Reader Believes

Chapter 31

            Approaching the corner, Rika’s eyes were first drawn to the boy leaning against the front most maple, his gaze steady as he watched them approach. She glanced at Hugh, who smiled slightly as they got closer to the blond boy. “Hey Gavin.”

            Gavin nodded, tearing his studying look away from Rika and Ahisu to meet the younger boy’s eyes. “They still haven’t caught you, eh, Hugh?”

            Hugh grinned. “Not for lack of trying on their part. This is Rika and Ahisu. They’re good,” he said, waving a hand in their direction. “And neither even knew about anything until they ran into me.”

            “Nice to meet you,” Rika said, smiling at Gavin while Ahisu only nodded.

            He gave them another once over, before jerking his head behind him. “If Hugh’s brought you, you’ve got to be alright. He’s wicked paranoid. Not that we all aren’t, but him worse than the rest of us. You can head in.”

            Hugh waved once as he led the way further into the trees. The light filtered greenly through the trees, making the shaded area underneath feel like it was another world. The thought had Rika shaking her head, glad that this world she was free to leave whenever she wanted. She glanced around the clear space, taking in the six forms scattered across the patchy grass, only one not seated or sprawled.

            “Newbies, Hugh?” one of the girls sitting cross-legged called.

            “Yep. This is Rika and Ahisu. They’re complete noobs to, well almost everything.”

            “They look pretty old to be that ignorant,” said the only standing boy, his arms crossed over his chest as he eyed them.

            Hugh rolled his eyes. “Rika’s magic’s easily hidden, and Ahisu’s-”

            “A demon summoner,” the other boy replied, eyes narrowing.

            The mage looked at him, taking in his brown hair and freckled face that couldn’t have been more than fourteen. “Summoner,” he replied.

            The boy bared his teeth. “There’s no way they’d let any demon summoner run loose, especially one this old.”

            “Ahisu’s not from here,” Rika said, stepping forward until she stood beside the mage. “He’s from really far away. And he’s the one who told me I had magic, or I’d have probably never have found out.”

            He sneered. “Then it’s only a matter of time before you’re caught.”

            “Randy,” the girl who’d first greeted Hugh snapped. “That’s not funny.”

            He flinched, met her brown eyes for a moment, then looked away. “Sorry,” Randy muttered, shoulders hunching up. Hugh glared at Randy, but said nothing, his gaze slipping over to the girl who’d spoken.

            She nodded once, before turning a smile on them. “Sorry about him. He’s a summoner, so his paranoia’s there for good reason. I’m Aubrey, and we’re some of the only free mages out there. We’re always glad to meet others like us.”

            Rika smiled. “Nice to meet you. Me and Ahisu really wanted to come talk to you after Hugh told us about you.”

            Aubrey chuckled. “Yeah, a lot of people are glad to know they’re not alone.  You’re welcome to join us. For the time being, we meet here most days.”

            “Thanks, but that’s not why we wanted to talk to you,” Rika said, glancing at Ahisu before continuing. “Actually, we wanted to talk to you about this Office and everything. From everything I’ve heard from Hugh, and everything I’ve seen of them, they seem to be really awful people. I mean, if all of them are like the ones I’ve dealt with so far, then I think their whole organization is pretty awful.”

            “You have no idea,” one of the other girls muttered, face obscured by her mass of bright orange hair.

            Rika shrugged. “They’ve attacked me already, so I’ve got something like a clue. We discussed it, Ahisu, myself, and the others, and well…Don’t you think it’d be better if we got rid of the Office? Or even better yet, if we were able to bring magic to the rest of the world’s attention? It’d be nice to do stuff openly, to not have to hide who and what we are. I haven’t been dealing with it all that long, so I can’t pretend to understand how bad it’s got to be for the rest of you, but even the little I’ve seen has really sucked.”

            Silence wove its way among them, with not even the rustle of cloth breaking it. It was Aubrey who spoke first, her black eyebrows up. “And what exactly are you proposing we do? Just go on the news and start hurling our magic around?”

            She shook her head. “No. We’re trying to get people together, get a big enough group of us that we can force the Office to change. If there are too many of us to fight, they won’t have a choice in the matter. And even if we don’t get that many, if we get enough, we can still fight. If we take out their leaders, the whole organization should crumble.”

            “You’re organizing a rebellion then? You know that’s been tried before, right?”

            Rika looked too Ahisu, who nodded slightly. She smiled and turned back towards Aubrey. “It might have been, but not with us. We know what we’re doing. We just need people to join. We’re not asking you to make any kind of decision now, just that you’ll go home and think about it. Maybe talk to your families too. Because, not matter how I look at it, the fact that you have to hide here ought to be proof enough that change needs to happen. Thanks for your time. We’ll come back another day to talk again.”

            Following Ahisu back out the way they’d come, Hugh forced to run after them once he broke himself out of his paralysis, Rika could hear whispers start up behind them. She could only hope that enough of them both agreed with her and had the courage to do something about it. If not… she got the feeling that she and the others would be spending a lot of time in an Office jail cell.