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Logline
In a society that values synthetics over natural magic, a cloth mage with a drinking problem teams up with a botanokinetic teenager to bring down an international slave syndicate.
Blurb
Special Mage Eijiro Tokuda never wanted to be a mentor. In fact, he didn't even want to be alive. But when a desperate fourteen-year-old interrupts his most recent attempt to skip out on mortality, Eijiro ends up not only alive, but also a mentor. The worst of both worlds.
Now stuffed into the role of teacher and father figure for a girl that adores him, Eijiro must help his new apprentice to master her abilities without succumbing to his own inner demons. Which won't be easy to do when the ghosts of his past threaten to steal his apprentice's love for him and his second chance at life.
~Chapter One~
"Unless you're buying me a drink, the answer is no."
Commissioner Kelly raised an eyebrow. "I never said I was asking." He glanced at the empty tankards on the counter. "And don't you think you've had enough?"
Special Mage Eijiro Tokuda shrugged. "Your tax dollars at work."
He tipped his fifth pint upside down, gulping noisily as he drained it. He set it next to the others. Beer dribbled into the stubble of his chin, and he wiped it with his black Mage's cloak.
Kelly winced. "Toks, that's your uniform."
"Your uniform. Not mine," Tokuda corrected. Then--and Kelly knew he was doing this to spite him--he blew his nose into it. "Now order a beer or get out."
Kelly sighed and slipped into the stool next to his intoxicated friend. Tokuda eyed him warily, bloodshot gaze full of hostility. Rolling his eyes Kelly gave in. He flagged down the bartender.
"What can I get for you, sir?" the young man asked. His blonde hair was pulled into a stubby ponytail and his green eyes had flecks of silver in them. Kelly wondered if that meant he, too, was a steel mage. Of course, the flecks in his eyes didn't necessarily have to tie in with his magic—it could've been something he inherited from his parents, or a total coincidence. With the advances in the synthetic serum nowadays, it was always hard to tell.
"I'll have a club soda, and something light for my—"
Kelly was interrupted by a loud belch from Tokuda. He shot him an incredulous look, but Tokuda was busy staring off into space. His eyes were glazed over, and Kelly thought he saw tears welling in them. He leaned closer to the bartender.
"Make his a virgin if you can," he said, sliding a twenty rann bill across the table.
Tokuda snapped out of his stupor. "I heard that," he growled.
