you be placed in danger.”

“I don’t mind a little danger, Ella.”

“That’s irrelevant, your job would be a scout only, how would you feel about this? It would just be part-time. We’ll pick you up whenever we need you.”

Tepi pondered, Watson had given a day to give her an answer. He was hesitant to accept as he was planning to scout the rogue mana by himself but she was right. There was definitely some correlation between the criminals and the mana. This meant it would be dangerous, maybe too much for his novice ability to handle. Having some backup would be appreciated if things were to go sour.

People were gathering in the square of Monkton Farleigh, East of Bath. A woman was kneeling in the centre, strapped to a wooden pike. She was screaming, blood leaking from the gashes in her face into her mouth sprayed in front of her with each of her shrieks. Under these circumstances, help would be administered but there were two very convincing deterrents in the form of big black-clad men with a rifle each and a sword strapped to their belts. One of them was carrying a torch.

“The acceptance of these monsters have been tolerated for too long. It is up to our own power to rid the streets of these vermin. Watch as we burn this witch alive, as they did long ago, and as they should have kept doing.”

The man’s speech was riddled with errors implying a lack of education but his message was all too clear. Both to the onlookers and the poor woman strapped to the wooden pike.

The man approached the woman with the flame, preparing to light her on fire. Suddenly his black-clad friend dropped dead. He dropped the torch at the woman's feet, it began to lick at her toes. The man reached for something in his pocket and before he knew it a small pin bounced off the shield. A hooded figure scowled, for some anti-magician cultists, they sure are liberal with their usage of magic items. He jumped out the shadows, the 3 that he had already killed had a similar device, but not as good as this one. He faced the masked man who had now drawn his sword. The hooded figure pulled out a knife and flipped it around, he ducked under the first swing of the broadsword and impaled the man in the kidney, as he keeled over he spun around his back and sliced his throat. After falling to the ground he rushed over to the woman who was currently having her toes burnt off.

“Thank you!”

“Are you a magician?”

“Not at all! They just kidnapped me from my bakery.”

He sighed and walked back through the crowd,.thanks to his recent interruptions this group of cultists, in particular, had gone deep underground. Not only that but it appears that they have also upgraded their supplier, he pulled out the mana shield that had blocked his pin. It had a brand on it which he did not recognise. He had not seen it on their previous gadgets.

He took off the hooded coat and entered a shop, waving to the old man behind the counter, rousing him out of his usual state of inertia. He threw the device on the table and the old man picked it up. “Another gizmo for me to look at, I won’t ask where you got this, not like you’d answer anyway.”

The previously hooded figure took a seat, in the light, he was reasonably tall, looked to be around thirty with some stubble, dark brown hair and hazel eyes.

“I know this signature, it’s a kid in Bath.”

Tepi rolled out of bed, another night of interrupted sleep but he had not left his room this time thankfully. He had managed to convince Fila to sleep in her own room, she was very easily embarrassed and he used it to his advantage. He changed and cooked breakfast, soon the familiar racket of children and an old man cluttered the dining room of the orphanage. Tepi left the washing up for Fila as he needed to get to University, his lessons today were especially important as they required a demonstration from him and his group which consisted of Mark and a girl Tepi had not known called Florence.

He left the building after class and met with Watson outside who brought him sharply to the police station. The building was bold, standing out immediately from the rest of the street, Tepi guessed their intention was intimidation. As he walked through the door there were a few audible gasps and an explosion of chatter no doubt due to Watson reeling in another blue-haired boy. This one much younger though and seemingly a lot more serious. Their presence alerted three people sitting in an appendage room. Watson lead Tepi in the direction of said room and opened the door, not stopping to talk to any of the wayward officers along the way. Their introduction was minimal and Tepi found that his concentration was lacking thanks to all the new faces, he had not realised how much he hated being the centre of attention until he started school.

“Do you know what this is?”

“No idea.”

Two workmen were standing near a collapsed building, a penetrating pink light was radiating from the centre, the source obscured by rubble.

“Well, it’s definitely magic…”

“Yes, we shouldn’t go near it.” Despite their words, they were already moving towards the light, their skin slowly melting as they got closer.

“This is starting to hurt.”

“Very much…” They were almost mindless now, the skin around their eyes had melted and obscured their vision, their fingers were now only bone and their melted skin was mixing with the blood to form a human soup at their feet. By the time they reached the light source, they were only bones. The remnants of two workmen lay as a trail towards the centre of the broken down building. The glowing pink figure grinned and disappeared back into the building's underbelly, her hideout still safe for the time being.